Alone

CHAPTER NINE


He woke up at dawn, forced awake by the habit of the last month. He found himself held tight in four arms, and when he moved a hand was pressed gently over his mouth. He opened his eyes to see the others staring at the mouth of the cave, the gun he had taken from Osborne - wasn’t that tucked in his waistband? - held firmly by Heero, who was better with it anyway and might as well keep it. There were two silhouettes against the waterfall, and he could hear the muffled sound of men laughing outside.

“No trace... anyone this way...”

“Might as well... break... never know.”

“Water’s fresh... swim... clothes.”

“Too cold for... crazy.”

“Be that way.”

The shadows moved away, but none of them relaxed. It was too soon - the men could easily change their minds. Five long minutes passed, then ten. Finally Trowa moved, easing close to the entrance, Heero untangling himself from the blankets and following, leaving Wufei cold on one side. He moved closer to Duo without thinking, and completely missed the other boy’s smile as he tucked the loose blanket back around his small friend. Wufei had always hated being cold and Duo knew it, had taken blatant advantage of it on a few occasions to get closer to the Chinese boy than he ever could otherwise. Now he took more advantage of it than he ever had before, wrapping both arms around the lithe little form next to him, resting one hand on a slim muscular thigh, the other on a bony shoulder.

~Got to get some weight back on this guy.~

Not that he really minded cuddling a thin Wufei. He wouldn’t much mind cuddling a plump Wufei. The operative word was ‘Wufei.’

Operative Word sighed a little, feeling really warm for the first time in weeks. He still wasn’t quite sure what his friends were doing here, but at the moment he really didn’t care. As long as he was warm, and with the people he cared about without any messy confrontations or those draining feelings of being alone and left out, he didn’t care. The only thing that would make this moment better was if Heero came back.

Heero and Trowa risked ducking their heads quickly through the water, then Heero made the moment better, while Trowa probably made Quatre’s moment better by cuddling back in their blankets with him.

“Seem to be gone.” Heero really didn’t need to say the words, but wanted to give Wufei any reassurance he could. He wrapped his arms around both of the smaller boys next to him and pulled them close.

~Perfect.~

“Did anyone happen to grab any rations?” Quatre’s voice was quiet and hopeful. Lo and behold, Heero the hero had - he’d caught up a pack stuffed nearly full of the good stuff, dried meat and bread and small tubes of fruit and vegetable paste - the nearly gourmet rations that actually tasted somewhat like food. The others joked a little about it. Wufei had lived on half rations - the basic sawdust flavored stuff - for two weeks, then spent two and half more living on roots that tasted like water and fruit that was bitter instead of sweet - they might as well have handed ambrosia and nectar to him. He’d found his appetite, too, after two rests longer than any he’d had in months, and he nearly inhaled what was placed in his hands.

Quatre had been watching him with his ‘mother’ eyes, and he giggled. “That’s good. No more, I think you’d be sick, but we’ll feed you again in an hour or two.” Wufei flushed red at his lapse in control and nodded, sinking down in the blankets and wishing he could pull them over his head. Duo grinned at him, and lay down next to him, pulling him firmly into his arms, ignoring the fact that he stiffened with surprise.

“Gotta keep you warm, too, ‘Fei. You could get sick real easy right now.”

“Yes.” Heero’s strong arms wrapped around them again, his body language announcing that he’d put up with no struggling nonsense.

Wufei surrendered.

He went back to sleep.


*


Duo waited until he was *sure* his ‘Fei was really, truly asleep, then turned to Quatre. “So, Mother Winner, you seem to know what you’re talking about. What do we need to do, to get ‘Fei back to normal?”

Quatre sat up from where he’d been cuddling in Trowa’s arms. “Well - I just know what the people at home used to do when they found someone who’d been starving in the desert. And it's not that much different - he is nearly starved.” The others nodded, no argument. “Little meals, several times a day. About six, if I remember. Nothing spicy or heavily seasoned, so the rations actually are pretty much what we need, especially since they’ve got so many vitamins packaged in them. Lots of fluid and lots of rest. You’re right about keeping him warm, and in a perfect world we’d keep him dry, too. Too bad about the waterfall. He needs mental rest just as badly, but we’ll just have to do the best we can about that, since he’s the one who knows how we get out of this jungle. But we need to save yelling at him about taking this crappy mission until we’re out of here and he’s doing a little better.”

“Oh, all *right*...” Duo deliberately whined, and was rewarded with laughter from the others. In truth, his anger at Wufei for risking his life over a stupid mission like this had vanished as soon as he’d gotten his arms around the smaller boy. If ‘Fei hadn’t been in such bad shape he’d have almost been glad he’d taken the dumb risks.

~This is going to work out, Chang Wufei. Heero and I are never going to let you go again.~