Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Ugly ❯ A new friend ( Chapter 3 )

 

After shcool that day, he spotted the three muscateers ahead of him again, and quickly dived for shelter.

”Well, hello alley...” he mumbled almost amused, as he realized where he was.

”Hello trashcans.” he said and pulled out a cigaret.

Then he hopped on one the trashcontainers and smoked away while waiting to come out.

 

Then came weekend, the most blessed time of all times, and he and Zechs hang out together. Noin had gotten pissed and left for some 'quiet time' as she put it. She went to Zechs' place, while Zechs stayed at theirs.

He tried to coo at Noin, but this time she would't even yell back at him. She just left.

Une was spotted lying on the sofa, reading, and when she went to bed, Zechs and Duo took over the tv-screen, playing their hearts out.

 

Then begun the next week. The last before Zechs would go... He had promised to call Duo every weekend, and that made the boy feel a bit a better.

 

Monday went by as well as Tuesday, and Duo was still avoiding the three boys, that seemed to have developed a liking for this inparticular aspahalt laden street, because they were always walking it, instead of taking some other route.

Duo had developed a deep and warm friendship with The Alley.

Today though, as he was walking in a brisk and determined way towards his favourite dead-end, he got thoroughly surprised.

In all truth he really should have seen it coming. It was, after all, somebody's backyard, but for some reason he never thought that someone might actually be there.

 

He stopped dead staring at the boy, who had also stopped dead in the middle of throwing trash into the container.

The brightest green eyes that Duo had ever seen were blinking at him, the other eye only sometimes visible, when the wind saw it fit to raise a soft, chocolate brown fall of hair from hs face.

”This is a dead end.” The stranger said. ”Doesn't lead to anywhere...”

”I know.” Duo said, and could have kicked himself.

Instead of sneering at him, the other boy began to look interested. ”Oh... So what are you doing here then?”

”I... I come here to smoke.” Duo answered. Not a lie, really. He did.

”Yeah? Can you leave me two's? ” Now this was an attempt to form a friendship, if Duo had ever seen one. He wanted to just grab the opportunity, but felt compelled to warn the other first of some rather grim facts of life.

”You don't wanna know me... I'm a freak.” Duo kept his eyes on his shoes.

”Well... First of all, you don't look like a freak, you don't act like a freak... And the hell do I care, if you are one?” There was some very slight tingling in the soft, smooth voice, and Duo looked up to see the other harbouring a half of a smile on his face.

”Umm... I told that to these people once, and they kinda looked disappointed and said: 'Oh', and left...”

 

After this statement, the calm boy suddenly doubled over, and started to heave in laughter, pressing his hands on his knees. ”You don't- You don't really wanna know those people then... Anyway...”

After calmng down a bit, he straightened up, and wiped his eyes. Duo had begun to smile also. ”It is kinda stupid now, that I think about it...And to tell the truth, that was not the responce I had been waiting for... From them, that is...”

The boy smiled. ”Yeah, probably not... Nobody usually expects to be faced with overcoming stupedity untill it attacks...” He extented his hand. ”Trowa Barton”

Duo took the hand. It was strong, but skinny, long a bit bony fingers and a warm, hard palm. Duo decided he kinda liked the other's handshake. ”Duo Maxwell.”

They smiled to eachother, and Duo begun to dig for his cigarets. ”And I'm not going to leave you two's... I'll give you your own...” he kept digging.

”Are you sure? I mean, you won't run out, then..?” Trowa looked properly worried.

”Nah. My mom's got a huge stash at home, which means I won't run low. She's never noticed, and I don't really raid her that often...”

”Ok, ” said Trowa and nodded.

While they lit their cigarettes. Duo took a good look at the other.

The first thing to notice about him was his very strange, a little punkish hairstyle. It was a neat cut everywhere else, exept for that bang. It started from the crown of his head and covered his face on the left side, reaching his chin. It did like to wave in the wind though, leaving his face uncovered for some moments in time.

His face was rather lean and long, with a very tanned looking complexion, slightly hollow cheeks, and a narrow, completely straight nose. He had high, delicate looking cheecbones and an extremely refined shaped mouth.

A small, pointy chin was proudly high, though not cockily so, and long, dark eyebrows were streching in sophisticated arcs over the hooded, brightgreen eyes.

Overall, his face seemed to emanate sadness and withdrawal, some kind of elegant detachment of everything around him, but when he talked, the look disappeared, making him still seem extremely calm, but interested in his surroundings.

And when he laughed... His face changed completely. The skin around his eyes crinkled a lot, and his mouth twitched so that the right corner rose a bit higher than the left. The eyes themselves began to look almost painfully sharp, and were dancing with mirth like no-one's that Duo had seen.

To summarize: When Trowa Barton laughed, he began to look like an elf, or a wood goblin.

 

Duo found that he liked that too.

 

”So...Where do you go to school?” Duo asked, blowing a couple of smokerings to impress his new friend.

” I don't, really... I go to tests sometimes, but mostly I just work, and no-one really notices that I'm gone, at school...” Trowa blew five, flawless rings, and a sixth one, that went straight trough the previous ones.

Duo stared. ”You... You don't go to... Where did you learn to do that?”

”Around.” said Trowa, smiling a bit irritatingly, but not overly much so.

After awhile of some intense ringblowing Duo sighed.

 

”I go to the Cliff Town academy. Academy my ass. The whole place sucks, big time. And it's here now! Moved from CliffTown some fifty years ago!” Duo huffed. Trowa snickered.

”Yeah... But it's a good school, that. Long traditions and fine teaching... If the students suck, it doesn't mean that the school does...”

Duo gave him a look. ”Yes it does. That's actually exactly what it means...”

Trowa thought about that for awhile. ”Well...Perhaps..Kind off...Yeah.Yeah, s'pose it does mean that.”he relented.

”But you're still lucky. The teachers know what they're doing in CliffTown. You should try Misty Bog. Don't feel much like smiling there.”

”You go to MistyBog??” Duo was flabbergasted. ”But...You don't seem...” he gave an utterly lost look.

”What?” Trowa said, a little tauntingly, but smirking still. ”Retarded? A total brain-loss? ”

”That's not what I meant...” said Duo weakly. That had been exactly what he meant.

”Eeh... You snob.” But Trowa was laughing. ”I would have so much wanted to go to CliffTown, but momma said that MistyBog was closer to our home and thus more practical a choice... Now she would glare at me for trying to talk fancy... If she still lived, that is.”

 

”Oh... Oh god... I'm sorry...” Duo stuttered.

”Nah, don't be. All she ever did was drank. Dad bolted long before I was born. Probably right after I was conceived... Now my sis is taking care of me. Dropped out of college to do that. I figured, I gotta do something to help her with the bills...”

 

Duo felt humbled, ashamed and small. What did it matter that he had some acne... Be it a case of burning acne vulgaris or whatever. What did it matter, if he had some bad childhood memories. Who cared if he was an outcast. There were people with real problems, too... And Trowa spoke so coolly, almost nonchalant about them...

 

Almost as if reading his mind (but, in reality rather reading his face) Trowa suddenly said :”Hey. Don't feel bad. The torture's almost over for me anyway... Nothing's worse than being excluded from everything that other people do... It's like being thrown out of your own future. You got a real problem, too...”

Duo looked up. It seemed that the only expression on his face was that of surprise nowadays.

Trowa kept looking cool.

”But, hey”, he said, suddenly in a lot more cheerful voice, ”Let's just be glad we're not going to Wizard'sPeak! It's a lot better to be a fuck-up and a freak, than one of those snooty, high and mighty WP jerks. I swear, nothing would be worse than that!” He nudged Duo in a friendly way. ”And besides... I managed to con myself a full-time job though I'm underage, and now you've got me as your friend and I take you seriously, so, in the end, you're not a freaky outcast anymore, and I'm not THAT big of a loser after all....Eh?”

Duo was staring at this boy's face, marvelling his weird, weird optimism, but feeling generally better.

Suddenly a door burst open, a big, hairy arm showed and a voice roared ”TROOOWWAAA!!! We're are you, boy? Back to work, now, ya lazy ass sunnova..”

Trowa hopped very nimbly up and threw away the little that was left of his cigaret.

”Uh-oh. I gotta go now, but... I'll see ya? Tomorrow?”

”Yeah.” Duo had never felt that happy before. ”Yeah. Tomorrow.”

Trowa yanked his chin as a farewell, and then he disappeared trough the door.

Duo stood in The Alley for awhile, just staring at nothing, feeling giddy and a bit stupefied.

”I made a friend. I, Duo Maxwell, made a friend. All on my own, with no help from Zechs or mom. I made myself a friend. ”

 

 

”Well, what's the matter with Duo?” Noin said in an extremely suspicious voice. ”You're too happy. What have you done?”

”Fuck you too, Noin.” Duo chirped and skipped over to the tv, turning on the video channel, videos and his playstation.

As it happened, Noin was also sitting on the sofa, watching Baywatchers.

”HEY!! DUO! I WAS WATCHING THAT!”

Duo smirked and took his controller. On the screen, a blond haired youth was jogging up a rocky hill, about to enter a cave. He stopped to be covered by a new 'window' filled with weird dots, all linked together, and some glowing in odd colours.

 

”MOM!” Noin screamed. ”Duo started playing while I was still watching tv!”

 

From the kitchen came an irritated voice, that had a harsh and clipped tone: ”For heavens sake, Noin, you're twenty three! Handle it yourself!”

 

Noin sprung off of the sofa and ran to her room. Duo forgot to play for awhile. She just...Left? Without a fight?

She did have a tv in her room, too, but it was a lot smaller than the one in the livingroom, and she would't usually give up on telly-time when the lifeguards were on.

 

”Oh, Noin...” Une wailed when she heard her door bang shut.

”Where is Zechs anyway, honey?” she called after her, to change the subject, no doubt. Duo, personally might have waited a little longer... Like, 'till Noin came willingly out, or something... But not Une. No way.

The door creaked open a little. ”I don't know, mother. I don't know, where Zechs is. Somewhere partying with Treize, no doubt. He is either with that fucker, or then the other one sitting currently on our couch right now, The only time I see him is when he wants to fuck!!”

 

And the door slammed shut again. There was a momentary silence. Then Une roared: ”NO child of mine speaks to me THAT way! You will apologize immediately!” And Duo heard her go to Noin's door.

 

”Ok...” Said Duo. ”I felt more like drawing anyway, right now...” He turned off the game and television, and padded to his upstairs chamber.

 

Taking out his pens he felt something, that was as alien as the feeling of happines earlier that day.

He was looking forward for tomorrow.

 

 

The next day, after school, Duo headed straght for The Alley, almost running. When he got there, he pulled out a cigaret, deciding to smoke one while waiting for Trowa, since he had not emerged yet. Turning around to lean on the containers, he saw something, that made him choke on the smoke and drop his cigaret.

 

The alley was blocked by several guys, all from his school. They were looking at him in a rather unpleasant way, smirks on their faces.

”Well, well, well... ” One of them said. ”we'we been wondering where you always go to after school, you freak. Are we going off the rail, here..?” They all laughed.

”What if we would help you with that? I'm sure your mommy would appreciate that a lot... You could start by giving us those death bringing little rolls, there...”

 

Duo knew, that he would most probably get beaten up, whether he gave the cigarets to them or not... Since this was a rather public place, he might survive with only a couple of kicks, but no-one knew, really.

The stage was familiar to Duo... That was how they came after him everyday anyway. There was this one person, Alex Bahnner, who always led these attacs, then there was a guy doing this for boredom, one to please Alex and the rest might have even helped Duo out, hadn't it been their cool status on the line, then... Usually people treated Duo like something with no emotions. Something, that wasn't really even human, so it never occured to anyone that he might have complaints about this. And some people would have, of course, taken even more pleasure from knowing how much he suffered.

 

”Oh god..” Duo muttered. He threw his braid nervously over his shoulder, desperately thinking about possible escapes. He might be able to squeese trough them and run to safety, maybe. They would get pleasure out of seeing him run... He could try to fight them, but that would only make it worse.

Maybe he could just curl in a ball and take it..? But he would not give his cigarettes. That he would not do... He might die because of it, but he still wouldn't give them!

Perhaps his defiance was showing on his face, because faster than a lightning, Alex surged forward, extented his fist and struch his nose. His vision blurred and pain exploded in the center of his face, radiating all around it, burning in his cartiledges. Blood begun to flow from his nose in a slow stream. He lifted his hand to his nose, and smeared it in blood.

He heard distantly Alex laughing and groping around in his pockets taking the cigarettes.

Alex had a sharp nose, like a bird's beak, and dirty blond hair that was hanging limp on the sides of his face.

”You should always obey those above your station, Maxwell, That way we could have dealt with this in a civilized manner... See? We always get our way anyway, no matter what. So, that was for disobedience, dog...” Some guys laughed.

And this is for educating you a bit... Just so, that things like these won't be happening again... It's for your own good really, Maxwell”

The air had gone still. It was ominous, even for Duo who was huddled inside the pain.

Someone said with a hesitant voice: ”Alex...”

Müller. Alex's side kick. A crew cut, darkskinned boy, rather nice without Alex, but that almost never happened.

Then it happened so fast, Duo didn't understand what hit him.

In a whizz of air, Alex's fist flew forward, and there were no restraints this time. It connected with Duo's jaw from the left side, breaking the bone in a hideous crack and Duo screamed. After that he fell, and blood was leaking from the corners of his mouth. He felt such pain, that it was almost impossible to breathe, and then he spat out a tooth, and swallowed a large gulp of blood. His hands were on his face, and he could feel that it was all bloodied up. Tears of pain were leaking from his eyes. There was some shouting, and some of it sounded horrified. ”But we were just gonna...” he heard. ”You didn't say ANYTHING about...” Duo could't comprehend any more. Then there was some different kind of screaming, noises, running. A hand touched his shoulder. A whisper, or was it a shout? ”Duo?” He opened his eyes only a little bit to see green. ”No...” he sobbed. ”No...”

”Them... Them..! ”

There was a quick squeese of a shoulder and running steps. He felt a bit relieved, thouh not much. The pain took his conciousness for a moment, then it it re-emerged again, this time together with a throbbing feeling. He swallowed more blood.

There was more yelling, again. Somebody grabbed his arm, shaking him a little, saying frantically: ”Duo? Duo??”

Then he heard: ”Don't touch him! Don't fucking touch him!! Call nine one one, princess(1), if you want to be of any help.”

He opened his eyes, seeing stars for his effort, and then he lost it. He wasn't really fainting, but in a shock, and felt himself being lifted in the ambulance. Then he just whimpered to have a focus. Then he slept.

 

Somebody was swatting his face lightly. He was laying on a doctors examination table, and somebody was holding something cold to his nose.

”Well hello, young man. Awake, I see... Looked worse than it was, I'll tell you that right now, though you did loose a tooth... Very cleanly, though...I put on light stiches, would have been an oral surgeons job, really... You will need x-rays...”

”I'm doctor Winner, mr Maxwell...” Now she was tying something around his face.

”The fracture was not as bad as it could have been, and it's located at the tip of the articulation...Basically, small fractures in the joints will heal in about a month, but we have to tie your jaws up...”

 

Yes, it was wrapping, going around his head, under his chin. Inside it he noticed, that he was biting a small pillow of gauze, and on the table were some small, sterile packages of it, obviously going home with him.

His nose had a cotton tufft on the other nostrill. He drew in breath, through the other.

The doctor smiled. She was an attractive woman in her late twenties, with a dark golden bob-cut hair and some red lipstic.

”Now that was a problem, there. You see, your nose was bleeding, but so was your mouth. I could't just wrap them both shut...”

Duo managed a smile, and it was genuine. He could't talk, though.

 

”I've injected some anesthesiac in your gums... I made you also take some pills, though you don't probably have a recollection of that... I sent your mother to the pharmacy to get the medication prescriptions, and that lovely, white haired young man is pacing around outside, just waiting to take you home. There will be at least two weeks of sick leave, come back if you need more, and... Take good care of yourself. I understand it wasn't a fight... So, I'm not going to lecture. Come back in one week for a check-up.”

 

Duo nodded as much as he could. Then he took a deep breath. The doctor took the cotton off from his nostrill. The bleeding had stopped. Then the doctor went to the door to open it and call Zechs in.

 

”Time to go home”.

 

(1) No, not Relena. Not even a girl at all.

Tbc