A/N: Over the summer I got into the habit of taking a notebook with me to restaurants, and I guess it still remains... no one even cared that I was writing while chewing on some chicken enchilada... heh. Enjoy.

He Showed Me

The music was too loud and his throat burned from the smoke. The beer hall throbbed with life.

Edward sat back and tried to let his body resound with the movement of voices and men. All the souls in the room making up one spirit. The man next to him nudged him in the ribs, making his eyes snap open.

“Entlang singen! Jungen singen!” Sing along! Sing boy! Edward scowled at the jovial German and muttered a demeaning phrase at him in Xingese.

The man, not yet very drunk, stared at him as he as he crossed his arms over his chest and hunkered down in his chair.

“Wo erlerntest du den, Jungen?” Now, where’d you pick that up, boy? Edward glanced at him, golden eyes smoldering under blond lashes. For a second he looked wild, like someone about to say something crazy.

But in the end, the words that came out of his mouth sounded perfectly normal, if a bit puzzling.

“Es ist chinesisch. Mein… Freund unterrichtete mich.” It’s Chinese. My... friend taught me. A wry smile. “Gut war er nicht viel eines Freunds, aber er kam von… dort.” Well, he wasn’t much of a friend, but he came from... there.

The German grinned knowingly and bought the kid a beer, wondering how pretty the girl his friend had stolen was. (Because of course that was what had happened) He’d had the same problem a couple months ago himself. He sighed and turned back to the revelry, feeling like the golden-eyed boy wanted space.

Edward pressed the beer to his lips and whispered a few more achingly foreign words.

“Wo ai ni.”

I

love

you.

A/N: Oh no, it’s so short! Review please!