Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Garou ❯ Wolf Songs ( Chapter 20 )

Notes: I don't know shit about Wuwu's religion, I'm not even sure that I know its exact name, I just have vague notions that I could have misunderstood easily, so, no offense meant to practitioners , but I do that as I please, because I don't know any better, so there ^__^

I'll list the songs used at the end, and really, they're great, lyrics and melody *___*

Wolf Songs

"...Fullmoon is on the sky and ~He's not a man anymore... dadadaaaa, ladeeda..." the braided boy was humming while moving around in the kitchen, dancing right and left to retrieve the utensils he would need. "Full moon..."

Singing the lyrics that had been running around in his head since he woke up this morning, Duo put the plate on the kitchen table and got rid of his apron, then closed the oven with a light kick, before taking the soufflé back and walking, humming, to the living room where Trowa and Quatre were waiting for their meal.

"...In the mist of the mo~rning he cannot fi~ght anymore

Thousands moon or more, he~'s been ho~wling

Knock on the door, and scream that is soon ending

Mess on the floor agai~n..."

"Appropriate," said Heero's deep voice.

Duo didn't jump and scream, but only because he didn't want his hour in the kitchen struggling with the cooking books and the diabolical oven reduced to nothing, forcing him to do it again AND to clean the floor. Frowning, he glared at the boy descending the stairs and blew him a raspberry before walking to the living room once again.

"While you're up, Yuy, go fetch a plate and stuff... I won't move for a latecomer," he ordered without looking back.

Heero gave a "hn" which could have been a yes, or simply an aborted laugh, and jumped down the last steps.

"Go sit down," he advised the boy following him, "I'll go fetch plates, knifes and forks."

Wufei would have liked being able to protest that he could do it himself, but the fact was that he didn't know where everything was in the house. Bah, it wasn't much anyway. Hesitantly, he looked at the two boys already seated at the table. The lithe blond one was looking back at him, curiosity appearing on his face, but his smile was too friendly for Wufei to get annoyed at the inspection.

"Hello," he greeted him with a soft, high and melodious voice.

The Chinese boy hesitated for a few seconds before nodding. "Hello."

The boy with the bang over his eye looked up to glance at him, and the Asian teen imperceptibly tensed. His eyes were so green, it was striking. Wufei remembered those eyes. Over a cup of coffee, and vague sympathy offered after a bitter defeat...

"Yo, Wu-man!!! How are ya? Dun just stand there, sit!!"

The Chinese boy tensed visibly this time, unnerved by the voice, although he didn't know why, and found himself face to face with the boy with whom Heero had talked, but from whom he hadn't been able to see more than a vague shape. He was grinning at him, but for some reason Wufei felt that it was not as mocking as it looked. He frowned, ready to put the other boy in his place...

...the boy's momentum made his heavy plait dance behind him, placing it in Wufei's sights.

Duo had been too lazy to braid it entirely this morning, after Quatre's return. He had let it quite loose, and only braided to half the length of his hair. A trail of long, free hair floated behind the elastic band, for at least thirty centimeters.

"... that was you, the person Zechs made me think of..." muttered the Chinese teen, momentarily hypnotized.

The American blinked.

"... Wufei...?"

They stared at each other for a while, Wufei submerged by a wave of memories from his time as a guest of OZ and a few small flashbacks, Duo surprised and pensive to see that his comrade wasn't as healed as he had believed.

"Go sit down," advised Heero, putting a hand in the braided boy's back to gently push him forward.

Duo deposited the plate on the table while Heero installed the table set he had brought, and Quatre began to serve them helpings. The atmosphere was tense, impatient.

"Wufei doesn't remember everything for the moment, but it's coming back," Heero finally said after Trowa glanced significantly at him. "He just needs something to anchor his memory."

"What do you mean?"

"When I see something that makes me think of another thing I knew before... Until it happens, it's as if I just had never known. But once I had a flashback, I can rebuild the entire memory from it, and then it stays for good. When I have the time to think, I try to associate things with it... A little like reweaving a tapestry," explained Wufei in a low voice, strangely intimidated by those four strangers who were supposed to be his closest companions.

"Do you remember their names, or do you want me to tell you?" asked Heero.

The Chinese boy was quite busy staring at the ground.

"I... am not sure..." he admitted in a low voice, annoyed and embarrassed at the offense he did to people he felt were his allies with forgetting their names.

"Hey, nothing to fret over, man!" Duo grinned back, giving him a big slap on the back, making him falter and nearly fall face first in the table.

"MAXWELL!!! Damn it, you... Max...well...?"

The braided boy burst out laughing and slumped forward, the snickers rendering him unable to stay correctly seated.

"It's nice to know that my name is forever associated to your need to make me leave you the hell alone!" he snickered.

Heero snorted and Quatre had a little smile that he tried to hide, not sure of the way it would be taken.

"You're called Maxwell..." repeated Wufei, blinking slowly, visibly surprised of this revelation he had had; the name had come by instinct on his lips... "And your first name?"

"Duo. Duo Maxwell."

"And you have the gall to call yourself by a God's name" added Wufei, nodding firmly. That he was sure of, for some reason.

"True. I'm the God of Death! And them, do you remember them?"

"I am sorry ... No," answered the boy, shaking his head.

"It's not important," assured Quatre with a warm smile. "I am Quatre Winner and here is Trowa Barton."

Wufei nodded as a salute then sat down at the table, embarrassed, not too sure of his place in the group.

"We've been scared shitless 'bout ya, pal... Well, you don't seem to have had troubles getting by alone, did you? didn't you? Did you?"

"I didn't have too many problems, no..."

"Can you give us a report on what happened? What do you remember? Start with the first day."

The Chinese boy took on a thoughtful pose.

"I woke up one day in a bed, and I knew that my thigh would hurt, though I didn't know how I knew it. So much that I couldn't move. I had bruises everywhere, but even now I do not really remember how I received them... A chase, a shot... I don't remember anything else."

Quatre nodded, lowering his eyes. He was ashamed; while what Wufei was saying happened, he had been sitting in a car.

"There were guards, and I didn't know why they looked so cautious. I was tied down to the bed..."

"At least you had a bed," muttered Duo, remembering his sojourn in a stinking little cell, before Heero came to get him out of there.

Wufei stared at him strangely.

"And then?" asked Duo, not wanting to talk about that for now.

"Treize came to see me."

The other pilots glanced at each other, puzzled, when they heard the way Wufei was referring to his old enemy. No General Kushrenada, no Him... and the tone, vaguely softened, nearly imperceptibly moved.

"He understood that I didn't remember... He was the one to tell me my name. He was treating me very well... He ordered the soldiers to untie me, first. I was examined by psychiatrists to determinate if my amnesia was faked or not. Then, when they discovered that it was not, I was given more freedom... Even if He always had people following me around," he added with a touch of bitterness.

Treize had thought that Wufei didn't realize that he was followed; but he had just acted as if. He had been disappointed that Treize would not trust him ... but now that he knew that they had been adversaries, he better understood why. In fact, the man had been right not to trust him.

"You weren't mistreated? Tortured?"

"Tortured?!" he repeated with a touch of horror. "Gods no!"

He stared at the boys, who were looking at him, serious as ever. They were not joking.

And then he remembered the hateful glares some soldiers gave him, the circumspect way Zechs had treated him, the refusal to address him in any other way than a highly impersonal tone from Treize's help, Lady Une, and told himself that yes, they had all treated him like an enemy they were forced to tolerate. If they had been able to... maybe not Zechs, but maybe the Lady... There were moments when her eyes shot thunder bolts, and when she was like that, he was under the impression that she could do anything without blinking.

"No... Treize protected me. He said that since I didn't remember, it wasn't of any use. In between, he would treat me as a guest, not any other way. I... think I... I didn't fully understand the situation," admitted the Chinese boy, lowering his eyes on his plate.

"Well, I still think that those nobles and knight-y conducts are bloody stupid as part of a modern war, but I'm not about to complain when they come from the enemy," laughed Duo, balancing on the back legs of his chair, his hands crossed behind his head. "Well, not to be annoying, but it's cooling down! So for the one time I'm cooking..."

Heero stared suspiciously at his plate.

"Yuy," announced the American in a nothing less than pleasant tone, "if I hear you utter ONE comment on my culinary gifts, I'll make you inhale your part by an extremity that is more adapted to evacuation, if you catch my meaning..."

Heero snorted and looked circumspectly at Duo.

"I am not quite sure that it will truly do more damage that way anyway..."

"Arrrrrrgh, you..." growled Duo, getting up to give him a noogie.

Heero ducked and pushed his hand back, nearly making him fall off his chair.

"I was joking, Wufei," he said when he saw the distrustful expression the Chinese boy was glaring at his plate with. "He isn't so bad in the kitchen anymore..."

"Ha!" exclaimed Wufei. "It can't be so hard to do better than this fiasco with the ham cake..."

"Hey! Not my fault if the oven had decided to heat up on one side but not the other!!"

"And the sugar instead of salt was, without a doubt, because they had decided to change boxes in the middle of the night?" said back the Chinese, smirking.

"Bleeedah... Nice to see that you didn't forget that... Traitor!"

Trowa and Quatre glanced at each other and smiled. Everything was back to normal.

* * * * * *

/ The man-cheetah had discovered a little place in the tranquil forest he so liked to visit, where he felt even better, even more in peace. A little pond, with a stream cascading into it and running away on a bed of stones that made it sing and glisten in the light of dawn. in this particular dream, he always spent most of his time sprawled in the cool and slightly humid grass of the riverbank, his back paws trailing in the fresh water, his fingers drawing scintillating lines on the surface when he brushed it with his claws, in a state of calm and total contemplation. This particular dream always supported him, calmed him when he was stressed out, when he was afraid, when he was tired to have felt too much all the emotions and passions of other people than himself.

And then the reflection in the little stream blurred, reflected briefly mountainous, snowy heights, so high that they were becoming blue. And the sadness of loneliness./

A gentle wave of surprise awakened him from his dream, surprise that then colored with relief and bittersweet consolation. The Arab sat up in his bed and blinked, briefly confused. He had troubles recognizing it, but still, he knew exactly from who it was, without even needing to think about it. The empty place at the bottom of his empathy was taken once again.

The surprise was tinted with sadness, and he got up in silence, slid into a robe and sneaked barefooted along the corridor, to the source of the feelings.

He hesitated, then softly knocked on the door.

"Wufei?" he whispered, half-opening the door.

The Chinese boy was bent over the box containing his little offerings shrine and his possessions that Duo had managed to grab in his old room, nearly a month ago. He had a white ribbon in his hands, and his eyes were staring at an old picture.

"Oh, Quatre... Come in."

The blond-haired boy stepped in the bedroom, then stopped.

"Duo assembled everything he could find when we had to leave the last safehouse in a hurry," admitted the boy in a low voice. "I hope he didn't forget anything important, I should have helped him..."

"No... No, nothing essential," answered the Chinese boy, looking pensive and still saddened.

He closed his eyes, as if to chase away the painful memory the picture was evoking in him, then took a deep breath and gave a small smile to his comrade.

"I will have to thank him."

"I can go and get you matches if you want," offered the Arabian boy when Wufei found the little shrine in the box and put it in place against a wall.

Wufei stared at him for a second, then nodded, and his eyes expressed for him the gratitude that the education he had received prevented him from transforming into words or actions.

"Thank you."

The blue-eyed boy disappeared in the corridor, ran to the kitchen and grabbed the matchbox, then ran back, grabbing an orange in passing, running past a barely half-awake Heero without explaining his haste for the puzzled teen.

Heero scratched his skull, then continued in his hunt for the elusive coffee mug. No one should hope that he would be able to line up two coherent ideas before having had his daily dose of caffeine.

Quatre knocked at the door then entered the room as silently as he could. Wufei was kneeling in front of the shrine, contemplative. He glanced up to his comrade, and smiled slightly in thanks for what the boy had fetched for him. The orange made his eyebrow shoot up, though.

"Offering for the Ancestors," explained the lithe blond, blushing.

Wufei didn't answer for quite a long time, and Quatre thought that he had offended him somehow, putting his nose in Wufei's business. But finally the Chinese teen moved... deeply bowing in front of him, thanking him without saying a word. Quatre bowed back, then got out of the room, leaving him alone with his memories.

* * * * * *

When Quatre came back in the kitchen, Trowa was seated beside Heero and they were sipping at their coffee mugs, apparently without even realizing that they were synchronized. The Arab snickered, amused, and slid on the bench in front of them. His radiant smile attracted the two brunettes' attention, who exchanged a puzzled look that conveyed a whole silent dialogue. Quatre burst out laughing. Their exchange said so clearly "you ask or I ask?" he just couldn't help it. When Trowa stared at him and lifted an eyebrow in his direction, the boy was still snickering and giggling. It would have been strange from anyone else, but from Quatre it was just endearing.

"Quatre?"

"Wufei is back!"

The two brunettes glanced at each other once again, more circumspect. This time it was Heero who answered.

"... Quatre, he was back yesterday already..."

"No, I meant here!!" exclaimed the Arabian, pressing a hand on his heart, unable to explain in another way.

"You can perceive him again?" asked Trowa, surprised.

"Yes!" answered the blond-haired boy with an even more radiant smile. "And he is nearly like he was before, except... Less... well, more... Haa, it's hard to explain! Slightly different. But it's still him, he's here again with us, and I... oh, darn, I think I'm going to cry ... I'm so happy!"

Trowa leaned over the table and put his hand on Quatre's arm, and the boy put his own hand over Trowa's, a gigantic grin on his lips and tears in his eyes.

"Ah, I'm so emotive, it's atrocious ..." he muttered, pressing an arm across his eyes.

"How is he different?" asked Heero to distract him from his embarrassment.

"... Hard to explain. For example, You have feelings... Sharp, like ice shards sometimes, and when I think of a color to give them, I think white or clear blue, but violent, you see? Like a police torch or a lighthouse. Duo is like a flame, it's always dancing and very beautiful, but impossible to catch or to give a definite shape to. Red, often, passionate and dangerous, sometimes black or dark purple when he's sad or in a bad mood. Trowa... I don't know. Soft, anyway. Green and white, pastels mostly, sepia sometimes. But Wufei... His emotions were as sharp as yours, Heero, but now, they're a little bit more round on the corners. A little duller maybe? I don't really know to what it corresponds... It's something to feel, not to explain."

"Hmmm.... Well, you're the specialist. As long as you understand what you feel, it isn't important to put it in words," assured the Japanese pilot.

Quatre sighed lengthily to evacuate his tenseness and smiled at him, before jumping on the coffee pot for his daily dose.

* * *

When Wufei descended in the kitchen, the four boys were sitting at the table and having breakfast. He hesitated imperceptibly, not sure to really be part of the group, but the grin the American and the Arab sent his way and the chair Trowa kicked out from under the table for him proved that he was welcomed.

"How are you?"

"Fine, thanks," he answered with a smile, taking his place among them and reaching for the coffee maker.

The discussion by morning was more often than not calm and sporadic, about the political news, and the plan for the day ahead. Wufei occupied himself with listening to them without really participating, absorbing the information. He had missed so many events during his ... vacation in OZ.

He had so much information to sort out, about what he had missed in the outside world, or... what he remembered. It wasn't in order at all, but one way or another, the mental blocks were wearing thin and he was rediscovering entire moments of his life, as if it was the first time. It was strange to remember like that, nearly as if he was receiving them from another person, or from a past life. He wasn't quite sure yet that they were truly his own.

He had stared at himself in the mirror before meeting them in the kitchen. His image felt familiar after that month at the Oz base, but when he had been staring at himself today, tons of memories had come back on his previous appearance. Hair unbound and messy, a scar between his eyes, rebellious bangs, too short to put behind his ears and that were constantly dangling and traveling all over his face... He had stared at himself for a long time, had measured and classified the differences, had brushed that scar with his finger... Then had resolutely brushed his hair back, tied it tight, with a red band that was lying on the table. A warrior could not have his hair going in all directions; it was too dangerous and could cause too many problems. Even Maxwell knew that.

It felt strange to be once again the Wufei from before... He wasn't used to having his hair pulled back anymore, and he found it strangely restrictive. After a few seconds, he had brushed his hand the wrong way in his hair, dislodging the shorter strands, had arranged them so that they would fall framing his face, like an echo of the ebony curtain he had gotten used to.

He had stared at himself once again. There, that was better. The scar and the wild strands, with the tight ponytail of the warrior. A mix.

Pensive, he brushed a fingertip over his scar, following the light rise of skin. Luckily, it was not a hideous pucker, just a line of darker skin, just slightly thicker.

"I wonder why it hasn't disappeared yet," he whispered to himself.

A lull in the conversation let the other boys hear him and he turned pink. He glanced at them, one after the other.

"What'cha talking about? Your scar?" asked Duo.

Wufei nodded briefly.

"Yes."

"You got that during your capture?"

"I think so, yes. I'm not quite sure."

"Just before. One of the guards had a blade, I think," answered Quatre. "But it wasn't deep, you told me so, it should have disappeared ... Was it badly healed?"

"Not at all. But in a month it barely blurred a little... I just found that strange, that's all," added the Chinese pilot, shrugging.

"That the wound from where you received Quatre's blood?" questioned Heero, putting his mug back on the table. "The place where I was bitten stayed visible too. Maybe it has a relation."

"Probably," answered Quatre, pulling on his sleeve to show the little white points, the discolored skin, where Heero's fangs had pierced his skin months ago. "Didn't disappear either. Perhaps it is the first contact with the virus ... What do you think?"

"Mmm, maybe. Maybe it is the place from where I received your blood... I don't remember it yet."

"We were talking about that and your health in general the day before yesterday," answered Quatre. "Do you remember Sally?"

"Now, yes..." said Wufei, discovering details about a very specific woman in his mind in a place where he hadn't even been aware that there had been someone.

"She's in the USA, she helps the local Resistance net to organize, to create links to their Chinatown and the resistant groups in China to whom she was a part of ... Well you see the kind of job. We were saying that it would be good that a doctor on our side knew about our... particularity, Heero, you and me. And with your captivity and your amnesia, even if as long after the fact, she can't do much anymore, we never know, it would be better that she sees you, don't you think so?"

"It's not a bad idea," admitted the boy slowly. "Yes, it would probably be better."

"She's undercover as a school doctor; we thought that the best way for us to see her would be to go to her school as students..."

"Furthermore, it would help us to go unnoticed in town, if we were lost amongst students our age," added Heero. "So are we doing that?"

"Fine by me!" answered the American.

Trowa nodded.

"Well, it's decided then, we go to America. Separately?"

"Mmm..."

"Frankly, I don't like that much ... Five new students of the same age arriving en masse in a new school, even if we spread it over a week or two, it looks too suspicious."

"Not if we arrive visibly together," grinned Duo.

"How do you see that?" asked Heero, puzzled.

The American took a few seconds to put his ideas in order, then began thinking out loud.

"If we all arrive together, let's say because our parents moved together... Let's say because of their work? Their company wanted to open a new branch or something like that? So as they were more or less friends, they decided to go together. And it will give us an excuse to know each other, if our parents are coworkers and friends, we have more than probably met the others already, at least during company diners or something. What do you think?"

"We'd need a true company incase of verification, and people to play our parents, because as many students all at once will attract attention," advised Quatre.

"We can ask Sally to find people there for us."

"Resistance? If they are from Chinatown, they're mostly of Chinese descent. For Heero and me, it will go over ok, we look Asian, but for the three of you, it will be harder..." answered Wufei, pensive.

"Quatre and me can pass for half brothers, we did it before. Must be the cheeks," answered Duo, pinching Quatre's. "A couple of parents less to find."

Quatre slapped his hand away, grumbling halfheartedly at him.

"I am not intending on going to school with you," said Trowa. "I need to meet with my info nets in Central America, I will probably only be there by intermittence. I'll have many people to see. And on top of that I need ammo for HeavyArms, I am beginning to be short on that. I can shop for you at the same time," he proposed.

"Ok, one ID less for me to create," agreed Heero. "Quatre? Objections?"

"It's probably as well like that. Do you intend on orbiting around our area?"

"Yes."

"As long as you are not too far if a mission comes, it should be ok. And if we are discovered, you will not be captured with us," agreed the lithe blond, keeping himself from sighing wistfully.

He would miss Trowa ... Well, he would not be far, and it was not for a long time...

"Duo, Wufei, objections?"

The two longhaired boys shook their head no.

"Well, I'll make the arrangements for the transport. Quatre, you contact Sally and you explain to her? Everyone else, do what you want this morning. After noon, we pack and erase the traces from the house, we're leaving tonight at the latest. I will have flight arrangements."

"For our IDs?"

"I'll complete that during the flight. I have a few already pre-made, it will be ok."

As one, they got up from the little table and put their coffee mugs away before going to their various occupations.

* * * * * * * * * *

They had arrived in America two days ago and all the minor details of their sojourn had been taken care of. They were supposed to meet with Sally sometime during the day, to explain with details what Quatre had only alluded to over the phone. Today was their first day of school.

The interview with their new school's Headmaster had gone fairly well, even if the options they had chosen and the need to balance the size of the classes had directed them in different ones, but at least Wufei wasn't alone, even if he was not sure if he really wanted to be in the same classes as Duo. Heero and Quatre were in two different classes. They would have to compare their timetables to be able to find each other incase of emergency.

Wufei's scar had provoked a polite question, and for a moment, he hadn't known what to answer. At the moment when it was becoming tense, Quatre had defused the situation by laughing and saying that Wufei was ashamed of saying that he had fallen flat on his face while cycling. Wufei had grumbled, but had made sure to remember the explanation in case he was asked again. The reason was stupid enough to make him say it with annoyance, which would only reinforce its credibility. He hadn't been ready to attract that kind of attention to himself.

As if he could feel his nervousness, Duo put his hand on the Chinese pilot's shoulder and winked at him. Wufei shrugged and turned away, but deep down, he was strangely relieved to know that the American would be with him. Taking a discreet deep breath, he knocked on the classroom's door.

"Yes?"

"Good morning, sir!" exclaimed the American jovially. "We're new students," he added, giving him the slip of paper the director had given them.

"Mister... Shen Long?"

'To hell with that braided cretin!' Wufei thought for the nth time. Heero should never have let him choose the names; he had used that opportunity to its fullest.

"Long Shen," rectified Wufei, trying to stay impassive. "Long is my family name, but the tradition puts it first."

"And mister..."

"Duncan Myles, with a y. And contrary to my friend, I place my name in the civilized order," he added with a malicious wink.

Wufei gave him a light slap on the head and glared, hiding that he appreciated his friend's sense of humor as a welcome stress relief.

The whole class was staring at them, but not many of the students stayed as silent as their teacher asked them. Still not back to his normal uncaring self, Wufei felt ill at ease seeing all the curious and calculating glances directed on them both, but he put all his pride in keeping a stony face. He stayed cold, vaguely disapproving of the lack of discipline the entire class showed. The teacher had tried to ask for silence but they didn't even pay attention over the noise... Maybe, it had not been such a good idea to come here after all.

Duo caught a glance of Wufei's constipated face, a definite sign of his unease and of his need to put distance between himself and his classmates, and decided to attract the attention on himself to relieve the boy some.

He gave a charming grin to the cluster of girls in the middle of the classroom. Immediately, they smiled back, giggling and whispering, having already nearly forgotten the Chinese boy with the constipated face at his side. One of the girls in the first row made place for him and he immediately accepted, while Wufei sat down at the end of the same row, as far from them as he could. As soon as he was seated, Duo began to chat away with the girls.

The Chinese teen sighed and readied himself to spend a long, tedious, totally boring day stuck in classrooms.

* * * * * *

The monotony of the lesson was broken around eleven am when his braided comrade got up from his chair suddenly. Wufei lifted an eyebrow, surprised.

"Sir, I don't feel that well ... Can I go to the infirmary please?"

Wufei nearly believed that Duo was suffering... He looked exhausted and his eyes had a strange look in them, and his whole body language indicated that he was in pain but trying to hide it. The Chinese boy even thought that he had seen his skin getting a gray tint.

Half a dozen girls proposed to accompany him, since the rules stated that he couldn't walk there alone in case he fainted on the way, but he decided to take along 'his friend Shen' and they left, Wufei half carrying the boy.

"Congratulations," whispered the Chinese boy once they were out of the building. Duo hadn't stopped playing ill longer than the half second he had needed to wink at him. "I nearly believed it. You're good at simulating faintness..."

"On the streets, it's a requisite for survival," answered the boy in a strangely wistful tone. "You learn how to look like you're more ill or hungry than you are to make people underestimate you... as you learn how to act the same even if you really are as bad off as you look not to get picked on more than you can handle."

Not knowing what to say, the Chinese teen only tightened his hold on his friend's shoulder, and Duo gave him an apologetic little smile before beginning to hum, as if he hadn't said anything special.

"And... I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free,

And I'm just waiting for moonlight and then my eyes you can see!

I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free,

Because the moonlight can release me from my miiisery!"

Wufei blinked, then sighed. Since he had come back, Duo was always singing songs that, one way or another, talked of wolves or of transformations, a full moon night, as if he was trying to get a collection. They were all lucky he sang quite well... and some of the mental images and turns of phrases used were interesting. And, on yet another side, treating the problem with such ease prevented him from getting afraid by thinking too much, pushed him to see things on the "Were " equals "magic," "gift" side, rather than the "curse" side. And since most of them came from Hard-rock, heavy metal bands, the songs had a good rhythm and an interesting energy.

Even if of course when he talked of them with the other longhaired boy, he rarely did anything else than complain about their violence and their lack of melody. After all you can't get into arguments about something you both approve.

"Miss? My friend is ill," called Wufei as a warning for the young woman who had her back to them, searching amongst her papers.

Sally didn't hesitate before signaling for them to enter; visibly, she had been waiting for them. There wasn't anyone in the waiting room, but she made them understand that someone was resting in one of the little bedrooms. She closed the door behind her and showed them two chairs.

"We can talk freely, but not too loud, I have a patient napping."

"Hey, Sally!" grinned the American.

She nodded back at them, smiling.

"For the details about Heero and Quatre, Quatre will talk to you about that. He's coming to see you tonight, is that ok? We're more here to talk about mister Feifei."

"Yes, I heard about it. Come here, Wufei," she asked, suddenly very professional.

She led him to the examination room, and Duo leaned against the other side of the half-opened door, listening in without looking to leave a minimum of modesty to Wufei. Sally examined him, trying to find any marks of physical abuse or unhealed wounds that could render him unable to fly, but she didn't find any. Duo heard the other boy explain to the woman his month of amnesia and the return of his memories, not that long ago.

"Do you still have symptoms? Headaches, loss of balance..."

"I haven't had any migraines for two days now," answered the Chinese teen. "But before that, I had them at least once a day and they were rather violent. Sometimes I couldn't even stand up. And even when I wasn't in the middle of a fit, I still felt it waiting to happen. But since then... not one yet."

"I see... It was probably from a mental origin, your memories trying to come back. Logically, it should totally stop in a short time. We don't know if the migraine will come back, but if it happens, you'll take this, and no more than one and a half pills, it's powerful. Do you still have blanks in your memory?"

"I don't know, I'm still in the process of classifying them. I don't think so, but it's still really confusing at times."

"And what provoked the return of your memories? The confrontation with the Gundams and Yuy, I bet..."

Wufei bit his lips. They were arriving to the hardest part.

"It had begun before. And ... It has been a trigger, but not the only one, and I would have needed weeks, I think if... Duo! I don't know how to tell her!"

The American entered the room and gave a curious glance at Wufei.

"Tell her about... you know what."

"Okay," sighed the boy, wondering all along why everyone wanted him to be the one to explain, when he wasn't really concerned. "Err, we'd better sit down, it's long, ok?"

Frowning, the young woman obeyed. She didn't like secrets nor the bothered face her compatriot had on. It didn't give her such a good feeling ...

"Well, so... A few months ago, Heero got bitten by a big beastie. He was very ill for a week or so, then he had a really bad temper for the three weeks after that, kinda like PMS, but worse, mood shifts, susceptibility, all that jazz. We didn't know what was happening to him, him neither. You following?"

She nodded. Up to there it wasn't complicated.

"His five senses began to get hypersensitive, well, some more than others, like his sense of smell and his hearing, and some times, he was even totally nocturnal. At the end of the month, he... I'll tell you later, but to keep things short, he got mighty pissed, bit Quatre, who, too, began to exhibit the same symptoms soon after, then Wufei was contaminated, probably by Quatre, we're not sure. Problem was that it was just before he disappeared. Still following?"

"One after the other your comrades got transmitted something that made their behavior aberrant?"

"Yep, that's it."

"You want an examination to determinate the source?"

"Err... No thanks, Sally. We know what's happening now. We don't think you can cure them anyway, I mean, even the scientists couldn't find a way, I don't even think it's possible to be cured, and even if it was I'm not sure they would all want to be... cured. Because... The unpleasantness I told you about, it was only symptoms. The reason behind them is already obvious, more than obvious," he added with a short laugh. "We just want you to be kept updated, if we needed any specialized help..."

"I am afraid I am not following you, Duo," announced the young woman after a few seconds of silence.

"The beast who bit Heero was a werewolf."

There was a longer stretch of silence.

"Say that again?"

"The beast who bit Heero was a werewolf. A human able to take on a wolf's shape. Not only the shape, but part of the behavior also. Heero has become a werewolf. You can ask him later, he'll even demonstrate for you. He has the ability to transform into a wolf, entirely or partly. He has its sense even in human shape. He has its instincts."

She looked at Wufei, sure that he would be fighting back a laugh, or smirking, satisfied to have tricked her, but he was still as serious as before.

"I wanted to explain to you before I told you the name, because if you had heard it first, you wouldn't have listened to the rest," added Duo, sounding sorry for having shell-shocked her.

She took a deep breath.

"And Quatre and you were contaminated?"

The Chinese teen nodded soberly.

"So, you are ... Werewolves too? Can you show me?"

"No. Quatre and me didn't become wolves. And I have not been a were long enough to have the control over my appearance Yuy has."

"What do you mean, not wolves?"

Duo shrugged.

"Well, that's the strangest thing, Sally, Quatre has become a cheetah and Wuwu is a tiger ... We don't get it. I mean, if it was a virus giving the capacity to change into a wolf, why did they become cats? Personally it threw me on my ass, 'cause from the legends I know... Ah, well, anyway, that's the thing that forced Wu's memories to the surface; he changed for the first time last full moon. The shock probably helped him to get over the blocks or something..."

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and stared at them.

"Sorry but I HAVE to ask. Is this an April Fools thing? I have to admit, it's not easy to believe..."

Wufei closed his eyes and concentrated on the tiger image he had glimpsed in a water puddle.

He didn't feel any change at all and reopened his eyes, slightly disappointed. Sally's eyes were bulging out of her head, and even Duo looked kind of surprised.

"Wow, kewl, man..."

The Chinese boy arched an eyebrow.

"Look at your arm, fast, before it disappears ..."

He had stripes on the external side of his arms, which under his eyes were slowly fading, going from dark brown to clear brown, then beige, until they melted with his natural skin tone.

Sally picked up her jaw and shrugged, fatalist.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy..." she cited before getting up. "Ok, Wufei, come here, I'm going to take some blood. Then we'll test your senses. I'll see what I can learn about your metabolism. I'll take a look at Quatre tonight at my house, find a way so that Yuy can come and see me today or tomorrow. Ok?"

"Ok, Sally!" exclaimed the American. "Err... You ok?"

"Ok, ok. For now. But I'm still shocked, so you'd better get out of there fast once finished, so I can close the infirmary and have a little hysteric fit in private, ok?"

"Ok," repeated the braided boy, keeping from laughing his ass of for the sole reason that the young woman had been perfectly serious.

*****

songs: Fullmoon by Sonata Arctica, my favorite song ever *______*

Sitting on a corner all alone,
staring from the bottom of his soul,
watching the night come in from the window

It'll all collapse tonight, the fullmoon is here again
In sickness and in health, understanding so demanding
It has no name, there's one for every season
Makes him insane to know

Running away from it all
"I'll be safe in the cornfields", he thinks

Hunted by his own,
again he feels the moon rising on the sky

Find a barn which to sleep in, but can he hide anymore
Someone's at the door, understanding too demanding
Can this be wrong, it's love that is not ending
Makes him insane again

She should not lock the open door
(run away run away, run way)
Fullmoon is on the sky and He's not a man anymore
She sees the change in Him but can't
(run away run away, run away)
See what became out of her man... Fullmoon

Swimming across the bay,
the night is gray, so calm today
She doesn't wanna wait.
"We've gotta make the love complete tonight..."

In the mist of the morning he cannot fight anymore
Thousands moon or more, he's been howling
Knock on the door, and scream that is soon ending
Mess on the floor again...

We should not lock the open door
(run away run away, run away)
Fullmoon is on the sky and he's not a man anymore
We see the change in him but can't
(run away run away, run away) See what became out of her darling man

See what became out of that man

Waiting for the Moon by Rage (Rage Against the Machine, methinks, but it's not said on the MP3 and I don't remember right now U_U)

I believe in the dark
I am afraid of the world
'Cause it scares me, I know

People don't like me, talk behind my back
Avoiding the look in my disfigured face

I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free
And I'm just waiting for moonlight and then my eyes you can see
I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free
Because the moonlight can release me from my misery

Hide my face in the day
Tonight I'll set myself free
I'm addicted to moonlight

Run with the wind, feel the wet in the air
A pleasure for me and my distorted soul

I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free
And I'm just waiting for moonlight and then my eyes you can see
I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free
Because the moonlight can release me from my misery

Hid my face in the day
Tonight I'll set myself free

Run with the wind, feel the wet in the air
Oh, how I'm longing for it
A pleasure for me and my distorted soul
I feel like the cat walkin' on a wall

I'm just waiting...