[Thread] sometimes these things need a gentle nudge

[preventerchang]

Characters: OU!Wufei, OU!Relena
Where: Vri-Pente
When: mid-morning
Summary: Wufei has a few things he needs to discuss with Relena regarding his incident with Harth Fray that he hasn't been ready to talk about before now, but the proper business-like relationship that they share as Preventer and Vice Foreign Minister is about to become rather

Comments

[preventerchang]

If Relena were anyone other than who she was, he would not have even thought of having this conversations with her. But she needed to know; she was the Vice Foreign Minister, and he had failed her in his duties. That failure needed to be acknowledged. She was the only person he felt he owed this to; not even the other pilots who had been involved in some way made him feel the obligation to explain everything that had been said and done in the past several weeks.

"I offered you my protection, while undermining my ability to protect you by denying everything people tried to tell me here," he said quietly. "In doing so, I placed myself and others into danger, and failed in my duty to you. I did not take heed of the warnings I was given, by others and also by you, and that ... I should not have done."

He had been terribly foolish. He had been terribly fortunate, to have survived his short encounter with the person he now knew to be a vampire, who had merely toyed with his life and thrown him back as though a catch that a sport fisher deemed unsuitable to keep as a trophy.

"I offended many of the very people I claimed to be my allies. That's partly because I -- am not good with people, but I should have realized sooner. I am used to working with a partner in the Preventers, and here that has become my weakness."

[cinqtioned]

Relena knew of his partner, Sally Po, but didn't really know her. The woman was a close friend of Noin's and the two had spoken in regards to her after Noin had left with her brother for Mars, and about various issues that pertained to things she was working on that the Preventers were involved in, but nothing beyond that and never about Wufei. There was little she knew of the way they worked with one another other than they were efficient - and only from judging from what she'd read in reports and not what she'd heard out of the mouths of either person.

"I cannot speak for the others, but I can say that I wasn't offended," she said. "I was, however, disappointed. But, I understand first hand that when it comes to admitting something that has to do with the oddities in this place, it's somewhat of a difficult situation that involves first coming to terms with what should be fiction, then what that fictional element did to you, and what it all means."

She was, of course, referring to her own run-in with Harth Fray after arriving here, but Wufei had no way of knowing that. Relena never talked about it. It wasn't something she was proud of or liked remembering, but wasn't something she was going to hide.

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"Heero told me that I assumed too much when I thought I could be of any use in protecting you. After what Harth did to me -- after learning what he is -- what Maxwell did to me simply by accident, what the Quatres are capable of -- I have to acknowledge that he may be right."

He had little right to claim to be able to protect Relena. The things which he might find himself facing were things he could hardly protect her against. "I've begun researching what can be done against those threats that I did not recognize before, but I do not--" He paused, feeling that hard, familiar despair inside of him that he had been struggling with in recent days. The whisper that he was too weak to even dare to do this much, to claim that he was capable.

"I never feared death before coming to this place," he said, dark eyes lifting from the hands which rested upon his knees to look at Relena directly. "Facing Harth's power -- I was weak. I do not know that I have the right to provide you 'company' any longer." The silly code phrase between them was one he didn't want to have to give up; that she had held confidence in his presence had been a source of pride, a mission for him to hold onto in this place where he was constantly being pushed off-balance.

[cinqtioned]

"If I didn't think you were the right person to provide me with such company, I would have said so," Relena said bluntly, not feeling the need to say so in a more tactful or delicate way. Perhaps she would of, had this conversation taken place a year or so earlier, but the young woman perched on the bed was not the inexperienced would-be diplomat that she once was. She was a seasoned politician who was quite used to dealing with people who did not share her sunny disposition, not to say that Wufei didn't, but she was no longer the type to beat around the bush. Where others from her world had failed to do so, she'd overcome the flaws that came with being a teenager who'd gone through a dramatic change in their lifestyle and for lack of a better term, grew up.

"Harth Fray isn't human. Comparing yourself to something who's not even the same species as you is an unfair test - it's like comparing a horse to dolphin; it doesn't match up. A horse runs faster than a dolphin, because the horse has legs and the dolphin swims faster than the horse, because it has fins."

Relena paused, pursing her lips in obvious contemplation and said, "Harth's wronged a lot of people here...including myself. He's a monster."

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"The comparison may be unfair, but it must be made," Wufei said, but he could not hide the difference the confidence in her words made to him. That she thought he was still worthy of the position he had taken in his arrogance and unfounded self-confidence in his abilities here strengthened his resolve. He was not equal to face the things that many of those who had been brought here were capable of, but he would do what he could -- as much as he could.

Her last words chilled him. "You as well?" he asked, recalling his captivity, the way Harth had toyed with him and played with his mind, befor eabandoning him to die. That the vampire -- madman -- monster, Relena named him, and Wufei found himself willing to use that name himself -- had dared to touch her made his hands curl into fists. "But you survived," he said.

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"Yes," she admitted, looking down for a moment. When she looked up, she brought her hands up - one to brush aside her hair and the other to pull down the collar of her shirt to expose the bit mark on the left side of her neck. She craned her neck to the right to give him a better view. "Almost. It was back when we were still wearing the cuffs, shortly after I arrived in the compound."

She let go of her collar and dropped her hands back to her lap, lacing her fingers together as a way to keep herself from tugging at her hair or fiddling with the hem of her clothing when she spoke about something that made her slightly uncomfortable. Through her diplomatic dealings, she'd learned to school her expression into one of steel calm to keep herself from giving away any signs of folding when trying to get the other party to agree to an arrangement, but if her hands weren't doing something, they'd give her away as if they had a mind of their own - which is why she normally kept them folded, laced together under the table when they weren't flipping through documents or helping her sip whatever drink was placed in front of her.

"If it weren't for the cuffs preventing us from killing one another, I doubt I would have lived. Going out at night without an escort was a mistake I made. I should have listened to warnings, but I chose to ignore them, thinking I knew better than the people who'd been here for a while and experienced this place for longer than a few days' time."

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Wufei studied the mark left on her neck by the vampire's fangs and forced himself to feel detachment from the observation; for the first time since Harth had kicked the chair away from him, tearing away his pride and arrogance and knowledge of just who and what he was, he felt anger at the man. He felt that he might, if he faced Harth, be able to do something that might cause the vampire to feel fear of his own.

"That is the mistake I made," he said, acknowledging the similarity in their experiences. "If Winner had not found me in time, I would have died in the snow where Harth left me. I did not want to hear what they were saying to me. And what you said to me." His eyes fell from her neck, suddenly feeling awkward, embarrassed at the strange closeness of their conversation.

"I had to learn for myself. As you did. It ... has made you stronger, I think. It will make me stronger, too." Confidence rose in his tone then, and he looked up -- to meet her eyes, not lingering on the scar she bore, a mark of the past, but upon her face, and the determination and strength in her gaze. "I cannot promise that I will not fail you again -- but I will try. And I will not keep silent on matters of my own inability again."

[cinqtioned]

"We all make mistakes," she said humbly with a small shrug of her shoulders. "It's what makes us human and sets us apart from monsters like Harth Fray."

Relena stiffened some at the look he gave her - not because it made her uncomfortable, but because that sort of intensity caught her off guard. It was the same sort of intensity that Heero had looked at her with once, when they'd been on board Libra and he'd taken off in Wing Zero to go fight her brother, planning on dying and not coming back. But, Wufei wasn't telling her that he was going off to get himself killed, just that he would do his best to protect her. And that, was all she asked for. Trying was better than giving up or making a promise one couldn't keep.

She smiled gently and said, "That's all I hope for."

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Wufei nodded, with his own small smile, mostly composed of relief. He had not been sure -- of course, he had thought it likely that she would not tell him to abandon his chose role, but he had not been completely sure, and that uncertainty had eaten away at him and fueled his need to speak with her as swiftly as possible. Having gained her forgiveness -- having spoken with her and learning of what had happened to her, as well as himself -- he felt strangely vulnerable. Unsure of what to say in response to her words -- though he was growing to view her as more of a friend as time passed in close proximity together -- he stood up. "I'm going to get something to drink," he said, aware that his awkwardness was almost painfully apparent, and he slipped out of their shared room before she could say anything in return.

The drink was only an excuse; he needed a moment to himself.

The more time he spent with Relena, the more he was coming to understand the powerful pull she exerted over people: her insight, and ability to inspire and strengthen others. Wufei had once wondered why Heero seemed so inextricably drawn towards her. He'd known she was a great politician, but knowing and witnessing it were different things.

He dug into the refrigerator, pulling out a pitcher of water to pour himself a glass, and at the back of the shelf, found several bottles of tea. He didn't recall seeing them earlier, but food and drink often mysteriously appeared without notice in the appliance, courtesy of Aligoté. He took one for Relena, recalling that she, like himself, enjoyed tea, though he usually preferred it hot. It was a good enough excuse.

He returned to the room looking slightly less disturbed, slightly older, a bit less vulnerable and open. Holding out the bottle of tea to her,he hovered awkwardly, unsure if he should sit down again now that the conversation had been interrupted.

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Relena picked the PDA back up to read through more of Fayt's post while he was in the kitchen retrieving a refreshment, not at all expecting him to bring her back something to drink as well. She hadn't asked him to, but it was nice of him, and she gladly set the device down once more to take the bottle from him and politely gestured for him to sit down again. With two beds in this room, there was hardly room for a couch, so sitting upon the mattress would have to do.

She opened the bottle and took a quick sip of the contents, pleasantly surprised by the taste that assulted her senses. Relena paused, looking at the bottle and for a moment contemplated sitting it down on the nightstand, but something compelled her to ignore the fact that she wasn't really thirsty and focus more on how the tea tasted. And so, she took another drink of it - a longer gulp, and then gave into setting the bottle aside, keeping it close so she could take another drink if needed. She liked tea, but wasn't a big fan of chilled tea - this tea, however, was the most amazing thing she'd ever tasted! She would have to commend Aligoté on locating it, assuming he was responsible for placing it in their fridge.

The princess looked over at Wufei again, about to say something about the incident with Harth Fray, but suddenly finding that whatever words she'd intended on saying were tossed to the wind in favor of simply staring, as if she were seeing him for the first time.

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Wufei sat down next to Relena on the mattress, careful with his own glass of water, balancing the slightly-too-full tumbler so that it would not spill, taking a quick sip to lower the level as he shifted his weight. He eyed Relena's set-aside communicator with slight interest; he would never ask her what she was working on, knowing that the confidences she kept were of a level he was not privy to, but he couldn't help being curious.

She was looking at him rather strangely, he realized suddenly. He wasn't sure just what the look meant, but he hadn't seen it on her face before, an awareness which was somehow different from her usual thoughtfulness.

"Is the tea good then?" He asked, awkward under her gaze.

[cinqtioned]

Relena smiled a sort of smile that shouldn't be used in this situation, and certainly not towards someone who was acting as her bodyguard and treated her like an equal unlike many of her guardians had done in the past. But something about the way she was feeling at the moment compelled her to do so - and she smiled away and nodded, feeling a bit more like she were fourteen and not close to eighteen and in back in school with the flock of girls who followed her around because of her adoptive family's wealth instead of trapped within a compound surrounded by lightning-wielding aliens.

"Yes, it is. Very good."

And it was, the best thing she ever tasted.

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It had been a while since Wufei had last found himself the recipient of such an expression; so long, in fact, that he didn't recognize it for what it was at first, and was only aware that Relena's smile was somehow uncomfortable in a strange, familiar way.

"I shall have to try it later," he said, maintaining an eye contact that made him feel strangely uneasy, a sensation he'd never felt around the Vice Foreign Minister before. Later; a good change of topic from complimenting Aligoté's tea, because there was only so long one could wax eloquent regarding one's rommmate's culinary skill.

"Will you be requiring my company later tonight?" he asked, breaking eye contact so that he could glance at the communicator she had been using before their conversation had originally begun.

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(OOC: I'm going to assume this one's abandoned?)