Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Sky Arc ❯ Eclipse - 03 ( Chapter 8 )

Eclipse - 03

Pairings : 1x2, OCx5, 1+5
Rating : R overall
Warnings : Yaoi, angst, citrus, romance
Disclaimer : Gundam Wing belongs to Bandai, Sunrise and Sotsu. Not me.

Summary : After decking Heero, a numbed Duo no longer wants what Heero used to give him. And having just lost Heero, Wufei uses Anders for comfort, or is the other way round (the crappy summarising skills are back).

A/N : *cough* To those who are still following this fic and haven't been turned off by my absurdly long writer's block, thank you. *nod* I appreciate your patience! And oh dear, I hope this chapter isn't...disappointing or something. *wince* I won't take that long a time for chapter 4 though! At least that's a thought. ^^ Comments appreciated of course!

The blow rocked Heero's head to one side.

Duo watched blankly. His chest was too full, swelling with an emotion that threatened to burst from him altogether. His fist was still raised, trembling, the backs of his knuckles raw. He felt no pain.

When Heero looked up slowly, a thin trickle of blood dripped from his split lip to his sleeve. It was a stark red streak on the dirty white of his shirt.

Duo's arm drew back for the second time. Swung

Heero saw it coming; he watched it coming, cobalt gaze fixed impassively on the fist that would crack against his face again. And it did, the arm that Duo had put into his fist had enough strength to make Heero stumble against the sink.

"Why?! You goddamned - " Duo's voice rose feverishly. "Bastard!" He stopped, mouth working soundlessly, the violet gleam of his eyes too bright. Then he moved, a snap movement borne of fury, and he seized Heero's shirt. Yanked the Japanese man upright. Glared down at that bloodied, expressionless face.

"Why didn't you avoid it - " Duo could hear those words ripping from his throat, but in a voice that was hoarse and thin and not one he could recognise as his own. "Why are you here? What do you want? Stop looking like that - you just show up - and you think - what did you suppose I'd react? Huh? Welcome you back with open arms! Were you expecting that - "

Violet eyes widened sharply as they fixed on the hand reaching towards him. Don't... The touch both seared and soothed his skin, the fingers pressing even more deeply at his cheek when Duo flinched. "Don't touch me."

The fingers became a hand cupping his face.

"You're wet." Heero said quietly, the efforts widening the gash at his lips, blood trickling anew. He didn't seem to feel it, his torn lip or the welts beginning to rise where Duo had struck him.

"I said don't touch me." Duo jerked, a reflexive, confused action like his body was reacting without the bidding of his mind. The curls of steam reached for him, swirling like clammy fingers. He couldn't breathe - his very breaths were choked off - he blinked - had the steam been so thick? He couldn't see -

"Duo." Heero's voice sounded so faraway. "Duo Maxwell."

Heero...

"Duo!" The last cry pierced like a cold hard arrow through the fog. A shape gathered, the faint outline thickening, features forming. Heero's face.

"Duo, look at me." Heero's lips were saying.

Duo did look. Heero's eyes were so blue they were unearthly, it suddenly struck him. They drew him in and he let himself drown in the deep-blue depths. An anchor could secure you...drown you when you thought you were safe. He had always been a fool when it came to Heero.

Heero was wiping him down, efficiently, silently, each swipe of the towel in his hand so gentle it hurt. It was like he was afraid of hurting Duo, as if Duo was a glass doll and had to be protected and treasured and polished now and then to keep it shining.

"Do you do this for Wufei?" There were some question that could not be retracted once asked. Or shouldn't be asked, because you wouldn't want to know the answers. He expected Heero to keep silent, like he always did when he closed himself off.

"I don't."

Duo looked sharply at him. Clamping his hand on Heero's wrist to stop it from finishing its task, he asked again. "Why not?" What makes me Duo, and what makes him Wufei, to you?

"I don't know."

"You don't know." Duo found himself repeating. He caught Heero's free hand so that he held both of them in his own. He raised Heero's fingers to the top button of his shirt. "Find it out."

Hunger flared across Heero's cobalt eyes, and it sent an answering thrill straight to Duo's groin. This - this raw desire - was partly why it was intoxication when they were together. It always left them wanting more, neither of the both of them ever completely sated.

Heero's fingers worked quickly, almost trembling in their haste as he ripped open the buttons. Duo arched against the wall, fixing his eyes on the ceiling cracks. "When you find out," he muttered, mind already blanking in anticipation of the pain and pleasure to come. "Tell me. I might - " He sucked in a sharp breath as Heero buried his head in his neck. " - just wanna know."

His own hands went to Heero's shirt, even less careful as he tore open the front. It was almost difficult, with Heero nipping and sucking a feverish trail across his throat, but he managed to yank open his lover's pants and shove a hand inside. Already half-hard. Heero's gnawing kisses had stilled to laboured pants at his cheek. He stiffened when Duo curled his hand around his rapidly-swelling flesh, pulling it out and shaping it upright.

A hand went at Duo's shoulder. "Duo."

"Shut up." Duo tore his gaze away from the greyness of the ceiling. Heero's emotionless mask had completely shattered into a myriad of arousal and protest. The split in his lip had crusted over and Duo leaned forward to lick at it. The bitter copper taste of blood was sharp on his tongue, and it must still be painful but Heero didn't seem to care as he deepened the caress into a kiss. Good. This meant Heero understood.

Duo pulled away enough to hiss against Heero's lips. "I don't want to wait." He turned, bracing an arm against the wall and leaning his head into it. At the back of his mind, without his bidding, memories of sweet kisses and gentle love-making filtered into his semi-consciousness. Duo shifted to let Heero pull his pants over his hips. Hands lingered at his flanks, stroking as if to reassure him. It was so like Heero, and it wasn't what Duo wanted.

I don't remember anymore.

The memories faded into nothingness as swiftly as they had surfaced. All Duo wanted right now was to be fucked so hard he couldn't even speak or think or breathe. "Didn't you hear me, Heero? Just fuck me already!" He felt the flinch from Heero, wondered briefly if he had pushed Heero too far, and found that he was past caring.

Still, Heero didn't move. Muttering a curse, Duo pushed away from the wall, one hand going to his pants to hitch them back up. He was seething and he didn't feel Heero move, until he found himself shoved back into the wall. It was so sudden and hard the breath rushed out of him, but a strange elation also welled up inside him. I'm getting what I asked for. Duo shivered when he felt Heero's hard body cleaving against him, and the stiffness that grounded into his back.

Amethyst eyes flew wide as Duo was penetrated without warning. The intruder was slicked, if hastily so, and in just one motion, buried to the hilt within him. Duo swallowed his own cry of surprised pain. God, he wanted it like this. No pretty backdrop of tenderness, not when he couldn't even believe if any of that had ever been true. If it were like this, just pleasure without preamble, it was real.

"Oh god, yes...!" Duo urged as he was pounded into the wall, almost sobbing when Heero found with unerring accuracy the spot that made Duo's whole body clench in heaven. "C'mon, Heero..." Incoherent murmuring tripped from his own lips. "Faster...goddammit...ahh, fuck!" He gasped when his hardness was grasped in a practised grip.

Release was not too far away, not when Heero's deep thrusts found their mark each time, so well he knew Duo's body, and the hand that stroked him knew just where to gentle and where to punish. Duo screamed into his hand as he came in a rush, so hard only the wall kept him from collapsing. His over-sensitised body was still thrumming as Heero's thrusts grew hurried before he sank himself deeply and his release flooded into Duo.

Duo barely caught the sound of his name, whispered harshly into his hair, as they rested against each other. Lifting away with one arm, Duo turned in the circle of the arms still circling him, so Heero was slumped against his chest. His eyes strayed to the ceiling again. He picked out the cracks, following each broken zigzag line across what would have been a flawlessly smooth plane.

Even with the world falling to pieces around them, they still seek each other out like drug addicts. Even groping blind in the darkness of their own sins, they could still find pleasure in it.

My god, we are so fucked up.

"I'll drive you to the hospital."

Duo didn't look away from the cracks. "Yeah."

The sun was dizzyingly bright, beating down on them like planes of blinding gold. The wars raged around them, across the earth, and the space. How could the sun still shine so bright? Seated under the shade of a huge oak, he turned back to the scroll he had been poring over. He had already learnt his lessons by heart, but still, they felt foreign. It was painfully ironical reading philosophies on world peace when the deafening staccato of aerial blasts thundered through the air whenever he tried to concentrate.

"Hey, silly little scholar boy!"

He had to bite on his own tongue to stem the torrent of retorts that threaten to burst from him. Would that stupid girl stop calling him that?! It was annoying him to death. "What do you want." He said crisply, not even looking up when she settled herself comfortably next to him. The thought of the fact that they were *betrothed* made him want to gag so he shoved that thought away and tried not to think about it.

"You should get out into the sun more, you know. You look so pale people might think you're sick."

"I hate the sun."

Her indignant sputtering at that was truly entertaining. He tried not to let his amusement show too much.

"Chang Wufei."

"Yes, Long Meilan?" He raised his eyes, a little unnerved to find her gaze riveted on him. That gaze strayed to his scroll, and from the strange pensiveness that flickered across her face, she was reading its contents.

Just when she opened her mouth to speak, the sky darkened.

Both of them looked up simultaneously, eyes widening as a shadow crept across the heavens. Eclipse. They waited in strangely tensed silence as the darkness swallowed up the earth.

"It's kinda like the world, you know."

"What world?"

She sighed explosively, like she thought he was an idiot. But there was no malice in her tone, just a lot of exasperation. "I mean the world, you *know*. As in the world around us. Here."

"I hear you."

She made a face at him, the childish kind with the tongue stuck out and not very suitable for a girl already *not* a child. But her arms went around her knees and the petulance seemed to just seep out of her shoulders. "I mean it."

He found himself staring at the expanse of the grass field, watching as it darkened.

"An eclipse only means there's light somewhere in the darkness. It's the same with the world. As long as we look hard enough."

"...You're rambling."

"Well yeah, and you should really get out more. Bookworm."

"Hey...hey, Wufei?"

The only sign that Wufei was still caught in the last vestiges of his dream was the sudden clench of his whole body. Not a sound escaped his lips, but for a fleeting moment, it was as if he stopped breathing. Eyes snapping open, he stared blankly upwards, seeing only nothingness before him. Then, like a cobalt dye slowly bleeding into his vision, he became aware of the deep-blue gaze anchoring him.

He almost said the wrong name, but his mind woke up in time and he murmured. "Anders."

A smile broke the grim line of Anders' lips. "That's a start." Ignoring the muttered protest from the Chinese man, he slipped an arm under Wufei to help him up. "Nightmare?"

Wufei shook his head, feeling a little light-headed when he tried to stand up, but otherwise, he was fine. He was momentarily disoriented by the change in the room, and then he realised what it was. Shuffling towards the curtains with still-asleep legs, he pulled the translucent drapes open, and squinted when the sunlight poured in like a flood. He stood there for a long moment, feeling the sunshine seep into his skin. He had slept for more than five hours straight, without even stirring from the position he had fallen asleep in...without waking up screaming from nightmares.

"What time is it?" He asked without turning.

"It's gonna be eight soon." Anders was moving around the room, making odd shuffling noises, and Wufei realised he was actually making the *bed*. When he spoke again, his voice was suddenly much nearer. "Had a dream?"

Wufei jerked from his staring at the life bustling in the streets below. Anders was so close to him, barely an inch away. The man had already pushed open the windows and was sprawled over the sill rather precariously. He leaned out into the cool morning air, all the while grinning back Wufei like he was sharing a secret. It was all Wufei could do not to flinch away from the warm press of Anders' arm over his own.

"Why did you kiss me last night, Wufei?"

For a fleeting second, Wufei only looked blank. Kiss? Then he remembered, and the flush that hazed over his cheeks would surely be obvious by now. He had almost forgotten...but now, staring at the other man's sculpted mouth, he could almost taste them again in his mind. "I..." Wufei wanted to look away, and anything but the wryness that tugged at Anders' lips. "I don't know."

Anders continued gazing him with his patented non-expression. Rather, it was an indecipherable expression. Wufei could not remember a time when he had been able to read the man. If Anders were angry at his weak answer, Wufei would not hold it against him. No matter that Wufei *was* telling the truth. He only remembered himself moving to kiss Anders, the moment their lips had touched, but the motivation behind his own action drew a blank in his mind now.

Anders did not look angry, not even the slightest bit perturbed. Instead, he cocked a lopsided smile at Wufei. "'I don't know' is a good answer. Don't figure out the real reason too soon, would you? If you don't, we can always keep trying till we find out."

Wufei couldn't help it. He smiled. "Very confident of yourself, aren't you?"

The other man tilted his head, rakish brown locks tumbling into his eyes. "Always, Agent Chang." In a rare moment of openness, a glint stole into his gaze, one that mirrored his words to perfection. Absolute confidence.

Something connected in Wufei's mind, but he couldn't place it. That look in Anders' eyes...

"Tch!" A sudden exclamation from Anders. The man was leaning really dangerously out of the window as he stared upwards. "So much for the sunlight. Looks like it's gonna rain now."

Clouds had obscured the sunlight when they had been so immersed in talking, swathing the cityscape in a grey cast.

"It's dark now but the light's still in there somewhere, though. This is some fucked up weather." At the sharp glance from Wufei, he grinned wryly and held up his hands. "Bad language, sorry."

Wufei shook his head. "No...what you said..."

"What, the 'fucked up weather' part?"

"Before...no, before that."

A hand rose and swept carelessly through his bangs as Anders' grin turned apologetic. "I don't remember...hey, did you hear that?"

An eclipse only means there's light somewhere in the darkness. It's the same with the world.

"You said..." Wufei murmured, not quite noticing the buzzing from the vibration alert. "...the same thing - "

"Wufei." Anders looked up from the communicator he had been reading. He paused for a second, before turning to him. "Hilde's awake."

"Doctor."

Sally Po paused in mid-stride, and turned her head. She recognised the speaker instantly, already so familiar with every face that had been haunting the corridors and corners of the hospital ever since the blasts. The strange woman was not from the Preventers, but from a special taskforce organisation that was also one of Preventers greatest detractors. Preventers-affiliated hospitals had been opened to all official organisations involved in the explosion, enemies and friends alike, on the account of the universal nature of human tragedy.

"Yes?"

The young woman could not be more than twenty-five. Her wide brown eyes shifted to the badge Sally wore on her labcoat. "Doctor Po. My partner. William Eliot. The other doctors said...he couldn't..." She broke off, her voice catching on a soft sob.

Mind going into auto-drive, Sally recalled the details regarding the male officer in question. She shook her head at the young woman. "We did all we could."

The woman's jaw went slack for several seconds, before her features hardened. Sally knew that look. She had seen it on her own comrades' and friends' faces too many times to count. They looked like that when they didn't want her to *see*, not knowing that she saw all the clearer precisely when they tried to hide.

"Considering that he isn't Preventers."

Sally's azure eyes narrowed as she felt the sting of that accusation. It was inexplicable, the sudden sharp pulse of anger through her every nerve. The scenes from the very first day on of the disaster replayed themselves; a macabre soundless red-tinted movie. Administering to one injured after another regardless of affiliation and rank, a pain-drawn face after another, some without *faces* even.

"Considering I'm just a doctor," Sally said quietly and turned on her heels, leaving the woman with the bitter-outraged face behind. She walked silently, head bowed, halting in her tracks only when she recognised belatedly the footfalls that had joined her. She looked up in mild surprise.

"You're not just a doctor you know, Sally Po."

At that indignant tone of one of her closest comrades in Preventers, Sally had to smile. "You heard everything?"

Noin nodded tersely, before reaching out and squeezing Sally's shoulder hard.

The doctor smiled. Noin was always like that. Her compassion shone in her gruffness, measured in exactly *what* she said, and not how much. "Nobody's ever just *anything* to you, Lucrezia Noin."

Noin put her head to one side, considering that remark. Then she chuckled ruefully. "Too true." Her amusement turned sombre swiftly however. "You're going to see Hilde? I'm coming along."

Their strides began again, more quickly.

"Hilde..." Noin was saying.

"Duo was with her when she woke up in the middle of the night."

"I thought so too. Thank god she's alright." Noin breathed. "I don't know how Duo would handle it if anything happens to her."

"Or how Heero would handle if it anything happens to Duo."

A glance from Noin, before she replied quietly. "Yeah. What about - "

"Wufei?" Noin guessed correctly.

Sally nodded. Wufei was a subject of strange reconciliation between herself and Noin. Such was the circumstances when they were the only two women in the Preventers who had dealt so directly with him when he was fifteen and still a child. It did not make them especially protective of him, but it did mean he was the topic of the first tentative friendship-forming conversation between them, and it also meant that for many more conversations to come, he would always figure in at least *some* of them without fail.

"Anders is with him." Noin spoke suddenly.

It was Sally's turn to shoot that glance.

"I couldn't get through the first time I contacted Wufei. The second time, Anders picked it up." Noin explained, flashing a wry sort of smile. "Do I get prizes for guessing what's going on between them?"

Sally didn't answer. They had already rounded the corner and reached the corridor right outside of Hilde's ward. A small crowd had already gathered there. Trowa and Quatre, who had both flown in separately just a couple of days earlier. Wufei was there as well, arms crossed before his chest, his face grim in absolute solemnity. He looked like the Wufei of old, Sally thought suddenly. And Anders *was* with him, lounging by the wall, eyes alert despite the inscrutable expression on his face. He was the first to notice her, straightening as he looked at her, then at Noin was who was just behind her.

"Sally, Noin," Quatre however, was the first to greet them. Years had lent him both height and gravitas, and he looked authoritative despite his still-angelic blond looks. "A little unfortunate to see the two of you again under such circumstances, but I'm glad nevertheless." He smiled in open warmth.

"As am I." A quiet baritone resounded from behind Quatre. Trowa was still tall, but no longer as frail-looking as he was in his childhood years. He pushed at the stubborn lock of hair that always fell into his eye, revealing a deep-green gaze that had grown in emotion over time.

Sally embraced both of them in turn, warmed by their dual presence. Over Trowa's shoulder, she caught Wufei's haunted dark gaze. He gave her a wan smile and she was grateful for it. The door opening stopped either of them from further communication.

Duo and Heero emerged from Hilde's ward. Both were clad in the purple of hospital gown and mask. When pulled off, there was a conspicuous pause in the air that Sally registered as collective shock. Duo looked like he had aged years in the time since Hilde's hospitalisation. His violet eyes were dulled with an aching combination of insomnia and pain, and the generous mouth that used to be quirked in a grin was frowning as he stared around at them. Hovering very silently behind him, Heero's eyes were fixed intently on Duo's back, even as everyone else's gaze was riveted on the startling bruise that marred the whole side of his cheek. His lip was split, crusted over with dried blood.

None of them said a single word about the pair's questionable appearances.

Sally was vaguely aware of Wufei moving; it looked like an involuntary action as he shifted towards Duo. Both men stared evenly at each other for what seemed like eternity, as if they were trapped in an invisible bind. Just as Wufei opened his mouth to speak, Duo looked away and turned to *her*.

"She's doing great. She's not off the ventilator yet, but things are looking pretty good." The tension eased briefly from Duo's brow. "Great job, Doctor." He broke into a grin that was as fatigued as it was bright.

Just like this, the stifling pressure in the air was eased. A tentative conversation filtered between the small group. Sally didn't join in, content to just listen and watch. In a strange way, it felt like she was watching a movie of sorts, like she was on the outside looking in. She saw the obvious, Noin and Trowa talking about the development on L3 and Quatre chiming in, and the hidden. Duo excusing himself without the slightest glance at Heero following close behind. The strikingly-clear worry on Heero's injured face. Both of them brushing past Wufei and Anders. Maybe Sally imagined it, but she thought that maybe, just for one teetering, fleeting moment, the four men shared a tensed, leadened look between them.

Once again, Sally found herself just a helpless onlooker, with circumstances spiralling like an uncontrollable storm around her while she stayed trapped in the stillness of the eye.

You win some, you lose some, Une had once told her, during one those sessions when Sally found herself braced over the sink in her own bathroom, dry-heaving as she tried to forget another failed operation. The binarism of life. Joy and pain. Death and living. Losing and winning. The darkness in happy days, and the hopefulness in despair. None would exist without the other.

Are you heartless? Sally had lashed out without thinking, then.

I'd like to think not, Une had answered without missing a beat. Just the occasional bitch.

"...I'm the occasional doctor."

"Did you say something?" Noin was looking at her quizzically.

Sally blinked. Then she shook her head, feeling lighter than she had in too many days. "No. Shall we see Hilde together?"

"I think Duo should partner Heero on the mission." Wufei knew his remark came perhaps a little suddenly, when he saw the jerk of surprise from Anders. "It makes sense. You saw them just now. Something's wrong between them. I can feel it." He explained quickly.

Anders was seated on a chair, straddling it backwards with his arms braced on top of it. His head tilted to one side, he appeared to be contemplating what Wufei had just said. At length, he straightened. "I don't think Maxwell should go on the mission."

That stopped Wufei short. "Why not?"

"Firstly, Maxwell has not dealt with any of the colony officials in his entire career. Secondly, the L2 cluster has a history with FIR23-01, and I'm not talking about *good* history here. Thirdly - "

"That is not the point!" Wufei cut him off sharply, before waving a hand in vague apology. "What I mean is, Duo can handle all that. I just think this would be an opportunity for he and Heero to iron out any misunderstandings."

"Things may not be as simple as that."

Dark eyebrows narrowed defensively. "How complicated can it be?"

Anders shrugged.

"That is not an answer." Wufei shook his head. "Things are supposed...to be better. That was why I lef - " He stopped, looking away, lips pressed together in a grim, quivering line.

"Well, then maybe you should find yourself a better reason for leaving Heero Yuy."

Wufei was moving before he knew it, and just before he was on Anders, he stopped short. "Does all of this please you?"

Anders hadn't moved an inch from where he was seated, or so much as twitched even. He stared at Wufei's quivering hands clenched so tightly that the knuckles were white, before shrugging again. It was an infuriatingly flippant gesture and it very *nearly* made Wufei lash out and make sure his fist connected this time.

"All of what?" Anders said softly.

To his own bewilderment, Wufei found he didn't even know what he meant himself. "I do not understand you, Ray Anders," he said at length.

"That's one of my virtues, didn't you know?"

Wufei would have snapped something to that unbelievably presumptuous claim, but the hand wounding into his shirtfront strangled his breath. He found himself suddenly much nearer to the chair, and to Anders. With no small amount of apprehension and just plain confusion, Wufei stared down into the sharp, handsome face smiling up at him. Then those cobalt eyes swung dizzyingly close when Anders tugged him down.

Wufei turned his head just before the kiss, and Anders' lips found his cheek instead. Undeterred, a rain of soft, sensuous kisses caressed down the line of Wufei's jaw, pausing right at the underside of his chin, before taking up the pace and intensity down his throat. Swaying almost unconsciously, Wufei raised a shaking hand to Anders' chest. He wasn't sure what he was doing, pulling Anders closer, or pushing him away. Maybe both, as his fingers curled convulsively into the thin fabric of Anders' shirt.

"We..." Wufei flinched as a warm hand slipped under his shirt. "Shouldn't. We shouldn't be doing this. Anders..." The hand was inscribing slow caresses over his skin. It felt soothing in a way that it shouldn't.

When Anders' fingers reached his buckle, Wufei clamped his hands on Anders'. "Why are you doing this..."

"Only if you let me, Wufei."

The wretchedness was a tearing, agonising pain in Wufei's insides. Anders was letting *him* decide. Every step on this road was his own doing. Him. Chang Wufei, and nobody else.

That was fine.

Wufei's hands fell limply to his sides. Anders was quiet in his efficiency. The cold air prickled the back of Wufei's legs. As Anders bent his head, Wufei arched back with a silent cry. The lingering liquid fire enveloping him was almost too much to bear. It had been a long time.

"Anders..." Wufei wound his fingers into the dark-brown hair tickling his belly.

Anders pulled away briefly, his hand taking over, keeping the rhythm that was making Wufei writhe against him, his deep-blue eyes were darkened with the same arousal.

"When...did Hilde...wake up..."

"...You know."

Wufei paused, before nodding. "Five thirty-three." He couldn't stifle a gasp as lips nuzzled against his hardness. "Why didn't you tell..."

"You were running on nothing but sheer will. You needed the sleep."

"...you a Samaritan...or a bastard..."

"Are you asking?"

Wufei's eyes slipped closed.

"My turn. This morning..." Anders' head was moving again, his tongue and teeth a maddening dance. "You said I said the same thing as someone...Who is it?"

For as long as the time - sluggish minutes and seconds - that Anders took to pleasure and torture him, Wufei spoke not a single word. Even when his release came, so suddenly and so hard and finally, Wufei's cries were muffled by his own teeth.

The sweat trickled down his skin, and back, although the room was still cold. Wufei's chest rose and fell in staccato beats as he fought to still his breathing. His pants were pulled back up over his hips, zipped and buckled.

Wufei stretched out a hand towards Anders. "Let me - "

Anders stood up, adjusted his own pants and smoothed back his hair. He raised an eyebrow almost jauntily at Wufei. "I did it because I wanted to. You don't have to return the favour."

Wufei knew he should insist...whether or not by his own reasoning, or to justify the situation. "It's not fair," he said instead.

Anders was already sliding out a cigarette from the pack that always seemed to appear in the back of his pants when he wanted it to. He hooked it in his fingers, lifted it to his lips and lighted it in one smooth motion. "It never is. Was."

It was an absurd fascination, watching those lips curled around the cigarette when just moments earlier, they were curled around *him*. Wufei looked away.

"Thirdly - "

It took a long second before Wufei realised Anders was talking about Heero's mission.

"Thirdly, Maxwell should not be the partner - " There was something deeply pensive in Anders' face as he turned to face Wufei. "Because Heero Yuy has already chosen one."

Obsidian eyes widened sharply. "Who?"

Anders smiled then. A dry smile that looked nearly as old as it was amused. "Me."

fin
February 2005