Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Orphan Stage ❯ Stage of Truths ( Chapter 3 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Gundam Wing Characters, blah blah blah

Pairings: 1x2, 3+4, 5+?

Warning: Umm… Bad language?

Summary: Duo Maxwell is put into a protection program after his father gets out of jail and goes missing. Duo finds himself in a situation where he can finally find his brother that was adopted ten years ago.

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Stage of Truths

"Friends from school?" Kemp asked while looking Trowa, Wufei, Heero and Hilde up and down like he was strip searching them with his eyes.

"AH! I didn't tell them where I lived I swear!" I said quickly, for some reason I was a little afraid that he'd get angry and I'd have to leave for a different town. We never really went over whether or not I was allowed to tell people where I lived and I kinda assumed I wasn't suppose to.

Nervousness began to set in as I watched his thick dark eyebrow raise slightly while looking over my guests scared faces. Well, ok, I was exaggerating again, all were scared looking except for Heero. He just glared back at the man as if asking, 'who the hell are you?'

"They just kinda got into my school file and got the address, just came to see me cause I was sick an all!" Kemp got a weird look on his face as I mumbled this. I think he was confused about something, but I couldn't really tell since his eyes were hidden beneath the dark shades.

"Duo, calm down and come take some medicine."

I sighed, relieved, as he smiled while handing a bottle to me. Once he was sure I had taken some, he walked over to get a better look at my guests. "Aa… this is Kemp, he's sorta… I guess he's kinda my guardian for now." I said, still a little nervous about the whole situation.

"What's this about getting into the school's file system?" Kemp asked while sitting down on the sofa chair. He looked at their scared faces and realization seemed to dawn on him that he was a police officer. "Ah! Sorry, didn't mean to scare you! Don't worry I'm not gonna get you guys in trouble or anything."

I sighed in relief. Yeah, Kemp was a pretty cool cop.

Hilde jumped up and walked over to Kemp holding out her hand. "Hey! I'm Hilde!" She had a big smile on her face and I took it that she was taking a liking to him. "This is Trowa, Wu, and Heero." She said with little enthusiasm. "So you're a cop? How come you're here with Duo? You live with him? He told us he lived alone, you can guess how shocking that was. I don't know many High school kids that can live alone. Is it even allowed? I thought there was a certain law saying they couldn't, god knows I wish I could leave my mum." Kemp smiled as Hilde put her charm to work.

"Yeah, I'm a police officer. Mostly work in the office though than on the streets. No, I just watch over Duo from time to time." I noticed how he purposely avoided the other questions she had asked.

Hilde's eyes seemed to light up and she moved a little closer to Kemp so she was now leaning on the arm of the chair. "Really? That's so cool, I wish I knew a cop! I could get a bunch of free favors and everything, I've always wondered what it would be like to go to a police station without cuffs on." Kemp's eyes widened a little at that. I was a little shocked as well. Did Hilde just say that she had been arrested before?

Kemp chuckled, obviously amused with Hilde's bluntness. The tension in the room seemed to slowly dissolve. That was one of the amazing things about Hilde, she could manipulate the angry atmosphere to her favor with witty comments and cute smiles! Being around awkward atmospheres was probably normal for her, seeing as she hung out with the three quietest people in the school, well two quietest. Wufei had seemed to be quiet at first glance, but once you breach a subject of his interest he would go off like a badly played record that you just want to chuck across the room. Especially on subjects like martial arts and for some reason politics. I once made the mistake of commenting on something the Peacecraft family had done, Wufei went off on a long lector about why they were going to be the downfall of this city with their corrupt ways. I don't think he stopped talking until lunch was well past over and we were standing in front of my class, which I ended up being late to.

I watched from across the room as Kemp seemed to be struggling with himself about something. His face turned serious as he asked the question that seemed to be bothering him, "So… how was it you were able to get Duo's address?" I could see Heero paling a little bit as Kemp turned in his direction.

Hilde was the only one to speak up. "Aa… Heero's real good at computers, so I made him hack into the schools system to get it." Kemp's eyebrows raised a little and a shocked look spread across his features. This confused me, why was he acting so strange?

I looked over to Heero and saw that he was now glaring daggers at Hilde, who seemed to be lost in her own little world staring dreamily at Kemp. What came next really confused me, Kemp looked over to Heero and I could swear the expressionless boy looked a little scared.

"You hacked into Duo's file?" Kemp didn't look angry, like I thought he would, more on the lines of 'shocked as hell'. I guess he was just surprised that a high school kid could do something like that.

Heero had his glare back on his face and was staring down Kemp as if to say, 'You got a problem with that?' Heh, I think I am actually starting to be able to understand the Heero language! Go me!

"Hmmm." Kemp's eyebrows were crinkled together again as he thought hard about something. I really wish I could get in his head to see why he was acting so strange. "Interesting." Was all he said before walking over to the brown bags and pulling some stuff out.

I followed behind him and peered into a bag, Food! "YAY! You brought me something to eat!" I glomped one of the paper bags and began the process of tearing out the contents.

"Aa… got you some soups to make since your sick, and I thought I'd make some grilled cheeses." He looked over to the four guests, two of which were now watching TV, Wufei and Trowa. "Anyone want grilled cheese?"

Four pairs of eyes stared at him hungrily and Hilde let out a big 'woohoo!'

Kemp made them all sandwiches and the meal was pretty much eaten in silence except for an occasions comment by Hilde complementing Kemp on almost everything. I didn't pay much attention to anything else, too busy concentrating on getting the food successfully into my stomach in hopes that I wouldn't get sick and embarrass myself.

The guys seemed to warm up to Kemp after awhile, at least they no longer looked at him like they thought he was going to bust them on the spot. Kemp however, kept staring at Heero and it was really getting on my nerves. Then the dreaded words came out of his mouth.

"Heero, can you come down to the station with me for a little while." The sandwich fell from my hand onto the table surface. Eyes wide, I stared at Kemp who was still waiting for an answer from Heero.

"Kemp!" I jumped up out of my chair quickly, intending on yelling at Kemp, when I started to feel dizzy like I was going to pass out again. My vision blurred a little and the kitchen was slowly disappearing. Luckily someone caught me as I tilted side ways with my eyes clamped shut trying to fight off the wave of dizziness. My feet seemed to lift off of the floor and I realized someone was probably carrying me. Kemp's voice in the background made me open my eyes a crack.

Heero was holding me over my bed, staring coldly at Kemp who was pulling back the covers of my bed. He was mumbling something that sounded a lot like 'hospital' and my heart nearly stopped at that.

"No." Gripping the front of Heero's shirt unintentionally, I buried my head in his chest. "Mm Fuck naa Hospppitalsss, k?" That's the last thing I remember for I past out for what seems like the fifth time since coming to Vanibin city.

I woke up a little while later feeling surprisingly better, I didn't throw up my food! Kemp was gone along with Heero. Hilde, Trowa and Wufei I found in the kitchen trying to make something resembling cake. Their heads turned away from the glowing over as I walked into the kitchen.

"Duo! Your awake!" Hilde yelled, bouncing over and taking a hold of my arm. She led me away from the kitchen to the coach. "How ya feeling? I think Kemp said that there was a bad side effect to the medicine he gave you. That's why you past out. He asked us to stay until you woke up so we thought we would make ya something good!"

"It was suppose to be good! But Hilde 'had' to add extra sugar." Wufei was looking into the oven with his arms across his chest and a giant spoon in one hand. I idly wondered what he would look like wearing an apron and giant chef hat.

Trowa smirked. "At least she wasn't the one to add marshmallows."

"Look whose talking, you added pistachios! Of all the nuts, you had to pick the grossest and the greenest!" Hilde butted in while glaring at the two.

I couldn't help but laugh a little, they acted like siblings, always fighting over stupid stuff. "So whadya make me?" I asked while trying to peer over the counter into the oven.

"Over sweetened, marshmallow, pistachio brownies." Trowa answered and then burst out in another fit of his so called 'laughing' after seeing the expression on my face. "Trust me, its good."

"Yeah right, I'll decide that when I can actually get myself to put it in my mouth." I looked around, yep, Heero was gone. "Kemp took Heero with him?" I asked, hoping that they would know something about why he wanted Heero to go to the police station.

"Aa… he said he wasn't in trouble, just wanted to get him to do something for him. He wouldn't tell us what though. And believe me, I tried. I'll have to force it out of Heero on Monday." Hilde put her hand over my forehead as she talked, and jokingly checked my pulse to make sure I was still alive. Annoyed, I pushed her off the coach which set her off in a giggle fit.

Shit, today was Friday and I forgot to ask Kemp if I could call Sister Helen. I didn't really think that Hilde, Trowa or Wufei had a cell phone. They didn't really seem the type and I didn't want to drag Kemp to the station on his day off just so I could use their phone. I hope the sister and father weren't worrying too much. I used the words 'worrying too much', because I know that the sister was worrying about me, if only a little. Kinda like a mother would, having her son leave the house for the first time to join the working class or go to college.

The oven chimed and I looked over to see Wufei pulling out a black and white substance. His bottom lip was pulled in between his teeth and I could see his thin eyebrows starting to come together as he tried to figure out 'what' exactly he was holding. A big grin spread across my face, "I say Wufei tests it out to make sure it is edible. After all, you wouldn't want me getting sicker now would you Wu?" He just glared at me and we had a little staring contest before he finally caved in with a sigh.

In the end, we ate the whole batch of brownies by our fat little selves. Of course, I ate the least amount, which was about two or three brownies. They were really good, surprisingly, and Hilde kept complimenting herself and telling everyone how she was a genius at cooking. It was pretty late by the time they left. And let me tell you, I tried everything short of begging to keep them here as long as I could. But no, all good things must end, and I was left with a pile of dirty dishes and the sound of crickets for my company.

After staring at the dirty dishes for a couple minutes and deciding that they weren't going to wash themselves, I gave up and started the grueling task. Maybe I would tire out and be able to sleep afterwards. That wasn't looking to happen though, I was too much on a sugar high.

Standing in front of the sink I reached in to pull out the soap when my body suddenly froze up. The room was quiet, and I listened distantly to the traffic on the streets below. Nothing seemed abnormal, yet…

I walked over to my window and looked out. Nothing. There was no one there, no one watching me. So why the hell am I so scared? My arms were shaking slightly and I tried to rub away the goose bumps that were appearing on my skin. Walking around the house, I closed all the blinds quickly before feeling safe enough to take on the task of dishes once again.

I was really starting to become paranoid.

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Monday rolled around, and I was thrilled when Kemp told me I was well enough to go to school. Not that I wouldn't have gone anyway. He had come over for most of the day on Sunday to spend with me, he even brought over a picture of his girlfriend, which I must say was surprising. She was really thin and had pale creamy skin which made her long brown hair stand out. The weird thing though, was that she always had her hair in two long braids that were now a little above her knees. I really wanted to meet her now, and Kemp said that he would bring her over sometime and we might swap 'braid stories'.

School started the same as always except for one little thing, coming into Art first hour, I was pulled out the door by Noin who had a worried look on her face.

"Duo! Is everything going alright?" I could see the concern in her eyes as she questioned me quietly in the hall. After convincing her that everything was fine, she finally let me back into the classroom where a couple students were looking at me with confused expressions. And that was only the beginning.

Walking to lunch, I was stopped by Principle Une, and several staff members. They all had a look of pity on their faces which made me want to just run and hide in the bathroom the whole day. Pity always made me feel weak, and anger was starting to well inside of me as I looked upon the teachers faces as they questioned and pried. I really wanted to punch something, get my frustrations out. I think I just might ask Wufei more about this 'Karate club.'

After I got away from Une and her questions, I went to look for Hilde and the guys. They were outside sitting under one of the big trees. It was a nice warm day, with cool wind that'd make anyone feel like cutting class if only to lay in the grass. Most of the students were out littering the grounds on days like this and if you were to walk into the cafeteria you'd be surprised at how empty it was.

Heero was sitting next to Hilde, both leaning against the thick tree trunk eating the remains of their lunches. Wufei was a few feet away in the same meditative position I had seen him in on the first day of school. He just opened one eye as he felt my presence before going back to ignoring everything. Sitting down in front of Hilde, I leaned back taking in the warm air.

"Still sick?" Hilde asked between mouthfuls of potato chips. I just nodded slightly and glanced in Heero's direction. His eyes were pinned on me and it made me shudder. His face showed a weird expression and I think he was trying hard not to say something. I had noticed that a lot lately and I couldn't help but wonder why he had been looking at me like that, with a look of confusion or maybe concern? His expressions were too hidden for me to figure out exactly 'what' it was going on inside that skull of his.

"WUFEI!! LOOK! LOOK!" Hilde suddenly jumped to her feet, scaring the hell out of me with her yelling. Wufei just glared at her while rolling his eyes at her over exaggerated arm movements.

"What now woman?" He said, picking himself up off the ground and wiping away the leaves that had accumulated on his white pants.

"Dorothy!" She pointed in the direction of the school where I could see a blond girl with hair in a pony tail and… forked eyebrows? "I'm going to go talk to her!" Hilde announced causing Wufei to groan.

"You are not going to talk to her." He snarled, crossing his arms over his chest in order to look more demanding.

"Says who? I wanna see why she always beats up on ya."

"The HELL?! Mind your own business woman." he growled and jumped forward in attempt to get a hold of her arm.

Hilde just laughed, dodging quickly, while running towards the Dorothy girl. Mumbling something about 'Injustice' Wufei ran after her trying to catch up. The look on his face was priceless, almost as if he was terrified of what Hilde was promising to do.

I was left alone with Heero, ::shiver::.

Sighing, I looked over to him again and noticed that he was not looking at me anymore, but was lost in thought. "Hey, have you seen Trowa?" I asked, trying to get rid of the creepy silence. Maybe I could go spy on him and Quatre some more.

"He's right there." Heero extended his arm, pointing behind me. My eyes widened as I turned to see Trowa making his way over to where we were sitting, Quatre right beside him.

I could feel my breath quickening as I automatically looked around for an escape. Finding none that wouldn't be too obvious, I decided to go up instead. When Trowa turned his head slightly to say something to Quatre, I jumped up grabbing the lowest branch of the tree. Quickly, I hauled myself up the tree, high enough to where I would be concealed by the branches. I could only imagine the look of confusion that must have been on Heero's face.

It took me awhile to calm myself enough to peer over the branches to the ground below. Trowa and Quatre had reached the tree and I could faintly make out the discussion below.

"Huh? That's weird… I could have swore I saw Duo." I could see his green eyes scanning the school grounds suspiciously.

"Duo?" I could see a hint of something in the depths of Quatre's eyes as he looked up at Trowa.

"He just moved here from… well I don't know. He asked me to introduce you to him a while ago and I had forgotten. Well, actually last time he ran off to…"

Trowa was interrupted by Heero's calm deep voice. "He said he was feeling sick and went to the school nurse."

What? Did Heero just lie for me? I could feel my eyes widening as my heart pounded loudly in my ear.

"Quatre? Are you alright?" I got out of my daze and looked down again. Trowa's worried voice seemed to cause the blond to snap out of his thoughts and he shook his head smiling sheepishly.

"Aa… I'm fine, just a little hungry." I found myself smiling slightly as I listened to his smooth voice coming from below. They sat down and started to pull out some food which I assumed was their lunches.

Looks like I was stuck up here, not that I was complaining. It was actually comfortable, lying belly down on one of the thick branches with my hands tucked under my cheek making it easy to peer down. Trowa was now talking about some art project he was doing for the school which Quatre would comment on every once in a while. Just by the little bits of conversation I caught, I could tell that he was very intelligent. Must have been, seeing as how they want him to take over the Winner Corporation. I wonder if Quatre actually wants to do that? What if he isn't happy with the pressure being placed on him?

I mentally smacked myself when I realized I was worrying again. Closing my eyes, I relaxed under the cool breeze. By how things were going, I wasn't going to get down any time soon so I decided to just rest my eyes for a bit, which actually turned into me falling asleep. I really needed to get a new bed, if it was keeping me up at night. How many times have I fallen asleep at this school now? Too many. Exhaustion was something I didn't need to have dragged on day after day.

Cold… I was awoken to the feeling of a shiver racking through my body. There was a faint warmth to my right and I instinctively moved towards it. Eyes still closed, I buried my head in something soft. Huh? What happened? I opened my eyes a little and took in my surroundings. I was on the ground, under the tree. When did I get out of the tree?

Fear took over and I sat up quickly, looking over my body to make sure I wasn't injured. Puzzled by the lack of scratched or bruises, I finally looked behind me and was startled to see cold blue eyes staring at me. I was apparently sitting in Heero's lap. The realization made me jump up with a yelp and scoot away quickly. Did Heero carry me down the tree?

"What…"

"You fell asleep in the tree." Heero stated.

My eyes widened a little. Falling asleep in trees now, eh? That was a pretty stupid thing to do. "O-oh… did you…"

He once again interrupted me, like he already knew what I was going to ask ahead of time. "I was worried you were going to fall, so I got you down."

Looking up, I noted that it was a good twenty feet from where I had been on the branches. Heero had carried me down that far?

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep." I could feel the blush starting to appear on my cheek, this was really embarrassing. Heero had carried me three times now! All of which I was unconscious!

He was staring at me again. With that same look, like he wanted to ask me something but couldn't bring it into words. But this time, he actually did start to speak. "Do you know why I went to the police station the other day?" He asked, eyes boring into me.

I shuddered a little and began to feel uncomfortable under his heavy gaze. "Why?" I whispered softly, averting my eyes. I looked around trying to avoid his prying dark blues, and noticed that we were alone on the school grounds. Lunch must have been over for awhile now. Shit, now I'm missing classes, yet… Heero had stayed with me this whole time… why?

"He had me redo the… protection, that was on your file when I hacked into it the first time." My eyes shifted back to his unconsciously. "You want to tell me why it took me nearly an hour to hack into your school file?"

So that's why Kemp was acting so weird. They had put some sort of block on my files which Heero was able to get through. No wonder Heero had been looking at me like he was! Probably curious as hell to find out 'why' my files were protected in the first place.

I chewed on my bottom lip nervously and averted my gaze to the ground. "I… cant tell you." I should have lied, I know that, but for some reason I knew he would know if I did. It's in his eyes, they look as though he can see right through me, its scary.

"Hmph." His hand came up to brush through his tangled mop of hair. "That's alright, I already know."

"WHAT!" My head was pounding as I kept replaying what he had just said over and over again hoping that I just imagined it. He already knew…?

"While they weren't looking, I took a look at your record at the police station." He shrugged his shoulders slightly while turning his gaze towards the school.

"Then why…"

"I wanted to see if you would lie to me." He said, once again reading my mind. That was really starting to get on my nerves. "But what I 'really' want to know… is why you keep spying on Quatre and running away every time he comes near."

"Eh? You saw me!?" I said a little too loud. I couldn't believe this, had Heero been spying on me like I was on Quatre? How the hell did he manage to find out all that about me?!

He just shrugged again which made me feel a little bit of anger rising inside. "What exactly… did you find out about me?" Maybe I was getting all worked up for nothing and he was talking about something else.

Well, I realized I was wrong when Heero said, "About you father, why you moved here. You being an orphan and the protection program, which is why you have a police officer looking out for you. And I also know that he isn't your guardian as you said, since you are now considered an adult." His expression never changed as he said this. He looked calm and almost bored, like this was no big deal!

My breath started to quicken but not out of nervousness this time, I was angry. Well, more like so pissed off I could kill. He just went and looked into my whole fucking private life!

"What the hell gave you the right to look into my personal business?!" My once warm violet eyes were now cold and narrowed slightly from my anger. "What the HELL were you thinking, Heero?"

One thing I will never forget is the look on his face as I slammed my fist into his cheek. I don't think I had ever seen so much emotion coming off of him. But at the time, I was too angry to realize the inner struggle he was having with himself.

As I pulled my fist back hoping to punch him again, his hand came out and grabbed my arm. He held it with a strong grip until I had calmed down a little. That's when I noticed the look on his face, it was almost painful to see. His mask was off, he was showing me… sadness?

"I'm sorry." He whispered, letting go of my hand. It fell limply to my lap, and my anger was strangely forgotten as I looked him over. "I… shouldn't have… I didn't think you would get so mad. I'm sorry." His head bowed slightly, eyes trailing the ground as he waited for me to say something in response.

I sighed and moved to lean my back against the tree. "Well, you already looked, so there's nothing I can do about it but be pissed at you." His fists clenched slightly as I said this and I got the impression that he was afraid of something. "But, I don't think I can stay mad at you for long." He looked up, a little shocked at seeing my smiling face. But I wasn't going to make it 'that' easy on him. Since he knew so much about me, it was only fair that he returned the favor, right? "Your going to tell me about yourself." My face showed my seriousness and his eyes were a little wider than normal as I said, "Everything, I want to know everything."

He just silently stared at me for a moment, as if pondering a way to get out of this situation. Brown hair moved slightly covering his eyes as the wind blew around us. When his eyes came back into view, his expressionless mask was back and he looked at me with those blue orbs, once again dark, cold. "You're going to regret that."

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Stay tuned for next weeks episode, where we find out about…… not going to tell! Ok so maybe its about Heero… but you already know that, now don't you?

:p