[Gunnwesley] Fic: Kungai Part Two 12/12 (Wesley/Gunn, NC17)

[helenraven]

Title: Kungai Part Two 12/12

Author: Helen Raven

Email: helenraven at talk21.com

Pairing: Wesley/Gunn

Summary: The full history of the relationship between
Gunn and Wesley in the Birthdayverse. A novel in six
parts.

Rating: NC-17

Disclaimer: Not mine, not for profit, not even a blip
on the litigation radar.

The Story's Home Page: http://www.kelper.co.uk/kungai

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Gunn was out on the tour from Saturday evening to
Sunday afternoon. Wesley had worked out the schedule
very carefully, setting a suitable time of day or
night for each item and also making time for sleep.
The night was firmly booked for the walking and the
wading and also for breaking into museums and
cemeteries, but there was a surprising amount that
they could do during the day if they used Wesley's
methods for keeping out of sight of humans. Wesley had
said they were really all Angel's methods - from
Angel's knowledge of L.A.'s tunnels and of safe routes
into useful and interesting places - but Wesley must
have remembered pretty much everything that Angel had
ever told him about how to make good use of L.A. when
you couldn't get caught in the sun.

Matt and the two Chachaspe demons hit their limit at
about four in the morning and went back to Matt's
place to sleep, leaving Gunn on his own with three (or
could be five) fearsome-looking demons. They voted to
leave the cemetery for another weekend, and instead
decide over noodles what to do with the rest of the
night. Gunn was the only human in the noodle bar; the
demons, mostly Hulls, showed very little surprise, but
Grouw warned him not to visit the bar on his own, or
not just yet.

"Like I said, I used to work here. If there's someone
on shift who remembers seeing you here with me, you'll
be fine. Took three, four visits before I knew there'd
be someone who recognised Matt. And he'd never try it,
anyway, but you're different."

"How long d'you work here?"

"Couple of years. Evening deliveries for a couple of
years before that. I left about a year ago when I got
the job in the garage. I'd had enough of working
shifts."

Gunn nodded, then asked Yan and her boyfriend Chaudoy
if they worked shifts. They did, but the schedules
were very regular and the entire dimension was geared
to the shift system; you didn't get that sense of
being cut off, forced against the flow of normal life.

"Are you on the same shift?"

"No. We could ask for a transfer. But we've both been
in our current shifts for several years, and we've got
other friends and lovers fitted around them." Yan
suddenly grinned wide enough that Gunn could see all
three rows of teeth. "It's a very delicate ecosystem."

Gunn smiled. "You've got more than two shifts, right?
Or you'd never have got to meet."

"Three. We knew each other by sight, from changeover.
Like this." She gestured at herself and Chaudoy. "But
we didn't meet each other's Sas Vanna until recently.
There was an escape -"

"Attempted escape." Still a sore subject, from the way
Chaudoy had muttered the words to his bowl of noodles.
Or maybe it was a joke between them.

"And all shifts from our sector were put on the
capture. So that's how we saw each other working."

"You liked each other's style?" Could have been him
and Wesley.

Grouw laughed. "Mostly they liked each other's Sas
Vanna. They'd've been combined at shift-change. For
the briefing."

"Oh. So you work separated?"

Chaudoy looked more surprised than Yan. "You haven't
met many duals?" He pronounced it "jewel", too. Gunn
shook his head. "We only combine at work when we need
to pool information or reach a joint decision."

"What about away from work?"

The two duals looked at each other, then Yan said, "It
depends what we're doing."

"Do you - Do your Sas Vanna and your Hull have
separate dates?" Gunn winced. "Sorry. None of my
business."

"Not what Grouw says." Then she flashed another grin,
and then shrugged. "My Sas Vanna, my Hull and I have
different tastes. Can't remember the last time even
two of us agreed on someone."

Now Gunn wanted to ask about the two of them coming on
this weekend. Yan had been born here - in Florida - so
she'd have to stay combined all weekend. And sounded
like Chaudoy wouldn't look at her twice when she was
combined; and her combined form didn't want any part
of him. Guess she really wanted to see Grouw, Chaudoy
really wanted to see L.A. Imagine: a weekend away with
Wesley, and Wesley not wanting him, not at all. Gunn
shivered and changed the subject, made another
suggestion for what they could do next.

They decided, in many slow stages, to go to the
Hollywood sign - take in the view for a while, maybe
stay and see the sunrise. Soon after they'd decided
Yan said to Grouw, "Where's the nearest place I can
get cigarettes? Is it still that little store on
Sunset?" Grouw nodded and Yan made to stand up, but
Chaudoy - who was nearer the door - put his hand on
her arm.

"I'll go, if it's just a couple of blocks. Just tell
me where." Grouw gave directions, and then the demon
across the table from Gunn was a full Sas Vanna, just
like the pictures in Wesley's books, and there was
another type of demon, taller, thinner, and all
scarlet and scaly, walking away from Gunn towards the
door. Gunn hadn't seen them split apart, and he had
been looking straight at Chaudoy at the time. Felt
almost like there'd been no split, more a straight
switch, one demon taken off, and the two put in. All
three were wearing completely different clothes.

Of course he was staring. The Sas Vanna laughed at
him, Grouw smirked, and Yan shook her head. "You'd
think he was going for a record. Like there was a
prize. Anyone lets slip that they've never seen a dual
before, then it's just a matter of time."

Gunn managed to stop gawping. "Don't blame you. Good
trick." What the hell did it feel like, doing that?
"D'you have different names? Or are you all
'Chaudoy'?"

"Depends who's doing the calling."

They paid the bill and left as soon as the scarlet
demon came back. Gunn didn't see the two combine
again. He was talking routes with Grouw while the
others were getting into the back seat, and that must
have been when it happened.

Yan had needed cigarettes so she could sit and smoke
while the sun came up, and it was a good sunrise,
definitely the right thing for them to do. They barely
spoke as they waited, not like they'd had enough of
each other, but like they all had enough thoughts that
they were happy to sit and be quiet for the last half
hour of the night. Gunn thought about vampires. About
visions. Things down in those streets that most people
wouldn't believe. And watching over the streets
something even stranger. Impossible to guess at the
choices, the reasons, the limits behind the visions.
Pointless trying. People were alive down there who
would have been dead. See that, know that, and you've
got all you need.

Matt had left the door unlocked. They were all fast
asleep: Matt sprawled on the couch, and the brothers
curled around one another underneath the table. Yeah,
a few hours of that would be good before they set out
for the daylight parts of the tour. The duals took the
main bedroom, Gunn won the coin-toss and took the
single bed, and Grouw slept on the floor behind the
couch.

Gunn was tired, but found himself lying awake thinking
about Wesley. Mostly. Thinking some about his crew. If
Wesley had come along, what would be different? Maybe
nothing about the tour, maybe they'd've had the same
vote about noodles and the sign. But what would be
different right now? Probably, he and Grouw would have
given Wesley the bed, wouldn't need even to talk it
over, because Wesley obviously needed privacy more
than them, being the oldest, and so English, and with
his injury. And Gunn would have told Grouw that he'd
sleep on the floor in the single bedroom. He probably
would have slept on the floor, too. The bed was too
small for both of them. But large enough for them to
hold each other for a while. To kiss. To talk about
how much their lives had changed, how happy they were
that their lives had changed.

And that lead to thinking about his crew, how he was
here because he'd left his crew. He wondered what his
crew had imagined would happen to him when he left.
Wesley so uptight, so out of place, his only friends
would have to be other uptight white guys, like Angel,
or even weirder. And Gunn the token black, nothing at
all to say to half of Wesley's friends. God, how bored
would he be, how much would he be longing for the next
time he'd get sent out to kill a demon? Gunn would
probably have to let his crew go on imagining just
that, since he could never tell them the truth about
even the dullest five minutes of his new life. He was
in a house full of demons, two next door who could
kill him in a second, take half his arm off with one
bite. But he would sleep as sound as Matt was sleeping
downstairs on the couch. He'd met Wesley, and
everything in his life had changed.

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