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Sandwiches and Sails "I have to do *what*?!" Wufei shouted, his eyes flashing, his fists clenched. Immediately, he jerked as though he'd been slapped and lowered his head. "M-My apologies. I spoke out of turn." The wizened crone relaxed her face from the frown it had assumed at Wufei's outburst and returned to its attitude of kindly inflexibility. "I said that you must take your wife out today. You and Meiran are the heirs of our clan, Wufei, and you have been charged with the sacred mission of flying Shenlong against our enemies. Yet you seem to be unable to spend even a minute together without conflict." She smiled. "Aren't you concerned that she will not be faithful to you while you are at war?" *Hmph, if any man can tame that bitch, he can have her, *and* the Dragon Clan.* Wufei thought sourly. Outwardly, he only lowered his head further, clasping his hands in front of him. "Such things do not concern me," he said. Ron Shirin snorted. "Indeed. Well they should. To have a wife who does not obey you in public is a dishonour. What you do in private is your own business. I have arranged for you to take a picnic down to the river. You should thank me for affording you an opportunity to tame your wild beast." Wufei said nothing, only nodded and left the chamber, blinking as he emerged into the bright lights outside. He raised his head and glanced around the courtyard, allowing the sounds of flowing water, the familiar tops of buildings visible as the outer bulkhead of the colony sloped upwards in its endless circle. He wondered what it was like on Earth, with a ball of fire in the sky instead of the comforting diffuse light of the artificial lamps, and ground that sloped downwards towards the horizon instead of upwards and shuddered. *I'd always feel like I was going to fall off the world with each step, and I hear that the sun burns even though the atmosphere.* He pictured himself, red and peeling, his skin blistered just from being outside and shied away from the image. *How did I get stuck with this life, anyway? Why couldn't I have been a bug or something?* He glanced up and saw Meiran approaching him, her pigtails swaying with each step, a sour look on her face that likely matched his own. *Something simple. Hopefully something that kills or abandons its spouse when it's done with it.* Meiran stopped a metre from him and waited, her hands on her hips. "Well, bookworm, Ron-sensei said you wanted to see me. What is it?" Wufei's face twisted. "Don't call me that!" "What? Bookworm?" She smiled impishly. "Why not? That's what you're always telling me you are." She assumed a serious-faced attitude, pushed imaginary glasses up on her nose and glowered at him. " 'Leave me alone to read, silly onna. I don't want to fight,'" she imitated. Wufei opened his mouth to exclaim hotly that he wasn't like that, then closed it again, reconsidering. It *had* been a good impression. "Fine," he said darkly. "Let's not fight, just for a minute, all right?" Meiran looked almost disappointed. "All right." "The reason I wanted to see you was because we've been ordered to go on a picnic today. Do you think you can handle making sandwiches or whatever you're supposed to make for a picnic? I don't think we're going to be provided with food." Meiran glared. "You only want me to make sandwiches because I'm the woman." Wufei shrugged. "That's right." She planted her fists on her hips again. "Fine, I'll make them." Wufei nearly sagged with relief. He hadn't been looking forward to that battle, then she smiled impishly again. "*If* you help me." "*What*?!" Wufei exploded. "Come on, you can't help me? What are *you* going to do to get ready for our 'picnic' then? Read?" "I, uh..." "See! It's not fair, is it?" Wufei flushed. "Well, no. I guess not." He sighed. "If it'll make you happy and keep us from fighting a little longer, I'll help you." "Good!" Meiran grinned. They set off towards their house, Meiran still grinning like a child. Wufei glanced back once before leaving the courtyard of his sensei's house and caught sight of her standing in the window, watching them with a bemused expression. *What do you really want from us, old woman? It can't be for me to make sandwiches and eat them while sitting on a blanket under a tree. What possible purpose does that serve? What could that possibly teach us?*
Wufei stared at the butter knife in his hand with distaste before plunging it into a tub and spreading the slippery substance within across two slices of bread. Behind him, Meiran hummed softly as she chopped vegetables with careful downward swings. It was starting to get on his nerves. He gritted his teeth and reached for the head of lettuce. <rrrrrip> He smiled. That was a satisfying sound. He laid a few leaves onto one buttered piece of bread. <rrrrrip> Now he was really getting into this. *It's the sound of Meiran's hair as I tear it out by the roots.* He slapped a piece of meat down and it landed with a wet splooshing sound. *The sound of Meiran's tears as she repents every moment of torture she's put me through.* He stopped, the manic grin slipping from his face. He was starting to scare himself. Tentatively, he turned his head to regard his wife. Her pretty face held a quiet look of concentration as she sliced carrot sticks. Her pigtails swung gently to and fro with each motion she made. The corner of a tooth peeked out over her bottom lip, which she chewed thoughtfully. She was still humming contentedly. Sensing his regard, or perhaps hearing the sounds of his industry cease, she looked up and met his gaze with her bright black eyes. She smiled smugly. "Enjoying your sandwiches, my husband?" she asked, her belief that this was a victory over him plain in every syllable. Wufei felt the brief moment end abruptly and he frowned. She was just stupid, ugly, awkward Meiran and her humming was annoying. He snorted derisively and turned his back on her sweetly venomous smile wishing he had more lettuce to rend. "Why do you-" he began, then cut himself off when he realized that he was thinking aloud. "Why do I what?" Meiran asked. Wufei put the top on a sandwich and savagely cut it in half on an angle. "Nothing, Meiran." "Nataku," she corrected him absently, turning back to her vegetables.
The park was one of the few still surviving during L5's disastrous recession. The colony had had to stop watering most of them and allow them to die, lest they not have enough fresh water for the people. This one was still green, though, and a small brook still ran through the centre of it. There were even sizeable trees, and hills. Much effort had been made to make this place a retreat from the unrelieved metal and concrete of the rest of the colony. Just out of sight over a hill there was even a small lake. But nothing could hide the sight of the colony rising ever-upwards towards the horizon. Seated on a blanket in the shade of a tree, Wufei glanced at the far away buildings and suppressed an expression of distaste. *On Earth the horizon curves downwards so you can't see what's beyond it. I wish I was there right now.* "What are you looking at?" Meiran interrupted his melancholy thoughts by saying. Wufei cast her an irritated glance. "I was looking at the buildings over there." He paused, biting back the next thing he had been about to say, then plunged forward anyway. "It's too bad you can see them like that, otherwise this park would be a perfect escape." She followed his gaze thoughtfully. "Is the purpose of this park an escape?" "Don't you think so?" "I think it's so that people can be surrounded by the beauty of nature sometimes, not just by artificial constructs, as is the case in other colonies." "That's how it's an escape," Wufei pointed out. She turned back to face him haughtily. "People shouldn't be encouraged to escape from their lives, they should face their mistakes, not run from them." "Not everyone can do that, Meiran. They need a chance to separate from their problems so that they can face them with new strength, and a new perspective." "My name is Nataku, Wufei! Can't you say that?" she suddenly raged at him, her fists balled, her eyes flashing. Perhaps it was the setting, or perhaps he was just weary of it all, weary of the fighting and the cutting words, because for once her rage did not awake an answering anger of his own. He gazed at her mildly. "Isn't that an escape too, Meiran? You are frustrated by your status as a woman, and by your perception of weakness in me, so you call yourself by the name of a God? You are not a God, Meiran, only a woman." "And what are you?" she spit at him. "Just a man," he replied quietly. They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a long moment. The picnic had been long-since demolished and there was nothing left to distract them from each other's presence. Wufei was just about to give up on the day, despite the fact that he didn't think either of them had learned *anything* from this experience, and suggest that they head back, when Meiran suddenly sighed. "On Earth, they don't have to create nature, they just have it. I wonder what that's like, to be surrounded by this all the time and know that there are no pumps making the brook move, and no hydroponics keeping the roots fed," she said softly. She didn't look at him, only stared off into the distance with a vaguely sad look on her face. She didn't even seem to realize that she'd spoken. Wufei opened his mouth automatically to reply, but Meiran blinked and looked at him with sudden energy. She jumped to her feet and gestured to him. "Come on, Wufei. I heard that there are boats on the lake that you can rent. You have to take me out on one of them." Wufei rose to his feet without enthusiasm, already forgetting what it was he was going to say. "I 'have' to, do I?" "That's right," she said stubbornly. "It's the right thing to do after taking your girlfriend out to a picnic, isn't it?" "You're not my girlfriend," Wufei muttered under his breath, but he followed her.
Wufei pulled grimly on the oars, propelling them swiftly towards the centre of the lake. At some point between the blanket under the tree and the little rowboat, Meiran seemed to have remembered that she was angry at him and now sat in the bow with her arms folded across her budding breasts, staring pointedly into the water, rather than looking at him. "Don't go so fast, Wufei," she admonished him abruptly. "This lake isn't that big." "If you want to do it, go ahead," he growled, wishing ferverently that this horrendous day would come to an end and they could go back to ignoring each other. She glared at him. "That's not my job. You're supposed to do it." Wufei suffered a sudden flash of irony. "Because I'm a man, is that it?" "Well... yes," Meiran said uncomfortably. "In other words, you find it convenient to stick to gender roles when it's in your favour, and to rail against them when it's not?" Her face darkened. "I am *not* a hypocrite! You're the one who tries to hold me down because I'm a woman, then can't even act like a man yourself, buried in your books all day." "Since when were the scholarly pursuits unmanly?" Wufei said hotly. He had stopped rowing and was now holding the wood of the oars in a white-knuckled grip. Meiran didn't bother to answer the question. "You sit there all the time, whining at me about how you have to fight in the war, too cowardly to stand up and *do* something about it! I'm sick of it, I tell you! Sick!" "Just what would you have me do?" He dropped the oars and they slipped silently into the water, but he was past caring. "Fight for it like a man, not sit there begging for scraps like a dog!" Wufei shot to his feet, rocking the boat dangerously. "I am not a dog! Is it my fault that I was chosen to do this? And you tell me to fight! That's all you care about! Fighting is what dogs do, brawling for no purpose but to show that they are the strongest! I don't need to hit people with my fists to be the strongest!" Now Meiran jumped to her feet, her face flushed with rage. "I don't tell you to fight for no purpose! I tell you to fight for justice, the highest purpose there is! But you're too weak to admit that you're just afraid!" "I am not afraid!" "Yes you are! You're afraid of Shenlong, afraid of Earth, and afraid of showing everyone how inept at fighting you *really* are!" Meiran shoved at him, so blinded by her frustration that she forgot that they were arguing on an energetically rocking boat, rather than solid ground. When Wufei saw the blow coming, the martial artist within him prepared him for it without his conscious mind even realizing what was happening. He set his feet and planted his greater weight. He moved his arms fractionally, blocking the blow before it even landed. The block set Meiran off balance and she stumbled, pushed even further off balance by the renewed motion of the rowboat. In slow motion, the girl teetered, then her shin hit the low side of the boat and she went over. As a last effort to save herself, she threw her weight towards the centre of the boat, but it was too late. Her head struck the side of the boat as she fell and she sank into the water. Horrified, his rage killed by a cold rush of reality, Wufei watched his wife go under without a ripple. An instant later, his training took over. "Nataku!" he yelled, not even hearing his own scream over the roar of his own terror. He leapt into the water after her. His clothes were instantly waterlogged and he felt them grow heavy, trying to drag him down and he willingly followed them, his eyes open, trying to see the dark form of his wife in the water. Within a moment, he had found her and he slipped his arms under hers, then changed direction, kicking powerfully towards the surface. He broke the surface and took a deep breath, then started swimming towards the shore, trying to keep both himself afloat and his wife's face clear of the water. He'd never had any lifeguard training, but he knew that much. The lake was small, more of a pond by Earth's standards, so it look only a few seconds for his powerful legs to propel them to the shore. He carried Meiran out of the water and laid her carefully down, watching her worriedly for signs of life. She was still breathing, her chest rising and falling regularly, he noted with relief, but she was soaked through and shivered convulsively. Without even thinking of what he was doing, nor how angry Meiran would be when she found out, Wufei sat down beside her and drew her into his arms. He could see the swelling knot on the back of her head, but she seemed to be all right. "Thank goodness," Wufei murmured. At the sound of his voice, Meiran seemed to partially awaken, or perhaps to move from unconscious to simply asleep. She pulled herself closer to him, snuggling into his warmth and smiling slightly. "Wufei..." she sighed. Wufei raised his head and looked over the small lake. He could see the shape of the rowboat, floating adrift, in the dimming light. Night was approaching, and when Meiran awoke he would have to swim out to rescue to the boat, then explain to the owner that he had lost the oars. If he didn't already know. He glanced down at Meiran again and brushed some wet strands of hair out of her hair. She sighed again at his touch and wrapped her arms more tightly around his waist. Perhaps, just perhaps, this partnership wouldn't be so bad, after all. It might just work out yet, he mused. Not that he'd be foolish enough to suggest that to Meiran, of course. She'd never understand. | |
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