Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Cadaver Company ❯ The Tears of A Clown ( Chapter 6 )

Cadaver Company

 

Chapter Six: The Tears of a Clown

 

I sort of felt faint as the words hit me. Missing. Heero was missing. HEERO was MISSING.

“Apparently, Mr. Barton. If Heero was your brother's name.”

Oh, I'd said that out loud. Crap. I need to get under control. I took a deep breath before trying to talk again.

“How do you lose a casket? In space?! It's not like we stopped over on some random passing meteor!”

Black Vest Guy held up his hands as sweat began to break out on his forehead.

“Mr. Barton, please clam down.” What, this wasn't calm? “I'm sure that no harm will come to your brother's body. I just need a bit more information from you before we find out where he was….misplaced.”

More information? What, like he's not really dead but a comatose Gundam pilot who thought it would be fun to blow him self up?

He was clicking away on the computer in front of Lindsay at an almost frantic pace that made me nervous. Doesn't everyone just hate those computers at airport and shuttle sport terminals where the people behind the desk can see what's coming up but you can't? I do. I always feel like their not doing what they say they are- probably checking their email or watching porn when they say there are no available flights.

“Where did you depart from, Mr. Barton?”

“Tokyo, Japan.” Was that really only a couple of days ago- it felt like a millennia.

Black Vest Guy mumbled to him self about it being a non-stop flight as some of the people behind me began to grumble. One old lady snipped about the arrogance of youth and I glared at her.

“If you cannot keep your mouth shut, will you please move to the back of the line while these idiots search for my missing brother?”

I got a couple startled gasps in return and it was like someone had flicked a switch- the evil old bag turned into Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother, patting her thin, silvery curls in shock.

Then she banged her cane- one I hadn't even noticed- against the floor of the shuttle port angrily.

“How old is the little dear? Perhaps you've just been separated on the long flight.”

“What does he look like?” asked the female part of what appeared to be a middle-aged couple. She had eye-wateringly red hair and a thick Irish accent.

Her husband had more freckles than actual skin color and a perpetual `Maxwell' grin.

Damn Jesus.

I didn't want to cause a stir- well a bigger one than I'd already made- so I looked away, going for the upset look, and muttered “They lost his casket.”

Granny gasped and shouted a curse at the nervous looking people gathering behind the counter. Lindsay looked about ready to jump ship.

“Mistreatment of the dead! I never! This will be my last flight with this particular space line.”

Murmurs of agreement filled the air around me as Black Vest Guy tried to type and calm the crowd.

Huh, I'd just help put an airline out of business. Take that Winner.

The Irish brod placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, her smile sympathetic.

“I'm sorry for yer loss my dear.” She nudged her husband in his ribs with an elbow. “Anything we can do fer ya, ya just say, alright?”

I nodded, feeling a bit weirded out.

“You should sue young man.” A slick looking guy with a black suit and briefcase said, pulled out a card from his breast pocket. “Emotional trauma, pain and suffering- you could get a lot of money.”

I took the card just to shut the man up and he taped it before leaving.

“Call me if you do.”

Like hell.

“Found him!” Black Vest Guy said in relief, all but shouting the news.

The line up behind me cheered. I felt faint. Heero owed me big time……but I doubted very much I'd choose to tell him I'd lost his body in outer space.

“He was accidentally put on the shuttle heading to the L3 colony next to ours.” He clicked again and gave me a faked smile. “I can get him here in about three hours. Free of charge.”

I nodded.

Vest Guy huffed in relief. “I'll just get the guys over their to take a peek in on his body and-“

“What?!” I demanded, leaning over the counter that separated us, trying to reach the backspace button on the keyboard. “You can't do that!”

The guy blinked. “Wha- why not?”

Irish girl growled. “You can't be opening a casket after it's been closed man. Respect and religion and all that stuff.”

Granny scowled. “Shame on you.”

Vest Guy looked torn. “But we have to assess if there has been any damage- you can't have a decent funeral if the....body's been hurt.”

I spoke without thinking, my thoughts chasing each other in circles at the thought of someone opening that casket and finding Heero's very much alive body.

“It's a closed casket ceremony.” I said sharply. “My brother was…mauled…. By a….a Pekingese.” 1

Lindsay had the gall to snicker at me.

“A Pekingese?” Vest Guy repeated, eyes wide.

I nodded. “A whole pack of them. He worked as a dog walker and they just turned on him like that!”

I snapped my fingers and made everyone around me jump. I shook my head sadly.

“It was awful. My poor sister found him in the backyard….”

I received another sympathetic pat on the back as Black Vest Guy offered to pay for anything I bought during my stay at the shuttle port- as payment for losing my Heero.

I let him, my mind still wrapped around the fact I'd just told a bunch of stranger that the infamous pilot 01 had been disfigured and killed by a pack of wild Pekingese. Not bears or wolves or evil Ozzies but little fuzzy shit- on-a-stick dogs.

Not under pain of death would I tell Heero about this damn trip

Roughly three hours to wait. Three hours. I don't think that's ever looked so long.

Until Granny and that Irish couple sat down on their side of me and professed to stay and `comfort' me until `my brother' arrived.

Those three hours suddenly looked like three years.

I had the oddest stirring of anger at Heero for getting lost in the first place. I'm never picking up his body again. Period. You couldn't pay me to and I'm a former mercenary. There's nothing we wouldn't do- but pick up the broken parts of Heero Yuy has been scratched off the list.

Nana Minnie- that was the old bag's name- made me grab something hot to eat before going on and on and on about how I was much too thin and needed someone to look after me in my `time of need'.

Seamus and Brenda- the Irish couple- started asking about my parents and why I was on my own with a war going on. I was forever thankful that I didn't possess Maxwell's obsession with honesty at that moment.

I muttered something about being a war orphan and groaned internally as Freckles pulled out his wallet and Carrot Top started telling us all about their kids- all seven of them.

Sitting there, squashed between Nana Minnie and the couple who had never heard of birth control, it wasn't hard to believe in reincarnation- because I must have done something awful to have deserved this.

Maybe I killed the original Heero Yuy and his successor is here to haunt me until my own untimely death.

Well, if anything this lovely trip has put me on even ground with the rest of the pilots when it comes to sanity. I'm now just as fucked up as the rest of them.

A breaking news scroll caught my eye on one of the many televisons in the port and I felt myself stiffen as Wufei's Gundam was shown on the screen.

“The Gundam OZ officials have called Zero Five is currently engaged in an attack against OZ troops near the L1 colony of L1-9987SX-“

Carrot Top tsked. “I hoped somebody is looking out from them Gundam pilots out there. Tis rumored they're only teenagers.”

Nana Minnie shook her head sadly. “Shocking when kids have to fight in wars because the adults are no damn good to do anything.”

Freckles crossed his arms. “I bet der parents are mighty proud of `em. Out fightin' a war `gainst the world. Five ta Everyone.”

I snorted. “You think they'd be out there is they had parents to worry about them?”

Nana Minnie patted my arm as I blinked at my own words. I didn't know I felt so….. bitter about my lot in life.

“Even if they don't win the war, the pilots have certainly caused a fine stir in the public.” Nana said with a chuckle. “They've got the people thinking and the support of many.”

“The people have turned on them before.” I said, thinking about our famous/infamous-ness. I suppose that's why Heero's self-destruct was so...awe-inspiring. He would have died- hell he damn well tried to die- for people who didn't believe in him as much as he believed in a free future for them.

I know that the mission is important and that dying for peace is probably inevitable but I'm not sure I could have pushed that button if it had been me.

“Aye, young lad, the politics have turned on the Gundam pilots more times than a fallin' coin.” Brenda pointed out, flicking a strand of bright red hair back from her eyes. “But politicians don't always rep'resent the public opinion.”

“And the minority always looses.” Seamus added with a small smile. “But there will always be su'porters of the Gundam pilots and der causes. Always.”

I felt sort of…regretful when Vest Guy came and told me the shuttle with Heero had arrived. It was…nice? Uplifting? Inspiring? To hear what the people, the actual colonists that we fought so hard for, voice their hidden support and gratitude.

The strangest urge to skip behind my guide passed my mind before I mentally kicked myself in the ball and shook my head. Any more happy moments and I'd turn into Winner. Just what we need- another gender-confused pacifist soldier.

The casket was a bit battered- Vest Guy offered to pay for fixing it but I told him my dead brother would be quite rank by that time and went off to get the truck in long-term parking.

It was an old beat-up blue piece of shit but it ran and the back was secure. I hated the looks I received pulling up to the loading/unloading dock with my sucky truck. The manager gave me a suspicious glare.

“My only sister works in the circus.” I said with a sigh. “Spent too much time around the carnies now, she won't have a proper church burial for our brother.”

That got me a few sympathetic noises and one asshole asked or Cathy's number but other than that- and having to sign a few papers- and I was on my way in no time.

In two hours I'd be back at the circus and things would be better. Cathy would help me with Heero's injuries and we'd be in a secure location. I'd be back together with Heavyarms.

The drive was long and quiet and worrying about my Gundam and if Heero was alright in that coffin bouncing around in the back, it hadn't even crossed my mind that Cathy might not have been expecting me A) so soon and B) at one in the morning.

I parked the truck by the huge crate that held Heavyarms. Ed, the Manager, will get the guys to put a huge tent up over it tomorrow sometime and then I'll get busy reassembling my Gundam.

It sounds like a big risk, keeping a Gundam out in the open at a circus, and letting the whole trope know that I'm pilot Zero Three but……. it's not. This is not just the home of the famous L3 Circus- it's the Base of Operations for the L3 rebels against OZ. I get parts and ammo for Heavyarms from these guys and their connections.

Everyone else has them- Maxwell and the Sweepers, Heero and J, Winner and his money and Chang has some strange relationship with Sally Po going on.

Doktor S isn't exactly the nicest bastard I know- I have the feeling if I ever asked him for parts for Heavyarms he'd shoot this Trowa Barton as well.

I trudged quietly over to Cathy's trailer- the one right next to my own- and eased the door open. I knew better than to walk around the grounds without someone from the Circus by my side. I'd learnt my lesson when that new fortune teller almost took my head off thinking I was an Ozzie spy the last time.

A loud sawing sound erupted from the open door and not for the first time I wondered why the trailer didn't shake with the force of Cathy's snores. The girl could wake the dead with that, I swear.

The moonlight reflected of the sequins on all the different costumes my `sister' had scattered about, so I knew where not to tread.

Not that I wouldn't have been able to find her with all the noise she was making.

Standing over her, feeling like one of those creepy stalkers from those horror movies Maxwell likes so much, I tried calling her name to wake her up.

“Cathy!”

I got snored at.

I huffed and tapped her on the forehead.

Her nose scrunched up and I held my breath as she shifted and continued to snore.

Too annoyed to be gentle, I set one knee down on the mattress beside her and grasped her shoulders. I shook her as I called out louder than before.

“Cathy!”

With a startled gasp her eyes flew open.

Not a second later something hard collided with the side of my head, all but throwing me off her bed. I swore as more sequins filled my vision and whatever Cathy was attacking me with caught me under my jaw and sent me sprawling.

I don't really remember hitting the floor but I do remember the light coming on and Cathy's startled face above my own.

“Trowa! You scared me! Oh God I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you.”

My eyes caught the sparkle of the lights against the stainless steel pot in her left hand.

I grunted in response, not exactly in a forgiving mood. She had hit me with a fucking pot, for crying out loud. Twice. How do you not mean to hurt someone when you do that?

Cathy huffed at me. “Well just what in the hell were you doing snooping around my trailer at-“ she checked the time. “- nearly two in the morning? Why didn't you just go to your own?!”

“I need your help tonight.” I said, pushing myself to my feet. My head and jaw throbbed in unison. Damn, I'll never live it down if I let my sister break my jaw.

Cathy turned red with anger. “I am not helping you put together your God damn Gundam tonight Trowa Barton!”

I shot her a look- who did she think I was, Heero? Heavyarms wasn't going anywhere at the moment and neither am I. I can put him together tomorrow.

“I've brought up one of the other pilots in the truck. He's injured so I need your help to get him out and into my trailer.”

She scowled, pushing her reddish brown hair away from her face. “You brought one of them here!? Which one?”

“Zero One- Heero Yuy.”

A sly grin crossed her face at that and I felt…threatened. I wasn't supposed to felt like that around this girl. I was a Gundam pilot- sisterly female didn't phase me.

Cathy scared me shitless sometimes though.

“Oh, Heero Yuy is it?” She all but purred a scary glint in her eyes. “You like him a lot, don't you? Bringing him here to meet the family.”

I choked violently. “It's not like that! He's in a coma!”

Cathy didn't- or wouldn't- hear me as she stepped towards the door.

I followed her and caught up before she could get very far.

“Hang on- I need some tools to get him out.”

Cathy blinked at me. “What?”

I ignored her as I made my way around the trailers to the tool tent and grabbed a crowbar, a baseball bat and an axe.

My selection of tools probably didn't help ease her mind as I lead the way to the truck- Cathy probably expected me to pull out a mangled body still trapped in the pilot's seat of a Gundam.

Her relieved sigh was telling.

When I pulled out the casket, she laughed.

I grunted at her amusement. I thought it was a good idea.

“That's so lame, Trowa.”

I studied the lid thoroughly, ran my fingers over the seam and even pulled at it a bit. Cathy did squat.

The lid stayed firmly shut.

I took up the aluminum baseball bat hesitantly. I really didn't want to break through the casket and hit Heero. With my luck, I'd end up killing him or disfiguring him or giving me ED.

So I swung the bat over my head and aimed for what I thought was where his feet were resting.

The bat hit dead on and only made a loud `GONG' sound and made my arms go numb.

Cathy tsked. “That's not going to work.”

I gave her a look that I hope conveyed `No shit'.

I pumped my tingling hands as I threw the bat aside and grabbed the crowbar. Then I tried to wedge the end into the seam where lid met casket. Tried being the operative word there. I even spit on the end of it.

Nothing.

Frustrated, I weighted the piece of metal in my hands for a moment. It was heavier than the bat. It could work.

The crowbar left a dent in the casket's lid before glancing off and smacking me in the shin.

I dropped it quickly.

“Fuck!”

Cathy nearly fell over laughing. “Gundam pilot defeated by wooden casket! Man, this is hilarious.”

I growled and picked up the axe.

That shut her up quickly for some strange reason.

“Why don't you just make a bit of a hold for the crowbar, Trowa?”

I blinked, having been lost simply staring at the shiny axe handle- certifiable I have become.

I hobbled back over to the Heero-box with a nod and took an experimental swing at the wood.

The axe cut through the wood nicely and let me carve out the seam before I threw the damn thing away and popped open the lid.

Heero looked like he was taking a fucking nap. I was tired, sweaty and bruised.

And so very thankful he was alright.

Cathy peered over my shoulder at Heero's still form before kneeling down on the ground beside the mangled casket. Her hands smoothed the silky fabric that lined the inside of the box.

“Oooooh, this would make a nice set of curtains.”

I glared at her and hefted Heero out of the coffin and over my shoulder gently.

I left Cathy and the remains of the casket for someone else to clean up as I made my way back to my trailer.

“Trowa.”

I turned with a sigh at my sister's call. She grinned at me,

“He's hot- you've got good taste.”

I slammed the trailer door on her and pointedly ignored her laughter when she heard the locks click into place.

I was finally home.

 

 

1- My cousin was, in fact, mauled by one of these dogs- they can be vicious. True he was like two and a half but it's the point that counts.