Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Mended Wing ❯ Mended Wing - Chapter Seven ( Chapter 7 )
Authors Notes: Minna-san, I have something very important to talk to you all about in this authors notes. The health of muses. Now, we all know that muses are fragile creatures, who need our love and fanfiction, but there is something else very important to the health of muses that most people forget, or don't even know. ::clears her throat and gets all scholarly:: Reviews. Muses are like fairies. Fairies need belief, muses need reviews. My muse is a very sick little muse, and I must plead for your help, my friends! Please, please save my muse! Leave a review! It takes so little of your time, and no money! My muse would be so grateful, and so would I! So please be a generous reader and save my muse. Thank you. Thankies to: Marika Webster, I miss you! ::huggles the new wall:: Trenchcoat Man, Dooby? Dooby, dooby dooby? Dooby! ::winks:: Inalatha or. Fuuzaki-chan, Little Sister! Whee! Yadda! Tensei-san, I'm proud of you! You took the challenge and survived! To those who would save my muse: ::bows:: Arigatou, minna-san. Your reviews are taken with a grateful heart and put to good use.
Disclaimers: None of the characters are mine. So far, anyway. Hehe. There will be some random small chars in this chapter, but nothing big. Not so far anyway.
Mended Wing - Chapter Seven
Baker nodded to Gunther, who in turn gave a gesture to Harvey. Between the three of them they had the equivalent of about half a brain, but they were strong and obeyed orders. Alberado frowned as he watched the three lackeys nearly bash the woman's head in while carrying her through the door. Somehow they managed to get her inside and onto the hospital type bed without causing any serious harm.
"Morons," Alberado said as he walked forward and whacked Gunther upside the head. "You nearly killed them, and the boss woulda skinned us all alive."
Gunther winced and cast a half-witted glance in Baker's direction. Baker allowed his jaw to slack open as he tried to think of something to say. Harvey actually muttered, "Uuuhh . .." under his breath.
"B-But, uh, I-I thought the b-boss wanted them dead," Gunther managed to stutter.
"He does, but not yet. He wants 'em held first, to see what the others are gonna do about it! Idiot!" Alberado threw his hands in the air and shook his head, sighing a long-suffering sigh. "Then after he sees the weakness of the others, we can kill these two and then kill the rest. Got it?"
Gunther nodded. Alberado looked to Baker and Harvey. They nodded as well, Harvey a little more hesitantly than his fellow.
"Good. Now be a little more careful moving them into containment!"
~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~
Hotaru hung the phone back into its cradle and shook her head. Four of the faces staring back at her wore the dull eyes of worry and disappointment. Only Quatre did not share the anxiety the rest of them felt, and Hotaru seriously wanted to Death Reborn Revolution his spoiled ass as he sighed and rolled his eyes to the ceiling.
"The police don't know anything, and Grandpa hasn't woken up yet." Hotaru kept her eyes on Quatre as she spoke, knowing the effect her gaze often had on people, especially those who had guilt on their souls. As expected, Quatre shifted and did his best not to look her in the eye. "There were no fingerprints, and that's all the detective would tell me. Until they find the culprits, they won't release anymore information."
"Well, good then," Quatre stated and stood up, "this meeting is over and-"
Before he could finish his statement or get severely beaten for it, the door of Minako's apartment swung open with a violent kick. Everyone froze, all expecting to be fighting for their lives within the next few seconds.
"Damn it, woman!" Four humans and two cats relaxed at the sound of Wufei's annoyed voice. Then they shared a group glance and wondered what on Earth he shouted about now.
In a moment a flush-faced Wufei stomped through the living room and flopped onto the couch, arms crossed. His expression revealed a very, very ticked off Chinese man. Somehow this didn't surprise Hotaru in the least. In his wake, Makoto and Haruka came in, dragging between them a ragged and dirty figure that looked like, but couldn't be, Setsuna. No, Setsuna would never degrade herself in such a way, letting someone else carry her. She would never let herself be so filthy, so wretched. No. Not Setsuna-mama, never Setsuna-mama.
Behind the stumbling trio came Michiru, eyes wet with tears, Ami working furiously on her computer, a frightened looking Duo, and a blank Mamoru, still carrying his beloved princess. Their beloved princess. He held her as though his embrace would be enough to stop the ravages of Time. While Time herself practically poured from between her supporters onto the couch beside Wufei. The man scowled at her, and to the surprise of everyone in the room, she giggled.
"Setsuna-mama?" Hotaru took a step forward, hands trembling. Maroon eyes lifted and widened.
"Hotaru-chan . . ." Setsuna blinked and cast a searching glance about the room. She seemed to look for something none of them could see, and then not to find it. "Hotaru-chan . . . I told her not to get into any trouble. I knew I'd be gone but I didn't know I'd be gone this long. I wonder if little Hotaru-chan listened to me? Oh, she's a good little girl, I'll bet she's not giving Haruka-san and Michiru-san any trouble at all." The babbling died away as Setsuna leaned her head onto the back of the couch and stared upwards at the ceiling.
"W-What is wrong with her?" Hotaru turned to Haruka and Michiru, two of the three parents she'd known most of her new life. Haruka shrugged. Michiru shook her head. Wufei was the one who answered.
"She's insane, that's what's wrong with her."
"Wufei-kun!"
"What, Ami-san?" The tone of his voice made her flinch. "It's true. Why should we try to make it sound anything other that what it is? This girl isn't a child. It's an insult to her intelligence, if she has any, to tell her that nothing's wrong with Setsuna-san." Wufei turned his dark eyes back to Hotaru. Despite the harsh tone in which they were spoken, his words made the girl respect him more than she suspected the others did.
"Arigatou, Wufei-san," she said, bowing to him to show her appreciation. When she straightened, Wufei merely nodded to her and looked away.
"She was like this when we found her," Ami was explaining to Minako, with the man now called Triton listening. Quatre had dropped back into his seat with an annoyed scowl. None of the new arrivals had yet noticed the absence of Rei and Masurao. "When she first saw us, she thought we were demons finally come to take her to Hell. I've been working on calculating how long she was trapped in there, but I can't seem to get the right numbers."
"Forever," Setsuna murmured from her seat, still gazing at the ceiling, "Forever and a day, since it all began, from the beginning, all things did I sit through and listen but could never, never see. Never see. No. Never, never."
Everyone stared at her openly, trying to comprehend the significance behind her incoherent words. Everyone, that is, except the blonde brat. The more Setsuna babbled, the more they couldn't deny what she said, though none wished to believe it true. Hotaru felt tears stinging her eyes, but kept them from falling.
"Is . . . is she saying she's been trapped . . . since the beginning of Time?" Minako's blurry blue eyes darted from each of the other shocked nine faces surrounding her to another.
"That's exactly what she's saying," Ami choked out, "No wonder I couldn't calculate the length of time. I didn't go back far enough."
Hotaru felt the legs beneath her begin to fail. They buckled and she would have hit the floor except for someone's arms catching her. She murmured a thanks, and then, afraid it hadn't been heard, repeated "Thank you" in a louder voice. A soft tone, one she didn't recognize, returned with "You're welcome." Hotaru turned her head and saw Quatre behind her, steadying her body with kind hands, gentle as he had once been. He gave her a brief expression, what might have been a smile if it hadn't skittered away like a frightened animal. He cleared his throat, stepped away, and bowed. Hotaru nodded her head, amused even through this situation at the distinct impression that Quatre was uncomfortable. Her violet eyes followed him until he sat back into the chair.
"That bad, bad feeling came over me," Setsuna continued on in her babbling train of thought as though none of them were present, "like it did when I dropped the keys and 'Ruka was mean . . ."
Heads turned to Haruka, who shrugged and lifted one eyebrow.
"'Ruka'?" Michiru smirked.
"Hey, she's nuts. You heard Honor Boy."
"Honor Boy?!?" Wufei rose, fists clenched, ready to fight Haruka should a battle for justice be necessary. Fortunately for them all, the phone interrupted them. All fell silent, even the newcomers, as Hotaru bolted across the room.
"Moshi moshi?"
"This is Tokyo General Hospital. We were told to call this number if there was any change in the condition of-"
"Hai, hai, how is he?"
"He's conscious now. However, the electricity gave his heart quite a jolt. You really should come down to the hospital to get this information from the doctor."
"Do you know what's wrong with him."
"Well, yes."
"Then tell me now. I want to know what to expect when I get there."
A sigh from the other end. The sigh that conveys pity. "Alright. His heart's been pumping three times its normal speed. It's in danger of rupturing, or simply wearing itself out into stopping. In short, there is the good possibility that he will die."
Hotaru let the woman stop and didn't reply. No thoughts ran through her mind. Oddly, the only thing she could hear was the steady tick, tick ,tick, tick of the pendulum clock. She counted ten ticks before coherent thought entered her brain again. Another five ticks flew by before she could form the question she knew the woman waited for.
"How long?"
"A day, maybe two. That's if his heart doesn't slow itself, and there's always the change that it might."
"There's nothing the doctors can do?"
"No, it has to slow on its own. Medical science doesn't yet have the knowledge or the equipment to slow it from outside his body."
"I understand. Visitors?"
"Since I've already explained all of this to you, he won't be allowed visitors until regular visiting hours tomorrow morning. Then he can have only two visitors at a time."
"Alright. Arigatou."
Hotaru hung up before hearing the woman's reply. She turned to the expectant eyes that followed her, most draped in expressions of confusion. Those who recently arrived from the Realm Between Times obviously wondered what all of the excitement was over a simple phone call. Hotaru waited. Then, at last, Makoto looked about the room and noticed.
"Where are Rei-chan and Masurao-kun?"
Minako answered. "Yesterday afternoon someone broke into the Hikawa Shrine, shocked Grandpa with some sort of electrical device, and took Rei-chan and Masurao-kun." She paused, blue eyes locked on Makoto to make sure the information sunk in before moving on. "The detectives will tell us nothing except that they don't know who did it. Grandpa is in the hospital, and we've been waiting for news on his condition." At that, all eyes returned to Hotaru. She bit her bottom lip.
"He's dying. They think he'll last one day, maybe two. And they won't let us visit him until tomorrow morning."
Makoto leaned back into the far wall. Ami covered her mouth and turned away, but Hotaru saw the gentle shaking of her shoulders. Haruka and Michiru, who really didn't know Grandpa all that well, still managed sad expressions. Mamoru was lost in studying Usagi's pale face. Most of the other men remained silent out of respect for the feelings of their female friends. Most.
"What, he's an old man, right?" Quatre stood and shrugged. "He has to die sometime. Now is as good a time as any in my opinion." Everyone stared at him. Hotaru felt like smacking him across the face, no longer amused. Didn't he have any respect for anyone other than himself? The entire time he'd been with them he'd been nothing but a-
"Pompous, arrogant prick!" Makoto launched herself from the wall, stalked straight over to Quatre, and punched him. She didn't pull her punch, either. A solid right, straight to the jaw, sent the young man careening and crashing into the chair he'd been sitting in. A drumbeat of silence sounded before Quatre leaped to his feet and swung his fist at Makoto's head. This Quatre, however, did not have the training of his other form, and Makoto ducked easily, slipping around to shove him from behind. The blonde brat fell forward, flat on his face. There he stayed, fists clenched, but smart enough to know he couldn't beat the tall woman. His eyes stared coldly at the floor, filling with angry tears as he and everyone else waited for the words Makoto would throw at him.
But she said nothing. Her burst of fury spent, Makoto walked from the room. The next sound Hotaru heard was the slamming of the front door. No one spoke as they listened to the steps pounding down the hallway and the stairwell. Eyes swept the room, meeting other gazes, all except the indigo orbs of Duo, who stood in a corner and prayed silently. There was a giggle from the disheveled woman on the couch.
"She got you good!"
~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~
Quatre stayed on the floor until he heard all of the other people leave. He couldn't get up. Not after being embarrassed like that. Damn it.
At last a pair of dainty, bare feet came into his view. The person paused there before speaking. "They're all gone, now, Quatre-kun. You can get up."
He allowed his gaze to travel upward, along the slender contours of her pale legs and over her short, loose dress, finally up to her face. From conversations he knew her age to be nineteen, a full four years younger than the rest of the girls who called themselves Sailor Senshi. Though technically a grown woman, the roundness of her face leant an air of lingering childhood to her features. He suspected no matter how old she grew, Tomoe Hotaru would be the eternal child. Then his gaze locked on her eyes, those intense windows of violet that nearly glowed with power. With destruction. Death. Somewhere beneath all of that there was kindness, to be sure. But the death shone through it all, though Quatre had the sense that she would rather it did not.
"That Makoto woman doesn't like me much, does she?"
"No," Hotaru replied as she bent down to grasp his hands and help him up, "but you don't give her, or any of us, very much reason to like you. You're an ass."
He blinked, shocked for a moment at her straightforward assessment of his attitude. Then he felt the familiar scowl settling on his lips and the growl rising from deep in his throat. "No one's ever given me any reason not to be an ass. It's a survival skill where I come from."
"Not from what I hear, but then, I heard things differently."
She gestured him to sit by the vacated couch. The crazy Setsuna woman had vanished with the rest of them, to exactly where he couldn't guess. Grateful for the hospitality, Quatre sighed and sat down. Then he realized that Ami, his appointed "guardian" had left as well.
"I don't know where-"
"You'll stay here tonight, on the couch." She moved into the small kitchen area of the apartment, and he heard the tale-tell sounds of glasses clinking and pots clanging. Either she washed used dishes, or had begun preparing a dinner for them. Quatre shifted on the couch, stuffing his hands underneath him. He looked at the room, really for the first time, but saw nothing much to look at. The blue couch he sat on, the matching chair he'd been in earlier. A couple of plants sitting underneath the one window. Sheer white curtains draped over the glass, hardly enough to block any sun that decided to push through. The carpet was brown.
"Um . . ." He shifted again. "Do . . . do you need any help?" What?!? Since when did he offer to help anyone with anything?
"No, that's alright. I'm just cleaning up." Aha. "It's nearly ten o'clock, so if you're hungry you can have a quick bowl of cereal or something. I'll make a good breakfast in the morning." She poked her head around the door less entrance and winked at him. "Or at least as good a breakfast as a college student can make."
Quatre laughed nervously as she laughed. The idea of staying here, with this young woman, unnerved him more than the thought of staying at Ami's. Dr. Mizuno came across to him as an almost sexless person, with no stray thoughts in her mind. He felt certain the blue-haired one thought only of her next heart transplant. Hotaru, however, this young, attractive college age girl . . . she was quite another story altogether. Did this thought make him nervous because he was afraid of what she would do? Or because he was afraid of what HE would do?
And what would Triton think?
What?!? When did Triton's opinion become that important to you? You just met him!
Quatre growled to himself, distressed that his thoughts were so muddled and confused. The train of contemplation was thrown off track when a blanket hit him over the head and fell to cover his eyes.
"Hey!"
"Gomen," filtered Hotaru's giggling voice from somewhere outside the confines of the blanket. "I didn't mean to hit you." Something in her tone, however, betrayed her. Perhaps the fact that she couldn't stop laughing. Quatre jerked the blanket from his head, only to be smacked in the face with a pillow. "There, now you're set for the night." She waved to him and walked down the hallway.
The blonde rose and spread out his makeshift bed across the couch and settled in for the night. But his ears filled with the sounds of his host down the short hallway. First there were shower sounds, water falling in streams from the showerhead and hitting the porcelain tub. Wide awake, all Quatre could think about was the girl in the shower. Naked. How long had it been since his father sent that last girl to the colony? Too long. WAY too long. He shut his eyes tightly, as though doing so could wipe away the mental image of Hotaru rinsing soap lather away from her bare, pale skin. Dear Allah, it was almost an invitation! Like a movie, where the male lead saunters straight into the bathroom, already shed of clothing. The female lead is surprised, of course, and maybe annoyed at his intrusion. But he walks straight in as if he belongs there, as if this woman is already his own, and takes what he wants.
Stop! Stop! This isn't a bad movie!
With a groan, Quatre turned over and buried his face in the pillow. He needed to go home. He needed to go home NOW and contact his father. He would ask for a dark-haired girl this time. Yes, definitely. Dark hair, like blackest midnight. Pale skin.
Green eyes.
Green eyes bored into his mind and wouldn't leave. Green eyes glowed as the water shut off in the bathroom and Quatre sighed, finally tumbling into a fitful sleep. He dreamed of another life, with other friends, where the green eyes gazed on him with gentle love. But somewhere in the dream, always around the next corner, a shower ran with the promise of Hotaru to spur him on.
~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~
Masurao woke in the dark. He waved his hand in front of his face but saw absolute nothing. He almost panicked until Rei's voice found him from somewhere near.
"You're not blind. It's just very, very dark."
"What's going on?"
"I don't know. I woke up here, just like you did. Even if I had a watch, I couldn't check it to see how long ago." There was a strange calmness in her tone. It was the calm of someone used to such hopeless situations. Masurao hoped that somewhere in her experience with such circumstances was the knowledge of how to get out of them.
End Chapter Seven.