Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Colonist Labour Camp no. 125 ❯ Chapter 8 ( Chapter 8 )

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…), some 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: *Shuffles sheepishly back into the world of MediaMiner* Um…

Wufei: *Raises eyebrow, taps foot*

Me: Erm…

Wufei: *Raises chin*

Me: *Breaks down* Alright, I admit it! I have been far too lazy and bogged down with things to update this fanfic! I admit it!!!!! *Sobs*

Quatre: Oh, that wasn't very nice, Wufei. She tries her best.

Me: Y-Yes. My best. Yes. *nods fervently*

So, here I am, Christmas has come and gone in a flash, and the New Year has begun!

Bend and Snap: *Meeps guiltily* I know, I thank you very much for your honesty. ^^;; I will honestly try harder from now on to update a little more than I've been doing recently… but I can't promise anything. *Throws hands up* C'est la vie. And about the title… Yeah, I'll put the name of the camp until I (or someone else, which is more likely…) comes up with a better title. Thanks for the kick up the backside. ^_^

Pyrzm: *Squeaks in awe* Wow, I'm flattered that you reviewed my fic. I discovered your fic `Broken Warriors' recently, and I'm about halfway through. I didn't realise you were the author until just now, writing my author's notes… ^^;; So yeah, thanks.

Asaka_Sama: Have a muffin, you deserve one! I adore reviews that speculate (partly because I don't really know where this is going most of the time so I can steal ideas from people… *coughs* but you're not meant to know that), and yours made me laugh. And you can never have too many suggestions and weird theories. ^_~

Right, now that I've finished with my criminally long and rambly author's note…

 

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`Damnitdamnitdamnitdamnitdamnitdamnitdamnitdamnitdamnit 230;!'

 

All warm emotions that 05 might have previously felt had flown clear out of the proverbial window. “Where is he? It must be nearly an hour since he left!” he hissed.

 

“About forty minutes,” 03 corrected mildly, not taking his eyes off 04 who was now sleeping fitfully.

 

“That's long enough! The building isn't that big, and the information can't be that hard to find, surely? What -”

 

“05. Calm down. There's no need to assume the worst.”

 

He was right, 05 thought reluctantly. He took a deep breath, letting his eyes slip shut. With the first flow of forced calm came annoyance; annoyance that he'd allowed himself to get this flustered in the first place. It really was ridiculous. 05 pictured a large box, then pictured himself opening it and locking all of the negative emotions inside. There. That was much better.

 

Caught in a haze of blurred, numbed pain and sleep, 04 felt the rifle connect with Duo's forehead for a second time and he whimpered.

 

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“Fuck…” Duo murmured to himself. He opened his eyes slowly, blinking. He hastily shut them again, the light pulsing through his head, dim as it was. Hot damn. When he'd been knocked unconscious by a second blow to the head, he'd been positive that he was going to be administered a second beating. Yet, apart from the blow that had knocked him out, the soldiers had evidently obeyed the General's command. Apparently OZ had its loyalties.

 

“Are you ok?”

 

The distinctly feminine voice sounded close. Really close.

 

Duo forced his eyes open again, ignoring the pain as much as he could. Which wasn't much, to his irritation. The sight that met his vision was an interesting one. The first thing he noticed was that he was definitely back in one of the detention cells. The second thing his fogged brain registered was that there was a face hovering less than twenty centimetres away from his own. Odd really, the way the mind works under duress. “Woah!”

 

“Hey, hey, cool it,” the girl said, hastily scooting back a bit. “Seriously, no sweat. I'm a colonist, same as you.” She reached up to a round switch in the wall and dimmed the lights a little further. “There, is that better? You've probably got a concussion. There's an awful lot of blood, but head wounds bleed bad anyway, right? I think it's head wounds that do that, anyway…” she said, wrinkling her nose.

 

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph…” Duo groaned as he sat up, managing to grin weakly at the girl. “Yeah, it's head wounds that do that. Y'ain't from L2 by any remote chance…?” he asked, almost completely sure that she was. The L2 accent was fairly distinctive, after all, even if the girl's wasn't nearly so pronounced as Duo's.

 

The girl smiled and nodded. She had wide, cerulean blue eyes that shone with kind friendliness, though the shadow of caution that was practically L2's trademark was evident too. “Yeah. Takes one to know one, huh?”

 

“Right.” Duo lifted a hand and tentatively touched his forehead, wincing at the blood that came away with his fingers. “Ah, damnit. Could've at least gi'en me a warnin', the ruffians…” he sighed in mock haughtiness. The girl laughed.

 

“I'm 5647,” she said, holding out a bruised hand.

 

Duo shook it, nodding at the bruise. “W'happened there?”

 

“Oh, I whacked it off a chair when I got beaten,” 47 said, shrugging carelessly. “Stupid or what, huh?”

 

Grin somewhat recovered now, Duo nodded. “Well, better than havin' it stamped on,” he commented. “I'm Duo Maxwell, by the way.” He would have reeled off his motto, but his headache was really starting to get to him. “Dun bo'er askin' fer my number, cos I sure as hell can' amember it now. The las' coupla digits are 02, if ya wanna talk ta me when Ozzies are `roun'.” Duo's concussion meant that his voice was slightly off kilter, and it showed in the highly noticeable strengthening of his accent, not to mention the missed consonants on the ends of words.

 

“Ah. So you're the run'way colonist. I thought so,” 47 said. Duo couldn't quite figure out of her expression was one of muted awe or simple curiosity. “One o' the other colonists that was dropped in here, who left yesterday to go back to work, poor guy, said that there was a rumour going around the colonists that you'd retained ya name. I'm real glad it's true.” There was the barest tint of wistfulness in her tone.

 

“Yeah? Be'er hope OZ dun find out. Hate getting' spiked.”

 

47 agreed, smiling at the slang. “Haven't heard L2 street slang for a good coupla years. It's nice, I can tell ya.”

 

“Uh huh. Y'ain't from the streets?”

 

“Nope. I grew up with a good home, good family. Lucky me, huh?”

 

“Lucky you.” An intense tiredness was welling up inside Duo, demanding sleep at gunpoint. 47 noticed, and quickly reached behind her for a brown leather jacket that looked like it belonged to her. She folded it up and placed it on the cold ground.

 

“Here. You should get some sleep. Maybe when you wake up, you'll feel better, huh?” When a quiet chuckle made its way out from Duo's mouth, 47 stopped. “What?”

 

“Nothin'. Jus' reckon's cute, the way y'add `huh?' ta th'end o' every few sentences…” Duo's slightly slurred voice trailed off as he lay down on the makeshift pillow, curling up into his habitual foetal position and letting his senses dim, then black out.

 

47 blinked in surprise, which turned into bewildered flattery. “Cute, huh?” She giggled a little when she realised that she'd done it again. “Well, it's nice of you ta say so, I guess. You're really cute too, Duo Maxwell.”

 

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When Duo next returned to the world of the living, he found himself with less enjoyable company than that of the blue-eyed, dark-haired girl.

 

“Wake up.”

 

Duo stifled a groan. His headache was noticeably better, but he still ached from where he'd been knocked onto the ground before being thrown into a detention cell. He recognised the voice, though…

 

Opening his eyes, Duo's suspicions were confirmed. The General sat in a plain wooden chair opposite him, back straight, hands folded neatly in his lap. The door was ever so slightly ajar, presumably to let sound through to guards posted outside. “Wha's a'time?” he asked, voice rough. He cleared his throat twice. “What's the time?” he asked again, trying to restrain his accent as much as possible to make communication that tiny bit easier. Duo pushed himself off the floor so that he was sitting relatively comfortably, back to the wall adjacent to the door.

 

“Six am,” the General replied crisply. His cold eyes tracked Duo's every movement with sharp precision, and Duo fiercely fought the urge to fidget under such close scrutiny.

 

“Really? Wow. I was out for what, seven hours? Roughly, anyways.” A cheerful grin settled quickly into place. “I generally don't stay under that long, yanno.”

 

“So Colonel Khushrenada informed me,” the General nodded. Though Duo tried, he couldn't detect any reproach, any amusement, any emotion at all. It was downright unnerving.

 

“Uh, right.” Duo swiftly banished the unsettled feeling he got. “So, waddaya wanna see me for?”

 

“I was… curious.”

 

Gee. That cleared things up. Not. “'Bout what?”

 

“About you.”

 

“Fuck,” Duo muttered in exasperation. This guy was as bad as 03! No, scratch that, he was worse. At least 03 had emotions that were clearly displayed, if one looked hard enough. “What about me, exactly?”

 

“I don't think it's your place to ask that,” the General answered coolly.

 

“Oh, ya don't?” Duo couldn't be bothered to reign in his accent any more. It was perfectly understandable anyway, he reckoned. And if this statue of a man didn't understand him, well, tough. “Ya don' think that it's my place? Whaddabout your place, huh?! Ya think it's your place ta imprison innocen' people in camps like this?” Duo forced himself to stand up, half leaning against the wall for support. “Ya think ya got the right ta say, hey, do what I tell ya else my brainless lackeys'll thump ya guts out?! Don' you talk ta me about my place, buddy, cos as far I'm concerned, y'ain't even got the right ta have a place on this fuckin' earth!”

 

The silence that followed his infuriated outburst was punctuated only by Duo's harsh pants for breath. His fists were clenched at his sides, and General Yuy took this in, together with the angry body language. But what caught his attention the most was, again, the colonist's eyes. Just as Colonel Khushrenada had said; when this boy was angry, or meant harm, his violet eyes blazed with an almost inhuman light. When an officer mentioned it in Duo's presence, he had laughed and said, `That's how ya know that'cha dancin' with Shinigami.' Or something along those lines, anyway.

 

After a good two, maybe even three minutes had passed, the General broke the silence. “I could have you disciplined for your disrespect. But as that would only prove you right, perhaps I'd better just let it go.” Duo blinked and the violet flames dimmed slightly. That wasn't a dry attempt at humour, surely…? The General rose from the chair. “You will be escorted back to your cell.” Faster than Duo could possibly have prepared for, the General moved forward and grasped hold of Duo's jaw. He held it tightly, but not painfully; just enough to let the surprised boy know that he could grip a whole lot tighter if he wanted to. “But I'd be very careful about what you say and do here. Next time you step out of line, I might have forgotten all about what you just said.”

 

The flames were, incredibly, completely vanquished. Duo's eyes still glared with anger, but it would appear that the General was no longer `dancing with Shinigami'. Very strange. And very interesting. He held the gaze a moment longer before letting go, turning neatly on his heel and walking briskly, smartly, out the door.

 

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When 03 and 05 stumbled wearily into their cell after the day's toil, both supporting the utterly exhausted 04, they were delighted to find Duo staring thoughtfully at the wall, apparently none the worse for wear, except maybe a few bruises.

 

“Duo!” 05 said, surprised and relieved. “What happened? Did you get caught?” He carefully helped lower 04 to the ground. “Where have you been?”

 

“Got the info!” was the cheerful reply. 03, attuned to the workings of his fellow human beings as he was, noticed that the cheeriness was not wholly genuine, but he kept quiet. What could he say, after all? And besides, it was Duo's business, not his.

 

“Really?” 04 and 05 both chimed in unison.

 

Duo grinned, looking pleased at the expressions of hope on their faces. “Yep. Hey, didja doubt me?”

 

04 laughed wheezily, managing to look delighted even with fatigue clearly written on his drawn face. “Not at all. Though I did get a little worried when you got knocked out.”

 

“Ha! Yeah, that was…” Duo stopped. “Hang on, what?”

 

“Hmm?” 04 didn't look aware that he'd said anything out of the ordinary.

 

“How did ya know I got knocked out?” Duo frowned, tilting his head to one side.

 

04 blinked. “Oh! Um, I guessed. By the mark on your forehead.” He gave a small smile, but it was interrupted by a coughing fit that evidently caused him great pain. He clutched weakly at his throat with one hand, curling slightly in on himself to try and ease the coughs. 03 rubbed his back soothingly, displaying more emotion than Duo had ever seen him display.

 

“Hey man, y'ok?” Duo asked, letting the previous conversation slide in favour of concern. He scooted forward a little so that he was in front of 04.

 

“Y-yeah. I'm fine.” 04's voice was hoarse. He swallowed once, then looked up. “Anyway, so, did you get our names?”

 

“Hey, clean forgot `bout that,” Duo chuckled sheepishly. “Yeah, I told ya I got `em already. Ears open guys, cos I dun wanna have ta repeat myself.” He cleared his throat and looked around him, in mock dramatic effect.

 

05 rolled his eyes. “Get on with it, Maxwell!”

 

“Keep ya tail on, buddy,” was the mock-haughty reply. “Right, don't interrupt me, else I'll probably lose track o' where I am.” Duo took a deep breath. “03, You're Trowa Barton of L3, born on the 7th o' September, BP 17. Or AC 189, whichever. 04, you're Quatre Raberba Winner (nice name, by the way) of L4, born November the 17th AC 190 (happy late birthday, buddy!). An' 05, you're Chang Wufei, Wufei Chang, whichever way round ya want it, from L5, born December the 31st. Makes sense ta me, ya seem kinda Capricorn-y.” Duo panted for air, having reeled everything of in almost one breath, except the last four words. He kept quiet, watching the faces of his friends as they digested the information. 04, or Quatre, was saying his name very slowly under his breath, a tiny frown on his forehead as he rolled the name experimentally round his mouth. 03, Trowa, had his eyes closed and he was perfectly still. And 05, Duo was gratified to see, had a happy, contented smile on his face, eyes closed.

 

“I remember…” he whispered. “I remember now.” He opened his eyes and looked at Duo. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

 

“No problem, buddy,” Duo smiled. He leaned forward and gave Wufei a hug, pleased when the other hugged him back. He was even more pleased however when he felt another pair of arms encircle him from the side, and yet another join from behind him.

 

Yes, this was worth it. To be the cause of so much joyful gratitude was well worth a bump on the head. Duo smiled blissfully and for a few brief seconds in the arms of his friends, all his worries were forgotten.

 

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Sandy: Meh. Sap at the end there. *Sighs* Well, I had to throw some sap in there, right? I mean, come on, I had nothing else to put!

Quatre: ^^;; I don't think you're meant to admit that.

So sue me. Only, don't!

*Gasp* 47 is alive! For now… If any of you remember her… I thought it was very unlikely that any of you would remember her number, so I tried to make it a little more obvious who she was, but reading over it I don't think I succeeded… So I'm saying it here. :p

Again, it's not very long, and it's not very good, but you should be used to that by now, right…? ^^;; Sorry anyway.

Please review, you'll make me the second happiest person alive! The first happiest being, of course, the librarian over there when I leave. She's been glaring at me while I've been finishing this chapter off, for some unknown reason. Must be a librarian thing. o.0