[Thread] Let me think back, no, remember--

[preventerchang]

Characters: OU!Wufei, AU!Quatre, AU!Wufei
Where: a private examination room at the clinic
When: a little bit after the transfer of the kidnapping victims to the clinic
Summary: AU!Quatre peeks in on OU!Wufei to check how he's doing during the chaos at the clinic; AU!Wufei has bad timing
Warnings: mention of previous events, angst, possible arguing

Comments

[preventerchang]

Wufei had been about to extend a quiet greeting toQuatre when the man was thoroughly distracted by the approach of the female who had called his name. Wufei? Why was Winner calling his name down the hallway, when he was right--

He was about to remark on this with gentle irritation when she appeared, and he found himself frozen from the inside out, unable to speak, unable to even breathe. Winner had not meant him when he had spoken the name 'Wufei'.

Every denial and betrayal, every word he had ignored as delusional, every statement he had thrown into the faces of the allies he had met here suddenly ceased to be relevant. If she was here, and her name was Wufei, then anything at all was possible and he was more the fool for believing otherwise.

She was wearing her hair slightly differently, and her voice was blessedly unrecognizable, but Wufei knew exactly who she was -- in his world, and he wondered, with the small part of his brain that was not paralyzed with a shock that was bleeding further into horror with each moment that

[preventerchang]

Wufei felt calm enough already -- a false calm, induced by his determination not to let his inner urge to scream frustration into the room. Sally said it was better for him to let it out, before he allowed it to build up; Duo had once called him a pressure cooker with a faulty safety valve. That had been during one of the less serious arguments that they claimed passed for conversation between them during a mission

[preventerchang]

"Yes. I've been hurt before. My body is capable of healing on its own without that sort of interference."

Wufei stared at Quatre. He was not as crippled as the other man thought he was. He wasn't really aware of the severity of his emotional reactions, he had tamped them down so far. They were mostly confusing, now.

[preventerchang]

Wufei understood Winner's comment to mean that he needed fixing on the inside as well as the outside, and despite the fact that he was aware that it was true, he did not appreciate the comment.

Of course it was unintentional -- Winer had gone far out of his way to attempt to keep Wufei from hearing that his alternate existed, as much so as the other things that had been hidden from him. Even if it made sense. He truly did not want to talk about the woman, but he could not seem to manage the trick of forcing her face from his mind. "She is not what I expected."

[preventerchang]

Thankfully, Wufei would never have any idea just what Quatre was currently envisioning, though the blush was noted when he flinched back slightly from the fingers that brushed back his hair in an uncommon gesture.

"I trust," he said, wishing that he could take care of these simple tasks without assistance or pain -- and pain was becoming less important than pride as the days wore on -- "that you two are going about this in the proper fashion."

[preventerchang]

Wufei hadn't honestly expected any less of the Arabian pilot and his double. But the words had the intended result -- Winner had backed off, if only momentarily. "Good," he said shortly. Though Winner and The Woman hardly needed his permission or approval, he still felt a strange need to verify this.

She seemed happy. It was something he'd never been able to give her-- dammit, he didn't want to be thinking about this! She was not the same girl!

[preventerchang]

"Maxwell," Wufei responded. The two had run into each other when Wufei had been looking for food, and failing miserably at managing the task with his wrapped hands. "I have been adequately staying out of the way," he finished, hoping that Quatre was done with his task.

[preventerchang]

"Why?" Wufei asked.

[preventerchang]

Wufei stared at Winner with some measure of disbelief. The others they recognized as being from their own world had no reason to be concerned for his welfare; he was not the Wufei they thought him to be, not the Wufei they remembered, and the Wufei they remembered had not given them reason to worry about him. They had not been friends, and had only barely been allies. Even the Quatre and Duo from his own world only had the memory of the one Preventers mission, the first mission they had all been involved with together. And here, he had treated all of them with suspicion, dismissed their words, and made a general ass of himself. Why were they worried about him?

Because he'd been foolish enough to attempt an attack on Harth Fray, when he was so weak? Because there was no way they did not know of his weakness and arrogance?