Dark eyes opened slowly, obsidian to meet the blackness of the room. Nothing was visible. Everything was masked in a silken fog of ebony.
Standing silently, gracefully, Wufei moved through the room to the door. Touched its cold, brass handle and tightened, turning the handle. With a noiseless, ethereal grace, the door swung open.
Stars scattered the night sky overhead; dim in the indigo beginnings of daylight, they were nonetheless the brightest objects in the heavens. There was no moon, not even a teasing sliver. Wufei shivered. Despite the oppressive heat of the day, Arabia was cold at night.
The thoughts that had awakened him from a peaceful slumber returned, after a brief disappearance in the nighttime vastness.
The dream again. A sinuous dragon, its every scale glistening pure, untainted white, wound through the blue-blue sky, seeming to fly without wings. In awe, Wufei stared at his adopted namesake: the Dragon. This beauty ... this marvel ... it was meant for him, surely?
Still staring, wonder clear on his face, Wufei began walking. The dragon paced him, weaving its track gracefully through the azure reaches.
And then a little boy appeared before him, a boy with short, sleek black hair. He had his back to Wufei. A glistening line – magic, surely – stretched between boy and dragon. And then the boy turned around, eloquent obsidian eyes regarding him calmly.
That child is me
."Ni hau*, Wufei. I'm flying my kite." And Wufei looked at the child's hands, in which a ball of string rested. And Wufei's eyes followed that glistening line from the string in the child's hands to the beautiful dragon in the sky.
That dragon ... It's me, too.
And then Wufei took out his katana, and cut the line of time, of magic, of string.
Limply, the dragon fell to earth like ... like a kite whose string had been cut.
Then Wufei awakened.
Pondering the dream, he glided effortlessly to a large rock and vaulted onto it ...
... coming down on soft flesh.
"OWWWW!!!!" Wufei nearly fell off the rock trying to get back. Duo curled into a fetal position, gasping in pain. "Ow! What was that for? Were you trying to kill me?"
"Nooo ... I was ... what are you doing ... out here ... at this hour?" he concluded.
"Thinking. Having Chinese guys land on my stomach." Wincing, he massaged the injured area. "And what brings you out here this early?"
Reluctantly, "I was thinking about my dreams."
Duo nodded wisely. "Yes. It's good to think about dreams outside. It's what I was thinking about."
"Do your dreams bother you? Now that the war is over, do you have nightmares about it?"
"Well, Wu-man, not really. I don't have nightmares about what I did in the war, because it was all my choice, right? I decided, and, if I were given the choice again, I would have made the same decisions."
"Hai. I feel the same. But I still have nightmares. I think, if I wasn't trained as I was, what would my life have been like? What ... what have I lost?"
Duo smirked. "You'd probably call the person you would have been a weakling."
Wufei sighed and changed the subject. For once, he felt like talking to Duo. "What do you dream about that's worth thinking over?"
"Besides ... never mind. I dream about death, of course." As if it were obvious. In the lightening sky, Duo's blue-violet eyes were black and empty. "Have you ever really thought about what death is like? I always pictured, I dunno, a big flash, and then bang, you're in heaven or hell." His eyes closed. "It's not like that. It just gets dark, and then there's nothing. Not even air, but you don't need air, because you're nothing."
"There's no pain. No weakness. No doubt."
"None of those things. But aren't they what make us human? Especially the pain." He conspicuously rubbed his stomach again, and then jerked his hand away. "Ow!"
"Would you stop touching it! It's just making it hurt more!"
"It wouldn't hurt at all if you hadn't landed on it."
Duo had a point.
Wufei finally relaxed enough to lie down on the rock, which was large enough for both him and Duo. Barely.
"Have you fallen asleep on me, Wu-man?"
"No. Don't call me that."
"Why not? You're my friend; why shouldn't I give you a nickname? You are, aren't you?"
Wufei sighed in annoyance. "Yes, I am. But I don't like nicknames."
"They make you weak, huh?"
"You could say that."
Silence stretched between them, vaster than the sky above ... a sky whose stars were dimming. It was strange, to feel closer to light-years-away stars than a person who was mere inches from you.
As usual, it was Duo that broke the silence. "Nice night. I wish I could see the moon, though. It's always pretty, shining white in the sky."
"Yes ... like dragon scales, almost."
In a rare incident of perception, Duo asked, "Is there something you're thinking about, in particular?"
Wufei told him about the dream.
"Now I know what you were talking about earlier, about how you were wondering what you'd lost. You feel like you lost your kid self, or more like you got rid of your kid self."
"That's what it is!" Wufei exclaimed, sitting.
"What? What did I say?"
Making an effort, Wufei relaxed, lying back down. "I've severed the link between who I was and who I am. I wasn't able to put it into words until now, but that's what it is."
"And you're upset about it?"
"A ... a little. But as you said, it's a choice I made. And I think I would make it again." Wufei turned to face Duo, and Duo replied in kind. "I never expected you to be this ... deep. She she ni, Duo."
"What does that mean?"
"It means 'thank you.'"
"Oh. You're welcome." Duo smirked, but the usual incisive mirth wasn't there. "Ya know, you're worth talking to ... if you ever talk." Duo looked over at Wufei, and was startled by how close their eyes were. Those thin slits of ebony, mere inches from him. Duo closed his eyes. "G'night, Wufei."
"Good night, Duo."
OWARI
*Ni Hau means 'hello' in Chinese.