September 2017, continued
Michael blinked at his red-rimmed eyes reflected in the bathroom mirror. Sleeping with my contacts in is a big no-no. He hadn't exactly remembered that after his orgasm, though. He plucked the contacts out and felt immensely better as his tears soothed his hurting eyeballs, then brushed his teeth. So frickin tired. The dinner had gone on until almost midnight. Couple that with his afternoon orgasm and an abbreviated nap, and he was just thoroughly exhausted. Fortunately, he was not as sore as he'd thought he'd be. Most of the stories he'd read about anal sex, the guys all had shaky legs or walked bowlegged for a few hours after their first times. He just felt a little sore, nothing major; it was just obvious something had been shoved up there.
Something that he wouldn't mind having shoved up there again. Not tonight, perhaps, but in a couple of days.
Assuming he even had a roommate in the next couple of days…. After he'd been an ass to the Chairman, it wasn't totally unlikely that Ming Lim would be moved to another house or a dorm.
And assuming his roommate hadn't just been looking to lose his virginity with a willing participant.
He changed into a pair of sweats and an old T-shirt, and on the way to his bed, noticed there was a human-sized lump in his roommate's bed. Which was a good sign. An even better sign was when the lump pulled back the covers and asked if he wanted to sleep there. When Michael was all settled, with his head lying on the older boy's chest, he asked, "Was your dad really mad after I left?"
"You're disrespectful. I'm unfilial. That was the gist of the first segment." Ming Lim's fingers drew randomly on his lover's back, wishing it was skin he was touching and not a shirt. "Then Chen Song came in and that started a whole new argument. I thought he was my bodyguard, but he hasn't worked for my family since my birthday."
"Why do you need a bodyguard?"
"My father's quite rich. A multi-millionaire in US dollars. When I was five, a competitor was trying to get my father to lose a contract. So he hired kidnappers thinking that would distract him."
"I'm guessing it didn't."
"He didn't even know I was missing until after the contract was signed. Chen Song saw them abducting me and rescued me. My father hired him as our personal bodyguard as a reward. After that, he stopped, I think, three more kidnapping attempts. You know he doesn't talk, right? He's an ex-soldier; I don't know what division or even what country he fought for. From what little he's told me, he was in this elite unit with his best friend. Kind of like the Navy SEALS or something.
"He's got amazing skills! I've seen him fight in mixed martial arts tournaments and win. Whether it's hand to hand fighting or with weapons, he can do them all. Have you seen the swords in his room?" Michael nodded yes against Lim's chest. "I've seen him fight in exhibition matches with them…. When he wears the traditional clothes and puts his hair up, I swear it's like he walked out of a history book. It looks like those blades are just extensions of his body.
"Anyway… when he was still in the Army or whatever, he was assigned away from his unit for a while, and the best friend came under the command of a sadist. He faked intelligence and claimed that civilians were insurgents and had the best friend kill them. When Chen Song came back, he found out the truth and was going to report the murders to their superiors. The commander cut out Uncle Song's tongue. As if that stops people from communicating these days. The friend, realizing that he'd killed innocent people, committed suicide."
"The commander?"
"Executed. Uncle Song left the military after that. He, how do you say it… bummed? Yeah, he bummed around for a while, and then one day saw me being kidnapped, and since then, he's worked for us. But it seems that his contract was only until I turned eighteen; he started working for the QishanWen Medical Group after we arrived in Boston. Father was even more incensed to learn that than he was at your insolence."
"What about your music?"
"So far he hasn't said anything about pulling me from the Conservatory. If he does, I'll just ask my mother if she has discretionary funds I can use. Or I'll ask if I can get a scholarship. Worse comes to worse, I'll just play for myself." He scrunched up and kissed the top of his lover's head. "Someday, will you play for me?"
Michael kissed the chest under him in return. "You don't want to hear me play. According to my teachers, I'm technically flawless and emotionally worthless. They compared me to a robot."
"So why do you play?"
"I told you. It's a distraction. A way to clear my mind so I can solve a problem. Can we go to sleep now? I'm really tired." He let out the yawn he'd been trying to suppress.
Ming Lim pulled the blanket up over his roommate's head, and squeezed the body in his arms a little tighter. "Goodnight. Sweet dreams."
"Oooh too," Michael slurred, already halfway to dreamland.
Sophomore year passed quietly. The two boys studied hard, earning As in every subject. In mid-September, Michael dragged his roommate halfway across the state to see exactly what the Big E was all about. They even managed to bring home a six-foot tall teddy bear which they promptly gave to Eleanor. They bought season tickets for the BU football and basketball games with Eleanor and Becky. The four of them dressed up as Raggedy Ann and Andy for Halloween while celebrating Michael's seventeenth birthday. They bought season passes to the Harvard hockey games and pretended that they actually understood the reffing calls (of course, heartedly disagreeing with all of the calls against the home team). They went to Concord together for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and goofed around with Matthew. They walked around in the frigid weather looking at the ice sculptures and listening to the various musical groups around the Common and Copley, attending First Night Boston as an early birthday party for Ming Lim. On warm weekend days they wandered around Harvard Square or Faneuil Hall Marketplace watching the street performers. And occasionally, they found enough energy on a Sunday morning to head over to Haymarket for fresh fruits. For spring break they took a bus down to New York City where they played tourist, walking around Central Park, and Times Square. They went up to the top of the Empire State building and took a boat ride over to see the Statue of Liberty. In April, Ming Lim went home with Michael and Eleanor for his very first Easter egg hunt.
Outside of their room, they were simply best friends. There were no longing looks or discrete brushing of fingers, They didn't play footsies under the table. Or even kiss at midnight on New Years Eve safely hidden within the crowd of strangers. Even Eleanor, who was actively looking to see if they were lovers, was forced to decide that whatever feelings they might have thought they had for each other over the summer were revealed only as a deep friendship.
In the privacy of their room, it was a completely different story. They fell asleep every night in each other's arms. And whispered loving words that stopped just shy of actually saying 'I love you'. Most days, one of the mattresses was pulled onto the floor, and they'd, as silently as possible, fuck each other's brains out. Despite his repeated insistence that the next time he was going to be the top, every time it was Michael spreading his legs for Ming Lim. The only times Michael was on top was when he was riding his lover.
Summer came and with it, came their first separation. Michael went home to finally get his license and a summer job. Ming Lim returned to China to spend the summer applying what he had learned at Harvard.
September 2018
After two and a half months spent apart, Michael, sporting his natural hair color, returned to Cambridge to find that Alice had graduated and returned to China and was replaced by Wang Lina, who introduced herself as Ming Lim's future fiancée.
Ming Lim followed Michael up to their bedroom, and watched his roommate putting his clothes away. "I thought we were going out for a goodbye dinner, just my parents and I. When we got to the table, Wang Lina was already there with her parents. Our mothers spent the entire dinner discussing how many carats the engagement ring should be and whether they should cap the guest list at five hundred or a thousand. Our fathers talked about that contract for the medical device; Wang Lina's father is a Vice President over at QishanWen Medical. I still don't know how she feels about being told to marry a complete stranger. I do know that she's interested in not being strangers, though…. We arrived here last week, and she's been glued to my side ever since."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"What kind of phone call or text is that? 'I'm back. I hate jet lag. Brought back a future fiancée. Can't wait to be inside you again.'" He wrapped his arms around Michael's waist from the back and rested his mouth on Michael's neck. In between nibbles, he added, "I really missed you…. Can we do it tonight? Can we do it now? I want you so much…."
Michael dropped his head to the side giving more access to his neck, and was moaning softly at the sensations. "Not now. Later." Ming Lim ignored that request, and slid a hand down the front of his lover's jeans. "Seriously…. You gotta stop or she's gonna see something."
Ming Lim was about to stupidly ask 'who?' when Wang Lina knocked on the door asking "LimGe? Are you in there?"
Panicking, Ming Lim lied. "Yeah, hold on. Michael's changing his shirt. Just a minute."
Michael flipped off his roommate, pulled off his T-shirt, and threw it in his clothes basket. Bare chested, he posed, whispering, "Are you really sure you want to play this game?" He bent over to pull another shirt from his bottom drawer, tightening the jeans across his ass.
"Fuck you," Ming Lim breathed.
"I already said 'later'," Michael winked, and pulled the new shirt on.
Wang Lina smiled shyly at the two boys, remaining firmly in the hallway. "I thought I'd make dumplings for dinner. Do you prefer chicken or pork?"
"Well…," Ming Lim hedged. "I already made plans. Michael and I were going out with Eleanor and Becky."
Liar, Michael grinned at his phone and immediately texted his sister the plans. While Ming Lim explained who Eleanor and Becky were, Michael booked a reservation for four at his sister's favorite Italian restaurant. It might be more than slightly petty to exclude his boyfriend's future fiancée; he was quite all right with being that childish.
As the weeks went on, Michael felt more than all right being childish. Wang Lina wanted to be included in everything Ming Lim did. Eating, studying, sitting outside his practice room at the Conservatory: if he was doing something outside of an academic class, she wanted to be involved. It came to a head a few weeks into the term; the boys were getting ready to head over to watch a football game and Lina asked if she could come, too. Her eyes flew open wide, when Michael spoke over his roommate with a firm "No." Ming Lim looked helplessly between his lover and future wife; why was he saying no to this not unreasonable request? Michael stood firm. "Jiejie and Becky bought our season tickets weeks ago. Four seats just like last year. Now, can we buy a fifth ticket for today? Yup. Will it be near our seats? Nope." He popped his p's for emphasis. "So. Including you means someone has to sit alone. You're going to expect to sit with Lim, here, right? Jiejie and Becky will stay together, so you're forcing me to sit by myself at the game. I paid to sit with my sister and my friends, but you're just going to expect me to change that for your convenience. Alternatively, we could buy two extra tickets and you and Lim can sit by yourselves. So what happens afterwards? We're going out to dinner, and it wouldn't be a huge inconvenience to include you there. But after that, we're going to Jiejie's room and then to a party at her friend's dorm. I really don't know how parties work back in China, but here? It's considered kind of rude if Lim invited you to someone else's party. It's not like we're issued plus one invitations or anything." This was a minor lie; an unattached female plus one was welcome at most college parties. However, Wang Lina didn't see herself as unattached. "The party won't be over until after midnight, maybe even two, so we're crashing at my sister's room. Four of us sleeping in her dorm is crowded enough as it is without adding in a fifth person who has only met my sister once. Again, it's rude to invite you to sleep over her room. So, no. You're not coming with us.
"You wanna go to a football game? Find a group of friends and go with them."
Wang Lina looked like she was going to cry. "Why is it wrong for me to want to spend time with my husband?"
Michael glared at this woman who dared to call his boyfriend her husband. "Is it wrong for friends to hang out together without their wives? Especially ones who they haven't even become engaged to yet?"
Ming Lim tried to diffuse the situation, "Michael, you asked me to remind you to remove your contacts before we leave. Chūqù ba." After Michael disappeared up the stairs, Ming Lim turned to his fiance. "Lina… I will spend time with you, get to know you. This… I cannot spend my every waking hour with you. I don't want to spend all of my time with you. I will not abandon my friends for you. I can hope that we can become close, and perhaps even start to love each other by the time we marry." Liar. "That is not going to happen by, how do they say it? Living in each other's pockets?"
"I don't know anyone here," Lina sniffed.
"When I first arrived in New York and then Boston, I didn't know anyone, either. And now I have a few really good friends, and some study buddies. You're a nice girl; you'll make friends." They heard Michael clomping back down the stairs. "Zǒule." I'm leaving.
The boys began the walk across the river to the stadium. For the first time in public, Ming Lim 'accidentally' brushed his fingers against Michael's. Even that fleeting connection grounded him, made him feel comforted.
"Zěnme yàng?" What's wrong?
"Do you believe in reincarnation?" Michael shook his head. "My mother does. After the pre-engagement dinner, she dragged me to a psychic. She does this a lot. It's all bogus, of course."
"Of course."
"Except, before I moved to the US, they all said my soulmate was far away. This one… she said I've already met her. Mother was ecstatic. She, the psychic, wasn't referring to Lina, though."
"How do you know? It's all nonsense anyways."
"Of course it's nonsense. So why did she ask me how the wireless signals here were?"
"Dunno. Crazy?" Michael drew air circles around an ear.
Ming Lim sighed, exasperated. "And what do I call you when we're making love and I'm desperate to cum? A'Xiàn, right?"
"I don't get it."
"Wúxiàn. Wireless, wifi? Wú Xiàn. You."
"My name isn't Wú Xiàn."
"I think it was. You said it yourself: the first time we made love, we were both virgins, and yet you said we'd had sex before. The only way that is true is if we have had sex before, in a previous incarnation."
"Or maybe I was just talking shit. And you call me Xiàn because you wish you had my body."
"Fuck you." Ming Lim teased.
"Not tonight, dear."
June, 2012
Lan Qinyang smiled gently, graciously, as the other woman bowed her way out of the hotel suite. The Secretary of the QishanWen Medical Group looked down at a set of gold bracelets laying on a velvet cloth. "Last set, Uncle Ning. Wèi MeiGui's bracelets." There were twenty-four sets of bracelets in all: twenty-three made by Wèi Wúxiàn and one by Lán SīZhuī. She and her ancestors had spent a considerable amount of money and time collecting them.
"Two and a half billion yuan. That's a lot of money." Wen Ning picked up a bracelet to admire the delicate roses climbing around it. "I think Master Wèi spent about thirty silver pieces on them."
"It's a small price to pay to bring them home. His other descendants have forgotten him. This one," she nodded towards the door, "bought them at an estate auction. Silly girl thought they were a few hundred years old at most because of the craftsmanship." Lan Qinyang took the jewelry back, and put both of them on. After pressing a hidden button, a golden net surrounded her. "Almost two thousand years later, they still work.
"Are you sure he's reborn, Uncle Ning?"
"Of course I'm sure. The tokens haven't lied yet."
"Does he look at all like Grandfather Wèi?"
"Tall for his age, slim. Handsome. Black hair. Superficially, yes, they look alike. But no, there's no actual resemblance. This one is smart like Master Wèi was. He doesn't have the abandonment issues my Master had. Which is a good thing."
"And the reincarnated Lán Wàngjī? What is he like?"
"According to Song Lan, he is most likely a musical prodigy. His father won't allow him to concentrate on the violin, though. Wants the boy to replace him as Chairman. This one talks, at least. Lán Ér Gōngzi rarely spoke."
"We can't allow that, can we." Lan Qinyang picked up her cell phone and sent a voice message to one of her aides. "Find out where and how Chairman Ming of SmarTek Electronics wants to expand. Get our people to start working on a project that meshes with his plans. Start dropping hints that we might potentially be open to working with them." She pressed End. "We need leverage, Uncle Ning. My grandfather will be with his soulmate if I have to buy out SmarTek."