Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Wise Blood ❯ The Mothership ( Chapter 2 )

Title: Wise Blood (Chapter 2 - The Mothership)

Disclaimer: See first chapter

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I woke up one morning nearly three weeks after transferring to Specter High School, and was barely able to comprehend the fact that it was Friday and that school was closed for some kind of town festivity. I did remember, however, that Hilde and the other members of "the Posse," as they were so affectionately called, had invited me to join them on a weekend trip to the shore. It was mid-September, and the weather hadn't started to really cool off yet. I was actually really excited to check out the shore, and what was more was the fact that Astarte's brother was joining us. This was probably the main reason I wanted to go, but I wasn't about to admit that to the Posse.

I glanced at my alarm clock and half yawned and half sighed when I saw that it was a little after eight o' clock AM, and that if I wanted to go on the beach trip, I had to get up. I pulled myself from the comfortable depths of my mattress and stepped onto the hardwood floor and all but dragged myself to the door. The hallway was scorching as I opened my bedroom door and I swore under my breath as I padded quickly to the bathroom down the hall. I heard my foster parents snoring as I passed their room, and heard the other kids in the large house giggle at something or other in their room.

The bathroom's fluorescent lighting bugged my eyes as I flicked it on and easily turned the shower on and pulled off my boxers before stepping in under the warm spray of water. My foster parents thought that I took extremely long showers because of my 4 foot long hair, but that wasn't the case. I could be in and out of the shower in under ten minutes, even if I wash the massive amount of hair pouring out of my skull.

It was drying it that took so long. As a matter of fact, I had been out of the shower half an hour and drying my hair for twenty minutes when the Posse showed up at the front door. One of the other orphans under foster care in that particular house had ushered them in, and I didn't notice until I heard Hilde and Astarte whistle and make cat-calls from the open doorway of the bathroom.

"Whoa, Duo! You have a nice chest…" Hilde whistled before Astarte slapped her over the back of the head. I found myself grinning insanely as I turned the blow dryer off.

"Why, thank you! Is your chest anywhere near as nice, I wonder?" My grin widened at the scandalized look on her face.

"Mister MAXWELL!" She mocked shock and grasped her shirt in a dramatic way, "I will indeed say my chest is even NICER than yours!"

Astarte snickered, before Dorothy's voice resounded from just outside the room, "Oh, stop it. We need him to get dressed so we can go already. Relena and Heero are out in the van waiting." She peaked her head inside, her eyebrows raised, "Duo, would you mind getting dressed and hurrying the hell up?"

I saluted to her, grinning and running a hand through my bangs. My hair was as dry as it was going to get with the blow dryer, and I scurried to my room to pull on a pair of black bondage pants and a random tee-shirt from my closet (which happened to be a Nirvana shirt). On my way out of the room I snatched my duffle bag and hair care products before following Hilde and the others out to the Mothership [1], pulling a brush through my hair as we went. I wasn't going to bother braiding it; it wasn't worth it. Instead I pulled it back into a loose ponytail as we reached the van.

Heero sat in the back, leaning against the metal wall as we pulled open the back latch and Hilde, Astarte and I clamored in. He nodded to us and I grinned widely at him, plopping down next to him I glanced around. Sitting in the front passenger seat, I saw Dorothy's kind-hearted girlfriend, Relena Peacecraft, her head buried in a book in her petite hands. My grin widened.

"Relena!" I stood up in the back, and scampered forward so I was between the driver's seat and the passenger's seat, "How wonderful to see you this fine day!"

She turned to look at me, her blue eyes smiling along with her face, "Hello, Duo. I'm fine, thanks. Are you looking forward to the trip?"

"Damn straight!" I smirked as I heard Heero snort. He'd taken to doing that quite a bit. "It should be great!"

She smiled at me as Dorothy slid into her seat.

"Sit back before I kick your ass." She muttered, and I complied, sitting back down next to Heero.

Hilde sat across from me, and she smiled evilly as Dorothy put the van in drive and shot down the street, "Want to know something about the bed and breakfast we're staying at?"

I leaned forward after glancing at Heero, seeing that he was smirking at Hilde's words, "Sure!"

Her smile widened, "It supposedly haunted by the spirit of a woman who fell from the top floor to her death." She paused, checking my face for a reaction. I quirked an eyebrow, urging her to continue, "Well, the story goes that the woman was in love with two different men. One was her fiancé," She paused again, "While the other was her fiancé's best friend. She loved them both to the point where she couldn't choose between them and ended up jumping to her death from the 3rd floor of the building, right into the jagged rocks jutting out from the ocean. The bed and breakfast is on a beautiful cliff over-looking the ocean, and the 3rd floor balcony is easy to jump from right into the water. Today people claim to see her make her trek up the main stairs and onto the balcony, and you can hear her wail her lovers' names on her way down to the abyss of death."

I had chills by the time Hilde finished telling her tale, and I was eager to get the B&B. I grinned and leaned back, glancing again at Heero, "I can't wait to get there."

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[1] "Mothership" - The name the Posse gave to Dorothy's old beat up van. It only has two seats, and the outside has a UFO airbrushed on.

A/N: ACK!! Two chapters in one day! I'm so happy! I could sing! ::sings:: O_o Hope you enjoyed. I'll have another chapter up soon!