Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Psychotic America ❯ Waiting For Introductions ( Chapter 4 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Manga-Chick 
Operation: Gundam
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Hentai / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 09.20.2005 | Pages: 5 | Words: 10.4K | Visits: 436 | Status: Completed
Operation: Gundam
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Hentai / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 09.20.2005 | Pages: 5 | Words: 10.4K | Visits: 436 | Status: Completed
Alternate Universe, fusion, out of character charas, very disturbing information and scenes and Pairings: 1x4, 2x5 3(?)
Standard Disclaimers Apply: Don’t own Gundam Wing nor X-Men
Notes: Some stuff was changed around, here. I deleted some stuff, added some stuff, so it’s still the long winded, pompous bag that ya’ll are familiar with–just with some differences.
O0o0o0o0o0oO means scene change
Chapter Four:
Waiting For Introductions
Quatre waited patiently until he was left alone in the kitchen once more. He then rose from his chair, glancing around to make sure that he was absolutely in the clear. He wasn’t sure what the others wanted, and while he certainly appreciated the nice gestures, he had been tricked before. It was only a matter of time before he and Duo would have to pay whatever price was needed to satisfy them.
The presence of the two women was comforting, but not truly satisfying. Women were most often in the game as well, and he didn’t come this far in life to be so naive. The dining room had a small hallway that led away from the living room, and he was willing to get out before anything happened.
He glanced at the basement door to see if Duo had yet to emerge, but he couldn’t hear anything beyond it. He figured that the homeless boy’s stomach was rejecting all that he’d ate, and he truly liked it here, so Quatre figured that it would be useless to try and convince him to escape while they could. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching him leave, but everyone was suddenly occupied by the rising male shouts from the front hall.
He found that the small corridor led to an outside porch and what looked to be an adjoining entranceway to the stairwell that led upstairs. He opened the back door, closing it softly behind him. The back yard was unkempt, covered in snow, and he hesitated because he was shoeless. Frowning, toes curling inward as bare feet touched cold wood of the porch, Quatre stared at the snow covered back yard and estimated the distance from the porch to the wooden back fence. That would lead to another back yard. He had no idea where he was, or how he could get away without them stopping him, but he figured he would figure it out eventually. Taking a deep breath, readying himself for the cold he was about to experience, he stepped out onto the wet porch and began making his way toward the fence.
Something caught at the hem of his sweats, pulling him back. Startled, he turned, looking down at a growling toy poodle that had come out of no where. He hadn’t recalled seeing any presence of animals at the house, save for the constantly shifting boy–
He kicked at the poodle with his other foot and took off running, hearing the boy’s angry curse when he shifted back to human form. Quatre had just caught onto the top of the fence to haul himself up when a pair of strong hands gripped his hips and pulled him back down. Landing back first on the ground, he tried to breathe in what air he lost as he looked up at the scowling green eyed boy that stood over him.
“Going somewhere?” he asked sardonically. “Refusing our hospitality?”
“I don’t trust you,” Quatre muttered, wincing at the extreme cold of the snow that he laid upon. Trowa frowned, contemplating this new thing, then shrugged.
“That’s fine,” he muttered as he turned to walk back to the house. “Go ahead and leave, then. Just don’t go around, crying for help when that thing gets a hold of you, again.”
Quatre lifted himself up from the snow, wincing at the feel of wet clothes against his skin. He wrapped his arms around himself, watching the taller boy walk into the house, slamming the door behind him. Truth be told, he didn’t want to leave that comforting warmth...The fall and winter had been much too cold, and he compared that to being in the arms of that...thing....
He couldn’t recall what had happened to him exactly, but he knew it had to be something completely devastating. Upon reflex, he reached up to his neck, feeling where the pain had began when the man had held him. That pinching bite; that strong sucking action that felt as if everything within him were being drained of vital life force; that euphoria he’d come to feel shortly afterward. He remembered the man whispering something about being fed once more, how glad he was, how tasty Quatre’s blood was, how....how appealing he looked, and what it would feel like to be caught up inside him when he died...which was truly disgusting, and it made his stomach curl with that remembrance even now.
He looked over his shoulder at the fence, shivering violently, then looked back at the house. It was a comfortable green with beige borders, and had the security of warmth and comfort that one would expect to find inside. It was normal, peaceful, and completely ordinary. It was warm, there was food, and there was clothes...but it was just too good to be true!
He felt himself jerk with surprise when the back door opened, and the scowling face of Heero appeared as the boy walked out onto the back porch. And despite himself, Quatre felt himself shiver not from the cold, but from the reaction he felt upon seeing that particular young man. His very bones seemed to tremble with fear and something delicious. His body gave an odd reaction deep within his lower belly. He felt completely small and insignificant when faced with this particular person, and he hated that feeling. And yet, it excited him.
He stilled when Heero left the porch, walking over to him. He was unable to tear his eyes away from the more menacing ones that were set on his face. He realized that his heart was quickening its pace, and that he suddenly felt warm all over. His throat had gone completely dry.
Knowing that he gave Heero such a reaction just by being there made him feel powerful. And yet, when Heero was but a few steps away, Quatre lowered his eyes and found interest in the powerfully striding feet that were encased in oddly shaped boots. Men didn’t like it when he looked them in the eye.
“It’s cold,” Heero pointed out, as if Quatre didn’t know.“Let’s go back.”
“No.”
“We’re not going to do anything to you!”
“I don’t know you.”
“We don’t know you, either. But yet, we opened our house to you, gave you a bath and clean clothes, and even offered you food. You’re behaving rudely and completely unappreciative of what we’ve done for you. And you continue to defy our good intentions by trying to run away.”
Quatre found himself shivering violently at the deep growl of that voice, of which made him feel the urge to surrender without another word. He could feel the menace in Heero’s voice; there was the natural flare of need to please that had him wanting to obey without further ado, to escape any sort of injury.
One strong hand, entirely capable of crushing him easily, gripped his arm. His touch was like fire, heating his skin at contact, causing him to forget why he was trying to leave in the first place. Heero felt something as well, hesitating when Quatre finally found the nerve to look him in the eye.
That contact, as simple as it was, created an intense reaction by both. Senses were heightened in an instant, causing unfamiliar reactions from both. The smell of the other, contrasting by individual body odors, was sharp and pungent, impossible to ignore. The feel of one another’s skin, the slide of callus against one thin limb, was just as powerful as a punch delivered full force. Sight brought in sharp focus on pleasing features and filtered out flaws. The audible, erratic breathing of both were in changing rhythm, rising and falling with slightly rising panic at the unknown energy that was happening between them. An unfamiliar metallic taste, thick with rising saliva, touched their tongues. The sexual energy was very potent, rendering them nearly immobile, both entirely aware of each other.
It was just the same as it was in the house, when Quatre was made so aware of Heero nearby that it caused his stomach to clench and twist with an agonizing realization that he wanted this man in a very bad way.
Heero removed his hand from Quatre’s arm with much reluctance, finding it hard to talk as the blond dropped his sight to the snow. Heero had to move, had to do something to break this spell, so he shut his eyes and turned to walk away, finding it nearly impossible to do so. Every step felt as if he had full buses strapped to each foot, and his legs were hesitant with the movement.
“It would be foolish to return to the streets,” he said gruffly, his voice thick with what he’d experienced earlier. “That thing had a taste of you–don’t you think it would want to continue where it left off?”
The thought made Quatre shudder, and with Heero’s continuing distance, he began to feel like himself once more. He knew he was entirely too thin; he was a grungy homeless thief that barely spoke English; and he was disgustingly unattractive. Heero wouldn’t want him, anyway. He shouldn’t be thinking that kind of thought, even if it were completely intoxicating.
And besides, he didn’t want to run into that mutant again...the promises the man had made in destroying him made him sick and vulnerable. He looked at the house again, shivering violently, his feet stinging with cold. Then he began to walk toward the back porch. Heero held the door for him, and he experienced a very short-hand version of what he’d had before upon the other’s nearness; Quatre hesitated before stepping inside.
He didn’t know why, but he felt compelled to look straight into the other’s eyes, locking them with his. That intense cobalt gaze held him in place, searing him with heat, raw and full of sex. It made his body shiver not from the cold, but from the massive surge of needing what was so obvious between them.
Then, because he felt he had to, he looked away from Heero and hurried inside, pulling at wet clothes that seemed to dry upon his rapidly heating body from near contact with Heero. He ventured into the dining room, seeing Duo finally emerge from the basement, looking at him in question.
“Did you go make snowmen, or something?” Duo asked, wincing as he rubbed his belly.
Quatre’s own growled enviously at that moment, but he chose to ignore it, frowning as he studied Duo’s pathetically pained expression. Then, without any warning, he stepped close to the long haired boy, holding the curious violet gaze with his own wide-eyed stare. He then smirked, stepping back from the intensely bewildered boy, who looked at Heero as he walked into the dining room from the adjoining hall.
“Here,” Quatre muttered, tossing something in Heero’s direction. He then walked off as Heero caught it. Recognizing his wallet, he growled in annoyance, ripping it open to make sure that his money was still there. He looked up to give the blond a piece of his mind when Duo held his hands up in automatic surrender.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I couldn’t resist!” he cried. “It’s just–! Natural impulse! Here, here! Have it all back!”
Heero frowned, blinking in dumb curiosity as Duo emptied his pockets, and even rummaged around in his underwear. As the items fell to the floor, Heero recognized Sally’s numerous platinum diamond rings, Catherine’s emerald and sapphire necklace, Wufei’s wallet, Trowa’s very small basketball card collection and what looked to be one of the old bastard’s bottle of Viagra. How Duo managed to get in contact with some of the things, he had no idea.
Duo pleaded and begged Heero not to kill him, that he’d returned everything he’d snagged, then hurried away for the safety of the other room. Frowning, Heero eyed his wallet, which was victim of another snatching. It hadn’t been Quatre–it was on Duo, and Duo confessed all without anybody ever really realizing that they were missing their things. Heero frowned as he replaced his wallet, then picked up the ladies’ things, depositing them into his pocket to put back later.
The other three could pick up their own damn things.
O0o0o0o0o0oO
True to their word (which was rare), the old bastards arrived at eight. Doctors J, S, H, O and G were in the middle of an argument over which Star Wars storyline was better when they walked in unannounced through the unlocked door. Shuffling out of expensive coats, scarves and hats, the old men gathered in the living room. Sally was watching Lifetime, Trowa was once again on a mission to catch ‘em all, and Duo was busily helping himself to a plateful of brownies Catherine had finished making earlier. The absence of other familiar characters were notable.
“Hi!” Duo said cheerfully, setting the plate aside as the older men looked at him in surprise.
“Good evening, Sally,” Dr J greeted.
“Who the hell are you?” G demanded, raising his eyebrows upon viewing Duo.
“Come now, you’re going to frighten the lil chit with your homely face,” H complained, then shifted his expression as he wondered whether Duo was a boy or girl.
“I think the subject at matter is a boy,” S realized, blinking.
“An honest mistake to have made,” O commented. “You rarely see boys with long hair these days.”
“We’ve adopted another one,” Sally answered, craning her neck to continue watching the amazing story of a young woman that had conquered her paste eating addiction, whoring ways with numerous thirteen year old boys of the school she taught at, and managed to snag a billionaire while saving half of Africa’s starving rebels. “His name’s Duo Maxwell. Try to keep his sentences to the minimum. I think his mutant ability consists of talking one to death.”
“Mm...” Dr J stroked his chin with the three prong mechanical hand of his, Duo staring at this new thing with detached curiosity. “What are your powers, boy?”
“Er...I can...teleport. Um...through shadow,” Duo answered, narrowing his eyes and lifting a hand to point. “Why is your–?”
“And he can control dead bodies,” Trowa piped up. He barely lifted his eyes from the screen.
“How interesting,” G said, leaning forward. “How did you discover that particular bit?”
“Well, this one night–! What happened to your nose?” Duo interrupted himself, looking at S.
“Ignore him. He just wants attention,” G said, waving a hand in S’s face before the man could talk.
“I most certainly do not,” S huffed, drawing his shoulders back. “I lost my nose in an accident awhile back. Surely, you will get used to it, if J decides to keep you.”
“I already have a boy. I don’t want another. You...are a boy, right?” Dr J asked, blinking in Duo’s direction.
“Yup! I mean, last time I checked!”
“Well, then. I’m certain there’s no trouble in keeping him,” G said, raising his eyebrows.
“Then he’s yours, congratulations,” Dr J snapped, looking around. “Where is Heero?”
“Fucking some guy senseless,” Trowa muttered.
“TROWA!” Sally exclaimed, mortified. “No, Heero’s asleep, along with Wufei. Catherine’s with the other boy.”
“Two new boys?” H asked, blinking with interest.
“Heero’s fucking another boy?” S exclaimed with horror, hands placed on his mouth.
“I knew that boy had something going on for other boys,” G cackled.
“Oh, shut it, you perverted, old brained twits,” Dr J muttered. “You’re just using that sociopaths’ words to turn yourselves on...”
“Ew,” Sally muttered, hiding her face.
“Truly disgusting,” O muttered, looking away from his comrades.
“It’s rather dishonorable to label me as having part of their more disgusting tendencies,” H remarked crossly.
“Not true. It’s just that Heero exhibited so much need to dominate and control, that it would only be obvious to bend other boys to his will in the good, old-fashioned way of rape and sodomy,” G continued, holding a finger in the air to punctuate his point. “After all, Wufei and Trowa fell prey to his needy ways, right?”
“Not-uh! Like I would ever let Heero on my ass,” Trowa muttered, frowning as he pestered Ash with the need to buy more Pokeballs.
“True, true. Trowa’s a man on his own. Wufei, now, come on! Tell me there isn’t the need to be submissive, there!” G exclaimed.
“I have never taught Heero those ways!” Dr J growled in annoyance, flicking his hair behind him. “Those he must have learned on his own. His amazing ability to cope and design is based on my own design, yet there was some things I didn’t have a hand in, and homosexuality wasn’t one of them.”
“You’ve gone too far, old man!” O began, his voice rising as he looked at G. “My subject has never been a homo, and never will he! He’s far too proud, and he knows his place!”
“Yeah, underneath Heero,” G muttered to S, who nodded thoughtfully.
“Bah!”
“Will you fuckers stop talking that way?” Sally exclaimed, looking at them. “No one’s fucking anybody! Heero’s asleep! Wufei’s asleep!”
“‘Ch. I’ll bet. Cuddling in post-coital bliss,” S whispered to H, who nodded in agreement.
“They are NOT! CATHERINE! Wake those boys up and get down here!” she shouted. She then resettled into her seat, and gestured at the five men to get out of her way. The men shuffled away from the living room and made their way into the kitchen, looking through various cupboards for something to eat and drink.
Dr J was in the middle of reciting Socrates in deference to G’s continuous insisting of Heero’s sodomizing ways when Catherine came downstairs, followed close behind by a yawning Wufei, a rather pale boy, and a scowling Heero.
“Heero! Get over here and explain yourself!” Dr J commanded as Catherine waltzed into the living room to sit on Sally’s lap. Heero reluctantly left Quatre’s presence and walked over to the kitchen, Wufei following close behind.
G gestured at Wufei with low growls in his throat, looking at S in continuous insistence of his argument. Wufei saw the gesture and looked at them both warily while Quatre hung back, staring in silence at the group of old men.
“Are you gay?” Dr J demanded of Heero, Wufei choking and sputtering.
“What?!” Heero growled, eyebrows furrowing. “What sort of stupid game are you playing at, now?”
“I just want to know. Trowa says that you were, ahem, fucking another boy.”
Heero’s fists clenched tightly. “TROWA!”
“Whhhaaaattt?”
“Don’t bring my boy into this,” S demanded. “He spoke nothing but the truth!”
“Heero!”
“You’ve got too much free time, old man,” Heero muttered, shaking his head, yet he couldn’t hide his faint rush of color that bloomed on his cheeks as he sneaked a peek in Quatre’s direction. Quatre caught his quick glance, and bowed his head with a slight blush of his own, fiddling with his thumbs.
“See? See!” G exclaimed, pointing at Heero.
“You! Get over here!” O boomed, gesturing at Quatre. Quatre quickly slunk away to hide in the living room. “Bah! Weakling! Unfit for our teachings! Throw him away!”
“What do you old farts want?” Trowa asked, walking into the kitchen. Heero immediately whirled on him, grabbing his shirt.
“What did you tell him?!” he growled.
“None of your business, and let go!” Trowa growled back, shifting into a rat and jumping to the floor, shifting back to human form.
“Wufei, go get those two boys and bring them to our office downstairs,” Dr J commanded, leading the way into the basement as Heero and Trowa shoved at each other. “We’ve got business to discuss! Our mutant has struck again, and we are getting further and further behind in tracking him down!”
“One of them, actually, was a victim,” Trowa said, following behind S as Heero waited at the top of the stairway for his boy.“Sally healed him, though.”
“Great!” S exclaimed. “Even if Sally put her sickeningly womanly hands on him, he should still have the mutant’s residue in him. How badly was he damaged?”
“His entire throat was fucked up. He was missing large amounts of blood, but Sally did her usual thing of duplicating blood cells to replace what was lost. He’s fine, now. But he doesn’t talk.”
“Oh, for the love of–! It was that weakling that you’re talking about, wasn’t it?” O asked on a sigh.
“Yeah. He doesn’t speak much English.”
“Who around here has Swedish blood in them?” O demanded. “One of you old perverts must have the necessary language we need to communicate with him.”
“Who says he’s Swede? He could be Russian,” H argued. “Or Norwegian...”
“No, from the looks of him, he’s Dutch,” S said matter of factly as they piled into a very large room off from the single stall bathroom nearby.
The room, more commonly known as their conference room, was almost as large as both the living room and dining room combined. It was fitted with a rectangular metal table, a dozen chairs, a single couch that lined one wall, and a projection unit that allowed them to study scenes of previous crime and subjects.
“I wouldn’t say that. He’s entirely Scottish!” G interrupted.
“‘Scottish’? Are you daft?”
Trowa sighed, shaking his head as he took his usual seat at the far end of the table, on the right side. The doctors were always arguing amongst each other. Wufei moved downstairs, frowning as he heard the words being exchanged. Duo looked around excitedly, chewing on a brownie. Trowa smirked as he watched the way Heero practically shoved Quatre into a seat next to him, the boy obviously smitten with the other.
“Now, speak to us, boy!” Dr J commanded, leaning forward on the table at Quatre. “Describe to us in perfect detail what happened to you, for how long, and what was it that you did to survive!”
Duo intervened quickly, waving his arms about. “I know! I know! See, it was this guy, and he had these really gross hands that had mouths on them, and he was all, menacing, and could jump high and was really–!”
“I wasn’t asking you!” Dr J growled.
“With ‘mouths’ on his hands?” G interrupted. “What sort of mouth?”
“Like...they were sideways on his palm,” Duo indicated, holding up a palm and tracing an outline on his hand. “It had really sharp, pointed teeth, and his hands were really purple and black. They changed color when those mouths opened...and he was sucking blood! Like a vampire!”
“Did he drink your blood?” Dr J asked Quatre.
S growled. “Did you hear Trowa tell you that Sally had to replace blood?”
“I wasn’t talking to you!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah! The guy was drinking on him like a vampire!” Duo shouted, rising from the seat to catch their attention once more.
“Why are you part of this?” O demanded, slamming a fist on the table.
“I saw the whole thing! Well, not really. I just...I was sleeping in this Dumpster underneath them because they were on the fire escape and I don’t know how they got up there but that’s what I woke up to and then when I got out to get away because I thought they were like fucking and all that but then the guy was saying how much he was going to love ripping apart his bones and feeding off his blood from the inside out and then I was all disgusted, and–!”
“Oh, for the love of Buddha,” O muttered, hanging his head warily.
“Duo, I cut you off from any more sugar!” Trowa commanded.
“Aw, but they’re so good!”
“All of you!! SHUT UP!” H demanded, roaring just to be heard. When the room fell into silence, he cleared his throat, adjusting his sweater vest. “Now, boy, tell us what you know.”
Quatre frowned, fiddling with his thumbs before stilling.
“He had finished with another homeless man,” he began slowly, trying to remember. His English was very stunted. “I had heard something funny...then I walk away. But...he seemed to know that I am different, and he went after me. Very fast..”
“What are your powers?” Dr J asked.
“Odd accent,” S muttered to G.
“I’ve heard it somewhere, I know I have,” G muttered back, stroking his mustache.
“I can...move things without touching them.”
“Telekinesis? Can you demonstrate?”
“He destroyed Catherine’s and Sally’s bedroom,” Heero reported.
“We cleaned it up,” Quatre replied without looking in his direction, fiddling with his thumbs once more.
“Is that it?” Dr J demanded, frowning.
“I...don’t know anything else.”
“Did you see him?”
“I might recognize him if I see him. But, probably, no.”
Dr J sighed, looking at Duo.
Duo only shrugged. “I only saw his hands, man.”
“Great. Utterly useless...The both of them.”
“Not entirely so,” S said, rising from his chair and walking around the table to place himself behind Quatre’s chair. The boy looked warily at him. S lowered his hands to place on Quatre’s shoulders when he was suddenly hit by an invisible force, his body slamming hard against the far wall. Quatre rose from his chair, looking entirely fearful of the whole situation.
“SIT DOWN!” Heero roared, startling everyone with his volume. Quatre looked at him in surprise, then slowly sat.
G nudged H repeatedly, and H nodded furiously.
S picked himself up. Brushing himself off, he frowned in Quatre’s direction, then walked over, clearing his throat.
“I can, upon touching things, ‘see’ the memory of what it has seen. In this case, upon touching you, I can see what happened to you during that incident. Anything else will be of inconsequential difference.”
“I don’t want you touching me,” Quatre said quietly. “I don’t care if it aids you. I don’t want you seeing my head.”
“Kid, I don’t care what’s in your memories. I just want to see...oh. This is so boring. H. Did you happen to repair that tape I have been waiting for?” S asked gaily, turning away from Quatre. Everyone blinked in confusion as H frowned at the question.
“Er...no, but...what the hell?” H asked in clear confusion.
“I’ve been wanting to watch that SNL episode, and you’re keeping it from me!” S complained, moving to sit back down.
“S!” Dr J exclaimed. “What are you doing?”
“What? What do you mean?”
Dr J gestured at Quatre. Heero looked at him, noting the intense look of concentration on the boy’s face. Furrowing his brow, knowing that something else was entirely the matter, Heero reached out to grip the boy’s chin, jerking his face around roughly to make eye contact.
Such movement, rough and designed to hurt in order to break that concentration, made Quatre focus entirely on him. When he realized that he’d applied more force than necessary, Heero’s fingers loosely smoothed over the area he’d handled as he dropped his hand. The simple gesture was enough to make Quatre’s face flush pink with embarrassment.
S blinked, looking at himself. He looked around himself in confusion, rising from his chair.
“This is no time for you to have developed Alzheimer’s, you old goat!” O roared.
S looked at him, then growled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I would like it if you cut out the mind games, G!”
G spread his hands out in defense. “I did no such thing, you senile old prick! That boy must be hiding something else to make you forget what you were doing!”
“Boy, this isn’t time to play games!” H shouted, shaking his fist. “We’re on the trail of a mindless killer, and you want to mess around with old mens’ heads! Something entirely sinister is afoot, and you’re messing around!”
“Isn’t this fun?” Trowa asked Duo, who looked at him in amusement, nodding his head.
“I swear, they’re much too old to be in this business,” Wufei muttered.
“Are you guys ever going to tell me what the hell you are?” Duo sighed.
“No.”
“Hold him, Heero, we’ll get the answers we need yet,” Dr J commanded, stroking his chin.
Heero frowned, rising to do so when Quatre looked up at him in fear, trembling slightly at the forceful action that was about to take place. He was really confused as to what was going on, and for the fact that someone was going to hold him down–!
Heero moved from his chair, hands lifting to hold Quatre in place when the blond snapped. He grit his teeth, concentrating with all his might to send everybody from their chairs, pushing them to the floor. Duo quickly shifted from the hold into a shadow, emerging into the living room. He surprised Sally and Catherine with the abrupt teleportation. Screaming, lifting her face from Sally’s crotch, Catherine covered her lover while Duo yelped, hurrying away from the living room.
Quatre rose from his chair, hurriedly stepping over the struggling bodies on the floor, and raced up the stairway to the kitchen. He slammed into Duo, who was trying to make his way back in.
“Leave me alone!” Quatre shouted, pushing Duo back through the door and pining him against the fridge while he raced away.
“Well, that was real smart of you, J,” O grunted from the floor.
The invisible hold on all of them was rather strong, and even Heero’s immense strength was unable to get him to escape the grip. All of them were on their backs, their chairs over turned, and while the older men relaxed, Trowa shifted into constant animal form, looking for a way to escape the hold.
Wufei frowned, forehead furrowing as he tried to think of a way to slip out of the situation.
J sighed, staring up at the ceiling in tired annoyance. “Well, who knew the boy had something to hide? He’s very strong, though.”
“Hmm, yes, very. You say he’s a telekinetic?” G asked Trowa.
“Looks like it, don’t it?”
“I am not asking for sarcasm, you unfeeling–!”
“How long do you think we’ll be down here?” S asked. “Because my show comes on at nine. I really don’t want to miss it...”
“Well, this is completely retarded,” Wufei muttered, letting his head fall back to the floor. “Who else besides me feels dumb?”
“You’re the only one, Wufei,” Trowa commented.
“I wonder how long he can keep us held. He has a lot of potential,” H said.
“Mm...well, since we’re going to be here awhile, who’s up for a game of Truth or Dare?” G asked.
O0o0o0o0o0oO
Quatre hurried up the stairway, ignoring Sally’s and Catherine’s questioning calls from the living room. He hurried into the room that he knew was the other boys’, and quickly snapped up a pair of shoes and a peacoat jacket that hung nearby. Moving to shove the window open, he unlocked it and prepared to lift it to crawl out when something grabbed a hold of him from within, a sort of touch from inside his skull.
It was immensely painful, and he sucked in a deep breath, hands slapping his face as he tried to identify what was happening. Stumbling about, nearly mindless in pain, he began to panic. Whatever it was that clenched his brain did so with much force, squeezing hard, needles embedded in nerves. Blinding, utterly painful, the effect caused him to react with much desperation, and he dove forward to try and claw his way out the window. Only he wasn’t thinking clearly, and thus slammed his face off the closed window, stunning him. Combined with the mind-gripping pain that he was already experiencing, he shuddered once and fell unconscious, his mind automatically fading out in an effort to escape that tight grip.
“About time,” H muttered as he rose from the floor, rubbing the back of his head.
“I was only curious to know how well he reacted under pressure,” G commented as everyone rose from the floor. “Excuse me.”
“Heero, go get him and make sure he doesn’t awaken soon. S may get the information we need well enough,” Dr J ordered, pointing up the stairway. Heero nodded, and stalked off.
“Your little robot does seem to work well with the kid,” O pointed out, raising his bald brow.
“My little robot is perfectly obedient, and knows well when to obey,” Dr J said smugly. “What can yours do?”
“Leave me out of this!” Wufei commanded, glaring at O as he resumed his seat.
“Now, boy, tell us about you,” G ordered, looking where Duo was last sitting. “Hey...where’d he go?”
“He teleported before he was held,” Trowa said.
“Quick thinking...get him down here, G,” S said.
Duo was already making his way downstairs, chewing on an apple. Rejoining the others, he looked at Wufei, then Trowa, smiling broadly. He faced forward in his chair, chewing loudly as G regarded him with disgust.
“He certainly is a happy chit, isn’t he?” he remarked.
“Happy is as happy does, sir!”
“Bleeding Christ...Well, Mr. Maxwell–tell us about your powers. What do you know of them, so far?” G asked, folding his fingers together.
“I can teleport myself and some things through any sort of shadow.” Duo paused to lick his fingers of juice. “Doesn’t matter what size. If I can squeeze in, then I can get in. It’s really neat. And you wanna know my story about the dead guy? There was this older man, his name was Solo, and he was the one with the booze all the time, so one day we drank ourselves silly, and–”
“And the point being?” O interrupted, one hand rubbing at his forehead.
“Point being, when he killed over from natural causes–cuz that’s what the coroner said he died of, natural causes–I wanted him alive and wanted him up and walking around, and then suddenly, he was doing it.” Duo punctuated this with a firm nod. “And, whenever I need to, I use dead bodies for my amusement....”
This last comment was punctuated with sickened groans and disgusted stares, and Duo looked around curiously, frowning. When he realized what he said as well, he gasped, waving his arms about in distress. “NO! NO! Not in that way! ARGH! Not in that WAY! I MEANT–! I meant that when I needed someone to cover me–no, no, no! You know what I mean! Not for THAT! NOT FOR THAT!!”
“He fits you, G,” H commented. “The both of you can be necrophiliacs together. In peace and harmony.”
“Go and die, old bastard,” was G’s snarled reply.
Wufei groaned as Duo continued to try and make excuses over the disgust that hung over the table. He looked over at Trowa, who was staring at his hands, wiggling his fingers repeatedly. “Can you believe that I’m looking forward to really getting down to business? We were so close last night to the guy that we almost had him.”
“If that guy just let S look through his memories, we would have a way of getting him,” Trowa said, frowning as he looked at Wufei. “I don’t see what the hell he’s trying to hide. Like someone cares enough about some homeless boy to worry about what he’d done in the past...”
“Well, whatever it is, it must bother him constantly...”
“He probably killed someone and feels real guilty about it. That’s the only thing I can think of.”
“Like that’s so bad. That person probably deserved it...Quatre doesn’t look the type to hurt on purpose..”
“He’s so...meek,” Trowa said with a disgusted expression. He slapped his hands on the table. “I don’t like meek people. They piss me off.”
Wufei grunted as Dr J called an order for the meeting to resume. When the others had quieted and were settled back in their seats, Dr J plucked a folded piece of paper from his back pocket, revealing a new report. He gave it to H to pass to Wufei and Trowa, and Duo took this time to take a seat between them, peering at the report. He couldn’t read, but he tried to distinguish what it meant as Wufei and Trowa read it quickly.
“Massive amounts of blood loss,” Wufei said, lowering the paper. Trowa took it to study it, frowning. “The usual mangled appearance...body was kept intact...but the muscles showed an abnormal amount of shrinkage...what exactly is this thing draining from his victims besides blood? I know that it’s life energy, but would that–is that even factual evidence?”
“Of course, it is. What did your victim describe when he was taken down?”
“He didn’t. We just learned, along with the rest of you, what happened.”
“We must know his language,” H muttered. “Even if he did understand what was happening, he probably doesn’t have the full comprehension of English to even go about describing what we want told!”
“True...true...we’ll find out in due time. And since you’re the only one without a boy, he’s yours to do with whatever!”
“He actually seems very intelligent,” H sniffed.
“But a weakling,” O muttered.
“Oh, you and your versions of ‘weaklings’ are much different than my versions! Your little weakling is Heero’s underling!”
“Don’t start that again!”
“KEEP ME OUT OF IT!” Wufei bellowed from his section of the table.
“Men, men,” Dr J called, rapping his claw on the table to catch their attention. “We have noticed a sort of pattern in our killer’s routine...he’s attacking the more powerful mutants, and judging from the rapidly increasing numbers of victims per week, his mutant system must be in the process of mutating in its own. Or, rather, he’s just become addicted to his nightly endeavors, which, of course, makes it even more dangerous. He could or could not shift to humans pretty soon, in order to feed his ravenous appetite...”
“It would really help to know what he looked like,” G growled.
Duo shrugged, hands on the table. “All I know, is that he was blond. And tall. I couldn’t see his face, through.”
“Perhaps...and this is just perhaps...we may use you as bait...” Dr J began, and Duo rose from his chair, shaking his head.
“No way! I mean–!”
“ Just hear me out! Heero, Trowa and Wufei are very strong when they’re capable of combing their forces and cooperating amongst each other. They have yet to fail a mission, and when faced with a strong opponent, they are able to secure a win. They have plenty of experience in keeping civilians out of danger, and have done so successfully. They will not let anything happen to you, should you be in danger...”
“I just...c’mon. It’s just a kinda tough thing to deal with, and...I don’t really like being that kind of thing,” Duo muttered, sitting once more, picking at the thick hairs on his thin arm.
“But in doing so, chit, you’ll be part of our group.”
“Who are you guys, anyway? I have not got an answer yet, and I’ve been asking over and over again since I got here,” Duo complained.
“We are Operation: Gundam,” G said, clearing his throat. “We work mainly on the smaller cases in which mutant threatens man. We are highly successful, if you will. But we are also a secret organization that flies low on the national recognizance radar...”
“Meaning you’re illegal.”
“Hey, we’re still successful...but we weed out the bad mutants in the area. Nothing big, nothing special.”
“Sort of like...those X-people I keep hearing about?” Duo asked skeptically, lifting an eyebrow.
“But with better uniforms,” S said, coughing in his hand.
“I’ll say!” Duo grinned, looking at Wufei with a lecherous stare.
“Are you homo?” O demanded.
“I find no fault with the male form, and the accompanying personality that comes with it,” Duo sniffed, leaning forward to stare O in the face. “You have a problem with it?”
O shifted in his seat, frowning in disapproval. “Keep my boy out of your dishonorable ways,” he then muttered.
Duo wrapped an arm around Wufei’s shoulders, leaning against him.
“He’s the first one I plan on assimilating!” he declared, then fell onto Wufei’s abandoned seat when the superspeed gifted mutant found himself at the other end of the room, breathing heavily at the declaration. Duo lifted himself from his seat, and turned to Trowa. Trowa peered away from his nails, shifted into that of a very angry wolf, and tried to bite Duo’s nose right off.
Scrambling away from the mad hound, Duo found himself on the other end of the room, breathing heavily in fear. Trowa smirked as he resumed human form and continued picking at his nails.
“Thatta boy!” S crowed in approval.
Then, G heaved a sigh, leaning on the table. “What’s taking your boy so damn long, J? You sent him away nearly a half hour ago! The boy didn’t leave the house!”
Dr J frowned at this, realizing that their subjects had not yet appeared. He blinked in question at Wufei, who suddenly ignored him. Annoyed that he didn’t have anyone to boss around, he huffed in his chair, crossing his arms.
“Heero will be back. Just keep your hemorrhoid cream on and wait!” he snapped back, earning some meanly directed insults in his direction.
O0o0o0o0o0oO
Heero found himself unable to look away from the unconscious form before him. He was caught in a trance that he couldn’t escape from. Silently, he stared down at Quatre’s pale features, of which were bathed in the hallway light that filtered in from the open doorway. Long, pale lashes that were the color of his shaggy hair swept uneasily against thin cheeks, resembling wisps of cotton. His soft mouth was open slightly in unconscious form, lips slack and lightly pink.
That wave of heat that constantly unnerved Heero was bothering him now as he stared down at the too-thin form. The boy had tried putting on a pair of Wufei’s shoes and taken Trowa’s jacket, and would have escaped if G hadn’t intervened.
There was a small trail of blood that had made its way from a thin gash in the curved bottom lip, where teeth most likely made impact with tender tissue upon colliding with the window. A thin, dark trail of blood marred the pointed chin, and had left a single drop of blood on the worn, pale green carpet of the room. A thin chest rose and fell with each breath, and Heero faintly realized that he was gone from the conference room for a considerable length of time. He then crouched, moving to scoop the unconscious body into his arms.
But the smell–! The smell of a clean body, a far cry from what had been before, assaulted him. It made him dizzy, just inhaling that pungent clean scent. He had to hold his breath to shove one arm underneath the thin neck and the other arm underneath limp thighs. But before rising, he stared down at the tilted face, the unconscious fluttering of lashes that moved only because of the shift Heero made.
Heero knew that what he was feeling was entirely wrong, but how could he stop reacting in this way? He couldn’t stop his body from making such unusual reactions when he didn’t understand them. He knew what he wanted in a truly primitive way, but his own thoughts kept him from truly accepting them.
He leaned forward, inhaling deeply of the boy’s natural body scent. His eyes closed in reverence at the heavenly scent. His body was shifting once more, lowering the boy back to the floor, where he could better shift to inhale more of that scent. In a way, he felt like a dog–constantly sniffing out this wondrous scent, in heat, needing more of it.
His nose brushed against warm, pale skin, and he paused at the feeling of another male’s skin against his. Brushing the tip of his nose once more against the curve of a delicately pointed chin, Heero shifted closer, unable to stop himself from venturing in this manner on this person. His instincts were raging at him, letting him know that if Quatre woke up and found himself in this manner, he’d definitely attack in self-defense. But Heero couldn’t stop himself!
His lips brushed against a warm neck, feeling the steady beat of a weak pulse in the revealed throat. His mouth opened, brushing another feather soft kiss against the warm throat, and then another, finding himself breathing slightly heavier than he had before. His nose brushed against the hard angle of Quatre’s jaw, then his hair brushed against the smooth features of his cheek.
Heero turned his head, kissing the lifted chin, then finding the small trail of blood. It was cold, drying in the warm air, but he couldn’t resist the impulse to flick his tongue out, licking the dark liquid. It was metallic, thin, and it caused a sensation like no other to flicker in his belly. He drew his tongue over the spot once more, with more force and more drag, tasting skin and traces of aftershave. It excited him.
To be this close, to have him in this manner–it excited him. Was he sick? Demented? It brought him a sense of power and control to have this weak body underneath him, to have this person unconscious and unknowing of what was being done to him.
The slack lips begged for a taste, and Heero took the chance, dropping his lips on the soft curves, tasting and melding. His entire body revved with an unfamiliar adrenaline, his mind not thinking clearly as he lowered his body completely onto the one below him, fitting his own body against the flats and planes of the one underneath him. There. That was much better. The pressure in his groin was building, rising, heating with unnatural warmth. He felt excited. Aroused, completely needing.
With a concentrating frown, he adjusted himself once more to this unconscious body. He was able to fit the hardened bulge in the front of his jeans against the vee of the blond’s body. It was a very new feeling, uncomfortable and awkward as he positioned the top of his bulge just underneath the blond’s balls, giving a light push of his hips. The reaction created by this motion made him groan slightly, his hormones racing nearly out of control. He couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to actually take a person...and he’d never given thought to taking a man.
But to know that he’d definitely take this one, no matter the resulting consequence or actions needed, gave him a sense of confidence and excited need. He adjusted himself once more, dry humping the unconscious frame. If only things were different...if only this were a different situation...his mind was clouded with lust and he couldn’t rightly think.
He nuzzled the exposed neck, and when he felt the other body give a small shift underneath him, he grew even more excited at the thought of a struggle.
His hands automatically went to restrain the moving arms, and he rose from the stirring body to look down at a wakening face. Quatre’s eyes locked on his, lids half-lowered, mouth closing with a quick flick of tongue racing over his bottom lip. There was a slight jerk of his body underneath Heero’s, but nothing more.
Heero stared down at the widening pupils, the darkening color of aquamarine, the slow flushing of cheeks, and realized with a slight start that the boy underneath him was growing just as aroused as he. The thought of him responding in such a way, with such demurring reaction, made it all the more so. The wrists Heero held down lifted slightly to test his grip, but the moment Heero felt them move, he hardened his grip, forcing them still. At this, the thin chest against his rose and fell with rising trepidation, the wide eyes darkening even more, lips falling open with a slight sound. The sound caused blood to rush directly to Heero’s groin, and it made him ache, hard and utterly pained from the intensive erection that he now had.
Then, at the slamming of a door and an annoyed shout, Heero found his bodily reactions were quickly being put away, the sounds startling him from the spell he was caught. He rose from the equally as startled boy, straddling his hips, and tried to will away the hard erection he had so that he wouldn’t embarrass himself when he faced the others.
The one beneath him rose on his elbows, and looked frankly at his crotch. The intensity of that stare Heero found on the pale face made it even more difficult to will his erection away. When Quatre finally shifted his eyes to Heero’s, the Asian realized with a start that Quatre knew entirely what he was doing. He felt himself jump when he felt a timid touch on his groin, and he glanced down to see that the blond was touching him there. His fingers, bony and trembling slightly, were caressing the rigid member with a sort of familiar air. Testing the width and length.
Swallowing hard, growing angry that this was rapidly turning into something entirely different from what had transpired earlier, Heero rose from the floor and jerked Quatre to his feet. He used more force than what was necessary, but Quatre didn’t protest as they made their way to the door.
When they emerged into the hall, Trowa was just coming to the top of the stairs, looking annoyed that he’d been the one sent to retrieve them.
“About damn time,” he complained as Heero dragged Quatre behind him, the banged boy following. “J’s getting pissed because you were taking so long. While you two were getting your rocks off with each other, we were getting mowed down by Duo’s fucking talking. He openly admitted that he’s gay, you guys.”
“And this matters to me, why?” Heero asked, annoyed as they made their way to the basement.
“Geez, trying to pull his arm off, Yuy?” Trowa then muttered.
Once they reached the table, Heero shoved the thief into the chair he’d previously abandoned, and held him in place, gritting his teeth. Dr J raised an eyebrow as S rose from his chair.
G settled back in his chair, saying, “And if you even think about manipulating any of us with those powers of yours, I have your mind in my grasp. Any movement you make in using your powers will be detected by me, and I will neutralize it immediately. It will be very similar to what you experienced before, I promise you.”
Quatre glared at him, uneasy at the thought of S retrieving his memories, and with the painful grip Heero had on his shoulders.
“I can talk,” he muttered, watching S warily. “I don’t want people inside. Please don’t...I will tell all I can–”
“Peace talks have been eliminated the moment you attacked us,” Dr J said, lifting an eyebrow as S reached out with one hand, Quatre looking at the appendage with much dismay. With desperation, he concentrated on getting S to focus elsewhere, and in reply, G did as he’d threatened. The agony that raced through his mind was enough to drop his concentration on S, turning instead to focus on weathering through the pain that made him thoughtless.
S touched him at this moment while Duo reacted with a pained cry at seeing his rival in agony. He rose from his chair as S concentrated, taking what he needed.
“Stop it! Stop it, he was going to talk!” Duo cried, moving away from his chair, G looking at him in surprise.
“Duo, sit down!” Dr J ordered, but Duo ignored the command, slipping into a shadow and emerging behind S, shoving the man away. S stumbled, hitting the wall in surprise while Wufei quickly stepped between the two.
“I found it,” S said, shaking his head. “I know what he looks like. That’s all I wanted. You can stop, now, G.”
G let go of his mind-crushing hold on Quatre’s head. The blond slumped forward in pain, clutching his forehead. Duo hurried over to see if he were all right, and Heero released him, glowering at G.
S sat down in his chair, and took the pen and large sketchpad that O held out to him. Within a matter of minutes, he drew out what facial features he had seen from Quatre’s memories of that night. Holding up the sketchpad, he displayed to all to see a single man with grinning features.
“Excellent, my compatriot,” Dr J said, clapping his hands lightly. “We can now enter that mug in our tracking system if you would just add the rest of the information we need. Excellent job, men. And, you–Duo has agreed to join our little group of freedom fighters. Would you like a position as well?”
“He probably hates us, now,” Trowa muttered, crossing his arms. “You guys fucked him over a few times...”
“He did to us, as well,” O pointed out.
“It isn’t as if he has a choice, anyway,” Heero suddenly decided, looking away from the slumped form in front of him. Everyone looked at him in surprise. “Even if he decided not to stay, that mutant did have a taste of him–he would probably want more, going so far as to track him down and kill him later.”
“Ah, I see what you’re saying,” G said, rising from his chair. “Well, that’s certainly the deciding factor in this situation, I suppose. J?”
“Whatever. You guys can deal with him, I suppose. We’ll be back in a few days. Meanwhile, Duo, if you are going to stay, you need to gain at least twenty pounds. And Wufei, you will work with him in getting him into shape,” J ordered as the older men began filing out from the basement. “I want you fit and healthy enough to start working out with the others, boy, when we come back to discuss a few things.”
“Er...all right,” Duo said reluctantly, looking away from Quatre. He looked over at Heero questioningly, frowning as the strong boy turned his mean gaze in his direction. Shuddering, Duo turned back to the hunched over form on the chair and gently pulled at him. “C’mon, bud. Let’s go...”
“I’ll get him some aspirin, or something,” Trowa muttered, walking out from the basement, Wufei in tow. Heero was reluctant to move, but forced himself to follow the others as Duo managed to coerce Quatre into getting up, to follow him out the door.
Once emerging from the basement, though, Sally and Catherine were there, armed with Rit boxes. Duo stared at the boxes, looked at their expectant faces, and frowned.
Nearly an hour later, Duo had his long, thick hair parted into five sections; Catherine, Sally, Trowa (as a chimp), and Wufei picked at the various bugs and eggs in his hair. He was busily looking at a magazine that Catherine had given him to occupy himself as the four worked diligently in removing the thickly clustered eggs amid dandruff fluff and dirt grime.
“This is so gross!” Catherine hissed to Sally, crushing one active bug between her thumbnails, hearing the audible pop that it made upon death.
Sally was too busy trying to concentrate on killing her own bug with her nails, and didn’t give an answering reply. Trowa the chimp combed through his section of hair and made goofy noises while making faces in Wufei’s direction. Wufei had his section cleared; he was just making sure that he’d removed all that he was sure were the eggs. Happy, Duo was just glad that he wouldn’t have to deal with the gross things anymore.
Catherine gestured at Wufei to take over her section, and she turned to cross the space toward the tub, where Heero was busily working on Quatre’s hair. It somehow made her feel as if she were disturbing something when she stepped in to help, noting that Heero had eliminated a pretty good majority of the eggs and lice that were present.
“I’m so glad your hair’s so much shorter,” she sighed in relief, working on the section Heero hadn’t come to yet, using her fine-toothed comb to locate the ugly monsters within the blond fluff.
“I’m glad you decided to stay,” she continued, trying for conversation. “I was wondering if you were going to eat, yet. I mean, we proved already that we’re not going to hurt you...and Duo’s been eating our food all day, so that should be some indicator that our food isn’t poisoned!”
“I’m fine,” Quatre mumbled, hunching his shoulders, feeling entirely uncomfortable with people picking at the more disgusting bits of his reluctant lifestyle.
“You sure?”
“Yes...thank you. I don’t mean to be rude.”
“It’s all right. Just...consider it, all right? We’re going to fatten the both of you up while you’re here, and we won’t complain about it,” Catherine said, crushing a nit between her fingers. “And don’t worry about repaying us, or anything. Just...just help us out from time to time. These guys don’t do anything around here, and Sally and I could really use some help...”
“All right...”
Catherine, sensing some emotion from Heero that bordered on threatening, quickly finished up her section of Quatre’s hair and returned to Duo’s, asking if she could trim some inches from the straggly length.
At Duo’s answering reply (screams, really), she decided to ignore the uneasiness she felt whenever she addressed the violet eyed boy. Really, both boys made her uneasy, but there wasn’t a way she could vocalize her thoughts without seeming pathetically panicked. So, she kept her thoughts to herself.
Standard Disclaimers Apply: Don’t own Gundam Wing nor X-Men
Notes: Some stuff was changed around, here. I deleted some stuff, added some stuff, so it’s still the long winded, pompous bag that ya’ll are familiar with–just with some differences.
O0o0o0o0o0oO means scene change
Chapter Four:
Waiting For Introductions
Quatre waited patiently until he was left alone in the kitchen once more. He then rose from his chair, glancing around to make sure that he was absolutely in the clear. He wasn’t sure what the others wanted, and while he certainly appreciated the nice gestures, he had been tricked before. It was only a matter of time before he and Duo would have to pay whatever price was needed to satisfy them.
The presence of the two women was comforting, but not truly satisfying. Women were most often in the game as well, and he didn’t come this far in life to be so naive. The dining room had a small hallway that led away from the living room, and he was willing to get out before anything happened.
He glanced at the basement door to see if Duo had yet to emerge, but he couldn’t hear anything beyond it. He figured that the homeless boy’s stomach was rejecting all that he’d ate, and he truly liked it here, so Quatre figured that it would be useless to try and convince him to escape while they could. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching him leave, but everyone was suddenly occupied by the rising male shouts from the front hall.
He found that the small corridor led to an outside porch and what looked to be an adjoining entranceway to the stairwell that led upstairs. He opened the back door, closing it softly behind him. The back yard was unkempt, covered in snow, and he hesitated because he was shoeless. Frowning, toes curling inward as bare feet touched cold wood of the porch, Quatre stared at the snow covered back yard and estimated the distance from the porch to the wooden back fence. That would lead to another back yard. He had no idea where he was, or how he could get away without them stopping him, but he figured he would figure it out eventually. Taking a deep breath, readying himself for the cold he was about to experience, he stepped out onto the wet porch and began making his way toward the fence.
Something caught at the hem of his sweats, pulling him back. Startled, he turned, looking down at a growling toy poodle that had come out of no where. He hadn’t recalled seeing any presence of animals at the house, save for the constantly shifting boy–
He kicked at the poodle with his other foot and took off running, hearing the boy’s angry curse when he shifted back to human form. Quatre had just caught onto the top of the fence to haul himself up when a pair of strong hands gripped his hips and pulled him back down. Landing back first on the ground, he tried to breathe in what air he lost as he looked up at the scowling green eyed boy that stood over him.
“Going somewhere?” he asked sardonically. “Refusing our hospitality?”
“I don’t trust you,” Quatre muttered, wincing at the extreme cold of the snow that he laid upon. Trowa frowned, contemplating this new thing, then shrugged.
“That’s fine,” he muttered as he turned to walk back to the house. “Go ahead and leave, then. Just don’t go around, crying for help when that thing gets a hold of you, again.”
Quatre lifted himself up from the snow, wincing at the feel of wet clothes against his skin. He wrapped his arms around himself, watching the taller boy walk into the house, slamming the door behind him. Truth be told, he didn’t want to leave that comforting warmth...The fall and winter had been much too cold, and he compared that to being in the arms of that...thing....
He couldn’t recall what had happened to him exactly, but he knew it had to be something completely devastating. Upon reflex, he reached up to his neck, feeling where the pain had began when the man had held him. That pinching bite; that strong sucking action that felt as if everything within him were being drained of vital life force; that euphoria he’d come to feel shortly afterward. He remembered the man whispering something about being fed once more, how glad he was, how tasty Quatre’s blood was, how....how appealing he looked, and what it would feel like to be caught up inside him when he died...which was truly disgusting, and it made his stomach curl with that remembrance even now.
He looked over his shoulder at the fence, shivering violently, then looked back at the house. It was a comfortable green with beige borders, and had the security of warmth and comfort that one would expect to find inside. It was normal, peaceful, and completely ordinary. It was warm, there was food, and there was clothes...but it was just too good to be true!
He felt himself jerk with surprise when the back door opened, and the scowling face of Heero appeared as the boy walked out onto the back porch. And despite himself, Quatre felt himself shiver not from the cold, but from the reaction he felt upon seeing that particular young man. His very bones seemed to tremble with fear and something delicious. His body gave an odd reaction deep within his lower belly. He felt completely small and insignificant when faced with this particular person, and he hated that feeling. And yet, it excited him.
He stilled when Heero left the porch, walking over to him. He was unable to tear his eyes away from the more menacing ones that were set on his face. He realized that his heart was quickening its pace, and that he suddenly felt warm all over. His throat had gone completely dry.
Knowing that he gave Heero such a reaction just by being there made him feel powerful. And yet, when Heero was but a few steps away, Quatre lowered his eyes and found interest in the powerfully striding feet that were encased in oddly shaped boots. Men didn’t like it when he looked them in the eye.
“It’s cold,” Heero pointed out, as if Quatre didn’t know.“Let’s go back.”
“No.”
“We’re not going to do anything to you!”
“I don’t know you.”
“We don’t know you, either. But yet, we opened our house to you, gave you a bath and clean clothes, and even offered you food. You’re behaving rudely and completely unappreciative of what we’ve done for you. And you continue to defy our good intentions by trying to run away.”
Quatre found himself shivering violently at the deep growl of that voice, of which made him feel the urge to surrender without another word. He could feel the menace in Heero’s voice; there was the natural flare of need to please that had him wanting to obey without further ado, to escape any sort of injury.
One strong hand, entirely capable of crushing him easily, gripped his arm. His touch was like fire, heating his skin at contact, causing him to forget why he was trying to leave in the first place. Heero felt something as well, hesitating when Quatre finally found the nerve to look him in the eye.
That contact, as simple as it was, created an intense reaction by both. Senses were heightened in an instant, causing unfamiliar reactions from both. The smell of the other, contrasting by individual body odors, was sharp and pungent, impossible to ignore. The feel of one another’s skin, the slide of callus against one thin limb, was just as powerful as a punch delivered full force. Sight brought in sharp focus on pleasing features and filtered out flaws. The audible, erratic breathing of both were in changing rhythm, rising and falling with slightly rising panic at the unknown energy that was happening between them. An unfamiliar metallic taste, thick with rising saliva, touched their tongues. The sexual energy was very potent, rendering them nearly immobile, both entirely aware of each other.
It was just the same as it was in the house, when Quatre was made so aware of Heero nearby that it caused his stomach to clench and twist with an agonizing realization that he wanted this man in a very bad way.
Heero removed his hand from Quatre’s arm with much reluctance, finding it hard to talk as the blond dropped his sight to the snow. Heero had to move, had to do something to break this spell, so he shut his eyes and turned to walk away, finding it nearly impossible to do so. Every step felt as if he had full buses strapped to each foot, and his legs were hesitant with the movement.
“It would be foolish to return to the streets,” he said gruffly, his voice thick with what he’d experienced earlier. “That thing had a taste of you–don’t you think it would want to continue where it left off?”
The thought made Quatre shudder, and with Heero’s continuing distance, he began to feel like himself once more. He knew he was entirely too thin; he was a grungy homeless thief that barely spoke English; and he was disgustingly unattractive. Heero wouldn’t want him, anyway. He shouldn’t be thinking that kind of thought, even if it were completely intoxicating.
And besides, he didn’t want to run into that mutant again...the promises the man had made in destroying him made him sick and vulnerable. He looked at the house again, shivering violently, his feet stinging with cold. Then he began to walk toward the back porch. Heero held the door for him, and he experienced a very short-hand version of what he’d had before upon the other’s nearness; Quatre hesitated before stepping inside.
He didn’t know why, but he felt compelled to look straight into the other’s eyes, locking them with his. That intense cobalt gaze held him in place, searing him with heat, raw and full of sex. It made his body shiver not from the cold, but from the massive surge of needing what was so obvious between them.
Then, because he felt he had to, he looked away from Heero and hurried inside, pulling at wet clothes that seemed to dry upon his rapidly heating body from near contact with Heero. He ventured into the dining room, seeing Duo finally emerge from the basement, looking at him in question.
“Did you go make snowmen, or something?” Duo asked, wincing as he rubbed his belly.
Quatre’s own growled enviously at that moment, but he chose to ignore it, frowning as he studied Duo’s pathetically pained expression. Then, without any warning, he stepped close to the long haired boy, holding the curious violet gaze with his own wide-eyed stare. He then smirked, stepping back from the intensely bewildered boy, who looked at Heero as he walked into the dining room from the adjoining hall.
“Here,” Quatre muttered, tossing something in Heero’s direction. He then walked off as Heero caught it. Recognizing his wallet, he growled in annoyance, ripping it open to make sure that his money was still there. He looked up to give the blond a piece of his mind when Duo held his hands up in automatic surrender.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I couldn’t resist!” he cried. “It’s just–! Natural impulse! Here, here! Have it all back!”
Heero frowned, blinking in dumb curiosity as Duo emptied his pockets, and even rummaged around in his underwear. As the items fell to the floor, Heero recognized Sally’s numerous platinum diamond rings, Catherine’s emerald and sapphire necklace, Wufei’s wallet, Trowa’s very small basketball card collection and what looked to be one of the old bastard’s bottle of Viagra. How Duo managed to get in contact with some of the things, he had no idea.
Duo pleaded and begged Heero not to kill him, that he’d returned everything he’d snagged, then hurried away for the safety of the other room. Frowning, Heero eyed his wallet, which was victim of another snatching. It hadn’t been Quatre–it was on Duo, and Duo confessed all without anybody ever really realizing that they were missing their things. Heero frowned as he replaced his wallet, then picked up the ladies’ things, depositing them into his pocket to put back later.
The other three could pick up their own damn things.
O0o0o0o0o0oO
True to their word (which was rare), the old bastards arrived at eight. Doctors J, S, H, O and G were in the middle of an argument over which Star Wars storyline was better when they walked in unannounced through the unlocked door. Shuffling out of expensive coats, scarves and hats, the old men gathered in the living room. Sally was watching Lifetime, Trowa was once again on a mission to catch ‘em all, and Duo was busily helping himself to a plateful of brownies Catherine had finished making earlier. The absence of other familiar characters were notable.
“Hi!” Duo said cheerfully, setting the plate aside as the older men looked at him in surprise.
“Good evening, Sally,” Dr J greeted.
“Who the hell are you?” G demanded, raising his eyebrows upon viewing Duo.
“Come now, you’re going to frighten the lil chit with your homely face,” H complained, then shifted his expression as he wondered whether Duo was a boy or girl.
“I think the subject at matter is a boy,” S realized, blinking.
“An honest mistake to have made,” O commented. “You rarely see boys with long hair these days.”
“We’ve adopted another one,” Sally answered, craning her neck to continue watching the amazing story of a young woman that had conquered her paste eating addiction, whoring ways with numerous thirteen year old boys of the school she taught at, and managed to snag a billionaire while saving half of Africa’s starving rebels. “His name’s Duo Maxwell. Try to keep his sentences to the minimum. I think his mutant ability consists of talking one to death.”
“Mm...” Dr J stroked his chin with the three prong mechanical hand of his, Duo staring at this new thing with detached curiosity. “What are your powers, boy?”
“Er...I can...teleport. Um...through shadow,” Duo answered, narrowing his eyes and lifting a hand to point. “Why is your–?”
“And he can control dead bodies,” Trowa piped up. He barely lifted his eyes from the screen.
“How interesting,” G said, leaning forward. “How did you discover that particular bit?”
“Well, this one night–! What happened to your nose?” Duo interrupted himself, looking at S.
“Ignore him. He just wants attention,” G said, waving a hand in S’s face before the man could talk.
“I most certainly do not,” S huffed, drawing his shoulders back. “I lost my nose in an accident awhile back. Surely, you will get used to it, if J decides to keep you.”
“I already have a boy. I don’t want another. You...are a boy, right?” Dr J asked, blinking in Duo’s direction.
“Yup! I mean, last time I checked!”
“Well, then. I’m certain there’s no trouble in keeping him,” G said, raising his eyebrows.
“Then he’s yours, congratulations,” Dr J snapped, looking around. “Where is Heero?”
“Fucking some guy senseless,” Trowa muttered.
“TROWA!” Sally exclaimed, mortified. “No, Heero’s asleep, along with Wufei. Catherine’s with the other boy.”
“Two new boys?” H asked, blinking with interest.
“Heero’s fucking another boy?” S exclaimed with horror, hands placed on his mouth.
“I knew that boy had something going on for other boys,” G cackled.
“Oh, shut it, you perverted, old brained twits,” Dr J muttered. “You’re just using that sociopaths’ words to turn yourselves on...”
“Ew,” Sally muttered, hiding her face.
“Truly disgusting,” O muttered, looking away from his comrades.
“It’s rather dishonorable to label me as having part of their more disgusting tendencies,” H remarked crossly.
“Not true. It’s just that Heero exhibited so much need to dominate and control, that it would only be obvious to bend other boys to his will in the good, old-fashioned way of rape and sodomy,” G continued, holding a finger in the air to punctuate his point. “After all, Wufei and Trowa fell prey to his needy ways, right?”
“Not-uh! Like I would ever let Heero on my ass,” Trowa muttered, frowning as he pestered Ash with the need to buy more Pokeballs.
“True, true. Trowa’s a man on his own. Wufei, now, come on! Tell me there isn’t the need to be submissive, there!” G exclaimed.
“I have never taught Heero those ways!” Dr J growled in annoyance, flicking his hair behind him. “Those he must have learned on his own. His amazing ability to cope and design is based on my own design, yet there was some things I didn’t have a hand in, and homosexuality wasn’t one of them.”
“You’ve gone too far, old man!” O began, his voice rising as he looked at G. “My subject has never been a homo, and never will he! He’s far too proud, and he knows his place!”
“Yeah, underneath Heero,” G muttered to S, who nodded thoughtfully.
“Bah!”
“Will you fuckers stop talking that way?” Sally exclaimed, looking at them. “No one’s fucking anybody! Heero’s asleep! Wufei’s asleep!”
“‘Ch. I’ll bet. Cuddling in post-coital bliss,” S whispered to H, who nodded in agreement.
“They are NOT! CATHERINE! Wake those boys up and get down here!” she shouted. She then resettled into her seat, and gestured at the five men to get out of her way. The men shuffled away from the living room and made their way into the kitchen, looking through various cupboards for something to eat and drink.
Dr J was in the middle of reciting Socrates in deference to G’s continuous insisting of Heero’s sodomizing ways when Catherine came downstairs, followed close behind by a yawning Wufei, a rather pale boy, and a scowling Heero.
“Heero! Get over here and explain yourself!” Dr J commanded as Catherine waltzed into the living room to sit on Sally’s lap. Heero reluctantly left Quatre’s presence and walked over to the kitchen, Wufei following close behind.
G gestured at Wufei with low growls in his throat, looking at S in continuous insistence of his argument. Wufei saw the gesture and looked at them both warily while Quatre hung back, staring in silence at the group of old men.
“Are you gay?” Dr J demanded of Heero, Wufei choking and sputtering.
“What?!” Heero growled, eyebrows furrowing. “What sort of stupid game are you playing at, now?”
“I just want to know. Trowa says that you were, ahem, fucking another boy.”
Heero’s fists clenched tightly. “TROWA!”
“Whhhaaaattt?”
“Don’t bring my boy into this,” S demanded. “He spoke nothing but the truth!”
“Heero!”
“You’ve got too much free time, old man,” Heero muttered, shaking his head, yet he couldn’t hide his faint rush of color that bloomed on his cheeks as he sneaked a peek in Quatre’s direction. Quatre caught his quick glance, and bowed his head with a slight blush of his own, fiddling with his thumbs.
“See? See!” G exclaimed, pointing at Heero.
“You! Get over here!” O boomed, gesturing at Quatre. Quatre quickly slunk away to hide in the living room. “Bah! Weakling! Unfit for our teachings! Throw him away!”
“What do you old farts want?” Trowa asked, walking into the kitchen. Heero immediately whirled on him, grabbing his shirt.
“What did you tell him?!” he growled.
“None of your business, and let go!” Trowa growled back, shifting into a rat and jumping to the floor, shifting back to human form.
“Wufei, go get those two boys and bring them to our office downstairs,” Dr J commanded, leading the way into the basement as Heero and Trowa shoved at each other. “We’ve got business to discuss! Our mutant has struck again, and we are getting further and further behind in tracking him down!”
“One of them, actually, was a victim,” Trowa said, following behind S as Heero waited at the top of the stairway for his boy.“Sally healed him, though.”
“Great!” S exclaimed. “Even if Sally put her sickeningly womanly hands on him, he should still have the mutant’s residue in him. How badly was he damaged?”
“His entire throat was fucked up. He was missing large amounts of blood, but Sally did her usual thing of duplicating blood cells to replace what was lost. He’s fine, now. But he doesn’t talk.”
“Oh, for the love of–! It was that weakling that you’re talking about, wasn’t it?” O asked on a sigh.
“Yeah. He doesn’t speak much English.”
“Who around here has Swedish blood in them?” O demanded. “One of you old perverts must have the necessary language we need to communicate with him.”
“Who says he’s Swede? He could be Russian,” H argued. “Or Norwegian...”
“No, from the looks of him, he’s Dutch,” S said matter of factly as they piled into a very large room off from the single stall bathroom nearby.
The room, more commonly known as their conference room, was almost as large as both the living room and dining room combined. It was fitted with a rectangular metal table, a dozen chairs, a single couch that lined one wall, and a projection unit that allowed them to study scenes of previous crime and subjects.
“I wouldn’t say that. He’s entirely Scottish!” G interrupted.
“‘Scottish’? Are you daft?”
Trowa sighed, shaking his head as he took his usual seat at the far end of the table, on the right side. The doctors were always arguing amongst each other. Wufei moved downstairs, frowning as he heard the words being exchanged. Duo looked around excitedly, chewing on a brownie. Trowa smirked as he watched the way Heero practically shoved Quatre into a seat next to him, the boy obviously smitten with the other.
“Now, speak to us, boy!” Dr J commanded, leaning forward on the table at Quatre. “Describe to us in perfect detail what happened to you, for how long, and what was it that you did to survive!”
Duo intervened quickly, waving his arms about. “I know! I know! See, it was this guy, and he had these really gross hands that had mouths on them, and he was all, menacing, and could jump high and was really–!”
“I wasn’t asking you!” Dr J growled.
“With ‘mouths’ on his hands?” G interrupted. “What sort of mouth?”
“Like...they were sideways on his palm,” Duo indicated, holding up a palm and tracing an outline on his hand. “It had really sharp, pointed teeth, and his hands were really purple and black. They changed color when those mouths opened...and he was sucking blood! Like a vampire!”
“Did he drink your blood?” Dr J asked Quatre.
S growled. “Did you hear Trowa tell you that Sally had to replace blood?”
“I wasn’t talking to you!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah! The guy was drinking on him like a vampire!” Duo shouted, rising from the seat to catch their attention once more.
“Why are you part of this?” O demanded, slamming a fist on the table.
“I saw the whole thing! Well, not really. I just...I was sleeping in this Dumpster underneath them because they were on the fire escape and I don’t know how they got up there but that’s what I woke up to and then when I got out to get away because I thought they were like fucking and all that but then the guy was saying how much he was going to love ripping apart his bones and feeding off his blood from the inside out and then I was all disgusted, and–!”
“Oh, for the love of Buddha,” O muttered, hanging his head warily.
“Duo, I cut you off from any more sugar!” Trowa commanded.
“Aw, but they’re so good!”
“All of you!! SHUT UP!” H demanded, roaring just to be heard. When the room fell into silence, he cleared his throat, adjusting his sweater vest. “Now, boy, tell us what you know.”
Quatre frowned, fiddling with his thumbs before stilling.
“He had finished with another homeless man,” he began slowly, trying to remember. His English was very stunted. “I had heard something funny...then I walk away. But...he seemed to know that I am different, and he went after me. Very fast..”
“What are your powers?” Dr J asked.
“Odd accent,” S muttered to G.
“I’ve heard it somewhere, I know I have,” G muttered back, stroking his mustache.
“I can...move things without touching them.”
“Telekinesis? Can you demonstrate?”
“He destroyed Catherine’s and Sally’s bedroom,” Heero reported.
“We cleaned it up,” Quatre replied without looking in his direction, fiddling with his thumbs once more.
“Is that it?” Dr J demanded, frowning.
“I...don’t know anything else.”
“Did you see him?”
“I might recognize him if I see him. But, probably, no.”
Dr J sighed, looking at Duo.
Duo only shrugged. “I only saw his hands, man.”
“Great. Utterly useless...The both of them.”
“Not entirely so,” S said, rising from his chair and walking around the table to place himself behind Quatre’s chair. The boy looked warily at him. S lowered his hands to place on Quatre’s shoulders when he was suddenly hit by an invisible force, his body slamming hard against the far wall. Quatre rose from his chair, looking entirely fearful of the whole situation.
“SIT DOWN!” Heero roared, startling everyone with his volume. Quatre looked at him in surprise, then slowly sat.
G nudged H repeatedly, and H nodded furiously.
S picked himself up. Brushing himself off, he frowned in Quatre’s direction, then walked over, clearing his throat.
“I can, upon touching things, ‘see’ the memory of what it has seen. In this case, upon touching you, I can see what happened to you during that incident. Anything else will be of inconsequential difference.”
“I don’t want you touching me,” Quatre said quietly. “I don’t care if it aids you. I don’t want you seeing my head.”
“Kid, I don’t care what’s in your memories. I just want to see...oh. This is so boring. H. Did you happen to repair that tape I have been waiting for?” S asked gaily, turning away from Quatre. Everyone blinked in confusion as H frowned at the question.
“Er...no, but...what the hell?” H asked in clear confusion.
“I’ve been wanting to watch that SNL episode, and you’re keeping it from me!” S complained, moving to sit back down.
“S!” Dr J exclaimed. “What are you doing?”
“What? What do you mean?”
Dr J gestured at Quatre. Heero looked at him, noting the intense look of concentration on the boy’s face. Furrowing his brow, knowing that something else was entirely the matter, Heero reached out to grip the boy’s chin, jerking his face around roughly to make eye contact.
Such movement, rough and designed to hurt in order to break that concentration, made Quatre focus entirely on him. When he realized that he’d applied more force than necessary, Heero’s fingers loosely smoothed over the area he’d handled as he dropped his hand. The simple gesture was enough to make Quatre’s face flush pink with embarrassment.
S blinked, looking at himself. He looked around himself in confusion, rising from his chair.
“This is no time for you to have developed Alzheimer’s, you old goat!” O roared.
S looked at him, then growled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I would like it if you cut out the mind games, G!”
G spread his hands out in defense. “I did no such thing, you senile old prick! That boy must be hiding something else to make you forget what you were doing!”
“Boy, this isn’t time to play games!” H shouted, shaking his fist. “We’re on the trail of a mindless killer, and you want to mess around with old mens’ heads! Something entirely sinister is afoot, and you’re messing around!”
“Isn’t this fun?” Trowa asked Duo, who looked at him in amusement, nodding his head.
“I swear, they’re much too old to be in this business,” Wufei muttered.
“Are you guys ever going to tell me what the hell you are?” Duo sighed.
“No.”
“Hold him, Heero, we’ll get the answers we need yet,” Dr J commanded, stroking his chin.
Heero frowned, rising to do so when Quatre looked up at him in fear, trembling slightly at the forceful action that was about to take place. He was really confused as to what was going on, and for the fact that someone was going to hold him down–!
Heero moved from his chair, hands lifting to hold Quatre in place when the blond snapped. He grit his teeth, concentrating with all his might to send everybody from their chairs, pushing them to the floor. Duo quickly shifted from the hold into a shadow, emerging into the living room. He surprised Sally and Catherine with the abrupt teleportation. Screaming, lifting her face from Sally’s crotch, Catherine covered her lover while Duo yelped, hurrying away from the living room.
Quatre rose from his chair, hurriedly stepping over the struggling bodies on the floor, and raced up the stairway to the kitchen. He slammed into Duo, who was trying to make his way back in.
“Leave me alone!” Quatre shouted, pushing Duo back through the door and pining him against the fridge while he raced away.
“Well, that was real smart of you, J,” O grunted from the floor.
The invisible hold on all of them was rather strong, and even Heero’s immense strength was unable to get him to escape the grip. All of them were on their backs, their chairs over turned, and while the older men relaxed, Trowa shifted into constant animal form, looking for a way to escape the hold.
Wufei frowned, forehead furrowing as he tried to think of a way to slip out of the situation.
J sighed, staring up at the ceiling in tired annoyance. “Well, who knew the boy had something to hide? He’s very strong, though.”
“Hmm, yes, very. You say he’s a telekinetic?” G asked Trowa.
“Looks like it, don’t it?”
“I am not asking for sarcasm, you unfeeling–!”
“How long do you think we’ll be down here?” S asked. “Because my show comes on at nine. I really don’t want to miss it...”
“Well, this is completely retarded,” Wufei muttered, letting his head fall back to the floor. “Who else besides me feels dumb?”
“You’re the only one, Wufei,” Trowa commented.
“I wonder how long he can keep us held. He has a lot of potential,” H said.
“Mm...well, since we’re going to be here awhile, who’s up for a game of Truth or Dare?” G asked.
O0o0o0o0o0oO
Quatre hurried up the stairway, ignoring Sally’s and Catherine’s questioning calls from the living room. He hurried into the room that he knew was the other boys’, and quickly snapped up a pair of shoes and a peacoat jacket that hung nearby. Moving to shove the window open, he unlocked it and prepared to lift it to crawl out when something grabbed a hold of him from within, a sort of touch from inside his skull.
It was immensely painful, and he sucked in a deep breath, hands slapping his face as he tried to identify what was happening. Stumbling about, nearly mindless in pain, he began to panic. Whatever it was that clenched his brain did so with much force, squeezing hard, needles embedded in nerves. Blinding, utterly painful, the effect caused him to react with much desperation, and he dove forward to try and claw his way out the window. Only he wasn’t thinking clearly, and thus slammed his face off the closed window, stunning him. Combined with the mind-gripping pain that he was already experiencing, he shuddered once and fell unconscious, his mind automatically fading out in an effort to escape that tight grip.
“About time,” H muttered as he rose from the floor, rubbing the back of his head.
“I was only curious to know how well he reacted under pressure,” G commented as everyone rose from the floor. “Excuse me.”
“Heero, go get him and make sure he doesn’t awaken soon. S may get the information we need well enough,” Dr J ordered, pointing up the stairway. Heero nodded, and stalked off.
“Your little robot does seem to work well with the kid,” O pointed out, raising his bald brow.
“My little robot is perfectly obedient, and knows well when to obey,” Dr J said smugly. “What can yours do?”
“Leave me out of this!” Wufei commanded, glaring at O as he resumed his seat.
“Now, boy, tell us about you,” G ordered, looking where Duo was last sitting. “Hey...where’d he go?”
“He teleported before he was held,” Trowa said.
“Quick thinking...get him down here, G,” S said.
Duo was already making his way downstairs, chewing on an apple. Rejoining the others, he looked at Wufei, then Trowa, smiling broadly. He faced forward in his chair, chewing loudly as G regarded him with disgust.
“He certainly is a happy chit, isn’t he?” he remarked.
“Happy is as happy does, sir!”
“Bleeding Christ...Well, Mr. Maxwell–tell us about your powers. What do you know of them, so far?” G asked, folding his fingers together.
“I can teleport myself and some things through any sort of shadow.” Duo paused to lick his fingers of juice. “Doesn’t matter what size. If I can squeeze in, then I can get in. It’s really neat. And you wanna know my story about the dead guy? There was this older man, his name was Solo, and he was the one with the booze all the time, so one day we drank ourselves silly, and–”
“And the point being?” O interrupted, one hand rubbing at his forehead.
“Point being, when he killed over from natural causes–cuz that’s what the coroner said he died of, natural causes–I wanted him alive and wanted him up and walking around, and then suddenly, he was doing it.” Duo punctuated this with a firm nod. “And, whenever I need to, I use dead bodies for my amusement....”
This last comment was punctuated with sickened groans and disgusted stares, and Duo looked around curiously, frowning. When he realized what he said as well, he gasped, waving his arms about in distress. “NO! NO! Not in that way! ARGH! Not in that WAY! I MEANT–! I meant that when I needed someone to cover me–no, no, no! You know what I mean! Not for THAT! NOT FOR THAT!!”
“He fits you, G,” H commented. “The both of you can be necrophiliacs together. In peace and harmony.”
“Go and die, old bastard,” was G’s snarled reply.
Wufei groaned as Duo continued to try and make excuses over the disgust that hung over the table. He looked over at Trowa, who was staring at his hands, wiggling his fingers repeatedly. “Can you believe that I’m looking forward to really getting down to business? We were so close last night to the guy that we almost had him.”
“If that guy just let S look through his memories, we would have a way of getting him,” Trowa said, frowning as he looked at Wufei. “I don’t see what the hell he’s trying to hide. Like someone cares enough about some homeless boy to worry about what he’d done in the past...”
“Well, whatever it is, it must bother him constantly...”
“He probably killed someone and feels real guilty about it. That’s the only thing I can think of.”
“Like that’s so bad. That person probably deserved it...Quatre doesn’t look the type to hurt on purpose..”
“He’s so...meek,” Trowa said with a disgusted expression. He slapped his hands on the table. “I don’t like meek people. They piss me off.”
Wufei grunted as Dr J called an order for the meeting to resume. When the others had quieted and were settled back in their seats, Dr J plucked a folded piece of paper from his back pocket, revealing a new report. He gave it to H to pass to Wufei and Trowa, and Duo took this time to take a seat between them, peering at the report. He couldn’t read, but he tried to distinguish what it meant as Wufei and Trowa read it quickly.
“Massive amounts of blood loss,” Wufei said, lowering the paper. Trowa took it to study it, frowning. “The usual mangled appearance...body was kept intact...but the muscles showed an abnormal amount of shrinkage...what exactly is this thing draining from his victims besides blood? I know that it’s life energy, but would that–is that even factual evidence?”
“Of course, it is. What did your victim describe when he was taken down?”
“He didn’t. We just learned, along with the rest of you, what happened.”
“We must know his language,” H muttered. “Even if he did understand what was happening, he probably doesn’t have the full comprehension of English to even go about describing what we want told!”
“True...true...we’ll find out in due time. And since you’re the only one without a boy, he’s yours to do with whatever!”
“He actually seems very intelligent,” H sniffed.
“But a weakling,” O muttered.
“Oh, you and your versions of ‘weaklings’ are much different than my versions! Your little weakling is Heero’s underling!”
“Don’t start that again!”
“KEEP ME OUT OF IT!” Wufei bellowed from his section of the table.
“Men, men,” Dr J called, rapping his claw on the table to catch their attention. “We have noticed a sort of pattern in our killer’s routine...he’s attacking the more powerful mutants, and judging from the rapidly increasing numbers of victims per week, his mutant system must be in the process of mutating in its own. Or, rather, he’s just become addicted to his nightly endeavors, which, of course, makes it even more dangerous. He could or could not shift to humans pretty soon, in order to feed his ravenous appetite...”
“It would really help to know what he looked like,” G growled.
Duo shrugged, hands on the table. “All I know, is that he was blond. And tall. I couldn’t see his face, through.”
“Perhaps...and this is just perhaps...we may use you as bait...” Dr J began, and Duo rose from his chair, shaking his head.
“No way! I mean–!”
“ Just hear me out! Heero, Trowa and Wufei are very strong when they’re capable of combing their forces and cooperating amongst each other. They have yet to fail a mission, and when faced with a strong opponent, they are able to secure a win. They have plenty of experience in keeping civilians out of danger, and have done so successfully. They will not let anything happen to you, should you be in danger...”
“I just...c’mon. It’s just a kinda tough thing to deal with, and...I don’t really like being that kind of thing,” Duo muttered, sitting once more, picking at the thick hairs on his thin arm.
“But in doing so, chit, you’ll be part of our group.”
“Who are you guys, anyway? I have not got an answer yet, and I’ve been asking over and over again since I got here,” Duo complained.
“We are Operation: Gundam,” G said, clearing his throat. “We work mainly on the smaller cases in which mutant threatens man. We are highly successful, if you will. But we are also a secret organization that flies low on the national recognizance radar...”
“Meaning you’re illegal.”
“Hey, we’re still successful...but we weed out the bad mutants in the area. Nothing big, nothing special.”
“Sort of like...those X-people I keep hearing about?” Duo asked skeptically, lifting an eyebrow.
“But with better uniforms,” S said, coughing in his hand.
“I’ll say!” Duo grinned, looking at Wufei with a lecherous stare.
“Are you homo?” O demanded.
“I find no fault with the male form, and the accompanying personality that comes with it,” Duo sniffed, leaning forward to stare O in the face. “You have a problem with it?”
O shifted in his seat, frowning in disapproval. “Keep my boy out of your dishonorable ways,” he then muttered.
Duo wrapped an arm around Wufei’s shoulders, leaning against him.
“He’s the first one I plan on assimilating!” he declared, then fell onto Wufei’s abandoned seat when the superspeed gifted mutant found himself at the other end of the room, breathing heavily at the declaration. Duo lifted himself from his seat, and turned to Trowa. Trowa peered away from his nails, shifted into that of a very angry wolf, and tried to bite Duo’s nose right off.
Scrambling away from the mad hound, Duo found himself on the other end of the room, breathing heavily in fear. Trowa smirked as he resumed human form and continued picking at his nails.
“Thatta boy!” S crowed in approval.
Then, G heaved a sigh, leaning on the table. “What’s taking your boy so damn long, J? You sent him away nearly a half hour ago! The boy didn’t leave the house!”
Dr J frowned at this, realizing that their subjects had not yet appeared. He blinked in question at Wufei, who suddenly ignored him. Annoyed that he didn’t have anyone to boss around, he huffed in his chair, crossing his arms.
“Heero will be back. Just keep your hemorrhoid cream on and wait!” he snapped back, earning some meanly directed insults in his direction.
O0o0o0o0o0oO
Heero found himself unable to look away from the unconscious form before him. He was caught in a trance that he couldn’t escape from. Silently, he stared down at Quatre’s pale features, of which were bathed in the hallway light that filtered in from the open doorway. Long, pale lashes that were the color of his shaggy hair swept uneasily against thin cheeks, resembling wisps of cotton. His soft mouth was open slightly in unconscious form, lips slack and lightly pink.
That wave of heat that constantly unnerved Heero was bothering him now as he stared down at the too-thin form. The boy had tried putting on a pair of Wufei’s shoes and taken Trowa’s jacket, and would have escaped if G hadn’t intervened.
There was a small trail of blood that had made its way from a thin gash in the curved bottom lip, where teeth most likely made impact with tender tissue upon colliding with the window. A thin, dark trail of blood marred the pointed chin, and had left a single drop of blood on the worn, pale green carpet of the room. A thin chest rose and fell with each breath, and Heero faintly realized that he was gone from the conference room for a considerable length of time. He then crouched, moving to scoop the unconscious body into his arms.
But the smell–! The smell of a clean body, a far cry from what had been before, assaulted him. It made him dizzy, just inhaling that pungent clean scent. He had to hold his breath to shove one arm underneath the thin neck and the other arm underneath limp thighs. But before rising, he stared down at the tilted face, the unconscious fluttering of lashes that moved only because of the shift Heero made.
Heero knew that what he was feeling was entirely wrong, but how could he stop reacting in this way? He couldn’t stop his body from making such unusual reactions when he didn’t understand them. He knew what he wanted in a truly primitive way, but his own thoughts kept him from truly accepting them.
He leaned forward, inhaling deeply of the boy’s natural body scent. His eyes closed in reverence at the heavenly scent. His body was shifting once more, lowering the boy back to the floor, where he could better shift to inhale more of that scent. In a way, he felt like a dog–constantly sniffing out this wondrous scent, in heat, needing more of it.
His nose brushed against warm, pale skin, and he paused at the feeling of another male’s skin against his. Brushing the tip of his nose once more against the curve of a delicately pointed chin, Heero shifted closer, unable to stop himself from venturing in this manner on this person. His instincts were raging at him, letting him know that if Quatre woke up and found himself in this manner, he’d definitely attack in self-defense. But Heero couldn’t stop himself!
His lips brushed against a warm neck, feeling the steady beat of a weak pulse in the revealed throat. His mouth opened, brushing another feather soft kiss against the warm throat, and then another, finding himself breathing slightly heavier than he had before. His nose brushed against the hard angle of Quatre’s jaw, then his hair brushed against the smooth features of his cheek.
Heero turned his head, kissing the lifted chin, then finding the small trail of blood. It was cold, drying in the warm air, but he couldn’t resist the impulse to flick his tongue out, licking the dark liquid. It was metallic, thin, and it caused a sensation like no other to flicker in his belly. He drew his tongue over the spot once more, with more force and more drag, tasting skin and traces of aftershave. It excited him.
To be this close, to have him in this manner–it excited him. Was he sick? Demented? It brought him a sense of power and control to have this weak body underneath him, to have this person unconscious and unknowing of what was being done to him.
The slack lips begged for a taste, and Heero took the chance, dropping his lips on the soft curves, tasting and melding. His entire body revved with an unfamiliar adrenaline, his mind not thinking clearly as he lowered his body completely onto the one below him, fitting his own body against the flats and planes of the one underneath him. There. That was much better. The pressure in his groin was building, rising, heating with unnatural warmth. He felt excited. Aroused, completely needing.
With a concentrating frown, he adjusted himself once more to this unconscious body. He was able to fit the hardened bulge in the front of his jeans against the vee of the blond’s body. It was a very new feeling, uncomfortable and awkward as he positioned the top of his bulge just underneath the blond’s balls, giving a light push of his hips. The reaction created by this motion made him groan slightly, his hormones racing nearly out of control. He couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to actually take a person...and he’d never given thought to taking a man.
But to know that he’d definitely take this one, no matter the resulting consequence or actions needed, gave him a sense of confidence and excited need. He adjusted himself once more, dry humping the unconscious frame. If only things were different...if only this were a different situation...his mind was clouded with lust and he couldn’t rightly think.
He nuzzled the exposed neck, and when he felt the other body give a small shift underneath him, he grew even more excited at the thought of a struggle.
His hands automatically went to restrain the moving arms, and he rose from the stirring body to look down at a wakening face. Quatre’s eyes locked on his, lids half-lowered, mouth closing with a quick flick of tongue racing over his bottom lip. There was a slight jerk of his body underneath Heero’s, but nothing more.
Heero stared down at the widening pupils, the darkening color of aquamarine, the slow flushing of cheeks, and realized with a slight start that the boy underneath him was growing just as aroused as he. The thought of him responding in such a way, with such demurring reaction, made it all the more so. The wrists Heero held down lifted slightly to test his grip, but the moment Heero felt them move, he hardened his grip, forcing them still. At this, the thin chest against his rose and fell with rising trepidation, the wide eyes darkening even more, lips falling open with a slight sound. The sound caused blood to rush directly to Heero’s groin, and it made him ache, hard and utterly pained from the intensive erection that he now had.
Then, at the slamming of a door and an annoyed shout, Heero found his bodily reactions were quickly being put away, the sounds startling him from the spell he was caught. He rose from the equally as startled boy, straddling his hips, and tried to will away the hard erection he had so that he wouldn’t embarrass himself when he faced the others.
The one beneath him rose on his elbows, and looked frankly at his crotch. The intensity of that stare Heero found on the pale face made it even more difficult to will his erection away. When Quatre finally shifted his eyes to Heero’s, the Asian realized with a start that Quatre knew entirely what he was doing. He felt himself jump when he felt a timid touch on his groin, and he glanced down to see that the blond was touching him there. His fingers, bony and trembling slightly, were caressing the rigid member with a sort of familiar air. Testing the width and length.
Swallowing hard, growing angry that this was rapidly turning into something entirely different from what had transpired earlier, Heero rose from the floor and jerked Quatre to his feet. He used more force than what was necessary, but Quatre didn’t protest as they made their way to the door.
When they emerged into the hall, Trowa was just coming to the top of the stairs, looking annoyed that he’d been the one sent to retrieve them.
“About damn time,” he complained as Heero dragged Quatre behind him, the banged boy following. “J’s getting pissed because you were taking so long. While you two were getting your rocks off with each other, we were getting mowed down by Duo’s fucking talking. He openly admitted that he’s gay, you guys.”
“And this matters to me, why?” Heero asked, annoyed as they made their way to the basement.
“Geez, trying to pull his arm off, Yuy?” Trowa then muttered.
Once they reached the table, Heero shoved the thief into the chair he’d previously abandoned, and held him in place, gritting his teeth. Dr J raised an eyebrow as S rose from his chair.
G settled back in his chair, saying, “And if you even think about manipulating any of us with those powers of yours, I have your mind in my grasp. Any movement you make in using your powers will be detected by me, and I will neutralize it immediately. It will be very similar to what you experienced before, I promise you.”
Quatre glared at him, uneasy at the thought of S retrieving his memories, and with the painful grip Heero had on his shoulders.
“I can talk,” he muttered, watching S warily. “I don’t want people inside. Please don’t...I will tell all I can–”
“Peace talks have been eliminated the moment you attacked us,” Dr J said, lifting an eyebrow as S reached out with one hand, Quatre looking at the appendage with much dismay. With desperation, he concentrated on getting S to focus elsewhere, and in reply, G did as he’d threatened. The agony that raced through his mind was enough to drop his concentration on S, turning instead to focus on weathering through the pain that made him thoughtless.
S touched him at this moment while Duo reacted with a pained cry at seeing his rival in agony. He rose from his chair as S concentrated, taking what he needed.
“Stop it! Stop it, he was going to talk!” Duo cried, moving away from his chair, G looking at him in surprise.
“Duo, sit down!” Dr J ordered, but Duo ignored the command, slipping into a shadow and emerging behind S, shoving the man away. S stumbled, hitting the wall in surprise while Wufei quickly stepped between the two.
“I found it,” S said, shaking his head. “I know what he looks like. That’s all I wanted. You can stop, now, G.”
G let go of his mind-crushing hold on Quatre’s head. The blond slumped forward in pain, clutching his forehead. Duo hurried over to see if he were all right, and Heero released him, glowering at G.
S sat down in his chair, and took the pen and large sketchpad that O held out to him. Within a matter of minutes, he drew out what facial features he had seen from Quatre’s memories of that night. Holding up the sketchpad, he displayed to all to see a single man with grinning features.
“Excellent, my compatriot,” Dr J said, clapping his hands lightly. “We can now enter that mug in our tracking system if you would just add the rest of the information we need. Excellent job, men. And, you–Duo has agreed to join our little group of freedom fighters. Would you like a position as well?”
“He probably hates us, now,” Trowa muttered, crossing his arms. “You guys fucked him over a few times...”
“He did to us, as well,” O pointed out.
“It isn’t as if he has a choice, anyway,” Heero suddenly decided, looking away from the slumped form in front of him. Everyone looked at him in surprise. “Even if he decided not to stay, that mutant did have a taste of him–he would probably want more, going so far as to track him down and kill him later.”
“Ah, I see what you’re saying,” G said, rising from his chair. “Well, that’s certainly the deciding factor in this situation, I suppose. J?”
“Whatever. You guys can deal with him, I suppose. We’ll be back in a few days. Meanwhile, Duo, if you are going to stay, you need to gain at least twenty pounds. And Wufei, you will work with him in getting him into shape,” J ordered as the older men began filing out from the basement. “I want you fit and healthy enough to start working out with the others, boy, when we come back to discuss a few things.”
“Er...all right,” Duo said reluctantly, looking away from Quatre. He looked over at Heero questioningly, frowning as the strong boy turned his mean gaze in his direction. Shuddering, Duo turned back to the hunched over form on the chair and gently pulled at him. “C’mon, bud. Let’s go...”
“I’ll get him some aspirin, or something,” Trowa muttered, walking out from the basement, Wufei in tow. Heero was reluctant to move, but forced himself to follow the others as Duo managed to coerce Quatre into getting up, to follow him out the door.
Once emerging from the basement, though, Sally and Catherine were there, armed with Rit boxes. Duo stared at the boxes, looked at their expectant faces, and frowned.
Nearly an hour later, Duo had his long, thick hair parted into five sections; Catherine, Sally, Trowa (as a chimp), and Wufei picked at the various bugs and eggs in his hair. He was busily looking at a magazine that Catherine had given him to occupy himself as the four worked diligently in removing the thickly clustered eggs amid dandruff fluff and dirt grime.
“This is so gross!” Catherine hissed to Sally, crushing one active bug between her thumbnails, hearing the audible pop that it made upon death.
Sally was too busy trying to concentrate on killing her own bug with her nails, and didn’t give an answering reply. Trowa the chimp combed through his section of hair and made goofy noises while making faces in Wufei’s direction. Wufei had his section cleared; he was just making sure that he’d removed all that he was sure were the eggs. Happy, Duo was just glad that he wouldn’t have to deal with the gross things anymore.
Catherine gestured at Wufei to take over her section, and she turned to cross the space toward the tub, where Heero was busily working on Quatre’s hair. It somehow made her feel as if she were disturbing something when she stepped in to help, noting that Heero had eliminated a pretty good majority of the eggs and lice that were present.
“I’m so glad your hair’s so much shorter,” she sighed in relief, working on the section Heero hadn’t come to yet, using her fine-toothed comb to locate the ugly monsters within the blond fluff.
“I’m glad you decided to stay,” she continued, trying for conversation. “I was wondering if you were going to eat, yet. I mean, we proved already that we’re not going to hurt you...and Duo’s been eating our food all day, so that should be some indicator that our food isn’t poisoned!”
“I’m fine,” Quatre mumbled, hunching his shoulders, feeling entirely uncomfortable with people picking at the more disgusting bits of his reluctant lifestyle.
“You sure?”
“Yes...thank you. I don’t mean to be rude.”
“It’s all right. Just...consider it, all right? We’re going to fatten the both of you up while you’re here, and we won’t complain about it,” Catherine said, crushing a nit between her fingers. “And don’t worry about repaying us, or anything. Just...just help us out from time to time. These guys don’t do anything around here, and Sally and I could really use some help...”
“All right...”
Catherine, sensing some emotion from Heero that bordered on threatening, quickly finished up her section of Quatre’s hair and returned to Duo’s, asking if she could trim some inches from the straggly length.
At Duo’s answering reply (screams, really), she decided to ignore the uneasiness she felt whenever she addressed the violet eyed boy. Really, both boys made her uneasy, but there wasn’t a way she could vocalize her thoughts without seeming pathetically panicked. So, she kept her thoughts to herself.