Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Nevergreen ❯ Chapter 6

Nevergreen 6/?

Heero sat with his back to the house and the rising sun, watching his shadow lengthen crookedly over the pale wild oats of the paddock before him. He held his hands out and wiggled his fingers casually, letting the sunlight slipping over his shoulders play on the dry, caking blood that flecked and flaked, falling lazily to the red soil beneath. Whatever life had once existed within the thick substance was as dead as that which spilled it. In time, he simply brushed his hands off on his already filthy jeans, slipped off the fence and headed back toward the house. He hadn't taken five steps when something collided with his knees and sent him sprawling, the impact accompanied by lolling laughter.

Scowling, Heero glared at Sandstone as the lamb tried to crawl its way into his lap, bleating pathetically and kicking him solidly in the balls. Eyes watering, and not just from the fact he was staring at the sun, Heero let his gaze spin the left where his gaze fell on the source of laughter, only to discover a fat kookaburra sitting on the fence, beak wide, throat silent as its beady little black eyes stared back at him, goading and beguiling.

"What are laughing at?" Heero ground out as he stood, pushing Sandstone out of his lap and continuing his walk toward the house once more. He didn't even bother brush the dirt off this time as Sandstone started nipping at the backs of his knees and the kookaburra once again started to laugh. Heero turned when he was on the steps to find the Kookie had followed him and was now perched on the lattice by his left ear. He scowled at it, and the bird remained silent, beak open, waiting…and the moment he turned away laughter erupted once more.

"You know, talking to the wildlife is the second sign of madness," Duo pointed out the moment he stepped through the sliding living room door. Heero felt a slight blush creeping across his cheeks, but allowed no other sign to show as he quickly scanned the kitchen, noticing Wufei and Trowa were already making breakfast. It smelt good; like the Bush, but he had no clue what it was so he just shrugged and headed for the bathroom.

The shower was less than he wanted but more than he expected, the hot spray burning on his flesh but not hard, the water limiter constantly holding it back when all Heero wanted was more. He watched the pink stained liquid swirl down the drain until it drizzled a pale brown he expected was supposed to be clean. Shutting it off, he quickly toweled himself dry and slipped through the back hallway, avoiding the living room and going straight to his room. Where he promptly discovered a problem.

He had no idea what he wanted to wear. Scanning through the contents of his wardrobe, he completely ignored anything remotely cityish, which included about two thirds of everything he owned. He grabbed a pair of classic stonewash jag jeans and pulled the tag off, wincing as he tossed in the paper-bin by his bed. Shuffling through the rest of his things he grabbed a black shirt with three quarter length sleeves, then pulled a white t-shirt over the top of it. It was warm, but not unbearable, and the white t-shirt covered the tommy logo scrawled on the breast.

Satisfied he didn't look like a walking brand name, Heero once again headed for the kitchen, slightly amused to see Duo sitting on the doorstep talking to Sandstone. Biting back the bile that rose in his throat, Heero padded up behind Duo and leant close, breathing in the fresh scent of Trowa's apple shampoo.

"You know, talking to the wildlife is the second sign of madness."

Duo's back stiffened for a moment before he completely relaxed. Heero wondered if it was just his imagination that Duo had actually been more tense before he had interrupted but decided he was not ready to know the answer.

"I never said I was sane," Duo whispered, a feral grin tipping his lips up at the corners as he turned to face Heero, putting out a hand expectantly and waiting. Heero stared at it, knowing full well he had just been perfectly maneuvered into having to touch Duo; having to feel his skin on his own…He swallowed something else entirely and put his hand out.

Warmth, too present and brief as he pulled Duo to his feet and then it was gone, Duo's fingers brushing along the length of his palm as they released him and Duo, eyes sparkling, pretended to ignore him as he walked around the long bench to the cupboard and began pulling out plates. Heero watched every slightly disjointed move, every subtle shift of the eyes and knew he was not being ignored but could not shake the feeling that he should be.

So he looked to Trowa instead, who was once again hiding behind his long hair, a faint trace of a smile pressing his lips as he pretended to be entirely absorbed in flipping…

"What the fuck's that?"

Three pairs of eyes all turned to look at him before looking in the frying pan and back again at his completely shocked face.

"Well, we decided you had not yet experienced a true Bush breakie…" Duo started before he blushed darkly and turned away to grab a bottle of juice from the fridge, leaving Wufei to continue from his place at the sink. Heero didn't want to know why he was washing up before they had even finished cooking breakfast.

"Wufei cooked them for me when I first moved out here," Trowa explained.

"Hmm…and the next day realized Trowa could actually make them taste good…" Wufei noted dryly, swiping a loose lock of hair behind his ear, leaving a blob of soap suds in the wake of his fingers.

"Hn….but what IS it?" Heero grabbed a fork and poked at the food. It didn't really move all the much and he stepped back without even realizing he had done so. A spiel of laughter erupted from the windowsill and they all turned around to see the kookaburra sitting there, once again with its mouth hanging open and no sound coming out…

"Wow. You've really got a fan…," Duo noted wryly. "What with him and the lamb…I think I'm jealous."

Heero was too busy trying to keep the blush from engulfing him in a raging furnace that he completely missed the serving of breakfast until he realized he was sitting at the kitchen bench with a plate before him, a fork in one hand loaded with…something Trowa liked to call food.

"What is it?"

"Just eat it Yuy," Wufei demanded around a mouthful of the mystery substance. Not daring to argue with them any further, Heero lifted it to his mouth and started chewing even before it hit his tongue. But the chewing slowed as he recognized milk, capsicum, egg, tomato sauce and…something very similar to chicken.

"It's a grub omlette!" Duo chirped enthusiastically, already halfway through his. Heero, however, had slowed down, taking the time to inspect the food which he was beginning to suspect was something else altogether.

"You mean grub as in…food, right? Not…the twitching little white kind of grub…that crawls…on trees…" His voice faded out as they all looked at him as if he were mad. He stopped chewing entirely and really started to think about that would-be chicken taste.

"Errr…" Duo stared at the fork in Heero's hand and nibbled on his bottom lip, as if thinking hard about his response. "No." And that was that. Heero stared at the egg covered white mush on his fork and felt his stomach rebel, full aware there were three sets of eyes on him and his fork. He could easily imagine the little mushed witchity grub wriggling on his fork, screaming at him to let it go and he was more than willing to comply. Only grubs did not really scream…and mashed ones on the ends of forks certainly didn't wriggle. So he took another mouthful and mechanically chewed, ignoring the pleased looks he was getting.

He had almost made it through the whole plate when he felt something brush against his ankle. His head snapped up and the blank looks he got in return was answer enough as he eyed Duo suspiciously. Too innocent by far.

"Thank you for breakfast," Heero said as he stood and walked to the sink. "Please don't cook it again." He stopped and stared at the kooka on the windowsill. "Ever."

"Can't handle a little grub Yuy?" Wufei sneered good naturedly, and it was obvious to Heero the man had been subjected to more than one bush breakfast he did not appreciate and Heero wondered just how bad the food tasted when Trowa was not the one doing the cooking. Shaking any such thoughts from his head, he headed back into the backyard to wait for the others to finish and get ready for school. Sandstone fell into step with him immediately and he decided to give the little beast a bit of a run, so he opened the back gate and walked into the paddock of wild oats. Sandstone was immediately content and rushed forward, leaping and bleating wildly in Heero's direction as if he thought Heero would like to join him.

Heero wondered why even the lamb was male in his head and figured he should not think too hard about it. The things Noin would have had to say about that…

Stopping dead, Heero stared straight ahead and wondered where that thought had come from. After tossing the phone last night he had every intention of just forgetting that life, but he had the sudden sneaking suspicion it was not going to be that simple. He would not have been worried….except that there was one person who knew exactly where to find him. That was…worrisome.

Laughter erupted to his right and he didn't even bother to turn and glare at the kookaburra. Instead, he turned to the verandah where Trowa was waiting silently and went to help lock up the house.

"You seem distracted."

Heero looked askance at Trowa and took in the way his hands sat in his pockets, the way his head bowed slightly as if he didn't even need to see Heero's reaction, the way his legs crossed just slightly. It was a completely relaxed posture that Heero found himself envying.

"You seem calm."

"Perhaps," Trowa replied so softly Heero found himself stepping forward to hear it, "I am." And with that he walked out the front door and into the sunlight that was already spreading a heavy haze over the black of the road, turning the brown grass a sickly yellow and the sky a paler shade of blue. Heero took a deep breath and followed.

Duo was at his car, fingers trailing over the nose, scratching at the filth caught under the crushed lines of metal, face rapt in a mixture of concentration and mirth. He seemed awfully amused Heero's car had been damaged. Heero walked up beside him and grunted at the damage, still covered in roo's blood and spotted with patches of fur and gut. It would take days just to clean, and days in the shop to fix…He just couldn't see how it was worth the trouble when he didn't really want to have to drive it. Ever again.

"Can I get a ride to school?"

Heero turned, completely thrown for the loop, only to find Duo laughing hard as he turned, shifting his pack on his shoulder and following Wufei down the road, who was already in deep conversation with Trowa about his plans for the art class. Heero spared one last look at his car and took three fast strides to catch Duo, already deep in thoughts of his own.

"What sort of car should I get?"

"Huh?"

Funny, Heero was sure he had spoken in very clear, plain English. Still, he repeated the question.

"You're really just gonna go buy a whole new fuckin car coz the other one, which might I add is worth a whole shitload of cash is sportin a few dints?"

Heero shrugged. He had no intention of being seen around town in a car that was worth a shitload of cash but was still looked at like a space alien. He was here to stay, and his car was going to prove it…to Duo. That thought almost brought him up short, but Duo chose that opportune moment to reply.

"Get a bomb."

"Excuse me?"

"Get some really shit piece of shell that we can rip to shreds and then we'll do it up. All five of us. It'll be fun, and everyone'll realize you're here to stay coz you wouldn't buy a piece of shit like that if you weren't stayin."

"Like that?" Heero wheezed lightly. "Seems like you already have something in mind…" And Heero had the sneaking suspicion he would be buying it for no better reason than Duo wanted him to.

"Sure. The Reid boys rote off this old beast a few months back. The shell is out at the Tip…its perfect. It needs some chronic panel work, a few new engine parts, some new décor…but she's a beauty! Plus, she's at the Tip!"

"You mentioned that twice…that's a good thing?" Heero raised a brow as Duo looked at him as if he were mad.

"Course it is, its free ya derro!"

That didn't really make Heero feel comfortable. Still…

"Wanna go for a drive this arvo?"

"Hell yes!" Duo grinned widely and Heero thought it worth it just to see him that pleased, that excited, that…full of life.

They rounded the corner at the bottom of the hill into the school grounds and Heero didn't mind the crunch of the dead grass under his feet, or the shouts of the students already impinging on his thoughts as they drifted across the school grounds. They were somehow soothing; a reminder of all he had worked toward and all he had earnt. He deserved a small piece of happiness…he just had to convince the world he was right in that assumption.

"See ya at art," Duo said softly and the change in the tone of his voice made Heero look up to see the him hurry to the gates to a side quadrangle of the school where the Goologong brothers were waiting like dark sentinels, their bruised faces only making them seem darker and more dangerous. They jostled Duo between them, disappearing into the school and whispering in the home language that could never be called English. Heero shook off the chill that made its way down his spine at the sudden distance between himself and Duo and forced himself into the main building.

Wufei and Trowa were waiting by the sign in book so Heero quickly added his name and stepped up to the conversation which now seemed centered around his car…How did things get around so quickly in this hole? Oh, yeah…it was a hole! Heero shook his head clear.

"Duo talked to you yet?" Trowa asked in his usual quiet manner.

Heero raised his brows but nodded.

"You interested?" Wufei pressed, his eyes alight with a keen interest Heero had yet to see him apply to anything.

"We'll drive out and take a look this arvo," Heero replied cautiously. He suddenly recalled Duo saying `the five of us'. Himself, Duo, Trowa, Wufei and…

"Morning Mr. Yuy, Mr. Barton…Chang…"

Quatre smiled at them all, apparently oblivious to his close proximity to Trowa and the way their fingers just brushed. Heero and Wufei nodded minutely while the barest hint of a smile turned Trowa's mouth.

"Up for a drive this arvo Quatre?" Wufei asked, knowing it would not be right for Trowa to ask at school. Quatre was instantly interested, eyes sparkling as he bounced lightly on his toes, which caused him to also lightly collide with Trowa…

"Sure, where we goin?"

"Shopping," Trowa interjected before anyone could think to reply and all three eyes looked at him, completely stumped. Heero shook his head, trying to hide the smile twitching its way onto his face as he waved at the trio and headed out the door and off to the side. He had to get some work ready in his staffroom before class and he wasn't sure DEAR would be a long enough time for it.

The day was warming up and Heero felt the first small trickle of sweat bead its way down his spine as he marched across the quadrangle. The sky was devoid of life, whether cloud of bird and it seemed suddenly much farther away, the world that much larger for its distance. His life seemed…a lifetime ago already. He smiled at the thought as he slipped into the air conditioned comfort of his staffroom.

His desk was still relatively clean in comparison to the others in the room but he knew that would change the moment he started to collect books for marking so he took a few minutes to clean away what was there, knowing full well he intended to give year eight in first period some book work, just to check that evening that they had indeed understood the concepts he was teaching. He then grabbed a bucket of old letters from the storeroom and started rifling through, noticing several cards missing and quickly grabbing some cardboard to make some new ones, wondering how long it had been since a teacher bothered to actually try and make math class fun.

Apparently, it had been a while. The kids responded better than he had expected, jumping into the activities and completely double the work he had expected, almost five times the work they had done the day before. Sighing in relief as the bell rang, Heero instructed them to leave their books on his desk and let them go, happy he had a free next as he was already stuffed.

"Hey, Mr. Yuy! My Dad's comin to visit this weekend! Ain't that great?"

Heero looked up at Marie distractedly and nodded. He recalled the girl's parents had never been together let alone separated and wondered how often she actually got to see her dad. It was nice to know it was not a lifetime between visits…so nice he completely missed the shiver that ran down his spine as he rapped on the front of her black hat distractedly and picked up the books, leaving the room and a thrilled Marie behind him.

*

The room was darker than expected, and when he leant in the doorway and peered inside he could see why. Black sheets had been tossed over the windows and incense was burning on Trowa's desk. The board was covered in Chinese drawings and the kids were madly scraping patterns into thickly drawn black oil pastel, revealing the myriad colours beneath. It was an effective way to teach patterns, and the swirling smoke was creating some beautiful imagery.

"They're behaving…" Wufei sighed as he came to stand beside Heero.

Heero merely nodded, a little shocked himself. He had heard some horror stories about the creative arts at Condobolin High School, though he had to admit they seemed to pertain mainly to the music block.

Trowa sidled up to them and held out a pile of Lino cuts. Heero nodded as Trowa quickly explained that he had been showing them Japanese block art for weeks and that they had each prepared an image that they were going to cut into the linoleum. Nodding they understood, Heero and Wufei quietly made their way around the class as each student finished and explained what they had to do, delivering the materials. Heero was amazed at the way the students listened, completely rapt, and he wondered just what Trowa had been teaching them to make them so fascinated with a person from the culture. It would be interesting, Heero thought, to take a glance at his friend's teaching program some time.

Duo's hand went up and while Wufei was closer Heero saw that the man quickly made his way to the other side of the room where another hand had gone up. Not sure quite what to make of the move, Heero made his way to Duo…and the Goologong brothers. Duo grinned at him and held his hand out.

Heero dumped the materials for all three on the desk and began to explain the task, very much aware that the brothers were staring at him. Finally he dared to glance at them each in turn, but neither looked away.

"Are ya really from Japan?"

Duo snorted, trying to restrain his laugh as Heero explained that, yes, he was from Japan, but that he had lived in Australia since he was two.

"But…yah from Japan right?"

Heero blinked. Hadn't he just said…Duo was laughing hard now, but at what it was hard to say. Heero just frowned at them all and decided `yes' was the simplest answer.

"That's cool…" The other brother finally said, eyes wide and white in his dark face as he grinned…it was altogether a rather scary look and Heero found himself wanting to get away very quickly.

"I'm Wayne," the first brother said quickly, sensing Heero wanted to leave.

"And I'm Keith!"

"I'm Duo," Duo interjected, rolling his eyes. "I have to go home at lunch, because my parents run the Imperial. I bet they're pissed coz I wasn't there to help out last night."

Heero blinked. He already knew who Duo was, and already knew where he lived and what his parents did. He looked a little closer and saw that while Duo's face was joking his eyes were staring straight at him, begging him to understand. Heero did. It was a cry for help, of some kind, and he couldn't not answer. Nodding slightly, he went off to hand out the lino and materials to another student before making his way to Trowa's desk, where he waited as Trowa `assisted' Quatre with the apparent trouble he was having with understanding the task.

"Something wrong?" Wufei asked quietly as he sat down on the other side of the desk. His eyes were watching the classroom but his attention was obviously all on Heero.

"Duo has to go home at lunch…"

Wufei's eyes narrowed perceptively and the pupil swiveled slightly in Duo's direction, an action that would only be noticed from Heero's vantage point.

"I'll go with him."

Heero blinked, recalled Wufei was not a teacher, and that he too would be leaving at lunch time and felt a knot unwind itself in his belly. He was not sure how he had become so quickly wound up, nor why really…but that he had sat poorly with him. He was getting involved and the slight shaking in his hands was a sign he was beginning to care. That did not sit well with him at all.

"Trouble?" Trowa asked as he came to the desk and both Asian men shook their heads vehemently. "Right. Well, I'll just continue teaching my class as if you don't both look ready to tears heads off my students then?"

Heero looked up and realized several of the nearby students refused to look anywhere near them and he spared a glance at Wufei and finally realized how rigid the man had become, and how his own body was mimicking that sternness. They shared a look, chuckled softly, and stood, making their way around the room to offer help to anyone who needed it. Heero saw Wufei head to Duo's table and sighed in relief as the tension in Duo's body quickly eased.

The bell rang and Heero headed out, leaving Trowa to finish off the class. He made his way across the quad's to the maths area but instead of heading to the staffroom made his way to the computer room at the west end of the school.

"Mr. Ridley?"

The teacher bent over one of the consoles nodded and waved Heero in. He looked to be reinstalling windows.

"Kids in year nine have been doing programming…one of the older kid must have given them a virus. Luckily, it's been done before and I recognized it before it went through the network."

Heero was more than a little impressed, if not with the abilities of the student, as it did not take much effort to upload a virus onto the network, than with their deviousness and tenacity. He knew it would have taken effort to track down a student with the abilities to design any kind of virus, then to convince them to give it to them and upload it while the teacher wasn't looking…it was a lot of work that Heero would never have bothered with while he himself was at school.

"I'm just wondering what the best way to connect to the web is out here?"

The older teacher nodded.

"You got austar?"

Heero thought hard about it, realized that was what Trowa was watching every evening when he put on the sport and nodded.

"Just call them. Out here that's the cheapest and most reliable service there is. Everyone else is dumb enough o use Bigpond, but there are so many of em that the service just gets jammed."

Heero nodded in thanks, grabbed the little flyer the teacher told him was in the drawer and headed out. He had to find out what sport he had to take the next day and there were several things he had to ask the principal about so he went for the front office. He had almost made it to the door when something pink lashed by his vision.

"Mr. Yuy! It's so great to see you! I was just checking the board and I couldn't help but notice that you would be taking Miss. Price's place as our sport teacher! It's so wonderful to see a male teacher taking such an active role in women's sport!"

Heero blinked at Relena and hoped to every God in the universe that she wasn't right and knowing perfectly well that any God that might have lived out here had long since shriveled up and died of heat stroke. He nodded, feeling faint, and made his way into the main office, distressed when the girl followed him in and continued to chat about the other teachers in the school and how they didn't show nearly enough interest in their students. Heero thought he paid too much interest as it was, especially when he looked up and saw Duo and Wufei heading out the school gates and an askance glance revealed Duo's name on the sign-out register.

The day seemed suddenly rigid, boring and too similar to days he would rather forget. It was frightening to Heero and he found himself taking his lunch break in the Ag block, where he sat quietly on the fence, the sun beating down hot and heavy on his back, and the cow there staring at him as if he had completely lost his mind.

"Don't worry Daisy," Heero sighed as the lunch bell rang. "I totally agree with you."