Apologies
by Jess Angel

Draw my heart
out of the darkness
where I was hiding from Your face.
Into the open arms of forgiveness,
Offering grace…

They thought he cared for no one but himself. Well, they were wrong. He did care no matter what they thought of him and not just for his own well-being. He had reluctantly admitted he had been mistaken in the past during the Mariemaia incident, but that didn't mean they could accuse him in the present of not giving a cent about her. Because the truth was he did… care about… the woman, Sally.

"Look there he goes. What a jerk! I heard he stood her up for hours. Poor Sally having to work with a guy like that." Some preventors whispered to one another as he passed by.

He paid them no heed. They were fools. They knew he usually used to work alone during the Eve Wars. Did him partnering up with Sally mean nothing to them? For the past five years they had worked side by side. Since then his mind set had changed. But they knew so little of the circumstances.

He reached her office and rapped his knuckles on the door that read 'Preventor Water'.

Her cheery voice answered, "Come in."

He wasted no time in opening the door. "Sally I-" Wufei stopped mid-sentence spotting Heero sitting in a chair. "Yuy," the Solitary Dragon acknowledged, his voice losing the urgency it had mere seconds ago.

"Wufei," the Perfect Soldier replied.

Getting up from her seat Sally walked over to Heero who had also risen. "Feel free to come by anytime, Heero," she stuck her hand out to him. He took her hand and closed their distance, catching Sally unaware. He whispered something in her ear making sure only she heard.

A tad annoyed at the scene, Wufei cleared his throat rather loudly. After Heero backed away, Sally gave the 01 pilot a warm smile. Before departing, Heero glanced back at Wufei who seemed to be to giving him the third degree then left without another word.

The door shut quietly behind him.

"So you needed to talk to me, Wufei?" Sally answered calmly returning to her seat.

Forgetting about Heero for the moment, he stood in front of her desk. "About last night, I-"

"You don't need to say anything," she interjected smoothly.

"What?" he asked puzzled.

"It's fine that you forgot or probably weren't up to it. It's no big deal, Wufei. It wasn't like it was really planed out or anything. We just said maybe we might meet for coffee last night." She picked up a file and began to review its contents.

He just looked at her.

Why wasn't she upset? She was acting like she hadn't thought anything of it. And forget? How could he forget something that though seemed little meant so much to him? And what was this about not being "up for it"? Nothing had excited him in years as much as this upcoming get together with just her.

She was acting like she wasn't disappointed at all. Well, he was, and this didn't soften the blow in any way. Here he was about to ask for her forgiveness. Him, Chang Wufei, the guy who was the 'most stubborn man on the face of the universe' and 'the biggest sexist pig there ever was and ever would be' to quote her own words, and the whole thing was "no big deal" to her?

He wasn't about to let this go like that. He was going to do what he came to do. "No. Onna, I have to tell you this."

"Wufei, please, I have a lot of work to do," to emphasize her words she set down the file and looked up at him almost desperately. "Please… just get out." She even went to the trouble of opening the door waiting for him to comply.

The tone she used made him rethink his actions temporarily. And respecting her wishes he made his way past the door. Turning around he began to speak, yet got nothing but a door in his face.

After that he couldn't believe she wasn't at least a little upset. The best option he decided was to wait for her to cool down, and he would try to repeat his apology. But hopefully next time, it would actually get somewhere.

Continuing to ignore the looks and whispers he made his way to his own office.

Sally stared at the file that she had used to distract herself from Wufei. She kept on reading. Well, she wouldn't really call it reading, more like staring blankly at a piece of paper. She could make no sense of the scribbles called words. The words weren't words at all. To her they looked like strange doodles that she was suppose to understand.

Now what was even stranger was they were meshing together.

Two tiny balls of clear liquid plummeted to the document below. They instantly seeped through the paper's material.

Before any more tears could come she rapidly blinked them back. She was stronger than this. She had said it herself. It wasn't that big of a deal. But then why was she so affected by it?

'Because it was a big deal to you, Po,' her thoughts pointed out. 'Think about it.'

She contemplated the events that occurred just a day ago.

Now she remembered why she cared so much. It was because it was the first time they really thought of doing something together, something that didn't have anything to do with their jobs. It wasn't about another mission. For once it was just about them.

Sally had decided she had waited long enough. If he wasn't going to make a move than she was. For about a whole year her feelings for the Chinese pilot had taken a major leap. He wasn't the young boy who she had helped so many years ago. He was her partner, the man with whom she had spent years working with putting her total and complete trust, her confidence in no matter what the situation.

She had never put so much certainty in a person. The only person in her life she truly relied on was herself. Life had dealt her some harsh blows, and she remembered promising herself to never be so dependent on people. And with Wufei's integrity, sense of justice, and just his plain honesty continually growing to another level, she had found herself falling… falling in love.

The corner of her lips quirked up to a smile, she remembered the whole incident.

She had finished her reports ahead of time and was able to take her leave early. She had decided to make her move and headed to Wufei's office. She had forgotten to knock and opened the door to reveal a napping Wufei. Knocking on the wall, he was roused immediately.

"Sleeping on the job, Wufei?" she teased.

"I was just resting my eyes, woman. You should've had the decency to knock," he countered.

Ignoring her strong impulse to deliver a come back, she instead let it slide. "I just wanted to tell you I finished early so I'm checking out now. I'll probably be down by the coffee shop across the street at about 7 so maybe I'll see you there." She leaned against the doorframe and then gave a nod after a long period of silence followed. "Yeah. Well, I'm going to go now."

Like he had just come out of a daze, Wufei sat up quickly, his hand hitting a cup of pens. "Yes, perhaps we will see each other." He attempted to collect the scattered pens, his eyes still on her. She watched as he tried to gather a few imaginary pens.

Sally held back a chuckle. Finally, he took a glance down to see the utensils were nowhere near where he was trying to find them.

"I have a few things I have to finish myself." He sat back down trying to regain his composure. "So, I'll… see you… later. Perhaps." He nodded to her.

She couldn't help but grin and give a nod back.

She made her way out of the Preventors Headquarters, her heart feeling lightened. She felt like doing a victory dance uncharacteristically around the halls but thought better of it.

And now that she thought about it, was it her or did Wufei look and sound a little nervous?

Sally played with her twist of hair. Her heart sank considerably as she remembered what happened last night. She had been so fired up to go. Thinking their friendship would actually have a chance to develop into something more. She didn't want to put too many expectations on this in case he didn't show, but she was so sure he would.

She had spent hours, for once, on what she was going to wear. She wasn't the dress up kind of person but this was special. Or at least, she thought it was.

Finding the homely coffee shop, she sank into a booth and decided to wait for Wufei for a little bit before she ordered.

Glancing at her watch fifteen minutes later she ordered a cappuccino.

Another fifteen minutes passed. 'No problem,' she thought. 'He's probably still finishing up those reports.' She had gotten a good early start on hers.

An hour later, she couldn't just leave. If she left he might show up.

She smiled at the owner.

The old man returned it. "See you later, Sally. You be careful going home tonight."

"I will. Goodnight, Bill."

The shop was closing, and Wufei hadn't shown. She accidentally had fallen asleep when Bill woke her up. It was past ten o' clock. There was no use staying and with that she left to go home.

What was she going to do now? Sally continued to stare at the ceiling. She couldn't go on ignoring Wufei. They were partners after all.

As small as the incident was, maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe she should just abandon any thought of something more than a friendship with Wufei.

She could be content with being his friend… for a time. She could live with it as long as she was by his side. 'Kind of reminds me of what Noin probably felt like.'

And like Noin, maybe she shouldn't give up just yet.

Then there was Heero who had come to talk to her. He was still trying to figure out exactly where he and Relena stood. They obviously were becoming more, and if he could stick around to hold on to something worth holding onto then so could she.

She had given Heero some advice, and he in turn asked how her and Wufei were. He seemed to know the situation between them.

Then he had said the strangest thing right before Wufei knocked. "If Wufei cares for you more than a friend then he'll tend to be more protective of you. I should know."

"That makes sense, but exactly how am I suppose to-" a knock at the door stopped her from finishing. "Come in."

Then when Heero had whispered in her ear, "Thanks for the advice." Wufei had cleared his throat seeming somewhat irritated. "See…" Heero whispered back, a slight smirk on his handsome face.

Okay, so Wufei might care more than she thought but what about him not showing up at the coffee shop?

She didn't want to hear from his own lips that he forgot. She knew it would crush her, and she couldn't and wouldn't break down in front of him. He was Wufei so she hadn't let him say anything. Instead, she mentioned that it was all right if he had forgotten or hadn't wanted to go.

And here she was still staring at the ceiling. Contemplating everything about her relationship with Chang Wufei and all the things that had passed between them.

And fortunately, she was persuaded not to give up on Wufei.

An urgent knocking proceeded at the door. "Come in," she repeated the second time that day.

"Sally, I need to talk to you." Wufei entered, his voice slightly frantic.

"Okay, Wufei. Go ahead." Though a little panicked that he had come back so soon, Sally tried to brace herself for whatever was to come.

Nodding he continued, "I was in my office and I was trying to give you some time to yourself but I kept staring at that blasted clock, and I really had to tell you this. I know you're probably still mad about last night, but I need to tell you something and don't try to interrupt me, woman."

Her mouth closed abruptly, and Sally restrained any words of protest she had.

"I don't want this to sound like an excuse but it's the truth. But before I tell you that, I just want to say… that I did want to go, and I didn't forget. I wanted to be with you at that coffee shop. I wanted to be there… with you."

Taking a deep breath he continued, "I finished my reports at around 6 and I was about to go home to get ready but then Une informed me that she needed my assistance in checking out a deserted base that she had suspicions about. But she said wasn't quite sure if it was anything to worry over. And I thought it would take me half an hour at the most so I agreed. I was the only former Gundam pilot still at HQ last night so I went alone. I went, checked out the facility but the problem was it wasn't as deserted as I thought. I was preparing to report back, but I was found out."

Wufei swallowed. "Eventually I was captured. Unfortunately, it took a considerable amount of time to acquire and construct the necessities for me to escape but I did. And in the end, I was able to destroy the base as well."

"When I left it was already 10:30. I tried to call but your phone was disconnected, and I would've called before if I knew things would've turned out… unfavorably. I also stopped by the place but saw it had already closed. After that I returned to headquarters and reported my findings and ordeal concerning the base to Une," he finished.

"When I came earlier I was trying to tell you that and another thing. I also came to say I'm… I'm sorry, Sally and I did want to be there." Wufei bowed his head.

Sally was speechless.

She banged her hand on her desk.

Taking it the wrong way Wufei turned to leave. "I've upset you. I'll leave."

"Wufei, wait!" He turned around. Getting out of her seat she went to him. "I am upset, Wufei, but not at you. I'm upset with myself. If I had only let you say something before everything would've been fine."

Looking up to him she said, "I should be the one apologizing to you, Wufei. I should've let you explain yourself but I didn't. I'm sorry, truly sorry."

Losing his soft tone he replied, "Serves you right, woman. I went through all that trouble to find out it was actually your fault."

"Okay, I admit I deserved that but don't push it, Chang," she grinned.

"You former Gundam pilots sure have grown tall," she commented as they stood together. He was at least four inches taller than her.

"Speaking of Gundam pilots, what is going on between you and Yuy?" He neared her.

"Me and Heero? Oh nothing. We were just talking about things." She hid a smile maybe Heero was more than right.

"So it's Heero now is it?" he questioned.

"Wufei, I've always called the pilots by their first names," she pointed out.

"Well then why was 'Heero' slobbering in your ear for?" he demanded.

"Heero wasn't slobbering in my ear. He just wanted to thank me for the advice I gave him. You know how it's like for him, you're both kind of alike. Of course he wouldn't go right out and thank me, especially in front of you."

"Hn, I guess so."

"So do you forgive me?" she asked.

"Yes, Sally. I accept your apology. You're forgiven."

"Good. Besides I wouldn't do this to Heero, would I?" She pulled him down closer and kissed him gently.

Wufei looked down at her. "I'd make sure you wouldn't."

She grinned back at him.

·:·. Fin..·:·

"Sea of Forgetfulness" song lyrics © Seven Day Jesus
Gundam Wing and its characters © Bandai, Sunrise, and the Sotsu Agency