A flash of platinum hair in the moonlight and Heero knew the jig was up. "Hey, guys," he whispered in an attempt to warn them. "Hey!"
Unfortunately, as sodden as they all were with alcohol and pleasure, none of them heard a thing until a silvered bass spoke from the dark shadows. "Well, well, well. What have we here?"
Heero almost groaned. So close! They'd been so close to getting home safely and here they were, Duo quite a bit more than tipsy and half-asleep, the rest of them all wobbling a little and his pants and Wufei's were wet with... well, hell! "Marquis-sensei, we were just..." A good lie just wouldn't come to his tongue. He was too frigging drunk! "Picnicking," he managed weakly.
The tall slender form detached itself from the shadows, long strands of hair glimmering. "Picnicking," Zechs murmured idly, the wooden board that had struck fear into the hearts of more than one Wilmington student being tapped firmly against a palm. "Really, Heero. Couldn't you come up with a better lie than that?"
"Well," Quatre murmured feebly, "it's not a *lie*, exactly. Not even an exaggeration because we really *were*, just right over there, and..."
"...and you've all returned drunk right off your rears and with stained trousers besides," Zechs murmured sternly, glancing with narrow-eyed interest at the pants of Heero and Wufei, causing both to flush and Wufei to wobble unsteadily.
"I'm not jrunk offa my ash!" Duo insisted, almost tumbling onto that very thing. "I'm jush a liddle tipshy. 'Sh all, Zechsh-shama! No reashon fer alarmmmm!! No reashon adall!"
Trowa could have groaned. Why, oh *why* did Duo have to come fully awake *now!?
That paddle slapped firmly against a palm once more. "Well, boys, you know the routine. Punishment now or a talk with your parents. Which shall it be?"
They did, in fact, know the routine quite well, for they all flushed with mortification. "Anou... Zechs-sama!" Quatre began to protest. "Wufei isn't..."
"Wufei is involved in this as much or more than the rest of you and I'm afraid he'll have to take his punishment like a man. I assume that we're going to dispense with all pretensions of not caring if your parents are called?" Zechs waited and was answered with silence. "Good. One, two, three, four, five," he pointed to various spots in a line of flagstones and continued tapping his palm. "You know the drill."
With a sigh, Heero's hands went to his pants as did three other pairs of hands and Wufei looked at all of them, dumbfounded. "What are you... OW!" Almost black eyes were round and trembling as they turned on the man whose paddle had just left what would undoubtedly be a red mark across the backs of his thighs.
"Drop your pants and shorts," Zechs ordered shortly.
"Zechs-sama..." Heero began, face flushed with the heat of humiliation as he dropped said articles of clothing and leaned over to grab his ankles. Duo was swaying in the same position and Quatre and Trowa were almost leaning against one another as they bent to do the same.
Zechs' paddle found Heero's bare ass and he was rewarded with a visible wince and the delightful sound of wood against flesh. "You were saying, Heero?" he asked softly. Heero's mumbled reply of, "Nan demo nai," left him free to turn back to Wilmington's newest student... and the boy Zechs had been plotting to punish almost as much as he plotted to punish the other four... more since his talk with Treize this afternoon. Since he seemed stunned, Zechs quickly unfastened his trousers and pulled down the soft material along with his underwear and bent him. "Grab your ankles," he ordered Wufei tersely, "and wait your turn."
The shuddering fear wasn't just infecting the Chinese boy. By this point, all the others were more than a little humiliated and wary of Zechs' paddle, particularly the American. For some reason, Duo's ass seemed to be Zechs' favorite target... Right after Heero's. As the paddle landed against Heero's bottom again and again, the fear rose in the hearts of the other four until it was a sheer miracle none of them died of it then and there.
"You may go," came the cool words, "and stand against the wall and witness the punishment of the others." The quiet sounds of Heero's clothes being re-arranged were almost a relief as Zechs moved to Duo.
Heero leaned gingerly against the wall, the cool, smooth surface helping a little to soothe the relentless fiery pain in his abused posterior. His eyes unwillingly fixed on Duo, the next in line. He hated being commanded to watch. It seemed so disrespectful to witness the others' humiliation, and even worse to find the sight... stimulating.
Zechs stood slightly to the side of Duo, positioning himself so he could swing the paddle with maximum efficiency without impeding Heero's view. The shame and guilty desire in the bright cobalt eyes gave him almost as much of a thrill as the sight of the slender bottom awaiting punishment.
Zechs waited for a few moments, prolonging the moment of anticipation as long as possible before swinging the paddle in a deadly accurate arc, the first blow landing with a resounding thwack. To everyone's surprise, Duo slumped slowly to the ground and landed in an undignified heap, the red mark of the paddle violating the pure, pale skin of his bottom. Zechs' face twisted in fury.
"How dare you break from your position? Don't you know your punishment will be worse?" The snarled question was met with no response but a drunken snore. Heero faked a cough, pressing one hand to his mouth in an effort to stifle an amused smile. Zechs gritted his teeth.
"For breaking form, your punishment will be twice as bad," Zechs promised, and proceeded to paddle the unconscious boy. Duo occasionally snorted, but he didn't wake even though the paddle was turning his thighs and backside a bright shade of red.
Eventually, Zechs stopped, his lip curled in what might pass for disgust or a barely-restrained smile. He signaled to Heero, who silently crossed to Duo and dragged him over to the wall as well. Zechs waited until Heero had wrestled the boy's dead weight out of the way and tugged his trousers back into position before moving on to Trowa.
Trowa bore the punishment without protest, silently clenching his hands around his ankles as his flesh heated under the paddle's strokes. He forced himself to breathe slowly and evenly, determined to give no outward reaction.
Quatre shivered fearfully beside him, and he wished he could say or do something to reassure him. No matter how many times they'd been punished, Quatre never had gotten used to the rough treatment.
Zechs finally finished with him, his tone grumpy as he ordered Trowa to go stand by the wall. Trowa forced himself to keep his face straight - Zechs always got bored with him quickly. Apparently, it was no fun to paddle someone who seemed not to feel it.
Quatre bit his lip as the paddle whistled forward and landed with devastatingly painful accuracy. He struggled to be as stoic as Trowa had been, but he couldn't control the occasional involuntary flinch, the blush reddening his face or the shameful tears that blurred his vision. Each blow threatened to knock him off-balance, and he gripped his ankles frantically and fought to maintain his position. He had never been paddled so hard... and he shuddered to think what would happen if he broke form. Zechs took a half-step closer to him and swung the paddle faster, landing the blows too quickly for him to adjust, and Quatre couldn't stop the pathetic little whimper that broke free at last.
Zechs was smirking at him as he pulled his trousers up and scampered over to join the others, scrubbing at his damp eyes. Quatre supposed he ought to consider himself lucky - he hadn't gotten nearly as bad a paddling as Duo, who would certainly be feeling it tomorrow... and the look in Zechs' eyes as he drew nearer to Wufei made him shudder and edge a little closer to Trowa's reassuring warmth. He was definitely lucky that Zechs hadn't looked at him that way - but poor Wufei!
Zechs almost purred at the sight of the last bottom. One more to paddle and he wanted to make it one to remember because he had a feeling that after Treize got hold of the boy there'd be no more paddling him even for infractions of the rules! No, that would undoubtedly be Treize's job, so he might as well make the best of it! With care, he pressed the now-warm wood against that bare bottom, that touch accompanied by the sound of a soft breath of fear. He pulled it back slowly, cool air rushing against the skin where the wood had rested, the gleam in his eyes hidden by the dark and his platinum bangs.
Wufei gasped, caught off balance by the first broad smack of the paddle against his bare bottom. One hand jerked from his ankle to press flat against the stones in front of him, the other coming up as though to keep him from falling flat on his face. The chorus of choked sounds of dismay followed that slow toppling motion even as he caught himself and he glanced back with fearful black eyes.
The scowl on Zechs' face would be enough to scare a grown man, much less a remarkably innocent young boy. "You saw what I did to Maxwell, hm, Chang Wufei? Young men who break form must be well-punished," he insisted calmly. "Grasp your ankles again and don't you *dare* let go, do you understand me?"
The Chinese boy's lower lip trembled violently. This was awful! Beyond awful, in fact! He'd always been a 'good' boy, the sort who never got in trouble at school, and his parents had never punished him or Meiran in such a manner. All things considered, his wide-eyed fear wasn't unjustified, although the fact that he could be so unmanly before the others hurt him as well. Hands firmly grasped his ankles as his hair tickled his face and he turned his gaze away from all of them, sheer mortification shivering through his veins.
The paddling was as quick and brutal as Maxwell's had been; but this time the singing smack of that paddle was followed by choked sobs and little whimpers rather than interrupted snores and it went on for what seemed like forever. When it was done, Zechs' fingers touched his lower back lightly and his voice was strangely affected as he murmured without his characteristic cruelty, "Wufei, you can move now."
His violent trembling just wouldn't seem to stop! Nor would the hot tears streaking down the round cheeks of his face as he quite carefully moved, skin hot and tight, to pull up those snugly fitting grey trousers. The scowl on Heero's face made him wince even more than the pain in his bottom as he joined the other four, head down as those shards of hot salt water dripped down slowly in a sparkling cascade.
"I trust that the lesson is learned?" Zechs asked. His voice was almost tender, as it so often was after he had taken his paddle to someone's bare bottom. Four heads nodded hesitantly (the fifth being in a rather permanent drunken-passed-out kind of nod) and Zechs reached out to ruffle the locks of each tenderly. "Then all of you get inside. It's past curfew. If anyone is feeling unwell tomorrow, I'll talk to Sally-sensei for you, hm?"
As they trouped inside, Heero gently laid Duo down outside their door and turned to Wufei, who was standing directly behind him and fumbling to get his key loose from beneath his shirt. With care, he wrapped an arm around the pretty boy and kissed loose one of those diamond tears, the taste of salt on his mouth making him shiver slightly. "It won't happen again," he whispered in an ear, feeling the hitch of Wufei's chest against his own. "I promise you. I'll take care of Zechs-sensei. It won't happen again." With that, he kissed those trembling carmine lips sweetly before turning in the few feet between their doors and unlocking it to carry his unconscious lover into their room carefully... after all, Wufei wasn't going to be the only one with a sore bottom come the morrow!!
After the soft words whispered by Heero, Quatre glanced at Trowa and a message seemed to move between them silently. Instead of making the slight turn to the right that would have taken him to his room, he turned to the left, following Wufei. As the exchange student finally pulled the key to his room loose from beneath his shirt where it hung on a silken black string much like the other boys' more colourful ones, he seemed to notice that Quatre was there and the hurt and upset flush on that face intensified as his fingers trembled and he pushed open the door and stepped inside, Quatre following.
"Go away," Wufei whispered, voice strained, his head turned away, the soft gleam from the screen saver of his computer the only light in the room. His hands shook on the buttons of his shirt and he flinched because even moving enough to undress hurt his ass and thighs and he would have just crawled in bed to cry himself to sleep had not Quatre followed him inside.
Quatre's hands were gentle as they brushed Wufei's away and began helping him undress, ignoring the soft breaths that still hitched in his chest. "It's all right if you want to cry," he whispered, standing finally and gathering Wufei to him with tender arms. "I cried the first time. It hurts worst the first time, I think. I never got spanked at home and that makes it even worse."
The sudden quick clench of Wufei's arms around his shoulders was almost painful as the dark-haired boy buried his caramel face against Quatre's warm throat, a sob breaking loose. "I don't mean to be so unmanly!" he whispered harshly, shaking. "I don't mean to act like a woman!"
Quatre guided him to the bed gently and laid him down upon it, snuggling close and gently patting his back, careful to avoid his bottom, knowing that his OWN was sore and he was familiar with such treatment! "Shhh. Shhh, Wufei... it's all right, you aren't being unmanly. Crying isn't unmanly when something hurts as much as Zechs-sensei's paddle does. It's all right."
The soft sobs were so quiet, the violent trembling along those limbs lasting forever, and Quatre was beginning to wonder if Wufei was going to make himself sick when the weeping became hiccoughing and his breath evened out a little into sleep. For a long time, he lay in bed beside the other boy, gently stroking the head capped by long strands of silky black hair, nuzzling him tenderly and dozing. When the hiccoughs finally stopped, he squirmed out of Wufei's grasp long enough to strip away his uniform and lock the door, climbing back in bed and gently pulling the covers up over both of their bodies, hugging him close.
Quatre sighed softly as his eyes closed and Wufei's arms wound around his chest as he snuggled closer against Quatre's warmth. Well... Trowa would understand why he didn't come back. He was glad to have such a wonderful and understanding lover, he thought with a sleepy smile as he nuzzled against the patchouli and coconut scent of Wufei's hair. Everyone should be so lucky as him!
That decided, it was easy to squirm close and drift to sleep clasped so close and tight. Everything would look better to their Wu-chan tomorrow.
The End
Tzigane -- Please send feedback to the author at: wufeinomiko@crosswinds.net
Yoiko -- Please send feedback to the author at: mightyyoiko@hotmail.com
(:./knm/wilmington7)
