Oasis

by Banshi

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Part Two

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Wufei was furious. Quatre's security team was made up of excitable idiots, they wouldn't know a security risk if it bit them in the assess. Quatre had been missing for two weeks before Wufei gave up on getting to his friend's personal files through proper channels and just broke into the Winner estate. Rashid helped, which Wufei was ultimately grateful for. The man's knowledge of Quatre's habits and thinking were invaluable while they were hacking into the blonde's computer.

There wasn't much in the files to help Wufei with his search. Nothing of a personal nature beyond collections of data about things he had an interest in. Wufei made a list of those topics, in case there were specific locations associated with them. Then he turned his attention to the actual rooms where Quatre lived.

It struck him how there weren't personal touches from Quatre's life after the age of twelve. Nothing from the years preceding the war, and nothing from after the war. It was as if this place had become for show after the Gundams had been built.

For some reason this disturbed Wufei more than the disappearance did. He was fairly sure that Quatre had kidnapped himself, he was more worried about why. Quatre wasn't the type to leave his responsibilities without making sure that they would be taken care of.

It was with that thought in mind that Wufei began searching Quatre's study, looking for an actual paper trail instead of an electronic one. He found Quatre's journals before long, but spent the next few hours debating whether or not to look through them. He was sure that anything important had disappeared with the Winner heir. Still, they were Quatre's journals! Rashid made sure that Wufei got out of the house just before the special security detail came back. Wufei took the three volumes of journal with him.

They sat on the coffee table along with all of Quatre's last communications, mocking him.

"We hold the key," they whispered. "We'll tell you where he went," they promised.

It still wasn't enough to convince him to read them, but his mind toyed with the possibilities. He didn't like most of them, and he liked others too much.

Wufei did his normal evening routine, except that he was glaring at a stack of books every few moments.

By the time he was brushing his teeth before bed, he had decided how to deal with the sensitive information. He would look in the journals only as a last resort. Only if he couldn't find Quatre any other way.

The decision made, he felt much better. He even dropped off to sleep quickly after lying down, which hadn't happened since he left L4 after visiting with Quatre.

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Sitting on the small stone wall that surrounded his home, Quatre watched night descend upon the desert. His mind wandered, flowing like the shifting sands. The winds of his thoughts built sand dunes of ideas within his mind. He found the metaphor comforting, as if a piece of himself belonged here, was recognized as belonging. Space, and the colony would always be home, but something about the desert called to him in a deep, undeniable way.

Quatre sighed, not sure if he was feeling content or just more agitated. What did it say about a place that it could elicit both reactions at the same time. As the darkness hit, Quatre went inside and let the everyday thoughts return. Including the ones that he had been trying to get rid of.

He had been kicking himself for the better part of the day, after he had finally finished unpacking. He had put everything away, and noticed that the space on his bookshelves that he had set aside for his journals was still empty. He had torn his house apart looking for the six volumes of his handwritten secrets. They weren't anywhere on his property, so he hadn't remembered to bring them this time.

The thought that someone would be going through his things, would find the books, was terrifying. He had nearly gotten back on the shuttle to go and rescue the precious books. Only the thought of how hard it would be to escape again had stopped him. He just had to hope that someone who cared about his privacy would find them first.

Still, he missed the feel of the old leather under his fingertips, the run of his pen over the paper as he wrote what only he was allowed to know. Quatre knew that he was an open person by nature, that his empathy made him more open than others and that people would assume that it was alright to read his private thoughts.

It was not alright! Even with the empathy, Quatre wasn't so open that he didn't have thoughts and feelings that he wanted to keep to himself.

It was the first time in a long time that Quatre had asked the higher powers for anything. Today he asked, begged and pleaded really, that an understanding friend find and hide his journals. He knew that if Serviay had found them, he'd know it in a couple of days. It would be difficult to miss the tabloid headlines.

Quatre turned on the lights in his "study", the east corner of the great room, and lit a fire in the fireplace. Making his dinner and checking the goings-on in the universe had become his evening ritual over many vacations. Tonight was no different.

Tonight, when he read the news articles on his disappearance, he found out that Serviay had indeed called in the Preventers. Along with the article was a clear photograph of the Preventer assigned to the case coming out of the field office. Quatre's heart skipped a beat, as it always did when he saw Wufei in the Preventer uniform. Then his heart stopped completely when he saw what Wufei was carrying under his right arm.

Three leather-bound journals mocked him from the computer screen as they traveled home with the last man in the universe that Quatre wanted to have access to them.

Wufei was within his rights to read the journals, as head investigator, and Wufei was nothing if not thorough. If Wufei read them, it was a very real possibility that Quatre would never get to speak to the other man ever again. Quatre didn't know what he would do if Wufei knew the truth of his thoughts and feelings over the last few years. The rage-filled rant that he had written after the battle with Marimea would be the least of the damning evidence against the rock of his friendship for the other pilots, and Wufei in particular.

All it would take was the whisper of a hint of a suggestion that Quatre hadn't forgiven him for Wufei to withdraw forever. Quatre didn't know what he would do without the Preventer's understanding and the lost boy's insight that he found in his friend.

His mind careened into chaos as he fought not to think of the consequences. Wufei would respect his privacy. All other avenues had to dry up before Wufei would read his journals... he hoped.

Quatre got to work making sure that all other avenues most certainly didn't dry up. The trick would be to keep Serviay and Rashid out of the loop without making Wufei lie.

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continued in part three