Mot (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} motley_sis) wrote,@ 2009-03-24 22:35:00 |
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| Entry tags: | * fiction, char: sally po, char: zhang wu fei, fandom: gundam wing, ljcom: gw_dark |
[fic] What Breaks Down, Must Break Up :#otorcy#le:::# e:: #a ::police chase. ::man:;:as been fleein#: #om#::o#i;:: #ncs :is mo#;;#; e:#::uspect is riding #: red Hon:#a::: :::sty:le: motorcycle and he:::ing nor:: #::way of the :#::::: ::#:::ormati:on# ab##T# :#olice chase. ::man:::as ;;ee##eeing: #om#:e:#pol::e: sin# :: thi: ##orning. #:;suspe;; is ridi# a: red #nda::: track:#yle: m#;orcycle and he::: We gotta get up, get out before they get us down There's a candle burning in the world tonight Where do fallen angels go Sometimes your Heaven is Hell and you don't know why, the wild-rock singer lamented from his car radio. It deserved a snort. And with all we're nowhere There's a candle burning... Aerosmith Wednesday, his radio blared, Only at Pre-CE Rock!
To Break Free - multi-author deathfic series
[ incomplete - 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 ]
03 What Breaks Down, Must Break Up
Pairing/Characters: Wu Fei, Sally.
Rating & Warnings: M for death.
Notes: My first Wu Fei-centric fic. Incidentally, also my first deathfic.
Summary: When Wu Fei finds out what occurred during his three-month absence, he wants nothing more than to make things right. But since he can't, he decides to pay a visit to Winner instead. If it were not for that traffic jam...
Wu Fei mumbled a Mandarin curse under his breath and turned the radio off with an aggravated smack. He needed some distraction, but the static was getting on his nerves. He was nauseous, a bit light-headed and that dreaded traffic jam had not moved an inch for almost twenty minutes.
And he was apprehensive about meeting Winner.
He had pictured the conclusion of his three month undercover mission much differently; after being debriefed at Preventers Headquarters, he would fill out the necessary forms to extend his vacation with a week, and then head home. After a long, hot bath he would call Sally to let her know he had returned from a successful mission and give her permission to cook him a Welcome Home meal.
This morning, Wu Fei's stomach had leaped a little when he had decided to open a bottle of plum wine tonight and get just tipsy enough to dare admit he had missed her company the past months. This afternoon, his stomach had shrunk to a knot and emptied itself above a toilet bowl.
He shivered at the thought – and not because the cleaning lady had not yet done her mid-day cleaning of the men's room on that floor yet.
After his debriefing, Une had sat him down in a comfortable chair in her office and told him about the tragic deaths of two of his colleagues, Special Agent Barton and Special Agent Yuy, and his old comrade-in-arms Maxwell.
He had leapt up, demanded an explanation, snorted in disbelief, stormed to the door like a SWAT Team just given the 'Go' signal. The ex-mercenary killing the whack-job orphan as an act of mercy? Wasn't Maxwell being taken care of at one of the most respected sanatoriums in the entire Earth Sphere? Special Agent Barton executed? Yuy killing himself? No, he had been doing too well after the wars - there must be at least some foul play? He would find the one who made up these lies and make things right!
Wu Fei rubbed his fingers across his brow, back and forth, a soothingly repetitive motion. The shake of his chest whenever he tried taking a deep breath unsettled him even more than the burning sensation in his eyes.
He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and took out his cell phone. His heart leaped; he had wanted to wait making his phone call to Sally until he was sure he had himself under control again, but he needed let her know he had heard the news.
Wu Fei hesitated again as he felt a wave of nausea wash over him, but then pressed Sally's speed dial code. He stared out the front window of his car as he waited for her to pick up. A little girl with braided hair on the back seat of the car before him smiled and waved. He scowled back.
"Ah, Sal?" He turned his face down to look at his right hand in his lap and swallowed hard. "The mission was a success. I managed to get a week extra leisure time. Your help with my mail and the plants is much appreciated. I will be home later tonigh—"
"Slow down and take a deep breath," Sally interrupted his strained drone. The knot in his stomach tightened and seemed to be lifted on a sudden wave of nervous tension in his belly.
Wu Fei tried to take a deep breath without Sally hearing him, but as he drew in air, his chest shook and the sound he made was much like a dry sob.
"I'm on my way to Winner."
Sally made a noise that conveyed her sympathy. She understood Une had informed Wu Fei after his debriefing.
"Just a moment, Wu Fei, I have to take something out of the oven before it burns."
He sighed to try and let go of his tension. When he looked up at the car in front of his, the girl with the braid waved at him with what looked like a wrench. He frowned as he leaned forward to turn the radio back on.
The static channel. He noticed his hand was trembling as he fiddled with the tuner to get a better radio signal. When he lost the frequency completely, he pressed a button for the next preset channel.
Cause we're livin' up against the wall
Yeah, has got us locked up
Come on and line up
Wu Fei felt a cold tingle run down his spine. There was something familiar about the singer's voice; it could be one of those pre-colony wild-rock bands Duo would listen to while making repairs to Deathscythe during the war.
"Wu Fei? I'm sorry. Une suggested yesterday you might be home before Thursday, so I was baking you something." Sally's voice was gentle, contained. "Because I'm sure you have other things on your mind than cooking."
A lump quickly rose in Wu Fei's throat. He searched his mind for something to say, but when he felt his eyes watering up, he bit his lip and concentrated on trying to regain control of himself.
"You said you were on your way to Quatre," she continued, "That's good, he will like that. Are you driving?"
"N—no," he uttered, his chest heaving with the force of welling emotion, "I—hmm st—tuck in traffic."
He blinked and felt tears gliding down his cheeks. He wanted to tell Sally how Une had handed him Yuy's and Barton's case files, Barton's folder containing various newspaper articles about his arrest, trial and execution. He wanted to tell her how oddly it had struck him, how he had seen black stars dancing in front of his eyes and had stormed out of Une's office with his hand over his mouth.
He wanted to, but attempting even the slightest use of his vocal chords only made the sobbing worse. He felt the bile rise again as he realized he had called Sally only to break down and cry.
For another child who vanished out of sight
And a heart is broken, another prayer in vain
There's a million tears that fill a sea of pain
"Oh, Fei," Sally sighed with concern, "Are you getting enough fresh air? Just open your window and take a couple of deep breaths."
He felt around for the buttons to lower his windows; his vision by now so blurred with tears that everything around him seemed to be part of the same big cottony smear. When the windows were open, he felt a slight breeze draw through his car and coolly touch his wet cheeks.
Wu Fei pressed his cell phone to his chest, closed his eyes and let his tears flow, slightly embarrassed about falling apart in front of a witness – even if it was his best lady friend on the other side of the phone line.
I just don't know
Where do fallen angels go
They keep falling
He needed more fresh air. He unbuckled his seat belt and got out of his car; there was still no movement in the traffic jam, after all. His lane was right next to the guard rail. Leaving his car door open, he stepped up to the rail and leaned his right hand on it, arching his back, and took a couple of deep breaths.
Once sure his breath had evened enough to be able to speak again, he raised his cell to his ear again.
"I'm… okay. Got out of the car," he said. "Sorry."
Sally laughed; a poignantly sad sound. "Of all times, you choose this one to apologise? God, Fei… you have no idea how much chocolate ice cream I've been eating the past month and a half. If I'd had an appetite otherwise, I'd have grown out of my pants."
Wu Fei chuckled in spite of himself. "Woman…," he sighed. The urge to tell her how much she had been on his mind caused a nervous jitter in his belly; he straightened his back and turned around, mentally scolding himself about 'timing'.
Sally went on to tell about how life at the office had been since Trowa was arrested, as Wu Fei aimlessly strolled around. He passed the front of his car, ignoring the braided girl in the car to his left, who seemed to be all teeth from the corner of his eyes.
We still pay the price
Yeah the Devil seems to get his way
In downtown paradise
Hearing Sal's voice soothed his emotions considerably. Wu Fei leaned against the closed right door of his car, the music softly playing through the open window behind his back. In the distance there was a faint sound of sirens that seemed to snake in and out of hearing range; not close enough to be of importance, now.
"You know," Sally said softly, "It has been strange not having you around. Usually we get paired up for gigs like the one you and Lu were assigned to this time."
Wu Fei's heart skipped, a feeling as if he had tripped on a flight of stairs. This would be a good time to at least ask her to join him for a glass of plum wine tonight—
He took a deep breath, thankful to find the sobs had turned into mere shivers, and took a couple of restless steps forward. The braided girl stood a couple of yards left of him, twirling some shiny piece of metal in her hand; to his right, about a hundred yards away, people seemed to be running and yelling.
"Sal, I—," he stuttered, "about the mission, that time, I—"
He stepped between the two cars standing in the lane beside his.
"Did something go wrong?" Sally's voice had that slightly worried tone again.
"No, no," he replied, nervously fiddling with a button on his shirt, "Sal, I—I think, that is, I thought a lot a—"
"—bout… Aerosmith?!" Wufei spun around on his heels, strangely light-headed, and took a step towards his car.
The girl, now at his right, caught his attention; he turned his head and watched her smirk and raise the wrench from before, letting it catch and bounce off the light of the low sun. The noise of yelling people and engines behind him barely registered, as fear crept into his heart and his legs seemed to turn to lead.
"Fei, are you still there," Sally's voice said from his sweaty palm, but he barely heard her atop a frantic man's voice screaming "Sir! Hey, mister, LOOK OUT!"
As if in slow motion, Wu Fei tore his eyes from the girl and turned his head around to see a glimpse of red moving rapidly towards him; he was then thrust forward with an enormous blow; the red vehicle —caught on his jacket and dragging him along as it lost grip of the road— smacked him into several obstacles before Wu Fei's jacket tore and he was flung through the window of a large jeep with the force of his momentum.
Fighting for focus of his view, Wu Fei tried to catch a glimpse of the person opening the door on the driver's side of the jeep.
With his muddled vision, it looked like the girl that had him nailed to the asphalt before he had ended up — wherever 'here' was, on a surface that smelled like leather and smoke mixed with something irony. She put his phone, Sally's picture still beaming on the display, in front of him.
The trickle of blood from his nose splattered on his cell display when he rumbled a hellishly painful cough.
"Wu Fei, talk to me! What happened?" the little apparatus said in a mechanical voice.
Waves of intense pain coming from his back and pelvis made him want to adjust his position, but his legs seemed to be stuck on something and he could not move. He rolled his eyes up to the braided girl and felt a twinge of recognition at her mischievous smirk.
She lifted the wrench…