Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Past Meets Present ❯ Chapter 13 ( Chapter 13 )

Heero, Trowa, Hilde, and Relena were waiting in the hospital, wondering when they would get to see their friends and family. But it was late. So late in fact, that even Heero was starting to show signs of wear. And then, Hilde accidentally nodded off, head on Heero’s shoulder.

He glanced at her and felt like doing the same. Just going to sleep. But, first, he had to get Hilde off of his shoulder.

“Sorry,” she apologized soon after he had woken her. “I’m just so tired,” she said, yawning again. He nodded. “It has been a long day,” Heero replied, standing up. He left before anyone could ask where he was going and the group did not see him until later the next day.

Hilde yawned again. Giving Trowa and Relena a sheepish look, the German woman moved onto the floor, using her jacket as a pillow.

“If you want to sleep too, you can,” Trowa finally said, breaking the silence that had drifted upon the two. The woman shook her head. “No, I’m not tired,” she told him.

“Okay,” he answered, letting silence drift over them again.

Near two in the morning, when all three of them had drifted off, Hilde on the floor, Trowa and Relena using the other as a support in the chairs, the doors opened again. It was the nighttime head nurse and she was making the rounds. Already told of the people in this waiting room, she gave them a quick smile and headed down to check the next floor. The next couple floors were quiet. It wasn’t until she reached the fourth that she heard something.

“You idiot, don’t ever do something so stupid again,” Meiran told her husband, yawning. Laying her head down on his bed, she was asleep in moments.

The nurse looked into Mr. Chang’s room and saw a young Chinese woman asleep, her head resting on his bed. She walked over to the woman and saw a young child curled up in bed next to Mr. Chang. And then, Mr. Chang saw her.

“You know, your visitors shouldn’t be here,” the nurse told him. He just looked back at her. “But, this is the first time I’ve seen you have someone here, so I’ll let it slid.”

And she left.

“Huh? Where am I?” Meiran wondered the next morning, feeling a horrible pain in her back and neck. “Where’s Xin Xin?” She asked, sitting up. Wufei looked up from his book. “Trowa came by and got her an hour ago.”

“Oh,” Meiran replied. “What time is it?”

“Noon. And before you ask, Winner and Maxwell are going to be fine. So will Zechs and Noin.”

“Zechs and Noin?” She repeated, not knowing who he was talking about.

“Two people I work with,” Wufei answered, taking his glasses off. Just then, Meiran’s stomach growled. Her face grew a red tint of embarrassment. He just smirked. “Go get something to eat,” Wufei ordered. “I’m not going anywhere.”

She got up and glared at him. “You’re such an ass.”

“Takes one to know one,” he shot back. Rolling her eyes, knowing that the cause was lost, Meiran left the room. Asking a nurse where the cafeteria was, she went down to the large room. Grabbing a sandwich from the line, she spotted a familiar bang. Heading to that table, she sat down next to Hilde.

“Niáng!” Xin Xin said happily. “You’re awake.”

“Looks like,” Meiran answered, taking a bite. No one said a word; they just sat and ate. Well, Xin Xin talked.

“So, Mr. Chang, it looks like you’re finally going home,” one of the nurses told Wufei as he left with his friends. He was on a pair of crutches and already disliking them greatly. Getting into the elevator first, he shifted so that there would be more room in the large creation. Duo was coming home as well, his gunshot wound not as serious as it was thought. Zechs and Noin had left earlier with Sally and Relena. In fact, out of the five, only Quatre has to remain, having taken two bullets, one, which had almost gone through his right lung.

But, there were still quite a few people in the metal contraption. Hilde, Trowa, Heero, Duo, Xin Xin, Meiran, and Wufei himself were all crammed into it. And considering one of them was on crutches, well, that didn’t help matters one bit. And things only got worse when the group reached the parking lot. Thankfully, both Heero and Trowa had brought their cars so the large group was not forced to attempt to try cramming into either vehicle.

Trowa, Meiran, and Xin Xin all clambered into Trowa’s car. Duo and Hilde joined Heero in his car. Now, Wufei could choose which car he wanted but he knew if he wasn’t in Trowa’s, there would be hell to pay. In the form of one angry Chinese woman.

“Why did we stop?” Wufei demanded to know. Trowa had pulled into a gas station, Heero tailing them. He didn’t answer. Instead, Meiran turned and asked him, “Is there anything you want?”

“I’m thirsty. And hun’ry,” Xin Xin told her mother, snuggling up against her father. The six-year-old was starting to get tired for some reason. And it was then that Wufei noticed his wife was not looking very awake either.

“We’re not stopping for a few hours,” Meiran told Wufei, still waiting. He sighed. “Then just get me something to eat and drink.”

“Anything?” She asked, eyes sparkling with mischief.

“Within reason,” he told her. She nodded, getting out of the vehicle and heading into the gas station that the others had disappeared into. He could see Duo sitting in the other car, waiting. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the other four people emerged from the place. Heero and Hilde headed towards his car, carrying a bunch of food and drinks.

Trowa and Meiran had an equally large amount of things that they brought back. Most of it went, Wufei noticed, in the trunk. Xin Xin was now asleep and Wufei was still no closer to the answers than he had been.

He shivered slightly when the doors were opened, the cold January air biting through his coat. He frowned for a moment. It was January, right?

“What’s the date?” He wondered aloud. Meiran turned and smirked, handing him a drink. “Three days before you turn twenty-two.”

Wufei blinked for a moment. It was late February already? The time sure flew. It seemed like just last week Duo was dragging them to go to that Chinese restaurant.

Trowa started the car, pulling in behind Heero’s as they drove away from the place. “So, where are we going?” He asked.

“One of the Winner estates that’s up in the mountains,” Trowa supplied. “Lady Une herself will be escorting him here tonight.”

“Why?” Wufei wondered.

“Because, there’s still people after you. And they won’t hesitate to capture you;” Meiran answered, looking back at him. “They’re the ones that shot Duo and Quatre. And the ones who kidnapped us.”

Hours later, the two cars pulled into a long, windy drive. The ground was covered in gravel, making the going slow and loud but since only the Maganacs were at the estate, it didn’t matter. Finally though, after twenty minutes, the two cars pulled up in front of a nice sized house. It was borderline large, just to give you a size.

The front door opened to reveal Quatre standing there, smiling. Trowa’s eyes widened and he ran over to the young man. The others watched as the two embraced.

“What are you doing here?” Muttered the clown.

“Well, I was able to get my sister Iria to get me out of there. And then I pulled a few strings and was able to use the Winner helicopter,” Quatre answered. They talked to each other for several minutes, never letting go of each other.

“Woman, help me out,” Wufei requested, having trouble getting out of the vehicle with one semi-sleepy child and a pair of crutches. Meiran turned to face him. “Ask nicely and use my name,” she answered, causing him to growl angry.

The other three people were now getting things out of Heero’s trunk which was revealed to be stuffed full of just about everything. And then, a large truck pulled in behind both cars. The driver was Rashid.

At this time, some of the Maganacs had appeared and began helping him carry what was in the truck in.

“What are we doing, moving in?” Wufei wondered to himself. “Yeah, we are.” He would have been startled if he hadn’t known Meiran was standing behind him. He had finally relented, asking for her help and using her name. She was now in the process of helping him out, getting his crutches for him.

Taking the most precious thing she had, Meiran walked beside Wufei as they went into the house. The others were sitting in the living room, all of everyone’s stuff, except Quatre and Trowa’s, in the room. The Maganacs had already taken and put their stuff in the master bedroom.

“So,” Duo began once the Changs’ were settled down, “who goes where?”

Quatre decided to speak at that time. “There’s ten bedrooms. Four of these are in use by the Maganacs. One is for Trowa and myself. That leaves four rooms left, so a few are going to have to double up.”

“Heero and me can share,” Duo added. “We always seem to anyways.”

“Okay,” Quatre replied. He then pulled out a blueprint of the house that had the basic layout. “Two of the other three rooms are pretty small. They’re made for only one person but the third room is pretty nice sized.”

“It’s the only room downstairs, too, out of the three, so Wufei, you’re going to want to take it,” Quatre added after a few moments of looking at the blueprint. The Chinese man started to complain when Meiran cut him off.

“You’re on crutches. If you try going up and down stairs, you’re liable to kill yourself. You’re staying on the ground floor,” she informed him.

“Woman,” he began, growling in anger. His wife just looked at him, face unreadable. “No.”

Wufei muttered something under his breath but didn’t say anything more. Across from him, sitting on the couch, Duo was having trouble holding back laughter. He turned to Heero and whispered in the Japanese man’s ear, “Never thought I’d see the day Wufei’d be beat by a woman.”

This caused Heero to snort. The others, having no idea of what Duo had said looked at Heero oddly for a moment then went back to what they were doing.

“New day and age,” Heero answered quietly after a few minutes. Duo nodded and added, “That it is.”

At that time, Xin Xin began to stir. She had been lying with her head on Meiran’s lap, the rest of her sprawled across the floor where her mother had sat down. On Meiran’s other side sat Hilde, who had been playing with the small girl’s shoulder length black hair. Rashid was standing in the doorway, while Quatre and Trowa had taken up residence on the loveseat. Duo and Heero were sitting on the couch. Wufei had taken the armchair.

“Well, just so you guys know, I’m not sharing a room with Chang,” Hilde announced. Wufei nodded in agreement. After a few moments he sighed, noticing the inevitable.

“Well, woman, I guess you and I will have to share a room,” he finally said. Meiran nodded, she had noticed that would probably happen as well.

A few hours later, everyone was for the most part settled in. At the moment, most of the people were in the house’s game room. Duo and Hilde had challenged Trowa and Heero to a game of foosball. Xin Xin was watching, amazed at how fast they could move. From the sounds of it, Duo and Hilde were winning too. Quatre was reading some papers. Rashid and the ten Maganacs that had offered to come were off doing various things around the house. Only Wufei and Meiran were missing.

“Those two have been missing for a long time, don’t you guys think?” Duo asked a little while later. He and Hilde had beaten the other two pretty good. Now the group was watching a movie. Quatre and Trowa were cuddled on the couch, paying more attention to each other than the movie. Heero actually seemed to be paying attention to the thing. That was surprising since it was an old kid’s movie. The thing was extremely out of date. The movie they were watching was this one that had been made back in like, 1995 AD. It was about four or five hundred years old, at least.

The movie was about this lion that thought he had killed his dad. And after that, Duo had kind of lost attention in it. Xin Xin was caught up in it though. She didn’t even notice Hilde playing with her hair again. Half of the child’s head was done in braids, the German woman still working on it.

No one answered Duo’s question and feeling lazy, he decided to start paying attention to the movie.

“What are you doing?” Wufei asked, watching Meiran as she walked around their room. She kept changing things.

“Fixing this room,” she replied, looking around the room. “Why?” Wufei wondered.

“Because, I want to,” was the answer he got. Wufei decided to keep his mouth shut and just watched her. Actually, it was kind of funny. She’d move something one moment, spy something else the next, and so on. She’d probably lapped the room eight or nine times now.

“So, is this a new habit of yours or something? I don’t remember you acting like this back on the colony,” he finally commented. She sighed, sitting down on the bed next to him. Wufei had his leg propped up and was relaxing on the bed, which, he found to be quite comfortable. Leaning back, she sighed, feeling safe and for some reason at peace.

What she had just been doing was a new habit she had picked up after going out on her own. But right now, she was just so tired. Not meaning to, she yawned.

“When was the last time you slept? You’re acting like you haven’t slept in days,” he told her. She mumbled, “I haven’t.”

“Good lord, woman, how do you expect to take care of Xin Xin if you don’t rest?” He questioned her. She didn’t answer. Her body shifted, leaning against his.

“Stupid woman,” he told her sleeping form. He hugged her close. He wasn’t worried about anything at the moment. Because, for some reason, this felt so right to Wufei.

A/N: Now, who doesn’t like the ending to this chapter? I certainly love the way it ended. I’m kind of afraid that Wufei is acting a little out of character right at the end, but in a way, to quote my own words, it just felt so right.

I’ve been having a lot of trouble lately with how I was going to handle Wufei and Meiran. Like, eventually, they would have to share a room. They were forced to in this. Now, afterwards, I’m still having trouble with how to deal. But, a relationship is starting to grow. That much is evident in the fact that Wufei let himself be bossed around by Meiran.

Could you see him doing that if, say Relena, was the one doing the bossing? And, he wasn’t annoyed by Meiran’s little annoying habit. On the contrary, he found it amusing. So, there is something there. It’s slow, I will admit to that, but hey, this is a hard pairing to write. It may not seem like it, but it is.

There’s next to nothing information wise on Meiran and Wufei is a hard character to write no matter what. I mean, most people seem to think Wufei in character means having him rant on the weakness of others, hate women, build shrines to his Gundam (which is named after his wife), and rant about justice.

I hate to say it, but no actually I’m proud to say that that is not Wufei. I will admit he’s kind of a bastard. But that’s part of his character. That’s what makes him Wufei. Just like how Trowa’s silence defines Trowa.

Oh, sorry for the mini-rant. I don’t own anything in this fic but Xin Xin.