Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Memento Mori ❯ Photograph ( Chapter 2 )

Memento Mori

 

 

Summary: The truth from Quatre isn't what Duo believes is true. A discussion between the two; a refusal. Where is the truth?

 

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. This is reality. They belong to their respective owners in the Sotsu Sunrise agency.

 

 

 

Chapter Two: Photograph

 

“Duo, Heero's dead.” Duo heard the words and felt a feeling come over him. He burst into laughter. This was definitely not the response Quatre was expecting from Duo. Duo clutched his stomach as he laughed. He decided to straighten himself seeing as the caramel candy in his mouth threatened to either fall to the floor or choke him if he didn't.

“Quatre, I think I should call Hilde back. You're the crazy one. That's definitely a new one.” Duo slowly came to a regular breathing pattern. Quatre rubbed his head.

“Duo, I'm serious. Heero died in explosion. You know that. We were all there.” Quatre sighed and turned toward his desk. Duo seemed to realize what the whole problem was and stared at Quatre.

“No wonder you think he's dead. You probably haven't talked to him since the Wing Zero blew up that little mansion hideout of Mariemia's. Heero made it just fine, a bit scratched up but he didn't seem to be hurt at all this morning when I talked to him.” Duo explained.

“Duo, Heero wasn't there during the Mariemia incident. He died when he fired the cannon blowing up that last fragment of Libra.” Quatre had now taken the position of leaning on his desk with his arms bearing the weight. Duo became more serious.

“Okay Quatre, now you're just taking this whole joke too far. Heero isn't dead. You even talked to him during that whole insanity. You sent out the Wing Zero to some rendezvous point for him to pick up. You were there when Heero and I took that small shuttle to get onto X-18999. Remember?” Duo recounted to Quatre. “I think you need to get out some Quatre, these papers are making you slowly snap. You're over stressed or something.”

“Duo, I'm perfectly fine. Even if I were joking, why would I choose this subject as the basis for a joke? That's just sick and inhumane. I know you and Heero were close friends. I would never do something this sickening, I'm telling you the truth Duo, Heero is dead.” Quatre turned around and began moving his arms as he spoke. He placed his left hand over his heart as his right arm extended out to his side. “Why would I lie to you?”

Duo sighed and stood up. He had his eyes closed and then opened them. “Quatre, really, I'm worried about you. You know as well as I do that I wouldn't lie to you. Heero was in my car this morning, commenting about it and drinking my bottle of soda. I think you need to take a vacation or something. I'll talk to you later, I'm a just a bit too upset at the moment to have a legitimate conversation.” Duo turned and left.

Quatre watched Duo's figure head down the hall as the door slowly closed. The door shut with a slow snap before Duo was fully out of view. Quatre stepped backwards and then seated himself on top of his desk. He turned himself around, carefully dodging the paper stacks, and reached over into his desk drawer. He pulled out a photo. It was a really nice picture and was pinned in a frame.

It was a photo of all five of them when they met aboard the Peacemillion. Noin and Sally decided to take the photos in the case something ever happened. Quatre easily had recalled that exact moment. It was burned into his memory.

“Hey Heero! Noin and Sally are going to take a picture! Come on!”

“I'm busy here, do you mind?”

The stinging feeling, before tears come, imposed themselves on Quatre.

“Come on. It's just one picture! It's not like we're gonna give it to Zechs or something. He'd probably use it for target practice.”

“Oh come on Heero, it'll be nice!”

“Quatre, not you too.”

“Might as well give in Heero, Quatre's pretty stubborn about these things.”

“Trowa, you're not helping.”

“Three against one Heero! Now you have to!”

“Four against one, get over here Yuy!”

“Fine. I was really hoping you'd be on my side WuFei.”

“Maxwell forced me into the picture as well.”

“Misery loves company!”

Quatre remember they had all stood nice and neat for the picture, but Duo decided to tackle Heero from behind.

“Say cheese!”

“Chaah! Duo!!!”

*Snap*

“Hahaha!”

The photo came out better then anyone hoped. Rather then everyone sitting there and just taking a picture, Duo had Heero actually caught in a scowl-like smirk as in the shot Heero was in the midst of pushing Duo off him. Duo was laughing with one eye closed out of reflex as Heero's hand came close to his face. WuFei was backing away, hoping to avoid being caught in Duo's chaos. Quatre was bent over laughing as Trowa laughed as well.

Suddenly a drop of a clear liquid fell onto the picture, enlarging parts of the photo and then rolled down the glass frame. Quatre seemed to snap out of it and recognized his tears falling down. He wiped his tear off of it, and then pushed a stack of papers off of his desk, not caring of the mess they made. He set the picture up where the stack of papers once were, and reclined back in his chair.

 

 

 

Duo got back into his car and shut the door. He felt more troubled then he had before entering Quatre's office. He looked at the seat beside him, hoping to find any trace of the Wing pilot's presence there from before. He slowly inhaled the scents of the car, distinguishing smell from smell. He recognized the scent of the Mustang, noting that he had always smelled it when he first entered the car. He searched internally checking if any foreign scent was present. He recalled that when he once went to the same school as Heero, he noted that Heero had a strange scent of gunpowder and spice. Duo opened his eyes and realized he had grabbed a hold of a tiny bit of that same smell.

“Gunpowder and spice.” He said to himself. That was proof; he had been in the car. But what if Duo was just hoping for the smell and so perhaps his brain just imagined the smell?? Duo looked down towards his seat and console and noticed the coke bottle. The bottle was in fact much lower then before Heero had came in the car. Duo nodded and started the car up. He was right.

Heero Yuy had been in that car earlier.

 

 

“You need to be a little more scared!” Catherine Bloom stated once again. Trowa looked at her and smiled.

“I don't get paid enough to act scared of you.” Catherine mock “huffed” and laughed. She turned away as Trowa sat next to the lion again.

“Trowa, someone is here to see you.” The Manager said as he walked into the area of the tent Trowa and Catherine were in. Trowa looked at Catherine, asking silently if she had expected or asked someone to surprised him. She gave him a slight shake of the head. Manager stepped back and Quatre came into view.

“Quatre, what are you doing here?” Trowa greeted. Quatre ran up and bowed in front of Catherine and then turned his attention back to the emerald-eyed boy.

“It's good to see you again Trowa, although this time I wish it was on better terms.” Quatre said, looking down now. Trowa stood up and went towards Quatre.

“What's wrong Quatre?”

“Duo. It's Duo. You were right.”

 

A few minutes later found Trowa out of his costume as well as Catherine. Trowa and Quatre sat at a small table while Catherine poured them some tea. She sat the teapot on the table as Quatre nodded and said a low `thank you.' She stood there and Quatre read her mind without a second thought.

“Of course you can stay, we're all friends here.” He stated with a smile. Content, Catherine sat down in a third chair slightly behind Trowa.

“So what's all this about Duo? What's wrong?” Trowa questioned, his emerald eyes flickering with interest.

“Well Hilde called me this morning saying Duo was acting strange and that he was going out to look for Heero.” Already Trowa had formulated some questions in his head. “He came over to my office later agreeing with the same story, adding in that Heero had hitched a ride with him just before entering the office. He seems to believe Heero is still alive and amongst us basically.”

“I told you we would have to deal with this someday. Duo was very attached to Heero.” Trowa laughed a little to himself thinking of how Duo could easily rile the Wing pilot.

“Heaven knows why though.” Quatre stated sipping his tea. “Heero was a good guy, don't get me wrong. But they are extreme opposites.”

“Duo confided to me once. People he got close to always died.”

“Ah I remember now. He told me the same when Heero first self detonated. He said that it had left him emotionally drained.” Quatre recalled.

“The way I see it, when Duo realized Heero survived that, I guess he figured Heero could survive anything. Perhaps now he refuses to accept Heero's death.” Quatre listened intently to Trowa's words. Catherine sat and listened, not saying a word, but her eyes told that she was thinking of something to say.

“Why don't you show him proof of his death? Take him to Heero's grave perhaps.” She said.

“We just might have to. It's on L1 near the old military base.” Catherine looked at Quatre oddly.

“Why there of all places?” Trowa turned to face her.

“We didn't necessarily have anything to bury for him, all we could find after the explosion was a fragment of Wing Zero's chest gem. We placed that there because Quatre said something had once happened there and Heero said if anything were to happen to him, that's where he would want to be buried.” Trowa said. The information seemed to be a bit more then Catherine had anticipated.

“Heero never told me why.” Quatre said. “But how is that even proof enough to Duo that he's dead? Our Gundams are blown up and we're still alive, that could easily be his argument.”

“Wait right here, you just reminded me of something!” Catherine said jumping to her feet and running to a back room. Quatre looked at Trowa, who was looking in the direction his sister had ran. The sounds of things being shuffled around and knocked over were heard along with a few curses. A few minutes later Catherine came back into view with 2 neatly folded papers in her hands. She placed them on the table.

“After your friend self-detonated, when I went to wash his clothes I found these papers in his pockets.” Catherine realized what she said and Trowa smirked at her. She placed her hands on her hips. “I only did in case he had stuff in his pockets before I placed them to be washed!”

“If you say so.” Trowa mocked as Catherine sat back down a picture of a little girl, no more then 8 or 9 years old judging by the picture. The words had been rubbed off just by wear making it harder to read. The other paper was a part of a newspaper story ripped out of the page.

“Explosion at military base leads to one hundred five dead and fifty others wounded. Arsonist said to be part of colony rebel group.” Trowa continued to read.

“Heero.” Trowa stopped reading and looked at Quatre.

“I think we now know why Heero wanted to be buried there.” Trowa answered to the unspoken question.

“Instead of finding answers we're finding more questions.” Quatre said in a tired but amused sort of voice. Heero had always been very secretive about his life, especially the past. “Who is this little girl? What happened that night, I'm sure it haunted Heero so what was it? And why is Duo saying he can see him?”

“Quatre slow down. Although it is very inquisitive, I doubt bringing up Heero's past is going to convince Duo that Heero is dead. Let's focus on getting Duo back to his normal self first.” Trowa said, Quatre nodded, agreeing the same.

“Maybe the Preventors still have footage from the last fight, it'll be hard to watch again, but it might be what we have to do.”

 

 

Kazza: Wow this is even getting me excited.

Heero: But you know how it's going to end.

Kazza: Well yes but seeing it on paper is soooo sexy.

Heero: Gods you need help.

Kazza: Anyways sorry for taking so long getting this out school's a bitch.

Heero: You're supposed to say that before the story.

Kazza: Shut up! Shouldn't Duo be distracting you somewhere?

Heero: Eh he's around somewhere.

Kazza: Good gravy we better go find him Anyways read & review people! Yay!