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"Baby Series 3"Written By: Karina Rating: PG Spoilers: None Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing or the Characters from the series but the baby is mine. Pairing: Duo + Wu Fei Notes: Challenge 115. Baby Series 3 #115. Takes
place immediately following Challenging Him. Many thanks to ShenLong for her work betaing
this fic.
White Picket Fence "I want to plumb the depths of a personality that, frankly, has always fascinated me. I was, and am to this day; curious about what it is that makes you tick. I think it started when we were captive on the Moonbase. The things there I saw you do… when they shut off the oxygen to the cell… it… well… I'm not sure how to describe what I felt. The war stressed us all into doing things we might not ordinarily have considered, and after the Barton incident we all went our separate ways. For a while there we did our own thing; you joined Preventers and I tried it with Hilde and the junkyard. Zechs went off to Mars with Noin, not that we realized it at the time. Then you came to L2 on a case with a group of Preventers, and I found myself watching you in a way that really surprised me, and when you left it didn't go away. I saw you interacting with other agents and, to be honest Fei, I had a really bad case of the green eyed dragon at that time. You were paying more attention to your work, and to your workmates, than you were to me. It surprised me that I didn't like that." The dark eyes were wide, staring at him, clearly uncertain what to do about his confession. "You were… jealous… of my work?" "I was jealous of everything and everyone that associated with you when I couldn't. I admit I couldn't understand myself there for a bit. Then Hilde tried to get frisky and pushed a little bit too hard for my comfort. I knew what she wanted from me and that I couldn't give it to her. She deserved better and I told her so… and I told her why I wasn't the one for her; that I had realized girls didn't really do it for me. It didn't go down real well, but she wasn't really surprised." The blue eyes hovered just on the edge of that unique violet tint with the intensity of his emotions. "I guess most healthy hetro males would have made a pass at her long before she tackled me. We parted on good enough terms I suppose; I let her buy out my share of the yard and I came to Earth. We still talk. We're still friends and she's got a boyfriend now who I think will work out for her. He seems a nice guy and a check on him didn't reveal any bugbears, so that's good. But settling down with a girl… I knew that wasn't me. I wanted something else." Wu Fei shifted slightly, uncomfortable beneath Duo's steady gaze. "Why did you come to Earth?" "Because you were here. I wanted to find out why I never forgot you; why I was thinking so much about you since we met on L2. I've always been curious, Fei… guess I always will be. Curiosity has led me to do some stupid, dumb arsed and positively brilliant things over time. I watched you, I thought about why I watched you, and I decided to give myself a bit more time. I messed around for a bit, stayed for a while with Quatre and then I did the whole university bit and got my degree in engineering. Then I joined Preventers." "Why? I never really understood. Why join Preventers? Your talent as an engineer could have taken you anywhere in the world or in the colonies." "At the time I wanted some `thing' I could not quite put my finger on, and I wasn't content with what I was doing with my life. There had to be something more, and for a while Preventers made a difference. I felt I was useful, that I was doing something good. I was getting my adrenaline highs and I was getting to know you and the other guys, and I found I wanted that. I really wanted that. On L2 I hadn't realized how discontent I was." "You never said you were interested in me." "You never gave me any signals that suggested which way your sexuality swung. I didn't know, and I wasn't going to do a thing to chance ruining what little I had just working with you. Then Zechs and Noin came back and there was a new dynamic in the mix, but somehow we all still fit. The addition of those two worked without a major disruption to what we had as a group. When Noin fell pregnant, well, everyone was looking forward to Stephen being born. I don't know about you, but it seemed to me the baby was a sign of everything we had been doing… that it was worth what we had done. That it was good. And then it all went wrong." "Noin died." It had gone terribly wrong. The death of the woman had affected them all, some more so than others. She had become a friend during the war and had maintained contact during her stint on Mars, though the presence of Zechs on Mars had been kept quiet. It was not until they had decided to return to Earth that the blonde had begun to feature in their conversations. Unease at how he would deal with them, and they with him, had proven anticlimactic. Somehow, as Duo had said, they had simply fit. No one had brought up the small matter of them being on opposite sides during the war. Her pregnancy had not been a difficult one; there had been no indications of complications to warn them of impending calamity. One minute all was well and the next, or so it seemed, it was too late. She was gone. Dead. Everything was different. "I was given a mission that could not wait and I had to leave right after the funeral, and when I got back I found something I had not expected. Chang Wu Fei was cuddling a baby, more over he was changing the kid's arse and washing him… and he seemed to look differently at Zechs." Dark eyes met blue/violet and he knew he had to be colouring, blushing, though not so fiercely as before. "I had buried my own wife. I had a better understanding of what he was enduring than any other." "Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, there was something in the way you looked at him, something different, and it wasn't that you understood how he was feeling at the time. I wasn't sure what it was, so I watched for a while and I even made a comment or two to Sally, but she couldn't see what I did. I began to wonder if I was imagining it, or was I seeing something that was really there that otherwise observant people were missing. I decided to hang around a little longer and maybe find out." "Why?" "Because I really wanted to find out I was wrong and that I had a chance with you. Look at me, Fei. I don't hold a candle to that man. He's gorgeous, walking sex personified and more, he's a dangerous man. You are like me in that you don't want safe; you don't want the sort of security most people want in a relationship. Maybe that's why I saw it when no one else did; the way you looked at him. There's a kind of electricity about Zechs that will burn you if you don't handle him with care; the same kind of fire that burns me when I rub you just the right way. Zechs has that rare fire and you can't resist it any more than I can." "He's…" He had not thought about it in quite that way before, but Duo was right. "Yes, he's not… safe." "Yeah. He's not tame. He's like a wild creature that is docile enough to look at, but it's ready to tear your throat out if you get too close and annoy it. It keeps you on your toes; keeps a charge of adrenaline going all the time when you are near him. I know what you feel because I feel it too and it's so damned easy to get your rocks off on that charge. I watched you with him and I gradually began to see him the way you do… and I found myself wanting to burn myself on him." "I… feel…" Duo sighed softly and nodded. "Yeah. I know. We all carry around a lot of baggage, you, me and Zechsy. Loads of baggage, but its baggage we all have in common and we can understand each other the way few others could. Zechs doesn't want to be Milliardo Peacecraft, but he's stuck with it and he's accepted it. I can accept it too; I sure as hell can't change it so why bemoan it? But that doesn't mean I'm going to give up on wanting more from him than a job and the honour to be named as a friend. I'm a greedy son of a bitch, Wu Fei, and I want the lot. I'm willing to wait for it and to work for it, and that means waiting for you both to see reason and give in gracefully to the inevitable." "The inevitable, Duo? Do you honestly think that?" White teeth gleamed in the dim lighting and Duo inclined his head. "Hell, yeah. Look how far we have come. Look how things have changed just since the beginning of December. Change is inevitable and there's nothing I can do to stop it, so I may as well accept it and work with it. You will be the Chang of Chang. Zechs is King of Sanc. I can deal with that, and there is no one more patient than Shinnigami when he wants something. This time it ain't death Shinnigami's hanging around for. Even the God of Death is allowed to love; and believe me, the God of Death does not do the white picket fence and domestic bliss bit." A hint of a smile curved his lips at the blatant honesty behind that. "This will certainly not be a white picket fence relationship, and it will be far from domestic bliss." "Yeah, but that's okay. We go for the adrenaline surge, remember? That's just the way it is and I can deal. You, me and Zechs. That's what the future holds and I'm going to make sure of it." Duo looked about the attic, at the dim pools of light marking the course of their passage through the assortment of treasures cast to dusty obscurity. It was a grand place to explore and somewhere here was that single piece of artwork that he was sure tied Chang to the Peacecraft dynasty, but it could wait for another day. With a shrug Duo motioned to the clutter and grinned. "Come on, Fei. I'll find the painting another night. What say I make you a cup of tea and we get some sleep, eh?" ~ * ~ |
