saffiter | [fic] Tales of a Pacer 1/1 (Reply)

Name of Fic: Tales of a Pacer

Author name: Sheena (Thunderfoot)

Rating: PG

Notation: This Fic has been rated in accordance with the approved TTFF Rating System for Australian and New Zealand fiction.

Beta: Bronze Tigress

Pairings: 5x2 hinted at.

Warning: Original character POV.

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing doesn’t belong to me. I’m just playing.

This is an entry into the ‘Through Different Eyes’ contest: Write a fanfic, told from a ‘different’ pair of eyes, about the Gundam Guys. This character must not be a major part of Gundam Wing. This character must not be romantically involved with any Gundam pilot.

IMPORTANT NOTE: A ‘pacer’ is a type of Mechanical Pencil. It’s what we call ‘em over here where I live.

Authors Notes: Okay, the school used here I pretty much the one where I went (it was easier than inventing one). I’ve used all the subjects etc. That I’m familiar with ‘cause I wouldn’t have the foggiest what any other school system is like. I pretty much thought ‘Now, what would happen if Wufei ended up at my old school’ and let the fic go from there. The math problem the character has is the same one I had (still have should probably be the better word for it) but that’s about where the similarity ends.

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It all began with a pacer, of the pencil variety.

What? You were expecting maybe a life or death situation? Big explosions? A combination of both followed by declarations of undying love and wild, kinky sex?

Yeah, right. Maybe in my wildest fantasies. Hey, even _I’ll_ admit that he’s cute... Okay, drop dead _gorgeous_ is probably more like it. It’d never work though, he’s not really my type. That, and his boyfriend would probably kill me!

But back to the pacer...

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I’ve never been the world’s greatest at math. A teacher once told me that I’d probably never grasp much more than the basic concepts of it. Let me say now that the calculator is my _friend_. I was constantly near the bottom of the class for the subject, much to my extreme frustration. Unfortunately for me, math was a compulsory subject. I was in the easiest math class, Math A, also dubbed as ‘baby’ math, and not doing too well at all.

It was a Tuesday lunch hour and, instead of being outside enjoying the lovely weather, I was in the library, doing math homework that was due in the next period. To quote my favourite Droid "I’m doomed" [1]. I was getting nowhere with it fast and was _really_ getting frustrated.

Stabbing my pencil case repeatedly with my pacer was definitely _not_ getting me anywhere. Actually, it was probably being detrimental seeing as I had to use the bloody thing for the rest of the school year. Mum wouldn’t be too happy if she had to replace the pink monstrosity, otherwise known as my pencil case, so early in the school year just because it had suddenly become rather, um, well, holey.

I looked back at my homework, growled, and pegged the pacer as hard as I could. I then dropped my head in to my hands, giving into the tears of frustration that had been threatening since I sat down to start the homework.

Pegging the pacer didn’t even make me feel better. Oh, no, it made me feel worse. You see, I think the world is out to get me today. Somebody up there must really hate me at the moment because after the resounding **thwack** of the pacer hitting the wall there was an indignant "Oi!"

I took a peek at who it was and then wished I hadn’t. Standing next to the library notice board, with my pacer embedded by the point not two inches from his ear, was the new kid.

Wufei Chang, or Chang Wufei as I heard him correct one of the jocks. Apparently it’s the proper way to say his name or something.

Just great. Of all the people it could be it had to be him.

The guy arrived at our school not two weeks ago. Not much is really known about him. He keeps to himself for the most part. According to the gossip mongers he’s fifteen. They all think that’s so amazing, fifteen years old and in the eleventh grade. I didn’t bother to mention that I’m still fifteen and I’m in the same grade. So are Christine and Wendy for that matter.

Jocie managed to find out he’s from the colonies and grew up speaking Chinese. He’d knocked over her bottle of Coke one day and apologised, in Chinese. I’m not sure what dialect it is though. Jocie replied and managed to get the first decent conversation out of him that anyone has been able to get. Jocie was rapt. She doesn’t get to speak her native language very often outside of home very much, _and_ he brought her another bottle of Coke as well.

Now that I think about it, I don’t think he gets to speak his native language very much either. It was the most emotion I’ve ever seen out of him. He’s so quiet in class, only answering when spoken to.

He’s also a kick-arse martial arts fighter, well I think he is anyway. He knocked one of the school bullies flat on his arse in five seconds flat, and, yes, I _was_ timing. I barely saw him move!

Oh _crap_. I didn’t need to remember that. He can wipe the floor with me and I just about skewered him with a thrown pacer. I’m doomed.

Next time I chuck a temper tantrum at home. It’s safer. That is, if there is a next time.

Maybe if I pretend that I don’t see him he’ll go away. Fat chance really, I’m facing the door... and there’s only one exit in this place. No way in hell I’m going to make a run for it. I’ll just keep my head down and hope that he ignores me.

I can see a pair of black leather school shoes enter my line of vision, then there’s the sound of something small and plastic hitting the desk. "I believe this belongs to you."

"Thanks," I mumble, pointedly not looking at him. I haven’t quite got my tears under control yet. That’s definitely one thing I don’t want him to see, me crying. It’s not really something I want anyone to see. I’m supposed to be the cheerful one.

"If you carry the two here," he points to a spot on my working out sheet, "you would not be having these problems."

I stare at him, completely forgetting that I was trying to avoid doing just that. "Huh?"

Oh yeah, I just sound _so_ intelligent there.

"Here," he points to the same spot again. "Carry the two." He gave me the weirdest look and frowned. "Have you been crying?"

I look away, embarrassed.

He took my silence as a yes. "You have, haven’t you. Threw that," he gestured to my much abused pacer, "in frustration I would wager."

He’s grabbed my worksheet and working out paper by now, flipping through them both and frowning thoughtfully. I can see him raise one eyebrow at my working out and he gives me an unreadable look. Yes, I know, I have troubles with this, he doesn’t have to rub it in.

"Exactly how long have you been working on this?"

He doesn’t really sound like he’s asking a question, he probably noticed that I haven’t been in the yard all lunch hour. He strikes me as being very observant. I answer him anyway. "Twenty minutes."

He drops down into the seat next to me and gives me back my work. "I will help you."

I can only blink. I probably look like a right royal idiot but I don’t care. Carly asked him to help her with her science the other day and he just gave her this icy glare. I’m pretty sure she was fixing for a date, but I nearly skewered him with a pencil! I didn’t even ask for help! I tell him so too.

He merely arched an eyebrow. "It is not in my nature to leave people to struggle when I know I can help. You genuinely need help. She didn’t."

I actually got my worksheet finished for the first time ever with Wufei’s help. He also seemed to appoint himself my tutor, going through my text book and explaining it to me in concepts I could understand. He didn’t make me feel like I was an idiot for not getting it the first time either. I could have kissed him.

Then he was gone. He just vanished one day and nobody knew where he disappeared to.

I knew he wasn’t coming back. I got a letter in the mail a few days after he vanished with no return address, it was his handwriting though.

I kept the letter, it was my encouragement whenever I was having problems. And, hey, how many people can say they got tutored by a Gundam pilot?

No, he didn’t tell me that one, I had to turn on the TV at the right moment to find _that_ out. Came as quite a shock let me tell you. It was the talking point at school for quite some time afterwards.

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Five years on and we’re trying to organise a school reunion. Guess who has the task of tracking down the lovely Chang Wufei.

Me. They figured that since I spent the most time with him he’d most likely remember me, not just think that I was some nut trying to get to know him. That’s if I manage to track him down at all. It’s not like I have his phone number or anything like that.

My break came when one of my friends mentioned a friend they had that worked at Preventers HQ. A friend that worked with a Gundam pilot or two. He gave me her number, her work number no less, and told me to go call her.

It took me three days to get up the guts to call her. Matt had said that he would warn her that I was calling but I’ve never liked calling complete strangers. When I finally did call she wasn’t even at her desk. The phone was answered by the very person I had been looking for [2].

"Chang here." He’d even flipped the video option on so I could see him. Remind me for thanking Matt for giving me this number when I next see him. He hasn’t changed much in five years, though he wasn’t looking at me. He was searching the desk for pen and paper.

"Umm, actually, Wufei, you’re the person I’ve been trying to find." He appeared quite startled when he looked up from the desk. Guess he wasn’t expecting the person on the other end of the line to say something like that.

He frowned when he saw me. I wasn’t sure if it was a good frown or a bad frown so I plowed ahead before he could hang up on me. "I went to SCCC during AC195. You went there for a while that year and, well, they’re having a reunion and I got enlisted to track you down and invite you ‘cause I spent the most time around you. You probably don’t remember me but I nearly skewered you with a pegged pacer and you ended up..." He held up a hand and I stopped babbling.

"I remember," he smirked. I think he found my babbling amusing, he always did. He looked at something off screen and I saw his eyes twinkle with amusement. "Yes, Duo, _that_ one," huh? What one? "I cannot talk right now. Shall I ring you tonight? What is your phone number?"

I rattled it off, he nodded and then cut the connection. He really hadn’t changed a bit.

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My phone rang at six o’clock that evening. It wasn’t Wufei calling though, it was another man, one I recognised as another of the Gundam pilots. He had the longest hair I’d ever seen on a guy!

"Hey, you Sarah?" At my nod he grinned. "Good. I’m Duo. I’ve heard about you, did you ever end up passing math?"

I was proud to tell him exactly how well I ended up passing. I owed Wufei a lot for that help.

We bantered back and forth for a while before we got down to business. Wufei had to go on a mission of some sort so Duo was the one that ended up calling me. He wasn’t exactly forthcoming with information there. I didn’t mind. I just figured it was some sort of top secret Preventer thing.

Duo’s eyes seemed to light up when I mentioned that significant others were invited as well. "Cool! I’ll be seeing you there then."

I took that to mean that the two of them were at least dating.

Family and friends were also quite welcome to some aspects of the reunion. Duo got a mischievous glint in his eyes then and crowed something about workaholics and much needed holidays among other things. He promised me that there would be at least five people coming to this before hanging up.

I couldn’t wait.

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It was definitely a reunion to remember. I got to meet all the Gundam pilots. What was the biggest surprise for me was that they had been looking forward to meeting _me_. Wufei had apparently told them the story of how we met at some point during the war. Duo actually mock searched me for pacers, or any other throwable object, before doing anything else.

I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. I have no idea who ‘Cathy’ is, but apparently I’m not to meet her.

And to think, it all started with a pacer.

Owari

[1] C-3P0, just in case nobody got that *grin*. Ah, Star Wars, the first fandom I ventured into fanfic writing with.

[2] Kinda basing this on my dad’s work here. They work in sections and if one person is away from their desk and their phone rings someone else in the section will answer the call and take a message.