Hello.

Okay. So I don't know where this came from. I must be feeling slightly depressed today. It is sad, but maybe slightly uplifting....? Maybe? There are plenty of warnings so...

WARNINGS: shounen-ai, might be slightly depressing, touchy subject material: mentions of molestation. No actual happenings written in. I hope in a somewhat tasteful way. If you don't want to read it. DON'T.

So if your still interested here it is, (I think it's interesting).

Salvaged Passion

He stepped into the three inch puddle with a distinct splash over his leather boots, one that was probably heard by the man at the grave sight one hundred meters off despite how quiet he tried to be. A figure kneeled over a patch of grass under a tree.

Wrapping his thick white wool coat around him he walked up the slippery slope that lead to the hunched over figure through the rain. It had been raining for over seven hours since he started tracking him from the airport. But he found him. The muddy grass squelched around his boots as the rain soaked his long hair to the back of his coat. It was winter after all. Lucky it wasn't snowing really, but it might have been more pleasant.

He stopped under the tree branches that had lost their leaves. There was no real shelter unless you got closer to the trunk, but he didn't want to disturb the man in front of him. Silence prevailed except for the beating splashes of thick wet rain drops.

Neither one moved. Neither one dared.

It was a full ten minutes before the smaller figure kneeling in the mud spoke, "What are you doing here?"

"Same as you Wufei, I came to pay my respects." He moved a step closer and pushed back his soaking platinum bangs out of his face.

"You could have gone to the ceremony. Why bother me?" He didn't bother getting out of the mud and he was in his white suit again. It was rare for him to wear it now days.

"I wanted to see where he was actually buried. I don't like crowds or displays of grandeur for occasions such as these."

"Do not lie to me." Wufei accused, "Zechs, why are you here?"

Zechs sighed and stepped closer to Wufei, "Because your fellow pilots are concerned. You become distant and complacent during this time of the year. It's why they put you at a desk instead of in the field where you are most useful. They do not want to risk the loss of you." Blue eyes scanned the grave stone he was kneeling at. It had two rapiers crossed a rose in the middle and writing above and below it, though he could not make it out unless he moved closer.

"Go. I will be fine." He ordered.

Zechs shook his head as water dripped down his face. It was freezing. "It has been five years Wufei. You always leave on this day and tell no one where you go. It was difficult tracking you today. The others know where you go and why, but they dare not follow. You should not do this to yourself."

He scoffed spitting out, "Do what to myself?"

"Torture yourself."

"I killed him. I was the one that was supposed to die. Not him."

"No, you are incorrect."

"I loved him."

"No." Zechs breathed out, "You are wrong."

Wufei turned face wet, from rain or tears Zechs could not tell and yelled, "How can I be wrong about what I feel?! You know nothing of that! Nothing!" There was the passion in his eyes that had not been there for so long. Zechs had watched him for so long at the Preventers looking for the glimmer the spirit that held the interest of Treize Kushrenada. Never finding it, until today. The five year anniversary of his death.

"I am not wrong Wufei. You should not have loved him." Zechs spoke softly and sadly if frank.

"Why?" He breathed out, venom in his voice. "Because he was my enemy?"

This was the war time Wufei. The passion he had hidden away for so long. For five years, except on certain missions. This is what Treize had been addicted to and spoke of endlessly. The version Zechs had been jealous of, until now.

"No, Wufei. Because this was five years ago, you were fifteen. He twisted your mind and molested you."

Wufei growled standing up slowly as he spoke, "So help me god, Zechs you say another word and I will kill you at his grave. I do not care if you join him in the afterlife first, but I will have your blood run through this grass before you insult our relationship again."

Zechs shook his head and rain droplets whipped off his scalp a few of his bangs tumbled into his eyes. He spoke sorrowfully again, "Wufei. I am positive that he loved you. But you were too young to discern love from manipulation he should not have touched you. He should not have raped you."

Wufei flung himself at Zechs instantly and grabbing him by the coats collar and hauling him against the tree. He had developed much more strength as he had grown to twenty. "What did I just tell you Zechs?" He pulled him away and slammed him against the bark again, "What did I just say?!" Zechs wisely stayed silent as a fist pelted him in the cheek blood oozing from his mouth instantly.

"You think because I was young that I don't know my own feelings?! You think that it mattered that we slept together and he was older than me?! Don't make me laugh. I grew up faster than anyone else in that god damn war. I grew up ten times faster than you."

"I lost my colony I lost my heritage and innocence in one sweeping explosion. I've killed more then anyone has the ability to count and tasted revenge." He growled and threw Zechs sideways onto the muddy ground. "I lost my friends and my ability to trust. But I found something with Treize. I respected him I loved him and I enjoyed the way he made me feel. Enemy or not. You think I was too young to know what I felt? You think I was too young to know right from wrong? You think I was too young to realize that what we did together was perceived as morally abhorrent?"

Wufei moved to stand above Zechs lying in the mud on his elbows. "I know that I loved him. I know that he loved me. And I know that I killed him when it should have been me. I was the broken one. I should have died that day."

Zechs got up and spat out a mouth full of bloody spit, turning to Wufei, he stepped closer in the cold rain and closer again, feeling the coiling rage off the twenty year old man-boy. "No, Wufei. Listen to me. I loved him also. I love him still. The difference is that I knew when to walk away from his poisonous words. I knew when it was time to let the soft loving manipulation end. I was old enough to know." Wufei frowned and glared slightly, but he did not protest as Zechs brought a hand up to his cheek and futilely tried to wipe the cold wetness away from Wufei's face as rain still dropped from the heavens above.

"Wufei, it was not the war that broke you. There are thousands that went through the same thing and came out the other side fairly intact. Wufei, Treize broke you with love. I'm not saying he wasn't a good man and an excellent lover. I'm saying that he loved you too young. He manipulated you before you could find other things to rely on. He abused you knowingly or not. You do seem more mature than others, but still Wufei it was wrong."

Wufei looked up into Zechs's face emotions streaming through those dark eyes before him. "You cannot move on from this and you been hiding yourself for long enough. I've watched you go through the motions of living. You breathe you go to work, but you refuse to face anything with emotions involved. The pilots distance themselves further and they are supposed to be your friends. I watch you and you have a pulse, but you try not to feel anything. You are broken Wufei."

Zechs felt the water that was streaming over Wufei's face and it was warm, not the cold rain. Tears.

He opened his jacket and embraced Wufei inside it enfolding him in the warm wool. He was getting colder and soaked as he held Wufei, but did not let him go. He held him tighter as he felt the smaller body shake with crying.

He waited as strong arms gripped his sides, bruising him as they vibrated with sorrow and guilt, years of repression and anger and denial. He looked up in the sky to wash away his own tears at seeing this beautiful young man he had been observing for the past five years finally broken open.

He didn't want to bring this pain and neither did the other pilots. But it had to be done, in order to heal.

When Wufei finally stopped shaking and began to shiver more from the cold then from emotions, Zechs moved him towards the base of the tree in front of the head stone and sat down. He looked at the headstone. Two swords crossed and a rose carved in the middle. The top read Treize Kushrenada. Below the swords were some Chinese symbols. "What does it mean?"

"Loved forever." Wufei whispered.

Zechs nodded and pulled Wufei into a half hug; Wufei willingly leaned on him. "What did you bury here? They could not find his body for the monument at his other grave." That was where the media frenzy and ceremony was being held, still remembered as a war hero.

Wufei nodded, "Yes, the final battle incinerated him. I buried his sword, a bottle of his favorite wine and a shirt I took from him once." He smirked slightly, "I preferred him shirtless in our encounters. It was a habit to steal them the first chance I got."

Zechs smiled at Wufei's comment and frowned immediately, "I'm sorry to do this to you. To make you face this. I've been watching you go through the motions of living with little emotion. Heero seems to be more personable than you." Wufei smirked a little. "This was not the man I was jealous of for taking a part of Treize's love. This was not the man I grew to respect and care about as well for being able to do that."

"I understand. Do not worry." Wufei stated simply staring at Treize's grave. He had left a rose on it earlier. "I'll never understand why he was so obsessed with roses." Wufei stated.

Zechs laughed out loud and told him of a time when he had to escort a delivery man with two hundred roses through an OZ base just for Treize. They sat in the rain sharing stories of Treize, things they loved, quirks they never understood.

Zechs forced Wufei to stand up off the ground when he started shivering from the cold. "Your lips are blue. We should go." He turned to escort Wufei to the waiting car when he felt the grip on his hand pull him back. Cold lips were on his, arms wrapping around his neck, fingers clutching at his wet muddy hair. And he responded with the same urgency he felt from Wufei encircling him holding him tighter to his body.

"NO." Zechs pushed him away, breathing heavily. Wufei stood, hurt in his eyes. "No." Zechs stepped closer and took off his muddy white jacket and wrapped it around Wufei's shoulders. He lifted Wufei's face gently and spoke softly, "Not today, Wufei. Another time perhaps, but not today." He kissed his forehead and led him towards the car.

Wufei sat in the passenger seat quietly as Zechs started driving five hours into the city so they could fly home. Zechs glanced over at Wufei after twenty minutes and was startled to see him crying again…but he was …smiling.

Wufei looked at him, small smile on his face with salty tear tracks, and whispered softly, "Thank you."

Fin

Please review! I may do another chapter, becasue I see potential. But for right now I'm listing it as complete. I have enough multi part fics running as it is.

Sorry if I made you sad,

-Silverserpent