Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Missing Piece ❯ Chapter 16

Title: The Missing Piece

Author: Skeren Dreamera, with Bagelbunion co-writing

Archive: http://www.gundam-wing-fanfiction.net/ (under Skeren Dreamera)

Category: Sci Fi additions, Yaoi/Shounen Ai

Pairings: 5x2, 4+3, 3x1

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, so please, don't sue me.

Rating: NC-17

Spoilers: None yet

Warnings: None this chapter, except maybe OOC to a degree, but that will apply through the entire story line.

Contact: Mickeofas@yahoo.com

Notes: Zechs finally speaks! That, and Duo pokes at his dilemma and gets brushed off.

Begin part sixteen

Trowa had taken a shower and had some breakfast once Quatre stormed out of the house. He had finished eating before he moved to his bedroom, pushing the door open to see Heero awake and active. His fingers were flying over the keys of his laptop, and he completely ignored his presence. Trowa took this as some sort of hint and shuffled down the hall to knock lightly on Duo's door, thinking that Duo would be able to help him resolve this mess... Somehow.

"Come in, just stay quiet." Duo moved Wufei to a sitting position, cuddling the sleeping figure into his lap as much as he could without removing Wufei from under the covers.

Trowa opened the door slowly. He peeking in and was thankful that he found Wufei was sleeping. When he went to sit on the bed, he studiously avoided looking at Duo. "Can I talk to you?" He followed Duo's previous command for quiet, keeping his voice low.

"Yes. You can talk to me." Duo looked up from Wufei, his fingers aimlessly stroking along the sleeping face while he waited.

"Umm..." Trowa paused, suddenly realizing he didn't really know how to start.

"Clearly it isn't just about Heero if you aren't talking to Quatre." Duo decided to talk, trying to get Trowa going.

"No." Trowa looked down, suddenly admiring his hands while he played with them in his lap.

"Just start at the beginning. Hel, you can even start the morning we got back if you need to, I'm listening. I do know how, y'know." Duo looked down to Wufei, brushing some hair away from his face. *And while you're at it, tell me what the Hel happened between us and Heero.*

"I like Quatre. But... Quatre wants something I can't give him. Something I'm not ready for yet. And he didn't understand that." Trowa clenched his fists nervously. He was trying hard not to babble since that was something he didn't do. He was just overwhelmed with the last 24 hours. Duo looked back to Trowa, giving him a slight smile before leaning over Wufei to put a hand on Trowa's arm, waiting for him to continue. "We weren't a couple... But... I think Quatre saw us as one because he wanted it." He paused and looked at Duo, then looked down to Wufei's sleeping face. Wufei didn't look like he was sleeping peacefully. "But Heero..." Trowa took a deep breath. "Damn it." He muttered softly and leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees, putting his face in his hands. "I've fucked everything up. For all of us."

Duo followed Trowa's gaze back to Wufei and rearranged the sleeping boy, carefully pulling him up to a sleeping position so he was cradled fully in his arms, the actions natural and nearly automatic. "Me and Heero didn't really get far in our conversation. Tell me your side of it."

"What kind of conversation did you and Heero have?" Trowa watched the pair, propping his chin up on his hands.

"He mentioned to me that I and Wufei caused his curiosity from the start... Then it simply went downhill and we had other concerns." Duo shook his head. "We didn't get far enough in the conversation, so tell me what happened, you need to."

"After you kicked me out, I decided to room with Heero. I wanted to room with Quatre earlier but I made some comments about us sharing a bed. I was really only playing. Naturally if I went into Quatre's room at 4am it would be even less well received. Instead I went to Heero's. I had planned on just going to sleep, I really had, but Heero was acting... Odd. I wanted to know what was going on."

Duo nodded, curious what he meant by odd, and he let that show on his face. "Odd?"

"Yes. Odd. He seemed really adamant about not sharing a bed with me. We'd shared a bed before and he never acted so weird. So after some discovery I found that Heero had been... Uhh... 'Enjoying' himself before I came in, and I offered to help. I think you heard the rest."

Duo's eyebrows hiked. "I'll ask him for the details later, I'm certain he wouldn't be so sparing. Such as, is my best friend still a virgin?"

"Yeah... He came before I could get him any further." Trowa sighed, feeling slight embarrassment over the admission. Normally he wouldn't go to Duo for this sort of thing, but he had no one else left. Quatre probably hated him, and Wufei was sleeping, while Heero, for obvious reasons, wouldn't understand.

"Good. He isn't ready for that at all yet Trowa. Apparently he only just got his first kiss from Wufei here, and his first one that he gave anyone, and was all there for, today. I'd say that would come first. He isn't upset at you though."

"I still feel awful. He wasn't ready for what I did either... But I've been feeling... Tense lately and well, I do like him..." Trowa trailed off not knowing what to say.

Duo quirked his lips. "He asked for one of us to kiss him and I did. He isn't suffering anything worse than severe confusion right now."

"Confusion?" Trowa asked and looked up, resting his hands in his lap again.

"Yes, confusion. Control is important to Heero. You took that away. He's trying to understand what he felt. What else is bugging you?" Duo looked down to Wufei, trying to see if his rest had settled.

"Is Wufei alright?" Trowa asked, following Duo's eyes. "Speaking of confusion..." He allowed his voice to trail off softly in question.

"He freaked out when Heero asked for a kiss. He was fine until after he decided he was the one that wanted it then he went... Elsewhere." Duo tightened his arms around Wufei, leaning down to kiss his forehead.

"He acted really strange in the kitchen too. Quatre was talking to him and then he suddenly stiffened and crushed the cup in his hands. He started looking around nervously and asking what we'd done to you..." Trowa took a deep breath and focused on Wufei's sleeping form. "Then I told him where you were and it was like I blinked and he was gone, already down the hall. I've never seen him move so fast, nor have I ever seen him so..." Trowa couldn't say it... That word... And Wufei... just didn't belong together.

"During his freak out with Heero, he asked me if they injected me with anything again. I want to know what happened to us." Duo cuddled Wufei, leaning down to rest his forehead on the shoulder of the boy he held.

"I'd like to know too. I don't like seeing Wufei like that." Trowa wanted to hug them both, feeling sad all of a sudden for his friends. "We had no trace of you, it was like you disappeared... We tried not to worry, thinking that you just had no access to communications, but then you came back... 'You'd only been gone three days' you said and..." Trowa trailed off again.

Duo gave Trowa a faint smile, all the accusation and hurt at the very back of his mind being hidden as he shook his head. "No man, don't blame yourselves, I know Heero never stopped looking for us, even if you two weren't."

"It's not that... I just wasn't worried... You can take care of yourselves, but now that you are back... I obviously had reason to worry." Trowa didn't realize he was digging his grave deeper saying that.

"I wouldn't know. I just know I don't remember what happened, and it was important that I did." Duo shrugged slightly, closing his eyes. Trowa sighed loudly and watched Duo before looking down to Wufei again, who appeared reluctant to let go of Duo even in his sleep. "I really think it hurt him more than me. I can take a lot though, so that doesn't really suprize me." Duo tilted his head down, nuzzling Wufei a little and hugging him, eyes still closed.

Trowa nodded. "Wufei... He can take a lot of physical pain. I've seen it. He's tough. I'd even go so far as to say tougher than Heero, but..." Trowa shook his head. "I don't know... He..." Trowa paused and took a deep breath. "When he was staying with me at the circus, he seemed so broken... But now... He seems even worse." Trowa whispered the last part.

"I know they hurt me. I could tell that from what happened today. They did things to me that he didn't want to happen, so he made them take him." Duo finally opened his eyes, sadness flickering for a moment before he smiled. "But we are here now, alive and well."

"Right. But at what cost?" Trowa reached up and trailed his hand over Wufei's still un-brushed slightly sloppy hair. *Are you really well at all?*

Duo's eyes narrowed with the gesture and he tugged Wufei closer, though there was no threat in his gaze. It was like he didn't even notice what he did. "It only matters that we're alive."

Trowa sighed and pulled his hand away slowly, noticing the protectiveness. He was curious about that too. When Wufei left, he could have cared less about whether Duo lived or died... Now... Trowa looked up at Duo's face again.

Duo blinked, a slight blush rising to his face. "Sorry about that. I didn't want you to wake him up."

"It's okay. I understand." Trowa smiled a bit, trying to ease Duo's discomfort. *I don't understand at all.*

Duo ducked his head, resting his cheek on top of Wufei's head. "I'm glad you do, because I sure don't."

"You can't stand to be away from him?" Trowa asked suddenly after a long moment of silence.

"I haven't really had any problems... But I have a feeling I wouldn't fare well in a crowd." Duo quirked his lips. "Street rat having a problem with streets..." He paused, shaking his head. "Damn."

Trowa nodded, feeling that this was getting too deep now and stood. "Well... Thanks for listening. I'm gonna get out of here for a little while." He walked to the door, "You know... In case anyone asks." Trowa suddenly looked forlorn. "Not that I think anyone will." He whispered the last as he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"I'd ask if you took off man, I promise." Duo sighed, then cuddled Wufei close, wiggling back under the covers.

Trowa sighed and put on his jacket, leaving out the back door to head for Heavyarms. He climbed in, starting up the machine, then sent a message to Heero to join him for their mission. "The sooner we get it over with, the better." It was the last thing Trowa said to himself as he blasted off into the sky.

Heero got the message and moved to his bag, getting his things together before heading to his own Gundam, not having enough unpacked to have to gather it together in the first place. He soon followed Trowa into the sky.

Zechs slowly started to wake up while Quatre was bandaging him. He found his eyes less disoriented then before he passed out, but he was a little stunned by how clear everything looked. Quatre had removed Zechs' shredded shirt and was in the process binding the array of lash and knife marks that littered his torso; not to mention the burn marks from the explosion of the Tallgeese. Quatre didn't notice the change in his patient immediately and continued to callously disinfect Zechs' wounds by slowly applying the disinfectant and then wrapping the dressing on. All the while trying to remember where he knew this man from.

Zechs watched him, drawing in a hiss of air and looking around the bathroom to try to orient himself, his head turning a little. *Now where did I end up?*

"Are you okay now?" Quatre kept his voice quiet, seeing the ice blue eyes open. "What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Looking for some people who I hoped wouldn't shoot me on sight. Did I find them?" Zechs grimaced slightly as he moved a little too fast, becoming confused because he hadn't been trying to move that quickly.

"Obviously." Quatre smiled a little. "Since I brought you here. I don't know about Heero though. He doesn't take kindly to strangers." *Nor friends sometimes.* Quatre added the last part on in silence.

"He hasn't killed me yet, though he's had the chance." Zechs quirked his lips, reaching a hand up to his face to cover the expression and dipping his head, hair and hand serving to partially hide his face. Inwardly he was cursing that he didn't have his trustworthy glasses and hat. Since the helmet was destroyed, he'd been relying on them.

"You know Heero??" Quatre suddenly said and dropped the bottle of disinfectant on Zechs' chest as this revelation was made, causing the alcohol to spill unchecked over the open wounds.

Zechs drew in a sharp breath, quickly putting the bottle to the side and glancing around before grabbing a cloth to wipe the burning liquid away. "At least I know I'm in the right place."

"You were looking for us?" Quatre leaned forward to stare at Zechs more intently, placing his hands on Zechs' wounded stomach, while at the same time reaching for the dropped bottle.

Zechs winced again as Quatre's fingers pushed into an open rope lash, it looked like he'd both been tied, and hit with the stuff, as there were perfect coil marks that were bleeding on his skin along his torso, and burns across his wrists and chest. "Yes. Though I wouldn't have guessed you were one of them. Shame on me."

"Why?" Quatre suddenly found himself feeling slightly offended. "Because my family has a reputation of pacifism? I can pilot too, you know." Quatre pulled his hands away; having to strip the now soaked bandaging before redoing that and moving on to finish with the rest. His main priority to get Zechs to be better would be to try and keep the blonde in bed.

"I'm not really one to talk to about that. That's why I said shame on me, I know better." He was still waiting for Quatre to line up the dots. Zechs lifted his arms a little to make it easier for Quatre to properly bind the wounds, ignoring the severe pain the action caused.

"Are you going to want to stay here with us?" Quatre suddenly felt the need to try to change the subject. He asked the first thing that came to mind, then realized he wouldn't want anyone in his room.

"I can't go anywhere else. I just got myself lose from people I thought weren't a risk to me. I still don't know what those damn shots they got me with were." Zechs frowned a little, then shook his head, slightly bloody pale hair falling forwards again. The reaction to this was Quatre getting a cloth and wetting it so he could wipe the blood from the pale strands.

"Shots?" Quatre asked. He was certainly feeling puzzled with the backwash of confusion and relief coming from Zechs.

"Yes, you know, needles with things attached? I don't know what they were." Zechs turned his arm, showing a series of bruises all up the inner arm from wrist to shoulder. Puncture bruises. They covered both arms.

"Who did these to you?" Quatre grabbed Zechs' arm softly to peer more closely at it.

"Some scientists who got their grubby paws on me. I was only there a couple days before I managed to get out. But I know they are looking for me, I'm not the only escapee either." Zechs winced a little as his arm was grabbed, it still hurt, and the bruises were there for a reason.

"I'm sorry." Quatre quickly set the arm down as gently as he possibly could. "Would you like something to eat? Or perhaps you need to rest?"

"I'm fully awake now. I need to eat though, I haven't for a few hours, and I'm not going to make it harder to recover my lost blood by not eating before I go to sleep." Zechs quirked his lips and nodded for Quatre to move back.

"Alright." Quatre stood up slowly, removing his now bloody jacket. "Can you stand or do you need some help?"

"I can handle it." Zechs waited for Quatre to move back before standing, though he moved faster than he had wanted to, causing him to stumble. "The Hel?"

Quatre immediately reached out for him, his brain vaguely noted that if Zechs fell on him they'd both go down, but he was trying to be nice.

Zechs didn't even wobble, but he was extremely confused. "I'm not dizzy. I just stood too fast is all."

"Alright... The kitchen's this way." Quatre eyed Zechs with a smile then led the way to the kitchen, while staying fairly close to Zechs in case he stumbled again.

Zechs took a careful step, realizing that he felt funny, lighter on his feet than he had been before. He followed Quatre, forcibly stopping himself from tripping over his own feet by glancing at them every few seconds. "I'm not usually so easy to trip up."

Quatre reached the kitchen and started to pull out some sandwich fixings, merely humoring Zechs in his smile. "Have a seat. I'll make you a sandwich." *Weird guy...*

"Sure." Zechs made himself to a chair and sat himself firmly down, a mortified blush on his face as he nearly tipped off the chair. "My god, what the hell did they shoot me up with?" His tone of voice implied there was something severely wrong with him.

"What do you mean?" Quatre turned from the counter to look at Zechs as he applied the last piece of bread to the sandwich and poured some juice. He grabbed a few cookies for himself and went to sit at the table opposite of Zechs, setting the sandwich down in front of his guest.

Zechs eyes the sandwich dubiously before raising his hand from the tabletop where it landed as he caught himself when he was sitting, his fingers gingerly picking up the sandwich as he brought it to his lips to take a bite out of, considering how to answer Quatre's question. He gingerly finished off the food, then as carefully picked up the juice, sipping the glass until it was empty. It was only then that he finally answered. "I was serious, I'm never such a klutz. It's deadly to be one." He paused again, shaking his head with a small frown. "My body feels completely different than it did just hours ago."

Quatre just sighed softly as he watched Zechs pick at his food. *I'm not that bad of a cook!* He nodded at Zechs' statement. "They give you drugs like that... They should wear off after a few hours. Are you sleep deprived at all? That could make it worse..." Quatre was raking his mind to come up with the names of the drugs he just mentioned, it wasn't really his area...

"No, I was unconscious until I managed to fight off the drugs, preventing what I can only assume to be another round of drugs that aren't good for me. That was only perhaps a good fifteen hours ago. I was out for three days though, maybe longer, and that's when they did these railroad tracks up my arms." Zechs gestured at his arm and cursed as he barely stopped himself from nailing the table with his knuckles. "And if you know of a drug that makes you lighter and able to move more quickly, please, tell me what it is so I can find a counteragent, it's horrid."

"Ummm..." Quatre paused nervously. "No. I don't. You should take a nap now." Quatre was suddenly finding himself very uncomfortable and he needed to change the subject.

Zechs sighed then nodded, pushing himself up carefully from the table so he didn't hit anything. He needed to find a way to get used to this feeling. Maybe when he woke up it would be gone. Good hope, if futile. "Please, lead the way."

"Alright." Quatre stood up and pushed himself away from the table. He moved to his patient and extended his hand to Zechs. "Would you like a hand?"

"I'm not sure it would help my current state, but I wouldn't mind it." He smiled a little, taking the offered hand. "You haven't even asked who I am yet you know."

Quatre took Zechs' hand and slowly began to pull him towards his own room. "You seemed like you already knew me. I was trying to remember..." Quatre admitted, a little embarrassed that he couldn't seem to place him.

"We were just children. I was six and you were just two at the time, I don't blame you for not remembering. I did mention I kept track of you. I was worried when you vanished off L4." Zechs licked his lips, realizing that he actually was incredibly tired suddenly.

Quatre paused nervously, but shook his head roughly and led Zechs into his room and pulled him to his bed. "You should rest now. Try and recover from whatever it is that they gave you."

"I will, thank you for not shooting me, I would not have blamed you for it." Zechs smiled slightly and sat on the bed, fingers moving to remove his shoes. He'd been caught in civilian clothes so that wasn't even something to give him away. Once the shoes were removed he slid under the covers, turning over to lie on the pillows.

"You're welcome." Quatre remained for a moment, watching Zechs pale face as he fell asleep. After that, he smiled softly and went back into the kitchen, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself.

To be continued.