Chapter 8: Murs S'élevants

(ch rewritten)

:male:

Wufei sat down gracefully and stared out the window. It had been a good day for the most part. A good few days, really. He'd been going to the journal every chance he got, trying to keep up on the other Wufei, melding it with himself. But it was still difficult. The other Wufei didn't write about everything and he still found himself slipping up.

Things matched up for the most part, most of the people he knew and if he kept his mouth shut, he could follow along pretty easily. Of course his partner was somewhat concerned with his health and he had forced him into Une's office only that morning.

"I'm not sure, Commander. He's been out of it and I think we need a vacation."

Une had had the foresight not to shout at her braided officer for his audacity in making decisions for Wufei. Instead she'd raised a brow and turned to look at Wufei. "What do you think, Chang?"

What did he think? He thought he might have to get another job, actually. It wasn't working out. He'd had to follow Duo's lead most of the time, but the small slip-ups were making him seem like an early Alzheimer's patient.

He wanted to say he should take a vacation, to agree, but the old Wufei would never have taken a vacation. So instead, he kept his mouth shut and his face calm.

Une lifted a brow.

"Look, Commander. I'm his partner," Duo broke in. "I know him like I know myself and I'm telling you that he'd rather run himself into the ground than go take a break when he needs one. I think that the Hilime case did something to him and he's been having bad dreams and I'm worried about him.."

Une's hand raised for silence did absolutely nothing.

"Shit, Lady! I mean, he's messed up! He can't remember anything and if you don't send him on vacation, I'll kidnap the justice bound idiot and take him away."

Wufei opened his mouth to interject but Duo stepped in front of him with his hands on his hips. "No!" the young man glared at him. "Don't you dare say a single word you damned rock headed jerk! I'm your friend and I'm your partner and I'm going to take you someplace and force you to relax. And if you try to stop me, I'll tie you up and chloroform you and then I'll drug you and keep you in bed for weeks, or until you do what I say. And I don't give that rat's ass you were talking about, about what anyone has to say about it, least of all you! If you think that our little personal issues are gonna ge-"

"Duo!" Une's voice cut through the litany. Wufei smirked past Duo's shoulder and met her bemused expression.

When Duo spun to glare at their commander, Wufei had a sudden desire to reach out and trace the length braid running along Duo's spine. He was bristling and the ridges of tension lined his shoulders. The slender man straightened for battle and stared at her. He continued in a low voice, "I'm not sure how I can explain it to you, Commander. But he needs rest. And he isn't the one to say he'll take it because he's never taken a sick day and Heero and I have to wrestle him down to make him take a weekend off sometimes!"

"I understand this fact, Officer Maxwell. Thank you for bringing your concern before me. You may go." Une's hard voice brooked no refusal and after a long staring match between herself and Duo, the braided man sighed and left.

After the door closed, Une looked at Wufei. "Wufei."

"Yes, Lady."

"Your partner is concerned."

"He is, Lady."

She smirked. "I wonder how correct he is."

"When it comes to my health, Lady, he is wrong. I am as well as I'll ever be." He stiffened.

"I'm sure you are, but I still think I'll be putting you on a leave of absence."

"Why?" he felt a rush of concern. Was he that unable? Was it that apparent?

Leaning forward on her desk, she'd grinned. "Because I don't want to have Duo breathing down my neck for the next week. Because he can be very adamant about things like your health, and because I've noticed something amiss between the two of you and I think you need to figure it out. When you come back, Officer Chang, I expect Duo to be relaxed and you to have worked through whatever difficulites you've been having with your partner." She rose and put a hand on his shoulder then sighed. "Wufei. I need you two to work together, and you both are off. I can't put your lives in danger. Come back when you two are right again."

"Or?" he clenched his jaw. If only she knew.

"Or I'll have to get you both new partners."

And the interview was over.

Wufei rubbed his brow and thought back on the quiet ride home with Duo. Duo had been given the time off as well. A week. That was all. They had a week.

Duo went upstairs immediately upon coming home. Upstairs to Heero. He could hear the pair of them talking in low murmurs now and again, the sound of bumps and minute thuds coming from their room where someone walked around and … well… whatever else they were doing.

Wufei buried his head in his hands. Dammit. He didn't want to think about what was going on upstairs. He didn't want to think about what he might have done if he'd had Duo to himself. He didn't want to think, period. Things were going just fine. If he didn't get caught up in the romantic mess that was this situation, things would be okay.

A hand on his shoulder broke in on his … proscribed not thinking. Startled, he turned to see the quieted look that was this world's Heero Yuy. Of all of the things in this world changed, Heero was the most obvious. Still the perfect soldier in so many ways and yet, with a quiet to him that seemed foreign.

"I was just thinking," he muttered almost to himself. He hoped Heero would release his shoulder before he leaned into the touch. He missed being touched. Duo had touched him all the time when he was a she. But this Duo kept apart, burned too often by the colder Wufei who… belonged… here.

"So I noticed," Heero's calm reached about them both and Wufei dropped his head again and forced himself to accept the warmth that was radiating into his body from the simple hand on his shoulder.

"Duo sent me down to see if you wanted to talk." Heero spoke simply.

Wufei shook his head.

"Then perhaps you'll get packed."

"Packed?" Wufei looked up in surprise.

"Yes," Heero's mouth twisted. "We're going… camping."

Camping. In some people's minds, it entails getting into a camper, or a truck with a tent in back, heading to a conveniant camp ground, pitching the tent and getting one's water from the spigot that runs alongside the road. Concrete wash rooms and pine bed tenting sites, the usual run of tenting is an act of leisure.

All of which would not explain why he was hanging off of the side of a cliff right then, holding onto a rope and with a hook set deeply into the stone next to him, praying that Heero would be able to hold them both if the tenuous hold on the rock slipped.

"Clamped in!" a call came from below and he breathed a moment then readjusted his hand on the rope, pulling out the other hook and fixing it into the rock face alongside his shoulder. "Clear!" his call echoed off of the cliff wall and he refused to look down.

"I'm off!" again came the call from below. He could hear Duo's breathing as the other man worked his way upwards.

"Watch out for the upper lip of the overhang on the left hand side," Wufei called back down, "It has moss on it."

Heero, above, chuckled. "At least you tell him," his low voice reaching Wufei's ears.

"I was trying to get over seeing my life flash before my eyes," Wufei looked up at where the dark haired man smiled down at him.

Heero had a nice smile.

He noticed Heero's eyes going past him to where Duo was most likely and he wondered at the sinking feeling accompanying that look. Heero and Duo. This entire trip so far, all six hours of it, including the climb and the hike to the mountain, had taught him one thing. Heero and Duo were strong, a unit. And there was no room for a third.

Not that he'd be okay being a third to begin with.

Not that Heero would be okay with a third either.

Which brought him back to wondering why Duo had told him he loved him.. or loved his other half.. or the other Wufei. It tended to be confusing. Duo wasn't leaving Heero any time, it was plain that Duo loved Heero deeply. And Heero was kind, but - well, it wasn't right. Duo shouldn't have to be shared. Heero shouldn't have to share.

Dammit, he wasn't sure he wanted a part of that anyway. If there was a part of it to begin with? He wished he'd been there at that conversation. Had Duo just told him because he felt the need to? Why was it Duo even felt the need to share that information when he was firmly entrenched in another relationship? Heero obviously gave Duo everything he needed.

"Duo! Wu, hold!" a cry above and Wufei clenched tightly onto his climbing hooks, hearing the sudden whip of rope whizzing out behind him. There was a sharp snap and he lost his footing, the rope taut above him and below him. His arms strained and his shoulders felt the sudden heat as he clung to the rock. Pressing his cheek against the stone he listened to the wind a moment and then almost wept at the sound of a very alive voice rising up.

"Damn! Almost bit it there, guys!"

He and Heero were silent. They could both hear Duo work at rediscovering the rock wall. A particularly nasty jerk on the rope put Wufei to feeling uncertain and he gripped the rock more tightly, praying in his mind that this would be over soon.

Strange. To think a pilot would be afraid of heights.

"Not heights," he muttered. "Falling."

"We won't let you fall," came the soft voice above him and Wufei winced, not realizing he'd spoken loud enough to be heard.

But then, Heero had always been more able to hear, see, do, than the rest of them. It was part of what made Wufei feel eclipsed much of the time. It was why, here, Duo loved Heero and Wufei, the right Wufei, was still in the wrong place.

The tension on the rope eased. Duo laughed in wild delight then worked his way up toward them. "It wasn't the moss. It was a loose rock," he beamed as he came alongside Wufei and reached out, patting his friend on the arm. "Your go."

Wufei opened his eyes and stared into those violet orbs and thought about how silly it all was. He didn't need Duo here any more than he needed Duo there. A female Duo - a male Duo, why was he even thinking he should be granted a chance? He really was stupid. Just because he happened to be gay, and Duo happened to be a man, didn't mean the pieces would ever fall into place so that he would have his dream.

Somehow that damn fairy had made him believe that was exactly what would happen.

"Wuffers?" a soft query and Wufie opened his eyes to see Duo's concerned look upon him.

Once Duo was sure he had Wufei's attention he grinned and jerked his head upwards. "Your go, buddy. I'm anchored."

"Oh, sorry.." and Wufei looked at the hooks in the rock and upwards to where Heero was silently watching them. With painstaking care, Wufei forced his trembling thoughts to leave his mind and focused his brain instead on the act of climbing.

Once Wufei reached Heero, the perfect soldier/perfect man made his way up to the crest of the cliff. From there, they waited until they got the okay and Heero, anchoring a rope that was already tied to a tree there, helped them both climb up. Wufei came over first and he quickly unclipped himself and anchored himself to the rope behind Heero. He wasn't needed because Heero could pull them both up and not break a sweat (a bit of exaggeration, but it was how he felt really) but he felt like he should be part of it somehow.

Duo clambered up over the cliff and collapsed into Heero who stumbled and fell into Wufei so that the three of them ended up on the ground with a breathless, laughing Duo atop them. "Damn guys, I thought we were gonners there for a second. Glad I'm Death Incarnate! You guys have no idea how lucky you are!" He stood, unclipping himself and staggered to the tree to catch up the supply rope by which he could tug their packs up.

Wufei lay on the ground with the weight of Heero on his legs and the clouds overhead and shuddered at the thought of any of them having fallen.

"You made it," came the gentle voice. Wufei turned from the clouds to see Heero's warm gaze looking down at him. Since when did Heero look at anyone warmly? Wufei closed his eyes, afraid of the new species of shudder that ran through him from something he didn't understand; jealousy and need intertwined. Jealous of Heero's warmth that took in Duo and made Duo his and his alone. Need borne from that very warmth, wishing he were wrapped in it as well, that he was kept safe by the love that shone there as well.

Heero scooted up next to him and Wufei felt a tug at his waist. He sat up in shock and then looked at where Heero was working at getting his harness off. "I can do it," he gulped.

"Yes, but you're the one we're taking care of this time," Heero said softly, and Wufei wondered back to the journal, if there was anything about taking care of someone. Heero made it sound like this was the normal run of things. Or maybe a returned favor?

"Really.." he gulped. He didn't want Heero to touch him. He didn't want to know what his body would do in response to that touch. He hadn't been touched in his pelvic region for years now. He was… he was…

"I can take care of it!" he all but shouted and scrambled away from Heero, ignoring the look of hurt on that normally calm face as he knelt to the side and worked at getting the harness off. His fingers hurt and trembled and he felt like he might cry.

"What's going on?" Duo questioned them. Wufei turned from them both, working at his harness, knowing that he would take a while, but needing this distance from his friends.

"Wufei," Heero, close, how did he get so damn close without making a sound

"Please," Wufei could hear himself beg and knew it was unlike the other Wufei, knew that he was begging because he would do something he would regret if he didn't distance himself, "just let me do this alone."

He didn't hear Heero leave, but he knew he was alone some time later, fingers still wrapped in harness, staring out into the open sky and wondering what he was going to do. How could he survive the pain in his chest.