Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Psychotic America ❯ Dreams Can Be Deceiving ( Chapter 12 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

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 Twelve:
Dreams Can Be Deceiving

Duo looked over at Wufei, who was working on warming up some canned soup they’d found in the cupboards. The pair of them were working on dinner, candlelight illuminating the small area so that they could see what they were doing. The Chinese was concentrating on stirring the mushroom bits within the creamy sauce, and wasn’t watching as Duo manned the crackers and canned cheese.
“So...tell me about yourself, Wu,” he said, nudging the Chinese’s elbow with his. Wufei looked at him questioningly, blinking. “We talk, but not really dwell into things.”
“Well, what do you want to know?”
Duo pursed his lips, thinking. He wanted to know everything; everything and anything about Wufei. What made him tick; what he thought about when he stared into the distance; what he thought about before falling asleep and when he woke up. He wanted to know what Wufei thought about the rising sun and the setting moon. He wanted to know everything.
“When did you find out that you were a mutant?” he then asked, facing him.
Wufei gave a slight smirk, pausing in his stirring. Memories filtered back to him, and he licked his lips nervously, looking at Duo with a sideways glance.
“That’s...an interesting question,” he said, turning off the burner. “It’s finished.”
“You’ll tell me?”
“...If you are truly interested, Maxwell, I’ll tell you.”
“When?”
“Maybe after dinner.”
Duo stared at him as he began pulling dishes from the strainer nearby, where they had washed the dishes earlier. “I would love to get to know you, you know.”
Wufei glanced at him once more, his attention stuttered when he handled the dishes. “Why?”
“Because...you’re just...I...I really like you, Wufei. You’re...more than I’ve ever known, before,” Duo admitted, unsure of how to word things. “I mean, you’re serious, and yet, you’re not. You look at the others fondly, despite handling them like they were just...immature kids. Which, of course, they are, but... you know better. Deeper. I want to know...I want to know what you think, what lies deep within you.”
Wufei felt his cheeks warm, his manner turning suddenly shy as he handled the dishes. “That’s pretty deep, Maxwell.”
“I want to get to know you, Wufei. I may not be as interesting as you, but you...you’re interesting, more so, to me.”
Wufei made a chuckling noise, looking at Duo with a slight smirk. “You’re getting girly with me, Duo.”
Duo grinned cheekily at him, pushing away from the counter. “I do what I have to, Wufei.”
“Call the others. Dinner’s ready.”
Duo stared at him for a few moments, smile still in place. Then he walked out from the kitchen, calling for the others. He laughed briefly when he encountered Trowa. Wufei stared at the space where he’d been standing previously, his fingers shaking with an emotion he couldn’t place. Duo wanted to get to know him... wanted to know him. Wanted to know him. When no one really expressed an interest to do so, this young man from the streets wanted to.
He still wasn’t sure what to do with this sudden knowledge, this new thing. He fumbled with plates as Trowa walked in, sniffing the air. Because he knew his ‘brother’ wouldn’t eat very much, no matter the content, Wufei ladled him the smallest amount honorable and let Trowa pick out from the dry goods on the counter to complete his dinner.
“Where’s Heero and Quatre?”
“Fucking up a storm upstairs.”
Wufei rolled his eyes. “Barton, you don’t even know things.”
“Yeah,” Trowa chuckled. “I guess I don’t.”
Wufei stared at him suspiciously as the tall one walked out from the kitchen, slurping from his spoon. Sometimes, that one confused him at times. Duo walked back into the kitchen, braid being tossed over his shoulder as he made himself a plate. Heero walked in, thrusting a random cupboard open, frowning at the content.
Wufei smirked as he stepped aside, letting Duo dish himself up.
“There’s enough supplies for a week’s stay, Heero,” he said as the muscled mutant began pulling out random things.
“I hate my metabolism,” Heero muttered, setting things on the far counter. “No matter what I eat or how much, I’m always hungry for more.”
“If you’re that hungry, you can go hunting in the morning,” Wufei suggested. Then he blinked. “Where’s Quatre?”
“He was tired.”
“Oh.”
Wufei frowned, watching Heero closely as the other one made a sandwich from the limited materials available. The bread had been made from homemade material, something that Wufei had whipped up immediately, just in case.
“Is he really sick?”
Heero chuckled in a dark way. “Yeah. He’s real sick.”
Wufei’s brow furrowed, and he watched Heero dish himself up, and walk out. “Aren’t you going to make a plate for him?”
“He’s not hungry,” came the reply, thrown over a careless shoulder.
Wufei shrugged, and spooned up the rest of the soup. He joined the others out on the various couches within the living room. Eating in silence, hearing only the various settling of the house and the wind outside, Wufei found himself sneaking glances at Duo as he ate. He was gobbling without abandon, as if this meal was his last.
He smiled fondly, and caught Trowa’s look of disgust. Wufei scowled at the boy, who returned to absently stirring his soup, not eating another bite. Heero had finished off his sandwich and crackers, and was nearly finished slurping down the rest of his bowl. Wufei looked at his meager dinner, and finished off half, passing the rest to the other mutant.
Heero took it with a grateful murmur, Duo looking with interest in his direction.
After dinner, Wufei gave Heero the remaining pieces of bread, and demanded that he take it to the ‘sick’ boy, adding that food would be limited tomorrow.
“Should we continue our training?”
“Yeah. The way we used to. One goes out in the morning, the others follow in increments. One an hour later, the other an hour after that.”
“When should we head out?” Heero questioned, ripping off a piece of bread.
“Maybe start at six?”
“Me first?”
“...Yes. Then Trowa, then me, then Duo, then Quatre.”
“The doctors didn’t approve of him, yet.”
“He’s here. He might as well to pass the time.” Wufei looked up to see if he could possibly ward off an incoming argument.
Heero grunted and walked back upstairs. Moments later, Trowa muttered about taking a walk outside, shifting into wolf form as soon as he walked out the door. Wufei licked his lips, looking over at Duo, who patted the couch next to him invitingly. The house was quiet, the lock moving into place from the closed room upstairs.
Wufei glanced up there before crossing the room, sitting with some uncomfortable measure next to Duo. The silence of the house grew to something of a dull smatter of sound, with the occasional shifting of the wood breaking into the quiet. Duo then looked at Wufei, and nudged his arm with the back of his hand.
“I asked you a question, earlier,” he said as a reminder. Wufei looked at him with a light smile.
“You did, didn’t you?” Wufei pressed himself back against the couch, getting himself comfortable. “Since you’re asking that, I may as well as tell you the rest.”
“Long story?”
“You want to know about me? I’ll give you anything, Duo.”
Duo smiled, shifting in his seat, to sit shoulder to shoulder against him. At the warm contact of the other, he scrunched his shoulders, enjoying the nearness. Wufei was pleased as well, shifting so that Duo could fit more comfortably against him. Such contact was rare, and he’d gotten used to Duo doing it to him. The others would only sit close to him this way if they were forced to, and even then, it was uncomfortable because no one wanted to relax in the way that Duo did against him.
“Well...this is...kind of hard. I mean, the others know, but...I wasn’t always homeless. I was eight years old and living with my single mother in San Francisco...she ran a dry-cleaning service there, and had family in New York City. We weren’t equipped with a lot of money, and she barely managed to keep her business. Her husband, my father, had died of liver disease. She was helpless–she relied on me most of the time, to get through the day. All the pressures of being who she wanted forced me to grow up faster. One day in October, her father died. We made our way to the funeral across the States to New York City, where we stayed with her brother, my uncle Lin. This had been the first time I’d met Uncle Lin, and he took great interest in taking me in as his pupil, both in academics and martial arts. He ran a gym just down the block from where he lived, and he was a respected man. Also a much feared one because he was controlling, a misogynist...he made my mother cry on many occasions, convinced that she was weak and worthless.
“He didn’t want me turning out like her. Because she wasn’t doing too well in the money aspect of our lives, she allowed Uncle Lin custody over me for a year, and she returned to San Francisco. Well, I was home schooled, and learned a great deal from him. I began training under him, pushing myself to rise to his standards, to make him happy and proud over me. He wasn’t a mutant–just a normal man that worked hard to dominate over others.
“Well, a year passed, and he convinced my mother to let me stay for another year. I was enjoying it, having always been ashamed that we were poor and ran a non-English speaking business. I wanted to make her proud–I wanted to be able to come back and support her. Or, at least, at my age, to help support her. I thought that with all my training and my accomplished studies, I could become something. Another year turned into another, and at twelve, things completely changed.”
Duo noticed the sudden tightening of Wufei’s voice, the way his stern expression turned even more sterner. A look of worry briefly crossed his features, and while he wanted to know what happened next, he had a definite feeling that what Wufei had to say was something bad. Without thinking, he reached over, his hand resting on his knee. Wufei was startled at the contact, looking at Duo with some surprise on his features. Duo smiled encouragingly at him. Wufei relaxed with a smile of his own, lowering his head to study his nails.
“Uncle Lin was annoyed that I was surpassing him in martial arts. He grew discontent that I was growing smarter with my studies. My mother wanted me to come back home, and no matter how many times she called and begged, Uncle Lin would not give me up. She couldn’t go to the authorities, because Child Protection Services were lacking in out of state cases. I, while certain that I would succeed here in New York City than I would in San Francisco, wanted to go back to my mother. That’s when the abuse started. He began hitting me for no reason, whether I put my socks on differently, or because I’d crossed my legs a certain way. He’d hit with the excuse that he was trying to keep up my training, to see how I’d react with unexpected attacks. Of course, I began to learn from them, and learned to defend myself, but things changed from there.
“One night, after sparring, he decided that hitting and kicking in the terms of martial arts weren’t enough. As soon as he was able to, after he’d pinned me, he raped me. It happened occasionally, enough for me to lose what confidence I had and enough to shatter what security I’d felt. This continued on for a year. I knew it wasn’t right, but then again, how could I stop him? He was my elder, my uncle, and my teacher, my martial arts instructor. He was supposed to be my guardian, my protector, the father I’d never come to know. He used that against me.
“One day, it grew particularly bad, and I was humiliated enough to strike back when he was vulnerable. Unfortunately, all that accumulated stress and pent-up emotion had my...had my pyro abilities activating. He burned to death in front of me, just from my touch. I could not express what joy and cheer I had felt, watching him burn. Unfortunately, I was accused of arson and murder. I didn’t have proof of the abuse, and the authorities deemed my mother irresponsible and unable to care for me. I was taken into juvenile authority, and treated as a criminal. There were other kids in there that had done things worse than I had, and several of them were mutants. That’s where I met Heero. He was there, an immigrant from Japan, and he’d been accused of killing his own father, Odin.
“We became friends, and we came up with a plan to break out from the center. It was easy to do–this is New York City. He muscled his way out, and I discovered that I could move very fast. We stuck together then, working on the streets, stealing, pickpocketing, until we tried working a scam on Dr J...
“He was with G that day, and they both caught us. Instead of turning us in, they asked if we wanted to work for them. Of course, I wanted to go to my mother. Dr J provided me with an opportunity to go to San Francisco, but...but I found out that my mother was dead. Someone had shot her during a robbery. I have family, but they blame me for Uncle Lin’s death. I chose not to acknowledge them, and stayed with Dr J and Heero. By that time, they had accumulated Barton, so Dr J began referring me as the third boy because I’d joined late.”
Wufei frowned, thinking over his memories, feeling Duo’s eyes on him. “It really isn’t that bad. People have suffered through worse...You’ve never had the opportunity to have a family, right?”
“I...no...I went through the system until I was nine. Then I ran away when my last foster family tried selling me as child whore to their friends...man, I...I never knew you went through that shit, Wufei. You don’t... you’re not messed up like some people would be,” Duo said in an awed tone, staring at the Chinese with much admiration and respect. “I mean, I knew people that went through less than what you had, and they’re all fucked up...I...wow...”
“It’s nothing of entire concern, Duo,” Wufei muttered, ducking his head. “Things happened for a reason. It brought me here...”
“It brought you to me...”
“...Don’t be getting mushy on me, Maxwell. I don’t want your pity, or anything of the sort.”
“No, never pity, Wufei. You’ve got my respect, my...my admiration. You...you’re so awesome, y’know? I mean, you’re mature, you’re sane, you’re strong...you aren’t fucked up. You’re cool. I–I don’t know what I can say to continue to express my fuckin’, like, thoughts...it’s just...wow...”
Wufei shrugged. “You wanted to know, Duo, that’s what makes me, me.”
“Do you...do you get weird? I mean, with memories and nightmares, and such?”
Wufei thought about it, eyes focusing on the empty, dusty coffee table that had bits of cloth to act as coasters. “Sometimes...I would wake up from my sleep, thinking that I was being attacked...sometimes I would flinch if someone moved too fast out of my line of sight...but I have these two turds to turn to. We may not talk about things like women do, Duo, but Heero, Trowa and I...we talk. We know each other’s histories, our nuances and thoughts...”
“I...I want to be part of that, Wufei...”
“You will be, Duo.” Wufei turned to him with a slight smile curling at his lips. “I trusted you enough to tell you my story...I didn’t tell Heero that until last year, and we’ve known each other since we were thirteen.”
Duo smiled, reaching out to touch his hand, curling his fingers cautiously through his. “I’m honored, Wufei, that you would tell me that. That you trust me enough...”
“I...I find myself trusting you, more than I think I should, Maxwell. Isn’t that odd? We don’t even know each other that well, nor have we known each other for more than a month...” Wufei found himself searching the large violet eyes set before him, showing their affection, their admiration, things that he would have never fathomed seeing. And in a guy!
“No, I don’t think so...I think that it’s neat, you know? Meeting someone you immediately connect with. And we’ve connected since we met, Wufei.”
Wufei smiled slowly, his entire face lighting with some cheer.
“I remember the first time I saw you. You were so comical, covered in facial hair and dirty clothes, yet claiming that you were Quatre’s ‘best friend’ and brother...it was so obvious that you weren’t. You couldn’t stand the guy.”
“Hey, what can I say? Things are different on the streets, and I definitely did not want to be out there, all alone, with that guy creeping around,” Duo muttered with some disgust. He gave a brilliant smile at Wufei, leaning over to kiss his chin, his hand creeping out from Wufei’s fingers to spread over his chest. “I wanted to spend my time with three hot hunks with a warm home.”
Wufei snorted, ducking out of his obvious intention. “Admit it, Maxwell. You were deadset on getting those other two than me.”
“Aw, you caught me.”
“So I’m nothing more than litter picked up as an afterthought?”
“No!” Duo laughed, reaching out to wrap his arms around his neck, drawing him close. He inhaled the scent of Wufei; the spices and musk, the scent of hair gel and aftershave. Nosing the strong, trim neck, he set his lips on warm flesh, closing his eyes. “No...I knew you and I could have something, ‘Fei. It was weird. I just knew, when I looked at you, that things could happen. But only if you would let it...”
Wufei felt himself shuddering at the contact, his blood suddenly racing to various areas within him. He reached up, spreading his fingers over the hand on his chest. His heart was pounding much too fast and with too much force within his rib cage, and his breath was coming too light. With Duo so close, the other man admitting feelings to him that Wufei felt overwhelmed and yet warmed by, he couldn’t focus on his thoughts, or on his self-consciousness of the situation.
“I think I could let it, Duo,” he murmured, turning his head slightly, feeling Duo’s lips on his cheek. “I could let you in...”
“You betcha you would,” Duo whispered back, kissing him lightly, then holding his face within both hands as he pressed forward. Wufei returned the kiss with some hesitation, then moved into it, reaching over to hold to his shoulder. Duo twisted in his seat, so that one leg was fully on the couch, the other hanging off, and pulled himself closer over Wufei, his arms wrapping around his shoulders.
Their kisses were soft, gentle, learning the other’s taste and feel. When tongues met, it was with gentle exploration and soft discovery. Tastes were exchanged, saliva mixed, and teeth clinked together. The house was suddenly too warm, and both were too aware of each other. Kisses turned into touches; soft explorations of safe areas, hands and fingers caressing what was harmless.
Duo had the other pinned to the couch, his braid bumping against Wufei’s arm, so the Chinese held that out of the way. It allowed Duo to move in closer, straddling his lap, curling his ankles underneath his knees. Wufei let go of his braid, curling his hands underneath Duo’s arms and clutching him tight, paying more attention to the gentle tongue that massaged his.
Of course, neither noticed the pair of watchful eyes from the kitchen, eyes that took in the action with something close to amusement and wonder.
After some time, over lightly spoken comments on good kisses and feelings, the two separated, and headed upstairs to ready themselves for bed.
“What’s going on tomorrow, anyway?” Duo asked, excited that he’d be sleeping with Wufei tonight.
The Chinese was making the bed from the spare sheets leftover in the hall closet, the full sized mattress pressed against the wall. The limited furnishings within were dusty, and so Duo was wiping that down with a scrap of cloth he’d found in the room closet.
“It’s...well, the last time we did this, it was a sort of Battle Royale,” Wufei grunted as he lifted the mattress. “We went out into the woods in separate increments..for example, Heero leaves the house at a certain hour, the next one sets out to find him, and the last sets out to find them both. We’d use our powers against each other, to see what each of us as an individual and a group could do.”
“Wow...”
“Yeah, it grew out of control. I found myself reffing those other two because they were so bent on hurting each other...you may not think Trowa has ‘cool’ powers, but he uses his in a very useful way...Heero’s lucky he can self-heal...”
“What’s with those two, anyway? Why do they hate each other?”
“They hated each other on sight, Duo. Dr J said that when he found Trowa, he and Heero just seemed to... well, fizzle. They just don’t like each other. I think it has to do with one wanting to be in control, and you know how Heero is with control. I humor him at times, but Trowa just challenges it. He’s not a leader type, nor is he one to want to throw around commands...he just likes to rile Heero...”
“But there has to be a reason why,” Duo stressed, turning around to watch him complete the dressing of the mattress.
Wufei looked at him from over his shoulder, lifting an eyebrow. “Is there a reason why we are attracted to each other?”
“Yeah. It’s called ‘love’.”
Wufei chuckled lightly, finished. “Is it that, Duo?”
“Do you feel like it is?”
“...I...I don’t know, Duo. I feel a lot for you...I’m not sure what love is.”
Duo wasn’t hurt–he knew what Wufei felt. He wasn’t going to press and insist. He just smiled at the Chinese, and the both of them got ready for bed.
After they were comfortably settled within the somewhat cold blankets, Duo playfully brushing his cold feet against Wufei’s warmth, he asked, “So, tomorrow, we can’t be what we are tonight?”
“What do you mean?”
“Y’know...sneaking kisses and touches...”
“It...it probably wouldn’t be smart,” Wufei grunted, amused at the thought.
“So, who would be determined as the winner?”
“What do you mean? It’s just a training session. I guess whoever hasn’t been killed or knocked into a coma...we’re just training, Duo, without the use of the Hangar.”
“Mm,” Duo murmured, leaning forward so that his head was pressed against the strength of Wufei’s chest. Hearing his heart beat steadily, the slow thump-thump-thump becoming a musical comfort to him, Duo sighed in comfort. “Then what?”
“What?”
“What happens afterward? When are we done with that training?”
“When the doctors come and get us, I suppose. And...I don’t know what happens next. I guess we just wait and see..perhaps the motive in their coming to our house will be explained. We just have to wait.”
Duo yawned again, settling more firmly against the boy. “You don’t mind that I’m laying like this, do you?”
“...No.”
“Good...cuz I’m comfortable...night.”
“...Good night...”

O0o0o0o0o0oO


Heero awoke suddenly, his eyes snapping open. He wasn’t sure what woke him, but the ringing in his mind, the faint echoes of a voice, had him still. He listened to the silence around him, the light breathing of Quatre beside him. He listened to the slight creaking of the house, and heard nothing. He wasn’t sure what it was that had made a sound that had awakened him, but it must have been nothing but a fading dream. He blinked, shifting to rub one eye, hearing his stomach growl in protest. Thinking of the soup he’d had last night, knowing that it just wasn’t enough to keep him satisfied, he gave a disgruntled sigh. He shifted in his position, his elbow knocking against the other mutant’s shoulder.
Heero then shifted off the bed, crouching to rummage through his suitcase for his watch. Lighting up the display, he saw that it was nearly three in the morning. In three hours, he’d have to perform the morning trek away from the cottage, to begin the training session. With a sigh, he strapped his watch on, then resolved to spend another hour in bed. He crawled onto the dressed mattress, pulling the blankets over him.
They hadn’t yet found any heating sources, so the air was pretty cold within the cabin. He shivered slightly, hearing the other fit himself against the wall to avoid any contact with him. Finding that he was pretty much awake, he stared straight ahead of him where the other mutant slept.
He tried to remember his dream, but all he got out of it was a dark shadow of a man leaning over him, and some words he couldn’t quite understand. He pondered over these as the time passed. Occasionally, he would reach out to touch the other mutant, making sure he was still there. He breathed so quietly...
When the time came, he got out of bed. He lit the candle that they’d used last night. When light flickered throughout the room, he began to dress in the clothes that he planned on work out in–heavy long sleeve shirt under his jacket, and his uniform pants.
After he’d dressed, he blew out the candle so the other one could sleep, and walked out from the room. He felt his way to the bathroom, where he brushed his teeth and swiped on deodorant. He figured on a shower later on, after his workout. After that was finished, he walked downstairs, and began lighting candles along the way. Searching through the kitchen, he found what dry materials he could use to make some breakfast for himself. He also warmed up some soup, making sure that it contained beef products.
He finished his meal, and pulled on his jacket, figuring against other forms of winter protection because he felt he wouldn’t draw up a sweat, anyway. He ventured outside, where it was snowing heavily, the silence deafening. Staring out into the darkness, he absorbed the peaceful setting, and then looked at his watch.
It had been a half hour since he looked at it, and he sighed, hunching his shoulders as he slipped his hands into his pockets.
There was an eery howl in the distance, followed by mimicked replies from a small pack of wolves. Instead of instilling some wonder and appreciation for the animals, Heero wondered if Trowa had even come back last night.
He narrowed his eyes with an evil smirk.
Probably making it with the animals, he thought.
Trowa had never displayed any attraction to humans–but he had for animals. Whenever he wasn’t kicking them or making them scream with pain, he often stared at them and muttered quiet words that no one could catch. Animals seemed to run from the boy...Heero had found it amusing.
Trowa probably wasn’t attracted to humans, but to animals. The thought made him laugh out loud. Trowa could be a pervert in himself, switching into animals just to hump on other animals. That made him laugh harder.
When they had first met Trowa, Heero immediately took a dislike to the boy. And the boy had returned the same feelings. It was unclear what it was that made Trowa the way he was–Catherine supplied little, if none, to their background. Whichever it was, he knew from his own observations and from Catherine’s occasional comment that Trowa had blood on his hands as well.
Wufei had once commented that he thought Trowa was abused, like them. Heero had given it brief thought, but never really thought about it too much.
But Trowa’s behavior, his indifference to things, and his own reactions to violence made Heero wonder what it was in Trowa’s past that caused the lanky boy to be the way that he was today.

O0o0o0o0o0oO

Quatre stared silently at the candle that flickered brightly before him on the coffee table. The silence that held him in captivity was a little suffocating–the silence outside the cottage seemed to seep through the wooden surface and permeate the inside. He could hear Heero rustling around in their room, doing something to occupy the time.
The muscled mutant had awakened him, quietly explaining that he would have to participate in their training this morning. After Heero had explained what was going on, Quatre had wanted to back out–but Heero had been convinced that this ‘training’ would do him some good. In a way, Quatre was happy for the assignment, but more than insecure about going through with it. He didn’t feel confident in his abilities to participate in their training routines.
He startled at the purring sound, and looked to see Trowa in cat form, curled at the other end of the couch. The feline’s green eyes opened and closed with some bored curiosity, tail twitching slightly.
Quatre frowned at him, still uneasy with what Trowa had seen in the bathroom. Then, without really thinking, he reached over and captured the suddenly alert feline and drew him onto his lap. Trowa started to squirm in his grasp, but Quatre held him tightly and started petting, figuring that if Trowa wanted to be a domesticated pet, then he was going to be treated as one.
Trowa stopped squirming, relaxed, then began purring again as he leaned into the petting, feline eyes closed with pleasure.
Quatre chuckled lowly, saying softly, “Bet you’re getting off on this, aren’t you, you perverted fool?”
A simple whining meow from the mutant made him chuckle again, and Quatre shifted the feline on his chest, rubbing his nose against the soft fur that flowed away from the back of Trowa’s neck. He endured a warning nip on the forehead.
“Stupid idiot,” he murmured affectionately, resuming his petting.
Caressing the mutant’s cat form, thinking nothing of the implications it made, Quatre stared at the flame. The purring noise had dissipated the silence, and it was soothing to have his hands busy, even if it were something mundane. The normalness of the situation kept him from thinking about his past.
He heard Heero slam the bedroom door shut, the other mutant marching down the upstairs hall and descending the stairs. Trowa had flinched slightly upon the loud sound, but had resettled in his position on Quatre’s chest. He began meowing insistently when Quatre stopped petting him.
Heero walked over, glanced their way, then paused as he saw what was happening.
Quatre saw that Heero was dressed in his uniform, and furrowed his brow with thought.
“You’re leaving now?” he asked as the other mutant marched over with a furious frown.
“Get off!” he growled, shoving the feline off of Quatre’s lap.
“He wasn’t even doing anything!”
Heero made a snarling noise, frowning at the mutant that was slinking away, a rather mischievous expression on his feline face. “Quatre, don’t treat him like he’s a normal animal. He’s a perverted sick fool that will use that bullshit against you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Heero.”
“I’m serious, Quatre!”
“Stop treating Trowa that way.”
“Quatre, you–!” Heero closed his eyes in a brief battle for patience and the need to continue his argument, but then found himself realizing that this would go on forever if he let it. He then shook his head, turning away from them. Without saying anything, he marched outside, slamming that door as well.
Quatre stared at the door for a few moments, then resettled back into his position. Trowa abandoned his nearby post on the coffee table and walked off, tail flickering. Quatre stared after the animal for a few moments, then rose from the couch, walking into the kitchen. He wasn’t really hungry, and he needed something to do–so he set about cleaning the entire area with what limited supplies were available. An hour later, he heard the door slam shut once more, and he came to realize that Trowa had left at his own designated time.
He heard movement from upstairs; Wufei’s familiar yawn and grumble about being cold; the bathroom being used. Figuring that he should at least make something for the others, he set about doing so, warming up some soup and setting out some bread for the Chinese and the American. Wufei came down nearly a half hour later, dressed in his uniform. He took some of the food graciously, looking at him suspiciously.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he questioned after swallowing a mouthful of soup.
“No.”
Quatre could never think of anything more to say to the Chinese, never really connecting with him as the others did. He felt, oftentimes, awkward and unkept whenever he was around Wufei. The Chinese often presented a sense of tidiness and purity that Quatre felt was lacking in his own persona. He felt he would dirty Wufei if he lingered or tried getting to know him. When in his presence, he kept his words to a minimum, for lack of anything more to say.
“Thank you,” Wufei said, gesturing at the food, then walking off.
Minutes later, he, too, was out the door. Quatre glanced up at the staircase, then figured on waking Duo up. He walked upstairs and roused the other mutant from his sleep.
Duo complained and groused and muttered, all before attempting to open his eyes and acknowledge him. Quatre realized that Duo actually had a hickey visible just under his left ear. He turned and walked out the room to give him some privacy, then walked to the room he shared with Heero. Looking at the bed, he stared with some empty emotion as he recalled the things from the night before. His stomach turned uncomfortably, making him grimace as he walked in, and looked for another shirt to wear over the one he had on now. He didn’t have a uniform like the rest of them, and his clothes weren’t totally snow-proof. He sighed as the sat at the edge of the bed, staring down at the floor with contemplative thought.
Half hour later, Duo poked his head into the room, blinking sleepily, but dressed. He didn’t say anything, merely turned and walked off. Quatre found himself alone nearly fifteen minutes later, after the door slammed shut behind Duo’s walking form.
Quatre curled back up on the bed, pulling the blankets over him. Getting comfortable, he hoped for a twenty minute nap before he, too, would head out in the cold for the stupid training exercise...

O0o0o0o0o0oO

It was still so cold when he left the house. The faint morning light just barely penetrated the fog that covered the area. Despite the denim jacket that he wore over three pairs of shirts, a pair of jeans over his sleep shorts and four pairs of socks, he still felt cold. The scarf that Catherine had given him didn’t do very much to keep his neck warm.
Muttering with some uncertainty about the task that lay ahead of him, he adjusted the scarf, and looked at the various foot trails in the snow. All four of them bore the tread of their customary boots, and they all led in various directions–one, which was very faint due to the falling snow, headed directly straight ahead. Another faint set went northeast of that. Another went around the cottage. Another went to the right.
He lifted his eyes, staring at the snow that continued to fall. Then, he cautiously stepped off the porch, walking forward. He glanced about, ears straining to hear anything out of the ordinary. He then hesitated, unsure of what to do. Heero made it sound as if they had to hunt each other down and use whatever it took to take that person down. He certainly didn’t want to hunt anybody down, but...if he were to keep this warm place, he would have to participate.
As abhorrent as the idea was, he closed his eyes in a brief beg for forgiveness, and opened them again. Resignation was set on his face. He opened that mutant talent of his, one that was able to sense and force emotion. He caught the flutter of apprehension, mixed with excitement, course through his frame. He looked toward the west, which was where the feeling came form. It was questionable, though, what those feelings meant. Opening his talent once more, he felt the flicker of indifference from the north, along with a flicker of tension nearby.
He swallowed hard, and began trudging forward, to the tension that he felt. Unsure of what he was supposed to do once he came into contact with this person, he took a deep breath. Heero had said to win a match was to kill a person, or knock them out. Knocking someone out shouldn’t be that hard, considering how easy it was done with him. A forceful manipulation of his telekinesis should work wonders in that sense. He just hoped he didn’t hurt anyone. He certainly didn’t want to kill anyone that had come out here to train. And he certainly didn’t understand why head injuries had to be administered to accomplish this task. Couldn’t there be another solution?
Minutes later, he opened his talent once more, finding that he was nearing what felt like a fierce battle between two of the participants–Duo and Trowa. He could feel their empathetic imprints on his mind the same way one would feel the presence of a close friend once sighting them. He’d grown accustomed to the feeling whenever he used his talent to locate a missing comrade in a crowded grocery store or sidewalk.
At the scream of a particularly enraged elephant, and a loud male yelp, Quatre hurried in that direction, trying to keep upright as he waded through the thick snow. Twice he fell over a hidden root or a sudden decline in the terrain. Once he reached them, he saw that Trowa the elephant was busy trying to knock down a tree in which Duo clung to.
“Oh, c’mon! Can’t we just sit down and talk this through like women?” he was screaming, holding onto his branch with both legs and arms. “No fair! Change back into something little! No fair! Do over! Do over!”
Quatre panted heavily as he observed the scene. There were several trees that had been pushed to the snow, and the African Bull elephant didn’t look close to being tired out. Duo disappeared suddenly. The elephant was quickly replaced by a cougar, which took to the trees in a flurry of movement. Duo appeared a little further off, clinging to another branch. The cougar used the trees’ limbs as a sort of runway, leaping from one branch to another, heading in Duo’s direction.
Quatre wasn’t sure if he should call out or just straight out attack, so he followed in their direction, thinking of a way to put Duo out of commission first. His teleportation would certainly overtake him in a face-off situation. He focused on the braided screamer, who was preparing to teleport once more. With his tongue caught between his lips, he murmured an apology, and used his telekinesis to force a surprised Duo from his branch. He slammed his body hard against the trunk of the tree.
Dead weight, Duo fell through the branches of the tree. Trowa quickly changed into an owl and took flight above the branches. Quatre fretted over Duo’s descent, and caught him before he hit the ground. Panicking over the force he’d used against his friend, he lowered Duo to the ground and hurried over.
Duo suddenly lifted his head, snarled, and teleported out of sight.
Quatre whipped around, searching for the boy as his breath came out in hurried pants. A sliver of sound forced him to look up to see Trowa leaping at him. With a quick flicker of his talent, he used his telekinesis to shove Trowa back through the branches, up toward the sky.
Another whisper of sound had him ducking as a branch swung over his head.
“I’m sorry, Q!” Duo shouted, bringing the branch down at him, swinging it as a baseball bat. Quatre quickly rolled onto his back, and caught the branch with his hands. Palms stinging, he then used his power to push Duo away from him, using enough force to have the boy slicing through the air, slamming shoulder first into a tree.
A quick teleportation move had Duo right behind him. Quatre had enough time to give a surprised gasp as Duo pulled him into a choke hold. Struggling physically to get out of it, Quatre tried moving away from the hold with a series of movements. He felt Duo’s arm muscle tighten around his throat, making it impossible to breathe. Panicking, he clawed and groped behind him for some sort of leverage he could use against the other boy, and found himself sinking to his knees, spots blinking before his eyes.
Duo was apologizing again, rather tearfully as he tightened his hold, and Quatre found himself starting to black out. A scream of sound, something that he wasn’t sure was the cause of, brought his concentration on his empathy. He instantly pushed a large amount of remorse into Duo, causing the other to quickly let go with multiple apologies. Taking no time to recover, he turned and used his telekinesis to fling Duo away from him, slamming him hard against the trunk of another tree. Just to be sure, he then picked up the branch that Duo had tried using on him earlier, and swung that against the other’s head.
There was a loud thwack of sound, and Duo’s facial features slackened as he lost control of muscle due to unconsciousness. Horrified, Quatre watched as his friend slump like a sack of potatoes against the tree. Breath caught in his throat, Quatre stared at the prone form of his friend in mute agitation. He shakily rose, and started to hurry over to see if he were okay when a flash of emotion hit him–he turned just in time to see Trowa the wolf leaping at him, snarling fiercely.
With a loud shout of surprise, he flung his hand out, using it to guide his telekinesis as he caught Trowa in mid-leap. He pushed him upward against the nearest tree, to hit his head against the underbelly of a large branch. The crack of contact caused the wolf to yelp, and Trowa resumed human form as he fell back to the snow.
Quatre, seeing that his last method on Duo had worked on taking the boy out, then slammed his head onto the tree trunk. Trowa gave a dazed expression, started to work on the shape of a rhino, but Quatre quickly used a quick flare of power to knock him back against the trunk once more.
This time, Trowa slumped easily to the snow, his facial features just as slack as Duo’s.
Catching his breath, staring at the green-eyed boy with something close to disbelief, Quatre straightened from his position. His breath was visible as he panted. Swallowing hard, he then hurried over to check on Duo, finding him just unconscious. The same for Trowa.
He didn’t want to leave them in the cold, and he felt heavily remorseful for his actions. He then proceeded to pick the two up from their prone positions with his telekinesis. He took them back to the cottage, and laid them out on the couch, whispering his apologies a thousand times over as he laid blankets over them. Then, with one last glance back at them, he hurried back out into the cold and went to search for the others.
He opened his empathy once more, and went in search of the nearest person, whom was located just behind and beyond the house. Shuffling through the snow, Quatre felt sick with what he was doing, and more than troubled by the actions he’d taken. True, it was in self-defense, but this was forced. And it was required–no, demanded of him. He didn’t want to do it, but if he had to...
He stumbled upon Wufei forty-five minutes later, the boy lying motionless in the snow. There were animal tracks around him, and Quatre stared at them, bewildered. Were they Trowa’s? Or were they actual animals? He felt troubled that Wufei was lying there in the snow, and he hurried over, finding that he was just unconscious. Glancing around, he was a little worried about the blood splatters that checkered the white snow, suggesting that someone was injured. Indeed, the area looked pretty roughed up, with the indications of a struggle apparent all around them. Tree trunks were split, bark peeling off in banana-style fashion, with snow and dirt mixed in abnormally shaped mounds....
He looked back down at Wufei, and struggled to physically lift the other boy, to take him back to the cottage. When he looked up, he looked right at Heero’s smirking face. Pausing, unsure of what the other was going to do or say, Quatre let Wufei’s thin frame fall back into the snow and faced Heero with some hesitation. The silence around them was deafening, and it had quit snowing.
Swallowing hard, Quatre looked at all the available options around him, quite certain that his earlier methods of knocking out the others was the best choice. He stepped away from Wufei’s prone form and watched as Heero calmly stepped down from the fallen tree trunk that he’d been standing on.
“I don’t think you were the one to take out Wufei,” Heero began, Quatre stiffening at the low, mocking tone in his voice.
Heero’s smirk changed into that of predatory satisfaction, cobalt eyes narrowed with his expression.
“You’re much too weak,” Heero added, his voice more than frosty, and his eyes cold.
Quatre felt a little quiver of betrayal and some fear as he watched Heero slowly walk toward him. The other’s words had him pinned in place, searching for some sort of indication that Heero wasn’t doing this deliberately, that this was some sort of ploy to use against him in some sort of distraction method.
“Weak...worthless...completely without self-preservation,” Heero continued, his words muted, yet loud within the silence of the trees. “The most damage to a person you could do is yourself, and even then, what good will that accomplish? It isn’t as if you’re anything to this world.”
Quatre swallowed hard, Heero’s words affecting him in a deep way. They cut to his very bones, reminding him, mocking him...
“You can’t even use your powers for anything good. And without them, you’re even more worthless. You are just barely good enough for a good tumble or two in bed. It must happen a lot, huh? Men taking advantage of you that way. They could see it. They know what they can do to you. You would let them. You know you can’t stop them, so you let them. And you get off on it. The pain, the humiliation...sick freak, you get off on it.”
Bile touched his throat, and Quatre felt his eyes tearing at the utter ruthlessness in Heero’s tone. Heero’s lips curved into another smirk, and he stopped moving, hands slipping casually in into his jacket pocket. The starkness of his black outfit was a harsh color against the snow covered world that surrounded them, and for nothing, Quatre could not look away from the cold blue eyes that stared right at him.
“Am I right?” Heero asked softly, tilting his head slightly. “That’s why you let me treat you that way. You are a twisted soul, Quatre. Completely surprising when one sees you for the first time. Probably when people look at you, they see something innocent and naive, far too trusting...but they don’t know what lurks deep inside. They don’t know the darkness that causes you to look for hurtful sex in whomever’s willing. They don’t know that you’d whore yourself out just to be reminded of what you did back home...”
The tears leaked from his eyes, dripping over his cheeks and falling onto his scarf. How could Heero have known? How could he? He’d said nothing about his past, nor about his home. Yet, the words dripping from that smugly curving mouth rung with the truth. Heero didn’t know him–he couldn’t judge him, and yet...his opinion mattered. Somehow, it mattered.
Quatre couldn’t speak, his throat much too tight with his own grief and his own horror at the way Heero mocked him. Didn’t he know what effect those words had on him? Battling his own internal demons that rose due to these words, Quatre balled his fists, trying to blink away the continuous build-up of his tears.
Staring at the blurry outline before him, he snarled, “And what does that say about you? If you’re so disgusted by what I want and need, then why do you give in?”
“Aa,” Heero murmured, tilting his head in a sarcastic way. “Sex is something that anyone will take, no matter the outcome. I was merely satisfying a human need. Being without and never having it before is a far cry from what you’re looking for. How could I not partake when you’re giving it so freely?”
“B-bastard!”
“I may be a bastard, Quatre, but at least I know where I stand. You don’t. You don’t know where you’re going or what you’re doing, and let me tell you this–continuously running away from your problem isn’t going to solve it,” Heero growled. “It’s going to follow you. You can run as fast and as far as you want, but the problem will always be right behind you.”
“You don’t know anything about me! You don’t know anything about my past!”
“Oh, I know,” Heero continued, a soothing tinge to his voice. His eyes continued to bore into Quatre’s, unblinking, filled with an accusatory leer. “You’re hiding from some deep dark secret...perhaps something sexual? Something like...incest? Did someone use you, Quatre? The way others are now using you today?”
More tears, shattered security. Quatre could feel his entire world collapsing all around him, his throat tight with his emotions. He stared at Heero with a broken expression, unable to think, unable to move. He felt cold, inside and out, and could feel his very bones shuddering with revulsion at the words, at himself.
“You don’t know me,” he whispered. “You don’t know me...”
Heero’s head leaned closer, so that his own whisper was audible.
“But I know what you are, deep inside. You’re a sick, perverted, tortured freak bent on his own destruction, because he’s too cowardly to off himself.”
Quatre stared at him in aghast horror, his mouth slack with his expression. Heero pulled away, a satisfied smirk upon his face. Hands still in his pockets, Quatre could not know how Heero’s fingernails dug into his palms, bleeding with the broken skin. They trembled as he took in the expressions and obvious mental breakdown.
He wasn’t sure if Quatre would physically attack, or do something completely foolish to himself. Heero prepared himself for either. He withdrew his hands from his pockets, seeing a flutter of movement behind Quatre. He looked beyond the blond’s shoulders to see Wufei standing there, completely puzzled and yet annoyed that he’d been taken out earlier during the exercise. He was not permitted to attack beyond the knockout, because in real life battles, there were no second chances. Once a person was out, they were out.
Heero wondered how much the Chinese had heard.
Quatre continued to look tortured, tears slipping down his cheeks. Heero felt his face soften slightly before hardening once more. He waited, for anything that the other might do, and saw Wufei slowly inching away from them. He had a curious expression on his face as he took the both of them in.
Quatre must have felt him with his ability, for he looked at the other in surprise. Heero shot forward, and Quatre turned, freezing at the movement. Heero lifted his fist, aiming for a well placed punch at his temple. He saw the hesitation and the doubt that flittered across Quatre’s face, but then, a suddenly furious one took over.
The hum of his telekinesis warned Heero moments from connection, and the Japanese found himself slamming back first through a tree. There was a loud crack of sound as he slammed through the trunk. Moments later, there were the obvious collapsing sounds of the tree as it fell with a loud crash. Heero hit back first against another tree, cracking it, but not breaking it.
Slightly dazed, he looked up to see that broken tree being redirected in his area. He quickly jumped onto his feet, leaping straight up onto a branch to avoid the falling tree, and heard the collusion noises of that tree against the one he’d come to rest on. His tree quaked under impact, and Heero steadied himself on the branch he’d alighted on. He heard an enraged scream, and jumped from the branch, landing with a slight grunt onto the snow covered ground.
“I may be fucked up, Heero Yuy, but that doesn’t give you the right to judge me!” he heard Quatre scream, voice cracking with his emotions. Hearing the sound coming from his left, he moved in that direction, leaping over the fallen tree and brushing through fallen branches as he located the blond.
“I’m not,” he replied, knowing that his voice was carrying through the silence. He wondered if Wufei had left, or was choosing to stay behind to referee. He wondered where the other two were.
“You laugh at me! You laugh at me!”
“I haven’t,” he said, crouching behind a snow-covered bush that ran the narrow edge of a decline in the terrain.
He heard Quatre’s furious panting, his squeaking footsteps through the snow. Heero glanced around the bush to see the other standing nearby, trying to locate him. He moved away from the bush, hearing moving footsteps round the tree. He quickly jumped onto the lowest branch of a nearby tree. Just in time, he turned to see Quatre spinning about wildly, locating his footprints in the snow.
He began running in that direction. Heero quickly began climbing the tree, leaping onto another, and another, until he put favorable distance between them.
He heard a surge of sound, and the snapping of wood. Glancing back, he saw that many towering trees were being forcefully ripped from the snow covered earth, tossed aside as if they were nothing. His eyes widened, and he quickly leapt from the tree he’d been hiding in, and darted toward an outcropping of rocks. Leaves, snow, and wood were flying everywhere as Quatre uprooted them all in his quest to search for him. Heero climbed onto the rocks, glancing into a ravine that was covered with snow. The walls were very steep, jutting with various blemishes, and looked nearly impossible to climb out of.
He couldn’t judge the depth, or how it was formed, and glanced back to see Quatre coming into view. Heero bent, picking up a good sized boulder within both hands. He stepped forward to fling it at him, grunting with the small effort. An eruption of power caused the boulder to explode, rocks showering everywhere. Quatre was running at him, his face furious.
Uh-oh, he thought, taking a step back, and judging the ravine once more. How to calm down a raging telekinetic without getting ripped apart in the process?
“Ow,” he then muttered as the rocks he stood upon were ripped from the earth, upsetting his balance. He found himself falling backward, toward the ravine. In mid-air, he twisted his body, kicking at one of the floating rocks, and sending it forward. Quatre used his hand to direct the rock from his flight path, and darted toward Heero.
The Japanese fell into the ravine with a grunt, landing with an awkward position within the snow and uneven ground. Looking up, Quatre was standing at a two-story distance above him, glaring down at him. He disappeared for a moment, and Heero awkwardly moved to his feet, looking up abruptly when shadows crossed over him. He gave a startled shout as the outcropping of rocks Quatre had moved were suddenly raining down on him. He threw his arms up to protect himself from the onslaught, but was buried by the multiple boulders.
Quatre stared down into the ravine, stepping precariously close to the edge, where he’d just buried Heero underneath all those rocks. He felt himself quiver with undisguised betrayal, hurt, and pain due to those cruel words from earlier. He wanted to lash out the closest available outlet, and the Japanese was the one to receive his violent array of emotions. His eyes blurred with tears once more, and he blinked rapidly, things that he’d repressed coming back to life once more.
All of it made him tremble violently, his emotions spazzing into a blur of mixed, volatile feelings that left his body weak with its aftermath. The images flashed through his mind’s eye, reminding him of why he’d run. He reached up, wiping at his face, trying to regain his present sense of cognition. He felt awkward and used, horribly used. It was not a new feeling.
He saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and looked over to see Wufei standing there. He was looking at him with some uncertainty, one hand raised, as if ready to ask him if he were all right. A flurry of sound, and Quatre looked down quickly. He watched as Heero rose from the mass of boulders and hit the ravine’s steep wall with a single punch. Quatre lost his balance with a loud shout of surprise, tumbling forward into the ravine. He caught himself from hitting the mass of boulders, but he was close enough for Heero to reach up, grab him from mid-air, and slam him back first into the wall of the ravine.
He promptly lost all his breath, his head knocked forward by impact with the wall. Heero adjusted his stance over the mass of boulders, and Quatre reacted with a cry of outrage, his power slamming Heero into the wall opposite him. Finding himself pinned to the wall, Heero gave a jerking snarl. Quatre rose unsteadily, the rocks shifting underneath his feet. He let go of Heero to somehow steady himself as the rocks moved under his weight, unsteady in their position. His sneakers slipped over the unsteady formation, his legs trying to find a stable support as he tried to keep himself from falling.
Heero, once released from his position, fell onto a flat surface of a particularly large formation, and slammed his fist into the rock surface. The movement caused the rock to crack violently, splitting apart. Quatre gave a startled cry as he found himself rocked backward by the forceful movement. He lost his foot hold, sliding between the wall of the ravine and a slight wall of boulder. Trapped awkwardly between, looking up at his sneakers and the sky, he felt the formation shift again, pressing him hard against the ravine wall.
Hands shooting up quickly, he prevented the mass from smashing him, and gave a surge of power that caused the mass to explode upward from the ravine. He fell into the ravine floor, into a mixture of dirty snow and more rock outcrops that were uncomfortable against his unprotected form. Heero was there, suddenly, using the distraction to run at him, fist raised.
Quatre sucked in a quick breath of surprise, quickly moving his head to the right. Heero’s fist disappeared briefly in the dirt wall, startling him in that he was willing to use so much force on him. He then re-directed his telekinesis into flinging the mutant away from him.
Heero once again smashed into the opposite wall of the ravine, grunting with the impact. Still reeling from the uninvited release of his memories from the previous psychological assault, Quatre rose from the ground and charged after him. Heero recovered quickly, and grabbed his hands, easily forcing them behind him, Quatre’s body forced against his. With a grit of his teeth, Quatre suddenly focused on him, and Heero felt a peculiar sensation in his throat–a forceful closing of his windpipe. The feeling was extremely awkward, if not particularly painful. Despite the pain, he smashed his forehead against Quatre’s face, the blond giving a pained cry, the hold released on his windpipe.
Gasping for breath, Heero let go of the other mutant, who slumped to the ground in pain. Finding that he just could not breathe, Heero then began husking himself. After that, he was able to breathe easier with the new formation. He looked down at the other mutant, who was pressing both his hands against his nose, blood slipping past his fingers. Momentarily pained that he’d hurt the mutant, Heero hesitated on his next move–giving Quatre the chance to use his telekinesis on him. He picked him up and flung him blindly from the ravine.
Heero found himself sailing through open air for a few moments, then crashed through a flurry of snow coated branches and unmoving trees. He slammed into the ground with a loud grunt, sending snow up everywhere. Momentarily dazed, he lifted his head from the snow, wincing at the various cuts and bruises he felt forming all over him from the multiple impacts.
He saw Wufei standing there, giving Heero a slow smirk as he moved away from the ravine.
“Shut it, Chang,” he growled, lifting from the snow.
He looked up with a startled glance as he saw the ground rip apart before him, Wufei speeding a safe distance away as various rocks, fallen trees, snow, dirt and other various terrain affiliates shot upward, gathering in a destructive mass of weaponry. Heero froze, staring at the mass, wondering what Quatre was going to do with that when movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. He emitted a pained shout as a tree trunk slammed into his face, knocking him completely off his feet and into the ground. Rolling and tumbling a small distance away, Heero heard the tree crash into the ground with a flurry of sound, and looked up at moving shadows. The mass of gathered material were now being sent to crash down upon him, and he quickly curled into a fetal position, arms over his head once more.
The area echoed with the crash of sound, snow flurries shooting upward with disturbed movement, visible above the tree line.
As the snow fell gently to the ground after the disturbance, Wufei hesitated on moving, unsure if Heero was all right. It looked pretty painful, being where he was underneath all that material. Plus, that tree had made direct contact with his face...that in particular made Wufei wince once more. The impact would have destroyed a normal human, with all the similar velocity a moving vehicle had on a normal’s body at over fifty miles per hour.
He looked over to see Quatre climb out of the ravine, breathing heavily, obviously strained in his efforts against the other mutant. Wufei wasn’t sure what was going on between them, but it was obvious the blond was very upset. He had to assume Yuy had used his psychological assaults against him. Wufei knew how that went–Heero was able to tear someone down in that sense, when confronted with an intelligent opponent. Usually, with Trowa, he used physical force. With Wufei, he often used his past and other references in an effort to shake his confidence, and Heero had a way of making it all work. Wufei never held anything against him–that’s just how it was.
Battles were both mentally and physically fought, and they all had to understand that. Anything could be used against them.
Wufei licked his lips with uncertainty as the blond collapsed on the snow covered ground, still breathing heavily. There was blood all over his face, and he looked very dirty and scraped up, but was holding up rather well. He must have been tired, using his powers for far longer than he had before, the enormous strain rapidly taking over his untrained form. Still, he was holding up very well despite the obvious. Wufei had to give him that credit.
Wufei then realized that he did not have their uniform to protect him against the elements, and started to move forward, to offer him his jacket when a loud crash of sound distracted him. He looked over to see Heero punching his way out of the mass, dirty and muddy, scratched and pained, but definitely alive. His uniform, combined with his superhuman strength, had kept him pretty safe.
Quatre looked up from his position, and narrowed his eyes. Heero suddenly gave a choked sound, hands flying to his throat. He continued to walk forward, toward the blond, and Wufei watched as Heero’s flushed features started turning blue from lack of air. With concern, hesitating on intervening, he watched as Heero fell to the ground, trying to breathe. Quatre was focused intently on him, fingers curled in the ground, his teeth gritted as his expression displayed his determination.
Heero suddenly swept the ground with his hand, dirt and snow flying over the blond. Whatever distraction it caused, it was obviously good enough, because the mutant was flying to his feet and tackling the other mutant. Wufei tried to shout out a warning, that they were too close to the edge, but the two disappeared once more into the ravine.
There was a loud smack of sound, and complete silence.
Wufei waited for a few moments, for the telltale sounds of movement, and heard none. Cautiously, unsure of what he’d find if he looked over, he walked over to investigate. Stepping near the edge of the ravine, he looked down to see the both of them lying there, both of them motionless. There were still some broken boulders here and there, and Heero was lying on one of them. Quatre was half lying on him.
Wufei began to search for a way to get down there when movement caught his eye, and he watched in surprise as Quatre pushed himself up, shaking with the effort. He was covered in mud and smaller wounds, but was functioning quite well as he stood. Heero didn’t move at all.
Wufei realized that Quatre had actually accomplished his task, and had ‘won’ the game. The other mutant was lying there, quite still. Wufei, upon closer inspection, saw that he was knocked out. His head had made impact with the boulder. Quatre must have used his powers to aid him in that task.
“You okay?” he called down to the blond, who looked up at him in surprise.
At a small nod, Wufei then smiled with approval.
Quatre may have appeared as the weakest of them all, but he’d taken down the strongest with admirable determination. In a way, Wufei was proud of him.













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