Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Justitia ❯ Chapter 20

Justitia 20: Begin- To come into being.

Trowa wiped the sweat off his palms on the back of his jeans and walked around the TV cabinet, which had temporarily taken up residence in the middle of the room, making his way back over to the wall where Wufei was picking up one of the small electric drills they had hired. Cathy was by the kitchen bench, carving swirling designs into the sides of the slender wooden rests they had cut out that morning. She looked up momentarily, sensing his gaze on her, and just stuck her tongue out, attention snared once more by her work.

Trowa picked up the second drill off the floor and started marking the holes into the wall, keeping an eye on Wufei's work to make sure they were keeping it aesthetic to some degree, not that he really had to worry. Wufei, it seemed, was rather pedantic about his swords and apparently knew exactly where he wanted them. Trowa let Wufei rub out the marks where he had put the swords and obediently drilled the holes where Wufei wanted them. It was almost identical to the layout that had been on the wall at Wufei's apartment, a fact that was not lost on Trowa.

The phone rang and Trowa slipped around the coffee table to answer it, tempted to drill a hole in the button but deciding against it. Duo appeared on the screen, grinning from ear to ear, waving his empty hands in the air.

"You sold it?"

`Yeah, some bum came around an hour ago and bought it.'

Trowa doubted `some bum' could afford to outright buy Wufei's apartment, not that they had put a very high price on it, but still. Rather, Trowa could only assume it was Duo's way of saying `someone I don't know and have no intention of getting to know'.

Wufei appeared at Trowa's side, leaning on his shoulder as he nodded a silent greeting to Duo. Trowa merely shrugged at Duo's raised brow. If Wufei wanted to take offence to Duo selling his apartment to a bum, then Trowa wasn't going to stop him. Duo just sighed, shaking his head at the two of them. Heero's voice came from nearby, and Trowa could only guess he was telling Duo to hurry up because the snide remark that was sent back was anything but polite.

"Well, uh, gotta go. Une said to tell you she'll be there in an hour tops, so be prepared. Also, there is a mission set for next week that has your names all over it."

Trowa stiffened a little at that, but Wufei just snorted and reached out to disconnect the call, heading back over to the wall, the drill attacking the plaster with something akin to glee. Trowa shook his head, wondering how Wufei was able to so easily dismiss the thought of going back to work when he himself was dreading it. He was enjoying the time off, after his last stint of close to six months, and the very thought of another mission, possibly for a long time, by himself, was horrible. Although, Duo had said `names' not `name'. No doubt Wufei had picked up on that immediately.

"Quick, isn't he," Cathy noted, leaning over the shoulder Wufei had vacated and holding up the wooden rests for his perusal. Each was unique, individually crafted, but each one was carved into the image of a dragon, each from a different culture. Trowa's hands came up of their own accord to snatch the rests, bringing them closer to study the finer details.

"They're perfect."

"I thought so," Cathy sighed dramatically, flicking a piece of her hair in his ear. It tickled and he pulled away sharply, frowning but unable to put any darkness into it. He let Cathy take the second drill off him and head over to Wufei, and he decided to just sit on the coffee table and watch as they assembled the wall, first attaching the rests, then carefully unpacking the swords and mounting them. Wufei went so far as to seal the sheath heads on all the swords but one, transforming them from deadly weapons to ornaments. They all knew what the weapons could do, but it was a sign of how Wufei felt about his situation that he was willing to jam them in their scabbards; that he was not only willing, but wanted to. It had been his idea.

There was a knock on the door as Wufei was hanging the last sword and Trowa slipped away to answer it, listening to Cathy and Wufei talk softly about where the last one had come from, why it was the last to be hung, why it was placed on the very end of the long line. So many small things, that seemed to mean nothing but always meant so much when it was Wufei, at least to Trowa, and what meant something to Trowa always meant the same to Cathy. Interesting that.

Une looked tired but not unhappy as he pulled open the door. Marie slipped under his arm and headed straight for the living area, not even bothering to say hello. Trowa didn't mind, understanding it was a sign that she felt she didn't need to; that she was welcome here no matter what she did, or didn't, say. He was not about to tell her otherwise.

"You're sure this is okay?" Une asked, peeking around the door to catch a glimpse of the others.

"Its fine," Trowa assured her. "We're just finishing here. We'll head off in a few minutes and drop Marie home this evening. Go…relax or something."

"Actually, I think Marie wanted...I mean, if it's okay." Une held up Marie's overnight pack and school bag and Trowa just rolled his eyes.

"Yes, she can stay over. Cathy won't mind sharing the floor." Trowa took the bags and hung them on the spare pegs of the coat rack.

"Thank you." And Trowa sensed it wasn't just for the sleepover. "Although, I think I'm jealous. It was bad enough when Marie slept over at Trowa Barton's house; that gossip faded after a few days. But now she gets to have a sleepover with Chang Wufei as well…"

Trowa blinked, decided to pretend he had not heard that and just closed the door to Une's soft chuckling, listening as the sound of her heels faded into the distance and a car started up downstairs. He idly wondered who was driving.

He walked back into the main room to find Wufei and Cathy hauling the TV cabinet back into its place against the wall, Marie staring at the sword collection critically. She was staring at a particular scabbard; one of the few that was not a katana. Trowa just waited quietly by the bench stools, watching carefully to see what would happen.

"That one's new," Marie noted, tugging on the sleeve of Wufei's shirt. Wufei looked up and nodded, cocking his head to the side in thought as he looked up at the weapon.

"Do you know where it's from?"

"It's Russian," Marie noted decisively and Wufei nodded. "But yours is better."

Wufei looked down at her, an odd expression flitting across his features, gone as quickly as it had come but Trowa did not miss it, seeing the mixture of confusion, and pain, and wicked memory, but the fact that it left so quickly, that there was no obvious sign of it, was enough to tell Trowa that particular demon was, while not forgotten, at rest. Wufei had made sure of that himself.

Cathy coughed lightly and they all turned toward the door, picking up coats as they went, Marie rushing out the door ahead of them, excited. It was a reminder for Trowa that she was anything but ordinary; that she thought a museum was fun yet could not go with her classmates. Any other child would have wanted to run off and chase boys with her friends. Marie wanted to hang with killers and masks, and see the proof the life she had lived was not a lie. In a way, Trowa supposed she was not that different from himself.

Cathy and Marie chatted quietly the whole way to the museum while Wufei watched the world go by out the window and Trowa pretended to watch the road while he watched Wufei. There was a light drizzle of rain, which had once again entranced Wufei, which in turn entranced Trowa. It was a strange sort of chain reaction but Trowa loved it. Loved that Wufei played along with it when he was more than well aware Trowa was watching.

The museum was a strange building. It had once been housed in one of the city's oldest buildings, but a stray hit in the war had tumbled the ancient stones and the museum was now a monolithic skyscraper; over fifty floors of history and artefacts probably best forgotten but gathered together in one pain as a reminder of just how mortal humanity was, and how completely prone to mistakes. Repeated mistakes.

Not that Trowa had anything against museums. He actually liked the place. It was a clean view of history, as if someone had taken a scalpel and cut a thin slice of each period in time and preserved it, just for a moment, to compare it with all the others. It was never much filled with people and those who were there were often quiet, save for the odd school group, their hushed voices barely distracting. People seemed to move slower in museums, whether in respect or fear Trowa did not know or care.

Marie grabbed Wufei's hand within the first ten seconds and dragged him off to the Gundam exhibition she had seen advertised in the pamphlets at the front desk. Trowa let them go, knowing the trip would somehow result in a higher Endless Waltz score for one of them to beat. How everything in the world seemed to relate to that game was almost beyond Trowa, save that he knew the world they lived in began and ended for Wufei and Marie with the very choices they made in real life, that they could unmake or remake to their heart's desires while playing the game. Ironic, really. And a little sad.

"Quiet boys attract quiet boys," Cathy noted quietly, wrapping her arm through his and tugging him in the direction of the masked theatre exhibition she wanted to see. She was smirking in a way that reminded Trowa of Duo. "That's what I thought that night when you brought Wufei back to the circus," Cathy noted when she caught a glimpse of his confusion.

Trowa just snorted, letting her drag him through the building, not really paying all that much attention to the exhibitions, just letting the entire place settle into him; the calm, almost sterile atmosphere. It was almost like a hospital for the almost forgotten.

In time they came to the one exhibition he knew neither Wufei or Marie would be going inside, and some morbid curiosity made him step in, and Cathy followed him without question.

It was lighter than he expected, a large skylight in the roof letting in the grey light of the outside world. The left wall was covered in images, constantly changing as the slide show ran over and over. Millions of pictures of the gundams, the news feeds that had terrified both earth and the colonies. The newspaper reports were rolling slowly on a large computer screen. There was a picture of Duo moving slowly across the screen, bound and being dragged toward a cell. Trowa remembered that day all too well.

The middle of the room had a collection of miniatures of all the different sorts of mobile suits that had been used in the wars. The far wall had an image of Marie, with Dekim Barton, dressed in their military apparel the day Marie declared herself Queen of the World. Trowa remembered that day too. The image changed to reveal images of the bases built by the Dekim Foundation, now destroyed.

They made their way through the room slowly. There was a young boy who kept looking at the pictures on the wall and then over at Trowa, but his parents never made the connection and the boy didn't argue as they left the room. He probably thought it was a popular hairstyle.

The wall by the door had a small shrine-like gallery of Treize Kushrenada, and a rather biased little report on his death and the terrible legacy those had left behind had chosen to attempt to wreak upon the world. It was far from truth, yet it was not an untruth either. Trowa read it sadly, then left the room. He supposed it was hard, sometimes, to understand decisions you didn't make.

"Trowa!"

Marie was by the souvenir stall, a bag of lollies in one hand, a stuffed Altron gundam in the other. Wufei was standing a meter away talking softly to someone Trowa didn't know. He looked serious, not annoyed but a little harried. The man must have seen Trowa and Cathy coming though, because he quickly dismissed himself and was already half a room away by the time Trowa reached Wufei.

"Who was that?" Cathy asked the question Trowa couldn't quite bring himself to.

Wufei was watching the man as he left the room, head down the whole time, as if embarrassed, but he made no move to go after him so Trowa just waited until Wufei turned to look at them, shaking his head a little.

"It was no one," Wufei said softly. "You ready to go?"

They all nodded in agreement, but Trowa noticed Marie was still looking across at where the man had disappeared. She even stopped as they were leaving and he gaze swept over the area, looking for him as if she thought he might still be around. Trowa's senses picked up the warning signal and he found himself jumping at shadows all the way to the shopping centre, because Marie insisted they have the best Chinese in the city.

Wufei and Cathy went to find the bathroom while Trowa and Marie waited for the order and Trowa couldn't help but notice Marie was still looking off into space, as if expecting to see something staring back, or someone.

"Who was that man?" There was no mistaking who Trowa meant.

"He apologised to Wufei," Marie said softly, a small frown on her face as she fiddled with Altron's mask.

"For what?" Trowa asked, confused, reaching up to grab the order off the counter and handing over the money, heading off toward a table, a little exasperated when he had to snag hold of Marie's shoulder and push her in the right direction.

"For hitting the button," Marie slumped in the chair, the frown on her face lengthening and it was obvious to Trowa that she didn't really get it; did not know what button. But Trowa knew. He wondered what Wufei was thinking.

"What did Wufei say?"

Marie looked up at him and shrugged and Trowa knew Wufei hadn't said anything at all. What was to be said after facing the person who took everything away from you, orders or not. Wufei wouldn't want revenge for it, didn't need it, but there was nothing to be said either. It was something that happened, and Trowa wondered if it was enough to merely know the man would probably take it back, if he could.

"Did my dad really beat Wufei in a sword fight?"

Trowa looked up, startled by the question. The frown was gone from Marie's face, replied with open curiosity, and some kind of need Trowa did not quite understand.

"Yes."

Marie relaxed back in her chair, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she watched Cathy and Wufei appear around the corner.

"That's good," Marie noted and she snagged her small carton of sweet and sour pork and began stabbing it with the chopsticks as Wufei and Cathy sat down, grabbing their own. Trowa watched her all through dinner, as she kept one eye on Wufei the whole time. He couldn't make out what she was feeling; what she had meant.

So he studied her some more, watching the way the spoke to one another, the way they behaved when it was just the two of them and when it was them and the rest of the world. He watched Wufei too, seeing how they worked together, and by the time they were home and setting up an extra bed on the floor for Marie he was no closer to understanding than he had been at dinner.

To all intents and purposes Marie and Wufei were more like siblings than even Cathy and himself. They knew each other backward. He could not see how Marie could contain any negative feeling for Wufei and still act the way she did. So what was it?

"You're rather distracted," Wufei noted as he came into the bedroom and grabbed some clothes to take to the shower.

"Just thinking," Trowa said softly.

"Care to share?" And Trowa knew Wufei would drop it if he said no.

"Marie asked me if it was true that Treize beat you in a duel," Trowa said softly, watching Wufei's response carefully, but there was only a sad, knowing little quirk to his lips as he turned to go take a shower, leaving Trowa to sit on the end of the bed, totally lost in thought.

The rain was getting heavier outside, so he just went to the window and watched it fall, thinking of the days that were passing almost too quickly. He wanted to savour them more but knew they would keep passing at the same speed. Like the raindrops. No matter how much they might want otherwise, they were still going to hit the ground. Their fate was inevitable. He supposed that was difference between raindrops and people.

He sensed rather than saw Wufei enter, sitting on the bed quietly and just waiting. Trowa turned in time, going to the closet to grab some clothes and heading for the shower, not saying a word, very much aware of Wufei's eyes on him all the way out of the room. It was more than a little disconcerting, having all of Wufei's attention focussed on him, but he liked it.

The bathroom was steamy and he quickly turned the water on, stripping off the layers of clothing. He went to open the door when he realised there was writing on it, showing up in the steam, only it was backwards. He quickly got inside and pulled the door shut, the writing now the right way around.

It was large, scribbled letters, almost destroyed by the spray of the water, but he could still read the single word they spelled.

`Justice.'

And Trowa finally understood. Treize won but could not bring himself to kill Wufei because he had not been right. Had known he was doing the wrong thing, even if his goal was inevitably good. He went about it the wrong way, but the only way available to him. Wufei had other possibilities and too them, and Treize recognised that, in all of them. Even Trowa.

But when the roles were reversed, when Wufei returned the favour of winning a duel, the end was to be different. Because the dying would complete all their possibilities. Trowa knew it didn't really matter if there might have been another way, because what had happened was right, for all of them.

Even Marie. Because Wufei was just returning the favour. And because it made them equals.

Trowa dressed quickly, tossing the lid on the dirty clothes and leaving them for the weekend as he slipped quietly through the living room to the bedroom.

"Night Trowa!" Cathy called across the room and Marie giggled.

"Goodnight Cathy," Trowa replied, rolling his eyes in the dark.

Wufei was standing at the window and Trowa wrapped his arms about his waist from behind, leaning down to place a warm kiss on the place where Wufei's neck met his shoulder. A slight tremor ran through Wufei, but there was no other response, so they just stood there, watching the rain.

"What are you looking at?" Trowa finally asked, drawing back to get a better look at Wufei.

"The same thing as you."

A little startled, but pleased, Trowa just tugged Wufei to the bed and pushed him over onto the covers, pulling back the quilt and sliding between the sheets.

He woke to still warm sheets and the sound of laughter, the scent of a cooked breakfast and pale sunshine glaring its way through the window. He went to stand in the doorway, watching Wufei roll across the floor in a tickle fight with the daughter of the man he had killed to win peace, who he had started another war to support and who he had spent the past years protecting, loving and befriending.

Duo and Heero were at the bench, chatting quietly to one another, and Une was opening the door, letting in Quatre and his wife. Sally's backside was sticking out from the refrigerator. Trowa had no idea what they were all doing there, but he didn't think it really mattered. What was important was the laughter, and the lights in their faces, and the shared weight of pain that was not really painful at all, because it was not alone.

Cathy winked at him from her place by the stove and waved a tray of pancakes at him. Trowa supposed there was a kind of harmony to a lot of things, and that they were not so different to raindrops after all. They were all going to crash eventually, but no matter how hard you fell, you were still just going to join the river.

Trowa thought there was a breed of justice in that, too.

That's the end….thanks for reading! Lol.