Coming Out

A/N:

Indiansummer: Thankies!

Becbet: Wu-babe is my fav. too, so I really work hard on writing him correctly! I'm glad y'all think its good . Thank you very much.

Saturation2: Sorry I didn't write a note to you last chapter since you commented (though they were rather close together. hehe) And they will be TONS more embarrassed by the end of this. evil laugh

Pixie Smith: Oh yes, the possibilities are great, and they will be exploited . Its funny, I started writing this fic, and then I started really getting into the 5X2 pairing. I still LOVE 5X4, though, so this story isn't going to suffer at all, I promise. As for the SallyXUne thing... I don't know what possessed me, but I still really like them together. shrugs Anyway, thank you for your comments .

Chapter Four

"I think we might have a problem," Quatre said quietly to Wufei as they tried to get their baggage off the terminal. They had already gone through customs and had gotten their passports checked. Everything was taken care of except finding a taxi to get them to their new home.

"What might that be?" Wufei asked, finally snagging a duffle bag of Quatre's. Apparently someone thought that luggage terminal was supposed to revolve at fifty miles per hour. With the mood he was in, he would gladly kill the person in charge of it... that or get Duo to talk to him. After brief consideration, the latter seemed more appealing; torture always worked best.

"I learned Mandarin."

Wufei looked at him, carefully. He was a little stupefied at first before he realized that not everyone was taught both dialects growing up. A little known fact was that while Mandarin was the official language of China, in certain places, such as Hong Kong, Cantonese was more widely spoken. Due to the fact that Hong Kong still had its own government almost entirely separate from the main Chinese government, the official language of Hong Kong remained Cantonese. While there were some similarities between Mandarin and Cantonese, they weren't quite compatible. In fact, knowing one rarely meant that you could understand a speaker of the other dialect at all. This might prove a problem.

"Should we..." Wufei started to say, stopped because he wasn't sure if he should discuss that in public, then realized that barely ten percent of the population spoke any English at all. So long as they spoke in English and acted as if everything was normal, no one should question it since Quatre was Angelo-Saxon. Most would assume he was American, British or even Canadian. ".. contact home base?"

"No," Quatre replied, snagging another of their bags, this time Wufei's, "Its too late. I wish we had thought of this before. I can try and pick up on the language, besides I don't think anyone will think anything of it. I doubt our landlord will be expecting me to know any Chinese at all."

"She will," Wufei shook his head, "Remember, there are very few English speakers around here, except for the tourists. Since you're going to live here, she's going to expect Chinese. Letting her know that you speak Mandarin will help shield her curiosity since you at least know some." Wufei paused to make a lunge for another of the bags. He caught it and continued, "Most are going to expect you to know Cantonese, and you'll have to know it to get a job anywhere, even with our connections."

Quatre chewed on his lip, his silver-fine eyebrows furrowing in concentration. He grabbed the last of their bags, finally, and they headed outside to attempt getting a taxi. Wufei couldn't be happier for the distraction of attempting to hail a cab in the crowd outside the airport, it meant that he could stop staring at those soft-looking lips which were still being grazed by Quatre's almost inhumanly pearl-white teeth, turning the flesh a little more pink.

Finally one of the little green and silver cars stopped for him and they loaded their things into the trunk before sliding into the backseat.

Wufei leaned over the front seat a little to speak with the driver. Cantonese; Quatre pretended to look out the window at the crowd but in truth saw nothing, just let all his senses focus at the conversation in the car. He could understand a little bit of it, but definitely not enough to get by on his own. A small surge of fear ran down his spine at that thought. He had spent a good portion of the war in unknown territories by himself, and yet now he was scared at the aspect of being along in Hong Kong? How pathetic was that? Quatre spared a moment to bathe in self contempt then brushed it off. If he felt it, there was a reason for it. He'd just have to explore it later because Wufei was sitting back now and the car had begun to move.

Quatre continued staring out the window as they entered the actual city, the Hong Kong International Airport was forty kilometers west of the city, and tried to pay attention to where they were going. Best to start learning the way around now. Now that he thought about it, this mission with Wufei was probably a good thing. They'd be in even closer contact with each other than they were on Mars, and if there was anything better for driving lust from someone's mind it was trying to live with the object of said attraction. Personal habits would soon kill this feeling, he told himself. Besides that, Wufei was gung-ho for his job, right? This was a mission. There was no way Wufei would even act like a friend--not that he ever really had in the common sense of the word-- but as a partner or a superior, depending on the situation. There would really be no chance for feelings to grow. Quatre almost cheered.

Little did he know that a very short distance away from him, Wufei was giving himself a somewhat similar talk.

This is a mission, Wufei told himself, not a time to explore your sexuality. You want to be a pervert? Fine, think about it on your own damn time. Right now, we're entering a possibly hostile situation. You don't have time for friends, and certainly not for foolish hormonal problems. Put him in your spank bank and move on..... and if that wasn't the gayest thing I've ever thought, I'll shoot myself. Wufei winced.

Okay, so he was attracted to Quatre. After Buddha knew how many hours sitting next to him as he slept on the plane ride, Wufei could admit that. It didn't mean he was gay. It just meant that Quatre was attractive. But this was a mission and he couldn't afford distractions. If Quatre hadn't been right about it being too late, Wufei would have forced him on the first plane back the second he learned that Quatre couldn't speak Cantonese. As it was..."I'll teach you."

Quatre jumped slightly on the polyester seat, "What?"

"I'll teach you Cantonese. It won't be easy, but being surrounded by it will help. By the way, you should call Mom first chance. She'll be worried." Quatre frowned slightly at the last part, though he was happy to know that Wufei was at least going to help him on the language problem. Then again, why shouldn't he? Wufei's ass was on the line same as his was. Nice ass that it was, it'd be a shame if... damn it.

He knew that "mom" was Lady Une, but why had Wufei bothered to... That was when he noticed the cab driver was looking very tense and kept glancing back at them in the rear view mirror. At first it would have seemed like the driver was nervous because of the traffic, but since this was obviously an experienced driver--that detail given away by what any pilot could read of another, even if the vehicles they piloted where different--he shouldn't be too nervous in the kind of traffic he had to have driven in a billion times. No, Quatre could tell as easily as Wufei could that the driver was watching them. Why was left unseen, but caution was best to use.

Suddenly the car stopped. Wufei nudged him to get out before Quatre could stop to look around. The blonde quickly exited onto the bustling sidewalk, and Wufei climbed out of that side of the cab, since the other would have put him directly into the line of traffic. "We'll have to walk from here. There's not enough space on the road for cars anymore."

Quatre simply nodded, a little awed by the sheer size and number of this city. Yes, he had been to New York a few times, but even they couldn't rival the sheer number of people that seemed to live all around them. His mind numbed at the thought of ever going to Tokyo. He followed Wufei in getting the bags out of the trunk, then paused to wait a moment while Wufei paid the driver, who hadn't moved an inch to help as some of the New York cab drivers would in hopes of getting better tips.

Finally Wufei joined him again and showed Quatre around the corner where they moved in between two huge apartment buildings. There was laundry hanging out of some windows, swaying softly in the breeze that managed to pass through the buildings on the upper stories, but couldn't begin to find its way down to the street. One moment after stepping out of the car and he was already sweltering. They wove through the street, avoiding play toys, and other strange items that littered the "road." It wasn't hard to see why the driver couldn't come down here. Even if there hadn't been all the debris, it seemed that one of the apartment buildings had been built halfway across the original road. While the map makers still called this a road, between the sidewalk space, there was barely an alleyway left between the two buildings.

A few moments later they came to the front door of the building on the left and Wufei stopped, looking up at it. "Well... home sweet home."

Quatre too turned his eyes upward. Wufei sighed mentally. A plethora of laundry hung from windows, there were some small flower boxes that could be seen. On the lower levels he could see some people moving around, and the pulsing glow of a tv in a dark room. Nothing like home. He knew, by a few trips he had made here with some clan members when he was small, that this was one of the lower class residencies. Not that there was anything wrong with it, he just hoped it would be safe for their mission. The walls would be thin, he knew, and sound might even carry up and down a few floors, not just to your next door neighbor. Could he and Quatre speak freely as they'd need to, or would the rest of the mission be spent in code. That would bring about a headache if he knew anything.

He dropped his gaze from the windows to find Quatre looking at him. "C'mon," He said, "Lets get this over with."

Wufei's first impression of their Landlady, Chun Xian Mou, was sketchy. She seemed like the nice old lady that anyone could trust. Her hair was long and white and pulled back into a perfect bun, the lines on her face were deep marking of old age, and there were a few old age spots on her skin. Xian's limbs were frail, though Wufei had no doubt that she was still quite strong. Her eyes were squinted but she was not blind, and she spoke in a clear, brisk tone that spoke of no nonsense. However, it seemed she had quite the sense of humor, for almost everything that came out of her mouth was a joke, at least in part. The woman's amazing, resounding laugh seemed to shake the very walls. An odd woman, but sweet in her own way.

"You will like it here, I think," She laughed as she proceeded them up the six flights of stairs to their apartment, "Most everyone here is quite open-minded, and will let your business be your business, but we pull together as one big family when needed!" A squeal of laughter interrupted her and three small children flew past them. "Chi, Xia, Zhong! Get back to your mother before you hurt yourself!" Xian barked, but was rewarded only with more giggles as the three children continued on their way. "Oh dear..."

Quatre looked after the children with a puzzled look. Since Xian spoke only Cantonese he had very little idea of what was going on.

"I'd better go get them.."

"We'll help you--" Wufei began, thinking it'd go much faster with he and Quatre rounding them up, besides that the elderly woman shouldn't be chasing after children anyway.

"That's quite all right, young man," Xian cut him off. "I gave you the key, your apartment is the first on the right from the top of the sixth level stairs. You two go get settled, I'll go speak with their older brother."

Wufei bowed to the woman, knowing better than to argue with his senior in this matter. She smiled and at him, and he noticed briefly that her eyes flicked back to Quatre with an appraising look in them before she focused back on him and gave a tiny bow back. Xian continued with them to the top of that flight, then parted to speak with a woman that was coming down the hall, calling for the three kids that had just run by them moments before.

Wufei shook his head when Quatre asked what was going on, signaling he would explain later. He almost died on the first few steps of the third flight when he heard the conversation that had begun below them.

"... are those two?" A pretty soprano voice asked, obviously the mother of the children. "Can we trust the foreigner?"

"The two new tenants on the sixth. And yes, I believe so. He doesn't speak Cantonese, but he seemed very polite."

"He doesn't? What on Earth is he doing living in Hong Kong?"

"I thought it was obvious; they're such a cute couple."

END CHAPTER FOUR

A/N: Oh yeah, I am taking SO many liberties with Hong Kong right now . I did do a lot of research, but its hard to find any information about residential areas.