Excerpt: YinYang Part 2

One warm summer night Kephri stood waiting in a pool of golden streetlight. He waited at this hour of midnight leaning against the lamppost for Nyi to show. Having just arrived home from the trip hours before, somehow Nyi couldn't wait till morning to talk to him. He couldn't come to the apartment for some reason either, which was why Kephri was at the corner of Sleepy Hollow and Pomona. Maybe he wanted the outside meeting for the secretive mood it offered. Maybe just to see if Kephri would wait out here for him. Either way, if he didn't show up in the next three minutes Kephri was going home.

The glisten of streetlight off his pendant pulled his attention away from empty streets. The pure white alabaster in his Yang pendant seemed to pick up more golden tones under the artificial light. Nyi gave this to him before he left, as a sign that they wouldn't be separated. He hadn't expected the gift, but it was a nice touch. Oddly enough, also too comfortable to take off: he hadn't once since upon receiving. It was not in any way that he missed his partner and only friend. Nyi had the other half, the black Yin made of onyx. Maybe he had it on right now.

A symbol of friendship; that was the white and black halves of the yinyang. It was a weird thing for him to have friends. Just a little under a year ago the idea would have seemed preposterous. Him, the white haired freak of Hunter Central, having friends. Never happen in a million years. He destroyed partners, attacked anyone that came close. Destined to be alone in his misery, just like everyone said. Yet destiny was taken out by one insane, brightly colored idiot. He wormed his way in so deep that Kephri actually began considering him partner, and later friend. Only one skinny, girly nuisance could make him stand out on the street in the middle of the night like a cheap hooker. He really had to be needy to blindly agree to even half of what Nyi asked of him. Come out to the area that should be renamed ‘Barville’, where there was enough alcohol to light a small town. Wait for me at midnight, oh it's important, bullshit. If it was so important, why wasn't he waiting when he got here an hour earlier? It was past midnight now; he should leave and make that pain-in-the-ass come look for him. Glancing back down at the pendant Kephri sighed. What kind of a man was he? Couldn’t even resist that kid's requests, no matter how many times Nyi went off with other people. He was reduced to lapdog status, waiting for "master" to come home.

There. It was five minutes after. He waited past the time, and if that wasn't good enough...well, screw it. He was going home; they did have a job to begin tomorrow. That was the reason Nyi had to come back early, although the fact that Geneva was left in the Wilderness certainly made Kephri feel better. Woman was too interested in taking Nyi away from him. The job was in what people liked calling the "Lost District," Viola. Hired by a thief famous in those parts for the revenge he took on the killers of his fiancée seven years ago. Seemed he guy swung both ways, he wanted them to terrorize a local gang for hurting the brother of his new male lover. Of course, in Viola all gangs were local. With the exception of the fortress city of Sacramento the entire district was no man’s land. Ruins in the north, wasteland in the south, the only regularly habitable area was where the Viola Moon festival was held every year. Even then, it couldn’t compare with Seatac or any other district on the American continent. This was going to be a long mission.

Sounds erupted of a drunken argument down a side street up ahead. By the time Kephri reached the intersection the fight was already in progress. Three drunk idiots…and was that Nyi?! He turned to look closer, unconsciously moving towards them. One thin, brightly dressed figure with lots of long black hair pressed against the wall, yeah that was him. What the hell did he get into this time? Getting into the battle, Kephri took out the drunks easily. With no coordination they couldn’t block his swings, so a few good headshots ended it all.

“Thank...you…” Nyi huffed in exhaustion. “They just came up on me so quickly…”

Kephri shoved aside one of the fallen men with his foot before stepping forward. “You’re late.”

“Sorry, they just started chasing me.” Nyi pushed himself off the wall with great effort and promptly fainted into Kephri’s arms.

“Idiot.” With a sigh, Kephri picked his partner up. Just like Nyi to get caught up in something stupid, so that he had to be rescued. He could barely fight on his own; ‘accidentally’ pissing off guys bigger than him should be a definite no-no. Being careful would be the rational thing to do, but ‘careful’ or ‘rational’ weren’t in Nyi’s vocabulary. Nothing related to them were either, he was all about spontaneity and trying to annoy Kephri as much as possible. Kephri looked down at the limp form in his hands. Well, he did want to find Nyi, here he was. Might as well go home.