"Found"

Written By: Artemis

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters are copyright to Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties. I make no money with this fic.

Rating: NC 17

Warnings: Alternate reality, angst, romance, hurt/comfort

Pairings: 6x2, 3x4

Summary: A conversation in an online chatroom leads to much more for two enemy pilots.
Co-authored with Czarina Merquise.

NOTE: This story begins firmly between Episodes 14 and 15 in the series. And pretty much changes everything else to follow! As we had to adapt the actual timing of events in the series a little in places, you can consider this an alternate GW reality (NOT AU as it's firmly based on the series)

Notes on canonical placement of scenario: Colonel Zechs Merquise of OZ is at the Lake Victoria Base in central Africa while his engineering staff rebuilds the recovered Gundam O1. The Gundam 01 was picked up from the plains of Siberia after Gundam Pilot Heero Yuy self-detonated (and apparently died) the Gundam in response to Lady Une's threat to destroy a colony if the Gundams weren't handed over to OZ.

Gundam Pilot Duo Maxwell, stalled on Earth at the moment since the orders from the colonies dried up after the Siberia incident, is staying at one of the houses owned by the Winner family with his fellow Gundam Pilot, Quatre Raberba Winner, somewhere in the Middle East.

"Found "

1)

"I'm so bored," Zechs Merquise murmured aloud to himself in his quarters at Lake Victoria. Just three weeks before, he'd arrived there with the pieces of Gundam 01, and set his team of engineers loose upon it, most of whom had also helped with the Tallgeese. Meiser, his new engineering chief, cheerfully reported that he was confident they could completely restore the Gundam... but would Colonel Zechs mind keeping out of their way?

So Zechs had not a hell of a lot to do. After Siberia, the entire war effort against the Gundams had ground to a halt as the four... five? pilots effectively disappeared after the self-detonation of 01. He couldn't blame them. But it meant that OZ was not very busy, at least on Earth.

Space was another matter, and it was something he didn't like to think about for very long. He knew Treize had sent his Lady Une to "assist" the colonies and liberate them - ha! - from the Alliance forces which still stubbornly held onto power there. Zechs didn't like the whole thing. The colonies had been just fine before the Alliance; why exert control over them now? Wasn't that just replacing one military regime with another? Where was the peace in all of that?

He hadn't as yet confronted Treize about it. In fact, Zechs wasn't looking forward to his next conversation with his old friend Treize Khushrenanda at any rate, for his obsession with Gundam 01 was not likely to be something Treize approved of... and certainly those behind him had already squawked about it. The little show they'd put on for Inspector Acht... Zechs knew it had been a chance, and evidently Acht hadn't been entirely satisfied. It was that man's persistence that had warned Zechs and convinced him to begin some measures he'd hope he hadn't needed... just in case.

Then, only days ago, another crushing blow - the whole bizarre mess at Mogadishu. For the first time in his military career, Zechs had killed two of his comrades on purpose. Not that he was remorseful; Alex and Mueller had been dangerous and bent on total mayhem, systematically "executing" Alliance forces beyond those forces' surrenders. It had been an intolerable situation. But the fact that no one else had challenged the two young pilots' actions had put a hard, cold ball of steel terror in Zechs's belly. It was, without a doubt, the wave of the future. They... had been the future of OZ.

Zechs, of course, had reported the incident directly to Treize. His commander-in-chief had been impassive, as he'd expected. No explanations, no apologies, no concern, just Treize's cool "I see."

Now... Zechs was cooling his heels at Lake Victoria while the Gundam was being repaired... and he was bored. He felt restless, needing to make a connection with anyone, someone, *anyone* not connected with this damn war. His underlings were no help; they tended to fawn over him in their eagerness to impress the Lightning Count. And he was sure that his new mobile suit engineering chief, Meiser, had a romantic interest in him. Unfortunately, Zechs had already sworn off liaisons with his men after more dalliances than he wanted to remember. They had only wanted his body... and to use him as a stepping stone to favor with the powers that be.

[I haven't checked into the GlobalNet for a long time,] he mused, logging his computer onto the Earth-wide network system that existed for the masses outside of the tightly secured OZ network. [I wonder... there was a place I used to hang out...]

Searching through listings of mostly homosexual chat forums, he came across one that had sparked his interest in a foolishly vain way - "M4M w/LH", which was a room for men looking for romantic or erotic play with men who had long hair. It was silly, Zechs knew, but though he wore his platinum blond hair waist-length to honor the memory of his father, King Peacecraft, he did take pride in it and at the same time, had developed a fondness for men who also had long hair. In OZ, of course, classical military haircuts were the norm, so he didn't otherwise come across too many men who shared his secret hair fetish.

He logged into the chat room, "M4M w/LH"...

Chapter 2

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