Arlen stood on the steps leading to her front door, rolling her shoulders.
Vince's mouth still hadn't closed since they teleported in from Hong Kong. She slipped her key into the lock and the first set clicked before she placed her thumb behind the handle. Another set of locks clicked and she pushed open her doors, entering her house for the first time in six months. She dragged her hand over the entryway table and when her fingertips came back covered in dust, she winced and rubbed it off before taking off her shoes.
"Ah, home sweet home." She squawked when Vince bumped her out of his way.
"I can't believe you convinced me to go to the sketchiest even I've ever been to in my life, which is saying something, as the last thing we did while on vacation," he grumbled and set down their bags by the living room entrance. "They were all shady as shit. I had never seen more crooks in one place."
"We were technically fugitives," she pointed out. "We did fugitive things and now a lot of people owe us big favors. You had fun too. Admit it."
"Rich people are fucking crazy because there aren't consequences for them," he said. "Of course they're fun."
She shrugged and scrutinized the entryway. Arlen picked up a felt strip from her door before she slipped it back in the door hinge where it fell from. She slid into the living room where Vince already turned on the television and curled her toes into her plush rug, stretching all her limbs out.
"You're so paranoid." He loosened his tie and flopped onto her sectional, completely laid out. "God, I wish I could sleep."
"Not paranoid if there are people really out to get you." She dropped in beside him and cuddled into his marble-hard body. "Also, we'll need to call for a housekeeper especially if you're planning on moving in with me."
"Is she safe?" He looked at her from the corner of his eyes.
"Would I let her even step within ten feet of my gate if she wasn't?" She quirked a brow and laid her head on his extended arm. "Now, shhh. I'm going to take a nap."
"You talk in your sleep, I hope you know."
She rolled her eyes and unpocketed her phone to send a quick text to their group chat before tossing her phone away. She hadn't been home in a while and she needed a little downtime not filled with constant moving and interacting with others. Arlen shut her eyes and breathed in the scent of home.
We're back in black, baby.
Arlen parked her Lexus on the flat, empty driveway leading to Lila's home.
It was a modern work of art. No one would know that better than her.
The smaller size of the three bedroom, three bathroom two-storey house contributed to the sharp architectural design of a dark modern house with straight, clean lines. Arlen and Vince stepped onto the low concrete porch decorated with flowers hanging off the rails and dug out her key to open the smooth, walnut wood door to a bright and airy entryway, lit from the skylight overhead. A hand-painted mural of a blossom tree meadow enveloped the entryway walls and she ran her fingers over the varnished oil paint. It remained the same after all these years after they finished their 'Bob Ross Paint Night'. Lila's house was her favourite project from basement to the second floor as each room flowed into each other with a softness.
She took off her shoes and padded into the white, pink, and rose gold living room where everyone else lounged on the gigantic cloud-white sectional surrounding a blush-pale rug. Elsie lounged beside Lila and her newly dyed pink hair fell over the edge of the sofa and Arlen tugged on it lightly as she walked by. Tao stretched out his legs over the edge with his wildly silver-streaked black hair falling into his pale brown eyes and he opened his arms in greeting.
"Arlen, Vince, you're back!" he said.
"That's what I sent into the group chat," she said idly and tugged Vince down to sit with her.
"Vinny!" Elsie said. "Glad to see you're alive."
"Yeah, man, you quit your job without warning," Tao commented.
Vince shrugged. "A demanding little gremlin wanted to go straight to London then wherever she wanted to go."
"So, Arlen, you took Vince and went on a spontaneous six month vacation without an explanation," Lila deadpanned. "Want to explain now?"
"And what about it to explain? I had fun." Arlen tapped her chin thoughtfully. "We might do it again."
"Take me with you next time!" Tao demanded.
Arlen blinked at him. "We climbed the Chinese mountains, stayed for two weeks, butchered our own meat after hunting, and picked our own vegetables."
"Oh." He wrinkled his nose. "Never mind me, then. I'd probably end up at the bottom of the mountain from falling and I'm a city boy."
"Is everyone forgetting the fact those two actually enjoy physical activity?" Elsie said, hair tossed over her shoulder. "They run."
"Oh, shut up." Arlen pushed her lightly. "You go to the gym."
"I don't run."
Arlen laughed.
Someone banged on the front door. "Open up, I have the goods!"
"Dramatic." Vince rolled his eyes, the contact lenses covering the deviation with ease, and stood up to answer the door. "What do you have there?"
Isaac peacocked in, clear bags hanging from his wrists. "Bubble tea! For my love, Arlen, beautiful as ever. Thank you for reminding that you're the most beautiful person I've ever met." His fingers slipped over her cheek. "I've missed your face. Oh, Min has the snacks."
She accepted the strawberry pearl milk tea he handed her and let him crowd her on the sectional. "How were they?"
"Ah, no one is ever as beautiful as you."
"But they blew your back out."
"Yes, they did," he answered shamelessly. "But they weren't for me."
"Pity."
"Here are the snacks!" Min dropped a reusable bag filled to the brim with candy on the table while she placed another one on the ground.
Elsie took out trays of pastries, onigiri, and gỏi cuốn on the coffee table. "Don't worry, we didn't interrogate them just yet."
"They were...you know what I'm bad with time but they came before you by like a minute," Tao said as he leaned over to pick up his pearl milk tea. "It's not like we can do that when it takes thirty minutes to even warm Arlen up to replying without a riddle."
Arlen smiled indulgently. "How about we tell you the basics and we can have a bonfire on the beach in three days when I'm no longer tired and we'll tell you all the nitty-gritty then? We just came back and I'm tired."
"It was interesting," Vince promised. "I'll fill in where she won't. I'm pretty sure she took me to meet the Triads and I didn't know it."
"Th Triads?" Elsie sat up.
Min held her down. "I doubt it."
"She has some sketchy friends," Isaac chimed in.
Lila decided everyone needed her two cents then. "I've met some of her friends in Chinatown too. They're...really scary even to me."
Arlen sighed and Isaac patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. I still think you're pretty enough to let anything go."
Lila gave Arlen's exhausted state a critical once over before she nodded. "No interrogations in my home, losers!"
Tao groaned but Isaac threw an arm over Arlen's shoulders and easily began loudly declaring his love for her before begging for her help with his microbiology-immunology class with Elsie providing avid commentary of his trials and tribulations since they shared a class. She laughed, ribs hurting, when Lila accidentally hit Min in the face with her hair and almost poked her own eye with a straw only to find her pink waves locked into Elsie's hair. Vince sighed and tried to help Min untangle the two girls before they began their movie night.
Arlen leaned against the hood of her SUV, hands in her pockets.
The overcast sky covered the sun as Vince parked his Jeep in her driveway. He hopped out, almost pure-gold eyes on her. The dilution of his newborn blood was finally settling his eye color into something she recognized more comfortably.
"Luckily you can teleport everything to my place since it's in a storage unit without cameras," she said. "You have fun with that while I head down to Chinatown. I have some business to deal with."
"We didn't talk about what we're going to do," he said.
"What we're going to do?" she asked, bemused.
"They know where you live and now, where I live," Vince said. "You going to do something about that?"
"I bought an apartment in the city," she said, "We'll alternate between the two but they'll forget about us soon. My gift, remember?"
"Arlen, you said one was a tracker who could find anyone in the world by the flavor of their thoughts. Whatever the fuck that creepy shit means."
"Anyone but me and you," she corrected. "I'm not as flashy as you but I have some uses. I'm telling you, they'll forget me soon enough."
"Fine," he said, "but I'm staying around the entire time and you're setting me to speed dial, location on at all times when we're not around each other. When you call, I'll appear and get you out if you need it."
"I know," she said gently. "Go inside. I'm sure you need to arrange your own space with all the shit we bought."
"Like I won't finish unpacking in ten minutes." He rolled his eyes.
"Those ten minutes won't happen if you don't get on it. I'll see you tonight, alright?"
"Be safe," he snorted before she slipped back inside her car.
She shot a finger gun at him through her window before she drove off and weaved through the city traffic before she merged into downtown traffic. Arlen grit her teeth through the entire thirty minutes it took her to drive down to Chinatown's and parked on an uphill incline, surrounded bright red buildings. Crowds bustled on the sidewalks but she cut through them as quickly as possible, her eyes glued to her right as she walked uphill and hustled into an indie fashion shop tucked deeper in through stairs dipped between restaurants and others shops.
The bell rung when she opened the door and strode to the center of the clothing shop full of bright clothes. The pristine white tile floors gleamed from the wax-coat as the colour-coded store's stock stretched out around the walls and onto circle racks.
"Here to pick up a new outfit? Chinese New Years is coming up soon." A man slid up next to her from the racks, spindly and elegant in an open changshan and straight-leg slacks. His fox-like, copper-brown eyes rested on her intensely and his black hair slicked back to reveal his other strong features. "You never visit me for anything fun anymore."
"Jiang," she said. "No greetings?"
"We're long past greetings, Ai-ling."
Her expression smoothed over at his smirk. "Arlen."
"Not when it's just you and me," he said and jerked his head. "Come on. I'll close up shop for a few minutes and we can talk in the back."
She followed him to the back after he locked his front door and looked around at the dark but well-organized office. The file-organizers and drawers stacked on top of each other were nailed to the wall while a buttery leather chair sat behind an industrial desk she remembered salvaging from a thrift store for him.
He picked up his kettle from his little corner and grabbed a mug with his other hand to pour in the boiling water. "Tea?"
"No, thank you. You know, I could always redesign this place for you at a steep discount."
"You always offer and I always say no, love." He stirred a spoon of honey into his tea. "So, you're obviously not here just to pick up a cute little outfit like you always do for Chinese New Year or you'd have sent a car to me so we could have a lovely little tea party in your gigantic house before you sent me on my way with my favourite pastries after trying to convince me to remodel this place."
"You need structural reinforcement. Can't have this place collapsing from neglect," she said as she peered through his office and overstock. "But this isn't a social call. I have a favour I'm going to ask of you. I need you to send a message for me."
"And what's that?"
Arlen placed an envelope on the desk.
"Can't just mail it?"
"It's not safe and I thought you'd appreciate the trip to China since you haven't been in a while. I know you've got a cousin and aunt who can take care of this place for the two weeks you'll be gone and I'll be paying for your time away."
"Ai-ling, what's this about? You know I can't leave the country under my real name."
"All taken care of." She slipped him a parcel. "I'm building an escape route in case I need it. All the details are in there and there's someone who visits your grandmother's farm often. Give him the envelope and tell him that the Forbidden City is the only escape."
Arlen shrugged, a secret smile on her lips.
He opened the parcel and rifled through the contents before setting it down, eyes serious and levelled on her with a severe grace. "I thought you quit this life."
"I did. It's for something else. I can't explain."
"Well, I owe you too much to say no."
Arlen placed another piece of paper on the table with a curved knife with a crimson red handle on top and his eyes widened.
"Oh, now we're speaking my language." He whistled as he picked it up.
"Keep the knife with you at all times," she said. "When you see him, you'll know. Show him the knife and say that the red lanterns guided you."
"Alright. Keep your secrets." Jiang kissed her forehead softly. "I'll head to China tomorrow."
His keen blood-bright eyes tracked the silhouetted movements in the highest window of the mansion.
The phone pressed to his ear and he waited until he heard the call connect.
"Master Aro, the Queen has returned to her home."
Like I said, if you have a way to contact me and you're a regular reviewer and you want to read chapters early, I have a private tumblr that's password protected that gets chapters early along with excerpts. I'm including if you were a regular reviewer in the previous story before the rewrite. You can private message me here or on my tumblr 1800canyousavemydream. It's also where I'll reblog inspiration when I can.
My faceclaims: Arlen Lau (Han Chinese) is Chou Tzuyu, Vince Do (half-Han Chinese, half-Korean) is Ok Taecyeon, Isaac Chiu (Han Chinese) is Wong Yukhei, Elsie Kim (half-Korean, half-Japanese) is Miyawaki Sakura, Lila Tran (Vietnamese) is Mei Yan, and Min Nguyen (half-Han Chinese, half-Vietnamese) is Wang Yiren.