Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Flirt ❯ In The Middle of the Night... ( Chapter 3 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The Flirt Chapter Three

Three nights later, Harriet had finally managed to fall asleep. That day had been particularly busy, what with running around talking to this person or learning about this subject and then getting into another argument with Wufei (something which had become a daily event), so she was grateful for slumber. This made her unable to hear Quatre's hurried knocking on her door.

"Harriet! Harriet!!" he hissed. No response. He quietly opened her door and tiptoed to Harriet's bed. "Harriet! Get up!"

"Wha? Quatre, what is it? I just fell asleep," she mumbled, looking up at the blonde in blue pyjamas who was standing next to her bed.

"Sorry, but everyone's gone," he said.

Harriet jolted herself into a sitting position. "What?"

"They're gone."

"Well, we gotta go find them!" she exclaimed, leaping out of bed. A glance at the clock revealed that it was 11:25. Great, the middle of the night, she thought. Suddenly the red digtal display went black.
"Wonderful. The power's out," Quatre sighed.

"We'll have to make do. Come on," Harriet said.

Harriet and Quatre left her room and started down the hall, unsure of where they were going.

"Hey! Lemme -- mmph!" Someone had grabbed Harriet from behind with a hand clasped over her mouth. She slammed her foot down on her attacker's and elbowed whoever it was in the stomach, and Harriet was released from their grasp.

"You okay?" Quatre asked. Harriet nodded.

"You've got pretty good aim," came from the shadows.

"Duo????"

The braided pilot stood up slowly. "That's me," he croaked.

"Shit, Duo, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was you," Harriet apologized.

"It's okay. I didn't know it was you either," Duo said.

"Do you know where anyone else is?" Quatre asked.

"Nope," Duo replied. "We might find Heero downstairs though. That's where I saw him last."

So the trio made their way down the nearly pitch-black hallway, down the even darker stairs, and to another lightless corridor.

"Does anyone have a flashlight?" Harriet asked. The unanimous answer was no. "Damn."

They checked every room and found nobody. "This is getting irritating," Duo grumbled.

"Yeah..." Harriet agreed.

Click.

"What was that?" she whispered, stopping dead in her tracks.

"What was what?" Quatre asked.

"Stay right there." The cold monotone of the voice left no doubt that Heero was behind them. "I'll shoot."

"Heero, it's us," Harriet said. "Harriet, Duo and Quatre."

Quiet footsteps approched them. "All right." The gun disappeared. "Where's everyone else?"

"We don't know. That's why we're looking," Duo said.

Further searching led them to the large hangar-type building where their Gundams were kept. Flashlights were located, and the hunt for Trowa and Wufei continued.

Finding Wufei proved easier than they thought. Without any indication, Nataku went after them, but stopped abruptly at Harriet. The others had ducked out of the way or were elsewhere at the time, but she stood stock still with the large object mere centimetres away from her face.

"Wufei? It's us!" she called. The appendage retracted back to its original position and Nataku's cockpit opened. Wufei stumbled out.

"What are you doing?" he called.

"We were looking for you," Harriet said. "Have you seen Trowa?"

"No," Wufei answered.

Harriet stomped her foot in frustration and bit her lower lip. "He's gone."

"Well obviously."

"Don't start Wufei," Harriet warned sternly, glaring at him. "Maybe we should split up. We've been almost everywhere and haven't found Trowa yet."

"Do you think someone kidnapped him?" Duo asked.

"Kidnapped? What would their motive be?" Quatre wondered.

"Maybe it has something to with that note I got," Harriet murmured.

"The same person might have something unpleasant in store for whoever interferes," Heero commented.

"Then if we split up we could be in a lot of trouble," Quatre said.

"Groups then. We can break into groups and split up. As well, someone should stay in one place so we can check in every so often," Harriet decided, suddenly going into Domineering Mode. "That way we'll know when to start worrying."

"I'll stay," Heero volunteered.

The pairs ended up being Duo and Quatre, and Wufei and Harriet. Neither of the last two were happy with that arrangement, but said nothing.

"Check in every hour, got it?" Heero said. "Good. Now get outta here."

~*~**~*~

"You're one of my more quiet hostages."

"I have nothing to say," Trowa said, glaring at his captor from under his bangs.

"Most of the people I keep here have lots to say," the dark figure continued. He wore all black and as mask. His voice was distorted by a device for that purpose. "Normally they tell me that I won't get away with this or that their friends will come rescue them. Why are you not the same?"

"I don't need to say what you've all ready heard," Trowa muttered. He was furtively trying to unbind his hands from the ropes that tied them behind the back of the hard wooden chair he was sitting on. One of Catherine's knives would be really useful right now, he thought.

"I'm debating on what to do with you right now," Trowa's captor said. "I could kill you, but that would defeat my purpose."

"What is your purpose?" Trowa asked warily.

"Well, if you were dead, that Harriet girl wouldn't have a reason to come, would she?"

Trowa's eyes widened. "Harriet? What do you want with her?"

"Ah, more talkative now that it concerns a girl, are you?" He laughed. "Maybe revealing my true identity would help."

"Perhaps," Trowa said sarcastically.

His captor said, "I could let you hear my voice. You wouldn't recognize it now anyway."

Now? Trowa thought. What does he mean by that?

~*~**~*~

"Oh, would you just shut up?"

"Why should I?"

"You started it!"

"Then you end it!"

"I can't stand you!"

"The feeling's mutual, woman!"

As expected, less than five minutes into their search, Harriet and Wufei were arguing. Normally their topic was something reasonable, like politics or history, and it was more of a heated debate, but now they were just at each other's throats. How it started was forgotten now.

"And you know what else I can't stand? How you refer to me!" Harriet said. "I do have a name, Wufei. I wish you'd use it."

That shut him up. The moments of silence that followed would be golden, until one of them said something...

"Harriet?"

"What?" Harriet said, exasperated.

"I think I've found something," Wufei told her. He knelt down and picked up the object.

"The picture!" Harriet exclaimed. "That means he must've been here."

"What?" Wufei didn't understand.

Harriet showed Wufei her copy of the photograph. "I knew Trowa when we were little. This is the proof. If I still have mine, that means Trowa's been here and he lost his," she explained.

"So he's been down this way," Wufei confirmed.

"Yeah..." Harriet checked the time. "We'd better head back. It's almost time to check in."

~*~**~*~

"Anything over there Quatre?" Duo asked.

"Nope," Quatre replied, "but it's time to check back. Come on."

"I'm coming."

Duo and Quatre had found an incredibly messy room that looked like it could use some renovations. They were wary about going in but decided to check it out anyway.

Duo climbed over an overturned table and made his way through the mess. "Who know they'd let this place get so -- Ahhh!"

Quatre stopped. "Duo? Duo? Where are you?" He ran back, and skidded to a halt near to where Duo had been. He shone his flashlight around, searching for Duo and calling his name. Nothing.