Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Victoria Base Affair ❯ Living With Desire ( Chapter 4 )

Like I said the fourth chappy as well. This is fun because it's time for the alumni games!

Grab some popcorn, a friend/yami/demon/whatever, and enjoy

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Chapter 4: Living with desire

Zechs was surprised how easy it was to work with Treize, despite the almost overwhelming passion he felt for him. Perhaps knowing that Treize was fighting the same desires made it easier. They continued training together, and with the other students Treize had chosen for his team, for the upcoming alumni games. Zechs was relieved, if not a little surprised, that no one seemed to be aware of the affection they had for each other. That, too, made it easier working with Treize. And the training gave them a legitimate excuse to spend time together, even if every moment alone with Treize was torture.

Which was not to say there were no problems. Quite a number of Treize's classmates, and not a few of the third year students, were upset that Treize had chosen a first-year student to be on his team, even someone as obviously skilled as Zechs Merquise. Fortunately, most people grumbled that it was because of Zechs' noble heritage, overlooking the fact that half of the people on the team were common-born citizens. Oddly, though, the one person who bothered Zechs the most was the one who never said anything at all: Lady Une. Lady Une accepted Zechs' presence on the team as if it were a natural consequence. She was a skilled soldier, and Zechs enjoyed working with her, but off the training field, she made him uncomfortable. It took him time to admit to himself that the reason was because she was so obviously in love with Treize. Even knowing that he couldn't have Treize for himself, he hated the idea that Treize might come to love someone else. But Treize showed no sign of returning Une's affection. He treated her as an equal off the field, and as a subordinate in combat.

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 and decide where to post them after graduation. A good showing in the alumni games could make a student'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. All fourth year students and many third year students competed in the games, forming teams to battle it out on the training fields. Zechs was the only first or second year student ever to be selected to compete in the alumni games. He knew he would be subjected to a great deal of scrutiny. That did not really bother him, except that he knew it would reflect badly on Treize if he did not do well. So he intended to do well.

The 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. Zechs was not interested in earning individual honors, but he wanted Treize's team to win the top honor. He knew they were capable of that.

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 combats a day for the first two days, one in the morning and one 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, 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. He walked over to Zechs 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 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 stood up with a smile and followed Treize out of the room.

- - - - - - -

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 any of the dinners held 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. On his good days, Treize 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. Which of course made controlling them fairly easy, and Treize was already quite good at that, 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 suddenly 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 own 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, feeling an irrational anger. Zechs was his! They had no right to 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 him 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."

- - - - - - -

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 they scrambled around at the last minute, changing their formation, it was clear their opponents 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. Changing their battle plan was probably a mistake. It certainly didn't prevent the outcome. They were still trying to organize an offense against Treize's pitched defense when Zechs cleared a path 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 herd 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. If only they could be alone, instead of surrounded by a bunch of hypocritical murderers.

But they couldn't be alone. Being alone with Treize without something to keep him distracted from the soul-consuming depths of Treize's dark eyes was dangerous. He couldn't help thinking about the last kiss they'd shared, out on the practice field after sunset weeks before, and wondering if there would ever come a time when they could do more than kiss.

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I love this chapter. Mom out did herself I think. But she'd really like it if more people would review the story…she feels underappreciated. Next chappy will be kinda sad for a pre-warning.