Rollercoaster - 01by Wind ChijmesWufei knew something was wrong the moment he opened his eyes. He could feel it even as his eyes struggled to focus and his brain to de-fog enough to piece his rambled shards of thoughts together. The walls looked different – where was the ornate sword he hung on the wall? And he didn't remember ever having a scroll with that single kanji character for 'endurance' on it. His heart began thumping so hard he was sure it was going to punch its way out of his breastbone. Now the bed felt wrong too. It was just – just much harder than he remembered. And the blankets, the sheets, the warmth of another presence – "Good morning." Automatic reflexes kicking in, 'good morning' was *just* on the tip of his tongue when that sick realisation seared right into him like a red-hot poker. His guts felt like someone had sucker-punched him. Yelling, Wufei bolted upright. His horrified gaze began confirming his worst and most dreaded suspicions. He was on someone else's bed. A stranger's bed. He had – had he? – Mind chanting a whole litany of denying 'NO's, his stare started from the outline of feet - not his own! - under the very thin sheets, travelling up long legs and finally the sheets ended just the hips. Oh no, no, no, no, nonononononono...Please, no... It was amazing at how stubbornly his mind could still be even at such a completely surreal and very coldly dawning moment. Unable to stop his morbid visual confirmation, he eyeballed the lean, narrow waist, gaze tracking slowly up a muscled chest – bared and with dark brown nipples all too obvious, oh Gods. He stopped looking just below the stranger's face. He couldn't do it. All his past learnings, his training, his principles, his code of ethics and honour had merged in one single core of shrill reproach battering at his mind. "You don't look so well...Wufei." You see, just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, they always did. This was one of those times. Now that his mind had completely cleared, he recognised the voice, and it was a painful, terrifying recognition. The Gods must be loving this. Wufei lifted saucer-huge eyes. His mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish, until the words managed to force their way up his dry throat. "H...Heero YUY!"
The situation truly didn't look good. Two men waking up on the same bed with limbs still tangled in rumpled bedsheets, altogether a too-compromising position and looking like an image straight out of moral hell. Well, any two men might be excused. But not Heero Yuy and Chang Wufei. *Never* Heero Yuy and Chang Wufei. Leaning away from the headboard of his bed, Heero narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. "Would you like to put some clothes on, Wufei?" he suggested calmly. In comical dismay, the Chinese man glanced down at himself. Not only was he completely, totally and wholly naked, his legs were spread wide open like some lewd invitation for someone to come and rav – his brain keeled over before it could even go into details. Face burning up, he slammed his legs together, then snatched a pillow off the bed and yanked it over his crotch. In some shrivelled up part of his reeling mind, he wondered how much of himself Heero had *got* to. "You...you..." Wufei sputtered, trying not to sound like some squealing, scandalised virgin, even as he would get his answers! "What did you..." Heero's grim mood seemed to worsen even further as he contemplated Wufei's unfinished question. Voice lowering to a low growl, he said, "I believe, Chang, we underwent sexual intercourse." Wufei's jaw dropped open at that brutally blunt announcement. "No," came his automatic denial. "Well." All business-like, Heero began picking up discarded clothes from the floor. A shirt here, silk pants there, a jacket somewhere...A frown descended between Heero's brows. All these scattered clothing was *so* cluttering the space. As he embarked on his little bout of house-cleaning, he continued speaking as though he was giving a commentary. "You're naked. I'm naked. We woke up on the same bed, both naked. There's a ninety-percent chance we did commit something very close to se – " "Enough!" Heero turned his head, an eyebrow raised at the snarl from the bed. His face the colour of washed-out copper, Wufei looked ill. Or rather, extremely humiliated. It radiated off him in waves. Heero's lips thinned into a grim line. Wufei wasn't the only one who wanted to just dig a hole and burrow into it for the next ten thousand years. "I can't believe I slept with you!" That brought a sharp exhalation from Heero. Straightening himself in a quick, jerky motion, he stalked up to Wufei and completely invaded his space. With no room to back away, Wufei just glared sullenly back up at him, eyes a blazing obsidian fire. Heero dipped his head until his face was mere inch away. And in this breath-sharing space and ironic parody of intimacy, Heero glared eye-to-eye with Wufei. "The feeling, Chang." Drilling his own eyes into Wufei's, Heero said slowly and as best as he could – menacingly. "Is mutual." Heero recoiled just as a fist went swinging where his face had been. Unblinkingly, he stood by one wall as Wufei began dressing himself with sharp, huffy movements. And as if challenging Heero, Wufei faced him completely as he pulled on his clothes, his onyx gaze matching Heero's in unwavering defiance. The Japanese man stared back unflinchingly. It was almost like an automatic reaction. He knew both of them would take each other up no matter the nature of the challenge, even if it meant staring down each other - nudity notwithstanding. Later, when his bodily extremities had somewhat recovered, he would run a quick psychometric test to determine the reason why his body would respond to seeing a naked Chang Wufei, but for now...Heero watched levelly as heavy silk pants were dragged up firm calves, then flexed around muscled, caramel-skinned thighs. He glanced away from the flesh that dangled enticingly between those thighs, and he knew he heaved an inward sigh of relief when the pants finally snapped around a slender waist. "Just in case you're wondering, Yuy," Wufei snapped as he bent to lace up his boots, silk singing as it cleaved like second skin over his legs and ass. "I have no interest in my own gender in that way." For some reason, it was as if Heero Yuy *should* be aware of this fact, whether or not it meant anything by now. "I do," Heero's reply was swift and...sure. Wufei face-faulted with perfect comic timing. "You...you said - you like men? Like that?" To his credit, Heero looked completely serene. His shoulders moved in a most provocative shrug. "Like what?" The reaction was immediate and...interesting. Wufei's feverish gaze darted over Heero's nudity, before quickly meeting Heero's eyes again. "Not a word of this, Yuy," he finally barked, obviously still angered about the whole thing. "And...put on some clothes, would you! It's unbecoming!" Heero calmly pulled his jacket off the rack and slid his arms into it. It flapped open at his chest, leaving nearly the whole length of his body still nude, but he didn't seem to notice. If anything, he aggravated the situation as he leaned back against the wall, so he was fully stretched out like a lounging feline. "Not a word," he agreed. "No one else, especially the HQ, will know of this. Do I make myself clear, Yuy?" "The HQ does not care about us, Chang." Wufei was already striding out of his room. Heero hesitated for a moment, before calling out. "Do you remember anything?" The Chinese man paused at the doorway. Even thoroughly rattled to his soul as he was at the moment, he cut the imposing figure that everyone knew Chang Wufei to be. "No," came the reply and Wufei was gone, as if he had never been there in the first place.
And the moment he stepped into his own apartment, Wufei closed his eyes and slammed a fist into the nearest wall. It brought him a miserably minuscule measure of gratification. How could he have been so stupid?! How?! So completely, totally, wholly, absolutely, ridiculously stupid! Visiting nightclubs, pubs, bars and other assorted havens for nightly creatures had been a recent, and very private secret indulgence. It wasn't for the drinks, or even the people. He went there by himself and for himself. He just needed to get away from work, even if it meant he had to use seedy nightlife to distract himself. That was all! How was he supposed to know he would bump into – of all the miserable people in the world – Heero Yuy?! He still remembered the circumstances with painful, mocking clarity. What Heero had worn – just a denim jacket, jeans and a tight, black tank top. It had been such spare attire, but it has also looked surprisingly good on that Japanese man, cleaving to every curve and angle of that lean form, and leaving glimpses of golden skin where the black fabric didn't cover. Heero had looked dangerous and – God forbid – sexy. Unbidden, an image flashed in his mind. Himself, limbs entangled with golden ones, strong hands cupping the backs of his thighs, alternating hard squeezes and gentle caresses as they swept up and in to the point where his legs converged and the focal apex of unbearable heat and arousal. Shakily, Wufei quickly closed his eyes to stem the answering throb now shuddering through his body. The effects of a one-night-stand were worse than expected. Instead of feeling empty and wretched and used, his body was responding like it wanted...more. He had to squeeze his eyes even tighter against the wave of panic. He had never had to deal with something like this. He had always, always, walked the safer path, never allowing himself so much as the remote possibility of straying to the wilder side. And now he had tripped up. He could blame it on a world which now had no need for soldiers like him, leaving him with options, with choices, with temptations, with time, with a life that he hadn't yet learned to manage, with the sense of urgency to want to catch up in worldly experience. His fist cracked into the wall again, this time tearing the thin skin of his knuckles and drawing blood. He could also blame it on his own inadequacies that had led him to sinking into the comfort of man-sex. Wufei struggled hard to recall the details. Did they, or did they not, sleep together? Chewing viciously on his bottom lip, Wufei finally decided there were no two ways about it. Reaching his room, he faced the full-length mirror that covered one full wall. Back at Heero's apartment, he had been so caught up with feeling horrified he had totally forgotten to really do a body check on himself. Now...He didn't want to find out, to be painfully honest, but right now, not knowing was worse than knowing for sure. Slowly, gingerly and almost fearfully, he peeled off his crumpled shirt and tossed it to one side. Then he took a really deep breath, before facing the mirror again, and snapped open his eyes. Under the harsh white light of his bedroom, every single inch of his skin was startlingly magnified. His eyes widened with something akin to abject horror. He raised a trembling hand to the darkest patch on his neck. It was one of the many marks that riddled his skin in angry crimson brushstrokes. His horrified gaze swept over the hickeys, finger marks, numerous teeth imprints and even nail scratches that decorated his body like he was the centrefold for some seedy BDSM magazine. Heavens, what *had* they been doing the night before?! He had been truthful about not remembering and he was glad for that now. From the state of his body, they must have gone at each other like...animals. Gods help him. Suddenly recalling the mechanics of male-male sex - which had been inexplicably (maybe not so inexplicably now) included in his training as a child terrorist - he tentatively wriggled his hips...to see if there was any suspicious soreness *there*. There – where the sun don't shine and where it would surely be sore now if Heero had inserted - Wufei's cheeks burned at his own line of thought. There was no feeling there. So - and now Wufei actually felt just a little bit more assured - maybe this meant that he had been the one on top. It was not so much an ego-trip, but the reassurance that even during the process of the most horrible mistake of his life, he had retained some form of masculine pride. He had taken Heero Yuy and not the other way round, that must be what happened. Taking deep breaths, he tried reasoning with himself. What had been done was done. From tomorrow onwards, he would continue his life and work as if nothing ever happened. He would also try and take on more Preventers-unrelated assignments. He was quite sure he'd never be able to look Heero in the eye again after this, so it was only advisable that he visited the HQ less. The less he saw of Heero, the less humiliation they would both face. Besides, Heero did say that no one in the HQ was interested in their affairs. That made Wufei a little less paranoid. He hoped to high heavens that Heero would be right, like he always was - that absurdly perfect specimen of a human being he was. After all, a one-night-stand could hardly count as a crowning achievement...even if Heero seemed so nonchalant about it. That had stung more than Wufei would admit in this lifetime – all twenty years of it so far. Wufei didn't know which was worse, that he had allowed himself to subscribe to male-male sex for a night's gratification, or the fact that the other man was Heero Yuy. Heero's tone had been so clipped and so...normal. *Normal*. That was what irked Wufei most of all – how Heero could seem so perfectly unperturbed by it all. So, Heero liked men like that, but had regretted sleeping with *him*. Granted, Wufei was the one who had declared that first, but still, it didn't mean Heero had to be so insulting about it as well. Wufei yanked on his shirt again with a savagery that threatened to tear the material. It sure seemed like he was just the latest addition of a string of bedmates Heero must have acquired ever since he showed up again two years ago. You seem very bitter about it. Dark eyebrows collided in a death scowl. At times like this, those little voices in heads could be so annoying. It happens. "Be quiet!" Wufei snarled without thinking, then froze, starting to feel very foolish, indeed, for actually holding a conversation with himself. And it all boiled down to Heero Yuy. ~*~ fin ~*~ |