Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Palace of Justice ❯ 11 ( Chapter 11 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Lethanon 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Sci-fi / Thriller | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.18.2011 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.4K | Visits: 308 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Sci-fi / Thriller | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.18.2011 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.4K | Visits: 308 | Status: Work In Progress
11:
As the pin hit home, Wufei jerked and fell still. Trowa suddenly regretted his relief at not being able to see Wufei’s face, not even sure Wufei was conscious or if the system sucked him in and left his body behind. He took a deep breath and leaned over to take a peek, letting out the breath of air he hadn’t realised he was holding in a rush and sitting back against the wall.
“Unconscious?”
Trowa just glared at Heero because this was his fault. If he’d just said no, Wufei would have had to give into them but as it was Wufei had felt like they’d given him their blessing and would think it was okay to do this again. And Trowa would be left to sit there waiting while he listened to his heart thundering in his ear.
Duo finished draining the pasta and then stood in the kitchenette with his hands on his hips, clearly not sure what to do now that Wufei was out.
“Just dish it up. It’s not like we have anything better to do while we’re waiting.” Thanks to Heero know it all Yuy. Yes, he was angry but Heero was just an easy target and underneath it he knew he was just angry at himself. And Wufei. Definitely Wufei. Reckless idiot.
It was easy to say dish it up, but when Duo put a bowl of spaghetti in his hands Trowa didn’t know what to do with it. He stared at it for a while, listening to Heero and Duo eat it until he finally had to face the fact it wasn’t going to eat itself and he made slow work of devouring it. It was good, but he barely noticed, casting looks at Wufei every couple of mouthfuls as if Wufei might magically turn over and smile at him and say he was fine. He didn’t.
“It was good,” Heero said to Duo and collected both their bowls. Trowa wasn’t done but he handed it over anyway, not interested in eating any more. He ignored the glare Heero shot him because if he was going to get angry over him not eating all the spaghetti his boyfriend made them, they were going to have a serious problem. Luckily, Heero seemed to know it and didn’t say a word, just sat back down beside Duo on the sleeping bag.
“You think he’ll be hungry when he wakes up? Should I make him a smoothie?” Duo had never done well at sitting and waiting. Trowa just shrugged, not really caring what he did. He didn’t bother pointing out that Wufei wasn’t ‘asleep’ and wasn’t going to ‘wake up’, he was plugged into Frank-land and only Wufei really knew what went on there. Dorothy had it so easy being stuck with the Wiz, and she’d gotten to take Toto with her. Real life was so not fair.
Halfway through Duo grinding the fruit and milk into pulp the Computer came on without any warning, startling them all. Trowa sat up and reached up to tuck his hair behind his ear as an image of the white room he had first woken up in appeared. Then it was moving and Trowa memorized each turn until he recognised a nearby hallway and then he just sighed as the footage continued all the way to their door and then the screen flickered and changed to the message board.
“Trowa?”
“Well done, Wufei.” Because while he didn’t like it, he could still admit that had been good. They knew the way now, and knew what to expect when they got there, sort of. It wouldn’t be abandoned, there would be people there fitting the satellite with the new plate to relay its information to Frank, but they could be taken care of. If nothing else they could just give Heero a gun, but Trowa was confident Duo would find a way to do it without blowing out too many brains, if only to avoid the gross factor.
“I have no idea what Frank is doing, but I can access the databases and can use most of the functions of the station. If he finds out he can override anything I do though. I think I’m just...an additional program.”
That would come in handy and Trowa shared a knowing look with Heero. Maybe they wouldn’t be needing Frank after all. They just needed a portable access point that Wufei could plug in to, though that in itself was hardly a cake walk. Still, it would give Heero something to do now that his hacking skills were entirely redundant and Trowa felt at least a little twinge of snarky pride that it was Wufei who had finally managed to put Heero in his place. Even if he didn’t like the situation either.
“Okay, you’ve proved your point,” Trowa sent sternly and the message board replied with *laughter*. Trowa was not amused and waited impatiently until Wufei’s hand moved and he struggled to lift it toward his neck. Trowa moved immediately, pulling the pin free as carefully and quickly as he could and rolling Wufei onto his back so he could watch his eyes slowly open.
He didn’t breathe until Wufei frowned at him and stabbed a finger in his gut and the air came out in a whoosh.
“Idiot.”
“Says the guy who just plugged his head into a computer,” Trowa grumbled. He was just pleased nothing had gone wrong and Wufei looked fine. He went and got a bandage to replace on his neck, but then hesitated, holding it up.
“You want a shower?”
“Um...yeah, actually. That’d be good.” Wufei moved immediately, trying to get up and Trowa dropped the bandage and lunged to help, catching him under the elbow and letting him take his own weight as he stood, ignoring the impulse to just carry him in there. Really, Wufei should have been grateful; Heero would not have let Duo do the same if their situations were reversed. But then, Heero knew exactly where he stood with Duo, and if he ever got unsure Duo told him. Loudly, with lots of gesturing.
The door closed as soon as they got in the bathroom, and it slowly sank in that Wufei had closed it. Trowa just stared at him and Wufei rolled his eyes, holding out his arm expectantly.
“You’re not going to make me take these off myself?”
It was all he had to say before Trowa was mere centimetres from him, fingers catching in the pin holding the bandages in place and ridding Wufei of it while Trowa was still transfixed by the offer. Wufei, asking him to undress him. Wufei!
“Never,” he promised and got down to work removing the bandages. He started with his arm first, since that was what Wufei had offered and when he got it unwound he looked curiously at Wufei before leaning in to place a kiss on the silicon plug on his shoulder. Wufei shuddered but didn’t protest and Trowa couldn’t help smiling as he lifted the limb to his lips over and over, placing a kiss on each plug until he got to Wufei’s fingertips, brushing them with his own before releasing them.
He met Wufei’s dark gaze, loving the touch of pink in his skin, but he waited, wanting Wufei to be the one to move. He smirked when Wufei lifted his other arm expectantly.
It was a fun process, and it helped Trowa know where they were at; right where they had been when Wufei went for that job interview. With him teasing, pushing at the boundaries as much as Wufei would allow, just waiting for Wufei to give in and say...something.
He released Wufei’s other arm and waited until Wufei bent one knee and put his leg out expectantly and Trowa obediently slid down to one knee and went about unwinding the bandage from his leg, letting his fingers linger as he unwound it higher and higher, up to his groin, fingers deliberately brushing his ass just under the hem of his shorts before he leant in to kiss the inside of Wufei’s thigh.
“There’s no plug there,” Wufei gasped, but didn’t pull away and Trowa just grinned up at him and shifted around to his hip, kissing the plug there and trailing the kisses down his leg, sticking to the plugs and watching as Wufei grew increasingly frustrated with the gentle touches. Then he moved to the other leg and repeated the process and this time when he kissed the inside of Wufei’s thigh there was no protest, only a soft moan. Trowa stood and reached down between their bodies, fingertips deliberately brushing Wufei’s groin before he untucked the bottom of the bandage from just inside the waistline of Wufei’s house shorts and slowly unwound the bandage from around his chest. He hesitated only briefly with his kisses before leaning down to kiss his bellybutton, now capped with the strange silicon, and he followed the line of the small buds up the centre, over his belly and higher, over muscle and bone to his throat and there he really hesitated, hand coming up to cover the larger hole in Wufei’s chest, rem
embering the horrible pin Heero had pulled from there and imagining it being put in.
It must have been on his face, the expression he was feeling, because Wufei’s hand came and settled over his own, squeezing briefly and Trowa stared at the two hands before a single tear landed on the back of Wufei’s hand and he couldn’t say whose it was. It didn’t matter, all that mattered was that they fix it, and Trowa refused to stop until that happened.
He reached up to Wufei’s head, cradling it in his hands before undoing the clip and carefully unwinding the bandage, letting it fall away as he stroked Wufei’s cheek and examined the strange damage. There were thirteen plugs from ear to ear, running straight across his forehead, and more going around the back of his head. Trowa kissed them all, then continued his trail over the top of Wufei’s head, following the horrible lines of it before his hand fell to rest over the plug in the back of Wufei’s neck. He was trying to work out how they had done it. Had they drilled holes in Wufei’s skull? Had they punctured his brain? Had he been awake?
Hands came up to usher his own away and he forced himself to let go, watching as Wufei climbed in the shower and let the water wash over him, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back, his hair falling in a tangled mess behind him. Trowa’s chest ached just looking at him. He was still Wufei, but the evidence of what had been done to him was literally punctured into his very bones.
Dark eyes opened as Wufei turned to look at him, arching one slender brow at him as he shifted across a little.
“Well? Are you getting in?”
Trowa had never taken his clothes off so fast in his life, tossing his t-shirt in the corner and kicking off his pants in its wake. Wufei had closed his eyes again by the time he stepped under the water with him, which left Trowa merely happy that he could watch him without Wufei’s hot scrutiny.
Time in the capsule had not been kind to Wufei. His muscle mass was almost non-existent, leaving him small and bony. He’d never been that big to begin with, but the loss of weight highlighted the long, slender lines of his bones; his arms and legs seemed a little too long for his body and his neck was a graceful stalk his head seemed ready to topple off of. It made Trowa smile because even in his ill awkwardness he found Wufei beautiful. His actions were still controlled and precise, his thoughts still clear and accurate. But beneath both there was always that fire.
“I missed you,” he murmured and Wufei opened his eyes, a brief smile on his lips. It wasn’t a lie. Preventers had lost his interest, and nothing had won it since. He couldn’t find anything he wanted to do alone and the only person he’d wanted to do anything with hadn’t been there.
“You have no idea,” Wufei whispered and arms slid around his waist and pulled him in and Trowa let them. It was his own eyes that slid closed, his own arms came up to wrap around Wufei’s shoulders, cradling him close, letting all the dreams he’d harboured for so long bloom anew because maybe it wouldn’t be the way he had imagined but Wufei was finally giving it permission to be. At least, he sure as hell hoped that was what was going on because if Wufei was just being a tease Trowa was going to strangle him.
He helped Wufei wash, avoiding getting soap anywhere near the plugs and then he wrapped Wufei in a towel and dried himself off as quickly as possible, pulling his t-shirt and pants back on before going out to get bandages.
Wufei came out in his shorts and the towel, going straight to the bed with slow, pained looking steps, and he sat on the edge, waiting expectantly. Heero got the q-tips and together they got the plugs cleaned and rebound. Trowa made sure he bandaged Wufei’s head, caressing the line of inputs on his forehead before covering them in white gauze and pinning it into place before leaning in to place a kiss on his temple. He didn’t care that Duo saw and had a stupid look on his face, it was none of his business and it wasn’t like Duo didn’t know, he’d been the one talking about torches after all.
“I made you a smoothie,” Duo said softly, suddenly standing in front of Wufei, holding out a large mug of fruity smelling, creamy liquid. Wufei took it and nodded in thanks and Trowa was forced to leave him to it. Not that he went far, climbing to the other side of the bed and lying down, staring at the Computer and wondering what it felt like, to be inside it. Did you still think the same way or did you have to think in computer commands? Maybe it was like writing a letter to Frank?
Dear Frank,
It’s just not working out the way I was hoping. I’d like to see the way to the Molecularization Eye now.
Yeah, he didn’t think so. He also didn’t think it was fair that Wufei kept licking his lips like that after every mouthful. Forcing himself to stare at the ceiling, Trowa waited until Wufei was done before daring to look at him again, amused by how satisfied he looked.
If he’d known all he had to do to put that look on Wufei’s face was get naked in the shower with him, they could have done that years ago, but he thought it wiser not to mention this to Wufei. Instead he lay down and entertained himself watching Wufei enjoy himself, and at some point he drifted off, drawn under by his own underlying feeling of satisfaction.
He woke before the lights came up and stared at the small body half draped over his own, pretty sure he hadn’t hauled Wufei over himself instead of the blanket during the night, and certain Wufei would have woken and punched him if he had. Which meant Wufei had done it. Smiling, Trowa enjoyed it for a few minutes before forcing himself to extricate and get ready for work. His shower was a quick, hurried affair and he dressed without much attention to detail, not seeing the point when he was just going to have to change into his military uniform when he reached Level 1.
The lights came up as he was putting his shoes on and he watched a little too avidly as Wufei turned into the pillow, hiding his face, body curling a little before he seemed to give up on trying to remain asleep and blearily turned to look around the room. Heero and Duo were already getting up, Duo stumbling for the bathroom, but Trowa had no interest in them. All of his attention was for Wufei.
“You want a smoothie for breakfast?”
“Huh?” Definitely not awake yet and Trowa just smiled and got the fruit out of the fridge, busying himself with the blender while the others went about their business. He felt a strange sense of domesticity and almost laughed at himself because it was the wrong sort of feeling to have when he was in His Room inside Frank with Wufei barely alive. But those things didn’t matter, because Wufei was alive, and in his bed. And that mattered.
He handed Wufei the smoothie, complete with straw, and waited a little impatiently for Duo to get done, rolling his eyes when Duo emerged after his third kick at the door still braiding his hair, half of it hanging out of his mouth as he struggled with it. He looked like a lost puppy swallowing it’s own tail and unsure why it’s butt hurt.
“Not a word, Barton,” he grumbled but it was muffled in hair.
“I didn’t say a word.” But he was thinking more than a few! He grinned as he left His Room, Duo on his heels, restraining himself from saying any of the random well wishing farewells that came to mind. Have a great day, Wufei! Don’t plug yourself into too many strange things today, Wufei! Try not to let Frank eat your brains today, Wufei! Try thinking about me instead of how useless you feel and the day will just fly, Wufei! Yeah, definitely a good idea to keep his farewells to himself.
“Stop grinning, you look like you’re on crack,” Duo grumbled, finishing his braid and tossing it over his shoulder with a sigh of relief.
“You’re just jealous.”
“Uh, yeah, no! What do I have to be jealous of? I’m happy you’re making progress with Wufei, having naughty showers and stuff, but honestly? I’ve been doin’ that for years!”
That too much information line was definitely going to have to be re-established whenever they got off Frank and stopped all living in a small square. For the moment Trowa let it slide with a grimace, though he had to admit his dropping the subject had a lot more to do with them reaching Chinatown’s shuttle station and him scouring the temple steps for the familiar orange monk’s robes.
“I can’t see him,” Duo muttered, not hesitating in his steps and waving to a vendor who called out a greeting.
“He’s not there,” Trowa agreed and sighed. He would just have to stop off when he got off work and see if he couldn’t track the man down. Maybe he was on the evening shift. Did monks even have shifts? Were they only required to help others at certain times of the day? What did they do the rest of the day? Meditate? Play foozeball?
They got on the shuttle and Trowa was drawn into a conversation with a businessman who worked on Level 3 who always seemed to be on the morning shuttle with them, but finished earlier in the day so was never there for the evening ride home. He was curious about where they worked and Trowa told him all about recently enlisting and getting to go on his first flight. The man was enthusiastic and asked several questions about what flying was like and if the training was difficult because his son was very interested. He also wanted to know how dangerous it was, and Trowa did his best to sound enthusiastic while dropping hints that he should try to talk his son out of it. Not that military life on Frank was hard, at all, but if they were going to be trying to blow Frank up the kid should possibly look for a job that wasn’t going to involve possibly fighting Gundam Pilots in the near future.
They separated, thankfully, as soon as they got off the shuttle and Trowa and Duo moved immediately toward the cafe for breakfast.
“Mr Bloom! And his charming friend,” Tracey laughed and Duo bowed low, grinning at her.
“Please, just call me Max.”
“Max it is,” she agreed and they went to a booth without bothering to order, knowing she would just bring them the usual.
“So. You and Fei.”
“Duo...”
“No, you don’t get to say it’s none of my business because you were more than happy to listen whenever I talked about Heero so now you get to finally return the favour.”
“It’s not the same thing at all! You were venting and ranting and I just happened to be the poor sod you dumped your moodiness on! I have no need to vent or rant about Wufei!” And especially not to Duo, who would tell Heero, who would just grunt in disinterest, forcing Duo to go tell Quatre instead, who would come and visit Trowa and demand they sit down and have ‘a talk’. No way.
“Fine, fine, but...you know I’m here, right? I mean, I think you’re good with Fei. He makes you less weird and you don’t get bored and...” He shrugged, smiling softly, the kind of smile he only had when he really meant it. “I like when you’re at Preventers, with the rest of us.”
That made Trowa chuckle, because it probably wasn’t a good idea to do a job just because your friends liked having you there, or because you were trailing after your love interest, but he had to admit it was what he had done, and he’d enjoyed it until Wufei wasn’t there anymore. And it was true, he wasn’t about to let Wufei go do something that could be dangerous without him, especially now. In fact, this entire mess was going to be something he could hold over Wufei’s head for life.
Oh look, Wufei, you want to run into that burning building alone? Remember that job interview you went to by yourself that one time, and nearly three years later we had to come fetch you off that psychopathic humanoid colony? It was going to be nice having leverage, and so much of it too!
“If Wufei goes back, I’ll follow,” Trowa agreed softly, and it was as much of a concession as he was willing to make to Duo’s request.
“Yes!” You’d think it was in the bag with how smug Duo looked, but Trowa had to admit the odds were in his favour. Wufei was down, but he wasn’t out and as soon as Sally cleared him for duty Trowa knew he’d stick that badge straight back on his fool chest. Because it was the right thing to do, or whatever his argument had been the last time he dragged him along for the ride.
“I gotta go, or I’m gonna be late, just...try and keep your head on your shoulders?”
“Aw, but the Richies don’t like me!” Duo pouted and Trowa just rolled his eyes and grabbed his second coffee, hurrying to make the next shuttle to Level 1.
It was the same old routine for the military and Trowa slunk into it gratefully, assuring his boss he was feeling much better and hurrying off to work in his simulator. Only he wasn’t working so much as trying to figure out what could be ‘wrong’ with the pad he knew he had to be the entrance to Hanger 101.
How, exactly, did it work? He looked it up on the mechanics log and saw the long list of attempts to repair it, amused by the frustration evident in many of the mechanics notes. The interesting thing was that nothing at all happened; the ship didn’t Molecularize, and neither did it’s pilot, which was a good thing since he doubted the pilot wanted to end up floating out in space. But it didn’t help Trowa get into Hanger 101.
He read the entire manual on SiS Fighters and Molecularization, then downloaded and read the SiS engineers manual, and then read the entire Molecularization Engineers manual. He had a solid idea of how everything worked and was pretty sure he could repair a damaged SiS-50 or its Pad, but he wasn’t sure how to go about not fixing one. Still, he took a gamble and went down to check it out.
No one was there and he figured what the hell and decided to have a go, heading over to the broken Pad and carefully opening the repair access hatch.
He spent the next hour acquainting himself with everything he’d read about in the manual, checking everything was there and that there was nothing extra. There wasn’t, just as the mechanics notes had already said. Everything looked brand new, having been replaced over and over in their attempts to repair the non-existent damage.
And that was the key, really. Nothing was damaged. It was all in the software, not the hardware. Trowa downloaded the Pad’s data to his laptop and hurried back to his simulator, booting it up and reading through. Everything was just as it should be, as expected, but when he looked at the number associated with the Molecularization he got curious.
He traced the pilot number listed and found a name he didn’t recognise, not that he had expected to but something about it was nagging at him, and when he compared the serial numbers the number matched the SiS-50 fighter but also matched a key card for a room on Level 3.
Despite the fact he had no real idea what it would do, Trowa replaced the pilot number with his own. It was a gamble, but if it didn’t work he saw no reason he couldn’t just rewrite the data again. He still hesitated before going back to the broken pad, looking at his work and hoping he was making the right decision. It wasn’t that he was nervous about it working, or not working, it was more the idea of it not quite working right and splattering him across various sections of the station. Or maybe just dumping him out in space. He grabbed an oxygen mask just in case, took a deep breath and told himself to stop being a coward.
If Wufei could plug himself into Frank, Trowa could stand on a Molecularization pad and see where it went.
So that was what he did. He reloaded the software with his small alteration, pushed the fighter off the pad and stepped on, then realised he had no way to make it initialise and sighed heavily. He climbed into the SiS-50, found the initialise switch and pulled the transmitter from the dash, going back down to stand on the Pad and taking yet another deep breath before saying what the hell and letting his thumb push the trigger.
If that was how Heero felt when he self destructed, Trowa almost wished he’d just let the poor bastard die.
The room was spinning, his stomach lurched wildly and he struggled to keep down his coffee and muffin, flailing for a wall and not finding one. He dropped to his knees and took deep breaths, keeping his gaze fixed on his hands because if he closed his eyes the room only seemed to spin more. It took longer than he would have liked, but in time he managed to look up without the dire need to puke and then he just sat back on his heels and stared.
When Nataku had said the first three versions of her had failed, it hadn’t really sunk in what that meant. Looking at three half constructed humanoid creatures, one with a heart still beating in its chest while hung there, mouth open and eyes wide, otherwise unmoving, brought the message home loud and clear.
Trowa lost his coffee, and then his muffin. He continued to dry wretch for several minutes before he got his breathing back under control, and then he just sat there, feeling ill while the rest of the room sank in.
A workshop of some sort, clearly the place Nataku had been born but what else? He forced his legs to work and rummaged around, finding pieces of the satellites, but also pieces of Frank. There were several diaries of notes and Trowa took them to read later.
There was a picture of Wufei on the wall, asleep in his capsule and it struck Trowa hard somewhere inside to see it again; to see the pins sticking out in all directions, the cables snaking off into the recesses of the Frank’s mind. Had this been the man that did it? Had Nataku’s creator been the one to enslave Wufei? Was Nataku his penance?
He forced himself to keep looking but the machines were mysteries he could only hope were explained in the notes the man had kept and after a good hour of looking Trowa gave up. He could come back when he knew what he was looking for, but for now he had at least found it and knew what was here. He went back to the Pad and hit the transmitter, finding himself back in the Hanger and scratching his head.
The mechanic was there, staring at him with wide eyes and Trowa just shrugged.
“Stupid thing took me back to my own stupid Hanger,” he said and went to put the transmitter back in the SiS, though he didn’t bother plugging it in.
“Still, it worked!” The mechanic noted in awe and Trowa just grinned. “I’ll leave it alone for now, and come help you again tomorrow!”
Trowa really hoped not but he nodded enthusiastically and made a hasty retreat, hurrying back to his simulator with the journals and stuffing them in his backpack with his laptop and the few notes he had made, not wanting anyone to drop by his desk and figure out what he had been doing.
He felt ridiculous sitting on his hands waiting for the siren to sound for knock-off and as soon as the familiar sound started blaring he was gone from his cubicle and on the shuttle to get the hell back to His Room and see what fool mischief Wufei had been up to. Unfortunately, the shuttle didn’t go any faster and he was haunted all the way to Chinatown by Nataku’s follow face, eyes empty, mouth agape, heart still frantically beating.
As the pin hit home, Wufei jerked and fell still. Trowa suddenly regretted his relief at not being able to see Wufei’s face, not even sure Wufei was conscious or if the system sucked him in and left his body behind. He took a deep breath and leaned over to take a peek, letting out the breath of air he hadn’t realised he was holding in a rush and sitting back against the wall.
“Unconscious?”
Trowa just glared at Heero because this was his fault. If he’d just said no, Wufei would have had to give into them but as it was Wufei had felt like they’d given him their blessing and would think it was okay to do this again. And Trowa would be left to sit there waiting while he listened to his heart thundering in his ear.
Duo finished draining the pasta and then stood in the kitchenette with his hands on his hips, clearly not sure what to do now that Wufei was out.
“Just dish it up. It’s not like we have anything better to do while we’re waiting.” Thanks to Heero know it all Yuy. Yes, he was angry but Heero was just an easy target and underneath it he knew he was just angry at himself. And Wufei. Definitely Wufei. Reckless idiot.
It was easy to say dish it up, but when Duo put a bowl of spaghetti in his hands Trowa didn’t know what to do with it. He stared at it for a while, listening to Heero and Duo eat it until he finally had to face the fact it wasn’t going to eat itself and he made slow work of devouring it. It was good, but he barely noticed, casting looks at Wufei every couple of mouthfuls as if Wufei might magically turn over and smile at him and say he was fine. He didn’t.
“It was good,” Heero said to Duo and collected both their bowls. Trowa wasn’t done but he handed it over anyway, not interested in eating any more. He ignored the glare Heero shot him because if he was going to get angry over him not eating all the spaghetti his boyfriend made them, they were going to have a serious problem. Luckily, Heero seemed to know it and didn’t say a word, just sat back down beside Duo on the sleeping bag.
“You think he’ll be hungry when he wakes up? Should I make him a smoothie?” Duo had never done well at sitting and waiting. Trowa just shrugged, not really caring what he did. He didn’t bother pointing out that Wufei wasn’t ‘asleep’ and wasn’t going to ‘wake up’, he was plugged into Frank-land and only Wufei really knew what went on there. Dorothy had it so easy being stuck with the Wiz, and she’d gotten to take Toto with her. Real life was so not fair.
Halfway through Duo grinding the fruit and milk into pulp the Computer came on without any warning, startling them all. Trowa sat up and reached up to tuck his hair behind his ear as an image of the white room he had first woken up in appeared. Then it was moving and Trowa memorized each turn until he recognised a nearby hallway and then he just sighed as the footage continued all the way to their door and then the screen flickered and changed to the message board.
“Trowa?”
“Well done, Wufei.” Because while he didn’t like it, he could still admit that had been good. They knew the way now, and knew what to expect when they got there, sort of. It wouldn’t be abandoned, there would be people there fitting the satellite with the new plate to relay its information to Frank, but they could be taken care of. If nothing else they could just give Heero a gun, but Trowa was confident Duo would find a way to do it without blowing out too many brains, if only to avoid the gross factor.
“I have no idea what Frank is doing, but I can access the databases and can use most of the functions of the station. If he finds out he can override anything I do though. I think I’m just...an additional program.”
That would come in handy and Trowa shared a knowing look with Heero. Maybe they wouldn’t be needing Frank after all. They just needed a portable access point that Wufei could plug in to, though that in itself was hardly a cake walk. Still, it would give Heero something to do now that his hacking skills were entirely redundant and Trowa felt at least a little twinge of snarky pride that it was Wufei who had finally managed to put Heero in his place. Even if he didn’t like the situation either.
“Okay, you’ve proved your point,” Trowa sent sternly and the message board replied with *laughter*. Trowa was not amused and waited impatiently until Wufei’s hand moved and he struggled to lift it toward his neck. Trowa moved immediately, pulling the pin free as carefully and quickly as he could and rolling Wufei onto his back so he could watch his eyes slowly open.
He didn’t breathe until Wufei frowned at him and stabbed a finger in his gut and the air came out in a whoosh.
“Idiot.”
“Says the guy who just plugged his head into a computer,” Trowa grumbled. He was just pleased nothing had gone wrong and Wufei looked fine. He went and got a bandage to replace on his neck, but then hesitated, holding it up.
“You want a shower?”
“Um...yeah, actually. That’d be good.” Wufei moved immediately, trying to get up and Trowa dropped the bandage and lunged to help, catching him under the elbow and letting him take his own weight as he stood, ignoring the impulse to just carry him in there. Really, Wufei should have been grateful; Heero would not have let Duo do the same if their situations were reversed. But then, Heero knew exactly where he stood with Duo, and if he ever got unsure Duo told him. Loudly, with lots of gesturing.
The door closed as soon as they got in the bathroom, and it slowly sank in that Wufei had closed it. Trowa just stared at him and Wufei rolled his eyes, holding out his arm expectantly.
“You’re not going to make me take these off myself?”
It was all he had to say before Trowa was mere centimetres from him, fingers catching in the pin holding the bandages in place and ridding Wufei of it while Trowa was still transfixed by the offer. Wufei, asking him to undress him. Wufei!
“Never,” he promised and got down to work removing the bandages. He started with his arm first, since that was what Wufei had offered and when he got it unwound he looked curiously at Wufei before leaning in to place a kiss on the silicon plug on his shoulder. Wufei shuddered but didn’t protest and Trowa couldn’t help smiling as he lifted the limb to his lips over and over, placing a kiss on each plug until he got to Wufei’s fingertips, brushing them with his own before releasing them.
He met Wufei’s dark gaze, loving the touch of pink in his skin, but he waited, wanting Wufei to be the one to move. He smirked when Wufei lifted his other arm expectantly.
It was a fun process, and it helped Trowa know where they were at; right where they had been when Wufei went for that job interview. With him teasing, pushing at the boundaries as much as Wufei would allow, just waiting for Wufei to give in and say...something.
He released Wufei’s other arm and waited until Wufei bent one knee and put his leg out expectantly and Trowa obediently slid down to one knee and went about unwinding the bandage from his leg, letting his fingers linger as he unwound it higher and higher, up to his groin, fingers deliberately brushing his ass just under the hem of his shorts before he leant in to kiss the inside of Wufei’s thigh.
“There’s no plug there,” Wufei gasped, but didn’t pull away and Trowa just grinned up at him and shifted around to his hip, kissing the plug there and trailing the kisses down his leg, sticking to the plugs and watching as Wufei grew increasingly frustrated with the gentle touches. Then he moved to the other leg and repeated the process and this time when he kissed the inside of Wufei’s thigh there was no protest, only a soft moan. Trowa stood and reached down between their bodies, fingertips deliberately brushing Wufei’s groin before he untucked the bottom of the bandage from just inside the waistline of Wufei’s house shorts and slowly unwound the bandage from around his chest. He hesitated only briefly with his kisses before leaning down to kiss his bellybutton, now capped with the strange silicon, and he followed the line of the small buds up the centre, over his belly and higher, over muscle and bone to his throat and there he really hesitated, hand coming up to cover the larger hole in Wufei’s chest, rem
embering the horrible pin Heero had pulled from there and imagining it being put in.
It must have been on his face, the expression he was feeling, because Wufei’s hand came and settled over his own, squeezing briefly and Trowa stared at the two hands before a single tear landed on the back of Wufei’s hand and he couldn’t say whose it was. It didn’t matter, all that mattered was that they fix it, and Trowa refused to stop until that happened.
He reached up to Wufei’s head, cradling it in his hands before undoing the clip and carefully unwinding the bandage, letting it fall away as he stroked Wufei’s cheek and examined the strange damage. There were thirteen plugs from ear to ear, running straight across his forehead, and more going around the back of his head. Trowa kissed them all, then continued his trail over the top of Wufei’s head, following the horrible lines of it before his hand fell to rest over the plug in the back of Wufei’s neck. He was trying to work out how they had done it. Had they drilled holes in Wufei’s skull? Had they punctured his brain? Had he been awake?
Hands came up to usher his own away and he forced himself to let go, watching as Wufei climbed in the shower and let the water wash over him, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back, his hair falling in a tangled mess behind him. Trowa’s chest ached just looking at him. He was still Wufei, but the evidence of what had been done to him was literally punctured into his very bones.
Dark eyes opened as Wufei turned to look at him, arching one slender brow at him as he shifted across a little.
“Well? Are you getting in?”
Trowa had never taken his clothes off so fast in his life, tossing his t-shirt in the corner and kicking off his pants in its wake. Wufei had closed his eyes again by the time he stepped under the water with him, which left Trowa merely happy that he could watch him without Wufei’s hot scrutiny.
Time in the capsule had not been kind to Wufei. His muscle mass was almost non-existent, leaving him small and bony. He’d never been that big to begin with, but the loss of weight highlighted the long, slender lines of his bones; his arms and legs seemed a little too long for his body and his neck was a graceful stalk his head seemed ready to topple off of. It made Trowa smile because even in his ill awkwardness he found Wufei beautiful. His actions were still controlled and precise, his thoughts still clear and accurate. But beneath both there was always that fire.
“I missed you,” he murmured and Wufei opened his eyes, a brief smile on his lips. It wasn’t a lie. Preventers had lost his interest, and nothing had won it since. He couldn’t find anything he wanted to do alone and the only person he’d wanted to do anything with hadn’t been there.
“You have no idea,” Wufei whispered and arms slid around his waist and pulled him in and Trowa let them. It was his own eyes that slid closed, his own arms came up to wrap around Wufei’s shoulders, cradling him close, letting all the dreams he’d harboured for so long bloom anew because maybe it wouldn’t be the way he had imagined but Wufei was finally giving it permission to be. At least, he sure as hell hoped that was what was going on because if Wufei was just being a tease Trowa was going to strangle him.
He helped Wufei wash, avoiding getting soap anywhere near the plugs and then he wrapped Wufei in a towel and dried himself off as quickly as possible, pulling his t-shirt and pants back on before going out to get bandages.
Wufei came out in his shorts and the towel, going straight to the bed with slow, pained looking steps, and he sat on the edge, waiting expectantly. Heero got the q-tips and together they got the plugs cleaned and rebound. Trowa made sure he bandaged Wufei’s head, caressing the line of inputs on his forehead before covering them in white gauze and pinning it into place before leaning in to place a kiss on his temple. He didn’t care that Duo saw and had a stupid look on his face, it was none of his business and it wasn’t like Duo didn’t know, he’d been the one talking about torches after all.
“I made you a smoothie,” Duo said softly, suddenly standing in front of Wufei, holding out a large mug of fruity smelling, creamy liquid. Wufei took it and nodded in thanks and Trowa was forced to leave him to it. Not that he went far, climbing to the other side of the bed and lying down, staring at the Computer and wondering what it felt like, to be inside it. Did you still think the same way or did you have to think in computer commands? Maybe it was like writing a letter to Frank?
Dear Frank,
It’s just not working out the way I was hoping. I’d like to see the way to the Molecularization Eye now.
Yeah, he didn’t think so. He also didn’t think it was fair that Wufei kept licking his lips like that after every mouthful. Forcing himself to stare at the ceiling, Trowa waited until Wufei was done before daring to look at him again, amused by how satisfied he looked.
If he’d known all he had to do to put that look on Wufei’s face was get naked in the shower with him, they could have done that years ago, but he thought it wiser not to mention this to Wufei. Instead he lay down and entertained himself watching Wufei enjoy himself, and at some point he drifted off, drawn under by his own underlying feeling of satisfaction.
He woke before the lights came up and stared at the small body half draped over his own, pretty sure he hadn’t hauled Wufei over himself instead of the blanket during the night, and certain Wufei would have woken and punched him if he had. Which meant Wufei had done it. Smiling, Trowa enjoyed it for a few minutes before forcing himself to extricate and get ready for work. His shower was a quick, hurried affair and he dressed without much attention to detail, not seeing the point when he was just going to have to change into his military uniform when he reached Level 1.
The lights came up as he was putting his shoes on and he watched a little too avidly as Wufei turned into the pillow, hiding his face, body curling a little before he seemed to give up on trying to remain asleep and blearily turned to look around the room. Heero and Duo were already getting up, Duo stumbling for the bathroom, but Trowa had no interest in them. All of his attention was for Wufei.
“You want a smoothie for breakfast?”
“Huh?” Definitely not awake yet and Trowa just smiled and got the fruit out of the fridge, busying himself with the blender while the others went about their business. He felt a strange sense of domesticity and almost laughed at himself because it was the wrong sort of feeling to have when he was in His Room inside Frank with Wufei barely alive. But those things didn’t matter, because Wufei was alive, and in his bed. And that mattered.
He handed Wufei the smoothie, complete with straw, and waited a little impatiently for Duo to get done, rolling his eyes when Duo emerged after his third kick at the door still braiding his hair, half of it hanging out of his mouth as he struggled with it. He looked like a lost puppy swallowing it’s own tail and unsure why it’s butt hurt.
“Not a word, Barton,” he grumbled but it was muffled in hair.
“I didn’t say a word.” But he was thinking more than a few! He grinned as he left His Room, Duo on his heels, restraining himself from saying any of the random well wishing farewells that came to mind. Have a great day, Wufei! Don’t plug yourself into too many strange things today, Wufei! Try not to let Frank eat your brains today, Wufei! Try thinking about me instead of how useless you feel and the day will just fly, Wufei! Yeah, definitely a good idea to keep his farewells to himself.
“Stop grinning, you look like you’re on crack,” Duo grumbled, finishing his braid and tossing it over his shoulder with a sigh of relief.
“You’re just jealous.”
“Uh, yeah, no! What do I have to be jealous of? I’m happy you’re making progress with Wufei, having naughty showers and stuff, but honestly? I’ve been doin’ that for years!”
That too much information line was definitely going to have to be re-established whenever they got off Frank and stopped all living in a small square. For the moment Trowa let it slide with a grimace, though he had to admit his dropping the subject had a lot more to do with them reaching Chinatown’s shuttle station and him scouring the temple steps for the familiar orange monk’s robes.
“I can’t see him,” Duo muttered, not hesitating in his steps and waving to a vendor who called out a greeting.
“He’s not there,” Trowa agreed and sighed. He would just have to stop off when he got off work and see if he couldn’t track the man down. Maybe he was on the evening shift. Did monks even have shifts? Were they only required to help others at certain times of the day? What did they do the rest of the day? Meditate? Play foozeball?
They got on the shuttle and Trowa was drawn into a conversation with a businessman who worked on Level 3 who always seemed to be on the morning shuttle with them, but finished earlier in the day so was never there for the evening ride home. He was curious about where they worked and Trowa told him all about recently enlisting and getting to go on his first flight. The man was enthusiastic and asked several questions about what flying was like and if the training was difficult because his son was very interested. He also wanted to know how dangerous it was, and Trowa did his best to sound enthusiastic while dropping hints that he should try to talk his son out of it. Not that military life on Frank was hard, at all, but if they were going to be trying to blow Frank up the kid should possibly look for a job that wasn’t going to involve possibly fighting Gundam Pilots in the near future.
They separated, thankfully, as soon as they got off the shuttle and Trowa and Duo moved immediately toward the cafe for breakfast.
“Mr Bloom! And his charming friend,” Tracey laughed and Duo bowed low, grinning at her.
“Please, just call me Max.”
“Max it is,” she agreed and they went to a booth without bothering to order, knowing she would just bring them the usual.
“So. You and Fei.”
“Duo...”
“No, you don’t get to say it’s none of my business because you were more than happy to listen whenever I talked about Heero so now you get to finally return the favour.”
“It’s not the same thing at all! You were venting and ranting and I just happened to be the poor sod you dumped your moodiness on! I have no need to vent or rant about Wufei!” And especially not to Duo, who would tell Heero, who would just grunt in disinterest, forcing Duo to go tell Quatre instead, who would come and visit Trowa and demand they sit down and have ‘a talk’. No way.
“Fine, fine, but...you know I’m here, right? I mean, I think you’re good with Fei. He makes you less weird and you don’t get bored and...” He shrugged, smiling softly, the kind of smile he only had when he really meant it. “I like when you’re at Preventers, with the rest of us.”
That made Trowa chuckle, because it probably wasn’t a good idea to do a job just because your friends liked having you there, or because you were trailing after your love interest, but he had to admit it was what he had done, and he’d enjoyed it until Wufei wasn’t there anymore. And it was true, he wasn’t about to let Wufei go do something that could be dangerous without him, especially now. In fact, this entire mess was going to be something he could hold over Wufei’s head for life.
Oh look, Wufei, you want to run into that burning building alone? Remember that job interview you went to by yourself that one time, and nearly three years later we had to come fetch you off that psychopathic humanoid colony? It was going to be nice having leverage, and so much of it too!
“If Wufei goes back, I’ll follow,” Trowa agreed softly, and it was as much of a concession as he was willing to make to Duo’s request.
“Yes!” You’d think it was in the bag with how smug Duo looked, but Trowa had to admit the odds were in his favour. Wufei was down, but he wasn’t out and as soon as Sally cleared him for duty Trowa knew he’d stick that badge straight back on his fool chest. Because it was the right thing to do, or whatever his argument had been the last time he dragged him along for the ride.
“I gotta go, or I’m gonna be late, just...try and keep your head on your shoulders?”
“Aw, but the Richies don’t like me!” Duo pouted and Trowa just rolled his eyes and grabbed his second coffee, hurrying to make the next shuttle to Level 1.
It was the same old routine for the military and Trowa slunk into it gratefully, assuring his boss he was feeling much better and hurrying off to work in his simulator. Only he wasn’t working so much as trying to figure out what could be ‘wrong’ with the pad he knew he had to be the entrance to Hanger 101.
How, exactly, did it work? He looked it up on the mechanics log and saw the long list of attempts to repair it, amused by the frustration evident in many of the mechanics notes. The interesting thing was that nothing at all happened; the ship didn’t Molecularize, and neither did it’s pilot, which was a good thing since he doubted the pilot wanted to end up floating out in space. But it didn’t help Trowa get into Hanger 101.
He read the entire manual on SiS Fighters and Molecularization, then downloaded and read the SiS engineers manual, and then read the entire Molecularization Engineers manual. He had a solid idea of how everything worked and was pretty sure he could repair a damaged SiS-50 or its Pad, but he wasn’t sure how to go about not fixing one. Still, he took a gamble and went down to check it out.
No one was there and he figured what the hell and decided to have a go, heading over to the broken Pad and carefully opening the repair access hatch.
He spent the next hour acquainting himself with everything he’d read about in the manual, checking everything was there and that there was nothing extra. There wasn’t, just as the mechanics notes had already said. Everything looked brand new, having been replaced over and over in their attempts to repair the non-existent damage.
And that was the key, really. Nothing was damaged. It was all in the software, not the hardware. Trowa downloaded the Pad’s data to his laptop and hurried back to his simulator, booting it up and reading through. Everything was just as it should be, as expected, but when he looked at the number associated with the Molecularization he got curious.
He traced the pilot number listed and found a name he didn’t recognise, not that he had expected to but something about it was nagging at him, and when he compared the serial numbers the number matched the SiS-50 fighter but also matched a key card for a room on Level 3.
Despite the fact he had no real idea what it would do, Trowa replaced the pilot number with his own. It was a gamble, but if it didn’t work he saw no reason he couldn’t just rewrite the data again. He still hesitated before going back to the broken pad, looking at his work and hoping he was making the right decision. It wasn’t that he was nervous about it working, or not working, it was more the idea of it not quite working right and splattering him across various sections of the station. Or maybe just dumping him out in space. He grabbed an oxygen mask just in case, took a deep breath and told himself to stop being a coward.
If Wufei could plug himself into Frank, Trowa could stand on a Molecularization pad and see where it went.
So that was what he did. He reloaded the software with his small alteration, pushed the fighter off the pad and stepped on, then realised he had no way to make it initialise and sighed heavily. He climbed into the SiS-50, found the initialise switch and pulled the transmitter from the dash, going back down to stand on the Pad and taking yet another deep breath before saying what the hell and letting his thumb push the trigger.
If that was how Heero felt when he self destructed, Trowa almost wished he’d just let the poor bastard die.
The room was spinning, his stomach lurched wildly and he struggled to keep down his coffee and muffin, flailing for a wall and not finding one. He dropped to his knees and took deep breaths, keeping his gaze fixed on his hands because if he closed his eyes the room only seemed to spin more. It took longer than he would have liked, but in time he managed to look up without the dire need to puke and then he just sat back on his heels and stared.
When Nataku had said the first three versions of her had failed, it hadn’t really sunk in what that meant. Looking at three half constructed humanoid creatures, one with a heart still beating in its chest while hung there, mouth open and eyes wide, otherwise unmoving, brought the message home loud and clear.
Trowa lost his coffee, and then his muffin. He continued to dry wretch for several minutes before he got his breathing back under control, and then he just sat there, feeling ill while the rest of the room sank in.
A workshop of some sort, clearly the place Nataku had been born but what else? He forced his legs to work and rummaged around, finding pieces of the satellites, but also pieces of Frank. There were several diaries of notes and Trowa took them to read later.
There was a picture of Wufei on the wall, asleep in his capsule and it struck Trowa hard somewhere inside to see it again; to see the pins sticking out in all directions, the cables snaking off into the recesses of the Frank’s mind. Had this been the man that did it? Had Nataku’s creator been the one to enslave Wufei? Was Nataku his penance?
He forced himself to keep looking but the machines were mysteries he could only hope were explained in the notes the man had kept and after a good hour of looking Trowa gave up. He could come back when he knew what he was looking for, but for now he had at least found it and knew what was here. He went back to the Pad and hit the transmitter, finding himself back in the Hanger and scratching his head.
The mechanic was there, staring at him with wide eyes and Trowa just shrugged.
“Stupid thing took me back to my own stupid Hanger,” he said and went to put the transmitter back in the SiS, though he didn’t bother plugging it in.
“Still, it worked!” The mechanic noted in awe and Trowa just grinned. “I’ll leave it alone for now, and come help you again tomorrow!”
Trowa really hoped not but he nodded enthusiastically and made a hasty retreat, hurrying back to his simulator with the journals and stuffing them in his backpack with his laptop and the few notes he had made, not wanting anyone to drop by his desk and figure out what he had been doing.
He felt ridiculous sitting on his hands waiting for the siren to sound for knock-off and as soon as the familiar sound started blaring he was gone from his cubicle and on the shuttle to get the hell back to His Room and see what fool mischief Wufei had been up to. Unfortunately, the shuttle didn’t go any faster and he was haunted all the way to Chinatown by Nataku’s follow face, eyes empty, mouth agape, heart still frantically beating.