Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Wasurenai yo - I won’t forget ❯ Chapter 4

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimers: I garner no profit from this fic. But if they want to give me a G-boy or two, I'd gladly accept them as a donation!

Warnings: Angst, spoilers in first part- Endless waltz alternate end- so AU, Shounen ai, character death?

Pairings: 1+2, 1+R, 3+4, 5xS, eventual 1x2, 3x4

AN: Editing frenzie ^_^

Wasurenai yo
by priscel

four

Three sets of small sneakered feet ran through the hall barely containing their laughter behind clenched teeth and hands. Bumping into each other, they scrambled into a custodial closet when they spotted a shadow at the end of the hall.

“Is he gone yet?”

“Ow! I wanna see too!”

“Shhh! We’re gonna get caught.”

Two pairs of brown eyes and one pair of green peered through the crack of the door and watched as a black-haired giant with fierce blue eyes ran half past them, then stopped to bellow, “Emy, Tamara, and Inari! Don’t think you can hide forever. I’ll find you and when I do the tickle torment will be unending.” He added a menacing laugh before disappearing around the corner.

They all giggled in anticipation, piling out and stumbling up the steps to their ultimate goal. They had been kept away from the second floor rooms, especially from one room: it was the second door on the left from the stairs.

“It’s not right,” Tamara whispered as they edged over to the door, “that I can’t bring my alien to show and tale. Even after I told him that he’d be alright.” She shook her head in mock-adult disapproval, her stern expression was more akin to a huffy pout. “But you guys’ll be the first to see him,” she whispered excitedly with a bright smile.

“How do you know it’s a he?” The green-eyed boy with bushy black hair challenged, bumping into Tamara when she stopped behind Emy at the second of several closed doors.

“‘Cos he has long hair that I can brush for him.”

Inari made a face and pushed his goggles further up into his hair, “that means it’s a girl.”

“No, it’s a boy cos . . . cos he is.”

“Then why does he have long hair?”

“BeCos he’s a special alien that does what I say, so I wanted him to have long hair and he does! So there.” She stumped her foot and crossed her arms.

“It’s an alien so he could be an it.” The small auburn haired boy, Emy, offered with a quiet smile.

Inari smiled back then pursed his lips, his green eyes narrowing at Tamara. “That’s nothing, my alien’s a hundred times better than yours.”

“So! I don’t want your stinky alien anyways.” She squared her shoulders and put her headless doll inside her shirt when she turned the knob and pushed it open slowly. She peered inside with the two boys at her back. She turned back to them with a smile, “He’s sleeping. Shhh, come on.”

They tiptoed into the carpeted room and inched toward the bed. It had been a week since she last saw her alien. When Cedric had brought him to their car, the boy seemed so small, smaller than her all balled up in the blanket. Cedric had told her that she wouldn’t be able to see him for a while since he was hurt in a bad way. She knew that. She could tell by all the dark booboos that covered his arms and the blood on his face. She didn’t know another word for booboo, but that’s what they were because Alice called them that when she kissed the one Emy got on his arm from Inari pushing him.

Inari snorted at the pale and heavily bandaged body in the bed. “He doesn’t look like an alien and his hair isn’t that long.”

“Yes it is.”

“No, it’s not. It looks like it stops at his shoulders like mine.”

“Nah uh.”

“And I bet he’s not an alien, a mummy . . . Yea! With spiders and bugs all inside his body, so when he opens his mouth all you see is slime and webs.”

“That won’t work on me! So don’t talk about my Alien like that and for your information his name’s Crest.” She wagged her finger at him, pantomiming a stern expression she’d seen Emanuel’s Mom and their teacher Ms. McCaskill make when they wanted to get a point across to them.

“Eh? That’s a stupid name, for a stupid looking alien!”

“You meanie!” She yelled, stumping her feet before she smiled at him. “Giichi!”

“Huh?” He blinked at her in confusion. “How did you-”

“Giichi! Giichi!”

“Shut up! That’s not my name!” Inari shouted, his voice rising each time she said it. His full name was Inari Giichi Takemura, he didn’t understand why he had to have a middle name, especially one he didn’t like.

Emanuel leaned against the wall and snickered as he watched his two friends yelling at each other and before long running around the beds after each other. Tamara had just bounced, half crawled across one bed before she turned and hit Inari in the head with her headless doll stopping the chase.

“Giichi!” She shouted with an excited squeal and jumped on the next occupied bed in hopes of escape at his playful cry of vengeance. Her pigtails smacked her in the face when two bandaged hands caught her shoulders.

“Iie! Tamara, Usse! You baka!” He had half his body on the bed when it shifted causing him to go tumbling down to the floor. “Ow. Tamara, why did you-“ He gawked at the wrapped face that searched around the room blindly before settling one uncovered violet eye on him. Inari’s initial shock faded and he scowled at pale face.

Tamara blinked up at the wrapped person who had turned her to sit on his legs while he held her still by holding her arms. She blinked when his lips moved in a soundless whisper as he stared at Inari who was sprawled, frozen on the floor. She leaned into him putting her ear as close as dared to his chapped lips.

“He-” She heard him half-say, then try to say it several times more.

“‘He’ what?” She looked from him to Inari who now sat cross legged on the floor with a frown on his annoyed, flushed face before turning his head obstinately away from the two on the bed. Tamara glared at Inari as she took Duo’s cold hands from her arms and rubbed one large one between her own to warm it up. “Don’t let Inari scare you. He always looks like that.”

Duo blinked down at the bright brown eyed girl who smiled up at him before she blew a raspberry at Inari. Inari did it back and turned his back to them grumbling ‘bakas’ as he moved. The world doubled for a moment and all Duo could hear was the little girl calling to him, calling him ‘Crest’.

‘Crest?’ He thought groggily, wincing and pulling his hand away only to have a glass of water pressed into it by the quiet boy who had been leaning against the wall.

“Tamara says you’re an alien but I know you’re not because aliens have antennas.” Emanuel said matter-of-factly with a smile as he took the glass back once Duo was finished and then plopped down next to him.

He had been awake a few times and he would use that term loosely because he remembered only glimpses of faces, voices and most of them was the sound of children playing. He had some odd dream about a church and almost always jerked into wakefulness, gasping for air and queasy with the taste of ashes in his mouth. These kids reassured him that he hadn’t been dreaming, that there were children in this place. They also reminded him of something he couldn’t put his finger on and knew it had something to do with why he got all choked up when he heard the sulking boy on the floor say that word.

“Well,” she began with a slight pout, “not all aliens look like aliens y’know.” She said matter-of-factly, putting her headless doll in his hand and smiling at him. “You can play with Lanely whenever you want. She chases the bad dreams away so you can borrow her for tonight if you need to.” She said holding up the doll.

He blinked his one eye owlishly at the headless doll before taking it. The pull at the back of his left hand stopped him from looking at the doll more closely. He nodded his thanks as he examined his half-bandaged left hand, the IV that came out the back of it and led to two clear bags of liquid that hung from an antique coat rack.

“So you can’t talk.” The sullen looking boy laid his head on his crossed arms on the bed, inching closer to the mummy’s leg, not wanting to be left out as his friends made themselves comfortable around the person. He eyed the mummy’s long, uneven brown hair that mostly stopped just below his shoulders and pursed his lips so that bottom one stuck out in defiance. “But you sure don’t look like an alien.”
Duo let out a short bark of laughter before rasping out water and Emanuel rushed to give him another glass of it from the pitcher on the bedside table. Emanuel sat back on the bed with a curious expression that mirrored the other two. Duo smiled, holding the glass in his free hand, turning it back and forth in thought. “I’m not an alien, I think.” He said with a gravely voice, taking a huge gulp from the glass to finish it off.

“Well you’re not.”

“Leave’im alone.”

“Tamara, he’s a peoplez. A mummy peoplez.”

“A mummy peoplez?”

Inari nodded his head, a self-satisfied smirk that said ‘I know what you are’ directed at Duo. “They eat kids like us. They like the girls best.”

“So what Giichi, he’s my peoplez and he won’t eat me.”

Inari made an irritated sound and turned away from the bed again with his head bowed. He didn’t understand why the mummy had to get all the attention.

Duo leaned down and ruffled the shaggy black head of hair, inadvertently pushing the goggles down over Inari’s eyebrows and chuckling at the boy’s mumbled irritation. “Ok, so I’m a mummy then.”

“Toldja!” Inari turned fully around and put his hands over the bandaged one on his head and gave Tamara an ‘I was right’ smirk.

“So! Crest is still my friend.”

Duo nodded with an amicable smirk, “Though I’d rather play with you guys than eat you. Can you imagine how huge I’d be if the three of you were in here?” He pointed at his flat stomach and gestured with his right hand at the size his stomach would be as he continued to speak, “Bigger than an elephant!”

They laughed and offered larger animals, real and imagined, than the one he used. Tamara turned back to him with a hopeful look. “Crest, do like your name?”

“Hmm . . . I don’t think ‘Crest’ suits me.”

“Oh, that’s ok.”

“Toldja!” Tamara stuck her tongue out at Inari and Inari ignored her with a smug smirk as he sat cross-leg by Duo’s feet. “What about Luciola?”

“That’s your Dad’s name.”

Inari had a thoughtful look on his face. “Ok, what about Haku? Or Sumire (1) because of your eyes.”

“No, Jack?”

“What’s your name?” Emanuel asked logically not trying to give him a new name if he already had one as he bounced lightly on his knees on the bed.

Duo opened his mouth as if to respond, but came up short. He tried again, “Uh . . . ah . . . hmm . . . call me D.” He got out with a pained smile, cradling the right side of his head over his bandaged eye. The sudden quiet made him realize he had closed his eye. He wanted to keep it closed, his eyelids felt so heavy but he dragged it open, surprised to be looking into three concerned faces.

“Does it hurt?”

“You ok?”

“Do you want some mo’ water?”

He smiled at the three of them and lifted his heavy head in an attempt to answer to find small hands trying to steady him when he swayed, and fell forward.

“S’ok.” Came his mumbled reply, unsure if he could say much else. He got his hands under him, though they shook with the effort of holding his weight, and gave them each a pat on top of their heads. He figured he’d moved too much too soon, not to mention the hollow pit that was his stomach didn’t seem to want to hold the water he drank. He swallowed a few times and tried to give them a reassuring look and not a nauseous one but the smile was shaky at best as he slowly lowered himself to the bed. He almost blacked out from the pain that shot through his back when the muscles there gave out. He dropped to the mattress with a pained hiss and the children backed away.

“Here.” Tamara scooped up Lanely from his lap and put her on his chest. “She’ll make the hurt go away.”

Duo gave another shaky smile and closed his eye. As he lapsed into unconsciousness, he wondered how he knew where each of his new friends was and that it was the one called Giichi who pulled the sheets up to his shoulders.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Cedric doubled back, asking himself for the seventh time why he agreed to play this game with the three rascals in the first place. Within the two hours of playing the game with them, he had found and chased them all over the place. And now the little buggers were nowhere to be found. Well not exactly, he had checked all the floors except the third.

He sighed, realizing whom they’d probably gone to see. He really didn’t see why he had to look after the trio today minus one bored Maggie who was stuck with the other seventeen teens, receiving the ‘talk’ from the other adults. It was necessary though when they’d caught some of the teens getting ‘freaky,’ as Hank put it, in one of the empty rooms at the back of the Inn. Though he would’ve appreciated Maggie’s help because Tamara would be spellbound by her idol/rival and he’d have tied the boys up. A corner of his mouth curved upward at the thought, ‘Maybe I could just tie all three of them up when I get there.’

They were the most troublesome three out of all twenty-four kids at the Inn and they got into everything. He would talk to them and remind them to ask next time, though he’d admit that all the other times they did he had said no. But that was beside the point and didn’t necessarily mean he would’ve said that this time.

He gave himself a wry smirk, of all the things he expected to find in that cockpit he never expected it to be a kid. He had told the girls that they had to keep it a secret what they’d found him in. The boy had been in terrible shape and for the life of him he couldn’t figure how the boy managed to survive in that cockpit. The school nurse, Karen, had done what little she could, cleaning him up without jarring him but he was waif thin. They made sure to feed him less than half a cup of soup or water with a teaspoon and started all over again with what was left when he threw it up.

It was a painful four-day process but they had to get something into him to help keep him going until they could get a real doctor. He hated the way the other adults had put all the pressure on the two of them. He had already decided that if the boy died he would take full responsibility for it, but their behavior . . . just because he was a medical student didn’t mean he had the full capabilities of a trained and tried physician.

Thomas, Pam and Jerry had been sent by the eldest members of their group (Hank, Karen, and Bishop & Jesse Harden) several times to LA in search of help and on the fifth day since the boys’ arrival they brought back a harried old man. He was injured, called himself Campbell and told them that they should be grateful to have him because he had experience as a field medic. He and the trio scavenged for supplies and ended up coming back with a truck load of medical supplies along with some food and other necessities.

Everyone, who wasn’t preoccupied with their individual tasks, bombarded the trio with questions about home. They told them that for the most part, the city had been evacuated. The Preventers had left, what was becoming their usual calling card, a toll free number so anyone could contact the rescue teams for help because they knew there were still many people hiding within the ruin city. The same number had come over the radio, he had tried it but it was almost always busy.

He’d gotten through once, though, and left a message entailing their location, that fifteen adults and forty-two children were boarding at the Inn with four injured people. He gave them no more than that. He didn’t want to risk the kid being in worse hands. He could’ve just left him in that cockpit like Hank suggested and been no worse for ware. But that wasn’t him, he believed in being a doctor and he wanted more than anything to save lives, make a difference through his practice even if it was in an insignificant way. He didn’t want to see another person die, not like his family had.

He’d been reluctant to let Hank know anything, but the four-year, venerated police detective only shrugged it off and told him to tell him when he was ready. Once he did, Hank put it to him like this: Firstly, he owed him a lot for saving Shalita’s life when he joined their group. Secondly, he had his reasons for agreeing to keep it secret and left it at that, leaving Cedric in his prided 4x4 Bronco to rig the cockpit with explosives.

That had left Cedric wondering, even more so when the good-natured 40-year-old cop lingered by the cockpit before returning to him to send it and all its bits tumbling down into the Canyon. Hank had been right that sealing the cockpit muffled the sound of the grenades going off inside.

Cedric stopped at the public phone to the right of the stairwell. One moment he had been staring at the phone in front him, the next he had the receiver to his ear and the last cold key, number 4, of the Preventer aid number depressed beneath his finger. He waited and glanced at the half-open door he was headed to, thinking but never quite giving voice to his mental machinations as he waited.

“starLA. All circuits are busy, please try your call again later.”

He closed his eyes and with a tight self-reproaching smile he hung up.

‘Why did I even bother?’ But he knew why, many of the children wanted to go home and they all wanted to know if any of their family was among the survivors. He crossed the short distance to the open room. The door creaked when he pushed it all the way open. He rubbed at his eyes and guessed either Hank or Alice had come to visit the boy this morning and opened the curtains.

‘It’s too quiet,’ he surmised as he listened to the boys’ heavy breaths while rubbing his eyes.

“Maybe they went,” His words trailed off as he smiled at the sight before him. His three charges were sound asleep around the boy they had found in the desert. The boy had Tamara’s doll in his hand and Tamara had her head pressed to his hip. Inari was sleeping with his mouth open and his limbs all akimbo at the foot of the bed and over the boys’ feet. Emanuel seemed to have wormed his way under the boys’ right arm and was currently making a cheek size drool mark on the boys bandaged chest. He chuckled quietly and decided to move Emanuel first as he walked quickly past the other bed that was stripped bare to the bathroom.

He returned with a basin of water, two bottles of antiseptic, iodine and two packages full of gauze. ‘Hmm still sleeping, lucky me.’ He thought as he set the items on the bedside table and gently picked up Emanuel and placed him on the other bed and then did the same with the other two. He was relieved that the rug rats were sleeping, making it easier for him to keep an eye on them while he changed and cleaned the boys’ burns and cuts.

He quickly and efficiently unwrapped Duo’s left hand and cleaned the stitched gash there, removing dried blood and scabs as he made his way across the boys’ calloused palm.

‘The boy must have been moving around,’ he hoped and then wondered what the boy had done to get such deep cuts in his hands as he quickly finished the dressing and did the same as he went up his arm to his shoulder where his uneven hair trailed across his chest.
‘I really should even it up a little for him.’ He thought, remembering how he unhooked the harness to find that in several places the boys’ long braid had melted into some of the metal lining behind his seat and was burned in multiple places. He had to cut it to free him.

Cedric took in a quiet breath when he uncovered Duo’s eye to find them both open and staring at him, except this time there was awareness in them than when he had first been caught by them in the cockpit. He smiled warmly, “Hey, I see you have yourself a fan club already.”

Duo looked out the corner of his eye to see three lumps on the opposite bed behind Cedric. He smiled, he hadn’t had that dream again, but he could smell the smoke. He tried to remember what he dreamed but it was already slipping away. He had been some place, a school, but there was quite a few schools and hundreds of different faces so none gave him one specific place he could try to remember. No one specific face . . . then there was two, no four familiar somethings in his head. They were people, but he couldn’t see them through the fog there. He felt his head start to pound as he tried to make them clearer, to see who they were. They felt important, well at least to him, so he concentrated and just when he thought he was getting somewhere a bright light made him drop those strings of memory. Duo jerked and Cedric laughed half-heartedly.

“Sleeping with your eyes open Kid?” He joked, his smile fading when Duo pouted and turned away from him, the muscles of his jaw twitching as he gritted his teeth. Cedric saw the strain in Duo’s face and sighed. “Sorry about that Kid. I guess I could have warned you before I checked your eyes.” Cedric checked his eyes one more time before he began cleaning the long stitched gash that ran at an angle from Duo’s right eyebrow up into his hairline near his right temple. He checked it for swelling, infection, asked Duo if he felt any pressure on his eye and then checked his head for tender spots.

Cedric brushed Duo’s long bangs out of his eyes. “We should cut this...” Cedric suggested, wondering about the sudden glare then the confusion that crossed Duo’s face before letting the unruly bangs sweep back down in front of his face. “I’m glad you’re awake, it makes my task much easier and reassures me that you’re not going to vegetate here and start sprouting leaves.”

Duo smiled at that and winced when Cedric touched a particularly sore spot at the back of his head.

“It also lets me know if I’m causing you any discomfort. Now that you’re awake, you should try laying on your side or sleeping upright. For a while until the tenderness subsides. If you can, let the Doctor know about it, with those three I have my hands full.” He smiled again and Duo relaxed, his body tensed up the moment the black-haired man with oddly colored eyebrows entered the room and had been aware of his every movement even though he couldn’t seem to wake up as fast as he wanted. He squeezed the arm that was looped in front of him, supporting him as Cedric removed the bandages on his back. His back felt like it was on fire when the air touched it and he couldn’t help the whimpering sound he made when Cedric began washing his back. He blinked up at the sorrowful blues that were apologizing before the words actually hit his ears.

“Sorry, bare with it for a while. It seems you opened up a few of these too.”

Duo stared at Cedric even after Cedric turned back to his task. Blue. Cedric’s eyes were blue but those weren’t familiar, those weren’t the ones he remembered. The ones that came to mind were speckled with grey, and he thought they were the deepest blue he had ever seen. ‘The murky ocean depths where I hid my buddy a few times when I came to Earth.’

Duo gripped the side of his head from the pain as images of a massive mobile suit with haunting green eyes flashed behind his eyes.

“Hey.”

He shook his head, but the small movement sent a fresh wave of pain through him.

“Hey, Kid.” This time the voice became more urgent. Duo sluggishly opened his eyes to see Cedric’s concerned face. “Kid, stay with me. Just shout or hit me if it hurts, don’t bottle it up like that.”

“I-I want t-to to remember.”

Cedric carefully kept his facial expression in check as he looked down into the boys’ pinched face. Doctor Campbell warned him that Duo had severe head trauma and that without the appropriate equipment they had no way of determining the extent of the damage.

He smiled at the boy, “Don’t go popping brain cells by forcing it.” He flicked Duo’s upturned nose and smiled again when Duo glared, the pain in his face falling away. “Remember you’re still recovering and all those knocks you took to that noggin’ of yours may be limiting what you can recall. Let it heal and be happy that you’re awake. According to the books you shouldn’t be conscious. But I have it on good authority that you’ll be as good as new in no time.” At Duo’s quizzical look, he nodded toward the sleeping jumble of limbs on the other bed and then put the doll in Duo’s freshly bandaged hand.

Duo squeezed it and sighed as Cedric began working on his back again. “Do you know me?”

Cedric paused before dipping the rag in the basin at the quiet longing in the boy’s scratchy voice. “No.”

Duo bowed his head, ignoring the protest of the aching muscles in his neck, so his long bangs covered his face. He was staring at his hands, watching them shake even though he fisted them in hopes of stopping the uncontrolled movement. ‘Weak. I am not weak.’ He listened to Cedric when he started talking again, blocking out the word that echoed in his mind which for some reason he associated with a blurred but distinctively Asian face. “But you are more than welcomed here. Like those little buggers over there, I’d like to be your friend. I’m Cedric, by the way, so what can we call you? I don’t mind addressing you as ‘Kid’ but for the most part, it would get a little confusing seeing as how I tend to call all the other kids around here ‘Kid’.”

Duo smirked, “Call me D.”

“Heh, an initial.” Cedric shrugged. “It’s better than ‘Crest’.”

Duo tilted his head to the side in question as he peeked up at Cedric through his bangs, Tamara had called him that. He arched a brow when he was jostled slightly by Cedric’s sudden laugh.

“Its Tamara’s favorite toothpaste.”

tbc...

(1)Sumire is general Japanese word for violet, regarded as a girl’s name but Inari doesn’t know that.

Bishop pronounced Be-shup is Shoshone for ‘red clay’.