CHAPTER TWO:

Water.

Water all around him.

Black hair floating in a cloud around his face, obscuring his vision.

Flashes of light on the surface, so far above his head...

Wufei jerked awake, a scream lodging in his throat and turning into a strangled gasp. He lay very still for a moment, remembering where he was and waiting to see if he'd made enough noise for one of the others to hear him.

Apparently not.

Relieved, he sat up and pushed his hair out of his eyes, tucking long strands behind his ears. Seemed his hair tie had broken or come undone - the looser ponytail he wore while sleeping had become a waterfall of loose black silk.

Irritating.

He'd thought about cutting it a few times. Very few, because the long hair was traditional in his clan, symbolic of his status and the fact that he was of warrior's blood. A warrior in his own right, now, and he could grow his hair as long as he desired, so long as it was kept in its neat tail.

He sighed. He was distracting himself from his dream again, or trying to. Too bad it wasn't working.

He looked at the clock.

Three a.m.

Well, at least he'd slept longer than last night. All that swimming had tired him out.

If it wasn't for that fact that all that swimming was probably what brought the dream back, he would have been grateful to Maxwell for suggesting it.

If it wasn't for the fact that he was also rather sure that the dream would have been back, in a milder version but just as unsettling, even if he hadn't been swimming again, he would have hunted the braided baka down.

Of course, killing him would have meant admitting to the others why he was killing a much-needed Gundam pilot.

Out of the question.

Wufei sighed and got up, ready to sneak some food and spend another day training.

*

"You skipped breakfast again. Quatre's going to start fussing."

Wufei dropped out of his stance and glared at Maxwell, who had taken up his position under the tree again. It wasn't afternoon this time, it was barely an hour after breakfast and he'd only finished his entire pattern once.

"Maxwell, did you need something?"

"Whoa, Wu-man, deja vu! That's what you said yesterday!"

"Maxwell..."

"Aw, c'mon, Wuffy! Don't you get lonely up on this hill all by yourself?"

"No. And it's Wufei."

Duo rolled his eyes. "Of course it is. Do you want to go swimming again?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I need to practice more."

"I guess I did interrupt," Duo had the grace to look slightly ashamed, "but I'm lonesome. Quatre went straight back to the garden, Trowa's helping him, and Hee-chan's laptop love affair continues."

Wufei snickered. Laptop love affair, indeed. Though, now that he thought of it, one never saw Yuy without that computer... "You could help Quatre and Trowa."

"Nah, I accidentally pulled up some important plants instead of weeds. They didn't have flowers on them, who could tell? So I thought I ought to make myself scarce. Why don't you teach me some karate or whatever it is you do?"

Wufei stared at him. "You want to learn martial arts?!"

"Hey, I want to defend myself the best I can. You teach me some of your stuff, and I'll teach you some dirty street fighting! How about it?"

"Dirty... street fighting?"

"Yeah, you know Oz soldiers ain't gonna bow at ya before they start punching! You've fought enough of them to know they play dirty, but it's all stuff you can learn."

Wufei hesitated. He was good enough at hand-to-hand combat to beat every opponent who had come his way so far - he was probably the best among the pilots, even counting Heero - but it was true that one could always learn more. "All right."

"You mean it?!" Duo was on his feet in an instant. "You'll really teach me?"

"If you teach me, in return."

"Deal! Oh, man, this is gonna be fun!"

And he took his life in his hands and glomped the other boy.

*

Quatre and Trowa looked up from the table when the kitchen door slammed open, heralding the arrival of pilot 02. A very flushed, sweaty 02, with a delighted grin on his face and pulling pilot 05 along by his upper arm.

"Don't worry, Wu-man, I may not know how to fix a gourmet meal but I know how to fix milkshakes! I can't believe you've never had a milkshake! What do you L5 people have for dessert, anyway, rice with sugar water? Live a little! What flavor of ice cream do you like the best?"

Trowa and Quatre braced themselves for an explosion, but the equally flushed and sweaty 05 just shrugged and said, "Chocolate."

They wondered if they had really gotten up that morning or if they were still dreaming?

"Hello, Wufei, hello, Duo." Quatre said politely, waiting to see if his comrades stayed themselves or turned into two-headed rodeo clowns.

That had happened in some of his stranger dreams.

"Hiya, Q! Done with the garden? You and Trowa wanna try a milkshake? I make really good ones!" Duo's bright voice cut off as he stuck his upper half under a cabinet, searching for the blender.

"Um... no, thank you, Duo, we already ate."

"Ok, well, your loss!" Duo gave a shout of victory and emerged with cobwebs in his hair and a rather dusty blender in his hands.

"Baka." Wufei said mildly, sitting down at the table and watching while Duo started scrubbing at the machine.

"What, you want a spider and dust bunny milkshake instead of chocolate?" Duo asked, not turning. "You're very strange, Wu."

"Wufei." The boy corrected absently, never knowing what a relief that word was to Trowa and Quatre. The world wasn't ending, after all.

They'd just entered a new dimension.

But they felt they could handle that.

If this strange new relationship between Duo and Wufei kept up, at least things would be calmer around here.

Although Trowa wondered silently if it would be as much fun?

A second later and Wufei was ranting again, while Duo was screaming in laughter and they just stared, all four of them and the kitchen covered with chocolate ice cream and milk.

Duo had forgotten to put the lid on the blender.

Seemed things were getting back to normal, after all.