Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Life together ❯ Part 1 ( Prologue )

Title: Life together

Author: Maaya shinigami_heart@hotmail.com

Summary: Five students, all strangers to one another, decide to share an apartment in loss of other places to stay. A beguiling story that revolves around life, friendship and love. 1x2, 3x4 and 5xM

Archived: http://dragonball-diaries.150m.com/ (Thanks Deb!)

Genre: Romance, General, AU, Drama, slight humor. Maybe more too, but this are the basic categories.

Warnings: OOC, OCs (but they won't be any kind of main-characters), Shounen Ai, Maybe slight bashing on characters, but I don't think it is all that much. The OOC-warning is mostly because the guys have lived a life without war, they should be at least a little different.

Rating: I think it is PG-13. I may change it to R later but it is very unsure. Very, very unsure!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Gundam Wing. Some people, like Norma and Mari, though, are mine.

Notes: This is just the teaser/prologue, but I know that I'll update. It will take time though, because this is just an idea of mine. I need to plan and develop this further before continuing and I need to know if there are people interested in my idea. I don't think I've seen it somewhere else, but it is possible that there already is another fan fiction with the same idea, but in that case, I haven't read it. This is mine, and only mine idea! ^_^ Anyway, I must finish/almost finish "One way ticket" or "Enemies, or?" before continuing this, so like I said, It'll take time to get more chapters up. If I get many reviews, I'll write faster though - but I don't think the prologue is all that interesting. *sigh*

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Life together - Teaser/ Prologue/Part 1

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It was a cold day; in the middle of an early and therefore, long winter. The sun had already set even though the clock hadn't read three yet; and still you could only see a thin streak of the bright star as it went to rest behind the grey silhouettes of houses.

A young boy, no more than eighteen years old, wandered down the ice-glazed road towards a big house, with seemingly three stories. The boy dug in one of his many pockets, then pulled out a creased paper with the number `17' written on it with a neat handwriting. The cold hand, still holding the piece of paper, ascended to the forehead and stroked the chocolate brown bangs out of the boy's blue eyes. When the hand lowered again, he breathed on it as if to warm it, then rested his poor body-part in one of the pockets not long after to keep it as hot as possible. The other hand that holding a brown suitcase was also identically cold as the other; almost an ashen white in its color, if truth be told.

The boy, that was named Heero, looked at the number on the house marked 17, then down on the slip of paper again as if to dare it to have changed the number to eighteen instead. Relived to see that it hadn't, he walked up the three steps to stand on the red-painted porch. Just as he was on his way to ring at the door-bell, he was stopped by a voice, shouting.

"Hey!"

Heero was surprised enough to drop the suitcase, and thus, it fell down on the wooden porch with a loud thump. Luckily, it didn't fell open, and without glancing at the one who had shouted, he bent down to pick it up again.

"Oh, sorry, did I scare ya?"

Heero lifted his head and glared at the source of the voice, the glare saying `no, you didn't scare me, just caught me by surprise, you idiot.' He said, "Hn." and looked the other boy over. He was rather short- shorter than Heero -and clad in black from head to toe. The most prominent feature was probably the long, chestnut braid of hair that was pulled around the boy's neck like a scarf in lack of anything else to keep that part of his body warm. The second most prominent feature was the pair of wide, bluish-violet eyes which were sparkling with laughter, probably directed at Heero. The shorthaired boy didn't like that last fact at all.

"Hn?" the boy mimicked. "Is that even English? Maybe you're from Spain? Or Norway?" The boy started speaking slower and clearer, as if he was talking to a very young baby, or maybe a foreigner. "Do you understand what I'm saying? Should I speak slower? Hellooo?"

Heero snorted. "Idiot."

"Oh, you can speak English at least." The boy joked.

"Who are you?" Heero asked and silently cursed the braided boy's idiocy.

The braided boy let go of his own suitcase in a hurry (it thumped on the porch, just like Heero's had done) and held out his right hand towards Heero. "Duo, Duo Maxwell. Nice to meetcha!"

Heero shook the cold hand. "Heero Yuy."

"Japanese?"

"Yes."

"Your English is kinda good."

Heero shrugged. "You're not one of the tenants.. are you?" he asked, and hoped that the answer would be no. This boy would drive him crazy in an hour.

"Yes, you're one too?"

Heero nodded again, but inwardly he groaned.

"That's great! Uhh, you were going to ring at the door-bell, weren't you?" Duo pointed at the small button.

Heero nodded for a third time before pressing his index-finger firmly against the white button. They could both hear a muffled ting-a-ling, and then someone who were moving towards the door. A moment later, the door opened and an old lady peeked outside. As she saw them standing there, she smiled and stepped out in the cold. "Ahh, you're the tenants!" she exclaimed.

Both boys looked her over. A short lady, probably around her sixties, with grey hair in curls and the skin in her face was wrinkled. She smiled invitingly and held out her hand for them to shake. "I'm Norma Clape, the owner of this house. Come in, dears, come in!" She gesticulated with the hand wildly, making it impossible for the boys to shake it. Instead, they did as she said, and entered the warm house.

They found themselves standing in a small room with two doors. Behind them, Norma pressed herself inside, barely succeeding because of the lack of space in the while-painted hall. She closed the door behind her. "The door to the right is yours, I live in the left. Go on, I've made you some coffee." She gesticulated wildly again and Heero guessed that she meant for them to open `her' door. Duo beat him doing it though, but before he had time to scowl at the grin on the braided boy's face, the door swung open and they stepped out into a kitchen.

It was a square-shaped room, with a square-shaped table in the centre. Nothing surprising. Something that surprised Heero though, was that another boy was already sitting in a comfortable chair by the table, drinking from a big cup with something that smelled like coffee. The boy seemed to be of Chinese origin, and he had black hair, barely long enough to be pulled into a tight ponytail.

Obsidian eyes looked up at them as they entered, and the boy stood up and came over to greet them. Norma smiled lovingly towards him, and then turned her head to look at Heero and Duo. "This is my other tenant; he arrived an hour ago. His name is Wufei Chang."

Wufei nodded and glanced towards Norma. "I prefer Chang Wufei, Mrs. Clape."

"Oh yes, and I prefer Norma."

Heero heard Duo giggle beside him, but ignored it. "My name is Heero Yuy, pleased to meet you."

"And I'm Duo Maxwell."

Wufei nodded politely and Norma asked them to sit down, completely forgetting that both boys were still dressed in their coats. Duo spoke up.

"Umm, Norma.. I mean.. Mrs. Clape, where should we hang our clothes?" He asked politely and looked around in the kitchen, as if he expected to see more coats hanging somewhere.

The old woman smiled at him. "Please call me Norma, dear. As for your outdoor clothes, hang them in the other room." She looked pointedly at another door.

"I'll call you Norma on one condition."

"What, dear?"

Duo wrinkled his nose before replying. "Please call me Duo instead of `dear'."

Norma's ringing laughter followed the violet eyed boy as he stepped into the other room, the braid whipping from side to side as he walked. Heero quickly followed him, but walked with a lot less enthusiasm.

They found themselves in a small bedroom, and with another coat (probably Wufei's) laying on the bed. They laid their own coats on the bed, and without words, walked out in the kitchen again. Heero noticed that Duo wore all-black clothes, and was a lot thinner than expected. He was `very' thin actually. He decided to ignore it and he sat down when Norma asked them to. Duo sat down to his left.

Norma poured out coffee to them in big cups that were painted in different colors. Norma had given Heero an dark green and Duo a black one. Wufei were currently drinking out of a grey, and Heero saw him grimace slightly at something - hopefully not the taste.

Frowning at the bad augury, he took a sip himself.. and almost choked. The coffee were exaggeratedly strong, and Heero found himself wondering if you could loose taste-buds in old age, because Norma calmly sipped her coffee as she talked with a cheerful Duo about the `horrible weather'.

Duo didn't seem to have tasted the black liquid yet, and Heero watched with interest as he lifted the cup- which was as black as the awful coffee was -to his lip and took at sip of his own and.. smiled.

Heero was dumbfounded.

The braided boy took another sip, bit down on his cookie, and continued to talk with his landlady about various things.

From the look of things, Wufei was dumbfounded too, his teeth stopping in the air just before they met the chocolate-cookie he held in his right hand. He laid the cookie down on the table and glared at it, as if it had offended him somehow.

"..please tell me again, why did you agree to share an apartment with people you don't know?"

Norma's voice interrupted Heero's observations, and he listened as Duo answered.

"Well, you see, I've got a job here in town, and I need someplace to live. This town is too small; I couldn't find another cheap, unoccupied apartment this fast. Besides," Duo grinned. "I'd like some company."

Norma gasped. "A job, already? You can't be more that seventeen!" she exclaimed in shock, and frowned when Duo shrugged.

"Actually, I'm sixteen." Heero saw that Duo was fiddling with the end of his braid under the table. "And, I kinda.. need the money." The boy blushed. "I'm still going to school, though."

The old lady seemed to notice Duo's discomfort, because she changed the subject. "As I told you when you called, there are five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room upstairs. The rooms are fully furnished, but if there is something you don't like or want to replace with your own things, just place it in the attic. There is no need to tell me, I don't use anything up there anyway. I believe that you've all paid for this month, yes?"

She looked around with satisfaction as the three boys nodded. Wufei frowned though.

"Why are you telling us this? Shouldn't we wait until the others arrive?"

Norma's eyes widened. "Oh, dear. Haven't I told you?"

She took in the blank looks on their faces before continuing. "The other two will arrive tomorrow. I know you haven't chosen who'll have which room, so I'd recommend you not to settle down anywhere, in case they want to be able to choose too. That'll prevent arguments."

Heero nodded slightly.

After that, their conversation took off in various subjects, few of which Heero found interesting enough to participate in, until they started speaking about each other's background. Norma had been a teacher before she retired.

Duo told them that he was adopted when he was younger, and had lived together with his new mother and father for a while. When his father died though, they had been in need of money, and that was why he needed to work now- at the mere age of sixteen.

Wufei was sent from China to meet his future wife. (Duo choked on his coffee as he heard this.) Wufei had never met her, but he knew that her name was Meiran. He was supposed to stay in America for one or two years, studying before they both would return to China and marry. Heero noticed that Wufei didn't sound too happy about the marriage but he avoided commenting.

Heero himself told them about moving from Japan to America together with his sister after his parents' sudden deaths in a car-accident. He cursed silently as he saw sympathy in the others' eyes.

After his statement, it got quiet for a moment before Duo spoke up. "Are you going to work too?"

"No, I've got a lot of money after my parents' deaths. I don't need to work, at least not until I've finished school."

Duo shrugged, and the room got quiet once again, until Norma stood up and searched in a pocket. A moment later, she handed them each a key. "This is the key to the house. Now, go up and inspect your rooms." She shooed them away with her hands and they did as they were told.

Their apartment seemed nice enough, with a big living room just up the stairs. From the room there were seven doors, leading to bedrooms, kitchen and a bathroom. There was a slight confusion for a while when no one could find the second bathroom, but finally Duo found it. It was inside a door in one of the bedrooms, a door that they had believed was leading to a wardrobe.

The boys each choose a bedroom; Heero was about to inspect his bed, when he heard the door to his room being opened. He looked up in time to see Duo walking inside, with a slightly nervous look in his face. It confused the shorthaired boy slightly.

"What?"

The violet-eyed boy began fiddling with his braid again, and Heero realized that it had to be a gesture of nervousness from the other boy. "Well.. yeah.. you said that you were going home to pick some other things up, right?"

Heero frowned. "When did I say this?"

"While you talked about you're background. You said that you had lived with your sister and most of your things were still there."

Heero couldn't find anything else to say than. "Hn?"

Duo didn't seem to find it encouraging, because he laughed nervously. "Uhh, anyway.. you said that you had parked your car not long from here, right?"

Heero nodded.

"Well, that means that you're going to drive to wherever you lived before..." he paused for a mere quarter of a second before continuing once again. "...and so.. I was just wondering if you could give me a ride home too? It's not all that far from here." He gave Heero a pleading look. "Pretty please?"

Somehow, Heero found it hard to resist that look, so he sighed and agreed. "Guess it can't be too much trouble..."

Duo took it as a yes and he brightened. "Hey, thanks!"

He turned around and walked out of the room quickly.

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TBC..

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Well, I need reviews if I'm gonna continue this.. so take the hint, please? There will be drama in this fic, believe it or not. Just give it a try `kay? I'll probably make the following chapters slightly longer than this prologue.

My beta-reader sailor c. ryoko wrote the summary, and of course, also beta-ed the fic. (Love ya!)