Only to be Expected
    “Come on, Wufei!” Heero said mockingly. “Quatre's sisters move faster than that!”
    “I heard that!” Sarah Winner said in protest.
    Heero laughed, turning to meet her eyes. “I said that you move faster than him, it was a complement…”
    “Watch out!” she replied, breaking into giggles as Wufei kicked Heero upside the head, knocking him to his knees and giving him a pointed look when Heero turned to glare at him.
    “The Winner prizes, huh?” Wufei muttered with a smirk.
    “Chang!” Sarah protested again, placing her hands on her hips.
    Heero sniggered, launching himself from the ground into a round-house kick–Wufei only just managed to jump it, but not the next strike. He doubled forward slightly, gasping.
    “Yuy, Chang, stop bantering. You're not here for a pleasant conversation!” Une was pacing around the edge of the ring. She had ten fighting pairs situated.
    Heero grinned at Wufei, who grinned back. They were here because it was expected of them. They were there because it was a retraining in military obedience. Duo and Quatre were in Italy because it was expected of Quatre. Trowa was working the circus with his sister because it was expected of him…Hilde had gone into space with Relena because it was expected of her.
    Heero was starting to wonder if it were really worth the effort anymore.
    “And one!” Une's voice snapped Heero from his reverie–everyone fell into stance, lining up. “Two!” some people shook hands, some bowed, a few even nodded. “Three!”
    The fighting started again.
    “I hate this,” Wufei muttered, keeping his strikes short and measured. “She restarts us every time we really start having fun.”
    Heero grinned slightly, but Une was looking at him so he kept his silence. “She's doing it because of us,” he said when she'd looked away, eyeing the woman. “When we start picking at each other and joking, she makes everyone restart.”
    “It's supposed to be a discipline,” Sarah muttered quietly. She wasn't the youngest female of the Winner flock, she was the second youngest. She'd joined the military as soon as she'd turned eighteen. At twenty, she was a well-respected member of the Preventers.
    Wufei stopped to look at her in mild disbelief.
    “Don't pull that guff with me, Chang,” she muttered at him, continuing to fight her partner. “I don't let Q get away with it either.”
    Wufei grinned, mirroring her strikes.
    Heero smirked, mirroring the guy–and blocking the extra strikes Wufei put in. The guy was watching this from the corner of his eye.
    “Ready?” Wufei asked, flashing a glance to Heero.
    “As soon as you are,” Heero returned.
    “Now!” Wufei moved smoothly from in front of Heero, blocking Sarah's next strike as Heero turned and attacked her partner.
    “Yuy! Chang!” Sarah protested loudly.
    “Winner, what is your problem!” Une shouted in extreme irritation.
    Heero and Wufei had moved the line so completely, however, that Une didn't realize the issue, turning her back on them.
    Wufei sniggered, shoving Sarah's actual partner at her and taking the spot Heero had been in.
    Sarah was trying not to giggle.
    Une turned back to glare at her and Sarah shrugged. Une turned again, and Heero took his chance. He and Wufei had switched back to position as Une realized something was wrong and turned to look at them.
    Sarah was starting to giggle and had stopped blocking, though her partner was only moving to keep them out of trouble.
    Une stared hard at Heero and Wufei, studying their faces a long moment.
    “At least we can give her grief,” Wufei muttered with a sigh, tossing an extra punch in.

- -

    “I can make you cry,” Sarah muttered darkly in Heero's ear, shoving him against the wall with her fingertips. “Just mess with me, boy,”
    Heero started laughing, moving forward and turning so she was backed against the bar, which was right next to the wall. “Make me cry then, Winner. I think you're too much like your brother to do anything but turn me on,”
    Sarah blushed scarlet.
    Wufei sniggered, stirring his drink. The bartender set a shot-glass next to his hand and wandered off up the bar. Wufei took that shot as Sarah turned to look at him, frowning.
    “You're not legal here, either,” Heero muttered in her ear, running a hand down her hip.
    “Yuy,” she squeaked, staring at him in dismay.
    Heero ran his hand further down her thigh, studying her eyes. He knew he was about to get punched, but to see the look of shock and dismay in her eyes…it was worth it. He ducked her blow, starting to laugh as he dodged away from her, laughing delightedly.
    “We always wondered how you two got into brawls,” she muttered, catching her breath as she stared between them.
    “What are you talking about?” Heero asked sweetly, moving up to the bar and knocking twice. “We don't start the brawls,” the bartender sat another shot glass next to Heero's hand and disappeared again.
    Sarah had to giggle, crossing behind Wufei to gather up her drink, lifting it slowly.
    Heero placed his hand over it before she could take a drink. “You weren't watching that,” he muttered, narrowing his eyes at her. “You aren't seriously going to drink it now?”
    She stared at him in something like dismay.
    He took the glass from her and set it on the inner counter, knocking twice again as the bartender looked at them. “A drink for the lady,” he muttered.
    “Are you paying for it?” the bartender demanded.
    “I am.”
    “You gonna fuck her?”
    “I highly doubt it.”
    “So why are you buying for her?”
    “So she'll blow me when she's drunk.”
    Wufei and the bartender started laughing, the man placing a cup of something blue in front of her. “Drink up, pretty-lady.”
    Sarah gave him a look, then focused on Heero with narrowed eyes–she did, however, drink half the concoction in one pull.
    The bartender was laughing evilly as he wandered off.

- -

    “Fight! Fight! Fight!” the chant was echoing around the bar as Heero and Wufei faced off with four soldiers also from the base. One of them had hit on Sarah, and then not left her alone. In the end, she'd come up behind Heero and ran a hand around his waist, muttering in his ears that she'd do anything for him if he'd get the jackass off her tail.
    The bartender had an exasperated expression on his face as he tapped his nails on the bar. No one was ordering, because everyone was focusing on the Gundam pilots.
    One of the soldiers flicked a hand at Heero, coming extremely close to hitting Heero in the face. Heero didn't flinch, he just raised his eyebrows briefly.
    “Let's just go,” Sarah muttered, tugging at Wufei's arm. “I don't want a fight.”
    “We do,” Wufei informed her quietly, glancing at her. “You see, we don't start the brawls,” he grinned at her.
    “No, Chang…just, come on…” she tugged at him again.
    “Listen to your girlfriend, why don't you?” the guy who'd been bothering her muttered, narrowing his eyes. “Or is she your girlfriend?” he indicated Heero.
    Both snorted.
    “She doesn't want you to get hurt,” he added.
    “Hardly,” she replied. “As ironic as it is, I don't want you to get hurt.”
    He gave her a superior look.
    “I get so tired of dealing with punks,” Wufei muttered conversationally to Heero. “They're all the same. As soon as they realize a lady is out of their class, they get all snooty, as if they're out of her class. Not that I know a lady that's low enough for any of them…”
    “I know what you mean,” Heero returned. “It gets old real fast, though.”
    “Oh, as if the two of you are better than us…” the one muttered.
    “Chang, Yuy!” Sarah snapped.
    Both turned to give her a level look–though the names had did what they were supposed to. The men were looking much less sure of themselves.
    “I will report this fight to Une if you don't come with me now.”
    Wufei and Heero smirked at each other.

- -

    “Inconsiderate!” Une shouted at the two seventeen year olds. “Irresponsible! You two are supposed to set an example for the other soldiers, not kick their ass! I don't care what Winner has said to you…”
    “She's the one who told us to make the guy leave her alone,” Heero protested, sitting up some.
    “I meant Quatre!” Une nearly shrieked. “His sister is capable of taking care of herself!”
    “She asked for my help!” Heero snarled.
    “You weren't even supposed to be in the bar!” Une continued, changing tact before she could back herself into a corner. “You're not legally old enough to drink!”
    “And Sarah is,” Heero muttered to Wufei, his tone informative and conversational.
    Wufei nodded his agreement.
    “Would you just shut-up!” Une shouted.
    “Would you just shut-up?” Heero returned, rising to his feet. “We didn't kill the guy, nor wound him seriously.”
    “He's in the hospital wing!” her voice had risen a further few notches.
    “He did this to me!” Heero protested, showing her his wrapped arm. The guy had resorted to breaking a glass bottle. This had sliced Heero's forearm for more than six inches. The wound probably needed stitches, but it wasn't bleeding so he wasn't complaining.
    “What is that?” she snapped. The wrap covered nearly his entire forearm.
    “A scratch,” Heero returned, realizing that the particular approach would just change her so she forced him to get the stitches.
    “Let me see it,” she demanded, extending a hand as if waiting for something to be passed for her.
    “I told you it was just a scratch,” he muttered, turning away from her, moving to sit in his seat again.
    “Let me see it,” she repeated.
    “I said…”
    “Yuy!”
    “No!”
    “Heero!”
    Heero gave her a dark look, but she crossed the room instead and yanked his arm up, untying the knot Wufei had put in it.
    “Une, I told you…”
    “You don't fool me, Yuy,” she returned. “You wouldn't have dismissed it if it were just a scratch…”
    “Or he's picking up on the fine art of lying,” Wufei muttered. He had his head propped against one hand, the elbow resting on the edge of the chair. Other than the split lip he was sporting, he looked extremely bored.
    Une gave Wufei a withering look.
    “I said it was just a…” Heero started again, trying to remove his arm without seeming too forceful.
    The bandage finally fell free and Une jerked his wrist–causing him to flinch, and stared at the thing.
    The room fell oddly silent for a long moment…
    And Une exploded.
   
    Wufei was chuckling as Quatre raised an eyebrow at him. “We saw Sarah in the bar last night,” he explained, having already commented on how Heero was waiting at the hospital.
    “What?” Quatre demanded, looking outraged.
    Wufei brushed that off. “Some guy was following her around and trying to force himself on her.”
    “What?” Quatre said again, his voice rising…in the background, Duo had stopped playing whatever game he'd been and was focusing on the screen in dismay.
    “She came up to Heero,” Wufei added, smirking at Duo, “and wrapped an arm around his waist…she was completely pressed against him…he was really turned on,”
    Duo's expression darkened.
    Wufei met Quatre's eyes. “So he decided he'd fight for her.”
    Quatre was fuming, his eyes distant.
    “So we kicked some ass…but the numb-nut used a broken bottle on Heero…”
    “What?” Duo snapped, throwing the controller down and crossing the room to stand behind Wufei. “Is he all right?”
    “He's fine now, Maxwell,” Wufei muttered, smirking again. “It just needed stitches.”
    “Why didn't you do them?” Quatre asked blankly.
    “Because our room has been semi-stripped. Une had them take out the emergency care shit that we could use to doctor ourselves because we've done that before. It really annoys her. She thinks we'll end up doing something wrong, I think.”
    “Is Sarah all right?”
    “She's fine. She was at formation this morning. She didn't even get touched. Her voice is a little horse…compliments of Heero.”
    Both Quatre and Duo blanched at that, but Wufei continued on as if he hadn't just made a very suggestive comment.
    “She's a bit sore today, though.”
    Quatre was drawing himself up.
    “She really shouldn't have pushed him down,” Wufei added as if thinking about it. “If she hadn't, none of the rest would have happened.”
    “I…” Quatre started.
    “She's good at it, though,” Wufei added to Quatre, meeting his eyes again. “She really got into it, too…”
    Duo's eyes were beginning to register the fact that their friend did not mean the pair had fucked, though Quatre was being a bit slow on the uptake.
    “She even let me watch,” Wufei added.
    Duo sniggered.
    “That is completely inappropriate!” Quatre shouted.
    Wufei and Duo broke into laughter.
    “This isn't funny!” Quatre snapped, turning to stare at Duo in confusion. “He's saying…”
    “That Heero and Sarah went at it last night,”
    “I know!”
    “No, Quatre…they…” Wufei was almost laughing too hard to talk. “Shit, Quatre, they fought. She started yelling…yelling at Heero, and then she shoved him down…”
    Duo disappeared off screen and his laughter shortly became muffled.
    “That's not funny, Wufei!” Quatre said in complete dismay. “You know…”
    “That you've been getting your brains fucked out for the last however long, and that your assumption would be sex, yeah, I knew…” he was trying to stop laughing.
    Quatre started pouting.
    “Sarah is fine, though,” Wufei muttered, resting his hand on the switch. “She's out training or I'd have her talk to you.”
    Quatre gave him a look, focusing in the direction Duo had disappeared in.
    “I've got to go…Une's been on my ass all day, so I have to follow the rules. It's almost time for mess.”
    “Fine,” Quatre pouted. “Give Sarah my love.”
    “All right,” Wufei smiled at Quatre. “I'm sorry, Quatre…I was just playing.”
    “Yeah, yeah…” Quatre brushed it off.
    “Bye,” Wufei didn't wait for a reply before disconnecting.

- -

    Heero sighed in exasperation, flipping through the old newspaper. He'd found it folded up under a few magazines. It was the article announcing the end of the war. He had nothing more to do than wait for the nurse to come out and call him, so he'd been reading that.
    “Teen gorilla warriors are being hailed today as heroes. The five Gundam Pilots were on the scene for the final–and most devastating–battle, their mecha stopping any and all the mobile dolls. In the end, it was the pilot of the mecha called “Zero” that blasted the space ship Libra from the sky. The thousands of sparks that appeared like shooting stars were the remnants of the craft, and if the thing had been allowed to hit the Earth un-impeded, it would have caused a never-ending winter…”
    “Yuy?”
    Heero jumped, looking up to the woman who was studying him curiously. “Yes?”
    “Follow me, please.”
    Heero did as he was told while the woman sewed him up, leaving promptly. He had never before read the article. When it had come out, he'd avoided it, knowing he'd been mentioned.
    He decided against stealing it as he paused in the door to the hospital wing, focusing on the fragile looking paper from the corner of his eye.
    He'd never read it, and he never would. He'd read the next press release that said a war had ended, he didn't need to read the one from years passed when another war had followed right on it's heels. It was, after all, just an old newspaper.

- -

    “I wish you could have seen his face, though,” Wufei muttered to Heero, picking at his food. “It was fun.”
    Heero shook his head. Wufei had been bursting with amusement over his story until he realized that Heero wasn't laughing. He'd mellowed out as he ate, and was now trying to salvage something of his joke.
    “What's wrong with you? You seem depressed,” Wufei met his eyes a moment before starting to pick at his food again.
    “You know that article…the one announcing the end of the first war?”
    “Yeah, I know the one.”
    “I read part of it today.”
    Wufei stopped picking at his food and met Heero's eyes, slightly concerned. “Why?”
    “It was there,” Heero dismissed this. “I've just been thinking about it now, though…that was published, and almost exactly a year later, there's another war…”
    “Well, Marimea…”
    Heero turned sharply to study Wufei's face. Wufei was the only person he knew who'd call the girl by her first name…though it was only to be expected.
    That thought–the thought of what was now expected of them, entered his mind again. He could hear Une telling him that he was supposed to set a good example for the other pilots…he could hear the principal lecturing Wufei…
    Always, what was expected of them. They never seemed to do more, and could never manage to do less…
    Wufei shook his head.
    Heero realized suddenly that Wufei hadn't done what was expected of him–that war. He grinned slowly, deciding he had to do something unexpected…not yet sure what that would be…
    “What?” Wufei demanded suspiciously, not liking the look he was being given.
    “Tell me your story again, Fei…I wasn't listening the first time.”
    Wufei snorted. “Yeah, I know…”
    Heero laughed. “Okay, so let's do this again.”
    Wufei snorted again, then launched into his story.