Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Colonist Labour Camp no. 125 ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: Do I look like I own Gundam Wing to you? Ok, I am Japanese, but no. Seriously, I do not own the Gundam boys, and I certainly have nothing worth suing me for. ^^

Rating: R for safety, but this may change later.

Warnings: Um, good question. Shounen-ai/yaoi, violence, general cruelty all round. Language, angst (can't do without the angst!), OOC (I try my best, but sometimes they just slip out of character…), OCs (forgot to mention this earlier, oops), um… I think that's it. I'll be adding to this list as I go along, probably, so keep an eye on it people!

Pairings: Ooh, secret. ^_~

Author's notes: Good grief, I thought I'd put this chapter up AGES ago! But apparently not… And I can't find it anywhere on my damn computer… So that is why this chapter is SO late in coming out. Sorry!! *Meekly hands out cookies*

Thewarriorkai: Again, I say thankyou, especially since you keep on writing me long reviews! I'm glad you like the way I write Duo ^^

The Shell: Hmm, I've been toying with that idea actually. Should I or should I not have Wufei and the Colonel form a relationship…? I haven't decided yet… What are everyone's views on this?

Nita-Sama and Krissy220: Thankyou for reviewing! You make me happy. And don't worry, Heero will make an appearance soon, if not in this chapter.

 

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03 was, as per usual, woken up at half past five by an OZ officer banging loudly on the metal door. As per usual, he was shouting at them to, “Wake up, you lazy dogs, or I'll come in there and beat the shit out of you!” And as per usual, 03 blearily stood up, stretching extensively in an attempt to remove some of the stiffness to make way for the stiffness that would come later in the day.

 

Not per usual, 03 stepped forward onto a slim ankle.

 

“OW! Fuckin' ow!! Hey, no need ta step on me, I'm fuckin' awake already!!”

 

The words, spoken in petulant tones, made 04 smile sleepily as he sat up, rubbing his eyes. “03, don't step on poor Duo,” he admonished, looking amused.

 

“You think I stood on him on purpose?” 03 retorted indignantly. Well, it sounded indignantly for him; it wasn't really more than a slightly faster talking speed.

 

Standing up and stretching luxuriously, reminding 03 vaguely of a cat, Duo laughed his infectious laugh. “Hey, no worries,” he grinned. “Didn't really hurt all tha' much anyways.” He yawned and 03 caught a brief glimpse of a long, pink tongue that flicked upwards just as Duo's mouth closed. 03 glanced over at 05 to see if he was awake, and was intrigued to see the odd expression on his face. He was looking at Duo, head tilted to the side slightly, eyes just a tiny bit wider than normal, looking quite unlike his usual grumpy self.

 

Before 03 could dwell on this further however, the metal door swung open to reveal Corporal Acht, an ugly sneer on his unpleasant face. “Get out, unless you don't want breakfast,” he barked. 03 could see that he was carrying a menacing looking truncheon-type weapon; evidently, he expected trouble from Duo. But he was to be disappointed (or relieved), as Duo did nothing worse than fix a disturbing glare on him, which didn't abate until the group reached the dining block.

 

“At last,” Duo muttered to 04, grinning, “food! I haven't eaten fer a while, an' I'm starvin'…”

 

“I wouldn't go so far as to call it `food',” 04 answered dryly.

 

“Hell, if it can be digested without too much o' a fuss, then s'food s'far as I'm concerned,” came the cheerful reply.

 

The four sat down at their usual table, 03, 04 and 05 ignoring the hushed whispers and stares that were directed at Duo. The recipient of such interest, however, was puzzled. “Yo, guys? Why's everyone lookin' at me?” Duo asked, fidgeting a little. He obviously disliked the attention.

 

“Probably because of the impractical thing you call a braid,” 05 replied, seemingly back to his usual self, picking up the plastic spoon in front of him and prodding the rations dubiously.

 

Duo chuckled amiably. “Sure, it's impractical, but I manage, an' I ain't cutting it off fer no good reason.” He also picked up his spoon and scooped up several of the small brown things on his plate, sniffing them once before popping them in his mouth and chewing thoughtfully. He swallowed them and grinned. “Tastes abou' as good as it looks,” he said. Then, abruptly changing the subject, “Is it cos I wasn' caught fer nearly a year? Or cos I attacked some o' the officers? Or jus' cos I'm new?”

 

“Probably all three, and more besides,” 04 answered before starting on his own breakfast. “Which reminds me, how did you manage to hide for so long? And where were you? The rumours say Spain, but…” he shrugged.

 

He received an amused and slightly bewildered blink. “I got rumours goin' round `bout me?” Duo asked, looking as though he couldn't decide whether to laugh or be scared.

 

“Course you do. Most of them are speculating rumours, though, no-one's really decided anything about you yet.” 09 sat down at the table opposite 03, her eyes red and puffy.

 

Duo gave her a friendly smile. “Hey there,” he said. “Don' think I've seen ya `fore. What's ya na… Um, number?”

 

“1009,” 09 replied curtly before starting to eat.

 

“She's a good friend of ours,” 04 said.

 

“Nice ta meetcha, 1009,” Duo chirped in his upbeat tenor. “Can I call ya 09? Or is that too friendly for ya?” 03 couldn't hear any sarcasm in the last sentence; it seemed perfectly sincere.

 

“Whatever.”

 

Duo didn't seem put off by 09's brusque attitude; he carried on talking as though 09 was being equally amicable. “Is ya hair colour natural?” he asked, head tilted a little to the side in a way that made him look childish, charming and, 05 thought privately, rather cute.

 

“Are your eyes natural?” 09 retorted snidely.

 

She looked very surprised (as did everyone else there; they had all assumed what 09 had assumed) when Duo replied, “Yep! 100%. Weird, huh? They change colour too, dependin' on the light.”

 

“Really?” Despite her misery and wanting to be anti-social, 09 couldn't help but be curious.

 

“Yep. I didn't use ta like `em, but now I think they're kinda cool. They freak a lotta people out, yanno? Useful when ya wanna glare at someone, like some random Ozzie officer.”

 

“Who'd you get them from?” 09, having eaten about half her breakfast, began putting the remains in her pockets for the 3:00 break.

 

“… Who'd I get em' from?” Duo echoed, raising an eyebrow. “Um, I think I was born with `em, but someone might've switched eyes with me when I was sleepin'…”

 

The look on Duo's face, as though he was seriously pondering the possibility, very almost made 09 smile. “No, I meant, who did you inherit them from? Your mother, father, grandparents?”

 

03 got the distinct impression that Duo was purposefully playing the fool in order to cheer 09 up. There wasn't really any way for Duo to know that 09 was grieving over 47, but it was fairly obvious that 09 had been crying copiously.

 

Duo shrugged. “Couldn't tell ya. If ya ever spot someone older `n say, 27, with eyes like mine, ask `em if they ever had a son who they ain't seen in fourteen years,” he said flippantly, looking perfectly unconcerned.

 

“Oh… So you're an orphan?” 09 asked, looking sympathetic.

 

“Again, couldn't tell ya. I assume so, but I don't really know. I was found by a guy call… Um, a guy on the streets, when I was abou' three.”

 

09 thought about this for a moment, before blinking and looking a little sheepish. “Heh, sorry, I don't know your number?” she said, looking appreciably less miserable than she had five minutes before.

 

“Oh boy. Um…” Duo wrinkled his nose. “2538402. No, that's wrong, it's 2531402. Not 8. Yeesh, how does OZ `spect me ta remember that?!”

 

09 nodded. Then may I call you 02?”

 

“Duo,” 04 and 05 said simultaneously. 09 looked at them, puzzled.

 

“Duo Maxwell. I run and I hide, but I never tell a lie,” Duo recited, repeating word for word what he'd said to the others when introducing himself.

 

“You… still have a name?” 09 said quietly, looking at Duo with surprise. When Duo nodded, she smiled wistfully. “You lucky thing. Can I call you Duo in private then? When OZ can't hear?”

 

“Sure thin',” Duo replied, grinning. “I was gonna ask ya ta do that anyways.”

 

“How come you still have your name? Did the drug not work on you? Or did OZ not give you it?”

 

“I'm immune, I guess. My immune system's real weird, but dead good. I don't think I've been ill fer…” Duo wrinkled his nose again, like he always did when he was thinking, 05 realised. “Um, ever, come ta think of it. Oh, I had flu once, when I was about ten or so, but that's it.”

 

“Cool,” 09 said, a small smile on her pale face.

 

The conversation turned towards the work they did at the camp; Duo decided that metalwork sounded the best, seeing as it wasn't too physically taxing, and besides, he liked that sort of thing. He was a fairly good mechanic, he said, so it would be at least a tiny bit enjoyable for him, surely. 09 advised him not to advertise this, or else OZ would most likely keep him purposefully away from metalwork from sheer spite. Then Duo turned the conversation to animals somehow, and 09 and 04 reminisced affectionately on dogs they had kept (04 had two golden labradors and a springer spaniel, 09 had an albino greyhound), and even 05 offered up information on a black cat called Wei, which meant `tail' (“I didn't name her, some idiotic toddler did! And he tended to call her Wei-Wei, which probably sounds daft even to you…”), of whom he had been rather fond.

 

By the time breakfast finished at five to six, 09 looked considerably happier, and 04 also looked as though some tension had left him, for which 03 was more than thankful. He had been concerned that the stress of worrying over both young 77 and 47 would worsen 04's illness, but he hadn't so much as coughed once since waking up.

 

It looked to 03 as though Duo was a blessing, even if he was insane. And the memory of Duo's ferocious behaviour towards some of the OZ officers seemed no more than a bad dream; in fact, it was almost forgotten.

 

03 hoped fervently that things would stay this way. And that 47 and 77 would be alright. As long as those two things happened, then 03 was sure 04 would be able to continue life in relative good health.

 

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“Here? You're serious? Why the hell does the General want to come here?”

 

“Don't ask me, I just heard it from Corporal Trant.”

 

“Trant?”

 

“Yeah. He says the General's arriving in three days, Friday the 25th.”

 

“Hell… Guess that means we'd better make sure none of the colonists cause any trouble.”

 

“Oh, I ain't worried about them. They're too fuckin' scared of us to try anything, especially if they know the General's coming.”

 

“Maybe…”

 

“You're not convinced, Mueller?”

 

“… It's that colonist with the braid I'm thinking about. I don't doubt the others will be fine, but him…”

 

“Ah, shit… Forgot about him. Well, he'll just have to be corrected whenever possible in the next three days.”

 

“Shouldn't we just execute him?”

 

“Are you bloody joking? I bet he's at least half the reason that the General's coming down. We capture the boy, less than a week later the General decides he's coming for a visit? Big coincidence.”

 

“You might be right… Think it's worth asking the Colonel?”

 

“If you get the chance, then I reckon…”

 

“Lieutenant Nichol! Vid call from Lieutenant Colonel Merquise. God, what a mouthful of a name…”

 

“What's he want me for? He usually contacts Otto, doesn't he?”

 

“How should I know? But you'd better be quick, it sounded urgent.”

 

05 watched silently as Lieutenant Nichol hurried off, digging (again! Bloody hell, he was on digging AGAIN) steadily, digesting the information he'd just overheard. Worry for the colonist whom he'd known less than a day nipped relentlessly at his insides, though 05 couldn't explain quite why he was so concerned. Probably because of the ease with which he'd cheered 09 and 04 up. And the fact that he'd managed to evade capture for so very long.

 

05 suddenly realised that Duo hadn't actually gotten round to explaining just how he'd stayed concealed. He made a mental note to ask again at dinner, then cleared his mind of thoughts and let the familiar meditative calm wash over him, soothing and strengthening him as he dug.

 

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Sandy: *Cheesy advert-type music* To help me write faster, why don't you email me some suggestions on stuff you want put into the story, stuff you want to happen? Or if you can't be bothered to email me, then you could include suggestions etc in your reviews! (Perhaps this would be better, as it makes the review look longer… ^^;; heh heh, I have a thing for long reviews...) *End cheesy advert-type music*

Anyway, sorry again for this chapter taking so long. And I know it's short, I know, I'm sooooo sorry! I just can't write long chapters, the knack eludes me… I probably could if I sat down and really, really tried for ages… Maybe I'll try that sometime.

Review, please, and thankyou for your patience.