Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Dragon in my Hand ❯ Reluctant Handler ( Chapter 4 )

A/N: Yeah, that posting schedule? Not working so well. Anyway, here's the latest chapter, so I hope you enjoy. I don't own Gundam Wing.

 

Dragon in My Hand

Chapter Four

Reluctant Handler

 

Wufei took his time exploring the small area around his guard's perch, having to force himself into the habit of looking up to check his location after several warning coughs from the older man.  He had no reason to think that Zechs had been joking about putting him in a jar, for at least as long as Wufei was under his charge.  When hunger eventually struck, he walked back over to where the lieutenant waited with his scraps of food.  The simplicity of it, especially after the much more elaborate foods Treize had given him, made the teenager raise an eyebrow.  Bread and cheese with a sliver of cold cut.

Far from being disappointed in it, Wufei actually appreciated the plain meal and couldn't help but to be reminded of the ones he'd managed to snatch after missing meals because he'd been deep inside a book at the dinner bell.  He took a comfortable seat on the ground before beginning to eat, looking out at the area he'd been walking around.

"You're not what I expected."

The pilot looked up sharply at Zechs, his expression of surprise there and gone within a few seconds and quickly replaced by one of calculation.  It was the first thing that Zechs had actually said to him since warning Wufei not to go too far and he wasn't exactly clear on what the officer meant.  "How is that?"

"You're quieter," Zechs said after taking a moment to think of the best way to describe the difference between what he expected and what he found.  He forced himself to ignore Wufei's snappishness the previous evening, taking in account that the boy had been suffering from a sizable shock.  But even then Wufei hadn't been nearly as vocal as he had thought the tiny pilot would have been.  Was it still just an effect of the shock, or was his evaluation of Chang's personality truly that far off?

On the ground, Wufei snorted as he crossed his arms over his chest.  "Did you expect me to be talking nonstop like the pilot of Deathscythe?  We may both be warriors of similar caliber, but that does not mean that we are cut from the same cloth."  While he did have some measure of respect for Duo, Wufei still found his nearly constant chatter to get on his nerves.  Which was probably the other teenager's goal.  He was about to go back to his meal when the sound of laughter started him, making Wufei stare up at Zechs.  He didn't think he'd ever heard the man laugh before.  "What's so amusing?"

"I don't believe you'll ever need to worry about being compared to 02, Chang," Zechs said with a shake of his head, finding the very idea hilariously ridiculous.  If he were going to draw a line between any of the five pilots, it would be either between 01 and 02 for the mad laughter that terrified their troops in battle, or the cold efficiency shown by 01 and 03 in their missions.  "Perhaps to 04, for the mercy you both tend to show at times."

"Mercy?  You might want to check that your helmet isn't on too tight, Marquise," Wufei said with a snort.  As far as he was concerned, the only things he and Winner had in common were wealthy backgrounds and a classical education.  "Mercy on the battlefield gets you killed."

"The fact that Lieutenant Noin is still alive would argue your statement," the older man said with an eyebrow raised behind his mask.  He felt a small surge of victory when he saw Wufei stop.  So, he had gotten through to him, at least somewhat.  Zechs leaned down to pick up the improvised table and wiped it off with a napkin before placing it back on his thermos.

Wufei frowned up at him as he stood his ground this time, refusing to back away from Zechs' reach.  He'd have to be handled again before they could return to the warmth and relative safety of the indoors, no matter how uncomfortable he found it.  Wufei waited until Zechs was finished with the thermos before addressing him.  "I don't fight against women.  They have no place on the battlefield."

True to Wufei's prediction, a gloved hand was soon reaching for him.  But instead of merely grabbing Wufei, Zechs held it out flat with the backs of his fingers not quite touching the ground.  The younger man looked up at Zechs suspiciously before stepping up onto it.  Wufei had to kneel quickly in order to keep his balance when he was lifted to eye level.  "Some don't, I agree, but why the generalization."

Zechs' curiosity grew when it took Wufei a while to answer.  His sister, he would do whatever it took to keep off of the battlefield.  Treize's rather frightening cousin, any of their overly innocent classmates, the soft hearted Doctor Po before she'd defected, but Noin and, as much as she disturbed him, Lady Une were just as much soldiers as any of the men.  Caught in his thoughts, he almost missed Wufei's reply.  "They die too easily."

It was a close thing that Zechs didn't immediately ask who had died to make Wufei so solidly sure that women who fought would.  Was that why the boy was so set on fighting?  The death of a woman in battle?  A friend, family member, girlfriend?  The last thought just didn't seem to fit the boy in his hand, especially considering that the hypothetical woman surely would have been older than Chang.  The pilots themselves were so young (couldn't be any older than his sister), that surely no one younger had gone out to battle.

He promised himself that he would find out about this woman later and cupped his fingers around Chang, noting the way that the boy stiffened.  "Are you ready to go back inside?  I have duties to attend to."

The way it was phrased, Wufei had a feeling that he really didn't have much of a choice in the matter and he nodded for the sake of simplicity.  The teenager didn't particularly feel like being reminded of his utter helplessness.  Zechs seemed to be satisfied with his response, and was a little more careful with him than last time when he slid Wufei into his pocket.  The younger man didn't know which he preferred more, because being treated like he was fragile wasn't all that appealing either.

Even if he knew it was actually true.  That didn't mean he had to admit it.

While he still had a little space to move before the OZ officer closed his coat, Wufei quickly unbuttoned his own and slid it off.  The bundled up material would make a good lounging pillow until he was returned to Treize's quarters.  At least there, there was a chance of being able to settle in with a book.  Or if the General wasn't attentive enough, hack into his laptop to send word to the others for extraction.  There was always a chance that one of the doctors would be able to find a method of reversal.

And if there wasn't one... at least Nataku could be retrieved and kept out of enemy hands.  Wufei would be unable to bear the thought of her being used against the colonies.

Even neatly tucked away, Wufei tumbled a little inside the pocket when Zechs bent down to retrieve the thermos lid.  He'd clearly been forgotten already and the pilot found that that suited him well enough at the moment.  Being paid attention to here seemed to mean being handled and asked questions that he really did not want to have to answer about himself.

But then he was proven wrong again as there was the slight pressure of a hand touching over his pocket.  "You'll be returned to Treize's quarters shortly.  I expect you to behave like a proper guest there."

Of course, Wufei was unable to answer and simply snorted, resettling after his minor tumble.  'Shortly' could mean ten minutes or two hours, and he possessed no way to ask which it would mean this time.

Once Zechs started walking, the gentle motions letting Wufei know what was going on, it didn't take long for the change in surrounding noises and temperature to inform him that they were no longer outside.  He sighed.  Back in the enemy's base.  But it was soon rather clear that they were not returning to Khushrenada's suite just yet.  In fact, the harsh sounds of slamming metal and running water triggered memories from his days in boarding school.

Why had Zechs brought him to a locker room of all places?

The man in question opened one of the larger lockers before unbuttoning his uniform coat with care.  Wufei felt his fabric prison being pulled away from the other man's chest, but there were no fingers reaching in to grab him.  Instead, the whole jacket was folded with the flap on top and set down.

"I'll be back before long," Zechs said from outside, speaking under his breath to avoid getting heard.  He closed the locker as quietly as he could with consideration for the tiny ears inside.  If he closed it with nearly as much enthusiasm as some of the other soldiers, his ward would likely be deafened.  "Try to stay silent."

When Zechs' footsteps retreated, Wufei still waited a few minutes before starting to struggle his way out from the pocket.  The locker itself was almost as dark, with just a few streaks of light coming in from the vents to illuminate the space.  With that light, he wasn't surprised to see that the locker was mostly bare, only containing Zechs' uniform and boots, leaving him to assume that the man had changed into a set of gym clothes.  He supposed it was fortunate that the little 'room' didn't smell.

Wufei paced the locker, killing time he figured out how large it was on his scale.  Roughly three times his height wide, making it a little over fifteen feet.  He didn't want to ponder the fact that the real measurement was only twelve inches.  Twenty feet deep, and he had no way of measuring the height.  Of course, the information was served to entertain briefly.  Even if he'd had a way up to the lock, the mechanism was too big for him to pick, and he had no way of knowing how far down the fall would be if he had to jump.

He sat down with a frustrated huff, scowling at the thick red fabric that made up his floor at the moment.  Left in a locker like a pair of dirty socks.  While he knew how simple it was for them to treat him as an object, the fact that he hadn't been yet had likely lured him into a false sense of security.  After all Khushrenada's attempts to convince him otherwise, he was still a prisoner, and not even one considered much of a threat.

That alone was more of an insult than anything else he'd suffered since his capture.

With nothing else to do unless he particularly wanted to dwell on the situation, Wufei mapped out the possible tripping points in the 'room' before starting to go through his practice forms.  The soft and uneven terrain made for an added challenge along with the darkness.  If he was going to be trapped and left unsupervised, he was going to make use of the time.  When he returned to his normal size, it was likely that he would have to fight his way to Nataku; he refused to be recaptured due to laziness.

There were three light taps on the locker door before the lock mechanism could be heard turning, giving Wufei time to pull his shirt back on and get out of sight.  Marquise pulled the door open and felt for him, carefully picking the teenager up along with his uniform shirt to keep him from being seen.  There were too many other people in the room to be able to get the pilot back into his inner pocket subtly.  As for Wufei, he wouldn't say that the awkward hand to hand maneuver that ended with him inside one of the man's gloves was particularly enjoyable, leaving him to sympathize with the odds and ends that Maxwell palmed when need or whim drove him to snitch.  The purpose of the odd hiding place didn't even make any sense to him, as it meant that he was sandwiched snugly between the fabric of the glove and the flesh of Zechs' hand.  Even with it being the left (from what he could tell), it had to make things tricky for Zechs as well.

It was at least somewhat of a relief when they left the hot humidity of the locker room and headed through a number of much quieter hallways.  Wufei could hear a few soldiers stopping to formally greet Zechs, and it wasn't hard to picture them snapping their heels together, hand raised to their brows in salute.  If Wufei had been in the right glove, they would have been in trouble.

When the boot interrupted silence gave way to a gentle clinking of dishes above the lull of conversation, Wufei frowned in his unconventional hiding place.  Just where were they?  Surely it was far too early for dinner.  It was easy to lose time indoors when one couldn't see a clock, but he refused to believe that he had lost that much.

"Zechs, you've made it.  I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to start without you."

Khushrenada, and in a social mood from the sounds of it.  A chair scraped back and fabric rustled as the men shook hands.  A friendly greeting, giving away nothing like the kiss Wufei'd witnessed the evening before.  He couldn't help but to be reminded of a pair of actors playing counter roles in two entirely different productions.  Lovers by candlelight, and proper military officers by florescent.

"My apologies, General.  I lost track of time."

"And our visitor?  I trust you've been making sure that his needs have been attended to."

Wufei nearly scoffed at Zechs' confirmation.  Fed, allowed to wander a bit, and then shut in a room where he couldn't get into trouble.  The man would have been a poor sitter had Wufei been a dog, much less a guest.  A light touch on his side nearly made the young pilot jump before Zechs tugged the glove off slowly, making sure that Wufei stayed inside it.  He immediately curled up and froze, gripping the seam between fingers as the gloves were set down on the table.

Outside, Treize raised an eyebrow at his lover; Zechs didn't normally remove his gloves for tea, and it was impossible to ignore the small lump inside the left one even as Zechs put the second over it.  Treize had a feeling that 'lost track of time' was quite the understatement, and that he knew the cause of it too.  "I see Lieutenant Noin has arrived a day early."

"Nothing passes you unnoticed, does it Treize?" Zechs asked without denying the fact.  If he were another man, he'd have likely behaved sheepishly in the face of being caught.  "She sent me a message requesting a match and I'm afraid I underestimated how long it would take."

"It's not like you to put recreation in front of duty so casually, Lieutenant," Treize said, managing to sound mildly disapproving without actually scolding the blond.  Zechs had been supposed to take Wufei back to his suite shortly after lunch so the pilot could have some peace to stretch his legs.  And from what Treize knew of martial artists, his dragon would take some of that time alone to train as well.  Being left behind like that was undoubtedly something that'd make Wufei trust him even less.

"My apologies once more, General."  Zechs let himself feel a brief flicker of annoyance towards the tiny pilot still hiding.  But the feeling was short lived because he wasn't one to blame his mistakes on others.  The blond man shook his head and picked up his tea.  There was no point in feeling jealous either.  His lover did as he pleased.

Treize nodded his acceptance of the apology and peeled off his gloves to set beside Zechs'.  He knew from experience that they were the same size, making an exchange a simple matter.  "I'm sure it won't happen too often.  How was your match?"

With that, both men relaxed into easy conversation, keeping in mind both the listening ears on and around their table.  No matter how high in rank they both rose, so much as a rumor of sexual relations between a superior officer and his subordinate could damage both of their careers, and stop Treize's revolution in its tracks.  But as for being friendly?  It was no secret that they'd known each other since boyhood.

When the hour they had for tea passed, Treize was careful to pick up the gloves that Zechs had taken off rather than his own.  He felt the teenager inside stiffen and hid a sigh.  Instead of putting the gloves back on, he slipped them into a pocket, speaking up more for his listeners' benefit than his own.  "These seem to have gotten something on them.  I'll get a fresh pair from my room."

"Do you want me to join you for dinner tonight?" the blond lieutenant asked.  It was usually a given unless they were being watched, but with the unusual circumstances it meant that normal wasn't going to be the standard for a bit.  Cautious was, and that was always kept flexible per the situation.

"Not tonight I think," Treize said, his polite smile never slipping.  "We'll talk all night and I'll never get my work done.  Tomorrow, if nothing else comes up.  You can beat me soundly again at chess then."

A small smile tugged at the corners of Zechs' lips.  "So says the king to his rook.  Tomorrow then."

With a nod from Treize, the two men parted and went their separate ways for the day.  The older man had some damage control to do with his tiny guest.