September 30, 2002
Title: On my Own
Author: Christine
e-mail: Devilkitty@speakeasy.net
Pairing: mention 13x2, 1x3x4x5, Rx11
Rating: PG16
Warnings:Mentions of NCS, abuse and S&M, Language.
Two Weeks after the Escape:
Mina unlocked her office and was surprised to see that the lights were on already, because she was the first one in. She had come in earlier to work on a few things. That was the last thought that she had for a while.
When she came to, she was on her couch and young man was leaning over her. "Dr. Harker, I presume?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied groggily. "And you are?"
"Just call me Mirialdo. This is my associate, Howard. I have also gone by the name of Zechs."
Mina paled when he finished talking, since she had heard the third name far too often. Duo had mentioned that he was the person that had given him most of his nightmares after the war. And she had read the medical report about what he had done to Duo, even if she couldn't stomach seeing the results on Duo. She didn't think. She just raised her hand and slapped Mirialdo across the face before she could even think about it, "You bastard!"
Mirialdo just stared at her in anger, before Howard grabbed his arm and shoved him into the corner. "Just leave this to me. She's the only person that we can get to, that might have info on those two. I'm not dealing with Sally Po. She's got a mean right hook. She's also the woman that thought of stopping you be ramming my ship into the Libra. She's tough enough not to break before we kill her. We don't have time to dick around with this, the more time that we take, the further those two run."
"He's supposed to be dead..." Mina said numbly, just staring at Mirialdo.
"But he isn't, which leads me to my question, do you know where Duo might be?" Howard asked her gently. He was going to play good cop to Mirialdo's psycho cop and hopefully she's tell them what they want to know without having to resort to something as messy as torture.
"All I know is that he disappeared in London and that his family was frightened that he had disappeared." Mina told him. She hadn't really heard anything after that. She presumed it was because neither Relena or Une were too happy with her. Maria had stopped going to school also after being pulled out by two young men that claimed to be relatives. She had gotten the whole story when the principal had checked to see if Maria was still seeing her psychiatrist.
"And who might his family be?" Howard asked gently, he didn't want to spook the good doctor, just question her about Duo and disappear. He also wanted to stop Mirialdo from gutting her, because she had slapped him. Mirialdo was getting a wee bit homicidal, since he couldn't take his frustrations out on Treize. He just needed her in one piece now and when he was through with the doctor he would let Mirialdo work out his frustrations on her. Not enough to kill, her but beating up on her would take the edge of off his temper. Not until after she gave them what they wanted though.
"That's confidential information - ." Mina said automatically.
"That's nice," Howard told her, "but if I let Mirialdo loose on you, you won't like it." He was planning on doing it anyway, but she didn't have to know that.
Mina sighed. She knew what Duo would tell her to do, she had a pretty good idea that he didn't want her to get hurt, but she wasn't just going to give these two thugs the information that they wanted. So she compromised. Besides if she gave in easily, they might not think that she wasn't telling the truth, and then they would come back and she would have to deal with Mirialdo. "We're going to play a guessing game. I just can't tell you this information. But Duo - I know what he'd want me to do. So I won't tell you their names, just enough hints that, so you get the information."
"Fair enough," Howard agreed. That Duo was even seeing her scared him. How messed up was his little god of death? In the old days it was hard to get him to say anything about himself, so Howard had a hard time seeing him coming to psychiatrist to tell her his problems. And what were those problems? What had turned him into the scary doll that he captured?
"He's living in an estate that he inherited jointly with one of them - " Mina started.
"Lady Une?" Howard asked.
"The bitch always liked him," Mirialdo growled from the corner. "She thought he was better for her precious Treize-sama then I was."
"She was about the only one after the war that worried about him, and it was more as a favor for her that he was seeing me about his flashbacks and his dreams. He didn't want her to have to worry about him, the same way that she had to worry about everything else."
"Anyone else?" Howard asked her. Flashbacks and dreams, about what though? Howard shuddered as he remembered the story that Duo told him, about strangling some guy with his braid to kill him. How many more of those jobs had Duo done? Shit, what had he done to piss off G, just turning him down wouldn't have gotten him those jobs, would it?
Mina closed her eyes. "A nice young lady that he meet on a beach, early in the war - "
"I thought that he was living with my sister," Mirialdo snarled. "If he touched her - "
Mina opened her eyes and smiled. "They are like brother and sister. They didn't even think about each other like that. Duo likes her too much." #I am not telling you that she is in love with Lady Une.#
"Huh?" Howard asked in confusion.
Mina sighed. "How much about his past do you know?"
"I found him on the PeaceMillion the first time," Howard said. "He was a real looker. Tough and G wanted him for a pilot after he discovered him in my quarters. He was impressed with the kid's reflexes even stoned out of his head and barely standing." #G had wandered in, looking for me to see what I had done with him. He had caught a glimpse of Duo when we found him in the hold. He had put up a good fight until I knocked him out. When he came to, naked in my bed, he wasn't mad about the fact that I was going to screw him silly, but because I was planning on shoot him up first. G was hot for him too, while he was training Duo, but the kid knew that he could say no by that time and he did. To anyone that made a pass at him.#
"Good God he was thirteen!" Mina scolded him. "I know that he wasn't innocent, but how could you?"
"Payment for passage," Howard leered at her. "I was willing to keep him as long as he wanted to stay, but G saw how good a fighter he was and after a few tests that he asked him to take and Duo jumped at the offer, something about revenge probably, after hearing about his past."
"Revenge and a lot of other things - " Mina's voice trailed off. She looked at Howard suspiciously, "You had him for all those weeks, what did you do to him?"
"Guess lady," Howard smirked at her.
Mina buried her head in her hands. "Do you know how fragile he is, emotionally?" She wondered how damaged Duo was now.
"Yeah," Howard replied softly, "But - I wanted to take care of him. I thought that he was living on the streets, he was so skinny - "
"He wasn't eating," Mina told them. "He didn't really eat after Treize's death and I was trying to give him some medication that would let him sleep through the night, but all it did was make him sick. He was getting better. I don't know what you did to him, so he might be worse off then before."
"He's not coming back, not for a long while. He's back to running and hiding, like the cheap kujda that he is," Mirialdo growled at her, pushing her further into her office to look at her records.
Her secretary found Mina Harker unconscious and badly beaten a few hours later. The authorities later told her that she was damned lucky to be alive. Mina just nodded and quietly moved away from the area after quitting her practice. She never wanted either man to find her again.
Treize had found a nice little diner during his travels. He couldn't believe how much he enjoyed this wandering out on his own. He did miss Duo and kept a small diary of the things that he had seen to tell him about later, when they were back together. Duo had been partially right, they did need to separate and go their own ways for a while, because they had been too dependant on one another. He missed Duo in bed at night, but it wasn't the overwhelming need that he thought it would be. Maybe because in a few months he would be reunited with his lover and he wouldn't be alone again? Or was it because he was becoming his own person the way that Duo had wanted him to do when he suggested this separation.
Treize wandered in and took a seat at the counter, placing his backpack at his feet. That was all he had for luggage. He was keeping it down to the minimum, just leaving wherever he was when he wanted to and going someplace else, replacing what he needed, when he needed to. He wondered if he would have ever left that estate on his own, unless he was dead. He tried not to dwell on those thoughts, preferring to plan a little for the future that he wanted to have with Duo. A tour of Europe after they were reunited, some time at their cabin, and then taking care of the estate in the Sank kingdom for Une and Relena. Watching his daughter grow up and enjoying the little things that a normal life was supposed to have in it, for the both of them. Only if Duo wanted to do all those things with him, would it happen, because he wanted to do anything that would make Duo happy.
Treize discovered that he enjoyed people watching, after being isolated for so long. So he would continue to wander around the backwaters of the American Sector and watch people before meeting up with Duo on V0127, which had been the plan that the two of them decided on. He hadn't been happy about Duo's leaving him, but he hoped that Duo was getting as much out of this as he was. The weeks that they had spent on L3 in that apartment had been wonderful for Duo's self-confidence and letting him get used to going out in crowds again, he had made a lot of progress on a short time. Treize just hoped that he didn't have a relapse when they were separated. He worried about Duo, he was so frail still, but so stubborn about being ‘normal'. Treize didn't care if he was normal, just wanted him to be happy, somewhat sane and able to sleep through the night without his ghosts bothering him.
He was brought out of his thoughts when the waitress brought him a menu and asked if he wanted coffee. Treize smiled and nodded, wondering if she was going to have as hard time understanding him as he did her. Between his thick Russian/German accent and her Deep Rural South one, this was going to be interesting. Not as bad as it had been in the Middle Northern part of the Sector, among all those cow and corn farmers, but it should be interesting. Some of them in that area had still spoken enough German for him to make himself understood, not like this area. He knew that his English was bad, but he knew that whatever dialect that these people spoke had very little resemblance to the language that he had studied and could read.
"Is there anythin' I can get for y'all, sugar?" the waitress asked.
Treize looked up and smiled. She was pretty, about thirty even though she was trying to look younger with her makeup and hairstyle. But the small lines around her eyes gave a hint at her true age. Her nametag said that her name was Daisy. She smiled back and batted her eyes at him, trying to flirt with him. Treize wondered if it was worth it to tell her that not only wasn't he interested in her, she was someone that he wouldn't even think off as a sexual interest, because she probably would bore him to tears within minutes.
"I would like the bacon and scrambled eggs, white toast and grits," he said slowly, hoping she would understand him. God, he should have thought of this problem before he decided to run around the backwaters of the American Sector, since his English was so terrible. But then, neither Howard nor Miri would look for him here because of that. Her face wrinkled as she tried to decipher what he was saying. He was reminded of some of the cows that he had seen, between her puzzled expression and the gum she was chewing.
After a few minutes she shrugged and shook her head. "I have no idea what you just said."
Treize smiled again and started to point to the items on the menu that he was interested in. He ended with a small gesture, "I apologize. I hadn't realized how bad I sounded until I got here. English is not a language that I have had much experience with." #Surprising when you consider that my lover is from one of the American colonies. But then, most of our conversations were in Japanese or some other language, even when we were spending time on L3, isolated in that place. I think that I sounded a lot better before the accident then I do now. I might be something about spending time isolated in that place, just speaking one or two languages, even though I was able to read a lot more. But Miri never did like it if I spoke to the staff and they only knew English, everyone else spoke German or Japanese.#
Treize noticed that Daisy just shrugged off his apologies. "Its okay sugar, most of the folk around here tend to stick around here, strangers such as yours'f aren't around all that often. Just let me get this in and I'll get you more coffee."
Treize nodded his thanks and pulled out a post card. He was sending it off to Maria, to let her know where he was so that she didn't worry. He might ask her to write back if he decided to stay some place more then a few days. He knew that he wasn't going to stay here because suddenly this little town was giving him the creeps now. It was now too small and he was still worried about attracting attention to himself. He had had a few nightmares that in which he woke up to Miri standing over his bed, tying him up with Duo's braid. He had only started having them when they parted company and he could no longer keep an eye on Duo.
Treize decided the next stop that he was going to make was going to be in one of the West Coast cites that dotted that shoreline. He wasn't sick of the small towns and friendly farmers that he had spent time with, it was just that suddenly he wanted the protection of loosing himself in the crowd and he could do that better in the big city. The waitress had pointed out the fact that he stood out because he was a stranger, so he better hide in a place that let strangers blend in with the background a little better. Then the man that knew him far too intimately wouldn't find him and drag him off that prison again.
Wufei glared at the car in disgust. His rental car had broken down in what looked like one of the worst sections of the city and he had forgotten his cell phone and his wallet in the hotel room. He was only here to check on Treize to see if he was all right. Maria had asked him to do this the last time that he had seen her, among the crowd of children at Quatre's estate on L4. They had only found out that Duo and Treize had left when the keys had arrived back to Quatre in the mail, along with a note, ‘We're running away for a while - don't panic.' Maria had taken their disappearance in stride, even acting vaguely amused while the adults were panicking around her.
Of course they had been alarmed or at least worried about what was happening with those two, until Maria had explained to them what their plans were. Once he had heard what those plans were he knew that they had never told them ahead of time because he would have let either one of them out of his sight to indulge in such foolishness.
Duo and Treize were just spending some time separated from each other, so there was nothing to worry about. Duo and Treize had disappeared, but they were going to send her messages so that she didn't worry. Nothing to worry about until you realized that the two people in question were not the best people to be left on their own for any length of time. He wondered whatever possessed the two of them to leave that nice, safe apartment that they were hiding it. That alone showed that they were if not crazy, then they were close to it to be wandering around while they were being hunted by Mirialdo and Howard.
Treize had wandered around the American sector for a couple of weeks before settling down here, according to the information that he had gotten off of Maria. Wufei desperately wanted to know why he had picked this cold, rainy and rundown section of the city to do whatever he was doing here. He could have picked someplace with better weather, even if he didn't want to go back to the Sank Kingdom until Howard and Mirialdo were found.
Maria asked him to check on her father, because he was going to be near where he was staying while he was on Earth dealing with some business for Winner Industries. Wufei still had no idea how she knew that little tidbit of information. He wondered if she was bugging Quatre's office, his car or their bedroom. He thought that they had managed to keep her happy and occupied with all the other Winner children, the Maganacs and everyone else that was part of the three ring circus that was Quatre's home. However, she was her father's daughter if she was plotting still, even if they tried to keep her occupied and entertained all the time, so she wouldn't do that. Wufei wondered how much she understood about what had happened to Duo and Treize, even if they didn't talk about it. There was something in her eyes that hinted that she understood how much they had suffered. Most of the time she was content to keep herself busy with the hoard of children that Quatre's sisters had produced, but he sometimes saw a surprisingly adult look in her eyes even while she was playing with the other children.
Wufei understood extended families, he reveled in the amount of people that he was surrounded by now. It reminded him of the house that his family had lived in on L5, but this one was just - louder. It was a lot noisier then any part of the compound that had been the ancestral home for the Chang Clan on his colony. When things calmed down around him, at night when he was in bed with Heero, he could just close his eyes and think that he was on L5, because he could feel the family that surrounded him and pretend in the silence that he never saw his colony explode into a ball of light that still haunted him because he had been left behind. He still saw his family in his dreams, Merian and his parents, Ron Shu and the elders. They all were there, Duo hadn't been wrong about that. And Merian seemed to be happy that he had found someone to share his life with, since she wasn't angry with him about taking Heero as partner.
Wufei shook his head, now was not the time to be daydreaming about being back in Heero's arms. He was wet, cold and standing around in a ruined suit, wondering if these barbarians around here were going to attempt to mug him or what. He was close at least, to the address that Maria had for Treize, it couldn't be more then a few blocks away, and so he would walk to it. At least that was what the map showed, given the way that his day was going, the map probably was wrong. Wufei starting walking in the rain, cursing everything that he could think of. He hated being cold and wet, especially since he wasn't going to get warmed up by Heero or any of his lovers. His frustration kept him going until he came to the address that he was looking for.
Wufei stopped in shock, wondering if Maria was pulling his leg. The address that he had been given was for a bar. A cheap, college hang out type of bar. He could not believe that Treize Khushrenada would ever be near a place like this, never mind use it as a mailing address. #Khushrenada might not, but T-chan might and I have no idea who Trevor Solo is like, as a person. They can at least tell me where to find the man, if he's getting his mail here.#
Wufei pushed open the door, assaulted by a horrific amount of noise that some people called music and stared at the writhing mass of bodies in the place that were crowded on the dance floor between the door and the bar. He couldn't believe that anyone in here would know where to find Khushrenada. He was startled when someone, Wufei wondered who he was, walked up beside him and shout at him. He had to shout, to be heard over the noise. "You got an ID?"
Wufei shook his head, wondering why someone would want to know his name, before he figured out that the person that asked him that question was the bouncer here, and wanted to check to see if Wufei was legal to be in here. He was lucky that he didn't get mugged or worse in this area and now this fool wanted to kick him back out into the rain since he wasn't old enough to be in here!
The bouncer shook his head, regretfully, at the information. "Then you got to leave."
The guy was cute in his opinion but he had no idea whatever possessed someone that was wearing a suit to like that to be wandering around in the rain in this part of town. He must be very lost to be doing that, but he couldn't stay if he wasn't old enough.
Wufei frowned up at him, "I am looking for someone."
The bouncer snorted, he had heard that line and all its variations this week. "You and every other drunken kid in here, stuck in the city for Spring Break, they are blowing off steam with anyone or thing that was unlucky to be stuck in town with them. I think that what you are looking for is on the better side of town, so scram kid."
Wufei shrugged, he wasn't going to inform this stranger of his personal life and tell him that he had no need to pick up people in bars. Wufei didn't think that he would believe him either. "At least let me call for a cab and look around. I had been told that I could find an acquaintance of mine at this address."
"Listen kid, I can't let you through unless you're at least twenty, not even for a phone call. You don't look twenty, you don't have ID, and so you aren't going in."
Wufei snorted again. The bouncer barely looked twenty. He had forgotten how backwards it could be on the Earth about drinking sometimes. But then, he never went into these places if he could help it. Aside from the fact that most of the people that he dealt with would have never heard of a place that was this run down, never mind visit it. Also this person calling him ‘kid' was annoying him. He didn't want to know what he could pick up in this place drinking out of the tap water, never mind whatever they were serving as alcohol.
"I'm not going to drink. I want to call a cab and get back to my hotel and then call the little brat that gave me this information. I can't imagine anyone I know working here!" #Except Maxwell when he was doing good, back in the beginning of the fight for the colonies, before it got too much for him. He had had the knack of letting people relax and enjoy themselves around him. May be this is why Khushrenada is here, that he has the same gift?#
The bouncer agreed with him on that sentiment, he couldn't believe that anyone wanted to know this stuck up suit. This guy was very lost if he was within a mile of this place. He didn't even look like the kids that came around here from the better parts of the city looking for a quick score and some thrills before scurrying back to their parent's house.
Wufei scanned the room, looking for a payphone. Hopefully a cab would pick him up from this - place - dive was being generous in describing it. Hole in the wall was a better description. He knew enough that if it was catering to the college crowd, grungy was better. And the money probably went into the sound system anyway. He was still scanning the room looking for the phone, when he felt a small shock go through his system. Maria hadn't lied to him. Khushrenada was in the area. What he was doing was here was serving drinks to the crowd.
Wufei smiled. He would have never imagined Khushrenada doing this when they first met. It was just too good a joke to him, the former General pouring beer to kids that barely remembered the war, since that had been something that had worried their parents, if they thought about it at all. This was something that was too odd for words. Une would have a coronary if she knew that he was here. She always had been a stickler for protocol. But it would do her some good and show her that the great general was gone, replaced by someone whom they were all still trying to figure out. Maybe not Duo, Duo could be the only person that knew what was going on, again. Not that it ever did him any good.
The bouncer followed his gaze. "He is hot. Too bad I don't think that he would swing for you."
Wufei shrugged. "I don't care to get the man into bed, thank you. However he is the person that I am looking for."
"You - " the bouncer cackled, "You and Trevor?" He looked at Wufei's suit again, realizing that it was probably worth more than a lot of the people's tuition that in this joint. It was worth more then the rent was for a couple of months here. Then he looked at the casually dressed man behind the bar, wearing jeans and soft denim shirt. He wondered what exactly these two would have in common.
"We are friends," Wufei said, interrupting the glance correctly. "It is just that we haven't been able to really keep in touch with each other as we should." #You said that you understood me, before I ‘killed' you, that might make us friends. You said that it did, no matter what I thought at the time. Trevor? I think that I prefer T-chan. And Quatre said that we should be old friends on the strength that I fought you so often. We did manage to have a few conversations before we both got involved with our lovers, right before or right after our fights. They were nice, something that was good for a lonely, confused boy. I wonder if it helped you too?#
The bouncer stared in disbelief. No way did Trev know someone like this! This uptight guy screamed money and confidence. Trev was a jeans and T-shirt guy and very laid back. No way that this suit knew someone like this would be working in this place.
"Call him over if you don't believe me or get out of my way, because I will talk to him," Wufei said calmly, indicating he didn't care which the man did, he was going to get in to speak to Treize.
The bouncer shrugged and waved to Treize, not wanting to argue with Wufei. There was a look in his eye that told him that no matter how well dressed he was, this person was not someone that he wanted to push, just to see how far he could go or to stop him from doing what he wanted. It took a few minutes, but he did get his attention. Treize looked up in confusion, not really seeing Wufei in the doorway, with all the smoke and people that filled the place. He made his way over to the door wondering what was wrong. As he got closer, he finally saw Wufei and grinned. He looked like a drowned cat. A very expensive cat, from the cut of his suit and the elegance that he wore it with, but sad looking, drowned cat nonetheless.
"Wufei," was all he could say, torn between wondering why the Chinese man was here and wanting to laugh at him for looking so bad. He was worried that something had happened to Maria, which would be the only reason that someone would come looking for him.
Wufei shrugged and said quickly in German. "I was in the area on business and Maria asked that I look you up. She wants my opinion and to check to see if you are doing well. She likes to keep track of people. I think since she had to deal with Duo's problems so much has gotten her into the habit of checking on the ‘adults'."
Treize shook his head and replied in the same language, he understood if Wufei didn't want their conversation overheard. Not that you could hear yourself think in this place, when the sound system was on. He appreciated Wufei's tact, because it saved him a lot questions. He hadn't known that he would be considered such an oddity in this college town, when he decided to settle here for a little while. He must be the way that the students, male and female flocked about him. Helping them with their studies was usually just an excuse that they made up to be near him. He was very confused why all these people were attracted to him. Treize guessed that this was how Duo felt when everyone kept propositioning him after Miri had tortured him, since Duo didn't think that he was attractive anymore. Or didn't want to disappoint someone, show them that he wasn't as pretty as they thought he was with his clothes on. He wasn't either, but there hadn't been anyone that he even thought about in that way, because he missed Duo too much. He just was just marking time until he could meet Duo at the colony that he grew up on.
"Just in the area?" Treize asked dryly. "I doubt that, but come inside, dry off and I'll bring you upstairs to get changed into some dry clothes. We can talk later, because this place is madhouse due to Spring Break, what ever that is, and the fact that one of the staff called in and everyone that didn't go home or someplace is here drinking."
The bouncer stared. This was the most that he had heard the older man say, except when he was helping some of the students around here with their homework. He was a nice guy, but didn't mention much about himself, apparently trying to discourage any interest with his rotten English. He didn't know how many languages Trevor spoke, but English wasn't one of the ones that he was really fluent in. Hell the man just made German sound sexy for some reason. Didn't he realize how hot he was and how many people, male and female wanted him? Did he have a thing going with this suit? Was that the reason that he kept saying no to everyone?
"I can help you out while waiting to talk to you." Wufei offered, feeling that he had to help because Treize was so overwhelmed. "I can serve beer at least, even if I don't drink it."
"I'll ask the boss while you dry off, but you don't have to. I have books that can keep you occupied while I am working and we close in a couple of hours. Clean up shouldn't take that long after we close."
"I don't mind," Wufei said. #I want to see who you are and what has happened to you. You look a lot more confident then I ever thought you would after Duo rescued you from that madman. Granted it was a mutual rescue, but you would have stayed with him until he killed you if Duo hasn't come along.#
Treize shrugged. "It is up to you. But I think that you would be happier up there. It is quieter. I don't mind you staying for a day or two if you can, to talk about things and catch up on news. It would be stupid to go right back in the morning, unless you are busy?"
"I took care of what I came to town for this afternoon," Wufei told him. "I was checking on the security for one of Quatre's offices here and a few other things for the business, but I do have a broken down car about a mile from here and I have to a meeting in New York the day after tomorrow. I can't stay more then a day."
"It'll keep." Treize said, leading the other man through the crowd. Wufei was annoyed that a number of young ladies and a few men tried to grab him. He was cold and grumpy, just wanting to dry off and get warm. He was very glad that they had made it to Treize's room at last.
"I think that I better stay in you room tonight until you close," Wufei admitted quietly. "I do not want to try and explain to Heero why my behind is black and blue." Watching my back in this place will not let me watch you. If someone gets too ‘friendly' with their hands I will do something that would reflect badly on you. It probably would be best if I stayed up here. I had forgotten how annoying drunks could be.#
He looked around the small room that was above the kitchen of the bar. It was small, barely holding the bed and a desk that was piled with books. Treize went over the closet and pulled out a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, tossing them on the bed, along with a towel.
"Blame it on me - that I thought that you would be a good ‘distraction'," Treize said in an odd, almost bitter tone, and then continued in a more normal one, "Bathroom is through the other door. It's not much, but the water should be hot."
Wufei looked up sharply and frowned, he really did not like the tone that he heard in Treize's voice, he wondered if he was going to be safe here tonight. Not that Treize would do anything dishonorable, but he sounded odd. Treize smiled at the expression on Wufei's face.
"Don't worry. Heero will understand what I said. Have him explain it to you - it has something to do with his attitude towards Duo. One that I really didn't like when I heard it that night from him, the night of that dreadful dinner at Quatre's place."
"Heero - he really doesn't deal well with people. He really never had to, since he just had to follow orders all the time. Explanations were something that other people got or gave. He has gotten better, but there are times that he still reverts to his old habit of not explaining anything. It can be maddening at times for us."
Wufei tried to explain to Treize and make excuses for his sometimes blunt and often clueless lover. He wasn't much better about his attitude about Duo because he still thought that he should be watched so he wouldn't hurt himself doing something foolish. He thought the same thing about Khushrenada since he was as witless as Duo because he was also wandering around like didn't have a care in the universe.
"It was maddening to listen to, his explanation for some of the things that he did," Treize said quietly. "I am not too happy with you either, but Duo wasn't that upset by anything that happened between all of you, so I guess I shouldn't be either."
Wufei flushed. "I know that we were wrong, but I never knew what happened to him. I would have never tried that if I knew that he had been raped on the Libra. I thought that it was because he was still mourning you. I thought that it was time that Duo started living again."
"Wouldn't that decision be best made by Duo?" Treize asked in frustration. If Duo had acted with them like he had with him in the beginning, with the message ‘don't touch me' radiated from every cell in his body, they should have known that it was not a good idea. How stupid could two smart people be about such things?
"I thought that he needed some comfort, he had woken up screaming earlier." Wufei tried to explain things to him. He knew that it didn't sound good. Hell it had been an impulsive action for the both them and he would have never thought that it would backfire so badly on them.
"Sex isn't comfort." Treize said bitterly, "Sex is two hot sweaty bodies. What Duo wanted or needed wasn't sex."
"I know that now!" Wufei growled in frustration and embarrassment. This was not something that he wanted to talk about to Khushrenada right now! He was cold and tired and ashamed of what he had almost done to Duo. He had known that Duo was someone that should be treated gently, but he had let his hormones control his thinking, mainly because he was curious to see what sex would be like with Duo.
"I just want you to remember that if you run across him again," Treize said quietly. "I have to get back to work. Don't wait up for me if you're tired."
Wufei stared as Treize left the room, wondering what exactly was bothering the other man. That Duo was out by himself on L2? Was it that Duo's friends had thought that he was attractive and were very willing to show him that? He snorted. He wasn't going to get anything more then a cold if he continued to stand here in a wet suit. The least that he could do was get changed and be comfortable. He could wonder what was wrong with Treize later and how he could repair the relationship. They were going to have to deal with each other a lot in the future because of Maria. She had made a lot of friends among Quatre's nieces and nephews and they were going to be crossing paths a lot. He was going to have to work out the problem with him.
Wufei examined the titles of the books that were scattered on the desk, after he got out of his clothes and hung them up to dry. The suit might be salvageable when it dried out. Recent histories were most of what was he found on that desk. Treize was trying to relearn all that he missed with his head injury, apparently. He still regretted that he hadn't been a better fighter or able to search for the Treize's suit after that battle, to try and recover something for Duo.
He had had nightmares about that battle, they had stopped now that he knew he hadn't killed Duo's lover. He was musing over the information, while he changed and wondering when Treize had stopped being the enemy. Was it before his death, when Epyon first made it appearance, fighting the same enemy that Heero had been? Or was it when he realized that Duo and Treize were so in love that it hurt to see them part, when he dragged Duo away to be judged by his fellow pilots. He didn't know and didn't care now, that was the past. Wufei concentrated on warming up and drying off.
Wufei fell into a light doze as he waited for Treize to return to his room. He had fallen asleep curled up in bed, with a book on his lap. The room was a little cool for his tastes and he had no idea where the controls for the heat were. Besides it was the most comfortable place to be, because the desk didn't look like a very good place to sit at and read.
Treize smiled as he looked at Wufei sleeping. He was a beautiful man. No one that worked there believed that he and Wufei weren't lovers, since he showed up and asked for him, showing that he had some sort of relationship with him. His appearance would explain the very polite refusals that he had been making to everyone that asked him to go out with any of them on a date. No one would believe him if he told them that he was enchanted by a pair of violet eyes that you could drowned in and a soul that would take a lifetime to understand, not this very elegant man that showed up so suddenly and seemed to know him very well. Treize washed up quickly, moving quietly so that he wouldn't wake Wufei. He slipped into a pair of sweat pants and crawled into beside him.
Wufei turned over and opened his eyes. "You didn't have to be that quiet. I knew it when things calmed down, the noise level dropped dramatically."
"It's noisy, but I like it," Treize said. "I found out that I like watching people, I don't think that I had done that much of it before."
"I never thought that I would find you here, I thought that Maria was pulling my leg," Wufei grumbled.
"And how is my daughter doing?" Treize asked quietly. He shifted to get comfortable, wondering how the two of them were going to sleep in the same small bed. He just hoped that Wufei didn't mind getting close.
Wufei smiled. "She's safe. We decided to bundle her off to one of Quatre's estates, since it was easier for her and Une and Relena. With about half of the Winner children staying there at any one time, people are going to have a hard time finding her in the crowd. She's made a lot of friends there. That had been Duo's secondary plan if he had to hide Maria when the rebellion fell apart or run with her. He is very protective of her."
"I know," Treize said quietly. "Maria told me about how good all of you have been to her. How you watched out for her better then her grandfather had. I thank you for that. But - I am still upset about Duo. I know that he wanted me to find myself, be my own person, that's why we left L3, but I am worried that he is out there on his own."
"Duo spent two years as a terrorist. He has lived on the streets most of his life. He can take care of himself," Wufei said gently. He understood the need that you had to protect your lover even if you knew that the man could take care of himself. He did it with Heero all the time. He also thought that Duo was insane and needed a keeper, but that was beside the point, if Treize was the one that was worrying about Duo. "Do you want to go back to space with me and then look for him in L2 sector?"
"I know where he is," Treize replied in an amused tone, but he was touched by the offer. "I just can't go there yet. He asked me not to. He wants - something. I don't know what, but I think he doesn't want me to stay with him because I didn't have any other options, he's so afraid of that. I - he's very insecure. I don't blame him, but he doesn't feel that he is beautiful, when he is and I think that it will hurt him if I go any place with any of you."
Wufei stared at Treize, wondering exactly what went on in that apartment, before they had left. "With his experiences - can't you understand it?"
Treize laughed bitterly. "I understand it. Miri was very good at reducing me to someone that was very dependant on him. Reducing my sense of worth until he was the only thing that mattered in my world, not me or my feelings about what was happening in that house. I can't believe what I did so that I would be ‘protected' by him from the rest of the world. He told Duo that he was as ugly on the outside as he was on the inside and Duo believes him still on some level, even if it wasn't true. There isn't anything ugly about him. No matter what he did to survive, he is basically a good person."
"We - all of the pilots, believed that we were ugly. Not physically, but as people," Wufei explained slowly. He had felt that way in the past and that was why he got involved with the Barton Clan. That was why he left Heero the way that he did. "I - the bombing of Victoria base was something that was unjust and dishonorable. I hated myself for doing that, even though it was needed. I kept telling myself that they were weak and that my sneaking around would be stopped when they were strong enough to deal with me. But what we did was wrong, even if it was for the right reasons, because it wasn't something that was just limited to the soldiers that we killed. We destroyed families whenever we killed someone and we are never going to be able to atone for that in this lifetime."
"It needed to be done. Things would have never of changed unless someone did something, unfortunately, for all of you, you had to sacrifice yourselves for that. I am disturbed that I never find any of that in my reading." Treize said quietly. "You are almost never mentioned, it is like they want to forget the Gundams and people that saved them. Romafeller, OZ, the Specials are all talked about in those books, but not the colonial resistance. Or I might be reading the wrong things."
"Do people ask why you read so much about the War?" Wufei asked curiously.
"I help tutor some students in a number of subjects, but also I have told them that I don't remember much of my life because I was in an accident at the end of the war and I am very vague about the details. It also helps that Duo shaved a few years off my actual age in my papers, so that no one will put the facts together. I don't think that anyone would ever guess who I was."
"Ah. I was wondering about that, how you'd fit in around here, since the crowd seems young," Wufei mused aloud. "And I wonder where he got that name, Trevor Solo."
"Solo was the name of his best friend. He died during the plague that happened when Duo was seven. Trevor sounded like Treize I think that's why he chose it." Treize said thoughtfully. "But he never really explained why he did any of that for me nor did I ask. I just wonder if I was arrogant or just stupid, because I apparently had no plans made for my life after the war." #I think that I didn't care, because I hated myself after a while. Or was it that I didn't want to live if Duo didn't survive? I think that Duo didn't think that he was going to survive either, but he wanted me to. #
"I think that you let Duo take care of it, because before him, I don't think that you cared. I know that the only reason that I survived is because of Heero," Wufei said. "And because of Duo to a certain extent. He - he comforted me when my colony exploded. He was the only one that tried, really. He was also the only one that could understand what I had gone through, seeing everything that matters vanish before your eyes in a bright light. He barged right in to my room, not caring what I would do to him in my grief, because he just wanted to help me. That was when we were all on the PeaceMillion, before he - "
" - before Miri tortured him." Treize finished soberly. "He was so hurt then, so lonely. He had just spent weeks - months alone. I think that you helped him as much as he helped you."
"He stopped by Winner satellites, why was he lonely?" Wufei asked. "Was it that he couldn't see you? Heero and I spent most of that time apart also."
Treize looked at him coldly. "Duo spent most of that time alone - all alone. He had had very little contact with any of you since you found him in my bed. No one talked to him when he was in Space, even if he was staying on Winner's satellites. If you don't believe me, you should ask Quatre. Duo finally told him that when we were in Siberia."
Wufei looked shocked at that information. "I believe you. I also believe Maxwell when he says that, because he was so changed after that. I didn't know really what was going on, since I was on my colony most of that time. I couldn't believe that they decided to self destruct and not let me die with them."
"So that you could remember them, so that someone would know who they had been. Memories are so fragile, I know that." Treize laughed uneasily. "In fact you taught me that lesson. I don't mind what happened - but could you tell me how happened? The only thing that I do regret is that I forgot Duo."
"You don't regret New Edwards?" Wufei asked. He hated that, bursting in on all of them and telling them that they had just been made fools of. That Treize had tricked them He wondered what had been Duo's thoughts about the matter, having to be with the man that had ruined so much for them, for him. Heero had told him once that Duo had hoped to go home after that battle, because they all thought it would be over. It wasn't over and about a month or so later he had been ordered to be with the person that had extended the war for all of them.
"I think that if I let things go on as they had been going, the war would have never ended. You, if any of you survived that long, would still be fighting that war now. That is if you weren't all dead by now, because of any number of reasons. But I think that New Edwards was not honorable, not what I did to Heero, but killing the Doves was something that had to be done," Treize told him. "Think about it though, could you have lasted more then a year or two as terrorists, before it caught up with you? Duo - the glimpses in my mind, that I think are my memories of him, was being run ragged by everything that he had to do. It would have taken just one of you falling and the rest of you would have collapsed, from the fragility of the house of cards that you were building your support on."
"I doubt that would have happened," Wufei said, without really thinking about the problem. He didn't even wanted to think about what might have happened if they had failed, if all their sacrifices would have been for nothing and the colonies would have remained under the control of the Romafeller Foundation.
Treize sighed. "Either you would have over reached yourselves or you all would have gotten killed by a replacement. If you managed to find or get one when one of you finally had been captured or killed. A replacement that would have faltered at the wrong moment, because he wasn't dedicated or driven or plain good enough to do what needed to be done."
Wufei thought for a second. Treize's argument had some merit, since it had been a precarious balance at the end they would have lost if it weren't for Heero and the ZERO System. He still didn't want to admit the might have been though. Not now. "You might be right, because we didn't have a large margin for error at the end, when it seemed that the scientists had turned their attention to another project."
"Besides tormenting Duo?" Treize asked bitterly. "I - I heard about some of the things that happened to him and I marvel at his resistance, his spirit. I understand why he let it all go at the end of the war. Why he broke down so completely. Anything that he was fighting for was taken away from him, so what was the use of fighting? Even winning wasn't worth it because he was alone again."
"Duo told you about - " Wufei didn't know what he was going to ask. About his killing people? About being on the street? About anything that he didn't want the older man to know about when he found him again? He had been so secretive about his past with the rest of them, why did he tell the one man that he never wanted to know what he had been doing during the war. What had happened in that small apartment?
Treize smiled, "Duo had a few bad spells while we were together and he talked in his sleep. I learned more about him then he wanted to tell me, but - I don't regret that. I hope that he doesn't either." #He was in so much pain that I wanted to know how I could help him. I know that he thought that he was disgusting because of what he had done and what had happened to him, but I never thought that way about him, because someone that thought he was as repulsive as he was would never have helped me get away from Miri. He would never have tried to shield me from his anger over the mistake that I had made. Duo risked a lot to make sure that I was safe and he never expected anything out of it. That was what made me fall in love with him. Duo wanted me just to be happy and safe, no matter what.#
Wufei shifted and ended up half on top of Treize. "I'm sorry," he muttered, not feeling happy about the small laugh that Treize gave. He didn't think that this was amusing! He was far too close to someone else's lover. He had hurt Duo before with his thoughtlessness before and he was not going to get cuddly with Treize now if Duo was that uncertain about their relationship. That had been the only reason that they separated from what he was being told.
"Cuddle. What is it about Gundam pilots that they are afraid to share a bed? I understand that there is no room, I like having a small bed." Treize explained, maneuvering so that they were both comfortable in the small space.
"Only because you are used to sleeping alone," Wufei grumbled. He only slept by himself when he was away on business. There was always someone in his bed and it wasn't for sex, but more because of comfort. He hated be alone at night.
"Not until I left Duo. You do know that there was only one bed in that apartment?" Treize asked, curious. What had Wufei and the others thought that the set up was? Did they think that there were two beds in that place?
"I thought that one of you would have slept on the sofa," Wufei replied.
"Duo offered, but - I wanted him to sleep with me," Treize told him.
Wufei twisted around and stared at Treize in shock. "Why?"
"Because I didn't like sleeping alone back then," Treize admitted. "I - I hated sleeping alone. You would have laughed at me for that if I told you that, any of you. I was a grown man who had whored himself to his captor so that he wouldn't be alone at night."
Wufei shrugged off Treize's confession. He didn't know what had gone on during those lost years and given some of the hints that he had gotten from the way that they acted after they got out, he didn't want to know about it for his own peace of mind. "I understand - I don't like sleeping without someone near me, I think that it's because we all have lost so much." #I want to feel Heero in my arms every night and hope that it makes up for the times that we couldn't sleep together.#
"I dreamed about you and Une when I slept alone, without Miri's presence to tire me out - " Treize said, half to himself.
Wufei interpreted ‘tire out' into a lot of different meanings, but he was not going to ask about it. He knew that something must have been wrong for a very long time to make Treize run the way that he did. Treize never explained it, but Duo was so badly hurt, physically and mentally, when they showed up, something very bad must have happened when they were with Howard and Mirialdo to make Treize finally leave his tormentor. He missed something lost in his own thoughts so he decided to pay attention better after this, no matter how tired he felt.
" - I didn't want to remember after a while. On L3, Duo was so scared and so determined to let me make up my own mind, that it was painful to see how much it was hurting him. I - seduced - is a good word to use. I seduced him, gradually getting closer to him so that he wasn't so - defensive. So that he trusted himself around me, so that I could touch him and care for him. It was like taming an alley cat. Hell, he looked like one, all scars and bones, with killer reflexes." Treize finished. He knew that it sounded like he didn't think that Duo was still attractive, but outward appearances meant little to him now, if they had ever. He wasn't that attractive either. Duo was still beautiful in his eyes and for some reason Duo loved him enough to let him go to find out who he was now, which made him more special.
Wufei shrugged and said in a soft tone, trying to give Treize something back, a memory that he wanted or needed. "I saw the two of you alone, when I discovered him in your bed. Bed is a misleading description. You were both snuggled by the fire, cuddling each other. You both just glowed until I disturbed you two. When I took him away, I thought your heart would break. I don't know how either of you managed to let the other walk away from him. I knew that you loved him more then it was prudent or wise when he fainted from the shock, when I discovered you two. I should have realized how fragile he was then, physically. Mentally - Duo pushed himself beyond what was humanly possible for the mission and his body paid for it. But he collapsed and you turned your back on me, an enemy that was armed and had sworn to kill you. It was then I realized that it had gone beyond something that was just a fling, no matter what you would tell me. And when you braided his hair so that he could leave, it was such an intimate, trusting gesture, that I felt that I was destroying something that I should had left alone. For a second, I was tempted to leave and say that I saw nothing, but I couldn't."
Treize smiled. Wufei was being honest to a fault. He hoped that he would learn something from the younger man. A hint so that he could recover some of the memories of his relationship with Duo and hopefully glimpses of Wufei's memories of a carefree Duo, of the happy person that he had been before he had fallen apart. He also wanted to know about his own death.
"How did you kill me?" he asked calmly. His death was reported by most historians, but not the how of it. It was reported that he was killed by either a White Fang supporter or by his own side by mistake. No one blamed the Gundam pilots, even though Wufei publicly announced that he had killed Treize Khushrenada. Too many people were trying to deny that they ever existed. It was the same with Barton's attempted takeover, that incident was being covered up until the public could handle the knowledge. He doubted that they would ever be able to.
Wufei curled up in Treize's arms. It felt odd, but there really was no room for him to do anything else. "You had challenged Mirialdo to a duel over who would control the destiny of the colonies and the Earth. He refused, since he thought that it was too important for just two people to decide. He sounded very odd at the time and I couldn't figure out why until later." Zechs had a satiated tone in his voice that had confused him. Zechs had sounded very drunk or high off of something and he had thought that the man had been drinking before the battle which was stupid. He had no idea that man had just gotten off on torturing Duo. He must have been laughing at them the entire time about that.
"The fighting broke out after that, an all out attack by White Fang and OZ. We were neutral until Quatre decided that the Libra was more of a threat to the colonies. Peacemillion took care of that by ramming itself into the ship to stop it. It was a temporary setback for them and it was decided that we would try and take out the leaders of White Fang from inside the ship. I decide to chase you down instead. Your people were surprised that I helped them and you take out the mobile dolls, since we had never fought together before. I attacked you after that, screaming hysterically the entire time. I was so angry at the universe then. I accused you of just using everyone for your worthless cause. You explained to me that the abomination of this war was the fact that it was being decided by the push of a button and that men were not involved in the fighting. That the Libra and the mobile dolls were what you were fighting against."
Wufei thought for a second, wondering if he should really be telling Treize how he killed him. He had destroyed so much in his young life that he really didn't want to discuss it anymore, even with the person that it meant so much to. Of all the things that he had done in the war, he had thought that killing Treize was the worst one because the man had been the only honorable opponent that he had. Treize had been the only person, including himself, that had managed to keep his ideals intact towards the end.
"You told me Treize that you knew the name of everyone that had died for you in this war and you started reeling them off, starting with the Doves that you had tricked Heero into killing at New Edwards. That shocked me. You told me that they hadn't died in vain." Wufei paused, trying to gather his thoughts. All he really remembered of that battle was how angry that he had been at the universe.
"You then told me that you wanted to show everyone how useless fighting was. You just tried to go about it in a different way from Relena. You - did something then, a feint that I didn't expect and suddenly everything changed because I reacted to that move instinctively. I drove my Dragon Fang through the middle of the suit that you were using and then there was this horrific electrical explosion. You told me that I was one of the few true friends that you had had before you drifted off and asked me to watch out after Duo, which I failed miserably at. I lost track of your suit during the rest of the battle. All I remember is just another brilliant flash of light - it was like I was seeing my colony being destroyed again."
Wufei shivered at the memory before continuing, "Then I rushed to Earth to see if Heero had survived and explain to Duo that I had killed you. That was so hard knowing how much the two of you loved each other. He didn't say anything, just listened to what I said and then left. I had no idea what had happened to him until about a year later. Relena asked us not to look for him and I didn't. I couldn't face Duo knowing that had destroyed the one thing that he cared about. It was my guilt that made me join the Barton Rebellion. Nothing had changed and it seemed that I had killed you for nothing. I walked out on Heero because I didn't believe that I deserved him. Finding out that your daughter was the one that they were grooming to take over made it worse for me. I saw how they all treated her and was horrified. I made friends with her then, telling her stories trying to let her know that I was her friend. She needed one so badly."
"No one ever expect Miri to snap like that, but I forgive you for killing me," Treize told him, dropping a kiss on the top of his head. Poor Wufei sounded so lost when he explained what had happened.
"But can you forgive me for hurting Duo like I did, when I separated the two of you more then once?" Wufei asked.
Treize was silent for a moment. "You did what you had to do, what your duty and your honor demanded of you. Neither Duo nor I can fault you for that. We've made our peace with all of you."
Wufei sighed, "I think that we should continue this discussion later in the morning, when we aren't so - intimate." The kiss was bordering on sexual for him, even though Treize was treating him like a stuffed toy. He might not mind sleeping alone now, but he was very friendly and it was uncomfortable for him.
Treize smiled, he didn't want Wufei to feel threatened by him, even if he was annoyed at his lover. Wufei was uncomfortable about sleeping with him and he understood that. So he would go to sleep now and they could talk more in the morning. He would see how much he could get out of him before Wufei left to return home. He loved Duo dearly, but didn't understand why he was reluctant to tell him about the past. Did he think that telling him who he had been would be pressuring him to be that person again? That Duo would be manipulating him into being the person he had been before that battle because he couldn't love him any other way? He needed to know who he had been and he knew that the past was the past. He didn't want it stay buried because too much of who he had been contributed to their present troubles. If he hadn't been involved with Miri before, the man wouldn't have rescued him to keep him as a war trophy. If he hadn't built Epyon, then the three of them –Miri, Duo and himself- might not have the mental problems that they all seem to have. There were times that he swore that he was seeing things that he knew weren't real on the edge of his vision. Was that a result of the electrical shock that he had received or from fooling around with Epyon's strange AI? He needed to know these things and he didn't think that he was going to be able to find out any of it in the books that he was reading. He needed to talk to those that had been involved. Since Duo was reluctant to tell him and he would not get near Miri again if he could help it, the pilots and Une were his only sources of information. Wufei was here and he was going to use him ruthlessly for that, as ruthless as he had used Heero to kill the Doves.
Treize woke up slowly, wondering who was pounding on the door. He couldn't move and it took him a minute to remember everything that had happened. Wufei showing up at the bar, they talk that they had before finally falling asleep together in bed. He had woken up earlier, amused that Wufei had thought that he was his pillow, with the way that he curled around him obviously feeling much better about sharing a bed with him. Wufei had shifted a little since then, but he was still underneath him. Wufei was cuddling with him for all that he was worth, trapping him in the bed.
By that time that he had figured everything out, Wufei had begun to wake up. The knocking had stopped and the door opened, and in bounced Kelly, one of the girls that he had been tutoring, with a pot of coffee and two cups. Kelly's face froze when she saw Wufei with him in bed and she just stood there, shocked.
Treize shrugged and smiled weakly, wondering why he felt embarrassed by this. Kelly had been chasing him, flirting with him at every turn and ignoring his attempts to keep it on a friendly, but not romantic level. She was too young, too innocent and above all she wasn't Duo. He wanted to wake up like this with Duo, not Wufei and definitely not with Kelly. He thought that he managed to keep her at arms length but that obviously hadn't been working if she was sneaking into his bedroom. He wondered what he was doing wrong.
"Wufei, we have company," Treize said calmly, giving Wufei a gentle shake. Kelly continued to stare and Treize wondered if it was because he was in bed with another man or the scars that were on his chest, since he wasn't wearing a shirt around her for the first time. He was never so conscious of them as he was now, her staring made him feel more awkward then Miri's perfect skin ever did. Had the child never seen someone that had been injured?
Wufei grumbled and muttered something in Chinese to him. Treize smiled involuntarily, Wufei was not a morning person it seemed, no wonder he preferred attacking all those bases at night, because it had given him an excuse to sleep in the morning after.
"Kelly, do put that tray down before you drop it," Treize instructed her, as she still did her imitation of a deer caught in the headlight routine.
She mechanically followed his orders, putting the tray down on the desk and then finally opening her mouth. "You - you lied to me!" she shrieked.
That woke up Wufei and he sat up, looking around in alarm, trying to find the source of the noise that had woken him up. Shrieking females were rare in Quatre's household, because most of his sisters had his placid good nature. He looked at Treize and then at the shrieking girl and shook his head.
"Should I leave for this?" he asked in amusement. Treize being woken up by a perky, young thing was more entertaining then seeing him serve beer to him in some way. The girl was about 18 and pretty, but nothing more then that. Compared to Duo she was downright plain. He should be worried, but he felt that Treize was more furious that she had walked in on him then embarrassed, so he wasn't encouraging this attention. If Treize was - well Wufei would show him the error of his ways.
"You do and you will regret it!" Treize threatened him, before answering Kelly. "I never lied to you. I just wanted to be friends for the time that I was here. If you thought that I was playing hard to get, I want to assure you that I never thought of you that way. I'm sorry if I hurt you."
"You are calm about me finding you in bed with your - your," she spat out the word with loathing, "lover!"
"Onna!" Wufei howled, trying not to laugh, this was just too amusing. He would have to ask Duo if this had ever happened to him and Treize. On second thought, given the reaction that Une would have had at that time, probably not. They wouldn't be alive to tell about it if she had and he didn't want to be the one that told Duo about this. He might not think that it was funny or might not like the fact that he had slept with Treize.
"Wufei - do behave," Treize murmured wondering what was so bloody funny about this. He didn't want to hurt the girl, but she insisted on pulling stunts like this. He wondered if anyone in the downstairs had bothered to warn Kelly or had just let her make a fool of herself. Well this would stop her trying to catch him in bed or in the shower.
"I swear that I have never had carnal relations with this man in my life," Wufei stated, laughing. The thought of him and Khushrenada as a couple was too odd. It had been sickening to him when he had found out that he was supposed to have been the next one into his bed if he hadn't of liked Duo. He was used to the idea now, but still the man was not attractive to him. He preferred brooding Orientals to elegant Europeans.
Treize shook his head and mutter to himself, "Not this lifetime."
Wufei stopped laughing at that and stared at Treize, there was something about the man's tone that bothered him. "Explain that!" he demanded.
Kelly looked at the two of them and frowned. "You aren't - "
"As I told the bouncer, I am an old friend. I stayed late to talk to T-chan."
"T-chan?" Kelly asked. #If they aren't involved why are they sleeping together, like that? Or they had been and it was over now?#
"T-chan," Wufei repeated and then smiled, "That is a nickname that his lover has given him."
"Lover?" Kelly repeated numbly. She had hoped for a second that she had a chance, but she guessed that Trevor really wasn't interested. He kept telling her that, but then he was so nice and polite to her, there must be some interest there!
"I am involved with someone. We are just - actually I don't want to tell you why we are spending some time apart," Treize said coldly, "but I will go back to him." #Duo just wanted me to gain some independence and self-confidence. I can see why he wanted me to do so, but I want to see him again. I want to wake up with him in my arms, in our room and plan to spend the entire day with him, doing odd domestic projects around our house. Granted it's a small estate that we will be sharing with another couple, but we can make it ours. Duo better have damn well been taking care of himself or he will regret it! I did not coax him all those weeks for him to eat his broccoli to have him lose all that weight again!#
"I think that I should get dressed and see if that stupid car is willing to start right now," Wufei grumbled, only wanting to get this woman out of here before someone did something foolish. He did not want to deal with this child that could not understand the word ‘no'. It was too much like dealing with Relena.
"How can be he be an ‘old friend'," Kelly half screamed. "You keep saying that you don't remember anything from before a couple of years ago."
"I knew him before he had his accident," Wufei replied furiously. "Just because he doesn't remember me, that doesn't mean that his friends will abandon him because of that!"
"Kelly - "Treize started to say and then sighed, "Nothing that I can say will make this up to up to you. I am sorry that I hurt you unintentionally. With the loss of my memory, it seems that the loss of most of my social skills also came with it. I had no idea if I was sending you the wrong message even as I told you no. My lover wanted me to have some time alone and relearn the skills that I lost through my injury and another problem that I had - "
"Kelly," Wufei cut off his apology. "Just learn that when someone says no and that they are not interested, they mean it, no matter what you wanted. I ignored that at one time and hurt someone that was very fragile even further. No isn't that difficult to understand, no matter what language someone is speaking."
"He - he - " Kelly stuttered.
"I think of you as a child," Treize told her bluntly.
Kelly flushed bright red at that and walked out the door. No one ever wants to hear that the object of their lust thinks of them as a child.
Treize sighed. "I had hoped that I was wrong about what was happening. I couldn't understand why she would flirt with me. I couldn't figure out what I was doing that would make her think that I was attracted to her. I was just being polite."
Wufei shrugged. "Some people just don't get the message until they have been hit over the head by it. I want to take you to breakfast and check on my car. If you want to write a message to Maria, I can bring it to her."
"That would be nice. They don't need me around except for the evenings and delivery days. I don't have any study sessions scheduled either."
"Then we have day together and you can explain to me the crack about not in this lifetime," Wufei told him. Something was meant by that and he really wanted to know what. Also he wanted to get into his own clothes, because there was something weird about wearing Treize's, no T-chan's. If he slipped in public and called him Treize it would be bad.
Treize shrugged and went to get to take a quick shower and get dressed. He had to think about how much he was going to tell Wufei. If he told him everything that Duo had told him, he was certain that the boy would tear the L2 colonies apart looking for Duo because he didn't think that he should be out on his own. He freely admitted that both he and Duo had some emotional and mental problems due to their experiences in Epyon, but that did not mean that any of these other people had the right to drag them into their home to keep them ‘safe'. He wasn't too sure that any of them would pass a sanity test either.
Wufei grimaced when he realized that his suit was still damp. He was staring at it in distaste when Treize came out of the bathroom dressed in jeans and a t-shirt.
"You don't have to wear that," Treize told him. "Keep what you have on until we get back to your hotel and change there. It will not kill you to be seen in public in sweatpants. I can bundle your other clothing up and you can see if the hotel tailor can fix it."
"It's just that - " Wufei started.
"Walking around here in a business suit will make people remember you. No one dresses that way around here."
Wufei nodded and sighed. He just felt so out of sorts in this outfit and he could hardly wait until he got back into some decent clothes!
Treize smiled when he meet Wufei in the lobby after he had gone up into his room to change. Sweatpants and a T-shirt had been replaced with a black silk tunic top and loose pants, which was an outfit that made him stand out even more from the crowd.
"You look wonderful Wufei," Treize told him sincerely.
"This is far more comfortable for me then anything else. Thank you for dropping off the suit with the tailor for me," Wufei told him. For some unknown reason, as soon as they had gotten to his hotel, he had been uncomfortable about asking Treize up into his room.
"No problem," Treize assured him. "And since you rented your car through the hotel, they will pick it up for you. I took care of that too."
"I will be discussing that with them later also," Wufei muttered.
"Don't be confused if they tell you that your ‘secretary' made all the arrangements for the tow, I thought that was easier to deal with them if they thought that."
"I still think that we should have tried to see if I could get it started - " Wufei told him.
Treize laughed. "Are you a mechanic? Am I? Did you want to waste half the morning on that when we could have breakfast and relax?" Treize asked him.
"Maxwell and Trowa are the ones that might have gotten that blasted thing going," Wufei admitted. "The rest of us never had that knack."
Treize smiled, "Then let me take you to breakfast and then we can talk. There is a wonderful buffet around the corner and they don't mind if you stay for hours so long as you are eating something. It is one of the unofficial offices for one of the software companies around here."
Wufei nodded and gestured for Treize to lead the way. He had a sneaking suspicion that most of the day would be spent there with the two of them trying to question each other without trying to appear that they were doing that. Also he wanted to catch up on all the conversations that they could have had while Treize was ‘dead'. He had really missed talking with the older man, enemy or not.
"Why didn't you get that type of job?" Wufei asked curiously as he dug into his scrambled eggs. The breakfast buffet looked like it could feed Rashid and his Maganacs without any trouble. He was not going to have to eat for a week after this meal. He was staring at the quartet of geeks in the corner that were trying to eat and work on the two laptops that they had brought with them at the same time.
Treize shrugged as he played with his home fries. "Duo's documentation for me didn't cover something like that. Also, no matter what I have done in the past, I have no knowledge about engineering any more, if I ever did."
"You put Epyon together," Wufei pointed out to him. "From what I saw of the specs for the ZERO system, you were a decent programmer too."
Treize shrugged, "I haven't touched a computer in years. Not since the accident."
Wufei blushed, "I wish that all of you would not refer to it like that! I tried to kill you. In some small way I did. You have no memory of any of your childhood or your family."
Treize made a dismissive gesture, "You really didn't try to kill me, did you? No matter what you tell yourself or how angry you were at the time about all that had happened, about all the grief that I had caused you, I don't think that you meant to kill me. You had had too many opportunities to do so and didn't. I vaguely remember - "
"Remember what?" Wufei asked eagerly.
"Bits of the night that you found us together," Treize replied staring into his coffee. "I think, I think that we just sat there for a while before you and Duo left, but I don't know why."
"Duo wanted to take a shower," Wufei told him. "I think that was more to buy some time then anything else. Maybe to warm up, because he looked dreadful and seemed to be in shock, he did faint for a moment."
"Oh - it was just something that I had remembered. Along with all the other times that you had tried to kill me, nothing much from any of them, they are more like a snapshots then anything else. Just little bits of memory - " Treize tried to explain it to Wufei. He was just getting flashes of things really, nothing more then that, even the dreams seemed to have stopped.
Wufei frowned and ate some of his breakfast, trying to think of something neutral to tell Treize, but he really couldn't. "I spent most of that time angry." He felt odd about talking about the war in such an open place. "I had started my training that way, angry that I had been so useless and so stupid as to get my wife killed. Merian - she was the fighter in the family. I was a scholar. The sword was a hobby to me. To Merian, fighting was a passion. It embarrassed her that I didn't share that passion and I was marginally better then her. She was killed when the Specials launched a sneak attack on my colony, trying to fight in a half finished mobile suit."
"I am sorry," Treize told him sincerely.
Wufei shrugged, "We were in rebellion against you and had built an illegal war machine. Of course you would attack us. It was better then the original plan that Romafeller had to bring us in line, attacking us with a bio-weapon to weaken us."
Treize looked ill at the thought, "I don't believe that - "
"Romafeller and the doctors would do anything to win. Romafeller just had better resources. People have uncovered records showing that there were a number of dirty projects that they had carried out. Duo - Duo lost his street family because of one of them."
"He told me that he had survived a plague," Treize murmured, half to himself.
Wufei nodded, "It was an experiment that had gotten out of hand. The virus mutated into something that they couldn't control and by the time that they worked up a vaccination against it, Romafeller decided that it wasn't worth the effort to do more then vaccinate the population that was productive, which only covered ten percent of the population. The soldiers that were stationed there and the scientists that worked there were the only ones that they thought were worth saving."
"Oh God," Treize exclaimed, before lowering his voice. He really did not want to attract any attention right now. "No wonder Duo doesn't like drugs."
Wufei shrugged, "That might be because of a few other things, like his life on the street and dealing with Howard and G."
"Howard is someone that I want to kill slowly for the way that he hurt Duo," Treize growled.
Wufei looked up from his plate in surprise. He never thought that he would hear the most elegant general sound so - feral. That more then anything convinced him that Treize had changed.
"Why?" Wufei asked. #Was it that he probably raped Duo or was it the fact that Duo had been strung out on drugs for weeks because of the man. Could it be the fact that Howard was the one that turned Duo over to that madman without a second thought - after he was through with him? Or was it - #
"Duo woke up one morning tugging at that damned collar, telling me that he wasn't a dog and pleading with me to get it off of him. It broke my heart to hear how desperate he was to get that off of him. I was worried that he would start pulling at other things next." Treize told him.
"How bad was it in the beginning for the two of you? I know that Duo probably wasn't the best choice of companions," Wufei said.
"Why?" Treize snarled. "Was it because you thought that he wasn't good enough to be with me?" #Damn it I sound insane, but what the hell is wrong with these people that that will not admit that Duo can take care of himself? Une and Relena were honest with me about their doubts about his sanity and I trust them, because of that honestly. They knew enough to let him go, they both just told me that they wanted me to take care of him and then told me how to do that.#
"Because I spent most of the time that we were in London together watching him try not to jump out of his skin because someone got too close to him," Wufei shot back. #After all that time with him, you still think that he's okay, that he can function normally.#
"Well you got close to him and look what happened, so do you blame him for that?" Treize asked sarcastically. "Two people that he thought he could trust decide that a roll in the hay was the cure for his nightmare, whether he was interested or not. Tell me, anyone ever force you? Someone you trust ever go too far and laugh about it?"
Wufei felt his face drain of blood. "I apologized to him about that!"
"That still doesn't make it any better. It still doesn't erase the fact that you nearly raped him. It doesn't help him forget that sinking feeling in your stomach when you realize that it isn't going to stop and you are going to remember what happens next for years." Treize told him, remembering all the times that it happened to him. God it had happened to the two of them far to long. He was amazed that Duo actually let him make love to him that last weekend.
"What the hell was going on in that place?" Wufei asked, shocked by the expression on his face and the haunted look in Treize's eyes. He knew when someone crosses over the line, something that he and Heero never had to deal with.
"Mirialdo Peacecraft is insane," Treize stated flatly. "He should be the one that you are worried about. Not me and especially not Duo. Does Maria look like Duo ever neglected or hurt her? Did Une or Relena, the two people that knew him the best ever come to you and say that Duo was a threat to anyone, including himself?"
"Neither woman is someone whose judgment that I trust." Wufei informed him coolly. "Une was a fanatic that forced Heero to self-destruct rather then surrender to her. Relena spent most of the war acting like a fool."
"Une didn't pull that trigger. Heero willingly blew himself up for the cause," Treize argued with him. "Given Relena's position during that time, acting like a fool kept her alive. If she showed that she was a threat to Romafeller, she would have been eliminated."
"I don't think that she was - " Wufei argued back.
"Romafeller wrote off ninety percent of the population of a colony, because it wasn't worth saving it according to you." Treize heatedly replied. "It caused your colony to self-destruct, so don't tell me they wouldn't baulk at killing one girl."
Both of them suddenly looked around, realizing that they were arguing in a semi-public place. Thankfully the geeks were interested only in their laptops and the rest of the restaurant was empty. Even their waitress had disappeared.
"And so I ask you again, what happened in that place?" Wufei repeated his question.
Treize sat back and sighed. "I was a prisoner there. The cage was very comfortable in the beginning, but - "
"But - " Wufei prompted.
"But it was a cage. I also knew that I couldn't leave..." Treize told him in a soft voice.
Wufei leaned forward to hear it better. He could see that this was hard for Treize to tell him. He knew that it was. How much of the changes that he saw in front of him were due to the injuries that the man had received and how much of it was due to the abuse that he had sustained from Mirialdo. What was it about that man that made everyone turn a blind eye to what he had been doing to Treize? Surely they hadn't lived in that much of a vacuum? Someone must have noticed that there was something wrong going on out there.
"I don't know what happened in the beginning or how Miri got that house," Treize started to tell him. "There were only the two of us and a couple that did the cleaning and the cooking. No one else. After a month or so, after I was feeling better and Miri was sure of his control over me, he left me alone for a couple of days. I had projects to keep me busy, so I didn't miss him really."
Wufei shuddered for a second trying to figure out how Mirialdo established his control over Treize. Something simple, a reward and punishment system probably had been used. He really didn't want to know what the ‘reward' had been and what the punishment was. A man who found himself all alone and friendless in the world would be very dependant on his captor for so many things and would want to please him at any cost to keep that protection. Treize would have allowed Peacecraft all sorts of liberties that he would have protested before that accident.
"He came back with Howard on his first trip to London," Treize continued softly. "Looking back - I believe it was so that I could get used to the fact that Howard stayed with us on occasion, so I wouldn't sense anything out of the ordinary if he showed up with Duo."
"He knew what was happening and did nothing?" Wufei couldn't figure out why he was surprised at that. Howard was the same man that thought that Duo would be willing to stay with him as his whore, so why wouldn't he accept what Mirialdo was doing to Treize and not help him?
"In his defense, Howard did offer to let me stay with him for a little while if things got too bad with Miri," Treize pointed out to Wufei. He hated defending the bastard but the situation wasn't black and white, no matter how much he longed for it to be that simple.
"Did you even think about it?" Wufei asked curiously.
Treize flushed and looked down into his coffee cup, "I told him - that it was consensual. It was in a way. Not the abuse, but the fact that I was very willing to let Miri run my life."
"Why?" Wufei asked in confusion.
The Treize Khushrenada from the war controlled everything around him, down to the smallest detail. He might not have been able to do that with Duo, but every other area he did. From the beginning when he orchestrated the destruction of the Doves to his own ‘death' practically, he had been in control. Even while he was under house arrest in Luxemburg, he controlled what was happening from behind the scenes. Epyon was proof of that. How the did he manage to build that thing without anyone noticing? Why did he build it? Was that his rebellion against the way the end of the struggle with the colonies had become so automated? Mobile Dolls and the fact that the war was being run by button pushers? What had happened to let the man give in totally to a psychopath?
"I realized that Miri wanted control over me. The abuse was just a symbol to him, he could hurt me, and therefore he could control me. I spent two years in isolation because I wanted to give him that control even if I knew that it was wrong and that there was something very wrong with our relationship." Treize laughed mirthlessly. "We didn't have a relationship, that was something that I called it to feel better about was happening there. I was a trophy, a possession to Miri, like his clothes or his car. He didn't love me, he just loved owning me."
"But?" Wufei was confused.
Treize shrugged, it hurt, God did it hurt to tell him that, but it needed to be said. "I thought that I was a wanted criminal. I knew that what both Miri and Howard were engaged in was probably highly illegal. I didn't think that I had options because I knew very early on that Miri would kill me before letting me walk out on him, even if I would return to him. There are a lot of people that are afraid of him with good reason. I heard snatches of conversations that told me that. I didn't want to leave knowing that I would have to return, either voluntarily or involuntarily."
"What changed?"
Treize smiled slowly, his eyes getting softer. "Duo is what happened. I thought that he was Howard's paramour and then he was out there with us for some lessons in manners. I didn't see him for the first week that they were staying with us, because Duo was too stoned to get out of bed."
"What?" Wufei exclaimed involuntarily. He quieted down when he realized that he managed to get the attention of the geeks. He blushed and was silent for a moment until people's attention was off of them again.
Treize smiled sadly, "As I said, Duo doesn't like drugs and I want to kill Howard for the way that he treated him. While he was drugged he was easier to control for Howard."
"I saw him for the first time, again and I thought that Howard had brought his underaged lover with him because no one would care out there. Duo didn't say anything at all that night until he was literally dragged off to me room as a ‘present' for me from Miri."
"A present," Wufei repeated numbly.
"I was supposed to be horrified that he was ‘damaged'," Treize told him. "I ended up comforting him instead because I knew something was wrong because of the tension that I felt between the three of them. That made Miri so angry that I was kind to Duo - "
"So he hurt the both of you and that allowed you to walk away from it all," Wufei told him.
"Duo had somewhere to run and he was the first person in all my time with Miri that ever protested what he was doing to me. Duo - Duo wanted to protect me from Miri. He also had made this odd comment, that he had missed me so much. I was confused and decided that the blinders were coming off."
"So the two of you escaped," Wufei said.
Treize shrugged again, "For now."
"What about L3, why did you leave?" Wufei asked Treize and mentally held his breath. Treize might think that it was too personal a question, but with all the other things that he had told him today, he might not.
"Duo wanted me to find out who I was, I told you that last night," Treize informed Wufei in an amused tone. What was he trying to find out? He could tell that the younger man had been a bit shocked by his frankness about what had been going on when he was with Miri, but he had very little to hide really. He also knew that no matter how one wishes it, you can not die of embarrassment.
"I know that you told me that, but - "
"But what Wufei?" Treize asked him as he poured himself more coffee. They had been there for about an hour now and he wondered how much longer it would take for Wufei to just sit there and talk with him. He figured that he had another hour before the man got fidgety.
"But why aren't you worried about Duo?" Wufei burst out.
"I am worried about Duo, just not for the reasons that you think," Treize replied calmly. "Duo can take care of himself, you told me that last night. Don't you believe what you are telling me? The reason that I am worrying is that I am afraid that he might get found by either Howard or Miri."
"I know what I told you last night," Wufei grumbled. "But aren't you worried about his reactions to people? To new situations, London - London was interesting. He was barely functioning there."
"London was the past," Treize told him. "We spent a lot of time on L3 together. He was fine dealing with people towards the end. In the beginning he was worried about being caught and other things."
"Other things?" Wufei was beginning to feel like parrot, repeating portions of Treize's sentences.
"You bundled us off there so fast that he was worried about me," Treize told him. "He thought that I was thinking that I had traded one crazed captor for another. He also was worried about pressuring me about anything. It was an uncomfortable couple of weeks in the beginning."
"What happened to change that?"
"Time," Treize replied with a mysterious smile. He took pity on Wufei and explained it better. "I learned how bad it was for Duo, how much strain he was under trying not to make me feel uncomfortable. I did feel uncomfortable though. It hurt to see him hurting."
"How bad was it?" Wufei asked trying not to sound too eager. He wanted to know what had happened out there.
"Duo still had a lot of nightmares, but then so did I. He finally told me one night what was bothering him." Treize told Wufei carefully. Duo hadn't exactly told him what was bothering him, but that hellish night of listening to him talk to his dead told him a lot It showed him who Duo had been before Zechs broke him and how why they fell in love. He knew that his lover would eventually recover enough to be like that again, if nothing went wrong. Laying to rest his ghosts on that colony would help. Finding out that Howard would never touch him again would be another. The miracle would be getting rid of that damned jewelry.
"You found out what?"
"That he felt worthless and that the things that Howard did to him made him feel even worse," Treize said. After a second he asked, "Have you found out a way of getting those things off of him?"
Wufei shook his head, "We have people working on it. No progress really has been made."
Treize sighed, "That would help a lot."
The two of them ate in silence for a few minutes after they went up to get more food. Neither one of them was really hungry, but it kept the management happy and gave them an excuse to stay there.
Wufei was on his third cup of coffee before he could ask the question that had been bothering him on and off all morning. "What did you mean when you told Kelly that we weren't lovers, at least not in this life time?"
"How does that ZERO system work?" Treize asked him.
"I never used it," Wufei replied. "Heero and Quatre were the only two that I know of and they both have had different reactions to it. I have been told that it has something to do with reactions of the pilot and who he was fighting. If you couldn't control it, it would drive you insane."
"Epyon, whose AI the ZERO system was based off of, was strange. Or so I have been told. Talking to Duo, I can believe it."
"What did he tell you?" Wufei asked.
"That it showed him after that battle, things that might have been. It also seemed to have formed some sort of connection with him, because he claims that it is still showing him things, ‘talking' to him was the phrase that he used."
"What do you mean by might have been?" Wufei parroted in shock before he tried to control his scattered wits. He really didn't expect this from Treize. Not even with all the blunt honesty that he had in describing the hell that he went through during the time that he had been missing. "Do you also know that voices in your head are considered a form of madness?"
"Duo never claimed that he had saints talking to him," Treize reproved Wufei. He knew that Duo was not crazy, no matter what even he thought of himself. He really did not want to listen to Wufei rant about the state of either his or Duo's sanity.
"Duo told me about the dead that talk to him, along with the damned Gundam you built. Kisima he talked to the other one too," Wufei exclaimed softly, desperately trying to keep his voice down. He really did not want other people to hear this conversation.
"Do you want to hear what he told me or not?" Treize asked, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice. He knew that Wufei had worshiped his own Gundam practically, so what was his problem? So Duo talked to DeathScythe, when you were lonely and alone, you would talk to anything at times. And Duo had spent far too much time alone in his opinion. What the hell was wrong with Chang that he acted like Duo shouldn't be allowed out of site of a keeper? He never cared before, when it mattered, so what flew up his ass to make him this crazy/obsessive about Duo now? Was it that fact that he didn't help before? Was it guilt that he been part of destroying Duo's happiness in the beginning? What did he think about him? Was he going to drag him back to Heero and the rest of them on L4 whether he wanted that or not?
"What was Heero's reaction to the ZERO system?" Treize asked Wufei suddenly. The best offense was a good defense and asking what had happen to his lover might let Wufei understand how lost Duo was because of the damage that he took from that damned machine.
Wufei sat back, stunned for a second at the question. The conversation had started out about how bad off Duo was. What did it have to do with Heero? Was this a ploy to buy time or was Treize truly interested in his answer? Or was there something else that was going on? Treize may have changed on the outside and when he was powerless allowed Miri to do some terrible things to him, but the change in the conversation was a move that the old Treize might have made. Spending time with Duo may have not been the best thing, but something had happened in that apartment. Duo must have encouraged Treize to start really thinking for himself again. He was going to stop under estimating his opponent. Maybe Treize at least didn't need a keeper.
"He doesn't talk about it," Wufei replied slowly, trying to gather his thoughts. "He - after the Barton Rebellion he told me that it had taken the ZERO system to realize how much he loved me."
"That must have been a strange conversation," Treize commented neutrally. Getting Wufei to think about things was his goal now. He really didn't want to tell him anything that Duo had told him without getting the man to think and just not react. If he reacted he would he haring off to L2 to rescue Duo from himself.
"We - Duo and Heero were coming to rescue Relena." Wufei told him. "That was the main plan. I think that Duo was going to rescue Maria also. Either that or get himself killed."
"Why?"
"He had spent months alone in that damned cabin. No medical attention and no friends really, just someone that checked up on him. I think that he might have been in touch with Une, but I am not sure. I had spent the same time running away from my ghosts too."
"Ghosts?" Treize asked softly.
"Was I betraying my people by having a male lover? Had I cared so little that I was willing to just let things be?"
"You were tired and confused," Treize told him. "You spent over two years training and fighting and then it's all gone. You needed to heal. You needed to learn to live again."
Wufei snorted. "Fine words. I walked out on Heero. I nearly lost him to Quatre because that's who he ran to for help. Heero, his life had been taken away from him. He was civilian now and all he new abut being a civilian was that they got hurt in the fighting, even if the fighting was over."
"You were two kids that had no idea about living together or even having a relationship," Treize told him. "I know that it isn't going to be happily ever after for me and Duo. I know that we are going to have problems and that we are going to have to adjust to one another. I also know that we were going to have problems even if I hadn't disappeared for two years. A relationship takes time and work. I knew that even if both Duo and I never really had one before."
Wufei frowned, "But you - "
Treize shrugged, "I asked Duo about that once. He told me that he didn't really know, but he thought that I was cautious about such things, because like him, I had been used far too often by too many people."
"I don't understand?" Wufei asked in confusion.
Treize shrugged. "I had power. That attracts many people, so they wanted to have sex with me, to have part of that power or the illusion of having such power. Don't active so naïve about such things, you must see it with Quatre."
"I - I don't really," Wufei admitted. "I think that Trowa might. I know that Heero never does."
"How many times have you been accused of using Quatre by his family? In know that the sister that I met isn't too fond of any of you, especially Duo." Iria had been so cold about everything that he had been deeply ashamed the entire time she was treating him. Did the woman ever had to fight for something or had her entire life been handed to her in a silver platter?
"Iria - she was the main problem with Duo during the war from what I understand. Actually Trowa is the one to talk to about that.
Treize frowned, "Trowa? He seems to be - "
"The only one that is practical," Wufei admitted. "He had his share of troubles after the war too, but he straightened out. I think that spending time in the brig and nearly getting killed by Dekim put everything into perspective for him. He is also the one that you want to talk about the ZERO system with, since he had to watch both Quatre and Heero use it."
Treize leaned in and went for the kill, since Wufei finally told him something that he could use! "You have had no experience with the system," he stated quietly. "You weren't there to see what was happening to both Heero and Quatre. When you finally joined them, you were devastated by the destruction of your colony."
"And your point is?" Wufei asked quietly. Treize had the facts and those fact showed that he didn't know what he was talking about. He really didn't, but that didn't mean that he wasn't right. He still thought that Treize and Duo needed keepers.
"That no matter what I tell you now, you can't rush off to ‘save' Duo because you don't have the right or the experience to do that," Treize told him in a cold tone. "You think that he is helpless. Duo is one of the strongest people that I know. He - he is a survivor. Don't treat him like a child. He never was one. Just let us live our lives. Don't try to run them for us. I have no idea what we are going to do after we meet up again. I know that it might involve coming to live with the four of you again because we don't want to endanger Relena and Une. Duo and I also want to spend time raising our daughter. We want to keep her safe and we can't do that while Howard and Miri are out there. We need to stay with you to keep her safe, like you have been doing so far. We really can't put our life on hold any more, however. While L3 was needed to heal us both, Duo and I need to get on rebuilding our relationship and our lives."
Wufei flushed, "I - I can't say that I understand it. I can't say that I even like it. But I will try to respect your decisions. I think that what troubles me is that I had caused you both so much pain and I want to make it up to both of you."
"Just be our friend," Treize told him in a gentle tone. "Know that it's going to be one day at a time to rebuild your friendship with Duo. That it's going to take time to get to know me and him again."
"What was so bad that about Epyons's AI that it drove Duo insane?" Wufei asked bluntly. He was uncomfortable with the conversation's tone. He was nervous about thinking about what the future might bring. Could he fit these two into his life and not try to ‘run' theirs as Treize accused him of wanting to do? He knew that he had to, because Maria was very close to Duo and needed to know her father. It had to be done.
Treize shook his head, "Duo isn't insane. He might call himself crazy, but that isn't his problem. He just needs to find himself and someone that will love him, warts and all. I love him. I watched him turn from the frightened shadow that was afraid to touch me into a self-confident young man that could laugh with me. He was so lost and still is at times, but he isn't crazy. Just - haunted."
"Why?"
"Because he learned the answer to one of the worst questions that you could ever ask someone," Treize told him sadly, his voice barely audible. "He learned the answer to ‘What if?'"
Wufei frowned in confusion and tried to figure out why that was so devastating to Duo. He vaguely remembered the comment that started this conversation, asking Treize about the ‘not in this lifetime' quip that he had made when Kelly was screaming at them.
"I - please explain it to me?" Wufei asked, knowing that the answer might not be what he wanted to hear.
Treize sighed, "Where would you be now if your wife hadn't been killed? What would have happened?"
Wufei frowned for a second longer, processing the information before his eyes widened in shock, "I - we would have had children. At least one by now. My colony would be still there. I would have never have met Heero - we - what we have - "
"Would have never have happened," Treize finished for him. "Think about all that Duo had been told by that machine about such things. That is what bothers him. He told me that one night."
"He told you what?"
"That he never left the orphanage and it never was destroyed. That he and I never met. That he was involved with one of you four. That it always wasn't a good relationship, that he was abused by his lover, no matter who it was in that timeline, that he never could escape getting hurt by someone that he thought loved him. Several times, you I were lovers, sometimes it ended disastrously and sometimes you defected to my side."
"Oh my God," Wufei muttered.
"That is just the tip of it," Treize told him. "Duo also mentioned that OZ was the side of right, fighting against the evil pilots. That he wasn't human anymore, that he was so callous about people that it scared him." Treize paused, "I think that the worse ones were the ‘might have beens' were that he was a normal child, that he never was involved in the war at all. The there was never a war and that he lived in the suburbs with parents and a family, with friends that he could trust. Those - those hurt him more then anything I think."
"He has spent two years with this information haunting him?" Wufei asked, shocked. He was stunned about what he had found out.
"I think that something else happened to Duo, to make him this unbalanced about things," Treize told him. "Not the physical abuse that he suffered or even what the Mad Five did to him. I think that since he was the first person that had ever really used Epyon in battle, it might have, I don't know, imprinted on him. I know that it sounds strange."
Wufei closed his eyes for a minute. He was going into information overload about what Treize had told him before and this was just getting too much for him. He really wanted to process the information that he had been given. He didn't think that he was going to be able to until he got home though. What Treize was telling him now was far too much.
Treize saw the pinched look on Wufei's face and realized that he might have gone too far. "I know that you really didn't want to know that, but I can't leave it out. I think that might be very important, not because of what happened to Duo, but what happened to Miri."
Wufei's eyes snapped open at that. "You think that Mirialdo Peacecraft is insane because of that machine? Duo would be the first to tell you that Mirialdo's problems predate Epyon."
"I think that I had made a terrible mistake, that I did something wrong and Duo suffered for it. I think that there was more intelligence in that machine then was wise. I have no idea why I created it, but I think that shouldn't have. I think that Miri is insane because he was rejected by Epyon."
"Don't tell me that you think that there is a rogue Gundam out that is looking for Duo because it misses him?" Wufei asked, stunned at the thought
"I think that since he still hears it at night, that he wasn't hallucinating that it was talking to him when he was alone in space. I think that since that damn machine still exists that it has some sort of tie to him. I can't think that there is something that wasn't wrong with that machine because of the things that has happened to everyone that used it."
"I agree with you on that one," Wufei muttered before looking at his watch. It was mid afternoon and he needed to catch a flight in a couple of hours. Besides if they talked about this anymore he would run from the restaurant screaming. "I think that we need to stop talking about this. I know that you should write to Maria. I'll give you a little while for that and to let us pick something up for her. I should tell you that you have been very bad about not getting her what every little girl needs, a teddy bear."
Treize laughed and paid for the lunch bill. Wufei had accepted the fact that he couldn't run their lives so he was happy. And the man was right that he had to pick up something for Maria, he had been very neglectful of her and he did have this urge to make Wufei drag around a huge teddy bear for Maria.
Treize woke up, wondering why it hurt to move and why he really couldn't move to more then a few inches. He was proud of the fact that he didn't panic when he realized that it was Miri looming over him. He wondered briefly how he had been caught and then put that thought aside. He had to concentrate on what was happening now.
"The little whore abandoned you." Miri growled. Treize was his and his alone! He had finally managed to track him down to that dive. He as surprised that he was alone, since he would have thought that Maxwell would be hanging around him also. Did something go wrong when they were alone? Did Treize realize that the slut was useless except for spreading his legs and leave him? Why didn't he come back to him at least? After he was properly punished for his disloyalty by leaving him with that whore, he wouldn't have done anything to really hurt him.
"I don't know where he is," Treize told Miri. He hoped that his lie would be believed. Duo was not going to fall into the hands of Miri again if he could help it.
"You want to remember what he looked like before?" Miri asked thoughtfully. "I can show you that, I made a recording of it. The whole thing - it was wonderful to watch. I watch it a lot while I was waiting for Howard to find the two of you again."
"I don't understand?" Treize asked, confused.
"I recorded what I did to him on the Libra," Miri told him. "Watch it."
Treize felt the table/bed that he had been strapped to move a bit and he was tilted upright so that he could see the large screen that was across the room from him. Miri pressed something on the remote that he was holding and the screen filled with the picture of a small room, in which a bound Duo was being interrogated by Miri. He was surprised at the dread that he felt, making his stomach hurt. He was going to see what had finally destroyed his lover. Duo might have been able to survive his ‘death' and he loneliness of Space if he hadn't been tortured by Miri. He bit his lip when he saw Miri start to rant at Duo and slice off his clothes, after he threw him around the room for a few minutes. He closed his eyes in horror only to have Miri slap him across the face.
"You're watching it all!" he snarled. "You will see what a little whore he was."
Every time he closed his eyes. Miri hit him. Every time that he involuntarily protested what he was seeing, Miri cut him with a knife. Treize couldn't remember when he started going numb from seeing the same thing over and over again, the horror that was in front of him slowly causing him to shut down just to get away from it and Miri. His last thought was that he hoped that Duo managed to stay away from these bastards.
End Part Twenty-Eight
Christine
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