Wildfires and Whirlwinds

Chapter 4



Several minutes earlier…



Xane propped a foot on the edge of building, leaning forward to get a better view of the entrance where he presumed Pan would be coming through in a few moments. Though he wasn\'t sure, once Pan had entered the building where the cafeteria was, Xane had lost sight of him in the crowd and couldn\'t tell the human\'s presence from the mass of people around him.



Getting antsy, Xane was about to head over to another building, to see if Pan had left through a different exit, when he noticed that someone was about to walk out through the entrance he was currently watching, though they stopped just inside the doorway. He could see the lower half of who ever it was, just enough to tell that they were male, but not much else. Now curious, Xane dropped his foot and leaned over the edge of the roof as far as he could, trying and failing to get a better view. As impatient as ever, he was about to jump down to the next lower building when male started toward the entrance again and finally came into view.



A grin spread across Xane\'s face as he instantly recognized the short, dark hair of the exact human he was waiting for, who was walking towards one of the tables, not a clue in the world he was being stalked. Moving so he was now crouching on the roof top edge Xane watched in interest as Pan took one of the seats, sitting so he was faced the opposite way. He was debating about moving to a building that was lower and closer to where Pan was sitting at when he sensed someone quickly heading his way. Without turning around, Xane straightened as the figure silently appeared behind him.



"Good afternoon, Lio." Xane said over his shoulder, to which he got a \'hmph\' in return. Quirking an eyebrow, Xane turned to look over at his \'guest\', and laughed. "Oh, come on. Lio, how many times have I told you how ridiculous you look when you pretend to be human? Especially when you refuse to dress even remotely close to the time period."



The other demon frowned deeply at him, before looking to the side and taking off the wire rimmed faux glasses he was wearing, still looking completely human except for the fact he was currently wearing a 19th century suit, complete with his rather long, black hair tied loosely back by a piece of dark leather. Honestly, Xane didn\'t know where Pan got off on making fun of his clothing choices, almost all demon that don\'t work closely with humans dress in whatever time period they feel comfortable in, because when you’re a few century\'s old, staying \'in style\' just didn\'t really matter any more.



When Xane opened his mouth to continue to bug Lio, but the other male sighed, cutting him off and said begrudgingly, "Fine, if you are so determined, I\'ll change." Xane grinned in victory as Lio shook his head, white streaks appearing at the top of his hair and spreading down, while the tips of his ears lengthened a great amount, several inches in fact, making the serious demon look rather comical as they stuck off the side of his head. Once he was done, Lio opened his light gray eyes, now with a slitted pupil that was a standard with all demons, to glare over at Xane.



"Are you satisfied, now, you spoiled child?" Lio asked vehemently, and Xane\'s grin widened more. "Yep, you look great, for a skunk."



Lio\'s eyes narrowed in anger, before he pulled out the string holding his hair back, letting the striped hair fall loose to hang just below his shoulder blades.



"Ah, a zebra, much better."



Lio grimaced even more, "If you\'re quite done, I did come over here for a reason besides to be made fun of by you."



Innocently blinking, Xane placed a hand on his chest, "Oh? And what do I owe the privilege of you coming to see me?"



"Stop being an ass, Xane, this is serious." Lio dropped the slight accent he usually held and Xane raised an eyebrow, now truly curious. It wasn\'t often that Lio spoke plainly, but when he did that meant no more teasing unless Xane really wanted to piss the bi-colored male off.



"Aaalright, so what\'s up?"



Looking satisfied that Xane was finally acting serious, Lio looked away as if he was searching for something, "The demons around this area, noticed anything strange?"



"What demons?" Xane frowned and looked around as well. Strange? He hadn\'t really noticed anything… Though now that he thought about it he hadn\'t really seen any other demons lately. Actually, Lio was the first demon he\'s seen since he\'d started following Pan, and that was a couple days ago.



Lio glanced back in Xane\'s direction, "Exactly, there isn\'t a single one in a half mile radius of where we\'re at. Know why?"



Xane shrugged and looked back over to where Pan was sitting at, already losing focus on the current conversation, "No, but I\'m sure you\'ll tell me."



"It\'s because of you."



Xane\'s eyebrows lifted in slight surprise and he looked back over a Lio, suddenly interested again. "Me? And how do you determine that?"



"Because any demon with even the most sub par sensing capabilities can notice the extreme warning waves you\'ve been sending out. It\'s actually giving me headache just to stand here, and by the sounds of it, it\'s been this bad for a few days."



Xane blinked, "I am? Huh, I didn\'t even realize."



"Of course not, why would you, it\'s not like your disrupting the lives of almost a hundred demons." Lio snorted derisively.



"So why are you just coming to talk to me now if it\'s been so bad?"



"If you didn\'t have the memory of a goldfish you would\'ve remembered that I\'ve been out of town the past few days and there\'s no one else here who has enough balls to complain to you. Oh, and just to let you know, it\'s always a gift when you return from a week long trip to get dozen\'s of bitches and complaints because your moronic friend is walking around subconsciously threatening every demon within several city blocks to \'get the hell out\'." Lio said waspishly, harsh enough that it almost made Xane wince.



Putting up his hands in defense, Xane tried to placate the younger demon, "Oh, alright, alright, I get it. I\'ll back it off a few notches, jeez."



Seeming content with this, Lio nodded and straightened his collar, "Excellent, I\'ll inform the city\'s council."



Xane rolled his eyes and looked back over to where his current fixation was sitting; now talking with some blond, his roommate most likely. "Great, you do that."



There was a brief period of silence while Xane continued to watch Pan, who was now stretched out on the bench he was sitting on, until, "What are you watching anyways?



Raising an eyebrow, Xane glanced at Lio, "I thought you had to go \'inform the council\'?"



He shrugged in response before walking over to the edge of the building as well, "They can wait. So? Who are you looking at?"



"A human that\'s caught my eye. It\'s the one with the dark hair, sitting with his back to us and talking with the blondy." Xane gestured to where Pan was sitting and Lio\'s brow\'s furrowed in thought, "You mean the virgin?"



Xane blinked and looked back over at his friend, "…What?"



"The blond mentioned something about the brunette \'not getting laid for the first time\'. That usually implies being a virgin, does it not?"



"Well, yeah, but…" Xane looked over to the other demon, frowning, "Were you listening to their conversation this whole time?"



"Well they were talking rather loud, and the one mentioned something about D-District so I listened in. Rather easy if you\'ve got at least decent hearing." Lio said with a slight smirk, and Xane frowned further.



"Yeah, you elves are just great with your bat ears, makes me jealous every time you get those damn things caught on something." To emphasize this Xane reached out quickly and flicked one of the ears, too quick for Lio to block.



Jumping back and raising an arm to block any further flicking, Lio glared venomously at Xane, "You know damn well that I am not an elf. And how much I loathe being called one as well as how much I hate getting my ears flicked." Xane only shrugged in response, and after a brief pause to make sure Xane wasn\'t going to try mess with his ears again, Lio went back to their original conversation, "So, what\'s so interesting about this human?"



"I can touch him without burning him."



Lio was silent for a while before his eyes widened slightly in surprise, "Without holding back?" Xane nodded and Lio\'s eyes widened further, "That\'s not possible, not for a human at least. Right?"



Xane shrugged slightly, "I didn\'t think so. But, obviously I was wrong about that."



"And you found out this little tidbit of information, how?" Lio asked skeptically, and Xane grinned in response, "How do you think?"



Lio rolled his eyes before looking out to where the human was still laying, "You are so crude, do you know that?"



"Yeah, it\'s just one of my many charms."



"Though I must say, I am surprised Xane. I thought you were against taking a human\'s virginity, what\'s with the change?"



Xane frowned once again, looking back over to see Pan had sat back up, "There isn\'t a change, you said yourself that the blonde mentioned \'not getting laid\', and I didn\'t know at that point that the kid was still a virgin. This is newly acquired information."



"And now that you do know? What will you do?"



"I\'m… not sure." Xane mumbled uncertainly, earning himself a raised eyebrow from Lio.



"Unless you want to go back on your morals, I would suggest backing off a bit, don\'t you agree?"



Xane\'s frowned as he thought of Pan being with someone else, male or female, first time or otherwise, and the sudden wave of jealousy and protectiveness that came over him was so strong that it thoroughly surprised and shocked him. He saw Lio wince out of the corner of his eye and his frown deepened, what the hell was that about?



Lio rubbed at his temple, "Obviously not." He shrugged slightly and looked back out over the edge of the building, "Well, either way, it looks like we\'ve been spotted."



Xane blinked at Lio before looking back to where Pan at and saw the human looking right at them. "It looks like you might be right."



"He doesn\'t seem too happy, did you two part on bad terms?"



"You could say that." Xane said with a smirk.



"Well, perhaps I should leave you at this point, so you can go say hi to your new fixation?" Lio turned to leave, pausing to look back over his shoulder, "Oh, by the way, there something I\'ve heard from The Council that you might be interested in."



Tearing his eyes away from Pan, Xane looked over to where Lio was standing, "And that is?"



Lio was silent for a while and looked away, "There\'s a rumor that the remains of Gualtier\'s group has started to rebuild."



"Really? Well, that is an interesting piece of news."



Glancing back at Xane, Lio smirked slightly, "Yeah, and apparently they\'re not too happy with you."



His grin turning feral, Xane responded, "Jeez, I couldn\'t imagine why."



"Right… Just be careful, Xane." Lio\'s voice took on a solemn tone and Xane\'s grin faded slightly.



"Will do, mother."



Lio shot Xane an annoyed look and then he was gone, leaving Xane on the rooftop alone. He looked back over the side of the building and his grin returned. Now it\'s time for the real fun to begin.





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And here\'s the next chapter :D



I know you where all looking forward to seeing the reaction of Pan and Xane actually meeting up, but… you\'ll have to wait till tomorrow for that ^_^;



Thanks so much to cobraqueen, Saminada, Tellnoone_Noonetells, JJay, madlodger, and KatFO for the amazing reviews! I love hearing from you guys!