Red Light

New

Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan opened the restaurant doors for Wang Hao Xuan. The host opened his mouth to object at the entrance of the rather grubby little boy even if he was wearing a new jacket. Before he could say anything however, Song Lan coughed. The host looked up to see a thunderous scowl on the man's face.

He was smart enough to shut it.

A quick throat clearing and he started over. "This way, please."

Hao Xuan had missed the entire exchange. Still too busy looking at his mittens and waving his hands to watch the tags flutter.

The host seated them in a far corner. Quiet and with few other diners, it worked well for them. A nod between them. They would ignore the reason the man had put them there.

"Hao Xuan?" Xingchen called.

"Mnn?" the boy answered without looking up from his mittens.

Xingchen squatted down to be at Hao Xuan's height but stayed an arm's length back.

"Let's go to the bathroom and clean up a bit. We got you some new clothes too and it's warmer to try some of them on here. What do you think?" he asked softly.

"More new?" Hao Xuan gasped.

"More new." Xingchen smiled.

"Okay!"

In no time the two of them were in the bathroom. Hao Xuan was in the largest stall. Xingchen had wet some paper towels with warm water and passed it under the door.

"Feel like wiping off? I think your new clothes will feel better if you do." It took Xingchen supplying wet paper towels three times before Hao Xuan declared, "I'm good!"

"Here is a set of clothes to try on. Put them on and come out so I can see if they fit."

Xingchen passed the clothes under the door and then retreated. The last thing he wanted the boy to feel was backed into a corner.

It took a bit but when the door opened, Xingchen was pretty stunned.

Instead of a moderately dirty little boy wearing stained, worn clothing, there was a clean face in a sweater and jeans.

"Hao Xuan, you look so handsome!" Xingchen smiled making the boy blush.

"They're a little big but I think they look very nice on you. Next time, maybe you can go shopping with us so we can get exactly the right size." The tone was casual but it was definitely not done in an offhand manner. Xingchen was carefully placing the idea of going places with them in Hao Xuan's mind.

"Get your old clothes and I'll wash them for you, okay?"

"Really?"

"Really." he smiled.

Hao Xuan gathered his sweatshirt, t-shirt, sweatpants and underthings into a ball and placed them in Xingchen's hands.

It was the closest he had been to one of the men all afternoon.

"I have a brush in the bag too. Would you like to use it?"

A nod.

Song Lan had expected Wang Hao Xuan to look different. He didn't expect what appeared to be a whole new kid.

He had been checking messages while they were in the bathroom. A quick tap on the screen and he was ready to take several pictures of the smiling little boy.

"Hao Xuan! You look very nice. Red suits you." Song Lan was smiling as wide as Xiao Xingchen. "Come have a seat and we'll order our dinner. Are you hungry?"