Chapter 10

Wufei sat on his assigned seat on the airplane. Heero was sitting next to him, typing furiously on his laptop. He had no doubt what Heero was researching. It was, after all, why they were on a plane flying to a different country.

Wufei pushed himself further back into his seat, trying to get comfortable. He always hated to be on planes and shuttles. The flights were always to long, causing ones back to stiff up and legs to cramp up. There was nowhere to move. One could barely shift positions without hitting the passenger next to them.

Shifting slightly, Wufei felt his back pop in five different locations. 'Why am I on this damn plane again?' Wufei then looked at Yuy. 'That's right; this is all Yuy's fault. First, he caused Maxwell to go in Shinigami mode, second, sent Shinigami in at me, and third, told me I'm leaving the country with him without any notice.'

"If Maxwell touches my kitchen, you're paying the bills."

Heero nodded.

Wufei glared at Heero before moving looking out the tiny window and at the soft, cotton looking clouds below them. He would much rather be comforted by the clouds than sitting in the infernal plane seat.

Seeing as there was nothing to do, Wufei let his thoughts drift off to earlier that day along with wishes that he at least had a word cross or fill-ins to do.

When he and Yuy had arrived at the airport, Wufei decided it was time to ask what they were doing. All he basically got was 'information gathering.' So Yuy wanted to know more about his past, the curse. Yuy didn't know any more then he did now about the curse. He also didn't mind tagging along on this ride. He would like to know more about this curse that he suffered from. Maybe, hopefully, there was even a way to break it. Or at the very least, make it more tolerable to live with.

Every day he lived in fear that someone would find out his secret, that he would transform in front of a group of people. His life as he knew it would be over. He was sure that people would want to study him, find out what made him so different from the rest of the human race.

There was a reason why he kept the female gender away from him, from getting too close. Only a few had broken through that barrier. Sally Poe was one. She refused to let him get to her, she stayed by his side no matter what he tried to pull, no matter his snide remarks on the female race. She put up with his attitude and gave it right back to him. She had even smacked him once or twice to get a point across to him.

"You're insufferable. I don't know why I even put up with you," Sally said. She and Wufei were sitting in their joint office. Wufei was trying to get his work done. Sally, on the other hand, was bent on grilling him.

"Why do you then?" Wufei had questioned back, not looking up from his report. Maybe this would be it; this would cause the wedge in their relationship that he'd hoped for.

"Don't you take that tone with me. I am your superior."

Wufei snorted.

It was then that it happened. He would never forget the day, the day that Sally had snapped. Sally had calmly gotten up from her desk, gracefully walked across the tiny room and stood by Wufei's side, all in a matter of seconds.

"What do you mean by that?"

When Wufei didn't answer, she had smacked him upside the head. Shocked more than anything else, all he could do was look at her, until it finally soaked it that she had struck him. HIM!

"What'd you do that for?" he demanded.

Looking back at that incident now, he still couldn't believe that Sally had actually struck him. But he was asking for it. He had been getting on her nerves from day zero when he had met her. He stepped up his actions when he had been partnered with her. She had made it clear after that day that nothing he could, or would, do would drive her away from his side.

Cornel Une was another female that he let get closer than most. He never had any worries over her trying to embrace him in anything more than a handshake. He never had to worry about his secret coming out because of her actions.

The white fluffy clouds broke from underneath the plane and the wide blue ocean could be seen. It looked so calm from his perspective. He couldn't see any waves nor any boats of any kind. Just clear blue water stretching for miles upon miles.

Waves.

Why did he feel that he would be causing waves of another kind really soon, if not already. In a sense, he had already rocked the boat by revealing the Zodiac Curse to Yuy and helping him with his search of the Sohmas.

Just a little ripple of seeing Yuy transform into the cat had caused ripples in his life. He wasn't as alone as he thought he was. He didn't have to keep his secret as secret as he used to. He now had someone he could share it with. And who knows, the ripples could go farther. He might find someone else with the curse, or knew of the curse, that he could share his burden with.

Water was always so symbolic of him. He would look calm on the outside, but he was usually raging on the inside. He was angry at the curse that was put on him and the way he had to live his life because of it. He couldn't just share his secret with anyone. Someone could easily use that knowledge against him, they could blackmail him. No, it was better to keep it silent and to himself unless he was sure of the person.

Wufei looked back over at Heero. He was still working on his laptop, no doubt still researching the Sohmas and the Zodiac.

Shifting in his seat once more, Wufei leaned his seat back as far as it would go. Too bad it didn't help any. His legs were still cramping and his back was aching. What he wouldn't give to be able to get up and move around, to stretch out his legs and loosen up the muscles in his back.

At least the cockpit seat in Nataku had been comfortable, unlike the infernal seat he was in now.

Looking out the window, Wufei would give anything to have a deck of cards, a book, anything to keep him busy from thinking how uncomfortable he was, what he would be facing, and what he had faced. He didn't want to think about the curse and how it affected his life.

But how could he not? After all, that was why he was on the plane at that very moment. How could he not think of his past when he was faced with learning and coming more to terms with it? This was all Yuy's fault. More so, it was that imbecilic female officer's fault who revealed Yuy's secret to him. If she hadn't bumped into Yuy, causing him to turn into a cat, he wouldn't be on this plane, therefore, his back would not be complaining and Shinigami wouldn't have threatened him earlier. He just hoped that Shinigami hadn't killed anyone that day.

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Meanwhile, violet eyes were staring furiously at a stack of files, almost causing them to burst into flames. The one named Duo Maxwell was not a very happy camper at the moment. Oh no. After all, Shinigami had come out for a little visit.

The day had started off well enough. He was alive; always a bonus when one was trying to live a life. Then he was able to see his boyfriend sleeping on the couch in a cute sort of way. Heero always looked peaceful when he slept, like he was free from the weight of the world. Then the bonus of the morning had been being able to get into Wufei's kitchen. And when he was going to reach for a mug to make coffee, Heero had caught him and forced him out of the kitchen. At least it wasn't Wufei who had caught him. Now that would have been ugly, especially after the incident with him trying to make hot chocolate back at the office.

The morning had been going well. Wufei had to leave for the office early, leaving him and Heero alone in the apartment. Then he had to go and ask Heero what they were planning on doing that day. That was when everything went downhill.

Heero had stated that he needed to visit someone that lived in a different country. Okay, so that wasn't bad. What came next was. Heero had pretty much said that he couldn't go but that he was taking Wufei with him.

Wufei!

Why Wufei and not him? What could Wufei help him with that he could not? And why did they have to be gone for a few days? That meant that he was left to his own devices, something that was never good. If they weren't careful, there wouldn't be an apartment to come back to, let alone a kitchen.

And then Heero had made him promise that he wouldn't set foot in the kitchen at all, that he would go out to McDonalds or wherever else for all of his dietitarien needs. And damn him for making him promise to get his water out of the bathroom tap with a sippy cup.

A sippy cup!

And people wondered why Shinigami likes to come out and play.