Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ A new future ❯ Chapter Eleven: Missing friends ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter Eleven: Missing friends

 

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Duo decided to stay in his room that evening. He could do some reading for English since Heero wasn't here anyway. He would talk to Quatre tomorrow at school or something. He was reading the story of the wife of Bath when a knock on his door sounded. Maybe that was Quatre right now. He always knocked before coming in.

 

“Come in.” Duo said and the door slowly opened.

 

But it wasn't Quatre who was standing in the doorway, staring at Duo. This youth was larger than Quatre and a lot thinner. His hair was darker and his eyes were green instead of the bright blue colour Quatre's eyes were.

 

`Trowa?!'

 

“What do you want?” Duo asked, not at all too nicely.

 

“Where is Quatre?” Trowa replied, ignoring the disgust in Duo's voice.

 

Duo arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean, where is Quatre?” He was his boyfriend, he should know.

 

“We were supposed to meet tonight but he never showed up.” Trowa explained.

 

“And I'm supposed to know where he is?”

 

Trowa narrowed his eyes a bit, but nevertheless kept his voice calm. “Listen, I don't know what the two of you talked about, but if you've hurt him in any possible way I won't let you get away with it.”

 

“What do you mean you don't know what we talked about?” Duo shot back. “You've been there the whole time.”

 

“I mean when saw you enter his room earlier.”

 

He'd seen him? Duo hadn't seen Trowa. But to be honest, he hadn't bothered looking if there was anyone there in the corridors anyway. “Yes, but he wasn't there.”

 

Trowa seemed surprised by this. He was about to comment on that when he was interrupted by another voice.

 

“Trowa Barton.” Wufei walked in view and glared at the other youth. “And what are you doing here, oh mighty, rich bastard?”

 

Duo was sure this would piss Trowa off because nobody called him names and got away with it. But instead of starting an assault on the smaller boy, Trowa just stepped out of Wufei's way to allow him entrance to Duo's room, and his calm voice almost seemed to greet him as he nodded. “Chang.”

 

Wufei glared at the polite boy but Duo decided he did not want a fight here in his room. “What is it, Wufei?”

 

This drew the Chinese boy's attention and he turned to Duo, but not before he shot Trowa another warning glare. “I am looking for Heero. Do you know where he is?”

 

Duo shrugged. “Haven't seen him for hours. He's probably in the library.”

 

“I already checked, he's not there.” Wufei said. “Nor in any other part of this building. I figured you'd know where he was, seeing neither of you showed up for dinner.”

 

Duo blinked. Heero and not showing up for dinner? That was not good. “I wasn't with him back then.”

 

“You weren't? And you weren't with Quatre then? He didn't show up either so I figured the three of you were together.”

 

“Maybe they were, but not with me. I was alone.”

 

Duo had to think for a moment. Heero never missed out on dinner. Not only because it was a rule that everyone would be there, but also because that was his rhythm. He never broke his rhythm. And Quatre never left his window wide open, especially not in the winter. The blonde boy was used to warmth and couldn't stand the cold. Yet his room had felt like and ice cave when Duo had opened the door. And those two facts aside, Heero was always doing stuff with Wufei where Duo was hanging around Quatre. What could those two possibly be doing together that they completely forgot about time and space?

 

Unless Quatre was telling him about him and Trowa. . . Could that be it? It would explain why they were gone together. And maybe Quatre had wanted to talk before dinner because he was afraid of facing Duo. That would explain Heero's missing presence there. Still it left Duo guessing why Quatre's window had been open.

 

Duo was pulled out of his theory by the sound of arguing voices. Or rather, Wufei's arguing voice, Trowa hardly spoke as Wufei ranted at him about every misstep the taller one had made in the past. Looks like he suddenly remembered Trowa was there as well. Seeing Wufei yelling accusations at him like that almost made him feel sorry for the rich boy, but he quickly pushed that thought away and decided he should get their attention.

 

“Would you please shut up for a moment, I'm trying to think here!”

 

Wufei glared at him, but at least he shut up against Trowa. “That would be nice for a change.” The Chinese mumbled. Duo shot him a glare back but then ignored the remark and a silence fell between the three of them. Both Wufei and Trowa were now looking at Duo.

 

“What?” He asked.

 

“I would still like to know what HE” Wufei glared at Trowa for a second before turning back to Duo “is doing here.”

 

Duo sighed. He had found out about Quatre and Trowa by walking in on them and if the blonde was really telling Heero, no need to leave Wufei out of it. He'd find out sooner or later. “He's with Quatre.”

 

“What?!”

 

“He's with Quatre, as in lovers, y'know, kissing, making out, that kinda stuff.”

 

“I know what it means, Maxwell, now what does Quatre want with him?” Again, the word came out with disgust. He wasn't even worth naming him, let alone asking him the questions instead of Duo.

 

Duo shrugged. “I dunno, I just found out today, but it seems to have been going on for weeks.”

 

“And you're okay with this?” Wufei asked, not believing it.

 

“No, I am not okay with this, but there's not much we can do about it as long as Quatre isn't here, now is there?”

 

“We could beat him up.” Wufei suggested, turning back to Trowa, who seemed to do nothing more than slightly arching an eyebrow.

 

Duo laughed at that. “I tried, didn't work. Only got him sympathy from Quatre.”

 

“No shit.” Wufei swore.

 

“Yeah, well, anyway. . .” But Duo didn't get to finish the sentence as two girls appeared in the door opening. One of them Duo recognised as Saria's roommate; the other one was the blond girl who had a crush on him. He groaned inwardly, half-praying they weren't here to torment him with Questions or such.

 

Obviously his prayers were answered because the roommate asked an entirely different question from what he had expected. “Hey Duo, have you seen Saria? It's almost lights out at our floor and she hasn't come back yet.”

 

Duo stiffened. Whoever was up there had to really hate his guts. “When was the last time you saw her?” he asked them quickly.

 

“Well, I dunno.” The roommate and her blonde friend exchanged a glance. “She didn't show up for dinner and we haven't seen her since.”

 

Duo grew pale. He couldn't see it for the mirror wasn't anywhere close, but he could feel it. Something was definitely wrong here. Something was definitely very, VERY wrong here.

 

He jumped off his bed, ignoring the other four and ran downstairs to Sally's office. Without knocking he barged in there, causing Sally to look up with a jolt.

 

“Duo!” she looked disturbed. “Don't you knock before you barge into someone's office?”

 

“Sorry Sally,” Duo mumbled, “But I have to talk to you about something, it's urgent.”

 

Sally nodded and motioned for Duo to sit down. “I wanted to see you about some disturbing matters as well. Now we have rules here for a reason. . .” But Duo didn't give Sally a chance to finish.

 

“And lemme guess, you wanna see Heero, Quatre and Saria too? Anyone else you need to see?” He asked, informing if anyone else had gone missing

 

“N-no, as a matter of fact, just the four of you.” Sally looked slightly puzzled. “How do you know? You were together, right?”

 

“Actually, no, we weren't. I was alone. But the others seem to have gone missing since before dinner.” Sally narrowed his eyes, but waited for him to continue. “I can't find Quatre, Wufei doesn't know where Heero is and Saria's roommate says she hasn't seen her since she missed dinner either.”

 

“Well, their probably just out together then I guess.”

 

But Duo shook his head as he began explaining once again why something had to be wrong. “Saria never hangs out with Heero and Quatre and they never miss dinner. And when I entered Quatre's room his window was wide open. Quatre never leaves his window open.” Duo considered telling her about this not feeling good before he continued. “I dunno, Sally. I but I got a feeling something is wrong here.”

 

Sally thought for a moment. “That sounds strange indeed. But we shouldn't draw conclusions just yet. Let's go look and see if we can find them together first, shall we?”

 

Duo nodded and got up. He followed Sally out of the office and was greeted by the four who had been at his room only minutes earlier. Sally told the group not to panic anybody before she sent the two younger girls off to bed, telling them they would take care of it and then the remaining four started their search. They looked everywhere, from library to kitchen and from common room to bedrooms, even in the school part, which was forbidden after dinnertime, but the three were nowhere to be found. Eventually they gave up.

 

“They'll probably be somewhere outside and have forgotten time.” Sally tried to reassure them as they were at Heero and Duo's room again. “I'll inform some of the teachers and if they're not present at breakfast tomorrow I'll call in somebody to investigate this.”

 

“Tomorrow?” Duo did his best not to yell. “Do you have any idea how much can happen out there overnight?”

 

Sally sighed. “Yes, I know. But the police won't do anything until a certain amount of time after disappearance anyway. Right now we have to stay calm and hope they'll be back by themselves. Just go to sleep and we'll see how things are in the morning.”

 

The three boys nodded, though neither of them felt happy about it. Sally gave them an encouraging smile before she headed back downstairs. Duo sighed and dropped himself on his bed. He glanced up at the two boys, who were obviously trying to avoid speaking to each other and therefore focussed on Duo instead. “Think hard one more time. Neither of you has heard anything from anybody? You don't know if either of them ahs mentioned anything?”

 

“I haven't seen the other two much,” Wufei pointed out, “but Heero and I were working on a school project earlier. He didn't mention anything relevant then.”

 

“Quatre was pretty upset about your angry response,” Trowa informed them, “Though he hasn't said anything about going out for a walk or anything.”

 

That turned Wufei's attention to Trowa again. He had been able to stand an entire search action ignoring his previous rival-in-about-anything, but now it had obviously been long enough. “How far are you exactly with Quatre?” He informed distrustful.

 

“Wufei! Not now please.” Duo groaned and closed his eyes. He was tired and wanted nothing better than to go to sleep, but he knew he wouldn't be able to before he knew the others were safe. They did not just disappear into thin air, that was not possible. They had to be somewhere.

 

Duo wasn't too concerned about Heero. Though he wanted nothing more than his roommate to be safe, he had to acknowledge he was a pretty tough guy. He could take care of himself. The only thing troubling Duo was that he was the kind of guy who would easily get in a street fight. He just hoped Heero was sensible enough to avoid that.

 

More worried was Duo about Quatre and Saria. Both were pretty vulnerable out there, especially Quatre if he had been upset. He would be an easy target for anyone who'd want to hurt him. With Saria it helped that she knew about life on the streets so she knew what places to avoid, but she was still a girl and only thirteen. She had always been under the protection of someone, Duo and Solo back on the streets and now the orphanage itself. Though Duo tried to tell himself she'd be fine on her own, he couldn't manage to sound very convincing to himself.

 

When he opened his eyes again, he saw Trowa walking away.

 

“Where's he going?”

 

“Back to his room.” Wufei answered. “We could do with some sleep as well.”

 

Duo sighed. Yeah right. He was probably not going to get any sleep tonight if Heero wasn't lying in the bed next to him, breathing silently as he slept. Duo would be awake all night worrying about him. He groaned again. This was going to be one hell of a long night.

 

“Look, Duo. . .” Wufei started. “I'm sure he'll be okay. He's a tough guy, he can manage.” Duo felt his face redden as he realised Wufei was speaking about Heero. He couldn't know, could he? That Duo had a crush on him?

 

Duo quickly mumbled an `I know' before Wufei left his room.

 

He was all alone now, all alone with his thoughts about his three missing friends. He saw their faces every time he closed his eyes, he saw their bodies, he saw them smiling at him, laughing -Well, two of them were laughing anyway, the third one never laughed­. He heard their voices every time he tried to get rid of their images and he felt their touches every time he nearly fell asleep. And all this was only making everything worse. He couldn't shake that feeling of something being terribly wrong here and wanted nothing more than to go out there himself to find them. He was certain something had happened. Why else would Yuy not be in his own bed by the time the displayer on the radio read 2.00 h?

 

Duo turned around again. He'd been awake for hours but it was only tiring him more and more. He wanted to go to sleep but he couldn't. It didn't seem fair, it didn't seem right. It was not right. Something was not right.

 

Duo had never felt so confused and scared before. Not when Solo left him that first night, not when he got arrested, hell, not even when he had been living in the previous orphanage. And he'd had some pretty scary moments there. But that had always been his life that had been screwed with, these were the lives of three others.

 

`You're overreacting, Maxwell.' Duo told himself.

 

`Am I?'

 

Eventually he did fall asleep, just to be hunted by nightmares about Heero, Quatre and Saria. He was only too glad he didn't remember them in the morning.

 

~ T.B.C. ~

 

Duo and his goddamn feelings! He's spoiling my story! He shouldn't be blowing things up like that, it takes away all the fun!

 

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