Leo: My first chapter ever of Wufei's point of view! Be patient with me on this, I'm a n00b at Wufei!
(Also, someone actually noticed the mention of L5, despite its unfortunate fate in the series, I actually have a plan for it. I promise. And it does tie in with the plot! As I mentioned in the authors note of my last chapter, all questions will be answered eventually)!
And as for the multitude of comments on Duo's hair. Can you really expect him to not cut it for FIVE years? Do you know how long his hair would be? MY hair would have grown four feet in that time…So for him to cut his hair a few feet after those years would leave his hair pretty much the same length as before. If you've read Episode Zero, then his hair is a few inches shorter than what they showed his hair as when he was at the Church. It's still long and still braid-able. It just so happens that Zechs and Wufei opted not to cut their hair as much in this time span in this fic. (Zechs can sit on about half a foot of his hair if he wanted to, if you're trying to get a visual for this.) I'm trying to incorporate some REAL life habits here. Bear with me guys.
No Sound in Space
Chapter 3
I sat before the computer, waiting for the connection to stabilize. I knew it was a stupid idea to offer my assistance. I didn't really want to confer with the newly reestablished colony. I had managed to keep it out of thought for several years since its reconstruction. It had been left in pieces after the explosion. Or barely. Why they would put the effort forth to rebuild it, was beyond me. But the few remaining members of the original clan had begged and pleaded for it to be done. Tradition won.
I hadn't known they had survived. I had assumed everyone had been on the colony and died. Some how, the news of survivors didn't affect me. I was content where I was. I had no desire to return. Her spirit resided within the mended steel of my once shattered home. I wasn't avoiding it because of that, but I didn't need memories to come in and make me feel guiltier than already. It was bad enough I never loved her like a husband should, but that was neither her nor my choice. I forgave the man who caused her death and my truest affection fell upon another person, to whom it shouldn't have.
It was for this reason I was willing to try and contact the remaining relatives of Meilan. They would naturally submit to any request I had and at that moment…as stupid as it sounded, my whole focus was on keeping that blonde pilot safe.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Une said hesitantly to me. I looked up at her, over the brim of my glasses.
"Woman, if I didn't want to, I wouldn't have volunteered." It seemed, even after so long, my respect for women wasn't very high. Especially women like her. She was stupid enough to risk death for a man who had no regard for his life. She now had no reason to dislike me, because I hadn't killed Treize after all; but she didn't always feel that way. There had been that time when she was still embittered. But at that point I was laughing in her face because she still couldn't have Treize. Treize was infatuated with my same source of infatuation. The difference between Une and I was that I was less obsessive about it. She showed the occasional twitch at Zechs because he took Treize; but I did not do the same to Treize because he had Zechs. Actually, Treize was a fine man to fence with as well as cut up like immature teenagers generally do. It was their choices. No one can compete with mutual affection.
Now all I had to do was get Duo to see that and quit bothering me about whether or not I was 'crushing' on Zechs or Treize. Though he had assumed it to be Treize, I think.
"No need to get uppity Chang, I was merely asking." She clipped and thankfully shut up. Obnoxious woman. At least that split personality nonsense was over.
"Just open me a direct line." And let's get this over with.
She leaned forward to type in several commands and passwords and a bunch of other things that I could have easily figured out myself, had my mind not been on other things. I hadn't seen the car they had spoken of and it bothered me. There could have been a dead blonde sitting next to me and I wouldn't have known why. I didn't like that I had become so inattentive. I didn't approve of how much my quick senses had dimmed. Treize saw the car, but I didn't. In a way that irked me more. But there was nothing to be done. I was pleased that I had had a good enough reaction to grab Zechs before he did hit the windshield; but between Treize and I…that wouldn't have happened anyway. That damn blonde was protected better than he thought.
"It's open." Une said snapping me back to the consciously thinking world. There was a window open and I would distinctly make out a bad visual feed. "You can choose to type or talk."
"I'll talk." I replied. Speaking was faster and more efficient.
She hooked up a microphone and adjusted the return visual. She left the room when a young man entered with news. The screen cleared a bit as the connection stabilized. The face became apparent. I knew who the person was, but I wasn't closely acquainted with him. I hadn't been married to Meilan long enough for a deep family connection to form between her family and I.
'Wufei,' the voice acknowledged, 'you're still alive, what a surprise!'
"Same to you, cousin of the bride." I replied sardonically. He was the closest thing to a brother Meilan had ever spoken of. He never liked me and I never like him. He participated in the same competitive school studies and he lost to me. Naturally he was bitter. "I had been left to assumed no one survived."
'Well, like you, not all of us were on the colony itself at the time.'
"Luck seems to be with you." I resisted any other questions I might have had. I would get the chance to question it later. "Allow me to just get to the point, I can't take long, lest our lines be hacked. We need accommodations on L5, if that's what you still call it there, that is."
'We do. It's our home…built of what was left over, and then some. But might I ask why you need accommodations? I can see that you're communicating through the Preventers.'
"One of our own is being targeted. I don't need to give out any more information. Dear family by marriage, do you think you could manage it? For your kin?"
I knew it was a terribly uncivilized thing for me to do, using tradition to make it happen. I knew the ways of the Long clan and it was assured that Une would never have gotten them to agree to stow away someone like Zechs.
'…It can be done.' He replied with a clip in his voice. 'I can expect you as early as fourteen hours, if you think you need to be here that quickly.'
"Expect us in twenty-four."
'I look forward to your arrival.' He was just being polite now. He was under obligation to me because I was the husband of his—now dead—cousin. I was actually the true heir to the Long clan…and if I decided to go back, I could drop him out of the family's head position. Not that there was much of a family left.
"As do I." I replied, but there was no feeling in the conversation. It was all a front to avoid the serious confrontation. I shut the laptop closed, cutting off the transmission immediately. I turned without thought and looked up at Sally, who had entered only a moment before and hovered over me. "It's done."
"Just like that?" She looked surprised. "They give us a hard time just letting us stop on their colony to check cargo!"
I stood, with no intention of staying in that room away from the others. "We have history," I explained in no detail and continued walking. She could wonder for all I care. The only person I ever told about Meilan and her family had been Zechs. I was his confidant, with whom he could talk to when Treize was getting on his nerves; and he was mine, when I felt like the past was attacking me again. You can only wonder why it was I felt an obligation to protect him in any way I could manage.
I reentered the room where the others were discussing over something. Une had already made it back to them and she looked like something new had happened.
"What did I miss?" I asked.
"Zechs has a body double apparently," Une handed me one of the many photos she had in her hand. "Take note of the seventh figure in that picture."
I did. And it confused me a lot. According to this photo, there were two accounts of Zechs! "This is…bazaar." I concluded. It seemed the best word for the moment.
"Even more bazaar…He's younger than I am." The blonde himself, stood and walked towards me. He was flipping through pictures as he walked and he finally stopped on one, the first picture that was proclaimed to not be him. Having a close up look, it was actually noticeable that he was younger.
"I don't like this at all…Especially that there's photographic evidence…and they handed it to us…" Heero muttered. If Heero was suspicious, then we all were.
"On the upside, I managed to get us an easy pass to L5. So we can figure this all out when we get there. We should be safe." I assured, sifting through more pictures. Some of these would have been great shots to keep, had a stalker not taken them. The one with Blondie and I laughing ourselves into Oblivion over Treize's alarming defeat in tennis against Heero was priceless, though.
"Lady Une, can we keep these?" Zechs asked. "Or are they needed?"
"I've had them all duplicated for inspection. Our digital copies should suffice us. None of the photos themselves had prints for any trace of anything that could give us a clue to who is behind this."
"I guess that means you can use your mad scrap booking skills on them, Fei." Maxwell laughed. Hah, he thought I was joking. Wait until I show him the pictures I managed to collect of him. He would die of humiliation at a good deal of them.
"I like this one." Treize said with a smirk. It was still strange as hell to see him looking so…normal. He was seated Indian style on the table now, holding a picture out. Oh lord.
"Oh my god, that is a terrible picture of me!" Zechs said in a garbled tone as he snatched it from Treize. "I look like a zombie when I'm drunk."
I leaned forward and took a look myself, "Well…you're a good looking zombie, if nothing else." I smirked.
"Oh! And we have a 'drunk' part two!" Treize held out the other one. This one had both Zechs and I in it. It looked like we were in the kitchen slamming down what appeared to be Wild Turkey. Zechs's favorite.
"Oh! I remember that!" Duo giggled, hopping over to get up close and personal with the picture. "That was when the two of you were having a contest to see who could drink more without spewing or passing out."
"And I won that one, damn it." Blondie smirked at me with a victorious air of confidence.
"You must drink like a fish to be able to have not died with how much you put down." Heero added.
He was silent for a moment. I'm sure no one else saw it, save for maybe Heero; but he glanced at Treize ever so slightly and then replied: "I've done my share of drinking."
"Why so somber, chéri? If nothing else, this should make it better." Treize interrupted. I think he knew where that was going. He handed over another picture. This one was priceless. Pure priceless. I remembered when it happened. I was in the kitchen and I was trying to cook and teach Zechs's how to peel potatoes without annihilating them. Trowa had just walked in and casually done for the refrigerator and per usual, made his daily sneaky ass-grab attempt. It was a ritual anymore. I was amused and a little surprised, when Zechs grabbed the wooden spoon from the counter next to him and nailed Trowa's hand before it reached its target. Looking at the picture made me smile a bit, but then I remembered that it was a damn stalker who took it. Talk about killing a happy memory.
"You know, after we catch this guy." Heero asked, looking at the ones being handed to him. "We should ask him how many more pictures he has…and if we can have those too."
"What I wonder," Trowa spoke, stealing Treize's cup of coffee directly from the man's hands, "is how they took all of these pictures…without us noticing?"
"Coffee thief," Treize muttered, "If you'll notice, all of the pictures come from either a window or a very dark spot in the house. That means they've been in the house before."
Blondie crossed his arms and reclaimed his spot on the table, not caring that Treize was sitting there. The look on Treize's face when he realized he had a lap full of Zechs was something to chuckle over. "…It brings up another good point…if they've been in the house and they've gotten that close to us…then why didn't they take me out then? That shot was fired directly at me. The man's eyes locked with mine. Sadly it was so fast that I didn't see anything more than that look in his eyes and the gun of course…"
"I'm sure we'll figure out what is going on, love," the elder man assured wrapping his arms around Zechs's shoulders. Zechs looked small compared to him at that moment. Treize had his legs folded in the same style a man might meditate in and Zechs was sitting in his lap like Treize was a chair. I won't lie in saying I wasn't a little jealous of him. I wouldn't have minded a lap full of Blondie, as Duo would have said.
"It's disconcerting…that's all," Zechs sighed.
"We seem to have a lot of disconcerting moments in our lives." Quatre sighed. I know he, as much as the rest of us, wanted peaceful lives. He didn't want to have to be a hero anymore. And truthfully, neither did I.
"Oh! Hey remember that moment a couple weeks ago where I said I would give my left leg to have a picture of it?" Duo asked.
I raised and eyebrow and looked at him, "Which moment, baka?"
"This one!" He said, flaunting another photo in my face. I took a look and grinned. That was the time Zechs and I had been cooking and some how go into a playful spat. I had picked him up and threatened to dunk his head in the sink full of water. But he resisted and sprayed me with the hose from the sink. The others ran in when I slipped and the two of us hit the floor.
"That was a moment to remember." Zechs laughed and looked up at me. "Between you and Trowa I don't stand a chance. You two never let me win. Only Heero lets me win…but I think it's to save my ego."
"I'm not that nice…" Heero replied, but there with mirth in his tone and a grin on his face.
"You know…We shouldn't be taking this so lightly…" Zechs sighed after a moment, "these people know our wholes lives practically…but…it's so hard, to not think fondly at all this." He said, laying the photos out on his lap and parts of the table. "These are our memories…"
"The only real memories we have, if you think about it." Trowa nodded.
"I wish this anxious feeling would go away. I know we're all the most skilled and, might I add, best looking there is; but this person has had quite a while to learn our habits."
"Love, don't think about it right now. You're already injured and it would be salt on the wound to give yourself a headache." Treize pet his hair lovingly.
"I guess you're right." He sighed.
"Oh my god! Are you wearing pants in this picture?" Duo's voice killed the somber mood, if nothing else.
"The real question is…what is Treize doing to you?" Heero added and raised his eyebrows. I slid over to take a look myself. I have no shame in looking at things I probably shouldn't.
I blinked at the photo and tried to stop the heat from turning my face as red as Duo's turned, "I can't decide which question I want to know the answer to more." I added with a cough.
Zechs hopped up and snatched the photo, hiding it from our view. He hopped back into place and looked at it. Treize did too. They both about froze to ice with how pale they turned. "Oh…" Zechs covered his mouth with a hand and held the photo with the other.
"You know…if they'd taken that photo five minutes later…" Treize brushed the single strands from his face. A habit I'd noticed he did when he was either nervous or embarrassed. He rarely did it, but it was noticeable when he did.
"And I would have wanted to see that." Trowa smirked. He was standing behind Treize looking at the photo and sipping the man's coffee.
Treize turned to Trowa and reclaimed his coffee mug, without much of a fight from Trowa. He stuck his tongue out at the tall acrobat and took a drink out of the mug, promptly returning it afterward, "I hope you like it, I backwashed."
"I've had my tongue down your boyfriend's throat, I don't think a little backwash from you will kill me," Trowa smirked and drank from it anyway. No one beat Trowa. Not Heero, not Zechs, not Treize, and not even I.
Treize shook his head, "How, Quatre, do you put up with him?"
"I encourage his behavior, naturally," Quatre chuckled sipping from his own mug. "What's a little harmless flirting, when I know it's me he loves?"
"Harmless flirting is ass grabbing, Quatre," Duo snorted, "Trowa put the French in kiss when he landed that one on Zechs a couple weeks ago."
"I would have dragged him up the stairs and had my way with him, had I not been confident that Treize would have shot me." Trowa grinned in that strange monotonous way he does. I knew there was a pervert under that stoic expression.
"How do you listen to him talk like that?" Duo asked Quatre.
"Oh…I would have been watching, Duo." Quatre giggled at Duo's look of surprise.
"Ahem." A voice reminded us of the issue at hand. The whole group of us was very attention deficit and often got side tracked. Une brought our attention back. "We're ready with rooms for you."
"Ah, then let's get settled in. A little dinner is in order after that!" Maxwell looked too happy I tell you. Considering the events of this shitty night, no one should have been happy. But we were all so used to our content lifestyles…
We were in for a rude awakening.
To be continued…
Leo: I'm trying to move this along quickly yet slowly at the same time, bear with me guys. I want there to be plenty of chapters of harmony before the big BAM. Someone's life is about to suck dramatically (as if you can't tell what the main plot is here…but I promise, none of you will expect where this is going once I get over the first tragedy.). I'm really happy you guys are taking to this and I thank you for your reviews! I'm actually proud of myself for how much I've written in the last week or so! Chapter three is finished already and I just started this story! Go Leo!
