Reversal of Fortune [malexmale]

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

How hard could it be?

I should not have challenged the universe or my curse.

Seducing Yiuwa was not so much difficult as just impossible. Not for lack of trying, of course, but simply because Yiuwa appeared entirely oblivious to everything. He smiled, sure, but there was a confusion in his eyes that told me he had no idea what was going on. And oddly enough, it only made me want to try harder.

Which made no sense. Why was I working so hard for a one-night stand? I could get exactly the same thing from Yiuwa from any other male on the planet, so why was it that my eyes never left him? Why was I still bothering with him? There were trillions of other males in the universe that were more than willing to take me to bed, even if just for a night, and yet I couldn't get away from Yiuwa.

It was disconcerting.

No, it had to be what Viviana was saying, just running around in my head. She was always trying to get into my head. I couldn't risk hoping for what she was encouraging me to do. I'd already made that horrid mistake once and I was not going to do it again.

The image of flames flashed under my eyelids and I snapped my eyes open quickly. Gone with the flames and I found myself looking across the mosaic tile table at Yiuwa, who was sipping his cappuccino and licking the white foam from his lips. My eyes followed his tongue as it slid from one side of his mouth to the other, his eyes crinkling at the corners when he smiled. His eyes lifted to find mine and I quickly danced my gaze away to somewhere else in the quaint little coffee shop.

The smell of roasted coffee beans and fresh baked desserts were a nice distraction, plus the smooth jazz coming from the mounted speakers.

"This is delicious," Yiuwa commented, placing his cup down and picking up a biscotti. I inclined my head, picking up my black coffee and taking a swallow, savoring the mild Colombian balance.

"Inferi is popular in terms of coffee," I replied, "They import a lot of coffee from Mictlan."

"Theo mentioned that a lot of the public places don't sell Hades grown product," Yiuwa answered and I nodded.

"Any food grown from the ground here makes it so that you cannot leave if ingested, so Hades does a lot of importing from other realms. It's usually long time locals who eat the food here, or the Sons, as they are free to roam in and out as they please," I explained. Yiuwa nodded in understanding, then leaned forward with his elbows on the table.

"You know quite a bit. You must have lived here for a while," he said. I glanced at him to see his sparkling yellow eyes on me, then quickly turned my glance out the window where rain drops rain down the glass panes and people passed by under umbrellas, laughing and carrying shopping bags.

"Hades is a very popular place. Even during its darker periods and during the Titan reign, it was everyone's go to place," I responded. And gods, did I remember the way it used to be around here. Much darker, definitely not as wild as Hell had once been before Lucifer got his hands on it, but darker still. Candle lights and magic lit the way through small clustered towns. Back then, Styx had been a simple fishing town. Back then, the docks had been the main hub of things, filled with boats docked at the port, farmers selling their crop to the fishermen. And Hades hadn't been the ruler during that time. In fact, it had been Nyx and Erebus, though very reluctantly, as Rhea and Cronus hadn't trusted the two of them in the least.

"How about we go do something after this?" Yiuwa asked, sitting up. I frowned curiously.

"Such as?"

"I'm not sure, perhaps more sightseeing? I'd really like to see more."

I suppose there was no harm in just showing him around. It'd give me more time to figure him out. It wasn't as if I had a busy schedule anyway. I just hoped I wasn't pushing this. I really hoped.