Lightning Arc 5 - Winter
Fandom: Gundam Wing
Rating: M for references to an intimate Zechs/Treize relationship.
Pairing: Zechs and Treize
Warnings: m/m love and some references to m/m sex, some swearing - if you are hoping for explicit scenes though, you are likely to be disappointed.
Spoilers: everywhere, in all my stories
Summary: see Chapter 1.
xxx
Chapter 3 - Precocious Child
Zechs plummeted, Treize slipped into the downy softness, clothes were pulled off beneath the bedding, deft, gentle hands everywhere, garments tossed onto the floor. Zechs was too far gone to take clear note of what was going on; he did not care either – the old trust between them holding true even now. He was with Treize; nothing could go wrong while they were close, together, facing down the rest of the world or -like now -hiding from it.
The contrast between the warm stones at the footend of the bed and the chill, crisp white linen against heat-flushed skin made them shudder.
"D...do you rem...member?" Zechs stutteredthrough slighly clattering teeth.
"Yes." Treize turned towards him and drew him close again, wrapping around him with one leg sliding across his thighs and arms closing firmly around his shoulders. "I remember everything." The moment when they first realised – no, when Zechs first realised it was a different kind of friendship the older youth felt for him,though Treizehad refused to explain...
"H...how old w...was I?" Lips against the crook of his neck... he could sense Treize smiling, breathing, living.
"Barely eleven. No way I could have told you then."
"I knew."
"You were always a precocious child."
"You taught me."
"You surpassed me."
Zechs stirred. "No."
Treize held fast. "Yes."
"You made me wait."
"It was right to wait. You might have wanted something different."
"No."
"You could not be sure. If you do not have all the detail, it is difficult to make an informed choice, you know that very well."
"I wanted you."
"You were curious. You wanted to experiment."
"I wanted you."
"Stubborn." Treize, shorter by half a head than his companion,stretched to touch a kiss toZechs' glowing brow. "So very stubborn. Stubborn soldiers are difficult soldiers. They tend to be insubordinate and awkward to handle. Sometimes they act irresponsibly. Usually, they pose a security threat, and mostly, they end up courtmartialled or dead at the hands of the enemy."
"You would know." A short, tense pause followed, before Zechs began to fidget again. "You threatnin' me?"
Treize tightened his embrace some more. "No. Be still. There is no need, you know these things."
Zechs obeyed. "So do you. Why're you risking so much just to see me?"
Another small pause, then, "Don't you know the answer to this?"
"I wanna hear it."
"I am risking nothing. But I am here with you because you are my weakness."
"You once told me I made you stronger."
"Yes, but not now."
"You made me. How could you expect me to go look elsewhere? You already owned me."
"I..." Another kiss, on a drooping eyelid. Longer, lingering, lips touching the words to bare skin. "I suppose I did. But I wanted you to try to be... free of me. I failed, did I not?" A small, heady silence, before Treize added, "And whileone part of me is sorry and wants to ask your forgiveness, another is, rather selfishly, glad."
"Tre..."
"Miliusha moi."(1) Treize shifted a little to make both of them more comfortable beneath the down that was warming up quickly. He settled Zechs' tousled head against his shoulder, let his eyes drift half shut and watched the deepening darkness through copper lashes, the night a canvas for dreams long past... "I remember... that day in winter. How could I forget? You were out at the bird table to feed those silly little things." A smile crept into his voice as Zechs grunted a little, and he continued, "in nothing but your pyjamas, with my galoshi (2) on your feet. You were frozen blue and trembling enough to clatter your teeth from your mouth, but you were yelling at me for offering my coat to you."
"It was too large," Zechs grumbled and yawned widely.
Treize laughed quietly. "Good grief, yes."
"Din't help that you told me," another deep yawn, "I'd have to grow into it 'fore picking a fight with you."
"I thought it rather unfair to pummel an eleven-year old." Amusement tingeing Treize's voice.
"I hate it when you go soft on me. And I was almost twelve," Zechs bristled, temper flickering, albeit sleepily.
"You were eleven, and I did not. My revenge was accomplished, quite rightfully,when Mother forced you to have that hot bath, and you had to sweat between your sheets. Along with having to drink this lime flower tea (3), plus Babushka's (4) elderberry syrup (5)..."
"I liked the tea."
"Yes, of course."
"You had slipped cognac into it."
"And honey."
"Enough cognac to kill me."
"You did not have to eat all the potted elderberries too."
"They were good."
"Babushka quite liked the idea to prank my mother a little."
"So she let you have the fruit liquor instead of the syrup? You're wicked if you apply yourself. Did she know it was for me?"
Treize relaxedly combed his hand through long silver strands. "Of course. She said when she was a child, it was her favourite cure-it-all. She drank her two glasses every day, and she lived to a ripe old age."
"Two glasses?" Fuzzily, Zechs seemed to try to consider this, without much luck. "Your mother gave you a good chewing out for that," he pointed out instead.
"Because I could not betray my grandmother, and you could never hold your drink." And when Zechs lifted his head in an effort to protest, Treize simply kissed him breathless. "There, shush. Let me be a bit whimsical now, will you? You were singing at the top of your voice, quite falsely too if I may add, and then you burst into tears for no apparent reason. And you were sick on your bed. That's why I had to spend three days locked in my room, an entire week on stable duty, and all that with some unpleasant red welts on my backside."
"The stains wouldn't wash out. And your father had a temper."
"It was my mother who planted those stripes on my rear, with his riding crop."
"Oh."
"You know what you said while you were drunk?"
"You never told me, and everybody elsejust got flustered when I asked ."
"My mother threatened to punish anyone who would breathe a word."
A shiver ran through Zechs, and he winced a little. "She was a formidable woman."
Treize's eyes held a wicked spark. "She was a true Russian lady, and... well, spirited. You wanting to sleep with me, and proclaiming your intentions to the entire household was not something she could tolerate."
"I... what?" Zechs squeezed his eyes shut and uttered a long-drawn groan of agony.
"You scandalised her." Treize's smile broadened into a grin. "Though she blamed me, thinking you way too innocent. Little did she know."
Zechs' eyes flew open, glittering at his friend. "You – now, I WAS innocent at that time!"
"That was not your fault."
"No, yours – why did you creep into my room, into my bed, and then did nothing with me? And I couldn't sleep, what with you trying to jack off right by my side."
"Oh... I never realised... mph." For a heartbeat or two, Treize was speechless, but he swiftly recovered his composureand planted another kiss on Zechs' lips. "You were jailbait."
"So were you." A pensive little break, then, "Would they have locked us up together?"
"I was not keen on finding out."
"And if not," Zechs rambled on, "what would have been different when you came of age, and me still..." A tired sigh. "Well, whatever. It didn't help that you paid me that visit."
"I had to climb across the rose trellis against the outside wall."
"That's why you were all scratched..."
"Yes. And I nearly lost my footing and fell two storeys into the kitchen garden because my fingers were frozen and the moon clouded over as I was about to push at your window."
A low, lazy chuckle. "And I thought you had a run-in with some pretty wildcat."
"This kind of... attitude was not encouraged in our household."
"No. But I left my window open."
"On purpose?" Treize sounded slightly alarmed.
"One can always hope," came themuddled rejoinder, drowsy but in a tone of sly satisfaction.
Treize snorted lightly and shook his head. "And there I almost forgot how wily you can be. Perhaps it was not me who spoiled you after all."
"Never," groggy yawn, "underestimate," another yawn, Zechs tensing and then slackening against Treize, "your opponent."
Treize made no reply this time. He kept staring into the darkness, his face half in Zechs' hair, his fingers gently carding the long strands. His other hand splayed on the back of the younger man, rubbing soothing circles where he could sense his heartbeat and his deepening breath.
Onlywhen he was sure Zechs had fallen asleep, did he settle deeper into the soft pillows, closed his eyes, and let his nightmares come to him.
xxx
Next chapter: Scandal
Notes:
(1) Russian – Miliusha mine
(2) galoshi – rubber overshoes, worn to protect shoes from bad weather
(3) lime flower tea – to sweat (a lot)
(4) babushka – Russian affectionate for grandmother
(5) elderberry syrup – a home remedy for colds; elderberry liquor – home-made fruit liquors are another tradition. The concentration of alcohol is higher in the fruit than in the beverage.
