Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.... Damn... Song: "Shadow On The Sun" Audioslave.
Pairings: Eventual 121, maybe some 343.
Warnings: Eventual Shonen Ai, maybe violence, and Rock n' Roll baby.
Notes: Standard as all the others, only this one is going to be different. I had to write this one out, it wouldn't let me study!!!! It's a complete SURPRISE!!!! I can't really explain it without giving it away, so you'll have to read one to know what I'm blithering on about. By the way: this is probably going to be twice as long as the chapters before it, and I suspect that the chapters that follow it will be just as long, maybe longer depending on how the mood strikes. But anyways, Enjoy!
In The Valley Of The Diamond Dogs
By Black Dragon62
Chapter 15: Surfacing
"Hajimemashite, welcome to Japan." A young lady with a gray business suit said as she bowed to Duo and his entourage. He bowed back respectfully, but unsure of what to say, so he just said the first thing that came to his mind.
"Thanks, glad to be here! Got any food?" Duo said instantly, and was almost immediately smacked in the back of the head for his exclamation.
The woman just smiled at him kindly, completely un-offended. She handed him a black folder. "Here you go Duo-san, these are your reservations at the finest hotels and restaurants that Japan has to offer. We are very pleased that you have allowed us the honor of playing in Tokyo." She bowed gracefully. And Duo bowed back, unsure if it was what he was supposed to do, but did it anyway. "I welcome you and your group to the wonders of Japan." She said as she walked away in a measured pace.
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"Nice place." Duo said as he looked the hotel room over. The Imperial Hotel was lovely, beautifully decorated to suit neutral tastes. "So, who rooms with who?"
"Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei all have their separate rooms. So this one is all yours." Hilde said, a little yawn escaped her while she spoke, it was 3 in the morning when they had gotten to their hotel, and everyone was extremely exhausted and sleepy, everyone except Duo. "Goodnight Duo." Hilde said as she left the room to walk back to hers to lay her head down. Just as she was leaving, Wufei, Quatre and Trowa stepped in.
Quatre was looking around the room for Duo, when he spotted the figure sitting by one of the large glass windows with his guitar in hand. He watched him with soft Aqua eyes. He saw the delicate pale hands tune the guitar perfectly, and then he saw something he'd only seen once before. He saw Duo singing for himself, rather than for an audience. Saw him once again open up his soul to the music that he held with in, and it marveled him how much emotion Duo put into his first few plucks of the silver guitar strings.
"Once upon a time I was of the mind,
To lay your burden down,
And leave you where you stood,
And you believed I could,
You'd seen it done before,
I could read your thoughts,
Tell you what you saw,
And never say a word,
Now all that is gone,
Over with and done - never to return.
I can tell you why,
People die alone,
I can tell you I'm,
A shadow on the sun,
Staring at the loss,
Looking for a cause,
And never really sure,
Nothing but a hole,
To live without a soul,
And nothing to be learned,
I can tell you why,
People go insane,
I can show you how,
You could do the same,
I can tell you why,
The end will never come,
I can tell you I'm,
A shadow on the sun."
The passionate guitar rift was played, and the notes floated to their awaiting ears, while he let off chord after chord in simple yet intricate precision. It was beautiful to watch.
"Shapes of every size,
Move behind my eyes,
Doors inside my head,
Bolted from within,
Every drop of flame,
Lights a candle in,
Memory of the one,
Who lives inside my skin.
I can tell you why,
People go insane,
I can show you how,
You could do the same,
I can tell you why,
The end will never come,
I can tell you I'm,
A shadow on the sun."
The song slowed, and ended entirely. Violet eyes looked up to his audience, and for a second, Quatre thought he saw Duo's eyes misted over with what only could be tears. But as soon as he focused on the amethyst depths, they were quickly devoid of liquid. They looked at each other, then back at the guitarist. Duo stood and stretched lazily.
"G'night guys." He said in a quiet voice as the door was shut behind him.
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It was 8 AM in Tokyo, and Wufei was up and about. I've got to go out an see this interesting city. I've always wanted to come to Japan, and this is the perfect excuse to go out. He dressed lightly in blue jeans and a black T-shirt with sneakers. He looked and felt, like a kid again.
The city was up a buzzing with the sights and sounds of thousands of people. Their hotel was only a ten minute walk from the Ginza center, so he decided to start there. He walked at a brisk, but relaxed pace through the cities endless streets and people.
He looked from store to store, marveling at everything from it's technological devices to it's beautiful ink art work to the millions of books on their shelves. He was thoroughly enjoying himself when he suddenly bumped into a young woman. The woman was carrying a lot of bags and packages, when she bumped into the young Chinese man, she inadvertently dropped most of her charge. He turned and saw the woman already picking up her things. Her hat blinded him from her face, but he bent down and helped her pick things up.
"I'm sorry Madame. Sumimasen." He said in his shotty Japanese accent. He helped her put her things back in her bags and back in her arms.
"Iie, arigato." The woman said without bringing her head up. Her straw hat obscured his view. But he noticed that the woman was fairly young.
"I must apologize, I wasn't looking where I was going and-"
"It's alright Wufei, it was an accident, no harm done." She said, cutting off his last sentence. He looked at her curiously.
"How did-" He began to say when she lifted her head enough for him to see her beautiful and charming face. Blond hair and blue eyes, peaches and cream complexion. It couldn't be... He stared in bafflement.
"Cat got your tongue?"
"Sally." She smiled at his recognition.
"Long time no see. Wufei." His name rolled off of her tongue in a sultry yet mysterious way. He shivered inwardly. She was aware that he was staring like a gapping fish, so she did what anyone would do when seeing someone after a long time. "Let's go get some tea." She said, walking in a random direction.
Wufei noticed she wasn't standing in front of him anymore so he quickly turned to follow the woman. He watched her walk casually into a restaurant with a red door with silver boarders. He stood behind her as they were sat at a table in a discrete corner of the establishment. She spoke something to the waiter and waited for them to bring back some sweet smelling tea and salt biscuits. Wufei looked at her confused.
"Been here before?" He asked, looking at her as she took a bite out of one of the brown cookies. She nodded simply in reply and swallowed.
"I come here very often, the food is good, but I come here because I can be alone with my thoughts." She said, pouring herself a cup of tea, she poured one for Wufei as well, but the young man was looking at the orange liquid in a untrusting manner. "Orange blossom tea." She said, sliding him one of the small porcelain cups. He picked it up carefully, smelled it, and lightly took a sip. Acceptable, he thought to himself. "So, what brings you to Japan?" She started the conversation with a neutral topic.
"I could ask you the same. I haven't heard from you in 5 years." He said in a biting tone.
"Five years, 3 months, 12 days, and 18 hours." She corrected.
"I didn't know you kept such an accurate count." He said, a little confused, but he never let it show from behind his mask of indifference. He saw her shoulders shrug dispassionately.
"I had nothing better to do." She said, not completely telling him the truth. "So, how's the wife?"
Wufei bit his lip, but was not completely unnoticed by his female companion. She nodded her head in understanding. "When?" She asked.
"Three years ago. In child birth." He said quietly.
"My condolences." She said honestly. They sat in an awkward silence for a long time, each person lost deep into their thoughts. Finally one of them broke the silence.
"Why are you here?" He asked, narrowing his eyes to seemingly establish the question.
She tilted her head, letting some of the delicate blond hair fall out of their straw prison. She took her hat off and set it on the empty chair next to her. She let her sunlight blond hair fan out in a beautiful halo of silk, Wufei watched this with curious eyes. She smiled, and parted her rosy lips to answer.
"I left China for, personal reasons." She started. "I needed to get away for a while, and ended up here, went to Siam for a while, then to Cambodia, and finally I ended up in Tokyo, and I liked it here." She said with a faint smile on her young face. "So I stayed. And been here ever since. Relena comes and visits every now and then, so does Lucrezia and Dorothy, but only when they are here on Preventer business. Time and time again those stubborn women want me to join and work under Une, but up until now, I haven't had a good reason to join them again." The smile faltered a little as she remembered the faces of her comrades. "I work in a bookstore near my apartment, and have a quiet and peaceful life now, why give that up now? I guess I'm being a bit selfish for not working for the greater good, but I deserved this, at least for a while longer."
He listened to her, and nodded at all appropriate times, but never said a word till she finished. "I always wondered what happened to you. After you left, life went on, but differently, I didn't really have anyone to talk to, as it was." He hid a smile that was about to grace his handsome face, but kept his face a total mask of indifference. "I always thought that we-" He caught himself from falling over the edge of no return.
"What?" She wondered.
"Nothing." He said simply, cowering back into his hole of denial.
She smiled softly. "I always did like you, you know." She said as he looked up. Earth brown eyes met Ocean blue ones. He must have looked shocked. She smiled a little wider. "You didn't know?" She laughed as he shook his head in a negative gesture. "I did." She said after her laughter subsided. "I was always secretly hoping, that you would think of me, the way that I thought of you. When you and Meiran married, I was happy for you, but my heart broke into so many pieces, and my dreams shattered into fragments that I wasn't able to mend them even with the strongest of will I had inside. So I did the best thing I could do, I left, without a word to anyone, just picked up, and left. To start new in a place that no one knew who I was, what I used to be, who I used to be." She looked down into her tea. "I ran. I'm not proud of it, but it might have been the best thing for me at the time. It wasn't just you I was running from, I was partly trying to get away from what I used to be, running from my past, chasing a new future."
He looked at her bent head and was completely and utterly speechless. What do I say to that? He thought for a moment or two, then began to speak softly. "I liked you too." He said, and as he met her eyes, he spoke softly into her soft face. "I loved Meiran, the only way a husband must love his wife. But our marriage was already predetermined, you know that. I learned to love her, and I don't regret it. But the woman would also not let me wallow in self pity and loneliness for the rest of my life, she would have wanted me to move one. And I think I'm ready too." He looked deep into her eyes as he lightly grasped her chin. "If you'll let me."
She smiled, not the shy smile that she gave the world, but she smiled a smile that she reserved only for herself, one that was beautiful in it's simplicity, a smile that would brighten a room and blind the observer's heart and win him over instantly. Wufei smiled one of his own.
He lowered his head as softly as a feather falling from Heaven, to land a light and chaste kiss on the lips of the angel in front of him. The world seemed to fade and disappear in a whirl of colors and lights of different degrees, then slowly faded to black as the pair closed their eyes and ears to the world outside.
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"Hey, where's Wufei?" Duo asked Quatre and Trowa over tea. The pair shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads, neither knowing where their friend had disappeared to.
To Be Continued......................
So what did you guys think? I had to give Wufei a little lovin', poor guy was beginning to die of depression.
Wufei: No I wasn't!!!!
Me: Like I said, he was DYING of depression.
Wufei: And I told you, you crazy woman that I am not depressed! Just a little left out.
Me: That's why this chapter was all about you, and you got some much needed attention didn't you?
Wufei: Well, yeah but-
Me: Then Shut Up!
Wufei: pouts
So, what did you guys think? Like? Didn't like? Leave me some Reviews!!!!