Note to readers: this one is for Kaeru Shisho, who wanted a story set in Saigon. All the places in this story exist, more or less as described, but sadly uninhabited by GW characters. Many thanks to Maskelle and Dyna for editorial input.

Note to KS: This is a one shot. Ongoing rumours that I write for chocolate are completely unfounded.

Saigon Kiss:

The lights were red, which sometimes meant it was marginally safer to cross the road. Wufei put out one tentative foot, and then immediately jerked back as a motorbike whizzed by from out of nowhere. Adding insult to injury, the driver flicked him a cheeky grin.

Gods, this city! Wufei swore eloquently in an ancient Cantonese dialect spoken by a handful of people on the planet. It didn't make him feel any better. It took five minutes to get across the damn road, and only because a little girl in school uniform and pigtails took his hand to lead him across.

He'd only been here for four days and he already hated the place; a world away from calm, orderly Sanque with its timetables and pedestrian crossings and normality.

Forcing himself to smile at the little girl, he fished out the piece of paper with the address written on it. He already knew he wasn't going to want to live anywhere near this part of town, but he'd made arrangements to view the house so he was obliged to turn up.

Checking street numbers, he found the address.

At the entrance was one of those pavement eating places you found everywhere in Saigon. A long trestle table, a few child-sized plastic stools, and a piece of ripped tarpaulin rather precariously strung over it all. His guidebook advised against eating in places like this, but the pieces of chicken and pork grilling on the home-made barbeque smelled wonderful. The baguette and coffee his hotel provided for breakfast weren't very substantial.

He walked past, and found himself in a rather pleasant courtyard. There were a handful of businesses; a small boutique selling brightly coloured silk dresses, a sign advertising a dentist, a French restaurant with the doors closed so early in the day. Even a few weeks after Chinese New Year – Tet, as they called it here – there were tubs of yellow chrysanthemums outside each door, and cherry blossoms stencilled on the windows.

It was charming.

Reading his directions again, he turned right and walked a few meters down a narrow alleyway and was suddenly in another courtyard. This one was residential; tall, narrow houses reaching for the sky like trees in a rainforest. Wufei grinned at the fancifulness of that image; in a crowded city, it made sense to build up. There were a few crumbling French colonial houses with wrought iron balconies and peeling ochre-yellow paintwork, and some modern buildings painted the colours of ice-cream; raspberry and lemon and pistachio.

To his left were a couple of cats and dogs snoozing on sun-warmed tiles and two small boys throwing a shuttlecock back and forth.

Number 69/22 turned out to be one of the older houses, with greenery spilling over the three wrap-around balconies and a riot of orchids around the front door. The black cat on the step looked up and then purred when he sank his fingers into its plush, warm fur.

This was ….nice. For the first time since he'd arrived in Vietnam he couldn't hear traffic, only the chirp of sparrows and the children laughing and the steady drone of the cat's purr.

No one answered the door though. Wufei double-checked his watch and the note before ringing the bell a second time. Yes, he had the address right, and the man had said eight thirty am. Definitely.

That was it, then. Even if he'd been tempted by this startling little oasis of calm, there was no way he wanted to rent from someone so unreliable they couldn't keep a simple appointment. Giving the cat a last stroke, he straightened up and saw the little note with his name on it, sellotaped to the wall.

He'd almost missed it; what a stupid place to leave something.

Wufei:

Sorry, I had to run out for a bit. Can you come to the yoga studio across the road? Turn left and go under the archway. Number 17.

Zechs.

Damn. He'd have to cross that bloody road again. Well, maybe he just wouldn't bother. This place was unexpected and charming and would be very convenient for work, but it was in the middle of utter bedlam, and he'd probably be better off with his own apartment, rather than sharing with a stranger.

The cat wound herself around his legs, still purring throatily. It would be nice to live somewhere with a pet.

He crossed the road again, unaided this time, which gave a stupid little thrill of accomplishment. He turned left, as requested, and cursed again as he found himself in a courtyard full of motorbikes. No yoga studio in sight, just a tall apartment block. That was it then. Zechs, or whatever he was called, was either flat out insane or playing some sort of stupid practical joke.

'Hey?' He hadn't even noticed the girl until she was at his elbow. 'Looking for the yoga studio?'

'Ah, yes.'

She laughed. 'Everyone gets lost the first time. Up the stairs in the far corner and you'll see the sign.'

Thinking about rabbit holes and parallel universes, Wufei obeyed, weaving a path through densely packed motorbikes and climbing the unlit concrete stairs.

There was a neatly lettered sign on the door on the first landing.

'Welcome to Yoga Living. Please take off your shoes.'

It was another wholly unexpected place. There were low couches and glossy plants and soft classical music and the enticing fragrance of lemongrass.

There was a young man sitting at the desk in one corner, too intent on the phone in his hand to look up. 'Not till lunchtime? Shit! No, it's OK, Heero. We'll cope. Zechs is taking the nine o'clock class, and I've lit candles in the studio. Looks pretty cool actually.' He laughed. 'Yeah. Like that night. Right, see you later. Try not to kill anyone. Love you.' He hung up and grinned at Wufei.

'Hi! Can I help you?'

'I'm supposed to be meeting someone called Zechs.'

'Are you now?' Dark blue eyes swept up and down. 'He gets all the luck. He's in the studio. Through there. You can go on in.'

Wufei walked through a small cloakroom with lockers and sinks and some curtained cubicles, and pushed open the door with 'Studio' marked on it.

It was a large room with a highly polished hardwood floor and carefully spaced red mats and candles around the walls. One wall was entirely composed of mirrors, reflecting the flickering flames from the candles.

And the man.

He was very tall, with long blond hair in a sloppy ponytail. Black leggings and a tight, sleeveless t-shirt did absolutely nothing to hide the sheer beauty of him. Or the grace, as he moved.

Wufei saw his own open-mouthed reflection gaping and snapped his jaw shut. He was not going to drool.

Not.

The blond, moving smoothly into a crouch and then standing up, arms high stretched high above his head, smiled.

'Good morning. You're a bit early. Class starts in fifteen minutes. Feel free to start warming up if you like.'

He'd turned while he was speaking, spinning on his heel to face Wufei and coming a few steps closer.

There were loose strands of silvery-fair hair drifting around his face. He was very tall. And infuriatingly sure of himself.

'I'm not early,' Wufei snapped. 'You're late. You were supposed to meet me at your house fifteen minutes ago.'

'Ah. You're Wufei then.'

He held out one hand, which Wufei took out of automatic good manners and then regretted it. This idiot had messed up his entire morning and was compounding the insult by being quite impossibly gorgeous and not remotely apologetic.

'I'm fifteen minutes?' One pale eyebrow arched over a blue eye that was shining with amusement. 'How appalling of me.'

'I'm glad you find it funny. I don't,' Wufei said coldly. 'We'd made an arrangement for half past eight. I'm sorry, but I really don't have time to hang about here all day, because you can't organise yourself. Not that I should be surprised in this city, really, since nobody seems capable of keeping any appointments or doing what they say they will or even telling the time accurately.'

Oh, God.

He hadn't remotely meant to say any of that, but all the frustrations of the past few days had suddenly boiled over and exploded. That first awful guesthouse the university had arranged for him; the taxi that had never come to collect him that first morning; the fact that no one in the museum archives had apparently heard of him, much less arranged the manuscripts and documents that he'd been promised.

It had all been a horrendous mistake; coming here. No wonder he'd been offered the job. Foolishly, he'd preened himself on being chosen, over candidates who had more experience and higher qualifications. They'd probably been offered the post and turned it down and Chang Wufei had been the only one stupid enough to accept.

'Wufei. Please wait.' He could have shaken off Zechs' arm easily enough, but there was a concerned note in the man's voice that wasn't so easy to dismiss.

'I'm very sorry about this. We've had something of a nightmare morning. There are road works going on across the street, and they've cut off our power. As a result, I'm running late. Do you think you could wait for me?'

'I'm supposed to be looking at another apartment later on.'

'I see.' Blue eyes clouded, Zechs gazed down at him. 'I have a class to teach at nine. I'll be an hour if you have time to wait. Or you can come back later. I'll be home all day.'

'I – I could, I suppose.' He said it almost reluctantly, and then looked at his watch. 'Ten o'clock, then?'

Zechs laughed out loud at that; Wufei couldn't see that he'd say anything funny but the other man had rather a nice laugh.

'Ten o'clock,' he agreed. 'On the dot. There's a nice café next door, if you'd like to go and have a drink. I'll ask Duo to take you through.'

Wufei found himself nodding, just to keep that approving look in Zechs' eyes, and two minutes later was following Duo out of the studio.

The café was another wholly surprising place; one huge room with a chandelier and elegant cream-painted furniture and a couple of velvet chaise-lounges in one corner.

'Nice, hey?' Duo asked, taking him over to a window table. 'A friend of ours started it a few months ago. It's a kind of charity thing; he takes in street kids and teaches them about cooking and stuff. I thought you'd like it. You were looking a bit shell-shocked when you walked in before. Hey, Quat!' This last was to a handsome young blond man who had carried over two menus. 'This is Wufei, a friend of Zechs'. This is Quatre; he runs this place.'

'How lovely to meet you,' Quatre beamed at him. 'Excuse me for two seconds. I have to take something out of the oven.'

'I'm not really Zechs' friend,' Wufei said. 'I supposed to be looking at the apartment for rent.'

'Oh, you'll love it,' Duo enthused. 'It's great. Heero and I live around the corner. It's really central but pretty quiet. For this city anyway.'

'It seems nice. And quiet would be good. I haven't been able to sleep properly since I got here with the heat and the noise.'

Duo nodded. 'I know. This isn't the best of time of year to arrive; it'll cool down once the rains start. It's not a bad place, you know. Considering there're ten million people living here, it's really friendly and there's hardly any crime. And some really cool places to hang out.'

'Maybe,' Wufei hedged. 'Ask me in a couple of weeks when I'm able to cross the road without having a heart attack.'

'Oh, don't!' Quatre groaned, appearing back at their table. 'It's awful, isn't it? I've been here for six months and I'm still terrified of crossing the road. I actually dream of cities where the traffic stops for red lights.'

Duo sniggered. 'Tro's doing something wrong if that's all you've got to dream about, Q. And stop telling him stuff like that. Don't listen to him, Wufei. He loves it really.'

'I'd go home tomorrow if I could,' Quatre sighed dramatically, but he was grinning. 'My partner works for the World Wildlife Fund,' he explained to Wufei. 'He's got a two year contract here looking at endangered reptile and insect species in the Mekhong Delta, but he's mostly out in the middle of nowhere so I'm stuck here.'

'Aren't you lucky?' Duo teased, and laughed when Quatre stuck out his tongue.

'He's just not a morning person,' Duo informed Wufei. 'God knows why he thought he'd enjoy running a café.'

'Well, I had to find something to do with my time while Trowa's off looking at snails and snakes and other slimy creatures. And it's a nice way to meet people.'

'Like me,' Duo said cheerfully. 'Quat, can I just get a coffee? Wufei, what'll you have? Perfect, two coffees and a couple of muffins or something.' He leaned across the table and smiled at Wufei while Quatre brought their order. 'Just give this place a chance, OK? I know it's kind of overwhelming at the start, but it grows on you. Honest.'

'You actually like living here?' Wufei demanded, taking a sip of his coffee. It was very good.

'I love it. Mostly. Not sure I'd want to stay here for ever, but Heero grew up here – he's my boyfriend, by the way, in case you hadn't guessed – and he's got the studio, so it's home for now.'

'Do you teach yoga too?'

'Hell, no. I'm not really into all that slow stretching and breathing and all that. I help out in the office, and sometimes here if Quat needs to take some time off, and in my spare time I restore old motorbikes, and do some volunteering at an orphanage.'

'How did you end up in Saigon?'

'Just happened, sort of. I was backpacking around Asia and stopped here for a couple of days on the way to Cambodia and met Heero in a bar.' He looked down at his empty cup, smiling dreamily. 'That was three years ago and I've never got around to leaving. Speaking of leaving, I'd better get back to the studio and check people in. Have fun with Zechs! See you 'round, I hope.' He bent down to give Wufei a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing out, ponytail flying behind.

'You'll get used to him,' Quatre observed, arriving back at the table with a cup of tea for himself. 'And I know you won't believe me, but you'll get used to living here.'

Wufei quirked an eybrow at him. 'How long did it take you?'

The blond laughed. 'Don't ask me that. The first night we got here, I actually cried. Trowa had booked us into some horrid little guesthouse, and there were cockroaches and the air conditioning didn't work and the sheets were stained with something I still don't even want to think about.'

Wufei couldn't help grinning. 'I think I stayed there too, my first night.'

'I didn't stay there,' Quatre said emphatically. 'It was hideous and Trowa kept saying it wasn't that bad, and he'd stayed in far worse places when he was doing field work. I told him he could stay there if he liked, but I was going to the Sheraton, so we booked in there for the first month, and then I found the house we're living in now. Honestly, it's a much nicer city if you have a comfortable place to live and a garden. You'll be fine if you move in with Zechs; he knows the city inside out so he can show you around as well.'

'How long has he been here then?'

'Most of his life,' Quatre took a sip of his tea. 'His parents were diplomats so Zechs and his sister grew up here. He went to university in France, and then he worked there for a few years before coming back here. Oh, there he is!'

'Ten o'clock, Mr. Chang,' the blond announced, sticking his head through the door and wiping sweaty bangs out of his eyes. 'Come on. Don't want to be late, do you?'

'Certainly not!' Wufei gulped the last of his drink, fumbling for his wallet.

'Oh, don't worry about it,' Quatre assured him. 'Please come back again soon!'

Zechs took his elbow and ushered him across the road, a warm, light touch of skin against skin. 'Don't worry. You'll get used to it. Just watch for cars; they don't swerve as easily as motorbikes! Do you drive?'

'Cars, yes. Motorbikes, definitely not. And certainly not here. It's insane. I was on one of those motorbike taxis yesterday and I thought I was going to die. I was in such a hurry to get off that I burnt my leg on the exhaust and it still hurts.'

'Ah. You've had your first Saigon kiss, then.'

'I beg your pardon? I certainly have not.'

Zechs laughed, leading him into the little courtyard. 'That's what we call exhaust burns. Don't worry; it's almost a rite of initiation. Now, here we are. Come in.'

He took Zechs into a small hallway, crowded with a washing machine and a couple of mountain bikes and a cat basket, that opened into a kitchen. It looked, well, like a normal kitchen in a normal house, albeit a somewhat exotic one. There were orchids in the window and some lovely pieces of lacquer-ware on the big table and a shelf full of cookery books.

'Would you like a drink? Just give me five minutes to get showered and changed and I'll show you the annexe.'

Wufei accepted a glass of iced tea and sat down gratefully, away from noise and traffic and homicidal motorcyclists. There was a ceiling fan which rotated in slow, lazy circles and there were stunning framed photographs on the walls. The vivid emerald-green of rice fields; a water buffalo being led on a string by a small boy; an old lady sitting on a pavement selling bananas.

Zechs was back precisely five minutes later; Wufei took a long gulp of the cold drink. All that blond hair was loose, a silken cascade to his waist. He hadn't bothered to dry properly; the sleeveless t-shirt was clinging to patches of damp skin, and the baggy drawstring pants were hanging low on his hipbones and there was a tantalising strip of pale flesh between the two.

Oh, gods.

'I love your photographs. Did you buy them locally?'

'You could say that. I took them.'

'Really? Is that what you do then? I thought you were a yoga teacher.'

'That pays the bills.' Zechs lifted his glass and drained in a couple of long swallows. Wufei tried not to stare. 'Photography's for fun. I've had a few exhibitions, though, and I've got work at some galleries in town. If you want prints, I can get them for you. Now, how long are you going to be here?'

'I've got a two year contract,' Wufei said glumly. 'At the National Library. I'm supposed to be restoring some old manuscripts, dating back to the Chinese invasions.'

'Sounds interesting.' Zechs didn't bother sitting down, just rested one hip against the table, which made the t-shirt ride up even more.

'I imagine it would be, if I could actually see them. No one seems to have any idea who I am or what I'm doing there. I've been back four times in the last two days, and every time they've told me I can come back '

'I'm sure it'll sort itself out,' Zechs assured him. 'It's a cultural thing; a lot of people here will agree to whatever you say rather than admitting they don't know what you're actually asking. Just give it a couple of days.'

Wufei huffed. "It's rank inefficiency, that's what it is.' He gazed into the amber depths of his drink, forcing himself not to look at all that smooth, pale skin, so very close to him. 'I'm starting to think I made a horrendous mistake coming here.'

There, that was the first time he'd said it. But he couldn't tell his parents, so proud of their only son. And Sally and Meiran had thought he was embarking on a great adventure and he certainly couldn't admit defeat to Professor Khushrenada at the university who'd given him the job.

'You've been here how long? Only four days?' Zechs grinned at him. 'You need to give the place a chance. Why don't you take it easy for a while? Get used to things first. Everything here is all so new, isn't it? The heat, the food, the noise. You need to adjust to all that.'

'I have deadlines! I can't just … take it easy, when I'm here to do a job. My university in Sanque is expecting regular reports.'

'Sanque, hmm?' Zechs grinned at him. 'The country that taught Switzerland about punctuality and Germany about efficiency. No wonder this is such a culture shock to you! Never mind, you're on the other side of the world, seven time zones away. I'm sure they'll cut you a little slack while you find your feet. OK, time for the tour.' He found a bunch of keys. 'The apartment does have its own front door, but I'll take you through here for now.' He gestured to a door opposite the cooker. 'Where are you staying right now?'

'A hotel by Ben Thanh Market. It's all right, but rather expensive. The museum had arranged accommodation for me but it was frightful. There were cockroaches everywhere!'

'I hate to tell you this, but they're an occupational hazard of living here. You'll get used to it.'

Wufei grimaced. 'I'm not sure if I want to. I was so excited about coming here, and everything's gone wrong so far. Maybe I should have just stayed at home.'

'Well, I'm glad you didn't.' Zechs gave him a wink, accompanied by a flirty smile that made Wufei choke on a mouthful of tea. 'My parents always used to say that you needed a give a place two weeks before you made up your mind about liking it or not. They were diplomats, so they were used to travelling around. Now, let's show you the rooms for rent. It's pretty much a self-contained annexe, there's a door out to the alleyway so you'll have your own entrance.' He stood up, finding a bunch of keys in a drawer, and leading Wufei through a doorway.

'As you see, it's pretty private. My sister used to live here and we usually kept this door open, but you can lock it if you'd prefer.'

'It's lovely,' Wufei said, meaning it. The sunny, white-painted room with its few pieces of simple, wooden furniture was worlds away from the cluttered hotel room. There was a small, spotless bathroom, and a narrow kitchen at the back. It was perfect. He could see himself here. He would just need a proper desk and chair, and some more bookshelves. 'Why did your sister leave?'

'She moved in with her boyfriend a month or so ago. If you're interested, it's three hundred dollars a month, which includes all bills and a cleaner three times a week. If you're not into cooking, the food stall in the alley is pretty good, and they'll let you run up a tab.'

'Is it safe to eat at food stalls?'

White teeth gleamed as Zechs laughed at him. 'Try it. Live dangerously for a change.' He caught Wufei's expression and the humour faded slightly. 'It's perfectly safe. Now, are you interested?'

'I think so, yes.'

Zechs sighed with relief. 'Thank God. I've had a few other people here and they were all nightmares. The first question one guy asked was where he could pick up bar girls around here.'

'I'm ..not into that.'

'Ah. Not into girls, or the variety that frequent bars?'

'Neither.' Wufei squared his chin. Always better to get it over with first. Not that he really thought it would be an issue in this case. 'I'm gay. If that's in any way a problem, I'll just leave now.'

'Oh, it's not in any remote way a problem. The opposite if anything. Now, there's no balcony, I'm afraid, since you're on the ground floor, but you can use my roof terrace. Let me show you.'

The roof terrace was pure paradise. There were a couple of hammocks and sun loungers, and lots of plants, and a little fountain and butterflies.

'You're sure you don't mind me coming up here?'

'Not at all. I've got the balconies, and I'm in the studio most of the day. Now, are you remotely interested? Or do you need to know anything else?'

'I'm very interested. Very.' For form's sake, he asked a couple of questions about internet access and the cleaner's duties and how Zechs wanted the rent to be paid. The answers didn't matter. He knew he was going to come and live here. He'd known it, really, the first time he'd seen the house. Before he'd even seen the man who owned it.

'Well then. Now, I have a couple of things to ask you. First question, do you have a boyfriend waiting for you back in Sanque?'

'No boyfriend.' Wufei tilted his head slightly to look up into sunlit, smiling blue eyes. How odd; he hadn't been looking for this at all. He'd somehow expected to spend two whole years buried in a library with books for company. 'Do you?'

'Ah, perfect answer. No, I don't, either. Second question. You don't play any percussion or brass instruments, do you? Or have any loud hobbies?'

Wufei shook his head. 'Would it be a problem if I said yes?'

Zechs grinned. 'The boyfriend would be a very definite problem. I could probably overlook anything else.'

'That seems rather forward.' Wufei touched the stem of an exquisite cream-coloured orchid. 'Don't you think?'

'Not at all, actually. I think forward would be me doing this.'

Certainly, leaning over the few inches between them was forward, but the kiss itself wasn't, particularly. Just a soft brush of Zechs' mouth against his own.

'Is this going to be part of the tenancy agreement?' Zechs' fingers were busy at the nape of his nape, loosening his hair. Now, that was forward, but it felt terribly good, having his hair caressed like that.

'It's not written in the lease, but it is optional.'

Oh, dear. All Zechs needed to do, really, was to smile at him like that. 'The kissing?'

'Kissing. Or anything else you might like at some future date.'

Ah. Wufei let out a breath that had somehow caught in his throat. 'I'm only here for two years.' An hour ago, it had seemed like infinity, but now it seemed a ridiculously short time.

'Yes. But people do have a habit of coming out here and staying on. I don't remember if I told you, but I'm from Sanque too. I'm not sure if I want to live here always.' He gave a slightly self-conscious laugh, winding a lock of Wufei's hair around one finger. 'Now, that was forward. I'm sorry.'

'It's all right.' He reached up and kissed Zechs again, a slow, sure exploration.

Another Saigon kiss.