Title: Rainbow Sherbet (7/P+11)
Author: Bronze Tigress
Genre: yaoi lemon lemon with plot plot

For this Part:
Pairings: 5x2, 3+D permanent; 2+3+5
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: yaoi lime, angst & grief, explicit stick figures, and a peek
into Zechs' shower
Spoilers: major spoilers for Wufei's Episode Zero

For overall rating, full range of pairings, full warnings, full spoiler
notices, author notes, and disclaimer see Prologue.

~*~*~*~*~
Part 7: Saturday morning
On Your Mark, Get Set...

Zechs wakes late, having had to stay up long enough to let his hair dry
somewhat after washing the colour out of it before going to bed. Not
that the colour would have come off on clothes or linens - the formula,
once applied with the requisite sort of brush, bonds to the hair.
However, it becomes water-soluble when soap or detergent of any variety is
applied, so it is truly a temporary effect. The more unusual colours -
the blues and greens and pinks - are quite popular for club-goers who
want to add a little sparkle, and the more usual hair colours are quite
often used in the hair salons to add highlights for special occasion
hairdo's, or to give a client a chance to see what a particular shade
will look like before they use a more permanent colouring agent.

That said, Zechs' natural hair colour is so pale that he usually has to
wash it twice to get all traces of the powder out, so this morning sees
him once again under water, scrubbing the shampoo thoroughly through
his hair, and spending a little more time reminiscing on the evening just
past. It felt... really nice to be able to do that - just spend time
with the guys. He felt like part of a team, in a way he really hasn't
since his piloting skills set him apart from the other soldiers in OZ,
and his notoriety ever since has been such that he had nearly given up
hope of finding that again. And it was... *fun* to be able to go out
dancing like that; it just plain felt *good* to be able to be human, to
have that little bit of human contact. He hadn't even realized he'd
been missing it, but it had been *so* good to be able to just enjoy
himself and his company...

All too soon, however, he is done and emerges to dress in nondescript
clothes so that he can attend to the tasks of collecting flowers and
picking up the lovely formal afternoon suit he ordered for this afternoon
without drawing too much attention to himself. He plans to get back in
plenty of time so that he can have lunch and get dressed before driving
himself over to the pickup point he specified for the limo - a spot in
front of one of the palace's minor residences, to which he would be
entitled if it weren't so dreadfully inconvenient. He resolves to have a
word with Relena very soon about getting it properly set up - just in
case.

Trowa, on the other hand, wakes at his usual time and spends a quiet
morning wondering if he really has finally lost all his marbles. After
all, he is about to face one of his larger fears, head on, and there
will be no hiding from it, now. Still, he thinks, it hasn't been so bad
up to now. Parts of the past week have been quite pleasant. In fact,
most of the time he has been spending with Duo and Wufei has been very
pleasant indeed, once he has let go his initial fear-filled reactions.
These are people he has known and worked with over the last two and a
half years, now - even though he hasn't really had as much of an
opportunity to work with these two as he has with Heero and Quatre - and there
is no doubting their words to him. That they care deeply for him
cannot be questioned; neither would say such a thing were it untrue. Duo,
simply on the principle of the thing, and Wufei, because it would not be
honourable to take such a sentiment lightly.

And they have not only promised him the possibility of a pleasant
experience, but have shown him what that possibility looks like. In fact,
he muses, it looked as if Duo was getting more pleasure out of their
union than Wufei was, as he thinks about the expressions they were
wearing. And he has to admit the back rubs received and given were pleasant
in their own right - as was the dancing last night. That had been...
safe enough, given the dimness of the club's lighting and its dress
code, which tended to be a bit conservative. It had been fun to show off
his moves, and although he still wasn't sure where it had come from, the
various closer dances had also been, well, fun - for lack of any better
terminology.

By the time he calls over to Duo and Wufei's apartment, a little after
0900hrs, to be sure that the other two are awake, he's quite settled
and calm - and even beginning to get a little excited at the prospect.

They are, indeed, up, and have cleaned up themselves and the apartment,
but have yet to formulate any particular plan of action for the day,
when he arrives there a short time later. The three young men discuss a
little among themselves. Given that Trowa wants to try "everything",
the question is more one of what is to come first. The receive-and-copy
method having worked rather well for him on Wednesday evening, it is
suggested again. Of course, the problem there is that, really, he's
afraid to be hurt this way, and the way he shifts in his seat as he says it
speaks volumes. So Duo shares a bit of his own experience - "Like
flying, man" - and Wufei is able to reassure him that he is quite willing
to stop if necessary, and they need not continue if Trowa doesn't feel
able to...

"This is for you, Tro," Duo puts in then. "All we can do is offer; I
think it'll help you to take us up on this, but you don't have to if you
don't want to - you can walk out any time. No strings, no debt, no
pressure, no nothing. And it's not like you can leave us both high and
dry, right? I'm sure we'd both prefer you finish anything you start,
but..." Duo shrugs, "we have each other if it comes to that, so that's
not a valid reason to mess yourself up, right? This is your show,
remember?"

Wufei adds that he is not the sort of man to take an unwilling partner
- a fact which caused him much grief from the elders, in fact, until...
but that's another story. However, that much of a hint leaves Trowa
curious, and Duo hasn't heard the full tale before either. So Wufei
relates the story of how he was informed that he'd been chosen as Meilan's
husband. Since there were no male grandchildren, she became the heir,
although normally only the men would stay with the family, and women
would be married into a new clan. His family was, sort of, honoured that
one of their sons had been chosen, but it did him no great honour for
his own self. Wufei's voice is no longer bitter as he relates this, but
the hint of pain remains as he translates the words that described his
role as "unnecessary husband".(1)

"Oh, man. No wonder you spent so much time and energy trying to prove
yourself worthy... shit, 'Fei... that sucks..." Duo's voice aches
for his lover's pain.

It does explain, however, how Wufei came to be a Dragon - for however
brief a time that term was valid; he is unsure as to whether he is now
entitled to call himself that. Officially, Wufei supposes, the marriage
was a form of adoption into the Long clan, but his family was well
enough off that he was not required to change his own name, merely -
merely! - that which his children - and it was assumed that he *would* be
having children - would carry. Honour, he points out, was evidently much
more important to his Nataku than to his own clan, just as Justice was
always *her* battle cry... "It does not matter now, however; she is
dead, and there will be no more Dragons.

"In any case, we did not get along very well. It was an arranged
marriage, and I had been raised a scholar and pacifist - hush, Duo, I am
coming to that - where she had been raised a warrior, a fighter for
justice. She wanted nothing to do with me, it seemed - and that is where the
trouble with the elders came in. But she was beautiful, and a fiery
bright spirit, and I wanted..."

Wufei shakes his head, and then says, "One morning, I had gone out back
to the field to read. Meilan came out there, just as it started to
spit rain, and she picked a fight with me. She said," he pauses to laugh
- a dry, humourless laugh - before he continues, "She said she wanted
to show me her justice; I beat her in three moves. She could not
understand how it was possible for me to win the match, and I told her
something I really should have remembered, afterwards - that justice is found
in individual circumstances, not in simple strength, and that battles
based on such a concept were meaningless. Master O told me, later, that
I had not won at all, and why.

"Later that day, I made my apologies - and offered to make amends for
the injury to her shoulder. Only justice, was my excuse." He laughs,
mocking himself with the sound. "She taunted me, then, again, about not
being a worthy husband, not fulfilling my duties. Yet how could I?"
Wufei's voice takes on a wry note as he adds, "It is a bit difficult to
do from outside the bedchamber she occupied. She had nothing else to
say after I pointed that out, but, when I got done with her shoulder,
we, ah... she..."

"Led you off to bed?" is Duo's helpful suggestion. Wufei nods. "I
remember you saying something about the evening after that fight..."

"Yes. Thank you. After that night, things were better between us,
although she was always so proud. Then OZ attacked, and she took the
Tallgeese out to fight them. Merquise tells me *he* nearly died the first
time he piloted it, from the physical stress on his body, and he was
then as he is now. Meilan - she was even smaller than I, and I am not
overly large myself. I realize now that she was effectively already dead
when she first took off, but at the time I could not have known. She
wanted to save the flowers in the field behind the house. The flowers!
I took Shenlong out, still unarmed, to defend her. In the end, she
saved me, and it killed her. I took up her fight, then; it was all I
could offer her ghost. I never even really had a chance to make it work
between us, although I did at least get to try, for that short time..."
He breaks off then, trying valiantly to suppress the old pain.

Duo has by this time gotten up, and sat down beside Wufei, and wraps
him gently in a soft and comforting hug. "She must have loved you too,
by the end, 'Fei... did you think she would have saved that Gundam if
somebody else were in it? That she cared for the machine more than for
you? It was *your* flowers she was defending - your place, where you
would go to sit and read and be you... She loved *you*, 'Fei..." Duo
kisses his beloved softly on the forehead and pulls him closer,
rearranging his legs so that Wufei is tucked closely against the whole length
of his body, his head resting against Duo's chest as a too long
repressed sob erupts. Duo strokes his lover's back softly, murmuring, "She
loved you, 'Fei. *I* love you... It's okay, baby... I love you..."

Trowa, forgotten in the moment, stands quietly, and goes into the
bathroom, where he wets a small towel with cool water and wrings it out,
before padding softly back into the living room. When Wufei seems to have
mostly wound down, he briefly catches Duo's eyes, then lays a hand on
Wufei's shoulder, and says, quietly, "You are a man of great honour and
worth, Wufei. For as long as I have known you, even when you didn't
believe it yourself, even when we weren't fighting on the same side, or
even for the same purpose, you have always, always been an honourable
man, and worthy of my utmost respect. I am privileged beyond words to be
considered your brother." He puts the cloth into Wufei's hands, then,
and gives Wufei's shoulder a comforting squeeze before backing away.

Wufei nods, then, and after a moment he pulls away from Duo's shoulder
and wipes at his face with the damp towel. He only has time to sniff
once before large hands are taking the towel and placing a tissue in his
hands instead. He wipes at his nose, clearing the last of the tears
away, and the hands retrieve the tissue as well, as he leans his forehead
into Duo's shoulder for a few last moments to compose himself. Duo's
voice above his head says softly, "Kitchen, cupboard under the sink."
Wufei's head snaps up as he remembers that there has been more than one
witness to his grief and he struggles briefly for a moment to sit up
straighter, but then there is a third hand resting comfortingly between
his shoulders, and another on his knee, as Trowa kneels beside him and
speaks softly, "Shh... savaa, mo namii, savaa... saa saa..."(2) The
words don't make any sense to Wufei, but the tone is soothing and
accepting, and he absorbs the sentiment, dredging calmness out of the
comforting presences of his friend and lover.

"Well, then," he finally remarks, with a trace of his familiar dry
humour lurking around the edges of his voice, "Where were we before I..."

"Hmm," Duo is already cutting in. "I think we were trying to decide
how many different shades of pink we were going to make Tro here turn
before we actually got down to doin' the horizontal mamba with him..."
And Trowa does, indeed, flush at the words, although there is a distinct
aura of excitement hanging over him as well. Wufei blinks, evidently
processing Duo's peculiar terminology for a moment, and then nods, and
gets up from the couch.

"I will return shortly," he offers as he walks into the bedroom. Trowa
looks at Duo, a question in his eyes. Duo shakes his head and spreads
his hands in confusion. They only have a moment to wait and listen to
the sounds of rummaging, however, before Wufei returns with several
objects in his hands. He carries his treasures to the low table and
spreads them out so that they can be easily seen, and begins spreading them
out, naming things as he does so: "Towels - very handy; lube -
likewise; condoms, which we will be using some of now - take the rest of those
home with you, by the way, Triton; pencils, and paper." The listed
items have been spread out, drawing apparatus stacked neatly on top of the
artists' sketchbook that formed the lowest layer of the stack.

"You're going to draw him a picture?" is Duo's somewhat incredulous
exclamation.

"Of course, Duo - unless *you* happen to see a willing female lying
about the place to act as a model?" Wufei's voice has adopted what might
be taken for a smugly superior tone, were it not combined with the
glint of mischief in his dark eyes; evidently Duo hadn't yet considered
that part of the equation. It should be surprising, perhaps, but as it
probably had more to do with his being focused on the more immediate
concerns, Wufei is content to stop there. "Besides which, I did rather
promise such a lecture... What *we* are going to be doing differs in
several important ways from what Dorothy will be expecting, and I am not so
good at verbal descriptions as you in this language that I can manage
without *some* sort of visual aid..."

That said, Wufei picks up the pad and pencil, and begins rapidly
sketching something. When he puts the pad down less than a minute later, Duo
blinks, then flat out *stares* at the paper, before laughingly
commenting, "Geez, 'Fei, I thought you knew how to draw..."

"Oh, hush, Duo, and look at what the cute little stick people are
*doing*," is the response he gets. Sure enough, when Duo looks again, he
laughs again, but this time in recognition. Four pairs of stick people
are engaged in intimate, if two dimensional, embraces upon the page.
Moreover, their hairstyles have been adjusted to suggest the people who
had taken, or would be taking, the positions thus illustrated.

"Now, Triton - you saw this position already," he says, pointing to the
first pair of stick figures, "and this one beside it as well. Both
allow you to see your partners face, and put the deliverer largely in
charge of the motion; they are rather popular, as positions go. Now, this
one here, as you see," he points to another pair of figures, one with a
shock of hair over its face, the other with what appears to be a small
ponytail, "is how I would like to put you - and I would suggest it for
the first time with your lady as well - it puts the receiver largely in
charge of the motion, but still gives the eye contact."

Trowa, leaning in to see, nods as he follows the different positions
indicated, figuring the relative ranges of movement, as Wufei continues
his explanation. "And this one here gives the deliverer the best view
of what he is doing, although you do lose out on the eye contact - and I
am thinking to have you take Duo like this afterwards, yes? Since I
can keep an eye on his reactions as well, just in case." Both Trowa and
Duo nod at this point. "All agreed? Good, then. Now, lecture for the
sake of lecture is done. Yes, we will get to some other topics later,
but for now, are you ready? Comfortable? Do you need anything? A
drink? The bathroom? Best go now, save distraction later... "

Trowa obediently disappears towards the bathroom, partly out of need
for the facilities, and partly to splash some water on his face, and
spend a minute staring at his reflection in the mirror, telling himself one
more time that this isn't like those other times, that this is Duo and
Wufei out there, with all that that implies, and that yes, he does want
to do this. And, breathing deeply, and thinking back over the past few
days, he realizes that at least part of the fluttering in his stomach
is due to excitement rather than nerves. In fact, the more he thinks
about it, the more the prospect of finding out just what it is that can
reduce Duo Maxwell - of all people - to a shivering, incoherent mass
excites him.

A knock on the door startles him out of his reverie. "Triton? Are you
well?" Wufei's voice is more curious than concerned, although Trowa
has a feeling that it could very easily become concerned if he doesn't
say something quickly. "I'm fine, Wufei. Sorry to worry you, I was
just... thinking, mostly." He opens the door as he speaks, smiling as he
meets his friend's eyes.

Wufei nods, then slips by him, saying, "Go on, then. Duo is waiting
for you out there; he could use a hand." The door clicks shut behind him
without leaving time for Trowa to demand an explanation of the cryptic
phrase.

However, the meaning becomes immediately obvious as he returns to the
living room. Duo is having some trouble with spreading a blanket out
evenly on the floor there, and there is a folded quilt and a small pile
of pillows and cushions on the floor behind him. The table has been
moved right up against the wall, and with Trowa's help the centre of the
room is quickly transformed into a comfortable area to lie down - or
play around on. As they work, Duo asks, "Did you want me to stick around
for this, or leave you two alone? I mean, I'd like to stay, but if it
makes you uncomfortable I can go read or something..."

"No, stay. I... think I'd like that. Knowing I'm not here alone might
keep a lid on the memories so I can focus on the present..."

"Fair enough. Maybe I'll be able to see what it is my Dragon there is
*doing* to me that feels so damned good, too. I'm pretty sure he'd
like a try, although he's never said as much. I've never really been
coherent enough to figure it out by the feel, though, and you're not the
only one who doesn't want to screw this up." Duo gives a saucy wink,
then, scooting a little closer, he asks, "Is it starting something if I
kiss you first, today?"

"No, I don't think so. At least, not today. But I'll spare you the
indecision," is Trowa's response. He gathers Duo into his arms, brushes
their lips together gently once, then kisses him again, more deeply.

The sight that meets Wufei's eyes, therefore, when he rounds the corner
into the living room, is that of Trowa and Duo, kneeling together in
the center of the floor, lips locked in a very thorough and passionate
kiss. As he watches, Duo's small hungry whimper is all he needs to hear
to know that Trowa has learned this particular lesson very well. The
sound, and the sight, combine to stir life to certain lower regions of
his body. The thought that the two ex-pilots are very pretty together
crosses his mind as he walks softly across the floor, hands already
moving to lift his shirt over his head and deposit it on the couch on his
way to join them. He wonders briefly if he is more than usually
attracted to their colouring, noting the similarities, but dismisses the
thought as being of no consequence; neither one would be half as attractive
to him without their being _who_ they are.

Wufei sinks to his own knees behind Trowa, attracting his attention as
he passes beside him, and lays his hands on a hip and shoulder before
leaning in to lay a trail of small kisses along Trowa's bare neck, up
towards his ear. Wufei slips his hand up to rest on Trowa's waist,
tugging at the loose fold of his shirt with his fingers, then nips lightly
at Trowa's earlobe before softly saying, "I think perhaps we are all a
bit over dressed."

~*~*~*~*~

(1) according to my research, this is a possible situation that would
allow Meilan, a girl, to be clan heir and still preserve the usual
customs of marriage as observed in traditional Chinese society. The term
for Wufei's position is given as 'zhui xu' - literally, "unnecessary
husband" or "superfluous son-in-law". The society as a whole was very
strongly patriarchal and patrilineal, to the point that women were not
even always given their own names, instead being referred to as their
father's daughter, husband's wife, or son's mother. References are
available on request.

(2) Trowa says, "ca va, mon ami, ca va"; (literally 'it goes') "it's
alright, my friend, it's alright" in French.

Next ---> Rainbow Sherbert 8

comments so far? e-mail Bronze Tigress!