Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Garou ❯ Lerning to Deal ( Chapter 28 )
Warnings: 1~5 tension, some angst.
I Have Decided that Catherine and Trowa will not be siblings in the story. I know it's canon for anyone who read the episode zero and also happens to have a brain, but I frankly don't want to deal with the repercussions. I think it's cuter how they adopted each other anyway, and the fact that they just happen to find each other again by chance always seemed helluva farfetched to me. It isn't really important for the plot anyway, it doesn't change the relationships. They're still siblings in heart if not in blood and that's the important part. (even when they're not blood-related, 3xC always leave me with an icky feeling in my stomach X_X They may not have to be related, but they sure act like it.)
And NO (because I know that some of you won't remember) Hilde and Trowa didn't meet. He wasn't there when she was with the other boys at school. Are you following?! ^___~
Learning to Deal
Heero climbed aboard, sliding behind some crates to hide from the few Sweepers already working on the deck. They were only a few, luckily, and he didn't have too much trouble to reach the entry of the living quarters.
He was glad to find the door already opened. In his wolf shape, he probably couldn't have opened it... No opposable thumbs and all. He shouldered the heavy door out of the way and slipped through the corridors to his room, only paying attention to his surroundings in the most automatic way.
The teenager was already turning back into human shape when he heard laughter in the adjoining room. Duo, and a girl's voice, too young to be sally and not deep enough to be Cathy. Instinctively, he stepped closer to the door and listened.
Hilde. The Were wondered briefly what she was doing here, and leaned closer to the door before he remembered that it wasn't polite to spy on his friends... and if Duo ever knew that he had listened in on one of his private conversation, he'd get mightily pissed. The American teen didn't get angry often, but when he did, better hope you could run fast enough. Heero stepped away from the door and began to search for clothes, trying not to pay attention to the laughing voices on the other side of the door.
He was clothed and searching for something Trowa could wear when he heard his name. Unable to resist, he leaned closer to the door, a heavy pullover still in hand.
"Stared at me as if... helping of red meat.... Wufei turning all red... didn't you tell us it could happen?! ... shagged Wufei..."
Heero paused. Told as Duo was telling it, it sounded amusing. But now that he thought about it, he couldn't help but feel bad. He had been totally irresponsible, had gone walking around in places where anyone could have seen him, had totally neglected his comrades' desires and decisions... Even worse. Had nearly attacked one of his comrades and tried to ... to rape another.
He shuddered. Now that he could think more rationally, he was realizing that it could have gone very wrong... that maybe it already had.
He would not have cared about anyone crossing his path. He'd probably have attacked just the same.
And if Duo had not run away fast enough...
He had to present his apologies, he decided, his good mood disappearing. He had behaved like a real asshole.
"Wu... taking it badly..."
His eyes widened with alarm.
'Oh no, Wufei... I...I forced him, I forced him and he didn't want it, and ...he couldn't say no, I took advantage of him and nothing else... Oh FUCK...'
Dropping on the floor the pullover he had been supposed to fetch for Trowa, he took off in the corridor, searching for the Chinese teen's scent, running after the freshest scent, not caring about the Sweepers he was rushing past.
He only realized that the trail led to the showers when he skid on the wet tiles and had to slide to a stop. The smell was moister, fainter, as if half dissolved in the steam that the hot water was creating, but still more recent than on the trail. Wufei was still there.
He looked up, searching with his eyes rather than with his nose.
Standing by one of the benches, the black-haired boy still had his arms raised above his head, but he had frozen in the act of toweling his hair dry to stare. He was nearly nude, only wearing white briefs that dampness glued to his skin.
His shoulders and neck were covered in scratches, teeth marks and bruises that were just beginning to turn purple.
'Wait... I did that?' the werewolf wondered, half-horrified by the sheer number of them.
Realizing that he was staring, the Japanese pilot turned around, blushing slightly. Wufei was startled out of his surprise and lowered his arms in a hurry, hiding by reflex his chest behind the towel he had been using on his hair.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" the black-eyed boy hissed, grabbing his shirt and putting it on in a hurry.
"I was searching for you," Heero answered, not looking at him.
"You found me. Now, what the hell do you want?" the tiger asked in a sharp voice.
Heero grimaced, glad that he wasn't facing Wufei.
"... I need to talk to you... Can I wait outside?" he proposed without leaving Wufei any time to protest or insult him.
He looked furious, and he had a right to be, Heero thought as he walked out to lean against the wall. He didn't know what he had hoped for, Wufei telling him that it wasn't his fault and he understood? How could he understand? Heero himself had barely understood, and then only hours after it had begun inside of him. And he wasn't the one who had gotten nailed with no warnings by one of his teammates with no regard for his true sexual orientation.
Heero slid down the wall until he was sitting on the cold wall, bent his knees to rest his chin on them, and sighed deeply.
A few minutes later, Chang walked out of the locker room, a small bag with his things thrown over a shoulder. He gave Heero a wide berth when he stopped, looking down on him, in silence. The japanese teen sighed and, without daring to look at him, got up slowly.
"I went to tell you that I'm sorry," he said with a short bow, his tone turning formal. "If you require compensation from me, I'm ready."
Wufei snorted, eyeing him contemptuously. His fists were closed so tight they were turning white.
"Come to the gymnasium with me," he ordered coldly, walking away without looking to see if Heero was following.
The Wolf in Heero growled a little, annoyed that Wufei dared to act as dominant, but shut up pretty fast. Heero's human side had no clue about the notions that bothered his human half so much, like the fact that having sex with someone who was too intoxicated by something external to their own body counted as rape as much as throwing them savagely on the ground and forcing them to take it, but he still felt confusedly that he had done wrong to his packmate. That deserved a compensation.
Not worrying about the few Sweepers exercising on the machines, Wufei threw his bag on the floor and walked to a corner of the room covered with mats. Heero followed, his shame forbidding him to lift his eyes higher than Wufei's heels.
"Come on," the Chinese pilot threw at him, dropping into a fighting stance.
Heero mirrored him halfheartedly.
"Defend yourself. I don't want a punching-ball, but an adversary. So fight!"
Heero nodded, weakly.
Wufei attacked.
* * * * * *
Trowa was nearly falling back asleep when a cool breeze reminded him brutally that he was laying naked in the middle of a clearing. He sat up in a leap, blushing slightly. Sadly the relaxing aftereffects of the night before and of his discussion with Heero were starting to dissipate and he felt a little more uneasy. There wasn't much of a chance that he would meet someone so deep in the woods, but still... It wasn't for nothing that he was always wearing turtlenecks; he hated to show skin.
He decided not to stay there doing nothing and waiting for the other wolf to come back and got up, stretching carefully. He thought about a way to find his way back to the boat for a little while, but they had run a lot and there was no way he could go back that path. Okay, the position of the sun could give him the direction of the seaside, and once there he would only have to follow it to arrive to the ship... If he didn't take the wrong turn. But he had always had a good sense of directions, it wouldn't be that big a problem. And if Heero came back to find him gone, he could always follow his scent...
Stopping short, Trowa slapped his forehead.
"I'm truly an idiot," he murmured with a little smile.
Closing his eyes, he took in a deep breath through his nose, wondering how tracking was done.
The answer came as fast and brutally than a punch in the nose. Less painful than a real one, but still as dizzying.
There weren't words to describe exactly what it was that he could smell. Apart maybe from using visual metaphors...
At first it was confusing, a melange of paints thrown haphazardly on a canvas, creating a shapeless mixture, but when he concentrated, the scents slowly untangled from each other. He opened his eyes, slowly, trying to superpose the smells to what he saw.
It was psychedelic.
To assign colors to the scents helped him a little, as he realized. It was as if he was seeing traces of colored smoke in the air, more or less clear depending on the place it was coming from and the time it had been there from. And it was way stronger when close to the source, but he couldn't "see" that before he got closer. It was so weird.
He leaned forward, following the path a small canine, probably a fox, had taken through the clearing. It had gone through here a while ago, the smell was... rancid, faded, nearly erased. But close to the ground, it was strong enough for Trowa to know that it was probably male, and old too.
Like snails dipped in paint then let loose on a blank canvas, thought Trowa while smelling another path crossing the fox's. It was easy finally. He just needed to find the smell he wanted, and to go where it was the strongest.
Yes, very easy. He had not needed to worry finally. He was always so prone to analyzing things that didn't really need it.
Taking a deep breath, he straightened up. The smell in the clearing was that...
...of sex, the teen realized, grimacing.
Curious, he smelled his own hands. He ignored the faint twinge of heat coming from his loins as he smelled the pheromones, searching for something else. Heero's scent was all over him, mixed with his own and that of the rut, but not enough to render it unrecognizable.
Walking in the direction Heero had taken to walk out of the clearing, Trowa sniffed the air again, trying to engrave in his memory the cent of his comrade, then followed it to the best of his abilities.
* * *
Hilde and Duo walked out from Duo's room to go to the deck, and met with Catherine who was leaving Trowa's room, looking worried.
"Did you see him?" she asked right off the bat.
"Who? Trowa?" the American teen asked.
Cathy nodded impatiently, her curls bouncing around her face. She had a look to her that told that she was on her last nerve, which could be understood when you thought that her adoptive brother had been close to dying the last time she'd seen him and that no one seemed to have a clue where he could be as of now. The only thing that stopped her from panicking was that if he had died, they would have found his body somewhere on the boat... unless he'd found a way to fall in the water or hide somewhere to die.
"Err... No..."
Immediately, her face fell and her shoulders with it. Duo and Hilde gave each other a concerned look.
"But you know, he's doing well!" the boy added hurriedly.
"And how do you know that, if you didn't see him?!" the young woman asked with irritation.
"Hilde knows," he replied, pointing to his friend.
Catherine stares at the brunette.
"Hilde, meet Catherine Bloom, Trowa's adoptive sister. Cathy, meet Hilde Schbeiker, my best girl friend. Hilde's a werewolf too," he added offhandedly.
The knife-thrower woman blinked. Apart from the dark look she was giving Duo, the black-haired girl looked totally ordinary.
"Yeah, and relax, I didn't see him but I could smell him, and believe me if he was dying I'd know," Hilde answered gamely. "And he was with Heero, if anything had happened he'd have told us. Believe me, if anything happens, Heero will do anything to help. He can't do otherwise anyway."
"What do you mean?" the young woman asked, puzzled by the comment.
Hilde stepped closed and laid a hand on her arm.
"Heero is pack leader. Trowa is part of his pack. He cannot not take care of him, ok? That's impossible."
Heero was a good pack leader, the brunette reflected. Well, he made mistakes, but since he didn't have a clue what the hell he was doing it wasn't surprising, and she would have expected a lot more fuck ups. At least when he was able to think he placed his pack before himself... She chased those morose thoughts; it wasn't the right moment for self-pity.
Cathy let loose a long, relieved sigh and relaxed slightly.
"Swear?"
"I swear. He's fine. Maybe we'll need to go pick him up because he's gonna be tired, but apart from tiredness he's gonna be ok. Bet Heero and him hunted, and it's all he needs right now. Hey, you wanna come with us? I was walking to the deck with Duo, we can watch out for him there, ok?" she added with a slightly forced good cheer.
The redhead nodded and followed them down the corridor.
"Haveta fetch Quatre," Duo told Cathy. "He managed to get caught some fifteen miles away, buck naked behind a barn, I won't tell ya what can happen if he gets caught. Told me all about his adventure to get out of the barn and to the phone boot, except the phone boot's in view of the road. Hey, now that I think of it, they must all be naked, those morons... Really should think 'bout leaving them some clothes outside next time we're not in private! Well... if there ain't another one rutting ..." he added, grumbling.
Hilde and Cathy laughed.
"Oh, relax," Hilde snorted. "As long as it's not Heero, you're not at risk so long as you hide somewhere..."
"Idiot," Duo grimaced back.
"Idiot yourself, you cretin!"
"Moron!"
"Children, enough...!" Catherine sighed. She wasn't that much older.
Hilde and Duo stuck their tongue out, falsely contrite.
Once on the deck, Duo went to retrieve his bike from the small hangar and drove down the gangway carefully. The girls watched him leave... well, Hilde watched him, Cathy was staring at the bushes up on the cliff to notice.
After waving at them, he disappeared on the path and the two girls stayed alone by the gangway.
"So, what do we do? We wait for your bro here?"
Catherine shrugged. There was nothing else to do.
* * *
The she-wolf chose a space in the sun, out of the way of the Sweepers working around, and lay down on the floor, hands behind her head. It was going to be a beautiful day.
True, she hadn't traveled so far just to take a nap in the sun, but she had not really expected everyone to be busy like that. She'd thought that after a full moon, they'd be resting.
She hadn't even found a way to talk with Duo... Not that she was so sure she wanted to tell him what was bothering her recently. But usually his mere presence was enough to help her forget her problems and really feel the joy and good mood she showed.
But he didn't have time, that's the way it was... and he was a boy, she wasn't very comfortable with the idea of revealing some things to him. And if she began to allude to problems she had with her pack, he wouldn't stop bugging her before knowing all about it... There were things that bring back to the surface would be useless and painful.
She glanced at Catherine who was sitting at her side. From the few she had seen and the bits of information she had heard here and there on the young woman, she seemed to have a developed maternal instinct. Sadly, Hilde didn't know her enough to talk to her; the mere fact that she knew about the lycanthropy was more than enough information in her hands.
Hilde reminded herself to tell the boys to limit to the maximum the number of people knowing. They would have enough problems with the other packs because of their insubordination, Hilde didn't want to know what would happen of those of, let's say her own pack, learned of the exact number of humans those novices had already revealed their existence.
"Something wrong?" Catherine asked when she saw him make a face.
"Oh, no, nothing," the brunette assured with a forced smile." Um... Catherine?
"Yes?"
"I just wanted to warn you... Never tell anyone about what you leaned here," she whispered, intensely serious.
The curly-haired girl's eyes widened when she caught her dark expression.
"It's important. Never admit that you know, even if they tell you that they know all about it too. I mean... Deny. Always deny.
"You're talking about..."
"About Trowa's problem. The boys either have no idea, or they don't care, after all they can defend themselves and they're used to disappearing, but you..."
She glanced around to verify that none of the Sweepers was within earshot and leaned toward the young woman.
"If one of them smells Trowa's scent on you, they will interrogate you to see what you know."
"Oh... And that's a problem?"
"Catherine, the law forces us to either change or kill any human who'd learn anything about us, and you know way too much! Howard and Sally too, but Sally is Resistance and always moves around and changes aliases, and Howard is always surrounded by tons of Sweepers. You live in a circus, right? That's not the surest place in the world."
Catherine made a face and reached for her wrist. The knife sheath had stayed in her trailer. She would put it on as soon as she came back. She didn't like expecting bad things from all strangers, but Hilde looked way too serious for her advice to be totally baseless.
"I don't want to talk about it anyway. It would put Trowa in danger... Who'd believe me anyway?" she asked, weary.
"It's a principle," Hilde sighed. "It's a law."
"... You don't follow it," Cathy observed in a soft voice.
The brunette clenched her teeth.
"No, I don't," she muttered and rolled over on her other side, turning her back on the young woman.
There was a long moment of silence.
"I'm sorry," Catherine offered gently.
"It's not your fault," Hilde sighed as she turned over again. "I just haven't been in a good mood lately, dunno why," she added with a small smile, trying to forget her unease.
She did know why, and it wasn't anything she could tell Cathy about.
"...I hope Trowa is ok..." the redhead whispered. "I mean... I hope nothing happened to him. It's the first time he transforms, and he was ill so long...
Hilde shrugged.
"You'll be surprised to see how fast he gets better. He probably gorged himself with meat, I doubt he'll feel overly tired for long. Now that he has gotten through..."
"But isn't it weird to change for the first time?"
"Dunno, I was born that way."
"...oh."
Another moment of silence.
"Heero was rather... violent with Wufei... and frankly aggressive about Duo... you think...?"
Hilde wanted to lie to her, to tell her that as long as Trowa was under the influence of the pheromones, he'd be very happy to participate. But she knew all too well that it was far from always being the case.
Most of the time, all participants were happy to be there. But the fact was that, if one of them wasn't... it wouldn't change the actions and reactions of the others.
"Dunno," she muttered and closed her eyes, effectively ending the conversation.
* * *
A half-hour later, Hilde caught Trowa's scent in the wind and they left the ship with clothes for him. They climbed the path up the cliff to go to the seaside road, and waited. Trowa wouldn't have any trouble seeing them if he was around.
They didn't wait more than ten minutes before he arrived.
"Trowa??" exclaimed Catherine when she caught a glimpse of her brother through the leaves. "Is that you?"
"Cathy?" Trowa blurted out, surprised by her presence. "What are you..."
He didn't have the time to finish his sentence, the young woman had just thrown herself at him, so strongly that he landed on his butt in the grass.
"Oh, Trowa..." she whispered, hiding her face against his shoulder and hugging him hard enough to choke him.
Caught by surprise, he blinked like an owl, staring at the mass of curly hair under his nose, the only thing he could see of her. She was shaking, and he realized that she was crying.
"I was so afraid for you..."
"I'm okay, Cathy, I swear," he mumbled, not knowing what else to do.
Shyly, he hugged her back for a second then dropped his arms, and she leaned back, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand.
"I'm sorry, I just... I was so scared... Are you really ok now?"
She had troubles believing that he was. She still remembered the horrifying way his bones had broken under his skin, the sounds his body had made, wet, disgusting sounds, the screams it had torn from his throat.
"I'm all right," he assured her, giving her a little smile. "I'm tired and hungry as hell, but I'm okay. ...Um, Cathy..." he added, looking down.
The young woman turned red when she realized that he was naked and jumped back.
"Hilde, the clothes!"
Trying to hold back her giggles, the brunette girl gave him the pants and the t-shirt she was holding, then turned away with a sigh when he stared at her hard.
"You wouldn't be a prude perchance?"
He didn't answer, but then she had not expected an answer.
"Hilde, be nice to Trowa!" Catherine scolded her, protecting the boy as always.
"Yes, miss."
Trowa had... just as perfect a body as she was expecting from a gundam pilot, and even if she knew there were about the same chances that she would want to go out with the other Wolf than with Howard, it was still interesting to watch. It wasn't as if she wanted more than that.
Once the teenager dressed, Catherine introduced them.
"Trowa, meet Hilde. I think you heard of her. She's a werewolf too, from what Duo said."
'she smells the part anyway', the new werewolf thought, fascinated how the scents of the girl and the she-wolf were distinct and yet told of the same person. He had noticed it from Heero's trail, but it hadn't been that clear, probably because the smell was dead already, didn't emanate directly from him.
"Hilde, meet Trowa, my adoptive brother."
As always, Trowa felt a mix of embarrassment and surprise when she said that, and concentrated on not showing it. If she knew that he was still as dazed by the fact that he had now family as when she had first suggested it, she would give him that pained look again and he couldn't stand it.
The black-haired girl gave Trowa's body a thorough once-over, smirking, but was disappointed when he didn't react. It wasn't funny to annoy people that calm. If she'd done that to Wufei or Quatre, they would have at least turned pinkish.
"Let's go back to the ship," she grumbled, annoyed.
Trowa nodded slowly and followed the girls down the path.
"I need to sleep," he informed Catherine. He didn't want her to think that he didn't want her company, but he was way too tired to talk with her.
"Yes, I suppose it wasn't very restful," the young woman admitted unhappily.
"I will have things to tell you all, but we'll have to wait for Duo and Quatre," Hilde announced suddenly.
Trowa stank of hormones and sex, and it had reminded her that the new weres would probably demand some details. She felt vaguely shameful that she hadn't thought of warning them before.
"Duo and Quatre?"
Trowa waited patiently for the two girls to stop giggling.
"Sorry, it's just that Duo had to go fetch Quatre, he's miles away and just as naked as you are."
"Oh."
The girls exchanged a look, surprised at the impossibility with which he had listened to their explanation, especially when hearing Quatre's name. Well, he wasn't shouting anymore when the blond Arab was mentioned, but they didn't know if it was better because he was growing more tolerant, or worse because he had decided to just break contact.
* * * * * *
The blond-haired boy didn't know how he had managed to get to the phone boot without being caught. He was happy that Duo had taught him how to make it work with no card and no money, he would have been annoyed.
Sadly, once his phone call done, he didn't have much choice but to return from where he had come from. The booth was in plain sight and he had already narrowly avoided being seen by a driver. It was so cold and his muscles hurt so bad after the previous day's run.... He had resolved to go hide in the barn, slipping inside though a hole between the planks, and having found a hiding place behind the straw piles, the boy had made himself as comfy a place as possible on the cold cement floor... and the farmer had walked out of his house to take care of the cows dozing off at the other end of the barn.
The hole seemed so very far away now. There was no way to get out of there without being seen.
Quatre curled up tighter and glanced pitifully at the house on the other side of the barn. There was a light at the kitchen's window, showing a glimpse of a warm, comfy room... and he was caught outside, his ass bare, sore as hell and on the verge of being caught. For the moment the man had not come any closer, occupied with his cows that Quatre had avoided for fear of panicking them with his scent, but it wouldn't last. The farmer had milked them, now it was time to feed them, and the hay was just besides him. Quatre prayed for the man to choose to get the hay at the other side of the stack, but he'd be surprised if it went true because the other side didn't look started.
The man wiped his hands clean after taking care of the last cow and looked at the straw. Quatre bit his tongue. /no, no, find other things to do first, not this way! I'm sure there's something else to do first.../
He sighed in relief when, instead of going his way as it had looked like, the man went to fill water buckets.
The delay didn't last long, and the boy tensed up once again, not any closer to finding a solution. The man was coming back for the hay, and looked this time determined to get it where Quatre was hiding.
/no, go to the other side, the other side!!/
The farmer's trajectory curved, leading him to the middle of the pile. He returned to his cattle, put the hay down, and came back... toward Quatre, once again, as if he had not even realized that he'd been going anywhere else just before.
Quatre's eyes widened. He had felt like... like...
The man was still walking toward him. /no, not this way, go to the other side of the pile!/ he thought forcefully, distracted from his perceptions for a short moment.
In the very middle of a step, the man froze, then, as if nothing special was happening, curved his path again to go to the other side of the pile. Then he began to clean the stalls, humming distractedly, and Quatre crumbled on the ground.
He had... pushed. With his mind. He had pushed the man to do what he wanted. Had influenced him.
'Allah...' he prayed, hesitating between surprise and horror. If he could do that...
'I have to tell Trowa about it', he decided. 'He's the only one who knows what's happening to me, and he's calm, logical, and..... and he's not my friend anymore' he remembered with a painful start. 'He's not my friend anymore because...'
He clenched his teeth. He wasn't going to bawl his eyes out over it. Trowa didn't want to see him anymore, fine. He'd learn to live without.
The farmer wasn't humming anymore. When Quatre glanced at him, the man looked worried and the corners of his mouth were dropping. Quatre realized, horrified, that he was emitting his feelings all around, and locked his emotions down once again, imagining a castle wall between himself and the outside, and the drawbridge closing. Everything that was coming from his empathy disappeared.
He shivered. It was like losing his hearing suddenly. Silent. Unreal. Empty of all life... He had never realized before that he was receiving so much, from the man as from the animals all around. Slowly, concentrating hard to get every detail right, he imagined the castle, the drawbridge. And lowered the bridge, keeping the metal gate closed.
Here, it was better. He could feel what was around somewhat, but nothing could escape from him and contaminate other people. He hoped it would last. He would probably need a lot of training before he didn't need to concentrate so hard to do that anymore, because, as he realized pretty fast, as soon as he forgot about the caste, his gift went back to fluctuating randomly.
At the extreme limit of his perception, there was the soft brush of something... someone he knew. A burning flame, dancing.
Duo. He'd be there soon.
Quatre bit his lip. Duo was going to wonder where he was. He had the location of the phone booth, but... Quatre had to get out of the barn now, or his comrade would have to search for him.
Ashamed, Quatre tried to push once again. /look the other way / he sent, trying not to send his remorse with it. He waited a second, then when the farmer turned away, sprang for the hole in the planks.
He was halfway out when one of the planks scratched him. He yelped, more from the surprise than the pain, and didn't know if he had broken the impression he was sending the farmer that everything was normal or if he was losing his hold on his power. The result was the same.
"Hey, but... HEY!" the farmer shouted.
Quatre dashed off as fast as he could, scrambled up the embankment and threw himself through the bushes, using his hands just as much as his feet and knees. He appeared suddenly on the road just as Duo was slowing down, and didn't lose any time to straddle the seat behind him the second he stopped. His comrade blinked, caught by surprise.
"Quatre, you..."
"HURRY!!"
The braided pilot didn't lose time in driving away. Quatre pressed against him to fend off the cold, his arms tight around his waist not to fall.
Unwilling to drive around with a naked guy behind him, knowing that it would attract the cops, Duo didn't go very far before he found a small, mostly hidden road to stop.
"You got caught?" he snickered as Quatre slid off his bike.
Laughing at his comrade's red face, he opened his backpack and gave him clothes. The blond teen put them on as fast as he could.
"Oh, that's enough..." he grumbled, his face red. "I would have liked to see you in my place!"
Duo looked away not to let his friend see the tears of laughter that threatened to roll down his cheeks.
Quatre wasn't in the mood for laughter, even if the other teen's mood was contagious. He briefly thought about talking of his psychic problems with Duo, but the boy was still snickering and it was rather annoying. And there was more urgent at the moment.
"How is..."
"Trowa? Dunno, didn't see him. But Hilde says he's okay..."
"Hilde? What is she doing here?"
Duo opened his mouth, thought about it for two seconds, then closed it again.
"Dunno," he admitted after a short moment. "We were just beginning to chat when I got your call, I didn't really have any time to ask. I thought she wanted to see me, but for a friendly visit, it may not have been the best time... Full moon and all..."
Quatre frowned thoughtfully.
Once he had put on too-long jeans that were probably Duo's and a big, thick pullover, they climbed on the bike and Duo drove them back on the road.
"We'll ask when we get there!" he shouted over the sound of the wind rushing past them.
It was too hard, trying to talk like that, so Quatre just nodded before closing his eyes and trying to rest, leaning against his friend's back.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Whee!!! Nomi-love is writing me a fanfic of Garou!!! *dances* Now that will satiate all those 1x5x1 cravings I've been having. You don't know how hard it's been recently to keep Garou purely 1x2x1.