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"Nolens Volens: Willing or Not"Written By: Honor Disclaimers: If they’re yours, do you want
to play a round or two of poker? Pairings: 1x5, 3x4 (established) Rating: R Spoilers: Iie. Warnings: AU, lemon, violence, language, some
angst, romance Archived: grinsngiggles.150m.com, Gundam Wing
Diaries Betas: Velvet Author’s Insane Babbling: *emphasized or sound* /thought/
"Nolens Volens: Willing or Not " Chapter One: Oh Yes You Will
Without a word passing between himself and Barton, they stepped out into the front courtyard. A heavy set woman of middle years with a fraying bun scurried out to meet them from a side door. “Lord Trowa, I’m so glad to see you! I can’t get him to eat!” For the first time since Wufei had met the man, Trowa showed emotion. He closed his eyes and groaned. “Not again.” Wufei cocked an eyebrow at him. “Is he trying to starve himself?” “I’m not sure if it’s intentional,” Trowa answered in a subdued and troubled voice. “Food has never been very important to Heero. During our training, I had to remind him to eat quite often if he were too wrapped up in other things. And if he’s stressed or upset, he won’t eat at all.” “Ah.” Oh joy. That just made things more difficult. “Master Chang, this is the housekeeper, Molly. Molly, this is Chang Wufei. He’s a healer from the Dragon Lands. Quatre believes that he can turn Heero’s condition around.” Molly dipped a quick curtsey. “It’s a pleasure to meet you sir, and I hope you can. Come on, I’ll show you right up.” Wufei bowed politely and followed her up a myriad of stairs—ye gods, this was the wrong place to put Yuy! All of these stairs would be a nightmare to navigate around with his condition—to the third floor. The place was just as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside. All of the banisters and wood in the house were made of a golden oak that glowed softly with rich carpeting and furniture to complement the wood. The décor met his approval. “In here, sirs,” Molly said as she opened a door. Nothing could be seen in the room. The curtains had been drawn shut, not letting any light in. A huge canopy bed could be dimly seen against the far wall, and its curtains had been drawn tight as well. Wufei paused just inside the doorway to let his eyes adjust. Trowa sighed and moved past. “Heero?” “Go away, Barton.” Trowa sighed and looked toward the untouched tray near the bed. “You’re not eating again. If you’d rather have something else—” “I don’t want anything! Go away!” Trowa gave up and turned to Molly. “How long has this been going on?” Wufei simply could not believe what was before his eyes. Now he understood how Heero Yuy had sunk so low in spirits. His friends, as well intentioned as they were, were the problem. They were coddling him, giving into his demands—without even realizing it! /Well. I can fix that quick enough./ Stalking towards the windows he wrenched the drapes apart. “I want those shut!” Wufei ignored the demand and opened both windows. Then he went straight to the bed and started tearing off the hangings. “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!” “Good afternoon, Yuy,” Wufei answered calmly. His patient was glaring at him with dark blue eyes, hair mussed and falling every which a way. Much better! “I am Chang Wufei, your new physician.” “Physician?” Heero sneered. “There’s nothing that can be done for me.” Wufei ignored the disdain and kept going. “It’s past time you got out of bed, wouldn’t you say?” “Get out of here!” “Alright. If you want to play it that way, then I can play along.” He went to the washstand near the headboard and picked up the pitcher. Without any compunction whatsoever he tossed the entire contents full in Heero’s face. For a split second Heero just stared at him, water dripping from his face. Once over his shock, his brows snapped together. “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!” “To do that, you have to catch me,” Wufei returned mildly. He was really beginning to enjoy this. /I’m a perverse bastard, I really shouldn’t be getting any pleasure out of this. Oh well./ “And you can’t. You can’t even get out of bed.” “Oh yes I can!” Heero snarled back. “Really? If you can pull yourself to your feet, I might actually be impressed.” Heero tore the bedcovers back and twisted so that his legs were over the side of the mattress. Gritting his teeth he pushed himself to his feet. The hand holding onto one of the posts went white with strain, but he made it to his feet. And stayed there. Trowa and Molly, watching this entire scene with wide eyes, both gasped in surprise. Heero was beginning to sweat at the exertion, but his eyes were firm on Wufei’s. “Happy?” “I’m going to make you walk, Heero Yuy,” Wufei told him with a dark smile. “And run, and do everything you were once capable of doing.” “That isn’t possible,” Heero snapped. “Really? Those fool doctors didn’t think you could stand either. But you obviously don’t have a problem with that.” “I said it isn’t possible!” “Then I guess I’ll just have to prove you wrong.” + Wufei let Heero have the rest of the day and night to recuperate. After so many months of being bedridden, he knew that he had probably pushed Heero to his limits that day. Before Trowa had left for the city again, he stopped by Wufei’s room. “Quatre is right. You are the person to make him as he once was.” Trowa’s smile was a little bit mischievous. “I just wish I could stay and watch you. It’s bound to be entertaining.” Wufei smirked to himself as he walked toward Heero’s room. In order to get Heero’s spirit back, he would have to bait the man until he was ready to throttle his new doctor. Which wouldn’t be hard, Heero apparently had quite the temper. /It’s not as bad as mine, grant you, but it’s still quite impressive./ Someone had drawn the curtains back over the windows and replaced the bed curtains. He’d have to speak to Molly about that. It was past time that people stopped coddling Yuy. Following his earlier procedure—actually, it might become a routine if this kept up—he opened up the windows, tore down the bed curtains and opened the room to light. “…stop that!” Wufei turned to his patient, inwardly delighted to see that the man had more animation to him today than he had yesterday. “No. You cannot shut yourself off from the world and fossilize in that bed, Yuy.” “Oh yes I can!” “No, you can’t. Now, get up and get dressed. After breakfast I’m going to examine you and determine which exercises we should start with.” “I told you, nothing can be done.” There was a flash of resignation in his eyes before Heero looked away. /Resignation is a bad sign./ “And I’m telling you that when I finally stop torturing you, you’ll be able to walk, run, ride horses, and chase me around your house in an attempt to strangle me.” Heero’s glare came back in full force. “I *am* going to strangle you!” “Oh no you won’t. Even in peak condition you won’t be able to catch me. I’m much faster than you are. Now get up, Yuy.” “Ha!” Heero buried himself back under his covers. /I didn’t know ostrich ran in his family…/ Wufei jerked the covers off and flung them to the far side of the room. Ignoring Heero’s squawk of protest, he wrenched the nightgown up as well to see the infamous injury he had heard so much about. “What do you think you’re doing?! Stop that!” /Hm. Nice ass. Really bad scarring, however./ Wufei easily kept Heero pinned to the mattress as he ran light, probing fingertips over the wound. The damage was quite extensive. Someone had run a blade through the top of Heero’s thigh, then chopped at his lower spine. It hadn’t severed the spine—thank all the ancestors, otherwise there was nothing that he could have done—but it ripped the muscles in that area to shreds. He’d have to rebuild them and teach Heero’s body how to compensate for the injury. There was at least three months of solid work here, maybe more. But it was possible. “Hm.” “Told you,” Heero snapped. The words were only slightly muffled by his position against the mattress. “I must admit, it isn’t a pretty sight. However, what I said before still stands.” “You can’t do anything!” But there was doubt lurking behind the words now. “No. It entirely depends upon you.” Wufei sat back, letting Heero free. His patient immediately covered himself again and rolled a safer distance away. “It’s going to take months to get you to the point where you can walk, Yuy, and at least a year before you can go back to your original life style. Even then you won’t have the same stamina that you did before—but you’ll be very close to it. How far you get in your recovery depends on your determination. This is going to hurt. Sometimes it’s going to hurt a lot.” “I’m no stranger to pain,” Heero grumbled. He was paying very close attention to what Wufei was saying, though. “Good. Because I won’t allow you to quit. Now get up and get dressed.” Wufei snatched up the bell rope and untied it, taking it with him as he went out the door. “HEY! I can’t get dressed without help!” Wufei turned to him, arching his eyebrow arrogantly. “You have a good leg as well as a bad one, Yuy. Crawl if you have to.” He shut the door on the bellow of outrage. + When Wufei returned to Yuy’s room a half hour later, breakfast was set out on a small table near the window. Heero was actually presentable in a loose white shirt and pair of black pants, and sitting at the table like any civilized person should. Casually he joined him, sitting and filling up his plate. They ate in complete silence. Wufei was gratified to see that Heero was at least eating as much as a normal person would. Apparently he wouldn’t have to fight with him about *that*. “Quatre found you, didn’t he?” Wufei looked up from his plate. Hm. Apparently getting him out of his bed had re-activated his brain as well. “Yes.” Heero snorted bitterly. “To get his precious commander back.” “Actually, I think he wants his friend back,” Wufei parried softly. “He blames himself for sending you to an area that you weren’t equipped to handle. He can’t wave a magic wand and restore things to normal—but he can try to put the pieces back together.” “You’re a strange physician, Chang Wufei.” “Most of your physicians couldn’t find their brains without a guide and an expedition party.” Heero snorted, wry amusement tugging at the corners of his mouth. “On that, I can agree with you.” “Agree enough to cooperate?” He sighed, then, but there was no hostility in it this time. Just resignation and sorrow. “Nothing can be done, Chang.” “Who’s talking now? Those doctors that don’t know their ass from their hands? Or Heero Yuy, the man who inspires so much loyalty that he has the Winner Admiral himself searching through herbal shops and healers to find someone that can restore his friend’s health?” Heero’s eyes shot up to his, breath caught in his throat. “…he did that?” “Yes. I wasn’t in when he came around my shop, but he left a message and a guard to make sure I got to his office when I did come back in. You have two men at least that believe you can beat the odds and restore your life to the way it was, Yuy. And if you get off your lazy ass, I think they might be proven right.” Heero looked away from him, toward the window. There were thoughts there that went deeper than mere reflections of could or could not—hopes that even he was uncomfortable in thinking about. Wufei let him go through the process, knowing that if he could get this man’s mind and will focused on healing then the body would surely follow. “What do I do first?” Heero asked quietly. Wufei was more than pleased by the determination he saw like an aura around the man. It was damn impressive, actually—he could see now why Quatre Winner and Trowa Barton thought so much of him. If he were focused on something, and believed in it, then he was surely an unstoppable force. Even now, in his weak condition, he was matching Wufei’s challenge and will head-on. “I need to argue with your muscles. They’ve healed the wrong way. That’s what’s stopping you from standing and walking as you should. Strip down to the briefs. I need to see what I’m doing.” Heero stood on very shaky legs, supporting himself almost entirely with his hands on the table. And because he had moved without even once hinting for help, Wufei stood to help support him as he made his way to the bed. “I thought you would make me crawl,” Heero muttered. He sounded more puzzled than caustic, however. “I’m only helping you because you were willing to crawl,” Wufei returned evenly. The body under his arm was warm and taut with muscle. It had been a while since he’d been close to a man as attractive as this one. Normally he didn’t have problems keeping his relationships with his patients on a professional level, but… /Ancestors, if I weren’t attracted to this man I would need to be looked at by a healer myself./ “You don’t make any sense, Chang.” “I know.” /Not even to myself, sometimes./ He let Heero strip down to the briefs, gathering up his satchel near the foot of the bed and setting out the herbs that he would need. There was one in particular that he would use almost constantly from this point on. Pryan was famous for warming up muscles and making them relax. It would undoubtedly become Heero’s best friend in the upcoming months. Heero rolled onto his stomach, face turned toward the wall and away from Wufei. He flinched as the man’s hands touched his back, and bit back on an exclamation of almost-pain. He could literally feel that his muscles were being pulled into different pathways. It didn’t really hurt, but it didn’t feel comfortable either. When he was to the point of pounding on the mattress in frustration, Wufei moved his hands from the back to the thigh and started the process all over again. “How often will you do this?” “It depends. Twice a day for several weeks, I think. If your body doesn’t respond fast enough, then I might do it three times a day. Or, if the opposite happens, I might do it only once a day. Are you in pain?” “No.” Wufei swallowed a smile. /But it doesn’t feel comfortable either. Not that you would admit that…/ He concentrated again on what he was doing. After several moments of kneading and stretching, he let his hands fall away. “Good. Now, let’s walk.” Heero pulled on his pants before gaining his feet again. Wufei stood in front of him, arms held out. “Put your arms on top of mine. I’ll be your support.” Heero looked at him in concern. He was a good head taller than the other man, and more bulky besides. “I hope you’re stronger than you look.” “I am. Move, Yuy.” Cautiously he put his hands on the man’s forearms, gripping tightly enough to keep his balance. He would *not* fall over and disgrace himself now! With gritted teeth he took a step forward with his good leg and nearly screamed in pain as his weight settled on his bad leg. “Stop.” Wufei cursed himself as he saw the intense pain flair over the man’s face. Cautiously he maneuvered around until he could lift Heero in his arms, then settled him back onto the mattress. There was a dark stain spreading through the material of the pants. With no finesse at all Wufei ripped the pants away to look at the wound. “It’s been eight months since you were injured…and yet you’re still bleeding?” Why the hell had the wound re-opened like that? It should be completely closed by now! “There’s still a shard of steel inside,” Heero explained through clenched teeth. “They couldn’t remove it.” “Are you telling me,” Wufei queried in a deceptively soft voice, “that there’s still a sword tip inside your leg and the doctor in charge of you just closed up the flesh regardless?” “There was no other way.” Even as Wufei grabbed a cloth out of his bag to press against the wound he snapped, “The hell there isn’t! You should have told me about this! I never would have made you stand otherwise.” Damn fools! No wonder the man was still in such pain! The sword tip was undoubtedly still cutting into the muscle if Heero put any stress on his leg at all. He rummaged through his satchel again with one hand impatiently. This time he brought out something that would deaden the pain. Very gently he massaged it all around Heero’s upper thigh. In seconds the tension had left Heero’s body and he relaxed with a sigh. “What is that?” “A mixture of things. Peppermint, mostly.” Heero blinked at him. “Peppermint?” “You probably think of it as a candy, I know, but it has several very useful healing qualities.” Wufei closed the jar and tossed it back into his satchel. “Yuy, in order to make any progress at all, I need to get that shard out. I don’t have the equipment to do it here. I have to take you back into the city, to my shop and surgery.” Heero frowned at him. He had been so doubtful of Wufei’s skill—his bedside manner, after all, was far from what one expected from a doctor! But the man knew his herbs, and he certainly knew what to do with his hands. Trusting him didn’t seem like such a leap of faith, now. Besides, what was there to lose? “Fine. You should alert Quatre, though. He gets…upset when things are altered without his knowledge.” Personally, Wufei would have found it rather entertaining
to piss off the First Admiral, but he should probably restrain himself.
“Alright. Get some rest, I’ll come back up for you in an
hour or two.”
~ * ~ |
