Alan drifted in a light sleep aware he was warm and comfortable but not cognitive enough to pull fully awake. He knew another presence was with him though and reached towards the soothing flow of energy he felt from it. He sighed contentedly and rolled up on his side tucking one hand beneath his cheek and one between his thighs. He scrunched backwards into the body heat he could feel snuggling right under Q-Chan's chin and relaxing into the arms that closed around him with small plaintive sounds.

Q-Chan folded the young man against his chest and listened to the muted throbs of his heart. He took in the delicate scent of his hair and the slightly deeper one of skin, stronger with the light perspiration of sleep. Trees, the boy smelled like bark and leaves, and high wind and reminded Q-Chan of the forests and glens of his past. He held him a little closer and laid a tender hand against Alan's cheek. The boy seemed so frail in his slumber, so delicate, far too delicate to have endured the cruelty done to him. He was a small man, smaller then Q-Chan his self, his bones thin and finely arched. An odd sense of detached wonder came to the kami, wonder at the great strength the compact frame belied and the strange attraction he held for its owner. Q-chan let his mind wander back through his many years over his previous lovers, all of them male, all of them tall of stature for their time and muscular. Most of the later ones had been blonde and blue eyed as his journeys brought him into other lands where more exotic fair had been found and he had been entranced by the sun colored hair and sky tinted eyes. Certainly none of them even remotely resembled Alan or anything even vaguely similar. The kami struggled to ferret it out the difference but his thoughts spun empty and useless offering no insight.

Q-chan laid with human quietly, feeding him constant small measures of wellness and gently tugging him back to reality. He delved back into the maelstrom of hurt that lay at the boy's core and allowed the past to play out before him. He took no particular path and sought out no particular information, rather he allowed it to flow by him in waves. He knew the little one was sick emotionally although the brightness of his soul struggled to break through. His respect grew as he took in the entire scope of the damage he had sustained. Q-Chan had seen more then one of species fall to depravity becoming as twisted as their tormentors and just as dangerous as a result of the kind of abuse Alan had lived through. He had seen even more crumble into despair their minds and hearts screaming echoes of whom they would have been, many taking their own lives or sealing themselves off from the world that had not saved them. Alan had walked the razor sharp edge and had lived to regret falling of it, the scars embedded in his arms and had never let himself slip again. Instead Alan woke every day of his life and fought a battle within himself to continue on, to be one of the good guys, keeping himself balanced on the knife blade.

Q-Chan had once watched a cartoon with a curious foul tempered green creature that spoke in rhyme. It amused and puzzled him so much that he returned to it year after year when it was shown on television during humans rather noisy, garish celebration of the birth of the prophet Emmanuel. He found he empathized with the furry creature and liked the way his name sounded when pronounced. The Grinch! It had a nice crunchy sound that for no discernable reason he found appealing. He had found that watching it with adults was very interesting as many of them invariably blinked back tears at the ending, with small smiles on their face as if they had found some great piece of wisdom. Especially when the poor thing was drug through the snow trying to drag back a sleigh that Q-Chan felt would have been just as well off at the bottom of the cliff. It never failed that at least one of them choked back a small sob at the rendition of his heart breaking the confines of the little gold frame drawn around it. It had perplexed him to no end why anyone would want to become more emotional and unstable as he understood the parable, much less three times more so, or why anyone would be silly enough to be moved to tears by it. Now, in the present, as held the tiny diminutive frame against him, moisture crept into his own eyes as his heart ached and swelled within him and he thought perhaps he understood all too well.

"What are you doing to me small one? I should push away before you wind around me and I not let go." He whispered into Alan's ear. Alan twitched in response to the low noise and brush of air against him. He blinked rapidly in succession his eyes fluttering open and adjusting to the low light and turned in the circle of arms surrounding him and faced the kami. Alan held quite still and simply gazed at Q-Chan.

"Well?" Q-Chan prompted after the silence had stretched too long. This was not the response he had been expecting but when had humans ever truly proved to be predictable. He watched the grey eyes flicker up and down his face and waited patiently for the close scrutiny to end. Alan had yet to try and remove himself from his embrace and as Q-Chan had removed his presence from his mind at the first sign of waking, the kami was clueless as to what he was thinking. He was therefore not prepared when Alan suddenly grinned and slid his arms around him and downright shocked when the boy had audacity to kiss him fully on the lips. So shocked his mouth fell open in stunned surprise and was promptly invaded by quick, clever tongue plunging in. Q-Chan meant to push him away but his arms wouldn't listen and instead closed around him tightly pulling him closer. His eyes slid shut to in direct disobedience to his will and he was mortified to hear him self moan in what sounded suspiciously like pleasure. It didn't help matters any that the little monster was an adept kisser as well and other parts of his body reacted by swelling against the small box of the wretched heathen's hips. The kami tried to pull Alan's arms off him and push him out of the bed only to find that instead he had somehow rolled on top of the pint sized demon and oh, his ancestors forgive him, did that feel impossibly right. The only thing to his advantage was that he did have it pinned down by it's tiny birdlike wrists where it couldn't get away as he kissed it back so hard he bruised both their lips before jerking back with a gasp when he realized what he was doing. The kami pushed himself up a little and glared down at Alan trying to keep a severe look on his face.

"Cheeky are you not? Do you always kiss strange men you have not met?" Q-Chan spat out trying to cover the loss of his composure. Alan's lips curled in amusement.

"Well, now, I haven't really before but if they all kiss like that, I might take it up." Alan quipped up at him. "Besides although you may be strange I have met you before my prince, as they say once upon a dream. You've been wandering through my head for quite awhile." Alan curled his fingers over Q-Chan's hands and arched his back using the resistance to stretch and pop it into place. The kami sucked in a tight breath at the wanton display as Alan took the opportunity rub as much of his body as possible against his, particularly against the still hard bulge at his groin.

"Imp." Q-Chan hissed his eyes narrowing and darkening to molten honey. Alan smirked and twisted his wrists in the kami's grasp.

"Really? It would seem to me that I am helpless to your desires, not the other way around my friend." Q-Chan sat back slowly and let go. He could clearly see the marks he had left on Alan's skin and to his dismay it was obvious there would be finger shaped bruises. Alan sat up half way reclining on his elbows and crossing his legs at the ankles. Q-Chan primly pulled his feet to the floor and sat beside him on the edge of the bed. He watched the human from behind the fall of his hair more then half tempted to slide into his mind again. Then again he was more then half tempted to do many, many things, most of which he considered to be inappropriate. Alan cocked his head to one side and waited, when it became apparent the other man would say nothing he sighed and began to speak.

"Ok, I'm sorry I kissed you but you looked like you might want me to and you certainly didn't seem to mind. Why so glum now? I could have screamed bloody murder and threw a hissy fit when I woke up ya know. Course, I would have sounded real stupid trying to explain it to anyone who came running. 'See here this guy. Yeah, the gorgeous androgynous one, well he's been inside my head forever it seems running around trying to protect me from myself and feeding me his energy and all that jazz. And I thought he was like you know one them there figments of my overactive imagination, well I was plum startled and all when I woke up and dang it all if he wasn't right there.' Somehow, I think someone would offer me a hug me coat in a nice shade of white and I had one of those years ago, they are so passé." Q-Chan struggled to keep a smile from his face at the craziness. He did have an image to uphold after all and it did not involve laughing at crude humor.

"You are too bold. Why are you not shaken by my presence in your mind?" Alan grew quite serious at the question and his eyes became hard and flat as slate.

"You have prowled my mind and you know many things I would wish you didn't and you know where I have been and what I have seen. Do you really believe much of anything is left in this world that can shock me?" Alan asked in a low voice that brimmed with warning. Q-Chan had very little reason to fear any human but a shiver snaked down his back in response to the silk threat. He knew how dangerous this human could be when he chose. He had seen it in his mind and felt it bubbling just beneath the surface of the skin. The greatest adversary a man can face is one he underestimates and Alan with his smooth sculpted face and slight build need only a pair of dark glasses to cover the viper within. Q-Chan nodded bowing his head respectfully and giving the law enforcement agent his due.

"I must beg pardon for going where I was not invited. My apologies young one. My cloak was laid upon you and opened a portal I was not expecting." Q-chan gathered his cloak to him and stood. He offered out his hand to Alan and gracefully helped him to his feet. Alan's head stopped just shy of Q-Chan's chin and for once Q-Chan felt the unaccustomed thrill of being the larger of a pair. His hand clung just a shade longer then was necessary before letting go and ushering the smaller man out the door.

"Come little bit, your cousin and my grandson I believe have finished being amorous. I would like to introduce you to my mother." Alan raised an eyebrow but accepted the firm hand on the small of his back and the almost proprietorship manner in which he was being handled.

"I do not trust you, Count." Alan told him flatly, well aware of who and what he was from his monitoring of Wu Long.

"That is well, Alan and shows you are wise. Now, if you please this way." Alan snorted to himself and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."