Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Alone ❯ Five Is A Face In The Crowd ( Chapter 3 )

A/N: This chapter starts out really choppy. That wasn’t totally intentional, but oh well…
Warnings: TWT, Yaoi, Lime at worst with Strawberry tones. Heavy Angst!! Some OOC. Wufei-centric
Pairings: 1+(2x5), 5x1
Disclaimer: Not mine. If it were, GW would be rated NC-17 for hot boy boffing.

Why did he always get into situations like this? Wufei scowled a little and from behind the binoculars. This would not be very easy, even with the two-day leeway they’d been given. He glanced over at his partner for the mission, noting his efficient construction of explosives. Neither was up to par with Duo, but Heero was rather well off on his own.

Wufei had to wonder why he’d been paired with the other boy for this mission. His strong points were hand to hand and weaponry, not stealth and sabotage. Heero’s were hacking and unyielding nerve. Though, Wufei had begun to doubt that nerve after Duo’s colorful story of days passed. Colorful because Duo deliberately baited him by telling it with every sinful detail. Needless to say, Wufei had punished him quite well.

“Done,” muttered the cold voice of Heero Yuy. Wufei glanced over them, though he need not to. Heero quickly gathered the bombs into his bag and got up, handing it over to Wufei. The two pilots nodded their goodbyes and went on their way.

Heero had always been quite amazed at how basic the Oz defenses were in their computer systems. It showed just how confident they were in their own security, which was even worse. The information they were sent for was slowly downloading into his hands.

Getting up, the blue-eyed boy went to the door and glanced into the hall. There was still no alarm being raised. He could hear the footsteps of a few soldiers walking down another hall. Two more were unconscious on either side of the door he currently stood by. Heero sat back down at the computer and glanced at the screen. It was going far too slow for his tastes. He didn’t know how long those two would stay unconscious. Though he had few qualms about killing them, it wasn’t really necessary at the moment.

They’d get blown up later anyway.

As the download continued to inch along, Heero decided to kill a little time by giving the Oz mainframe a little virus. If he was lucky, it would spread to another base before the whole place blew. Then again, it didn’t really matter if it did. Any other base would meet this same fate eventually. Heero frowned at himself. Why was he thinking of such unimportant things? There was no point, therefore it shouldn’t be done.

A flash of violet eyes filled his mind. Heero went back to thinking about those unimportant things.

Unfortunately, Wufei didn’t have that same luxury. The guards changed their rounds from what they had observed. He would have cursed, but didn’t dare, lest he reveal his position. Body nearly crushed between two large mobile suit part boxes that he’d wedged himself through, he listened closely to the footsteps and talking. Every sense was on high alert, warning him of even the expelling of breath each man made. This wasn’t good. He’d already had one scare when a guard walked right by his shelter and glanced in. He was glad the lighting was bad in that area.

Carefully shifting his body, Wufei started to climb up between the boxes. He could barely move but made steady progress upwards. He was cautious, pausing at each sound. The slow progress reminded him of training he’d endured before. He wasn’t sweating yet, but it wasn’t easy.

“Hey! Robert!”

Wufei froze as footsteps ran across the opening.

“Tom? Your shift isn’t for another half hour. What are you doing here?”

“The Major says we need to double up. Anderson and Kelly disappeared about twenty minutes ago.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means someone’s around here that ain’t suppose to be…or that Anderson and Kelly went off for a fuck.”

“That’s disgusting, Tom.”

“Can’t say it comforts me any either.”

They laughed, but Wufei wasn’t joining in. Someone knew they were there. Plan change.

As soon as the download finished and Heero extracted the disk, the entire place rocked with a huge explosion. Heero was nearly thrown off his feet but saved himself at the last. Wild things flew through his mind, but he knew Wufei would get himself out. He knew that. He had to.

Heero pulled out his weapon and ran into the hall. A rush of soldiers rushed down it just as he ducked into an adjacent one. Once they’d past, Heero went on. Another explosion sounded, then a third. He didn’t have much time. Heero ran into three unlucky men, each falling dead as he went onwards. He flew out the back doors. That area was nearly deserted as everyone ran for the damaged areas. There was one that hadn’t left his post, but Heero downed him easily. On the pilot went, weaving through the forest to mask his direction.

He tried not to think of Chang. He tried very, very hard not to.

A booming explosion rocked the earth and threw him to the ground. Heero jumped to his feet and stared back with wide eyes to the inferno that had once been a base. There was no building anymore. The fire raged high and hot. He didn’t move. Couldn’t.

Wufei!

He awoke with a horrible headache. Before he dared to move, he carefully took in the state of his body. There were aches and pains all over, cuts that had stopped bleeding a while ago, but hadn’t been treated. Dried blood caked his clothing. His head felt fuzzy and he was having trouble thinking clearly. Concussed, probably. He didn’t feel any deep pains, so he was probably not injured badly. His muscles were sore and battered, and he was strung up uncomfortably. He shifted his hands just a little and felt cold metal around them.

He’d been captured, it seemed. Before opening his eyes, he listened carefully to the room around him. After hearing nothing, he let his eyes open and surveyed it. It certainly wasn’t the cell he was expecting. Instead, he found himself in something darker. There was a steel cot a few feet away with a table next to it. He could see a few bottles of something on it. Shelves covered one wall with different instruments and boxes in them. The rest of the space was filled with a few chairs and other machines.

Shit. He’d been caught by people who knew what they were doing.

He didn’t wait long before someone entered the room. The man was dressed in the normal Oz uniform with a long white coat over it. The overhead light glinted off his tags as they bounced across his chest.

“Ah, so they didn’t kill you!” the man said cheerfully as he set his clipboard on the cot. He stepped up and looked over him. Wufei glared at him from behind a fall of black hair. Someone had taken out his band. “Pretty, aren’t you, little Chinese boy?”

The man laughed a little, sounding far too genial for the kind of job he must have had. The man pulled out a small, rectangular device and grinned at him before pushing one of the shiny, red buttons. A jolt of electricity flew through Wufei’s body and he cried out. The man grinned wider.

“The cuffs are charged, if you didn’t notice,” he said tauntingly. “I can disable you at anytime, so do be obedient.”

The response was a low growl. The man tutted.

“None of that, Mr. Gundam Pilot,” he said as he shook a finger. “Now then, I’m going to let you drop from the wall and then you will lay down on this cot. If you disobey, I’ll be forced to punish you. Now, be a good little pet…”

His arms suddenly weren’t holding him up. He fell to his knees, hissing as his sore arms were made to move so quickly. He got up slowly and stood, looking as proud as ever. The man whistled.

“Well, well,” he said with a leering grin. “Someone’s been keeping in shape…”

He glared. Pursing his lips, he walked towards the cot, eyes locked on the man. He could make out a name on the tags just barely. Dr. Riley Vile. Well, what a horribly appropriate name for him. He was about to step past the man when he threw out a leg, tripping him. Dr. Vile hit the ground and Wufei was on him in a second. With his arms clasped together, he merely bludgeoned the man with both hands. Vile fought him and then threw out a hand to grab something from the floor. The control!

Pain struck down his spine. Wufei screamed as his body collapsed into a convulsing pile. Dr. Vile got up and dusted himself off, a little bloodied but not bad off.

“That wasn’t very nice,” he told the pilot with a scowl as he gave him a swift kick. “Now we have to do this the hard way!”

Not a word. Heero had already sent in the data to the doctors and informed him of 05’s disappearance. He’d tended to his wounds. Now, he sat very still as his laptop did the searched. Not a word about Chang. Not a single damn word in hours.

Heero was slowly going out of his mind with worry. He hated the hurt he felt in his chest, the tightness of every muscle of his body, the turmoil in his mind. He hated it all. Reminders, all of it, of his imperfections.

Not perfect.

Not Perfect.

NOT PERFECT.

He screamed out loud. Head thrown back and arms tight around himself, he simply screamed until the sound wouldn’t come out again. His throat was scratched near bloody. His jaws were sore and breathing quick. Wetness trailed down his cheeks. There would be bruises on his arms later where his fingers bit into them. He stared upward in silence. He didn’t understand why, but he felt calmer after the outburst. Vindicated, almost.

A chime brought that feeling to a screeching halt. Heero jerked his head to stare at the screen.

Wufei!

He was gone within seconds.

He didn’t know what they had been looking for, nor if he had given it to them. Dr. Vile always looked the same when he came to. He hoped, even under the influence of truth drugs, that he said nothing. This wasn’t his strong suit. It was Duo’s. The braided pilot filled his mind often, usually along with Heero. They haunted him as surely as they comforted him. He didn’t know how long he had been held prisoner, but it was long enough for time to run together into meaninglessness.

The door opened. Wufei turned his head slowly and gazed blankly at Dr. Vile. His cheerful tormentor gave him a grin and set his ever present clipboard on the table beside the cot Wufei was strapped to. The Chinese pilot turned his gaze upward and stared at the ceiling as he prepared to set himself within the wall of his mind. It was the only defense he had against the drugs. As expected, Dr. Vile picked up a syringe and filled it carefully, tapping out the air. He didn’t want to lose one of his favorite toys, now did he? Wufei felt the prick, but paid it no mind. He had to concentrate. Even as he felt the first touches of the drug’s effects, he didn’t dare turn from his meditation.

The last words he heard before falling once again into oblivion was Dr. Vile saying pleasantly, “So tell me about the Gundams…”

“He still hasn’t said anything?!”

Heero was motionless in the ventilation shaft, listening as the officer raged below. The scrawny man in a white coat stood patiently, taking all of the other’s abuse and dishing none out himself.

“Oh, he says quite a bit,” said Enemy One. “About the pilots.”

“But nothing we need to know! Not even his damn name!” yelled Enemy Two. He slammed his hand down on the tape recorder, turning it on. Immediately, Chang’s slow, drugged voice came from it.

‘He hates when anyone fights…He tries to fix everything without anyone being hurt…’

“Nothing of importance!” Enemy Two screamed in Enemy One’s face. The other man sighed a little.

“I’ve done everything I can. He’s somehow blocking the effect. I theorize that he’s been trained-”

“Of COURSE he’s been trained!” Enemy Two snarled and turned back to the tape, listening in silence as he stewed.

‘03 thinks it’s a defense mechanism…That he can’t bare to feel or be hurt…he‘s too fragile…’

“That’s it,” snarled Enemy Two. “No more drugs. We’ll beat the little son of a bitch until he talks.”

Heero carefully moved away from the room and traveled on. His elbows and knees were somewhat scratched, but he didn’t pay attention to it. The floor plan was in his head. He memorized it on the way there. Carefully making his way through the ventilation system, he checked where he was every once in a while. He only hoped Chang was where he thought he was.

As Heero came upon the prisoner cells, he dropped out right on top of two guards, knocking them out cold effortlessly. He went along the area, looking through the barred doors, but not finding his comrade. Before he had the chance to worry, he heard a voice from the far end of the block, away from the two unconscious guards. He listened carefully, picking out the snatches of conversation he could hear. As soon as he heard the words “Chinese” and “pilot”, Heero took off to follow.

Dr. Vile wasn’t there. It was a startling fact, as he had always been before with Wufei awoke, but not this time. After sweeping the room to find the doctor’s presence, Wufei quickly began working on the straps that held him. His body’s aches and pains screamed at him, but he stubbornly ignored them. They didn’t matter as long as he got away. His wrists were rubbed raw and stung with his movements. The straps had done well to keep him down through Dr. Vile’s little sessions.

One wrist wiggled free, though his thumb panged from being dislocated. Wufei swiftly freed himself from the rest of the restraints and sprang up. His body swayed with weakness. Between the drugs and little food, his body wasn’t responding like it should. His steps were stumbled, nearly throwing him to the ground before he managed to catch himself.

Of course, that was when others came in.

Heero wasn’t sure what had happened. Between coming upon the interrogation, rescuing an unconscious Chinese boy, and escaping into the rain drenched world, he hadn’t had much time to reflect. He knew that he’d eliminated the threat and grabbed Wufei, but didn’t remember doing it. He didn’t remember the bad dash out of the base as alarms blared overhead, nor making it to the mostly reliable getaway car. He didn’t even remember the vicious car chase that ensued and his subsequent escape. No, all of that was very unimportant to him.

The unmoving boy laying across the backseat was a much more pressing issue.

Heero worked on autopilot. He drove for a few hours until he was sure that they would be safe for a little while. The night was rainy but warm, a muggy sort of atmosphere that made one sweat as it washed that away. Heero pulled into a back lot in the next town and went to the back to examine Wufei. Most of the other boy’s wounds were superficial, though there was a nasty gash over his left eye that looked worse than it probably was. Heero cleaned and bandaged up that and other cuts before checking down for broken bones. When he found none, he couldn’t help his relieved sigh.

He drove again, after he’d assured himself of Wufei’s safety. In the next town, he managed to get a message to the doctors, who replied almost immediately. He was to take Wufei to a safe house and stay there. There was too much activity going on in their area for a safe getaway. Heero drove on to the coordinates.

It was dark again when they arrived. Wufei had yet to wake and Heero wasn’t at all liking that. As soon as he carried the other boy into the small safe house, he dropped him onto the bed and shook him roughly.

“Chang!” he yelled out sharply. “Chang, wake up!”

The Chinese teen didn’t so much as flutter a lash. Worry filled Heero in the worst way. Being so strung and tense for so long had taken its toll on him.

“CHANG!” He knew he wasn’t suppose to care. He knew that. But it hurt. His chest was so tight he could barely stand to breathe. Who knew what those maniacs had done to the other boy? What if he never woke? “Damn it, Chang! Wake up! Wufei!”

When there was still no change, Heero dragged the Chinese boy up and held him tight, burying his head against the cloth covered chest. He felt useless. He felt like screaming again until he simply died from the effort. He knew he was shaking, but he couldn’t get himself to care. The other boy was limp against him, like a life sized rag doll. He’d been too late.

He was scared. His panicked mind was screaming over and over that the other boy would never wake, that he would slip off with Thanatos soon and leave him forever. He was scared. So very scared. At once, he felt the horrible realization that he truly was still a child. A helpless, scared little boy who wanted nothing but to play and be happy. He wanted that. He wanted it so very badly and now… now it felt as if he would never get that if the boy in his arms didn’t move…

Black lashes shifted as thin brows bunched slightly. The heavy lids lifted once, twice, and then stayed open as dark eyes stared at the head of dark brown hair just below his own. He didn’t understand at first. His head was still feeling funny and slow. There was a tightness around his chest that he soon decided was the person’s arms. Why someone would hold him so tightly, he wasn’t sure, but it was mildly uncomfortable. He made a soft sound of discontentment.

Heero’s body jerked back before he realized what he had heard. Kohl eyes stared at him blearily from the paled face.

Wufei had never seen eyes look so blue in his entire life. They looked like they held every ocean, ever bit of sky, and he could drown at any moment just as soon as fly. He knew he wasn’t thinking right, but didn’t care at the moment. He was drowning. Wide, blue eyes on a tan face. Perfect lips, parted now as if to speak. Messy brown hair he just wanted to lace his fingers through, so he did. The other boy flinched a little but didn’t push him away.

“Heero,” he whispered, giving name to the sight before him. Alas, his voice seemed to break the spell.

“Chang,” replied the boy, his mask of indifference going up in a moments notice. Wufei blinked slowly, numbly. “Lay down and rest. We are to stay here until called.”

Heero pulled away easily and left the bedroom just as quickly. Wufei stayed upright, staring after the other boy. The image of those blue eyes so wide with both fear and relief haunted his mind.

“He was worried,” he murmured softly. There was a sudden warmth to his chest. Heero, worried? About him. Heero worried about him. He closed his eyes and gently smiled. It could work. It could really work.

Days past and Wufei healed. The two Asian teens interacted little, both minds far too active for their own good. They exchanged short looks, eyes flitting away when the other caught them. Heero even managed to knock over a lamp that Wufei deftly caught. They’d said nothing at the time, but Heero was quite embarrassed about it and Wufei amused.

They were acting like a couple of high school girls trying to get the courage to ask their crushes out.

It had to happen sometime, you know. Both walking through a doorway at the same time, someone catching a foot on the ripped carpet…

Wufei didn’t breathe. He felt all together too warm yet freezing cold. Too confined, but yearning to be trapped. Breath, quick and hot, hit his neck over and over. Body heat radiated from the boy underneath him. One knee was between his and against a thigh, teasingly close… He slowly lifted himself and stared down at the red faced pilot. Wide blue eyes stared back.

“Chang…” murmured Heero in a strange tone, strained and quiet. “Get off me.”

Wufei didn’t move to do so, but then, neither did Heero make him. They stayed, eyes locked and burning. Then, Wufei made a decision. Here was a chance. He had to take it.

They met, fiery and strong, fighting for dominance as surely as they had ever competed. It was rough, lips crushed and teeth clinking together as tongues sparred. Arms grabbed and fingers scratched and legs held tight. They parted only when the need for air became too great but came together soon enough.

Would it happen, right there in the hall? Neither knew and neither really cared.

Questing fingers delved beneath cloth to run over hot skin. Soft sounds and harsher groans fell between. Hands rubbed and squeezed and groped and loved… They were falling into each other, caring for little more than reaching deeply into the other and taking hold of his heart and keeping it for himself. Losing themselves in the touches and gasps and licks and snarling… Losing control. They were in a complete loss of control… Control…

Heero’s eyes snapped wide as he shoved Wufei away from him, screaming out, “NO!”

Wufei tumbled and fell hard against the wall as Heero shoved himself backwards with hands and feet until his back hit solid and moved no more. The Chinese pilot looked up at his counterpart, eyes rolling up the tanned legs to spandex shorts shoved part way down and revealing the lines of his pelvic bone where his shirt had ridden up. The heaving chest and tight shoulders, shaking now. Finally, the arousal-darkened face with its gasping mouth and panicked eyes. Wufei knew those eyes.

“Heero?” he murmured quietly. The other boy didn’t speak. Wufei slowly shifted and crawled toward Heero, watching with worry as all emotion and color drained from the Japanese face, his eyes turning to lifeless blue. “Heero?”

“No,” whispered the pilot of Wing. Wufei sat back on his heels in front of him and reached out to grasp the other’s face.

“I didn’t mean for that,” he said quietly. “It just happened. I meant to court you slowly and-”

“No.”

Wufei fell silent and looked over the other’s face. A solid determination began to burn in those cobalt eyes. One hand, larger than his own with thicker fingers, took each of his and almost gently pulled them away from his face.

“No,” Heero repeated again with finality. “Don’t.”

“Heero-”

“Yuy,” the boy snarled with sudden anger. Heero shoved him away again and got up. “We aren’t friends, Chang. We’re allies. If you try to touch me again, I’ll shoot you on the spot.”

Wufei sat stunned for a good while before he turned to look up. The other pilot was already gone. Wufei could have fallen into depression. He could have given up right then and there. Forgotten the whole idea and gotten over his infatuation. It might have saved him the heartache. As it was, all the entire event had done was to make Wufei severely aroused and angry.

Heero wasn’t even out of the kitchen before Wufei tackled him and pinned the Japanese boy against the wall, mouth claiming his as his body held the other’s firmly in place. Heero struggled and fought, but the kiss made him feel the strangest things, eroded at his resistance… Wufei jerked back and glared at him.

“Don’t you dare dismiss me like that,” Wufei snarled. “I don’t know what kind of idiocy just went through that head of yours, but it stops now.”

“Get off me,” growled Heero, but it lacked its bite and besides, Wufei could feel just how much of an effect he had on the boy.

“No,” replied the Chinese boy. “And shut up. I have something to say.”

Heero’s lips tightened into a white line as his eyes blazed angrily. Wufei had seen that look before. He and Heero had always been such fierce competitors for so long. Even when they sparred those few times, it had been a battle neither wanted to lose. That look made him lose it every time.

“I love you!”

Heero caught his breath and stared at the other pilot. Something…there was something there, Wufei could see it. It spurned him on.

“I’ve loved you for so long. I can’t stand the thought of not being with you.”

“Duo,” was whispered shakily, desperately.

“He’s the same. He may have pined for you even longer than I have. That’s what brought us together in the beginning.”

Heero seemed frozen. Wufei gave the last push.

“We’ll have you, if you’ll have us.”

Again, there was silence. Wufei leaned in and slowly kissed him. Close lipped, warm skin to warm skin, slow. He spoke into those lips, his own brushing against them with each movement.

“We want you to be happy…”

Happy? Such a foreign concept. Could any of them be happy during this war? …War… That’s right. There was a war going on. Wufei’s bruises from the last mission weren’t even healed yet and the stark white bandage on his forehead showed so brightly against his black hair and caramel skin. This war was going to kill him, he knew. He would die during it. Ending any possibility for happiness. Destroying any happiness he might have with those two he loved so dearly. He did love them. He loved them so much that it hurt. And here was one, begging him to love them? When he knew he would die and they would bare his loss?

No. He couldn’t do that to them. If he rejected them now, they wouldn’t hurt when he died. They might have even been happy. No, he couldn’t let them know how much he loved them. He’d have to hurt them, drive them away completely.

“Isn’t Maxwell giving you any?”

Wufei pulled back and blinked at him in a mixture of confusion, shock, and a little hurt. Heero let his face fall into an emotionless mask.

“You must be suffering rather much from abstinence to be so desperate,” he stated matter-of-factly. Wufei opened his mouth to protest, but he cut the other off. “Go back to your lover, Chang. Horny or not, you’ll get nothing from me.”

He pushed the other aside rather abruptly and was almost surprised that the other pilot didn’t fight the move. His chest felt tight, so tight he could barely breathe. He would go to Wing and tell the Gundam everything. He didn’t care if it was an emotionless machine. He had to explain to someone. Wing wouldn’t tell.

“Don’t go.”

Heero paused and set his face before glancing back. There he stood, proud, honorable Wufei, with the most heartbreaking look on his face. Ebony eyes swimming with tears that hadn’t fallen yet, lips parted to plead…

“I meant it. I love you, Heero.”

The brunette boy turned his back on him. “I don’t care for you.”

“Duo-”

“It is the same. Your feelings are misplaced.”

“DAMN IT, HEERO!” Again, the Japanese pilot found his back shoved roughly into the plaster and Wufei’s angry, desperate face close to his. “Stop with the ‘Ice Man’ routine! Duo and I know you better than that! You can’t hide what you feel, not after today and not after the night with Duo!”

He wanted to give in. He wanted to. He wanted to cry when his mouth, instead, snarled the words, “You mean nothing to me and never will.”

And that was it. The pilot of Wing ended everything then and there and walked out without a fight, leaving the Chinese boy standing alone in the cold kitchen.

Heero sat in Wing’s cockpit for far too long as he screamed at himself into exhaustion.

The war was over. Heero had saved them all. All of earth was so lucky to have the young man as their savior. He believed it. He really did.

All those people meant far more to Heero Yuy than he did.

He felt as if he were being ripped to pieces. None of this showed at the after party Quatre threw, of course. He mingled a little, sipped drinks, flirted with Duo. None of them suspected a thing.

Wufei was gone by morning.

A/N: ::sobs:: My poor Wu-man! *huggles him* I must admit that Wufei is my favorite character and 1x5 is my favorite pairing, which is prolly why this chapter is longer than the 1x2 one. Sorry guys!!!

Anywho, since you guys are pretty cool, I decided to...

Acknowledge!

Water-Soter - Yay for the first reviewer!! Why is Heero so against falling in love? Well, it told that here but He-chan's prolly gonna be thinking about it next chap....

HeeroDuo4eva - Well, we know what pairing YOU go for... heh ::grin:: Glad I've hooked you!

Lost-Remembrance - A non yaoi lover likes my story....... ::SQUEE!::

Rune Essence - A non 1x2x5 wasn't freaked out by my story and liked it..... ::SQUEEE!::

allonym - Glad to have served!!

Ok. I feel bubbly and happy now. ::SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!::