Rukawa unlocked the door of his old apartment before motioning to the redhead to follow him inside. They had been silent during their trip from the antique shop and the only conversation they had was to decide on where to go to have their talk in private.

The apartment was clean and well kept by the cleaning lady employed by the landlord, despite the 4 years it has been left uninhibited. Rukawa looked around, reminising the past when he was just a lowly music-composer about to make it to the top with Ming Mei by his side.

Suddenly he heard the balcony door being shifted open and the warmth mixed in with the cold breeze blew in, dissipating the muskiness of the room. He looked to where Hanamichi was standing under the threshold of the balcony door, the dusky rays of the setting sun falling upon the redhead making him look surreal. Hanamichi then turned around to give the brunette an uncertain smile.

"I saw you twice," Rukawa suddenly spoke up, "and the first time I saw you I wasn't dreaming. I was with my girlfriend when you - the ancient you - appeared at our penthouse."

Hanamichi looked surprised. "What was I doing?"

"You were playing the zither. And humming a song. Then you turned around and smiled at me," Rukawa told him.

Hanamichi went silent for a moment, thinking about what Rukawa has just told him before it was his turn to share his experience. "I saw you three times. Only one was in a dream."

"What was I doing?" Rukawa asked walking slowly towards the redhead.

Hanamichi blushed, turning his face away to gaze outside the apartment.
"...You were making love to me," he replied softly.

Suddenly strong arms wrapped the redhead from behind in a loose embrace. Hanamichi stiffened at first, but it felt so good, so right, that the redhead easily relaxed and leaned back against the brunette's chest. Hanamichi sighed when he felt a warm mouth brushing against his neck before he bent his head back to give Rukawa more access. He nearly purred when Rukawa started kissing him and unconciously grasped at the brunette's arms which were now holding him tightly around his chest and waist.

Suddenly a dog barked from outside and the daze Hanamichi was in quickly dipersed.
"Shit!" he cursed, quickly pushing away to stand a few good feet from Rukawa.

The fox-eyed man blinked in surprise at the sudden loss of contact. "What's the matter?"

Hanamichi's face burned. "Look, I... I've never been kissed by a man before and so... this is all kinda weird for me."

Rukawa did not comment. True, it was getting weird for him too.

"Have you been to the Qin Dynasty's terracotta army exhibition?" Rukawa asked the redhead to break the tension.

Hanamichi nodded. Walking towards the doorway, Rukawa picked up the zither from the floor where he had just left it earlier against the wall. Strumming the strings he instantly managed to familiarise himself with the tones and started to play.

Hanamichi gaped. The melody was hauntingly familiar. Try as he might, he knew that there was not a time when he had heard the melody from any radio and television station because that melody was played when there were no such thing as electronical media appliances. It was played far back in the past - so long ago.

"I can still remember the song that you hummed," Rukawa said, still strumming the zither. He began walking towards the balcony and continued, "I was born a musician. I can play any tune once I've heard it and I can immedietly arrange it for the synthesizer. We're probably the only ones in the world who has ever heard of the real Qin music."

"Is it really Qin Dynasty music?" Hanamichi asked curiously, not moving from his spot.

Rukawa turned around to look at the redhead and after a while the brunette told the other man, "My girlfriend and I went to see a blind palm-reader and she told me that I was from the Qin Dynasty some 2,197 years ago. Besides, can't you remember from your dream that I was wearing clothes similiar to the clothes of the terracotta army? If I was from the Qin Dynasty, so were you."

Hanamichi just stood there with his head down, looking thoughtful. Rukawa then made a move towards the light switch and switched on the lights. White light flooded the small apartment and casted away the shadows made by the dusky rays of the golden sun.

"I saw you in Qin clothes," Rukawa went on as he walked towards the small kitchen, switching on the lights there, "in a Qin house, humming a Qin song."

Hanamichi looked around the bare apartment, finally observing his surroundings with the bright light.

"Where's the furniture? You live here?" the redhead asked the fox-eyed man.

"I used to," Rukawa said, "before I moved to Japan with Ming Mei."

"So you were born here?"

Rukawa nodded. "Yes, but my parents are Japanese."

Rukawa then suddenly realised that he has been speaking with Hanamichi in Japanese since the first time they met. Rukawa shook his head lightly at the fact, thinking that it was probably due to his past life with Hanamichi that had made both of them able to click together without them realising it.

"What's the matter?" the redhead asked.

"Nothing," Rukawa replied walking towards the centre of the room and laying down on the carpet.

Hanamichi followed him and sat down beside Rukawa, drawing up his knees to his chest. The redhead rubbed at his face and sighed. " 'Never felt so confused in all my life," Hanamichi mumbled. Propping his arms on his knees, he looked at Rukawa.

"So, we knew each other in the Qin Dynasty, huh?" the redhead asked.

"Hai."

"And do you think that we were ... lovers?" Hanamichi asked softly.

Rukawa turned his head to gaze at the redhead deeply before saying just as softly, "Hai"

Hanamichi smiled as he leaned his head on his arms. "I thought so or I've never would've wanted to kiss a man the first time I saw him."

Rukawa gave him a small smile before turning his head back to face the ceiling once more. "When I saw you at the apartment, I already felt intimate with you. As if I've known you for a long time."

"And the second time?" Hanamichi asked.

"In a dream last night, before I went to see the exhibition. I didn't tell anyone about it, even Ming Mei, because I knew she didn't believe me the first time," Rukawa told him.

"And what was I doing then?" the redhead asked.

"I think you were putting on your clothes," said Rukawa as he tried to remember clearly, "Two layers, I think."

Hanamichi remembered one of Ling Ling's narration of the Qin Dynasty clothes clearly from that morning and said, "No, I think it was three layers."

The dark-haired man shrugged. "Neverthless, I think the Qin Dynasty people wore too much."

Hanamichi chuckled. "That's what you said to me in my dream."

Rukawa looked at the redhead in surprise before he smiled again and stood up to walk towards the still-open balcony door. The cold wind of the nearing nightfall chilled the room a little but both men did not seem to mind.

"What other things do you remember?" Rukawa asked.

Hanamichi thought hard when suddenly a vision flashed in his mind.
"A dagger..." he said trying his best to catch the image clearly but what he saw horrified him.

Blood.... so much blood...

Rukawa knelt beside Hanamichi who suddenly has a shocked expression on his face and held him by the shoulders. "What is it?"

When the redhead did not reply but looked at him with fear in his brown eyes, Rukawa shook him roughly.
"What is it?" the brunette asked again, "Are you hiding something from me that you've seen?"

Hanamichi shook his head furiously before he pushed Rukawa on the floor and started kissing the fox-eyed man almost frantically. Rukawa, stunned at the redhead's behaviour, only allowed Hanamichi to straddle him as their mouths moved and their tongues battled. Both men were swept in the sea of wild passion and they both rode the waves of familiar ecstacy as Hanamichi took Rukawa on the floor.

They both came together, and the sudden blinding climax shook their minds and their bodies before Hanamichi slumped on top of Rukawa, totally spent.

A few seconds later, they both lay in each other's arms in silence as Rukawa ran his fingers over Hanamichi's red hair before Hanamichi took the hand to thread their fingers together and kiss the pale knuckles. Hanamichi bit his lip as he rested his head on Rukawa's shoulder. The disturbing vision he had earlier jolted a sudden feeling of worry over his Qin Dynasty lover that he desperately wanted to make love to the brunette at once to assure himself that the man was still with him, alive and well.

"What was that about?" Rukawa asked carefully as he ran his hand along the still clothed arm of the redhead.

"I... I saw blood ..."

"Whose?"

"...I don't know..." the redhead said wearily. To the redhead's relief, Rukawa did not press for more as he allowed the emotionally-drained young man fall asleep. Carefully, Rukawa set Hanamichi down to lay more comfortably on the floor before he arranged the redhead's clothing and covered the redhead with his long jacket. Rukawa then picked up his own throusers which were thrown aside and winced a little as he pulled them on before standing up to shut the balcony door closed. After doing so, the brunette then walked back over to the redhead and crawled under the jacket to join his newly-found lover to sleep.

Chapter Six