Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Les Ombres Rebelles ❯ Chapter 3

Les Ombres Rebelles - Chapter Three

 

by danse

 

~*~

 

It was the first Friday afternoon since school had started—the day after the frosh death—and Duo and Quatre were practically shoving their way through the crowded halls. Students were standing in groups all over the place, chatting, discussing skipping their next class and what they were going to do for their first weekend of the term. While Quatre was finished for the day, Duo still had Martial Arts 412 to go to, and it was a class he shared with his shadow, so he was not in a happy mood. Quatre was accompanying him down the hall.

 

“I really wish I hadn't let them fast-track me through that class,” Duo muttered. He was in a more advanced level than Quatre, which was part of the reason their schedules differed in such a small school. Quatre's Martial Arts 312/314 class was in the mornings.

 

“Well, that's what you get,” Quatre said. “Besides, at least it means you're not letting Heero get ahead of you, right? And it's class, so he can't kill you there,” he pointed out reasonably.

 

Duo laughed bitterly. “That's Kushrenada's class,” he scoffed. “Somehow, I don't think it would make a difference to him if we killed each other. He'd probably give out bonus marks.”

 

Quatre wisely shut up.

 

A few somewhat peaceful minutes later, Duo suddenly got shoved from behind. He stumbled forward, recovering his balance before he fell. He whipped around to face his assailant, one hand holding the strap of his backpack steady while the other splayed out in front of him in a modified Tiger position. His eyes radiated fury. “Who the fuck was that just now?” he barked. The hallway went silent.

 

The other boy, who hadn't run away, glared at him as he answered. “Me, you worthless piece of shit,” he spat, his almond-shaped eyes narrowed in disgust.

 

Duo's eyes locked on the speaker's face, and he straightened up a little. “Chang?” he said, sounding incredulous. Then he grinned. “I see that work that Heero did on your face still hasn't healed, Dickless.”

 

Chang Wufei blushed with embarrassment but covered it up by cracking his knuckles. His Enforcer armband was clearly visible around his left arm. “I can make yours look a lot worse,” he warned.

 

Duo completely abandoned his fighting stance, shifting his backpack on his shoulder as he half-turned away, which insultingly implied that Wufei wasn't a threat worth guarding against. “Come on, Q,” he said. “This idiot is obviously having trouble with his balance since he got the shit kicked out of him the other day.” He turned to walk away, and with a wary glance at Wufei, Quatre made to follow.

 

Outraged at the slight, Wufei grabbed Quatre's arm before he got out of reach, yanking him close and baring his teeth almost in Quatre's face. “Not so fast, Winner,” he said sweetly. “I've been wanting to have a chat with you. You and your shadow. You know that there are some new Tag rules, right? I just want to make sure that you both understand them. Since we've apparently had some... comprehension problems... with the rules in the past.” He smiled venomously.

 

Duo appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Wufei by the collar, nearly lifting him off of his feet as he shoved him, hard, into the opposite wall. Several gathered onlookers had to dodge out of the way to avoid injury as the Enforcer slammed into the painted cinder blocks, wincing visibly. As Duo dragged the stunned Quatre away, they heard Wufei yelling after them while the crowd evaporated. “I've got my eye on you, Winner! And Maxwell, I hope Yuy fucking kills you before Christmas, you asshole! You've got it coming!”

 

Duo swore quietly as they distanced themselves from the scene. Quatre finally managed to pry Duo's hand off of his wrist and rubbed it absently as he collected his thoughts. “So he was the Enforcer that Heero got in a brawl with the other day, then?”

 

“None other,” Duo said. “Kushrenada's pet bulldog.”

 

Quatre wrinkled his nose. “I didn't think Chang liked Kushrenada any more than anyone else did.”

 

“Less, actually,” Duo corrected him. “That doesn't make him any less of a flunky, though.”

 

It made no sense to Quatre, but he left it alone as he waved goodbye to Duo at Dojo 3.

 

Duo walked inside, bowed at the door, and proceeded to the locker room, noting that no one else had come in yet. Good. He changed quickly into his black gi, tied the belt, chucked his bag into his locker, set a trap involving a can of cheap shaving cream in case it was opened by someone else, and locked it with his heavy-duty combination lock before going back out to the dojo to warm up. As he left the locker room, more people started to stream in, the first of the main mob. He ignored them and started stretching out his legs.

 

He'd finished his stretching and had completed thirty-four push ups by the time the rest of the class assembled for warm-ups. He saw his friend Hilde approaching and quickly brought his count up to fifty before standing up and grinning a greeting at her.

 

“Hi, Duo,” she responded, looking down briefly to tighten the knot of her uniform belt. “Are you all limbered up yet?” She grinned at her own words.

 

He shrugged. “Did some stretches. You want a hand?”

 

“Of course,” Hilde answered. Without another word, she kicked her left leg up into the air between them. Duo caught it and slowly raised it over her head, watching for her hand signal to stop when he reached her ear. She closed her eyes and breathed out slowly, placing her fists out in front of her for balance as she felt the gentle pull along her hamstrings.

 

“You know,” Duo said, speaking softly in her ear, “I wonder what would happen if I just tickled behind your knee right here....”

 

Hilde's eyes snapped open and she glared. “Don't fucking think about it, or I will inflict so much pain upon your person that your mother will feel it,” she answered succinctly.

 

Duo laughed and put her leg down, reaching out for the other one to repeat the stretch.

 

Hilde was a senior, ready to graduate from WFI this year. Duo had met her in Martial Arts 212 when he was just a freshman and had been skipped up a level. While the older students had intimidated his young, impressionable self somewhat, she'd been kind and quickly became his warm-up buddy, a long-held tradition by now. He didn't train with her, though, because while she was definitely an adequate fighter, he was stronger, more skillful, and more cunning when he fought, so they were generally a bad sparring match.

 

“Duo,” she said suddenly, sounding like she'd just remembered something she had to tell him.

 

“Yeah?” he asked. They switched positions so that she could help him stretch his legs in turn.

 

“What happens to you next year in this class?”

 

He raised his eyebrows. “I guess I need a new warm-up buddy. Never thought about that....”

 

She frowned. “You're such a jackass! What I meant was, there isn't another combat class after this one; they're probably not going to allow you or Yuy to just stop training in it, and you're not ready to graduate yet otherwise. What's going to happen to you?”

 

Duo pursed his lips, looking a bit disgusted at the mention of Heero's name in relation to his. “Probably some extra work with Kushrenada or something, I guess,” he said. “I dunno, no one tells me anything around here, except for where to go and what to do when I get there.”

 

Hilde smiled softly, and they shortly finished their stretching. By then, people were starting to assemble in the typical lines to await instruction. Kushrenada had appeared just inside the door, looking like a soccer coach as today he was not wearing his gi, but a track suit. It fit with his typical whistle and clipboard better than the gi, though. Everybody finished assembling and bowed to their teacher with varying degrees of respect. Kushrenada pulled his keys out of his pocket and tossed them at a senior named Walker. “Get the sticks,” he said.

 

People started to murmur. They didn't use weapons very often here, as the class focused almost entirely on unarmed combat styles. The only thing Duo could compare the class' general feeling to was gym class in elementary school on one of the days when the teacher got out the parachute. He smirked to himself at the ridiculous comparison as Walker emerged from the equipment room with a bundle of five-foot-long bo staffs under each arm, trotting to the front of the class to bring them to Kushrenada. What a lackey, he thought disgustedly. Walker was a pathetic hand-to-hand fighter, too, which only lowered his respect for the guy. Duo never got tired of watching Hilde beat the crap out of him.

 

Kushrenada raised a hand in the air to attract everyone's attention to him as he spoke. “Teams of two, basic drills on my count, followed by some sparring. Come get a staff one at a time.” He blew his whistle and the students jogged up in a procession to grab a weapon before snagging partners and arranging themselves around the dojo. Duo started to make his way towards a cute blonde with a hell of a roundhouse, but a stick suddenly pressing itself against his Adam's apple halted that idea. Resigned, he turned to face the person holding the other end of it.

 

“Heero,” he said emotionlessly, the closest thing to a civil greeting that ever passed between them. Duo knew that when they had a weapons class, Heero had trouble finding a partner, because sometimes he got too rough for the other students. Duo, who had been on the receiving end of Heero's armed and unarmed assaults on his person for the past two years, was used to it by now and would usually tolerate working with him in class for an hour. The theory was that it would tire him out and release his constant aggression for a few hours afterwards, which was always good for Duo. Today wasn't going to be any different.

 

Well, maybe it was.

 

They found an open space and bowed to each other, sticks at the ready and their eye contact never breaking. Kushrenada called out the count on several progressively more complex drills, and Duo retreated into his mind as the rhythmic sound of wood clacking against wood filled the room, along with the steady count and occasional blows of the whistle. Heero was hitting hard, as usual, so Duo increased his own force and opened up his stance a little to absorb the hits better. His staff vibrated against his hands with every blow landed on it. The two boys went through the routines like a dance, both of their minds elsewhere as they moved fluidly around each other. It was second nature by now.

 

Finally a longer blow of the whistle echoed through the room, and everyone lowered their arms, using the break to stretch their tensed muscles out again. “Okay,” he heard Kushrenada say, “five minutes of sparring.” He blew the whistle again, and instantly, like hunting dogs catching a scent, Duo and Heero dropped their relaxed stances and locked eyes again, tensing up into ready positions. Duo tightened his grip on his bo staff as Heero twirled his to the right, tucking it up under his right arm and bracing his left hand in front of him while he squared up his stance. A slow, predatory grin snaked its way across Heero's face as he and Duo glared at each other.

 

The tense silence between them hung for five, ten, fifteen seconds, as the sounds of everyone else fighting bled away around them. They looked like human statues busking in a park, frozen and ready to attack as they waited for money to signal them to move. Duo was vaguely aware of the instructor coming up on his left, but he kept his distance and was therefore ignored. On an unknown signal, possibly a heartbeat, both boys launched into action at once. Heero stepped forward and swung his staff in an upwards arc from under his arm. Duo ducked back and brought his staff up in a basic, two-handed block as Heero's left hand caught the other end of his own, holding it high and leaving his stomach apparently unprotected, although Duo knew he would never land a clear shot there fast enough without losing his hand in the process. Duo backed up a little and choked up his grip on the stick, holding both hands closer to the middle and holding it out in front of him in almost the same position as one might a sword at the ready. Heero immediately cut to the left and aimed a backhand shot at Duo's head, and the fight progressed viciously from there.

 

It wasn't long before the rest of the class noticed the match going on near the centre of the room and their activity slowly tapered off into spectating, ranged around the walls as Heero and Duo used increasingly more space. Treize fingered his whistle, but continued to watch from the sidelines along with everybody else.

 

Although this encounter moved as fluidly to the eye as when they had been doing drills earlier, no one could be foolish enough to describe it as a dance. The staffs moved with at least twice the speed they had earlier, and you could hear the whoosh of the ends cutting through the air. The clack of wood became louder and harsher, the sound of each blow sending a twitch down the spines of the audience. The combatants' breathing became short and sharp as they worked. It wasn't long before vicious kicks and off-hand blows worked their way into the fight as well. It was smooth, but far from elegant; the choreography was deadly, fast and dirty. One misstep by either participant probably would have been suicide, or leave them wishing it had been.

 

Heero finally pinned Duo with a rushing assault, and as they slammed onto the mats with their sticks crossed precious inches from Duo's throat, he thought he heard a short crack like wood splintering. Ignoring it, he gritted his teeth and planted a foot in Heero's stomach, rolling his hips up to launch Heero over the back of his head, his arms straight in the air over his face as he heard Heero's body thud into the mat behind him, listening to the rush of air out of Heero's lungs. Gulping in a deep breath, Duo jumped to his feet again and turned to face Heero in a defensive crouch as Heero used his staff to lever himself to his feet, coughing and gasping. As he staggered upright and shoved his staff out in front of him, he sent Duo a death glare that would have made most people wet themselves to be on the receiving end of. Whipping the stick down to his left side like he was whipping blood off of a sword blade, Heero gave a short yell and charged.

 

If the fight was vicious before, it was hard to say what would be a strong enough adjective to describe this round. Heero's moves were hard to see as he swung and thrust at vulnerable spots, but Duo kept up, feeling a fuzzy sensation in his hands from the constant vibrating of the staff he held. After a particularly good fake on Heero's part, Duo's head was left wide open, and as Heero swung his weapon down like an axe on Duo's exposed scalp, it took nearly the last of Duo's reserves to counter by dropping like a rock to his knees and thrusting his staff up over his head. The weapons crashed into each other with a teeth-rattling jolt, and Duo's eyes went wide with surprise as he heard that cracking sound again, this time too loudly to shrug off. He looked up at his stick and saw with alarm that it was cracked halfway through, light-coloured splinters poking out of the hole in the smooth, dark-lacquered wood.

 

Duo looked from the damage to Heero, who backed off a couple of steps and raised an eyebrow, giving him a questioning look, as if waiting for him to concede. Duo got to his feet, feeling strain in his back muscles. He held his wrecked bo staff up to examine it again, and his face tightened into a look of grim resolution. Returning Heero's death glare from earlier, he never broke eye contact as he slowly brought his knee up and braced his staff across the front of his shin, pulling back sharply on both ends and listening to the wood crack again as both ends came loose. Now he had two splintered pieces of wood of roughly the same length. He held the one in his left hand out like a shield and advanced on Heero, his eyes still radiating murder. Heero had aimed a strike at the top of his head that was powerful enough to break a hardwood rod nearly two inches thick—Duo had a line and that was crossing it. Now someone had to be taught a lesson.

 

It was hard to defend against the thrust of the two-handed bo staff with only a short piece of wood in one hand, so Duo resorted to ducking, dodging, and weaving to avoid being pulped as he clenched his right hand around his broken staff and waited for his opening. After feeling a couple of close calls, including one that he knew skimmed across the very tip of his nose, Duo finally got his chance. Stepping forward and swinging one of his pieces of wood in an effort to throw off Heero's rhythm while he was between moves, he succeeded in forcing Heero off balance, and as the other boy flailed with his staff in both hands in front of him to regain it before he fell over, Duo dropped the stick in his left hand, grabbed Heero's staff instead, and gave it a hard yank toward himself. Heero toppled forward, barely stopping himself from falling again. Pressing the side of the stick in his right hand against the other boy's throat, Duo lifted his leg and stomped on the horizontal staff, jerking it out of Heero's hands as Heero found his throat jammed into the stick, choking. The staff clattered to the mats as Duo shoved the stick forward and pushed Heero back, before spinning around to plant his right heel in his opponent's neck. Heero fell to the floor, landing on his side and rolling onto his back as he winced. Flipping the piece of bo staff around in his right hand so that the splintered end pointed down, Duo dropped to one knee and drove the stake towards Heero's exposed throat.

 

He stopped the sharp point less than a finger's breadth from piercing the skin.

 

Dimly, through the fuzz of sudden awareness of the world around him, Duo heard the insistent sound of a whistle blowing. Shaking his head to clear it, he stood up slowly, glanced absently at the broken length of wood in his hand, and tossed it onto the mat. He turned around to see Kushrenada advancing on them, not looking happy. He could see Hilde in the background, looking a bit pale as she stared at the scene with everyone else.

 

“... your ass off the floor, Yuy,” Kushrenada was barking at Heero. Duo looked down at Heero and smirked at the sight of him still flat on his back. Completely owned, Duo thought triumphantly, turning his back to walk away. As he went to take his first step, he felt something hit his ankles and suddenly he was sprawled facedown on the mat. Heero's feet walked by his face, and he could hear him chuckling. ...Son of a bitch, Duo growled to himself, pushing himself to his feet. As Hilde came over to help pick him up and get to the locker room—everything hurt all of a sudden—he noticed that most of the rest of the class was gone. Apparently that was it for today. Of course, their sparring match had probably gone on somewhat longer than five minutes.

 

“I hope you like black and blue, buddy,” Hilde commented as she helped him along, “because that's what you're probably going to look like tomorrow.”

 

Duo groaned.

 

***

 

Relena Darlian was just walking by Dojo 3 with Dorothy Catalonia in tow, when Heero Yuy walked swiftly out, hoisting his schoolbag onto his shoulder. His hair was damp and looked messier than usual, and he didn't spare an ounce of attention her way as he passed. She nearly swooned and fell into Dorothy.

 

“You're a mess,” Dorothy said, shaking her head as Relena stared at Heero's retreating back.

 

Relena scoffed, giving her dirty-blonde hair an arrogant toss as she started moving again. “Honestly, Dorothy, are you sure you're female?” she sighed. “I don't see how any girl with a pulse could resist that... that....”

 

“...That cold, bitchy, overly aggressive, questionably straight freak of nature who nearly knocked you over on the way by?” Dorothy finished, raising her forked eyebrow.

 

Relena turned back to face her companion and glared. “What do you mean, 'questionably straight'?”

 

Dorothy smirked. “Well, if you ask me, and just about anyone else really, he pays an awfully large amount of attention to his shadow, Duo Maxwell. I mean, really, he's had the same roommate for three years and the guy told me once that they've only ever talked about four times. And the only one of those times that Yuy initiated the conversation was to ask if he could borrow Ralph's whetstone to sharpen his hunting knives.” Dorothy shook her head, making her own platinum hair quiver in waves down her back. “Maxwell is, like, the only person on campus whose existence that kid acknowledges. It's like pulling the girls' pigtails at recess.”

 

Relena didn't stop glaring. “Well, I really don't see how that automatically makes him gay or whatever.” She cast a dreamy gaze down the crowded corridor in the direction where he'd disappeared. “I think he's just really dedicated to Tag. Trying to make himself a better person and push himself to the limit. That's so amazing....”

 

Dorothy gave Relena a calculating look, and then left her behind to continue down the hall to the library. Lost cause, she thought grumpily.

 

***

 

Relena was still standing in the vicinity of the dojo, wondering where Dorothy had just disappeared to and contemplating following Heero for a chance to talk to him for once, when the door opened directly behind her. She didn't have time to turn around before she was bumped into. “Sorry, Darlian,” a familiar female voice said.

 

Relena whipped around to face the offending girl. She narrowed her eyes and drew herself up to her full height. “Schbeiker, don't even start with me,” she snapped.

 

Hilde gave her a cool look. “Do you want your ass kicked right here?” she asked. “If you're that eager, I'll be more than happy to oblige. Got a quota to fill, after all.” She passed her book bag off to the guy standing just behind her, who Relena noted was Duo Maxwell himself, of all people.

 

Although she didn't particularly want to start a fight in the hallway right then, which would surely draw an audience, the blonde girl could plainly see that she was going to have no way out of this. Wishing she hadn't worn her most inflexible pair of jeans along with a pair of thick-heeled boots that day, she tossed her own bag against the closest wall and lowered herself into a half-crouch, glaring down her shadow. “Any time you're ready to lose, bitch,” she spat.

 

Hilde assumed her favourite karate stance and then started aiming punches at Relena. Ducking and weaving, she managed to dodge them all, the two small braids in her hair flying around as she moved at top speed. She stepped in close under Hilde's arms and aimed a hard shot at the other girl's exposed stomach, but Hilde blocked it just in time. Relena took a knee to the stomach, but stepped back enough that only half of it connected. Gasping for air, she rolled out of the clinch and got to her feet, only to block a roundhouse at her face. Hilde was really on the offensive today. The next kick, aimed at her knee, she caught, yanking Hilde around her right side and dumping her on the floor. The dark-haired girl retaliated by kicking her feet out from under her. Relena slapped out her arms to absorb her fall onto her back, and both girls leapt into standing positions almost simultaneously.

 

As they both stood there trying to catch their breath, Relena was incensed to see Hilde suddenly grin widely and chuckle. She could take a lot of things, but being laughed at was not one of them. Aggravated into offense now, she gave a short yell as she advanced on Hilde with a sideways shuffle and aimed a hard chop at her neck. Hilde twisted away, grabbed Relena's extended arm, and used it to throw her to the floor. Just to add insult to injury, Hilde then pinned her arm behind her back and sat on her. Relena heard the small gathered crowd start to giggle as she tried to aim a kick with her heavy heel at any part of her shadow she could reach, unsuccessfully.

 

“Well, Darlian, your reflexes are getting slow. Maybe you shouldn't have dropped Martial Arts to take Debate and Negotiation, hmmm?” Slapping Relena's ass hard enough to make the other girl wince, she chuckled as she got up to take her bag from Maxwell. “See you next week, same bat-time, same bat-channel,” she purred as she walked away. Relena hauled herself to her feet, red-faced, shook out her hair, and went to get her abandoned bag from next to the wall. She was going to go find Dorothy and ask her for more sparring practice, because this would not happen again, or her name wasn't Relena Darlian.

 

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A/N: There it was. That Heero/Duo fight is, in my opinion, the best action scene I've ever written. This is an ideal time to give me some constructive criticism on it. :D PS. I do apologize for the fact that Duo said 'owned' at the end of that scene; I talk like a total gamer nerd and I'm starting to have trouble discerning what is natural English and what is gamer talk these days. And also CATFIGHT YAY.