Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ II. Mirror Maze ❯ Echo Spreading ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Echo Spreading

I blinked open my eyes slowly, closing them again and wishing I hadn’t woken up.

Alcohol could be really fun…but there was this point where you should stop letting the pretty kimono chick pour you sake…and you definitely shouldn’t run back to your hotel quick-like before the last of the alcohol hit your blood stream.

Hangovers are hell.

I stumbled from where I’d been laying, nearly falling on the second bed. Quatre was curled up, watching me…and Heero opened his eyes to look at me. I had to wonder why Trowa had ended up sharing the bed I was in…

And then it didn’t matter, because I’d been drunk enough to puke before passing out, so I was puking again.

I barely made it to the bathroom in time…and the fact that with alcohol pukes you couldn’t stop long enough to get your breath, I was made fairly miserable. The whole situation leads to a very bad few minutes…and then the taste.

There was a reason people preached moderation, and I’d probably be doing it for the next damn month…or six.

I spit a few times into the toilet, flushing it and looking away from the sickening mess. I didn’t think I had anything left to throw up, but that didn’t stop me from feeling ill. I needed water…and a shower.

I felt like shit.

See, this was warranted karma. I’d decided to drink that much sake, even though I knew better…

It said something to me that no one got up to check on me.

Another issue about drinking that much was the big black hole that settled around throwing all my crap into my bag and waking up in the bed. I could sorta remember heading into the room, and I knew I’d said some shit to them that I really shouldn’t have…but not much more than that.

It only took me a few minutes after puking to brush my teeth—which also included a trip into the main room that was only marked by scared and sad blue eyes.

What had I said to Quatre?

My shower didn’t take long, and when I was dressed again, I leaned against the counter. My stomach was still roiling, and I felt very much like not moving ever again…

“Let’s go home,” I muttered, moving to drop on the end of the bed.

Quatre turned his face away from me into his pillow, but Heero was staring at the ceiling.

“Come on,” I repeated. “He’s not here, I fucking looked.”

“You’re lying,” Trowa informed me.

No shit?

“Trowa,” I muttered, “I couldn’t find him. I looked.”

“I saw you walk into the lobby with him. I saw him turn and walk off. I saw you holding a software bag.”

“And I met up with a friend I made last time I was with Hilde,” I noted, turning to look at him. “It was his damn game, and he left because she told us you lot were here.”

“Why wouldn’t he meet us?” Heero asked in a dead tone.

“Because I came here to get away,” I noted.

“You’re moving,” Quatre reminded me. “You’re going to live here.”

“I never said that,” I informed him pointedly.

“You did…and then you were mean to me…you hate me, don’t you?”

“I don’t hate you,” I muttered, dropping back on the bed. “I hate Trowa,” I added, moving to put my head on the pillow and look across the gap at the blond.

He hit me in the arm.

“And me?” Heero asked.

“What’s got you so morose?” I demanded, looking toward him.

“Maybe the fact that you and Relena have both attacked him now,” Trowa retorted.

“You can’t really call me on being drunk,” I noted. “And I was damn drunk.”

“You and Relena both,” Heero snapped, sitting up to look at me with hurt eyes. He was in one of his vulnerable states right now. “You both said…”

“That you beat him?” I asked, studying him seriously. “Are you going to refute it? Are you going to look me in the eye sand tell me Duo didn’t run away because you terrified him? I’ve been looking for two years, Heero. He’s gone. He’s completely gone.”

“Except the part where he was with you in the lobby,” Trowa noted.

I turned my head to look at him. “Why are you doing this to them? Why are you telling them these things?”

“You haven’t once told me I was lying,” he noted pointedly. “You haven’t once said I wasn’t telling the truth.”

“I don’t need to,” I agreed…and it wasn’t a lie. I could tell the truth and still mislead them.

“I didn’t expect anything of him!” Heero half-shouted at us. “I never…he didn’t have to do anything!”

“Then why did you beat the shit out of him?” I demanded, turning my head to look at him again.

He stared at me helplessly, obviously wanting to protest before sliding out of the bed and stumbling across the room. He took a moment to slide his shoes on…and the door slammed behind him.

“He didn’t grab a key,” Trowa noted. “Wanna lock him out?”

“You’re so mean!” Quatre exclaimed, jumping off the bed himself. He was stumbling like a drunkard, too, and I got the definite impression that he hadn’t slept at all. The door slammed, and I heard him calling to Heero.

“We should lock them both out,” Trowa noted vindictively to me.

He pissed me off so bad…

I turned on him, pinning him to the mattress as I stared into his eyes, holding him by the throat.

“You think your pretty little speech is going to mean anything?” he whispered at me. “You think that he’ll accept he’s in the wrong and move on? Are you really that stupid, Wufei?” He smirked at me. “And what will you explain this away as?”

“Oh, I can come up with a reason,” I noted. “What’s your point in all this?”

“Why, to find a lost friend, of course,” he returned. “What’s your motivation?” His voice was darkly suggestive.

“To get away from you,” I returned, trying to fight a sneer. “If not for your machinations, they’d have both gotten help by now,” I whispered. “If not for your contrivances, they’d have gotten help years ago.”

“Am I supposed to care?” he returned in that same whisper.

“Sadly, yes,” I noted, climbing off of him and dropping on my spot.

“I should kill you in your sleep.”

“Don’t give me ideas, Trowa,” I muttered darkly.

“Why are you lying so blatantly about Duo?”

“Duo’s not here, Trowa,” I noted, curling into the pillow. “What time is it, anyway?”

“Nine.”

I had about twenty-nine hours and fifty-five minutes to get them out of London.

- -

He knew better, of course, he knew with them…with him in London, he shouldn’t be waltzing around like a carefree local…he knew that they had an unhappy ability to track any quarry…case in point, Wufei showing up almost on his doorstep. He knew that Hilde would probably have an apoplectic fit if she realized he was doing it…but it was hard to sit around his apartment when there were errands to be run before the kids got home from school.

Plus the stress.

Duo rubbed at the back of his neck as he headed back toward his car. The cheapest way of doing these things was to park somewhere free…say, the little coffee shop…and walk or take the mass transit systems. Duo had issues with that many people in that closed a space…

It was ten-thirty, and Duo had already paid the phone bill, and electric bill. He could have done it automated, but he had this…problem…with these guys who could hack…

He crammed his hands deeper into his pockets, letting his thoughts drift. He’d managed to sleep that night, but it’d been troubled sleep with hints of nightmares. Little things like knowing he’d done something that would piss Heero off…or sitting through a rant that he couldn’t argue against. There were flickers at the edge of it of a fear, and fighting…and that thing he called Shinigami…

He’d woken up late, and felt like he hadn’t slept more than an hour.

There was an intense fear gnarled in his stomach, and it kept exploding into adrenaline when he remembered how angry Heero would get, and how bad it would hurt…and how no one had intervened. That helplessness that came with not knowing the language, and not knowing where he was…that fear of the floods.

He missed the rain, really…those monsoon downpours. Over the past two years he’d enjoyed the rains, but they didn’t have that same…protection…quality to them that he associated with the Amazon basin flooding…

He shook his head, glancing down an alley to his left. It was something he’d always done and would always do. The whole…don’t leave an enemy behind you mentality that had been hammered into him to keep alive. The alley was empty, but when he glanced the way he was going, he stopped completely.

Heero was staring at him. Right directly at him with no expression.

Duo ran.

- -

“Where the hell are they?” Trowa demanded irritably, pacing to the door and back again. “Why aren’t they back yet?”

“Shut-up,” I repeated for the fiftieth time. I couldn’t bring myself to worry that Heero and Quatre had disappeared, because it wasn’t like I’d ever be able to lose them. They’d show up when I least wanted them to, so waiting for them to come back would do nothing but keep them away longer.

Or…I just didn’t care…whichever.

“No, come on…Quatre shouldn’t be out alone with Heero,” Trowa muttered, pressing a knuckle to his lips. “They play off each other and you know as well as I do that we have to distract them from doing violence.”

“Watch out,” I warned sardonically. “You sound like you care.”

“Damn it, Wufei,” he half-shouted. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I’ve lived with you too long,” I retorted, moving the arm I’d had covering my eyes to look at the man, then drop the thing back down for the darkness again.

Trowa tsked in disgust, then stormed out the door.

- -

One of the annoying tendencies of some of the London alleyways was their nice habit of ending abruptly. The other bit was not knowing where he was or where he was going once he got into the labyrinth. He’d been skirting a border area that was mixed residential and business, and the nice alleys of these places were beyond his knowledge.

He stopped, hissing curses at the bricks, hitting the wall…but then he could hear the footsteps behind him and turned.

“Why were you running?” Heero demanded, his chest heaving slightly as he moved closer.

“Stay away from me,” Duo ordered, backing off more. He wasn’t putting his back to the wall in this close a corridor. “Stay the fuck away from me.”

Heero stopped, staring at him. “What?”

Duo’s heart was hammering in his chest as he tried to find a way out…

The expression in Heero’s eyes suddenly became horrified…very wide, anyway. He shied back a step, looking away as he started to shake his head, but it changed that quickly to the anger. He stormed forward, shoving Duo. “I’m not like that!”

The fear snapped…the anger and frustration…the helplessness snapped as Duo’s mind noted that he needed to pick up Camden from daycare…what would Vasu say about this? What would Nas do?

Heero was saying something else, but the words weren’t registering as anything…the approach would have had him whimpering before, waiting for the pain, but this time it was an attack.

He swung.

The pair of them fell into the fight like it’d been intended all along. They were snarling and shouting curses at each other as they went, and it didn’t take long for Duo to lose track of which was blood and which was sweat…or spit. His knuckles felt slick, and he knew that as soon as the adrenaline tapered off he’d be in an extreme amount of pain as he slammed against one wall.

“…expecting anything…” Heero was shouting, but the words slipped away into that same void as Duo attacked again and slammed Heero into the far wall…

…sirens.

“Freeze!”

Did officers actually shout that? Really?

Duo stumbled backwards a few steps, losing his balance and falling onto his rear as Heero, who was also on the ground, looked down toward the end of the alley at the flashing lights of the cop-car…and the officer holding a gun.

“Sergeant Dugan Scott,” Duo snapped at him, taking out his wallet and tossing it toward the man. “Put the weapon away.”

- -

“Hello?” Trowa muttered, moving from the bathroom as I uncovered my eyes to look at him again. He hadn’t had anywhere to go when he’d stormed out, and when he’d been able to come back in without his key he’d sort’ve given me a sheepish look before resuming his pacing. He blinked, listening. “I’m sorry? Dugan Scott?”

I sat up, staring at him.

“The hospital?” he asked, glancing at me. “Shit…when? Half hour…uh-huh…all right. Thanks for calling…I guess…oh…okay…yeah…bye.” He met my eyes again.

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

“He’s not here, huh?” Trowa asked scathingly. “Funny thing…I’ve never heard of Dugan Scott, but you sure as hell have, haven’t you?”

“My friend I was visiting,” I agreed through clenched teeth.

“Well, it seems he and Heero just had an all-out brawl in a back alley and are both being held at the hospital.”

I stared at him.

“I knew I saw him.”

“I knew you saw him, too,” I retorted, rising to grab a shirt and moving to pull my shoes on. “I knew you knew he was here, and I knew that’s why you drug them all over here. Tell me, do you feel better now? I’ve been called out on my lie. You get your way.”

“Don’t be an ass,” he snapped in annoyance, moving to grab his wallet.

“Are they all right?” I snapped, wondering.

“Fuckin’ not here,” Trowa grumbled irritably, heading toward the door. “Sorry I didn’t use the right name!” He slammed it in my face.

If I wasn’t so worried about Duo, I would have locked him out.

- -

“I’m done,” Duo muttered, storming into the ambassador’s office. “Take me off the list.”

“What?” the guy asked, then rising to his feet. “Are you okay?”

“I’m not hiding form him anymore,” Duo snapped. “I’m not uprooting my family to run like a rat to his hole…I’m not doing this anymore.”

The guy stared at him, connecting some things in his mind—including that he’d seen the group Maxwell had been hiding from at the meeting. He studied Duo’s blackened eye and various obvious wounds for a long moment before nodding and dropping back into his char. “As long as you’re sure?”

“I’m not hiding anymore,” Duo agreed, dropping into his seat and rubbing at his face. “Jesus…Nassaiya’s going to kill me…”

- -

I studied Duo over with a feeling of regret…seeing his bruises brought back memories of a helplessness I’d hated beyond belief my entire life…like Leixiang touching up makeup over her obviously bruised eye and telling me not to worry, that she was fine…that it had been an accident…when I knew full well that it was her husband. It was like the first time I’d seen the bruises on Duo and he’d muttered that it wasn’t a problem, that he and Heero had just had a disagreement…that he had been going to leave the group but it was okay now…like looking Natalie in the eye and asking if she wanted to leave.

I didn’t know Natalie, though. I didn’t know if she was adverse to Heero’s attentions or not.

“I ended the sanctuary,” Duo noted, rubbing at his eye.

“I figured,” I agreed, stopping near him. “You okay?”

“I’m fine…the boys are sorta scared, though.”

I looked away.

“Hey, it’s not your bad,” he muttered, moving closer. “It’s better this way, really.”

“I brought him here.”

“It’s better this way,” he repeated, looking uncertain a moment. “I…I don’t…it’s done, Wufei.”

I nodded, looking away as that processed. It was like…the call had been the order to take the slide. The call to Trowa had been Leixiang telling me it was time to leave, so we needed to go down the slide…and that bizarre moment when I’d asked the nurses where Duo was…where Dugan was, and they’d said he’d gone and been the stop at the end when people hadn’t been smart enough to move out of the way.

“Where’s Quatre?” Trowa demanded as he and Hero moved from the hospital room and looked around. The guy favored Duo with a curious look before focusing on Heero again. “Where was he?”

“He was at the hotel last I saw him,” Heero snapped, looking angry and ignoring Duo entirely. “I told him to go back to the room.”

Trowa stared at him in horror before turning to look at me.

…and this would be that spinning tunnel that no matter who you were, you’d fall in before reaching that final exit…

“What?” Heero snapped, looking between us. “You leave him there?”

“He never came back,” I muttered, starting to move in Trowa’s direction as Duo gave me a sharp look.

Trowa ran…and I followed him.

End

- -

E/N: hehe, sometimes I feel evil. Stay tuned for "Nocturnal State" and the race to find Quatre...sorry about the delay of updating, folks...