Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Shinigami's Gem ❯ Pearl ( Chapter 8 )

Warnings: Limey stuff, angst, Zechs bastardisation. *falls on knees in supplication to Zechs crying "I'm sorry!" at the top of her voice* And I think that's it…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Gundam Wing characters in this fic. What I do own is the plot line and any of the characters that don't belong to Gundam Wing.

Author's notes: Many apologies for taking so long, everyone! It's ShivaKuy's fault! She lost her Original Character descriptions so I had to go through aaaaaaaall my Role Play logs to see if I can find them. Also she has bribed me into a story of epic kinkiness and bondage, which I've been writing intermittently, so that's why this has taken so long. Gomen. Did I mention there'd be angst?!

Chapter 8: Pearl.

"Where are they?! Of all the days to be later than late!" Heero muttered out the side of his mouth to Zechs.

Quatre shook his head in agitation as he looked up at Zechs.

"I know Shinigami was fine last night. He went back to his own room!" he said, wringing his hands.

Heero exchanged a meaningful glance with Zechs and the two of them deducted almost instantly what had happened the night before. The Master Slave drew the advisor aside and they spoke in hushed whispers, Quatre looking at them from his place by the table in utter confusion.

"This couldn't come at a time any worse," Heero hissed, his brow furrowed in frustration.

"No time was going to be a good time," Zechs pointed out in kind.

"I know, but I think this would have to be the very worst…"

"He always knew he would never have what he wanted."

"True spoken."

"I'll go and warn them before they turn up unprepared."

Heero nodded to the blonde before slipping back to his chair at Lord Chang's side.

At his master's other side sat a man equally as finely dressed, his eyes darkening further with impatience every minute. To his side sat a young woman, her sandy-blonde hair in two thick ropes, which fell one over each shoulder. Her blue eyes watched the entrance expectantly, shifting back every so often in silent enquiry to the man who was obviously her father.

Heero murmured something in the lord's ear about Zechs having gone to find Wu Fei. Chang smiled and informed the other man who grunted his acknowledgement.

Heero muttered a few select curses under his breath and hoped this didn't go as badly as he had the awful feeling it would…

* * *

Zechs entered Wu Fei's rooms without even a knock and was about to call out to wake him when he spied the two youths curled around each other in the soft bedding. He stood and studied them a moment, his heart breaking for them. He'd known he'd find them like this, but he hadn't thought they'd look so perfectly content and happy wrapped in each other's arms.

"It's not fair…" he murmured before snapping back to himself and shaking his head. There was nothing he or anyone else could do about it.

"Wu Fei," he said in a hiss, gently shaking the lordling.

Wu Fei made a pleading kind of mewling sound which evidently broke straight through sleep to Duo's protective instincts, because his hand snapped out and wrapped about Zechs' wrist. He yanked hard on the wrist, pulling the blonde off balance and causing him to fall forward enough that the thief could hold a knife to the blonde's throat.

"Leave him sleep," Duo demanded in a hushed, dangerous tone, his violet eyes veiled.

"But he has to-" Zechs started, his words dissipating in a hiss of pain as Duo's fingers tightened around his wrist.

"Leave… him… sleep…" he repeated slowly.

"Shinigami, he needs-"

"I don't think you're hearing me, Zechs! Leave him sleep!"

"Hmm…?" Wu Fei's sleepy tones broke the intensity building in the other two's eyes.

"Shh, babe. Sleep…" Duo whispered, attention snapping away from Zechs and straight to Wu Fei as he let go of the blonde, put aside the knife and ran the fingers of one hand through the lordling's hair while the other went around his waist.

"Mmm…" Wu Fei agreed, turning in Duo's embrace to burrow into his chest.

"But you don't underst-" Zechs tried again.

"No! I took his virginity last night, all right? I won't let the morning after ruin it! That happened to me and I refuse to do it to him. Now piss off and leave us alone!"

"I don't care what you took from him! No matter what happened between the two of you last night, he is a lordling first and foremost and he is needed now. And, whether you like it or not, you are merely his body slave and it is your job to get him up and presentable in a hurry!" Zechs eyed them up and down, his temper and pride pricked so severely that he quickly and recklessly decided not to warn them what exactly Wu Fei was needed for. "And you might want to get him cleaned up before he leaves this room, because the last thing he needs to be seen in is a slaves mess!"

Zechs turned on his heel and stalked out, giving Duo time to do little else but scream a rather explicit insult at the snobbish Master Slave about his mother and what she'd done with a pig.

"Mmm… shut up, Duo," Wu Fei grumbled good-naturedly as he hit his new lover sluggishly with a pillow. "I'm trying to sleep…"

"Um… about that… You remember you said we needed to be seen at breakfast…?" Duo's hand still stroked absently through Wu Fei's hair and the lordling shifted happily beneath the gentle caress.

"Yes…" he replied.

"Well…" whispered Duo in his ear. "We're very, very late…"

Wu Fei seemed to take a moment to digest this, but when he did, he leapt straight to action.

"What?" he cried as he shot out of bed and commenced finding himself whatever clothing he lay his hands on and getting into it.

"Uh… love?" Duo said amusedly, then looked momentarily shocked that the endearment had rolled so easily off his tongue.

"Yes?"

"Sit down and let me. You're going to do yourself an injury!"

Wu Fei blinked uncomprehendingly at him, then flopped dejectedly back onto the bed.

"Well, I am late already… I suppose a few extra minutes won't make much difference…"

"I'll have you ready in no time flat and you'll be presentable too!"

And Duo was true to his word. Not two minutes later, Duo had made good on his promise. He'd had Wu Fei brush and tail his raven hair while he himself had picked up the now-cooling washing water the maids had left outside the door earlier. As Wu Fei had washed, Duo had picked him an outfit that wasn't too fancy, but at the same time, looked formal enough that some of his father's displeasure may be muted by the lordling's appearance. Wu Fei quickly dried and Duo helped him get into the clothes.

"There. Gorgeous young lordling in no time flat! We should have washed your hair, but we really didn't have time for that."

Wu Fei only smiled and pulled the still naked Duo against him. He leaned up to brush a teasing kiss across the other youth's lips, stealthy fingers wrapping around the thief's already growing arousal before Duo even had time to register the kiss.

"Thank you…" Wu Fei breathed, his hand beginning a slow rhythm.

"Mmmnn…" Duo moaned, his body going limp against Wu Fei's.

"Later, I'll thank you in a much more… definite way…" the lordling promised huskily, still stroking Duo.

"Uhh… 'Fei… oh…" Duo panted, hips pushing forward reflexively.

"Later," Wu Fei promised again, before slipping away with a devilish smirk playing about his lips.

Oh but he loved the power he held over Duo. He would never ever take advantage of the braided slave - not anymore anyway - but he still enjoyed the knowledge of the effect he could have on Duo. Another smirk, and Wu Fei quickened his pace, wanting to get breakfast over with so he could have his lover again.

* * *

Duo staggered the two steps to the nearest wall and leaned limply against it, resting his forehead on cool, hard granite in an effort to cool his passions. It didn't help much. His breathing was still ragged and his body still desperately wanted more than what it had been given. If Duo didn't know better, he'd think last night had not been Wu Fei's first, after doing what he'd just done.

A half-moan half-groan escaped Duo's lips as his urgent mind began sending him pictures of Wu Fei in various states of undress.

"Dammit! I need to get breakfast too! I'm starving!" Duo pondered through the mental pictures, a far from easy task, until he came up with an idea. He forcibly removed Wu Fei from his mental fantasies and replaced the darkly beautiful man with Relena, the kitchen maid who burned things. This soon severely wilted his excitement and once he was sufficiently cooled off, he set about washing and making himself presentable.

* * *

Wu Fei skittered to a halt just before the doors of the great hall. He smoothed his hair, straightened his clothes and entered the hall a far more dignified pace than the one he had set getting there. Sharp eyes quickly scanned the rearranged setting, and it was easy enough for him to pick which seat was his - it was the only one without an occupant. He gave a mental wince. By the looks of it, he'd chosen a very, very bad morning to be late.

Halting before his father, Wu Fei sketched a hasty bow.

"Good morning, father," he said, and there was no disguising the hopeful edge to his voice.

"Son, I do hope you have a good excuse…"

Wu Fei had found that his father could see right through him if he lied, so he knew he was better off not to. He wasn't about to come out and say exactly why he was late, but a half-truth would likely get past the man.

"I was busy with my body servant, father. As you know, he has been ill as of late and I was taking care of him."

Zechs leaned forward to murmur in Heero's ear.

"Will you take care of me later…?"

"You have a one-track mind. This isn't the time," Heero said in reply, disguising his comment as a dismissive order.

"But you know you want to…" Zechs used the fall of his hair to cut him from the view of everyone at the table and flicked his tongue out to caress the shell of Heero's ear. All this to everyone else merely looked like Zechs was trying to insist on something.

"Later, but not now!" This looked like Hero was growing impatient and annoyed and presumption of a slave.

Zechs nodded solemnly, but Heero could read the laughter in the ice-blue eyes.

While this went on, Wu Fei's father had accepted his son's explanation, but with some reprimand, which Wu Fei knew was for the guests' benefit. Wu Fei slipped in between his mother and the young girl, who smiled boldly at him. He replied with a nod of his head, but was saved from having to say anything by the serving of breakfast.

Before the meal was begun, his father stood to make a toast, a broad grin across both his and the other man's faces.

"Lords and Ladies, as you all know, the alliance between our two provinces has long been a strong and secure one. The time has come to strengthen that bond still further. I, therefore, prepose a toast to Sally Po, my own son's bride to be!"

* * *

Duo swore repeatedly under his breath as he tried to get his hair into order. The more frustrated he grew, the faster he tried to complete the task, and the faster he tried to do it, the more mistakes he made. In the end, he had to stop, take a few deep breaths to calm himself down, and start over.

He was done in no time.

Once he finished, he gave himself a once-over, pronounced himself perfectly, mouth-wateringly gorgeous, and strode off. He then remembered he was still supposed to appear at least a little ill and slowed his walk a touch. He reached the slave entrance, adjusted his shirt collar, tried to look pale, and then stepped in.

"…My own son's bride to be!"

Duo's mouth dropped open and it was only through great effort that he managed to smother the urge to cry "No!" and buried a horrified in a gasp with a ragged cough.

No one really heard him, as the hall had erupted into delighted cheers, but somehow, even in all the uproar, Quatre did manage to hear him. He hurried over to Duo and quickly helped him over to his chair, mistaking a shudder of emotional pain for a shudder of physical pain.

"Shinigami! Are you alright?" he asked, already looking about for someone to help the violet-eyed slave back to his bed.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine," Duo replied absently, his eyes quickly finding and locking with Wu Fei's. The shock and hurt in those dark pools mirrored Duo's own and he nothing more than to go up there, wrap one arm protectively around Wu Fei and use the other to break the nose of the smiling girl sitting beside Wu Fei, who was obviously the aforementioned "bride to be".

When the cheering died down, Wu Fei's father continued.

"May their union guarantee the alliance for eternity and may their children rule with kindness and wisdom, as their parents before them, for as long as the Chang line continues!"

The hall erupted into cheering again and mug after mug was lifted high.

"To Lady Po!" screamed an anonymous voice and almost every other voice took up the toast and drank to it.

Duo let his head fall to the table and began beating it against the sturdy wood.

"Shinigami!" Quatre cried in horror, reaching out to tug the chestnut haired youth back.

"No… it can't… it's not… I can't…" Duo's words trailed off and he gave a violent shake of his head then burst out of his chair and fled the room, unnoticed by most in the ecstatic crowd. Quatre made to go after him, but Trowa stopped him.

Wu Fei, too, saw him go, but was powerless to do anything but sit where he was and try not to look shocked or upset. His mind kept telling him he didn't need the braided youth anyway - he was just a slave - but his heart was screaming otherwise. His father hadn't even warned him! Although, he reflected, his father probably would have warned him if he had have been on time.

It took everything he had not to flinch away when Sally rested a hand on his arm to get his attention.

"I know we've never met before, but I hope our marriage will be a happy and productive one."

Wu Fei almost winced.

"I…" He had to clear his throat and try again. "As do I."

* * *

Due to all the official ceremonies and people who needed to be spoken to, Wu Fei didn't get away until well into the evening. He was dying to find Duo and hold him. Wu Fei was an honest person by nature and he had finally admitted to himself that Duo meant more to him than just a mere slave. He knew what he had to do now.

He found Duo curled up in the pillows of his own bed in his own small room, fast asleep obviously exhausted from the crying it was evident he'd been doing.

Wu Fei climbed carefully onto the pillows beside the ball of black clothing and chestnut hair, making sure not to wake Duo just yet. Something bit painfully into his heart as he looked down at the young man to whom he'd given his virginity and a single tear slid unbidden and unnoticed from his eye to slide down his cheek and hang, undecided and furtive, at his jaw before giving in and flinging itself down to burst apart on the pillows below. Eventually, he reached out and gently shook his love and lover.

"Duo…? Duo…?" he said softly.

"'Fei!" Duo cried as he came awake, a broad grin spreading across his face. "I thought you didn't want… to be with me anymore because… because of Lady Po."

Wu Fei put a hand to Duo's cheek, his dark eyes sad.

"Duo… I…" He couldn't find the words to saw what he wanted to say, so instead, he pulled the small sapphire from under his short over-tunic. "A gift," he whispered as he closed his eyes and covered the jewel with his fist. He whispered a few words under his breath, then lifted his eyes to Duo's as the sapphire shattered and the collar about the other's neck turned to a silver dust, then simply vanished.

"Wu Fei…" Duo whispered, putting one hand to his own neck and the other upon Wu Fei's closed fist as his violet eyes welled with tears. Wu Fei pulled Duo against him so the other didn't have to see him cry.

"Duo… I've set you free now so you may leave… I-"

Duo pushed away from Wu Fei and looked at him with hurt filled eyes.

"So you don't want to be with me…" Duo looked away from Wu Fei, withdrawing his hand from where it rested over the lordling's.

"Duo! Duo, no, that's not-" Wu Fei started.

"You don't have to lie to me. I know I'm just an ex-slave…"

Wu Fei began to panic. He hadn't considered something like this.

"No, Duo! You don't understand. I want-"

"Me to go away. I understand completely."

"For the love of the gods, Duo! Listen to me!" Wu Fei cried, his voice becoming somewhat hysterical and his eyes getting damp. "Stop being so stubborn and listen to me! I could care less about this alliance, but there's nothing I can do! It is my duty!"

"Duty," Duo snorted, but Wu Fei could read the pain under the insult. He gently put a hand to Duo's cheek and urged the thief's face up so he could meet his eyes. "Duo… Duo, I would do anything to keep you at my side, but I cannot stop this marriage and I know you wouldn't want to be a mistress… of sorts. I'm doing this because I know you'll be happier away from here, and all I want is for you to be happy… because… I love you."

It was as if these last three words had opened something within Duo as tears began to spill unhindered and silent from his large amethyst eyes.

"I…" was all Duo managed before Wu Fei pulled him forward and kissed him desperately. Tears flowed down both their faces as they hugged each other impossibly close and didn't break the kiss until they were forced to.

"I don't want to let you go, but it's better this way," Wu Fei whispered, his hands resting on Duo's hips.

Duo lifted a hand and stroked it over the black of Wu Fei's severely restrained hair. He trailed it around to undo the tie and free the hair, then ran his fingers through it.

"I… I love you too, 'Fei…" he whispered, tears beginning afresh.

"I know…" Wu Fei whispered in return, smiling through still-damp eyes.

"Can I… just one last time…?"

Wu Fei shook his head.

"It will make things harder and… I don't have time. I have-"

Duo's mouth suddenly took his own and any protests Wu Fei might have had died in his throat as Duo worked his magic.

* * *

"I don't want to go…" Duo whispered breathlessly, his sweat-soaked body glistening in the candle light where it lay beside Wu Fei's, legs twined and arms around one another. The candles cast a strangely ethereal light over everything and somehow deepened the sadness radiating between the two panting youths.

Wu Fei smiled an achingly sad smile, his hand floating over but not quite touching Duo's rivers of hair.

"Again, you would not be happy as a second, lover. It's better this way," he replied softly.

No one knows you like I do," Duo said, the change of subject taking Wu Fei by surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone else sees the cold, immovable, unfeeling you that I always saw before I got close to you. It's you, but a different you than the sweet lover I know now."

Wu Fei smiled slightly and shook his head.

"Perhaps…"

"I should've known better than to think you might admit it, huh?"

"Yes."

Duo laughed gently, leaned over to kiss Wu Fei with infinite tenderness, a soft touch of his lips to the lordling's before he slid away and off the bed, beginning to dress.

"You're late again," he said playfully as he began the task of re-braiding his hair.

"And it's your fault again," Wu Fei retorted as he too slid out of bed, but there was only humour in his voice. He crept stealthily over to Duo and wrapped his arms around the thief's slim waist from behind, desperate for one last touch.

Duo smiled very sadly and rested his head back on Wu Fei's shoulder.

"You have to go and I have to go…" Duo whispered, but they stayed still like that for a while, silent, just existing together for those few moments. Eventually, Duo turned in Wu Fei's arms and hugged him tightly, then released him and finished braiding his hair. As Wu Fei quickly redressed, Duo retrieved his sword and slung it at his hip.

There could be no more stalling. They stood looking at one another, unsure what to say or how to say it.

"I love you, Wu Fei," Duo whispered with a sad smile, then vanished through the window, having decided he would rather slip out unnoticed than walk through the place and have to answer questions and say goodbyes.

"I love you, too, Duo…" Wu Fei murmured, but he was greeted with only silence, and the moon's pearly gaze.

~ ~ ~

Author's notes: Well I told you there'd be angst!!