Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ By The Light... ❯ hot tin roof ( Chapter 25 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By The Light…

A Fanfic by Lady Lye

Chapter Twenty-Five: hot tin roof

Copyright 2001

Idea suggested and consulting/editing by Mako-chan

Disclaimer: Don't own GW *sob* Don't own SM *sob again* but I do own- KATAKU! My keyboard!! BWAHAHA! *laughs in Wufei's face* Take THAT annoying Justice Boy!!

Note: I scramble names a tad… Japanese- English- what's the dif? Some of each all mixed together to create MY Universe…

Other Note: (I finally worked it out...) It's an SM world with G-Boys in it. Prior to Super S, AU for G-Boys. The whole AC thing never happened. Characters remain essentially themselves, however, different experiences make them different people.

*bounces happily* I'm so proud of myself... I told myself I was going to write this chp and over two days, I did! And it's even longer than my chapters usually are! SUGOI!

Really Cool: At current posting, BTL has 298 reveiws. That's an accomplishment!! *HUGS READERS* Damn, you guys rock. That means that the second person to reveiw this chapter will be #300! Again, you guys ROCK.

Other Really Cool Thing: My penname's creation b-day is 1/25, and so it's first b-day is only a few days away (Friday). Even more awesome is that in that year, I have ALMOST 1000 reveiws!!!! When I say almost, I mean, less than 10 to go. (YES OMG THIS IS SO COOL). Yes, BTL is responsible for 3/10s of that!! And one reason I put this out when I did is to push it over the top- so BTL, you will break TWO records over the next few days and I think ya'll deserve something in the way of celebration! On Friday 1/25, AIM 'KawaiiLadyLye' and I'll invite you into a special BTL chat room to celebrate! Not before 5pm EST and not later than 11pm EST. I'll keep it open most of that time, though. It'll be interesting to see who turns up! And you can directly ask me questions in there and/or talk to other readers about stuff, so it's going to be REALLY fun. ^__^ Hope to see you all then!!

*GLOMP* AND THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

-Lady ^.~ xoxoxox



XXV

The day dawned bright and sunny as usual. It somehow always managed to do so whenever one least wanted it to. It should have been a glorious day, and for many people it was. However, having spent the entirety of the nighttime hours of his weekend awake, Heero was rather the worse for wear, and there wasn't anything that could make Monday morning appeal to his tired eyes.

"Good mooooorning, Heero," Duo cooed merrily from the living room as the dazed werewolf shuffled through. His uniform and hair were rather slapdash today; not unusual for his hair, but he was usually meticulous about his clothing, especially his school clothes.

"Hn," he grunted blearily and stumbled into the kitchen for some breakfast.

Duo chuckled to himself and continued flipping through the channels on the TV. He was an obnoxiously early riser, and lately he had found that tormenting Heero before he left for school was great fun. Duo wasn't generally beligerant towards his housemates, but lately he had found a slightly malicious tendency creeping in when it concerned Heero.

The simple fact of the matter was that he was jealous.

For weeks now, Heero had been happily going to school; he came home even happier. Duo wasn't sure what it was that made Heero so happy, especially considering the workload he sometimes got, that he spent hours doing, but something told him that it was to be envied. If only because Heero got to hang out all day with Mina and her friends. It had been so long since Duo had friends…

How long had it been? He couldn't remember. He could remember very little that had happened before he came here.

Heero stumbled out of the kitchen, a patchily buttered piece of toast hanging out of his mouth, and he fumbled in his pockets and bookbag for something, muttering around the toast. Oh, it was too perfect. Duo could do some real damage here. Maybe give Heero a little push to make him drop the greasy toast onto his clean, if rumpled, uniform so he would have to change and be late. Or maybe he could find it was Heero was looking for and blackmail him for it. Or he could always just make heckling comments and irritate the Hell out of wolf boy til he tried to strangle him.

Ok, so he was just fantasizing now. He didn't REALLY want to do anything THAT awful… Except maybe that heckling part…

"My, my, your organizational skills amaze me."

"Shuh uhf," Heero growled, toast still in mouth.

Duo chuckled inwardly but knew better than to show it. He waited a beat while Heero swore and emptied out a folder onto the floor to sift through its contents. "Dog ate your homework?"

Heero looked up at him with a stony glare and took the toast out of his mouth. "Very funny." He took a bite, continued sifting while chewing, and then stuck it back between his jaws to look through his bag again.

Now curious despite himself, Duo muted the TV and leaned over. "What are you looking for?"

"My geometry homework," Heero said around another full bite of toast. He glanced at the clock. He had precisely three minutes to find the paper and leave the house in time to meet Mina at the corner.

"But you finished it last night, didn't you?" Duo thoroughly remembered being lectured on conditional statements after he foolishly mocked Heero's homework. If it's a full moon, then someone's gotta remember to take Heero for his walkies. If no one takes Heero for his walkies, then someone will find a nasty 'present' in their new shoes. If- If Duo is a moron, then Duo will have his braid stuffed down his throat so quickly he won't know what hit him. (AN: Fun with geometry! See, learning IS fun!)

"Yes," Heero said quite calmly, as though this meant nothing.

"So~ then why do you need it NOW?"

"Because Ami is going to 'help' me with it." Heero found the folder the paper was contained in and riffled through it for the right one.

Duo looked at him askance. "Ok, now I'm thoroughly confused. Who's Ami? And why is she helping you with something you already know?"

"Very simple, really," Heero smirked smugly as he fished out the paper, stuck between last week's classwork and a graded test by accident. "I get to spend time with her, her attention is focused on me, and I don't have to worry about NOT learning it in time for class."

"…" 'He's craaaaaaazy.' "Whatever you say. Wait- what's this girl's name?"

"Ami. Mizuno." Heero said absently, quickly and efficiently repacking his bag. He had thirty-seven seconds.

Duo's eyes bulged. "The chick with the blue hair?! You kidding me?! You go to school with her?!?!"

"Uh, yeah," Heero looked at him oddly. "How do you know her?" He glanced at the clock and swung his bag over his shoulder. "Never mind, tell me later. I have to go." Without so much as a good-bye, he was out the door and down the steps.

Feeling distinctly miffed at being cheated out of the chance to tell how he had met Ami at the community pool, Duo moodily followed Heero onto the covered porch, careful to keep out of the sunlight. He watched Heero trot away, and felt a distinctly sad pang strike his chest. He really wished he could go. He glared at the sunshine falling on the open lawn. It was the only thing keeping him back, and right now, he hated it.

Dimly in the back of his mind, he wondered where all these strong emotions had suddenly come from? He knew he didn't use to have them… but then- he couldn't remember back very far- perhaps he had always been this way…

Duo straightened up, out of his reverie, and looked for the newspaper. They requested it to be on the covered porch each morning so one of them could get it, but he didn't see it today. He edged towards the steps of the porch, wary of the warm sunlight. There it was. Propped against the last step. In the sun. He looked up to call Heero back, but the werewolf had already reached the end of the driveway and was turning away. Damn.

On the one hand, he could leave the paper and be bored out of his mind for the rest of the day til Heero got home and he could read the comics.

On the other hand, there was a really convenient rake leaning against the house that he could probably manage to pull it up here with.

Rake it was.

He grabbed the rake and squatted down, balancing on his toes, dangerously close to the edge of the porch. The shadow cast by the overhang gave him about an extra five inches that was steadily decreasing as the sun rose. Carefully, he extended the rake out, keeping his hands well within the shade, and tried to snag the newspaper.

Total miss. He swore and tried again. It was hard trying to control a rake when you could only hold the back end! He tried again and failed miserably, and decided to take the chance of shifting his hands along the rake until his left was scant inches from the sunlight.

Just a little more… Aha, dead hit… Now he just had to catch the rubber band on the little teeth of the rake and lift it clear… His brow furrowed in concentration and he tried to maneuver the rake, leaning forward a little more and a little more, without realizing he was doing so.

He grinned triumphantly as he hooked the rubber band and lifted it up. It was only then that he realized with a sickening certainty that he had just put WAY too much weight going forward and not nearly enough back. His ankles swayed, trying to keep him upright, but the heavy citywide newspaper was just too much to compensate for.

Knowing that this was the end, Duo tumbled forward into the sunlight.





Time seemed to slow down to an unbearable rate.



The birds in their chirping ceased.



The clouds froze in their movement across the sky.



Somewhere, a droplet of water took forever to fall.



And falling forward onto the lawn, Duo panicked.

I'M GONNA DIE, I'M GONNA DIE, I'M GONNA DIE!!!!

I don't want to die…

Baka, you ARE dead…

The thoughts lanced through his brain like lightning, all in the space it took for him to squeeze his eyes shut and hit the ground.

"AAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAH! IT BURNS!!! IT BURNS!!!!!!!! GOOD BYE, CRUEL WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!"

He cringed in a little huddle on the grass, distinguishable from a small black lump only by the braid trailing down his hunched back. Any moment now, he would be consumed by the proverbial fireball and fried to a crisp, right there. All they would find of him would be a little pile of ashes, and probably his hair tie, just for irony. Or maybe it would catch the rest of the grass on fire- how dry had it been lately? No, it had rained recently, so, hopefully he wouldn't be responsible for destroying half of Quatre's estate…

… why wasn't he dead yet?

His tremors stopped. Slowly, Duo lifted his head slightly to blink at the bush in front of his nose that stood merrily in the bright light. Ok, something wasn't right here. He sat up more and looked around him. Everything was lit up like a Technicolor dreamworld; colors were sharper and more distinct, and as his eyes adjusted, he realized he didn't have to squint quite as much.

Finally uncurling, he turned back and looked at the house. It was definitely still there. He looked up, careful not to look directly at the sun, and found his confusion multiplying by the second. It was definitely still there, too. He swept his gaze around the garden again.

"We are SO not in Kansas anymore, Toto." Not seeing any reason to just sit here, he stood, albeit shakily. All parts present and in working order. Not a singe mark to be found. "What the hell- is this time released or something?" he mused. He waited a moment, two- nothing happened. He took a step forward, and still nothing. He waved up at the sun and then had to shield his eyes from it.

Then a delicious grin broke over his face.

The myths were wrong. The stories weren't true. He wasn't bound to the darkness and the shadows. He could go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, with nothing to fear from certain masses of incasdecent gas.

With a whoop, he jumped into the air and pumped his fist. He was FREE. Free of this house and free to- he paused. Of course-

Without a moment's hesitation, Duo ran inside and up the stairs to Heero's room. Hoping that they were as much the same size in reality as they looked, he dug through the other boy's closet for a spare uniform and got it on in record time- thank god THAT part of the legend was real!!

Feeling happier than he had in ages, he grabbed a spare bag and ran out the door. As he passed the catalyst newspaper, he swooped down to pick it up, gave it a grateful kiss, and tossed it up onto the porch for his unenlightened buddies to find later. Then he jogged down to the end of the driveway and waved at the figure nearing the end of the road.

"Oi, wait up! I'm coming with you!" ~~~%*%~~~

So, was it worth it? Was it Duo-licious enough? I hope so!! Do reveiw and tell me!! And don't forget, there's an IM party at the end of the week! ^.^ *GLOMP* You fantabulous readers, you! *throws out BTL plushies* Don't be shy- it's a party!

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Reveiw it!! PLEASE? *pleading eyes* Or hey, dude, click on the lil guestbook at the bottom of the page and leave it there!

-Lady

http://ladylye.20megsfree.com By The Light GuestBook