Author: kc-chan
DISCLAIMER: not mine. . . please don't sue. Only borrowing them.
COMMENTS: that would be nice.
beta-ed lovingly by Cheshire.
>> see part 1 for warnings, ratings...

<< Other languages are like this >>

Somewhere + Part 5

Shivering, he rubbed his hands over his sweater covered arms. He really wasn't ever going to get used to the cool winter air of Europe. Waving, he smiled as the final waves were seen from the cars. "See you guys in a few days!!" A cheerful twelve-year-old voice bellowed.

The Chinese man stood next to the tall blonde waving until the cars and the patrols were far from sight.

Shifting his weight, black eyes watched the Sankian prince with a slight wariness. Wufei was not quite sure if he was supposed to say anything, display a certain emotion, or something. Instead he stood still, rubbing fiercely at his goose-bump filled arms.

Black eyes followed as the European man slowly retreated back into their home. Softly, the shorter man counted to ten after hearing the retreating footsteps. `How am I supposed to handle this?' His thoughts murmured as he followed in the other man's wake. Taking his time, the younger man leisurely monitored the retreating back of Millardo Peacecraft.

As Wufei entered the house, he noted that the platinum blonde man had all but disappeared from sight. With a soft sigh of unsure defeat, the Asian man decided a strategic retreat to his office was the best idea to pursue. After all, the European man probably wanted time to himself. That stray thought did not stop his black eyes from searching the hallways and rooms he passed on his way through the house for any sign of the tall man.

Releasing a stressed breath upon entering his office, Wufei took no time in closing the door, a physical barrier to separate him from the grievous nature the house seemed to contain now that all the guests had left.

Two steps were taken before that bronze fleshed arm grasped the doorknob and opened the door a crack.

Collapsing in his chair, the Asian man reached over to boot up his computer. Something, he needed anything to overt his thoughts from straying back to the Sankian prince.

He shuffled and straightened his notes found upon his desk.

Wufei stared at them for a long moment. They were already in order. `Damn my tedious habits of being neat' he bemoaned. Those dark eyes desperately searching for an outlet that could take his mind off of the uneasy feeling of checking up on the tall man.

Looking out the frost covered window, he straightened his plants, lining them up properly.

Sighing, he swiveled in his chair to face the computer screen staring back at him blankly.

The clock on the desk rattled minutes off slowly, each second taking longer and longer to complete.

With a frustrated groan, Wufei's forehead painfully met the desk's top in a crisp bang. `What am I supposed to do?' He bemoaned, shutting his eyes tightly to war off the self induced headache. `I don't know if he wants me around or not. I don't want to upset him even more than my presence does.'

Lifting himself to a seated position, his jetted hued eyes looked at length over the lines of books that were cluttering and jammed into his shelves. But between those piles of notes, magazines, and hard covered books were small mementos that broke up the organized chaos. A rock painted with a smiley face, something he had merely assumed Marie had given Fei. Postcards from Miri shoved into places, a few shot glasses from placed that Miri and Fei had visited. Small framed pictures, not just on the shelves, but his tables, his desk, the window frame, and even his corkboard.

Images of stolen moments, the redheaded girl sporting a broken arm with a brave smile. Fei and Miri at a birthday celebration, Fei and the other pilots, pictures of the weddings, the parties, the holidays, and then private ones of Fei and Marie making a snowman.

There were a few he had added, unintentionally. There was a photo of him and Miri laughing in a pile of leaves. Another of him and Mariemaia in a snowball fight. One Quatre had given him of him and Miri sitting on the couch at the Halloween party. The latest one was picked up from town by one of the servants. It was the whole of everybody gathered around the Thanksgiving table.

The one of Marie helping him make desserts.

`I ruined so much... ' his mind whispered. Wetness had gathered in the corners of his eyes. `I'm committing a sacrilege by placing my photos in with his.'

Wufei wasn't sure if he had placed them because he felt he needed to keep up appearances, or possibly just to feel as if he belonged. That he had a family now, and friends, and something to look forward to. That it was now his family too.

He had been proud to congratulate Marie for getting good test marks, to have someone look to him for guidance, even if he didn't feel he was the best person for the job.

At times he felt as though he was stealing something so remarkably precious from Marie and Millardo.

Eyes were gently guided back to the monitor of the computer. `I didn't know that Fei was not working seriously on the book. Its no wonder they all seemed so generally surprised. It was like they didn't expect him to finish. And Relena! Miri seemed so surprised that we were getting along.

`I never would have thought that I would have been able to stand her. All I can remember is Yuy's gruff complaining about her and pink limos.

`She really seemed to like me... '

That final thought amazed him somehow. It actually was important to him that she liked him. He wanted to have that approval. That for years of thriving on hatred and solitude, he had let the warmth sneak back into him. That family was something that held further meaning than death, tradition, and history.

Blankly he gazed out the window into the white frosted covered lawn and trees of the property. `I shouldn't bother Sally about Millardo. Let her have a well deserved vacation. If Miri needs me or my company, he'll find me... '

Three hours later found Wufei staring at notes. The same notes he had picked up to read two hours ago. The same sheet to be exact.

With a frustrated growl, the Asian man raked his hand through his silky mane. `I can't believe I feel guilty. I mourned Mei by trying to idealize her and fighting a war for her honour.'

`I miss her.'

The silver band on his ring finger glistened in the afternoon sun that had peeked in through his window. Holding up his finger, he turned his hand back and forth, watching the light playing off of it. Pausing, he twisted it off to examine it.

He had never actually questioned wearing it. Strangely it had been on his finger the morning he had... arrived. He never had given it any thought. He supposed as a nervous habit he had begun to turn it on his finger when worried, which was how he had first realized he was wearing it a month ago.

In delicate script along the inside read `eternal love MP CW'. Gently rolling the ring between his fingers, jetted eyes narrowed in thought. `Why? How could I have ended up like this? I don't understand how I ended up so damn domesticated. I mean raising a daughter is a joy I would never want to give up. I guess I can't explain how I ended up with Miri?

`I can't see myself loving him... intimately. It freaks me out to think of us... ' His face flushed, he was going to stop that train of thought from going any further. He didn't want to know. `Or afraid to know?' A nearly silent voice asked from the recesses of his mind.

He couldn't answer that.

Shoving his chair from the desk, Wufei stood and exited the room, his body heading towards the direction of the kitchen. Blinking, he was startled by the appearance of a woman standing and cleaning up the kitchen.

She nodded and excused herself. He nodded his reply dumbly. `I don't think I will ever get use to the idea of servants. Thank goodness he only has them come in once a week otherwise I would have been extremely worried.' Though he still had not it put it past the band of servants that they probably had an inkling of what was happening. He couldn't be on guard all the time.

He rummaged through the cabinets, gathering the ingredients needed for sandwiches. Stretching to a high shelf he finally managed to snag one of the larger trays to place the finished sandwiches on. `If there is one problem with living with someone who is taller than you, it is where they place items on the shelves' He groused.

With a long, exasperated sigh, the young Chinese boy picked up the tray of food and headed off in search of the tall blonde.

After passing through long corridors and some rooms that Millardo inhabited whilst pouting, Wufei finally located his objective in the glass-covered terrace. It served as an elegant greenhouse of sorts, the warmth encircling the lithe Asian man the moment he entered. Glass and black iron wrought a scene of fairytale magic. There were small gardens and ivy climbing marble statues. Wufei found the prince in his missionary, his domain of solitude.

Millardo's head turned and blue eyes pinned the young Chinese boy in place for a long moment.

`Perhaps I should not have come... ' Wufei thought over even while his body moved him forward towards the seated man. "I brought lunch. You didn't touch your breakfast and its late afternoon and... I thought you might be hungry?" As he settled the tray he pronounced himself as completely lame.

Offering an embarrassed and weak smile he slid into the chair across from the taller man, one leg tucked up close to his body.

Millardo's icy blue eyes gave the Asian man a once over.

Shifting uncomfortably, Wufei sighed softly, black eyes daring not to look up into the Prince's blank gaze. "Are we that different?" He began sympathetically, treading as carefully as he possibly could.

"What?"

The blonde's response startled him. He didn't mean to actually have said that out loud. Sipping from his glass of water, he dipped his finger into the cup, pushing the cubes of ice below the waterline. "We seem so very different, me and Fei that is. I guess I start to wonder how?"

The cubes of ice clinking against his glass was the only sound for a long while as the Sankian man sat in stunned and slightly mournful silence. Miri looked over at the young gentleman beside himself, taking a long look at the plain nervousness in which the boy sat. "At times yes," the European eventually answered, "others no." He took a long pause, as if thinking over his next choice of words before continuing in a hushed tone.

"More different than similar really. Fei couldn't stand my sister ­ Relena. The feeling was decisively mutual between the both of them. She liked to pretend to like him just to press his buttons, hence the whole display at our Halloween party.

"Fei gave up his swords after the hearings. He never touched a single one for as long as I can remember after that time. Assuming you both had the same love of them. There was quite a collection on display for a while, before he had it put in storage. I can't say that it was to avoid some strange desire in his being, or merely he could no longer stand the sight of them or something they reminded him of.

"And he never ran with me. As indulgent as it is, it was wonderful to have someone to jog with, even I am not the most amiable person at five am." The European man sat there for the longest while, fingers tracing the sleek rim of his wedding band.

"Ann was right. About the book that is" Millardo explained upon seeing the boy's confused look. "I gave it to you without telling you that Fei wasn't going to finish it. I guess I didn't want you to feel lonely, or something."

"What did he do if he wasn't going to finish the book?"

Millardo shrugged, "He kept busy on other things I guess."

"You don't know?" The boy asked voice laced with skepticism.

A slight frown formed on the blonde's thin lips. "I never asked. He just seemed to be drifting. He never finished projects he started on. It's not totally his fault. He lost something after the war. For the longest time Sally and I thought it was a side effect from the bullet scraping his brain... "

"And now?" Wufei inquired softly.

"Now?" For a long moment the European man sounded hopelessly lost before a thin line of anger formed on his usually soft features. "It doesn't matter!" His voice raised in volume, cracking slightly under its immense emotion carried in it.

"If it bothers you, then it obviously does matter" Wufei voiced.

"Just drop it." words cautioned in an icy tone.

[cont]