Wildfires and Whirlwinds

Chapter 3

Mondays can be Hell.

No, wait. Scratch that. Mondays are Hell.

At least that’s what Pan had determined as he trudged his way over to one of the tables that made up the outside lunch area on this side of the campus. At least it’s dry outside now, Pan thought grumpily as he glanced up at the clear blue sky, not that the sky would help in determining the weather, for it took maybe a minute for rain clouds to form and about that same amount of time for a bit of rain to turn into a torrential downpour. Just like it had this morning. Pan was still kicking himself not to check his phone this morning for any weather alerts before he headed for class, because of course the one morning he doesn’t check is the when a rainstorm is scheduled.

Though with how his day started out, he should’ve known that it was just going to be one of those days. Because waking two hours earlier than you need to because of an erotic dream staring a certain demon that Pan refused to actually admit, not even to himself, ever happened, wasn’t exactly the best way to start a day. Even if that extra time this morning was used up washing sticky sheets and remaking his bed, and trying to keep quiet so Kyle wouldn’t wake up and question Pan on why he was cleaning at six in the morning. Although Pan had a bit of an affinity for a clean room, cleaning that early was a little ridiculous, and with Kyle already bugging him on where he went Friday night, he didn’t want to give the blonde anymore reasons to be suspicious of him.

So, after hurriedly cleaning his sheets and making his bed, Pan had decided to walk to class and grab a bite to eat on the way instead of just taking a lift like usual, since he still had an hour or so to spare before class started and it'd only take him about a half hour to walk to class. It was right after he walked out of the rather busy coffee shop with a bagel and coffee that the sky thundered ominously before the downpour started. And of course there were no lifts nearby, not unless he wanted to go several blocks out of his way, leaving him to run the last few blocks in the deluge. Which meant he ended up in the building where his first class of the morning, Demonology, took place completely soaked, only to be turned back out into the hall because his clothes were sopping wet and could damage the computers in the desks. And by the time his clothes had dried out enough, wlell, more like were wrung out enough in the bathroom sink, for him to be allowed into the room, the class was over halfway over and he had no idea what was going on, only catching up enough to learn of the shit load of homework that was going to be due at their next class.

Luckily by the time his next class had finished up, he was almost completely dry, and after making sure to check if there would be any more storms scheduled for that day, he headed over to the campus cafeteria to grab some lunch. Which brought him up to right now, sitting off to himself and starting into his lunch, which consisted of some sort of once dehydrated food that tasted rather funky. Nowhere near as good as that omelet made of fresh eggs and vegetables that Xane had ma- Augh! No! Stop thinking about that jackass, dammit!, Pan thought furiously to himself, shaking his head as if to clear it. He took another bite of the horrible sandwich and frowned before tossing it and the rest of his meal back into the bag it came in and into the closest trashcan, smirking to himself as he made the shot perfectly from where he was sitting several feet away.

“Wow, Pan. You should join the basketball team.” Pan turned to see the source of the sarcastic tone, and found Kyle with his own meal taking a seat across from him. “Oh, wait. That’s right, you don’t do any type of physical exertion unless its in a digital world, don’t you?”

“Tch, you’re just jealous because I beat you at every game we’ve ever played against each other.” Pan said with another smirk, turning fully around to rest his arms on the table.

“Except for strategy games. You’ve never beat me at those.” Kyle said, pointing at him with a french fry before popping it into his mouth.

Pan rolled his eyes, “Yeah, but those are boring as hell and don’t count. Those games are more like homework than anything else.”

Kyle snorted, “All brawns and no brain, that’s you in a nutshell, Pan.”

“Screw you, asshole. What are you doing over here anyways? Isn’t your next class on the other side of campus? Shouldn't you be bothering some poor sap over there than wasting my time?"

“You know my next class isn’t for another hour, and you also know why I'm bugging you. I told you Saturday that I wanted a better explanation about Friday night, and no more avoiding me like you have all weekend."

“I wasn’t avoiding you, I had to work and I went to the arcade, you know, just like I normally do.” Pan said with a shrug, but Kyle didn’t seem to buy it.

“Right, and that makes perfect sense except for the fact that the restaurant your work at doesn’t open till 11:00, and the arcade not till 10:00, which leaves me to wonder why you left at somewhere around eight in the morning on Sunday.” Kyle arched an eyebrow, and smirked as Pan quickly tried to come up with an explanation.

“Ah, well, I… had other things to do before hand.” Pan finished lamely, and Kyle’s smirk widened, “Bullshit. Now spill, cuz we both know that you will eventually, so might as well get if over with.”

Pan frowned and looked away, knowing Kyle was right, but still obstinate against telling him everything. Hell, he was still denying to himself what happened Friday, saying it out loud would give it too much reality and make that much harder to deny. “Look, nothing happened Friday alright? I just walked around a bit.”

“For the entire night? You were gone for almost 12 hours, Pan, that’s more than ‘a bit’.” Kyle pointed another French fry at Pan accusingly, but was thoroughly ignored by the brunette. “Alright, since you won’t tell me, I’ll just have to my great detective skills and figure it out on my own.”

Pan snorted at his friend’s rather idiotic behavior, but other than that showed no signs of interest in the current conversation, instead focusing on an a tree located off to the side. He knew Kyle was studying him carefully, so was trying his hardest to school his face so that he wouldn’t give anything away. Not that it ever worked before, but he didn’t want it to make it too easy for Kyle.

“Let’s see... I’ve already figured out that you went over to D-District on Friday.” When Pan glanced back over at him in slight surprise Kyle smirked, “You really think that was hard to figure out? That’s about the only place you could’ve gone that you would be so set against telling me about. Since I don’t know how many times I’ve told you not to go into D-District.”

Pan frowned and looked away, Damn, didn’t think he’d figure that part out so fast.

“So, that leaves is why you were gone the entire night. Obviously you stayed somewhere, and since there’s no obvious wounds or odd limping, I’m guessing that you were relatively safe. And unless you suddenly got a pay raise at were you work, I highly doubt you suddenly splurged on a hotel room, especially not for just one night and to stay all by yourself.”

“How do you know I was by myself?” Pan inquired skeptically.

“Because you’re way too pissy for someone who just got laid for the first time.” Kyle replied flatly, smirking slightly at Pan’s glare. “Anyways, crossing out the hotel thing, that leaves you stayed with someone, and since you went over to D-District that severely lowers the possibility that they’re human. Which means that you stayed at some demon’s house, over night, for some reason…”

Realizing Kyle was getting dangerously close to the truth, Pan quickly asked, “Why haven’t you started going off on me about wandering over there yet, anyways?”

Kyle blinked at the slight change of topic before shrugging, “Tch, what’s the point? Obviously you don’t listen to what I say when it comes to warnings, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all.”

Pan frowned, Okay, guess he has a point there.

“But now… Now we come to the real mystery, and that is who, or what, you stayed with on Friday, and what happened that you’re so resolute on not telling me…” Kyle fell silent, brow furrowed in thought as he try to figure out the mystery laid out in front of him, otherwise known as his roommate, Pan.

They sat there in silence for a while, and Pan eventually got bored and decided to recline on the bench, and even would have started to nod off except for the uncomfortable hardness of the bench and for the fact that Kyle was mumbling under his breath, just loud enough to be heard but not able to understand what he was saying. After a couple more minutes Pan sighed and looked at his phone to see what the time was. Hm, it’s only just after noon… That means I still have another half hour of sitting with Mr. Detective. Awesome.

Getting fed up with waiting Pan sat back up, about to give some lame excuse of homework and having to go to the library. But then Kyle finally snapped out of his reverie and began talking loud enough that Pan assumed it was directed to him, “Wait a minute… I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before… Gods, it was staring at me right in the face.”

Pan stared at his somewhat lucid friend, but Kyle’s gaze wasn’t focused on Pan, instead it seemed to be looking somewhere behind him, “You alright there, Kyle?”

Finally focusing his attention back on Pan, Kyle blinked before smirking mischievously, “So, are you going to introduce me to your new friends, Pan?”

Completely confused by the sudden change in attitude, Pan frowned before glancing around, attempting to locate these ‘friends’ Kyle mentioned, “What are you talking about?”

Pointing above Pan’s right shoulder, Kyle’s smirk widened, “The two demons sitting on top of the art department, that I am about 99.9% sure are acquaintances of yours.”

Pan’s eyes widened slightly before he spun in his seat to look up at the top of the building behind them, and sure enough, there were two figures standing at that the top. And even though the building was about fifty yards away and around ten stories tall, he could still make out the familiar bright red, spiky hair that one of them was sporting. “…oh shit.”

_______________________________

Short chapter, I know, but the next chapter (about the same length as this one) is already done except for the editing, and the chapter after that one is over half way, so that means steady updates for the next few days to make up for shortness.

Real quick before I get back to editting: Thanks so much to KatFO, Zelasii, Tellnoone_Noonetells, and peeps for the great reviews! Hope this chapter doesn't disappoint! :D