Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Subjects of My Sanity ❯ Determined ( Chapter 12 )

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Gundam Wing Characters, and all that other good stuff.

Pairings: 2+1 , 3+4

Warning: Yaoi, bad language, self hatred, angst and a lot of other things in later chapters too.

Authors Note: Woooo hope you like this chapter, they find out more stuuuuufff.

Review responses: On the bottom of the pageo!

Enjoy this chappy!

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Determined

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~Subject: Duo Maxwell~

Blue. That color reminds me of Heero.

I was currently sitting in my English class, looking out the window, eyes up to the sky. It was a really dark and dreary day. The sun barely could be seen through the gray clouds. It was hard to find the blue, the light color of the sky. Heh, that almost sounded smart! Anyways, the reason for me looking out the window wasn't what you'd think. I did not find it enjoyable to stare at the same picture outside that I would be looking at everyday for the rest of the year. The real reason lies with Hilde, the girl who would not stop staring at me. Sure, it was good to finally get the attention of someone, but I did not feel comfortable with her glancing at me every second in hopes of catching my eye. Of course, if she did catch my eye she would smile… oh and we wont go into how scary that one was. I felt like I was watching a toothbrush commercial. Damned if I wasn't jealous of her perfectly whitened and aligned teeth!

"Mr. Maxwell! I would suggest you pay attention and keep your eyes off of Ms. Schbeiker."

I looked up from where I had been staring at the sidewalk outside. Eyes wide, I turned them to the teacher, giving her my most confused look. "Excuse me?" I hadn't even been looking at the girl! The teacher probably saw Hilde staring at me and assumed that I had been returning it! What the hell is up with that?

"Pay attention Duo, or I will have to ask you to leave." Her voice was a little lower and not so demanding now. Maybe it was because I was glaring at her in obvious anger, mouth former a thin line.

Really, today was turning out to be the pits! And it was Friday! My most favorite day of the week! Not to mention I was going to be spending the remaining part of it with my new buds. Though, I would really have to get a head start out of here in order to track down Heero before he bolts. I bet he's sitting in class just thinking up strategies to get away from me in that head of his.

The wonderful bell rang, ten minutes later, excusing everyone from class. I made sure to be the first one out, that way I would not get stuck behind some slow girls in the hallway. Though, there are guys that walk slow too. Don't you just hate chatty people! Stopping to talk when I am in a hurry to find a certain Japanese boy! Gah!

"Move, move! Coming through!" I squeezed my way through the cracks in the crowd, hanging a left at the first corner to make a quick stop at my locker. I couldn't hold back the smirk that settled on my face as I came around the bend to see none other than Heero Yuy. He was bent over, digging through the bottom of his locker. It seemed like he was reorganizing the overly neat stack of books.

"Heero!" I shouted happily, knuckle coming down to rub against his skull. He jumped slightly at the contact, before glancing up to me with a scowl. "Just the person I was looking for!" My grin widened when he got that frightened look on his face, like he knew I was up to something. Jeez, he didn't have to act like hanging out was such a horrible deal!

He stood up from his kneeling position, back to me as he shut the locker door. But he didn't turn around to face me, just sort of stood there, like he was waiting for me to leave. That was when I noticed that he wasn't really that much shorter than me. Maybe the same height, though, I had always thought him to be smaller because of the way he sits, hunched down in his seat.

"Heero…" I didn't get to finish my statement because of the article of clothing that was thrown very rudely in my face. "Wha…" I stumbled back slightly, catching the now recognizable sweater as it slid down my arms. My fingers clutched the fabric, noticing that it was still warm from him wearing it. I smirked, finally looking up with a snide comment in mind. Though, that thought was quickly forgotten as I realized there was no one to say it to

"Fuck." Of course, Heero just had to be gone.

"Damnit!" I ran down the hallways, a mad dash in the direction I thought he might have gone. I couldn't believe I had fallen for that! Stupid! Even though I was angry at myself for losing him, it was pretty funny thinking that Heero was the one to pull that stunt. Who knew he had a daring side to him? I chuckled at the thought of him running full speed away from me. Too amusing I tell ya!

I passed Trowa in my light jog. He just quirked an eyebrow at me as I passed, yelling at him to meet me in the front so we could go somewhere to hang out. Though, I think he was only able to catch the, "Front… school… catch… hangout…" Yeah, I think that was actually what came out of my mouth. The rest probably just stayed in my head.

I mentally cheered when my body rounded the corner leading outside, for Heero was spotted walking along the sidewalk about ten feet away. He must have thought he'd lost me, heh, little did he know! I slowed my pace, thinking up the best strategy for sneaking up on him. Well, what would be a better than giving him a taste of his own medicine?

I looked down at the blue sweater dangling from my hand, plan forming already inside my wicked mind. Of course, I didn't even think to consider that he would lash out at me like I had seen him do. Nope, I really am an under planner.

I pulled the blue cloth over his head from behind and let out a loud chuckle as he froze up, maybe gone into frightened mode or something. Of course, the next second later I found myself staring rather dizzily at the gray sky. Yes, it seems in two seconds flat he had managed to extract the garment off of his head and successfully trip me backwards. So, I landed on my back… hard. Ow, I was going to be feeling that one a long time after.

"Ugh… Heero… I was only… uh… damn. My back hurts." My voice was a little shaky as I produced that miserable attempt at a sentence. At least I still managed to smile as Heero peered over my fallen form, eyes seemingly wider than usual. After a couple more seconds I realized that he was just going to keep standing there, "Oy, Heero? Care to help me up?"

His head shook slightly, as if to wake himself up from wherever his mind had wandered off to. Surprisingly, he did help me up, long fingers extending out, grasped nicely against my own.

Want to know a little secret? Well… I felt a little disappointed when he let go of my hand. Seeing as I was up on my feet now, I guess there was no point in him hanging on to it. But… but…

"Duo!" Quatre's voice brought me out of my own mental walloping. "Are you alright?" I smiled at him as he came over towards us. But, he didn't pay too much attention to me, his light blue eyes were narrowed slightly at Heero. I guess, because he was the one who had thrown me to the ground. But ya know, it was my fault really. I've got to learn not to startle the poor boy! Maybe then will he actually be nicer to me! Yes, yes… the little elves in my brain were already coming up with theories.

Trowa came up right after Quatre, looking… well… you guessed it, amused. I swear, he is one odd kid.

The four of us stood on the side walk, in a little circle, staring at each other. Yeah… this was weird, but for some reason I felt that something was off. No, it wasn't the fact that we weren't talking, that was a normality with us. So… what was it? After a few minutes of more mental beatings, I finally figured it out.

"Wufei!" I grinned, feeling proud of myself for noticing the absence of Wufei so quickly. Well, my self praising only went on for another second as I realized that the absence of Wufei was actually a 'bad' thing.

"Shit! Where'd Wu run off to now?" I looked to Quatre and Trowa, hoping they would know where the slippery Chinese boy had gone. Trowa only shrugged, causing me to frown in disappointment.

"Umm… I think I saw him heading… that-a-way." Quatre mumbled against the finger on his mouth. It seems he had a habit of chewing on his nails. His other hand was pointing in the direction of the forest, or the back of the school, which ever one works. But the forest sounded cooler then the boring back of the school. It wasn't just trees though, I think they had a football field off to the side… somewhere. I wouldn't know, haven't really gotten the chance to explore it yet.

Of course, now that I knew where Wufei might be, I wasn't going to let him slip away if I had to. My mouth formed a wicked grin as I latched onto the startled Heero's hand. Why pass up an opportunity to hold his hand when it came up so wonderfully?

He stuttered some curses as I pulled, or yanked him along the school halls, attempting a jog, which was the fastest I could manage with Heero struggling behind me. I wasn't in any hurry to let him go though… who knows, he might try to ditch me again! I couldn't have that happening, now could I?

Trowa and Quatre seemed to take the hint and were following behind us. Though, a good distance behind us, seeing as I was probably drawing some embarrassing attention. Heh, I love it when people look at me weird. It makes me feel all warm and tingly inside, ya know?

I stopped abruptly as we came out the back door of the school. Heero stumbling into me from behind, snorting something like 'idiot' as I looked around. No one in sight. Damn.

"Hmm… maybe he went into the woods." Quatre seemed to appear behind me without me noticing, almost startling me. He was scanning the surroundings, fingernail coming up to his mouth to be chewed on once again. I held back the chuckle that wanted to escape, because there was something much more important to be dealing with. I needed to find Wufei! How dare he try to avoid our Friday!

I marched towards the woods… well, if you would even call them that. There was a big gate, easily scaleable, blocking people from entering the thick trees behind it. I hesitated as I reached it, not because I thought I couldn't make it over, but because of what would happen when I 'did' make it to the other side. I wasn't a big fan of getting lost in the woods… really… and I definitely was not a big fan of nature. No, no. Little bunnies can be pretty scary when they jump out, mad dash to get away from you but succeed only in scaring the hell out of ya!

I chewed on my bottom lip while contemplating what to do. Even though I was lost in thought, I did manage to notice how Heero had extracted himself from my grip and was slowly, quietly sneaking away.

"Don't even think about it Heero!" I smirked, turning to him just as his shoulders slumped in defeat. He didn't stop glaring at me as I searched the surroundings again, mind still trying to decide whether or not to chance going into the woods.

Well, I never figured out 'that' answer. I didn't need to, for I spotted some movement on the roof, bringing me out of my troubled thoughts.

Black shadowy figure, climbing up the stairs. Yup, that was definitely our Wufei. I quietly motioned for the others to look where I had spotted him. Quatre opened his mouth, eyes wide, wanting to ask something, but I raised my hand to stop him. I couldn't stop the smirk that appeared on my lips just then, well, I never really was good at holding back my glee when a mischievous plan came to mind.

I motioned for them to follow me as I hopped the rickety fence, blocking off the stairs. Quatre was the only one who actually had a problem climbing over, he ended up toppling backwards after landing, only to be saved by Trowa. The silent boy had very quickly moved behind the blond, hand snapping out to ensure he didn't fall, and possibly bang his head on the wooden fence. That wouldn't have been good, not only for the fact that Quatre would be hurt, but I wouldn't want Wufei to hear us… no… I was up for a sneak attack!

We made it up the stairs, quietly as possible, though, I was having a hard time not bursting out laughing. It was too funny, watching Quatre, Trowa and Heero. They were all following me, quietly, in sneak mode. Ah it was great. I felt like a kid again, playing hide and seek, running from the person that was 'it'. Though, we were actually the 'it', I guess.

The stairs came to an end, a door the only thing now standing in our path. Wufei must have gone in there. We just stood there for a minute, Heero and Quatre looking to me, silently asking what we were suppose to do now. I think Heero looked more along the lines of irritated, where as Quatre seemed to be enjoying this as much as I was.

My hand came up to scratch the back of my skull, a habit that occurred sometimes when I was in deep thought. For a second I felt a little nervous, I mean… I wasn't all that one hundred percent sure it was actually Wufei we were following. You know how embarrassing it would be if we actually barged in on a teacher up here?

The old door suddenly opened, loudly, startling me from my thoughts and caused me to take a step back, right into Heero. He would have been fine if not for me stepping on his foot, causing him to tumble backwards, along with me… right on top of him. Yeah, I felt like a big klutz right then.

I got up, rubbing my sore bum, only to realize that it was silent. Really silent. I looked up just in time to see the shock on Wufei's face. He was standing in the doorway, frozen, almost looking… frightened. I guess it was a little scary to walk out and find us, the… uh… scary people, standing there staring at him. The shock quickly disappeared into Wufei's usual angry scowl and I felt a little relieved. I know, I shouldn't have liked the fact that he was mad. But, angry people I could deal with, shocked gapping fish people was a whole unfamiliar territory.

"What the hell…" Wufei's fists were clenched tightly, breath coming out quickly.

Seeing as no one else was quick to talk, I figured it was left up to me… again. "Uh… hey Wu!" Yeah, that was a pretty lame thing to say. But I guess it was better than, "Oh, don't mind us, we were only trying to sneak up on you, maybe drag you away and torture you with our so called 'hanging out' against your will." Did I just say that out loud? Hmm… I think I am actually feeling a bit of guilt now…. wait… no, that is just hunger.

Wufei made an odd growling noise between his teeth and surprisingly, I backed up a step. Was I starting to sweat now? Yeah, probably.

"What do you want Maxwell?" You see how he does that? He doesn't address all of us, just me! How fair is that?! I get blamed for everything!

"Eh…" The funny thing was, for once, I could not think of something to say. Yeah, I just stood there with my mouth half open, making some weird stuttering sounds as I tried to find my voice. After another glare from Wufei, and a couple more attempts to speak, I finally managed to spit out, "So what's up?" Give me another point under the retarded comebacks category.

I pushed past him, feeling a little more confident after seeing him roll his eyes at me. Yeah, he was now back to being annoyed. I liked annoyed, annoyed was good.

Trying to get past him may have not been the best idea, for he launched at me with a loud, "NO!"

Ok, so he didn't want me to go into his little… secret cave. Now I was really curious. Since Wufei was too busy trying to keep me at bay, he failed to notice my evil minion sneak past him and enter the forbidden Chinese territory. Yes, Trowa had skillfully teleported into the… umm… it looked like a storage room from what I could see of it.

"Barton! Damnit…" Wufei finally gave up his attempt to keep us away. I bet he thought of us as little parasites, digging and digging under his skin!

I moved past the defeated Wufei, smirk plastered on my face, chuckling as I saw his fists clench again. But what I saw inside had me freeze up, smirk replaced by a frown.

"Wu?" I looked to him, eyes probably showing my confusion. "What's all this?" My hand extended, fingers pointing to the tattered blankets on the floor. The blankets arranged so as to look like a bed. One would think that someone has been sleeping here… and it wasn't hard to figure out who exactly that person was. The same person was now standing there, just outside the dark storage looking room, eyes downcast, hiding from us.

"Wufei? Are you staying up here?" That was Quatre's voice, which held its usual calmness, the tone coming from a relaxed person. I don't know how Quatre can mange to sound so… fine, in a situation like this.

"Have you been 'living' here?" I asked, finding my voice to be nothing compared to my blond friends. It sounded a little shaky, maybe from my unease.

Wufei's head finally shot up, eyes boring into me. "Get out." He said, voice devoid of all emotion.

Fuck, he was definitely more than just the average 'angry' right now.

I gulped, quickly following his directions and high tailing it out the door. Trowa followed me, looking with interest to Wufei. I was a little surprised that Trowa didn't actually look amused for once, maybe because he realized the full meaning of this situation.

Wufei had been staying up here, at the school. This meant that he had been having problems… with family? If he had any. Had he been here long? Why? So many questions were bubbling in my mind. I really wanted to ask… but for once, I felt like I should not pry into his business. He hadn't wanted us to find out about this… I felt like a jerk for following him… for demanding such things from him.

Fucking hell! I wish I wasn't such a screw up!

Yeah, and there I go complaining about myself when the situation at hand is far more important.

All five of us just stood there on top of the staircase for awhile, Heero closest to the stairs, as if ready to split if anything were to break out. I tried to find my voice, but I still couldn't think of what to say without it coming out rude… without making Wufei even more mad at me.

"Go." The simple command, one word that had my heart pounding loudly in my chest. Wufei pointed his hand, shaking with suppressed anger, towards the stairs, gesture demanding us to leave. And we did. Trowa and Quatre followed behind me and Heero down the roof stairs. I knew Wufei wasn't going to come with us, even without looking back to check and make sure.

None of us spoke as we walked out of the school grounds. They all just silently followed me as I made my way towards the diner. Heero didn't even attempt to run away once. I directed them all to the booth farthest from the door, my favorite spot. They sat stiffly, all eyes downcast except for Trowa, who was looking at me, as if he knew I was about to say something.

"Let's bring Wufei some food!" Yeah, real smart that one was, but it might turn out to be a good idea! I mean, if Wufei was really living alone up there, then he must not be eating much. It was pretty obvious by the way he appeared, way too thin for someone his age.

Quatre and Heero were looking at me like I had just sprouted horns or something. I just grinned in response, picking up the menu to see what I could get the cook to put in a doggy bag.

"Duo… that doesn't really seem to be wise…" Quatre started, smiling apologetically at me.

"Why not?"

Heero snorted.

"You think it's funny Heero?" I asked, poking him in the forehead lightly.

"Hn." He moved further away from me, as if to ensure that I would not be able to reach him to poke him again. "You really are an idiot."

"Hey! It's a good idea! Besides, we need 'something' to apologize with. You know… peace offering sort a thing?"

"You want to apologize?" Quatre was looking at me weird again. Maybe he didn't expect me to be one to say I was sorry, I was wrong… shouldn't have been so pushy, shouldn't have done this… and a lot of other things that I managed to screw up.

Truthfully, I was a little afraid that Wufei would be really pissed off at me…. the permanent kind.

"Yeah." I looked down, finding my hands to be really interesting at that moment. My mind kept playing the scene of Wufei's face, the shock… and embarrassment he must have been feeling.

Emotions are an odd thing… emotions shouldn't be played with… especially with someone like Wufei… who hangs onto his pride. I really overdid it big time today.

TBC.

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Hope you liked that Chappy! Gave some more minor 1+2 hints. Hopefully more will happen between them soon, ne?! Please Review and tell me what you thought!

Raven: Thank you for Reviewing! Sorry about the grammar mistakes, I don't have a beta and am in no hurry to get one. ^.^' This chapter is alll Duo perspective, hope you enjoyed! Selune: Well I am glad you don't think I am moving too slow! I like writing more in detail… but I was afraid it was starting to get boring to the readers. Thank you so much for reviewing! Page of Wands: No, no… I don't think you are reading too much into Trowa, because there 'is' a small connection with him and…. something. bwahaha. It seemed to be obvious for some people. ^.^ Storm410: You're funny. ^.^ I'll try to not drag it out anymore… I do see what your saying with me speeding it up though. Anyways, hmm… hmmm…. Thank you for Reviewing!