Their first night in Taiwan was spent in a hotel near the Taipei Shongshan airport, but the next day found the pair standing outside a small house. The wall was a peeling, sun faded blue, but behind the barrier was a fairy tale garden. So many flowers were blooming that it looked like someone had flicked bright dollops of paint all over the bushes, and the perfume lay so heavily in the air the men felt like they were walking through a scented curtain. The house itself was quaint, with painted shutters, a gabled roof line and two stories.

KO looked at the house, then at his lover. In his sharp suit and tie pulled loose, Mei looked like he belonged in a townhouse or apartment... not a cottage. For a moment, he wondered if maybe they'd come to the wrong address, but the taxi had already left after the driver pulled their suitcases out of the trunk. The rusty, wrought iron gate was locked, but Mei pulled a set of keys from his pocket and pushed the gate open with a loud creak.

"That's going to get annoying very quickly," leaving the suitcases next to the garden wall, Mei stepped along the sandstone path and fiddled at the front door until the right key opened that too. "Come on. Let's investigate and then bring everything in."

Not waiting to see if KO was following, Mei ran through the rooms like a child on Christmas day, excitedly ducking his head in to each doorway before moving on to the next. Meanwhile, KO looked at the sky with the dark clouds slowly roiling over the horizon and lugged all three suitcases inside the house before joining Mei.

The downstairs was predominantly open living area- at some stage, previous tenants had modernised the kitchen and given the open plan lounge and dining rooms a facelift, but the polished floorboards and dark timber highlights retained a more traditional feel. The kitchen made KO's fingers start to twitch, eager to really explore all its inclusions and get cooking. There was a small washroom and laundrette off the kitchen with a door opening into a small courtyard. Neither was too worried about the outside area so both simply stuck their heads out for a quick look before turning their attention to the rest of the rooms.

The stairs, a dark timber that gleamed under the lights, were opposite the front door and led straight to the second floor. There were two rooms at the back of the house, one with a bedroom suite and the other set up as an office with two desks and computers. The bathroom was large, modernised when the kitchen was and including a bath deep enough for an adult to relax fully. While Mei simply ducked in and out of the bathroom, KO lingered, eyeing off the bathtub and making plans for that night.

The final room was a large bedroom. At some point it had been a bedroom and a separate living area, and you can faintly see the marks where a wall had been removed to open the space up even further. Glass windows spanned the front of the house and a sliding door opened onto a small balcony overlooking the fragrant garden. The room was fully furnished and even included a small nook with bookshelf and beanbags. Mei stood in the centre of the space, hands on his hips as he surveyed the layout.

"Not too bad. Although I will want to paint that front wall sometime soon. I don't think I could cope with seeing it looking so shabby every time we come home."

"This is home then?"

"Of course it is. Why, did you think this was just another stop-gap until we found somewhere more long term?"

"Hmm." KO wrapped his arms around Mei's waist and rested his chin on his shoulder. "It looks lived in, the type of lived in that suggests we would be house-sitting rather than moving in."

"It should look lived in. I paid good money for that look."

"Eh?"

"There were two house purchase agreements, remember? Did you never wonder about the second one?"

"You said it was being rented."

"And it was... as a short term, house-sitting arrangement."

"Here? The second house you bought was in Taipei?"

"Mmm." Mei turned around in KO's arms to face him. "Coming to Taiwan was always in the plans for Zhi Yi Technologies. So when I needed help with the house registrations Xiao Nai and I agreed to purchase a place in Taipei where Zhi Yi could house whoever came over. After my parents started getting overly demanding and manipulative, I organised to have the pace fully furnished to suit my tastes... Better safe than sorry."

"Such a rich boy." The idea of paying someone to spend money furnishing a house on the off-chance you might be the one to live in it baffled KO. Who did that? "Should I call you Prince Mei, instead of E-Mei?"

With his arms around the hacker's waist, Mei pouted up at him. "I like it when you call me E-Mei."

KO smiled.

"My E-Mei." He dropped a light kiss on Mei's forehead, then the end of his nose, his cheeks and finally his lips.

Mei's lips curved against the kiss.

"We should have a housewarming party."

"Eh?"

"Right now. In that bed."

"Mei... we really should unpack..."

"Oppa..."

"Shit."

With KO in charge, unpacking and settling into the house didn't take more than a few days. Knowing that Mei had been in charge of directing the furnishing of the house had made him wary about how well stocked the kitchen would be, but he was pleasantly surprised. Apparently, Mei had informed the design team that the kitchen would be used by a chef and then left the professionals to fill it. When they'd eventually headed downstairs on that first day, with one appetite sated but the other ravenous and in need of food, they'd discovered the pantry and fridge fully stocked.

"Mei, did the house come with a fairy when you bought it?"

"No. Why?" Mei sat on the bench and chewed on a carrot.

"The groceries were done."

"Oh, that." His little prince shrugged his shoulders. "There's someone who comes every second day to keep an eye on the place, keep it clean etc. I rang her yesterday to let her know we where coming over and she must have stocked it all for us."

"I should say thank you." With his head in the pantry, bending over to move ingredients around and decide what he felt like making, KO didn't see the grin on Mei's face as the temptation to smack his butt grew too difficult to resist. "Ow."

"You're the one who bent over." Unrepentant, Mei returned to his perch on the bench. "And you can thank her tomorrow when she comes again."

"Eh? Why?"

"To clean." The look Mei gave him said that the answer should have been obvious.

"Why? We are here now. Cleaning is my job?"

"Not anymore it's not. We have work to do for Zhi Yi and the sooner we get it done, the sooner we can go back to Beijing. Besides, I'm not having you work all day and then wear yourself out with housework at night."

"But..." Unable to formulate his thoughts into words, KO reverted back to his stone-like fa?ade. While Mei watched and chattered away, KO made their lunch in silence. It wasn't until the rice and dishes of stir-fried vegetables and chicken were on the table that he felt able to speak. "If I'm not cleaning, and we're not being paid at the moment, then what do I do for rent?"

"Why would you pay rent? Oh.. this is good." Mei groaned at the first mouthful then quickly dug in to the rest.

"I have to do something. I can't live off you. We're both men... we don't... it..."

With a click, Mei put his chopsticks down on the table and reached over to grip KO's hand. "We are both men. And because I'm a man as well I understand that you have a male pride. Do you think I didn't know you were trying to work out a way to buy half my place in Beijing so we were in a partnership? I saw the search history. Laosan told me about you wanting to sign a contract on the condition you get paid 3 years in advance. I can put two and two together and realise that you were concerned about living off me."

There was nothing KO could say to that. It was all true. He'd never thought he was this conscious of status or wealth but living with someone who owned everything, paid for everything... It had started to grate on his nerves.

"That's why your name is on the house registration as well."

"Eh?"

"3 years advance of your salary wouldn't pay for half of my Beijing apartment. So I organised a mortgage for you to jointly own this house with me."

"A mortgage? I don't want to go through the banks..."

"Who said it was with a bank? You owe me half the value of this place and you're going to pay it back, interest free, from the payment we get from Zhi Yi when we complete the new programming."

"That won't be enough."

"It will be. Xiao Nai and I made sure of it; why do you think I only bought a small house? So you don't owe rent- in cash or in chores. We both have enough in savings for groceries and bills until we get the programming finished and can 'sell' it to Zhi Yi. There's no reason we can't freelance some extra programming on the side either. Give laosan first option of course, but sell it to whoever wants to buy it."

Shocked into silence, KO could only stare at his partner. Did he just get out manoeuvred by his E-Mei.

"Small house?"

"En. It's small enough that you can afford half of it, large enough for the two of us to live comfortably. I have standards, you know."

Aware of what he had just done to his partner, but choosing to ignore KO's shock and salve his partner's pride, Mei returned to his meal.

"This is reeeeally good. So delicious. KO..." he pointed the chopsticks at the man in question. "Never stop cooking for me. Even when we're old and grey and we have arthritic knuckles from too much typing... you have to still cook for me. Okay?"

"Hmm." Old and grey and arthritic? That sounded perfect to KO.