Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Prince Charming ❯ Listening to Prozac ( Chapter 3 )

Two months. Good lord, does anyone still remember this fic? I'm extremely sorry it took me this long- I just can't write that fast, and it's been hectic at school. Gomen!

Disclaimer: I got the Gladiator soundtrack last night! But I still don't own Gundam Wing...*sniffles*

I feel really bad for making everyone wait this long, so I'm going to stop with the author babble right now.

On with the fic!

Prince Charming

*Chapter Three*

Alisha hefted the stack of folders in her arms and pulled her chair out from under her desk with her foot, carefully depositing the folders onto the desk and setting down her coffee mug, which read "If I'm feeling down, it's nothing a hot cup of coffee in your face won't fix." She took a deep breath and looked around her desk, taking in all the work she had to complete that morning. Raising an eyebrow skeptically, she grabbed her mug as she passed her desk and strode down the hallway to the employee lounge. When she walked though the doorway she stopped and blinked at the sight before of her.

Wufei was standing near the coffee machines, surrounded by a cloud of female workers and looking positively miserable as they fluttered their eyelashes and doused him with questions and flattery. Alisha stood back for a while, thoroughly enjoying watching the normally composed Chinese man squirm, but after several minutes she began tapping her toe impatiently and glancing at the clock. Finally she couldn't take it anymore.

"Oh Wufei," she heard as she neared the group, "is it true that you can bench press 250 lbs?"

"You must be sooo strong."

"I always did admire a strong man..."

"Wufei!" she yelled, banging a hand against the wall for emphasis. His head snapped up, and the chatter ceased instantly.

"Wufei, I can not believe you. You are going to be in so much trouble. Une is very disappointed in you."

"Uh-"

"No! Don't even start with me."

"But-"

"Come on," she barked, grabbing his arm and dragging him out of the room. "Une wants to see you right now!"

Alisha marched him down the hallway, she trying her best to look like a drill sergeant and Wufei looking slightly lost. Once they turned the corner, she dropped his arm and laughed at the bewildered look on his face.

"You owe me big time," she said, wiping tears from her eyes in between the occasional chuckle.

"So I'm not in trouble?" he asked hesitantly after a slight pause.

Alisha snorted. "No."

Wufei sniffed and straightened his suit. "I did not need you to help me."

"Of course not," she chortled. "Wufei, they were ready to eat you alive."

"I was fine."

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes. "Why don't you just get back to work?"

He waved his empty mug in the air. "I still don't have my coffee," he reminded her.

She sighed and grabbed it. "I'll get it for you, oh Brave One."

He shot her a glare, and she laughed and shoved him toward his office. Shaking her head, she headed back to the lounge, hoping that the women had left so she wouldn't have to make up a cover story. She was relieved to see, when she reached the lounge, that they had gone back to their desks- the only person in the room was Heero, who was staring broodingly into the coffee pot, which he held poised to poor into his mug.

She walked toward him, increasingly suprised when he didn't respond- he didn't even seem to notice she was there! She stopped a few inches behind him and stood on her tiptoes to try and peer into the mug.

"Hey, Heero!" she chirped.

"Ah!" he yelped and jumped, sending his mug flying and coffee splashing out of the pot.

Alisha quickly reached out to catch his mug, fumbling with it a bit but managing to keep it from crashing to the floor.

"Jeez!" she exclaimed. "What was that all about!?"

"Sorry," he muttered as he set the pot down and held the wet shirt away from his skin. "I didn't see you."

"Heero," she said, grabbing a towel off the counter and dabbing at his shirt, "you've never 'not seen' anything."

"Mmm," he agreed absently and left the lounge, leaving Alisha holding a semi-damp towel and looking at a third empty coffee cup.

"Man!" she groused as she filled the cups and tried to figure out a way to carry them all. "This just isn't my day!"

*~*

Kara sat at her desk, her chin propped lightly on her hand, gazing across the room at a certain cubicle. It had nothing adorning the outside walls, and she knew that the only personal effect inside was a small picture of a ferret taken from a nature magazine. She had no idea why it was there, and when she asked she had been told "...I like it."

Despite Kara's steady stare, the cubicle walls were unrelenting and refused to disappear and reveal the young man who held her attention. She had a feeling that something was off, and she was determined to find out what it was. Some might call her paranoid, but after seeing Heero space out during a staff meeting, trip over his own feet in the hallway, and get lost on the way back from Une's office, she was inclined to think something was not right.

Shooting one last glare at the cubicle, she stood, temporarily abandoning her mission. Even if pod-people had possessed Heero's body, she still had a job to do.

*~*

Click. Clickety-click. Click. Click. CLICK.

"Damn it," muttered Wufei. "I can't believe this. I haven't seen so many errors since highschool!"

Thoroughly irritated, the Chinese man ejected the disk and snatched it up, stalking down the hallway toward his friend's desk. This is ridiculous, he ranted to himself. That program is so full of mistakes it isn't even functional.

He skidded to a stop in front of a bare cubicle and angrily stepped inside it.

"Yuy!" he yelled, causing Heero to start and snap the pencil he was holding in half. "What is this!?" He tossed the disk onto the programmer's desk.

"It's a disk, Wufei," Heero said slowly, throwing a mournful look at his broken pencil.

Wufei rolled his eyes impatiently. "I know it's a disk, Yuy. But the quality is disgraceful!"

Heero blinked at him blankly. "Do you want a different disk?" he asked. It didn't look like there was anything wrong with it to him...

"Heero," said Wufei, exasperated, "the program. The program inside the disk is worthless."

"It can't be; I made it myself," stated Heero reasonably.

"Of course you did," snapped Wufei, frustrated beyond belief. "That's why I brought it to you."

"It's a good thing you did, too." Heero picked up the sharpened half of his pencil and wrote something on his calendar. "Those interns would have butchered it."

"Argh!!"

Wufei resisted the urge to bash his head against the wall and stormed out of Heero's cubicle and into the lounge. He stomped across the room and kicked the first chair he came to. Growling, he leaned to pick it up, forcefully dropping it back into place. When he turned around, searching for another object to abuse, he froze, shocked to see that he had an audience.

Kara, standing next to Alisha, Sally, and Zechs, looked at him sympathetically.

"A run in with His Flakiness?" she guessed.

Wufei growled again. "You have no idea."

Alisha nodded. "I actually managed to startle him this morning."

"Did anyone else notice him daydreaming during the meeting this afternoon?" Kara furrowed her brow.

"Yes," said Sally, "and I saw him doodling on his paper. Doodling."

Everyone turned to Zechs expectantly.

"Don't look at me," he said after a slight pause. "I'm just here for a snack." He bit into the cookie he was holding.

Kara rolled her eyes. "Right. Well, does anyone have any idea what's wrong with him?"

Nobody had an answer.

"Hmmm," mumbled Alisha. "This is odd. He wouldn't just go nuts on us without some type of...catalyst, you know?"

"Yes," agreed Wufei. "Yuy did a 180 degree change of character. There has to be some sort of reason."

The group watched as Heero tucked his briefcase under his arm and hurriedly walked down the hallway to the elevators. It was 4:30 PM.

"What happened to him?" wondered Sally.

*~*

The library was a relatively small building, built in the ancient Grecian style with four pillars in front of the swinging doors. The inside was much different than the outside would lead you to believe, as if the decorators hadn't actually seen the building before they adorned the rooms. The carpet had originally been deep blue, but it was faded and threadbare in spots from numerous shuffling feet. The wooden shelves were stained different colors, each bought over the years as they needed to expand or replace one. The computers in the back corner looked extremely aged and over-used, and Duo was sure they were slower than the elderly librarian that was currently sitting behind the desk and reading a book about the old west.

The American stood quietly beside a large bookshelf in view of the entrance. He repressed a sigh and turned back to the rows of books in front of him, scanning the titles disinterestedly.

Your Blood and You...Plague, Pox, and Pestilence...Listening to Prozac?! Who reads this stuff??

He resisted the urge to tap his toe nervously and settled for flipping through the book he was returning to Heero, instead. He was sure it was interesting, but it wasn't really his thing. Nope, he went for mysteries and thrillers. He liked trying to figure out who the 'bad guy' was. Despite his boisterous nature, he did enjoy the mental exercise every now and then.

Circling to the other side of the tall bookcase, Duo peered through a crack in the books at the librarian, who had given up her pretense of reading and was looking in his direction, probably wondering where he had gone. Duo shook his head.

What does she think I'm going to do- steal her precious books? As if he would read anything from her lousy library. He mentally blew a raspberry at the old lady.

The sound of a door swinging open snapped Duo out of his thoughts, and he watched through the shelf as Heero stepped into the library, squinting his eyes as they adjusted to the comparative dimness. The Japanese man looked around, nervously scanning the room.

Duo ran a hand through his bangs and stepped out from behind the shelf, mildly disappointed when Heero did not so much as flinch at his sudden appearance. They stood silently for a moment, as if waiting for the other to say something. Finally Duo couldn't take it.

"So..." he drawled, "do you come here often?"

Heero smirked lightly at the reference to their first encounter. "Yes, actually. But you obviously don't."

"What?" scoffed Duo. "I love books!"

"But not from here. Mrs. Merganthayler is watching you." Heero nodded towards the librarian, who smiled and waved at him. "Mrs. Merganthayler only watches people she doesn't know."

Duo shuffled his feet. "Nice to know it's not personal, at least..."

"She very protective of her books," said Heero blandly.

"I bet."

"Speaking of books-"

"Hey!" cut in Duo brightly, "do you want to go for a walk or something? It's really nice out."

Heero glanced out the doors to his left and nodded. Duo grinned at him and jumped ahead to hold the door for him, a bundle of excited energy. Shooting him an amused glance, Heero sidled past the American, waiting patiently for Duo to join him outside. It didn't take the energetic young man long to catch up to Heero, and he was rewarded with a slight smile as they started walking.

However, the smile was all Duo received, as Heero made no effort to speak to him. They walked quietly, and after a moment of wondering at the silence, Duo turned his attention to the area around him.

He'd never been here before, as his house and job were located at the opposite end of the city. He was pleased to notice that the buildings and sidewalks were clean and tidy, not cracked or broken as so many tended to be. The buildings were not overly tall- merely stores, shops, and the occasional residence- and the gas station to his left sported a colorful mural on the side wall. There was a park up ahead of them; a large grassy area with a playground on one end and a small pond housing several small ducks on the other.

It's such a gorgeous day, he thought, tilting his head back slightly and breathing in the warm summer air. I never get to appreciate the beautiful weather when I'm inside the shop all day!

Looking at the scenery soon lost his interest, and his attention turned to the man beside him, also looking lost in his thoughts.

That probably isn't an unusual occurrence, mused Duo, who had noticed that Heero didn't seem to be very extroverted. On the contrary, he was extremely quiet. Duo wondered if he was a loner, or simply not as loud as Duo himself was. He'd been told numerous times that he exhausted anyone who tried to keep up with him, but Heero seemed to be coping just fine. Duo pursed his lips slightly, deciding that enough silence was enough- he could only take so much at one time!

"So, how's life at JI?" he asked brightly, hoping the other man would help him pick up the conversation.

Heero opened his mouth to reply, but paused. Thinking back over the past few days, he tried to recall something interesting to talk about. Duo hardly wanted to hear "When I inserted the micro chip into my diskdrive, the mainframe CPU overrode it and refused my access code." When he tried to remember everyday details, though, he drew a complete blank.

"Um..."

Duo gave him a quizzical look. "It's not exactly the $64 million question, you know."

Heero frantically wracked his brain for 'conversation information.' "Things are ok," he stalled. Oh, he almost had it... "My friend was acting weird today- they all were, actually..." There it is...bingo! "...and there was a virus in my computer the other day."

"Oh man!" exclaimed Duo. "That's terrible. I had a virus on my computer once from a screen saver I downloaded and it started randomly deleting my files. I lost almost everything I had saved on my hard drive, and I could never get it quarantined! Finally I had to get a new computer, which was waaay more money than my first one, but the company insisted they hadn't changed any prices." Duo rolled his eyes. "What did your virus do?"

"I managed to delete it before it did any real damage."

"Well, that's good." Duo tugged on Heero sleeve, slowing them enough to turn him left into a park. "Do you know how it got into JI's system?"

Heero frowned pensively as he was led through the park. "That's just it. As far as I could tell, it wasn't on JI's system- it was on mine. And my computer is much more heavily guarded than JI's."

"Hmm..." Duo stopped at a hot-dog stand. "Two, please. Here you go..." He handed one to Heero and took a bite of his own. "So, somebody purposely put the virus on your personal computer?"

"That's the only thing I could figure out."

"I wonder why...?"

"I really don't know. I'm not doing anything special for the company- just a regular technician's job." Heero frowned and took a bite of his hot-dog.

"Well, that's odd. If you ever need help, just call me, ok?"

Heero smiled slightly. "Yeah, sure."

*~*

"And so I said, 'What about the monkey?!'" Duo laughed loudly at his own joke, slapping his knee and doubling over.

Heero, still walking beside him, chuckled. They had traveled through the park, down to the 'shopping district,' and circled back to the general area of the library with a constant stream of conversation from Duo and the occasional comment thrown in by Heero, who had relaxed quite a bit. He had felt slightly uncomfortable around Duo at first, simply because the young man was so different than Heero was used to. Duo was extremely cheerful, and he radiated self-confidence without giving it a thought. He was talkative, polite, and eager to hear about Heero's life, and he always seemed to know the right thing to say.

This threw Heero at first, never being one of commendable social skills. He had manners, of course, but he had never found it easy to make polite conversation. His speech was direct and to the point, never wasting information. He didn't 'chatter' and he didn't 'chill,' which seemed to be two of Duo's predominate talents. Despite this, Heero'd managed to enjoy himself immensely and didn't regret calling him.

Duo stretched, reaching his arms above his head, then hooking them behind his neck. "Gosh, it's getting dark out. What time is it, Heero?"

The Japanese man checked his watch, his eyes widening in surprise. "It's seven o'clock already."

Duo whistled. "Wow. It sure doesn't feel like it, eh?"

"No, it doesn't," Heero agreed. "I need to be getting home."

Duo cocked his head to the side. "Did you drive to the library this afternoon?"

"No..." Heero said slowly, unsure of why the braided man was asking. "I didn't."

"Great!" crowed Duo, slinging an arm around his shoulders. "I'll walk you home then!"

Heero's eyebrows shot up. "I couldn't ask you to do that."

"Oh, come on, it'll be fun!"

"But-"

"Nope, no buts. I'm walking you home, and that's that."

"Duo," said Heero, slightly annoyed, "I don't need you to walk me home. I'll be fine."

Cobalt eyes widened and filled with tears as Duo's lower lip began to tremble. "Please?"

Heero stared at him for a moment, then sighed, relenting. "Fine."

"Awesome!" Duo brightened immediately, all trace of sadness gone from his face.

Heero blinked as they resumed walking. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"Oh, growing up around lots of kids teaches you a thing or two about pouting."

"Well, you did a wonderful job." Heero shook his head, amazed at how quickly Duo could manipulate his emotions.

"Meh." Duo shrugged. "It comes in handy sometimes. Like when people are being stubborn." He cast a sideways glance at Heero, who sniffed at him.

"I was not being stubborn; I was right."

"Sure you were."

"I was!" Heero gave him an indignant look.

"Mhm," agreed Duo innocently. "Of course."

"Stop taunting me. It's juvenile."

Duo grinned. "But it's fun, isn't it?"

Laughing, Heero nodded and turned Duo down his street, unconsciously slowing down. Duo picked up on the lagging stride, however, and he put his hands in his pockets solemnly. They walked down the street in comfortable silence, enjoying the cool night air and the dusky sky, with the night's crickets chirping and a cool breeze wafting through the trees.

Slowing even more when they reached his sidewalk, Heero shuffled to his door, stepping up onto his porch and turning to face Duo, who had stopped on the first step.

"Thank you for walking with me, Duo." Heero looked down at the braided man.

"You're welcome," came Duo's reply, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips.

After a moment, Heero blinked, recalling the original reason for their meeting. "Do you have my book?"

Duo started, jerked out of his thoughts. "Um, yeah." He pulled it out of his jacket. "Here it is."

Heero reached out, his hand brushing lightly over the American's as he held the book. Bolts of electricity shot up his arm and he froze, unable to speak, move, or even think. Duo smiled at him, and lightly brushed his thumb over the back of Heero's hand before withdrawing and turning away.

"See you later!" he called over his shoulder.

Heero stood silently, riveted to the porch as Duo disappeared into the growing darkness. When he could no longer see the braid swinging behind Duo, he shook himself out of his daze and pulled his key out of his pocket, quietly letting himself into his house.

*End Chapter Three*

D'Artagnon- <arranging the feathers on his hat>

Seigimegami- <sitting on the couch and looking for an opportunity to steal the hat> Ohayo minna! SilverShinigami isn't here right now- she's afraid the readers will kill her, so she left us in charge for a while.

D'Artagnon- Which was her first mistake.

Seigimegami- Yes. <takes D'Artagnon's hat and waves it just out of his reach> The second was leaving her computer with us. I have taken the initiative and assumed this meant we were to finish the story.

D'Artagnon- Don't you just love it when people leave vague instructions? <grabs his hat and pushes Seigimegami off the couch>

Seigimegami- <from the floor> Yes. However, she will kill both of us if we screw this up, so we really need to call it a wrap.

D'Artagnon- <puts on his feathered hat> Review!

Seigimegami- ^_^ Ja ne!!