Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Sea in I ❯ III ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Italics ~ thoughts
Warnings: Duo torture, MXM goodiness, suggestive content
Pairings: 1x2 eventually

Feedback - appreciated.

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I don't own any of the sexies in Gundam Wing AC, I just love to help them live a little.
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II

At the back of Maheran’s palace-temple, two figures sidled behind an immaculate ivory column on the open colonnade.

“We shouldn’t-” She stopped at the shake of his head. The masked man was dressed in a light blue robe and was two heads taller than her. She frowned, opening her mouth to speak again but he shook his head firmly and put a finger to his immobile lips, cutting her off again. He held her hands and looked down into her clear cornflower blue eyes with his pleading, shadowed ones.

“T-Ten years they have stolen from us! They wiped out generations of our people on this very land, in our homes that took years to sustain and to build.” His muffled tone wavered from the insistent syllabic hiss to his natural voice, though it sounded gravely.

“Ten years without knowing what they were doing to you...” She watched his hand shake as he hesitated to touch her face, then as if he overcame his internal struggle; he laid his still shaking hand to her cheek before pulling it back to his side. “But no more.” The tall masked man spoke in the quietest whisper that strained with emotion to be heard and drew her closer to him. She waited, concerned and expecting him to tell her something of where he’d been kept all these years, but the masked man said nothing more. They both knew that idling behind a column, no matter the size and looking secretive, was putting them at risk.

The masked man lowered his head and pulled the hood of his tunic further down on his head as he motioned for her to stay watchful. He pushed off from the column and disappeared into the morning mill of people beginning their daily rituals around the palace-temple grounds before the other had a chance to speak to him again.

She wore a squire’s gray hooded smock and was shorter than most of the people who moved about the foyer. She tried to find the masked man in the crowd but she couldn’t distinguish him from the few tutelaries among the eunuchs who also wore masks. She glanced around, gradually walking out into the crowd of brown smock covered servants, eunuchs, green-gray hooded squires and a few patrolling soldiers.

She eyed the columns wearily, pulling her mail like fitted hood of her smock a little further over her eyes to cover the escaping strands of her honey blonde bangs. She followed the eunuchs out into the walled off garden and stifled her scream when she miss-stepped and caught herself on a soft mound attached to a thin, pale skinned shoulder. She heaved a sigh in relief but her breath caught in her throat when she looked up into the blushing face and stunned wide brown eyes of one of the palace temple acolytes.

“You! Ahh!” The girl screamed at her and she jumped back. The girl’s hand arced through the air and stunned everyone into silence with the resounding slap that followed.

“I-I...” She mumbled, her hand flying to her left cheek already reddening in the impression of a palm, her other hand made an aborted trip to her throat, remembering at the last moment to disguise her voice. She bit her lip and spoke, “My sincerest apologies my lady. I meant no disrespect.” She half spat the last word and nearly fell from the sudden weight slapping her heavily across her back.

“I believe the young squire is as flustered at this whole occurrence as you are my lady and priestess Sophil.” The tall man, who moved as if he owned the ground beneath his feet, stood confidently beside her.

She readjusted her hood and felt the heat in her face as she stared openly at the pubescent girl close in age to herself with dark brown, angularly clipped hair and ample breasts. Her hand strayed from its balled up position at her back to brush at the itching binding beneath her clothes that wrapped around her breasts so she could have the flat look she was currently sporting. The cloth suddenly felt too tight. The initial shock of touching another woman’s breast had already left her and she wondered if her breasts pronounced her figure in much the same way when she dressed.

She looked up at the acolyte, not recognizing her at first. She wore what all the acolytes wore, a blue-white high collar gown with no left sleeve bearing the black tattoo of three squiggly lines on the inside of their left shoulders. It was a facsimile of hers, a tattoo given to her at birth, the length, and size of her thumb to the first knuckle that rested over her heart, at the swell of her left breast. Sophil’s hair fell into a v shape at the backs of her shoulders, as was the common style of all her acolytes, except for the beads that twain down several fingers of her hair at the V’s end. As high priestess, her hair had never been cut since she was inducted to the fold at age six. That had been true until this little stint occurred. Now she had horrid, unmanageable bangs. She watched Sophil shift her shoulders and saw how that small motion flowed fluidly across her breasts. It made her want to touch them, squeeze them to be sure they were real and she was surprised that the thought of doing that didn’t bother her in the least.

Even still, after her acolytes had seen her without her ceremonial garb and powders or bare in the falls, she wondered why neither of them recognized her in a soldier’s garb.

“Sophil, the Captain is right.” This girl that spoke beside Sophil, she knew well and was the closest thing she had to a friend among her acolytes. Hilde had never been afraid to question her, talk with her openly, or stay at her side when she had fits. If she could, she would take her with her but she was shocked that Hilde didn’t see her. “The boy has apologized, that is enough. We must attend to the One.” She swallowed, that meant they were running out of time. She remembered Sophil’s duties now, she was one of her personal-attending ladies, and she met her brown eyes again. She flushed, her eyes jumping to Sophil’s face. Sophil had one fine brown brow cocked as she stared back at her before those intense brown eyes started tracing her body in her uniform. She swallowed, her eyes widened and sweat trickled down her back from the sudden heat in the girl’s eyes that seemed to be trapped at her backside by her hair and smock. She guessed it was only fair that she be made to feel uncomfortable because she had been caught ogling Sophil’s breasts, by the girl herself nonetheless.

A particularly hairy looking soldier in the Captain’s company cleared his throat to stifle a laugh when he tried to speak, “You can’t blame the lad if he split wood at that one! No man wouldn’t want to be the babe at those teats!”

Gruff laughter followed and Sophil restrained an irate Hilde, the sight of which had her snickering quietly to herself. Sophil managed to keep a hold on Hilde as she bowed to the Captain, his company and glanced back at her through lowered lashes. At first, she didn’t notice it as the men in the Captain’s company had taken to clapping her on her shoulders and back, making it hard for her to stand upright. The only plus side was that her jerky movements hid her flinching at the rough and unsolicited touch. It was when they stopped that she noticed Sophil staring at her and the sly smile that curved her plump lips before it disappeared.

She couldn’t help the slight tilt to her head and flummoxed expression at the odd look directed toward her. More laughter erupted around her from the soldiers, except for the Captain who’d been watching their exchange with a bemused smirk. She looked to the Captain and realized who’d been standing beside her all along, Capt. Khushrenada, in another lifetime, he’d been known as Treize, friend and recently revealed to her as traitor to her people. He smiled at her indulgently and her lip puckered slightly as she turned to bow to her acolytes and stopped midway. Her fading blush returned full force at the suggestive sway of her acolyte’s hips as Sophil left shoulder to shoulder with Hilde and another acolyte she hadn’t noticed was there.

“Ah, that be a sassy gal lad.” She glanced at the hairy man who was a head shorter than Khushrenada and knew his name was L’ome. She frowned at the way L’ome eyes lingered after her acolytes’ backsides. “Mayhaps, too much of a woman for you.” She bit her lip at the friendly elbow she got to her side and wonder if it was anything but at the flare of pain there.

“But she’s a priestess.” She stressed, “is it not an insult to the One to-” she squawked at the heavy hand that ruffled her hooded head and freed her troublesome bangs.

“Ha ha, young he be!” L’ome offered fondly, “it’d do you good to ask that one for lessons.”

“Now, now, abject follower you are not.” Her mouth snapped closed, thankful that Treize interrupted and she dropped her hand from the pummel of her sword. “We all know you wouldn’t want to be a eunuch like your tutelary. You’re young and impressed with your tutelary’s skills, as you should be.” The ginger haired man said with a dismissive air. “It surprises me that the priests aren’t permitted to fight with us but that is a political matter for another day and you came here to be a soldier.” Captain Khushrenada spoke sounding more than a little lost in thought but a look at his face said otherwise. He was watching her still.

She blushed and ducked her head.

“Besides lad, there’s no harm in dreaming and who says that little lady’s going to be a stalwart priestess all her life.” Titters of laughter agreed with the whimsical smirking man who sounded older than he looked, and with that she knew his name was Easely.

“Who’s to say she hasn’t made a few eunuchs turn from the cloth, if not have the eunuchs wishing they could have back what was snipped.” L’ome sniggered.

“That one there’s going to be hard to catch.” Michal murmured wistfully, his focus returning to her, “If I were you boy, I’d carry the memory of what those teats felt like to my grave.” She glared at the man’s vulgarity, and at the last two men - Danis and Tristen -who she knew as well.

Michal was one of her suitors. If this was how he treated his subordinates, goading them into trysts with her priestesses and then mercilessly teasing her about her chances when he was only a few years older than she was, then perhaps she’d been too hasty in putting him in the same category as her Principal.

If I were a boy, I know exactly how I’d look if my brother’s any indication, she was half tempted to voice her thoughts when a throaty chuckle and a firm hand on her shoulder persuaded her against such rash actions. Try as she might, she couldn’t hide her wince and looked up to the ginger haired adult with eyebrows that looked as though someone took a knife to the ends, just before they reached his temples, and split them. She’d always thought that since the first time her brother had introduced his dear friend turned soldier, Treize.

Her every sense was to trust him but he - they could not be trusted. She knew her people could never go back to the way it used to be before Nartob’s occupation just like none of the lives lost could ever come back. Before today, she hadn’t known the full story of what had happen to her people, only the wide spread rumors and what the high eunuchs taught her - that her people had been sacrificed in hopes of fulfilling an impractical prophecy and returning water to the land. Eunuchs had told her that their order – the Order of the One - had discovered that killing her people had been the reason for turning their world into nearly, unending deserts. By the time the Eunuchs reached the Monarch and the Monarch sent out help, many of her people were dead.

For her, many of her acolytes and some of the people in the Monarch’s military that she sensed knew the welcoming arms of the Order were their only source of protection. She was grateful to them, but none of it added up, especially the vagueness over how her people were driven from their homelands and from Maheran. She only knew being with the Order and staying in her city village turned sprawling kingdom, felt right. She had known peace from the terror and horror of her earliest memories. She gladly took comfort in sensing people like her here where everywhere else it felt like an open wound or a sucking hole in her that demanded to be filled but she didn’t know with what.

She’d seen glimpses of the world and could understand- even without knowing the full truth- why the Order had saved them. They understood that if they could control and protect the wielders, they could control water. And that among her people, there were only a few families that actually had the ability. She only wished that all those years ago that they’d known their visitors’ true intentions in their hidden valley, now the most luscious province in the world. She tried to swallow past the knot in her throat, truly dishearten that the ruse was over. They were leaving this place. She glanced at the copse of trees that stretched into the large grove of the garden as she tugged on cowl of her smock, she could feel her brother but he was nowhere in sight. She took a deep breathe to dispel the unease that had been hanging on to her since she first lost sight of him. It had never really went away and she knew it wouldn’t until she saw her brother but from now on she’d be able to see him and that he was safe would have to be enough. He was more than worth it for the loss of these half truths and protective walls. She couldn’t bear the thought of another long separation where Treize would only tell her that her brother was well or would promise he’d tell him that she’d asked about him. She knew it would only deepen the dread and fear for him, for what she didn’t know.

“Come now,” she blinked up at him her surprise clear on her face. Treize squeezed her shoulder lightly and guided her away from his company who left them with a wave.

“See you at dinner.” She heard one man shout as Treize guided her deeper into the garden.

Treize nodded to them, “Your tutelary shouldn’t be too far away, I’d like to have a word with him.”

She frowned up at him, suspicious of his intentions. “No, I’m capable of finding him ... Sir, thank you. I must be going.”

“Aye, there he is.” She came up short of walking away from him to see a masked eunuch approach them, the sweep of his long tunic over the dirt floor making it seem as if he floated over to her. She kept the question she wanted to ask from her face as she watched her brother nod to Treize before turning to her with a gesture of his gray gloved hand for her to follow. She smiled, bowing slightly to Treize and then to her brother and moved to catch up to him. Reminding herself to walk and not run, and that it was important not to seem too eager to leave the older soldier but eager enough to leave her embarrassment behind. They were casually entering one side of the willowy grove of trees that grew thickly within the palace-temple walls and she sighed, wondering about their chances. She felt the presence behind her before she saw it, a frown stole over her face as Treize yanked her brother to him, making him stumble to catch himself.

She whipped around, her uneven bangs slipping from beneath her cowl to hang irritatingly over her eyebrows. “Sir, what are you doing?” She demanded, pretense forgotten, her hard tone muting her shock that someone would be so bold and barbarous enough to harm a eunuch.

“Ah, but you forget yourself.”

“Sir-”

“I know.” Treize told her simply, his eyes looking fervently at her brother’s masked face as he struggled to tuck his head down and hide beneath his hood. Treize caught his hands, holding them in one hand against his chest before removing the gloves from her brother’s hands. “I cannot let you go like this.” Treize whispered, kissing what he could of her brother’s palms as he struggled, fisting them to stop the kisses then twisting them away when Trieze’s lips pressed against his wrists. She hadn’t noticed the bruises on Millardo’s wrists.

She approached them, her hand steadily inching toward the sword at her side as her anger grew. She felt ice slice up her back when she caught a fearful glance from her brother.

“You know, what exactly? Leave him be.” She commanded, her frown growing with her confusion and feeding into her anger at how familiar Treize was being with even a eunuch of Millardo’s station. Did all of Nartob’s soldiers disrespect and molest her temple servants when they tired of the willing? She watched him hold her brother tighter to him and realized that how the soldiers interacted with people of her order was very different from how they behaved before her. A blatant disregard of their order’s customs and lack of respect, she’d have to talk to Jirrad and soon. But… she was leaving.

Leaving Heero… she shook her head, she needed to stay focused on her reason for leaving. She glanced at her brother who had gone still in Treize’s hold and knew for his sake, she couldn’t go back.

“I am not wrong, my lady unless this is some sort of experiment that you got one of the eunuchs to agree to help you with.” He cut her off before she could speak, “Even if that were the case, no one... No one besides you, my lady, has eyes like his. No one else could glare as coldly as he can.” Treize ran his hand down from Millardo’s clothed chest to rest low over his stomach. Millardo began to struggle anew.

She eyed her brother then, he was a head taller than Treize and stronger too. Breaking Treize’s hold shouldn’t have been a task for him even with the bruises. She drew her sword and approached Treize with a grimace. “This will be the last time I say this to you, traitor, release him.”

Treize stiffened, his eyes downcast but his hands never left his captive, “Is that a command my high lady?”

She heard him ask her even as he pressed his face into the side of her brother’s hood. He whispered but loud enough for her to hear, his eyes suddenly looking weary and sad. “I’m sorry. It was the only way.” Her eyes widened as Treize’s arm slide around her brother’s waist and squeezed him to him once more before letting him go, taking a large step back.

She came to her brother’s side when his whole body seemed to droop, his head lowered and he swayed as if he had no strength left to stay upright. She reached out to help him - hold him up but he caught her by the sleeve of her wrist, stopping her hand. He regained his balance and straightened, looking at everywhere and everything but Treize. She glared at Treize, her animosity failing her at the remorseful longing lingering on his face.

Millardo turned back to the path they were taking, his back stiff and rigid. “We must go,” he said crisply in a whispered hiss.

It was good to hear the strength in his voice and she took one last look at Treize before following. She watched as the trees shifted, the path changing under their feet and she marveled at what her brother could do. He stopped and held out his bare hand to her and she took it, using this moment to restore the energy he used with her healing ability. The world quickly grayed and she found concerned ice blue eyes looking deeply into hers, the mask gone.

“Mil-” He caught her hand with his gloved ones and kissed her palm, the lines of worry falling from his pale face as wisps of pale hair slipped from beneath his hood.

He shook his head, his eyes shifting away from her. “You mustn’t.” He squeezed her hands, his tone harsh, “We’ve got a long way to go and you’ll need your energy if we’re to get there before they notice our escape.”

Her brows furrowed, she wanted to know why he’d stopped her from healing him. She’d healed a lot in the minutes she’d held his hand before he made her let go but he was still hurting and malnourished. There was something more under it though, if she could touch his skin again, but he’d already put his gloves back on and moving his long sleeves would be more than obvious. “Our escape? Mil-”

“Shh. Not now. We have to go.” He pulled her to her feet, his eyes distant but finally meeting hers. It made her wonder if he had been really talking to her.

She nodded and the trees began to shift around them. Her concerns were quieted when they broke into a run, a mad dash once they got passed the trees into a labyrinth of bushes. Although she’d never been so sheltered as to have not seen the world for what it was, the thought of seeing it without the entire priestess’ garb and gilded lens excited her. She breathed in deeply, trying to hold the breath in as long as her lungs would allow at the pace they were running.

A breeze whipped past them in a gentle rustle of spring’s new growth as they ran through the vast green garden on a chaotic zigzag to a place unknown to her but by vague memories of playful sounds and shadows. She squeezed the hand gripping hers in a steely grip and he squeezed back. They were heading to a place outside of the stone walls that vaulted away the only oasis within miles of the Maheran border of Shar, outside of the home she’d known for the last ten years. They finally came to a stop at a wall that rose so high it looked as though it could touch the sky. She smiled before it was stolen away by several wheezed coughs. The wall looked enormous this close up, before when she’d look down from highest levels of the temple it looked like a white river that divided the temple from the province of bricked homes and sparse trees and farms. She touched the stone, pressing her hand into its cool and bumpy surface. Then she dropped to a crouch and threw up.

“Relena are you well?” With her hands braced on her uniform pants she looked up into the cold and familiar masked face and smiled at the concerned, ice blue eyes she found there.

“...” She coughed again, spitting and covering the mess with the dirt she scuffed up with her shoes. Millardo grabbed her shoulders, moving her back. Apparently, he had been talking and she hadn’t heard him. He waved his hand over the disturbed earth and it blended with the rest as if there wasn’t a big boot mark there a moment ago. She looked back and saw the same behind them. They had left no footprints or disturbed any of the surrounding shrubbery.

She tried for smile and came up with something meek and watery. “I’m well,” she answered simply coming to his side, reaching for his mask when she caught sight of his hand straying to his side before he shifted it to the wall. “And out of shape as it would seem from living the life of a priestess.” She humored distractedly, watching him.

She reached for his side and he caught her hands, squeezing them. She gazed up into the mask and saw his eyes crinkle at the corners. “Not now, Princess.” He inclined his head to her slightly, lifting the mask to kiss the backs of her hands and a stray wisp of hair floated past his hood, embroidered with the crosshatched x’s signifying a eunuch of servant status. She’d been shocked by his formality if not for his chuckle and sudden pull that had her stumbling into a hidden passageway that slammed shut as soon as he pulled her through she would been fooled.

“Millardo!” Inside the musty space memories whispered louder to her of a time before it all. A time when her clan were many, and there were children, her brother and cousins, the children of the citizenry who were free within these hidden passages.