Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Prisoner of War ❯ Morning After ( Chapter 19 )

Note: It's me again. I just thought to "celebrate" the start of school again, I should upload this chapter on there. It's kind of not so long, but I did what I could, and chapter 21 will be out in about two weeks. That's ten pages with spacing in between paragraphs ^_^ I don't own Gundam Wing. The pairings are 1+2+1, 3+4+3 (maybe some lime later on? Don't know yet), and maybe 5+S Comments are always great, but it's not like anyone has to do anything. Hope you like.

Chapter Nineteen

Six o' clock on the dot. Liquid obsidian blinked open as if to adjust to bright rays of the unforgiving sun - except Wufei's eyes were met with nothing but absolute darkness. Heavy, mauve curtains draped smothering across the windows in his small but comfortable room. Somewhat dazed, the Chinese man pressed himself upward with half-asleep muscles. The memories of last night suddenly started to trickle into his brain, as if he had gotten drunk. Of course he hadn't. Wufei doesn't drink period.

It had been a while since he had gotten such a good night's rest, and it was weird but good. Despite his usual scowl, a faint smile lit up Asian features. And all of a sudden he remembered the mission as well . . . and that girl Sally. There was certainly something about her that was uncanny when her blue eyes met his figure like she recognized him. The strange way she waved at him was too crisp and almost detached. He got the feeling that she didn't belong in this inn; her calling was elsewhere.

`I wonder how the others' are holding up. They should be used to me taking off for no reason by now.' With hesitation, he slipped his feet from beneath the warm nest of comforters, allowing his limbs to adjust to the abrupt change of temperature. Wufei arose and headed for the window determinedly to see how everything looked in morning light, and to ascertain that conditions were suitable for him to leave it.

Mist. And much of it blanketed across the field, looking thick enough to be sliced cleanly through with a blow of his sword. Uncertain sunlight peeked through the horizon, filtering through the trees. It was remarkable to be able to find such a remote and untouched location on Earth these days. Technology was slowly overwhelming the beauty of nature. And it was only then that the preoccupied pilot noticed that his motorcycle had climbed up a mountain trail last night. `Shit,' and that one word said it all. Where exactly was he?

In the semi-darkness, light suddenly became very apparent from a solid swing of the door. The energy exerted was to the exact proportion of what was required to have it shift open at a 45-degree angle. His question was momentarily put on hold as his muscles tautened upon instinct. `There's only one person I know that would do that.' And sure enough the face of Heero Yuy was revealed to the Chinese soldier. He relaxed almost instantly - until another voice entered the scene.

"Hey, Wu-man!"

Wufei scowled briefly all in their daily bantering routine (or at least when they were together). Secretly the familiarity of something was reassuring to the boy. "Maxwell," he addressed Duo curtly.

"We've been discovered," Heero announced to him, completely straightforward and to the point.

Dark brown eyes widened in surprise. "What?" his expression seemed to demand answers to questions he had yet to ask. `How did they find me?'

Shyly, Quatre peeked through the opening of the door as well. He opened his mouth to speak before being silenced by Duo, whose keen purple eyes noticed a flash of movement in the otherwise deserted hall. Wufei ushered them all inside though Heero saw no point in taking the precaution of whispering. And it only made it look more suspicious anyhow.

"How did you find me?" Wufei asked curiously, mind drawing blanks.

Duo just grinned at him and said brightly, "We know you too well, Fei. And all those times you just run off and disappear, I'm used to it by now." A mischievous glimmer lit his eyes, "Have a lover hiding here somewhere?" He pretended to look around.

"Focus, Duo," Heero didn't even spare a glance towards the boy.

He groaned in disappointment, arguing, "Even you're not worried that people will figure out we're terrorists," he exasperated. "It's not like we're in immediate danger."

Prussian eyes aimed and shot an icy glare towards the braided pest. "There's a difference between paranoia and precaution," he retorted calmly. Surprisingly enough, he had gotten used to Duo's strange ability to gain insight on him.

"And you never know," Trowa observed quietly. "Both of you need to focus."

Heero bit back any words about to roll off his tongue and decided that the taller pilot was right. Duo seemed to think so, too, which made things a whole lot easier.

"We should leave," Wufei suggested grimly.

"Right," The American nodded. "I know another safe house not too far away from here. Stayed there for a couple of missions."

`Thank Nataku someone knows where to go.' And with that the troupe exited Wufei's room, grabbing the keys along the way. It was a strangely quiet group of teenaged boys, who were atop a mountain in the middle of nowhere.

Even so, Duo made the effort to at least try acting normal, "So what are you guys doing on Saturday?" he asked brightly. At first the pilots were perplexed. [There was no reason to make up stories.]

Quatre caught on to his idea almost immediately and smiled, "Well after we get home, I think I'll catch a movie. What about you, Trowa?" he encouraged the usually silent clown to speak.

"I have to baby sit," he attempted to inflict disappointment in his voice, giving a tiny smile to the Arabic. [It was kind of fun pretending that they could do whatever they pleased.]

Wufei joined the charade with an appropriate "Ha, ha! That sucks, Barton, but I beat you on that one. My mom is making me clean the whole house! What about you, Yuy?" [It more or less made them wonder involuntarily for a brief moment if they were to survive the war - what would they do?]

All faces turned expectantly for the Japanese pilot to announce his plans. Heero had no idea what to say and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Ice cream," he stated plainly, startling the others. [Was there anything left for them?]

Quatre's eyes twinkled in surprise and humor, and even Wufei and Trowa seemed mildly surprised at the unexpected. Duo however, being his usual self, let loose a smirked. `Ice cream? Never thought that would happen. Hmm . . . maybe he has a weakness for sweets.' His thoughts widened the devilish smirk into a broad grin.

"Ooh! I'm going, too!" Duo proclaimed loudly.

"But I don't want you to go with me."

"Sure you don't," he gave a playful wink. "And besides, even if you didn't want me to go, you know I'd still be tagging along. Nothing short of supernova somewhere close by could keep me away from anything chocolate!"

"No wonder you're so out of shape," Heero murmured, no trace of a smirk touching the edges of his lips. His eyes however, dark cerulean, shimmered slightly with an unknown glint. Smoothly, he flicked his gaze elsewhere in perfect timing, not too hastily but fast enough to avoid the others' gazes.

`That was - different . . . Since when does Heero joke around?' Wufei's eyes widened slightly in surprise, as did his comrades, well, with the exception of Duo.

The American coughed in mock stun but bristled with a wide grin, "Aww come on, Heero," he coaxed slyly. "I happen you have a certain - weakness shall we say - for vanilla, and you don't hear me saying you're out of shape."

"Duo," Heero began, "do me a favor and shut up."

"No thanks," Duo snorted softly. Suddenly he noticed a strawberry blonde girl serving early morning guests. `Hmm . . . I've never seen her before here. Wonder who she could be?'

As if on cue, Sally lifted her eyes at that moment, noticing the young troupe making their way towards her. She nearly dropped the plates that her hands clutched. `The pilots . . . ' Her grip tightened, and she forced her demeanor to hide any trace of surprise. Luckily, the boys were too enraptured in their own thoughts to heed much attention to the girl.

"Wufei," she smiled. "I'm glad to see that you're awake." Sally beamed slightly. "And these must be your friends! Hi, my name is Sally," she introduced.

"Good morning, Sally," the blonde Arabic smiled back, "I'm Quatre, and this is Trowa," he gestured to the taller figure, who managed a tiny wave and nod.

"Hey!" Duo grinned impishly, "How ya doing? I'm Duo," His outgoing persona won over precaution. "And - " Slinging on one arm over the Japanese pilot, yanked him closer to the group, "This guy over here with a stick up his ass is Heero," he finished with dramatic flourish.

The youth Duo was referring to brazenly, coolly raked Prussian blue eyes over the waitress, who merely laughed at the American's overzealous antics. `Baka. I can speak for myself. She's nervous.' Sapphire narrowed involuntarily as he continued to stare at the uncomfortable girl, brooding, intense, dark. He felt a not so subtle jab at his ribs and a frown of disapproval from the American. `Don't tell me how to handle myself,' his eyes shot back evenly.

"You'll have to excuse, Heero here," Duo apologized. "Like I said, he has a stick shoved up his ass." He smiled at Heero however, almost helplessly. `Like anyone could make you obey anyway.'

Sally laughed softly, "It's not a problem. So are you boys up for some breakfast?" she offered hopefully.

`I want to get to know them some more. There's something about those boys that draw people to them, especially Duo.' She watched the American laugh, joking around with his fellow pilots. `Heero would have it, too, if only he didn't continuously try to push everyone away.' The boy seemed to detach his consciousness from the rest of them. `Trowa - there's something very lonely about him.' An emerald eye blankly stared past with nothing to hide. It seemed so void until he glanced at the blonde boy, who was smiling in polite conversation with herself. `Quatre's so genuinely nice, a rarity these days.' She stared at the Chinese boy, who had crossed arms and looked downward with his dark eyes. `Wufei has a secret past that he's never told anyone. It must have been painful, but he seems a loner.'

"Always!" Duo exclaimed brightly.

"That would be wonderful," Quatre smiled, "but I'm afraid we don't have too much money with us."

The blue-eyed woman waved any protest off, "You're growing boys," she pointed out. "Besides, it's not that big of a deal."

"Well, if you're sure . . . " But Sally had already slipped to the back of the bar, busying herself in the cabinets. Quatre turned to the others and smiled, "That was nice of her."

"I thought we were leaving," Heero cut in abruptly, questioning them with his glances.

"Free food, Heero!" he waved his arms to catch the stoic boy's attention with widened violet pools. "We'd be better off with a good meal anyway, and I know that you know that."

Heero shrugged nonchalantly before reluctantly agreeing, "True. But she never asked us what we wanted to eat."

A thoughtful look crossed their expressions, "She sure looks like she knows what's she doing though," Duo observed with a half grin.

The black-haired pilot simply snorted, "Onnas are too forgetful," he decided with disapproval. There was silence after that moment, and everyone felt at a loss of words as the conversation died. `Who is she? And when did I make it a habit to worry about people in that way? Especially a woman.' The only reasonable excuse he could conjure was that there was something oddly unsettling about her presence here, and Duo didn't recognize the girl either. Strange - then that she seemed to recognize him, all of them in fact. His eyes narrowed to black slits as he rained unrelenting glares at the woman.

"Strange," he muttered darkly.

* * *

An hour later, the group had polished off an enormous platter of a rather satisfying breakfast. Duo had practically inhaled half of the food on sight much to Heero's disdain. Sally had watched the boys from afar, above busying hands and in between conversing with customers that had visited the quaint inn. Ever since the encounter with Treize, she had no idea what was going on. He simply dismissed her and said that she would be contacted later with new instructions. `The plan . . . that has to be it.'

"Break, Sally," a voice broke through her thoughts. Her blue eyes traveled upward and met the face of Joe, one of her co-workers.

She smiled, "Thanks, Joe!"

"No problem, Major," he half-grinned as she strolled through the door of the inn.

She turned slightly just to shoot him a mock stern look, "Don't call me that," she warned in a joking tone, but she wasn't joking at all.

The blonde then furtively glanced over at the table where the boys sat and was relieved to find that none of them seemed to hear. Shaking her head slightly, she headed out, finding that the mist and fog thickened, and clouds bringing warm drizzle had settled comfortably above them. She turned upwards to the sky, blinking off drops of rain and furrowed her brows at the sight of the sky. `It looks - silver . . . It's beautiful.'

Then she spotted Wufei's motorcycle. She knew it was his because her sensitive hearing picked up a faint rumble right before he had entered last night. And all of a sudden, she recalled her purpose to be out here in the first place. `There's no way I can warn them here. It's too risky.' She unconsciously bit her lip as one, shaky hand reached into her pockets and pulled out a sleek, black device.

`There's no other way,' she chided herself. She quickly flicked on the device and planted it underneath Wufei's motorcycle. Sudden footsteps alerted the soldier, and she quickly snapped up at the sound.

"Who's there?" Wufei asked suspiciously.

Sally smoothed over her voice silently. "It's just me, Wufei," she called back casually, not offering an explanation.

"Sally?" he ducked under an outstretching limb of the tree and made his way over to where she stood. "What are you doing out here?" he snapped with a usual scowl of disapproval. `It's raining after all.'

"It's my break," she shrugged good-naturedly, shoving her hands into her pockets and looked over at him. "What about you?"

He snorted. "We're going to leave soon, but the others are still in there talking. Well - okay, Duo and Quatre are, but Trowa and Heero are just being indifferent."

She laughed lightly, "They seem like the quiet type. Why are they still in there then?" she pursued curiously.

The Chinese pilot looked uncomfortable for a moment before he opened his mouth, "Good friends," he replied.

"Very good friends I presume?" she raised an eyebrow.

Wufei sputtered, searching for a response to the not-so-subtle statement with widened eyes. "What you implying, woman?" he demanded. "That they're gay???"

She fought to hide a broad grin of amusement and succeeded only halfway through. "First of all . . . your words, not mine," she spoke slowly as Wufei "hmphed" loudly though clearly embarrassed. "And secondly I only asked because they don't seem like the type to just listen to people talk, so I was wondering why they stayed. But - I do think that there's something going on between them whether it's romantic or not."

"Well," he hesitated. `I want to talk to someone about this, and clearly my choice of friends don't work.' "That's kind of what I think, too. When I met up with Yuy and Maxwell over there, I - caught them," he coughed, "kissing."

Instantaneously, Sally's eyebrows shot up in surprise as her ears perked in interest. "Really?"

"Unfortunately yes," he sighed. "I definitely did NOT what to see that, but Maxwell told me it wasn't what I thought. Apparently, they somehow got to discussing whether he could seduce Heero or not, and knowing Duo, he can never resist a challenge. And Yuy puts up a Hell of a challenge for him in every way . . . "

"I see . . . " the woman murmured. "Do you believe that that was it?"

"Yes and no," he admitted. "I mean it sounds reasonable - " he explained, "for the type of people they are. I mean both are incredibly stubborn and straightforward. Duo's man enough to know that just by being affectionate to another guy doesn't make him `gay.' And it wouldn't bother him if strangers thought of it another way about him. And he's also smart enough to know that just because you aren't attracted to people of a certain gender doesn't necessarily mean you can't turn them on. It just wouldn't be as - you know - if it where someone of the opposite gender." During the entire speech, he barely moved, rooted to the same spot, no over-dramatic gestures with his hands.

"I sense a but coming here," Sally smiled at him. He glared at her for interrupting. "Intuition," she nodded assuredly and leaned in closer to hear the rest.

"But," he gave her a meaningful look, "There are signs point the other way, too," as he spoke, obsidian eyes shot straight into bright blue ones. He grew silent afterwards, unblinking eyes fixated on nothing in particular.

"Yeah," Sally murmured with a laugh before the sound of chatter broke through the silent fall of rain.

Both whipped around to see who had come out, squinting through blankets of moist fog, as the four other pilots appeared. Wufei turned back to scrutinize her, "We never spoke of this, woman, understand?" he glared warningly, voice suddenly turned cold. `Why does it feel like I just betrayed them?'

With a tiny smile, the blonde nodded in compliance, "Of course, Wufei." She gave him a wave as he walked up to catch up with the other boys, intensity lighting up dark eyes, movement crisp. He didn't see her, but it felt right.

He whirled around for a moment, "You're soaking wet, woman. Go inside," no scowl, spoken with indifference, and he continued on again.

"See you later, Wufei," she whispered softly and headed back in. Break was over anyway.

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Et voila! It's done, I'm tired, and homework is waiting. But I just got home from the library with some nice books to read ^_^ It's been too long . . . It was freezing outside, and I had to walk all the way home in the snow. It took about five minutes, but it was still really cold with the wind and all. I hope you guys liked it!