Chapter 4
They went out again on Sunday. This time, the two of them had lunch at a café. It wasn't a big chain sort of place, but some little coffee and tea shop on a side road. Wufei made a mental note of the place when he saw that they brewed their tea using loose leaves. After a few sips, Wufei practically melted into his chair, extremely content. Brewing well-rounded tea took effort that Wufei hadn't had the energy for in far longer than he cared to remember.
Last night had been his neighbor, Duo's, party. He'd almost forgotten about it, but Duo had met him in the hallway and asked if he was coming. Wufei had agreed, if only because he knew that Duo wouldn't hold it against him if he said no, but he'd be disappointed. Still, Wufei had been coming off of a long week with little sleep, so of course he'd nodded off again in one of Duo's chairs. Maybe he wouldn't have if the furniture wasn't so comfortable, but then again, Wufei was so exhausted that he probably would have fallen asleep even if he'd been sitting on a hard stool or something.
Like before, no one had bothered him, talking quietly to each other and ignoring his presence, and Wufei was torn between irritation and gratitude when he woke up. If he didn't know better, he'd swear Duo invited him to these things just to make sure Wufei slept at all. He wouldn't put it past his neighbor, who had mentioned being concerned about Wufei's sleeping habits more than once before, to the point of gifting Wufei with a book full of helpful sleeping aids that he still hadn't had the time to look through.
Shaking the memory away, he looked up after he finally forced himself to put the cup of tea down again and met Trowa's amused gaze. It was the first real look of happiness that he'd seen on Trowa since they'd met each other again.
Wufei huffed, but didn't bother to hide his own chagrin. "How'd you find this place?" he asked, to distract Trowa. It certainly wasn't somewhere they'd ever gone before. Wufei would have remembered this place, with its large selection and calm atmosphere.
Trowa smirked, just a little, but there was nothing sharp about it. Once again, Wufei was struck at how different Trowa was acting with him now, and wondered at the cause. He briefly considered that maybe leaving him had been good for Trowa, and didn't know how he felt about that.
"Walking around," Trowa answered, then shrugged. "My sister gets annoying, though I know she means well. Sometimes I just… need some space."
Well, there was something that hadn't changed about him. Wufei shook his head. Completely side-stepping the mention of Catherine, not wanting to get into how overprotective she could be right now, he said, "You're not walking at night again, are you?"
It was a bad habit of Trowa's. He'd wake up in the middle of the night, unable to fall back asleep, and ended up shoving his shoes on and just walking. Wufei had asked him before what he thought about on those walks, but Trowa had always insisted that he didn't think about anything specific, just moved through the city and watched others walk on by, caught up in their own lives.
Wufei had never told Trowa that he could understand why Catherine worried about him when he did that. He'd lain awake himself more than once after Trowa had left their apartment, arguing with himself about whether or not he should run out after him and demand to come along, or at least that Trowa should take his phone with him. He never had, though; had only waited, worried, until he'd heard their front door open again hours later, and then sighed in relief and pretended to be asleep when Trowa came back to bed. Someone else might have wondered if their lover was cheating on them, but Wufei knew if that were true that Trowa wouldn't have bothered to lie about it the first time he'd asked.
Trowa looked surprised, but Wufei didn't know why. Did he think that Wufei would have forgotten about his habits?
"…Yes."
Wufei frowned slightly. Now that he was well-rested for once, he looked closer at Trowa and realized that he looked tired himself. Well, when they'd broken up, Trowa had been applying to a couple veterinary practices nearby, and Wufei could only assume that he'd been accepted somewhere. The hours of a vet were likely not any better than his own, and if Trowa was waking up in the night and walking everywhere for hours still, he likely wasn't getting much sleep.
It would have been beyond hypocritical of Wufei to bring it up when Trowa had let his own habits slide the night when he was late to dinner. Still. "How's work?" That should be innocuous enough.
A soft smile appeared on Trowa's face, just for a moment, and Wufei inhaled sharply. It always amazed him how attractive Trowa was when he smiled genuinely, his whole face coming alive.
"Very good," Trowa replied, pausing to sip his own tea. Wufei had been pleased to see that Trowa was finally giving proper tea a try, since he'd shown nothing but distaste for it before. Maybe it was just this place's tea that he liked. "A mother dog and her puppies just got adopted out last week. The place is quiet without them, but at least they all have homes now."
His words were full of such fondness that it took Wufei a moment to realize what he'd said. "You're still working at the shelter?" he asked. That was odd. He didn't see why Trowa would still be working there, in addition to working at a veterinary practice. Wufei almost bit his tongue to keep all of his questions inside.
Trowa nodded, and didn't seem to think there was anything more to say about that. Wufei didn't know if he should push or not, or if he was even allowed to. He looked down at his tea, and saw his own concerned reflection staring back at him.
Wufei didn't know what they were doing, him and Trowa. Here they were, on their second… date? After two years of not speaking to each other after a bad breakup. What was this? Were they dating again? The idea sounded almost absurd, that they could just fall back into a relationship again without at least talking about what had gone wrong before.
As much as Wufei wanted to just bask in Trowa's presence again, and not disturb whatever ceasefire this was, he needed to know what Trowa was thinking about all of this.
He raised his head and looked Trowa in the eyes firmly, so he could see how serious Wufei was. "Trowa, what are we doing?"
Trowa frowned. He searched Wufei's gaze, though for what, he didn't know. Still, he let Trowa look, and tried to wait calmly for an answer, despite the mounting tension. At least Trowa didn't answer with something inane, like drinking tea. Not that Wufei had expected him to.
"We're on a date," Trowa answered, his voice soft but his hands tight around his cup.
Wufei let out a breath. "Are we really? After everything?" Just like that?
There was a moment of quiet between them. "Oh." Trowa looked upset, his brow furrowed, and Wufei kept himself still, knowing that Trowa wasn't done speaking. "Did we-? We don't just know each other from school or something, do we." It wasn't a question.
…What?
Wufei stared at Trowa uncomprehendingly. What the hell did he mean by that? His eyes narrowed as he watched Trowa look back at him blankly, seeming resigned and tired about something. He gave himself a minute to turn over the implications of that question, knowing without asking that Trowa wasn't pulling some distasteful joke on him.
"You don't know me." This time, it was Wufei being rhetorical. Trowa continued to watch him like he was a stranger. Wufei suddenly realized that everything about Trowa's behavior with him so far was starting to make a horrible amount of sense. To Trowa, Wufei was a stranger.
Trowa didn't bother to answer. He could obviously tell that Wufei had figured it out.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice as still and steady as he could make it.
Trowa let out a sigh that sounded shaky, and rubbed one hand over his face. "I was in a car accident two years ago," he admitted. Wufei felt his stomach lurch, and had to fight to keep sitting down. "I have pure retrograde amnesia."
Amnesia. Trowa had amnesia, and he didn't remember Wufei at all.
