Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Windows to the Soul ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

A/N: Forgive me for the long wait! I finished When We Were Young! Yay!!! Lol, and I am also _almost_ finished with chapter 4 in Song of the Phoenix, in case anyone's interested. ^_^ I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: Yes, I own Gundam Wing along with my evil minion polar bears. Comply with our wishes, or we will take over the world, along with the evil weasels. Actually…. believe it or not…I lied. I don't own Gundam Wing…but I _do_ have evil minion polar bears. Muahaha.

Chapter Six

Sally walked into the elevator like she did every morning, eating a bagel like she did every morning…but it just wasn't like every morning. For one thing, Wufei was in the elevator with her. For another thing…well…Wufei was in the elevator with her.

It was kind of strange, really. He had come back after being gone for three years, and it was like he had never left. He slid right back into the place he had always been, and everything seemed fine. But for some reason it wasn't the same. Sally didn't like how she felt when he was around. It made her feel transparent…like he could see right through her. He knew what she was feeling, and he knew when she was lying. This was preposterous, of course, but that didn't stop her from dwelling on it.

"Sally, Wufei!" Une called as the duo stepped out of the elevator. 'Great, what'd we do now?' Sally thought with exasperation.

The brunette handed Wufei a folder, giving Sally a pointed look. The Chinese woman merely chewed her bagel innocently, ignoring whatever kind of secret message Une was trying to send her.

"You two are to investigate a shuttle full of titanium alloy," the president of Preventers said with a flip of her hair. "The coordinates are in the mission info. The shuttle has been floating harmlessly in space for a while. We've been keeping tabs on it, but lately it's been drifting closer and closer to a resource satellite."

"So what do you want us to do?" Sally grumbled, sitting on Une's desktop, taking another chomp of her bagel.

"Bring the alloy back to be disposed of," Lady Une said, looking at Sally with a slight glare.

"I think what she means," Wufei broke in. "Is why are you sending us? Can't you put some new recruits on this one?"

Sally nodded in agreement with Wufei. The brunette looked at each of them angrily, and looked like she would blow her top…until a sudden thought occurred to her. She smiled with fake sweetness, directing her attention to Wufei.

"Ah, but you are a new recruit, Preventer Chang," she said, before turning and walking away. "You are leaving today and I want you both back on Monday."

Sally couldn't help but laugh at Wufei's expense. The look on his face was absolutely priceless! He looked about ready to strangle somebody. Sally was still chuckling when Duo walked by.

"Hey, doll," Duo said to Sally, "Haven't seen you laugh like that in awhile, care to share?"

Wufei shot a death glare (Copyright Heero Yuy © A.C. 195) towards his partner, before grabbing her arm and dragging her into their office.

"_No_ she is _not_ going to tell you what is so funny," he said angrily, shutting the door in Duo's face. The braided man couldn't help the laughter that escaped him, echoing off the walls.

"She doesn't hafta tell me, 'Fei," he called to the closed door. "Your face was priceless!"

Wufei scowled as Sally tried in vain to control her chuckles. As soon as Duo's footsteps faded away, the Chinese man threw the door open once again. Before Sally could react, he had grabbed her arm again and hauled her out the door. She ripped her arm away from him, but continued to follow him down the hall, into the elevator and out the door.

"Where are you going?" She asked as she trailed him.

"We were assigned a mission, remember?" was his blank reply.

"Don't be so sore," Sally said, shoving his arm lightly. "Une was only trying to grate on your nerves."

'Tell me again why I missed everyone so much?' Wufei asked himself, but couldn't speak the words aloud. The two Preventers entered the company's shuttle bay and boarded a small shuttle. It was just their luck that the alloy was in space. Sally tried not to scowl…she hated space travel. And to top it all off, she would be alone with Wufei the entire time.

Sally slid into the co-pilot seat, allowing Wufei to do the main piloting. She groaned mentally to herself. How was she supposed to act around him? Her heart was a jumble of emotions, and she had no idea how to keep them under control. At times she wanted to both punch him and kiss him…but which to act on? So she ended up doing nothing but standing there looking stupid. What was she supposed to do?! And most importantly…how much longer could she keep this act up? How much longer could she pretend to have a strictly professional feeling towards him? Damnit, why did he have to come back? Why'd he have to leave in the first place?

//No I would not sleep in this bed of lies

so toss me out, and turn in

and there'll be no rest

for these tired eyes

I'm markin' it down

To learnin'

I am.\\

The shuttle gave a low rumble as it slid easily out of the hanger. It sped off into the clear sky, and Sally braced herself for exiting the atmosphere. The increased shaking was her only clue, and the fact that Wufei had tightened his grip on the handles. He didn't like it either, it seemed.

"It's times like these that I wish I was piloting Nataku rather than a bulky shuttle," Wufei said with a grunt, finally maneuvering the ship out of the atmosphere. Sally pressed her forehead against a window nearby, her breath making a small cloud of condensation on the window. Even after seeing it so many times, she was still amazed at the view from space. A sea of stars surrounded the Earth. It was truly breathtaking.

"And to think it was almost destroyed," Sally murmured to herself, but Wufei heard it anyway, and gave a nod of agreement.

The keypad clicked with an annoying persistence as he typed in the coordinates. He studied the folder Une had given them for a moment, and then typed some more. Sally was just about to tell him he'd better stop if he wanted to keep his fingers, when he stood up.

"The coordinates are set, it's on auto pilot," he told her, stretching his tall, lithe form. "I'm going to meditate in one of the rooms. You can sleep in the other…the alarm will go off if we approach anything."

"Okay," she replied softly, still watching as they pulled away from the Earth. The door shut behind him almost noiselessly as he went in one of the sleeping rooms.

With this shuttle it would take them around 24 hours to get to the alloy. Picking it up shouldn't take too long if they didn't meet any trouble once they got there. Going back would take another 24 hours. Which meant once they got back, they would each have a day off…Une said they didn't have to go back until Monday. So, with Friday off, they could have their automatic weekend off, and then not go back until Monday. Normally, this would have pleased Sally to no end, but not anymore. What was she going to do for three days? Sit around and think…like she always did. She hated feeling depressed, but that's how she felt lately. She couldn't help it how she feels.

"Gods," Sally murmured, leaning forward in her seat and resting her head in her hands, "gods, why does it have to be like this?"

She had a thriving career, many friends (if she started visiting again). What more did she want? The blonde woman scowled and pushed that thought away before she could answer it.

Wufei had changed so much. He seemed willing to let go of his pride at times, and his traditionalist views weren't so strict and foreboding. What had happened to the strong and obstinate teen she once knew? Had she done this to him? Sally clutched her stomach, feeling slightly ill. When she told him that he barred his soul…kept it hidden…had that been his undoing? Before she could help herself, Sally ran into the bathroom and threw up the bagel she had for breakfast, until she was left dry heaving into the bin. The struggle in her stomach had caused tears to leak out of her eyes, although she was not crying.

Standing up, Sally grabbed a bottle of water and flushed her mouth out, trying to rid herself of the taste. She heard a door open from behind her.

"Why didn't you tell Une you were sick?" came Wufei's voice from behind her, and Sally braced her hands on the bathroom counter.

"I'm not sick," she said. 'I made myself sick' she thought but didn't say aloud. Out loud, she told him, "It was just a bad bagel I got." A feeble laugh escaped her lips. "Damn bakery."

//Don't wanna be the one who turns the whole thing over

Don't wanna be somewhere where I just don't belong\\

Wufei nodded, unconvinced. "There's some stomach medicine in that cabinet." He pointed to a small medicine cabinet on the bathroom wall. "I'm going back to meditate." He hesitated, and then added. "If you need some help, or you get sick again, come tell me alright?"

Sally could only nod dumbly as he closed the door once more.

TBC…

A/N: More to come soon! I finally know where this is going, so I will get the next part out sooner or later…and more sooner than later!!!!!! ^_^ thankies for reading, please review!!!!!! Oh yeah, and I have a question:

Does anyone know where I can download the Gundam Wing image songs and such? I have searched Morpheus and come up blank, so if anyone knows where I can locate some of them in English I would be very happy! Thank you! Ja!

Luvvies, KaT aka Mistress Shinigami