Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ P.S I Hate You ❯ The Ninth Puppy ( Chapter 4 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Warning: Gore

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The Ninth Puppy

Chapter Four

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"Rudolph's missing", Duo said; his voice cold. 06:22 found all the ex pilots in the small wooden area, observing the scene.

"Rudolph's?" Wufei asked quietly.

"The ninth puppy", Heero answered, his voice barely above a whisper, "Duo's favourite".

"This psycho knows us", Trowa commented, up till that point he had been silent. "The psycho knows us very well".

Wufei sighed. "The forensics' team and Une will be here in five minutes, and yes", Wufei agreed, "too well".

06:10 is when Wufei got Trowa's call; he had raced down the stairs, ran though the hallways to the back of the preventers building, threw himself out the back door, across the field, and stopped when he saw Quatre not too far in the woods looking like he just vomited. It smelt a little like vomit as well and something else come to think of it, something that smelt distinctly worse.

He walked a little deeper in the woods and almost vomited himself when he saw the sight.

Eight puppies, stung up a tree like Christmas ornaments, their little bodies cut open with their guts hanging out. There were bits of fur scattered all over the ground around the tree, that and large amounts of blood.

Trowa nodded at Wufei once he got there and Wufei had to admire how Trowa kept his composure. Although he did notice that Trowa's face was white.

Heero and Duo showed up shortly after that. Wufei spared a quick glance at the pair, while it was clear to see that Duo practically threw all his clothes on, his dress shirt un-tucked, pants hanging low on his hips, Heero was in perfect uniform. With two minutes to get out of his house, Wufei couldn't help but find that impressive.

The silence was eerie. They were all standing in a weird sort of semi circle, adjusting Wufei guessed; adjusting to what they assumed had to be the serial killers level of cruelty.

They could all hear Une's footsteps in the background, purposely striding towards them, her personal assistant, and forensics' team in toe.

"Whatever it is boys, it better be a damn good reason for waking me up at-". Une glanced at her watch and when she glanced back up she never bothered to finish her sentence, although it never showed on her face, the look in Une's eyes was disturbed.

Nailed to the tree was the serial killers latest note. Une read it aloud.

"First Dasher, then Danser, then Prancer then Vixen, then Comet then Cupid then Donner and Blitzen, to the top of the trees, the leaves that fall, now go away, go away, or I kill all Ps. I hate you".

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"I hate paper work", Duo mumbled. 07:00 found three of the five of them sitting in a small board room filling out incident reports.

Trowa reflected that that was the second thing Duo had said since they had found the puppies, that's how Trowa knew it had hit home.

Duo always had something to say.

Trowa himself felt lost, the time he spent with those puppies had made them a family of sorts, a family that was taken away.

Quatre smiled at him sadly, and wheeled his chair over to him.

I'm here for you,

Quatre handwrote lightly in pencil on the corner of Trowa's page.

Trowa smiled ever so slightly, Quatre always knew how to make him feel better.

I'm here for you too,

Trowa wrote back, printing under Quatres cursive, he was about to draw a smiling clown face when the doors to the board room burst open.

"There was nothing on the security camera's", Wufei all but yelled. So that's where Wufei and Heero went off too, Trowa thought to himself, speaking with IT.

Heero walked in a moment later and took a seat in a chair between Duo and Quatre, and if Trowa didn't know better Duo gave off a nervous vibe as soon as Heero entered the room. In fact, the nervous vibe between the two of them was present all morning.

"What?", Quatre asked Wufei from beside Trowa. Trowa turned his chair towards Wufei, giving him his full attention, but it was Heero that spoke next.

"The perp uploaded a virus to the security camera systems covering anything within the last twelve hours". Heero paused, then sighed. "When the IT team attempted to run the footage that would have been on the camera's they just spread the virus".

Heero then looked at Quatre, "we're going to have to increase the security for the charity event".

"That's today?" Duo said quietly, glancing at Quatre then at Heero accusingly, "I told you to remind me, I love kids".

"I did", Heero stated simply, "yesterday morning I sent you a message, but you replied that you were rushing somewhere and told me to remind you again".

"Speaking of which", Duo muttered to himself, "I've gotta go to the garage and check on that car".

"I guess we all have work to do", Trowa sighed, the depressing job was his to find new puppies to replace the old ones, he knew Une was going to ask him, he didn't need to wait for the email.

"Wufei", Heero said simply and stood up, motioning that they needed to go and continue the investigation.

"So the camera's are blank", Duo mumbled, quietly enough so Heero could hear him.

"No", Heero answered, he glanced at Trowa before he continued, "every program we try to play it on shows…..

“dancing laughing clown heads".

Although this may have caught Trowa's attention, he immediately turned and looked at Wufei.

Every time internal security had to be reviewed, Wufei and Heero were the first to see the cameras, and it had been a secret Trowa kept with Wufei.

But,

Wufei absolutely hated clowns.

x_x

"Duo, you filthy bastard!", Hilde called out, as she spied Duo walking towards her.

It was already late in the afternoon, Hilde assumed Duo's paperwork took longer than he thought as he sent her an email telling her he would be there hours ago.

"Hilde, you bitch!", Duo joked back.

Hilde could see his fake smile from across the Preventers garage where she worked. She couldn't blame him though; Noin had told her what happened that morning, with the puppies.

Depressing shit.

"How's my favourite sexy mechanic", a smile crossed Duo's lips as he asked, giving her a saucy wink.

"As sexy as hell", she responded in a low sultry voice,

And she was.

Hilde's hair was now a little shorter than waist length, at the moment it was tied back in a sexy ponytail, bangs framing her petite face. She knew time had been good to her, since the wars she seemed to get any guy she wanted…or girl for the matter…well with a couple annoying exceptions.

She slid out from under the car she had been working on. "I'm guessing this is yours", she asked Duo humorously.

"Eh, yeah", he responded, "yesterday didn't work out", he said, looking down with a blush.

Duo Maxwell was gorgeous.

She took the time to check him out while he was looking down, sexy toned body, long legs, long eyelashes, and although she couldn't see it, sexy ass. She sighed quietly;

He too was included in her couple of annoying exceptions category.

She giggled cutely, although she felt it was absolutely wasted. He was obsessed with Heero Yuy, the Greek God himself, and on his spare time, he thought about Jackson.

"So", Hilde drawled, "how is Mr. Adonis[1] ".

"Sexy as ever", Duo sighed. "Tell me again why I told you about my crush on Heero?"

"It was a bad war", Hilde laughed as she reminded Duo. "What's the update?" She asked curiously, as she started on giving the Preventer cruiser an oil change, the last thing it needed before it was in Duo's hands to fuck up yet again.

"Well…" Duo started as she slid under the car again and began to loosen the drain plug.

"Well…", she prompted him inquisitively.

"I woke up this morning in his bed…", Duo paused grinning wildly, "with him having no shirt on…", Hilde peaked out from under the car to see his eyes flash, "arms wrapped around me".

He smiled, and then looked down with disappointed eyes. "It would have been the best friggen morning of my life if not for what woke us up, I mean he immediately realized he was holding me, did what I swear was a blush, then scrambled away and onto the phone ".

Hilde didn't need to ask, she knew it was because of the puppy incident, if you could even call it that.

"That's it?" she asked him while she slid out a little and motioned for him to hand her the drain pan. As he did she slid it under the cars drain plug.

"Well no", he defensively continued, "before that I swear to God we almost kissed",

Duo sighed dreamily, then mumbled, his voice whimsical, "I've been wondering for the longest time if he's a perfect kisser, if I can believe the hype".

"Believe it", Hilde mumbled subconsciously, "trust me I know, those lips taste amazing", she continued quietly if relieving a memory.

Hilde quickly came to realization of what she just said and slid herself further under the car.

Fuck! She cursed inwardly, she forgot who she was talking too.

There were two people on earth that were never to find that out, and Duo was one of them. She slid further under the car, half hoping Duo didn't hear, half wondering what would happen if he had.

"What?" Duo asked lowly voice, Hilde knew this was a fake calm; the dark side of Duo was coming out.

"What?" Hilde mimicked playing dumb,

She pulled out the plug and let the oil begin to drain into the pan. Duo, being mechanically inclined as well, noticed this and pulled her out from under the car.

His expression was guarded, his eyes were a furious purple.

Hilde found all of this uncalled for, technically Duo deserved it, and it was time she let him know why.

It wasn't like Heero was his boyfriend or anything, and it wasn't like Jackson was her boyfriend or anything.

"What Duo?" She challenged, "What? It's not like he's your boyfriend or anything", she mocked.

Duo opened his mouth and closed it, she could tell he knew what she was referring to, their fight over Jackson.

"When did this happen", although Duo said it in a calm voice she could tell he was hurt.

And why wouldn't he be?

She kissed the love of his life, and that wasn't all.

"Well", Hilde said smugly, "It was after he and Relena had just broken up" Hilde paused for a split second, taking in Duo's expression, he couldn't tell she was lying about the time frame, but just in case "well maybe not just", she added.

It was actually right after Duo had stolen Jackson, right after Duo and Jackson had slept together for the first time.

It was funny.

she had worked late that night and ran into Heero on her way out. They both began talking about Duo. Hilde had decided that their conversation was better off in a bar, and was surprised when Heero agreed.

That was the night three things happened.

She found out how Heero felt about Duo.

He didn't say anything but he said enough for her to guess.

She found out how Heero felt about Relena, and then she got to…

In lack of a better term.

Get to second base with the perfect solider/ Greek God.

And the fact that she did it all on spite.

Was all the better.

"But anyways", she continued, lying "I met him at the bar, he was all upset about something and just a little drunk. He asked me if he was a good boyfriend so I said 'let's find out'", she blushed at the memory; she would say Heero was an amazing boyfriend based on his kissing technique alone.

"Plus", she began defending herself "we didn't sleep together or anything, we started making out and he broke it off, apologized and left".

"You're lying", Duo said, "you're too smug for just that to happen. Don't fuck with me Hilde", he narrowed his eyes, "I know you".

"Okay", she relented, "so maybe we fooled around a little bit in my car".

"How could you do that?" Duo asked angrily. "You know I have liked him for the longest time, how is that fair".

"How is that fair?" Hilde asked,

"How is that fair!" She then yelled. "Are you fucking kidding me?!".

"I-"

Hilde cut Duo off. "You wanna know what's fucking not fair, you! I saw Jackson first! In fact, I introduced you to him, Remember,-“

Hilde let her voice drop to a patronizing tone putting her hand on her waist 'this is my friend from L2, I guess we all have that in common?' Do you remember me always trying to hang out with him? You don't do you?

Hilde narrowed eyes at the pause, but didn't give Duo time to answer, she was on a roll. And it was long overdue

“That's because, you were too busy stealing him for yourself. And I had to watch this, you stealing MY man, knowing that you didn't even like him, you liked someone else,”

“Fuck!” Hilde said, throwing her hands up in anger, “you loved someone else!".

"Wait a minute", Duo said, looking confused "you told me you didn't have a problem with me dating Jackson".

"Are you sure", Hilde countered haughtily, "or did I say something along the lines of 'I guess it's okay?"

"Jackson is an asshole Hil", Duo said quietly, looking subdued, trying to use it as an excuse. "Trust me on this one…And he-"

"Shut the fuck up!", Hilde screamed. She knew she was only getting away with this because Duo had a bad morning, but since the Jackson incident, she learned to never let an opportunity go.

"You know", Duo began to raise his voice, losing his eerie calm. "I can't help if Jackson liked me over you", he glared, "maybe if you hadn't fucked everyone in this frigging company -"

"Really", Hilde cut him off again, "you really think that was it, or was it your insistent flirting, and now your complaining that you don't like him? You stole him from me and then you had to rub it in my face for almost two fucking years, well while you were doing that I was reminiscing on how nice it was to have Heero's hands all over me."

"I love Jackson", Duo stated in fake self-assurance, "but not as much as I love Heero, but just because I can't get the one I want doesn't mean I have to settle with nobody, you of all people should know that".

Hilde knew what he was referring too, and it made her even angrier.

"No", Hilde, exploded, "you only did that to steal my happiness, and now you know how it feels!”

"Now you know!" She yelled,

"I don't have time for this, I have to get ready for the charity event" Duo gave a dirty look at the car, "and I'll just get a fucking ride". Duo turned to leave.

"Ooh", Hilde said mockingly, "now you're running away, did your brief flirtation with the truth not work out this time?"

"Fuck you", Duo said quietly, "we've been friends for this long Hil, and you hid something like this away from me, fuck you". Duo turned and walked away, his boots echoing across the garage.

But Hilde wasn't sorry to see him go, she had been holding this back for almost two years. A smirk crossed her face.

"You'd be surprised to know what else I'm hiding", she laughed quietly to herself, she slid back under the car reinstalled the plug and continued with the oil change.

This was only the tip of the iceberg.

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Duo stood silently as he watched people slowly fill the large auditorium, it looked like it was going to be a full house.

"Nice uniform", Wufei voice cracked sarcastically over their private intercom that he and a few other preventers on security detail were connected to.

Heero, Quatre and Duo were standing behind the first set of curtains, Duo on the far left, Heero and Quatre on the far right. From his view point, he could see everything in the auditorium from the right side. He looked down at his black dress shirt and pants, the standard high profile event security uniform.

"Hey", Duo countered, "I didn't have the luxury of going home to change like some people, I had a busy day and I had to get a ride here".

"So where did you get the uniform", Sergovia, another preventer chosen for the detail joked from his position at the back of the auditorium.

"Quatre Winner, the guy who's presenting", Duo boasted, "had the decency to lend me what he could, since were almost the same size and all".

"I don't ever remember Quatre wearing anything that…." Wufei paused, his smug grin flowing through his next word, “…snug".

Duo heard bits of laughter, he smiled a bit too until he saw from the corner of his eye Heero glance at someone in the audience, he followed Heero's eyes and felt his smile vanish.

He first thought it was Hilde Heero saw, hanging off the arm of some random guy with a sultry red dress.

But Heero was looking past her, at Jackson.

Duo glanced at Jackson at the exact wrong moment.

Their eyes locked.

How Jacksons knew he was on the far left side of the stage out of the entire place doing security detail he had not a clue. J

ackson was accompanied with a few of his friends from his martial art gym. Duo sighed as he saw Jackson point at him, and the group of them burst out in laughter. Jackson gave him one last glance, smirked at sat down, whispering to his friends and stealing glances at Duo.

Asshole, Duo thought.

Complete asshole.

The charity event had started. Duo drowned out the sound of the middle aged woman who was presenting while fiddling with the end of his braid. He looked over at Quatre who was dressed in a black and white suit standing on the right side of the woman presenting. Heero was watching them carefully from the right side of the stage, still hidden behind the curtain.

Duo remembered how worried Quatre was earlier about the award ceremony. Looking at Quatre now he could never tell, then again, Quatre was amazing at public speaking. Trowa had told Duo earlier that throughout the day Quatre kept saying something about having a premonition that something else was going to go terribly wrong today.

"…And it's all thanks to Mr. Winner who has donated a large amount of twenty five thousand dollars to the Child and Youth Center for Impoverished Children due to the recent war, and Mr. Winner has also offered to design the new CYIC building."

Duo heard the woman speech end as the auditorium gave a loud round of applause; he glanced down to the audience and saw a few children no older the eight jump up and cheer in the first row with eager eyes.

One of the children that stood out was this little red head with pigtails and freckles all over her face that looked about six years old; she had a huge smile and rubbed her hands in excitement. He felt himself smile when he look down at her, the little red head reminded him of a girl at the orphanage where he grow up on L2.

She didn't last the plague.

Duo glanced back over at Quatre and smiled pleasingly to himself. He always admired Quatre for his willingness to give back to the community. The Winner Corp. was one of the biggest funders in the world and also amongst the colonies along with Peacecraft Corp.

"Thank you Ms. Part" Quatre said as he took the stage, Quatre began his speech thanking everyone involved in the project. Duo was a little shocked when he didn't hear the Peacecraft Corp being named. Usually the Peacecraft Corp. would grab on to anything to get their name out, not that they needed anymore publicity, but they were usually involved in projects like this, especially when it came to something this big, and this donation was really big.

Duo saw Quatre glance back in Heero's direction and gave nervous smile and watched as Heero nodded back in encouragement. He saw Quatre look around for what Duo assumed was Trowa, but give up when he couldn't find him. Trowa was in the crowd somewhere, doing an undercover security detail. Duo figured Quatre would still be feeling nervous. After seeing dead hanging bleeding puppies first thing in the morning, who wouldn't be? Thankfully Heero and Trowa were able to calm down the last of his nerves before the presentation.

But Duo didn't think the serial killer would pull any stunts here, the auditorium was littering with press and high security. The psycho puppy killer would never live to tell about it if he tried.

Quatre smiled at someone in the audience as he continued his speech, Duo guessed Quatre found Trowa.

"And now may I present to you CYIC with the model of the new building to be named The CYIC Winner Center and a cheque for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars."

The crowd cheered and applauded with a standing ovation as two men brought up the model cover with a red velvet cloth on the stage and set it down on the table.

Quatre got ready to unveil the model as the camera's zoomed in and displayed it on the TV. screens broadcasting the event. Duo glanced down and saw the little red head grin from ear to ear bobbing up and down. Duo felt warm inside as he watched the little girl beaming up at the covered model.

It was like she was finally getting the Christmas present she always wanted.

Then the little girls face went from beaming eyes.

To stone cold white.

Another few kids started screaming and one started crying hysterically from the audience as a loud gasp filled the auditorium.

Quatre face turned to ash.

And then he puked.

"What the…?"

Duo ran out onto the stage and looked up at the flat screen TV. over head and his mouth dropped;

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" He threw up his hands in anger and disbelief.

The security cameras were hacked into again and on the TV. screen ran the lyrics to Rudolph the red nose reindeer with the picture of the model as the background.

Heero was already beside Quatre who was being calm down by one of his personal staff, his face was unreadable.

Duo ran out to join them and looked down at the model; his face went blank as he felt his body fill with rage.

The audience was still in shock as the press went wild; security started barking orders evacuating the auditorium.

Heero picked up the little folded card that lay on top of the model and opened it stiffening as he glanced up at Duo.

"What does it say?" Heero started to slowly hand Duo the card, and Duo impatiently snatched it out of Heero's hand, and held his breath and read

"I now present to you, Rudolph ! Duo is mine, P.S I hate you"

Duo dropped his arm letting the card slowly fall from his hand. He stood there silently staring at the model, his whole persona going dark.

Quatre staggered over to where Heero and Duo stood his face pale and haunted.

He looked down at the bloody chopped up corpse encased inside the glass box where the model use to be and said.

"I found Rudolph."

TBC

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Footnotes

1. Greek God known for being handsome