Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Mistaken Words ❯ Half Truths ( Chapter 56 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Mistaken Words

AN: Thank you morgansgirl for getting these chapters to me!

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing

Half Truths

Wufei blinked in total surprise, “Jay it's been awhile,” he greeted with a smile of his own. He had met the sensei several years back, and had gone down to his dojo on more than one occasion to teach a self-defence seminar or weapons class.

“Yeah I've been meaning to call you down for another class, the student's have been asking for you,” Jay shifted a little in his seat, the smile remaining on his face.

“Well I'm sure something can be arranged,” he replied, Wufei enjoyed teaching the students as much as they enjoyed learning. It had been an interesting experience the first time he had taught a class of students, in those first few moments he had felt closer to his family than he had in years. “But you said you have another runaway?” he changed the subject suddenly remembering what Jay had said to him at the onset of the call.

Jay's face took on a more serious expression, “Yeah he came in earlier today, calls himself Odin Lowe.”

It was an effort not to react to the sound of that name, “Can you describe him?”

“Yeah, he was small around five three, brown hair, blue eyes looked like he could be of Japanese decent,” Jay adjusted his glasses on his face the hand running down his goatee before returning to his lap. “He wore good cloths, they looked brand new but he was thin Wufei, really thin.”

Wufei nodded at the information but didn't bother writing any of it down, as he had done the half dozen times before when he had helped Jay. He felt like smiling, but kept his face blank not wanting to cause questions. “Have you offered him a room?” Jay had taken the runaways in when they were willing to accept his help, watching over them until they were ready to go back to their families.

“Yeah I did, he accepted, he's actually out right now getting his things from wherever he was staying before,” Jay nodded, and Wufei had to keep himself from laughing he wouldn't have doubted that Heero was expecting them to follow him, and that one of the reasons he had taken Jays offer was to make himself impossible to find.

“I'm really glad you called,” he said then debating how he wanted to handle this, “I've been concerned about him, he disappeared a few days ago.”

“He's one of yours?” Jay asked in surprise.

“Sort of…” he couldn't say anything that would risk giving Heero away but Jay needed something, “He's been an informant for us over the years, few days back we had a falling out, he left without a word.”

Jay seemed to mull that over for a moment, “The agency doesn't take really good care of their informants do they?”

“You referring to his size?” Wufei asked knowing there wasn't much of an explanation he could give for that, he knew Heero wouldn't want Jay knowing too much even if it was vague. “He's always been like that, has a hard time bulking up, I wouldn't be worried about it,” he assured.

“Alright.”

“So what made you think he was a runaway?” the former pilot wanted to know, “You said his cloths were new, I'd bet he had a fair amount of cash as well.” Wufei wasn't positive where Heero would have found the money, no doubt he had back up plans either from his time apart from them or all the way back from the war.

“He did,” Jay nodded, “But what he didn't have was believable answers, the form I had him fill out was mostly blank, and his answers for why he didn't have the information was all to convenient.”

Wufei chuckled, “You're so suspicious.”

“Hey it's saved more than once before.”

“I'll give you that,” he admitted, “Look can you do me a favour and not tell Odin that you contacted me?”

“You think it would make things worse?” Jay asked.

“You tell him and he'll disappear,” Wufei warned, “But it makes my life a little easier knowing where he is, so do you think you could keep me posted without him knowing?”

“I should be able to do that,” he glanced down at his watch as he did, “He'll probably be back soon, so I should let you go.”

“Alright, I'll talk to you later, we'll arrange for another class once things with Odin are straightened out.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jay smiled and shut down his vid phone.

Wufei leaned back in his chair a satisfied smile on his face, he knew Heero could take care of himself so he hadn't exactly been worried about him. But he had wanted to know where he friend had disappeared too just in case something were to happen and they needed to get in touch with him right away. Not only that but he could relieve a few peoples minds, he knew the other pilots as well as John wanted to know where Heero was. Sally too but Wufei wasn't sure he was going to give her the details, she had been acting more like her old self these last few days, and he couldn't be sure she wouldn't go directly to the dojo and try and bring Heero back.

WMWMWMW

Heero looked about the small room he had been given by Jason or Jay as he preferred to be called the night before, it was suitable enough but Heero had been unable to find sleep that night. His mind hadn't wanted to shut off, he was too puzzled by this man who had taken him in without even knowing anything about him. They hadn't spent a lot of time talking as Heero had returned from the hotel very late, and he hadn't really left himself open for conversation during the morning, keeping mostly to himself watching this strange man from a distance. If Jay took not of his wariness he gave no outward signs of it, remaining completely relaxed whenever Heero was around.

Stepping out of his room Heero looked around his surroundings. The apartment was simple enough nothing out of the way special about it, but it felt comfortable, lived in. Jay had shown him around as though he had done it a number of times before, which perplexed Heero all the more. At the moment Jay was downstairs teaching his class of school students, he could hear their excited voices, and walked slowly towards them. Their class would be over soon, and Heero wanted to get changed into his gi before the next class started showing up, with an hour between classes there was more than enough time. Walking down the staircase Heero came to a stop four steps back and seated himself watching the class as Jay worked at teaching them a new kata.

A few of the students glanced his way but for the rest his presence seemed to go unnoticed, and as the class came to an end the laughter and jokes became more common. Heero couldn't imagine trying to teach children this young, he hadn't even been a fan of trying to teach other agents some of what he had learned, he had left that up to Wufei. When finally the class was dismissed Jay turned towards him, “I was wondering when I'd see you,” he commented coming to a stop at the foot of the stairs and leaned himself against the wall.

“How long have you been teaching?” Heero asked, not sure why he was curious, perhaps just trying to keep the conversation from turning towards him.

Jay tilted his head back thinking, “huh…It's got to be getting close to a decade now, I opened this dojo back when I was twenty-four, so it's probably more accurate to say six or seven years.” Those blue eyes continued to study Heero from behind his glasses, “How long have you been studying?”

“Probably since I was five…” Heero wasn't even positive of his age now, there was no way he could be sure of when he first started learning martial arts.

“Must have been off and on for you to still only have your brown,” Jay said then, “You have real skill you should be beyond that by now.”

“Drawing that conclusion after just one class?” he asked face expressionless.

Jay chuckled, “You're the first person I've met who isn't beaming ear to ear hearing a comment like that. You think my judgement is wrong?”

Heero shrugged, “I never cared too much for the ranking.”

“The system never used to exist,” Jay nodded in agreement, “There's one good thing I can say for it, it keeps my students striving for something more. Which is probably why it was invented in the first place.”

“Excuse me Sensei,” a young boy asked rather shyly his large brown eyes flickering constantly in Heero's direction.

“Yes Dan?” Jay turned his attention to the smaller boy.

“Will there be sparing tomorrow?” he sounded excited at the prospect.

Jay nodded his head, “Bring your gear make sure the others do as well.”

“Alright!” the boy beamed enthusiastically and ran off towards his friends excitedly telling them the good news.

“That goes over well…” Heero commented softly watching the children leave the dojo.

“You have no idea,” the sensei chuckled, “I have a hard time keeping them focused on their lessons, that's all they want to do most of the time. It's what we're going to be doing in your class actually.”

Heero felt a spark of excitement ignite in him, he knew it would be nothing on sparing against a pilot but it was still a form of combat. Another chance for Heero to push himself to try and discover his limits, and now it would be against someone who didn't know him, didn't know what to `avoid'.

“Did you do any sparing in your old clubs?”

Heero nodded his head, “Various forms.”

“Good, I don't know what sort of protection your clubs required but I've never asked for much. The students have to wear knuckle guards but it's your choice if you want shin guards as well.” He folded his arms across his chest, “I have spare equipment so you can take whatever you like the look of, do you remember the rules?”

Rules? Heero thought, he had never been taught rules, well all except one, win, survive, be the last man standing no matter the cost. “Better refresh my memory,” he answered finally.

“Alright,” Jay smiled and stepped away from the wall he had been leaning against, “Target area is hairline, and the front of your torso to the belt, also along the sides of your gi. At your rank you can actually make for face shots but you can't make contact, you're just showing your control. Also the reason why we don't wear as much armour as other dojos is because we don't hit with full power, we come at each other full power but stop before we actually make contact.

“You teach control.”

“Exactly, Oh and I almost forgot, no grabs, you can redirect an attack but can't grab someone's limb, leg or arm,” he glanced back at the clock, “Won't be long now before the class starts showing up,” he stepped out of Heero's way, “Why don't you get changed and I'll show you what gear I have.” Heero nodded and walked over to the change room quickly putting on his gi, before walking back out onto the main floor adjusting his belt as he did. “That must be a record time,” Jay laughed when he looked up from rifling through a worn brown box.

Heero said nothing to that as he bowed himself onto the mat before crossing over to see just what Jay had. “Most of my students use these, simple yet effective, and inexpensive,” he explained handing Heero a simple looking pair of guards they were opened fingered and velcroed around the wrist. “Others prefer these,” he continued holding up a bulkier looking glove, “It's closed fingered so there's no risk of snagging a thumb on someone's uniform.”

“These look fine,” Heero said taking the first pair he had been shown and slipping one onto his right hand flexing his fingers around the material.

“Good here's the other one,” Jay passed it across before tossing the others back into the box, “Did you want a pair of shin guards?”

Heero shook his head, “No this'll be fine.”

“Alright,” Jay stepped away reaching for a pair of well worn gloves hanging from the wall, “Do you want to lightly spar while we wait? Help you warm up?”

Slipping the other glove on Heero nodded his head while tightening them both into place and moved closer to the middle of the mat watching Jay as he did the same. He settled himself into a fighting stance and watched as the sensei in his black gi calmly walked towards him clearly not ready to begin the fight. Reaching out Jay tapped his gloves against Heero's and then stepped back, “Just a courtesy,” he smiled. As Jay set himself into his own fighting stance Heero reminded himself that this wasn't like with the other pilots he was going to have to be careful.

Jay made the first move coming at Heero quickly testing him trying to make an opening. Heero gave him nothing by blocking his attacks while returning his own. They moved across the mat using the open space, Heero kicked out with lightning speed and Jay jumped back with a gasp of surprise. The Japanese man kept himself evenly matched with Jay but as they both warmed up, their muscles getting looser they picked up the pace it was an unspoken agreement as Jay began to move a little faster and Heero was more than content to match him move for move. He wasn't sure what to expect from Jay, and that made it interesting, new, he could see in Jay's eyes that he felt the same way.

Jay was quick, and that surprised him, it felt like the sensei was trying to gain the upper hand to put Heero on the defensive. But Heero wasn't about to give in that easily, he still had a lot more he could give. His breathing remained deep and even, and he felt as though he could go like this for quite a while. He knew however that it wasn't due to the fact that his endurance had raised but rather because he wasn't fighting against another pilot. Though neither he nor Jay were going all out, he wondered what that would be like if they did, could Jay give him a run for his money?

Heero's face remained an impassive mask, he avoided Jay's fakes his cobalt eyes remaining fixed on Jay's chest watching for the slightest movement. Through the corner of one eye Heero caught sight of movement, as he ducked a punch throwing one of his own, the students were beginning to arrive. The sensei jumped back, “Your skills are impressive,” Jay complimented as he straightened up his stance relaxing, “I'd like to spar with you longer, when I have the chance.”

Heero nodded in response, walking towards the far side of the room, he could feel eyes watching him and in the mirrors he could see several of the students standing on the edge of the mat. They had been watching the end of the match, and still seemed routed in place. He tore his eyes away from the mirror and began calmly stretching his now warm muscles. He also removed the gloves from his hands, and tossed them to the floor as Jay walked up to him.

“Your skills are up there Odin, you've had a lot practice with sparring?” Jay asked after a moment, once the students had moved off to the change rooms.

He shrugged, “It came naturally.”

“You weren't giving it your all were you?” the sensei was yet again looking at him as though in a new light.

“Neither were you,” Heero thought Jay had the potential to be a lot faster, and he knew he hadn't seen everything Jay could do.

The sensei chuckled, “Fair enough.”

WMWMWMW

Jay watched Odin subtly as his students began emerging from the change rooms, he honestly had no idea what to make of the young man. He knew next to nothing about the young man despite what Wufei had told him, there really were huge gaps. It had been obvious to him on that first day, that although Odin had claimed knowledge of the martial arts—and had subsequently proven his knowledge—he had clearly not been taught in the usual form. Jay had noted on more than one occasion Odin's eyes flickering about the room his movements just a fraction slower than the other students as he watched to see what was actually supposed to come next.

That puzzled Jay more than a little as Odin claimed to know Bassai Dai, a difficult brown belt kata, but didn't seem to know any of the lower ranks. Had he not seen what Odin could do so far Jay might have assumed it was just a bluff, but he felt positive that if he asked for a display he'd be amazed. He had been amazed at the intensity which Odin sparred, the young man had no tells, least none that Jay could pick up on so far. His movements were sure and divers he never repeated the same series of moves twice, that was a talent he had been trying to teach his senior belts for months. But was also something he himself had been striving for.

Jay thought Odin might have been more accustom to street fighting than this, he couldn't actually put his finger on why. It might have just been his assumptions that Odin might have had some gang relations. But something in the way he carried himself, tried to make openings in Jay's defences, just seemed different, that was the only way Jay could put it. Shaking himself out of his thoughts he glanced across the mat to see where Odin stood continuing to work his muscles as he waited for the class to get underway.

He was more than a little interested to see how Odin would do against the other students, would he moderate his talents as he had been doing with Jay, match them move for move? Or would he feel the need to show off? Jay felt pretty sure Odin would be more towards the former, he didn't appear comfortable in the spot light. He was a very private young man, quite too, which would make getting to know anything about him more than a little challenging. It was a challenge however that Jay felt up too.

Getting the class underway Jay made sure the warm up was a thorough one not wanting anyone to pull anything when they started sparring. “Alright, everyone pair up,” he announced in a clear voice watching the excitement in his students eyes as they paired off. They unfortunately had an odd number which left one student off to the side, Mat took the side line first without a complaint, they were all relatively good for rotating through though there were a few who preferred to remain out on the mat. Jay set his digital watch, “We'll go two minute rounds,” he held the watch up, and got them underway.

It always surprised Jay at just how fast these classes went once the matchers were underway. The sensei spent his time watching his students correcting errors when he saw them offering suggestions to those who were still new at this. On some days he would take part in all the rounds cycling through his students taking as much pleasure in this as they did. But for today Jay wanted to be able to divide his attention around the room, more importantly to keep an eye on Odin and watch what the young man would do. As Jay had expected Odin matched himself to the skills of his opponents taking them each in turn, and giving them a good fight. Jay had had to laugh quietly to himself when one of his students had thought Odin's height to be an advantage in his favour, perhaps for a less skilled fighter it would have been. But Odin never left his head open, hell he didn't leave any part of himself open.

They had been sparring for near an hour now, when Jay focused his eyes on a match he had been wanting to see all along. Alan, their resident `Ice Man' was finally paired off with Odin. The height difference between them was drastic, but Alan wouldn't be able to make his quick shots off the top of the head as he was able to do with most others. Jay had been watching Odin a little more exclusively as the class continued on, he had only taken one break in this time, and it looked to Jay as though he was getting winded. But he kept pushing himself, his expression intense. He and Alan had been going at it for about a minute when Odin suddenly left his side open taking a punch from his opponent. That was the only way Jay could describe it, there was no way he couldn't have blocked it if he had wanted too, but for some reason he let it through.

Odin's face turned pale, and Jay could see pain flash across his eyes. His new student tried to hide it well forcing himself to straighten when his body clearly wanted to hunch around his injured side. Odin fought on for the remainder of his round hardly appearing to breathing. Why had he done it? What was wrong with him to cause this? Those were just two of the questions flowing through his mind at that moment. Jay's eyes narrowed as that round came to an end, he was angry and more so when he saw Odin move off to find another partner.

“Odin!” he couldn't keep the bark from his voice, “You're off this round!” The young man looked at him, pale face expressionless but he didn't argue, just silently bowed himself off the mat and stiffly sat down to watch.

WMWMWMW

Heero tried his hardest not to breathe, his ribs still aching from the punch he had taken in that last round. He had fought for as long as he could, and although he had only recently begun to feel winded, his energy beginning to drain, it hadn't felt like enough. So he had left himself open allowing a punch to make it through, taking it on his still tender ribs to see what would happen. The result had been disappointing to say the least. He clenched his hands into fist watching the matches going on, noting that Jay was coming over to him, his expression less than pleased.

“How bad are you hurt?” Jay demanded kneeling before him.

“I'm not hurt,” Heero returned immediately making sure to speak normally and relax his body.

“Bull, people just don't turn grey for nothing,” the sensei countered, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

Heero's narrowed as well, what did he care? “He hit me in the floating rib, it's nothing.”

“I was watching him, Odin he didn't hit you there,” for his part at least Jay was keeping his voice down, as the other students continued their sparring someone else taking up the task of starting the watch after the last match. “Now are you going to tell me what's wrong?”

That was something worth debating, what business was it of Jay's? why should he have to admit to a weakness, why couldn't the sensei just forget he saw that? Heero could see in Jay's eyes that he wasn't about to do that, he wanted answers. And Heero didn't doubt for a minute that if he didn't provide something he wouldn't be going out on that mat again. He certainly wasn't ready to go back to the agency yet, though he really didn't want to fight over this either. Heero drew in a shallow breath, “I was in a car accident several months back,” he wondered how Zechs would feel being compared to a car accident, it was almost laughable.

“Broken ribs…” Jay nodded his head in understanding though he still looked less than pleased. “When I asked you yesterday if there was any medical information I should know, this is what I was talking about. I don't like people sparring with injuries.”

“It was over seven months ago,” Heero defended.

“They obviously still bother you,” was the immediate counter.

“They aren't a danger.”

Jay shook his head as though it didn't matter before fixing a very intense gaze on Heero's face, “Why did you let it in? If you know your ribs are tender why take the punch? I've been watching you Odin I know you could have blocked it easily enough.”

Damn… Not only had he been caught by Jay, but this incident had proven to him that had Wufei come at him without regard for his still healing ribs he would have been on the ground gasping for breath. It wasn't a satisfying realization to come to, he wanted to be stronger than that, but he had no control over this, he could block pain out, but that became rather difficult when he couldn't breathe properly. He watched Jay in silence, not having or wanting to answer that question, he doubted the sensei would even understand if he did.

“Alright,” Jay sighed, “Class is almost over, why don't you just sit off the rest?”

“I said I was fine,” Heero growled.

“Yeah? Well you've been going at it longer than the rest, you look like you could use a break.” Jay got back to his feet walking out onto the mat.

WMWMWMW

The sensei shook his head as he got his students attentions, “Alright for the last twenty minutes we'll go for points, find out who's going to be `King of the Ring'.”

That always put smiles on their faces, it was an actual competition, they competed good-naturedly against one another when he just let them go at it. But this was different there was more of a drive to excel to be the last one in the ring. “Alright I need four corner judges,” he called out knowing no one really wanted that post just yet, they all wanted to be the first in the ring. “Odin,” Jay motioned for the young man to come over.

Odin hadn't moved a muscle since Jay had left him, nothing in his expression had changed either, though Jay did note it looked as though he were breathing a little easier now. He would have given a fair deal to understand why Odin had left himself so open when he had been sparring against Alan. He already knew asking out right would get him nothing more than a silent stare. Jay shook his head trying to renew his focus on his students and getting this underway, he could think about everything else when class was over. Hell Odin was staying in his spare room, he'd have the whole night to try and pry a little information out of him.

Sparring for points took far longer than most people expect when first entering the ring, you only needed three points to win the match, but you needed a majority of the judges to see the point for it to count. And with so much action most of the time all the judges could see were clashes. So two fighters used to two or three minute rounds really began to drag as the fight stretched into ten minutes. They weren't able to cycle through as many students this way, but if gave the vast majority of the class a chance to cool down before they had to leave for home.

Jay stood chatting with one of his students once class had ended his eyes flickered to Odin who had remained outside of the change rooms yet again, a coincidence Jay told himself. He didn't want to be completely suspicious of everything Odin did, that wasn't fair to the young man no matter how suspicious his actions seemed. Walking over to him Odin turned immediately, those intense eyes staring right through Jay. “You alright?” he asked after a moment, try as he might to think of a better way to break the silence that was the best he could come up with.

Odin nodded his head, “I'm fine.”

“Looks like you got some blood on your gi,” Jay noted pointing at the right sleeve, it had happened before often times no one even realised they had been cut. “Here, give me your coat and I'll get that out,” Odin looked down at the blood for a moment before his hand began untying his belt.

It surprised Jay when Odin chose to break the silence on his own, “What did you plan for tomorrow?” he sounded truly interested, and Jay realised in that moment that the only times Odin's voice held anything was when he was speaking about karate, yet another oddity.

Jay took a moment to consider the question as Odin slipped the coat from his slender body and passed it over, “I wanted to spend the first half of the class on curriculum, but I was thinking of working on throws as well…” he trailed off, “That might not be a good idea for you though…”

Odin sighed, “It's not a problem,” there was a real heat in his voice then and Jay began to think it might be best not to push the issue, it felt to him like Odin had been dealing with this for a while and was getting tired of it.

“Alright I'll take your word for it,” he stepped around Odin, “You go get changed I'll get this soaking,” he gestured with the gi coat and made for the stairs, continuing to wonder about the odd young man he had taken in.

Thanks for Reading!

Caught!:

Heero bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from reacting, he had seen it coming from the edge of his eye but had been able to do nothing to stop it. He wanted to pull away to remove the pressure that was holding the material of his shirt securely against the scar tissue, he didn't want to feel it, didn't want to remember. His every muscle was tensed both against the unwanted contact and to keep himself rooted in place. He knew it would seem odd to Jay but the reaction had been instantaneous there was nothing he could do, he could not stand anything touching it!

WMWMWMW

Odin's reaction caught Jay off guard and he immediately pulled his hand away, thankfully his memory had kicked in, and he didn't loose track of what he had been saying. Now in a position to demonstrate the throw Jay turned to Odin trying to look the young man in the eyes. But Odin was having none of it, his face—a stony mask—was tilted down ever so slightly but just enough to shield his eyes from view. Jay wondered why he had reacted so harshly, he doubted Odin's response had been visible to the students watching. But to Jay it had felt like Odin had jumped away from him as though burned. He had shifted away only a fraction before he had stopped himself, and Jay felt positive he had stumbled upon something he shouldn't have.

He wondered if Odin would let him touch him now as he had too to demonstrate the throw. What had he found? Jay couldn't help but wonder though he tried to keep his focus on the task at hand, he could try and ask Odin when class was finished. Already Jay knew such a question wouldn't go over well, but he'd want to ask it nonetheless. Reaching out for Odin Jay found himself feeling like he was split in too, as much as he simply wanted to forget the mystery he had uncovered until after class, his mind was not about to let go of it. He continued to be aware enough to lower Odin gently to the mats where he held him as he reminded his class not to let their opponent up but to finish the move with a final strike.

The young man was a real puzzle, all the children he had taken in over years had had their problems, why else would they have run away. Some carried physical scars, others mental, and though it had never been Jay's intention to do anything for them beyond offering them a safe place to sleep and the discipline karate could teach them. Somehow they had all opened up to him, to varying degrees and he had learned some terrible things. He couldn't help but wonder what was in Odin's past. He had been a part of the war, that much the young man had admitted to, but he would have been only around fifteen at the time. Jay found it hard to believe, but looking into Odin's eyes he knew his guest wasn't lying.

Morganeth Taren'drel