Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ IV Dark Sight ❯ New Redemption ( Chapter 4 )

New Redemption

Megan watched the bus pull away from the bus-stop and wondered briefly if she really needed to call it in. He really had seemed normal. His reasoning seemed sound, too. She turned tiredly and closed the door, flipping the closed sign before turning-up the blinds and flicking off the lighting. That done, she moved to her television and flipped it on.

“Now, concerning the case of the former Gundam Pilot,” the anchor was saying, “we have just received news that Trowa Barton has dyed his hair red.”

Megan smirked at that as it showed an image that looked somewhat like the man had when he’d first come in.

“From extensive post traumatic stress, he, like Quatre Winner,” it flashed to another pilot, “seems to be suffering from war-time flashbacks…”

They went on, of course, with how his mental state was unstable and he’d attacked an unknown amount of people earlier in the day. They were playing him up to be extensively dangerous, and it flashed to some woman from the Healing Center.

Megan considered the story, then looked toward the front door of her establishment.

She wasn’t turning him in. She wasn’t telling them that she’d changed his hair. It would do her no particular good and just piss him off.

She started to clean up her shop.

- -

Heero’s heart was pounding in his chest as he hugged one of the pillows from his bed tightly.

Natalie missed him. She missed him…she wasn’t scared of him…and Duo had taken the time to call so he could talk to her. Sure, he’d sounded upset or something…but he’d done it.

The former pilot had a knot in his stomach, knowing that the area around the base was extremely cut-off from the outside world. If Natalie hadn’t been at the base when the news broke that he’d been picked up, she wouldn’t have had any way to find out what had happened to him. He’d been stuck in that damn building for six months, almost praying, that she not think him so horrible…and she hadn’t even known.

He felt horrible that she hadn’t known what happened to him for that long.

He needed to get back to her.

Heero rolled onto his back, still hugging the pillow as he thought about it, then sat up and looked around, darting to his door and tossing the pillow back.

“Mr. Yuy,” an orderly muttered, looking up from where he’d been sitting and reading.

“I can come out, right?” Heero asked, not moving through the door.

The man was startled by that since the last time Heero’d wanted to go out, he’d done just that. He’d completely dismissed anything any of them were trying to say. The guy nodded. “I have to stay with you, though.”

“Come on, then…do you know where Quatre is?”

Again the man was startled. Heero’d been moving around in a very closed off manner, and had seemed very tired. He didn’t look so tired now, the guy would even call him energetic. “Last I knew he was with his flowers.”

“Okay,” Heero muttered, bouncing down the hall and into the courtyard.

“What’s up?” Quatre asked, turning to look at him.

“Duo called,” the Japanese male returned, moving to sit in the grass beside his friend with his legs crossed. “Guess what?”

“He…called you a fucker?” Quatre hazarded, grinning slightly.

“That, too,” Heero smiled. “Natalie was with her village.”

Quatre stopped shoveling the dirt around to settle on his own haunches, looking back to Heero. “I thought they wouldn’t let you talk to her.”

Heero shrugged. “She hasn’t been at the base anyway. She said she only stayed until the night after we left, then she headed back to her village. They don’t have a phone.”

The blond wondered if he should point out the comment as a stupid statement, but there was something like a fragile bubble around his friend and he didn’t have the heart to break it. He nodded.

“So…Duo said something about being a bigger man,” that made him frown. He’d like to think that Duo’d forgiven him on some level, but he had a feeling it was something else. “He wants me to tell Wufei he’s a bigger man,” Heero added, looking down.

“Don’t worry about it,” Quatre suggested, tilting his head. “What’s the song-bird been up to?”

As he hoped, the question sent Heero flying into a recital of the entire conversation.

He just hoped the man wouldn’t get too personal with it.

- -

Nassaiya was happy. She’d missed the village life while in the city. She missed the simple pleasures like sweet rolls, or the sound of the children laughing. It was a lot quieter, less busy, and by far less stressful. It wasn’t like her job as an assistant was hard. She knew the government building perfectly fine and while she didn’t have a full working understanding of English, she knew a lot. It was the language they spoke at home.

Not only was it nice to be in the village, though, but she was also with her family…her brothers and sister. She’d missed Thiago the most. After Davi had died, Thiago had made sure she was taken care of on top of his wife and kids. When Duo had initially started to feed her and Vasu consistently he’d chased her down to see if they were interested in each other at all. Nas hadn’t not been, but Duo hadn’t been pursuing it. The man had let it stand for a while, but Nas had later heard of her brother insisting to Indra. She’d been embarrassed at the time, because Duo had been with Djara…

What a bucket of trouble.

Nassaiya smiled slightly as she rocked Camden, her cheek pressed to his soft hair. The two year old wasn’t so sure what he thought about a house with no walls. She and Duo had thought ahead enough to know that he might want to watch some of his normal shows, and considering that everything he knew had been uprooted for the trip, they’d decided to buy a small satellite television and portable DVD player. When it had started on toward bed time, Duo had set the boy up with a movie and held him until he’d gotten drowsy, and Nas had taken him.

Vasu was happy. Vasu remembered most of the village life, and he had all sorts of tales to tell his friends about living in a big city. They were on the ground, laughing and joking and having fun…Vasu was going to crash hard when she finally got him to lay down.

At any rate, Nassaiya had chased Duo off toward Indra since the man was working on a boat and had kept glancing toward the huts.

She’d forgotten how close Duo had been to Indra, actually. The reality that Indra had saved Duo when he’d joined the village hadn’t seemed prominent until she saw Indra debating if he wanted to finish his work or not.

Nassaiya smiled slightly as Duo’s laugh echoed over the encampment…followed by other male voices.

She had a feeling she didn’t want to know what had been said to incite that laugh in all of them, but she wasn’t going to deny that hearing it was pleasant.

She sighed and set Camden down gently on the mattress. She turned the oil lamp down enough that it wasn’t a blaring beacon, and set it on the table with the portable.

Her husband was trying to say too many things at once and laughing, which suggested it was time for her to step in with a demand of what was being discussed, and then she needed to settle the children down so they could all collapse…actually, she needed to settle her husband down so he could crash.

“Duo,” she demanded levelly as she descended the stairs—most of the men had seen her and their expressions were reading that the man really needed to stop talking.

Duo laughed his belly laugh, turning to look at her with a smile. “Yes, dear?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked him pointedly.

…and they all died laughing.

- -

Wufei yawned largely as he dropped onto his bed. It was going on one in the morning, and he’d waited until he couldn’t wait anymore to make sure Duo’s apartment was empty.

He wasn’t going to go searching for Trowa like he’d gone searching for Quatre before. Trowa was neither so lost nor so dangerous as that.

Actually, Wufei wasn’t really sure why Trowa was still in the Center…aside from not saying the pretty words the therapist wanted to hear. Of course, it was damn hard to get Trowa to say anything when you wanted him to.

The news, meanwhile, was busily trying to terrify the citizens of the city into giving up the man’s whereabouts. It didn’t seem to have occurred to them that he’d withdrawn all of his money from his account, so was probably half-way to Argentina…if not already there.

Wufei yawned largely, and groaned as his cell phone started ringing again…it didn’t help that it was the Healing Center…again.

“Yeah?” he asked tiredly.

“Hey, Wufei,” Heero muttered.

“Heero?” Wufei demanded.

“Sorry it’s so late,” Heero muttered. “I’ve been trying to…I’m not really supposed to be on the phone.”

Wufei snorted slightly.

“I just…um, Duo…Duo called me.”

“Duo called you?” Wufei asked blankly.

“He wanted me to tell you he was a bigger man,” Heero explained quickly. “And then he gave his phone to Nat.”

Wufei’s relief at this was on more than one level.

“She…wasn’t at the base,” Heero noted. He’d almost launched into another recital of the conversation, but he doubted Wufei gave a shit about…well, him.

He fell silent as he realized it.

“They told me they’d been trying to find her but couldn’t,” Wufei noted. “I told them they’d have to send the soldiers after her, but I go the impression the guys didn’t give a damn what they were being told to do.”

Heero blinked.

“You’re gonna get yourself in trouble,” Wufei noted, kicking his shoes off. “Call me at a normal time tomorrow and tell me what the hell your girl was doing.”

“You don’t even like her,” Heero muttered quietly, almost unintelligibly.

“She’s annoying as fuck, doesn’t mean I don’t care if she’s alive or not. Six months is a long time if she hadn’t gone back to the base at all.”

He did care.

Heero laughed a little at that, realizing that if he didn’t control himself he was probably going to break down crying. “I’ve gotta go,” he muttered, swallowing hard. “I…I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“All right, let me sleep in some though, huh?”

“Uh-huh…you haven’t heard from Trowa?”

Wufei stopped, frowning at that before starting to toe his socks off. “You know as well as I do that Trowa’s gone. He managed to disappear without changing his appearance before, and according to the news, he’s dyed it red.”

“Yeah, huh?” Heero muttered thoughtfully. “He must really want to get away…” the morose ideals from earlier took prominence in his thoughts. “I bet he hates me, too.”

“Heero,” Wufei said quietly and firmly, “we don’t hate you. You went too far, yeah, but we don’t hate you.”

“Duo hates me,” the man mourned.

“He might,” Wufei agreed.

The Japanese male almost choked on that.

“You pulled some shit, Heero,” Wufei noted quietly. “You know you did. I know you’ve realized what happened now…”

“You should have stopped me!” Heero burst out, hurt again and frustrated.

“Yeah, Heero, you’re beating Duo and should stop now…don’t mind Trowa over there laughing his ass off or Duo hiding out in his room…just stop hitting him.”

Heero was brought up short, then realized he was hearing someone. “I’ve gotta go,” he whispered.

“Go to sleep,” Wufei suggested. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow…call it eleven.”

Heero hung up and darted down the hall before he could be spotted.

Wufei rolled onto his back, dropping the phone at arm’s length…and jumped hard as he realized someone was in the room with him. He stared at the dark haired male in complete disbelief as he reached for the phone again.

“You shouldn’t hide your guns in the open by the door on a bookshelf,” Trowa noted, pointing the weapon at the man.

Wufei guffawed, sitting up to stare at him. “Trowa?”

- -

I wasn’t sure how I’d escaped the hangman’s noose after leaving the salon, but no sirens had called for me, no officers had accosted me…the process of getting colored contacts had taken about an hour before I headed on into the black-district. From there it was a matter of figuring out where to stay.

I was a bit wary, actually, of getting too close to anyone. In the end I’d thought I might hit Duo’s, but I knew he was social enough that he’d have the people of the building keeping an eye on his place for him while he was away.

Getting into Wufei’s had been distressingly easy, considering that his front door had been unlocked. I’d locked it, of course, and had heard him on his phone.

I tossed the weapon onto the bed as my stomach rumbled and dropped onto the foot of the mattress. “I kinda need somewhere to sleep.”

“What the fuck,” Wufei snapped, shoving at my shoulder so I turned to look at him. “Gray?”

I grinned at that, then blinked several times. I wasn’t used to wearing contacts, so my eyes were irritated. “You have…any saline?” I asked, digging the case from my pocket and looking around for his bathroom.

“What makes you think I’m letting you stay?” he snapped. “I’m calling the Center.”

“Don’t be an ass,” I retorted, rolling my eyes at him and moving into the living room. “Besides, they turn the main phone off at night, so you’d have to wait for them to answer, and I’d be able to get away.”

“But I know your hair now,” Wufei noted pointedly, following after.

“Yes, and I know your girlfriend is sleeping nude,” I reassured him. “She’s a very pretty lady.”

He was staring at me in horror.

I laughed happily, moving into the bathroom to properly remove my contacts. I had only gone by her place to see if he were there or not.

“You…” he started, then stopped.

I smirked at him in the mirror, amused by this. He didn’t want to ask me why I’d looked at her or what I’d actually seen. He didn’t want to note that I knew she was his girl, and he wouldn’t be provoking me with her dangling out there in front of him like that.

That was the only problem with personal relationships. They were easy to exploit.

I set the contact into the case, blinking several times as I looked back at my own green eyes again. “You like the hair?”

“It’s…stylish,” he noted almost sardonically, recovering himself.

What a dumb ass, I already knew I’d gotten under his skin, so playing it cool wasn’t going to help.

“I was gonna fuck the girl who did it, but then she realized who I was,” I mused, running my hands through it. “I keep wanting to go put on a billowing white shirt and tight leather pants…maybe grab a rapier…”

He guffawed at that.

I laughed, running water over my face.

“Shit, even your eyebrows, what the hell?”

“There’s this thing called disappearing,” I explained, drying my face off as I met his eyes. “I’m going to take a swing at it.”

“You are stupid,” he noted.

“I’m also tired, starving, and changing my name to Paul.”

“Paul?” Wufei asked disbelievingly. “Are you going to keep that black?”

“I thought it looked rather dashing,” I agreed, posing slightly to make my point.

“Oh, god,” he muttered…and turned away.

I laughed, straightening to pull my shirt off as I followed.

“There’s one bed,” Wufei added, moving into the kitchen. “You can sleep on it with me, or you can have the couch,” he indicated the thing with his head. “You just made my day hell, you know that don’t you?”

“It was only your afternoon,” I shot back, dropping onto the couch and tossing the shirt at the bags I had. “I didn’t leave the Center until two twenty.”

“Wow, so the dumbasses really only just missed you.”

“That chick at the desk wandered off,” I shrugged. “I couldn’t stand it there anymore,” I added, focusing on my shoes as I started to untie them. “It was…so confined…and they were always watching me…”

“Hm.”

“…at the base I could go away and you guys would leave me alone,” I added tiredly, kicking the shoes off. “If I tried that there they’d come in and ask what was wrong and they were always hounding on me about being antisocial,” I ran my hands down my face. “They didn’t do a damn thing for me.”

“You should have just told them what they wanted to hear,” he informed me. “You could have gotten out legally.”

“And been stuck here until they thought it was okay for me to be a real person again?” I gave him a look as he tossed a plate into his microwave. “I don’t think so.”

“Since this is the best option,” he noted, leaning against the counter to look me over again and shake his head. “Your voice should not be coming out of that face.”

“It’s the hair,” I returned. “If I put a hat on you wouldn’t bat an eye.”

He grinned at that as the microwave beeped, then cursed after reaching into it. I watched with interest as he tossed a plate onto the counter, shaking his hand out before tossing another one into the machine.

Had he really just…made me food?

“Here, eat,” he muttered, setting a fork on top. “I’m exhausted.”

“You lookin’ for me?” I asked, suddenly wondering.

Wufei had changed since he’d found Duo. Back in Brazil he’d been closed off and moody…but even that first day I’d seen them in the lobby he’d had a true smile on his face. Later, when Duo’d come in with his little boy to see Quatre, Wufei had taken the toddler and made him start laughing so hard that he’d gotten the hiccups…he was just…a lot more happy now.

“Almost, not quite,” he returned, pulling his own plate out and gathering a fork. “Dude, it’s gonna get cold and be nasty, and this is all I got.”

“Sorry,” I muttered, moving quickly to collect my plate…it smelled about as good as the pasty had.

“Duo called Heero,” he noted, moving to sit on the couch himself, staring at nothing. “I told him to get the damn song-bird to write Heero or something and he refused at first…I’m not sure what happened, but he called the Center and gave his phone to Nat.”

I blinked at that, considering it. “I thought he hated Heero.”

“Oh, he despises you both,” Wufei reassured me. “He’s got this thing called a conscience. It kinda fucks with you when you have morals.”

“Oh, burn,” I noted, rolling my eyes. “Moral jokes from the porn-addict.”

He choked slightly on his food, starting to laugh.

“Oh, you mean you weren’t really looking at the porn?” I demanded as if disbelieving. “Damn, Wufei, I got the totally wrong impression off of you…must’ve been all that smoke”

He laughed evilly at that, meeting my eyes. “What was I doing then?”

“Looking for Duo,” I noted.

“Ooh, sharp one, you are,” he muttered, taking another bite.

I gave him a look.

“It kept you out of my face, didn’t it?” he added, meeting my eyes again. “You’d have loved it if I’d have given you something solid to feed to Heero.”

“Yeah, I kept looking,” I agreed, taking another bite myself. “This is good.”

“Holy shit, you’re human,” he retorted.

I smirked at that, taking another bite.

He finished off his plate and moved across the house to put the thing on the counter. “I’m brushing my teeth and crashing. Don’t take my shit and don’t fucking wake me up.”

I watched him go into the bathroom and grinned slightly.

I’d always liked his pistol, it was nice of him to give it to me like that.