Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ V Lucid Engagements ❯ A New Face ( Chapter 4 )

A New Face

"You're early," I noted happily to Duo as I moved into the visitor's lounge. "I thought you said after you got off work."

"I don't work until four every day," he explained with a slight shrug.

Natalie bounced across the room to hug me with a bright smile. "Guess what we did today?" she muttered, bouncing more.

"What?" I returned, studying her happy eyes.

"We went to see Big Ben," she returned, smiling even more.

"The clock?" I asked, thinking about that.

She giggled. "That's just what he calls it..."

I looked to Duo with amused curiosity...at least, that was my expression as far as I could control it. My heart was pounding, because his response now would tell me if there was any hope of...being forgiven...

Duo grinned slightly and rolled his eyes.

. . . that was anticlimactic. What was that supposed to mean?

Music started playing, a song with a hard beat...and Duo jumped hard, reaching into his pocket...to pull out a cell phone.

That was his ringtone?

"There weren't that many people there," Nat drew my attention back to her, leaning up to kiss me as she muttered cheerily to me about her first tourist escapade. I couldn't help but encourage her happy talk, but Duo was sounding perplexed in the background, and I could hear Wufei's voice, but not make out his words.

"What?" Duo demanded, his voice breaking into her chatter. "I'm here, why?"

Wufei demanded if he was at the center...then started to laugh as Natalie tilted her head, then looked around to Duo, falling silent.

"What?" I asked him curiously.

He shrugged at me, his expression reading a lack of comprehension as he didn't meet my eyes.

And that was...what? Was that promising? That didn't seem promising...

"Tell him he's about to have more visitors," Wufei suggested. "We're coming."

Duo jerked his head at me to see if I'd heard or not.

I nodded, wondering at Wufei's amused tone. That laughter meant that whatever his object of amusement was, it was in some form of a fucked-up situation.

If he was laughing like that, then he hadn't changed as much as I thought he had.

The sound ended and Duo pulled the phone away from his ear, blinking at the screen before wiping it on his pant leg and looking between Nat and I. "I'll be back," he noted, rising to his feet.

"All right," Natalie muttered, watching him walk away. "What did he say?" she asked me when he'd gone.

"Wufei is coming," I explained, moving with her toward the barricade. I didn't want to get to it until the door had closed behind Duo, but I did want to see Wufei when he came in with his...whoever he had with him to make it plural.

"Mr. Yuy?" I looked to the windows that led to the hall and the main office, where Lucien was giving me a concerned look.

The door hadn't closed yet.

"Yeah?" I asked, stopping to meet his eyes fully. I still had Nat in my arms.

"What are you doing?" he asked as Duo passed the end of the barricade.

"Wufei called and said I'd have more visitors," I shrugged a bit. "I want to see who's with him."

The door closed behind Duo and I watched him stop, still in view of the window—it took my attention away from Lucien—and cross his arms, making a curious sort of jerking motion with his head.

Lucien moved forward to see out the window, too.

I could hear it now, Wufei was laughing his ass off as a couple car doors opened...then closed again.

Duo's stance turned from a "what the fuck" sort of question to an "oh dear lord..." sort of disbelief.

"What?" Natalie asked, looking to him curiously.

Wufei moved into the scene, still laughing his ass off, nearly falling against Duo as he did so. The...more dignified...man caught their balance as Wufei started talking fast. I couldn't make out what he was saying, though, and Quatre moved up behind Wufei with a grin.

Duo was staring at someone else, though.

. . .

"Oh god," I muttered, looking to Natalie in disbelief as it struck me. Wufei's laughter, Duo's disbelief...the words...

"Oh god?" Lucien asked, focusing toward me. "They're...being rude?"

I pointed toward the window, meeting the man's eyes as Natalie focused the same way as well.

A tall man...lanky, with black hair...moved into the scene with a woman on his arm that was as short as Natalie with long dark hair...

My jaw dropped to the floor.

It was Trowa...dyed hair, to be sure...but Trowa...I could tell by the body language.

"What the hell?" Duo demanded, then moved back from him.

Trowa wasn't being received well, I noted almost clinically to myself. Trowa was still rejected, even if I was getting the second chance...and it was definitely a second chance I didn't deserve.

"Oh," Natalie perked up as she recognized the man herself.

"Shh," I suggested quietly. "I don't know what they're about."

"Okay," she agreed, then turned so she could lean against me. I wrapped my arms around her waist, staring at Trowa in disbelief as he turned to look in the window briefly...then noticed and met my eyes.

His smile was wicked.

If he was going to be an ass to me, I was going to call his ass out.

Duo shook hands with the female, nodding his head at her a few times as she turned enough that I could make out her face.

Indian...like the Asian sort, not the natives of North America...pretty little thing. Her eyes were bright, and I only got a brief glance of them. Her overall body language was...well, she seemed like a fangirl you'd see waiting for a rock star, like one of them meeting their idol and trying to remain calm.

It didn't take them long to move into the building, and Natalie bounced away from me onto a bench under the barricade, hopping lithely onto it. "Mr. Winner!"

"Songbird!" he replied just as happily, running like he'd hug her.

"You have to sign in!" Lucien cut him off before he could make it to her. "Sign in and..."

Quatre started laughing, then gave Natalie the sort of apologetic shrug that meant things were beyond his control.

She started giggling, bouncing slightly as she waved at Wufei.

"Song bird," Wufei noted, raising an eyebrow at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Aw!" she pouted cutely at him, stomping her foot...which made him laugh more.

Trowa stopped to meet Natalie's eyes with his own shining ones, then looked back to me.

I studied him uncertainly as he moved with the rest of his group to the sign-in sheet, then noticed Lucien eyeing the space between me and the door warily.

That was going to be annoying if he thought it was beyond me to vault the damn barricade.

I moved back obligingly, however, going to the back corner to sit on top of one of the tables. It didn't take Natalie long to be with me, and Wufei was talking in very quick Chinese to...probably Duo. His tone sounded almost wicked, and far too amused for innocence.

Lucien was eyeing the group speculatively, probably because the Chinese man's uncharacteristic demeanor.

"Dr. Bastor!" Wufei greeted him, his excitement quickly changing over as the group turned to make their way to the entrance. "How are you? How's our patient?"

"Doing very good," Lucien returned, considering him.

"That's good," Wufei declared...and bounced into the visitor's lounge. "Heero!"

"Hi, Wufei," I returned, not able to help my smile.

"Heero!" Quatre crowed...and flew across the room to hug me...which was odd, until I realized that he was really snuggling into Natalie, who was in my arms and giggling hard.

"Hi, Quatre," I muttered as he pulled away with his own bouncy happiness.

"Heero!" the Indian woman cried happily...and bounced across the room to hug me...which succeeded in getting Quatre laughing hard and renewing Wufei's chuckles.

"Hi," I noted raising an eyebrow at her.

"You're cuter than the tv shows," she informed me with her happily sparkling eyes. "I'm Amelia."

"Nice to meet you," I muttered...and since I couldn't exactly shake her hand from that position, I hugged her.

She laughed, moving away as Natalie bounced forward to hug Wufei.

"Well?" Trowa asked curiously.

"I don't know what to say to you," I replied, raising both eyebrows. "What do you want me to say?"

"Hi is a usual greeting."

I tilted my head at him. "For friends, huh?"

"And aren't I?"

"I don't know, are you?"

"You don't use code-speak very well," Quatre informed me speculatively. "Your doctor is probably going right away to look at that sign in sheet."

Lucien took the hint and looked around a brief moment before disappearing back into the office.

"You're doing it?" I asked, blinking at him.

"I judge myself sufficiently mentally stable to be released in a few days," he shrugged. "If I don't, she'll seduce him," he pointed at Quatre.

Quatre laughed.

"I use what bribery I can," she informed me.

I blinked at her as Natalie, who'd hugged Trowa and Quatre, came back into my arms.

"We've been laughing a lot," Wufei noted, grinning more at me. "She makes me hyper and brings out the worst in Quatre...they just got in last night."

I noted Lucien had raised the phone to his ear and nodded my acknowledgement.

"How are you?" Quatre asked me, his tone sincere. "How are you feeling?"

"Not bad," I returned, nodding at him. "Having her here did wonders for my spirits," I squeezed my girl and looked around to Duo, who was standing behind the group almost uncomfortably. "Thank you," I said sincerely.

He nodded at me, then moved to sit on the bench that ran the length of the room, it was set against the wall.

"He's done it," Trowa noted, meeting eyes with Lucien, who was standing in the office and watching us with nervous eyes. "He's called someone."

"They aren't going to attack you are they?" Amelia asked nervously, turning to him. Her bubbly manner had melted the instant she'd opened her mouth, and now she was in Trowa's arms with all the vulnerability of a scared new lover searching for comfort.

"I don't imagine they will," Trowa returned, staring Lucien down. "But I don't know what to expect now. Kiss?" Which had her leaning up to kiss him passionately, then wrap her arms around him. "Go sit with Duo, huh?" he suggested, looking back to her. "If they do come in force, I don't want you hurt."

She nodded, kissing him again, then moved to sit directly beside Duo, crossing one leg over the other and raising her fingernails to her lips. Duo wasn't sure how to respond to that, blinking at her, then looking around to Wufei.

"Just don't be an ass to whoever talks to you," Wufei suggested quietly to him. "If you cooperate..."

It was unnerving as hell to have the door flung open and the four or five soldiers from the building came flying into the room with raised weapons. I wasn't sure what Lucien had expected from any of us, either. We were all on our feet, and I'd shoved Natalie to Duo, who in turn shoved the woman toward Amelia and took up a protective stance in front of her as the rest of us moved to stand together. They had their weapons aimed at us...

"Stop!" a woman's voice shouted from the wall as Lucien nearly fell against the desk. "No!"

It was Heather.

I watched her move through the anteroom, wanting very much to grab her and put her in Duo's safety zone...

"Stop!" Heather repeated, shoving the weapons up so they were no longer pointed at us. "You bunch of salt-licks! What are you doing? What part of ‘hard-trained soldiers' didn't you comprehend?"

"Stand down, Pria," one of the men snapped at her.

The moment was shocking to all of us...when Heather actually backhanded the man.

Wufei's easy and excited laughter came again, hard and just as wicked as it had been. "She bitch-slapped you!" he declared as Quatre started laughing as well, both dropping stance.

I swallowed slightly, resting back as I realized Duo'd also dropped his stance.

"You are to return to your post," she all but hissed at him. "Now."

He stared at her in disbelief, glaring at Wufei and Quatre, then saluted her once and turned to go.

"Heather," Lucien protested, moving through the room himself.

"You're a fool, Lucien," Heather snapped, then turned and pointed at Trowa. "Don't you move anywhere."

"If I intended to, I don't think I'd still be here now," he retorted.

"Attend," she snapped at all of us...in a completely commanding voice.

I couldn't help it, and I didn't figure that it mattered on any real level. I fell into attention as Wufei straightened and Quatre sobered. Trowa's indolent stance stopped, if that worked. He wasn't at proper attention, not that any of us were right in it. I couldn't tell if Duo'd moved or not, because he was behind me.

"Soldiers," Heather noted pointedly to Lucien.

Actually, her back to us the way it was seemed to be a show of trust. I sighed and dropped back onto my table.

"If you ever call soldiers on us again," Wufei noted to Lucien, "then you won't like the outcome, because according to the Convention of Nanchang in one-nine-eight, the five of us were given a measure of leniency due to our childhoods spent learning to become weapons."

"Paragraph twenty, wasn't it?" I asked, rubbing at my forehead. "I believe you have the Convention on file, Lucien."

The soldiers were looking a lot less sure of themselves.

Acton, who was tall with thinning dark hair and a sword-straight back, moved into the room as that was said, and he moved around the soldiers to consider Heather, then Trowa. He didn't move for a long moment, then pointed at the newly returned pilot.

"Barton," Trowa agreed, his manner assuming more a soldier's aire. "Air force special class."

"Make your closing," Acton suggested to him pointedly.

Trowa turned instantly to Amelia, who was in his arms and hugging him tightly. They kissed again before she, crying, turned away into Wufei's arms for the comfort that Trowa was now out of range to give her.

Trowa watched her a moment with sad eyes, then turned back to Acton. He'd lost his cocky demeanor entirely.

"Let's go," Acton ordered, pointing toward the main building. "Lucien, when I've finished my business, I'd like to have a word with you."

Lucien looked away...and Trowa followed Acton from the visitor's lounge.

"Hey, the best of us make mistakes," Quatre noted almost facetiously to my therapist as Natalie moved back into my arms. "But I'm going to have to suggest to you that you go look up our records," he made sure Lucien met his eyes. "Maxwell and Yuy were able to escape an ultra maximum security facility when they were probably fourteen, and Yuy's leg was broken and he was suffering from severe blood loss."

Lucien started to pull himself up.

"As five," I reminded him quietly, "we're invincible."

He focused on me, his eyes narrowing.

"Return to your posts," Heather snapped at the remaining soldiers, who'd realized they weren't really useful. She turned on me, her eyes hard agates. "Watch your tone and your manner, Yuy."

"I outrank you, princess," I noted...in Estonian, sure, but I did say it.

"What?" she demanded through clenched teeth.

"Of course," I returned in a mild tone.

Wufei snorted slightly, then shook his head and looked around to Duo. "Satisfied?"

"I don't know what to say about this," Duo retorted irritably, gesturing after Trowa...then blinked, since Amelia was still clinging to Wufei with her face hidden.

"You're not supposed to. You don't have anything to do with it. I doubt I'll go down for it, but if I do, you'll get the responsibility for Quatre transferred to you."

"I'm a good boy," Quatre noted to Duo with the happy vacancy of thoughtlessness.

"Mr. Winner?" Lucien asked.

Quatre laughed, then turned to meet his eyes. "Don't mind me, we've been having a flighty morning."

"You're on your meds?" the man demanded skeptically.

"I took them at seven this morning," Quatre reassured him. "We've all been hyper today because we didn't want to dwell on this," he gestured at Amelia.

Lucien considered her a moment, then sighed and turned to Heather again.

"Come on," she suggested. "The doors are wide open."

Lucien sighed, then turned and moved into the anteroom without comment.

Quatre laughed a bit wickedly. "Made an ass of himself a bit."

"Everyone's convinced that Trowa was having flashbacks," I reminded him. "We were actually talking about it last night...he's not, is he?"

"No," Wufei rolled his eyes. "He was just being himself until the guy he attacked tried to pull rank on him."

"That's what I thought," I noted, kissing the top of Natalie's head. "Is she okay?" I indicated Amelia.

"I'm all right," Amelia noted, turning her head to look at me. "I just..." she sighed, straightening.

"It'd have probably made more an impression if you did that to me," Quatre noted with a wicked grin.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

He smiled sweetly at me, then nodded at Natalie. "I think we're being in the way here."

"Only a little bit," Wufei reassured him. "We can go sit with Duo."

"Or leave?" Quatre was confused. "I thought we were going to get my pot."

"I wanted to talk to Heero a while," Wufei shot back. "Your rose bush won't die in an hour."

"It's been a couple weeks," Quatre retorted.

I smiled slightly as the trio moved away from me.

It was more than I deserved...wasn't it? It was hard to tell. I knew that Duo was giving me more than I deserved, the woman in my arms was proof enough of that. But Wufei and Quatre hadn't received the mistreatment. I had been fairly sure Wufei hated me, though, so...

"I don't understand," Natalie noted, usurping my attention again. "I thought Trowa was here already?"

I laughed a bit at that, considering the last few weeks. "He ran off not too long ago...I think it was the day Duo went to Brazil. I don't know where that woman came from, but she wasn't in the picture before that."

"Oh," she considered the group on the bench. "So is Trowa in trouble?"

"I couldn't say," I returned. "I'm sure officers from the Earthsphere are going to be here soon."

"You think so?"

I nodded, enjoying the smell of her hair. "You smell...flowery."

She giggled at that. "Nassaiya had me shower this morning...it's her shampoo. Isn't it divine?"

"If it's her scent, it'll bug me later," I noted, considering it. "She explained that you can shower daily here too, right? So you should have her get you your own shampoo...I like this one, but it'll bug me if you and Duo's girl have the same scent."

"I'll talk to her about it tonight," she promised, resting her head on my shoulder. "Duo said he has to start working right tomorrow. I guess he's going to be working until four most of the time. They want to sign me up for an English language class, I guess they did that for Nas right off, too. Then after that they were saying maybe I could babysit their boys."

"The older one's not his, is it?"

"You'd never know it," she noted, shrugging a bit. "I don't know if the boy himself really realizes it. I'm sure he does, but..."

"So how is that working out?"

"Duo said they're going to move Camden into Vasu's room," she explained. "They'll give me Cam's room. It's the smallest, but the easiest to move around, and Cam won't mind, so I can stay there as long as this takes."

"I'm trying," I reassured her quickly, studying her dark eyes. "I don't think it will take too much longer. I know what I have to get through...it's going to be hard for me, though," I studied her sincerely. "I...when I was a teen, I was put through training." I swallowed, looking away as I considered the matter. "I was trained hard to have no emotions..."

"What?" she whispered.

I shrugged slightly at her. "I never told you before because it horrifies everyone. You realize what was happening back on the base right?"

"I've heard some stuff, but whenever it comes up Duo gets all pissy with me and we bicker. He doesn't really like me, you know?"

"What?" I asked blankly, looking around to him in confusion.

"He...never has liked me. Nassaiya told me I was being foolish, but I can tell sometimes...the way he says things, and how he says certain things in English so I don't understand..."

I was annoyed by that, looking around irritably...to meet Duo's eyes. Initially they were curious, but in a third of a second they'd turned hard, and he stared directly back at me.

I shifted back, blinking slightly.

"What?" Wufei asked, giving me an interested look.

"Nothing," I dismissed, looking away.

Natalie moved into my arms nervously.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Duo noted darkly, rising to his feet. "I have some shit to do," he added to Natalie in Portuguese. "I'll be back in a half hour."

She nodded...and he swept from the lounge.

"You sure you're trying to get back in with him?" Quatre asked from where he was lounging with an interested sort of look. "Because that look you just gave him was one you used to give him before...you know, before you'd beat the shit out of him?"

My gut wrenched.

Quatre laughed a bit, rising to his feet. "If you don't mind, Fei, I think I want to go run around with Duo some. I want to hear about his trip and he should be able to stop to get my pot, since it's asking so much of you."

"Is he okay with you?" I demanded almost bitterly of the blond before he could get away. Quatre was by no means innocent of mistreatment.

"Yes, actually," Quatre returned, not slowing his pace. "See, I'm medicated now," he met my eyes. "I'll try and come tomorrow...but I'll make sure it's a time when Duo's not here, all right?"

Okay...he'd seemed pissed at me.

I nodded slightly.

He grinned, winked at Natalie, and disappeared.

- -

Quatre moved into the minivan with Duo almost uncertainly, studying the man from the corner of his eye.

"What?" Duo demanded, buckling and sliding the key into the ignition before meeting eyes.

"I saw that look he gave you," Quatre explained, looking away slightly.

"I know I can't expect him to be instantly better," Duo noted darkly, starting the engine. "I'm not really all that upset by that," he started to back out. "It just bothers me."

"I see," the blond muttered, thinking a moment. "We can change topics now?"

"You're sounding like your un-medicated counterpart," Duo noted. "You sure you had your meds today?"

"Part of it is personality," Quatre retorted. "I'm sorry to ask questions like that."

Duo heard the sincerity in it and frowned slightly at his companion before pulling into traffic. "Sorry...but I intend to start spending more time with you guys now...you can't blame me, really."

"I just get tired of people asking me if I had my pills," he explained with a sigh, looking out the window. "I mean, some of them are friends of Wufei or Juki who are just playing around and don't know, but it stings."

Duo nodded his understanding of that, chewing at a nail. "What did you need?"

"I dug my rosebush up from the Healing Center," Quatre noted, perking up. "It was gorgeous there, but it's been in a pot for a couple weeks now...I want a bigger pot, and for some reason Wufei is fighting me tooth and nail to get it set up."

"The one I bought you?" Duo asked, startled as he met eyes briefly.

"Yeah," Quatre muttered with a slight smile, looking out the window. "The one that means we're okay."

Duo considered that comment a long moment, then glanced down at his forearm, and a burn scar the blond had given him. It was almost bizarre how different the man was. It was almost like he had a twin, and they'd changed places...the prince and the pauper...

"Can we?" Quatre asked, looking around to him.

"Huh?" Duo jumped slightly. "Shit...sorry...where at?"

"Just...Broker or Valley...I don't need anything specialty...just the pot and some soil. What do you think of balcony gardens?"

"They're a hassle, and you could go to the market with better results."

Quatre laughed at that, giving Duo a dirty look.

Duo grinned back, resituating himself in the seat. "Valley is closest."

"Well," Quatre hazarded, "we can do your stuff first...I mean..."

"What stuff?" Duo asked, grinning at him. "I just had to get out of there."

Quatre turned to look at him.

"I don't really like him," Duo said gently. "It's not expected of me, and there's no way I'm letting him fall back into any of his old habits. Natalie being here is still way too new to him, and it'll have an effect since he places it fully on me."

"Isn't it?" the blond asked blankly.

Duo laughed a bit at that and shook his head. "We should get you a box for more gardening...it'd bug the hell out of Fei."

Quatre considered that a long moment, then smiled slightly. "We only have a half hour, huh?"

Duo snorted. "You and Fei know Nat better than I do. If Heero has to go to his room or anything, she can just leave with him and Amelia."

"No, Duo," Quatre muttered, accepting that reasoning and grinning more. "If I get any more than a pot or two, I'll be doing it with Wufei. He's going to have to help me move the stuff around, and I won't make him do that without his own cooperation."

"Me and Nas are thinking about getting a place," he noted, focusing on the blond again. "If we find something, I'll try to make sure it has yard enough for you to have a garden."

Quatre's attention moved to the circular burn scars on the other's arm and his face changed from pleased happiness to guilty depression.

Duo looked down at the arm again as well, then rubbed the hand on his pant leg. "I guess I shouldn't make you offers until I've talked it over with my wife, huh?"

"Yeah," Quatre muttered, looking away. He was silent a long moment, then looked up to Duo as they stopped at a stop light. "Hey, Duo?" he asked, waiting for the other to meet his eyes. "I'm sorry...really."

Duo accepted it with a nod of his head, then ran a hand over the burn scars. "I'm gonna buy some scar removal...and if that doesn't work I might get it lasered."

"Let me pay for it?" Quatre asked, looking away again.

Duo made an amused sound. "I guess I shouldn't make any plans without first talking to my wife. I still think we should get you a bunch of gardening shit...you know it'd bug Wufei."