Li slipped out of the bed, pacing about the room and getting on his shirt. He panicked when he couldn’t find his pants or his cell but then found both under the bed. There was a string of texts from his staff, alerting where every guest anytime they entered a different room. Prince Edwin had apparently announced at some point yesterday that he would be staying 'a while'. Which could mean days or weeks, yikes... Li could probably kick him out but not while Midas and Orun were still in residence.

He's probably been asked to watch me. His mother might know something.

So his royal highness had been assigned a burner cell... and had already sent at least 10 texts asking where Li was and that he should join everyone for breakfast. With a lot of emoticons. This was to be expected but the last few texts were somewhat troubling.

TG: Kong, Nothing from Granny. NCWOT but prob Red Herring. Letting her off the hook. for now  :/

Lt. Rhitwies, “Don’t Come To Breakfast. SWYA.”

Edwin, “DON’T COME 2 BRKFST. THE PRESS OUTSIDE”

NV: Belated Happy B-day,Li. Looks like you enjoyed it...

Li sighed, the first text was simply disappointing. Now the shenanigans from yesterday were already bleeding consequences all over his morning. It looked like Lt. Rhitweis was handling it or she would have said otherwise. NV was trying to be ominous and pretentiously omniscient, so it couldn't be anything too important. He didn’t know what the press was angling for and he didn’t want to know yet. He hadn’t even had a glass of water let alone coffee.

If he wanted to let this blow over he’d probably need to lie low for a bit, the easiest way to do that was to work from this room. It didn’t seem like anybody- not even Lt. Rhitweis- knew where he was right then.

He dialed the kitchen from the guest room’s clunky rotary landline. With the clanging of pots and shouting coming over the phone, Li had to raise his voice to place an order. His bedfellow stirred. Li kept his back turned yet peaked from the corner of his eye as the man stretched languorously. Bits of orange glitter clung to his arms; the blankets clung and draped his long legs that were stretching in the same slow and almost liquid movement.

Li debated throwing the man out... but instead ordered enough breakfast for two. If the press had persuaded their way onto his property and his right hand thought it prudent for him to hide- well, ejecting a young man wearing nothing but glitter to wander the hallways probably wouldn’t end well. Li hung up the phone.

Husky as a morning yawn yet measured in speed and tone, a voice said: “Let me tell you something Great about you.”

Li’s brain stalled for a moment. The other man sounded much more awake than Li thought he should be. Had he been faking sleep? He didn't see Li crying, did he? Li turned just a little bit more toward the bed to measure the man. The more he saw of the man the more Li stiffened, tension arising from the base of his spine. Yes, this man might prove to be problematic, depending on how much he knew, Li might have to trap this man in this room with him.

Li tried to coat his voice in polite interest, void of his apprehension and paranoia, “Something great? About me?”

The sentence that the naked man in Li’s bed uttered next… it was full of shockingly filthy and graphic language. Profanity and euphemistic metaphor had never been so condensed. At least not in Li’s somewhat sheltered life. Yet unmistakably, the profanity was meant as a compliment, directed at Li’s…. skills. Li wanted to laugh but he didn’t have breath in his lungs for it. But he did feel his own body melt, muscles loosen, and a blush was rushing up his neck. The naked man winked at Li and Li let himself smile. He wasn’t used to letting himself smile, so one half of his mouth quirked upward while the other half tried to remain grim. The smirk that resulted was crooked and perhaps looked a little too smug. “Yeah, Okay.” It was all that Li could think to say.

He looked at the wall, trying to fight down his own strange self-satisfied smile. But he knew there was nothing he could do to hide the blush climbing up his ears.

“What was your name again?” Koharu asked.

Li snorted.

Two maids came, with platters of bacon, boiled egg, and slices of ripe fruit. They also had hot water and small containers of tea, jam, and buttered bread. They set it all down on a folding table without incident, although one of them squeaked when she saw the man lounging in bed. Both maids scurried out of the room instead of serving them any further. “Sorry about that. I’ve scarred her for life now” said the man, who was crawling to the edge of the bed so he could sit on it while Li pulled up a chair and pulled the table of food between them. The man tilted his head as he smiled, exposing his neck and niche of clinging glitter. ‘Koharu’ said Li’s mind. But Li wasn’t sure what connection his brain was trying to make. Both of them tucked into breakfast and slurped down tea. Since this man was technically Li’s guest, he felt he should apologize for the maid’s behavior. “Sorry. I don’t know why she was so startled, it’s not like she could see any of your bits below the waist.”

“I suppose it was obvious that I wasn’t wearing anything beneath the blanket.”

Li had his mouth full at this point in the conversation, so he just grunted around his food in response. Li’s eyes began traveling across Koharu’s bare skin in a lingering fashion. He knew how to be more discreet but it was much harder to mask his examination without the distracting movements of others. How long had it been since he’d been alone with another person? Wait, he was alone often enough with Lt. Rhitweis, granted she didn’t make a habit of winking at him, wearing nothing but a blossom of silk bed sheets. The naked man ate with enthusiasm and bits of his food were getting everywhere, but he still caught Li staring. He then made it a point to catch Li’s eye and with a slight smile and a tiny splay of fingers toward his own body he asked Li without spoken words, ‘do you like what you see?’

Li swallowed a boiled egg, hard. His eyes watered a little. He could feel Koharu smiling at him but didn’t dare make eye contact. When he couldn’t stand the sound of his own chewing Li muttered to himself, “there was really no reason for her to act so naïve.” Li was perhaps only trying to scold himself but Koharu responded, demonstrating a very keen sense of hearing, “For some people what I have above the waist is more than enough.”

“Don’t be vain.” Ah, he hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“Sorry, I’ll try not to be. How about this, there have been moments where... it was the way people have behaved with me have led me to believe that this is so.”

Oh, he has a brain. Huh.  Li was a little awkward in his phrasing, wanting to push buttons without chasing Koharu off. But Li was used to critical debates or eviscerating his opponent with his words, not to pulling his punches.

“But then how do you know that people are not repulsed by you? What if your top half is enough for them because they can’t bear seeing any more of you?”

Koharu was a little affronted and stabbed a strip of bacon as he tried to defend himself and simultaneously not sound vain, “Because! Because once in while… I’ll find individuals who behave in such a manner- that it could not possibly be repulsion- more as if- as if they are starving for me and just to have my- my top half?- would never satisfy them.”

“What strange beastly men are you describing?” quipped Li, keeping his face completely blank. Koharu glared pointedly at him. Li pretended obliviousness. “No examples? I think perhaps you’re making these individuals up.”

Koharu then supplied a euphemistic anecdote of events last night, something about beastly men and the way they devoured sausages. Li bit his own lip as he chewed. When Koharu continued to wonder out loud about his other appetite, Li could feel his blush returning. Koharu laughed at him and rested his chin on the back of his hands. His eyes twinkled in the stray beams of daylight as if there might be traces of orange glitter in his eyes too.

They commented and joked about a number of inconsequential things, traded snarky compliments on each other's bedhead. And while Li felt at a loss for words multiple times, Koharu kept the conversation flowing at a high pace, never pausing or lingering too long on any subject. Neither earth-shaking nor vapid, it was a genuine conversation. Which Li Appreciated. It was somehow a novelty for him. Eventually, Li had finished his plate and so he stood, beginning to stack the plates on top of each other. Koharu stood too, his blanket slipping slowly down his body. And then way down.

Li froze, poker-faced. When Koharu spoke it was a trickster’s mimicry of supplication, “Aren’t you still hungry, Sir? We can always call for another round.”

Two competing trains of thought simultaneously screeched into his head, demanding space and attention.

This would be a great way keep Koharu in the room with him for another hour.

You don’t want to develop any sort of attachment to this man.

But I’m supposed to be laying low and hiding in this room anyway.

You have no idea who he is!

What else is there to do???

“How long do you have?” Li asked, his tone was civil. About as passionate as asking someone to put their socks on, but even if he seemed unaffected, he was slowly drifting toward the bed. Like he couldn't quite help himself.

“How long can you last?” Koharu asked flippantly and he fell backward onto the bed, Li followed slowly, letting his fingertips drag across shin and thigh. Koharu kissed him then, full on the mouth. The kind of kiss that opens so slowly so that one doesn't so much enter or begins the kiss, but sinks slowly deeper into the experience. The voices in his head were silent, Li Kong and all his worldly concerns were lost for a moment. He did not exist and yet he drifted… And when he opened his eyes next, the entire room seemed blurred and warmer. And he was staring into kind indulgent eyes, set into mocha skin that was crinkling at the edges with a smile. He would never forget those brown irises that glittered, even without the light of the sun.