Yuèguāng Xià de Shé

一

~~~一~~~

The night was cold as two males walked the lively streets of the Asian district of San Diego; one wore all black while the other wore blue and white.

The man in white was the taller of the pair with long dark hair that was held up in a top knot and wore a straight face that only added to the intrigue of his sharp features, earning stares from many of the woman they passed.

The man in black was slightly shorter than the other and unlike his companion was quite expressive with his interest in the new surroundings that they were exploring with his long hair tied up in a high pony tail.

To the normal people, they just seemed like a pair of normal, albeit fairly attractive, men enjoying a night in a popular area; however, with a specific few sets of eyes one could faintly see their true forms lying underneath.

"Hey, Laozhū, this place is pretty fun, isn't it?" chirped the male in black, addressing his companion, as he turned left and right to smile brightly at his surroundings.

"We aren't here to have fun, Jihao," the other spoke bluntly and he looked down at the male in black, "We're here looking for a snake demon who has been feasting on humans."

"That's going to be hard with all the other demons that seem to flock to this city," scoffed the male known as Jihao, "We've already been looking all day and found nothing!"

Laozhū only glanced at his companion out of the corner of his eye, not even giving him a verbal response as they continued walking down the sidewalk.

"Why don't we call it a night and continue tomorrow?" suggested the shorter male as his blue-grey eyes caught onto a nearby tavern to their left.

Without even giving the other a chance to reply, Jihao took his partner by the wrist and dragged him over to the establishment with a child-like grin on his face.

"Aw, don't give me that look," he said as he dragged them over to and empty table to scan over the menu, "This is a tavern, you don't have to get just alcohol since I know you're technically not allowed to drink."

The male only glanced up at him with narrowed brown eyes for bringing them to the establishment before a female voice greeted them.

"Hello, welcome to the Black Pearl," chirped the young woman wearing the standard tavern uniform consisting of a white blouse and long black skirt with her own addition of a black face mask.

"I'm Liánhuā and I'll be your waitress tonight," she introduced while bowing her head slightly, "What can I start y'all off with?"

"Wait, just a minute," Jihao said as his eyes scanned over the woman's form, "Are you even old enough to be working in a place like this?"

"Jihao," scolded the man in white, but the female just shook her head and looked between the two men with a small chuckle.

"Good sirs, would you believe me if I said that I was actually five thousand years old?" she mused as she leaned forward with a mischievous look in her eyes that caused the two males to look at her in silence for a few moments.

It wasn't until Jihao met gazes with Laozhū that the woman leaned back again and said, "Sorry, I guess that wasn't that good. Was it?"

"Ah, it was a joke," the male in black awkwardly chuckled as he nodded in understanding, "Sorry, it was kind of hard to tell without seeing all of your face."

"It's fine, my jokes aren't that good anyway," the ravenette replied as she prepared her pen and notepad, "Now, what can I get y'all for tonight?"

After taking their orders, the female gave another small bow to her customers and walked back to the kitchen to fetch them.