Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ IV Dark Sight ❯ Egotistic Modesty ( Chapter 5 )

Egotistic Modesty

Wufei woke up, feeling the bed moving, then drifted back into sleep again. The motion got lost in blackness, for all that he felt something on his face at one point. There was a serious familiar smell connected with all of it, so his consciousness didn’t return.

It was quiet.

Wufei rolled over, noting that the blankets were moved around. He’d woken up when Trowa’d laid down, too. He yawned largely, sitting up and listening. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since his friend had left. He had been too tired to wake up completely at the movement.

Something was weird.

Wufei frowned around his room as he thought…and focused on the desk that’d had his two laptops on it.

It only had one.

He stared at the spot in disbelief…because the asshole had taken his good bag, too.

“Damn it,” he muttered, moving across the room to look at the machine that was left. He’d taken the one that Quatre had given him, with the tracking chip. “Fucker,” Wufei muttered darkly, turning toward the door to his room…and noting the spot where his gun had been.

He took Wufei’s pistol.

Wufei groaned and cursed at the same time, moving out of the room and into the living room…to see several of his DVDs…and his old cell phone gone.

Trowa’s a clepto, Wufei noted to himself as he moved around and spotted other miscellaneous small items.

He would never have thought it…not only had Trowa come to him, but he’d stolen hundreds of dollars worth of junk…

It was at that point that Wufei realized he’d told the man not to take anything.

. . .why? Why was he so blessed?

Wufei sighed, then noticed a full glass of orange juice on his counter. The thing of it was, he hadn’t had any orange juice before, and the glass was sweating, but not running. That meant it hadn’t been sitting there long…and it was on top of a paper.

Hey, Wufei, thanks for the stuff, the note read. I’ll take good care of it, and if you’re really upset, just think if I’d have taken the other laptop. Don’t pretend that pistol meant anything to you. You have all your good stuff in the back and bottom of your organizer in the closet. I grabbed that blue hoodie that smelled clean, and borrowed a few DVDs.

Borrowed?

I’ll drop you a line from time to time so you know I haven’t kicked it yet. You can claim my laptop, and if you’re feeling frisky you can grab my phone. Give my love to the little ones and kiss’em good night. Check your microwave.

Wufei sighed, sipping from the glass of still-cold juice before hitting the button to open the microwave…there was a box of donuts.

Okay, that was funny.

Wufei grabbed one, shaking his head as he studied it warily. He didn’t entirely trust Trowa, nor understand how the man had gotten in and out of his house without waking him up seriously…but he had and it was done now…and aside from the laptop being expensive, and the weapon being registered, Trowa hadn't taken anything of any real value…aside from the blue hoodie. Wufei assumed that particular theft was Trowa being Trowa at his finest. That hoodie was the one Wufei had worn almost every time he’d gone to the Center.

The Chinese man didn’t really care that Trowa had taken what he had, he’d more expected it than not. Even telling Trowa not to had been acknowledgement that the shit would get pilfered.

No use crying over spilled milk.

Wufei decided he needed to get showered. He’d told Heero to call at eleven, and since the Japanese male had not yet come to terms with the word “patience,” he figured he had another half hour to an hour at the stretch before the man couldn’t take it anymore.

He really hoped the fact that he cared helped to make up for whatever petty shit he’d pulled in his former life…he wanted to at least be able to pretend to have a normal life now.

- -

The morning had started early, for Duo. Almost as soon as the sun had risen, he’d climbed out of bed and over his various children to get dressed and get to the chores. He was almost regretting how late he’d stayed up the night before, but it wasn’t like he’d have to do anything major.

It was already raining lightly.

Duo couldn’t rightly remember if the rain falling early meant earlier floods, but it didn’t matter, because he did have the boat, and he did have the GPS coordinates of the village…and he did have a GPS.

On top of that, the dense trees around them would break up the wall of water. It might make a strong whirlpool, but the water wouldn’t just rush in like it had before.

He’d never forget that moment when he’d grabbed Nassaiya and Vasu and ran toward the dock…

So they were in a well protected area, he had all sorts of modern conveniences at his disposal, and he’d missed the monsoon rains anyway.

“Oi,” Indra muttered, gesturing with his head as he came out of his own hut. Duo and them were staying in an extra hut that would be used for new marriages.

“Morning,” Duo muttered, following the man down the dock. “You look all serious.”

“I want to talk to you,” he returned, moving down the stairs. “I have something to ask.”

“You know you can ask me anything,” Duo returned, stopping with him at the bottom and sitting on a lower stair. Indra looked a bit pensive. “And what you didn’t know is I have money so I can really help.”

Indra grinned at that and shook his head. “It’s not…I think you might get mad at me.”

Duo blinked.

“My sister cried herself to sleep almost every night for the past five months.”

Oh.

Duo looked down.

“She came here, was fine for two weeks, maybe three…went back to the base and found out he wasn’t coming back and hasn’t slept soundly since…until last night.”

Duo nodded.

“I don’t like her with him,” Indra added. “I don’t like her pining for him…but I can’t stop it. You need to send him back here.”

“Send him back?” Duo demanded, amused by the idea. “I can’t do anything with him.”

Indra blinked.

“You didn’t really talk to him, and if you ever did, he would have been perfectly normal for you to talk to…but he has some severe…” he trailed off as his language skills hit a blank. “Troubles in his mind?” he offered.

Indra offered a word that Duo didn’t know.

“He has to see a doctor,” Duo offered. “A…head…doctor?”

Indra started laughing at that, dropping onto the lightly wet ground.

“He’s got to go through some…um…” Duo rubbed at his temples as he tried to cast around for an equivalent phrasing. “Sessions,” he muttered in English. He’d never picked up on how much of the language the other man knew. “Evaluations…therapy…”

“Therapy?” Indra repeated, thinking quickly.

“I should have taken that class,” Duo mused, then shrugged. “He’s got to talk to the nice man in the white jacket.”

Indra grinned appreciatively at that.

“He’s there until the doctor thinks he’s stable. He can’t leave…legally.”

That made the man blink.

“That’s why he’s not back already,” Duo shrugged. “Actually, he’s been pining just as much for your sister as she has for him. I don’t know how she can stand him, but he really seems to love her.”

Nodding, Indra sat back, studying the tree tops. “I don’t like it when she’s unhappy. Not only is she depressed, but she’s annoying.”

“I can understand that,” Duo mused, thinking of Relena the last time she’d gone through London. She’d been complaining extensively to Duo because her friend Juki was off running around with Wufei and wouldn’t come to supper.

“I don’t know what to do,” he added with a frown as he met Duo’s eyes. “Maybe leave your phone? Or should she go back to the base?”

“The base has a vid,” Duo noted, tilting his head as he thought. “Heero’d probably die for that.”

The man nodded again, then sighed and looked up to the clouds. “We should get to work.”

Duo nodded, rising to his feet again to offer the man a hand, then jumped slightly as his phone started to buzz in his pocket. Indra accepted the hand up, giving him an interested look because that particular expression was somewhat amusing.

“Hello?” Duo muttered, noting it was the Healing Center.

“Duo?”

Heero sounded like he’d been crying.

“Heero?” Duo asked, frowning at Indra and nodding toward the huts.

Indra started up the stairs.

“Are you…is…can I talk to Nat?”

“Sure, just hold on a minute,” Duo muttered. “You realize it’s six in the morning here, don’t you? Well, six-thirty.”

“Is it?” Heero seemed distracted out of his misery. “I’m sorry…” the man hesitated a long moment. “I’m…really sorry…for everything.”

Duo stopped.

“I…” he was starting to cry again. “I know…I fucked up…I…I didn’t realize…”

Hearing Heero break down like that made Duo’s stomach churn.

“I always…when you were there I was so scared of losing you, and it would make me mad…and then…you never stood up for yourself…” he swallowed hard. “I really want to make this all your fault…”

“And what do you expect me to say to that?” Duo returned darkly. “I lived in terror, always worried that I might set you off…and you’re right. I didn’t stand up for myself. Back then I wasn’t worth it. Back then I had no one to turn to and nowhere to go…and then the whole kidnapping shit.”

Heero sobbed.

“I understand,” Duo added almost coldly. “I know you didn’t realize what you were doing. I accepted that a long time ago…”

“I’m sorry,” he sobbed. “I’m so…sorry…”

Duo turned at noise on the stairs and extended the cell to Natalie as she reached him. “Give it to Nas when you’re done,” he instructed, then gestured with his head for Indra to lead on.

Indra frowned at him slightly.

“Heero? What’s the matter?” Natalie asked quickly. Her voice went from pleased and excited to concerned in a breath.

Duo gestured pointedly toward the jungle as he met Indra’s eyes.

He didn’t want to hear it.

- -

“Golden Garden,” I muttered tiredly to the taxi driver, dropping into the backseat heavily.

“You have a bag?” the man asked just as tiredly in Hindi.

“Right here,” I agreed in English, patting the thing.

He turned to study me, then looked at the laptop bag and nodded, putting the machine in gear.

It had been a long flight. It wasn’t the thirteen hours anymore, but it was still a long flight. On top of that, I’d woken up extremely early.

I wondered how pissed Wufei was. Not only had I made off with one of his guns, but the hoodie he loved, his bag, a shit load of his DVDs, and his old cell phone. The laptop didn’t strike me as an issue, especially once the genius realized why I’d grabbed it. It had the chip in it that connected me to the satellite. I hadn’t been able to grab mine from the Center, and if things worked out the way I thought, Quatre would have snagged mine and tucked it away.

I was fairly certain our little connection thing broke laws.

“Where you from?” he muttered in Hindi, glancing at me in the review mirror.

“You don’t have to chat,” I noted, shifting down in my seat. “I don’t want to talk either.”

“Hm,” he muttered, relaxing, too.

I liked it when I found people who understood me.

He tried to wave the fair when I’d climbed from the car, but I tossed the bills in his lap anyway. He could pocket it for all I cared.

After leaving Wufei’s apartment, I’d headed to the bank that was Duo’s. We’d talked about my worries and needs enough that he indicated a reserve-account would probably be my best bet. The key thing about it was that the only way anything could be moved from it was if you were there and said your specific password. There were a few other precautions, but this password was what had made it impossible for any of us to track down Duo. I hadn’t realized that specifically, but it made an immense amount of sense.

The man had freaked out when he realized I had all my money in the briefcase, but he’d realized at that point that a man coming in getting a special secure account with a briefcase full of money was either a rich man with enemies, or an evil man with lax morals.

I wasn’t sure exactly which I’d be considered.

I’d explained that I was moving, so I was going to use a friend’s address until I got things sorted out…that way I could be reached if necessary, but other than it being absolutely necessary they needed to leave me the fuck alone.

From there I’d gone to the airport. Among other things, we were all trained to get weapons through checkpoints, and it’d taken me some finesse to manage mine since I was taking the plain legally…well, Paul Kendrick was taking the plain legally. Trowa Barton was running like a bunny and didn’t want the wolf to scent him.

The flight had been boring, until the news had come on. The seats were fitted with their own televisions, so I’d watched as an anchor man declared me mentally unstable and highly dangerous. The whole ‘do-not-approach’ line. They’d gone over my initial internment at the Healing Center and showed a video of me talking to my shrink—I’d stayed up drinking the night before, so I’d been pretty hung over and…a bastard, as Wufei would have said.

It was kinda funny that they’d recorded that, of all things.

Anyway, it’d flipped to a clip from the man who’d accosted me, and his eye didn’t look any better now than it had before. Worse, really. He’d had to get stitches on his lip, but I hadn’t knocked any of his teeth out. His arm would hurt for a week or so, but that’d be fine…and his knee shouldn’t take more than a month to heal up.

The next step of all of it had been to note my intelligence. We’d all had to take various tests to see how smart we were. I hadn’t realized how hard Wufei, Heero, and Duo had been grilled when they were young at first, though. I hadn’t realized that all three of them were equivalent with college students just shy of their master’s. Quatre, once medicated, was about as educated as a college student our age would be. They had touched on my stock of languages, but only the ones I’d used consistently.

I mean, they were the base stock of the damn planet…Chinese, English, Spanish…Russian. Considering that we’d lived in Brazil for five years, Portuguese. What they didn’t realize was that I knew various African languages, and most of the languages from Indochina, too. This on top of German and such. I didn’t know every word of any of the languages, of course, but I would be able to go through a day comfortably in any of the countries.

So, a mini version of my life’s biography kept me entertained for a good two hours of that interminable flight before I’d decided I wanted to sleep. Then it’d all just gotten boring.

The fact that I didn’t have any checked luggage made for a quick slide into a taxi someone else had hailed, and the Golden Garden hotel. I’d seen it on the website for Mumbai…that’s where I was. Mumbai, India.

“Hello, sir, how can I help you?” a pleasant woman asked from behind the counter.

“I need a room for…two nights,” I muttered in Hindi. “Nothing fancy. Just me and a bed.”

She smiled at that, starting to type on her keyboard, watching the computer screen. The place had utilized the old trick of using mirrored walls to make a room look bigger, so as she typed I saw a picture of myself flash on screen with a warning label. It was the same one they’d had on the news, and she glanced cursorily at my face.

She was looking for a red-head, wasn’t she?

I passed her my I.D. and credit card as she asked for the items, and after a short while, she set a piece of paper up for me to sign.

I almost signed it Trowa…which had to be the smartest thing I’d ever done.

I signed the new name, Paul Kendrick, with a flair before sliding the paper to her and smiling slightly.

“Your bags?” she asked after a moment, looking around as she passed me the key to my room.

“I don’t have any,” I returned. “I travel light and carry money.”

She nodded at that with a brief and fake grin. “Your room is on the third floor,” she pointed at an elevator. “Go right at the top.”

“Thanks,” I noted wryly, turning to go.

So…was I away enough? Could I settle in this city? Sure, I’d ran across one person that got me…but that was one person in a huge city. That could easily be chance. I’d need to run around and see what was all going on before deciding…and I needed to send Wufei his first DVD back.

Would Wufei come for me like he had for Duo?

I leaned against the elevator wall as the doors closed, thinking about that. Why would I care if Wufei came for me?

I was human. They were all I had that was even remotely close to family…I had stayed with them for something like seven years…sure, Wufei and I pissed each other off left and right, but was that really anymore than two brothers?

The thing about it was, I didn’t think Wufei would come for me. He’d expended a great deal of time, money, and energy to find Duo. The search had taken him two years…and then he’d been happy. He’d gotten to where Duo was and he’d changed completely.

But maybe since he’d changed, he would come? I wrapped my arms around myself as the doors slid open and moved into the hall, checking my room number. The room was at the end of the hall, and it took me longer to get to than I wanted to take, but there wasn’t a lot to be done about that.

The room was sparse. One bed, one table, and about one inch to walk between…okay, it wasn’t quite that small, but nearly. The bathroom was tiny, too…and the shower looked like you’d have to hang half out of it…but it was a room.

I wasn’t getting off to a very good start in Mumbai. Maybe it was that I’d picked a cheap-ass hotel, or maybe it was my morose thought processing…but there it was all the same.

Wufei wasn’t going to come for me. He didn’t care that I was gone. He’d be pissed that I took his shit, even though I’d only done it for a laugh…and he wouldn’t appreciate me sending him his DVDs one at a time.

Why was it only Wufei that mattered, anyway? Other than Duo hating me, both Heero and Quatre cared…didn’t they?

I dropped onto the too-hard mattress and stared at the ceiling as I heard the loud noise of cars on the street below.

I felt very lonely…aside from being alone in India. I felt like no one cared for me…and I was a little scared that maybe it was true.

- -

E/N: I'm having issues with chapter 6, it might be a while before it gets up. So how'm I doing? MediaMiner doesn't seem all that lively, but I do see this story getting some hits, so drop me a line and tell me what's up. Happy Mother's day...I'm off to buy some chocolate covered coffee beans...