Hey guys!

I'm really sorry that I didn't update when I said I would and that I pretty much took forever and I'm sure I deserve a good old-fashioned brainduster. I've just been having some emotional issues going on and lots of school work to do so I've been distracted. But I'ma try to be better! I have a week of vacation so WHOO!

XDD

But yeah, so this chapter is a little long but in my opinion it's a little boring, but stories need those boring chapters to give a little background! Whee! How's this for non-canon? XDD Oh and it also contains some straight sexual themes...yeah...WHICH I HAVEN'T WRITTEN FOR SO LONG NOW! SERIOUSLY I WAS SITTING THERE THINKING, "Wait, how can penis and vagina go together? I am so confused! What is the point of vagina?"

And it was also funny that I was listening to Big Balls by ACDC while writing this XDD

Oh I think I should take this oppurtunity to mention that I won't always have posts in 1st person. Ya know like, Warren's POV and Will's POV. There are some things that I feel are written better in 3rd person. There isn't any 3rd person in this chapter, I'm just giving you guys a heads up!

Read it, comment it and make me happy! I mean my birthday is coming up soon so I think I deserve comments! XDD

~Warren's POV~

I rubbed the wet rag over the table where the previous customer had slopped duck sauce. Who eats the stuff anyways? I wondered scornfully to myself. The decorative lights lit up the restaurant, casting brilliant light upon the red walls. It made the windows that weren't covered with the red shades look like black mirror-like panes.

The clock had just stroked eight at night, the usual time things really slowed down and people stopped coming in. I guessed that the Lantern would close about fifteen minutes early tonight. Scratch that, I knew it would close fifteen minutes early tonight. I silently counted in my head, practically able to feel the owner, Shu, glancing at the clock.

I stood up straight and turned as she called over the counter to me in her language. Hey! Go turn the sign! We are closing early tonight!
She, as well as her other Chinese employees, were comfortable with their language. She spoke Chinese in the kitchen where customers weren't around, and if she was yelling at an employee when customers were around, it was always in Chinese. Now that I thought about it, the only time I could remember her speaking nonchalantly in English to me was when I had first gotten a job here back during the summer before my eighth year. Otherwise, she only spoke English in personal conversations when it was really important and she had to get a caring point across.

I answered back with a simple assurance, and went over to the door and flipped the sign so the word 'closed' faced outward against the glass.

I thought about the day I had come in, attracted by the HELP WANTED sign. I spoke to a guy over the counter with his black hair slicked to part two ways, asking about the job opening in English.

I remember Shu had called from deeper in the kitchen, asking who was asking about the job opening in Chinese. The guy had answered back in Chinese with an amused tone:

Just a white guy with long greasy hair. This Round-Eye looks like a total street bum.

I had glared at him and spoke in Chinese just as Shu had come into view to get a look at me. My hair isn't as greasy as yours there, Danny Zuko.

The guy's eyes widenedat me and Shu blinked in surprise. I stared back at them as they stared at me. Then Shu snorted, Oh shit son, you just got told.

The guy looked embarrassed and perplexed.

I admit that it was illegal, but I still got the job. This job paid for my tattoos. This job paid for my Harley. This job kept me away from home when I didn't want to be there.

"I'm goin' out for a cigarette." I said over my shoulder, and pushed open the door. I stepped into the night air, and reached for my pack that was in my pocket. I pulled out a cigarette and placed it in between my lips, stuffing the pack back into my pocket.

I clenched a fist to make it look like I was holding a lighter to the passerby and lit up. I scissored the cig and sighed out smoke.

"Wahhen."

I looked down at Shu as she pushed open the door and stepped outside to stand beside me. She crossed her arms, her hands grasping lightly at her elbows. She rocked back and forth on her heels and watched the few passing cars and walking people. I took a drag and looked back down at her when she asked, "You been back school two weeks? Thwee weeks?"

"About three weeks." I answered, blowing a smoke stream to the left so as not to get any in her face.

"How it going?"

"It's going my way." I reassured her.

She nodded, looking back to the street. She was having an actual conversation in English with me, so I figured that it was a bit of a tender, endearing kind of moment. She asked, "Youh bike, it sound like you fix noise in engine."

I nodded again, thinking about my Harley. It was currently parked out back where the employees parked their vehicles, bicycles, scooters, whatever they rode. I was starting to wonder why she was speaking English and speaking about nonchalant things. I was waiting for her to get to the important point she had to make to me. She definitely did not come out here to ask about my bike and how school was.

She gestured, "You know I tell you stop smoking." There it is. I thought to myself. I glanced down at my cigarette and nodded lightly at her.

"It bad for you." She said. I nodded, "Yeah, I know." I brought my cig back up to my lips and took a drag.

"It hahd habit to kick." She said.

I nodded again, letting the smoke out away from her. I knew it was a hard habit to kick; I had already tried a couple of times.

"You quit, okay?" she asked, looking up at me expectantly. The first time she had suggested that I quit smoking was in Chinese. This time it was in English so it seemed more personal to me.

I shrugged, and looked across the street to escape her gaze. I took another drag. I felt her slap me sharply in the arm and I looked quickly to her. "You quit, or I cut pay." She said and then pulled open the door.

"What?" I held the door open, looking in after her as she walked across the restaurant, weaving between tables. She raised a finger high into the air, "Cut pay by half!"

"What?"

She ignored me and went deeper into the restaurant around the corner, disappearing from my sight. I stared, my mouth agape. Shu means 'kind' and 'gentle'? Oh you bitch, the irony!

Then I pressed my lips tightly together and let the door shut. My accusing eyes glanced wildly around, and I kept my lips pressed together, trying to stamp down the urge to set something on fire. I didn't even take the time to check out the fluffy-haired guy who had walked by me, 'casually' looking at me from head to toe, his eyes lingering on my exposed biceps. I took a long, hearty drag and rubbed at my eyes with one hand as I exhaled. "Oh for fuck's sake…"

I could take Shu giving me extra shifts, or even calling my mom about my smoking habit. But I could not take a pay cut.

Guess this means no more cigarette breaks within a mile of work…I thought as I flicked the ashes off of my cig and pinched it closed. I tucked it back into the cigarette pack and went back inside. I weaved around tables, and I rounded the corner to get back to wiping up booths.

Lan, a waitress around my age, looked up from where she sat at the empty booth by the wall, folding clean napkins. "Warren."

I paused and looked at her, "Hey, Lan." I heaved a sigh and looked at the booth table beside hers and started wiping it down, cleansing it of the small puddles of 7Up and beef sauce.

"How come Shu's cutting your pay?"

I paused again and turned my gaze to her. She raised a finger and imitated Shu, "by half!" She smiled. I went back to wiping the table down, "She's only cutting my pay if I don't quit smoking."

She nodded in realization, "Oooh." She set a napkin into the bin with the other neatly folded napkins. She brushed her ponytail from her shoulder and asked, "So are you really gonna quit, or are my expectations too high?" I looked at her as I wiped a piece of noodle from the booth seat and cocked an eyebrow. She smiled again, this time apologetically.

"I've tried to quit, you know that." I said bluntly.

She shrugged, "Fifth time's a charm."

I dulled my eyes at her. I then went across the room with my back turned to her to wipe down the table farthest away from her. I know that outside of school I am a bit more…more…well, less…not as angry…no not as tense I guess. For fuck's sake, I'm stranded on a flying piece of metal very high in the sky, in a building full of other people who have super powers, and I have no way of escaping if it came to it. There were probably a little over three-hundred students there, and I didn't want to know two-hundred and ninety-nine of them.

It's nerve-wracking. And it didn't help that in a crowded place, according to my feeling-sensing and feeling-controlling mother The Negotiator, I am officially a diagnosed anti-social that doesn't want mostly anyone to be near me. At times sure, there were exceptions; seriously note 'mostly anyone' not 'anyone'.

This of course made Lan the closest thing to a friend I had outside of school. I was calmer outside of school, and even calmer during work, so she took advantage of that. Unknowingly of course.

"Hey."

My muscles tensed slightly as I felt her arm settle gently across my shoulder blades and felt her whisper in my ear.

"I know it's a school night, but by any chance, that call you got from your mom earlier, did she say she wasn't gonna be home tonight?"

I straightened up; her arm slid off of me so now only her hand rested on my shoulder. I looked down into her big, dark brown eyes. Did I also mention that our friendship was very…say…relaxed? Open?

I gave a nod, "Yeah." Mom wasn't expecting to be home tonight. The Negotiator was needed in the Middle East…again. Honestly, when was that bullshit going to end?

"Wǎn ān." I said over my shoulder as I pushed open the back door. The light from the kitchen billowed out as I went down the four steps. The light disappeared as the door closed behind me. I pulled on my leather jacket and yanked on the collar to straighten it out. I went over to my soft tail black, flamed Harley. My pride and joy per se…

I mounted my bike and reached back. I pulled loose my hair and it fell down around my face just as the back door opened again. I glanced up to see Lan coming down the steps.

"Jīn wǎn yǒu shé me jìhuà?" She asked. What are your plans for this evening?

I scoffed quietly and reached back to grasp my full-face helmet. I knew her question was foreplay. Formal foreplay, but foreplay nevertheless. I brought my helmet to my lap as she came to me on my bike. She smiled lightly, placing her hands on the handlebars of my bike. Her ponytail hung over shoulder as she leaned downward. I let her press her lips to mine. Short and soft and then she looked into my eyes with her dark chocolate gaze a mere three or four inches from mine.

She smiled and then backed away from my personal space. She went to her bright blue scooter and strapped on her white helmet. I flicked on my Harley and it roared to life. I glanced her way and she caught my gaze. "Gēn wǒ zǒu." I said quietly, gesturing toward the street with a small jerk of my head before I slipped on my helmet, hiding most of my face except my eyes from her. Come with me.

She smiled and I heard her scooter flutter smoothly and gently to life, like a hummingbird. I buckled the strap under my chin and then grasped the handlebars. I let loose the park, twisted the throttle and led the way out of the parking lot and down the street. My Harley's roars probably echoed through the dimness of evening as I rode through the streets. I could hear Lan on her scooter, following a good twenty yards behind me.

This wasn't the first time she followed me home on her scooter. There had been a few times before she'd gotten her scooter as well. During those times, she would ride on the back of my Harley, wearing my helmet with her arms wrapped around my waist; a hand occasionally gliding over the crotch of my jeans.

I made a smooth turn up my driveway, following the blacktop up the slight hill until I was around back my house. I rode up in front of the garage and killed the engine. I dismounted and walked toward the garage door, un-strapping my helmet. I slipped it off of my head, and tucked it in the crook of my left arm. I leaned down and grabbed the handle and pulled the garage door up as I heard Lan's scooter engine fluttering up behind me.

I went back to my Harley. Lan passed me, riding her scooter into the garage, deliberately parking in my usual spot. I gripped the handlebars of my bike and walked it in after her. But she had already set her helmet down and was already walked toward the back door to my house.

I chuckled impishly and put the kickstand down on my bike and let it lean lazily on it. I left the garage, pulling down the door as I did. Then I crossed my arms and watched Lan feeling along the side of the doorway, looking for the piece that came loose.

Three, two, one…

She pried it gently loose and then paused. She cocked an eyebrow and then looked back at me. She pushed the piece of wood back into place. "Nǐ tíchū de guānjiàn zài nǎlǐ?" You moved the key? "Nǐ húndàn." You bastard.

I snorted and walked forward, tucking a hand into my pocket to retrieve my keys. I walked up beside her, slipping the key into the door and unlocking it. I pushed it open and stepped back respectfully, yet mockingly for Lan.

She stepped into my house, shrugging out of her coat and kicking off her shoes, already heading for the stairs. She left her coat slung over the end of the banister where she usually left it on these occasions. I closed the door behind me, undid my boots and took them off, then followed after her.

I got off the last step and went to my already opened bedroom door. Lan had already shrugged out of her clothes down to a white tank top and a very girly pair of girl boxers. She came toward me and gently pushed my leather jacket from my shoulders. My sleeveless shirt made it easy for my jacket to slump from my arms and to the floor. As she worked her fingers under the hem of my shirt, I stroked a finger along the waistband of her girl boxers. "Xīn de?" New?

She pulled my shirt up my chest and I didn't bother to raise my arms. She looked at me stubbornly and then answered, "Shì de. Wǒ hěn wúliáo yǔ bǐjīní nèikù. Wǒ xiǎng chángshì xīn de dōngxi. Xiànzài, qǐng yǔ wǒ hézuò." Yes. I was bored with bikini panties. I wanted to try something new. Now, please cooperate with me.

I chuckled at her and then obliged, raising my arms. She dumped my shirt on the floor. Her soft hands traveled down my chest, rising and falling with the contours of my abs. I stood still, casting my gaze downward to watch her without moving my head. Her hands smoothly glided back up my stomach, my pecks and up to my shoulders.

The pressure on my skin bent me downward slightly so she could attempt to reach my lips. My hands traveled from my sides to encase her small waist and I saved her the trouble of rising to her tiptoes. Her soft hands cupped my jawbone and I tilted my head the other way, pressing my tongue into her mouth.

Her hands brushed back my hair and my hands brushed her tank top up her sides. I walked her gently back until she was on my bed. Practiced and familiar, she crawled backwards to lie back against my pillows on my plain black comforter all the while keeping our lips intact. For just a brief moment I lifted my lips from hers to pull her tank top off of her. Once I tossed it on the floor I leaned back in. She said, "You need a haircut."

I cocked an eyebrow at her, "You're gonna start this right now?" I leaned down and proceeded to kiss her neck, hoping it would shut her up seeing as it was her 'special spot'. I was encouraged by the pleasant, girlish whimper so I continued. For a few moments of thoroughly kissing, licking, nipping and sucking at either side of her neck, I was joyful that she wasn't picking up the age-old conversation of how she thought I should cut my hair.

But of course, nothing lasted long enough.

"It's really long." She said and then gasped.

I paused and rolled my eyes, doing my best to ignore her by reaching under her back and unhooking her bra with one hand. Her fingers brushed through my hair as I sat back slightly to toss her bra on the floor.

"It's almost as long as mine." She said as I ran my palms down her soft ample chest and down to the waistband of her girly boxers. I cocked my eyebrow, not looking at her, merely watching my hands slide her boxers down her thighs, "Then maybe you should get a haircut."

"Tch." She retorted, sitting up and latching her lips onto one of my nipples while fiddling with the button on my jeans. She licked my sternum and said, "Not gonna happen."

I mockingly ran one of my hands through her long, dark, soft hair as she pulled down the zipper on my jeans, "Seriously, maybe you should chop off all of your hair instead of me."

She shoved my jeans down to my knees, and I worked them off as she said, "I can't do that. I'd look like a dyke." I tossed my jeans onto the floor and looked back to her, "Then it stands to reason. If I cut my hair, I too would look like a dyke," She giggled. "so let's neither of us cut our hair, and forget about it." I leaned back over her and started kissing her again, hoping that there was some finality in my words and she would just let it go.

But nope. The second I leaned back to slip off my gray boxers, the first word out of her mouth was, "At least let me take a couple inches off of it?"

I let out a groan. I had an erection, this whole night was her idea, and I was the one getting put on hold? Her rosy face and her light panting told me that she had her own girly erection, so why was she doing this?

"You must really want me to get my haircut." I said, taking a condom from my nightstand drawer. She smirked at me, "And annoy you as much as possible. It's funny to see you sexually frustrated."

I rolled my eyes, sliding on the condom and then I crossed my arms, "Well, let me know when you're done." She pursed her lips for a minute and then nodded, "Okay I'm finished now."

"You sure?"

"Shut the hell up, Warren." She said, grabbing a fistful of my hair and yanking me down over her.

What the fu…she's telling me to shut up?

I pulled the garage door back down. "See you." Lan called as she fluttered down the driveway on her scooter. I brought my cigarette to my lips and took a long drag. The nighttime breeze brushed across my bare chest and the ashes from my cig glowed orange in the darkness. I leaned against the garage, and let out a long smoke stream.

I wondered quietly to myself who Lan would set herself up with in the next few days. Usually when she asked for a night at my place, it was for a bit of a confidence booster. A day or a few later she'd tell me about some boy at her school that she had just started dating. According to the length of time I'd spent rocking my hips back and forth into her on my bed until she flinched with a prolonged orgasm, I guessed that she would have a boyfriend the next day. She was predictable like that. Well I guess me knowing her so well had something to do with her being the only person I really was good friends with.

And it didn't bug me at all. I liked her merely as a friend and that was all. And if you couldn't occasionally have sex with your friends, then what was friendship? There's a comfort level that comes with friendship. A trust level. Lan trusted me. I returned that trust in a way as well.

I listened to her talk about her boyfriends. She listened to me, after questioning me of course, talk about any sexual encounters I had. Male and female. Of course it was a little weird that she was more interested in hearing about me doing a guy rather than a girl…

I still think that she goes both ways. I thought mulishly, taking a brief drag from my cig. Either that or she'd the most flexible hetero I've ever laid eyes on…

I was honest with her when I had told her that I didn't have feelings for her after the first time we had sex. She was honest with me as well, and the truth surprised me. She didn't have feelings for me either. Any tenderness between us was the result of friendship, and that was it. We both could live with that.

I shook my head. It shocked me sometimes how different me and Lan were, and yet we had the most interesting things in common.

I sighed out smoke and then palmed my cig, lighting it ablaze with hot orange flames. I quickly killed the fire and was satisfied to see the butt of my cig had been reduced to a little quaint pile of ashes. I sprinkled the ashes over my Mom's zinnias and then clapped my palms, wiping off the ashes.

Flushed evidence and a fertilizer. How's that for efficient?