Type K
Wufei sighed heavily, leaning back in his chair and wiping his brow. He was frustrated, his online search of the boss’s database having turned up nothing about who the girl was, or why he held her. Maybe she wasn’t that important, anyway. Maybe she was just a sex toy for the boss, but still… Wufei had a gut instinct that the girl meant something big, and trusting his instinct had saved the Chinese man more than once.
He opened his eyes when he heard a key turn in the lock and his blonde friend’s light, familiar footstep in the foyer. Wondering where Quatre had gone to for so long, he got up and walked out into the hall and into the kitchen where he found Quatre fixing another cup of coffee from the stale pot that sat on the counter. “Quit, Quat. I’ll make you a fresh pot,” he said softly, placing a hand on the blonde’s to stop him. Quatre nodded wearily and sat down at the table, folding his hands in front of him.
Pouring water into the proper compartment, Wufei noticed the look on his friend’s face and said, “Where’d you go, Quat?” There was a hiss as the coffee maker heated the water and spewed it into the pot, mixing with the strong crushed beans. The scent of fresh coffee filled the kitchen, a smell that invigorated the blonde.
He ran a hand through his hair and leaned back in his chair, replying, “Nowhere important, ’Fei.”
“Bullshit,” the Chinese man replied calmly, turning to the now-full pot and filling a cup. He sat it on the table before Quatre. The blonde liked his coffee black.
Looking up at his friend gratefully, he took the hot cup and held it between his hands, breathing the steam and strong smell. “You make great coffee, ’Fei. Thanks.”
The Chinese man was leaning against the counter, his own cup of coffee held carefully in one hand. “Quit trying to change the subject, Quat,” he said with a smirk. “Where’d you go?”
The blonde looked pensive for a minute and finally admitted, “To the doc’s office.”
“What?” Wufei immediately straightened, searching Quatre’s face. “Why in the hell would you go there?”
“I…” the blonde’s voice trailed off in uncertainty.
“Was he there?”
Quatre reddened a little and nodded, “Yea, he was.”
“You talk to him?” Quatre’s silence provided ample answer for the Chinese man. Sighing heavily and massaging one temple, Wufei set down his coffee on the counter. He’d known something was up with the blonde, but hadn’t thought it this serious. The full meaning of this “visit” finally struck Wufei.
Slightly shocked, Wufei asked slowly, “You
like him, don’t you?”
Quatre’s lips were pressed in a thin line and there was a fine blush on his fair features. He was the perfect picture of grim nobility. Suddenly, the Chinese man snorted and suddenly began to laugh. He laughed harder and harder until he was nearly doubled over, slapping his knees and shaking. Quatre lost all that was left of his dignity in the face of this laughter.
“What the hell’s so funny?” he demanded, grabbing Wufei’s collar and hoisting him up.
Still shaking with mirth, Wufei replied between laughs, “You’ve got a crush on him, just like a school boy!”
Quatre felt the heat rush to his face. There was only one thing he could do in a situation like this.
*~*~*
Wufei woke up about fifteen minutes later, blinking dazedly and realizing the cool thing pressed against his left cheek was the kitchen’s linoleum floor. The other side of his face felt bruised and sore. Sitting up, he spotted the blonde leaning against the archway that led into the living room, his arms crossed over his chest and a meditative look on his face.
“What’d you do that for, Quat?”
The corners of Quatre’s lips turned downwards and he opened his angry blue eyes. Sending Wufei a wrathful glance, he replied, “You know damn well why I did it.”
The Chinese man chuckled at his friend (wisely under his breath) and went to the bathroom to assess the damage. He was shocked to find when he looked in the mirror that his entire right eye was puffy and glossed to a bright bluish-purple. Touching it gingerly, he winced and opened the medicine cabinet. After applying a salve to lessen swelling, he stepped out into the living room and grumbled, “Damn it, Quat, you didn’t have to give me a shiner.”
When the Chinese man’s back was turned, the blonde broke out into a full-fledged grin and flexed his slightly sore knuckles. He’d been right when he’d assumed Wufei had a hard head.
*~*~*
Une kocked gingerly on the door outside the boss’s living quarters, asking in a loud voice, “Sir, are you all right?” Silence. After no answer for more than a half hour, the brown-haired woman was beginning to grow anxious. Picking the lock with little effort, she stepped into the room. “Mr. Khushrenada, we need you downstairs—”
Her voice was cut off with a gasp when she spotted Khushrenada’s nude, prone form sprawled over the couch. Blinking rapidly, she shouted aloud, “Guards! Get in here! Mr. Khushrenada’s hurt!”
There was an immediate reaction. Half a dozen men as well as two women appeared at her command. Some carried drawn guns; others had their hands in their coats ready to pull their firearms. Signaling three of the guards to check the windows and other rooms of the apartment, Une quickly headed over to Treize’s naked body.
“Sally, I need you here.”
The honey blonde doctor stepped forward, quickly checking over Khushrenada’s vials, “I don’t think he’s seriously injured. No injuries, no internal bleeding.” With a finger she flaked some of the dried blood off the boss’s upper lip and remarked with a wry grin, “He’s just had a nosebleed and is naked as a jaybird, that’s all.”
The other blue-haired woman threw a blanket over the boss’s pelvic area to cover the essentials, remarking with a wrinkled nose, “Any idea why?”
Une spotted something small and shiny laying on the floor by Sally’s foot. Leaning down, she quickly grabbed it, brushing Sally’s leg as she did so by accident. “Here we go.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Une,” Sally admonished, taking a step back. “No need to get frisky in the boss’s quarters.”
The brown-haired woman frowned at her companion, not amused. She cast a similar glance at Noin when she heard her snicker under her breath. The honey-blonde was grinning, then finally got serious.
“What’s that?”
“A vial. It reads ‘Type K.’ Any ideas, ladies?”
Noin looked thoughtful for a moment, then replied, “Isn’t Type K the new hybrid drug that’s been going around? They say nobody knows who makes it, but the highs are unlike anything you’ve ever felt—even better than X. Folks were passing it around downstairs.”
Une glanced down at their boss, nodding contemplatively. “Well, ladies, we have our culprit. Now we have to find out what this drug does.”
Sally reached out a hand. “Give me the vial and I’ll run a few tests on it downstairs,” she piped in, scurrying out of the room when Une acquiesced and gave her the vial.
One of the guards approached Une, standing at attention. “Miss Une, we’ve searched the entire apartment and found nothing. No forced signs of entry, and the windows are all locked. Completely safe, nothing even out of the ordinary. May we return to our posts now?”
“Yes, go now,” Une replied in a distracted tone, waving them away in a gesture of dismissal. After a moment, she and Noin were left alone in the apartment, standing over the man they’d both come to fear and respect of their own accord. He looked so harmless, naked and with nothing to protect him except a paper-thin sheet. Placing a hand on her companion’s arm, Une said softly, “Let’s leave him alone now.”
“Can I go get the girl a bath? She looked real roughed up when I last checked on her, Une.” Une nodded stiffly and Noin departed. It was obvious she held only distaste for some of her boss’s “habits.”
She stared down at Khushrenada’s prone form for a few moments longer, and then stepped out of the room, locking the door behind her. Better for him to doze, safe and locked out of sight. It gave everybody in the headquarters a reprieve.
Une sighed heavily. If only the reprieves were more frequent.
*~*~*
Noin knocked softly on the office door before entering, to give Relena a warning of her entrance rather than asking for permission to enter. When she stepped in, she found the blonde girl curled up forlornly in the office chair, a discarded coat wrapped around her naked body.
“I’ve come to bring you back for a bath, Relena,” she said, a sympathetic tone in her voice. The blonde girl’s unfocused blue eyes slowly gained track of her, and Relena tried to get up. She didn’t have the strength to stand and rolled helplessly to the floor with a muffled thud.
Noin quickly swooshed down to wrap a robe around Relena’s shoulders and to gently heft the girl up in her arms. She frowned, realizing the blonde was lighter than she remembered. “Have you been eating, Relena?”
“Don’t…know…” the blonde murmured, turning her face in against Noin’s shoulder. Noin kicked open the door and walked down the hall to one of the guest bed and baths. A man opened the door to the quarters for her, and she heard the lock click into place when the door shut. No doubt he would stand guard until Khushrenada came to claim Relena again.
The blue-haired woman settled Relena on the couch, going into the bathroom and turning the faucets on the old claw-foot bathtub. Waiting until the water was warm, she let the tub fill. She returned to the living room and the blonde girl curled up so helplessly on the couch and asked gently, “Can you walk, dear?”
“Yea,” Relena replied. Offering a hand to help, Noin supported her as she hobbled into the tiny bathroom and let herself sink down into the warm water. Her long exhale was a mixture of relief and pain.
Noin’s frown deepened as she examined the bruises lining Relena’s body, some of them dark purple and new, others older and colored greenish-yellow. A look of disgust crossed her face as she soaped a sponge and began to gently wash Relena’s arms. She was sick of cleaning up the boss’s “messes.”
Relena herself was barely aware of the other woman’s gentle ministrations. She knew only that she was in a place that was warm and relatively safe, and although her entire body ached and cried out every time Noin shifted her limbs, it was good to be getting a bath. The process of bathing was almost ritual, as it had happened more than a hundred times before. Treize would commit his vicious rape and leave Relena bruised and sore until Noin came to collect her for a bath and a night of rest.
Closing her eyes, Relena let herself drift off into nothingness. It’d be so good to sleep tonight.
~TBC~
Kira Maxwell
KiraxMaxwel@msn.com_________________
On to Part 5!