Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ IV Dark Sight ❯ Sacred Trusts ( Chapter 7 )

Sacred Trusts

Quatre studied the screen as the news reporter bemoaned the mistreatment of he, Heero, and Trowa. Whatever Wufei had done over the week had exploded. It had all boiled down to an impassioned speech the Chinese male had given to the full assembly. He’d all but denounced the Healing Center as an institute for money making, a pure business with the pilots as cash-cows. It had instantly created a ripple effect of Heero and Quatre being taken from the building.

“You just have to have this stupid thing on the counter, don’t you?” Wufei grumbled, moving to look around the rose-bush at the blond. “You couldn’t put it on the table or something, could you?”

“What?” Quatre protested.

“This bush,” Wufei muttered, prodding at the thing. “I can deal with a vase, but this is ridiculous.”

Quatre started laughing, rising to his feet and moving to take the plant. “If you could just let me get it in the ground…”

“You’ve been home for two hours,” Wufei accused.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to make them bad-guys,” Quatre hazarded, taking the pot from the counter and moving with it toward the back door.

“I wasn’t going to…I was going to argue the place having stigma,” Wufei noted, passing the blond a plate of steaming food as he thought. “But they were all listening to me and…um…”

“You like speeches,” Quatre muttered in amusement.

“I got carried away,” Wufei agreed, taking a bite and moving to drop on the couch.

“I still think it’s weird that they talked to me for twenty minutes and let me leave with you.”

“I have to keep an eye on you,” Wufei shrugged, putting his feet on the coffee table. “I need to make sure you take your pills, even when you don’t think you need them…and if you flip out and do something stupid, it’s my bad. You still see a therapist and you still have supervision…this should just be more comfortable.”

“Thanks,” Quatre shifted the plate as he poked at it.

It had been surprising. He’d been digging out the rose-bush, because Wufei had told him he’d probably be moved before much longer, a day or two. He’d barely gotten the thing in the pot when he heard shouting. The shouting had become louder and Heero had moved uncertainly from the main hall into the courtyard to give Quatre an uneasy look. It’d taken minutes after this for men in military uniforms to come in and request that they accompany the group.

By the time Quatre’d gotten all his things from his room, they’d packed up Trowa and Heero’s rooms and they were marched from the Healing Center into waiting vans as the media circled like vultures. They’d ended up at a government building where Quatre’d been taken to a comfortable room and a therapist had come in to talk with him.

It had been scary, in several real ways. Quatre knew that his own mind-set had kept him from “growing” as time moved on, and that the fact that he felt scared was a direct result of the years being emotionally stuck as a seventeen year old…maybe even sixteen. The man had talked to him about the Center, about Trowa…and about how he himself felt. It’d seemed almost too fast that he was moving into Wufei’s apartment and setting the rose-bush on the counter.

“You okay?” Wufei asked, studying him seriously. “You need to know you can talk to me no matter what.”

Quatre nodded, dropping next to the man on the couch. “It’s just…so sudden.”

“I’m sorry,” Wufei apologized sincerely. “I didn’t mean to piss them all off, but the Center has been pissing me off since…almost as soon as you guys got there. I figured it’d take a day or two for you to get seen and stuff…that you’d have a few days…but…uh…”

Quatre grinned, meeting his eyes.

There was a knock at the door.

Wufei moved across the room hesitantly. He had a very small house, and with the way things had been going all day he didn’t trust a knock on the door when he wasn’t expecting it.

“Hello, Mr. Chang?” a pleasant man in a brown uniform asked.

“Yes.”

“Sorry to bother you,” he muttered, extending a small box.

“Oh, thanks,” Wufei took the thing, noting it was from Paul…a.k.a. Trowa. “Thanks a lot.”

Maybe it was Grandeur…that particular theft had annoyed Wufei a lot more than even the hoodie, and he hadn’t realized it would until he’d wanted to watch it. He closed the door and moved back toward the couch as Quatre studied him curiously.

“He borrowed my DVDs,” Wufei explained, popping open the packaging. “He’s sending them back as he’s through with them.”

“Oh?”

“Hm,” Wufei noted, studying the address again. “It’s from Mangalore…again.”

“Again?” Quatre tried to get a better look at the package.

“Yeah,” Wufei tossed the box to him as he grinned at the package.

Grandeur.

“What’s that?”

“The movie I wanted to watch for two weeks and couldn’t,” Wufei noted, popping the thing open…and blinking at the disc inside.

It was a porno.

“What?” Quatre asked, trying to look at that, too.

Wufei, I’m not done with your movie yet, but you should probably appreciate this.

Wufei started laughing, dropping onto the back of the couch.

“What?” Quatre asked, setting his plate down.

“See?” Wufei showed him the post-it note first.

“Uh…huh,” the blond blinked.

Wufei showed him the disc.

Quatre started sniggering.

“I really want this movie back,” Wufei protested, dropping the case down. “Geeze…”

“Oh, come on, you were always watching porn before.”

“I was not,” the Chinese man retorted irritably. “I was looking for Duo and if anyone looked at my screen I’d…pull up porn.”

Quatre gave him a look.

“What? I did,” Wufei pouted slightly. “I’m not that bad…if you wanna watch this use a laptop,” he gestured toward the area he had a bed set up. “If you want the room I’ll change,” he added, moving to pull out the silk screens he’d brought in. “We aren’t going to live here that much longer…so I just kinda improvised you some personal space…is that okay?”

The blond moved to help him move the screen around, then studied the living room. “This place is tiny.”

“I don’t need loads of space,” Wufei shrugged. “I’ve been watching the ads for places…we’ll probably be able to get an apartment like Duo’s.”

“Duo,” Quatre thought. “Does he know what’s going on?”

“I told him what I was doing,” Wufei shrugged. “I didn’t mean for it all to snap today, though, so he might be startled.”

Quatre nodded, moving to sit on the bed inside the section as he thought. “I kinda…like this,” he muttered, moving to move the screens so the area was closed off.

“That’s a plus,” Wufei noted.

“Hey…have you used that laptop yet?”

“You can use it,” Wufei noted in amusement.

“Don’t be an ass,” Quatre retorted. “Have you looked to see if your machine was online?”

Wufei blinked. “No…I haven’t.”

“You should check,” Quatre noted, moving back out of the area. “I miss Brazil.”

“The base was nice,” Wufei agreed, moving to pull out Trowa’s laptop from his room. When he’d moved back into the main room again, he tilted his head at his friend. “I have an appointment to see people tomorrow about a place over by Duo’s. If it works we’ll be in here three days at the most.”

“It’s very you,” Quatre reassured him, looking the place over. “Nice to get out of the sterile environment…but I hope my rose will be all right,” he was studying the plant at the window.

Wufei frowned, looking at the thing. “It’s the one Duo bought, isn’t it?”

Quatre nodded, moving to it and touching the leaves as he tried to see any signs of distress.

“It’ll be fine,” Wufei noted quietly, watching that. “I wonder if Tro’s gonna settle in Mangalore.”

“Maybe he just found a playmate,” Quatre suggested, dropping to his rear and looking out the back door…it was sliding-glass.

“Maybe,” Wufei agreed, booting the machine up as he sat again.

He wasn’t so sure it was a good thing he hadn’t thought to look for Trowa online.

- -

“If you want us to stay,” Duo noted to Indra, “we can stay.”

“No,” Indra reassured him with a smile. “It will be fine. The rains come and the rains go. They did it a million times before we were born, and they’ll do it a million times after we die.”

“As long as you’re sure,” Duo muttered. “I could help you make another boat…or…”

“Duo,” Indra muttered with a happy smile, “you can stay if you want to.”

Duo laughed at that, meeting the man’s eyes.

“I would love it if you moved here,” Indra added, “but you have a life in London…I’ll come bother you for a week or two and see how much modern living terrifies me.”

Duo grinned. “Come on, let’s go…get packed.”

Indra sniggered. “How about after the floods leave? I wouldn’t sleep a night with the floods coming or even if I knew they’d hit.”

Duo sighed and nodded, understanding that. The first year he’d been in London, he’d spent a long month tossing and turning while he fretted.

The second week of the visit had passed, and it was still raining. The visit had been nice and relaxing. Now, Duo was waiting for the SUV to pull up to take he and his family home. Well, to Manaus.

“Duo?”

Duo turned to Natalie as she moved up to him, wiping at her eyes. “Can I please keep your phone? I’m sure Heero will pay you back…please…”

“No,” Duo returned for the fiftieth time.

Natalie looked about to burst back into tears. She’d argued that she couldn’t go back to the base because it would be unsupervised. Duo wasn’t sure how her going there would be unsupervised now when she’d worked there for seven or eight years, but she was adamant.

“Duo,” Nassaiya muttered in exasperation as she moved up. The look on her face was resignation…and he wondered briefly if women really could read minds, because Natalie turned to stare at Nassaiya a moment, looked to him.

He gave her a curious look.

“I’ll be ready in…five minutes,” she reassured him…then ran for her hut.

Indra was trying not to smirk.

Duo blinked.

Nassaiya shook her head and rolled her eyes. “What do we have to do to make this legal?”

Duo blinked again.

“Duo?” Nas pressed, moving so he actually looked at her. “What do we have to do to make this legal?”

“What just happened?” Duo returned, blinking again.

“Oh, Duo,” she grumbled, rolling her eyes and meeting Indra’s eyes.

Indra started laughing.

- -

“I have to go home,” Amelia protested, laughing as I tried to keep ahold of her. “Paul…”

“One more night,” I begged, allowing her to drag me. “Come on, just one more…”

“I work tomorrow,” she returned, laughing slightly. “My brother is expecting me and I work.”

“Amelia,” I whined as we moved into the lobby. “You’re the one who made me talk to you…”

“And I had fun,” she retorted. She stopped, kissing me briefly before grinning and starting to move again.

“Don’t go,” I protested, stopping the chase game.

“I have to go home,” she said seriously, turning to meet my eyes. “My flight leaves in about an hour, so I have to go…I waited too long already.”

I pouted at her.

“When you’re done doing whatever it is you’re doing here, come find me.”

“Where?” I asked instantly.

“Tuticorin,” she replied, smiling at me a moment, then turned and darted out the doors.

I sighed.

“I wondered what she was doing,” the receptionist muttered. “Her van has been waiting there ten minutes.”

“My bad,” I returned with another sigh, moving to lean against the counter next to him.

“Why are you here, Mr. Kendrick?” he asked. “I’m pretty sure you said two nights when you first got here, and you were muttering about checking out early before that woman started talking to you.”

I grinned, shaking my head. “I’m just trying to find where I belong.”

“You might look into Tuticorin,” he suggested, watching the van pull away. “I think you might find something there you like.”

I grinned, watching the van until it went out of sight. “I don’t want to be too eager.”

“Since clinging to her and begging her to stay isn’t over the top,” he agreed wryly.

I laughed at that, meeting his eyes.

“Just go,” he suggested. “If you don’t have anything holding you back, you may as well chase her down…hell, I can even book you a seat on her plane.”

That was an appealing idea.

“You have the money for it?” he added. “You can pay?”

I nodded, then made a gesture for him to do what he did and darted for the stairs. The elevator was going to take time I didn’t want to waste.

- -

Yo, asshole.

I jumped as the messenger screen popped up…with a message from me.

I grinned.

You there? Wufei asked. Send back Grandeur and I’ll surrender your porn.

I laughed happily at that.

Amelia had been startled when I showed up in the waiting area of the airport with her, and she’d started laughing again when I showed her my ticket and informed her I’d almost missed my flight. I added that there was something important waiting for me on the other end, and I’d seen her heart melt a little bit when I explained that she was that thing.

You there, Paul? he pressed.

Sorry, I returned happily. Just busy laughing my ass off.

You seem to think you’re funny.

I sniggered, then considered a moment. You mad at me?

I want my damn DVD back.

Just buy it again I protested.

That’s entirely beside the point.

I made a little design for his amusement that looked about like the middle finger.

He ignored that. Me’n Quatre got a place by Duo’s.

Huh? I asked blankly.

I got all self-righteous Monday and got them out of the Healing Center. If Trowa ever comes back, they’ll have a sit down with him to see his mental state…I’m assuming they’ll leave him be at that point.

Can someone hack this? I demanded. That was the only reason I could come up with for referring to me in third person…or second person? Whatever, for referencing me that way.

No, but Quatre’s having a therapy visit.

What the hell is going on? I was annoyed at not knowing the full details.

The Center wasn’t doing anything for anyone, I could imagine him shrugging with that. I just pointed it out to the people who mattered, got a little impassioned, and just about started a lynching. They were out of the Center in say…twenty minutes. Took Quatre to Main and had him talk to a shrink for a while, then got him cleared to live with me. Heero’s in another center…a better one. He’s been cooperating with his shrink because he’s been able to talk to the damn song-bird.

Natalie? How? I thought the Center wasn’t letting him talk to her.

She wasn’t at the base, and it’s the basin, again he probably shrugged…or would have, if we were talking face to face. Duo went back to Nas’ village, the one he was staying at before, and the song-bird was there. I guess Heero’s been talking to her every morning after his sessions. When Duo realized I’d switched things around here, he was surprised. Heero was calling consistently at six-thirty their time, but with the new shrink he has to wait until after noon here.

Wow, I felt intelligent. So…if…Tro…goes back, it won’t be stakes and pitchforks? What’ll happen if he brings his girlfriend?

He has one?

I smirked. He followed her to Tuticorin and is currently living in the house with her and her twenty siblings.

Please tell me that’s an exaggeration?

I laughed happily, which made Amelia move into my sight.

Her bedroom was on the second floor of a huge family manor. Her parents were working on kicking the children out one at a time, but they did have two or three little ones.

Not by much…I get confused which ones are brothers and which ones are nephews.

Wow.

“What’s going on?” she asked curiously, stopping in her bedroom door. The fact that we were obviously together was giving her parents some issues, but they weren’t talking out about it yet. I knew it was a matter of time before I had to get my ass out of there, and she’d expressed interest in going to London several times over the two and a half weeks we’d been together.

“My friend finally messaged me,” I explained. “Sorry.”

“It’s not an issue,” she reassured me, smiling. “I just like to hear you laugh.”

“Is it bad that I’ve fallen for you?” I asked her curiously, studying her dark eyes.

She grinned wickedly at me and moved over to kiss me. “What did you think I was trying to do? It’s not often you can get the pretty boys to chase you down and beg.”

I laughed, kissing her again.

“I need to finish,” she added, indicating the main hall. It was larger, and she’d been given the task of dusting some decorations. I’d tried to help, but she was having kittens that I wasn’t being nearly careful enough. She’d chased me off.

“All right,” I muttered, kissing her briefly again before she walked out.

Anyway, you can come back now, Wufei noted. I have an apartment with three rooms, but you’ll be supervised until they decide you’re really sane…won’t be as bad as the Center watching you, but you’ll actually have to do what they say because it’s the military. Rent’ll be fairly cheap for me’n you to split.

Me’n you? I repeated. Why doesn’t Q have to pay? That was kinda unfair.

What kind of person do you take me for? he retorted. The little ones need to save their money.

I started laughing again, sitting back in my chair. This also meant that he wouldn’t charge me for Amelia living there while we waited out the evaluations.

“Hey, ‘Melia?” I called.

“Yeah?”

“What do you think about London? Really?”

“I’m going to go there before I die,” she returned, moving back into my sight.

I grinned more. “You wanna make it sooner than later? Because…uh…my friend has an apartment with a spare room, and I can put some money away so you can come back if you decide you don’t like me.”

She moved to the door to blink at me in disbelief.

“What do you say? Can I make at least one dream come true?”

“I think you’ve found two,” she returned, moving closer to me. “Are you sure?”

I looked around her bedroom a moment before meeting her eyes again.

She squeaked excitedly, darting across the room to drop in my lap and hug me. “I think you’ve terrified me,” she noted. “I think you’ve lost your damn mind.”

“Just wait until you see my real hair color,” I teased. She’d seen me without the contacts repeatedly. “You’ll think you’ve lost your damn mind.”

That got me a look.

I grinned at her, considering her a minute. “What do you think about Brazil?”

“Brazil?” she asked blankly.

“Yeah, there’s a base there…I have some shit I have to clear up in London, and then I’m thinking I’ll head back to warmer climes.”

“You actually just said climes, didn’t you?” she muttered, sitting back to study me in amusement.

I grinned at that, kissing her nose. “How soon you want to leave?”

“Why wait?” she asked sweetly. “I mean, honestly…we’ve been together two weeks and you’re living in my family home.”

I sniggered at that.

“I’ll go tell my parents,” she noted. “You’ll have to give one of them the money for my return ticket, or they will freak.”

“Brilliant,” I kissed her again. “I’ll make this end of the plans.”

She smiled at me, then darted from the room.

So…Wufei, I typed, we’ll be there tomorrow.

There was a pause. Wonderful, he returned. Bring me back my damn hoodie.

End

- -

E/N: yeah...so ends Dark Sight...I'm not sure when I'll get to Heero's bit, though...hope you enjoyed.