Title: A Simple Thing
Author: Karina
Rating: PG
Pairing: Wu Fei + Milliardo + Duo
Notes: Challenge 219. Baby Series 4 #114. Takes place approximately an hour following Subtlety.
Spoilers: None
Warnings:
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: A Simple Thing
It was potent, an expensive and rare vintage. Being resident in the palace had certain perks, one of which was having personal contact with a man who had refined tastes in alcoholic beverages. Milliardo liked a refined brandy and Duo was not at all adverse to assisting him in raiding the cellars on occasion, nor was Chang.
The attics were abandoned for the evening, showers had been enjoyed and it was what Chang Wu Fei thought of as their 'quiet time'. The fire blazed cheerily in the large hearth, snifters of exquisitely expensive and admittedly sublime brandy rested beside them and they were a sprawl of limbs and hair before the hearth.
Wu Fei ran the brush through spun silver turned liquid gold by the fire's glow. Having the shortest hair he had dealt with his quickly whilst Milliardo had occupied the shower. Duo was adjusting cushions to make himself a nest and offered the hairbrush in his hand to Milliardo before turning his back to him and presenting the mass of dripping hair.
It was... strangely intimate.
It was a simple thing but there was something so personal, so intimate, about a person's hair. Giving another person permission to touch, let alone brush said hair was no small thing, particularly for Duo. Those tresses held memories, meanings known only to Duo. There had been no hesitation in him handing off the brush to another, and it demonstrated the trust he had developed for a man who, once, had been considered their enemy.
They had really come a long way from the teenagers they had been. Those they had accounted as enemies were now their friends and, hopefully, more than friends in the fullness of time. He caught himself, bit his lip and stared at the fingers that had drawn a line from behind one ear down, following the defined line of a long neck to trace along the length of a broad shoulder.
That had been an intimate touch, one unsolicited, unanticipated. His body had simply acted with his mind otherwise occupied and... Milliardo had not reacted. Yes, his shoulders had shifted, but that was the action of the brush strokes as he attended to Maxwell's hair. Pursing his lips Wu Fei considered deliberately repeating the caress, sorely tempted to do so but hesitating to push the boundaries when the man looked more relaxed than he had when he had joined them.
The danger of a flashback was far from over, there was still something 'off' about the King. He hesitated to push the envelope at this stage and it was enough that he had not set them back with that unthinking touch. It was a sign that Milliardo was comfortable enough to relax in their presence.
He would, deliberately, repeat that caress in coming days, subtly, gently, picking his time with great care. Getting the man accustomed to their touch was high on his priority but there was something he could do.
End
Karina Robertson 2013