Warnings and Disclaimers: I'm intentionally skewing Scotland's geography; after all, it's a couple centuries in the future. Can't still be a national preserve if the nation's been dissolved…
Wufei ordered Yu to stay right where he was, then raced up the stairs to throw together a couple of travel bags for the two of them. Thankfully, the pilots always traveled as light as they could, so there wasn't much to put together beyond clothing, weapons, and a few medical supplies. About to leave the room, an afterthought struck him, and he dashed back to grab Maxwell's music. The braided boy could always just burn himself more cds, but he would be grateful that the effort had been made.
He met up with the American on the way back down the stairs, who had a couple bags of his own slung over his slender shoulders. Yuy seemed to have been taking care of everything downstairs, beneath the wide eyes of the pale-faced young boy on the couch, while Barton was undoubtedly still upstairs taking care of his and Winner's things.
Wufei brushed Yu's shoulder with a reassuring hand as he rushed through the living room and out the front door. The vehicle of choice for this mission happened to be a nondescript minivan, and he opened up the back and tossed the bags inside. The other three pilots came out as he was going back inside, carrying the rest of their luggage.
There was just one more thing. Yu started to ask him a question, but stopped when the Chinese teenager shook his head and held out his arms. "Later, once we're safe. It'll be easier if I carry you out."
To his credit, he didn't argue, simply nodding and sliding himself to the edge of the couch. Wufei slipped one arm behind Yu's back and the other beneath his knees; with a quick shifting of his weight, he was holding the slender boy to his chest. "You need to eat more," he told him, blinking in surprise at just how little his friend weighed.
Yu blushed, looking away. "I'm sorry..."
Wufei sighed. "Don't make me hit you again. It's not your fault. You were already half-starved when we found you. Six days isn't nearly long enough to make a difference." He carefully maneuvered the recumbent boy through the doorway. Maxwell was waiting in the darkness outside the door, and as soon as they'd passed he shut the door and locked it. Then the braided boy hurried ahead of them to open the van's door so Wufei could slide his burden inside until he was supported by Barton on the other side.
The pilot clambered in after him as Maxwell slipped into the passenger seat. "We're supposed to meet Q at the gundams," the American told his lover, who was just settling himself behind the wheel. "And then fly on out."
Yuy grimaced, but managed to keep his instinctive glance backwards to a mere flick of the eyes. That meant revealing the gundams to the newest member of their party. Not that they would mean anything to the amnesiac- the pilots had already established that mobile suits weren't among what little Yu Jie recalled- but even so, it went against the grain. "Did he say anything else?" he asked, turning over the engine.
Maxwell shook his head. "The message just said 'Enemy aware. Evacuate now, rendezvous base of operations'."
In the back seat, Wufei listened to the terse conversation as he finished buckling himself and Yu in. The British boy was silent, but his hands, clenched together in his lap so tightly his knuckles were white, shook ever so slightly.
Wufei's eyes widened as he realized how terrified the youth had to be. The pilots might not know much about what was going on, but they knew more than poor Yu Jie did, and on top of that had been trained to deal with situations like this. Appalled, he reached over and untangled the invalid's hands, taking one and curling his own hand around it protectively.
Startled, Yu looked up at him, his emerald eyes looking too big for his pale face, and the teenager did his best to look reassuring. "Hey, don't worry," he whispered. "I promised I'd look after you, didn't I?"
As the van pulled out of the drive, Wufei was gratified to see a tremulous smile pass over those beautiful lips.
It wasn't long before they were pulling out onto the nearest A-Road. The place where they had hidden the gundams was deep in the Trossachs Reserve, a good drive away from where they'd been hiding in Perth. They hadn't really been happy having the gundams that far away, but bringing them any closer without decent cover risked discovery.
"You should probably get some sleep," Wufei told his friend soon after. "It'll be a while before we get where we're going."
Yu gave him a skeptical look as the headlights of their fellow late-night travelers washed over the van's ceiling. "Sleep?" he whispered. "After all that?"
Up front, Maxwell stifled a lighthearted snicker, and the Chinese pilot quirked a miniscule grin. "The part to worry about is over," he whispered back. "Now it's just waiting."
"'Sides, if you don't get some sleep now you'll just be really tired later on when ya might need ta be awake." The braided boy glanced over his shoulder at them, his violet eyes serious for once. "Ya always have to think ahead."
"And you're still weak," Yuy said unexpectedly. "You need all the sleep you can get."
Wufei hid a delighted smile at that proof that their little group was beginning to accept Yu Jie. The Perfect Soldier himself was starting to join in on the mother-henning.
The amnesiac mock-pouted. "Well, if you're all going to gang up on me I suppose I might as well try." He slid down in his seat a bit, getting comfortable, and closed his eyes.
Duo wasn't at all surprised when, twenty minutes later when he looked in the mirror, he found the British boy's head had fallen to the side and now rested against Wufei's shoulder.
And Wufei, of course, didn't look like he minded one bit.
-
Quatre looked up with a relieved smile as he heard the muffled sound of a car engine. Praise Allah, he'd been afraid they wouldn't make it out in time… OZ hadn't known exactly where their safehouse was located, but they'd succeeded in accurately narrowing the search area to only a couple of square miles, and that was far too close. Quatre hadn't been sure he'd managed to get the warning out in time before the military cordoned off the area.
About a minute later, the van pulled into the clearing, its lights dark. The Arabian stepped out into the moonlight, out into sight, and almost immediately the van's left rear door opened. Trowa jumped out and strode towards him, his long legs eating up the distance between him and his lover.
Then Trowa's arms were around him, and Quatre was content.
-
"Status?" Heero asked, once he'd judged the two had spent long enough holding each other, and they reluctantly broke apart.
"Just some scrapes and bruises," the blonde answered with a slight smile. "But OZ had very nearly located the house, according to the transmission I picked up directed to the patrol I was following. I attacked to distract them, then retreated after I'd damaged them enough that they couldn't follow."
"Was your gundam damaged?"
"Minimally." Quatre glanced around at the little group. "We'd best be moving. It won't be long before they realize they've missed us and expand their search pattern again."
Duo nodded. "He's right." The American frowned. "So who's taking Jie-kun? I don't think there's room in my cockpit."
Wufei looked dismayed where he stood at the aforementioned boy's elbow. "Or in mine."
"I'll take him," Trowa said quietly. "The doctors had to design mine a bit larger." They all looked at his lean frame, easily the tallest of any of them, and understood.
"Cockpit?" Yu Jie asked curiously. The pilots exchanged glances, Duo grinning widely, and the braided boy took him by the arm as the others moved into the trees. The two of them followed, and Yu gaped at the sight before him.
Five enormous… machines stood there, draped with camouflage netting and sheltered by the crowns of the soaring trees. Duo stepped forward and pulled the netting off of one, revealing a forty-foot robot that gleamed a nearly unrelenting black. "Yu Jie, meet my buddy, Deathscythe."
The amnesiac stared up at the robot, having temporarily forgotten how to blink along with the rest of his memories. "I've never seen anything like it."
"It's called a gundam," Wufei replied quietly, once again by his side. "There are only five of them in existence."
"These five." It wasn't a question, but Wufei nodded anyway. The youth turned to look at him, his green eyes considering. "You're important," he guessed. "In the war. You're on the frontlines."
Wufei licked suddenly dry lips. He could hear the unspoken words attached to that. You kill. "Yes."
Yu Jie didn't say anything more, just looked at him with those enormous emerald eyes that the pilot found saw far too much for comfort. There was no condemnation in those eyes, and that was the only thing that kept his heart from breaking. But there was a great deal of confusion there, and apprehension.
Wufei knew with a chill down his spine that the question hadn't yet been resolved.
The silence grew into an uncomfortable almost immediately, until finally Trowa stepped forward to break it by taking the young amnesiac by the elbow. "We need to move, he stated flatly, seemingly unaffected by the tension in the air.
Quatre nodded, absently kneading his chest as though it pained him. "Meet at the London safehouse if you get separated. We'll move on from there."
Wufei couldn't watch as the European pilot led Yu Jie away towards his own gundam. Instead, he turned to Nataku and began pulling off the camouflage netting that kept her from being spotted by satellites. He tensed when a hand touched his arm, and looked up into his best friend's eyes.
"He's going to hate me now," he said matter-of-factly, yanking on the last of the nets with more force than was really necessary.
"No, he won't." Duo helped him fold up the netting so it could be packed away. "He likes you too much. He just needs some time to think."
"How do you know?" Wufei asked harshly, clenching his fists at his sides. "How do you know he won't-"
"Why do you care so much what he thinks?" the longhaired boy interrupted, still folding the nets. "Why does his opinion matter?" His voice was almost appallingly casual, as if they were merely chatting about the weather.
"Because…" Wufei stopped. Why did Yu Jie's opinion matter so much? Why did it feel like he was balancing on the edge of a precipice, and whatever the young Brit decided would tip him of off that precarious perch?
Because… because Yu was good, and kind, and beautiful, and in six days had made him feel more alive, more human, than he could ever before remember.
"Because I think I'm falling in love with him," the young man whispered, finishing the train of thought out loud as he stared down at the ground.
"And do you really think you could fall in love with someone who would hurt you like that?" When he looked up, Duo's face was calm and serious, though a tiny, knowing smile twitched at his lips.
"I…" Wufei took a deep breath. "No, I wouldn't."
Instantly the braided American was all smiles. "No, you wouldn't. So stop worrying, would ya? Just let him sort a few things out in his mind." He patted Wufei's shoulder sympathetically. "Don't worry, it'll turn out okay in the end."
Even with that reassurance, though, Wufei couldn't bring himself to look up when Heavyarms took off a couple of minutes later.
A/N: blinks Well. That's certainly the longest chapter I've ever written on this thing… Probably the oddest, as well. And with the most mood swings…
Our most sincere gratitude A lilmatchgirl, Bay, Blackrosebunny, bookfanatic84, Capricious Purple Clarity, Ch3rryphr34k, Chara13, Crysania Fay, donna ficfan, Eve of Destiny, Faerie Fighter, Fate (As far as I can tell… both words have both meanings. I guess it's a tone thing. grimaces), Firehedgehog, Fynne, HellsMaji, insanechildfanfic, Jenn Lynne, Jewelle2, jordan, jueru2003, Lady Cinnibar, lady sakura cosmos, Laughing Cat (Hopefully, more good 'Fei development), MaraWeaves, Maxennce, Mithros, Nefertiri Riddle, Night-Owl123, oracale, Persephone (My mind says bribery works, but my muse says no. I'm going to try to get at least a few words done on Melody next; hopefully, if I can get past this one scene I can get the rest done. And in a way, the answer's both.), Prongsblacks, Sarah R Potter, Shinigami's Shadow, silverkitkat (Once they have a chance to sit down and actually think about what he can remember things'll start happening), Sliver of Melody, Stary Day, Sweetest Thang, Toki Mirage, VB (snorts I'm already permanently attached to my computer at the hip. What more do you want? My hands strapped to the keyboard?), and Von for reviewing.
13 August 2005
