04-Apr-2001
Title: Egalité (I/?)
Author: Hotaru
Archive: GW Addiction
Pairing: 11x13
Rating: R
Warnings:
language,sexiness,treason,Bathtime!Treize(tm)
Notes: A birthday prezzie for my comrade Shinobu, who agrees that Une got a raw deal...
Disclaimers: Not mine, not mine, not mine. Nor am I getting paid.
//=thoughts
**=emphasis
Women are not men's equals in anything except responsibility. We are not their inferiors, either, or even their superiors. We are quite simply different races.
--Phyllis McGinley
The consequence of a very free commerce between the sexes, and of their living much together, will often terminate in intrigues and gallantry.
--David Hume
Girl, I didn't know you could get down like that!
--Destiny's Child
The beads of sweat which wreathed the high, aristocratic brow of Oz General Treize Khushrenada had nothing to do with the steam rising from his bath.
"Lady..." His voice was reasonable and soothing. "Put that down and we'll talk this through."
A peremptory twitch of Une's mouth told him he'd said the wrong thing. Her hand--whose fingers hooked the handle of a softly-burbling transistor radio--jerked perilously close to the water's surface.
"No!" Treize shouted, clutching desperately at the edge of the tub. He began to sweat in earnest as his tactician's brain assessed the situation. //Chances of tackling her before she drops the radio in: Slim. Chances of verbally dissuading her from killing me: Moderate. Chances my aide has lost her wits: Excellent.// "Can't we discuss this...?" he wheedled.
Lady Une was, indeed, the very picture of derangement. With mounting dismay, Treize took in her rumpled, misbuttoned uniform jacket and sloppily-braided hair. Her glasses sat slightly askew on her nose, which was wrinkled in an expression of furious contempt. Her lips were skinned back from clenched teeth and her chest heaved, emphasizing the flushed skin beneath the open collar of her shirt. Three buttons were missing entirely, as though she had torn the garment open in a passion. Treize caught a glimpse of something wine-colored and lacy underneath; he raised his glance hastily back to her face.
"Talk," she hissed, glowering at him. "Talk talk talk, that's all you bastards are good for, that's all you can do--" her shaking hand skimmed the corner of the radio lightly across the water, making Treize cringe. "Talk about your war, talk about your position, your weapons, your fancy ideals, but who actually works to make those ideals real? Who does the dirty deeds? Who gets the b-blood on their--w-who--" Her voice cracked and trailed off in agony. The radio, still warbling benignly, dipped closer and closer to the water; her free hand clenched around its cord. Tears spilled over her flaming cheeks.
Treize raised his hands in a supplicating gesture. "Is that what this is about?" he murmured. "Work? I'm sorry. I know this hasn't been easy, Lady. I know you've had to make certain--sacrifices..." he stood slowly and moved a bit closer. "But you mustn't feel undervalued. Your efforts have furthered our cause beyond--"
"Are you patronizing me?" Une asked.
Treize froze. They stared at each other, hearts pounding.
"ARE YOU PATRONIZING ME, YOU ARROGANT PRAT?" she screamed suddenly. "Don't you do that! Don't you oil me up like I'm some crony of your uncle's--"
She raised the radio in an arc and swatted it down across the surface of the bath. Treize, envisioning violent death by electrocution, jumped two feet and uttered a shriek which drowned out the first lilting chords of "To Sir With Love." Une staggered back, startled by Treize's reaction and blinded by the soapy water she had inadvertantly splashed over her lenses. She stumbled forward quickly, raising the radio once again.
But Treize was through negotiating. With snakelike speed he levered himself onto the tub's slippery bench and lunged at Une, tackling her about the midsection.
"Oof!" The impact drove them both backwards, tumbling in a heap upon the floor. At the same time, the radio flew through the air and landed with a splashless *kerplunk* in the bath.
One brief flash, crackling noise, and suspiciously crispy odor later, Une and Treize were alone together in the dark.
For a moment there was shocked silence, punctuated with ragged breaths.
"Sir?" Une cried suddenly, panicked. She groped at his back. "*Sir!* Are you hurt?"
"Oh, *now* I'm Sir," Treize panted angrily. She made as though to squirm out from under him; but in one smooth motion he had lunged up and pinned her head-to-toe.
"Just what in the *hell* were you thinking, Une?" he growled, face hovering above hers in the blackness. He ignored the little exclamation of pain as his hands tightened on her wrists. "Threatening me? Making an attempt on my life? Are you out of your *mind*?" His fingers bit into the flesh of her wrists. He could feel her trembling beneath him. //I wish I could see her face//, he thought savagely.
She lay still, refusing--or unable--to respond. Finally she drew a shaky breath.
"General," she said levelly, "I must ask you to remove yourself from the person of your subordinate officer."
It wasn't exactly a cry of maidenly distress; but it was, unlike her behavior of the previous fifteen minutes, completely characteristic. The sound of Une's cool, impersonal voice cut through the red film in Treize's mind like a blade. //The person of your subordinate officer.// Upon which he was draped, naked and wet, in the middle of a power outage. //Good lord!//
"Forgive me," he said in a stilted voice, rolling off her at once and climbing to his feet. "That was most inappropriate--I shouldn't have--"
"Don't be preposterous," Une interrupted dully from the floor. "The impropriety this evening was mine. You were merely defending yourself from a traitor's attack."
"No," he said. It was automatic; he simply couldn't conceive of Une betraying him, even now. "You're no traitor, Lady."
When she answered, her voice trembled very slightly. "I must be," she reasoned, "because I certainly meant to kill you just now." A slight rustling noise; she was getting to her feet. "It was... unconscienable. I have no excuses to make. I will surrender myself to security at once."
Treize gaped. "Surrender yourself...?"
"Yes, Sir." She took another steadying breath. "To answer for my crime. Assaults upon superior officers cannot be forgiven or-"
"Oh shut up, Une, will you please?" Treize snapped. "I'll decide what can be forgiven and what can't. Now just... go find a flashlight, or candles, or something. I'm putting on a robe."
"Yes, Sir." Was that relief he heard in her voice? Gratitude? Or had it been something darker, something like...
//No//, he told himself as he groped his way though the darkened suite towards his cedar armoire. //No, it couldn't have been that. She couldn't possibly resent me; she ought to thank me. I've just saved her from being court-martialed and shot! I've just saved her life. Why would she...?//
Treize stopped in front of the armoire. //Why would she try to hurt me at all?//
He stood silently, listening to the soft sounds of her steps beyond the bedroom. Une's presence was as familiar as always--a constant he took for granted even in his sleep, knowing she was never far away.
But suddenly, in this darkness, he had no idea what she was doing; he had no idea where she was going.
And he had no idea why. None at all.
tbc...
(:./hotaru/egalite1)
