"Come on Wu-man! For me?"
"No, Maxwell, I refuse! And you aren't going to make any headway using that name. My name is Wufei, not Wu-man. Got it?" Wufei stormed down the hallway in Preventer's Headquarters, his face seeming to be permanently set in a scowl. "I will not be saddled with some useless onna of a man who can barely fight off two people."
"But we were armed, Wuwu," Duo whined, his voice starting to rise to a pitch that grated severely on Wufei's sensitive nerves.
"Weak, all of them weak." Wufei muttered under his breath. He looked up and skidded to a sudden halt, causing Duo to crash into him from behind. He whipped his head around to glare at the braided man, hissing, "Baka!"
"A little warning next time might be helpful." Duo said lightly, grinning his insane smile. Wufei merely shook his head as he looked at what caused him to stop.
Sally Po was standing directly in front of him with his greatest problem next to her. At least he's out of that stupid hospital gown. Gabriel shifted nervously, a small duffle bag in hand and dressed in what looked to be one of Trowa's turtlenecks and jeans. He was watching Wufei, his apprehension written clearly on his face. Baka onna. Wufei's frown deepened as he met Sally's eyes.
"Po, with all due respect, I must refuse." His voice was cold and controlled. Sally narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"Fine, Chang. You're going to make me do this the hard way. As I am the ranking officer in this situation, I order you to open your house to Carter. No arguments."
Wufei growled in the back of his throat, causing Duo to back away slightly and Gabriel's shifting to increase. Sally continued, her tone threatening. "That's an order, Chang. And if I hear one word about this man being mistreated, you will be held responsible and penalized accordingly. Is that clear, Chang?"
If you hear anything, it won't be from this man or me, since I am the only one who can understand him. Wufei thought, but aloud he merely nodded with a muttered, "Affirmative."
Sally nodded with ill-concealed smug satisfaction. "Good. Take him with you now. Get him some more clothes a good meal. I know you're an exceptional cook, though you try and hide it. Duo, could I have a word with you please?" With that, she and Duo walked off down the hallway, leaving two very uncomfortable men standing alone.
They stood for an inestimable amount of time, each sizing the other up, one with annoyance and the other with a frightened wariness. Wufei heaved a sigh at last and turned away, gesturing for Gabriel to follow him. He had finished work for the day and decided now was the best time to get the onna-man (a term he decided was fitting of the hapless Carter) home and situated and out of his way as soon as possible. Gabriel shuffled after him, his eyes darting from side to side when they left the main Preventers' building.
Wufei barely noticed Gabriel had stopped following him until he reached his car, his furious silent ranting somehow preventing his natural awareness of what was happening around him.
"Nani?!" he practically yelled, whirling around in shock. Gabriel wasn't there and Wufei scanned the nearby area frantically until he spotted a figure darting in out from behind cars in the lot. He smiled to himself smugly. There was no way the onna-man could get away from him that easily. He broke out into a run, cutting across the lot diagonally in an intercept course. I piloted Nataku in the war, I am a Captain in the Preventers, there is no way this onna is going to escape me. Especially not when I've been given orders to take care of him.
~*~*~*~
Gabriel didn't know why he was running away from Wufei. Okay, maybe that was a lie. He knew exactly why he was running from the man, he just couldn't put it into words. There was something he'd forgotten in the Preventers' building, something which called to him, something that had been calling to him the second he woke up earlier that day bound to a table and sporting a lovely hospital gown. Now, he knew it was imperative to get it back, for how could they possibly know the power of what they had in there? He himself had only been given a small taste of what that thing was capable of and look what happened to him. Though he knew little about it, it was a far cry more than what they knew and would be safer in his hands. He gritted his teeth, giving up trying to the ducking and weaving aversion and headed straight in the direction of the building. Almost there…
"HYAAAAAHHH!" Gabriel's running halted as his was thrown bodily to the ground, his breath knocked out of him. There was a heavy weight on his back, and, with a small groan, he turned his head to look up at his assailant. Wufei crouched right in the small of his back, staring down at him with a delighted smirk.
"Weak woman." He said in a pleased voice. Gabriel frowned and without warning heaved himself to his feet, effectively dislodging Wufei who easily flipped through the air and landed on his feet gracefully.
"Let me go back to the building." Gabriel panted, holding his elbow gingerly, sore from where it had smashed against the pavement.
Wufei raised one of his finely shaped eyebrows. "And tell me, why should I let you do that? We are going to my house where you'll…"
"I need to go back in the building…now." Gabriel insisted, interrupting the Chinese man. Wufei merely smirked at him. Gabriel decided to try again, a different approach this time. Looking at some point over Wufei's shoulder, he widened his eyes and gasped in apparent fear. Wufei spun around to see what was behind him. Gabriel took the opportunity to sprint the last few feet to the doorway of the Preventer's head quarters.
Wufei spun back around in time to see the door close. "Kuso!"
Gabriel ran down the hallways, definitely lost, though he was trying his best to remember where Sally Po had taken him shortly before he and she met up with Wufei. It had definitely seemed like it would be her office, and right now it was his best bet if he wanted to find her or her location. He spotted a hallway to the left that looked somewhat familiar which he took. Just as Gabriel spotted the door leading to Sally's office, he heard a familiar swish in the air, followed by a "HYAAAAAHHH!" His only thought before being knocked to the floor was, 'Not again.'
~*~*~*~
Wufei caught sight of Gabriel running towards Sally's office. Oh no you don't. He catapulted himself through the air once more, his feet making contact with Gabriel's unprotected back. Baka onna.
However, what happened next caught Wufei totally unprepared. As Gabriel crashed towards the ground, one arm reached back and clasped Wufei's ankle, setting him off balance and sending him headlong to the ground as well. Having been caught off guard, Wufei landed hard on his back. He was ready to get back up in an instant, but before he was able to a fist smashed into his face. He blinked in surprise, barely fending off the next fist in time. Gabriel was already up and straddling Wufei's middle, his arms flailing wildly as he tried to punch the living daylights out of the black haired man. He was muttering in a constant stream, in the language Wufei didn't understand. Not that he was trying to understand it at all at the moment. No, he was having a hard enough time defending his nose from the onslaught of fists. It wasn't the best of times to become a linguist.
As the attack continued, Wufei felt some cool and calm part of his mind, the part that had kept him alive all those years during the wars, kick into action. He timed the blows before deciding to grab both of the wrists in his hands. Gabriel's eyes opened wide in surprise as the Chinese man pulled him down as though to kiss him. But, it was decidedly not a kiss Wufei intended to deliver as he whipped his head up and smashed it against Gabriel's. He released the man's wrists, watching interestedly as he fell back, clutching at his nose. Gabriel rolled away, still nursing his rapidly bruising face and Wufei stood, smirking triumphantly once again.
His victory was short lived when once again he was brought to the floor, this time by Gabriel kicking a foot out and forcing him to lose balance. As soon as Wufei hit the floor Gabriel attacked in a flurry of punches. Wufei grunted in pain as one of the fists broke through his defenses, catching him on his cheekbone. That's it. I've had enough of this.
With that final thought, Wufei turned to the offensive with a clean uppercut, connecting directly with Gabriel's chin. As he fell back again, Wufei took the time to attack with his own onslaught of punches, mostly open palmed directed towards Gabriel's nose. This went on for a while, until Gabriel brought his knee directly up into Wufei's stomach in an attempt to knock the wind out of him, before trying to shake the Chinese man off.
Wufei had other plans though. He latched onto the other man's upper arms, and Gabriel winced. Wufei smirked slightly, knowing the red head would have bruises where he'd been grabbed. Gabriel brought his knee up again and again, his hands hard at work pounding the best they could against Wufei's unprotected sides.
So intent on their fight that neither man noticed a door open nearby, until Duo's amused voice cut through the ruckus they were making, "Geez, Wufie, aren't you supposed to wait for nookie until the third date?"
As soon as the voice spoke, both men looked up in surprise. Wufei gaped at the newcomer, his face flushed with anger and embarrassment, relaxing his grip on Gabriel's arms slightly. Gabriel took advantage of this, yanking his arm free and slamming his fist one last time into Wufei's jawbone. Wufei jumped up and away from the redhead, reeling slightly. Duo and Sally were standing in her doorway, Duo's face split into a huge entertained grin, while Sally looked disappointed.
"Chang, I ordered this man not to be mistreated. What the hell happened?"
"He tried to escape. I had to stop him, and this was the only way how." Wufei explained, his voice slightly muffled as he staunched a nosebleed.
"Oooh, hot passionate sex on the floor of the Preventer's building, I should keep that in mind." Duo exclaimed gleefully, his violet eyes shining in excitement. Wufei rolled his eyes, the blood now flowing more thickly from his nasal cavity.(1) "No, Maxwell, we were not…couldn't you see…it was a fight!" Duo's shark grin grew even further in size.
"Oh, so that's what you call it, Wuwu. I was wondering, because I don't think I've ever heard you say the word sex before. Now I know what you mean by 'fighting.'" Wufei choked slightly, the blood now falling in a virtual Niagara Falls of crimson liquid.
"As much as I'm enjoying watching Chang lose a pint of his blood over this, I think we need to ask Carter here what he was thinking. What do you think, Chang?" Sally interrupted, her voice sounding slightly impatient.
Chang looked about to protest, but gave up and turned to Gabriel who was now sitting against the wall, gently touching the new bruise on his chin. "Carter, my superior wishes to know why you tried to get back into the building?"
~*~*~*~
Secretly, Gabriel was thankful Duo had interrupted when he had. True, he had been putting up a good fight, though he'd honestly never been really trained in self-defense or hand-to-hand combat, but his mettle had been up and he had felt invincible. And he knew that would have been a one way ticket to "Ass-kicking-ville," a trip he really rather didn't want to take. Besides, there was the more pressing matter at hand, which Sally had opened the subject to very nicely.
Gabriel stood on slightly unsteady legs, his body shaking from the remaining adrenaline still rushing through him, ignoring the satisfied smirk on Wufei's face when he saw his condition. He looked pointedly at Sally.
"I would like the medallion back, please." He said, hoping the tone of his voice brooked no room for protest. Wufei's eyes widened slightly as he relayed the request/demand. Sally smiled at Gabriel, responding with Wufei acting as their translator, of course.
"Why do you want it?"
"Because it cannot remain here."
"I think it would be safer for it to remain here until we learn more about it."
"That isn't the point. It would be better for it to be away from all of these people."
"Is it dangerous?"
"Possibly."
"Then we should destroy it."
Gabriel felt his heart almost stop, and he moved forward slightly, his eyes wide with fear. "No! You cannot!"
"Wouldn't that be the safest course of action?"
"As much as I would like to throw it into the deepest part of the ocean, there are many facts to consider. One, you cannot simply just destroy something you know nothing about. It could have some sort of reaction during the process that could end up in an apocalyptic disaster."
"Wufei, are you embellishing on this any?"
"No, ma'am. I am repeating what he's saying as closely as I possibly can."
"Very well. Continue with your explanation, Carter."
"Two, it may be a dangerous object that can actually be used in some way to benefit people. And three…"
"What's three then?"
"Yeah, Wu-man, stop staring at him like he's grown another head."
"Three is…it may be his only way of getting home. Where are you from, Carter?" Wufei crossed his arms, looking intently at Gabriel who blinked.
"What year is this?"
Wufei snorted. "AC 201."
"What is AC?" Gabriel asked, blinking at the unfamiliar title.
"Don't tell me you don't know what AC is."
"I know BC, or BCE, if you want to be 'p.c'(2), and AD. But, AC is something I am not familiar with, no." Gabriel said shrugging.
"It means 'After Colony.' We stopped using the AD a long time ago." Wufei explained. Gabriel still felt lost.
"You are going to have explain all of this to me, but not right now. Right now, I need that medallion. It is the only way I can get home."
"What the hell are you talking about, Carter?" Wufei asked impatiently, "Where is your home?"
"It's not so much as where my home is, but when." Carter glanced at Duo and Sally's confused expressions, as neither had understood much of the recent conversation, before looking back at the irritated Wufei. He sighed resignedly. "I am not from your time. I come from a time when that statue in the riverbed was still standing upright with her torch. In fact, when I woke up this morning, I was in the middle of the Sahara Desert in Egypt on an archaeological dig, in the year 1995 AD."(3)
(1) Anyone who knows anything about anime knows that anime males have thinner tissues in their nasal cavities. These tissues tear quite easily, and this most often occurs whenever the males become sexually aroused. Wufei seems like the sort of character who is very conscious of any little innuendos thrown his way. ^_^
(2) BCE is another way of saying before AD, and is considered a "pc" (politically correct) term, because it doesn't incorporate the word Christ in there anywhere (I have my own issues with this, but that story is for another day.)
(3) Why 1995? I don't know why. It just seemed like a good year to use. Nothing too close to where we are now, nothing too far back, so Gabriel's speech sounds normal based on the time setting he's from. I was considering having him come from the sixties, but then I was afraid I would mess something up, and it would become totally ridiculous, so he's from the nineties, and that's how it is!
A/N: Whew. That was a tough one to get out. But it's done, and I apologize if the fight scene seemed too technical to read (hey, it was my first really violent scene I've ever written, and those of you who've read my other fanfic, those scenes are a different kind of violence. It's much easier to describe people pointing wands and screaming "Avada Kedavra" and all that nonsense.) Okay, I'm hoping that I'll get more chapters out really soon, so just bear with me. Until then, read and enjoy! ^_^