Chapter 19- Chengde Day 2

His pillow was hard.

Normally, upon waking enough to register that yes, he had a hangover and yes, he was not in his own bed, Hao Mei would panic. Not a full blown panic, but the helpful type of panic that wakes a person up immediately. This morning was different. His head felt fuzzy, the light in the room was making his eyelid refuse to open, and his pillow was much harder than any bedding should be... but it smelled so familiar. Warm and spicy; like chilli and cinnamon in hot chocolate. He rolled towards the source of heat and burrowed his nose into it, making his pillow flinch.

"Eh?" A flinching pillow? Time for that moment of panic. His eyes flew open and he would have bolted backwards except that his pillow had two arms wrapped around him. Wide awake, Hao Mei found himself staring KO's collarbone, head on his shoulder and arms tucked up against his side- trapped between their bodies. He wriggled and the arms around him tightened.

"Stay." KO's voice was gravelly with sleep, and the rasp sent shivers down Hao Mei's spine. When the older man kept his eyes closed, he carefully relaxed. A distant part of him wondered if he should take unction at being commanded like a dog, but that part was being chased out by a comfortable contentedness. Closing his eyes again, he blamed the hangover fogging his brain, for his willingness to stay in such a novel position.

Reality slowly intruded; his arm went numb and his bladder protested. When he tried to peel the cage of flesh from around his body, the bars tightened even further.

"Hey. Let go."

The arms tightened even further and Hao Mei wheezed.

"Let. Go."

Getting no response, he narrowed his eyes. "Last chance..."

A dig in to the rib cage secured his freedom and woke KO completely. The grumbles of the reluctant waker followed Hao Mei to the bathroom.

"You should have let me go when I first said. It's not like I left a bruise."

"There are nicer ways to wake up."

"Like what?" Hao Mei stepped out of the bathroom as he spoke, wiping his hands on his shorts. KO cleared his throat and just looked at him. "Forget I asked." Pervert.

After a breakfast that Hao Mei decided to never tell KO was not as delicious as his cooking, the pair headed back out. A taxi took them to Sledge Hammer Peak National Forest Park and they wandered for nearly an hour before taking the cable car to Sledge Hammer Peak. As they approached the halfway point of the cable car, feet dangling over blossoming peach trees and firs, Hao Mei turned to KO with a dirty comment at the ready- he knew he should treat the site with respect but seriously, the rock was just begging to be hammered with large, hard jokes- and discovered something strange. KO's knuckles were turning white as he gripped the rail of the cable car, and a drop of sweat rolled along his taut jawline. Mei looked down at their dangling legs and kicked his feet around, bumping against KO. The man froze even further and Mei watched his adam's apple bob as he swallowed.

"Eh? Are you scared of heights?"

KO closed his eyes. "Don't like."

"Then why didn't you say anything? We didn't have to come up here."

"You were excited."

Mei had to admit that the prospect of riding in the cable cars had sent him a teensy bit hyper, but then he'd been the type of child to climb the tallest tree... and jump out to see if this time, he would fly.

"Just because I was excited, doesn't mean we have to do it. You can say no... I don't want to force you in to anything."

KO forced his eyes open to look at Mei's concerned face. "Mei Ren... you were smiling."

And now I'm blushing. You pervert. How can you say such things with a straight face? Hao Mei cleared his throat and looked away. Squirming with embarrassment, he noticed that the movement made KO grip tighter to the bar. "Eh! How about this? We just need to distract you."

A very brief, dirty look, was all he received before KO closed his eyes once more.

Biting his lip, Mei struggled to think of games to play to distract his friend. It wasn't like they had long to go; they were over halfway.

On cue, the cable car stopped.

KO shivered. Mei wasn't too concerned; there were plenty of reasons for the cars to stop, and very few of them involved imminent falling. He looked down and relaxed further. They'd stopped above a small grove of firs that clumped together- worst case scenario, they fell and the firs would break their fall. Broken limbs were easier to recuperate from than broken necks. But then, he'd never worried too much about falling.

Wind rocked the cable car and while Mei laughed at the rattling, KO's face blanched.

"Hey... KO... Look at me." Receiving no response, Mei placed a hand gently on KO's cheek and turned his face toward him. "Open your eyes. Just look at me. Only at me."

His eyes slowly opened, and Mei smiled; no qualms about wielding his dimple as a heavy weight weapon.

"Good. That's right. Just keep looking at me."

KO licked his lips as his eyes darted towards the ground and Mei frowned at him. Looking at the ground wouldn't help. He grabbed KO's face with both hands, fingers digging in to the back of the other man's head as he brought their lips together. To begin with, it was just a press of mouth to mouth. KO's fright made his reaction time even slower than his shock did, and when Hao Mei slowly pulled back, all KO could do was stare at him.

The infamous dimple flashed as Mei relished the fact that he'd surprised KO enough that his eyes were no longer either closed or looking ground-ward. His fingers flexed, and his thumbs stroked the sides of KO's jaw. He looked at the man's lips, and leaned forward to taste them once more. This time, shock and fear melted away as KO gripped his shoulders, pulling Mei's chest flush to his and deepening the kiss. It was a hard, wet kiss- teeth pressing against the back of lips and breath catching in their throats. The cable car jolted them apart as it began moving again, and they stared wordlessly at each other; panting as they regained their senses. Mei was the first to moved, loosening his grip on KO's head and sliding his hands down the other man's neck to push lightly against his chest. At the silent hint, KO slowly shifted away, giving them both room to breath and regain their composure before the cable car arrived at its destination.

Maybe the silence should have felt awkward- they were two men. Two friends. Who had kissed. A very dim part of Mei's brain was trying to tell him that wasn't normal, but with his body still tingling and with his lips retaining the taste of KO's kiss, it was easy to ignore that voice. The silence continued throughout the walk from the cable cars to the base of the rock. The pair took pictures of each other, Hao Mei posing dramatically at various points and enthusiastically urging KO in to a multitude of positions just so he could get the perfect angle to make it look like Mei was holding the rock up, kicking it, and even leaning against it. When Hao Mei commandeered the camera, KO simply stood in front of the towering rock until Mei physically posed him until the photo revealed the rock balancing on the palm of KO's hand.

A pair of tourists, two men dressed for hiking with backpacks and boots, offered to take their photo for them. Mei had already managed to snap a few selcas but the opportunity for a proper photo was too good to miss. The two pairs swapped cameras, Mei taking photos of the tourists before the taller of the two tried in vain to make KO smile for the camera. As a group, the four ventured off the pathway, searching for a mulberry tree that the tourists need to take a photo of so they could claim the site for something they called geocaching. As it turned out, the taller man, with wavy brown hair and suntanned skin, had lived in China for a few years as a teen, and was still fluent enough to converse easily with KO. In contrast, his friend was the same height as Hao Mei, but had blonde hair tied into a bun at the nape of his neck, and had exhausted his supply of Chinese phrases after the initial greetings.

"I'm glad you can speak English." Tom said to Hao Mei as the two trailed behind their friends. "I've spent the last week listening to Will talk and laugh with the locals, while I don't understand a word. Who knows what he's saying about me?" The man laughed, obviously not worried about any possible comments.

"I studied it at school and it is necessary for programmers to know. If we want our work to be used overseas. We do much business with other country." Not for the first time, Mei was glad he'd dormed with laosan; he'd studied harder because something about Xiao Nai made him not want to disappoint him. "How much longer are you here?"

"We go back to Beijing tomorrow, then fly back to Australia the day after. We've been here two weeks already but it's time for the honeymoon to end. Have to go back to work to earn the money to pay for this holiday!" Tom laughed, and when he wiped his forehead the back of his hand Mei noticed, for the first time, the plain silver ring on his left ring finger.

"Eh? Honeymoon?"

The Australian froze. "I'm sorry... Will told me to keep low-key about it because it's not all that accepted here but I just assumed that it was okay to say something because... well.. you two..." He looked from Mei, then ahead to where KO and Will were still pushing through branches.

"We two?"

"Wait, aren't you two together?"

Mei grimaced. "No. Well." His honest nature asserted itself. "It's..."

"Complicated?" Tom grinned. "Yeah, mate. I get that. Will and I, though? It's pretty basic."

"Eh?"

"He's my... what's the word you would use? Oh yeah, he's my furen."