A short time later, Treize and Kagetsuya arrived, each of them furious at being summoned for their charges' bad behavior. Treize knew from one look at Wufei's guilty expression that he was going to be put in an untenable position, and Kagetsuya was merely livid that any Earthian would dare accuse Chihaya of wrongdoing. Zechs glared at them all from beneath his now bright-pink bangs.
"Let's take this inside," Treize said wearily, and led the way to his office.
"I caught these two lurking near the building when it happened," Zechs accused as soon as the door had closed behind them. "Look what they did to me!" And he held out a double handful of his long pink hair.
"Chihaya doesn't play pranks," Kagetsuya said, his face totally devoid of expression. He could take Chihaya and fly away with him right now... but it had been so important to the young angel to have a friend close to his own age, and he seemed to be so much happier here than he had been of late. Which would be worse - dragging him away from his precious new friend, or allowing him to suffer further injustice at the hands of mere Earthians?
"He was right at the scene, and young Mr. Chang there was trying to convince him that it was time to run."
"Chihaya," Treize said quietly. "Did you do this?"
"No!" Chihaya gasped, appalled at the idea. "I mean, no, sir."
"Wufei? Do you know anything about this?" Treize asked. Wufei dropped his eyes and shook his head silently. A fellow didn't rat on his friends, even if they were stupidly implicating him in their vandalous acts. Why couldn't Duo have settled for something tame, like short-sheeting the bed?
"They're both lying," Zechs snarled.
"Chihaya doesn't lie!" Kagetsuya snapped.
"Are you going to take a child's word over mine?" Zechs cried. "I demand that they be punished for this!"
"Silence," Treize said, cutting off Kagetsuya's angry retort with a wave of his hand. "It's an unpleasant necessity of school life that occasionally one student must be made an example to the others. Therefore, Chihaya, we'll begin with you. You can choose whether you'd rather accept corporal punishment for this act, or expulsion."
"Please don't expel me!" Chihaya gasped.
"Hold it," Kagetsuya said, his heart pounding fiercely as he noted Chihaya's lower lip trembling fearfully. But he didn't want to drag Chihaya away from the school... "If anyone's going to punish Chihaya, it should be me." Chihaya gaped up at him, his eyes dark and wounded for the brief moment before he looked away again. So he finally had his answer. He had all but told Kagetsuya he loved him, and the white angel was willing to shame and hurt him in front of the Earthians he held in such contempt. A tiny, broken whimper escaped him before he bit down on his lip.
"Very well," Treize said, ignoring the protest that died half-formed on Zechs's lips. The paddle-happy professor had been hoping to bend at least one of the perpetrators over his knee... Wordlessly, he handed his paddle to Kagetsuya, who frowned at it as if uncertain of its use.
"Don't go too easy on him," Zechs griped.
"I won't," Kagetsuya said, his face hardening into stern lines. If only he could be sure that Chihaya would truly rather stay here than fly away to safety...
"Drop your trousers, Chihaya, and bend over his lap," Treize instructed wearily, trying not to wince at Chihaya's horrified gasp. It was one thing to toy with innocent Wufei, and another thing entirely to punish a child for something he didn't do when he was obviously taking it all too much to heart. Chihaya glanced from one stern adult face to the next, his gaze resting last on Kagetsuya's stony visage.
"I don't want to do this," he said hesitantly, taking one meek, shuffling step toward Kagetsuya.
"Do you wish to leave the school, then?" Kagetsuya asked, his impassive expression hiding how important Chihaya's answer would be to him. Chihaya shook his head miserably, and took another step forward, his hands rising reluctantly to the waistband of his uniform trousers. He blushed deeply as he closed the distance between them, each step bringing him closer to shame and pain at the hands of his beloved. He couldn't do it, he just knew he couldn't, and any second now he'd break and run for it, and Kagetsuya would be even angrier...
At last he stepped up to Kagetsuya, dropping his trousers and throwing himself across the older angel's lap in one swift movement before he could lose his nerve. Humiliated tears sprang to his eyes as he felt the eyes of the others on him, and he blinked them away quickly, trembling as Kagetsuya planted a strong hand in the small of his back and removed the choice of escape.
"Begin," Treize said with a heavy heart. Chihaya missed the conflict written across Kagetsuya's face, the wounded, furious expression that had become all too obvious as Kagetsuya laid the paddle flat against his bottom for a moment.
"I'm sorry, Chihaya," Kagetsuya whispered, and then the paddling began. The first smack was more of a surprise than anything else, but as others followed in quick succession, Chihaya's body tightened up, which caused the blows to hurt worse. Chihaya thrust a balled-up fist against his mouth, struggling to control his helpless whimpering as the punishment continued, all of his attention concentrated on not fighting back, not running away... not crying in front of everyone.
Kagetsuya caught Zechs's smug grin out of the corner of his eye, and without realizing it he allowed his anger to translate into the swing of the paddle. The last ten cracks of the wood against Chihaya's reddened flesh were far more forceful than they should have been, and the very last one made him cry out. Kagetsuya let him go, horrified as he saw the damage he had caused. Chihaya's head was lowered in shame as he quickly pulled his trousers back up, wincing as the fabric settled against his tortured flesh. The paddle fell to the floor from nerveless fingers.
"You may go, Chihaya," Treize said, not unkindly. Chihaya shuffled out of the room, and wordlessly Kagestuya followed.
"Chihaya," Kagetsuya said, catching up to the dark angel easily.
"Leave me alone," Chihaya said, his voice ragged.
"I'm sorry, Chihaya, but it was the only way to keep you from getting expelled. Would you rather I had just taken you out of this school?"
"No." Chihaya's voice was sullen and hurt, and he wouldn't look at Kagetsuya.
"Are you all right? I could heal you..." Kagetsuya's voice trailed off as Chihaya finally met his eyes with a violet glare. He had never seen Chihaya angry before...
"I don't want to miss curfew and get punished again. If you don't mind, I'd like to go to my room now, Kagetsuya-sensei." Kagetsuya swallowed around a sudden lump in his throat and nodded silently. He supposed he deserved Chihaya's cold tone of voice and barely-masked anger... but that didn't make it any easier to take. He watched miserably as the young angel shuffled away from him as fast as he could
"Wufei, what am I going to do with you?" Treize mused, glaring down at the gleaming head bowed before him. Chihaya hadn't shed a single tear, but Wufei was weeping broken-heartedly.
"Hopefully, you'll punish him," Zechs said, his eyes bright with a combination of unresolved fury and roused passion over witnessing Chihaya's punishment.
"He didn't do anything," Wufei sobbed. "He was just wa-wa-walking!"
"As I said, it's unfortunate but sometimes necessary that a student has to be made an example. Are you thinking you could have spared him pain by speaking up? Unless Chihaya was in the study room with you, nothing you said could have saved him his punishment. And now it's your turn, Wufei. Drop your trousers."
"Khushrenada-kouchou!" a female voice interrupted. All eyes turned to the door as a brief knock was heard.
"Enter," Treize said. Sally-sensei stormed in, mad as a wet hen. Zechs raised an eyebrow as he noted that she was also wet as a wet hen. Her hair and clothes were plastered flat with water, and droplets scattered with her every gesture as she sloshed into the room.
"Someone triggered the sprinkler system in the infirmary!" she cried furiously. "AND they put Vaseline on all the doorknobs, so I couldn't get out!"
"Wufei?" Treize asked in a dangerously quiet voice. "Are you going to tell us who's behind all this?" Though he had a strong suspicion as to who the culprit must be, Treize wasn't about to expel Duo Maxwell without solid proof to offer his irate parents. Duo's mother... Treize shuddered just thinking about clashing wills with that woman. Not that he truly wanted to expel the Maxwell boy. Things would be entirely too boring around here with no Duo... yet he found himself torn. He hoped that Wufei wouldn't lay the blame at Duo's feet, because then there wouldn't be much choice but to expel him, yet at the same time he wanted Wufei to speak out, to spare both the delicate Chinese boy and himself the ordeal of paddling Wufei for Zechs's satisfaction.
"I..." Wufei mumbled, desperately looking from one angry adult face to the next as his breath hitched in his chest. "I... don't have anything to tell, sir." Treize wordlessly gestured, and Wufei dropped his pants, still sobbing miserably. He could just shrivel up and die of shame, having his trousers around his ankles while all these people were looking at him. Treize pulled the boy across his lap, and Wufei almost felt it was a relief, that at least certain parts of him were now concealed from view.
The first crack of the paddle dispelled the illusion of relief. Treize was angry! And Wufei sobbed helplessly, realizing that at least part of Treize's anger was due to the position in which he found himself, forced to discipline innocents or lose face in front of his subordinates. But Treize's anger was also aimed at him personally - he knew somehow that Wufei wasn't telling everything! The paddle landed with one blisteringly hard smack after another, and Wufei wailed shamefully, his whole body squirming uncontrollably as the searing pain in his backside grew worse and worse.
Treize stopped paddling abruptly. "Go to your room, Wufei," he said.
"What?" Zechs cried. "That wasn't-"
"It is sufficient punishment for our purposes. He was already in pain before I started." Wufei ignored the talk of the adults over his head as he slithered off of Treize's lap and pulled his pants on, grateful for the concealment in spite of the fresh wave of agony caused by the fabric sliding over the punished flesh.
"I want satisfaction!" Zechs snarled, watching with unmasked irritation as Wufei scurried out of the room, scrubbing at his tear-stained cheeks with the back of his arm.
"Well, if that wasn't enough to satisfy you, then it is unlikely that you'll be satisfied," Treize answered coldly, "since I've already said that the punishment is sufficient. I suggest that you go home and wash your hair. And be on the lookout for any more pranks." He met Zechs's outraged glare with a stony gaze, and waited until both Zechs and Sally had stormed out of the office before sinking down into his desk chair with a sigh. He hadn't wanted to punish Wufei at all, and especially not for the avid audience he'd had. Something about the Chinese boy roused a deep protective streak in him that he hadn't even been aware of before.
And there had to be more than met the eye with Kagetsuya and Chihaya. The boy had been too devastated, too heartbroken... somehow he had a feeling none of them would sleep well that night.
"Chihaya, wait up!" Wufei called, mopping at his eyes with his long sleeve. The dark-haired boy stopped and waited for him, but would not meet his eyes.
"Are you... are you OK?" Wufei asked hesitantly. Chihaya shook his head, and Wufei impulsively grabbed the boy's hand and led him to his room. Chihaya followed without protest.
"You know, Quatre told me that it's always worst the first time, and I think he's right. It'll be OK, Chihaya. I'm so sorry..."
"You didn't do anything wrong," Chihaya said, his voice a harsh croak.
"No, but I tried to warn you. And I... I did leave the Library early..." Wufei's eyes widened in horror. He hoped Treize wouldn't punish him again for tonight's incident! Surely he wouldn't... "But anyway, you're lucky it was Kagetsuya-sensei and not Zechs." At that, Chihaya suddenly burst into tears. Wufei pulled him into a comforting embrace, carefully closing the door behind them as Chihaya bawled into his shoulder.
"He hit me!" Chihaya wailed. "And he made it hurt!"
"Oh, don't cry, Chihaya!" Wufei said helplessly, his big, dark eyes welling up again with fresh tears. Within the span of a few moments, the two boys were weeping brokenly, their arms wrapped tight around each other. Long minutes passed with only hiccoughing sobs breaking the silence, then at last Wufei backed out of the embrace, sniffling.
"Do you want me to give you the special massage?" he asked, his voice wavery as he mopped at red-rimmed eyes. Chihaya sniffled as well as one last fat tear rolled down his pale cheek.
"The what?"
End Part B
Yoiko -- Please send feedback to the author at: mightyyoiko@hotmail.com
(:./knm/wilmington11)
