Chapter Seven

In the end, they never made it to Gui's apartment at all. After sharing lunch together (this time without any food-throwing incidents), the duo took the public bus to Lan's neighborhood and walked the rest of the way to her home.

"So, why exactly did you want to come here?" Lan inquired as they approached the door to the Feng home. Gui just smiled enigmatically in response, so she shrugged and placed her hand on the door panel.

The panel beeped cheerfully at her upon recognizing her fingerprints and the shape of her hand, and spoke to her with an even-toned electronic voice. "Welcome home, Feng Lan."

The door slid open with a soft whoosh and the pair stepped inside. Lan relaxed ever so slightly as she stepped into the comfort of the home she'd come to love, whilst Gui glanced around at the interior of their home in irrepressible curiousity. The main entry room was designed similar to the average 2100 AD family-sized home, with industrial wall paneling and bright lighting, but the furniture and decorations tastefully spaced throughout the room gave their home a warm sort of feeling that made Gui feel as though he too could relax here. The two of them quickly took off their shoes, and Lan toed into her personal slippers before grabbing a guest pair for Gui's usage.

"Xiao Lan, is that you?" her mother's voice called distantly from another room.

"Yeah, it's me!"

"You're home early." Mrs. Feng replied, the sound of her voice getting louder as she approached the main room. "Are you skipping your class?"

"Erm-"

"That's partly my fault, Mrs. Feng," Gui interrupted. "I do apologize, but I thought it best to bring Xiao Lan home."

There was a slight pause, and then her mother's face appeared through a doorway at the other end of the room, leading to her and her husband's in-home office. Her brown eyes widened in surprise and delight at the sight of Gui standing in their home, and she swiftly called for her husband before hurriedly approaching them.

"Oh my!" Lan's mother exclaimed, unsuccessfully hiding her grin behind one hand. "Aren't you that Guileastos fellow from Infinite City?"

Gui blushed slightly. "Well, yes I am. I am also the professor of Modern Literature at XX University."

"Oh, I see...is Xiao Lan in trouble at school?"

"Mom!" Lan protested in outrage. "Of course not!"

"What's going on?" Lan's father inquired with interest as he entered the room, rubbing the stubble on his chin in an absent-minded sort of way.

His wife turned to face him with hands on her hips and a dramatic sigh. "Our daughter had to be escorted home by her professor."

"Really?"

"Um, no, please don't get the wrong idea-" Gui began nervously, raising his hands as if that could stop her parents' conversation from spiralling further out of control.

"What are you getting up to at school?" her father questioned with obvious amusement, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Absolutely nothing," Lan drawled scathingly. "Unless you count dating my professor."

There was a pregnant pause, and then her parents both exclaimed: "WHAT?" (Although her mother's exclamation sounded more like a shout of joy than a question.)

Gui hastily bowed towards her parents to show his respect. "Please excuse me for not asking your permission first! My name is Min Gui Wen. I am very much in love with your daughter and would like to date her."

Lan flushed a deep crimson, and shook from the effort of holding back the urge to smack Gui upside the head. She glanced at her parents, and sighed at the look of extreme delight on their faces (there would be no stopping them now...). Her mother in particular looked as though the next ten Christmases had come early.

"Oh yes, that's quite alright," her mother responded gleefully. "Why don't you stay for dinner? Xiao Lan is an excellent cook."

"I'm the only one who can cook in this family," Lan grumbled.

Gui chuckled at her low comment, and then agreed warmly with her mother's invitation. "Thank you, Mrs. Feng, I would love to."

Her mother swiftly threaded one arm through Gui's and tugged him towards the nearby sofa. "So, tell me a little about yourself, Professor. What made you interested in our Xiao Lan?"

"Mom!" Lan shrieked indignantly, stomping after the pair and determinedly ignoring her father's proud wink. "Don't ask him stuff like that!"

Gui flushed and awkwardly attempted to answer. "W-Well...it started in Second Life at first, but-"

"You do not have to finish that answer, Gui," Lan stated threateningly, her lips tugging up into a scary smile that would have made Yu Lian proud. He took one look at her, and immediately swallowed the rest of his sentence. The room was silent for several moments, and then her father brilliantly asked: "So, you fell for our little Lan while she was male?"

Lan buried her face in her hand with a heartfelt groan. Please let this day end soon.

xXx

After nearly an hour of interrogation, Lan finally managed to drag Gui away from her parents and towards the room where her family kept most of their entertainment (except Second Life, of course). He immediately moved towards the niches in the wall containing their game, movie, and book selections, chatting with her as he did so.

"Thanks for letting me come here. Your parents are-"

"Horrifyingly nosy and ridiculous?"

"...I was going to say interesting."

"Well, that's one word for it," Lan muttered darkly, remembering her parents' strange delight over knowing that Gui Wen had fallen in love with Prince first and had now transferred those affections to include Lan as the elf's real life self.

Come to think of it...

"So..." she began awkwardly, studiously looking at anything but the man standing in the middle of their entertainment room. "Which one do you prefer?"

Thinking that she was referring to the items he was staring at, Gui answered, "Oh, I don't know. Either one is fine with me. We could watch a movie or play some games, or both. Or, if there's something else you'd like to do, that's fine with me."

Lan frowned at his inability to grasp her meaning. "No, I meant...about Prince."

He paused and turned his head to gaze at her questioningly, a familiar confused expression on his face. "Huh?"

"Which one do you prefer?" she repeated forcefully, glowering at the wall behind his shoulder as though she could melt it with the force of her gaze alone. "Me, or Prince?"

Lan tried not to fidget in the resulting silence, but it was a hard challenge as Gui walked towards her. She averted her gaze to his shirt sleeve when he got too close for her to stare at the wall, and chewed her bottom lip while nervously awaiting his reply.

"That's a stupid question."

Surprised by his unnaturally insulting response, she whipped her eyes up to his face and scowled angrily. "How exactly is that a-"

"Because you should already know the answer to that," Gui retorted sternly. Lan marveled at how different he could be in reality; she hardly knew how to react to this intelligent and composed man instead of the silly poet she'd become so used to.

"Well, I don't! So I'm asking!" she snapped in response, clenching her right hand into a fist and debating the merits of punching him with it.

Gui leaned down closer to her face so he could stare into her brown eyes. "I do not need to choose, because you and Prince are the same."

"WE ARE NOT-"

"BUT," Gui interrupted loudly over her raised voice, "IF I had to choose, then obviously I would pick the one at whose side I can always be. The one whom I can always talk to. The one I don't have to constantly worry about because I can't see them. The one I can hold and be with whenever I want."

Lan closed her mouth in surprise, her angry tirade stemmed before it could even be formed and unleashed.

"You...not Prince."

Her face heated at his words, and she raised a hand to slap his arm with. "D-Don't say such embarrassing things!"

Gui easily caught her half-hearted swing, and pulled her forward by the captive arm. "Does that answer your silly question? Or do you have more?"

Lan scowled at him. "Don't get so cocky. Just 'cause I don't have Prince's strength right now doesn't mean I can't punch you."

The tall man's lips twitched in amusement. "Oh, I'm well aware of that, princess."

"UGH. Please, get a room."

Yang Ming received a swift roundhouse kick in the side before he had even fully finished the last word or stepped more than two feet into the room, courtesy of one twin sibling.

"STUPID BROTHER!" she roared, fury and horrified embarrassment warring on her beet red face. Gui held her back by her flailing arms, struggling to contain his laughter. "Go away!"

Yang Ming coughed in pain, holding his aching ribs where her foot had connected skillfully. "What the hell! This isn't your room, I can be here if I want."

"Well, I'm telling you to leave!"

"Make me!" he stuck his tongue out at her childishly. Lan glowered at him and sulked in their professor's hold, unable to break free without Prince's raw brute strength. "Oh, by the way Professor - Ugly Wolf told me to tell you to call him when you get a chance."

Gui furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Why didn't he just call me himself?"

Yang Ming leered. "He probably didn't want to interrupt your date."

Left with no other weapons, Lan kicked at her brother wildly, managing to fling her slipper off with the gesture and shoot it with uncanny precision at his face. He yelled in surprise and flung his hands up wildly.

"If you don't leave us alone, I'm giving your dinner portion to Gui," Lan threatened gleefully.

"Siiiii~iis," Yang Ming whined. She glared at him furiously, and he scowled before turning away with a grumbled: "You always threaten me with food..."

"Cause it's the only thing that works," she muttered under her breath as he retreated for a safer location.

Gui cautiously let go of Lan's arms now that her intended victim was out of sight, and she smacked his bicep in retaliation with a huff. He just chuckled softly in reaction, before plucking his mobile out of a pocket.

"Li Tian Lang," he instructed, holding the device face-up in his palm. It beeped cheerfully a few times at him, and then paused before pulling up the school doctor's face on a life-sized hologram above Gui's outstretched palm. "Yo. Feng Yang Ming said you wanted to talk to me?"

"Hi, Wolf-dage!" Lan said cheerfully, giving a little wave. Tian Lang smiled at the both of them.

"Hey, glad you're both together. I've been talking to Yu Lian about the six of us getting together for a real life meet-up, and she said her and Doll would love to. So, do you two have any ideas where we could meet?"

"Somewhere without reporters," Lan replied instantly with a small shudder at the thought of how the paparazzi would react to so many Odd Squad members in one place. Her identity would be outed in mere seconds.

"I second that," Gui interjected wryly. "So anywhere near the school is an automatic no. Maybe we could use the transporters to meet up somewhere outside of T City?"

"That might be wise, especially considering who Doll is."

"Actually, will she even be able to travel anywhere without attracting attention?" Lan mused doubtfully.

"We'll let Yu Lian worry about that," Tian Lang chuckled. "In the meantime, we need to come up with a location that isn't too close to the school or any other high traffic areas, with the least possible chance of being noticed."

The trio pondered for a few moments.

"Why don't we just meet up at your house, Wolf-ge?" Gui suggested, when it looked like no one else was managing to think of an idea. "Since you don't look anything like your avatar and the paparazzi hasn't noticed you yet, it would be the ideal location."

"And you could have Yu Lian sleep over."

The two men turned shocked stares toward the brunette at Gui's side, who smiled innocently at the doctor's cherry red face. He coughed to cover up his embarrassment, reminding the other two squad members instantly of his furry online counterpart.

"W-Well, anyways," Tian Lang stammered. "Meeting up here would be fine. I'll call her back and let them know."

"Tell them hi for me!" Lan instructed gleefully with a suggestive smile. Tian Lang coughed lightly and nodded, before shutting off the holo-call. Gui slanted his eyes in her direction with an amused smirk, to which she gave a sunny and perfectly innocent smile.

"Hm. Well now, where were we?" Gui inquired, sounding equally innocent.

Lan blanched and giggled nervously. "Uh...I think I should go start on dinner..."

"It's been barely two hours since we had lunch," Gui responded with obvious amusement, reaching out to snag her wrist with one hand.

"I happen to like food!" Lan protested, attempting to tug her arm away from his grip. Gui put a finger to his bottom lip and stared up at the ceiling as though working through a difficult math problem.

"Hmmm. I think we were debating the merits of my having more strength than you for once," he mused with exaggerated astonishment. "Isn't that right?"

She scowled. "I am so going to kill you when the servers come back."