Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Living Shinigami ❯ Chapter Three - Goose Hunt ( Chapter 3 )

A/N: Not much to say here, except that I really pity Wufei. Oh, and I got my driver's permit today! does a happy dance Anyway, I don't own anything except for my plot and my Duo and Heero plushies. Hugs for everyone!

"Living Shinigami"

Chapter Three

Goose Hunt

Chinatown was as busy as it usually was on a Friday afternoon, which said a lot. It also meant that it was next to impossible to find a single person among the masses. Or, rather, it would have been were it not for the fact that the man Wufei was searching for was Duo Maxwell.

When the pilot from L2 wanted to be hidden, he was invisible and intangible, but the rest of the time there might as well have been a flashing sign attached to the end of his braid saying ‘look at me!’ However, it was still nearly impossible to follow his trail quickly enough to actually catch up to the violet-eyed man, especially in a busy part of a city.

“Purple eyes you say?” a man at one of the numerous shops lining the street Duo was said to have passed through asked. “A young man with odd eyes did pass through here about ten minutes ago. It’s hard to see eye color in the light here, but his eyes may have been purple. The man was dressed in black and had brown hair, really pretty. Does that sound like your friend? He was headed down toward the Moonflower Bakery.”

“That’s definitely Duo,” Wufei said, nodding. “Thank you for your help.”

“Not a problem,” the man said. Wufei hurried out of the shop, trying to catch Duo before he lost the trail completely. “Of course, I’ve seen two men like that today, but oh well.”

“Would you like some help deciding, sir?” a woman asked Duo as he leaned over the various calligraphy sets for sale.

“Thanks, but I’m fine on my own,” he said politely, making the woman, little more than a teenager actually, sigh in disappointment. “But could you give me some advice on what ink would be best for sutras? My father uses them.”

The young woman blinked. “You’re the second man today to mention drawing sutras. An older man came in here about an hour ago and was talking about them. Come to think of it, you look sort of like him.”

“You don’t say,” Duo murmured, taking a close look at one set’s brushes. “Now, about that ink?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, flushing. Making herself suddenly busy to cover her embarrassment, she bustled over to a shelf and pulled down a box of ink sticks. “I’m not sure how good these are, actually, but the man I mentioned bought them, so it’s the best guess I can give you.”

“This should work,” he agreed, taking the ink and his final choice of calligraphy sets up to the counter.“Thanks. Tell my look-alike hi for me if you see him again.”

Purchases tucked under an arm, Duo left the shop and walked past the bakery next door. It was by luck, ill or fair, that he missed the black-haired man in the Preventors’ jacket coming out with a grumble of disappointment and a chocolate muffin. He’d missed his query, who’d apparently met up with a blond companion, by five minutes.

In the confusing streets of Chinatown, even Wufei became turned around a few times before finding the sushi restaurant a waitress at the bakery had overheard Duo’s friend mentioning.

The inside of the restaurant was loud with the clatter of dishes and the chatter of the customers. Shelong’s pilot smirked as he noticed a young blond man berating his older companion, who had brown hair. Unfortunately, he didn’t see any signs of Duo, and an inquiry to the chef provided no results. No young men sporting braids had come in that day.

Sighing in exhaustion, Wufei left the restaurant, eyes lighting up as he spotted a bookstore across the street. At least the trip wouldn’t have to have been a complete waste.

“Hey, Wuffers, what’re you doing here? I thought your lunch was over.”

From his place just within the threshold of the bookshop, Wufei stared at the hyper boy in front of him, a stack of books balanced on his hip. Several shopping bags hung from an arm.

“So is yours, if I remember correctly,” Wufei said, biting his tongue to keep from lashing out at the American who he’d just spent the better part of an hour searching for only to have him pop up right after he’d given up on finding him.

“Late birthday present from the Une lady,” Duo supplied, grinning. “Plus I promised to get her something from the bakery a couple of blocks away. I’m going there next.”

“I thought you already went there,” Wufei admitted, confused.

Dou shook his head, sending his braid flying. “No, not today. Maybe you saw someone else.”

“It was a waitress who told me she’d seen someone who matched your description,” Wufei said, rushing forward to grab some of the books Duo was holding before they could topple to the floor. “You do realize that most these are written in Japanese, right?”

“Tatsumi-san taught me when I was a kid,” Duo said, waving off the Chinese man’s concerns. “Took it up myself during the war whenever I had some downtime.”

“All you ever did during your free time was read comic books,” his friend said, eyes narrowing.

Shaking his head with a sigh, Duo started to guide Wufei out the door. “Really, I could have been plotting to destroy the world with popsicle sticks and you wouldn’t have noticed. Not a single one of those comics was in English, Fei.”

“Only you, Maxwell, only you,” Wufei said with a short laugh.

Once they'd gotten the promised treat for Une, a short debate headed them toward the city docks on the very edge of the section of the city. It was while taking one of Duo's many shortcuts through an alleyway that they heard a shot ring out. Beside Wufei, Duo cried out in pain. ****************

A/N: In case you didn't figure this out, Wufei was indeed getting mixed directions for finding both Duo and Tsuzuki, since the description he typically gave was brown hair, purple eyes, and dressed in black. Both of our dear bishies tend to fit that description. Like I said, poor Wufei. Don't forget to review!