18-May-2003
Revised: 26-Sep-2004

Setting: Peacemillion, AC195, before the final battle.
Notes: Possibly a little bittersweet.
(B ANY)

Snapshots by BadMomma

Part Three: Food For Thought

The Chinese youth in the white pants and blue tank top left the maintenance bay at a casual stride. The mechanics had promised to finish the repairs and upgrades to his Gundam before taking their dinner break. He estimated that left him another hour to hour and a half before he would be needed again. He looked forward to trying out the improvements to his suit and preferred to see it done before engaging in battle again. For now though, he had nothing to do.

There was too much tension in the air to simply bed down, not that he was tired enough to warrant resting. He'd gotten up from several hours of sleep not too long ago and would likely only meditate later in the cycle to reenergize himself. He was resigned to wandering the ship.

A short walk later found him at the entrance to the mess hall. He could hear the lilt of quiet conversation from inside and through the glass panels in the doors he could see a handful of workers sharing an early meal. In little more than thirty minutes the mess hall would see a throng of activity with the arrival of the first dinner shift. He gave only brief consideration to the value of taking his meal now, in the relative quiet, before passing through the doors.

It would not be the best meal he'd ever had but neither would it be the worst. There were not a lot of options on a ship of this kind; either a simple, but hot, meal cooked from the stores of frozen and dried goods or prepackaged non-perishables that were the typical fare of vending machines. He opted for the hot meal which today consisted of some kind of baked fish, rice cooked in a broth and a medley of vegetables. Not impressive, but far better than ration bars. He picked a table near one of the view-ports, situating himself so he could see anyone who came or went and bent to the task of eating.

Snippets of conversation from the other occupants reached him. He tried not to let them engage his thoughts but they were hard to ignore.

Perhaps it would be best to meet with the other pilots and discuss a plan of action. Despite what visions the Zero System had given him he was wary of working with the others. He knew so little about the other pilots and wasn't entirely sure he could trust them.

The Winner heir was an almost complete mystery to him, having only dealt with the boy in passing. Barton had had little to say to him when he'd spent the night at the circus grounds after his fateful meeting with General Kushrenada. There was a quiet strength and knowledge in his eyes that spoke of years of battle experience; however, the boy's recent stint as an Oz officer had left a bad taste in his mouth. Yuy was an enigma if he'd ever met one. Totally driven, totally committed, and apparently totally certifiable as well. His penitential quest after killing the OZ peace delegation, his willingness to assist OZ in testing those experimental suits at the Lunar Base and, most recently, his seeming lack of interest in Wufei's involvement in the upcoming conflict left the Chinese boy unsure of the other boy's motives.

And then there was Maxwell. He'd heard the boy over the comm in battle on more than one occasion, making the outlandish claim that he was death incarnate. Then later the boy had spent their shared incarceration vacillating between jokes about their captors' questionable heritage, spewing a verbal bravado that was crass and competitive and behaving in a completely undisciplined and often childish manner; yet he'd also meticulously memorized the specifications of his new suit, down to milliliters and millimeters. That pilot was truly a puzzle.

The object of his puzzling chose that moment to make an entrance, bringing with him a wave of activity unprecedented for someone so slight. He automatically garnered the attention of the other occupants, from the merriest shiphand to the quietest cook. Within moments there were jibes and laughter ringing in the small mess.

/Oh well, at least I had a few minutes of relative peace./

"Hey Wufei, how are ya'? Mind if I sit?" The query was almost quiet and respectful; Wufei found himself agreeing without thought.

"Thanks man, I really hate to eat alone."

"No problem."

The braided boy began ripping open the many packages of foods he'd gotten from the vending machines and arranging them around his tray.

"Hey um, Quatre was looking for you earlier, have you seen him yet?" He tossed back an entire package of dry roasted nuts and washed it down with some juice flavored drink.

"No, I've been in the maintenance bay for a few hours."

"Oh. Well he was looking to see if we could all get together later in one of the rec rooms. Wants to strategize and stuff, says he's got a few ideas about how we should handle what's coming up. Make a schedule and conserve resources and all that. 1900 hours he said. We could head over when we're done here, huh?"

His puzzle proceeded to rip into what appeared to be a sheet-like jelly that had been rolled into a tube of sorts. He checked his watch to calculate the time. "I think I will meet you there instead. I want to check on my suit when I'm done here."

"Mm," another gulp of the pseudo-juice, "you know, Howard's guys are really excellent. When they say they're done fixing something, they're done fixing something. You won't find a squeaky joint. I know you don't them and all, but you can trust 'em to fix your suit right," he made quotation marks in the air, "they know what they're doing."

He was now working his way through a pack of crackers, with a bacon-flavored cheese spread that made them stick together like sandwiches. Wufei was fascinated by the choice of meal. The crackers were followed by another swig of pseudo-juice and then another bag of nuts.

"Um, did you... d'you want some?"

A roll of jelly paper thrust under his nose interrupted his observations. "No, thank you. I'm fine." He lowered his chin and eyes and concentrated on his meal.

"You sure? I don't mind sharing." The jelly paper was again offered.

"No, thank you anyway. I'm fine. I apologize for staring."

"Aah, no problem. I just figured, well, you know, your dinner looks kind of um... boring?"

"It's not boring."

"It looks nasty."

"It is quite acceptable, actually."

"That's fish, isn't it?"

"Yes?"

"Nasty." He nodded and crossing his arms on the edge of the table, as if that explained everything.

"I'll admit it is a bit dry and not very well seasoned, but it's not bad I assure you."

"It could taste like ice cream and it'd still be nasty."

"I take it you do not eat fish."

"Nope."

"For personal reasons?"

He nodded sagely. "It's the eyes."

Wufei looked down at his plate in confusion. "There are clearly no eyes on this... You are not a vegetarian, Maxwell, I've seen you eat what passed for meat when we were incarcerated."

"No it's not that. Just don't like my food to look at me."

"But this has no"

"First time I almost ate fish, on Howard's boat a while back, they put the whole damn thing in front of me. Head and everything. One of Howard's guys had just brought them back to the ship. The eyes were all gross and pussy looking. I passed. Since then, uhn uhn!"

"Your choice." He eyed the other boy's tray once again and watched curiously as the corner of a rectangular foil pack was ripped off, the contents immediately sucked from the opening. "Maxwell, what is that?"

"Hmm?" He held up a hand as he swallowed a mouthful. "Yogurt. Wanna taste?"

"No, at least you're having something nutritional."

"Hey, my stuff's good for me. It's a well balanced meal. Look!" The braided boy began sorting the contents of the tray and identifying them by their food groups. "I've got carbs, dairy, fruits, protein... hmm, ah yes, and meats." He finished by pointing at the wrapper of the cheese crackers with 'Real Bacon Flavor'.

"This" Wufei pointed to his plate, "is a well balanced meal. Bacon flavored crackers, nuts, and jelly rolls are not well balanced. Most those fruit products don't even have real fruit juice in them. But I am not your keeper and you may eat as you please. I just don't see the point of eating snack foods when there's a perfectly good meal available."

"Whatever." The American waved off the comment and continued to work his way through what was on the tray.

"I did not mean to offend you."

"I'm cool. No offense taken. It's just... well let's just say that I'm not into fish."

They were silent for a while, each one working through their meals. The Chinese boy still could not get over the American's choice of food.

"Vegetables do not have eyes."

"Huh?" Duo looked up after stashing his second yogurt foil in the growing pile of empty food wrappers.

"Vegetables. They do not have eyes. Do you not like them either?"

"Um." The American leaned forward and eyed Wufei's plate warily. "Well, I... I've tried green broccoli before - at a school Heero and I were at - didn't care for it much; guess the white one'd taste about the same."

"It's cauliflower."

"OK, cauliflower. Does it come in any other colors?" Wufei shook his head. "Right. And um I'm not really sure what that other stuff is." He raised an eyebrow in question.

Wufei separated what was left of his vegetables by type. "Zucchini. Peppers. Squash." The American giggled. "What?"

Duo pointed at the vegetable in question. "'Squash. It's not just a vegetable, it's an adventure!'" When his audience didn't seem to get the reference he continued. "You know, 'Nataku squashed the truck full of armaments under it's heel.'?"

He couldn't help it. A corner of the Chinese youth's mouth lifted in facsimile of a smirk. "Very funny. I take that as a 'no'?"

"Affirmative. Don't know it. Don't eat it."

"Hm. So what vegetables do you eat?"

"Corn, peas, potatoes, carrots, beets - but I didn't like them, and onions. Stuff from cans mostly. If it doesn't come in a can I probably haven't eaten it."

"Cans?" He thought it odd but the other nodded vigorously. "You have an aversion to fresh produce then? Though I do not imagine these are fresh, they must have come from cans or been frozen."

"It's not an aversion really, just not used to it, not much fresh stuff where I come from."

"They do not have fresh produce on L2?" His curiosity was increasing with every turn the conversation took.

"No, I imagine they do. Just not a lot of fresh anything in my old neighborhood."

"And why is that?"

"Poor neighborhood on a poor colony. Fresh means bucks. Special packaging means bucks. Cans? Cheap and easy. No special transport or storage required. Put 'em in a box, send 'em to the masses. They don't sell in the stores, hand 'em to the poor."

"I... I am sorry Maxwell, I did not mean to make light of"

"Don't apologize, Chang, unless you had something to do with it. It's not your fault and it's not like you could've known." The American looked up at him in consideration then smiled suddenly. "Tell you what, let's start again." He rose from his seat and extended a hand to the Chinese boy. "Despite sharing accommodations at the Chez Lunar Prison, I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name's Duo Maxwell, from the L2 Colony Cluster. Orphaned and on my own for most of what I can remember of my life; but for the last year or so Pilot 02, of the Gundam Deathscythe Hell. My mottos? I may run and hide but I never tell a lie. Left for dead, right for revenge.^[1] My specialties run to death, destruction, stealth and... acquisitions." He winked. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Surprised by the wealth of information so freely shared Wufei could do nothing for a moment but shake the hand that was offered him. Then, struck suddenly by the need to reciprocate, he rose slowly and bowed respectfully. "I am Chang Wufei of the Clan Chang, known also as the Dragon Clan. Colony L5 by way of birth and heritage. Sole defender of the honor of my vanquished people. Pilot 05, of the Gundams Shenlong and Altron. I am beholden to my Nataku, spirit of the great War God. Scholar by nature, practitioner of the martial arts by need. I fight for righteousness, against injustice. It is an honor to meet you." He bowed again briefly and was rewarded in kind.

/Perhaps it is my own fault that I do not know them well. Zero was right, combining our individual strengths will allow us to do what, alone, we cannot./

Both boys smiled at the exchange before taking their seats again. The American nodded succinctly and continued smiling, seemingly very pleased with their re-introduction.

Wufei noticed the time and realized that the work on his suit would probably be done by now, but he now was reluctant to leave.

"If you'll excuse me, Maxwell, I have enjoyed your company, but I think I should go check on my Gundam. I will see you at the meeting room at 1900." He lowered his head briefly before standing to take his leave.

"Oh hey, I'll walk with ya' if you don't mind." Duo waived a hand at him asking him to wait and quickly gathered the discarded food wrappers surrounding his tray. "I wanted to ask Howard for a copy of these specs he showed me this morning. It's the coolest thing, one of the guys has been working on... " The American chatted amiably as they disposed of their trays on their way out of the galley.

The last thing anyone in the mess hall heard was the sound of two boys excitedly discussing spacecraft ergonomics as they rounded the corner into the main hallway.

Owari

(:./bm/snapshots3)