Yao Wang was anything but a coward. He was rather thin, with shrewd eyes and long fingers. And yeah, he liked to keep to himself. But that was just because all the people he knew were idiots!

He snorted in thought as he walked, hands hidden in the sleeves of his coat, thinking about the men he knew. So... childish. And he above all people should know how children behaved, seeing as he had raised countless.

He paused as he saw Ivan Braginsky approaching. Ivan wasn't the most liked man; Yao had spoken with him briefly before, and he was odd, but not badly meaning.

Of course there was the fact that he had no concept of personal space and always seemed to be touching Yao.

Ivan didn't see him this time, so Yao just sighed and kept walking, pulling his coat tighter around himself. But in front of him, Ivan paused. He squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face more in that scarf of his, looking ready to sneeze--

Yao winced. Someone as big as Ivan was bound to have--

"Ah-chi!"

--a really cute sneeze.

Dammit, had Yao just thought of something of Ivan Braginsky as cute? Well it was just his sneeze, so it didn't mean anything.

He resisted the urge to smile. Ivan sniffled and his eyes landed on Yao. A warm smile of his own lit up his face; and Yao thought that he really might not be as bad as everyone else said.