Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Friends Will Be Friends ❯ Open Your Eyes ( Chapter 6 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Open Your Eyes

I first caught sight of Duo as he stood behind Winner, hugging him.
Those two had always been prone to emotional displays, but in this
case I felt strangely envious of Winner. I wanted to be the one
receiving a hug from Duo. The sense of relief I felt in knowing he was
safe and well was indescribable but I am certain my blood pressure
dropped by several points.

Taking him in, after not seeing him for three months, I could see the
changes that had occurred. He had lost some weight and his cheekbones
were now more visible though he did not look underweight. That wasn't
the most striking thing though. When he looked me full in the face,
I noticed two more things. One, his eyes. They were a blue-grey
shade now, instead of the far more noticeable and pronounced violet
they had been. His hair was the other thing, whereas he had always had
it pulled back in a braid before, now it was loose and fell to just
under the ears, almost as if he had bangs all around. Duo Maxwell had
cut his braid, or it had been cut for him.

Knowing how protective he was of the length of hair, I felt a fury
within me grow. I did not know who had dared take it off him, but
whoever they were; they would feel the sharp side of my blade before
long. That violation would cost them dearly.

I found myself replying to the eternal mutilations of my name without
much fervour, or censure. I was simply to glad that he was alright,
and when he was done giving Winner a long hug and Yuy a short, quick
one, I drew him into a hug. Though it was not as long as Winners hug,
I savoured it. I will probably never admit it out loud, but I have
missed him, a lot. He has always been the most cheerful of us, and his
presence influences us for the better.

As Duo let go and turned to the door, I caught sight of the woman we
had been talking to through the crack in the door. I was absolutely
certain that she was not even sixteen, and she was very pregnant. For
a moment I wondered if she was bearing Duo's child, and I am ashamed
to say I glared at her.

She stayed her ground though, the girl had courage. A moment later,
common sense kicked in. I may be male, and I admit to not knowing a
huge amount about pregnancy, but she had been pregnant longer than the
three months Duo had been missing. The child could not have been his,
unless it had been conceived during a previous visit.

"Julie, sweetie, these are my friends. Heero Yuy, Quatre Winner and
Chang Wufei. Can you show them the living room, while I'll get some
drinks?" Duo asked her.

Well, I was surprised. He not only got my name right, he got it the
right way around.

He walked down the hall and into what appeared to be a small
kitchenette, and though my feet wanted to follow him, I carefully
walked behind Julie into a small, shabby living room. The linoleum
under my feet appeared loose at the corners, and two parts of it were
overlapping. The couch was worn, battered and badly in need of
reupholstering, and the only sign of Duo I could truly see was a
series of photos on one of the shelves. One for each of us, and one
for Deathscythe. When he had taken the photo of me, I don't know. I
was obviously doing one of my Katas and it seemed to be taken at an
angle but other than that I could not identify it.

Winner and Yuy and the girl elected to sit on the couch, I elected to
stay standing.

"Here you go guys!" Duo exclaimed cheerfully, sitting down on the
floor next to the small table in front of the couch. On the tray he
had put on the table were five mismatched tall glasses with water in
them.

"I'm afraid we're out of everything else." He said, slightly
apologetically. Looking around they seemed to be out of a lot,
including money, and with the girl that pregnant they were likely
subsisting of what Duo was making in the perfume shop. Which wasn't
much if the books were correct.

"Duo? What happened to your hair and your eyes? And why did you just
disappear?"

Trust Winner to get to the point.

Duo shrugged. "I just followed my exit plan. You guys didn't? "

Ah, yes, the infamous exit plans. I had one as well. I think we all
had one, a plan on what to do at the end of the war.

"My exit plan is no longer feasible, as it required the presence of
L5. The Preventers appeared to be a realistic alternative." I said.

Heero shrugged. "My exit plan was no longer compatible with me. I
chose to ignore it and joined the Preventers with Wufei."

"Trowa didn't have an exit plan, we thought the original Trowa might
have done, but Tro decided to join the Preventers as well. I'm
actually following my exit plan but modified it somewhat, so I'm a
Preventer when they need me and for the rest I keep busy with the
business." Yuy didn't look to happy when Winner was discussing Barton.
I would have to keep an eye on that, if there were any problems
between those two then I did not want any missions to suffer for it.

Duo whistled low. "I thought we'd all have separate ones, but it looks
like you four managed to stay together. "

"We would like you to come back with us." I confessed.


Duo turned around and looked at me, surprise clearly showing.


"Wufei? Did I hear that correctly? You actually want me to come back
with you?" For a moment he seemed surprised. Then he shook his head
and waved his hand dismissively "Nah, I can't. Can't leave Julie here,
can I sweetie?"

"If you've got a chance to leave, go. Get of this godforsaken
colony, don't worry about me, I'll be fine." She urged him, sitting
forward. Duo handed her a drink without her having to ask for it.
They seemed to be getting on just fine. Duo always flirted with
everyone, but this seemed to be more serious than just flirting. Deep
down, that hurt. I thought we, as a whole, were more important
than a single young girl, but that just goes to show you that love is
unpredictable. I felt strangely hollow inside.

"No can do. I gave you my word I'd make sure you and the baby were
taken care of, and I intend to keep it. You're not going out on the
streets again, not when you're eight months pregnant!"

"Seven and a half. And I can take care of myself and the baby. Duo, it
would be a better life for you, anywhere is better than here!" She
was pleading with him.

"Same difference. I'm still not leaving." He turned to us. "Sorry
guys, I can't leave."

"Julie, what do you want to do, when the baby is born? If you could
choose any job in the world, what would you want?" Winner asked
suddenly. Uh-oh, he's scheming again.

Julie sat back for a moment. "I want to look after children, I think.
Not that I'm likely to get the chance, but I think I'd enjoy that."
She rubbed her stomach softly through the top she wore. "At least
I'll have one to take care of."

Winner took out his phone and punched a speed dial. "Annette? It's
Quatre. How's that assistant of yours working out? Ah-ha... Yes...
Yes... She did?... I see. Don't worry, I've found you one. Her
name is Julie, and she'd love to but you'll have to train her...
She's from L2, can you meet her shuttle? ... Right, we'll sort out
the details later." And he snapped his phone shut.


"If you want it, you have a job. It would be on L4, working for one of
my sisters, Annette. She runs a retreat for women with children
escaping from domestic abuse. There is a room included with the wages,
as well as four weeks paid holiday a year. There is a doctor on-site
and you and your baby would be well looked after. In return, you would
be expected to work for Annette in the capacity of personal assistant.
You would have to learn to help run the retreat, deal with any
problems the women and their children had, and liaise with the
police. She currently has about twenty people there at the moment. She
is prepared to train you. Maternity leave is included, but flexible so
you could take it over a longer period of time if you were prepared to
work for instance mornings, or afternoons, or just a day a week. Are
you interested?"

To say she looked stunned would be putting it mildly. It is always
amusing to see Winner act the corporate executive that he is.

"L4? But I can't afford to go to L4!" She gasped. "Duo..."

He had moved so he was kneeling next to her, and cradled her face in his
hands.

"Julie, babe, if this is what you want then go for it." He glanced
over to us, then back to her. "We'll work something out with the
shuttle there. Q's on the level, and so are his sisters. You can trust
this deal, if you work hard for them, the Winners will take good care
of you. If you don't want to go I'll stay here with you. Either way
I'll back you one hundred percent."

***

I dozed for another while, but the drugs were already working their
way out of my system. As my body sense came back more and more, I
could tell I was hungry. I felt like I had had nothing to drink and
eat for at least a day, and more likely the twenty-four hours Walden
had mentioned. That gave a lot of credence to his story, and made it
very likely that I had broken. That I had betrayed my friends and
colleagues. I know everyone has a breaking point, but I was
disgusted at myself that it had taken them less than twenty four hours
to get any information out of me.

I was loathe to disturb the small figure next to me as I did not know
anything about the girl or what she was capable of doing. I could feel
my legs were kept spread by a spreader bar, but a small amount of
wriggling showed that they were not attached to the end of the bed.

There was nothing at all within reach I could use to pick the locks on
the cuffs. There was simply nothing I could do, and even though I was
feeling a lot better, the drugs in my system were still slowing my
reactions considerably.

As my mind slowly slipped from the influence of the drugs, I realised
that if twenty four hours had passed, then I had missed my daily check
in by several. That meant that Lady Une would have indeed declared me
MIA at least, as per standard procedure. She would have also revoked
all my passwords and access codes, so the information in the databases
at least was safe, unless I had told them about the contents as well.

That meant the Preventers were either looking for me, or, depending on
the time and the events that had passed, the had decided that I was
presumed Killed in Action.

That meant they were likely not looking for me. I could not trust on
anyone coming to rescue me. I had to assume I was on my own.