When L.joe had recovered from the light-headedness that seemed to be triggered by gazing into Chunji’s eyes too long, they continued their aimless walking. Hands linked between them, the chill breeze running over L.Joe’s bare arms without him feeling more than the pressure of the wind. L.Joe felt strangely calm. He had just walked out on his life, hand in hand with a self-confessed supernatural being, anyone else would probably be anxious or scared, but L.Joe was happy. He had spent the last few years in a weird state of limbo. Working in the grocery store every night and sleeping through most of the day, waiting for his life to begin. When Chunji had extended that hand tonight, he knew: this was what he had been waiting for.

“Chunji?” L.Joe said, they were winding their way through a darkened park.

“Yes?”

“I’m hungry.” L.Joe admitted.

“Oh. Of course. Let’s get you some food.” They changed course at once, from their aimless wandering to heading in a straight line to the lights of a 24-hour café.

They sat in a booth at the back and L.Joe perused the laminated menu. Chunji watched him from across the table.

“Are you going to eat?” He asked the djinn, avoiding eye contact.

“I already ate.” Chunji assured him with a megawatt smile.

“What do you eat?” L.Joe wondered, he wasn’t even sure he knew what a djinn was.

“Human hearts.” Chunji replied blandly, examining his perfect fingernails.

L.Joe paled. Chunji looked up from his nails to see L.Joe’s stricken face. He threw his head back with laughter again, the sound rang out in the quiet café. L.Joe smiled. He had a great laugh.

“I’m sorry. But that was too easy. You’re fun L.Joe.” Chunji was still grinning like a Cheshire.

L.Joe shook his head. He should be annoyed but the being across from him was so delighted he had to let it go.

“I can’t help doing things like that. I’m a djinn.” Chunji opened a sugar packet and emptied it on the Formica tabletop in front of him.

“What is a djinn?” L.Joe asked, watching Chunji closely.

“Hmm,” A slight frown flickered over Chunji’s face, he twirled a finger through the sugar as he thought about his answer, “You people call us genies. But almost everything you think about us is wrong.” The sugar was stirring into a small whirlwind on the table as Chunji’s finger continued to twirl.

“Oh! So where’s your bottle?” L.Joe realised it was the wrong thing to say almost immediately.

The sugar fell back to the table and Chunji let out a snarl. His eyes flashed red and then settled into a burning ember orange.

“Sorry, sorry.” L.Joe backpedalled.

“I am a free djinn.” Chunji growled. The he closed his eyes for a long moment, when they reopened there were a peaceful turquoise, like a tropical ocean. “I’m newly freed actually!” His voice was bright once more.

“Oh. How?”

“I killed my old master.”

“What?” L.Joe squeaked.

Chunji burst into laughter once more. L.Joe scowled at him, unimpressed.

“I’m sorry!” Chunji protested, holding his hands up in defence. “It’s my nature. I can’t help it. I’m a trickster.”

L.Joe sighed and took one of the hands in his own, that comforting warmth enveloped him again.

“It’s ok. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.”

“You’ll get used to it?” The silken tone was in Chunji’s voice again, L.Joe nodded serenely. “As in you’ll stay with me?” L.Joe nodded again.

A waitress finally approached them and took L.Joe’s order. He was almost too drunk on Chunji’s voice to speak but he managed to convey what he wanted and she left.

“But you should really answer at least one of my questions.” L.Joe managed to say through his foggy brain.

“Ask away. I’ll keep the tricks to a minimum I promise. I’ll show you another trick instead, to keep myself distracted.” Chunji promised, gathering his sugar back up into a little pile.

“What do you eat?” L.Joe asked, watching intently as Chunji’s fingers circled and flicked over the sugar.

“Energy, mostly. I’m a storm djinn. So I follow storms. There is a fantastic low pressure system just a few kilometres from town. But I still eat normal food, it’s just not really that useful.”

L.Joe nodded. A storm djinn.

“Did you really have a master?”

Chunji’s eyes were focused on his sugar pile that was beginning to shift and sway, they flashed an orange before returning to a regular brown. He nodded.

“But you’re free now?”

Another curt nod.

“How old are you?”

“157-ish.” Chunji shot L.Joe a smile before cupping his hands beneath the now levitating sugar. L.Joe was fascinated by the swirling ball of sugar in the djinn’s hands.

“Wow. Wait, 157?” He finally realised what Chunji had said.

“Mm. I was a scholar, bureaucrats they call them these days.”

“So that thing I saw earlier was you?”

“My djinn form. But I can be whatever I want. I like human though. I’m pretty this way.” Chunji shifted the sugar onto one palm, it was still swirling in a small ball of air.

“I know you are.” L.Joe agreed.

“Watch.” Chunji said quietly. The sugar in his hands began to change shape as Chunji twitched his fingers over the top of it. After a few moments of nothing the ball spread wide open and swirls of sugar began to form an open rose. L.Joe gasped. In the centre of Chunji’s palm was a swirling rose made of sugar crystals. He reached out a tentative hand. Chunji nodded to him. L.Joe touched a petal lightly.

Sugar went everywhere.

He pawed at his face, trying to brush the crystals from his cheeks and nose. Chunji laughed at him. L.Joe glowered back, only to find Chunji covered in sugar as well. He chuckled and floofed more sugar from his hair.

“I only have one more question.” L.Joe said, dusting down his shirt.

“Shoot.”

“What’s up with your eyes?”

“I’m a djinn.” Chunji shrugged. L.Joe groaned in frustration, how was he going to spend eternity with a smartass?

“How do I become a djinn?” L.Joe said quietly. Chunji’s grin faded and he drew patterns in the scattered sugar on the table. “Chunji? How am I supposed to stay with you forever if I’m human?”

“Are you sure you want to? It’s painful. And scary. And… and there is always the chance of being captured in a bottle.”

“I want to. I want to be with you.”

“You don’t know me.” Chunji pointed out.

L.Joe simply looked at him, unconvinced that Chunji believed that.

“Yeah, I know. I feel it too. As soon as I saw you.” Chunji admitted. He heaved a sigh and made sudden eye contact with L.Joe. The kaleidoscope eyes entranced him at once. His tone became silken once more and L.Joe lost contact with reality.

“Djinn are born from smokeless fire. Fire that burns hot and harsh. It burns away your human shell and transforms your soul. It’s a process that alters your very being. Once you become djinn, you will never be anything else. Are you sure you want that?”

“I want to be with you.” L.Joe said, more sure of that than his own name, “I want to be with you forever. I waited a long time you know.”

Chunji chuckled, still in that satin voice, “Not as long as I did.” He leant forward and clasped L.Joe’s hands in his own. L.Joe struggled back to his own mind once more, the eyes were still hypnotising but the colour was shifting less now, seeming to only roll through browns and greens.

“Well, if you’re sure. Eat your last meal. Then we have a storm to chase.” Chunji said, shuttering his eyes back to brown.

“Really?” L.Joe said, eagerly.

“Really.”

When his hamburger arrived L.Joe fell on it like a starving man. Rushing through it and washing it down with cola.

“Chunji?” He asked between hasty bites.

“Yes?” Chunji was watching with amusement.

“Will I get crazy eyes too?”

“Crazy?”

“You know, hypnotising like yours.”

“Darling, they already are.”

L.Joe blushed.

When the burger was finished, they stood and left the overbright café. Chunji looked at L.Joe and held both of his hands.

“Are you sure about this?” He asked once more.

“I’m sure.” L.Joe nodded.

“OK. Then let’s go chase lightning.”

With a mischievous grin from the djinn the pair disappeared from the pavement.

======================

======================

A/N: Ok Chunji and L.Joe ended up with so much back story that just didn't fit into this fic (because thats how it works when I write one half before I go to work and spend my 8 hour shift thinking about it) So here is some bonus info! Becuase i'm proud of this and I might later turn it into a longer fic when I finish I Wanna Love (which you should totally go read ;))

*Chunji was a human once. He was transformed when he saved a neice from a lake during a storm. He got her to safety but before he could get to the bank he was struck by lightening and transformed.

*Chunji did not kill his last master but tricked him into letting him go free. He was trapped in the bottle when the first master used a summoning spell on him. He was captive for 120 years.

*L.Joe left literally his entire life behind when he followed Chunji out of the shop. He didn't really mind anyway, his parents didn't even live in the same country as him so he could clear all that up later.

*Chunji's eyes change because he's a neutral djinn. L.Joe does get crazy eyes too, he becomes a neutral djinn too.

*L.Joe is transformed when Chunji fries him with lightning. Chunji almost backed out becuase he loves L.Joe and doesn't want to hurt him. L.Joe provoked him into it with an argument.

*Djinn live incredibly long lives but do actually die of old age. They can also be killed.

Ok I'm done now hahahah. Yay double drabble! XoX