Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Pepper & China Roses ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Pepper & China Roses

By Rude.

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Warnin gs:

AU, Possible OOC, yaoi, other stuff, maybe some angst.

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Chapter 3

Morning brought a new set of choices to make.

What to wear, for one thing:

Those snug, comfortable jeans maybe; or the low riding, khaki slacks.

Shirtless?

Its rather warm outside.

He smirked at his reflection in the mirror, My, aren't we vain today!.

Summer had barely begun and he was happy to enjoy the weather... in the buff even. Wouldn't that be fun?

Never one to be body-shy, he now had a good reason to drop any inhibitions still remaining, after all, there is nobody here but the birds and a few bees; maybe that lazy old sun with nothing to do...-

He felt a slight longing, one he couldn't explain. But 'be what may', he chose to spend the day in those thin slacks instead of walking around naked.

He smiled at his own foolish fancy. Today was not a good day to burn one's most delicate parts, he explained to himself.

The truth was that walking naked was not so much fun if there was no risk of scandalizing any one, or even tantalizing someone. Not that Treize would ever admit to such boorish enjoyment.

It is silly and improper to walk out of the house like that, but worrying about what to wear when you are absolutely alone, is it not silly too?

Now two hours later, wandering into the forest, he tried hard to remember the last time he walked this far away from the house, but could not glimpse anything more than foggy blurs of memory. Like an old picture fading. He did not remember more than trees and little streams rolling down the numerous mountains around the wide green land.

He shacked his head and continue walking into the dense forest, rifle resting on his shoulder and a dead geese dangling in his hand.

......................................

Today was 'one of those days' at the office for Wufei. Agent Chang was reprimanded by Agent Po for barging into a building and dragging out a suspect by the last hairs on his balding head.

It was on the news now, all day they aired the scene he made at that casino; and maybe the guy deserved far worst in Wufei's opinion, but he was not yet a convicted felon and was now suing the Preventer organization. For this Wufei ended up in Head Quarter's meeting room getting his posterior chewed out.

"Was it too much to ask for you to await the official arrest order?!"

"The first one was issued soon enough." Sally ground out a cuss word at his stiff necked reply.

"You 'know' there are two orders of arrest in political cases, Wufei: The one issued for Preventers and the one approved by the..."

He ignored the woman's ranting and stared blankly true her, he knew the protocol and memorized the new rules in law enforcement, approved and respected them. New laws for a new world. But today was a bad day to remind him of them.

'Stupid bureaucrats' He thought.

Wufei had to school his thoughts and posture while Sally droned the proverbial lecture.

Adding injury to insult, Merquise was there to witness him being scolded like a child.

What was the bastard doing here anyway?

He really didn't give a dam about Relena Peacecraft's demented brother, didn't help either that the blond barely acknowledged him during the whole meeting. It was Policy after all that in Une's absence, Sally and someone else of higher rank than Wufei assist in his debriefing.

At first Merquise just stared dispassionately at them, that is, until he heard Sally call him by his given name instead of his code-name. His eyes went cold as ice picks then, he crossed his arms without loosing that regal pose that marked him as royalty. Head lowered now, he followed Wufei's every word, clear blue eyes barely visible under that clear fringe of hair.

Wufei was used to the animosity in people's eyes every time they found out who he was. He was the unpopular Gundam Pilot, after all.

Merquise had double the reasons to hate him.

"Wufei, as of late your arrest sheet has grown impressively. It worries me sometimes how much work hours you put in to each case"

Po was playing it soft now.

"I work as hard as every other agent, commander Une has no complaints and I have never received any notice or fine for slacking off, ever!"

His stance was still stiff and staring above Sally's head.

"I never implied you did, we know how hard you work, you put in the required hours and effort, and I have no doubt you do more than that Wufei, in fact, you are working late every night. The night-shift cleaning staff know you better than your co-workers, Wufei?"

He bit back a come back when she sighed. "The behavior you exhibit yesterday, is maybe just a part of your character I overlooked when assigning this mission, and the fact that you are trained for other kinds of incursions combined to stress levels brought the present results.

It was bad judgement from both parts, yours and mine, to overlook your time sheet. You had eight high profile cases being resolved in two days. At least one was bound to go wrong. The one that got screwed up was the diplomatic scandal we are here for." She stood up and walked up to the large window viewing out to the city.

"I could have handled them all well enough but the 'second' arrest slip was taking long enough for the suspect to be informed and escape."

"You are not omnipresent Wufei!" Sally spun and planted both hands flat on the table. He tried not to recoil from the unfamiliar tone, he needed to get back to work and put this all behind. He needed strong tea and his laptop right now.

Merquise was still spying him from under those phantom strands of gold hair.

It irked him to no end; the simple capture of a colony-wide known money laundering, cockroach. All turned into a circus because a few former-Romafeller old vultures owed the guy money.

He followed the man into a popular casino, gaudy show places like that made a comeback after 300 years of being banned. He sited his target...'suspect', "proposed" as Maxwell would call it (informed him he was arrested and would need a doctor if he resisted arrest), pull out the cuffs and clipped them to his wrists. All hell broke loose when the weasel-like imitation of a man begun to struggle and scream like an onna.

His henchmen came to the rescue. In Wufei's book this was resisting arrest.

'Nough said he got the guy "and" his would-be-cavalry in an ambulance.

Zechs just sat there with that insufferable stance. Those icy eyes reminded him of much more than his recent fiasco.

Peacecraft , or whatever he called himself nowadays, the closest man to his dead enemy.

Chang Wu Fei was not good at handling certain memories and the emotions that came with them.

He sucked in the failures and at night, pillowed his head on past pains.

He learned restraint in his youth; war and lost added to guilt and a savage wake-up-call to reality, had molded his character.

So, at times like this, his temper got out and walked side by side with him.

He felt like growling and cutting something up. People plowed away from him as he marched through the building and into the elevator, he didn't even notice the poor sap that jumped out of it mumbling a poor excuse to let him have the cramped space for himself.

He let the thing go down, to the lobby of the building, and continued his randomly chosen path like a black storm cloud. A little one... But a very mean and irate storm cloud.

From his perch on HQ's patio deck, Zechs watched the youngest Preventer agent. His eyes still set like a bird of prey on him.

"So... you took out Treize, little thing. Not much to look at, are you?"

Zechs felt spiteful and angry today. It was probably the worst day for Chang to finally meet him. Today was the anniversary of the young general's death.

Treize was his, his... what?

'Ally? Never! the man had none other than the Lady, Zechs was loath to admit he was the one who had no allies.

Friend? nemesis?

'What' were you? Treize, I would have killed you myself if it had brought any pain or regret to that frosted hearth of yours. At the time you challenged me to a duel...'

He laughed mirthlessly at this.

'Everything was a game for you; the war, your title, Leia... you never even mentioned Mariemeia'

It hurt to know the man called him a friend, in such suave tones, and never really confided him anything personal. They new each other since childhood and he still could not recognize the man he became at the end. His final show of that bizarre personality was his last words on the com line, he will be waiting for Milliardo, his eternal friend, ...to join him in the afterlife. But only Wufei had heard those last words.

Zechs Merquise was far out of reach when Tallgeese's weak signal went out.

He never heard it.

He never understood why the devious man had drove him away,

"Why couldn't you leave me alone Treize?"

Feeling despondent, he sipped the cooling coffee by his side and went back to the office Une had appointed for him.

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tbc

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