I will probably steal a little piece of picture here or there to make my Kushrenada collage. Sorry!!!! I am making no profit from this and don't own any rights to these movies or Gundam Wing. Don't sue meeeeeeee *____*

If you do I will go hide in the bush and you will never find me!!!

Chapter 5

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It took him all week but he finally tracked down the lawyer representing Patricia Fiftenthe Kushrenada.

A second cuisine of Treize, Dame Fiftenthe owned a small import/export business that, regardless of the political situation, was thriving. Lately, at the end of the war, it turned increasingly profitable; or so he read in the Sanque Business Journal.

Une had spent a lot of her valued time tracking her down just to get the door slammed in her face, rhetorically speaking. For some reason, she refused to see the Preventer commander. Wu Fei on the other hand, skipped the usual channels and tracked her down.

He showed up unannounced at her hotel, The Novo Negresco. It was luxurious in the most antique way and the high roof imitated a blue sky, mythical creatures flying around in its expanse. The scholar in him was in aw… two seconds later the warrior took over and he headed to the restaurant where he was told he would come across the woman. She spent a lot of time doing business over a table in a cozy sunroom.

Surely enough, as describe to him by hotel employees, the middle aged woman was sitting on an ornate chaise long, -more like a wicket throne, he thought- laptop computer on the table aside a plate of entrées and a bottle of spritzer.

Dame Fiftenthe was a 37-year-old diva. Red hair tied in a bun matched by prim red nails and a flowery summer dress. As he moved closer he found himself pinned by a pair of familiar blue eyes that made his step falter and his hearth rate pickup a notch.

"Why, hello young man."

He caught himself staring and blushed. He bowed a bit in greeting and just stood there trying to fine his tongue, and failing miserably. The aristocrat's face showed more amusement by the second. Finally Wu Fei cleared his throat and begun his little speech:

"I am here on behalf of Mariemaeia Kushrenada…"

One forked eyebrow rose.

When he was finish with his formal request, she smiled kindly at him and patted the green cushion by her side. Wu Fei's eyes widened but she pin him with her blue one's and he ended up sitting stiffly aside the reclining woman.

He was aware of the very public place now, and although she was not flirting with him (for justice sake! She could be his mother!), it felt like everyone was watching him.

"Would you care for a drink? Its non alcoholic" She added while looking at his boyish face and shy eyes.

Wu Fei had the sinking suspicion that she thought him to be cute, and for some reason, he could not 'correct' her mistake the way he usually would if she was anyone else.

"No thank you, I am here only to forward your answer to Commander Une"

"Pft, nonsense!" She exclaimed with a volley of her hand.

Ignoring his answer she leaned over to pour the bubbly, peach-colored stuff in two tall flute glasses. Her generous cleavage showed while doing so and poor Wu Fei's face turned pink. A waiter glanced their way with a suspicious little smirk.

'Immodest onna!'

"It's a warm summer day and we should enjoy it, while we can. That's what war taught me! Let that 'Lady' wait."

By the way she said the last, it was easy to tell she disliked Une. But if so: didn't Une mention on the phone she never knew any of the general's family?

Maybe they knew her? Or at least this one did.

She was one of the few family members still wiling to participate in any event involving her family's name, all the other Kushrenadas were denying Treize or politely excusing themselves of any social event. Wu Fei even heard of a couple of them changing their names. Not as wealthy or socially involved, they felt they had a better chance in the new world order by severing all ties with the dead leader.

"Cowards the lot of them! Butchering their ancestors namesake to skirt around the past." He grumbled as he dialed Une's number.

It took him an hour of enduring chit chat with the dame -And the woman did love to chit chat!!!- She ended up snooping in his life and talking about everything and anything while saying nothing. At the end, she handed him over a piece of paper and sent him on his way like a little boy on an errand; she even slapped him on the rump…

He squeaked and turned back to glared at her with murder in his eyes, but she only winked at him and went back to her business, greeting someone with a briefcase and ignoring the string of Chinese cusswords he left in his wake.

Wu Fei never felt so flustered in his life, at least not since the time he walked in on Yuy and Maxwell's 'game of tag' back in the war. He will demand a raise after this!

Une was surprised when Wu Fei marched up to her desk in his usual petulant fashion and handed over a piece of flowery-scented paper.

"This onna knows of a safe place outside of Luxembourg, its own by the family and there will be no trouble or complaints even if it was to be discovered by the press"

She smiled at him gratefully; so far the only place she had secured was out in the middle of nowhere, not even a road to the place and attached to it came a pompous lawyer demanding economical compensation. The man wanted them to pay rent and Une was almost desperate enough to accept.

She recognized the area and the name on the authorization and she new it was perfect, she tried for this place for three days but the caretakers had no knowledge the woman whereabouts. Now incredibly Wu Fei had convinced the elusive Fiftenthe to handover a spot on one of her numerous properties. The persistent little guy struck gold.

"You didn't have to do this Wu Fei,"

"Hn" he grunted, "I believe I do. It's a security risk to have this matter stretching into oblivion."

"Agent Chang you know me better than that." She smiled again, reading straight thru his tough-guy act. Wu Fei grunted some more and tried to keep his disdainful frown.

"If you will excuse me I have real work to do"

With this caustic remark he turned tail and headed to the door.

"Wu Fei?"

"Hn?"

"You will escort Marie and myself to this address for a new funeral service, as you said there is real work to be done, you are on our security detail Agent Dragon."

Une was in need of a camera now; the expression on the boy's face was priceless and for a moment she almost laughed when his back suddenly stiffened. He whirled around, fists clenching, wide-eyed and sputtering but she sobered up at the haunted look in his eyes. Was that fear?

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Zech Merquise was busy; today he had his hands full and it suited him just fine.

Files on any conceivable, OZ participation in the war were being cataloged and handed out for detailed evaluation. He got a few dozen from the pile and headed to his computer like an automat, silvery bangs hiding his face from the other agents milling around, all of them groaning at the workload. Who could blame them?

Most of the files were junk anyway: uniform requisitions, accounting and a few MS spech's -those were to be sealed or destroyed-. Yes, a lot of people out there could still reassemble a Taurus or a Cancer if they got their hands on the hardware, that is, of course; if another team of agents hadn't already identified these people and kept track of their every move.

The former war technicians had converted to civil life now, Relena and other dignitaries provided them with well-paid jobs in the industrial area; their skills now in great demand after the long wars.

A lot of things needed not only rebuilding but also modernizing.

Zechs was glad for those who could start all over again and show their faces in the sun, he tried it for a while, peace. Didn't work out.

He made a run for Mars a year ago, tailed by Noin.

He worked hard on the red planet alongside a group of hippy scientist. They acted like Relena clones, all bright eyed and idealistic… 'Nough said, after the failed Mariemaeia coup, he ended up staying on earth and living the only way he could.

As a Preventer agent he contributed to a new society and live as a free, harmonic individual; at least that's what the brochure claimed.

Few people new his face but they all sooner or later found out, unlike the Gundam pilots anonymity was not an option. So he more often than not spent his days cooped up in the very big enclosure of Preventer Head Quarters.

He stamped a disk with the ESUN mark and propped it up on his out-bin.

Noin stopped following him a few months ago and he felt lonely. Ironically he never thought he would miss her this badly.

He new she would tire of his platonic affection some day, but it still hurt -even worse than it should because of the way they parted-.

It happened when she spotted him late one evening at the shooting range, leaning in a dark corner, noting on him more than his sweatpants and a baton.

He never new she was there until he pulled of the sweaty clothing and rimmed himself with the blunt end of the weapon; a shocked 'squawk' gave her away.

Now he shrank further into his chair just from the memory of it. Her expression: somewhere between nauseous and panicking. He laughed at her back then…

'Hysterical, Milliardo, hysterical… What the fuck was I thinking?'

Someone in the office was calling it an evening, saying goodbye to coworkers and ignoring the tall blond in the cubicle by the window. They all learned to steer clear of the lighting count.

'I was drunk that's all! People do stupid things when drunk…'

Never mind he took only four swings of the bottle when he started playing around and his training exercise became something else… private but strange.

He was sweating and angry one minute then he was pressing his heated back on a cold wall… it felt so cool there in the dark, so good. He rubbed the hard smooth staff on his chest, it was hot from his handling, and he thought it would be cold and metallic, he didn't expect the warmth and it jolted him, yet… his hand was ignoring the shock and was moving on its own need, it guided the baton around his nipples and Zechs went away with the wave.

He refused to admit his problem with sexual interaction, or any kind of interaction with another human being. He grilled himself everyday to be able to interact normally at work. It was his training he blamed, an officer and a warrior was all he could see himself as. There was much more to it but he only saw what he needed to, the tip of the iceberg was what he knew and felt safe on.

He was aware Noin putted-up with his frigid nature because of some misplaced romantic notion or maybe she too was having trouble fitting in and felt safer with what she knew. No… he was kidding himself she fitted in just fine. It was him she fell back to help.

'The poor tormented prince! One look at the deranged animal under the sheep skin and she ran for dear life.'

He whacked another disk with the stamp and loaded the next on the computer.

'Who can blame her, I hid it so well she had not a chance of … '

He would never know that Noin was there to ask him to be more than friends, "No more flirting!" she told Sally earlier "That man is so dense he is never going to get it unless I show up with a ring and a judge."

Instead she got an eyeful, at first. She was turned on like a bonfire when he started rubbing his chest with the baton and when he unlaced the pant's drawstring she was about to join him, she even came out from behind the pillar she was hiding but she was frozen mid-step when the shinny black weapon turned into a phallus and headed south.

Across from his desk, Noin's empty one reminded him of the kind of person he really was.

She swore to never speak to the man again and left the Preventers to join Relena's security detail. Une never commented what reasons she gave for quitting, and that just made him feel worst.

It was hard having that empty desk, and all those people around ignoring him, trying to steer clear of his steel blue gaze. He didn't mind, even liked them being afraid of him, until he had to face them without Noin hanging on his arm to do the talking. Even eating at the cafeteria was hard, he had to sit alone and suffer the covert glances -and the overt ones too- while he pushed his food around the plate. It was hard for a soldier to be targeted so openly and not have someone to cover his back, especially at such a weak moment as eating. It probably was an animal thing.

What have I become?

He ended up bringing his lunch to the office and escaping to a balcony or the patio deck, to eat alone; it was up there he spotted Chang the other day…

'He! The little runt'

He rested his head on crossed arms; everybody went home already so he could allow the weakness to show. At least he thought they had.

"Hello Agent Po, what can I do for you?"

"Zechs."

The former guerilla chief nodded at him and handed out a new set of disks for reviewing. She wouldn't be here personally unless it was serious. He took one in his hand and checked for labels, none found he looked back at the slanted blue eyes.

'Yes, something serious all right.'

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Tbc.

Many thanks to my reviewers!!

-I was planning to wait to tell ya, but… Aaaaarrrgh!! Can't do it!

It's a 13x6x5. Couldn't keep a secret if my life depended on it >_<

-Oh! And Wu has small feet not only because he is Chinese but also because I have a foot fetish (grins) No seriously, have you seen the G-boys charts? A 16 year old that petite can't have average size feet. Oh and by the way... You know any cuss words in Chinese?

Sorry if I messed up on the grammar or anything. Working hard to get better at this … ^,^… And review please! It truly is fuel for the writer.