Disclaimer: you know the drill. I don't own the characters, not making any money off of this either.

Chapter Two

Wufei managed to finish the last of his reports in blessed silence. He loved holidays as there was no one else in the building but him and the security guards. After packing some papers into his briefcase, filing a few others, and setting the last ones in the proper in-boxes of his fellow Preventor office workers, he was ready to go. As Wufei turned back to his desk to grab his briefcase and coat, the door to the office opened.

"Well, well, well.." Sally Poe grinned, leaning against the door frame, "Look who's still at the office, and when there's a fabulous office party going on, too."

Wufei snorted, pulling on his soft leather jacket, "Get to the point, Sally."

"Just wondering what you're afraid of, Woofie." If she thought he would rise to the bait by her use of that hated nickname she was sadly disappointed.

"You know why I don't go. I dislike parties; too many people, too much loud, tasteless music, and too many would-be executives kissing Une's ass."

"Okay! Okay!" Sally let up, moving aside so he could pass, she then flicked the light switch to off and closed the door behind her before following him down the hall; he had learned long ago not to try using chivalry with her, she was far too independent.

"It wouldn't hurt you, thought," She continued mildly, "To be a little kinder to your friends. He's worried about you."

"Its none of his business," Wufei said, a little defensively.

"Still... " Sally shrugged. The elevator reached them quickly and they descended together. "What are you going to do tonight, then? Go home and do more paper work? Work yourself and others out of a job? A little pathetic, Wu."

"And that is none of your business," Wufei warned her. Sally may be his best friend but even she couldn't get away with making comments like that.

"Sorry!" Realizing her mistake, Sally added after a moment, "I guess I'm just worried too... but I should stay out of your business."

Wufei nodded. For those that knew him well enough, it was obvious that he had forgiven her.

"I assume you're off to the party then?" Wufei asked as they exited the lift and walked towards the garage.

"Ah! That's my business, now isn't it?" Sally joked. She was taken back when Wufei simply replied, "Fair enough."

"I was kidding, Wufei," She said dryly, taking out her keys to unlock her large, dark blue, Ford SVT Lightning® pickup truck. She had purposely parked right beside Wufei's black and silver Harley-Davidson FLHR/FLHRI Road King® so that he couldn't escape talking to her, "And yes, I am. Can't quite escape that, can I?"

Wufei cracked a smile. Since she was living with Une it was certainly and impossibility. "Well, good luck to you, then."

Sally laughed as she--quite literally-- climbed into her titanic truck. She waved to Wufei after she closed the door and started the engine. Wufei raised his hand in acknowledgment and watched as Sally pulled out and drove off.

When she was gone, he rolled his eyes and fixed his briefcase into the compartment behind the seat of his motorcycle. He loved Sally more than he had any woman except his mother, but that truck of hers drove his nerves like nothing else. "Lesbians and their power issues," He muttered to himself, though he knew the comment was sexist and uncalled for.

He halted his motorcycle at the gate, debating wether he should eat at home or pick something up. There was this cozy little Chinese place near his apartment, but he ate there so often he was beginning to hate it. Across the road he noticed a deli that had just opened a few days ago. Mentally, he shrugged and scooted across to its parking not as soon as there was a window in the traffic.

He parked near the door so he could see his bike from the inside. It wasn't that he was paranoid, just careful. After all, that bike was the most expensive thing he owned, and he was not up for using public transportation. It took a bit, but he finally got his sandwich and got home.

Home. To Wufei that meant a small, inexpensive, but fairly nice, and always clean, one-bedroom apartment. He locked the three locks behind him and set his brief case and sandwich down on the round table that filled half of the dinky kitchen. His coat went on the hanger behind the door and he moved to the stove to heat up his herbal tea. It was then that the phone rang.

Wufei let it ring twice more before he answered it, "Hello, Chang residence."

"Heey! Wu-man!" Wufei winced, another of his hated nicknames. For the thousandth time he wondered why he hadn't killed Duo on Mars. The authorities would have been too preoccupied with the construction to investigate a little 'accident'. That he had thought such a thing shocked him into actually blocking out Duo's voice. A miracle in disguise.

"What was that, Duo?"

"Geeze, ya don't even listen to me!" The brunette whined, "I was just callin' to find out where you were. We thought you'd come to the party."

Quatre had gotten Duo in on it two? That guy had some nerve. "Well.. since you called my home phone and I had the lack of sense to answer it, it must mean that I'm at home. Secondly, you could have asked Quatre: I'm not coming, as usual. Good by--"

"Oh come on!" Duo sounded more gay than usual, as stereotypical as that was, "Even little mister "perfect soldier" goes to these parties."

"Dorothy forces him to."

"And we can force you too!"

"Are any of you sleeping with me?" There was a long, stunned silence from the other end of the phone. Apparently Duo didn't think that "uptight Wufei" could have said anything like that so easily. Wufei allowed himself a victorious smirk. "No, you're not. That's the difference between the situations."

"But Sally..." Duo really sounded confused now.

Actually, so was Wufei," What about her?"

"Aren't you two.. I mean... We all thought.."

Wufei's voice became hard, "Even if we were, I wouldn't tell you. That is our business, Duo. Now go back to the party." Until now he honestly hadn't know that anyone interpreted his and Sally's relationship in such a way. He knew the he was one of the few who knew about Sally and Une's relationship, but even the thought of him or Sally as straight.... wait a minute. Why did he just...? Not going to think about that right now.

"Hmpf. Fine." Duo said finally and hung up the phone. Wufei followed the action and went to rescue his tea before it boiled over. He knew Sally had no interest in men. She and Une both had made that quite clear, so it would have made sense to have thought ".. even the thought of Une or Sally as straight..." would have made sense. But....

Wufei sighed and sat down at the table. Though his body was no longer telling him it needed food, he knew that it really did and forced himself to eat at least half the sandwich before wrapping the rest of it up and sticking it in the fridge. He hadn't thought about a woman--and women-- in... well... okay, he never had thought about a woman like that before. Trying not to feel horridly dirty, he attempted to call forth a mental image of his late wife, Meilan, into his brain, without clot-- oh hell no. That was just sick. He rubbed his temples.

Going about his usual routine like a robot, Wufei found himself in the shower a few moments later. The more he tried to think about woman, the more disgusted he became. Not that it meant anything, he could simply not be interested in anyone at all. He had met a few people like that. Of course, most of them had been rather cold and angry all the time. People who didn't seem to see much joy in the world. The only one he could think of that hadn't been like that had been his Aunt Zhu. She was always so happy and carefree, but completely obsessed with her God. He knew he wasn't like her. To others, Wufei may seem obsessed with his job, but it wasn't really the case. He was just... lost. He had finally been able to admit that to himself.

After the war, he didn't know where to go or what to do. He had gone to Mars because the others were going there, and he had helped build up the colonies there. Now that, that was over, he again followed the others to the Preventors. If he couldn't fight a war, he would help to prevent one. At least there still seemed to be a slight place in the world for the old soldiers. When he was too old to do this anymore, though, what would happen to him? Would he become one of them, the cold ones? ... was he already one of them?

Desperately searching for any spot of warmth within himself, Wufei tried again, this time one of Quatre's sisters that he had met a few moths ago. She was a little crazy, but according to Duo "damned sexy." Soft platinum hair, eyes that danced. The little spot near Quatre's mouth that seemed to sink in every time he smiled, the soft curve of his cheek. The surprisingly lithe body Wufei had glimpsed a few times before in the locker rooms at the Mars base... oh shit. Wufei went pale, his eyes widening a little in surprise, and horror. Was it normal for men to think of other men? He wasn't naive, he knew a few of the gay men that worked at the Preventor's office. He wasn't adverse to them, but... he had been raised to think that homosexuality was against nature itself. It was a weakness; a blasphemy. No, he wasn't gay. Wufei repeated that to himself as he turned off most of the hot water. When his body felt like a glacier, he stepped out of the shower and dried off before slipping into the soft silk sheets on his twin sized bed.

In the city you couldn't see the stars, you could barely see the moon. But Wufei imagined he could see the full moon, like a symbolization of his revelations. In a night he had changed into someone he barely recognized, as much as he hated to admit this.

I am not gay.

End of Chapter Two

A/N: Relwarc, Terra Rain, and Sheltie: Thank you guys for commenting! I'm glad you like this! Sorry about the slow update.