Disclaimer: This story was written by a fan only for the enjoyment of other fans, without any monetary compensation. Gundam Wing and its characters are registered trademarks of Bandai Entertainment Inc.™ and Sotsu Agency. All rights reserved.

Italian = flashback or thought

Bold= emphasis

Text between \\ \\ = spoken in Chinese

A big "Thank You!" goes to KT for beating this story so fast. I could not have posted the chapters as quickly without her help.

The Good Luck Charm

Chapter 6

In the end Mei-Lin's 'self-invitation' proved itself a blessing in disguise. It turned out that she was familiar not only with all the good restaurants but also knew which stores to visit.

They ended up having lunch at the Jade Garden, Chinatowns' famous Dim Sum restaurant, only because Mei-Lin was going to school with the owner's grandson. A quick phone call from her secured a large table on the patio, from where they could observe the hustle and bustle in the streets. The food was delicious, from stuffed dumplings, buns and turnip cakes to curried cuttlefish and fried chicken feet.

After their meal the gang took a long walk down the main street, stopping occasionally to check out a store or street vendor, and by the time they returned to the Chang residence they were lugging bags of souvenirs and knick-knacks to take home as gifts for their families. Milliardo had also bought a black, mandarin-collared silk shirt for his fiancé, plain but yet very elegant looking. Treize had returned the favor by getting a similar shirt of deep red color with golden embroidery for Milliardo.

"At times like these, I appreciate not having a family," Duo joked as he was helping to carry bags for Quatre who had spent a small fortune buying souvenirs for all of his sisters and their children.

"…or being an only child." Treize added with a smirk.

"Seems as though you had fun." Wufei's grandfather, who was greeting them at the front door, remarked with a look at the bags and packages. "I just hope nobody tried to rob you blind. Chinese merchants can be very sly when you are not careful."

"Don't worry, Bo-Gong, I was with them." Mei-Lin replied self-confident.

"Right," the old man smiled. "Nobody steals the butter off your bread."

Wufei just mumbled something under his breath.

"Well, thanks for lunch, Fei. I'd better go and see if I am needed in the kitchen before mother has a meltdown."

"Wait, Mei-Lin." Heero stopped her. "You think it would be okay if I came with you? I'd love to watch or even help if I could."

"Seriously?" She looked at him as thought she was questioning his sanity.

"Seriously," Duo confirmed. "He loves to cook and always tries new stuff."

"Hmmm…" Mei-Lin looked at her Great-Uncle who shrugged.

"They don't exactly like us…men…in the kitchen when they are busy, but I think Po-Po might make an exception today. Come on…Heero it was, wasn't it?"

"Yes, sir."

"In that case, I think I might join you." Duo offered, handing Quatre the bags he had been carrying.

Milliardo snorted. "You are just hoping to do some early taste testing."

"Well, someone has to?" the braided young man grinned. "Right?"

As the four of them headed toward the kitchen Wufei checked the time. It was shortly after 3 pm.

"I'd better go get changed. Never know when the first guests get here. Mother will probably serve tea soon. I'm sure she will want all of us to join."

"More food?" Trowa groaned. "I think I shouldn't have eaten those last two steamed dumplings."

"How about carrying all those bag upstairs for me… in a sprint," Quatre suggested cheekily. "Exercise is supposed to be good for your digestion."

###

"Alexander?!"

Quatre had the feeling that something wasn't right even before he noticed that the diary, which had been sitting on the little oval dressing table, was gone.

" What is it?" Trowa could tell from the look on Quatre's face that something was wrong.

"I can't sense Alexander. He must have left the room whilst we were gone."

"Maybe he just went next door?" The other youth suggested.

"Maybe." Quatre didn't sound completely convinced.

Nevertheless, after checking the balcony just to be sure, the young man knocked at the room next to theirs.

"Come in!" The professor called out.

He and Milliardo were trying on their new shirts when Quatre entered.

"What's up?"

The younger man grimaced slightly. "Don't get angry, okay, but I can't seem to find Alexander. He wouldn't be with you by chance, would he?"

"No, I don't think so. Alexander? " Treize checked their own balcony and even the bathroom.

"I knew it," he sighed."We should have never left him alone. We'd better tell Wufei."

"Tell me what?"

Their friend was leaving Duo and Heero's room after dropping off some shopping bags.

"Apparently Alexander has wandered off on his own," Milliardo explained, whilst Treize just scowled.

"Well… he can't be that far, right? He has to stay close to the diary."

"He took the diary."

"Oh!"

There was a moment of thoughtful silence before Wufei suggested. "Let's look for him, maybe he is just sitting in the garden or taking a tour through the house."

###

"\\Yu-Li, do you have something to do for these two?\\ " Wufei's grandfather asked as he led Duo and Heero into the large kitchen. "\\They asked if they could watch or help somehow.\\"

Both his wife and his daughter were making dumplings, filling and sealing them with a speed that showed years of experience. Mei-Lin's mother was chopping cabbage at the other side of the room and three other women were busying themselves at the stove and the sink.

"Hmm…" Wufei's mother mused. "I'm sure we need more vegetables washed and cut… And the roasted pork for the Cha Sui Bao needs to be pulled."

"Mei-Lin can take care of that!" her mother interrupted. " Why don't you two help me with the sweet buns we will be serving with tea later on? The dough should be just about ready."

She wiped their hands and showed them where to wash theirs, and then handed them two pristine aprons.

"Have you made buns before?" The old lady asked as she reached for a large bowl with dough that had been resting on the windowsill in the warm sun. Duo was faster and carried the bowl to the table for her, earning himself a appreciative nod.

"Trowa gave me a recipe for German 'Hefe-kloesse', a steamed dumpling made from yeast dough. Wufei claims it looks and tastes a lot like plain buns," Heero replied. He had made them a few times in the past, because they froze easily and made great 'after-midnight- study-snacks' but he had never filled them with anything.

"\\Ba-Ba, I don't think we have enough chairs for the kids table," Yu-Li told her father before he could leave the kitchen. "Could you find Wu Fei and ask him to check if there are any left in the storage shed. If not \\"

\\I'll go!\\ Mei-Lin offered. "\\I'm faster.\\"

"\\Thank you,\\" her aunt nodded.

###

Remembering that Wufei was going to deliver Heero's bags to their room the young girl headed toward the east wing. But even though she knocked at all the guest rooms she couldn't find her cousin, or anyone else for that matter. As she climbed back down the stairs to check the garden, Mei-Lin suddenly smelled the faint scent of incense.

Every New Year her aunt set up a small family shrine in one of the spare rooms downstairs, filled with flowers, pictures, ancestral tablets and incense burners, where the family later would make their food offerings and pray to the ancestral spirits. Maybe Wufei was paying his respects early. Or he was just showing the room to his friends; she remembered him talking about a tour through the house later on.

The door to the room was closed. Slowly and quietly Mei-Lin pulled it open, sticking her head into the room. "Fei, are you…"

She swallowed the rest of the sentence as the breath caught in her throat. Across from her on the long table, between the pictures of her great-great-grandfather and his wife, a incense stick, nearly burned to the stump, was slowly smoldering, while a second stick was hovering above it in an angle, as though some ghostly hand was trying to ignite it.

With a little shriek the girl jumbled back, startled and wide-eyed, throwing the door closed behind her before her knees gave out under her.

As a child she had heard many stories about ancestral spirits. She knew that they were included in her family's celebrations by offering food, tea and prayers. And her parents used to warn her when she threw a tantrum or acted bad that the ancestors were watching. But those were just that; stories and myths…or were they?

##

Wufei and his friends were returning from their search of the garden when someone's shriek alarmed them.

"Mei-Lin!"

The young man dashed across the room and through the hall in the direction the sound had come, followed by Milliardo, Treize, Trowa and Quatre. Across a door, near the backstairs, they found the girl, crumbled on the floor, with her back against the wall. Her face was pale white and her eyes wide in terror.

"Are you alright?" In spite of his constant quarreling and squabbling with his cousin, Wufei sounded genuinely concerned. "What happened?"

"Someone…something is in there." Mei-Lin pointed at the closed door. "I saw it move… the joss stick…."

Wufei frowned, as Treize reached out to help the young woman to her feet.

"Thanks." she whispered. "I know this sounds crazy, but…"

"In there?" her cousin interrupted, his right hand reaching for the door handle.

"No, don't!" Mei-Lin grabbed his arm. "I swear, something is in there."

Quatre exchanged a brief gaze with Wufei, nodding ever so slightly.

Yes, there was no doubt about it, he could feel Alexander's presence as clear as day. The ghost was definitely inside that room.

Surprisingly gently Wufei freed himself from his cousin's grip.

"Nothing is in there," he stated firmly. "Aside from Mother's decorations and tablets."

"But the incense is burning, you can smell it even out here," Mei-Lin insisted.

"That's because I lit it earlier when I was showing the guys around." Her cousin lied without even batting an eyelid.

He pulled the door open, stepped into the room and looked around. The joss stick had nearly burned down. Wufei took it from the decorated holder and extinguished it in a bowl of water, set out for that very purpose. As he turned his head the young man noticed the leather-bound diary on the table nearby.

So this is where you have been? I suppose even ghosts need some time of reflection. For a brief moment it occurred to Wufei that everyone Alexander had known in his lifetime - including old man Harold, who had passed away just before Christmas - was gone by now.

He reached for the diary, holding it up to Milliardo.

"This is the book you were looking for, isn't it?"

"It is," his friend confirmed as he reached for the book. "I must have left it here earlier. Silly me. I'd better take it to my room right now."

"Speaking of silly." Wufei turned to his cousin. "There is nothing in there, see."

"But I saw…" Mei-Lin shook her head, grinning sheepishly. "You are probably right. Maybe just the smoke and the light playing tricks on my eyes."

"Probably."

"By the way, Aunty Li asked if you can get a few extra chairs from storage? Apparently there will be more children than expected."

###

"This is a storage shed?" Milliardo asked as the quintet reached the small, one story building. Made of brick and mortar to match the manor it didn't look like any storage building he knew, but more like a mother-in-law house.

"It used to be the servants quarters or something at one point, I think," Wufei explained with a shrug as he unlocked the door. "When I was little we used to play here, but now we use it mainly for storing stuff. Po-Po and Gong-Gong used to have a little house near Palm Springs, where they used to spent the winter. A few years ago the area got hit by a wildfire and flooding soon after. In the end they decided it was easier to sell the place than to try fixing all the water damage. Any furniture and stuff that was still salvageable was stored here."

He found the light switch by the door with his left hand and as he pushed it down a couple of lamps flickered to life above their heads.

A small, narrow entrance hall led into a large room filled with bookshelves, tables and other random furniture pieces, some looking old enough to have come over on the boat from China. Somehow the place reminded Milliardo of his grandmother's attic back when he first moved into her house.

"Will folding chairs do?" Quatre asked, gesturing at about a dozen or so wooden chairs, folded and lined up against the wall at the other side of the room.

"I suppose," Wufei replied. "If we somehow can get to them. Sorry to make you guys help out like this."

Trowa just shrugged the apology off. "Don't worry about it. It's the least we can do."

"I completely agree," Treize nodded. "Now let's see if we can move away some of that furniture to clear a path to those chairs."

Before the last word even left his mouth one of the chairs in the back of the room shook as it was lifted into the air. It hovered there for a brief moment before moving over a table and a cloth-draped commode toward Trowa who reached out to grab it.

"Thanks." the young man passed the chair on to Milliardo as the ghost already was fetching the next one. "I suppose, not having a solid body can have its advantages."

Alexander had apologized after they had left the manor house. It was obvious that he felt terrible about having scared Mei-Lin half to death.

"Don't worry about it," Wufei had assured him. "She will get over it. She is tougher than she looks."

Milliardo had smirked at the comment. "You know, this is the first time I've heard you give her a compliment."

"Tell her about it, and I'll deny every word." his friend smirked back.

Less than ten minutes later eight wooden chairs had been moved and stacked against the wall outside the door.

"Thanks Alexander, that should do it," Wufei decided. "I don't think we will need more than that."

"What are those?" Quatre who had been looking around the room, gestured at a couple of thick books lying on a table beneath one of the windows.

"Hmm…" Wufei frowned. "Looks like photo albums."

Stepping closer the young man picked one of them up. The albums appeared to have gone through the flood. Their bindings looked stained and dirty, and speckled with mildew in some places. But someone had gone toh great length trying to preserve what was left of them. Parchment paper had been placed between the pages to keep them from sticking together while they dried.

"They look old," Milliardo remarked, looking over Wufei's shoulder, while Alexander started thumbing through the second book.

"Probably my grandmother's. After her brother died she took possession of all the old Long family heirlooms," his friend explained.

"Those pictures must be priceless memories. I wonder if they can be restored?" Treize mused.

"For the most part probably," Wufei replied. "We might have the equipment to do it at the school lab. Alexander, do you mind carrying these back to the house for me?"

###

"Where is Wu Fei?" Yu-Li asked as family and guests settled down for afternoon tea.

"He said he was going to take a quick shower and change, and then join us" Quatre explained.

"Well then, no reason for all of us to wait," Wufei's grandmother decided gesturing at a huge plate of freshly steamed buns. "Help yourselves. These two young men here," she smiled at Duo and Heero, "have worked hard making baozi, let's not waste their effort."

"Let me guess…" Trowa reached for one of the delicious snacks. "The somewhat oversized ones came from Duo's hands, and the perfectly round ones that look like flawless copies of each other were made by Heero; I could bet he even measured out the filling for each of them…."

A amused chuckle from Wufei's mother and her sisters indicated that the young man was right on the ball.

"…and of course the buns that are shaped like longevity peaches came from the hands of someone with experience, Mrs. Chang or Mrs. Shen I would guess."

"Very good," the older woman laughed. "but can you also tell what they are filled with?"

"That takes a little bit more investigating." Trowa smirked as he bit into his bun. "Red bean paste! Mystery solved."

"Are we solving mysteries?"

Heads turned at the sound of Wufei's voice, and Milliardo nearly gasped. Their friend was wearing a black and gold changshan, a traditional long shirt, over a pair of silk pants which looked simple but at the same time very elegant on him. One had to have both the right figure and poise to make it work, and Wufei, no doubt about, it possessed both.

Even Alexander seemed amazed. For just one moment - the ghost later admitted - he could have sworn he was looking at his old friend Cheung Long.

"Come, join us." Wufei's grandmother gestured at the empty seat at the table before reaching for the teapot to fill her grandson's cup.

"Thanks, Po-Po. One second, there is something I want to show you."

The young man left the room only to return a few moments later with the two photo albums they had brought back from the storage building earlier.

"These are yours aren't they?"

"Oh my!" the old lady reached for one of the books. "I thought we had thrown them away when we cleaned out that house."

"I couldn't," her husband told her. "Not, knowing how much you treasured those photographs. I thought maybe I could save at least some of them. But I completely forgot."

"I might be able to." Wufei replied. "I could take them with me back to school. Most of them can be scanned, restored and reprinted. Do you mind, Po-Po?"

"Of course not." His grandmother had flipped the album open. "That would be wonderful. Oh look, Mei-Lin, there is your mother as a baby. This must be shortly after we came to his country. She was such a cute little girl, wasn't she?"

"Mother!" Yu-Li's sister exclaimed.

Everyone laughed as they gathered around to look at more family pictures. Even Alexander who had been keeping his distance was drawing closer to take a look. Half way through the second album they found photos of Wufei and Mei-Lin's great-grandfather, his siblings and parents.

"Look!" Wufei suddenly pointed at one faded photograph showing thee people; a woman in a long dress seated in a chair and two men standing behind her.

"That's Alexander with Cheung and Mei-Lin." Treize gasped.

Heero nodded. "It was probably taken the weekend when they were in Peking. Back then they did have photograph studios in Peking, didn't they?"

"Most likely," the professor agreed.

"Wufei does look a bit like his great-great-grandfather, doesn't he?" Quatre pointed out.

"Now that you are mentioning it, he really does," even Wufei's mother agreed. "And Mei-Lin, I think you look just like your great-great-grandmother."

"Maybe a little," the young girl shrugged. "If I would put my hair up like that."

"Give it a try some day, I think it will look pretty."

"I might do just that. Maybe tonight."

"You are welcome to borrow a cheongsam from me," her aunt offered.

"Thanks."

"Mrs. Shen," Treize asked. "Would it be alright for me to get a copy of this photograph?"

"Yes, of course. I'm sure my grandparent would want you to have it. They were lucky to have a good friend like Alexander. Just as Wufei seems to be lucky to have all of you as his friends. I've heard you even helped to set up some chairs for the party tonight. How nice of you."

"Glad to assist, considering the kindness with which you are taking care of all of us," Milliardo replied.

"In that case…" Mirth sparkled in Grandpa Shen's eyes. "…maybe one or two of you wouldn't mind helping me hang up a few more lanterns after tea."

"Gong-Gong!" Wufei admonished, but Treize waved away his friend's objection.

"Really, Wufei, it is no trouble. We are happy to help out," he assured his friend.

If this is how Alexander was treated at the Long House, no wonder he was beginning to feel like part of the family.

With a soft smile the professor looked in the direction where he could feel Alexander's ghostly presence.

TBC

Author's note: And so we are only one very short Epilogue away the end of the story. Time for me to think about what to write next. As I stated in my Christmas story this year I will be concentrating on finishing The Piano and The Museum (both from the Ghost Detective universe) as well as Spirit of the Blue Eyed Wolf. But I also might work a bit on Blood Ties every once in a while depending on the mood I am in.

Feel free to let me know which of the above mentioned stories I should work on next. I will take your votes into consideration.