Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ A Place In Time ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 11 )

AN I'm Back Baby! HI everyone, I am soooo sorry this took so long, I know I said I would try to get it up quicker but the exams overtook me anyway here's the new chappie. Hope you like it.

 

Summary/Rating/Disclaimer - Please see first chapter

 

Chapter 10

 

True to Heero's words hardly any of the students Duo was passing in the corridors gave him more than a second glance and even if they did it was more to do with how he looked than wondering why he was here.

 

Stepping on another staircase that instantly began to move he sighed, although at other times this could undoubtedly be a lot of fun, when he actually needed to get somewhere it was just annoying. Distractedly he found himself wondering how the students got anywhere on time, none of them were looking slightly perturbed by the sudden change of direction, they were balancing with the ease of long practice and still walking, chatting to each other as they did so.

 

There were a lot of them for eight in the morning but then again, Heero's spell had knocked them out at about six or seven last night so they'd slept over twelve hours already, maybe, all things considered, he was lucky there weren't more of them.

 

It was strange, being able to look at so many students like this, nothing like the schools he and the other pilots had frequented during the war as a means of keeping undercover, these students were more… well he wasn't sure but whatever it was they were more of it.

 

The staircase stopped and he stepped off on to the top landing before groaning as he realised that his ideal destination was now directly opposite him, with no way, he could currently see of, crossing between them. He could have used magic to get across of course but he didn't think a wandless wingardium leviosa would be the best way to stick to Heero's plan of keeping a low profile.

 

Sighing again he took off down the corridor, trying to get to their set of rooms as fast as possible. He fought the urge to shudder as another set of eyes lingered on him, he didn't know how Heero had been coping. He was feeling uncomfortable and he was nowhere near as bad in public as Heero Yuy was and in this world Heero was a celebrity!

 

Suddenly recognising the way down to the Great Hall he set off, knowing he could get to his rooms from there, when he was passing the door though he spotted four young women walking towards him, talking and laughing amongst themselves. Amusedly he noticed that they'd attracted quite a following, there were several males and females trailing them at a distance and, as they got closer, he could tell by the looks on their faces that all four women had noticed. Their reactions were differing though, Lady Une's response was annoyance, Dorothy's was a typical, calculated wondering of how she could turn this to her advantage, Noin was walking along with an expression of tolerance on her face and Relena was obviously torn between blushing self-consciously and laughing, it was easy to forget sometimes that the young blonde held such an elevated position, she was such a teenager at times.

 

Stepping out from behind the statue he'd automatically concealed himself behind he couldn't help the sliver of satisfaction as he realised he'd managed to startle them all.

 

Une sighed, not stopping walking as Duo fell into step with them, turning into the Great Hall, “If this is about that report then…”

Duo looked offended, “No! I was just getting my laptop actually.”

“Then why are you in here?” Relena enquired politely, obviously fighting a smile.

 

“I thought I'd see you lovely ladies off?”

 

“Flattering as that might be I don't think anyone's gonna fall for that one Maxwell.” Noin spoke up next and Duo looked affronted all of a sudden.

 

“Well, there's nothing like a thank you is there? And that was nothing like a thank you. I don't know, you try to do something nice…”

He broke off at the disbelieving expression on their faces, “Fine the stairs moved ok?”

 

“That's more believable,” Dorothy allowed, as she pulled a container from her pocket and opened it carefully, eyeing the powder inside with a critical air.

 

“You're not going yet are you.”

 

All five turned to see Albus Dumbledore striding towards him and it was then that they registered the eyes of everyone in the hall on them including the eyes of one Duo vaguely recognised from one of Heero's pictures as Hermione Granger.

 

“We are,” Dorothy answered, “Duo isn't, or at least I don't think he is, we have to though, we've a peace summit in a couple of hours and we're late setting off as it is.”

 

“Very well, I hope we'll be seeing you again soon, Your Majesty, Your Highness, My Lady, Lieutenant.”

 

At these words Duo watched as the eyes of almost every student in the hall almost popped out of their heads, he guessed that visiting royals and nobles were a rarity around here.

 

“Please,” although probably displeased with the acknowledgement of her title Relena showed no signs of it. It was clear that she understood that customs dictated that the Headmaster had to address her that way, “I think I can speak for everyone here when I say the titles are not necessary, Relena is just fine.”

He nodded, “and you must call me Albus, all of you, I hope to see you again soon.”

“You will be,” Une broke in, “we have some serious talks to be giving to two men lying in your hospital wing, we'll be back when they wake up.”

“Well please know that Hogwarts is always open to you.”

 

“Thank you, we'll remember that but right now we really do have to go. Goodbye Albus.” Dorothy cut in, seeing that Relena was going to speak again, she knew that if her girlfriend got started they were liable to be exchanging political pleasantries all day.

 

With that and a swirl of blonde hair she was swept away by the fireplace, the others following shortly after her.

 

Only Relena paused, she set one foot in the grate and hesitated before turning back to the gundam pilot watching her.

 

“Take care if them Duo, all of them, including yourself, and call me if anything, anything happens, ok?”

 

With that she gave the startled but pleased pilot a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and then vanished into the flames.

 

Duo smiled in pleased surprise and then quickly remembered where he was. Covering up the small smile with a cocky grin he turned back to Albus, “what can I say? The ladies love me.”

 

He laughed at the bemused expression on the Professor's face. “So… Al…” he laughed again as the Headmaster choked, “where's Sev and Minnie this fine morning?”

Albus fought a smile as he imagined the expression on his colleagues' faces if they heard their new titles. “Probably working.”

 

Duo pulled a face, “yeah, I know how that goes… speaking of work I think I'd better be getting on with mine so, see ya…”

“Wait…”

 

Duo looked at the teacher curiously and cocked his head, awaiting the question, “Yeah?”

 

“When do you think will be a good time to go and talk to them again, we need to discuss what we're going to do now… things obviously can't go back to the way they were before.”

 

“Give it a few hours, that'll give you time to collect your Professors, Heero time to get used to talking again, me time to finish my report, Wu time to finish his book, Sal time to do a once over and Q and Tro time to make up…”

 

The Headmaster's face showed relief all of a sudden. “Thank Merlin, I was worried about mister Ma… Winner.”

 

“Yeah, they'll be fine, anyway… see ya later Al.”

Swirling out of the hall the eyes of every student watched him, amazed at the one who would dare talk to their Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, that way.

 

Albus watched him with an amazed smile on his face, it had been years, probably decades since someone, anyone, had talked to him that way. It was… interesting, but not in a bad way and since the young man wasn't one of his students then there wasn't a problem with him addressing him that way anyway.

 

Briefly entertaining the idea of the five as students he found himself imagining a potions class with a demolitions expert, a defense class with someone skilled in over a hundred types of martial arts and a care of magical creatures class with someone who had the same kind of bond with and love for animals as Hagrid did. The idea was… intriguing… terrifying but intriguing.

 

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The numbers of students were thinning out as Duo walked up, yet another, flight of stairs towards the hospital wing, this time he was getting some strange looks but he was assuming that that had more to do with the brand-new, state-of-the-art, magically-dependant laptop he was carrying under his arm.

 

Noticing the door he stepped through it into the main wing where currently three beds were standing, perfectly made up, turning left he muttered the password, `omae o korosu' under his breath and walked through the portrait that had suddenly become merely an illusion.

 

Reaching the thin corridor than led to the private wing of the hospital that Zechs and Treize were in he realised that although the nurse must have put them into this room Heero would have changed the password immediately. She would probably be worried if she suddenly found that she was blocked from part of her own wing. He'd get Heero to talk to her, to give her temporary access or something. Then again, knowing Heero, he'd probably already sorted it out.

 

He was right, walking round the corner he overheard voices, hissed reprimands coming from the nurse about the dangers or placing patients outside her reach, didn't he realise how dangerous that was? What if there had been a problem and she couldn't reach them? He rounded the last corner and stared at the scene.

 

She was leaning over Heero, who was sitting in a chair, her eyes were flashing angrily.

 

Heero was watching her impassively, seemingly unconcerned with the lecture. Duo was watching his eyes though and, with the ease of long practice, was picking out the emotions; faint but there, swirling in the cobalt depths. Heero was getting angry; it was always a bad thing to make Heero angry, in his experience anyway.

 

People who were near Heero when he was angry tended to do unhealthy things… like dying for example.

 

As he moved to stand up he started to move forwards but was stopped by Sally's hand on his arm and Wufei's on his shoulder. He must be slipping; he hadn't even noticed them.

 

“If we don't do something she's going to die! He'll kill her, look at him!” He hissed furiously, not really trying to move out of their grip though, he knew, subconsciously at least, they must have a good reason for holding him back.

 

“No he won't, just wait!” Sally was hissing too, that was bad, she never sounded really worried; she always sounded calm and controlled. “Just wait. Let's see what he's going to do.”

 

“How dare you!?” The deadly whisper from Heero brought all three of them back to the conversation they were witnessing.

 

The nurse finally moved back, taking a half step and backing into the bed holding Zechs, finally realising that maybe Heero wasn't one of the people she could safely yell at.

 

“How dare you!? How dare you even suggest that I would put either of them in jeopardy?” Heero's hands were clenched and he looked angrier than Duo had ever seen him. “I would never risk either of them but if you think I'm going to leave the same passwords in that anyone may know then you'd be wrong. Have you any idea how much their lives are worth? Do you know what would happen if the wrong person got a hold of them?

 

“You still have monitoring charms on right? And if you needed to get through all you'd have to do was knock on the door and someone in here would hear you, right! They're never going to be in here alone so what is the problem!?”

 

She had frozen somewhere towards the beginning of his speech and she still couldn't move. She was just watching with wide, terrified eyes as the teenager loomed over her.

 

`Oh sweet Merlin, I'm going to die!' was her first conscious thought.

 

Not today though it seemed.

 

He stopped advancing suddenly, shuddering to a halt before he pivoted on the spot and swept past her, shooting a look at the Chinese teenager as he passed him, Wufei following him quickly. As the door slammed shut, signalling their exit, the nurse seemed to collapse in on herself and Duo sprang forwards, catching her.

 

“Hey! You ok?”

 

“What was that?”

 

“The Perfect Soldier.” Duo replied grimly. “You'll get used to him.” She shuddered and he carefully moved her into a chair. “Sal…”

“Yeah,” Sally moved forwards, smiling at the nurse, “it's ok, sorry about him he's a bit stressed, he appreciates what you've done but these past few days, weeks…. Months probably, have been a bit tough on him… How are you feeling.”

Madam Pomfrey seemed to be regaining some of her composure, “I'm alright, it must have been a heck of a few months though.”

 

“You could say that.” Duo mumbled under his breath. Sally shot him a look.

 

“The thing is, Sensei,” Sally continued soothingly, covering a smile as the nurse blinked at the title, “Heero didn't even know they were still alive up until yesterday, this has got to be pretty strange for him… Hell for all of us but mostly for him, they had a very… complex… relationship, you see.” Duo fought to stop himself from snorting. God, she didn't know the half of it. “I'm sure he'll apologize when he gets back.”

 

Duo sniffed, “yeah right, sorry Sal but this is Heero Yuy we're talking about, he doesn't do the apology thing, he was never taught how, I mean he's never apologized for trying to kill me, or Relena, or Dorothy for that matter or Une or…”

“Alright, thanks for the vote of approval Duo but I think that's enough don't you?”

“If you say so.”

“I do.” Sally turned back to the rapidly calming woman. “Look, would you mind if I had a look over them? I'm a doctor you see and it's not as though I doubt your medical skills but I'd feel a lot better if I could just check them over for myself… You understand?”

“Yes, I do, I feel the same when one of my students or other patients is transferred to St. Mungo's.”

 

Sally smiled at her gratefully, “why don't you have a lie down? I'll send Heero in when he gets back from beating Wufei into a bloody pulp. I'll let Duo be your body guard if you'd like but I'm sure he won't be necessary. Ok.”

A change came over the nurse's face and she gritted her teeth, obviously fixing her mindset. “Ok, send him in when he gets back and send… Wufei, was it? In too, I'll fix him up.”

 

“Thanks.” The words came from Duo to her surprise, “I appreciate that, Wu's a pretty good fighter and probably a match for Heero, not sure about when he's mad though, this should be quite a show… In fact, let's get the Professors and let them watch, should convince them we aren't teenagers who need to be protected.” Despite his flippant words there was worry behind the violet eyes, worry that Sally noticed.

 

“Duo…” He turned his eyes to meet hers, “they'll be fine, both of them, I promise.”

 

A reluctant smile broke forth at those words, “thanks Sal.” He laughed suddenly, “strange isn't it, Heero Yuy showing his emotions, I guess we're going to have to learn to deal with it though, not like they're going to go away…”

 

“That's a good thing though.” Sally whispered softly, “he's only reacting badly because he doesn't know how else to react, all his emotions are going haywire what with having emotions and being able to safely use them for one week and then not for a week and then having them here again but having to be careful of the press and then not being able to use then again…”

“You're babbling Sal.”

 

“Sorry… but you're right, it's strange, good, but strange, it'll be a long time before he gets used to them properly, he's lived without them for fifteen years after all.”

“I don't know about that.” Duo's gaze was set on the two men lying on the stark-white hospital sheets, “I wouldn't say he had no emotions before Sally, I think Heero surprised us all.”

 

End Chapter 10

 

AN Well, what do you think, please tell me whether you loved it or hated it.