Title: Sentimental Mush
Author: Karina
Rating: PG
Pairing: Duo + Wu Fei
Notes: Challenge 183. Baby Series 4 #6. Takes place following Worth Fighting For.
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Extended Length
Many thanks to ShenLong Deb for her work betaing this set of fics.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the Characters from the series but the baby is mine.
Title: Sentimental Mush
Dark eyes swept the length and breadth of the long hall, the austere lines of which were softened by artfully arranged swathes of rich red fabric and paintings decorating the walls. Large vases with elaborate and colourful floral decorations alternated with the paintings. He was uncertain what the large space had been used for in its original persona, but now it was remade into the Great Hall. Hundreds of comfortably cushioned seats were placed in neat rows down the centre of the hall, a raised dais at the head of the room held a single seat identical to all of the others.
Wu Fei stood at one of the windows draped with the dark red velvet, looking through the frosted glass, though there was nothing for him to see beyond it. A pace away Duo leaned casually against the wall, bright eyes constantly moving, watching, seeking any indication they might not be alone.
"We are worth fighting for, my friend?"
"Yeah." Duo's voice was equally as low as his companion's, a whisper that could not be heard three paces away, but still his eyes swept the hall for any listeners. "Yeah, you are. You know I'm not one for sentimental mush, there's nothing soft and mushy about me. I'm more likely to punch a person's face in than kiss them, but hey, I have my good points. I know what I like. I might talk too much, I might be brash and everyone thinks of me as the Court Jester, even before I ended up in Sanc, but…"
The shrug of broad, but still slender, shoulders was eloquent. He glanced briefly at the ornate clock hung on the wall backing the stage and knew this brief intermission would not last much longer.
"Sentimentality has a place in our lives, even in the lives of those who have killed. We are human, and therefore we feel. We get attached to people and places… to things. I miss Nataku. It was only a lump of metal parts, circuits and hydraulics, but.."
"Yeah." Duo filled in the pause with the single word, more of a sigh than a word. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I miss Scythe bad some days. Not because there is someone I'd like to step on, though there are a few of them in the court could do with flattening a bit, but… Hell, Scythe was my mate, my friend, my confidant. I could talk to that hulking piece of scrap with bite, where I couldn't talk to anyone else."
"Yes. Nataku knew my innermost fears, my anger, my fury. I could rage and I could… I could weep with Nataku, and no one would judge me. No one need know."
Duo sighed deeply, eyes closed for a long moment as he remembered the machine that had been his constant companion during the war. "I wonder if the others miss their Gundams?"
"I believe they would."
"There is one machine I'd never be sentimental about. Bastard of a machine. That Zero… Heero might have liked it, but not me. I didn't like it at all. Not like Scythe. Scythe never judged me and found me wanting. Scythe tested me, but never, never like that."
Wu Fei rubbed his hands together lightly, head tilted slightly to one side, dark eyes looking inward in reflection.
"I have fonder memories of Zero, in that it led me to want to live again. It led me out of my unreasoning rage at the war, at Oz, at the Elders… and into anger focused on one man. Perhaps that is not a good thing, on reflection, but to focus my anger on Khushrenada was better than having that anger toward every living, breathing thing. Zero was never soft with a pilot. Winner would have far from fond memories of it. He still screams, I think, in his sleep. Barton… When you think about it, Zero gave Barton back his memories. If any of us would think better of the machine, it would be him."
"And Heero. He got on just fine with the brute."
Duo felt his finger nails digging into his palms and made a conscious effort to open his fingers, to let go of the searing angst that always filled him when he thought of his time in the cockpit of the machine. No, he did not like Zero.
"Hey Fei?"
"Yes?"
"What do you think Zechs feels about the mobile suits he flew? He flew Wing Zero for a time."
Wu Fei closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the icy glass for a long moment. "And a Leo. I understand he modified a production Leo to better suit him. Tallgeese he made his own."
"And there was… Epyon."
Wu Fei could not hide the shudder at the name. "Yes. There was Epyon."
"Some days I wish... He gets that look in his eyes, you know? That look I'll always associate with Epyon. When it happens I wish I could just grab the bastard and give him a cuddle."
End
Karina Robertson 2012