Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Wing ❯ Broken Wing - Chapter Five ( Chapter 5 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Duo sighed



Author's Note: Whoopie! Chapter five, the comedy chapter!! YAY!! It's finally here!!! Ahem. This chapter sort of backs up time for the reader and explains what happened after Setsuna brought Trowa back that led up to the chaotic scene you saw at the end of chapter four. WARNING: Almost all of…well… okay… ALL of the GBoys are taken out of character in this chapter. Its supposed to be just a fun chapter to give everyone a break from all of the seriousness. I hope everyone enjoys it! Many thanks to Trenchcoat Man, who practically wrote this chapter for me. ::huggles Trenchcoat Man 'til he turns all shades of polka dots:: Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Okies, okies, we ALL know by now that I just don't own anything! I'm a horrible, horrible person who can't write her own stories so she steals everyone else's ideas! Not really…but it sounded good for a disclaimer. Sailormoon - not mine. Gundam Wing - not mine. Broken Wing - MINE!!!


Broken Wing ~ Chapter Five



Duo sighed. He turned the other direction in the chair. He blew at a strand of hair invading his eyes. Then he sighed again, turned upside down in the chair, and turned the book sideways. Nothing he did made sitting there and waiting any easier or less boring. Finally he laid the book on his stomach and stared up at the ceiling, for lack of anything better to do. Unfortunately he didn't notice that he was sliding from the leather chair and in a moment there was a loud THUD as the braided boy hit the ground headfirst.
"DUO! I TOLD YOU TO KEEP QUIET!"
Duo winced even though Wufei wasn't physically in the room. Somehow the Chinese boy was more intimidating than even Hiiro.
After waiting for a few minutes to be absolutely certain that Wufei wasn't about to storm through the door, Duo finally tilted over onto his side on the floor, then rolled completely onto his stomach. A few more minutes passed with him simply lying facedown on the carpet, unmoving and quiet as a mouse. This brief moment of calm was quickly followed by the flurry of Duo launching himself into a cross-legged sitting position.
"Man, this place is so dead! I'm bored out of my mind!" Indigo eyes, filled with the desperation of the chronically bored, flashed across the room looking for something, anything that might be even remotely interesting.
Nothing.
Duo groaned and pushed himself up, walking over to the closet. Earlier he'd seen a large shoebox sitting on the floor there, but he'd ignored it. Right now, however, he was willing to look into anything to keep himself sane.
He lifted the top from the box and frowned in confusion.
Inside there lay a black marker, a bottle of pink hair dye, a bottle of Tabasco sauce, a can of cayenne pepper, a jar of jalapenos, a screwdriver, and a pair of scissors.
"What the . . .?"
A slow, wicked grin spread across his face as the possibilities for these random items flashed through his evil little mind. A low cackle escaped from his mouth before he clapped his hands over it to stop the sound.
This is going to be priceless!!


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~




"DUO! HEY DUO! FOOD!"


Wufei stood at the entrance of the dining room, silent and expectant. Hiiro, Trowa, and Quatre sat at the table, glancing among themselves as no answer came from upstairs. One minute passed, then two, and still no Duo.
"He's up to something," Wufei growled, "When Duo's this quiet it means trouble."
"Maybe he's just asleep," Quatre offered with a good-natured smile. He'd been very happy and cheerful since the safe return of Trowa to their ranks.
"Even if he were asleep, he would have woken up the instant he heard the word 'food.' I don't like this."
"Neither do-"
Before Hiiro could finish his statement, Duo slammed into Wufei, who had turned around to speak to Quatre, from behind. The two went sprawling across the floor, Duo tumbling heel over braid until he hit the far wall with legs in the air. A low growl issued from Wufei, who was lying facedown on the marble floor and no doubt feeling ready to kill a specific someone. Quatre gulped and leaned closer to Trowa, who stared impassively at the goings on. Hiiro reached across the table with a fork and speared a piece of ham.
"Sorry!" Duo cried, a little too cheerfully to be reassuring, as he bolted up from the floor and into his chair. Wufei grumbled something that no one could understand.
"We were getting worried about you, Duo," Quatre smiled nervously towards the hyperactive pilot.
"Worried? About me? HAH! You shouldn't have!"
Wufei, who had just sat down next to Hiiro, leaned towards the stoic boy, who was already eating, "He's definitely up to something."
"You're too paranoid, Wufei!" Duo exclaimed, ruthlessly stabbing a roll with his fork and shoving it into his mouth. He grinned at Quatre and gave a muffled, "This is great!"
"Thank you, Duo," the blonde smiled again, and no one noticed Trowa looking away as if suddenly embarrassed.
After that the meal proceeded and was insidiously uneventful. Everyone, save for Hiiro, complimented Quatre on his cooking, which he claimed to have learned from one of twenty-nine sisters. At the mention of the female siblings, Wufei choked, no doubt imagining what it would be like to have grown up with that many women around. Even Trowa laughed at that. The five pilots spent a good hour and a half at the dinner table, most of them sharing stories and getting to know each other. If only Setsuna could have seen them, she would have been proud.
At last Quatre pushed back his chair and stood.
"Well, I should go take a shower now. I'll see you all in the morning."
"Have fun, Quatre!" Duo waved, grinning in that annoyingly cheerful way he'd had about him the entire meal. Wufei scowled, still certain that the braided one was conspiring in some manner, just not sure exactly what it was yet. Hiiro sat with arms crossed, looking down at the table, most likely waiting for the rest of them to leave until he went along his business.
When Quatre, after throwing a confused look at Duo, was gone from the room, Trowa stood and began collecting the plates. Duo instantly disappeared the moment Wufei looked away for the merest of moments, and the dark-haired boy vanished in an attempt to find him. After about ten minutes, Hiiro finally rose and made his way into the living room, where his laptop waited patiently for him.
All was quiet.
For about five seconds.
A high pitched screech issued from the upstairs bathroom. Hiiro, assured that it was an OZ attack, bolted from his chair and flew up the stairs in the direction of the sound. Wufei was right behind him, and he could see Trowa standing in the hallway up ahead. Duo was conspicuously absent.
"Trowa, what's-" Hiiro stopped when he saw the expression on Trowa's face. The tall boy's eyes were wide, and his lips twitched slightly, as if trying to form a smile or even a grin. As Hiiro stood there, Trowa lifted a hand to his mouth and nose to unsuccessfully attempt to muffle the snort that issued forth. Hiiro blinked. What on Earth or the colonies was funny enough to make Trowa snort?
Only one way to find out. Hiiro, with a confused Wufei standing behind him, stepped forward and peered curiously into the bathroom.
There, nearly lost in the after shower mist that floated through the room, stood Quatre with a horrified . . . no . . . vandalized expression on his childish face. The reason for his horror was evident, as his newly dried hair- he still held the hair dryer in one hand- was a darker shade of hot pink.
Hiiro caught Trowa's lip twitch.
Wufei, seeing the spread of that facial spasm, pushed Hiiro out of the way in order to see just what was so amusing.
Lip twitches seem to be extremely contagious.
The three pilots most difficult to make laugh stood in the hallway, snickering like five year olds. Trowa leaned against the wall as his amusement turned into full out laughter, and soon his legs gave out beneath him causing him to slide to the floor. Wufei was doubled over in his jollity and Hiiro . . . well . . . Hiiro was highly entertained.
"WHO WAS IT?!?" Quatre demanded, standing in the doorway, towel wrapped around his waist, blue eyes wild and deranged, "WHICH ONE OF YOU DID IT?!?"
"D-Did . . . w-wha-at?" Wufei barely managed to choke out. At that, Trowa burst into a new fit and Hiiro turned away to hide his grin.
"I know . . . it was DUO!!! DUO DID IT!!!"
In the next second the three were alone in the hallway, as Quatre had gone to seek his revenge on the braided one.
Duo, the culprit of what would come to be known as The Great Pink Hair Dye Incident, was lurking around the base with a video camera, poised to catch his unwitting victim, pink hair and all, on tape. Little did he know that he was soon to go from hunter to hunted.
As he turned a corner, the camera's view screen was abruptly filled with the image of Quatre, hot pink hair spiked, eyes wide, and just the barest hint of foam brewing at the corner of his mouth. Duo, of course, was too dense to realize that his life was in danger and likely to end at the fragile age of fifteen. So he merely grinned and proceeded to film the incensed former blonde in all of his half-naked, dyed hair glory.
"Quatre Raberba Winner, how does it feel to be a new man with a new look?"
No answer. And still Duo didn't have a clue.
"I hear that pink is very posh this year in the upper circles," he continued, "all of the ladies- and some of the guys too- will be flocking to you!"
Quatre reached out and snatched the camera from Duo's hands, crushing it in his grip. The judges give him four points for adrenaline. Duo, who only gets two points for being the densest person on the face of the planet, stood there with his hands still in position as if clutching the camera. Seconds passed before he finally straightened and looked at his empty hands in confusion. Then he looked to the shattered pieces of the machine that lay scattered on the floor at Quatre's feet. At last he turned his gaze upwards to the dark- souled person who had dared to steal his toy.
"You broke my camera!"
"I'M GONNA BREAK MORE THAN THAT!"
Duo blinked, finally getting some sort of sense of his peril, as Quatre barreled straight towards him, fingers clenching and unclenching as they anticipated wrapping around the enemies throat. The three who had been deserted upstairs had at last managed to make it downstairs and were watching the events. Hiiro bet Trowa that Duo would be able to outrun Quatre, but Trowa bet both Hiiro and Wufei that Quatre would tackle the braided one in less than thirty seconds. The terms of the bet were never disclosed to outside sources, but neither Hiiro nor Wufei ever bet against Trowa again.
At precisely twenty-seven point two five seconds Quatre took a flying leap and knocked Duo to the ground. For a boy who apologizes every time he has to kill someone, Quatre managed to pull off the insane-with-anger-I'm-gonna-kill-you-with-my-bare-hands personality quite well. In fact, he receives eight more points just for his strangling technique.
"I give up! I give up!" Duo somehow succeeded in saying, "I'm sorry! Just let me go!"
His only response was the choked, gleefully insane laughter that marked Quatre's lunacy. In fact, Quatre's eyes had to them a yellow glow that was suspiciously similar to the glow of the Wing Zero.
Somewhere in his befuddled mind, Trowa recognized that while in this state, the normally good-natured boy was not to be messed with. In fact . . . Trowa gets three healthy points for being the first to flee the room. Hiiro gets one lousy point for screaming at the top of his lungs: "HE'S HAVING A RELAPSE!!!" Wufei gets five points for being so amusing as he stood there, now alone, with absolutely no clue as to what the other two were screaming about.
"Huh?" was the only word that stumbled from his mouth.
"Help . . ." Duo pleaded in a strangled yelp.
"Um . . ." muttered Wufei, who had no love for the braided one, but did not condone unnecessary slaughter, "Shouldn't we do something?"
"DO something?!?" Hiiro shouted from behind a table that had been knocked on its side, "Do WHAT?!? You didn't see Quatre when he was actually piloting the Wing Zero! He's a madman! He's INSANE!"
Trowa was silent.
"But . . ." Wufei paused, pondering, "If he's insane like he was in Wing Zero . . . then shouldn't we try to make him sane again before he tries to kill us all?"
Hiiro and Trowa exchanged a glance over the table. Damn, said the glance, he's right . . .
With a pair of sighs and wary looks, the three inched over to Quatre and Duo, the latter of which was turning a rather pretty shade of royal blue. It took all of the strength between the three of them to pry Quatre's fingers from Duo's throat and then to lift him up and away so that the braided boy could stand and dart a healthy distance away.
"Er . . ." Wufei mused as they held the kicking, writhing, screaming former blonde, "Now what? How do we snap him out of it?"
"I know!" Duo cried, and the three gulped, turning a pale shade of grey. He rushed off only to return a few moments later with a bucket of water. Without hesitation Duo proceeded to fling the water in their general direction. While the water, very cold water indeed, splashed not only Quatre but Trowa and Hiiro as well, the bucket slipped from Duo's grasp and flew through the air, making a gorgeous three point landing right on Wufei's head.
"Baka . . ." came the metallic grumbling from beneath the pail.
"Oops . . ."
"You weren't supposed to splash US."
"Sorry, Hiiro!"
Trowa's bangs somehow managed to stay poised in the air, despite the weight of the water.
" . . ."
"Sorry, Trowa!"
"Wha happuned?" came Quatre's plaintive plea from Hiiro and Trowa's iron grip. The four pilots looked down at him, pitiful in his soaked and near naked confusion. His eyes were once more the soft blue they were all used to, and so filled with gentle bewilderment that his companions knew that he was no longer insane. For the time being at least.
"You . . . er . . . ate too much sugar before taking your shower," Duo offered with a lopsided grin. Although they knew that the excuse was weak at best, the other three nodded in agreement, for none of them had any better explanations and no one wanted to clarify exactly what had occurred. Quatre blinked at them all, then sighed.
"Well, I'll have to remember not to do that next time then," he said trustingly, "Um . . . Hiiro . . . Trowa . . ."
"Yes?"
"Hn?"
"Do you think you could let me go now? I think my arms are bruised . . ."


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


Duo leaned against the inside of his door, head banging rhythmically against the wood. For the past five hours he had been locked inside the small space that dared to call itself a bedroom, involuntarily confined to quarters by the three objective pilots. Hiiro, Trowa, and Wufei had decided that the best course of action for keeping Quatre safe from any more pranks was to keep Duo under house arrest. Only the house was defined by his room.
"C'mon! I was only trying to have a little fun! You guys gotta be bored here too! You understand, don't you?"
No answer.
"PLEASE LET ME OUT!" the braided one whined pathetically, "I'VE LEARNED MY LESSON!!! I PROMISE!!! PLEASE!!!"
Still no answer.
Duo returned to banging his head and waiting for his jailers to rediscover the lost parts of themselves that were human.
Outside, Wufei grinned stupidly as he kept guard over his nemesis.


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


Quatre stood in the bathroom, pale blue pajamas clinging to his skin, which was still somewhat wet from Duo's mishap with the bucket. From the mirror before him stared back a pink-haired version of himself. His blue eyes got ever so big and wide and filled with tears just ready to spill. Oh the horror! The humanity! His DIGNITY! However was it to be saved???
Quatre leaned his face forward into his hands and wept.
A hand, its touch tentative, lighted briefly on his shoulder. The boy looked up to see Trowa standing behind him, looking downwards, expression just as guarded as when they had first met, but with a tint of something else to it. The hand that had been on his shoulder hovered just slightly behind it now, as if wondering if it should attempt the contact again. A few tight moments passed in silence as Quatre gazed upwards, and Trowa stared at the floor in an attempt to avoid his gentle companions eyes.
"It's not that bad," he finally murmured, the barest hint of a flush coloring his cheeks. Quatre blinked, whether from surprise or to push back the tears it is unknown.
"Yes it is," he whispered, "No one took me seriously as a fighter before," his eyes trailed to the mirror once more, "Now it will be even worse."
"I . . ." Trowa paused to collect his jumbled, tumbled, and utterly befooozled thoughts before continuing, "I don't remember much. But I'm sure that I took you seriously. And I take what you just did to Duo very seriously."
Quatre blinked again, this time most definitely from surprise at hearing Trowa speak so much in one sitting. Then, as he lowered his gaze to the sink, the meaning of the tall boy's words finally hit him and he turned back.
Only to find Trowa gone.
He sighed.
One day . . . one day I'm going to find out what is going on in your head, Trowa.


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


A few days later, Duo wasn't sure exactly how many, he was finally released from involuntary confinement. His captors assumed that his time in prison had straightened him out, made him think about his actions, and think twice before attempting something along those lines again.
They don't know Duo very well, do they?
Unbeknownst to his helpless fort-mates, Duo had managed to smuggle the black magic marker out of his room in his back pocket.
And now . . . he was looking about to make certain no one was around to see him slip into the Gundam hanger . . .


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


Hiiro had just slipped into a hot shower when he heard a blood-curdling scream issue from outside. He blinked. From the pitch of it, quite high, it sounded like Quatre. But the content did not.
"KISAMA!!!!"
Hiiro, after weeks of living with his fellow pilots, had finally found it within himself to sigh. And he did. After a moment he decided that his curiosity, what little of it there was, had won over his need to stay in the shower. He stepped out and wrapped a towel around himself, then headed outside to see just what all the commotion was about.
Duo was running about, laughing maniacally. Nothing so new about that. Duo always ran about laughing maniacally. Behind him, Wufei wielded his katana, screaming "KISAMA!" and other less mentionable words in Duo's general direction. Nothing odd about that either. And, as usual when they were around, Quatre hid in barely disguised fear behind Trowa. Luckily for the boy a few days of showers had lightened his hair to a more bearable shade of pink than its original bright hue. Hiiro leaned in and murmured to him.
"What is going on?"
"I don't know exactly . . ." Quatre managed somehow to mumble back amid his shaking in fear, "apparently Duo did something to Shenlong . . ."
Hiiro's eyes widened. They all knew how protective Wufei was of his Gundam. Duo had to have been insane to do anything to the dragon pilot's Gundam. Even Hiiro himself would never have been brave enough to mar the "perfect beauty that is Nataku."
"How DARE you," Wufei was screaming, "ruin the perfect beauty that is Nataku!"
Hiiro crossed his arms and prepared to turn away when a high pitched, even more so than Wufei's original scream, laugh reached his ears. Hiiro blinked. Wufei stopped running and lowered his katana to follow the sound of the laugh. Quatre and Trowa looked at each other. Then, deciding that the knife show was over for the day, they backed away from each other just enough to still be within arms reach, and allowed their eyes to also find the perpetrator of the laugh. Duo still ran, laughing maniacally.
From the hill overlooking the valley where she normally made a showy and mysterious entrance came the woman who had brought them all here. She looked much less than mysterious now as she walked towards them, the shadow of embarrassment covering her tanned face. Her entire frame professed mortification, but they couldn't decide whether she was ashamed of them, or of the figure beside her.
That was the source of the demonic laughter that threatened to tear apart their eardrums. It was a girl, who looked no older than they were, somewhat younger even. Her hair was done in an unusual style none of them had ever seen before, and was amazingly long. She might have been a very lovely young woman, but none of them could tell for the simple fact that her mouth was taking up a large portion of her face as she cackled. Their mysterious benefactor growled something to the hyena that none of them could hear for the noise. As suddenly as it had come upon them, however, the laughing ceased as the girl heard whatever it was the woman had said to her.
"But . . . but Setsuna-san! You CAN'T be serious! I've seen killers! I've seen generations of killer youma, and trust me, these boys-"
"For the last time, Usagi-chan, BE QUIET!"
None of the pilots had ever seen or heard the woman yell before, and it took them all off guard. Apparently the same held true for this girl, Usagi-chan, for she immediately fell silent. A moment passed where the woman appeared to be gathering her thoughts and whatever shreds of her patience were left. At long last she opened her eyes and looked at them.
"I am Setsuna," she announced, "and I have brought you someone to help you save the Earth and the colonies."
A pause.
Then Duo, who had yet to cease running, slammed into the blonde girl and they both tumbled to the ground.
"BAKA!" she screamed at him.
"I like her," Wufei said to Hiiro.


End Chapter Five.