Gundam Wing

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing. I just borrowed some of the characters. Rated: NC-17

That Smell

“Don’t let him hear you!”

“Yeah, he’ll rabbit and we’ll never catch him.”

“Don’t get the tub too full or too hot.”

“I really hate doing this. It’s unjust. But he really stinks”

“Damn unjust. It’s unjust to make us live with that smell. Especially me. I know we drew straws but really."

“I thought he bathed more regularly.”

“So did I. When we were with the Sweepers he didn’t smell. . . . Howard was always reminding him to shower.”

“Another thing. Don’t even look like you’re messing with his hair. We’ll just wash it braided. If he even thinks we’re acting like cutting any of it he’ll turn on us for sure."

Four Gundam Pilots ganged up on the fifth. Quatre organized the whole mission. Trowa and Heero were to hold, and Wu Fei and he were washing. Wu Fei was also backup on the holding team in case their ‘victim’ struggled too hard. They didn’t want to hurt him just, well . . . scrub him until he was clean.

“Noooooo!! It’s too hot. I don’t wanna. I washed last week. Lemme go! “

“Duo we won’t hurt you, just quit fighting us.”

The mission was going well. Trowa and Heero didn’t have to do much at first. Duo went into the bathroom by himself when Heero called him to see ‘this’. But the minute he realized what they were planning he turned into a feral street rat. Jamming himself into a corner between the commode and a wall, he braced against the tank and held onto the exposed plumbing with both hands.

“I’m not gonna. I’m clean enough. Quit pullin’ on me.”

Heero took hold of Duo’s wrists and using his thumbs pressed on that bundle of nerves in them that made his hands open wether he wanted them to or not. Then Trowa wrapped his arms around Duo’s hips and they carried the struggling swearing Duo into the middle of the room.

Wu Fei had one truly dangerous job Duo’s flight suit was so dirty and stiff with hydraulic fluid, dirt, grease, and other substances that they had decided to cut it off him so he would have to use his new one. So he pulled out a knife and letting Duo see exactly what he was doing started at the neck and cut it down the front next to the zipper, Duo struggled but not very hard, mostly just eyeing the knife with some trepidation. But he swore like the street rat he was.

“What the hell did you do that for? That suit was still good. “

“No it wasn’t. We’d never get all the crud out of it. You’ve got a new one and Quatre ordered you two more. Stop kicking. You’re going into that tub whether you like it or not.”

Duo finally stood naked between Trowa and Heero. He wasn’t as skinny as he seemed when clothed, in fact he was very nice to look at. Slender but with a wiry strength which showed in the flat planes of his chest and back, the muscles smooth and hard, his arms and legs were well muscled as well, in fact he was very well set up.

A fact that was driven home dramatically when they tried to put him in the tub. It was an old-fashioned tub left over from years ago when late 19th century plumbing was popular. It was a deep, claw-footed, cast iron monstrosity. But at least he didn’t knock it over. It was like wrestling with an octopus, he had way more than four limbs and he squalled like a cat.

“I’m not gonna! I’m clean! Get offa me! No, no, no, no, not a chance.”

The splash he caused when they finally got him in the tub drenched them all and most of the bathroom. They had to run more water while Heero held his arms over his head and Trowa actually wrapped Duo’s legs around his waist and held them.

“Damnit, Duo, we’re not gonna drown you. All we want is to get rid of that awful smell. You stink. Hold still and it’ll all be over in a few minutes. If you’d quit fighting, you might even enjoy it.”

“I don’t stink. Sister said so.”

“Well, Sister isn’t around now or she’d change her mind. You do stink. You can’t not. If you’d take a bath more than once a month . . . “

“Don’t you talk about Sister. That’s all the more often we bathed at Maxwell Church.”

Duo looked like he was going to fight for sure now. His angry look made Wu Fei back up, even though Duo was pinned down by the two strongest of the Gundam Pilots.

“I’m sorry if we offended your sister. I’m sure she was a good girl. But you can’t do the things we do and only bathe once a month. It’s not like we have to haul water or anything. Not like that farm house I was at last month. Come on, just relax. You might even enjoy it.”

Duos relaxed so suddenly that Quatre started to take his pulse in case he’d fainted or something. But he just seemed to collapse into the water like he’d run out of strength to fight.

“She wasn’t my sister. She was a Sister, a nun. She always told us orphans we didn’t stink. I guess we really did because the other kids at school teased us all the time. And we could only have pan baths because we had to haul water and it was really hard. Ok, I’ll quit fighting, just get it over with.”

Duo stayed limp as Quatre started to wash his face, he screwed it up and grimaced, making faces and grumbling.

Quatre washed Duo’s face and neck, then he rinsed the wash cloth off and sighed. The water was already so dirty it needed changing. That was going to cause a problem as Duo seemed to freak out every time they turned on a faucet.

“What is wrong with you Duo? It’s just clean water. There’s nothing in it to hurt you.”

“Yeah? It comes from underground don’t it? Nothing clean comes from more dirt. I’m just a street rat but even I know that.”

“Duo it comes from city water. It’s pure. They just run the pipes underground to protect them from freezing and getting broken by traffic and such. Why do you think that we’re not supposed to damage water plants? That’s where clean water comes from.”

“You mean the water comes all the way from the water plant underground in a pipe? Oh. I thought . . . well never mind what I thought.”

Trowa took a chance and let go of Duo’s legs. Telling him he trusted him not to kick anyone Duo gave his word he wouldn’t and they all trusted him until he proved he couldn’t be.

Quatre had Duo pull his legs up so the hot water wouldn’t burn him and re filled the tub swishing the water around to keep the temperature even. Duo looked at Quatre as he splashed water over him Sister had never used so much water on one kid. He knew how much work it was to haul water for twenty-five kids to even have a pan bath.

Wu Fei in an attempt to take Duo’s mind off what they were doing asked him what a pan bath was.

It’s where you stand in a shallow pan and kinda get wet as you can and soap up then rinse off with the bucket of water you have. Then the next kid gets wet with that water and so on.”

"Oh, doesn’t seem very efficient. What do you do with the dirty water?"

"Water the garden. L2 you can’t waste water. It’s not cheap or easy to get.”

Duo finally rested his head against Heero’s shoulder. He had given up. He couldn’t fight all four boys and, since they didn’t show any signs of hurting him, he decided to let them have their way. After all no one was hurting him and it really felt kind of good, Trowa had let go of his legs so he didn’t feel like he was going to be pulled under at any second.

“Didn’t like having you hold my legs like that. Too much like that time the Ozzies tried to drown me. Kept asking me questions and holding me under when I wouldn’t answer. Don’t much care for that. Not that fond of deep water, and I hate swimming.”

Trowa looked at Heero who got a better grip on Duo hoping to make him feel more secure.

Wu Fei brought over the shampoo, it was some odd smelling stuff based on sandalwood and basil. But it had been cheap and the bottle was big. The conditioner had been even cheaper.

“Here, let me unbraid your hair so we can get it really clean.”

“Hey! Not the hair! I don’t trust you guys. Last time I let anyone near it Heero tried to cut it. Ain’t happenin’. Not a chance.”

Heero looked shame faced and pulled Duo around to face him. This was going to be hard, but he’d stepped over a line he’d not even known about. Except that he should have known better than to try to do anything to Duo without his permission.

“I’m sorry about that. I had no right to try to do anything to you that you didn’t want me to. It was wrong of me.”

Duo lit up like a Christmas tree. His face, even his body, showing his amazed delight.

“Wow! Heero, the Pre-verbal, actually came up with three complete sentences at once. Apology accepted. You really won’t try to cut it? Promise? If you promise, I’ll let you wash it. But you’re gonna regret it. It’s really hard to do.”

Wu Fei gave his solemn vow that no one would try to cut off his braid.

“Not even the split ends. That really should be cut. You ought to let Trowa trim off some of your bangs at least, they’re getting in your eyes and that could cause you to miss a target at a crucial time. Why not just let him trim off a little?”

“Because I don’t trust you yet. Just be glad I’m lettn’ ya wash it. I don’t even take it down. No one sees me with my hair down. Not even Howard..”

But Duo let Heero take out his braid and finger comb it into some kind of order. Then he let Quatre wet it while he sat back on his heels watching him in the mirror.

When he heard the snick of scissors he nearly leapt from the tub the only reason he stayed was that Heero grabbed one arm and Wu Fei the other, he immediately started swearing and struggling.

Wu Fei glared at Trowa over a shoulder and demanded to know what he thought he was doing. Trowa showed Duo and Wu Fei the scissors and replied mildly that he was getting out the scissors incase Duo decided to let him trim his bangs.

“You gave our word that we wouldn’t do anything Duo didn’t like. If I hadn’t meant to keep it I would have said so. But we did talk about the bangs. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Duo, I won’t do anything you don’t like. I promise. We’re all in this together, at least for now, and you have to learn to trust us. We have to learn to trust each other.”

Trowa took himself out of the mix by sitting on the window ledge. He didn’t think Duo was going to fight any more and he decided to take some of the pressure off him, if he didn’t hurt Quatre he wasn’t too worried abut anyone else if Duo tried to hurt Quatre he would be back with a vengeance. Hurting Quatre just wasn’t allowed.

Heero took both of Duo’s wrists in his left hand and held them. He wasn’t fighting but Heero was holding him anyway, he’d promised Quatre. He started gently stroking Duo’s shoulder with his other hand, it seemed to calm the braided boy and he had to admit that it felt pretty good.

Wu Fei was leaning against the door frame, doing his best to stay out of the way but be available if he was needed. It also put him in position incase Duo tried to dart out the door. He also checked the window but it was too small even for Duo and he doubted that Duo would jump out the window wet and naked.

“Uh . . . My knees are starting to hurt. Can I sit down or stand up?”

Quatre got a towel and put it in the bottom of the tub for Duo to kneel on.

“Thanks, man that’s a lot better.”

Quatre motioned for Wu Fei to come wash Duo’s hair. Duo had been cooperative when Quatre had washed his back and shoulders but he was so tense that his back muscles felt like stone slabs. Wu Fei raised his eyebrows at Quatre, not understanding what he wanted. Quatre made washing motions behind Duo’s back. Wu Fei shook his head wondering what Quatre was up to. Quatre finally made his point by pressing on Wu Fei’s temple and making a circular motion.

Wu Fei suddenly nodded his understanding, burying his hands in Duo’s hair, he began to massage his scalp, pressing on Reikei points. There are Reikei points all over the body even on the head and what Quatre wanted was for Wu Fei to use Reikei to relax Duo. It worked just fine. Buy the time Wu Fei was done Duo was almost limp and Heero had to hold him up instead of down.

“Duo?”

“Uh hun?”

“I’m going to put conditioner on your hair now. I’ll comb it through and then pin it up out of the way until we’re finished.” Quatre suited actions to words, combing the conditioner through thoroughly.

“Stand up so I can wash the rest of you.”

“Nah uh. I’m not lettn’ ya go there.”

“Duo, I’m washing down as far as possible, then I’m washing up as far as possible, then you’re washing possible yourself. Ok?”

Duo, Heero and Wu Fei looked at Quatre while Trowa smirked over his shoulder. They all started laughing. They laughed so hard that Duo slipped in the tub and Heero grabbed for him so he wouldn’t fall. The reach was a little too far so he wound up half in half out of the tub the resulting splash finished soaking the bathroom and everyone in it.

Duo finally stopped laughing and stood up to be washed and Quatre spent some time trying to scrub the grey off Duo’s knees and elbows.

“Let it go, Quatre. You’re getting ready to draw blood. He’s about as clean as you’re going to get him this time.”

Wu Fei intervened in Duo’s behalf. Duo seemed ready to let Quatre skin him if he wanted to. A big change from the beginning of his bath.

“Aw, it’s ok. It don’t hurt. I got callouses on callouses from crawling around on steel plating, working on sweeper junk.”

Heero got Duo around the shoulders and explained that in order to wash the last of the shampoo and conditioner out of his hair without getting any in his eyes it would be necessary for Duo to bend over backwards and hang his head back. He helped Duo kneel back down and supported him as he bent as he was told. Quatre started rinsing out the conditioner using a hand-held spray.

“Mmmm, I like that, feels good. Smells good too, I didn’t like the soap Sister used, it left my hair all dried out and frizzy.”

After they got finished with Duo’s hair, Heero braided it wet and used a blow dryer to dry it as much as possible, while Quatre tried to persuad Duo to lay back in the tub and just soak for a while.

“You’ll feel much better and maybe I can work on your feet a little, they are really calloused. Didn’t you wear shoes on the sweeper ships?”

“Yeah, but they didn’t fit very well sometimes, I didn’t wear them because they were worse than going bare foot. Howard did his best but sweepers are mostly grown up.”

Wu Fei announced that he wasn’t needed anymore so he was going to go and start supper. He eyed Trowa and Quatre out the door too.

Heero sat with Duo for a while and on Quatre’s instruction rubbed some sort of cream into Duo’s feet. Duo wondered about that but Heero didn’t seem to mind so he didn’t say anything, it felt good to have someone fussing over him, even if Heero didn’t seem to care if it was him or his gundam.

It was strange. Once he’d gotten over being afraid this bath thing was pretty good. The warm water helped his sore muscles relax and he liked bubble bath. All those bubbles were fun, even if they did tickle his nose.

Heero finished his task and then left, telling Duo that he was going to see how supper was going.

“You come down when you feel like it. You had the hardest part of this last mission so you get the easy chore tonight.”

“Ok. Thanks . . . un . . . Heero? Tell the other guys I like this bath thing.”

“Sure”

“Heero? Sorry about the . . . un . . . odor. I didn’t think I smelled that bad.”

“It’s ok Duo. Just . . . from now on . . . bath after every mission and every day if we’re not on one.”

“Hhumm? . . . ‘K. I’m gonna soak for a while. “

.

“Hey Duo! You ready to eat? It’s starting to get cold.”

“Yeah. I’ll be down in a minute, I’m not out of the tub yet.”

“Oh Kami save us, we’ve created a monster.”

Heero allowed himself a very small smile.

“No, just a merman.”