Chapter 5: Not the Warrior Type

"You sure we're in the right place?" Callie asked as she shifted her car into park.

Junie, clad completely in her armor and cape, thumbed through her phone. She found what she was looking for and turned her phone screen so the younger girl could see. "This is where the GPS took us. Looks like it's just down the street."

Callie shrugged and turned the car off, squinting through her windshield and grimacing at the rundown street they were on. Trash lined the gutters and the buildings were old, but not in that well-kept vintage-way.

And of course, it was getting dark as well.

Junie gave Callie an odd look as the two stepped out onto the street together. "C'mon, Cal, don't tell me you're actually afraid of the dark."

Callie looked around. "It's not really the dark that I'm afraid of," she said as they started down the road. "More like the people you meet in dark places like this."

Junie threw an arm around the smaller girl's shoulders. "C'mon, we're mages. Nothing can hurt us. Just remember what I've taught you, my young apprentice." She almost laughed aloud at the sour look Callie gave her.

"You do know that we're in costumes, right?" Callie said.

"Cosplay," Junie corrected her gently as if she were teaching the alphabet to a young child. "I normally wouldn't bother with you getting the terms right, but we're going to an actual cosplaying meet-up."

Callie just rolled her eyes and waved a hand carelessly through the air. "We're not cosplaying, remember?" she said. "We are mages!" Then, with no warning, she dashed forward, leaving Junie behind.

She watched her go, rolling her eyes with a slight giggle toward her cousin's childlike antics. She laughed once before following Callie.

The two almost passed the venue. It was the most rundown facade on the entire street, which was why they thought that they were in the wrong place originally. It had a dirty metal elevator with a cage-like screen.

"I guess we go up?" Junie said.

Callie wrinkled her nose. "You really wanna go in that grimy elevator?" she asked. "It looks like it's going to break the second we get inside."

After some coaxing, Junie was able to get Callie into the small metal box. They both watched with growing apprehension as the cage door shut with an ear-piercing screech. The building only had two stories, but it felt like it had ten as the elevator slowly creaked its way up one floor.

The room they found themselves deposited in couldn't be more different than the street they had just been on. The only similarity was that it was dark, but it was easy to see with the pink and purple neon lights from the disco ball and various light fixtures. Junie almost grabbed Callie and pulled her back into the metal death trap, thinking they had to be in the wrong place, but then she saw him, once again in the middle of a group of girls clad in skimpy, but well-made fantasy cosplays.

Kyzen was dressed in all black, with a vest and boots that almost went up to his knees. He had leather gloves and a sword attached to his belt. Junie couldn't help but smile immediately as she gave him a look up and down. He really didn't strike her as the warrior type, but he did look good. Even in the dim lighting, she could tell that the boots had been painted to look worn. She wanted to ask if he did them himself.

A pair of fingers snapped in front of her face. Junie shook her head and looked quizzically at her cousin, who was smirking.

"Your mouth was hanging open," she said, pulling the hood of her cloak down and shaking out her long hair. "Well, what are you waiting for? That's him, right?"

Junie swallowed. "Later, Cal. He looks a little busy right now. Let's go see if we can get something to eat."

Callie rolled her eyes but complied and the two headed deeper into the room. Junie couldn't get over how nice the inside of the ugly building was. There was sleek dark furniture throughout the space. A small stage sat in the back and a full bar stretched out along the opposite wall. The middle of the room was cleared out for dancing and mingling.

Junie looked around at the people in strange crosses between club attire and cosplays and looked down at herself self-consciously. She snuck a glance at Callie, worried that the younger girl might be feeling awkward as well, but Callie was walking as she always did, with her head held high and her large, bright eyes scanning everything. She somehow looked like she was in her element even though this was her very first time at a cosplay event. Junie couldn't help but giggle a little when she realized it was probably because Callie was most likely very used to the club scene.

On cue, Callie shouted over the loud, bass-heavy music. "I didn't know these were the kinds of events you were going to!"

Junie rolled her eyes and yelled back. "They're not. I've never been to one like this before!"

Callie stared at her in disbelief right as a couple of young men around their age stopped in front of them, each with cloaks like theirs, but with no shirt underneath. Junie blushed and looked away.

"Hey, it looks like we came together," one laughed, stepping closer and giving Callie a look up and down. "Wanna dance?"

Junie was about to tell the guys to back off when Callie chirped out an enthusiastic "sure!" to which it was Junie's turn to give her a look of disbelief. Callie just shrugged at her cousin's look and took the arm that was offered to her before the two headed toward the dance floor.

Junie felt a wave of panic as the other guy watched them go for a moment before turning his attention to Junie. "Shall we?" he asked, holding his arm out to her. He had dark hair and kind eyes, but they weren't enough to make Junie feel comfortable.

She shook her head and took a tiny step back. "I don't really dance," she said quietly, hating how lame the words sounded to her own ears.

The guy shrugged and Junie thought for a beautiful moment that he was going to leave her alone, but he grinned and said, "That's okay. I don't really dance either, but it's just moving your hips back and forth to the music, right?"

Junie was about to tell him that she probably couldn't even manage that much, but her grimace must have looked like approval somehow because the guy took her arm and started to lead her toward the middle of the dance floor. She let him, mostly because she had lost sight of Callie and hoped the guy would lead the way to the other girl. Once they were in the middle of the dance floor, the guy let her go and started to move his hips and flap his arms.

"I'm Will, by the way," he yelled over the music.

Junie felt as stiff as a board, but she forced her hips to sway back and forth in time with the music, which was way too fast for her to make her movements look natural. "Junie," she said. She doubted he heard her because he just smiled widely and kept "dancing," if you could call the chicken impersonation he was doing dancing. She actually giggled as she watched him hop around as if he was looking for his own tail. She stopped laughing when he moved toward her, so they were mere inches apart.

Junie tried to dance in a way that made it look like she was dancing with him even though she was really maneuvering away from him. Her face flushed when she realized they probably looked like a couple of animals doing a mating dance. She successfully dodged his hands a couple of times before they finally wound around her waist. An uncomfortable chill ran up her body and before she knew it, she was shoving him right in the chest. She watched his eyes go wide before he fell back and landed hard on his butt. Luckily, the people closest to him saw what was happening and were able to dodge his falling body.

Junie's hands flew to her mouth and she shook her head in shock at what she had just done.

Will stared up at her as if she had just kicked his dog.

"I'm so sorry," Junie started to say. She shrunk back when Will stood abruptly.

"What's wrong with you?" he snapped angrily before turning and stomping off the dance floor.

Junie was relieved to see him go until she noticed that a bunch of eyes were trained on her, many of them judgemental. She shrunk away from their gazes and turned to go run off in the other direction only to run into a firm, male chest. She felt herself ricochet off him and lost her footing, falling backward. She flailed her arms around wildly and shut her eyes, waiting for her butt to hit the floor just like Will's had just seconds before.