Disclaimers: I do not own Gundam Wing - only the storyline.

Author's Note: For those of you who got up to chapter six before I reposted, the roles played by Milliardo and Noin have been cast with original characters of mine - Anthony and Windoran. They are much more suited to the roles than Milliardo and Noin. Don't worry folks, I'll bring those two back in somewhere along the line. For those of who you are first-time readers, enjoy! I'm also looking to change the name of this fic to something more...catchy. If any of you have any ideas, drop me a line.

Pushing My Luck

Chapter Seven

I stepped back and stared.

There was a girl in front of me. And she had wings. Not like little bat wings. Like giant, feathered wings, white as snow.

This was some weird shit.

"Are you alright?" she asked me, concern in her voice.

I nodded, swaying on the spot. "Yeah..." My voice trailed off as the blood continued to pound through my ears. By this point, I was looking pretty crappy – my nose was bleeding freely and my arm ached like hell where I'd fallen on it. I was still holding onto my gun, which was a good thing, but just barely. I knew that I wouldn't be able to defend myself should anything else come along, but at this point, I was just glad to be out of the immediate danger zone.

I fell to my knees on the ground, glad to still have the ability to draw breath. The stars came back, dancing in front of my eyes, and I dropped my gun, shutting my eyelids to the world and waiting for the moment to pass. It did.

When I opened my eyes again, she was still there – minus the wings. I raised an eyebrow and then shook my head. No way was I going to ask. Too weird for me. I glanced around, searching for Wufei. He was slumped against the wall again, still unconscious. I checked his pulse and it was faint, but at least it was there. I cursed. We couldn't even take him to a hospital. It would be too risky should they decide to do a background check on him. I bent over and scooped him up into my arms. I'd have to carry him.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and flinched, shifting Wufei into one arm and reaching for the gun that I no longer had. I staggered back toward the wall and almost tripped over the sidewalk. The girl reached out a hand to steady me, and I let her. Really, at this point, I had no other option.

"Who are you?" I asked weakly. I really just wanted to go home and forget that this had ever happened.

"I'm Hilde." She smiled at me softly, and her blue eyes shone in the dim light.

I sighed. "I mean...what are you?"

She shrugged. "An angali. Like an angel."

I snorted weakly. "Sure you are."

She shrugged fluidly and ran a hand through her short dark hair. "Choose to believe what you wish."

"Assuming that I'm going to buy that story, what kind of angel? From heaven?" Wufei was beginning to get heavy and I shifted his weight in my arms, to no avail. For some reason, though, the answer to this question seemed very important.

She shook her head. "No. Not like that. It's a little different."

I frowned and felt Wufei stir, heard him mutter something incoherent. Q and A time was over. I needed to get him somewhere safe. The girl seemed to have picked up on my thoughts, because she said, "Let's get out of here. There might be more of them in the area." She then reached over and plucked Wufei from my grasp, holding him as if he weighed no more than a pillow. "I'll take him. You're injured."

I nodded feebly, not up to arguing with her.

As we trudged through the streets, I became increasingly paranoid. This was some serious shit. We'd just been attacked, Wufei was in critical condition, I was all banged up, and an angel, a freaking angel, was carrying my comrade home.

We walked quickly, avoiding the shadows and the crowded streets. Really, there was nowhere I'd rather be right now than in the hubbub of the city with plenty of lights and witnesses around, but carrying Wufei through a crowd in his condition didn't really seem like a good idea. Too many questions would be asked.

We weren't too far from the school now; I could see the lights up ahead. As we approached the grounds, I began to relax, though only a little. We weren't quite there yet.

When we finally passed through the gates and trudged up to the steps, I was exhausted. I fumbled to pick the lock to the dorms, taking ten seconds longer than usual. My vision was getting a little fuzzy, probably because of the severe beating my cerebral cortex had sustained not twenty minutes before.

We trudged back upstairs and to my room. Wufei's single dorm was nice, but not if I had to sleep on the floor and watch over him. Heero wasn't home anyway; it was just safer this way.

Once in the room, the angel, Hilde she'd said her name was, laid Wufei onto Heero's bed. His brow creased, but he remained silent. I sat down on my bed and sighed, wiping some of the dried blood from my nose.

"Do you have a first aid kit?" Hilde asked softly. I nodded and padded into the bathroom to retrieve it. When we'd first moved in, we'd all gotten together and compiled one of the best first aid kits I'd ever seen in my life. It had everything we needed...but right now, I wasn't so sure it would do Wufei any good.

I brought it out and handed it to Hilde, who opened it, surveying the contents before getting to work. She took off Wufei's shirt and surveyed his chest; there were only minor cuts and scratches which she easily cleaned and bandaged. His back, however, had severe lacerations that took more time to tend to. His breathing was a little better now, less ragged, but I was still worried. "There's not a lot that I can do for his breathing," Hilde stated softly as she finished patching him up. "Remember to change the bandaging on his back. Those cuts are pretty severe."

"What the hell did that?" I asked wonderingly.

"Probably the vampire. Their grip is strong, and if you friend struggled, he was probably sliced open by the vampire's nails. They seem to enjoy that kind of physical torture." She said no more as she cleaned and bandaged his arm. When she was finished, she lifted back the sheets of the bed and took off his pants. I almost laughed at the thought of Wufei's expression should he wake up now.

When she was finished, she laid the covers over him and turned to me. "How are you?"

I shrugged. "I can take care of myself."

She handed me a tissue from inside the magic medicine box. "Your nose is bleeding again."

"Thanks," I mumbled, taking the tissue from her.

"You know, I'd thought you'd be different, from the description I got."

My head snapped around. "What do you mean? You've heard of us?"

She nodded, smiling slightly. "You're all rather famous in our world. Especially now."

I frowned. "Oh." I didn't really like the sound of that at all. I didn't want to be famous. And especially not in another world.

We both remained silent for a moment. For the first time, I looked at her. I mean, really looked at her. I was stunned to see that she was about the same age as me. Her figure was slight; he had dark, short hair that was a little longer in front and famed her face, and her eyes were a sea blue. She was pretty. I shook myself. No time for that.

"Why are you here?" I asked quietly.

"I was sent to protect you," she answered softly. "We call ourselves angali. It comes from the world angel...but we're not that kind of angels. We're more like protectors."

"What are you, then?"

"We are the children of mortals and vampires." She bowed her head. "When a vampire fathers a child to a mortal, the result is what you see before you. It seems to be the natural balance of good versus evil."

I shrugged. "Okay. Whatever." This was still pretty weird for me. "So why were you there?"

She shrugged. "As I said before, I was sent to protect you."

I snorted. "Lady, there's not much that you can protect me from, or any one of us, for that matter." I managed a small grin. "We chose this for ourselves."

"Not the vampire part."

"No, not the vampire part," I said wearily, rubbing my face with my hands. Something suddenly popped into my mind. "What happened to the other vampire? The one that was attacking me?"

"I sent him away," she said simply. It was as if that was the answer to everything. Gee, Duo, what happened to all those OZ troops? I told them to go away or else. Ha.

"What do you mean, sent them away?" I asked. "You just asked them to step back? What, did you invite them over for tea later, too?"

She glared at me. "No. I used my power against him to get him to leave."

"What kind of power?" I asked. "You actual power over vampires? You ask them to leave and they do? I didn't think they'd do what you say. I thought you guys were...well...counter balances or whatever."

"We are," she said, her gaze not leaving mine, her voice forceful. "Each angali has that type of power over only one vampire in the world. He just happens to be mine."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why? That doesn't strike me as a very consistent system. What do you do, pick the vampire you want to get rid of?"

She shook her head and looked at the floor. "No. We can't decide. It just is the way it is. There is a specific vampire for every angali, appointed at our birth."

"How does that work?" This was suddenly getting interesting.

She spoke softly. "He's my father."

I sat back, shocked. "What do you mean?"

"What I said. In the vampire society, their policy about breeding with mortals is 'don't'. Completely understandable, when you think about it." She shifted on the bed as if suddenly uncomfortable, and a long silence reigned over us. She finally spoke. "I have to go." She stood and opened the door.

At that point, I was too weirded out to do anything but watch her. Finally, my brain kicked in and told me to say something. "Hey, um...so thanks for your help." I didn't really know what to say to her. "Um...well...yeah, thanks. Really."

She stopped and chuckled. "Don't act so nervous. I'm just glad you're both okay." She winked at me and disappeared behind the door. "I'm sure we'll meet again," I heard her say in the hallway as the door closed behind her.

Something came to mind and I leaped to my feet, tearing the door to the hallway open. Shockingly enough, no one was there. And we're talking about a big ass hallway here. I mean, you could run it and still take at least ten seconds to get to the end of it. So she had done a serious vanishing act. I shook my head. All I'd wanted to know was the vampire's name...

The next morning when I woke up, Wufei was still asleep. I decided not to wake him up and skip school altogether. Not that class wasn't important...I snorted at the thought. And I'd thought I could do that with a straight face...

Really, though, I was tired from last night and my brain felt like it was leaking out of my skull. Plus, I wanted to keep an eye on Wufei. I'd figure out an excuse to give to the teachers later.

I went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. As I stepped in and began to wash my hair, I started to think about the night before. About Hilde. She'd seemed so...nice. Hm. Then again, I was still totally weirded out by the whole angali thing. It was...well...weird.

Rinsing my hair out felt good. There was still some dried blood there where my skull had hit the asphalt one too many times, and it was sticking to my scalp and beginning to pull at my hair. Nasty.

Once I was finished, I pulled on the clothes I'd brought into the bathroom with me; normally I dressed in my room, but for some reason, whenever someone was in the room, they had the most annoying habit of catching me off guard. That is to say, literally with my pants down.

As I brushed my teeth, I walked back out into the room and saw that Wufei was still asleep, though he was in a different position than he had been when I'd left him. He would wake up soon. Grabbing my hairbrush off the desk, I went back into the bathroom to spit and rinse and all that junk. I began to tug the brush through my hair and went out to sit on the bed as I did so.

Wufei began to stir and I waited patiently for him to wake up. As his eyes fluttered open, I saw confusion register in them. "Where am I?" he mumbled incoherently.

I winked at him. "Thanks for last night, baby. You were great."

He sighed and closed his eyes again. "I've died and gone to hell."

"Naw, nothing that bad," I said, grinning. "You just got strangled half to death and carried home by a pretty lady. She also partially undressed you, if that makes you feel any better." I began to braid my hair.

"It doesn't. And you're not funny."

I smirked. "Oh, but I know for a fact that I am."

"And who told you that?" he asked in a tone that clearly said that he was in no mood for play.

"Your mom."

"Ha. The humor continues." He sat up slowly and looked around until he found the glass of water I'd set on the nightstand. After taking a couple of swallows, he looked at me and spoke again. "So what happened last night?" His voice was still a little hoarse.

I related the details to him, and he raised an eyebrow when I told him about Hilde. However, he had the decency to wait until I'd finished to make any comment. And boy, did he comment.

"What do you mean, wings?"

I shrugged. "Giant, feathery wings. Angel wings. Or Pegasus wings." He raised an eyebrow at me and I continued. "Well, they weren't buffalo wings."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. And what is this woman, anyway?"

I smirked. "More like girl. She calls herself an angali. The counterbalance of a vampire."

"Oh." Wufei sounded deep in thought. I knew he was listening – he was just processing the information he'd received over the past fifteen minutes. He'd have an answer for me soon.

But instead of responding quickly as I'd hoped, he swung his legs out of bed and stood shakily. "I need a shower. And food." He looked at me piercingly. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

I shrugged again and put my hands behind my head, raising an eyebrow at him pointedly. "Shouldn't you?"

He rolled his eyes and went into the bathroom without another word.

I grinned. Bugging him was just too easy.

After Wufei took his shower, we managed to get away from the school to eat. Eating in the cafeteria didn't seem like a good idea, since I'd told the teachers that I was sick and that Wufei had a family emergency. We'd gotten a transmission earlier that morning that the guys would be back the next day. That actually came as kind of a relief – it meant that they were alive, and also that we'd stop looking so suspicious. Hell, we were sure to stand out if we were always absent at the same time.

The sun was exceptionally bright today, and it was beginning to warm up. Finally, summer was approaching. It would be nice to get out of our jackets and stuff and feel some warmth. Then again, that would just make it harder to hide our guns...and boy, I sure was not going anywhere without one of those anymore.

We stopped at a fast food restaurant and ordered some burgers. Wufei had initially scoffed at the idea, and had actually put up quite a fight...

"It's disgusting."

I sighed. "It is not. Lots of people eat it, and you don't see them writhing around on the ground in agony."

"They're used to that crap," he said, one eyebrow raised, nostrils flared in what could only be repulsion to the smell oozing from the facility.

"Come on, man, what's so bad about it?"

He snorted. "It's ground up meat-slash-meat by-products, frozen up and then fried on the same grill as hundreds of other burgers. The fries are drenched in oil. Then everything is wrapped up in grubby paper and fed to us on plastic trays with solidified ketchup flaking off into the real ketchup. The drink variety ranges from tasteless to sugar blast." He paused, to draw breath, I think, before finishing with, "It's just not natural."

I winked. "Come on, man, it's only like three bucks for a combo! That's value."

"Value is real food for real money. The only way that this could be considered good value would be if I was paying a negative amount with Monopoly money."

At this, I chuckled. "I see your good humor has returned."

He glared at me, ignoring my comment. "I will not eat this slop."

I shrugged. "Fine. I was going to pay for yours, but...suit yourself." I began to open the door, and was a little surprised to see that it wouldn't budge. I kept pushing until some unseen force came up beside me and knocked my hand out of the way before yanking the door open. Wufei pointed to the "pull" sign clearly displayed below the handle.

I scowled. "It's not like I'm totally incompetent or anything..." I muttered.

Wufei ignored me and followed me inside. "I'll have the number three combo. Medium."

I grinned. "I knew you'd come around, Wu-man."

We walked past me, pushing me off balance without even touching me. As I staggered around and tried not to look too spastic, I saw him head toward the bathroom. So I did what any mature member of society would do when embarrassed by a comrade – I flipped him off.

Once I'd ordered and paid, I took our trays and sat down in a booth facing the window out to the street. I liked watching the people walk by. It almost made me feel...well, normal.

Wufei soon slid into the booth beside me and I stood, grabbing the cups and going to fill them up. I filled mine up with normal coke...Wufei's would be a surprise. I debated whether or not to get him the pink raspberry drink for a moment before deciding to mix them all together. Payback for his little fit about fast food.

I sat back down in the booth and handed Wufei his drink before proceeding to unwrap my burger and tear into it. After a couple of bites, I realized that we were in serious need of napkins, so I went back to the counter to get some. When I got back, Wufei was staring into space, chewing slowly, and looking altogether thoughtful.

"Whatcha thinking about, Wu?" I asked around a mouthful of fries. When he didn't reply, I shrugged and picked up my drink, taking a sip.

Once the soda hit my mouth, I did my best not to gag, and almost succeeded. "Jesus," I said loudly. "What the..." My voice trailed off as I noticed that Wufei was smirking.

"I know you too well to leave you alone with my food," he said, sipping at his coke...my coke.

I sneered at him. "Well, for your information, this mix suits me just fine," I said haughtily.

As we ate, I told him more about the information that I'd found in the little book he'd presented to me the week before. I was still studying it. Hell, it was interesting stuff, now that it was actually life-threatening.

"This guy, Ubithe," I said, taking another sip of what I'd dubbed the rainbow surprise, "He seems to be a pretty shady character."

"How so?"

"Well," I continued, "he seems to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. He was only just in his thirties. He was supposed to be the best leader the Chosen ever had, and he just vanished. He had so much power, was making so much progress. Why leave that?"

"Maybe he got tired," Wufei suggested with a shrug.

I leaned back in my seat and stared out the window. "I don't think that's it. He's recorded as having a passion for the work. The way I understood it, the people under him feared him. He was unnecessarily cruel at times, and the Chosen still respected him. They loved the guy. Why leave all that power behind?"

Wufei narrowed his eyes in thought. "I don't know. He must have had his reasons."

I shook my head. "That just doesn't make sense to me. It had to have been some drastic change to make him give all that up."

"Whatever happened, it happened. Let's just focus on the present," Wufei said, effectively terminating the conversation.

"Yeah, fine..."

We finished the meal in silence, and only after I had rolled my burger wrapper into the tiniest ball possible did I grab the trays and empty them in the trash. As I sat back down in the booth, Wufei made a face.

"I feel like I just ate a pound of lard."

"Yeah, feels good, doesn't it Wu..." I trailed off as something outside the window caught my eye. That girl. I'd seen that girl before...

Hilde.

"That's her," I said, jumping up and rushing toward the door.

Wufei followed, a bewildered look on his face. "Who?"

"The girl from last night, man," I said, pushing the door open and stepping out into the streaming sunlight. It blinded me temporarily, but I didn't care about letting my eyes adjust, and as a result, I bumbled around and almost fell off the curb and into the street. That didn't matter, though; I had to follow her.

I walked hurriedly down the street, Wufei close behind me. He didn't ask any more questions, and I figured that he'd understood.

I searched through the throng of people and finally caught a glimpse of her – she was in a nice, white button up blouse and pair of black slacks. I smirked. "Corporate girl," I muttered to myself, picking up my pace.

We followed her for about five blocks before she turned a corner and was lost to all sight. I hurried after her, and when I got to the corner, I looked down it to see an alleyway, a short one. The only thing there was a dumpster overflowing with debris. No one was there.

"Are you sure it was this one?" Wufei asked quietly.

"Positive," I said, moving forward slowly. Ahead of me was a brick wall, just after the dumpster. I reached it and laid a hand on it, as if I thought that it would give me an answer, or anything but the dead end we'd just reached. It didn't.

"There's no one here, man," I said turning around. Suddenly, I heard a click and stopped short. There she was, behind the dumpster with a gun in her hand. And it was aimed at me.

I put my hands up and grinned. That's right. Turn on the charm.

"Hey, babe! Is that a gun in your hand, or are you just happy to see me?" I winked at her, and it had the desired effect. She rolled her eyes and lowered her gun as she stepped out from behind the dumpster.

"You shouldn't be following me like that. I thought you were the enemy." She raised her other hand, which I now saw had a paper coffee cup in it, and took a sip of whatever mocha-freaka-latte drink it contained.

"Well, shoot." I scratched the back of my head and grinned. "How come I always get pegged as the bad guy?"

Wufei rolled his eyes and stepped forward. "Excuse him. He's not in his right mind."

As I shot him a glare, she stepped forward and smiled at him. "I know. We've met. Glad to see you're doing better."

Wufei merely nodded at her. It was his cute little way of saying thanks. Like talking would kill him. Geez.

I shrugged my shoulders in my jacket, feeling the urge to take it off. And reveal my arsenal? Nothing doing. "Could we go somewhere to talk?" I asked.

She sighed. "I suppose we should." She turned and started walking back out toward the street. I shrugged at Wufei, and he nodded as a sign that we should follow suit.

Well. Finally we'd get some answers.