THURSDAY

Wei Ying had popped off to the bathroom when Lan Zhan called the police. He told them about the car chase when they were on their way home on Tuesday night, not leaving out anything.

"We're in the middle of something relating to this case right now, sir. However, we do need a written statement from yourselves....would it be possible to speak to you this afternoon?" The senior detective said.

"Mn. Will be here until around eight thirty." Lan Zhan quickly calculated how long his overseas call would last.

"That's fine, we'll be there before then." The line went dead.

Just in time, because Wei Ying returned.

Lan Zhan saw what he was munching on and frowned.

"I met XiChen-ge and guess what? He gave me one of these." Wei Ying came around the desk and held it to Lan Zhan's mouth.

How dare his brother give one of these to his boyfriend? Wasn't that just more interfering?

Wei Ying was still looking at him, his silver eyes widening when Lan Zhan's pale finger and thumb delicately held his wrist and bit into the luxury chocolate, letting his mouth kiss those warm fingers until the chocolate melted.

Wei Ying was frozen in place as Lan Zhan put his lips around each of his fingers and slowly sucked them clean, all the while Wei Ying's pulse going haywire under his thumb.

"Omg...that was soooo hot!" Wei Ying attacked him.

Teeth, lips, tongue, wherever they could touch, and Lan Zhan was moulding Wei Ying's body to his, holding him fast as Wei Ying went to town on his mouth. The chocolate must have been an aphrodisiac because the more Wei Ying tasted the traces in Lan Zhan's mouth, the more he yearned for.

Lan Zhan was slowly kissing his way down Wei Ying's throat, finding the lovely groove where his collarbone rested and bit down, kissing it better. With his other hand, he unlocked his desk drawer and pulled out a whole stash.

Wei Ying's eyes were big and round.

"My...that's a lot of chocolate." Mischief glinted in his eyes. "May I have one?"

"Mn. We can share. No hands." Lan Zhan was saying, when his phone rang.

Wei Ying would have stood up, but Lan Zhan held him tighter...

Oh well, if he was already there...what was the harm in staying?

Wei Ying picked up another chocolate rabbit and bit into it, watching Lan Zhan's face. His golden eyes had darkened considerably, and he was definitely distracted.

"Why didn't you answer? Xiongzhang and your brother are worried about you." Lan Zhan was saying.

Ah...that was Huaisang! Wei Ying beamed at Lan Zhan and pulled out his phone, searching for XiChen's number. He showed Lan Zhan before sending the text, after Lan Zhan had paused his talking to kiss his forehead, which Wei Ying thought was incredibly sweet.

This time, when the knock came, Wei Ying reluctantly got off his warm seat and went to sit back at his place. Lan Zhan handed his phone to his brother.

"You fell asleep? A-Sang, do you know what state your brother's in?" XiChen was saying. "Ahuh, ahuh...you better call him, like right now. And A-Sang? Thank God you're alright." He ended the call and his glance fell on the chocolate bunnies. "Didi? What's that?" He asked in the most dangerously serious tone Wei Ying had ever heard him use.

"They're Wei Ying's." Lan Zhan replied, maintaining eye contact with his brother.

"Oh, really?"

The transition between a simmering XiChen ready to wreak havoc and this repenting happier one was so stark, Wei Ying did a double take.

"I'm sorry....you know me, when I see chocolate, especially when they're my favourite and ever since my orders kept disappearing..."

Lan Zhan had the biggest grin on his face when he was looking at Wei Ying, but just as Wei Ying opened his mouth to offer one, he spoke.

"Wei Ying is not allowed to share." Lan Zhan looked back at his brother. "It's our anniversary. That's why."

"I see." XiChen said, giving them one last longing look before leaving.

Wei Ying tried to hold his laughter back but he collapsed into a puddle of giggles.

"I feel so bad...and you were so naughty, Lan Zhan!"

"Xiongzhang has a big nose. This is the cure." Lan Zhan replied, petulantly.  "Lunchtime?"

********

Huaisang really wasn't lying when he said he had fallen asleep. Once he got home after last night's shenanigans with the frisky Doctor and his accomplice, he had downloaded all the data on the memory card and begun to sift through it. He worked until he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, and then was it his fault if he put his phone on silent and forgot to charge it?

So that's why he had woken up at eleven and was startled to see twenty missed calls. Once he had calmed his brother down sufficiently and explained what he was doing, Nie MingJue was satisfied that he wasn't in any current danger.

Fires put out, Huaisang decided to stretch his legs. He still had to visit Su She's apartment and it was a nice afternoon for a walk.

Su She lived in downtown Denver. It was in a better part of town but in a run down area and Huaisang knew every town had one of those. Kids were playing outside his block, mothers sitting on the steps leading up to the front door. A group of old men sat on a bench playing cards and a definite drug dealer plied his trade on passersby.

Huaisang wondered why Su She kept this place. If he was living and working in New York with the Lans, holding on to another property in another state just didn't make sense.

So he put on his friendliest smile and walked up to the front door. As expected, he was met with curious gazes, and one or two on the wary side. But it was important not to speak first.

Huaisang had studied psychology...Well, dabbled in it here and there and held on to to the bits that interested him, namely human interactions. Right now, if he spoke first, their suspicions would be triggered and they would shut him down...no, he had to pretend to be one of them.

Huaisang did not like this side of things and would not have involved anyone else if he could have helped it, but needs must. At least it was going to be harmless.

He rattled the door, looking incredibly disappointed that it didn't open and then checked the windows, feeling their scrutiny.

Finally, one of them couldn't take it.

"Oi, whataya doing?" She snapped gum like there was no tomorrow, her unruly brown curls tied in a red bandanna. She had brown eyes to match and a pert nose.

Huaisang could work with that.

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Actually, I'm in trouble." He admitted, smiling with embarrassment.

"Why? What seems to be the problem?"

Her friend joined her, draping a thin arm over her shoulders for solidarity. Her brown-skinned counterpart had that unearthly beauty that shone from within...a tougher nut to crack.

"Well, the thing is, my boss owns this building and they've been wanting to check on the apartment...hold on...I have it somewhere..." He patted down his pockets and if he was searching for something. Apartment 29...he knew it already but this would only work if they thought he was a bumbling idiot.

After a considerable delay in which the friend decided he wasn't worth wasting her time on, he grinned broadly.

"Twenty nine, apartment twenty nine!" He exclaimed.

"So what? You don't have a key?" Her gum snapped at least a hundred times already.

"It's my first day and dang it, I forgot it. I'd have to drive all the way back to New York and then come all the way back, and the delay...there's no way they wouldn't find out...you know what I mean?" He pretended to frown.

"Can't you ask the Super?" Snapping Gum paused. "Or, don't tell me, you forgot your ID too?"

Huaisang sank to the floor, holding his head, thinking about the time his Da-ge caught him with his spring books and that was enough embarrassment to cause the blood to flood into his face.

"Jeez...." But she sounded sympathetic.

"It's just that it took me really long to find this job...if they find out I screwed up, I'm a gonner." He motioned with his finger across his neck. "And I kind of need the money...my rent is due like, yesterday." He sighed and stood up. "Nevermind...I should just haul my ass back to New York and face the music, right?" He climbed down the stairs, shoulders hunched as if giving up.

A few seconds passed.

"Wait!" Snapping Gum grabbed his elbow. "You can't just give up! We'll help you. Come on."

Huaisang couldn't believe his luck...he really was in the wrong business....

They took him to the Supervisor's office, located in the basement. Not the nicest of places but definitely, it was infinitely better than yesterday's warehouses.

The Super was a man who simply didn't care. He took one look at Huaisang and his slacks, taking in the button down shirt and the wanting to do well attitude, and held up his hand, effectively shutting up Snapping Gum, while holding out the spare key for Apartment twenty-nine.

"Just don't damage anything."

Huaisang nodded and tried not to run to the apartment. Snapping Gum and her friend were far too invested and wanted to come with him, but he explained that it wasn't worth his job so they left him alone. Huaisang climbed up the stone steps to the apartment, reading numbers on the way.

It was a standard wooden door and it opened easily.

The first thing Huaisang noticed was the smell...a kind of musty, old dust smell. The lights worked which meant that Su She was keeping up with the maintenance of the place. There was a two seater couch, a PlayStation and a beanbag. In the corner, there were a few brown boxes which he decided to look at later. He made his way to what should have been a bedroom. When he switched the lights on, he had to take a step back, because it was a shrine.

No other word for it.

There was a photo of Xue Yang with fruit and the snub of a candle in front it. The fruit had rotted away, signalling at least three weeks since anyone had come here.

So the question was, who had? Was it a newly escaped Meng Yao or Su She? Since this was his apartment. And an even bigger question was, why on earth did he have a shrine to Xue Yang, Meng Yao's brother? What was the relationship between Su She and Xue Yang? Meng Yao was definitely the link between the two...

Huaisang nosed around the rest of the place, but other than a few old clothes, a dirty mattress, and some newspapers, there was nothing of any interest. Nobody had lived here for a long time.

His disappointment must have shown on his face when he returned outside his after giving back the key, because Snapping Gum was waiting for him outside.

She gave him a long look.

"I didn't think you would find anything." She grinned.

"Yeah...I think I need to ask the tenant himself." Huaisang admitted. At least it wasn't a lie.

"Ha! Good luck with that! I haven't seen either of them since the hairy one decided to kill himself." She continued chewing.

Huaisang had thought, on seeing Xue Yang's picture that he looked a little unkempt...but maybe it was an old photo. Did he look worse later? And Su She, from his Facebook posts, wasn't hairy at all. So he decided to risk asking a few more questions.

"I saw a photo of a guy...up there." He hedged.

"The two gays, they were inseparable." She mused. "It was kinda nice, you know? How much they loved each other...just that the hairy one was a bit cookoo...know what I'm sayin'?" She pointed to her own temple and twirled her finger.

Unfortunately, Huaisang did. His research had turned up quite a bit on the mental health problems of Mr. Yang.

"Some of us felt bad about that...so we went and paid our respects. He's not far." She pointed down the road. "Local cemetery."

But it gave Huaisang an idea.

"I have to get back." He apologised.

"No worries, Sugar. You come back any time, you hear?" She waved at him as he left.

The cemetery was the usual fair, patchy grass trodden and trampled in between graves, a few fresh flowers here and there and dead, dry ones where people hadn't been for a while.

Huaisang looked at his watch, and the setting sun. He had about an hour tops before the light faded completely to find Xue Yang's grave.

**********

Lan Zhan kept looking up, distracted by the sight of an animated Wei Ying with his little pink tongue sticking out from his cute lips on the left side of his mouth, while he concentrated on stealing a car in his game. He must have been playing with others, because he'd let out a giggle now and then.

The sight warmed the cockles of his heart, if Lan Zhan was honest.

They had gone for lunch downstairs again and thankfully, there were no incidents today. Wei Ying had tensed all the way there and back but in the middle, when they alone, he had managed to relax somewhat.

Lan Zhan was just finishing up bits and pieces now, waiting for the time to go until eight when he'd have that overseas call. He looked up again at the beautiful chocolate rabbit brooch pinned over Wei Ying's heart. He had given such a naughty smile when wearing it, that Lan Zhan wondered if he even knew what his smile did to him, every single time he used it.

Would he ever get tired of looking into those gorgeous silver eyes, the way they lit up whenever Wei Ying was looking back at him? The delightful blush to hint at his cheeks when he was embarrassed, the cheeky arch of his brows...as if Wei Ying knew he was thinking about him, he looked up suddenly.

He smiled and took off his headphones, laying them on his keyboard and came around to stand next to him.

"Hi..." He said shyly.

"Hi." Lan Zhan echoed, watching him intently.

Wei Ying reached for his hand, playing with his fingers.

That was all the encouragement Lan Zhan needed to yank him closer, making sure he didn't get hurt, so Wei Ying ended up cradled in his lap. Their faces were extremely close.

Wei Ying licked his own lips, watching Lan Zhan's eyes as they zeroed in on the movement.

"If we start kissing..." Wei Ying breathed out, "you won't be able to work."

Lan Zhan couldn't care less. With one arm supporting his back, he brought Wei Ying even closer to himself.

"Is Wei Ying complaining?" He asked with a teasing light in his golden eyes. He was just about to lean in anyway, when there was a knock on the door.

Lan Zhan scowled at it. Wei Ying giggled and kissed his cheek instead, climbing off him.

"Come in."

It was the two policemen.

"Shall we take your statements?" They wanted to know, looking at Wei Ying first.

"Sure." Wei Ying was nervous about talking to them...after all, his every encounter with police was something to do with Meng Yao.

He told them everything he knew, and when it was Lan Zhan's turn, Wei Ying stood up to leave.

"Bathroom." He'd whispered in Lan Zhan's ear before going.

Lan Zhan explained what had happened, from them leaving Lotus Cakes and noticing the tail. After the detectives had written everything down and asked their questions, Lan Zhan looked around his office, but Wei Ying had not returned.