Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Everyday Battle ❯ One-Shot

"Wu Fei..."

The young, Chinese soldier looked up from his meal of oily beef noodle soup and fried chicken feet at the tone of chastisement evident in his partner's voice.

"What is it now, woman."

Sally Po quirked an eyebrow at his defensively offensive use of her sex as a pejorative. The two of them had been working as a team in the Earth Sphere United Nation's security force, the Preventers, for two and a half years and after that much time spent in close quarters they'd gotten to know each other's fighting styles quite well. Sally was an endurance fighter with a preference for direct engagement with the enemy and a battle of wit and willpower. Wu Fei on the other hand preferred to unsettle his enemy during a fight causing them to lose focus and make deadly mistakes. What Sally was noting with the elevation of her eyebrow was Wu Fei's attempt to throw her off of her current battle by verbally abusing her. It didn't work..

"Chang Wu Fei, your diet is terrible. How many times do I have to tell you to eat some vegetables?"

He glared at her over the lip of his bowl and continued to cram his mouth full of succulent pieces of meat. After swallowing a crunchy bit, he sneered at her and replied, "Vegetables are a waste of time. All I need is protein."

Sally stared at him in disbelief. Her partner was an intelligent young man. She had in fact witnessed his strategic abilities in action more than once and been duly impressed by his systematic and intricate thinking. There were times, however, when he became fixated on a wrong idea, and it took nothing less than a catastrophe to set him right. Feeling only momentarily stymied, she continued.

"You used to eat vegetables. In fact, I recall you enjoying my bok choy and shitake stir-fry when I brought in leftovers for lunch just last month."

Wu Fei sniffed superciliously at her and said matter of factly, "That was before."

"Before what?!" Really, sometimes Sally just wanted to throttle the guy.

"Before I realized the error of my ways."

He nodded sanctimoniously and placed his empty bowl on the desk before leaning back with arms folded in front of him. Sally recognized the posture as Wu Fei at his most intractable. She sighed in exasperation.

"Wu Fei, as a person trained in medicine, your partner, and as your friend it is my duty to guard you from dangers to your health...even when you are the origin yourself. A person cannot live on animal protein alone without endangering their digestive system, not to mention their circulatory system. I urge you to think carefully about this ludicrous new diet you have adopted before you damage yourself. Now please," Sally moved forward to place a hand affectionately on his shoulder, "promise me you'll eat something green today."

Her partner's reaction was unexpectedly violent. He shot up from his seat, shooting the wheeled chair out behind him to slam into the wall and brought his face level with hers.

"I am not a child woman. I will eat what I damned well pl... pl... please?" Wu Fei turned a distinctly green shade before he could finish his usual tirade, and Sally could see his hands twitch at his sides, while a look of betrayal passed through his eyes. "You've poisoned me, woman!" The distinct sound of inner turmoil could be heard coming from his midsection.

Deeply satisfied that her latest battle with Wu Fei was turning in her favor, Sally took the opportunity to gloat.

"For example," she began ticking her points off on the fingers of her left hand, "you may find that a lack of fiber in your diet will lead to extreme oscillations between constipation and sudden, painful diarrhea..."

Sally was interrupted before she made it to her next finger as Wu Fei, with a loud groan pushed off from the wall he was leaning against and took off in a dead run for the men's room at the end of the hall.

--the next morning---

We see the Preventer's canteen, a large, fluorescent lit hall with long tables, bustling with people grabbing breakfast before their day begins. One table is occupied solely by a black-eyed, grimacing young man eating a bowl of bran cereal, and reading the nutritional information on the side.

A blond-haired Chinese woman, the only person brave enough or perhaps insane enough to go near the table, cheerily places a large red apple and two bananas next to his bowl, and with a definitive air of conquest, saunters off to the salad bar.

About to throw the apple at her back, the young man suddenly halts, looking more than a little queasy, and instead lowers his hand and takes a furious bite.

"Hm. Tasty."