Disclaimer: I don't own the Gundam Wing characters and make no monetary profit from writing.

Note: thanks to KS for proofing and providing the perfect title.

Spinning Dreams:

They were on the terrace. The three of them; the two little girls and the man he had contracted to marry. The doctors had said, that morning, that it wouldn't hurt for him to spend some time outside, provided he rested, and didn't try to overdo things.

Of course, he was overdoing things. Earlier, Wufei had devoted an hour to seeing that the couch had been set up in just the right position on the terrace, under a tree, with the easel and paints close by. Someone, hopefully not Zechs himself, had moved it into the centre of the garden and the three of them were gathered about it.

Zechs was telling a story; his voice low enough that his lover could only hear a few words, but there was a valiant princess, and a host of magical animals, and a dragon. He wasn't sure whether the dragon was meant to be a good or bad character.

He looked well enough, actually. Considering. Moving just a little stiffly as he shifted to select a new tube of paint, but that could well be Wufei's own fault. They had made love that morning and he'd been - less than gentle.

He still felt guilty about that. But Zechs had offered himself like a gift, and some part of Wufei had needed it; had needed to brand his ownership into this man's body and prove he was still alive, still strong, still his. He'd come so very close to losing him, that day in the desert, with the prince's blood flowing and the possibility that every laboured breath would be his last.

Pressing into Zechs' body that morning, he'd finally lost that fear. Their roles in the bedroom still tended to be somewhat…fluid. It wasn't the physical aspect so much; they could bring each other to screaming climax, regardless of position, but they both had a fondness for control, for leading.

It had been an issue at the start, for both of them. Treize had always kept the prince of Sanque underneath; just one more little way of exerting control and he'd wanted this relationship to be different. Wufei had seen submission as an affront to his personal dignity and manliness and pride. He'd implemented a strict rota, once, which had seemed the only fair thing to do; something he still laughed about if he thought of it.

Nowadays, it depended more on individual desire and need and mood and, sometimes, on who won the preliminary tussle for control.

But, oh Gods, it was rare for Zechs just to surrender like that. Wufei shivered when he thought about it; the memory totally inappropriate for bright daylight and the presence of young children.

He took a deep breath instead, focussing on the little group around the easel. It was impossible to tell what his lover had originally planned the painting to be; there were vague angles and lines sketched in, but most of them had been obscured by the herd of rainbow coloured creatures - llamas presumably - each and every one of them adorned with wings.

The prince, brush in hand, turned to smile at Gemma. 'Well, My Lady? What shall we choose for this one?'

'Flutter-by,' the little girl whispered; the first words Wufei had heard her speak.

'But of course.' Zechs drew the outline of butterfly wings with a stick of charcoal, and then handed the children a brush each. 'Why don't you two draw in the colours?'

'Story,' Lily prompted indignantly. 'Story!'

'Later. When each of the llamas has wings, we'll finish the story. They must be able to fly so they can rescue the princess, after all.'

When both children were bent over the painting, Zechs allowed himself to turn at look at Wufei. 'Well, dear one? What are you smiling at?'

'You.' Wufei checked that the girls were engrossed in their art, and leaned over to give his lover a quick kiss on the cheek before leading him over to the couch. 'The Lightning Count, spinning fairy stories to amuse children.'

Zechs laughed, pulling him down and sliding one arm around his waist. 'I'll spin you a story tonight, if you wish, about an incredibly handsome prince and his beloved dragon.'

'Milliardo!' Wufei hissed, scandalised, and jerked away. 'Not in front of the children!'

'Well, that's easily remedied.' Zechs found a piece of paper and scribbled on it, before raising his voice. 'Ladies!'

Both girls looked around, giggling at the exalted title. 'I have a quest for you both. I need you to find the Princess Relena and the Lady Dorothy, and ask them to help you find every item on this list. We need all this treasure before we can give the story a happy ending.'

'Yes, your highness.' Lily and Gemma curtsied prettily and scampered off.

Wufei laughed 'You have those two eating out of your hand.'

'My irresistible charm, naturally. Now, there's something I've been wanting to do for a while, and since we now have some privacy….' Zechs pulled Wufei down for a kiss. 'Hmm. I think I'll reconsider us having children of our own if you're going to be so prudish.'

'I hadn't realised that children were a … consideration for you,' Wufei said carefully.

Zechs managed an elegant shrug. 'Well, a possibility, perhaps. I imagined it was something you wanted; you're so good with your goddaughter.

Wufei considered it, staring at the bright painting. It was one thing to babysit Sally's adorable toddler every so often; quite another to consider having children of their own.

'It's nothing, dearest,' Zechs cut in to his thoughts. 'Truly. Just a silly notion I had; it isn't something I've thought seriously about. You don't have to give it another thought.'

'Honestly, I've just never considered it as a possibility. It's not that I'm opposed to the idea, well, I don't think I am, but….I assume you were thinking of adoption?'

Zechs grinned. 'Well, either that, or one of us would have to undergo a sex change. I'd really rather not do that. 'Fei, if you're uncomfortable with the idea, please, it's not important.'

'Stop that.' Wufei tangled one hand in the long, platinum hair and tugged gently. 'You are allowed to want things for yourself. Isn't it better that we talk about this?'

'I …rather like the idea of having a daughter,' his lover admitted, sounding less than confident for once in his life. 'It's probably stupid, but I remember Relena when she was little. I hadn't wanted a sister; I wasn't really allowed to play with other children so I was longing for a brother. The day she was born, my father took me into his office and told me that the principal duty of a prince was to look after his people, and that I was to be my sister's protector. He made…quite a little ceremony of it, actually. It's silly, but I was so proud of myself, and then I - I failed to protect her. I failed to protect Sanque.'

'No!' Wufei said it with total conviction. 'You devoted your life to trying to protect the Sanque kingdom, and you have nothing to be ashamed of.' He bent over and kissed the little furrow between the pale brows. 'If you want a child so much, of course we'll have one.'

'One day,' Zechs said easily. 'It's something we can think about in five years or so. When you've finally got around to submitting your doctorate, and published your first book, and lectured in all of the world's top universities.'

Wufei smiled. 'Let me finish my doctorate at least. Then we'll talk about it.'

'Agreed.' Zechs kissed him again. 'Doctor Chang. I think that's rather sexy, actually.'

'You think everything is sexy. What about Doctor Peacecraft-Chang?'

'Too clumsy,' Zechs decided.

'Peacecraft-Merquise-Chang,' Wufei teased.

'Our bed is going to be very crowded, by the sound of it. Are you quite sure you want to marry all of these different people?'

'Quite sure. And don't forget the Lightning Count. He was very sexy with those long, polished boots of his.'

'Are you asking me to dress up for you again, darling?'

Wufei blushed furiously; forcing himself to draw several deep breaths in succession. He should never, never have revealed that he had something of a…fondness for that particular outfit.

'Perhaps when we get back home.' He made himself meet the prince's laughing eyes. He was Chang Wufei, a warrior and a scholar. He did not blush like a schoolgirl with her first crush.

'I want to marry you. Milliardo, Zechs, whatever you want me to call you.'

Zechs smiled; that slow curl of his lips that he kept for Wufei alone. 'Milliardo is yours entirely. I'd been so lost before I met you, dearest. I had no idea how to cope in this world.'

'Stop.' Wufei leaned over, placing one finger on his lover's mouth. 'We were both lost; I'd just learned to hide it a little better.'

The prince turned his hand over, tracing a kiss over the palm and then each finger in turn. 'Since we're alone for once, perhaps we should take advantage of the fact, hmm? It should take the girls a good hour to finish their treasure hunt; no one else is going to disturb us out here. We could share some wine and…see what happens?'

Wine! When he was recovering from a serious chest wound, and on all sorts of antibiotics. Utterly ridiculous, but sure enough, there was a bottle and two crystal glasses on the small table that also held a variety of chilled juices and sherbets.

'Mil! I'm sure you're not supposed to be taking alcohol with your medications.'

'One glass can scarcely hurt. And I thought you said Dr. Al-Hamid told me to relax; a little wine will help.'

Wufei sighed; he'd come to learn that there were times when it simply wasn't worth battling every minor skirmish. Besides, it was a warm afternoon. He'd spent the last hour in fairly heated exercise. And he was lazing with his lover on a couch piled with silk cushions and the air was fragrant with spring flowers. 'One glass. One small glass. I hope you're happy; you've turned me into as big a hedonist as you are yourself.'

'A sensualist,' Zechs corrected, smooth as silk sliding over skin. 'Isn't it wonderful?'

Wufei sniffed, pouring them both a glass. A small glass. 'I'm sorry about your painting.'

'It was worth it, just to have a few minutes' peace and quiet. I hadn't realised entertaining small children would be so exhausting.'

'You should have said something. Where's Marlie anyway?'

'She deserved a little time off.' The prince's lush mouth quirked into a wicked little grin. 'Poor girl, I think she needed to lie down after she saw Duo and Heero's little exhibition on TV.'

'One of the embassy staff could have taken the children,' Wufei told him. He'd seen that particular television footage himself, and still wasn't entirely sure how he felt about it. Duo never did anything like that in public; well, not unless Zechs goaded him into it, but he'd flung himself into Heero's arms in the middle of a crowd of people. 'You know you aren't supposed to be exerting yourself too much yet.'

Zechs winked. 'Hmm. That's not what you were saying this morning, dearest.'

Wufei coloured violently, at the words, at the intimate tone behind them, and the images they conjured up. His lover spread beneath him with the morning sun gilding all that pale, perfect flesh and picking up the glints in his cloud of hair.

'I'm perfectly fine, you know, so there's no need to fuss. I enjoyed every second of it. Both times,' he went on in a more conversational tone. 'I'm just feeling rather tired.' He stretched back and gave Wufei a reassuring smile. 'Don't you start feeling guilty. You needed a little stress relief.'

The Chinese man tried to smile back, but it was a poor attempt.

'I'm sorry,' Zechs said quietly. 'I never meant our engagement to be like this. It should be a happy time for both of us, and instead everything is going wrong. I'm injured, you're stressed out about Winner, and we're both worried about Trowa.'

Wufei raised one dark brow slightly. 'Oh, I wouldn't say that everything is going wrong. We're together, after all. And very much in love. We've even settled on a date, unless you've changed your mind, of course?'

'Brat. Very well, I'll admit that not everything is ruined.' He took Wufei's hand and traced the black jade ring with one gentle finger. 'How do you manage to put everything into perspective like that?'

Wufei grinned. 'Unlike some people I could name, I wasn't hopelessly indulged as a child. I didn't grow up expecting everything my own way.'

'Well, I was the only son of a royal dynasty,' Zechs defended himself. 'And I do plan to spend the rest of my life indulging your every whim. And you'll have to permit it, once we're married.'

'Really? Is that an integral part of the marriage vows?'

'For me, it is, yes. Once you're my husband, I get to pamper you in every way imaginable. It's going to be delightful.'

'There is one thing I'd like….' Wufei let his voice trail off doubtfully.

'It's yours,' Zechs said instantly. 'You know that.'

'Our wedding. Please, Mil. I want it to be the way you imagined. I know I said I'd like to hold the ceremony at home, but that was before I realised you had plans. Truly, it's not important to me where it happens.' It was true, more or less.

'No. It will be special and personal, just what we want. Believe me, darling, nothing could make me happier than to marry you at our home; the place where you first told me you loved me.'

Wufei's jaw set stubbornly. 'I know you had your heart set on a ceremony somewhere exotic.'

'I don't. I have my heart set on spending the rest of my life with you. I merely thought of it as a possibility, but I like your idea better. Perhaps we compromise?'

'Is that actually a word in your vocabulary?' Wufei wondered.

'My newest one. We can have the wedding at home, and go somewhere exotic for our honeymoon. Will that do?'

'That would be perfect.'

'Mmm. Speaking of the wedding…' he let his voice trail off until Wufei nudged him gently. 'There is something we need to discuss. A pre-nuptial contract.'

'What?' Wufei's brows snapped sharply together. 'I hardly think that is necessary, unless you believe I am after your money.'

'Oh, it's nothing like that,' Zechs assured him. 'I realise perfectly well that you are only after my body. There is merely a small legal point that we need to discuss. As my consort, you will be part of the Peacecraft family and there are certain traditions my family has upheld for centuries. You will be expected to observe those and…'

'Mil, I am the last person in the universe who would ever want to interfere with history. You have to know that.'

'Hmm.' The prince's handsome face looked a little uncertain, and Wufei's heart plummeted. Had he inadvertently done something to offend an ancient Sanque tradition?

'What is it?' he demanded. 'Just tell me, please.'

'Very well. You are going to have to curb that inclination of yours toward destroying our national tree on the slightest provocation. Red Oaks have been a symbol of Sanque for centuries; they're already an endangered species and it will look rather bad if a member of the royal family continues on his trail of destruction.'

'Oh! I didn't do anything of the kind. I may have trimmed a few branches slightly, but that probably improved the tree's welfare. Pruning is a necessary part of caring for trees.'

'When did you become a horticulturalist, love?' Zechs laughed gently, twining the fingers of one hand in Wufei's hair. 'You know I'm just teasing; I simply couldn't resist.'

'I can't believe I fell for that!'

'Very neatly and gracefully, I promise you.' Zechs tugged him into his arms, and Wufei resisted for a moment; he'd been shot, after all. 'Stop squirming, 'Fei. I promise, holding you could never cause me any sort of pain. Besides, I don't remember you being so …solicitous this morning. Rather the opposite in fact.'

'You're never going to let that go, are you?' Wufei grumbled, purely for form's sake. His brain was telling him that it was a bad idea to curl up on the chest of someone with a recent injury; the rest of him was enjoying the sensation far too much to move. And Zechs surely had enough sense to let him go if it began to hurt. Maybe.

'Why should I let it go? I enjoyed it immensely; I rather like it when you go all dominant.' Wufei smiled faintly; he didn't feel particularly dominant at the moment, cuddled up in his love's arms. Zechs bent and kissed the top of his head. 'Dearheart, is something bothering you? You looked upset about something when you first came out here.'

'Oh.' Wufei took another small sip of his drink, savouring the taste. Damn. He'd tried so hard to hide it, but of course Zechs was far too perceptive where he was concerned. 'It is…I'm not sure how to explain. You remember this morning I promised Nathan that I would show him some of the basic katas? Well, when I took him to the gymnasium, he thought that I - that I wanted something else entirely. Mil, the way he looked at me; he was so sure that I was going to hurt him. I never even considered that anyone could look at me like that.'

So stupid; he'd known about the boy's life, about what had happened to him. What in the name of all the gods was the child supposed to think when a man, a virtual stranger, led him away from his sisters to an otherwise abandoned room? But he'd had no real idea how to interact with a thirteen year old boy, save as a teacher, so he'd suggested showing him some simple exercises. Of course the child had put a different interpretation of the offer; of course he had.

'It's not your fault, Wufei.' Zechs told him firmly. 'You do know that, don't you? It isn't any of your fault that he was hurt by other people.'

Wufei nodded; he knew it, objectively. That knowledge didn't really amount to much, though, if he let himself think about the look in Nathan's eyes. 'I've been so sheltered all my life,' he said slowly. 'So very privileged really, in some ways. I know such things happen, naturally, but I've never experienced anything like that.'

It was true. It was. Never at first hand. But he'd been a Preventer for almost two years. He'd seen things.

He'd lived with Duo's nightmares for years. He'd seen the achingly slow bond of trust take root between Trowa and Quatre during the war; how Trowa had almost had to steel himself sometimes before he could let the blond touch him.

'It seems such an arbitrary thing,' he mused. 'So very unjust. Some children are so damaged, and some are never touched at all.'

'Don't dare apologise for the fact that nobody ever hurt you!' Zechs hissed. 'Do you hear me?'

'I - didn't mean it quite like that,' Wufei faltered. 'Truly. It is just that I realise how very fortunate I am.' He took a deep breath; he was a warrior and a scholar. He could say this, to the love of his life, without faltering. He could.

'Something almost happened during the war.'

There.

'Was it Treize?'

'No!' Wufei's eyes held the blazing blue ones as he spoke. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that if he'd said yes, his lover would have found some way to raise Treize's ghost, to enter the underworld and exact retribution. But Treize's manner to him had always been faintly amused, faintly indulgent. Right until the end.

'It was at the Lunar Base. Heero had been taken out of our cell; it was just myself and Duo. He was driving me insane; I was trying to meditate to calm myself a little, and he kept babbling about something or other. Heero had told me to watch him, but I was so scared. The guards kept taunting us; I suppose they'd all lost friends to the Gundams and, well, you can imagine the sort of things they were saying. I'd been so sure of my own strength; it was rather pathetic really. I'd imagined myself defying OZ under the direst tortures. But…the things they were saying…'

'I just yelled at Duo to shut the hell up. I - I said things about him that were untrue and unjust. And then they came for us later. For me, really, they'd all known people at Victoria. Except Duo made them take him instead; he insulted them and they took him first.'

Wufei swallowed. It was something he tried so hard never to think about; that awful, awful night.

'I'll never know how long he was gone. His hair was loose when they threw him back in the cell. That's the only thing I can really remember clearly; I'd never seen his hair down before. He was half dead; he had two fingers broken and he was desperately trying to braid his damn hair! I ended up doing it for him, after he'd passed out. And he said,' Wufei choked, trying to force the words out of a throat that felt lined with splintered glass and razors, 'he said he knew he could handle something like that, but he…didn't want anyone else to have to.'

Sloe-black eyes met sky-blue; the prince's eyes were full of love and compassion and deepest sorrow, sparked with anger that his lover and his dearest friend had been abused like that. No surprise, though; no shock.

'You knew,' Wufei said slowly. 'He told you?' He knew the answer to that question; no one else could have told him.

Zechs nodded. 'Please, love, don't be angry with him. I begged him to tell me. I knew that there was something; you were so…shy about certain things when we first started seeing each other. If it makes you feel any better, he did feel bad about betraying a confidence but I think, by then, he had started to trust me. He didn't go into any sort of detail; just that there had been a - a situation during the war. Incidentally, he did tell me, very graphically, just what he would do to me if I ever dared to harm you in any way.'

'He would,' Wufei said slowly. 'He has …such an urge to protect people. He's always teased Heero about being over-protective, but he's just as bad. Worse, probably. You do know Duo considers himself responsible for these three children?'

'Of course. Although I rather think that's Heero's problem rather than ours, don't you?'

'And if Heero isn't interested?'

Zechs snorted. 'Have you seen the way he looks at Duo? Believe me, he'd take Duo if he came with a dozen children and a herd of flying llamas. And if he's not…Well, we have a big house. I can train the girls to be my faithful minions, and you can teach Nathan every martial art in the universe. Where is he, by the way? I assume you did get him to trust you a little.'

'Not really. I tried and he thought…oh, I don't know what he thought. So I called Duo and he calmed the boy down.'

'Really, if there were some way for us to bottle that charm of his, we could make a fortune. Or take over the world.'

Wufei managed a faint smile. 'Probably. Nat went back to the house to change…there are showers in the gym, but the doors don't lock.'

It was foolish, to feel offended over that. The boy hardly had any reason to trust adults, strangers. It still stung a little.

Zechs didn't say anything, just dropped a kiss on his forehead.

'Speaking of Duo, where is he now? Still besieging the Winner Mansion?'

'Oh! I forgot to tell you. He's on his way back here; I called him just before I left the gym. Apparently, Quatre is 'resting' and will see Duo at five o'clock.'

'I'll bet that didn't go down too well.'

Wufei grimaced, recalling Duo's exact words. 'No, it didn't. He's furious. He's only coming back here until then because he says it's better than sitting around surrounded by armed Maguanacs. And Heero's apparently assigned him a Preventer agent as bodyguard. He's not terribly happy about that either.'

Zechs burst out laughing. 'I can imagine. Poor Duo. I do imagine he wouldn't be overly impressed by Heero attempting to keep him safe.'

'That,' Wufei said firmly, 'would be an understatement.' He grinned suddenly. 'Duo may need a bodyguard, actually. He was talking about kicking Quatre's ass when he finally gets to see him. The Maguanacs may not approve of that.'

Zechs' eyes gleamed, suggesting he would very much approve of this course of action. 'I was listening to the news earlier. Apparently, Winner is suffering from traumatic amnesia. They also mentioned some sort of head injury.'

Wufei looked sceptical. 'Duo thinks he's faking it. I don't know about the head injury, but he did have worse happen to him in the war, and he never suffered from any sort of memory loss.' He shook his head. 'Duo said he would happily pretend to have amnesia if he had Une trying to question him over something. I have no idea, really, what's going on. The L4 media is almost implying that the Preventers were behind his disappearance in the first place.' He raised an eyebrow at his lover. 'Is it possible?'

'I doubt it very much. Winner may be in favour of increased colonial independence, but he's hardly enough of a threat that they'd want to remove him. Anyway, he hasn't said anything himself; it's simply speculation on the part of reporters, trying to boost their network ratings.'

'Quatre hasn't denied it.' Wufei took a thoughtful sip of his deliciously chilled wine. 'All he has to do is to state categorically that the Preventers weren't involved with what's happened to him, and this furore would just vanish. I had the radio on in the gym; L4's about to go up in smoke and there are demonstrations taking place on the other colonies, on Earth. And Quat's not saying anything about what's happened to him, one way or the other.'

'It's actually rather a stunning piece of propaganda,' Zechs cut in. 'Those shots of him leaving the hospital, hardly able to walk and talking about his grief for the girl and his two dead bodyguards, well…it was extremely effective. He gave a very definite impression that he was scared of someone or something.'

Wufei nodded. 'I saw. Duo said he organised all the publicity himself, by the way. He - ah - overheard two of the Maguanacs talking apparently. Quatre called Rashid from the hospital - on Une's personal cell-phone, apparently! - and made sure every news network in the universe would be there to watch him leaving the hospital. Une couldn't really claim she needed to keep him for his own safety; not when Quatre's got his own personal army to guard him. And definitely not with all those journalists hanging there.'

'You think, what? That he's doing this to make Une look bad? I know he's never liked her, but all of this - bringing an entire colony to the brink of revolution - well, it seems somewhat excessive. Don't you think?'

Wufei gave Zechs a long look. 'Quatre's plans can be …somewhat excessive. I honestly don't know what he's up to. I imagine Duo will try to get it out of him.'

'You don't want to go with him?' Zechs sounded surprised.

Wufei shot him a look of purest disdain. 'I have absolutely no desire to see him, thank you. Not after the way he's treated Duo and Trowa. I really couldn't care less what he's playing at now.'

It wasn't true, not entirely. He was furious with practically everything Quatre had done over the past months, but they'd been friends for years now. He couldn't just forget that friendship, blank out everything Quat had done for him.

He was home safe now; that was the important thing. And perhaps they could finally work out what was going on.

He softened his expression, looking at the shadows in Zechs' blue eyes. 'I'm sorry, Mil. I didn't mean to snap. This is all just rather difficult. Perhaps I should go with Duo after all?'

'Wait and see what he thinks,' Zechs suggests, glancing at his watch. 'He should be here soon. Don't you think we should take advantage of this little bit of privacy before he arrives?'