-Shanghai, Day 10-

"Whew. I kinda wish it would rain again," Adel said, wiping his brow and pushing back some of his sweaty hair.

"I know. At first I was hoping it would stop, but I didn't realize how much hotter it would be," Whip replied, pushing some of her own hair behind her ears.

"Yeah, I would have liked to go hiking a couple more times while we were out, but didn't feel like getting soggy. Now I sort of regret it."

"So you do like nature."

"I do! I just was never much of a camping person," he chuckled. "But I like the countryside. I mean we usually dock the Sky Noah in the middle of nowhere...even though that's not quite the same."

The pair were wandering back from the mall they had visited; they had some fun examining some shops that they swear were more popular in malls ten years ago, and all of the little nonsense things they would sell, between posters and other useless trinkets. They also stopped by a couple of fancier stores there to check out a few accessories to wear to dinner the next night, though they were fairly well prepared for that as it was.

After attacking the food court-Adel, of course, choosing to hit up three different places-they were now on their way back, wondering what their next plans were.

"Damn, I'm thirsty," he said. "Hmm. Iced coffee sounds like a good deal? I think I saw a place offering that up."

"I did see a place selling some, I think? I could use something cold, for sure."

Walking down the street a bit more as they kept their eyes out for the place, they decided to cut down an alleyway they saw that led to what seemed to be another street. Passing by a store, however, Whip noticed that it seemed to be one of the adult varieties.

She grinned, glancing at Adel. He looked at the store, and looked back at her.

"Are you thinking…" he said, snickering.

"Why not?" she asked. "Maybe we'll come across something. It's probably air conditioned, at least."

The two wandered into the store; there was nothing strange about it at all, it simply had a fairly decent array of adult material. It was indeed air conditioned, so they decided to stick around a bit to see if something piqued their interest.

There did not seem to be anything of the clothing variety around, however, which was what Whip was curious about. Slightly disappointed, she went to a shelf to pick up a magazine that made her cock her head to the side as Adel noticed something else that caused a thoughtful look to appear on his face.

Noticing this, Whip's eyebrow went up. "Hmm?"

He shrugged, putting the object down. "Nothing," he grinned.

She walked over to him, smacking him on the rear lightly. "I can almost tell what you're thinking."

"I mean...there are things we can try."

"There are things I know we've both been somewhat interested in."

The blonde grinned at her. "We can get whatever you want," he said. "I'm up for about anything."

Whip smiled back, a rather wicked gleam in her eye. "Well...there were a couple of things I had in mind."

He raised his eyebrow. "Oh?"

"You know how you like when I…"

Adel grinned at her words, feeling like they would be indeed walking out with a few acquisitions.

"I usually don't drink this stuff," said Duo Lon, "But somehow, today, I had the urge." He uttered a small belch.

Leona smiled, sipping her own bottle of lemon-lime soda as the two sat by a wall near the water. Given it was sunnier today, they had decided to sit under the shade near the waterfront where it was a little cooler. They didn't want to stay in their hotel room all day, so they found a few mindless things to occupy them around.

On their walk, they had swung by a store to grab drinks, and somewhere they had the urge to get overly sweet, lemon-lime flavored sodas. The pair of them were more into water, coffee, and tea when it came to non-alcoholic beverages, rarely drinking soda, but they somehow had the urge.

"Neither do I," she answered. "I drank so much coffee on the plane and at the hotel, though, I felt like I needed something a little different."

"Same," he chuckled, sitting back against the wall with his long legs crossed in front of him. She sat, cross legged, her bottle between her legs as she played absently with one of the laces on her boot.

"Are we going to hit a bar tonight?"

"There's one Shen wanted to go to. It's...well, a place he likes...so it's a bit loud," he chuckled, sipping his drink. "But it's got a fairly good drink selection, and a few mahjong tables. Probably illicit gambling, too, knowing him."

She smiled at him warmly, reaching over to first rub his tattooed shoulder before patting his leg; he placed his hand near hers, as they interlocked fingers. Somehow, doing this in public-despite them being in a sort of out of the way area by the docks-did not bother them after their trip. She had some of his long braid draped over her legs, as well.

"I'd be up for it. We drank the night before last, but...it's vacation. And it's not like we went crazy at your place."

"I agree. The place does not have a lot of food besides snacks, so we'd probably want to go to dinner first."

"We can drop by any place. I'm sure Adel will be hungry."

He smiled. "As for quieter bars, we can always go back to our favorite place in Köln when we return anytime," he added. "For something more subdued."

"Indeed." Picking up the bottle, she sipped it again. "I sort of remember the first time I drank soda. I found some around the base. I didn't know whose it was, but I took a big drink from the can and it came out of my nose and burned like hell. I regretted it," she chuckled.

He smirked at this, chuckling. "I didn't even see a city until I was almost ten," he said. "We were raised...well, you saw where I live. Like that, only with less amenities. Only a couple of the major buildings even had electricity; the clan was very old fashioned."

She nodded, understanding this.

"We weren't always well behaved, of course. I think we probably snuck off to eat and drink a bunch of stuff we shouldn't have...we still trained in small groups around that age. I don't remember too much, but I think it involved a lot of sweets being chased with cola. We were jumping off the walls. We had to shove our hands into buckets of sand for hells only know how long when we got back."

This made her smile softly. "Did you take trips there?"

"That was more for training. We had to learn to memorize layouts quickly. To this day I can have a city mapped fast. Around the time we turned eleven, though, we separated and left the village, going off on our own. I separated from everyone around then...didn't see them for years...I returned just before I turned eighteen."

Leona drank more soda, uttering a small burp herself. She knew the rest; the betrayal, the falling out with more than one childhood friend due to Ron. She rubbed his back affectionately, still liking to hear some of the stories from before the worst times, though several were grim.

After a few more moments of silence, he looked over and caught her looking at him curiously. He cocked his head to the side in question.

"I was thinking…" she started. "Up high ought to be a nice breeze."

He smiled. "There's a place behind some of these buildings."

The two stood, depositing their empty bottles in a nearby can and took off to go climb onto one of the nearby rooftops, like they did that one day in Köln to relax up high.

"Aww. C'mon."

"Not tonight. They're on vacation."

"But you always make me good money."

Duo Lon rolled his eyes at Shen's insistence that he play some of the rabble at the bar in mahjong; he would often do this since he knew he'd be able to win the bets rather easily. Unfortunately, this would, almost half the time, result in a barfight, and while Shen enjoyed these, Duo Lon found them boring, and he sort of wanted to allow his friends to enjoy their vacation without having to fight a bunch of drunk patrons.

"Maybe next time," he said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Man…"

The assassin shoved his friend a shot to shut him up; he immediately forgot about his gambling and grinned.

The four had met back together at the hotel to shower and cool off after their day spent wandering around. As the evening hit, they had grabbed some fast noodles and headed to the bar that Shen had told them he would be. They had started easy, but Shen had decided to try to push his friend into some of the illicit gambling before he was shut down.

Adel watched the two of them as he sat with his own baijiu, Whip next to him. The pair chuckled at their antics.

"I appreciate he wants to let us escape without a fight," Adel said, drinking off half of the booze as he sat at the corner table with the rest of his friends.

"Same," she said. "I mean, a barfight isn't that bad," she chuckled, "But we've had a good run so far. Let's see if we can finish it."

Leona just quietly looked at the others and smirked, taking a drink of her own as Duo Lon came to sit back next to her. Shen looked between the two of them several times, clearly wanting to say something, but somehow managing to keep his mouth shut for the time being. It's not that he was nosy about his friend's personal life, but his reserved friend getting involved with anyone was not something he would have expected.

Duo Lon simply looked at him and smiled softly, leaning back in his chair. The music in the bar wasn't bad; mostly heavy rock, which was to Shen's taste, though it was a little light for his own. Scratching his shoulder a moment, he looked at it, almost considering getting some more ink here before he left, though he would have to consider how long it would take and how long they had left here. Perhaps in Germany, he thought.

"Hey," Adel said. "You want to come with us to a fancy place?"

Duo Lon snorted at this, hoping Shen would actually say yes.

The shaggy haired man blinked, scratching his head and downing the rest of his shot. "What sort of fancy place?"

"You'd need to wear a suit."

He gulped. "I mean, I have cash and all, but…"

"It's on me," the blonde said, folding his arms.

Scratching his head, he laughed. "Well alright then. I do own one suit."

"I've seen it. He actually does," Duo Lon said. "He wore it to a wedding once."

"Oh, that," Shen snorted.

Whip grinned, looking between them. "Do we want to know?"

"Shen decided to crash the wedding of a rival once, for some reason."

"Bastard was a sore loser," the brawler snorted.

Duo Lon rubbed his forehead, chuckling as Leona smirked at him. "It was one of the bigger brawls I have been a part of."

"Wait, you crashed the wedding with him ?"

Duo Lon sighed. "If I hadn't been there to remove him, things may have ended up in the papers at that point."

At this point Leona began to chuckle, imagining the taciturn assassin grudgingly going along, if only to somehow keep Shen out of the evening news.

Shen slid out of his seat quickly before the others started asking questions, going to get another round of baijiu for the table. Adel stretched, wondering if he wanted to go poke around the bar food at some point, as he would often get the munchies while drinking. Duo Lon drew his pipe out to pack it, Leona gently stroking his leg under the table, almost absently. She was getting more comfortable with physical contact in public, it would seem, even if it was discreet.

Adel had Whip's hand in his under the table, her thumb running gently over it as she sat back in the chair, taking in the place.

"I almost don't want to go back, but part of me is actually getting a little homesick for the Sky Noah, believe it or not," she stated.

"Yeah, I know the feeling."

"Kinda miss waking up to Gwan's furry butt."

"He's probably going to be another two kilos when we get back."

"Geeze. He'll keep us warm at least when the weather finally turns."

Shen made his way back, dropping the shots on the table and thankful that Duo Lon seemed to be done embarrassing him for the moment.

"So," he started. "I'd love to come with you guys. I mean, if you'd have me."

"Please do," his friend replied. "We're probably going to go the day after tomorrow."

"When do you all leave?"

"Monday afternoon."

The shaggy man nodded, taking a drink.

"You know you can always come visit, right?" Whip asked.

The assassin nodded. "I try to go there on weekends. Sometimes for a week, if I can."

Adel grinned. "You can have a room at the Sky Noah. Or just get a hotel, and I can come and get you. Just let me know."

Shen nodded, scratching his head. "I'll remember that. Thanks."

"There's plenty of room to spar where we usually dock."

"Well then!" the brawler grinned. "Now you're speaking my language."

"When are you two gonna do your rematch, by the way?" Whip asked, pushing back a strand of her hair.

The pale blonde shrugged. "Whenever this guy wants to," he nodded toward Duo Lon.

The tattooed man smirked softly, sipping his drink. "I'm ready anytime." He was fairly confident he had read the man enough to possibly push the tie they had last time into another victory, thus tying them up completely.

"We'll set it up," he said, looking over at a bit of a rowdy crowd getting into a card game over in the corner; no fights were in danger of breaking out, however.

"Make sure I'm there," Shen said. "This I need to see."

"Maybe at the barbeque. Fighting makes me hungry."

"Everything makes you hungry," Whip replied, tickling under his chin. She could feel the slightest bit of fuzz there; he hadn't shaved as much when he was at Duo Lon's. He didn't seem to be able to grow much of a mustache, but his chin and somewhat on his cheeks near his sideburns would collect some fuzzy hair. She scratched it for another couple seconds as he smiled before he stood to get a few beers for the table. Duo Lon had taught him how to order them quickly at the bar; his accent was off, but the bartender could understand what he said. As this was another out of the way bar, it was much easier to order in Mandarin.

Collecting the five cold beers in his large hands and bringing them back to the table to pass them around, he plopped back in his seat.

"What time do you guys fly back?"

"It's an afternoon flight," Adel answered. "We'll probably have to be there about three hours early, so we'll leave in the morning."

"Might be too early for me, but I'll try to stay up," Shen answered, sipping his drink and enjoying the feel of the cool beer on his throat.

"You could try sleeping."

"Says the vampire."

Duo Lon snorted, standing to go order some snacks to bring to the table; this was mostly in the form of some small appetizers and the like. He then collected a few more drinks to hold them over, as it started to grow busy and he knew they may have to start waiting in line soon.

The five enjoyed their time around the table for the night. They had a feeling they may need to certainly recover from their trip as they mostly didn't spend several nights in a row drinking, but making an exception seemed to be fine for now.

They were all laughing and having a lot of fun, which was far more important than a few hangovers.

-Shanghai, Day 11-

Hearing a knock at the door, Duo Lon stood from his seat, Leona sleeping peacefully on the bed. They had just finished a rather...intense session of intimacy, the assassin noticing that after their side-trip, they had gotten even more attached to one another. He did not know what this meant, but he wholly and gladly accepted it. Both of them had some fresh scratch and bite marks on their bodies-mostly on their torsos, shoulders, and thighs-as they would during their longer, more involved sessions.

Pulling on his trousers, he went to see who it was. He could tell by the knock it was likely Adel; peering out of the hole of the door he saw he was correct. Smiling, he opened it, stepping outside, as he did not want to wake Leona.

"Hey," the blonde said. "Hope you weren't sleeping."

"I wasn't, no. I was just reading a few things. Leona is, however."

"I figured. So is Seirah," he said. "After last night and this morning, I'm surprised I'm still awake, but here I am."

The crew, after their time in the bar, didn't get to sleep the night before until after three; they woke up around seven, and immediately went out for a massive breakfast, even meeting Shen at the place. After gorging themselves, they enjoyed a day around, and by the time they had gotten back in the evening, everyone had conked out for some time before dinner, which they just enjoyed via room service and then went back to their business. Whip had decided to turn in early after the two of them had a rather long and intense session of fun, as well.

Adel found himself unable to sleep afterward, so had stayed up checking his laptop, until he finally decided to see if his friend was awake when sleep would not take him.

"Want to have a drink down in the lounge?" Duo Lon asked.

"Sure. One won't hurt, even after last night." Down the hall was a lounge that the patrons could hang out in; very few people were up on this floor, to be sure, given its cost.

"It may even help."

Going to grab a bottle of whiskey and a couple of glasses from the bar, the two young men-clad only in their trousers, but neither really cared-made their way to the rather fancy lounge, which was thankfully uninhabited. Sitting next to each other on the couch near the window, Duo Lon pulled up the blinds so the two could look over the city at night from up high. He did have to admit to really enjoying the view, and would even miss it a little.

"I never got to sit down with you at your place," Adel started. "I don't mind. Everyone was having a lot of fun. Thanks again for having us there and cooking for us and everything."

"It was no trouble," the assassin smiled, pushing back some of his long bangs as he poured both of them small shots; after the night before, they were just using these as a nightcap. They would be drinking yet again tomorrow at the restaurant, he knew. "I was glad for the company. Plus, how many times have you put me up, bought me first class tickets, and let me have free run of your kitchen?"

Adel smiled softly, taking his drink, one leg propped up on the table. He scratched his chin, having been too lazy to shave, still. "How have you been with everything?" he asked. He was vague, but he was admittedly curious about a few things.

Duo Lon, always good at reading people, knew what he meant. "It's been very nice," he said, swirling his drink. "We...had a lot to talk about at the house. I don't know exactly what you would call it, but...it's something."

"I don't think it needs to be called anything," the blonde reassured him.

"I know." He smiled almost shyly over at him.

"I was new to it," he said. "I didn't know what to think." He looked out. "We had a date. I just showed her around the town when Heidern and I started investigating what was going on with Rose. Before then, we would visit a little while in the morning or evening. I think those are the times where it just...happens."

"It...did," Duo Lon replied. "Talking all morning. Listening to music in the attic after exploring the house. We had a walk around the manor grounds. It didn't take long."

"Then I wouldn't sweat it. Don't worry about calling it anything." He had told Leona the same thing while they had been hanging out in his room.

"I know. I just hope I can be whatever she needs."

Adel rubbed the man's tattooed, scarred shoulder. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

"It's not like me to overthink things." He rubbed his chin, sipping some more of the whiskey as he debated going to get his pipe.

"It's probably new to you," the blonde replied. "I know I had some days where I got lost in thought."

"When you are alone often, it happens. I suppose I got used to getting lost like that even with others."

The two sat silently again for awhile, watching the city; the thick, heavy window came down quite low, and let them have a very stunning view of everything. It was so easy for them to envision themselves fifty years in the future, the view seemingly taking them forward in time.

"You know?" Adel said after some time, "I think I will get that manor for one weekend this fall, if it's available. I feel like just us bunch having that place would be great, at a different time of year. Might even be able to get a fire going in the backyard."

"I think that's the place that's calling to us," the assassin said. "More so than a random castle. Even if it is for something lighthearted." He sat back, smiling softly. "By the way-I never got to ask you at the house. How have you been?"

Adel could hear his tone, and knew exactly what he meant. "I've been fine. I haven't felt anything...off lately. I...I'm sort of almost waiting for it."

He nodded. "I can understand, I think. Just take things as they come."

"I will. I haven't gotten any emails or messages about anything going on back home, either. So we'll go back to poking around when I return, I guess."

"Good luck with that. As always, let me know if I can do anything."

"Of course," he replied, finishing the shot and grabbing his glass and sighing, feeling content. "I think only one for me tonight. Gonna get an early breakfast tomorrow and make sure everything's set for the restaurant."

"Agreed."

The two stood, making their way back down the hall to their rooms. Adel slid his keycard out of his pocket and unlocked the door. Turning to his friend, he smiled, holding his hand out. Duo Lon took it firmly.

"Good night," he said.

The assassin bowed his head, smiling kindly at him as he walked silently into his room, closing the door softly behind him.

Adel made his way to the bed, where Whip turned over, rubbing her eyes. She would sometimes wake up randomly, if they were staying together and he ended up out of bed. It was mostly a habit they both had, stemming from the times they would occasionally have bad dreams.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, just had a drink with Duo Lon in the lounge."

"Aww. I'm glad you guys got a chance to steal away, even if it was for a few minutes." She was still appreciative of all the assassin did for him during that horrible time, and she liked that they had become good friends after the fact.

"Yeah. Tomorrow will be fun," he said, sliding his hand behind his head.

She smiled at this, placing her hands gently on either side of his face, kissing him.

Returning it, he held his lover tightly to him, thankful that out of those dark times a year ago, he at least managed to get introduced to her in the process.

In the other room, Duo Lon also noticed Leona awake, looking at him as he walked quietly to the bed...but he also noticed that she was sleeping in the nude, something that she didn't do-even after their most intense times together. She had woken up and stripped down, it would seem.

Blinking, he walked toward the bed as she waved him in silently, a soft smile on her face. Removing his own trousers, he slid in next to her as they entwined, the cool sheet over them as they pressed their hard bodies together silently, their lips meeting as their hands found each others' soft hair.

A/N: And some more just basic character stuff. Nothing too deep. Mostly setting some groundwork for future plans. The past couple chapters in general have mostly just been conversation. It's what came out. Hope you continue to enjoy, at least!