Star-crossed Royals

Chapter Two

“Can you believe we’re finally doing this?” Akiko exclaimed with an exuberant giggle, hugging Yuri’s arm as they walked.

“No honestly, I never thought your parents would let us come here, and I really would never have guessed they would send me with you. It’s been kind of a dream I’m waiting to be woken up from.” Yuri said running his hands through his short grey/white hair with that half-smile Akiko had always loved. “Feeling a little…foxy today?” Yuri said with a mischievous look in his eye while looking at her low-cut tank top that exposed quite a bit of skin, including the tattoos that covered most of her body. “Aren’t you a little worried that someone is going to notice the Kitsune? Your tails are showing!” he continued.

“I just feel free here. No one knows what these tattoos mean, and I don’t have my parents around to tell me to hide myself,” Akiko replied, sighing at how ridiculous he could be sometimes.

They looked up and noticed they had gone further during their conversation than they realize, and they were already to the building for their first class. The two friends hurried inside, wanting to be seated early since it was the first day. As Akiko sat down, she silently cursed herself for wearing a sleeveless shirt. It was quite a bit colder than she was used to at home, and she felt like it was getting noticeable that she wasn’t wearing a bra today. The two had taken a seat in the first row of class, and they both took out their books while getting situated.

The professor, a rather unremarkable man, stood up in front of the class and introduced himself. As excited as Akiko was to be here for school, she couldn’t help but start to daydream as he droned on about the syllabus she’d already read.

“Is it normal to be so unprepared that professors have to read you the syllabus in this country?” she thought silently to herself.

BANG.

The door was powerfully ripped open behind the professor, destroying the serenity of the boring monologue the class was listening to previously. A new scent hit her, almost violently. It was strange, but it was also almost familiar in a way that she couldn’t quite understand. The moment it touched her nose, she felt a tingling sensation coursing through her body, lightly teasing her until her toes began to involuntarily curl. Was that…pleasure? The sensory overload was a bit overwhelming, so it took her a moment to look up at the source of the disturbance to the previously unremarkable classroom.

Her eyes traced the boy now framed in doorway from his muscular calves, a t-shirt straining at the sleeves around his well-developed biceps, a wide chest, plump and inviting lips, finally to his eyes. When she looked into them, the tingling sensation intensified, causing her heart to race. Then, his eyes changed. She went from butterflies in her stomach to both utter horror and astonishment. His eyes glowed purple as he looked into hers.

Growing up she was told endless stories of the man with purple eyes who came to Japan and soon after murdered her family with his pack of werewolves. He looked too young to have been a part of what happened all of those years ago, but he was clearly a wolf. Not only was he a wolf, but he also had those same eyes.

Yuri grabbed her hand, leaned close, and whispered, “We need to go. NOW!” He hurriedly pulled her up the stairs towards the door in the back of the classroom. They rushed past other students in the halls. The pair almost knocked over a professor who turned to scold them for their rude behavior but was dumbfounded when they were gone as quickly as they appeared. The professor turned and left scratching his head wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him.

Akiko and Yuri collapsed on a bench outside when they thought they were a safe distance away on the other side of campus. “Who the hell was he?” Akiko exclaimed, out of breath.

“I don’t know! Your family never thought we’d be in any danger here, or they wouldn’t have let you come. They definitely didn’t know we’d find a wolf here. I think I should call Hattori and get him over here,” Yuri replied.

“No, don’t,” said Akiko, her nerves starting to settle, her mind returning to rational thinking once more. “If Hattori finds out that he’s here, whoever he is, they’ll make me go back. This will all be over,” she continued.

Akiko’s pulse was returning to normal now that the scent wasn’t so overpowering anymore. The tingling, almost electric, sensation was starting to fade too. She felt so many things, and she couldn’t reconcile them all at once. What she felt when she smelled him and saw him made her want to see him again. His eyes made her want to run and never look back. Yuri was staring off into space clearly fighting with his desire to call his brother against his desire to honor the wishes of his best friend.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, his scent invaded her senses like she belonged to it. He was there again. This time, he was next to her staring down intently with a quizzical expression. He had shown up so fast she hadn’t even heard him or smelled him coming. With him so close, the electrifying sensation ran through her again much stronger this time. She stood up quickly putting a few feet of distance between her, the purple eyed man, and the very out of place Norse God he had in tow.

“What do you want?” she said in a whisper. Her voice barely made it out of her throat it had become so constricted with terror at the sudden reappearance. Jamie just stared at her, struggling to decide what to say or how.

“What…are you?” He managed to say, his stomach doing somersaults while his body felt like it was being rhythmically set ablaze every time he breathed in her scent. She smelled like a blooming cherry blossom but much stronger.  

Stunned, Akiko wasn’t sure if he was trying to trick her or not. She looked at Yuri, and his eyes widened but didn’t leave Leif’s face. “I’m a Kitsune. How do you not know that?” Akiko asked honestly not sure what to think anymore.

Jamie opened his mouth to reply but was almost immediately cut off by the appearance of what looked like Yakuza led by a man with short black hair and piercing eyes that looked at Jamie with clear murderous intent. The apparent leader looked at Jamie and continued his gaze as he grabbed Akiko and pushed her and Yuri back into the hands of the two men he had with him.

“Take them to safety,” the mystery man commanded, never taking his eyes off Jamie and Leif. Jamie stepped forward, not wanting to be separated from Akiko while he had just gotten her to talk, but it looked futile to try and stop things as they were. As Jamie stepped forward, the man’s eyes narrowed, and he began to reach towards his back as if he were moving towards an unseen blade.

“Kitsune are real?” Jamie asked himself, mentally cursing his father as this seemed like something he would keep from him. Leif stepped in front of Jamie with a low growl, his eyes returning the stranger’s murderous intent with his own. He began to reach towards his pendant as his eye were set ablaze with the orange unique to his family line.

“Not here Leif!” Jamie yelled, grabbing his friend and pulling him away. Jamie turned him around, both hands on his shoulders, and looked him directly in the eyes trying to calm him down. He was worried that the other students would see Leif’s eyes and that he was about to do something that they’d never be able to explain.

Suddenly, the scent was gone. Not only her scent but the whole group’s scent had disappeared. Leif’s face changed from anger to confusion as well, and they both looked in unison back towards where the girl and her friends had been just a moment ago. There was no sign of them. Their presence and scent just ceased to exist. There was nothing to follow; no direction to go.

As Jamie stood there dumbfounded, Leif turned towards him again. “We need to get out of here and talk about this somewhere privately,” he said, still looking around for signs of danger.

As the two quickly turned and began to leave, Akiko held her hand out to stop Hattori, the leader of the men that had appeared and Yuri’s brother, as he started towards the wolves’ exposed backs. She shook her head quietly. She couldn’t yet figure out what was going on or who these boys were, but she knew she didn’t want them hurt. The feeling she got from his scent was so foreign, but it was undeniable that the electric sensation she felt when he was near her was inescapably pleasurable. Could he be bad for her if he made her feel this way?

Akiko, Yuri, and Hattori hadn’t moved. They were still in the same place Jamie and Leif found them in, but Kitsune have abilities unique their race. Akiko rendered the whole group invisible. Not only were they invisible to the eye, but they were also invisible to all other senses. Otherwise, their scent would render her ability useless to someone like Jamie. They watched in silence as Jamie and Leif faded into the distance towards the dorm side of campus.

Once they were totally gone, Akiko breathed a sigh of relief. She turned pointedly to Hattori; her green eyes alight. “We need to talk.”