Coming Out

A/N: Here y'all go, another quick update. (Happy Becbet? . I hope so; I want to keep the readers happy! I'm not too sure of this chapter, though)

Chapter Five

"What where they saying? .......WUFEI? What were they saying?" Quatre was trying not to shout. The man had already glared him into silence a thousand times on the remaining trip up to their new apartment. Now that they were successfully inside said apartment, Quatre would be damned if he was going to keep silent any longer. "WU-ermph!"

"Stop," Wufei growled, his left hand pressed firmly over Quatre's mouth. "The walls here are thin. The neighbors can hear."

Quatre scowled at him, but nodded and Wufei removed his hand, "What got you so freaked out, though? There's no way they could know..."

"Oh, they think they know something all right." Wufei looked off to the side, pursing his lips a little.

"What is that supposed to mean?" A silver line arched itself up a little more toward Quatre's equally silver hairline.

"Based on the fact that you are coming to live here without knowing any Cantonese, and, I assume, added to the fact that you're coming to live with a friend of yours that lives in a pretty much Cantonese-only city... well.. the situation looks a little... odd to say the least."

He could see Quatre frown out of the corner of his eye. The Arabian knew that Wufei was dancing around the subject, and how out of character it was for him. Finally Wufei sighed and, putting a hand to his forehead in a gesture not unlike one running their hand through their hair--even though his was, as always, plastered to his head--, he spat it out, "They think we're gay together."

The silence that greeted that was remarkable.

It seemed to last forever before there was a slight chuckle from the direction he was pointedly not looking in. Startled, he turned to look at Quatre and found the other man with his eyes closed, fighting against the laughter that was obviously bursting to get out. As Wufei watched, Quatre's arms slowly folded around his waist and he sunk to the floor. Once seated, he unwrapped his arms and drew one leg up to him, wrapped an arm around his knee and rested his head upon that as the laughter died. His other arm fell limply into his lap.

Dear God, Quatre thought, Two women who don't even speak the same language as I so--let alone know me at all--picked up on my biggest secret! And, they pegged me for the partner of the one man I've really wanted in years. This is too rich... all the same though... He stopped thinking like a lunatic for one second and focused on the mission. It was with a certain amount of surprise when he realized that Wufei had started speaking again.

Quatre looked up directly into the jet pools he'd been avoiding since yesterday. During his laughing fit, Wufei had knelt beside him and now had one hand rested gently right below Quatre's knee on one leg, and his other hand was lightly touching Quatre's forehead. "Are you okay?" Wufei repeated, all agitation seemingly gone, and replaced with what looked disturbingly like worry.

"Y-yeah... Its just damned funny is all... But no, they've offered us the perfect background."

"I thought we already had...?"

"How well is all of that going to stick now that I can't speak the language as well as we thought I could?"

Wufei paused then realized he was right. Oh, this was too coincidental. Still, it was the only option they had left for them. "So until this mission is over, we're boyfriends," he said resignedly.

"Pretty much.... honey." Quatre added a wry smile to the last, being rewarded by the sight of one of Wufei's eyebrows arching before the Chinese man stood up.

"Well... we should probably start getting settled in."

Quatre sighed and chuckled softly, getting up and looking around for the first time. The room the door opened off to was something a lot like a Japanese house would have, a slight alcove where there was an obvious place for shoes to go. Beyond that was the main room which obviously was supposed to serve as the kitchen and living room. There was a tiny divider wall between the kitchen area and the rest of the room, but other than that it was open. There were two other doors in the room. Wufei had gone to one and peered inside. "Closet," He muttered, mainly to himself, and shut the door again.

By that time, Quatre had made his way across the room to the other door. He opened his mouth to call out the function of the room when his voice stuck in his throat. Wufei crossed the room to see what was wrong and groaned at the sight. One. Damned. Bed. This was getting far to coincidental.

"Well... I'm glad I brought extra bedding," Quatre finally said, with a short nod, and went back into the living room. The furniture was sparse, as Lady une had said. There was a very low table in the main room, the basic kitchen supplies, the bed.. and from what he could see, that was all. He pulled one of his bags-- a rucksack, basically-- up on to the table and began unloading it. The entire thing was basically bedding, plus some clothes rolled up into it. Most everything else would arrive in the next few days.

He looked up and saw Wufei doing the same thing to the suitcase he had brought, mainly packed with linens. Wufei's other bag was yet untouched. As he watched, Wufei began to make a pallet right there on the floor. "What are doing?"

Wufei paused and looked up, "What does it look like?"

"No, you're taking the b--" A knock interrupted Quatre and Wufei immediately went to answer it.

"Did I interrupt something?" Xian asked coyly, both her white eyebrows raised.

"No, A-yi," Wufei shook his head, calling her by the general term for an "aunt." "Please, come in."

She smiled at the term of familiarity, a sign that he had listened to her about the tenants being like family to her, "Thank you. I'm sure you boys found everything just fine?"

"Yes ma'am. It's a lovely apartment," Wufei smiled at her then glanced to the table where Quatre had risen and made a bow to their landlady. Xian bowed back, slightly, and smiled at him. Her eyes then fell on the bedding. She frowned, as if wanting to ask something, but she didn't, "Well, if y'all don't need anything, I should let you be."

"Please, join us for some tea."

"No, no dear, that's fine. Besides I have other things to see to, I just wanted to make sure that you're both comfortable. Good day, dears." She nodded and, eyes twinkling at some private joke.

Wufei shut the door behind her and went back to where he had left his suitcase. "She thinks its odd that you were making a pallet." Jet eyes glanced up at the silver man in front of him.

"I suppose she does," Wufei agreed, "Alright, I'll move it into the bed room. You're still taking the bed."

"Wufei..." Quatre began, perfectly prepared to argue the issues that he was the one who needed the most sleep now, since he'd be going to work sooner that Quatre. However, Wufei cut him off again, "No. I know what you're going to say, Quatre, but I'm used to sleeping on floor pallets. I'll probably sleep better on this pallet anyway." He fixed Quatre with one of his most commanding looks and met the beautiful man's eyes once more.

It was like a magnet. Once they locked eyes neither seemed to be able to look away. The sounds of the people in the next apartment coming home drifted into the dead air of their apartment, and a fight started between the couple down the hall. Quatre had begun to shake a little. The silver headed man couldn't help it, he was angry. How dare Wufei do this? They could have just talked about it.... but Quatre had to admit he was right. From the research he had done it was odd enough that there was a western-style bed in the next room, most people just used floor pallets. And, Quatre had to acknowledge it, Wufei looked very good when he was in a dominating mood. Very, very good. He'd look better without the hairgel, though. Yeah, the hairgel needed to go. Did he always get distracted this easily? Wufei's good looks didn't hinder Quatre's anger.

"This is a partnership, Wufei, a TEAM, not a dictatorship. You want the pallet, fine, but don't you dare try to tell me what to do."

"I will if you try pulling anything stupid," Wufei snapped, feeling very defensive. The moment the words were out of his mouth he knew he shouldn't have said that, but there was no retracting it now.

If anything, Quatre looked even more pissed off. "I am quite willing to accept that you're better in some things than I am, and will willingly accept help and leadership in those areas. However, do not presume that you are better than me in all areas, Chang," Wufei had seen Quatre angry before, but the liquid ice of his voice right now, and the almost unnoticeable shake of his slight body was something entirely different from those times, "If you were so worried about my 'pulling something stupid' you should have brought that up with Une the second she mentioned this assignment. I don't know the area beyond the maps we've been given. I don't know the language, and I don't quite understand the culture. I have always been better at tactics and personal relations and finances. I think we're even." With that he snatched up his yet untouched duffle back and went to the bedroom, shutting and locking the door behind him.

Wufei was left in the living room staring at the bared door and feeling very much like one of those pathetic husbands you see on the cheesy, predicable, American comedy TV shows.

END CHAPTER FIVE

. honestly.... I really don't like this chapter. I might rewrite it, but for now it stays.

Thanks to everyone who's been sticking with this story! And yeah, Pixie, he's gonna stay in denial mode for a bit. hehehe...