Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ II. Mirror Maze ❯ Nonstop Mentality ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: Kyeian

Nonstop Mentality

“Forty-eight hours?” I echoed Relena, studying my cigarette and feeling somewhat helpless. “I don’t know if I can pull that off.”

“Then Dugan’ll be moving far far away,” Relena shrugged very slightly. “I mean…there’s only so much any of us can do, and I should note that Dugan had to talk pretty damn quick to keep himself present for those forty-eight hours.”

“Do you have to call him Dugan?”

“What else would I call him?” she asked curiously. “Call him Duey? Maybe Duckling?”

I gave her a look.

“What you think is what you say, Wufei,” she reminded me. “And I suggest you think Dugan Scott.”

“I guess,” I agreed dubiously, looking out over the city below us. Relena’s rank had gotten us a private dining area with a small balcony. It was cold, about forty-five degrees…well, I was freezing, but she was only a bit chill. “I need a reason for them to head back to Brazil.”

“I’m sorry,” she muttered dryly. “This isn’t a video game, you can’t hit X and O in the right pattern to get the magical answer rolling across your screen.”

“X and O are hugs and kissed,” I noted sardonically, giving her a look. “There are shapes in video games, and they don’t scroll the answers across the screen.”

She gave me a look.

“I meant for you to help me think of something,” I snapped.

“Tell him his mistress is pregnant.”

We both turned to look at the geisha…had I mentioned it was a tea house? Must’ve slipped my mind, my bad.

“They live in the middle of the Amazon Jungle,” Relena muttered dryly. “I don’t think he has a mistress.”

She shrugged. “It was a thought.”

“It can’t be a contact from back there,” I noted. “He’s the one in charge, so he could just order them to do what needed done without having to go back—and there’s nothing serious going on there, ever.”

“Tell him you’re leaving him?” the geisha suggested happily.

“Are you actually trying, or just offering amusing background?” I demanded, studying her.

She laughed at that, moving to slide between me and the rail, taking my cigarette and inhaling. “You need to make the situation here irrelevant,” she noted, exhaling over my ear.

Okay, so she had my attention…

“What’s he doing here?” Relena added. “He didn’t find Dugan, did he?”

“No. I was playing hide’n’seek with Trowa since I left,” I looked back to the representative. “It would have been fine, but the day I went to talk to Hilde was the day the cameras caught me.”

“He found you because you brought Hilde pizza?” Relena demanded in disbelief.

“It wasn’t even a bribe!” I agreed irritably, pulling away from miss smoke-stealer. “I just wanted to make her happy because I hadn’t seen her in forever.”

Relena sniggered at that.

“Karma hates me!”

“Must’ve done something petty last life,” the geisha noted, placing the cigarette between my lips.

I inhaled as I thought about that…then noted she was wearing peach lip gloss…

“So…what? They came running to collect you?”

I focused on Relena again, wanting to roll my eyes and deciding against it. The only reason the conversation was annoying me now was because my attention was being snaked away by the chick in the kimono. Not great work ethic… How did anyone get anything done in a tea house? Or did they not do anything? I’d never really studied Ancient Japan.

“Trowa was trying to find me. As soon as he realized where I was he packed up the trick-bag and came to join me.”

“So…they’ve found you, you can go back?”

“Except that I think he saw Dugan,” I muttered as the geisha took the cigarette back from me. “So he’ll want to show him to…him.”

“Ooh, code names, my cue to be a hostess,” the geisha noted, smiling up at me. “Sake, Mr. Chang?”

I nodded at her.

“I thought you’d like it here,” Relena noted, grinning after the woman.

“Funny, funny woman,” I muttered dryly.

“Why would Trowa want Heero to find Dugan?”

“I don’t know,” I muttered, turning back to the railing and staring straight down as vertigo hit. “He doesn’t have reasons for what he does.”

“Everyone has a reason for what they do,” Relena noted, moving closer to me. “You smoke because of stress, Heero beat Duo because of unresolved emotional issues…Hilde’s in charge because she can’t keep her nose out of things…there are reasons for everything.”

“Does boredom count?”

“I’m serious, Fei,” she protested.

I hadn’t been called ‘Fei’ in a long time. I grinned slightly at her. “So am I.”

“Are you done needing names, or should I pretend to be doing something?” the geisha chick asked curiously, moving to the door.

I grinned at her.

“You won’t repeat what we say, right?” Relena asked curiously.

“I’m honor-bound not to,” she agreed, moving to pass me a cup in that very personal fashion that really was quite distracting.

“Listen, I don’t think he’s gotten laid in a few months, so I’d appreciate it if you’d stop doing that while we’re talking.”

I gave Relena a look as the woman laughed delightedly and lounged back against the bar to look between us. “Just go back,” she suggested. “You can leave again later, right? Load the posse up for branding, let’em lick their wounds at home.”

“You like…mixed twenty metaphors,” Relena noted to her.

She grinned at that, taking the sake cup and sipping from it as she met my eyes again.
“You know, you’re really distracting me,” I muttered, taking it back.

“Yes, dear, that’s my job,” she muttered with a grin. “Granted, I like you, but…”

“Oh my god, Juki,” Relena muttered, “you can ask him on a date later, shit.”

The chick laughed more.

“You know each other?” I asked blankly.

“Juki-san is my personal assistant from time to time,” Relena agreed dryly. “She won’t come work with me unless she doesn’t have anything going on here.”

“Ah…”

“I’m paying you special attention,” she noted.

I choked slightly on my drink, looking away from both women as Juki laughed a naughty little laugh.

“Anyway,” Relena muttered in amusement. “You have to get rid of them.”

“Ooh, I know!”

Relena and I both looked back to the woman expectantly, though I noted Relena’s expression was along the lines of resigned.

“What?” I asked warily.

Juki’s smile was beatific. “Fire them.”

- -

I was tired as I knocked on the door to the other guy’s room, but I needed to get them out of London before something stupid happened and Heero found Duo.

Trowa opened it and blinked at my bag, then met my eyes.

“You’re fired,” I informed him, half stumbling into the room.

“What?” Heero asked blankly.

“Cute…geisha chick,” I muttered, losing my balance some.

So I’d had some to drink…

“Geisha chick? Are you hallucinating?” Quatre demanded blankly.

“Tea house…dinner,” I returned, though this had more to do with laziness than lack of words. I tossed my bag into the closet area and stumbled over to drop beside Quatre on the bed.

“What?” Heero asked.

“Relena invited me to supper,” I returned, turning my head enough so my mouth wasn’t covered. “We ate at a tea house.”

“With some geisha chick that made you fire Trowa?”

I started laughing at that. “It sounds funnier when you say it…”

“Shit, Wufei, how much did you drink?” Quatre muttered. “You smell like a distillery.”

“I don’t know…got too wasted to care. You gonna freak out if I puke on you?”

“Don’t be disgusting,” Heero muttered. “Why do you have your bag?”

“I only had my room until today, and this room sleeps five,” I retorted. “If we’re staying here, I’m staying with you.”

“Why would we stay here?” Heero asked blankly.

“To find Duo,” Quatre chirped.

“Why would Duo be in London?” I repeated my earlier question, blinking at him.

“Ask Trowa,” Quatre muttered.

Okay, he was having a lucid evening.

Heero and I looked to Trowa.

“I think he’s here,” Trowa snapped. “I think it was him you saw on the vid, and I think that’s why Wufei even came to London.”

“Wufei?” Heero asked, focusing on me.

I laughed at both of them. It was exactly what I was doing and they were both a couple of idiots.

Heero looked to Trowa, raising an eyebrow.

“I saw Duo,” Trowa agreed.

I guffawed again.

See, this would be the part of that fun house where you’d gotten out of the maze, and everyone was running around in front of the squished-and-stretched mirrors acting stupid and loving it. This was the part before the slide and the spinning tunnel out…I’d already been out on the balcony part, so the ride was almost over.

“You saw Duo?” Heero asked in a quiet sort of concerned voice.

“Yeah, here…with Wufei.”

“Wufei?” Heero asked.

“You’re smokin’ crack,” I noted, sitting up to meet Trowa’s eyes. “You remember the part where Heero beat the shit out of him?”

“I did not!” Heero protested—the tone was the childish refusal of confusion and consternation.

“You did, asshole,” I muttered, looking up to him. “You beat him like he was your bitch and he ran away from you.”

Heero stared at me, sitting straighter.

“Quatre’s fucking nuts,” I added, then pointed at Trowa. “And you’re a bastard! Nothing but a bastard!”

“I’m not nuts,” Quatre muttered in an almost childish voice.

“You need psychological help,” I retorted, rising somewhat unsteadily to my feet. “You all do…”

“And what about you?” Trowa asked dryly. “You’re normal?”

“No, asshole,” I retorted directly back to his face. “I’m not normal, and I don’t pretend to be normal, and I sure as hell wouldn’t play like I don’t have post-traumatic-stress or grieving issues…but my stuff doesn’t make me act like a hyperactive three-year-old on steroids.”

Trowa guffawed.

I stumbled into the bathroom, leaning against the wall as something told me I should probably sit down…and started to puke.