Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Victoria Base Affair Extended Edition ❯ Living with Desire ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4: Living with Desire

Maintaining a professional demeanor around Treize was much easier than Zechs had thought it would be. They continued training together, alone and with the other cadets Treize had chosen for his team. Zechs decided that he would rather be with Treize, and be tortured by his secret passion for him, than not be with him. Treize was a natural leader. Working with him, following his orders and meshing with his teammates into a seamless whole was fulfilling in its own right. Zechs could be completely open about his admiration for Treize and no one thought anything of it. In fact, most people seemed to find Zechs' attitude toward Treize perfectly reasonable and normal.

The Alumni Games were a four day event in which Academy graduates, officers from all divisions of the Alliance Military and members of the Romafeller Foundation would observe the senior students in mock combat to assess their skills before they graduated. The Academy Review Board, which was comprised primarily of Academy graduates, used the results of the games, in conjunction with the cadets' class rankings, to decide where to post the seniors after graduation. Of course, visiting officers and Romafeller nobles tried to influence Review Board decisions through nepotism, graft, bribery and other non-performance-based reasons. Nevertheless, a good showing in the alumni games could make a cadet's career, because it could result in a coveted posting. A poor showing, on the other hand, could relegate a student to a backwater assignment where he or she would have no chance to advance.

For underclassmen, participating in the games was a chance to be seen by high-ranking officers and start making names for themselves. As the only freshman to ever participate in the games, Zechs knew he would be under intense scrutiny, but he was less concerned for himself. He wanted to do well so that no one would have any reason to question Treize's decision to include him. Zechs intended to make Treize look brilliant.

The mock combat was a simple tier, with winning teams from each paired battle advancing to the next level. Teams were ranked not only by whether they won or lost, but also on how well they acquitted themselves in their contests. The entire team received the same ranking, while individuals from a team could be singled out for special honors if unusual skill was demonstrated.

Sixty-four teams would enter the combat initially. The sixty-four team captains were chosen by the senior class instructors and then each captain choose the other nine members of his or her team. Since there were only 419 students in the senior class, this allowed a fair number of third year students the chance to compete as well. In order to make the battles as fair as possible, each team was given a flag to defend; but to win, a team had to capture the enemy flag. This required them to plan both an offensive and a defensive strategy. There would be two sets of battles a day for the first two days, one set in the morning and one set in the afternoon. All the pairings would be drawn by lot immediately before the contests, which was supposed to prevent any one team from planning a strategy based on the knowledge of a specific opponent.

Of course, this meant Treize just studied them all. Zechs often sat with him while Treize was going over his notes and making his plans, but he usually didn't say anything. On this afternoon, only two days before the start of the games, he lounged in an empty classroom with Treize, his feet up on a desk, while Treize drew diagrams on the board.

“There, what do you think of that?” Treize asked as he stepped back, studying his work.

“Not bad,” Zechs answered.

Treize frowned at him. “Did you even look?”

“Of course, Treize. I watch everything you do.” Zechs looked at him through the silver spill of the bangs hanging over his eyes.

Treize's frown faded into an affectionate smile. “Don't look at me like that, it gives me ideas.”

Zechs tossed his hair back and smiled. “I can't help it, I have the same ideas.”

Treize turned and leaned back against the board with his hands behind him. “Are you nervous about the games? I'm afraid everyone's going to be watching us.”

Zechs shook his head. “If I didn't have faith enough in my own skill, I would still have faith in your judgment. No matter how you might feel about me otherwise, I know you wouldn't have chosen me if I wasn't good enough.”

“We can win the whole thing, you know.”

“I know.”

“Good.” Treize turned back to the board. “So tell me what you think of this. Last year, the team that should have gone all the way lost in the fifth round because they didn't change their strategy. I plan to change my strategy after each round. That's why I've had us practicing so many different formations.”

“It's a good idea.”

“All my ideas are good,” Treize replied with a smirk. “So I'll decide which plan we're going to use depending on who we draw.” He touched the board controls to save his diagram and erase the screen. Then he walked over and sat on the desk next to Zechs' feet. “This will make your reputation, Lightning Count.”

“Do you want more than my thanks, Lord Kushranada?” Zechs lifted his chin and met Treize's eyes squarely. Treize drew in his breath and put his hand on Zechs' ankle, but he said nothing. Zechs held his gaze for a long moment and then dropped his eyes. “I'm sorry, Treize. My feelings make me shameless, sometimes.”

Treize let his breath out in a soft sigh. “It's all right, Zechs. I'm guilty of the same thing.” He squeezed Zechs' ankle briefly and let go. “How are you getting on with the team? Any problems?”

Except for Zechs, Treize's team were all seniors, which had made fitting into the group difficult at first. But Zechs' skill quickly won them over, except for one person. Zechs dropped his eyes. “No problems,” he replied quietly.

Treize regarded him silently for a moment. “Really?”

“I feel like a part of the team on the field.”

“But not off the field.”

“I'm not a senior, so it's normal I would not be part of the social group.”

Treize sighed. “It's Une, isn't it?”

“Lady Une treats me as an equal at all times,” Zechs said quickly. He looked up at Treize. “I do not fault her behavior in any way.”

“Of course you don't.” Treize smiled. “And Une would never do anything to upset me and she knows not accepting you would upset me. But she's not friendly with you, the way the others are.”

“But we work well together in the field, which is all that's really required.”

“All that's required, yes.” Treize put his hand on Zechs' ankle again. “Une has strong feelings for me…”

“She sees me as a rival?” Zechs concluded with some alarm. “Do you think she knows?”

“No. At least, I don't think she would be willing to accept it on a hunch. But subconsciously, it may influence her behavior toward you.”

Zechs frowned unhappily. “I don't want to come between you and your friends, Treize.”

“You won't. No matter how she feels, Une will stay beside me.” Treize squeezed Zechs' ankle again and stood up. “Let's go strut around the base for a while. Quite a few alums are here already and I always enjoy giving them the chance to talk about me.”

Zechs' frown gave way to an amused smile and he followed Treize out of the room.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

They won their first two combats handily. In the first contest, their opponents clearly were not prepared to face Treize and Zechs together. In fact, they seemed to have completely underestimated Zechs' speed. They only realized their mistake when they saw their disarmed team captain lying on his back with Treize standing over him waving their captured flag. The second team to face them found Treize and Lady Une taking the offensive, while Zechs lead the defense of their flag. They fared no better than the first team.

Zechs did not attend the dinner hosted by the representatives of the Romafeller Foundation that night. Treize missed him. Zechs might be a Count, but he possessed none of the arrogant, self-important mannerisms displayed by most of the Romafeller nobility. His straightforward honesty was one of his most appealing characteristics. Treize often assured himself that it was these fine personality traits that attracted him to Zechs and not just the god-like beauty that kept him in a state of semi-arousal whenever they were together. But there was nothing arousing about the people around him tonight. Romafeller nobles really only cared about two things: power and money. Of course, that made controlling them fairly easy and Treize was already quite good at it, despite his relative youth. But the necessity of maintaining his political position in society didn't make him miss Zechs any less.

“Why did Count Zechs not attend the dinner tonight, Lord Treize?” Lady Une appeared at his elbow, holding two glasses of champagne.

Treize accepted one of the glasses and sipped from it before answering. “Zechs has little patience for hypocrisy,” he replied casually. Lady Une was the one person he feared might discover his emotional attachment to Zechs. It was telling that the first words out of her mouth tonight were about him.

“Ah. Well that would certainly explain why he avoided this gathering.” She sipped her champagne. “I have heard a few people speaking of him, however, wondering why he snubbed them.”

Treize frowned. “Zechs would never intentionally insult anyone.”

“Of course not,” Une agreed. “Nevertheless, his absence is being taken by some as a sign of disrespect.”

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Lady Une.” Treize looked around at the gathered nobles, offended and angry. None of these people had any right to judge Zechs or second-guess his intentions. Keeping his voice calm, but raising it slightly so that it would carry beyond Une to those nearest him, he remarked, “Perhaps they should consider forgiving Count Merquise for carrying a grudge over the destruction of his homeland. I do not blame him for finding it difficult to socialize with those who might be responsible for the death of his family.” He felt vindictively pleased at the looks of guilt that appeared suddenly on faces around the room as his words were repeated. He looked at Une. “I think it's time we retired for the evening, Lady Une. We have another contest tomorrow morning, and one in the afternoon as well, I expect.”

“Yes sir.”

He allowed Une to precede him, refusing to do more than nod to people as he passed them on the way out. They would learn. Zechs Merquise was going to become a force in the world, with or without Treize Kushranada.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

For their third battle, Treize put Lady Une in charge of the offense, with Zechs backing her up, and took over defense of the team flag himself. From the way their opponents scrambled around at the last minute, changing their formation, it was clear they had expected to be facing Treize on offense and had not prepared for this eventuality. Treize was known for his aggression on the battlefield; no one expected him to voluntarily take the less aggressive role of defense. But changing their battle plan was probably a mistake. It certainly didn't prevent the outcome and probably hastened their defeat. Their captain was still trying to organize an offense against Treize's pitched defense when Zechs cleared a path through their defense for Lady Une, allowing her to capture their flag.

“Well done, Kushrans!” Treize congratulated them over the radio. Zechs chuckled when he heard it. `Kushrans' was a term used by jealous academy students to refer to Treize's sycophants. They meant it to be insulting, but Treize's friends found it rather amusing and had begun using it among themselves as a joke. Zechs hadn't been aware that Treize had heard the term, but obviously he had. “Let's meet in Classroom 16B as soon as we can. I want to go over the plan for this afternoon,” Treize continued. “I'll have lunch brought in.”

Zechs' “Aye” sounded like an echo of the others chirping out of his radio. He headed his mobile suit toward the maintenance yard set up on the edge of the training field, where the combats were taking place. He'd pushed it rather hard and the servos in the right arm were complaining. As he opened the cockpit door, the mechanic was already shaking her head.

“Don't tell me,” she began before he could speak, “You burned out the right arm again.”

“It's not burned out.” Zechs sounded defensive, even to himself. “Maybe overheated a little.”

“Right.” The mechanic lifted an eyebrow at him. “And I suppose you'll want it all fixed before this afternoon.”

“I think Lord Kushranada would prefer that.”

“Yeah, I daresay he would.” She waved him out of the cockpit. “Well, get out of the way then and let us get started.” As he moved past her, she winked at him. “Don't worry, sir. It'll be good as new when you need it.”

Zechs took the cable lift down and hurried to catch up with Treize.

“How's your suit?” Treize asked as soon as Zechs fell in step with him.

“It'll be fine by this afternoon.” Zechs wasn't surprised that Treize had been able to tell he'd over-extended his Leo. “But it might be better if I'm on defense this afternoon.”

“That's good, it fits my plan. Although I was planning to have you move around quite a bit.”

“That shouldn't be a problem.”

Treize's plan for their afternoon contest was shockingly bold. They were facing a team captained by a woman, Alexa Barnard, who was considered to be almost as good as Treize. He knew she would have studied his tactics and would have prepared many contingencies, so he needed to do something completely unexpected.

When the battle started, Zechs and five defenders waited for the attack. But moments after it began, Zechs plucked up their flag and danced backward, machine gun blazing, while three defenders moved with him, taking up positions on either side and in front of him. The other two defenders rushed forward to join the offense. Alexa had sent five in for the attack and kept five back for the defense. This left her with superior numbers on the offense, but at a disadvantage on defense. Her defense settled in to form a pitched line around their flag, ready to repel the superior numbers, while her offense confidently moved to surround Zechs. Zechs let them get just far enough to think they would succeed, before handing the flag to one of his teammates and driving his Leo forward at top speed, charging straight into the suit in front of him and driving him to the ground. He fired point blank into the Leo's control panel and then spun around to fire at the Leo on his left. The mobile suit went down and he dashed back to fill in the hole in the defensive perimeter around the teammate holding their flag. With superior numbers, they now had no trouble holding off the attack until Treize and Lady Une were able to break the opposition's defense and take their flag.

Treize was silent as they headed back to the barracks to shower and change for dinner. Zechs had agreed to attend the dinner hosted by the Romafeller Foundation, but he wasn't particularly happy about it, so he was silent as well. Lady Une walked with them, her usually braided hair spilling in soft brown waves over her shoulders.

“You don't seem happy about our victory, Lord Treize,” Lady Une said finally.

“I am, but it was unfortunate that we had to meet Alexa Barnard so early in the competition. She would have made it to the final match otherwise.” Treize sighed. “I just hope the judges recognize her abilities. She's a damn good soldier and a superior leader.”

Zechs had to agree with that. This was by far the most difficult battle they'd fought. If not for his unpredictable speed, the battle could have gone either way. And now he had to face a battle of a different kind. Three hours of smiling and lying and pretending he didn't hate half the people he spoke to. The only thing that made the idea bearable was the knowledge that Treize would be there.

As they dropped Zechs off at the freshman dorm, Treize stopped. “Why don't you meet me in the quad after you change and we'll go to the dinner together?”

“All right.” Zechs made no effort to keep the relief out of his voice.

Treize smiled. “It's not that I think you would ditch, but…”

“You should think it,” Zechs said with a wry smile. “I admit it has crossed my mind more than once.”

Treize laughed. “Then I'll meet you here in an hour, Count Merquise.”

“Right.”

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Treize rather enjoyed watching people react to Zechs. Zechs was a consummate gentleman and his breeding really showed at dinner that night. Plus, he was easily the handsomest person in the room. But that night was the first time that Treize fully understood that Zechs was completely aware of how his appearance affected people and he was not the least bit hesitant to use it against them. He was utterly charming in the way a snake is charming right before it strikes, but Zechs never showed his fangs. He'd spent years perfecting his self-control.

“I thought I accounted for your damn freshman.” Alexa Barnard spoke from behind Treize and he turned with a smile to face her.

“Zechs is hard to predict,” Treize acknowledged. “I'm still trying to find the limit of his abilities.”

“I think that could take a while.”

“Me too.” Treize turned back to watch Zechs.

Alexa moved up beside him and fixed her eyes on Zechs as well. “He is awfully good-looking.”

“That he is.”

“When you first picked him, I kept hearing people say it was because of his looks or his heritage, but I kept thinking there had to be another reason. Then I saw him in training and wished I'd gotten to him first.”

Treize glanced at Alexa's profile. “I'm sorry we got paired today. I was expecting to meet you in the final round.”

Alexa nodded sadly. “Yeah, so was I. Today's drawing was bad luck for me.” She turned to Treize. “No hard feelings, though. Losing to you is an honor and I made it a tough fight.”

“It was a tough fight,” Treize agreed. “I think the rest are going to feel a little anti-climactic. As far as I'm concerned, you're still second in our class.”

“Thanks, Treize. I appreciate the praise. It means a lot, coming from you.”

They shook hands solemnly.

“Nevertheless,” Alexa continued, squaring her shoulders, “I better go do a little schmoozing and butt-kissing just to remind everyone about my class ranking and how prominent my family is. I don't want to end up stationed in Iceland.” She favored Treize with a crooked smile and walked away.

Zechs approached him as Alexa moved away. “Is Alexa all right about losing today?”

“She'll be fine,” Treize said. “Her family has a lot of clout and I think she enjoys the politics.” Treize studied Zechs' face. “What about you? How are you holding up?”

“It's probably a good thing that I'm unarmed.”

“That good, huh?”

“These gatherings only serve to remind me why I hate these people so much.” He spoke lightly, as if he were discussing the weather.

“We've probably been here long enough. Do you want to leave?”

“Yes.”

“Let's go for a walk, then. I want to plan strategy for tomorrow anyway.”

They strolled out of the banquet hall into the warm night. The Romafeller dinner was being held at the officer's mess, which was located close to the officer's quarters, the base commander's house and the accommodations reserved for important visitors. Neither Treize nor Zechs spoke until their footsteps carried them out into the quad, well away from any potential listeners.

“I wish I could have spent the evening alone with you,” Zechs said quietly.

“We have to be careful,” Treize replied.

“I know, but at times like this, I can't stop thinking about you.” Zechs looked up at the stars. “I wish we could get away from here for a few days, just the two of us.”

Treize stopped and caught Zechs by the hand. “We can't have each other, Zechs. Not yet. Our time will come, I promise you.”

Zechs looked at him. Even by starlight, Treize could still see the blueness of his eyes. “My heart belongs to you,” Zechs said quietly. “I can wait to give you my body as well.”

For a moment, Treize stopped breathing. Just the thought of having Zechs was enough to arouse him. He drew in a ragged breath. “I think I need to change the subject. Let's find an open classroom and talk about tomorrow's fight.”