Chapter 8

Valgarv parked his motorcycle in a dark alley with the other Hell's Angels who were already there. He rubbed an aching shoulder as he broke out of the black night and entered the underground bar. There was the normal chaos anyone would expect to see with the Hell's Angels there to provide it. Many of them were hand wrestling, betting on who would win, getting drunk and doing deranged things. The place was moderately spacious. Light bulbs on wires dangled in the air, giving dim light and the smell of beer and alcohol beverages mixed with a tint of smoke were all anyone could smell. Valgarv saw his leader waving his hand to come at the far table. His paced quickened and made it to the round table avoiding flying knifes and fights.

"Where were you?" Tobias asked while drinking his third can of beer.

"I had to settle a fight." Valgarv responded and took his seat with the rest of his gang.

"Well we're gonna have a fuckin' bigger fight coming up, next Friday." The leader threw the empty can away and began his announcement. "Black Death is here, in this damn city, right now. And they want to challenge us with a free-for-all at the field near Cave Creek. No weapons, guns, chains or any of those shit. Just us and our fists."

"Dude, we're gonna beat their big fat asses." One of the stronger members heard the leader talk of the brawl and punched his fist against his own palm.

"Be at the field at nine o'clock, or face the consequence."

Aya knocked on the apartment door of '559' and waited for the person to get the door. Zelgadis answered the door and his eyes widened, surprised to see the girl there, all ready to go outdoors and have some fun. Her hair was done in braids, which ended at her stomach and she wore jean shorts with an ice pink tank top, in medium straps. The design on the top center was a pair of puffy, cloudlike angel wings with a yellow halo over it. She had a few band-aids on her leg and scratches from the match she had on Friday evening.

"Hey Zel-kun! Sorry if I interrupted you."

"Wha-- what are you doing here? How did you know I live here?"

"Phone book." Aya grinned, "I thought maybe we can go somewhere and do stuff, since you're not working today. If you don't want to, then I completely understand! I don't want to force you." Zelgadis sighed and thought about it.

'Why is she doing this?' He didn't have a good excuse not to go with her, but uncertainty filled his mind. Although, the more he thought, the more he realized he hasn't done much with outdoor things. He decided and told Aya to wait so he could get his apartment keys and change. He returned out of the apartment room with a navy blue collar T-shirt, the two top buttons undone, and orange knee length shorts with Hawaiian red flowers printed all over them.

"You've got pretty cool clothes, Zel." Aya complimented as she studied his outfit.

"What are we doing, today?"

Zelgadis held onto the lamp post on the side walk for his dear life. It was his first time on rollerblades and he had no experience in skating either. Aya took him to a place in down town where rollerbladers, skateboarders and cyclers could go for practice or amusement. She rented another rollerblade for the blue skinned guy, which included the helmet and pads, for knees and elbows, and wrist bands. Every move Zelgadis made, pulled him down to the ground. All he could do was stand still.

"Here." Aya offered her hands, "I'll help you." He reached for her hands uneasily and got his arms off of the post. "Don't be afraid of falling. I'll catch you if you do." Zelgadis held on tightly and gulped. "Now, push against your right leg. Use your whole body." His leg weakly pushed forward, Aya used her left leg to move with him. "Yoshi (Alright), do the same with your left." The student, little by little began to learn how to go forward and his hands slightly loosened. That is until he tripped on a rock, but Aya held on and prevented him from going down. In matters of an hour or so, he was able to skate without the girl's hands. He was able to go forward and turn corners. He still had trouble stopping right away and spinning around completely to skate backwards, but that wasn't important. She was proud of him, and could see he was too.

"I'm getting kind of hungry." The blue skinned boy said after he and Aya finished touring the entire park. The girl's stomach growled furiously when she touched it. It was already past twelve and she had an early breakfast that morning,

"Me too."

Xellos stepped out of the corner and saw two familiar people skating past him on the other side of the road.

"Hey, I didn't know those two were going out." He brought out from his surf short pocket a camera that was designed to look like a large digital watch. The mischievous teen snapped a few shots of the two classmates and smirked. "I'll give them these pictures tomorrow to put up in their locker."

It was getting late and Aya helped her official new friend up to his apartment on the fifth floor. The elevator was under construction so they had to use the stairs, like it or not. When they approached the door, Aya was astonished to hear Zelgadis laughing. The sound of his laugh was so relieving to hear. She had always wanted to see him like this, having a good time and smiling. If only he did this more often. Not as much as Xellos though. Aya's laughter was added and the two went on for who know how long, till they realized they were acting like complete lunatics.

"Umm . . . Thank you for today, Aya." Zelgadis said. He was glad he spent a day out of his den.

"No prob. We can do this again next Sunday with some of my friends, if you want." Aya proposed. Zelgadis unlocked his apartment door and turned to Aya,

"I can make you some coffee if you'd like, before you go home." He offered and opened the door for her to go inside. Aya didn't want to make her new friend work for her after the long hours of skating all across town. The intuition in her, sent out a signal that told her to go inside right now. She didn't know what to do, so she listened to her intuition and went inside apartment '559'. There were five words to describe the room. Organized, clean, small, cute and comfortable.

"Wow, nice place you've got! It's so clean and comfy looking." Zelgadis prepared making two cups of coffee while his guest studied the room. The kitchen and living room was connected in one large room with a smooth wooden, waxed floor. A glass door, at the end of the living room led to a mini balcony with black metal fences. Two brown doors were on the right side, which lead to either the bathroom or bedroom. The walls were white and spotless. She noticed a sword in its sheath, leaning on the couple couch. The blade looked like the ones knights used in the Middle Ages to slay dragons and demons. She sat on one of the dark brown chairs as Zelgadis gave her coffee, in a white cup.

"Zelgadis . . . " Aya rotated her fingers around the top edge of the cup, waiting for it to cook. "I'm sorry to ask this question, but . . . Where are your parents?" Zelgadis sighed deeply and arranged his thoughts and wondered how to tell Aya.

"I don't know . . . I don't know what happened to my parents. I grew up in an orphanage building until I was fourteen. I started living by myself since then. Other parents adopted me, but they all brought me back because I had too many problems. I wasn't normal enough for them . . . The longest parent I had was a year . . . but they died of a car accident." Zelgadis recalled the tragic death of his most loved parent.

"Zelgadis . . . I'm sorry . . . " Aya wished she could do something to help, but all she could do was listen and be there for him. She unhooked her golden necklace and showed the picture to the young teenage boy. "I'm looking for my twin brother." Zelgadis saw the two little babies with the same hair, eye and skin colour and dressed in the same outfit, except baby Aya was in a dress. Aya had a jean dress with a white T-shirt and the brother had the same white T-shirt with jeans. Their heads were tilted toward each other, beaming brightly at the camera.