Once upon a time when the Earth first created, Mother Earth created God of Sun and Goddess of Moon to protect the stability of the lives within. Having equal strength and complete opposite of nature, the two of them kept on competing with each other, until they agreed to split the territory. Despite the childish rivalry, they carried on with their duties with full loyalty and dedication, thus remained adored vastly by humankind.
The monotonous tasks took a toll on them, and one day they decided to come down to Earth to play around. It was all fun and games until they wedded the humankind, giving birth to demigod descendants, provoking Mother Earth's wrath. Tough negotiation concludes on their descendants, being in pairs just like their ancestors, are to be given a task as their ancestors' delegacies on Earth, and to manage the stability of life.
This is their story. From the very core of the Earth, 580 millions years ago, to Surabaya, Indonesia, present time...
*)
"K?" shouts a girl for the umpteenth times to the clear glass-topped atrium. Hands on hips, feet tapping the floor impatiently, she then starts questioning her purpose of coming here so early--not that she got other things to do, but still. She also starts considering going upstairs and dragging Keenan--the last and only person still staying--downstairs...
As if on cue, the so-called best friend finally groaned, the sound coming from somewhere upstairs.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," she grumbles, inching closer to the wall, standing in a little area unexposed to direct sunlight. "You have four minutes before we're late!" announces her, muttering the word 'again' to herself, wondering if she had to wake him up for all eternity. Judging from the way things are up until now--their very last day as middle school students, looks like there's not much space for miracles.
Two minutes and three shouts more--all of which were in vain, the girl finally gave up. Opening up her umbrella--her must-wear attribute in broad daylight--and striding over to the front door, again she mutters, "Whatever, I'm going."
"We're," corrects Keenan, appearing all of the sudden in the middle of atrium in full uniform and firm delicious body that practically sparkling under sunlight she feels the urge to cover her eyes. His blonde wavy hair hand-combed messily to the back, his jaw chiseled perfectly, his golden eyes shine brightly. "Morning, Luce," greets him with crooked smile that sweep countless girls off their feet. Sadly for Lucille--the one person he actually greets--it only looks annoying, if not mischievous.
In fact, she's sure that just by standing there, Keenan could make any girl fall in love--or at least, within a million hectares radius. Beyond that, there would be another god of sun's descendants that supposedly have the same quality as Keenan, and things would be really tight and who knows how it would end--anyway. It's such a shame that that brat got his face hidden most of the time in deep sleep. Even in stark daylight, mind you.
"And you call yourself a sun descendant," Lucille grumbles, reluctantly closing her umbrella. Yup, as it implicitly shows, sun race is the strongest in broad daylight. Of course, they're identical with physical activities, strong characteristics, capable and passionate, and also bright and cheerful personality. All lost in Keenan except for one certain physical activity.
Keenan snickers, arriving by her side in two big steps and drapes an arm around Lucille all too casually. "To be fair, you don't sleep at all, so it's not like you face the difficulty of waking up early."
Well, if it counts to his selling point, Keenan always has smarta$$ comebacks to say. But, if he thinks he'd win so easily, he needs to think again. "It's not like we at all need sleep to start with!"
"Hey, hey, I do it for you, okay?" Keenan softens immediately, but Lucille still holds her grudge. Being a descendant of goddess of moon means daytime would naturally weaken her. It's common sense that moon race lays low all day and would just come out after sunset--like vampires and other imaginary night creatures. But, it's Keenan that asked Lucille to accompany him all day, saying things like 'socialize for me' and 'I'll lend you my strength as an exchange'.
"Sorry to let you down, but it's not like your strength is irreplaceable." Smirking slyly, Lucille once again gets her umbrella ready.
Keenan snatches Lucille's umbrella before it opens, wearing his best smile. "Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. And it's not like we can choose who we are, aren't I right?"
Lucille groans hearing him stealing her line each time Keenan scolds her for befriending humans. Copyright be damned, but... "If you understand, why can't you be a little nicer to them?"
Keenan leads her to his open roofed sport car. "Come on, they're just humans. Anyway, you haven't forgotten about this evening's Autumn Equinox Gala, right?"
"The only place where you actually socialize? Not a chance!" said Lucille cheerfully, getting in and sits all too happily, seems to Keenan has completely forgotten his apathetic-almost-antipathetic view of her favorite race. It amuses him, how she always willingly goes with his flow, until she speaks her next words in between her humming, "I got a feeling that today's going to be a great day."
Behind the wheel, Keenan stares blankly at Lucille and her blinding optimism. "And they said moon race were thoroughly dark." Shaking his head in disbelief, he faces forward and drives his car across heavy traffic with highway speed. "Myth, it's all just a myth," mutters him, still in half-shock state.
*)
Equinox Gala, as grand as it sounds, is held by both god of sun and goddess of moon to gather their descendants together, announce important things about delegacies and their jobs, while secretly showing off their power, determining who's more powerful than who. Only twice a year, the sworn enemies would arrange such troublesome event to put together at least eleven thousand families, while holding back their hate for each other and also keeping everything under control so that there would not be a bloodshed.
For Keenan, it's just pure contradictory. Like yin and yang, they're the exact opposite of each other, but depends on each other all the same. Both party are just too childish to admit it, and instead claiming each other as sworn enemy.
What's worse is how their descendants addressing it–by obediently following the state they are in and not questioning anything at all. Until now, Keenan still has no idea: how they could possibly live alongside their so-called sworn enemies all their lives, and still wouldn't change their perspectives even though the truth is there's nothing wrong with each other.
Or maybe, there's something wrong with Keenan. And Lucille, for that matter. Because instead of being a conscious away from ripping off each other's eyes, like all the sun-moon delegacy pairs, they're very much friends. And both families actually live with it, indifferently from Lucille's side, and welcoming from Keenan's.
Even right now, the descendants spread in groups: according to their ancestors. The right side of the building is heavily filled with golden hairs and tanned skins, and the left with dark hairs and white-as-snow skins. There's no doubt exceptions here and there, genes that stronger that the gods' traits, habitations' conditions and climates, but mostly the descendants are exact pictures of the two ancestors.
In these type of gatherings Keenan usually isn't literally by Lucille's side, but he tends to make sure the girl is within his eyesight. Just like his family, his friends are indifferent-with-a-hint-of-interest about his friendship with Lucille, though haven't really pay attention to it. It changes when Kimberly, Keenan's little sister by two years, pushes her way through his current circle and announcing his version of the most controversial thing ever.
"I bet you five dollars that guy's into Lucy." She said it as a warning, Keenan's aware, but apparently the friends aren't the type to take it subtly. While trying to locate the moon friend–their little name for Lucille–among Gala's crowd, they whistle and cheer noisily, and before long it's them that's being located by the big crowd.
Center of attention isn't exactly Keenan's style, but he has more urgent thing that demands his immediate attention. His eyes found Lucille instantly, in the middle of laughing carelessly with some tall, bulky-by-moon-race's-standard guy. Only seconds later she seems to realize the fuss Keenan's friends has made, and her eyes found his just as quick.
'What happened?' She mutters silently.
'Nothing,' answers Keenan, trying his best not to walk across the room and drag the tall guy away from Lucille. Oh, he's not the expressive/aggressive type like his siblings, all right, but he doesn't like to share either.
Not Lucille. Especially not Lucille.
"Hot. The air's getting hot."
"Ooh... Look at that body? Is he a model?"
"You really need to find another daytime friend, K."
Suddenly, someone pats his shoulder, returning his attention to his surroundings. "Hey, hey, what kind of thing did you teach our dear Kimmy?"
Keenan, recognizing his closest sun friend only by his voice, has already snapped even before he sees him, "Sunny! And it's not one of my teachings."
"I thought your parents wouldn't possibly teach her that. Let alone little Kelly," said Sunny, addressing Keenan's youngest sister that hasn't even turned eight yet.
Keenan stares at him dejectedly. "She befriends humans."
Sunny laughs. "Is it Lucille? Your girl is really something." It's common sense that in addition to befriending Keenan, a sun race, Lucille also befriends humans. Not exactly breaking the law, but unusual all the same.
"She's not my girl," corrects Keenan, all the while shooting death stares at the tall guy that is now patting Lucille's head oh-so-casually. "Nor his."
Sunny follows Keenan's stare and shrugs, "Ten dollars."
Keenan's death stares find their new target right away.