Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Palace of Justice ❯ 14 ( Chapter 14 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Lethanon 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Sci-fi / Thriller | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.20.2011 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.3K | Visits: 317 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Sci-fi / Thriller | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.20.2011 | Pages: 3 | Words: 5.3K | Visits: 317 | Status: Work In Progress
14:
Not much time had passed when Wufei woke again, sitting up quietly and looking down at Trowa on the floor. Trowa looked back, wondering how he managed to look appealing despite the sweat still cooling on his skin and the ragged disarray of greasy, unwashed hair. He looked tired and Trowa just wanted to hold him and maybe wash away some of the haunted look in dark eyes.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Wufei spoke softly, hesitating before moving across in the bed, making room for Trowa if he wanted it, which he did. “So...I’m an addict?” Trowa didn’t bother replying because it was pretty clear that was the case and he wasn’t sure how to make that any easier on someone who had always been rather fanatical about their health.
“What am I addicted to?”
“Passion Flowers,” Trowa remarked, still a little amused that Wufei was essentially addicted to the root of a flower. “It’s the main ingredient in the stuff they had you on in the capsule. Apparently it heightens what you’re capable of when you’re plugged in.” Basically.
“Great.” Trowa didn’t see what was so great about it, and by the look on Wufei’s face he didn’t either. Trowa sighed and pulled him in against his side, warmed when Wufei let him and leant his head on his shoulder.
“Did I do that?” Wufei brushed the back of his hand against Trowa’s jaw and Trowa just smiled, nodding in response.
“I probably deserved it.” He won a light laugh at least.
They were quiet for a long time and Trowa was content to stay that way but Wufei had other ideas, pulling back to look at him with a serious frown. Trowa tried to think of something he had done recently but nothing he thought of would have put a frown there so he just stared back and waited.
“So.”
“So,” Trowa agreed, having absolutely no idea what was going on.
“You want me to give us a chance?”
The Morse code. Trowa laughed hard, delighted and shrugged lazily because he didn’t regret it at all. Instead he just looked at Wufei expectantly and waited because he’d been waiting a long time for this answer. Wufei was quiet, just looking at him until Trowa started to get impatient and Trowa knew Wufei knew when he did because he smirked but Trowa didn’t get the chance to say anything because Wufei slid a hand around the back of his neck and pulled him closer and Trowa felt ready to burst, holding his breath because he had been waiting for this for so. Damn. Long.
“We got Indian, hope lentil curry is okay with you?”
Trowa was up immediately, striding to the door and pushing Duo and Heero back into the hallway.
“Tro! What the hell...”
“Five minutes!” He snapped, closing the door and putting the lock on just in case, then he strode back to the bed, leaned forward and waited expectantly.
Wufei blinked at him, then just laughed and reached for him again, the hand on the back of his neck feeling far too good and then nothing else mattered because Wufei was kissing him and it was the order of it that mattered. Wufei was kissing him, because it was what he wanted and because finally! Finally he was saying yes. Trowa sank onto the bed and his own arms finally came up, closing around Wufei and pulling him closer, deepening the kiss, making sure Wufei wouldn’t regret it. Would remember this moment right now and know he’d been an idiot for resisting so long.
When he finally pulled back to see his face, Trowa knew Wufei had gotten the message loud and clear. He stroked his cheek and leaned in for one more, quick kiss, then went to let Duo and Heero in, smirking at them as he stepped aside, the door open.
“You look like...” Duo frowned, going in and then the words died and Trowa knew he knew, or suspected, but he didn’t say anything just held up the bags of take out. “We’ve got Indian!”
Like he hadn’t said that before. Trowa just shrugged at Heero’s glare, not caring in the least and closed the door, going to get bowls and help Duo dish up before going straight back to the bed, handing Wufei a bowl and sitting beside him, thrilled to have a reason to shift closer so Wufei’s thigh was pressed against his own.
The Indian was good but Trowa knew at least part of his enjoyment of it had nothing at all to do with the food. He probably looked like an idiot but he didn’t care. He even had seconds, and didn’t care that Duo laughed at him. When he was done and the dishes were in the sink, he relaxed back against the pillows and pulled Wufei in against him, letting Heero boot up his laptop and look at the programs he needed to improve.
“Oh, oh, I had an idea for this bit!” Duo rushed over and sat with Wufei and they sat doing his work for him, and Trowa decided he was going to have to bring his work home with him more often. He had no idea when he fell asleep, and no one woke him.
The lights came up in the morning but it was Wufei leaning heavily on his chest as he struggled to get off him that woke Trowa. He gasped when Wufei practically punched him in the guts and grabbed him by the elbows, carefully lifting him off so he could sit up, rubbing his stomach wryly.
“Sorry,” Wufei mumbled but Trowa just shook his head because he didn’t mind it all. It meant Wufei had slept on him, and he wasn’t about to complain about that. He tucked Wufei’s hair behind his ear and got up, heading for the shower and going quickly through his morning routine. It was annoyingly difficult to focus on what he had to get done today when he kept looking at the shower and remembering Wufei in it, naked.
The bruise on his jaw was startling, he hadn’t realised Wufei had hit him that hard and he poked at the rich purple, estimating two weeks at least before he could expect to look human again. It was going to be hard to explain, but he still liked his smashed his head on the fridge idea.
He forced himself to get dressed and went out, towelling his hair dry as Duo ducked into the bathroom. Trowa looked down at Heero curiously.
“What’s he in such a hurry for?”
“Wants a muffin for breakfast,” Heero grunted, sounding as confused as Trowa felt, except that Trowa knew Duo was going to ask all sorts of questions about Wufei and he thought they’d already established he wasn’t talking to Duo about this.
“You’re in trouble,” Wufei sing-songed from his place on the bed and Trowa tossed Duo’s teddy at him before following it across the room to the bed and leaning down to be face to face with Wufei.
“Stay out of the System today.” He made it sound cryptic deliberately, hoping that Wufei would think something he might do in Hanger101 could affect him if he was plugged in, and really Trowa didn’t know that it wouldn’t, but it was just an excuse to make himself worry less about Wufei being plugged in.
“Okay,” Wufei agreed after a minute, sighing as he gave in and Trowa rewarded him with a quick kiss in the corner of his mouth, smirking at the startled look Wufei gave him in response, not to mention the one on Heero’s face when he turned around, ready to go.
“Tell him I’ll meet him on the shuttle, I want to try and catch Farrar,” he told Heero as he grabbed his backpack, but he hesitated at the door and looked sternly back at Wufei.
“You agreed. No System!” And he left it at that.
Farrar was nowhere to be seen at the temple, so Trowa went and fetched his fortune before going to catch the shuttle. Duo ran on just as the doors were closing and Trowa just sighed. He’d been hoping he would miss this one and have to catch the next one.
“Did you...did you buy your fortune?” Duo laughed at him and Trowa just waggled his piece of paper at him before actually going about reading it.
Cryptic and irrelevant didn’t begin to cover it, Trowa wasn’t sure it was even all written in the one language, but it mentioned ‘good loving’ so he decided it was good. He gave it to Duo and let him laugh about it all the way to Level 3 and the interchange cafe.
“So, Wufei huh...Not like we didn’t all know but I didn’t think he’d ever let you convince him. It was like he was trying to prove he could say no to you or something,” Duo was still laughing as he opened the cafe door and let Trowa duck in underneath.
“Hi!” Tracey called out. “Coffee and muffins?”
“Yes please, oh beautiful waitress!” Duo agreed, going straight for a booth since they really didn’t seem to need to actually order any more. Trowa followed and sat down heavily, not liking the idea of revealing anything to Duo but realising he was going to have to say something. Duo-puppies didn’t generally let go of bones once they had a good hold.
“I might have...used the System in Hanger101 to...flicker the lights in Morse Code and...ask him to give us a try.” He was not telling Duo that he had put an ‘I just want you’ on the end of it.
Duo was actually speechless and then an odd sound escaped him before he smothered it with his hands, eyes wide and far too excited.
“Oh my god, that’s so freakin ....adorable!” He was laughing. Great, Duo Maxwell was laughing at his confession. He didn’t care, because it had worked and Wufei had agreed to finally just try and Trowa would make sure he kept trying until they worked so well even Wufei wouldn’t be about to deny him.
“I think it’s good,” Duo finally said, looking more sincere than he usually did, which probably meant he meant it more than usual. Which was nice, really. Trowa didn’t respond though, distracted by Tracey bringing the coffee over.
“Oh my gosh! What happened to your face?” She was staring at him in horror and Trowa plastered his best sheepish grin on his face and rubbed at it as if it didn’t hurt at all, which it hadn’t until he had to go and touch it to make it look like it didn’t.
“Slipped getting out of the shower, tried to catch my balance and managed to get out of the bathroom only to slip and smash my head on the fridge.”
“Oh my god! It looks horrible!” Thank you. Thank you so much for pointing that out. Loudly and clearly and without any remorse whatsoever. Your truthfulness is truly valued.
“Yeah. Stupid me!” He laughed it off and she shook her head and went back to work, admonishing him to be more careful next time. As if he hadn’t been the first time. Accidents just happened sometimes! He took a grumpy bite out of his muffin and glared at Duo across the table, hating how amused he looked by the whole affair.
“You want me to drag Heero out to dinner tonight or something? Give you some alone time?”
Trowa frowned because he did actually want that, but he didn’t want to admit it, and it would be so blatantly obvious to Wufei what was going on that it would likely backfire and he’d change his mind and be stubborn and not give them a chance after all. Trowa wouldn’t let him get away with it, of course, but the dinner would be ruined either way and he just shook his head.
“Yeah, you’re right...Wufei wouldn’t go for it at all.”
They sat quietly shaking their heads together until Trowa had to go, then Duo skipped out ahead of him for a change, promising to make sure Wufei behaved and Trowa headed for Level 1.
All of his plans for the day were blown out of the water when he was put on Scout duty. Tempting as it was to try to get out of it when they fussed over his injured jaw, he didn’t want to look like a complete pansy and assured them it was just a stupid bruise from an equally stupid accident. He didn’t mind, because he got to fly the SiS-50, which was incredible, but it put off his testing the Molecularizer until the afternoon.
It did mean he had plenty of time to read the journals and he didn’t waste the opportunity. The more he read the more he was convinced the creator had to have been completely insane. His ideas were out of this world, but to most people would have been clearly impossible. Just because he actually managed to make the strange things he dreamed of didn’t, in Trowa’s opinion, absolve him of suffering a lack of sanity. Actually he thought it made the man all the more nuts.
Trowa also suspected the man had been in love with his creation. Knowing Nataku had been made from Wufei’s cloned organs, that just left Wufei feeling awkward and a little ill. He wasn’t feeling any better by the time he actually got to Hanger101, but he blamed that on the series of three Re-Molecularizations in far too short a period of time. He sat on the floor of the Hanger for a long time before he forced himself to crawl off the Pad to the desk and set up his laptop.
Nataku’s predecessor had somehow managed to open her eyes again and Trowa quickly closed them, sighing as he sat down at the table and stared at her half made body.
“You need a name,” he told her. “Thinking about you is hard without knowing what to call you.” He stared at her, half expecting her to open her eyes again and tell him her name. Of course, that didn’t actually happen.
“How about...Hatty.” She didn’t protest so he took her silence for approval and went about plugging her in.
It was easier this time, to get it all working, and Trowa wondered if it was a testament to his skills or stupidity that that was the case. Not that it mattered. He tested the system out by returning to the aviary, immediately finding the missing plant Duo had stolen and laughing softly at the yellow tape that had been put up around it. A crime scene. Really? But if they were lucky it would work in their favour. If people started thinking their homes were being invaded because someone stole a plant from Level 5, that was very different to stealing say...the Origen.
But they’d put what looked like a security detail at each entrance as well, and while Trowa had confidence Duo could still infiltrate the aviary, he would rather the need didn’t arise. Which meant taking care of the plant they had. Maybe if he made it clear caring for the plant was Wufei’s job the man would be distracted enough by it not to think of plugging in. Wishful thinking, but it was better than nothing.
“I wonder what effect Passion Flowers would have on you, hmm?” He was talking to a half made robot. He hoped it wasn’t an early sign of insanity, because it felt like it should be. But it was a good question. The brain wasn’t fully functional and he was almost certain parts of it were dead, but blood was still pumping through it, or an imitation of blood, and the brain was still capable of plugging in and letting him use the System, which meant there was still a large active part. He couldn’t get Hatty to drink the tea they had made Wufei, but there would have to be some way to make it work. Maybe Farrar knew, though Trowa doubted it, the man seemed capable only of expounding on his brother’s achievements without having any real understanding of them himself.
He had to open the Pad to attach a transmitter from the laptop that would allow him to program different DNA and locations so he opened the hatch and sat on the edge while he took apart sections of the Pad and went about installing a secondary transmitter. The networking for it was already there and Trowa suspected there had already been a secondary unit, hence how Farrar knew about it, but the creator had gotten paranoid and ditched it.
Why did scientists always get paranoid the closer they got to reaching their goal? If they stopped trying to achieve so much, would they stay sane? He thought of the men who had built the Gundams and doubted it. Each achievement had just bolstered their egos until it was hard to tell if they were insane or really trying to take over the world. Or just old and bored, which was just as likely. Old men were dangerous creatures.
“So Hatty...the guy I like has finally agreed to go out with me.” Yes, he was talking to Hatty, because she wasn’t going to phone every other person they knew and tell them all about it, and if he said something stupid he wouldn’t spend the rest of his life regretting it. Also, Hatty wasn’t likely to give him stupid advice.
“But he’s pretty busted up right now, and it’s hard to know if I should push his buttons or let him do the pushing. But I’m worried that if I don’t push he’ll think I’ve lost interest, which isn’t true. But if I push he might get cold feet and pull out. What do you think? Push or hold off?”
Nothing. She didn’t so much as twitch, but he fancied her breathing got heavier and he laughed.
“Yeah, I think push too. If he gets angry, well...that’s just hot.” And it was. There’d been many a time in those first weeks after Wufei convinced him to go work at Preventers that Trowa had, at the time out of pure boredom, pushed every one of Wufei’s buttons until the man exploded with fury. Just so he could see it, because that much passion for anything, even when it was anger pointed at him, was intoxicating. Trowa hadn’t understood it for a long time, hadn’t understood how anyone could get that worked up over anything that they just lost all control and raged for hours, but he’d learnt to enjoy it. To crave seeing it, and after a while that craving became a longing that taught him to understand it because he finally felt it for himself. For Wufei.
Quatre had laughed at him for days when he came to have a jam and figured it out. Then he’d tried to help him plan Wufei’s seduction, as if he couldn’t plan it on his own. That hadn’t even been close to the most insulting or humiliating part of that particular visit.
“He just makes me so...mad! All the things I love about him, all the things that mean I can’t let go are the reasons he does things that are dangerous and stupid and piss me the hell off! Plugging himself in to Frank? What the hell does he think he’s doing, that’s insane! He’ll end up like you if he’s not careful, with half a brain turned to mush and weird ass blue blood! And his legs’ll probably fall off too!” Not that Hatty’s had fallen off but fact had ever been a victim of venting.
He got the transmitter attached and rubbed a tired hand across his jaw, hissing as he remembered the dark bruise purpling it and its cause.
“And then I try and help the guy and he clocks me in the mouth. I know, right? Completely not charming at all! And Duo thought we could have some sort of romantic dinner! As if Wufei would just sit there and eat. He’d probably demand he get to do paperwork at the table.” Okay, so he wasn’t that bad and he would probably actually enjoy a private dinner for the two of them, but not until they were home and Wufei felt they were back on equal footing.
He returned to the laptop and fired up the transmitter, grinning when everything worked as planned. Then he looked around the room and tried to think of something he could send before sending himself and grabbed his backpack, taking out his notepad and scribbling a note to Wufei on it.
Look away from the Computer. You are not plugging in. Go water the plant.
He put it on the Pad and went back to the laptop, running the analyser and loading the molecular structure of the notepad and ink, then he took a deep breath, waved goodbye and sent it.
The pad disappeared and Trowa had Hatty help him pick up footage of His Room. The problem was, it was blocked.
“Frank...why do you make everything harder, even when you’re trying to make everything easier?” Frank had no doubt done it so no one could accidentally spy on what was going on in His Room during the rescue effort, but now it was just annoying.
So he used Hatty to link to his Message Board, forcing it to activate.
“Trowa?”
He couldn’t just talk, which took some adjusting to. He still tried to speak the first few times, annoyed when it didn’t show up on his screen and he realised he hadn’t uploaded the vocal program from Frank. Which he didn’t really need to do, since it definitely wasn’t an essential program. He’d just gotten used to the convenience of it.
‘Wufei.’ Typed. He wished he could pick a nicer font.
“Got your note.”
‘Great. That’s all I needed to know.’
But he waited for a response anyway, and when there wasn’t one felt a small rush of disappointment. No come home safe or don’t get hurt, no are you okay or what are you doing. Just the mission. That was Wufei. But Trowa would train that out of him, slowly but surely, and for now he continued to bask in the fact Wufei had said yes at all.
“So...the real question is, can I unplug you and still Molecularize where I need to go?” He looked expectantly at Hatty and when she didn’t reply went to fetch the journals and his mechanics manual for the Pads, flipping them both open to about where he recalled reading up on programming a destination and DNA specifics and finding a section on isolating the Molecularization from the System, which he knew had to work because Frank didn’t single-handedly control Level 1, which was full of the damn things.
It took much longer than he was expecting to get his own profile loaded into the system and had to sit on the Pad with all his belongings while the laptop ran the application, making sure he had everything he wanted to take with him. It took so long that when he was finally able to get up again and set everything to go there were new messages on his message board, and he smiled.
‘Hope you’re doing okay. Duo’s making a feast and says you have to be back before seven.’
It was as close to concern as Wufei got and Trowa felt giddy just reading the words. He hurriedly unplugged Hatty, apologising every time a pin grated particularly hard and set the laptop to switch the Pad back to its original configuration in an hour so he could get back in to the Hanger in the morning.
Pushing the button to activate the process was a little harder than just standing on the Pad and going for it. He had no idea if he was really going to end up in his room, and he was taking a gamble that no one was in the shower and he wasn’t about to merge with Heero as a giant Treero for the rest of his existence of until someone found a way to separate their molecules, which was unlikely since the creator and Frank hadn’t shared their knowledge with the rest of the universe.
That, and four Re-Molecularizations in a day was going to diminish his appetite substantially. And what if all this flitting in and out of existence really was damaging his bits and pieces? He was having every test known to man done when he got home.
He pressed the button and the next thing he knew he was sliding down the shower wall, clutching his head and trying not to puke, even if he was in the ideal place for it. The door opened and Heero stuck his head in curiously.
“You made it.” No need to sound so enthusiastic, Heero! I only defied all the realms of impossibility and became a scientific genius overnight! Heero didn’t help him out of the shower, and Trowa didn’t really want his help. He just wanted to sit for a while and get his head to start communicating with his body again.
“Everyone says it feels horrible,” Wufei said softly and Trowa wondered when he had come into the bathroom but the door was closed and he was sitting just outside the shower door, watching him. Trowa shrugged because there was no denying it, and no need to.
“No worse than being plugged into Frank I would imagine,” he noted in amusement, remembering the fountain of green sludge that had sprayed out of Wufei and thinking his weak stomach was faring far better.
“No, I don’t suppose it would be,” Wufei laughed softly. “The uniform suits you.”
Trowa wasn’t sure what he meant at first until he remembered he was in the military uniform and he smirked, shifting to his knees so he could lean in closer to Wufei.
“That implies some things don’t suit me.” They both knew he was in no way hurt the way he sounded.
“I didn’t say that. I just think uniforms suit you.”
Trowa momentarily wondered if there hadn’t been an ulterior motive to Wufei talking everyone they knew into joining Preventers and then shook his head, because Wufei wasn’t that much of a pervert. Much to Trowa’s chagrin.
“I think taking it off suits me,” Wufei continued, reaching out to grab the zip up the middle of the flight jumpsuit and tugging it down. Trowa gaped a little but let him do whatever he wanted. If Wufei wanted to undress him, he wasn’t about to protest. Instead his own hands reached out to once again unwrap Wufei, feeling like all his Christmas’s had come at once as he revealed strip after strip of pale flesh.
It was just a shower, each helping the other wash the day from weary bodies, but Trowa felt closer than ever to a goal he’d thought out of his reach forever and it made all the small achievements of his day pale in comparison. Hatty would have been so happy for him.
“I was worried about you,” Wufei admitted softly, the words so thin Trowa barely caught them, but when he did he tucked them away deep in his chest in a cage for things Wufei didn’t like to admit he had said.
“That makes two of us. You didn’t...”
“I said I wouldn’t.” And that really was answer enough. Trowa breathed a sigh of relief and stroked his thumb over one of the ports on Wufei’s temple, finding his fascination with them growing each day, particularly now he knew a little more about how they worked.
“Do they hurt?”
“Not really. Hurt when they did it, but not after.”
“So you were awake...”
“Not exactly. I’m not sure...I just remember the pain, more a feeling than anything.” He shrugged, clearly not caring enough to follow the line of thought and if he didn’t want to relive it Trowa certainly wasn’t going to make him.
“Thank you. For taking the day off.” As if he was expected to work at all right now. Only Wufei expected that, but Trowa was no less delighted that Wufei had taken his request to heart and followed through on it.
“I didn’t have much choice. Maxwell spent the whole day panicking every time I so much as twitched and forcing that awful tea down my throat!”
Trowa laughed and hugged him close, soaking up the feeling of relaxing after a day at the office, coming home to Wufei and sharing the days experiences with someone who mattered. They weren’t home, and he hadn’t exactly been at the office all day, but the feeling was there.
Unfortunately the process of putting on the bandages wasn’t nearly as fun as taking them off. By the time they had Wufei re-wrapped Duo was serving dinner, one of the blankets laid out on the floor like a picnic.
“Duo...” It wasn’t a romantic dinner for two, but a friendly dinner for four was almost better. Duo just grinned knowingly and tugged Wufei down beside him, pointing at the array of food eagerly.
“Dig in! We can talk shop later.” Trowa couldn’t agree more.
Not much time had passed when Wufei woke again, sitting up quietly and looking down at Trowa on the floor. Trowa looked back, wondering how he managed to look appealing despite the sweat still cooling on his skin and the ragged disarray of greasy, unwashed hair. He looked tired and Trowa just wanted to hold him and maybe wash away some of the haunted look in dark eyes.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Wufei spoke softly, hesitating before moving across in the bed, making room for Trowa if he wanted it, which he did. “So...I’m an addict?” Trowa didn’t bother replying because it was pretty clear that was the case and he wasn’t sure how to make that any easier on someone who had always been rather fanatical about their health.
“What am I addicted to?”
“Passion Flowers,” Trowa remarked, still a little amused that Wufei was essentially addicted to the root of a flower. “It’s the main ingredient in the stuff they had you on in the capsule. Apparently it heightens what you’re capable of when you’re plugged in.” Basically.
“Great.” Trowa didn’t see what was so great about it, and by the look on Wufei’s face he didn’t either. Trowa sighed and pulled him in against his side, warmed when Wufei let him and leant his head on his shoulder.
“Did I do that?” Wufei brushed the back of his hand against Trowa’s jaw and Trowa just smiled, nodding in response.
“I probably deserved it.” He won a light laugh at least.
They were quiet for a long time and Trowa was content to stay that way but Wufei had other ideas, pulling back to look at him with a serious frown. Trowa tried to think of something he had done recently but nothing he thought of would have put a frown there so he just stared back and waited.
“So.”
“So,” Trowa agreed, having absolutely no idea what was going on.
“You want me to give us a chance?”
The Morse code. Trowa laughed hard, delighted and shrugged lazily because he didn’t regret it at all. Instead he just looked at Wufei expectantly and waited because he’d been waiting a long time for this answer. Wufei was quiet, just looking at him until Trowa started to get impatient and Trowa knew Wufei knew when he did because he smirked but Trowa didn’t get the chance to say anything because Wufei slid a hand around the back of his neck and pulled him closer and Trowa felt ready to burst, holding his breath because he had been waiting for this for so. Damn. Long.
“We got Indian, hope lentil curry is okay with you?”
Trowa was up immediately, striding to the door and pushing Duo and Heero back into the hallway.
“Tro! What the hell...”
“Five minutes!” He snapped, closing the door and putting the lock on just in case, then he strode back to the bed, leaned forward and waited expectantly.
Wufei blinked at him, then just laughed and reached for him again, the hand on the back of his neck feeling far too good and then nothing else mattered because Wufei was kissing him and it was the order of it that mattered. Wufei was kissing him, because it was what he wanted and because finally! Finally he was saying yes. Trowa sank onto the bed and his own arms finally came up, closing around Wufei and pulling him closer, deepening the kiss, making sure Wufei wouldn’t regret it. Would remember this moment right now and know he’d been an idiot for resisting so long.
When he finally pulled back to see his face, Trowa knew Wufei had gotten the message loud and clear. He stroked his cheek and leaned in for one more, quick kiss, then went to let Duo and Heero in, smirking at them as he stepped aside, the door open.
“You look like...” Duo frowned, going in and then the words died and Trowa knew he knew, or suspected, but he didn’t say anything just held up the bags of take out. “We’ve got Indian!”
Like he hadn’t said that before. Trowa just shrugged at Heero’s glare, not caring in the least and closed the door, going to get bowls and help Duo dish up before going straight back to the bed, handing Wufei a bowl and sitting beside him, thrilled to have a reason to shift closer so Wufei’s thigh was pressed against his own.
The Indian was good but Trowa knew at least part of his enjoyment of it had nothing at all to do with the food. He probably looked like an idiot but he didn’t care. He even had seconds, and didn’t care that Duo laughed at him. When he was done and the dishes were in the sink, he relaxed back against the pillows and pulled Wufei in against him, letting Heero boot up his laptop and look at the programs he needed to improve.
“Oh, oh, I had an idea for this bit!” Duo rushed over and sat with Wufei and they sat doing his work for him, and Trowa decided he was going to have to bring his work home with him more often. He had no idea when he fell asleep, and no one woke him.
The lights came up in the morning but it was Wufei leaning heavily on his chest as he struggled to get off him that woke Trowa. He gasped when Wufei practically punched him in the guts and grabbed him by the elbows, carefully lifting him off so he could sit up, rubbing his stomach wryly.
“Sorry,” Wufei mumbled but Trowa just shook his head because he didn’t mind it all. It meant Wufei had slept on him, and he wasn’t about to complain about that. He tucked Wufei’s hair behind his ear and got up, heading for the shower and going quickly through his morning routine. It was annoyingly difficult to focus on what he had to get done today when he kept looking at the shower and remembering Wufei in it, naked.
The bruise on his jaw was startling, he hadn’t realised Wufei had hit him that hard and he poked at the rich purple, estimating two weeks at least before he could expect to look human again. It was going to be hard to explain, but he still liked his smashed his head on the fridge idea.
He forced himself to get dressed and went out, towelling his hair dry as Duo ducked into the bathroom. Trowa looked down at Heero curiously.
“What’s he in such a hurry for?”
“Wants a muffin for breakfast,” Heero grunted, sounding as confused as Trowa felt, except that Trowa knew Duo was going to ask all sorts of questions about Wufei and he thought they’d already established he wasn’t talking to Duo about this.
“You’re in trouble,” Wufei sing-songed from his place on the bed and Trowa tossed Duo’s teddy at him before following it across the room to the bed and leaning down to be face to face with Wufei.
“Stay out of the System today.” He made it sound cryptic deliberately, hoping that Wufei would think something he might do in Hanger101 could affect him if he was plugged in, and really Trowa didn’t know that it wouldn’t, but it was just an excuse to make himself worry less about Wufei being plugged in.
“Okay,” Wufei agreed after a minute, sighing as he gave in and Trowa rewarded him with a quick kiss in the corner of his mouth, smirking at the startled look Wufei gave him in response, not to mention the one on Heero’s face when he turned around, ready to go.
“Tell him I’ll meet him on the shuttle, I want to try and catch Farrar,” he told Heero as he grabbed his backpack, but he hesitated at the door and looked sternly back at Wufei.
“You agreed. No System!” And he left it at that.
Farrar was nowhere to be seen at the temple, so Trowa went and fetched his fortune before going to catch the shuttle. Duo ran on just as the doors were closing and Trowa just sighed. He’d been hoping he would miss this one and have to catch the next one.
“Did you...did you buy your fortune?” Duo laughed at him and Trowa just waggled his piece of paper at him before actually going about reading it.
Cryptic and irrelevant didn’t begin to cover it, Trowa wasn’t sure it was even all written in the one language, but it mentioned ‘good loving’ so he decided it was good. He gave it to Duo and let him laugh about it all the way to Level 3 and the interchange cafe.
“So, Wufei huh...Not like we didn’t all know but I didn’t think he’d ever let you convince him. It was like he was trying to prove he could say no to you or something,” Duo was still laughing as he opened the cafe door and let Trowa duck in underneath.
“Hi!” Tracey called out. “Coffee and muffins?”
“Yes please, oh beautiful waitress!” Duo agreed, going straight for a booth since they really didn’t seem to need to actually order any more. Trowa followed and sat down heavily, not liking the idea of revealing anything to Duo but realising he was going to have to say something. Duo-puppies didn’t generally let go of bones once they had a good hold.
“I might have...used the System in Hanger101 to...flicker the lights in Morse Code and...ask him to give us a try.” He was not telling Duo that he had put an ‘I just want you’ on the end of it.
Duo was actually speechless and then an odd sound escaped him before he smothered it with his hands, eyes wide and far too excited.
“Oh my god, that’s so freakin ....adorable!” He was laughing. Great, Duo Maxwell was laughing at his confession. He didn’t care, because it had worked and Wufei had agreed to finally just try and Trowa would make sure he kept trying until they worked so well even Wufei wouldn’t be about to deny him.
“I think it’s good,” Duo finally said, looking more sincere than he usually did, which probably meant he meant it more than usual. Which was nice, really. Trowa didn’t respond though, distracted by Tracey bringing the coffee over.
“Oh my gosh! What happened to your face?” She was staring at him in horror and Trowa plastered his best sheepish grin on his face and rubbed at it as if it didn’t hurt at all, which it hadn’t until he had to go and touch it to make it look like it didn’t.
“Slipped getting out of the shower, tried to catch my balance and managed to get out of the bathroom only to slip and smash my head on the fridge.”
“Oh my god! It looks horrible!” Thank you. Thank you so much for pointing that out. Loudly and clearly and without any remorse whatsoever. Your truthfulness is truly valued.
“Yeah. Stupid me!” He laughed it off and she shook her head and went back to work, admonishing him to be more careful next time. As if he hadn’t been the first time. Accidents just happened sometimes! He took a grumpy bite out of his muffin and glared at Duo across the table, hating how amused he looked by the whole affair.
“You want me to drag Heero out to dinner tonight or something? Give you some alone time?”
Trowa frowned because he did actually want that, but he didn’t want to admit it, and it would be so blatantly obvious to Wufei what was going on that it would likely backfire and he’d change his mind and be stubborn and not give them a chance after all. Trowa wouldn’t let him get away with it, of course, but the dinner would be ruined either way and he just shook his head.
“Yeah, you’re right...Wufei wouldn’t go for it at all.”
They sat quietly shaking their heads together until Trowa had to go, then Duo skipped out ahead of him for a change, promising to make sure Wufei behaved and Trowa headed for Level 1.
All of his plans for the day were blown out of the water when he was put on Scout duty. Tempting as it was to try to get out of it when they fussed over his injured jaw, he didn’t want to look like a complete pansy and assured them it was just a stupid bruise from an equally stupid accident. He didn’t mind, because he got to fly the SiS-50, which was incredible, but it put off his testing the Molecularizer until the afternoon.
It did mean he had plenty of time to read the journals and he didn’t waste the opportunity. The more he read the more he was convinced the creator had to have been completely insane. His ideas were out of this world, but to most people would have been clearly impossible. Just because he actually managed to make the strange things he dreamed of didn’t, in Trowa’s opinion, absolve him of suffering a lack of sanity. Actually he thought it made the man all the more nuts.
Trowa also suspected the man had been in love with his creation. Knowing Nataku had been made from Wufei’s cloned organs, that just left Wufei feeling awkward and a little ill. He wasn’t feeling any better by the time he actually got to Hanger101, but he blamed that on the series of three Re-Molecularizations in far too short a period of time. He sat on the floor of the Hanger for a long time before he forced himself to crawl off the Pad to the desk and set up his laptop.
Nataku’s predecessor had somehow managed to open her eyes again and Trowa quickly closed them, sighing as he sat down at the table and stared at her half made body.
“You need a name,” he told her. “Thinking about you is hard without knowing what to call you.” He stared at her, half expecting her to open her eyes again and tell him her name. Of course, that didn’t actually happen.
“How about...Hatty.” She didn’t protest so he took her silence for approval and went about plugging her in.
It was easier this time, to get it all working, and Trowa wondered if it was a testament to his skills or stupidity that that was the case. Not that it mattered. He tested the system out by returning to the aviary, immediately finding the missing plant Duo had stolen and laughing softly at the yellow tape that had been put up around it. A crime scene. Really? But if they were lucky it would work in their favour. If people started thinking their homes were being invaded because someone stole a plant from Level 5, that was very different to stealing say...the Origen.
But they’d put what looked like a security detail at each entrance as well, and while Trowa had confidence Duo could still infiltrate the aviary, he would rather the need didn’t arise. Which meant taking care of the plant they had. Maybe if he made it clear caring for the plant was Wufei’s job the man would be distracted enough by it not to think of plugging in. Wishful thinking, but it was better than nothing.
“I wonder what effect Passion Flowers would have on you, hmm?” He was talking to a half made robot. He hoped it wasn’t an early sign of insanity, because it felt like it should be. But it was a good question. The brain wasn’t fully functional and he was almost certain parts of it were dead, but blood was still pumping through it, or an imitation of blood, and the brain was still capable of plugging in and letting him use the System, which meant there was still a large active part. He couldn’t get Hatty to drink the tea they had made Wufei, but there would have to be some way to make it work. Maybe Farrar knew, though Trowa doubted it, the man seemed capable only of expounding on his brother’s achievements without having any real understanding of them himself.
He had to open the Pad to attach a transmitter from the laptop that would allow him to program different DNA and locations so he opened the hatch and sat on the edge while he took apart sections of the Pad and went about installing a secondary transmitter. The networking for it was already there and Trowa suspected there had already been a secondary unit, hence how Farrar knew about it, but the creator had gotten paranoid and ditched it.
Why did scientists always get paranoid the closer they got to reaching their goal? If they stopped trying to achieve so much, would they stay sane? He thought of the men who had built the Gundams and doubted it. Each achievement had just bolstered their egos until it was hard to tell if they were insane or really trying to take over the world. Or just old and bored, which was just as likely. Old men were dangerous creatures.
“So Hatty...the guy I like has finally agreed to go out with me.” Yes, he was talking to Hatty, because she wasn’t going to phone every other person they knew and tell them all about it, and if he said something stupid he wouldn’t spend the rest of his life regretting it. Also, Hatty wasn’t likely to give him stupid advice.
“But he’s pretty busted up right now, and it’s hard to know if I should push his buttons or let him do the pushing. But I’m worried that if I don’t push he’ll think I’ve lost interest, which isn’t true. But if I push he might get cold feet and pull out. What do you think? Push or hold off?”
Nothing. She didn’t so much as twitch, but he fancied her breathing got heavier and he laughed.
“Yeah, I think push too. If he gets angry, well...that’s just hot.” And it was. There’d been many a time in those first weeks after Wufei convinced him to go work at Preventers that Trowa had, at the time out of pure boredom, pushed every one of Wufei’s buttons until the man exploded with fury. Just so he could see it, because that much passion for anything, even when it was anger pointed at him, was intoxicating. Trowa hadn’t understood it for a long time, hadn’t understood how anyone could get that worked up over anything that they just lost all control and raged for hours, but he’d learnt to enjoy it. To crave seeing it, and after a while that craving became a longing that taught him to understand it because he finally felt it for himself. For Wufei.
Quatre had laughed at him for days when he came to have a jam and figured it out. Then he’d tried to help him plan Wufei’s seduction, as if he couldn’t plan it on his own. That hadn’t even been close to the most insulting or humiliating part of that particular visit.
“He just makes me so...mad! All the things I love about him, all the things that mean I can’t let go are the reasons he does things that are dangerous and stupid and piss me the hell off! Plugging himself in to Frank? What the hell does he think he’s doing, that’s insane! He’ll end up like you if he’s not careful, with half a brain turned to mush and weird ass blue blood! And his legs’ll probably fall off too!” Not that Hatty’s had fallen off but fact had ever been a victim of venting.
He got the transmitter attached and rubbed a tired hand across his jaw, hissing as he remembered the dark bruise purpling it and its cause.
“And then I try and help the guy and he clocks me in the mouth. I know, right? Completely not charming at all! And Duo thought we could have some sort of romantic dinner! As if Wufei would just sit there and eat. He’d probably demand he get to do paperwork at the table.” Okay, so he wasn’t that bad and he would probably actually enjoy a private dinner for the two of them, but not until they were home and Wufei felt they were back on equal footing.
He returned to the laptop and fired up the transmitter, grinning when everything worked as planned. Then he looked around the room and tried to think of something he could send before sending himself and grabbed his backpack, taking out his notepad and scribbling a note to Wufei on it.
Look away from the Computer. You are not plugging in. Go water the plant.
He put it on the Pad and went back to the laptop, running the analyser and loading the molecular structure of the notepad and ink, then he took a deep breath, waved goodbye and sent it.
The pad disappeared and Trowa had Hatty help him pick up footage of His Room. The problem was, it was blocked.
“Frank...why do you make everything harder, even when you’re trying to make everything easier?” Frank had no doubt done it so no one could accidentally spy on what was going on in His Room during the rescue effort, but now it was just annoying.
So he used Hatty to link to his Message Board, forcing it to activate.
“Trowa?”
He couldn’t just talk, which took some adjusting to. He still tried to speak the first few times, annoyed when it didn’t show up on his screen and he realised he hadn’t uploaded the vocal program from Frank. Which he didn’t really need to do, since it definitely wasn’t an essential program. He’d just gotten used to the convenience of it.
‘Wufei.’ Typed. He wished he could pick a nicer font.
“Got your note.”
‘Great. That’s all I needed to know.’
But he waited for a response anyway, and when there wasn’t one felt a small rush of disappointment. No come home safe or don’t get hurt, no are you okay or what are you doing. Just the mission. That was Wufei. But Trowa would train that out of him, slowly but surely, and for now he continued to bask in the fact Wufei had said yes at all.
“So...the real question is, can I unplug you and still Molecularize where I need to go?” He looked expectantly at Hatty and when she didn’t reply went to fetch the journals and his mechanics manual for the Pads, flipping them both open to about where he recalled reading up on programming a destination and DNA specifics and finding a section on isolating the Molecularization from the System, which he knew had to work because Frank didn’t single-handedly control Level 1, which was full of the damn things.
It took much longer than he was expecting to get his own profile loaded into the system and had to sit on the Pad with all his belongings while the laptop ran the application, making sure he had everything he wanted to take with him. It took so long that when he was finally able to get up again and set everything to go there were new messages on his message board, and he smiled.
‘Hope you’re doing okay. Duo’s making a feast and says you have to be back before seven.’
It was as close to concern as Wufei got and Trowa felt giddy just reading the words. He hurriedly unplugged Hatty, apologising every time a pin grated particularly hard and set the laptop to switch the Pad back to its original configuration in an hour so he could get back in to the Hanger in the morning.
Pushing the button to activate the process was a little harder than just standing on the Pad and going for it. He had no idea if he was really going to end up in his room, and he was taking a gamble that no one was in the shower and he wasn’t about to merge with Heero as a giant Treero for the rest of his existence of until someone found a way to separate their molecules, which was unlikely since the creator and Frank hadn’t shared their knowledge with the rest of the universe.
That, and four Re-Molecularizations in a day was going to diminish his appetite substantially. And what if all this flitting in and out of existence really was damaging his bits and pieces? He was having every test known to man done when he got home.
He pressed the button and the next thing he knew he was sliding down the shower wall, clutching his head and trying not to puke, even if he was in the ideal place for it. The door opened and Heero stuck his head in curiously.
“You made it.” No need to sound so enthusiastic, Heero! I only defied all the realms of impossibility and became a scientific genius overnight! Heero didn’t help him out of the shower, and Trowa didn’t really want his help. He just wanted to sit for a while and get his head to start communicating with his body again.
“Everyone says it feels horrible,” Wufei said softly and Trowa wondered when he had come into the bathroom but the door was closed and he was sitting just outside the shower door, watching him. Trowa shrugged because there was no denying it, and no need to.
“No worse than being plugged into Frank I would imagine,” he noted in amusement, remembering the fountain of green sludge that had sprayed out of Wufei and thinking his weak stomach was faring far better.
“No, I don’t suppose it would be,” Wufei laughed softly. “The uniform suits you.”
Trowa wasn’t sure what he meant at first until he remembered he was in the military uniform and he smirked, shifting to his knees so he could lean in closer to Wufei.
“That implies some things don’t suit me.” They both knew he was in no way hurt the way he sounded.
“I didn’t say that. I just think uniforms suit you.”
Trowa momentarily wondered if there hadn’t been an ulterior motive to Wufei talking everyone they knew into joining Preventers and then shook his head, because Wufei wasn’t that much of a pervert. Much to Trowa’s chagrin.
“I think taking it off suits me,” Wufei continued, reaching out to grab the zip up the middle of the flight jumpsuit and tugging it down. Trowa gaped a little but let him do whatever he wanted. If Wufei wanted to undress him, he wasn’t about to protest. Instead his own hands reached out to once again unwrap Wufei, feeling like all his Christmas’s had come at once as he revealed strip after strip of pale flesh.
It was just a shower, each helping the other wash the day from weary bodies, but Trowa felt closer than ever to a goal he’d thought out of his reach forever and it made all the small achievements of his day pale in comparison. Hatty would have been so happy for him.
“I was worried about you,” Wufei admitted softly, the words so thin Trowa barely caught them, but when he did he tucked them away deep in his chest in a cage for things Wufei didn’t like to admit he had said.
“That makes two of us. You didn’t...”
“I said I wouldn’t.” And that really was answer enough. Trowa breathed a sigh of relief and stroked his thumb over one of the ports on Wufei’s temple, finding his fascination with them growing each day, particularly now he knew a little more about how they worked.
“Do they hurt?”
“Not really. Hurt when they did it, but not after.”
“So you were awake...”
“Not exactly. I’m not sure...I just remember the pain, more a feeling than anything.” He shrugged, clearly not caring enough to follow the line of thought and if he didn’t want to relive it Trowa certainly wasn’t going to make him.
“Thank you. For taking the day off.” As if he was expected to work at all right now. Only Wufei expected that, but Trowa was no less delighted that Wufei had taken his request to heart and followed through on it.
“I didn’t have much choice. Maxwell spent the whole day panicking every time I so much as twitched and forcing that awful tea down my throat!”
Trowa laughed and hugged him close, soaking up the feeling of relaxing after a day at the office, coming home to Wufei and sharing the days experiences with someone who mattered. They weren’t home, and he hadn’t exactly been at the office all day, but the feeling was there.
Unfortunately the process of putting on the bandages wasn’t nearly as fun as taking them off. By the time they had Wufei re-wrapped Duo was serving dinner, one of the blankets laid out on the floor like a picnic.
“Duo...” It wasn’t a romantic dinner for two, but a friendly dinner for four was almost better. Duo just grinned knowingly and tugged Wufei down beside him, pointing at the array of food eagerly.
“Dig in! We can talk shop later.” Trowa couldn’t agree more.