• A young man stands on the roof of a tall building looking down at the crowded streets of the city he finally learned to call "home". His long silver hair turned gold in the setting sunlight. A gentle breeze carefully moved it from his face.
    Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Gentle light footsteps were heard behind him.
    "Hey, Charity. You need something?" He asked, not even turning around to make sure it was her.
    "You surprise me Apeku." A soft female voice said. "How can you tell whos whom before they speak or before you see them?"
    "Everyone steps differently." Apeku said, keeping his gaze on the streets below. "Just listen next time you hear footsteps, don't say anything and don't turn around." Apeku explained.
    "Ok." Charity waited on the rooftop with her "teacher-of-the-day."
    Tck-tck-tck-tck-tck-tck. Rushed steps raced across the roof straight for Apeku.
    "Hello Alyssa." Apeku spun to the side and quickly grabbed a girl by the back of the shirt and yanked her back before she fell off the edge of the building.
    "You ruin my fun." Alyssa pouted. "Is it possible to let me hug you at least once? And I mean a random... out of the blue, surprise hug...."
    "If I didn't ruin your so called fun, both of us would've said "hello" to satan himself." Apeku snarled. "God, Alyssa when will you grow up and think before you act!?"
    "When will you lighten up? Gosh, were you ever a kid?!"
    "Watch it Blaze, you know my temper."
    "You know I have one too. Now what on earth made you such a heartless, emotionless, fun sucking...."
    "THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUISNESS PRINCESS!"
    "OK! That's enough you two." Charity interupted. Alyssa just continued to sit there and stare at Apeku. She looked surprised. Apeku was confused. He called her princess because she had a tendency to act like a spoiled one. Alyssa shouldn't be surprised at an insult. Apeku and Alyssa insulted each other a lot, just enough for them to get used to it and not bother them.
    "I think I heard Reno calling me... I better go see what he wants." Alyssa took off without saying anything else. Apeku watched her jump from rooftop to rooftop till she finally vanished in an alleyway.
    "What was that about?" Apeku asked. SLAP! Apeku froze. Blinked, then slowly looked at Charity as a bright red hand print appeared on his pale face. "Care to explain why YOU decided to HIT ME!?"
    "Control your tongue! If you knew how..!" Charity bit her lip to keep from saying something she shouldn't say.
    "If I knew how... what?" Apeku leaned forward. "How my words affect her unstable mind and overblown emotions? I know."
    "Then why do you do it?" Charity growled. "Are you really that blind?"
    "What are you talking about?" Apeku was thrown off by that last question. What was it he wasn't seeing?
    "How about you actually have a decent conversation with her? You just MIGHT see what I mean. Now excuse me I'm meeting someone at the cofee shop." Charity lept down to the streets below and walked away, leaving Apeku alone to think about what she meant.

    Apeku sat down on the edge of the building and watched the now stronger wind make the trees in the forest, a little ways away, slightly sway. He knew exactly what Charity meant. He wasn't blind to Alyssa's feelings for anything she did or saw. No one knew that Apeku knew everything about Alyssa, except why she acted like she did when he called her "princess". A large wolf darted from the city and to the forest. Apeku saw Alyssa's tiny figure riding it. He knew Charity would ask if he talked to Alyssa and wouldn't be very happy if he said 'no' and would be even worse if he lied and said 'yes'. Either way, she'd never shut-up about it unless he talked to Alyssa.


    Alyssa dismounted the wolf and sat on the edge of the small river just a little ways down from her favorite waterfall.
    "Something on your mind cousin?" The wolf asked. With Alyssa being half wolf demon she was related to the large wolf through a complex series of family relations and complications. Alyssa didn't answer her animal cousin.
    "I want to go to Dosheel." Alyssa said absently.
    "Are you mad? Dosheel is crawling with Damien's troops. You could get killed... or worse..."
    "I know, Shadow." Alyssa chimed and jumped up. She knew Apeku was close and didn't want him to see her in the state she was really in. Shadow immediately knew why her mood suddenly changed. He just now got a wif of Apeku's sent.
    "Hey, Alyssa. I need to talk to you."
    "Who's twisting your arm?" Alyssa asked sourly.(She means: Who's making you?) Alyssa was not very happy with him at the moment.
    "No one is forcing me to talk to you. Now grow up and LOOK at me when I'm talking." Apeku forced Alyssa to look at him straight in the eye. Alyssa jerked away and started walking away from him, not turning her back on him. She looked frightened. "Alyssa, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
    "You have no idea how much you looked, and sounded even, like father right then." She squeaked. Apeku didn't like the sound of that. He had overheard Alyssa's brothers talking about how horrible their father was to her.
    "I didn't mean to do that. Just, let me ask you something."
    "I can't..."
    "Why not?"
    "I have to go somewhere."
    "Oh-ho... hell no." Shadow said leaping to the side away from Alyssa. "NOT Dosheel. I'll take you anywhere in the world, just not Dosheel."
    "Shadow this isn't the time to argue." Alyssa hissed. Apeku just had an idea.
    "She's right Shadow, just let the princess go where she wants." Apeku would get his answer this way. Shadow stared at Apeku.
    "How did you find out that she's a princess?"
    "SHADOW!" Alyssa scolded.
    "I knew it. That's why you looked at me weird earlier when I called you that." Apeku smiled in victory. "Why are you hiding it?"
    "Because my brothers and I are the only survivors of what happened to my kingdom and Damien will kill us as soon as he finds out that the royal siblings he's been looking for... was here the whole time." Alyssa explained and remounted Shadow. "We're going to Dosheel."
    "I'm sorry but I can't let you go." Apeku said. Alyssa looked down at him.
    "And why not?" She almost demanded the answer.
    "One word... Damien."
    "I know."
    "Then listen to me when I say no." Apeku said. Alyssa puffed up and dismounted Shadow.
    "I have had just about enough of you. You think you can boss me around like everyone else around here. I can't do anything I want without someone being there to watch me all the time. I'm not a two-year-old child anymore! I don't need protection like I did when I was little and young and stupid!"
    "You think we're bossing you around just so you can't have your way?" Apeku asked. This threw him for a loop. She not only has the IQ as the typical stereo-typed blonde, but she's equally blind to what was really going on?
    "Most of the time I think you are." Alyssa answered.
    "Oh my god you're so stupid." Apeku almost yelled. "We're doing this and protecting you like we are, not only because you still ACT like a two-year-old... it's because..." Apeku stopped.
    "Because why?" Alyssa crossed her arms and began to tap her foot. Clearly showing him her impatience and annoyance.
    "They care about you, you idiot." Apeku said.
    "THEY? I don't care what they think. Why do YOU, of all people, protect me one minute, boss me around in another, and completely blow me off the next!?" Alyssa was now demanding the answer to that one. Apeku just stood there. The moment he waited for for the longest time, and now the moment has come... and he knew he was going to blow it. "Well Apeku? Why do treat me like dirt all the time?"
    "Because I'm afraid to love you." Apeku snapped. Alyssa stood there a minute, then finally falling back and now sitting in the grass.
    "Afraid to love?" She was confused.
    "I purposely make you cry, hate my guts, think that I hate yours... but... no matter what I do, I can't make you hate everything about me to where you would rather kill me than look at me."
    "Why would you want that?" Alyssa wanted to know.
    "Alyssa, call me a coward or wuss, whatever, I had my heart broken once. I don't want that to happen again." Apeku paused. Everything was quiet. "If you think about it, it makes sense. I pretend to hate your exsistance so you'll hate mine. We'll never have the chance to be together, we'll never fall in love so... we'll never end up hurting each other. So I'm protecting you from me..."
    "Have you ever realized that everyday that goes by that you treat me like that, it hurts?"
    "Yes, I do..."
    "Then why continue?"
    "I don't want to suffer like last time!" Apeku yelled. He was loosing his temper more and more the longer this conversation dragged on. Apeku knew it would only be a matter of time before he completely flipped.
    Shadow laid down in the grass to relax, the energies the two were releasing was uncomfortable for him.
    Everthing was silent, even the birds were mute. Alyssa stood up and walked to Shadow.
    "Take me to Dosheel."
    "You're not going." Apeku and Shadow said in unison.
    "I have a right to see what's left of my kingdom don't I?" Alyssa hissed.
    "I can't loose you!" Apeku shouted. "I watched you die once... I thought Charity wouldn't have been able to bring you back! I am NOT going through that again!" Alyssa didn't realize how close he got during that sentence until it got quiet again. Apeku backed up away from her, "See why I ignore you all the time? Everytime I try to talk to you I get too close."
    "I haven't noticed." Alyssa blinked.
    "Because you're used to guys getting this close to you."
    "How do you...? Have you been... spying on me?"
    "What else is there to do on a boring day of patrol around Aladar?" Apeku joked. "J K. Almost every young demon man between the ages sixteen to eighteen, talks about you in ways that would make your brothers slaughter every male within a ten mile radius."
    "What does that have to do with my personal space?"
    "That's what they talk about the most."
    "So you listen in to every one that gets near me. Isn't that like spying?" Alyssa was determined to prove that Apeku had been spying on her.

    ((Stay tuned for part 2. If you're intrested.^_^))