Gu Cheng pulled Joseph Zaria along the path and toward the street, ignoring the calls of the irritating woman behind him. It was the voice of a nobody as far as he was concerned. A voice barely above a whisper caught his ear, and he leaned his head down closer to hear. "What did you say?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Joseph Zaria said and gave him a sad smile. "Just thinking aloud."

The smile that wanted to come out just from having his arm around her was pushed down by the frown inspired by the sadness on her lips.

"It's only you, Joseph Zaria." He said no more, hoping that she would understand what he meant. Voicing emotions was hard. Early on, he learned to hide his, to filter out all the feelings so that they wouldn't show on his face or leak into his words. It was a sign of weakness to many in his world, and as the heir of one of the most prominent families anywhere, he could show no weakness.

It got easier with time. There was simply nothing interesting enough to get riled up over. Whether it was men or women, everyone wanted to have a piece of him, even if it was just a little attention. So he shut everyone out. Give a little, and they would expect it all.

So many years were spent alone, with nobody to share his...anything with. Part of the reason that Gu Cheng chose to join the military was to escape the expectations of the few that he was close to. His parents, his grandfather, his brother, and they all looked up to him, knowing he would one day be the one to lead them. It was too much.

Then, someone walked into his life. More accurately, they walked out of the bathroom in his hotel room. The instant lust was blamed on the drugs given to him, but he couldn't stop thinking about her. First came anger, then dismissal, then frustration, and before he knew it, she was so twisted around his heart that he was feeling things he had not acknowledged since he was a very young child. It was just hard to show it.

Joseph Zaria rested her head lightly against his shoulder as they walked, the sadness tucked away so that anybody else would think she was fine, but he could see through it. If she did not trust him or understand what he meant, she would not lean into him. The sadness was from something else, but it was not the time to ask what.

"Sorry about that!" Cathy jogged up to them after intervening with the purple eyed girl. "Since sometimes the pull can be so strong that one loses their manners, all I can do is apologize for her! I have explained to her that you are guests of our Congress and that you are not looking for a mate. I am not confident that it will stop her from attempting to contact you. She is young and feeling the urge to couple. But I will not give her your contact number for your new telephone!"

Gu Cheng nodded. This world was different than the one he knew best, but it was his experience that when a woman was throwing their self at him, nothing short of forcing her out of the city would make her stop. He glanced down at the springy chocolate curls smooshed against his coat. It was annoying before, but he would not let his woman suffer because someone could not understand "No." A bit of that darkness that always sat inside of him rose up, and he quickly tamped it down before it could come out in the form of ice.

Joseph Zaria gently moved his arm away, whispering, "It's okay, I think she is gone." He could hear the blush in her words even if he could not see the blooming of her cheeks. Gu Cheng smiled and let go, tucking his hands into his pockets as he crossed the street.

In front of the door of the townhouse apartments, the boys were greeting another teenager who looked to be of a similar age. The new boy was smiling and bowing while an older man who shared many of the same features spoke with Rika. Thanks to the pendant, he could not tell which language they were speaking, but since Yamada was exchanging words as well, it would seem that they were not speaking in English.

"Oh, Speaker Kimura! I did not know you were arriving today! I see you met some of your neighbors across the hall already!"

"Indeed we did," a smooth faced man with combed back silver hair bowed to Cathy and angled his body so that he could converse with the whole group. "It will be nice having others to speak to, my English is not very good."

"Oh, you! Your English is better than mine," Cathy chuckled before introducing the man. "Miss Joseph, Mr Gu, this is Speaker Kimura from the East Asian Sanguine Congress. He is in town for the meetings next week and will be staying in the apartment across from you."

Gu Cheng nodded. Despite the silver hair, the man did not look to be out of his thirties. Something about the way he held himself made him seem far older, though. Gu Cheng could see the interest in the other man's eyes as he took in the petite woman in the brightly colored coat, and he fought the urge to step between them. "Speaker Kimura," he greeted instead, bowing his head politely. He could see Joseph Zaria nodding before turning to talk to Cathy from the corner of his eye. Their words were too low to hear, but when Cathy hurried over to her car, he was able to guess it had to do with the phones. The two women bowed their heads over a bag that was being held open, poking fingers inside of it even as they walked around the back of the car toward the sidewalk. They stopped a little distance away, and Gu Cheng found his irritation growing when he realized that his eyes were not the only ones watching them. "There are many of us, please tell us if we are too loud." He said the words colder than he meant to, but he did not apologize.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Speaker Kimura pulled his eyes away, smiling sheepishly. "I will say the same! Sometimes, when I am frustrated, I don't realize how loud my music is. I have been told that a Banjo is not pleasant to listen to at 2am."

"I love hearing the banjo!" Joseph Zaria nodded politely as she rejoined their group, clearly at ease after receiving the bag of phones. "I can't say I would love it if it woke me up, though. I am sure it will be fine."

"I shall endeavor to control my volume then! Are you a fan of the instrument then?"

Gu Cheng looked back and forth between them, the furrow on his forehead growing. He learned something new about Joseph Zaria, which should have been exciting, but instead, he felt something sour on his tongue. He did not like the instrument she was talking cheerfully about, and she was sharing parts of herself he had never seen with a stranger. Worse, a stranger who seemed to be interested in her.

"I am! My grandmother actually played it and tried to teach me. She learned that when she first moved to America as an adult. She thought it was a good way to seem more American at the time. But I couldn't build up the calluses for it, and all my classmates were into guitars, so I didn't want to stand out more than I already do." She ran her hands over her curls briefly, and Gu Cheng knew she was thinking too much about being different again. He patted her shoulder awkwardly and was rewarded with a smile.

"If you wish to play mine while we are staying here, you can come over any evening."

"Oh! Oh!! I thought you just LISTENED to banjo music! You play?"

The smile was turned away so quickly that he struggled to memorize it before the image faded. The sourness was back, spreading through his mouth and turning the edges of his lips down further. He knew that he should be happy that he was seeing her happy. It had been so long. The dark cloud that hung over her seemed to have lifted just a little, and it was because of a shared interest with someone else over an instrument that sounded like it was being tortured when played. He found he disliked the banjo even more than before.

"We should go up and warm your hands," he said as he stepped up beside her, placing his hand against the soft down covering her shoulder.

"That is probably a good idea," Speaker Kimura agreed, bright white teeth flashing in the sun. There was a small chip in one of the incisors next to his pointy canines, but somehow, it made him look charming. Gu Cheng frowned harder.

"Gu Cheng." His eyes went back to the large brown eyes looking up at him with humor and what he thought was a hint of irritation. A puff of air was visible coming out from between her lips, and he realized he was leaking magic. He nodded and removed his hand, calming his breathing. She smiled again, a polite one this time, as she turned to face the other man. "It was nice to meet you, Speaker Kimura. I am a little cold so I think we will go inside for a while."

She nodded, changing the nod into a short bow when her brain shifted for the cultural difference. Gu Cheng was not sure if he should be happy that her first instinct had been to greet as she had learned in his own world or irritated that she changed it to fit someone else.

They walked inside the building, warmth hitting their cheeks. The cloth bag holding the phones rustled a little as it tapped against her leg with each step. Perhaps canvas, but it sounded almost synthetic.

Upon stepping onto the landing, she moved aside to let Gu Cheng unlock the door and lead them all in. Cathy brought up the rear, chatting with the Japanese speaker and his son before following the other words.

"I brought enough telephones for everyone, I hope that is alright!" With the door firmly closed, Cathy removed her Wool coat, revealing another eye searing design beneath. She took the bag from Joseph Zaria and placed it on the glass coffee table, lowering herself down to sit on one of the couches next to it. Five boxes came out and were placed around the table, easy to get to even if everyone was spread out. Gu Cheng hovered next to his future wife, accepting the box that she handed up to him.

Inside was a small rectangle of plastic, very similar to the phones that he was familiar with. However, there were no buttons on the outside, no way that he could see to turn it on.

"I suppose the first thing I should ask is if your worlds had portable phones like this one." Cathy held up her own phone, already turned on with a keypad glowing on one of the flat sides.

"I believe we all have," Zaria answered, "But ours do not look like yours..."

"I see! Then I hope nobody will be offended by the way I explain things. I will pretend I am teaching someone how to use their very first, which in a way this will be yours!" Cathy laughed so joyously that her eyes almost disappeared, her lashes forming upside down crescents. The others laughed along with her, caught up in her enthusiasm. "Alright, to turn it on, you just have to tap the screen three times."

"Three?" Hideki turned his phone in his hands to find the side that looked more like a screen and tapped it.

"Yes, three. When the phones were first created, that was the number that the designers figured out was the lowest number needed where the phone would not be turned on in everyone's pockets accidentally."

Gu Cheng frowned down at the smooth plastic and tapped the screen, once, twice, and a third time. Bright, snow-white numbers appeared on the dark screen.

"Once the keypad appears, just dial the number that you need to call, or you can say "voice, call father" or whomever you have programmed into your phone."

Before she could finish her sentence, a shrill noise filled the room.