Jahad was pissed.

In his defense, it had been a very long day filled with planning, packing, and arguing. Lots of arguing.

Lo Po Bia was trying to bring his pets along, Gustang had just received news that the plane that they'd booked was going to take off late, Arie was also insisting that he bring his sword along, and Hana was whining about how there were only three girls in their group. Jahad thanked the stars for Eurasia, who slept just about all the time and therefore never really made any noise, Bloodmadder, who wasn't there because he was out getting the last of the groceries, and Ari, who was the peacemaker and didn't really take part in fights.

To top it off, Yurin was convincing him that they needed a final person to join their group. "A group of nine makes no sense!" She insisted. "Just go and find one more!" Okay, so first, that made no sense because then they would have to rebook just about everything, and also the sound of everyone else talking was really causing a migraine to grow in his head.

"That's it!" he finally exploded, throwing open the door. "I'm going out for a walk, if you guys aren't sorted out by the time I return I swear we're going to not stop at at least one of your favorite places!"

And now, Jahad was stalking along the avenue, randomly looking for someplace to rest his head. Finally, he stopped at a restaurant was looked thankfully pretty empty. He went in and immediately collapsed at a booth, tired from the day and his friends.

"I don't care what you give me as long as its good," he mumbled irritably at the waitress.

Five minutes later she returned with a dish. "I hope you find this enjoyable, sir, it's one of our best dishes... you're not allergic to anything, are you?"

"No," he replied shortly. "Thank you." Jahad picked up a spoon half-heartedly and put a bite into his mouth.

Flavor exploded across his tongue like fireworks and he felt his eyes widening. Oh damn. The waitress watched with slight concern as Jahad started devouring the dish. It was gone within a few minutes and he downed a cup of water. The waitress flinched when he turned his yellow eyes on her with its original vibrancy. "Find who made this dish and call them out now."

"Yes, sir!" The waitress scurried off and Jahad patted his stomach, pleased. Ahhhh, I'm in a much better mood now! That was one hell of a dish!

His phone rang with a message from Eurasia. 'Good choice of a restaurant. In case you were wondering, Gustang installed a tracker in your phone like he did to all of ours so that we wouldn't get lost.' Jahad blinked. Geez, Gustang scares me sometimes with his technology... and since when did he do that?!

"Excuse me?"

"Hmm?" Jahad was typing an answer to Eurasia. Vaguely he noted that this voice was much silkier than the waitress, so who could it be?

"Excuse me, sir, I got the chef like you requested..." And that was the waitress. He heard her leave then.

Jahad looked up, feeling slightly irritated, then something short-circuited in his mind and went: F***.

Standing there was a young man who looked about his age and looked far too handsome for life with his long light blue hair in a long ponytail down his back, pale skin and electrifying blue eyes. "Who... are you?"

"I'm the chef," the person said. "She said that you wanted to see me." He raised an eyebrow. "If you're not gonna say anything then I'm going back. It's almost time for me to leave anyway."

Jahad felt a prickle of annoyance at this person's briskness but swallowed it down. "Oh. Huh."

"What?" He demanded.

Jahad shrugged. "I thought it'd be somebody different. Like, older with gray hair. Not..." he gestured at him.

Said person's lips were tugged down into a frown. "So?"

"Nothing," Jahad sighed. This person was starting to remind him of a toned-down version of Yurin. "What I wanted to say was... good dish."

For the first time he smiled, just slightly. "Thanks. See you."

Jahad blinked as the person turned around and waved a hand as he prepared to walk away. Oh no he didn't! What an arrogant prat! "Hey, wait a minute-!"

The person turned around sharply. Jahad took a breath to make sure he wasn't going to regret this or at least prepare himself not to feel irritated if he got rejected. "Are you free? Like, a lot?"

"Obviously," he said, waving around at the restaurant. "What, did you think I was still in college? Ha!"

Jahad's eyebrow twitched. Okay, he's becoming more irritating by the minute...! "Just hear me out. Me and my friends. We're all done with college and we're going to travel around the world. There are nine of us right now in all, and one of them wants another person, so... if you're not going to harshly reject me or anything with a sarcastic comment, would you like to come along?"

He felt strangely satisfied when the person's eye twitched slightly. "I like cooking, but if I'm being honest, I could go for a trip around the world." His blue eyes turned even more electrifying as a smirk spread across his face and he turned around fully to face Jahad. "I'm in."

Jahad let a small smile cross his face, even when that smirk screamed lots of annoyance in his future. "Great. Come with me, my friends are waiting for me." Jahad stood up. "We leave in two days, so you'd better pack up quickly."

The person smirked even wider. "Got it." He disappeared into the back room, leaving Jahad some time to contemplate if that was or that was not the right decision. Five minutes later he reappeared, dressed in a dark blue coat. "What's your name?"

Jahad extended a hand mostly out of politeness. "I'm Jahad."

"Khun Eduan." He gripped Jahad's hand, then, still smirking slightly, yanked on it quickly, causing Jahad to end up nose-to-nose with him. Those blue eyes danced. "I look forward to our travels, Jahad."

Then abruptly he let go and was walking out the door. "Come on."

Jahad was silently seething, and after patting his ears discovered they were tingling and most likely pink. That little...!

Khun Eduan was smiling to himself. I've got a new toy to annoy-I mean, play with... this should be interesting.

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I've got the same story on Archive of Our Own but I just wrote it here for the italics ;P

As I mentioned, there is no V or Arlene and the reason is in the summary even though it pained me to do that.

Also, since these 10 peeps are kinda hard to define personality-wise, this is my best guess and don't take this that seriously or realistically.

This is for all those Eduan/Zahard shippers out there!! 

[Also, this is rated mature because of slight cursing 'cause they're normal teens, implied sexual content, mild sexual content, romantic tension, sexual tension (unresolved), and sexual teasing. Don't worry I'm young and innocent too so it won't be too bad. Just thought I'd warn-I mean tell-you.]

-A.A.C.