| …Casting Sadows… By: Shadow@ngel Superpinay@hotmail.com PG 13 Author's Note : I had no idea how Japan's school system worked… Because take Ranma ½ for example: Ranma and Akane were sixteen and they were in their FIRST year of high school… but… then If someone in Japan is fifteen… then they must be in eight grade, right??? ERGH! CONFUSION! I'll make due and just slap Hilde right before Entrance Exams. I know how she feels. ERK! .Anyway, This ficcy starts out rilly weird so I'd please ask you to plz read the WHOLE fic before you leave. Its starts out as Duo as the angel of Death and he's taking a victim. I've been writing this fic for a very long time so you can rest assured I didn't copy anyone. This fic was written under the influence of no other fics, meaning I did this with my ideas and my ideas alone. Any resemblance to any other fics is purely coincidence…or it could be that someone else copied me but… well yeah. Summary : (Alternate Universeà AU) Death's Apprentice messes up and Death must pay for them both. But when being Duo Maxwell means helping a spunky little german girl named Hilde… maybe Community Service isn't so bad after all…Type : Romance (DuoxHilde)Comedy Alternate Universe (Well... here goes!) Chapter 1: Whose Eyes I've Seen At that, I walked over to him and touched him with my index finger. I felt his spirit lift up from his body, and it just floated there for a moment. His spirit looked at me with wide, surprised eyes before relaxing after I smiled at him. My smile, somehow seems to calm the human spirits when they die. "Am I dead?" he asked me. I nodded. "Are you death? Am I going to heaven???" I laughed at him. "So many questions. Slow down, young one. Yes, I am death. And yes, you are going to heaven." Then, nurses and Doctors rushed into the room and began the procedure to try to revive him. The spirit and I looked on. I shook my head. I wasn't letting this spirit go. It was his time. "Hey… that's me!" He said, pointing to the body on the bed. I laughed again. Humans are so easily amused. "Hey! HEY! You guys! I'm not in there! I'm over here!" He yelled, waving his arms at his body. "They can't hear you. Neither can they see you, as they cannot see or hear me," I said. He sort of calmed down after that. "You have any unfinished business?" He looked at me like I was crazy. Suddenly, a young, read-head came rushing through the other wall. It was my apprentice. She was late. Huffing and puffing, she used her scythe as a crutch and looked up at me with apologetic eyes. "S….huh…..Sorr- huh- huh- ee!" she managed to say in between breathes. I simply stared at her with my blank look and shook my head. "Mariemaea, you are late," I said. She sighed and she fixed up her robe. "I know, I know, but I can't get used to being your apprentice. Why can't I be an angel again? Didn't I work enough?" Mariemaea was an angel before she became my apprentice. A normal angel. Being an apprentice to me was her punishment for violating her angelic privileges. "You know as well as I know just why you are being punished." I said to her. She scratched her head and giggled. "I kind of forgot what I did. It was so long ago and all." "You abused your privileges." I quoted from my mind. She nodded but, she got a little impatient. "I knoow thaat! But… specifically. What did I do? Again?" It was a long story, and I doubt that Dave wanted to wait for us to sort this all out. Dave was the spirit I had just lifted from their body. The one who had just died. "You stole a Reserve and used it to conquer Earth. At least you tried to. You would have succeeded hadn't it have been those four Gundam pilots opposing you." I smiled at her. Angels and heavenly beings are not allowed to go into the Earth realm as an angel. We must go inside of a human body. Because Heaven is so pure, and Earth is so polluted compared to heaven, an Angel would surely die had they gone into the realm unprotected. So, God had created human bodies for angels to go to Earth in. It's like our way of visiting the earth. A lot of angels go there in Reserve bodies to perform miracles. A lot of the saints were angels in human disguise. What? You think those saints were ordinary human beings? Of course not. Humans don't have that magical capability that angels have. And they probably never will, sadly. What? Oh yes. I have a reserve body of my own. Although I have never used it before, it still belongs to me. I think its name is… Maxwell. Duo Maxwell, or something like that. You know, one of God's personal angels, also known as the Seraphim, once confronted me and asked me if I wanted to fight in the war on Earth as a Gundam pilot. I rejected the offer kindly, and decided I'd save my visit to Earth for something more towards a vacation. "Oh yeah. I remember now. That body was so puny! But hey, at least the Reserve belongs to me now!! She gets real pretty when she grows up! But I never did get to grow up in that body … Poor Lady Une. When that Reserve died in that car accident, she was real sad." She perked up a lot more when I mentioned she was going to have a baby soon. She was, too. In a year or two, she would meet another man and have a child. Ironically, it was going to be with one of the Gundam pilots: Triton Bloom. But to the others, he is known as Trowa Barton. It was very odd… Who would have thought it. Heh. Well, anyway, once an angel uses a Reserve for the first time, it becomes their property. Weird, I know, but I guess it's a little reassuring that once I use my own Reserve, it will be mine permanently. And if you die on Earth, you can simply return to heaven unharmed while the Reserve is restored. I don't distinctly know how, but as you know, God works in mysterious ways. "As I was asking you before, Dave. Do you have any unfinished business before you go?" I said to him. He thought for a moment before he looked up at me, curiously. "..Can I say goodbye to my wife? If I don't say something, I know she'll do something drastic." "A dream." I said to him. "What?" he asked. I mentioned to my apprentice. She loved to help with the spirits and all. She loved it when I let her explain things. "When you die, you have the option to visit any spouses or children in their sleep. That helps people a lot, I know. But you may only speak to one. Who would that be, mister? Your significant other, perhaps??" she asked. And she said all that in one breath too. She's too enthusiastic about her job. "Why yes. My wife please." He said. Dave turned to me and waited to see what I would do. I turned to Mariemaea and put my hand on her shoulder. "Feel like taking this one?" Her eyes lit up again. "YES! I DO!" "First, take him to his wife. She's sleeping in the waiting room. Then, take him to the gates of heaven and then make sure he gets judged properly. Sometimes, the judges are a little crooked. Then, meet up with me at Eden." I said. Eden was the largest city you have ever seen! Of course, it a city in Heaven. That's where all the spirits go if they make it into heaven. From there, they can either stay in Eden or go to some other places like Hollyfair or Gaea. All the same, with the coming and all the going, it's a hectic place to live. Especially when you're Death. Mariemaea rushed off, pulling the man behind her and giggling all the way. She went through a wall and both were out of sight. I stayed a minute to watch the nurses pull a pale, white sheet over his head, signifying the end of their attempts to bring him back. I sat on the open windowsill until everyone left the room. Then, I hopped off and headed for heaven. ******** "You WHAT!?" I cried, exasperated. I pulled at my braid in frustration. "I'm sorry!! He ran away from me! I thought he was just putting… And then he…. And.. and….!" She suddenly burst out crying and grabbed my leg. "Hey, hey hey!" I snapped. "You're ripping my cloak!! And stop crying! Oh…. Listen. Erk…. Hey- Its not your fault." I sighed. I gave up and plucked her off my limb. I held her shoulders lightly and comforted her, "Its okay. It's not your fault. It's not-" "Well, its SOMEBODY's FAULT! What would God think!?" Screamed someone in the other room. Mariemaea and I looked at each other and then at the door that opened, revealing… the boss. He stomped into the middle of the room. "Dave was wreaking havoc all over the spirit world! It turned out, your friend wanted to see what would happen if he took some whipped cream and started writing smiley faces on the hospital walls!!!" He kept ranting on about keeping our people in line. "It wasn't my fault! I was just taking him to see his wife, but then he hit me and he ran!!" She sobbed. "He was eevviiill!" "Stop being a baby! If you're ever going to be an apprentice, then you have to do it right!" Ooohh, I could feel a lecture coming up. Of course, with Mariemaea there, it would actually be an argument. "Stooooppp iiittt! Duo, he's being mean!!" See? They were already beginning the fight. Always. This always happened when I was there. Never when they were alone! How'd I get stuck with her, anyway??? "Watch your mouth, young lady!" "I ain't a young lady! I'm over 600 years old!!" "Boss, come on! She's new!" I tried. Maybe if I could actually stop them, I might have been able to get off work early. It seemed that these days, you either had a job that some higher angels assigned to you, or you did some labor down in Gally. That's another town south of Eden. "SHE'S BEEN WORKING WITH YOU FOR SEVENTY YEARS NOW!!" "Well, for angels, seventy years is a flash, right?" "OUT!!" "But sir-!" "I SAID OUT! NOW!" "I need a vacation." I mumbled to myself and I walked out with a precocious and sobbing little angel of death clinging to my foot again. "Duuuuooooo!!!! I dooon' wannaaa seerrvvvee aaa looonnnggeerr teerrrm!! I did my time as an apprentice!!" she wailed. My head was throbbing from all the screaming. "Mariemaea… tell God I'm taking a holiday." I whined. "I can't take this anymore!!" ******** Well, the best part of that incident was that I had to do some community service. That is, do some community service down on Earth. What does an angel do for community service? What we're supposed to do is choose someone in need and just help them in any way we can. Of course, who we choose to help is optional, and sometimes you can pick quite a looker! Yes, Death is a guy and yes, he likes babes. Babes are good. Whoa. That was my hormones. Human males are so… no. The females are emotional. The males are so downright evil. Not evil by Lucifer standards, but evil by practical jokes and pranks standards, if you know what I mean. That was also my first time using my Reserve, so it was a bit awkward at first. I had known a lot about humans, but the details were a blur to me. One of them was why do they fall in love when they know they were going to get hurt? It's so stupid. I looked up and eyed an apartment. It seemed that she was one of the people who were on my optional/recommended 'People To Help List' that my superior angel supplied before I left for Earth. And the girl on my list lived in a small apartment on one of the bad side of town. So right away, I thought, If this girl lives in this part of the city, then she must have known how to take care of herself. And she did. Quite good at it too. But I guess today wasn't her day Hilde was her name. She was supposedly supposed to die once I got back on duty as Death. Community service was like a little vacation, so I guessed I would spare her some time to live. I walked up to the door and by instinct, I whipped out with a few hairpins and picked the lock. I paused a moment and wondered just what I did. Apparently, my Reserve had plenty of skills I hadn't known about. I shrugged and stepped inside. It was a mess. Things were turned over, furniture were broken, glass tables and mirrors were shattered. It looked like someone had broken in and stolen some things, too. I stepped over an overturned chair and stepped on some broken glass. There was a loud crack as they broke under my foot. "Who's there!?" a female voice yelled from around a corner. She came around, holing a bat. She eyed me a moment. "Who are you and what the hell are you doing in my apartment!?" she yelled. I paused, I didn't know what to say. I never pictured community service like this! I always thought of it as … as something that wasn't so violent! "I swear, if you don't get out now, then I'll call the authorities!" I laughed. And that's where I learned why I never used Reserves before…It could have quite a mouth. "What are they going to do? Kill me? HA! I am Death." Then I smiled, hoping to reassure her, like my smile does with spirits like Dave. Well, I guess my smile was different to humans because she immediately swung her bat, hit me in the chest and kicked me out the door. I guess that with how hard she hit me, I must've looked real evil… I hit the sidewalk with a thud. "…augh…I need another… vacation…" I muttered. Suddenly, she dropped her bat and stared at me like I was from Mars. "Oh my god! Did I just do that!? I'm soooo sorry!" she yelled. I had been warned about something like this. It was said that if someone knew that Death was inside of a reserve, they would get hostile. Then it would go away in a few seconds, like they never acted like that. She sat me up and apologized over and over. Once everything stopped spinning around me, I managed to comprehend her next sentence. "I dunno what came over me! I'm sorry! So sorry!" "Ow.. ow ow ow ow!" I chirped. Being a human was no vacation! Now I had seen why angels didn't use their Reserves regularly. It was painful! "What was that for?" "I dunno." She helped me to my feet. "But lemme make it up to you… Uh… Come on in. Its kind of a mess. I hope you don't mind." "No. Not at all." I said. You know, I was having second thoughts about helping her. But she smiled at me, as if reading my thoughts. And I told myself, 'Aw… why not. She's going to die soon anyway.' ******* Ending up in a kitchen and holding an ice pack to my head was not something I thought I'd be doing the first five minutes on Earth. I thought I'd be doing hundreds of good deeds by now. Thousands, maybe. But I was stuck with the one person who had to hit me before she ever knew my name! "I don't know how I can tell you how sorry I am. Something came over me, I don't know." She said from the stove. She was heating up a kettle. Probably making me tea. She was a sweet girl. Too bad she was going to be killed. Even worse was that it was going to be a murder. I still didn't know who would murder her, but it would be a shame. Such a shame. "What happened here?" I asked. "Huh?" she asked. I mentioned to the mess around me with the hand I wasn't holding the ice pack with. "Looks like someone broke in," I said. She came over with two cups in her hand. She placed on in front of me and took a sip from the other. "Oh. Someone did. It's nothing. Stuff like this always happens in this place. I would have bought a better place, but my supposed fiancee' ran away before we could get married." I nodded. She was lying. At least that's what I thought. Human intuition isn't always reliable. "That's too bad. What was his name?" I took another sip. "I dunno. His name was…Quatre, I think. I don't really blame him though. He had the kind of job that if I asked 'How was your day?' then he'd have to kill me." She laughed. "He was a Gundam pilot. I was crazy enough to go up there and help him out once on Libra, but he kind of got mad at me. He really cared about me. But… duty called and after the thing with Mariemaea, I never saw him again. I dunno if he's still alive." She took this time to daydream a bit. I paused… Quatre… Quatre… Searching my memory for anyone who had died in the last decade with the name Quatre. "Quatre Winner? Quatre Raberba Winner?" I looked up at her. She blinked. Her eyes went wide. "How did you know?" I took a sip of my tea and my eyes were focused on the ceiling. I didn't answer her question. "Oh. He's alive and well. He still kind of talks about you, but he never really had the courage to come back." I began to take another sip, when she stopped my hand and frowned at me. "Do you know him?" She was so eager to know. Maybe I should not have opened my mouth. "He's flying in on business in three weeks. He'll be hanging around on the South side of town." I looked her straight in the eye. "… But you will not be able to see him." Then I broke the contact and turned away. Most likely, she would die before then. "… Just who do you think you are?" she said. I nearly laughed out loud. I snickered and I got a giddy feeling. A light feeling. Kind of… happy. And in light of that human emotion, I slapped her lightly on the back and said in a mock-manly voice, "I am Death! Fear me!" She smiled and giggled a little bit. She relaxed at least. "I never really got your name," She said to me. "My name is Duo Maxwell. Nice to meet you," I held out my hand and she firmly shook it. She opened her mouth to introduce herself. But she really didn't need to. I already knew her name. "My name his Hilde Schbieker. Nice to meet you too." ******** The window sill was warm when I laid my palm on the smooth surface. There were a few splinters poking up from the wood, but I didn't mind. The small pricks of their points against my skin was an interesting experience. But what hypnotized me most was the rays of the sun coming through the window itself. The sun was just rising from the hills to the north. Of course, most who lived in the city could not see it because of the tall skyscrapers blocking the view. There were no such obstacles when you watched from heaven. "Hey.. you," A raspy voice floated over to my ears. It yawned. I turned around to find Hilde stretching her arms into the air while treading my way. She had just woken up and she took a few moments to rub the sleep out of her eyes. "You cleaned my apartment up… You didn't need to do that, you know. I can take good enough care of myself. I don't need a housemaid waiting on me hand and foot." I shook my head. "I am not a housemaid. Just here to help you out a little bit." I said. I hung my legs out the window and began to swing them. "You be careful there. You don't want to fall out. It's a long way down," She poked her head out the window beside me and closed her eyes. Then, it turned upside down into a disappointed expression. I was puzzled. Fickle, humans are. One minute they're satisfied and the next minute they hate the whole world. "I'd enjoy this place more if it wasn't for all the car exhaust and the horrible weather all year 'round." She sighed and retreated from the sunlight and back into the shade of her apartment. "You no longer have to give a home either. I can take care of myself, as you said earlier." I reassured her. I started toward the bedroom door. "Wait!" she said. I could read her thoughts. (Damn. I know I shouldn't even be letting this guy sleep in my apartment, but what can I say. He seems like a nice guy. He can't do any harm. Just be careful… I wonder if he has a place to stay. Maybe he's just bluffing so he won't cause me any trouble. Huh… either way he seems to be a good kind of guy… except for the fact that he picked my lock yesterday.) Her expressions were changing slightly to go with her train of thought. How amusing. "How would lunch sound?" My Reserve automatically took over. But Technically a Reserve was supposed to take traits of the angel that uses it and is supposed to bring it out. SO … I guess if I had a personality, then this would be it. "But… um… okay. When? Where?" said Hilde. I paused again. "You decide." And I abruptly walked outside, feeling a lot more human than I wanted to. I felt a little guilty for reading her thoughts again. (What a queer guy… Hm. He made it sound like he was stalking me. I better go catch him.) "Duo! Hey!!" She called. She rushed down the stairs and ran towards me. I stopped and waited for her. It would be rude not to. Suddenly, that was, regretfully, was where I learned the first rule about traffic: It's not a good idea to stand in the middle of it. A car slammed into me and I skidded a foot or two. The pain spiked before going down. I stood up, and in anger, I raised my hand and pointed straight at the man behind the wheel. He stared at me wide-eyed before suddenly having an unexpected seizure. I cursed myself for losing my temper and sending him to the spirit world. Hm. It didn't matter really. He'd probably just be reincarnated again if he really wanted to. But his family. They would not take it well. … It's a harsh world. Too bad for them. "Duo!! Oh my GOD! Are you okay??!!" Cried Hilde. She rushed over to me for the umpteenth time this week. "You shouldn't use his name like that," I said. "God really hates it when people use his name in vain." He really, REALLY hated it when people said Holy Shit. But I won't go into that. "Duo, you just got hit by a car!!" She said. "Did you hit your head?" She felt my chest and pressed lightly. "Does this hurt?" she asked. Another acute pain hit me. I reached up and hit her upside the head. "Does that?" I asked. I meant it literally, but I think she took it as a joke. She rubbed the back of her head and muttered, "Ow…" several civilians had already gathered around me. A whole other group of people were gathered around the man that was having the seizure. He was shaking and everything. Then, the distant sound of a siren from an ambulance came wailing as it slowly approached. "What's that?" I asked. I pointed to a window display. She paused and frowned at me. "It's a pastry shop. You know… they sell donuts there?" she said. I nodded. Then I looked at her again. "Donuts?" I asked again. She blinked. "Food." She said, confirming that it was edible. I grabbed her hand and walked her into the pastry shop just as the ambulance pulled up looking for two people. A man who had died from a seizure and another man who had been hit by a car. They found only one. And he was already dead. "Hilde, why not just have lunch now?" I asked her, and pointed to a mouthwatering piece of… do nut. What an odd name. But why did they call it a nut? I could understand the 'dough'… but it isn't a nut. "Because its seven thirty in the morning. It should be breakfast… and what's wrong with you!? You should be going to the hospital! You're hurt!!" she scolded me. "Why? They can do nothing to alter the course of ones life. They fool themselves into playing God. I choo… I mean, Death chooses who goes and who stays. It has nothing to do with those actors." Hilde looked at me funny. She looked a little apprehensive and scared. "They save lives, Duo." "No. They aggravate lives. They never learn. But to save ones life… is simply to prolong the suffering they were to receive in life anyway. They would be in more pain to live out their whole life than if they just... plain… died." I sat down at one of the booths. Her eyebrows furrowed. "..Very… very weird. But… kind of true. That was kind of insightful." She said. And she sat down on the other side of the booth I was in. But she still eyed me carefully. "You're not from around here, are you?" She asked me. I nodded, trying to think of where I might be separated from other social beings. "I came from Alaska." That answer seemed suitable. She shrugged. She accepted me at that point, and she asked me a much, much, much, much more suitable question. "So… are you up for the jelly filled doughnut or the Apple turnovers?" Her smile showed through as I replied, "Such a pretty girl much have better judgement than me." "Damn Flirt." She said and laughed. She seemed mad, from her words.. but she looked happy. I think… it was called sarcasm. Its when a human says or does something, when they mean something totally different. I was beginning to like her, I was. ******** Another night passed and I watched her from the left corner of the room. I entered the moment after she fell asleep. I thought she might feel uncomfortable under my gaze before she drifted off to sleep. I didn't know why I had watched over her that night, but I knew it was a good thing, because a few hours into that night, someone had tried to break in again. The lock could be heard snapping from even inside Hilde's room. She was a light sleeper, so I placed my palm on her forehead and made her sleep once more. She smiled when I gave her a dream. My gesture was not meant to kill her. It was meant to simply let her sleep well throughout the night, in case you are wondering. I did not want her to witness what would happen next. And I kill humans with my right hand. The left is simply to calm them. Anyway, I walked out the bedroom door, enraged that someone DARE disturb my next taking. The next soul I was going to take. Besides, my Service required me to help this girl Hilde. I guess this meant chasing out humans who had chosen to break in and violate her property. Rage and anger rose inside of me. I did not mean to let my anger control me, but it did anyway. This had never happened to me before. I gently closed her door behind me and I swiftly made my way into the living room where some perpetrators were beginning to upturn some of her furniture. "Hey, Flo! Break that Mirror over there. This is the last job before Donny comes over to…yeah. After this, we get paid, the bitch dies and then we're home free. No cops eva' come over in this neghba'hood." He called quietly to the other man, who obediently walked over to the mirror and shattered it with his elbow. The man looked up and spotted me. All he saw of me though, was my human form slowly advancing toward them from the pitch black shadows of the night. "Hey, who are you!?" He stood up and glared at me. "I am your end." I said, words of Latin and older languages followed my sentence. He laughed nervously, but he was sweating. The other man walked over beside him and laughed along with him. They were trying to intimidate me. They simply thought because of the image of my Reserve that they could take me. "H'yeah Right, bub. Get out of here. This ain't Nanya Business!" He said, and began to get scared when my eyes glowed an eerie neon green before it slowly transitioned into a deep crimson. He was shaking. I cried something out in my Native Tongue (language of the dead) and I screamed a silent prayer. My lips moving rapidly, no sound came from my lips. But they were cowering now, backing away from me. Wings erupted from my back and I began to whip them back and forth, darkness flooding from them as if it was wind. They tried to yell for help when the front door slammed closed on its own, and then a dark puddle of black dripped from my right hand and splattered onto the floor. It rose and formed my weapon. My reaper. My beautiful reaper. I was complete when my cloak appeared. I opened my eyes, the green light that glowed from them not penetrating the darkness my wings had already spread. And they tried to yell for help again. But it was to no avail. I raised my right hand. Somewhere outside… a child began to cry. ******** So, morning finally came, and Hilde awoke with a start. She saw me staring at her. For some reason this scared her. "Were you… watching me?" she asked. She rubbed her eyes. Another morning with Hilde. How pleasant to see her refreshed again. "All night. Forgive me." I told her before she walked out. "For what? Whadda you mean?" She asked me. She continued to walk out the door and found her living room still a mess from the events of last night. "Duo, did you do this!?" She pointed to the mess. "No. It was a pair of men. I took care of them." I said calmly. She smiled warmly and a weird tingly feeling ran through my palm. I shook my hand to get the feeling out of it. My palm was also a little sweaty. "You chased them off?" she asked. "…Yes. They will. Never. Bother. You. Again." I said, accenting every word. She hugged me, and instead of letting go right away, like other humans I observed usually did when they hugged, she held the embrace and talked to me. "Thank you so much. How will I ever be able to repay you!?" She said. "Repay me for what?" I asked her. She put her hand on my cheek and gave me another one of her smiles. "For EVERYTHING!!" she yelled cheerfully. "The bat, the people, watching over me at night!" She let go of me and took me into the kitchen where she began to cook some breakfast. My stomach growled loudly. Hilde seemed to have heard it because she laughed. "You're Hungry?" "So that was what it was. It was hunger… I thought my stomach was trying to tell me something important." I muttered. And I liked the way I said the last part of my sentence. I had just used sarcasm. I was learning from Hilde. Fascinating!! I never knew humans were so complex! I had observed them from heaven, but there were a lot of thing I had never learned about yet! After a few minutes, she handed me a plate with strips of meat, heated chicken spawn and a shredded and manipulated pile of potatoes slapped together in an oval shaped mass. I stared at the food for a moment. And for another moment…and another…. Until I said, "…What is this stuff?" "This stuff is your breakfast. Bacon, sunny-side up eggs and a little bit o' hashbrown. How about some orange juice?" she said. I nodded, wondering just what the stuff was. But the aroma of the… egg.. I think. And the.. bacon… and hashbrown… they were just enticing. They were luring me in, using my senses to draw me closer… "Duo… get your nose out of the egg and breeaatthhhee…" "What?" "Eat." She said. She handed me utensils, but I placed them down and picked up the bacon with my fingers. "Duo, use the fork." She said. I paused. "The fork?" I wondered aloud. For a moment I thought she said 'stork.' I really, really did need to learn about the habits of humans. They're so interesting. "That long thing with the three sharp pointy ends on it," she giggled. She was mocking me. I didn't mind. I was still learning. Where there was someone learning, there always has to be patience. Otherwise someone would reach an untimely end…. What? Don't look at me like that. It's true. I picked up the object she described and I had a sudden urge to poke the egg… I stabbed it and it began to bleed a weird yellow goo. I stared at It wide-eyed. "I thing it just bled to death. I killed it." I said to myself. Hilde burst out laughing and got around the counter. She walked around me and sat down to my right, starting on the food that inhabited her plate. She handed me a cup that had the same color as the goo inside the egg. "Oh come on. Just drink it. I bought it at the Mart over on South Street. Its free from parasites, yes." She nudged me. I think she was trying to get me to laugh. "Y'kno… yu oktoo gef yoosef a dob," she said, her mouth full. "What?" I didn't understand what she said. She swallowed her food and then attempted to explain to me. "I said, you ought to get yourself a job… Someone with skills like yours could get good money." "Hilde? Why were those huma… people after you?" I asked quietly, while I consciously poked at the bacon. Just to make sure that it didn't bleed out either… "…It's nothing. Just a bunch of stupid thugs out for trou-." "HILDE." She was silent. My tone of voice must have calmed her. It should have, anyway, because she watched me intently with her cerulean blue eyes. "Do not lie to me." She hesitated, as if deliberating on what to say to me. It almost seemed like she wanted to simply get my approval about her as a person. Well, Hilde.. you already had it. "Um…oh…okay. Do you want to know the truth?…well… It all happened a while ago… The war had just ended and there was a lot of trouble. Especially for me." She started slowly. "And.. I was having a lot of trouble just getting enough to eat. I was so desperate to keep myself alive. I wasn't even sure Quatre was alive. He loved me, and I loved him.. but… he could barely survive himself- he had the war going on. And not to mention we couldn't find each other. So, with all my desperation, some guy lent me a whole bunch of money. Don't ask me why I took it. And the next day it was stolen. All of it. So, when the guy came back and asked me to pay back his debt… I couldn't. I was already working 2 part time jobs, and on the verge of getting a third, and neither paid me very well. I could barely afford the damn apartment. And.. he gave me time to pay it off. I did pay some off, but over a few years, the interest kept building and building until there was no way I could pay all of it." She finished in a low, defeated tone. "God.. I'm sorry. I bet you don't wanna hear this crap from me. Just let me whip up some more breakfast for you." She placed on a mask and tried to look more cheery. It did not work. She did not fool me. It was time I did my Service to her. Otto, from what I could tell… was the leader of a major street gang and he had a lot of friends. I could not kill them all. That would be abusing my power too much. But I did know someone who could help. He got on my good side, and I let him go. I didn't love him, no. Death is a boy. And just a boy. He was just my friend. In terms of my position as Death… but you get the point. "I have a way for you to finally be free of this man. What is his name?" "His name? His name is Otto. That is all I can say." She said. That was enough for me. I put down my… fork… and I walked over to the vid-phone. "Duo?" she said. "What are you doing?" I dialed some numbers and waited. "I'm calling some help…" He picked up. Good. "Hello, my friend." He looked awful apprehensive. I guess he was a little nervous about me calling. Maybe he didn't remember me. If that was the case, I'd make him remember. One way or another. Who are you? How did you get this number?? He asked in a threatening, but monotonous voice. "Do you really need to know?" … Wait… It's you… he said, his voice shaky. No one else probably would have detected it, but I was death. I saw through him in no time flat. I laughed. "Good guess. I need your help. And by the way: How are you today, Heero?." ******** "One more person, Hilde. Just one more." I dialed in a few more numbers. This is the North European Toki Provence, How may I help? I stared at the picture of the operator. "Trowa Barton please." Hold on sir……………………………… Hello? I'm sorry. There is no Trowa Barton here. "Triton." I said. The operator blinked. Then, she looked around her before leaning in closer to the screen. She ripped off her headphones and said, Call me Queen. ".. Serenade." The operator nodded and transferred the call to somewhere. A voice was heard, but the screen was blank. "Who is this?" asked a familiar male voice. "All you need to know is that Catherine owes me something. And I know you care deeply about your dear sister." You… The screen suddenly lit up with a picture of a green-eyed young man with bangs that went past his chin. "That's right, Trowa. It's me." ******** "Hey… what was with the triton thingy you did on the last phone call. What were you talking about?" Hilde placed the dishes in the sink. She would wash them later. "Oh. Trowa likes to have everything as odd as it can get. That whole ordeal was just a sort of password that he gives to very important clients." "Clients?" "Yes. Clients. I saved his sister's life once." Actually, Trowa made a deal with me that if he owed me a couple favors, then Catherine would be saved. It happened when Trowa had attempted to commit suicide when Catherine stopped him. And a leo shot at her. In reality she was killed, but Trowa made a deal. I convinced the Deity of Time to reverse the whole ordeal. I possessed Trowa and used his body to complete our deal and give him the speed and strength to take the hit and save her. Trowa is the only one with memories of the Time Reversal deal I made. Catherine does not know of the deal. She does not know how much he had given to save her. But…how Trowa saw me in the first place was a mystery. I was invisible to other humans. They weren't supposed to see me at all. However, to Heero, it was the not the same. Heero actually wanted to die. When I convinced him it wasn't his time yet, his spirit returned to its body, and he completed his mission to destroy Oz. In a way he did. There is no Oz today. Heero believes he owes me, but it was simply a matter of destiny. Destiny sometimes is a cruel soul. She fell in love with me once. She still loves me. But she knows the path God has laid out for us. She just puts how. But sometimes, the loneliness takes over her and she can get sidetrack, allowing the destiny in the world to stray and go completely wrong. She loves me so much… Alas. I did not love her back. But… one who purposely causes pain and sorrow… Fate. Fate and Destiny used to be the same deity, but because of reasons unknown, they were split into two. And Fate is another soul who controls our future. She enjoys making us suffer. Fortunately Destiny has a higher place than Fate. But she always manages to take advantage of Destiny. The doorbell rang. I smiled. "Hilde. Go see who that is." I said. I stopped myself abruptly and cursed. If it was Heero, then he'd probably… "OIY!" I could hear Hilde cry out loud. And even from the room I was in, I could hear what Heero was saying. "Who are you? Where is Duo?" "I-I-I-I…" I slapped my forehead and walked over to the front door where Hilde was staring down the barrel of a gun held by the notorious Heero Yui. "Heeerrooo. Would you please stop threatening my friends. Maybe you should go back to hacking into the Xellis Mainframe. Besides, you haven't called Relena lately. I might want to call her and tell her you're here, just to be nice." I said. Heero grunted slightly and lowered his gun. I sighed in relief internally for some reason. I shouldn't have been worried anyway. Heero was no threat to Hilde. If he killed Hilde, then of course, all bets would be off and he'd be off this Earth in a flash. "Good. I thought so." He really did like this.. this… Relena. But even I wasn't sure whether he loved her or not. After all, as a favor to Heero, I saved Relena's life a couple of times. I guess he was some kind of ally or… friend to me. He meant something at least. And Hilde was mine to take, and mine alone. I get awful touchy about people stealing my victims. Especially if they are as cute as… Wait a minute… am I supposed to be thinking …? I am DEATH, for heaven's sakes. "Duo..?" asked Hilde. I walked up to her and glanced at her with curious eyes. "What do you need to speak to me about?" I asked. She motioned to the kitchen, so I turned around and headed for the door which was to my left. At first she was calm and collected, but the moment the door closed behind her, she became nervous and jittery. "What's going on? Why did he just pull that thing on me? Whaddid I do to deserve this?" "Do you want me to list-," I said. She reacted to my comment with a hostile tone behind her normally soft voice. This was scaring her. I guess it must have. "DUO!" she yelled. "I am very serious right now, so don't mess around." She rubbed the back of her head and she walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a drink. It was a can of beer. She stared at the can and spoke to it as if it was alive. "I know I've given you up before, but there's a reason I left some of you in the fridge." She opened the can and begun chugging it. "Alcahol can be dangerous to your body." Such a sex- I mean a petite… small. I meant small. Was this what men really thought? I may have been a boy myself, but heaven makes your thoughts a lot more pure. Earth just corrupts the soul. I wondered how putrid people like that got into heaven. Then again… I was the one who thought it… so I shouldn't say anything. The doorbell rang again. Hilde chugged the rest, grabbed another two cans –one in each hand- and stumbled for the door. I walked out after her. Heero was sitting on the couch, waiting patiently. He turned around and looked at me with blank eyes. Hilde opened the door. Trowa was standing there. "I'm looking for Duo. Is he here?" he asked. Hilde stared at him. They both looked straight at each others eyes… and then… WHAM! The door slammed shut. "Hilde!" I cried at her. She opened another can and started on that. I jogged towards the door and let Trowa in. He blinked. "Tell me about it." I said. "Com'on in." ******** Well, to the request of a buzzed/almost drunk Hilde, the meeting went fast. It would've gone fast even without Hilde's request, anyway. All that happened was that I explained the situation, what I wanted them to do and they were off. Of course the methods of how they got rid of the people on Hilde's back was up to them. And I knew that Trowa would make it fast, silent and quick so that they wouldn't know what hit them. But Heero would go with the loud, big but mysterious approach. Like he always did in the war. What a reckless boy. "Tee hee….. *Hic* oo- krap…" Hilde reached for another can of beer and grabbed her keys which rested on the kitchen counter. She called from the living room to me. "Yoohoooo! Duo! I'm going to the schupermarket to pick up schome thingsch…be back in a flasch…" I rushed outside but before I could even open the front door, I heard her engine start up, a loud crash and Hilde yelling, "Whoopsie-doodle!" ******** Well, we found ourselves at the hospital. Turned out, she only had a few bruises. But… luckily, about the alcohol, she was just under the legal limit. So, had she not tried to drive and knocked herself out, she would have drunk that last can and went over it. But we wouldn't be here in the first place if she hadn't gotten knocked out. The nurses and doctors could not pry the beer can from the sleeping Hilde, no matter how hard they tried. However, Hilde had began swinging her arms and legs around, so the beer can indubitably ended up knocking out a nurse by it flying across the room and hitting her on the back of her head. I burst out laughing for some reason that I didn't know. The doctors glared at me, but managed to revive the unconscious nurse. I stood near the right wall of the waiting room, eyeing every one else in the room. Someone in there was going to die soon. I could feel it in the air. For me, it was a sweet scent. One that only Death could smell. My gaze shifted to a little girl who was staring at me. Her eyes met mine and she began to cry. Suddenly she ran over to me and hugged my leg. "I'm sorry!! I'm sorry!" she cried. She was breaking down and crying her eyes out on my pant leg. Her mother rushed over to me and apologized. She grabbed her daughter's hand and slapped it lightly as punishment. "Miss?" She turned to me. "Yes?" "It's all right. May I speak to her? I won't hurt her," I said. The woman looked me over and then nodded. I smiled at her and she sniffed loudly. I lightly rubbed her cheek gently and she forced a smile. "That's better. Now I want you to take that fake smile, and give me a new one. A real one. I know you have such a pretty face." Then, she did as I said and gave me a warm hug. Her mother bent over to the little girl and said, "Honey, I want you to stay right there while I do some paperwork for the lady," and with that, she left for the counter where one of the hospital staff was waiting for her. I turned back to the little one. "Mister? When am I going to die? Can you take me to heaven? I'm sorry. I've been a bad girl!" she sobbed again. "Can you take me to see daddie soon? I miss him. But I don' wanna leave mommie. She'd be real sad. I just wanna go now. Can we go? It hurts…" she chattered hastily. Them she pointed to her heart, where the pain was hurting her. "Little girl. You're not going to die yet." She sniffed again. "But why?" Her little voice shook me. She was so fragile. And she was in a lot of pain, as she said before. She didn't deserve to suffer. Damn. I knew Fate would rear her ugly head again. I only wished that Destiny would gain the courage to help this little girl. "Its not your time yet. And you can't go back to your mommie or take her with you once you go. She'd be sad and all alone." I explained. But she didn't understand me. She still wanted to die. Somehow she knew I was death. I guess it was probably because she was about to die. "But it hurts. So much." She whispered. "So much….Mister?" "What?" "I'm scared. Can you gimme a hug?" she asked. That was when I felt something. I didn't know what it was, but whatever the emotion was… it left me feeling like there was an apple down my throat. I didn't feel much… but I did feel something. And that was more than enough. I pulled her in my tight embrace and I whispered in her ear, "Wait. Wait for me. I will take you shortly. You don't have to hurt anymore." We didn't let go until her heard her mother begin to scream at the medical staff. She wouldn't be able to save her daughter. The crying mother, now like her daughter, scared and fearful. But… maybe her daughter was better off. Her daughter wasn't afraid anymore. She rushed over to her daughter and picked her up from my arms, not caring to hear what this stranger had said to her daughter. A stranger who wore all black with a collars priest. Someone who was going to take her daughters life, and soon after, would unfortunately have to take hers. And there was nothing I could do to help either. I could only make one's suffering stop. And I just hoped that that too, would be more than enough. ******** We came home that afternoon, to the relief of the nurses and doctors at the hospital. Well, Hilde was out cold, and I had to carry her back home. When we did get there, I laid her in bed and I pulled the covers over her shoulder. And once again, I stood at the foot of the bed and kept watch. Pretty soon, night fell and I began to realize that I wasn't in as good a shape as I thought. I was in human form- a form that hadn't slept for days on end. My eyes began to droop and I made my way towards her bed. I sat on the bed and promised myself that as soon as I got a little bit of rest, then I would be okay. So as soon as my head hit the bed, I was half asleep, barely able to comprehend what was happening. I reached over the bed and grabbed a pillow, pulling it closer to me. My arm was still hanging over the other side of the pillow. And suddenly I was warm. I was surprised to find the pillow muttering incoherently, "Down in Mexico, dummy…" and then it snuggled closer to me. It turned around and put its arm on my hip. My next thought was (I don't think that was a pillow…) and then I fell asleep. ******** I guess she must have left my side in the middle of the night, because I opened my eyes at 2 am in the morning to find her gone. I moved toward the middle of the bed and thought, (Hm… Hilde gone. More room for Duo.) Then, as I suddenly realized what it really meant… "Hilde's gone!" I yelled. I threw off the covers and rushed out. I grabbed the bedroom doorknob and struggled with it. Cursing myself, I then had the urge to look back. So I did. And I suddenly turned as I realized how I fell asleep. I mean, nothing serious happened, but I knew that just sleeping beside her was enough to make me turn several shades of red. Or more like bright red. I was able to finally turn the doorknob -the right way- and get out of the room. I rushed out the door, but I was knocked back as I hit somebody. We both went down. As I sat up, I saw Heero tumble down the stairs. I crawled to the door, watching Heero land and I cringed. "Heero? What are you doing here?" I asked. "You called me…" he said, not getting up from the cement. "Whadda ya mean, I never called you. The last time I actually spoke to you was yesterday, and I said you didn't need to come back here." He rubbed the back of his head and sat up to face me. "I know… but… You summoned me. And you said something about a girl being gone. That girl you were hanging around with yesterday." He said. I guess I had called him. Must have been the urgent and distressed emotions I had felt when I ran out of the room. Weird things happen to me all the time, including that. That hadn't been the first time it happened. "Hilde. Hilde's disappeared. I bet she went out again! I thought when someone consumed as much alcohol as she did and fall asleep, they were supposed to stay asleep!" I got up and grabbed Heero's tank top, dragging him a long behind me. " We gotta find her!" "Duo, we can't go running around. We'll never be able to find her. Did she say anything about going out any time?" "Well, she said something about Mexico, but all they have down there are buritos and a whole mess of tequila!" Wait a minute. "Tequila… tequila… tequila… Heero! Help me out here." "There's a bar downtown where they sell a lot of alcoholic beverages. A lot of girls hang around there and get drunk. It's a little dangerous, but the girls go there anyway. Don't ask me about how I know about this. I just know." Heero suggested. I nodded. "Come on!" I yelled and I pulled him a long violently, once more. ******** "…" He was speechless as he stepped out of the car. He grasped the roof of the firebird as he tried to gain his balance again. He gave me a death glare and said, "The next time you decide to hot wire one of those old model Firebirds, would you do me a favor and keep away from the authorities!" "I told you ya should have worn your seat belt. You're real sore now, aren't ya?" "Don't tell me. That was your first time driving, right?" "Right." "UGH!" He said, exasperated. But we walked towards the bar where two bouncers were waiting and checking to see if people were on the list or not. Right away, I wondered how Hilde got in. Then again Hilde could really be sexy someti- HEY! I didn't mean that!!! I didn't! I didn't! As those last few thoughts ran around in my head, I turned red again and a blush spread across my cheeks. I shook my head. I was here to find Hilde. Not think dirty thoughts about her. I paused… "NO!" I snapped at myself. Heero looked at me oddly. "Er… nothing. Never mind." We cut in front of a lady who threw a fit, but we ignored her. We went straight past the bouncers. "Hey you! Your name!" One of the guys grabbed my arm. They didn't touch Heero, but he waited for me. He made eye contact with me, and I whispered to him, "I got it Heero. No guns." Then I turned to the bouncer who still had my upper arm in his grasp. "Maxwell. My name is Maxwell." He nodded and he scanned through the list. Then after checking it a second time, he looked back up at me and shook his head. "You ain't here. Your name's not on the list." "Get lost." The other one joined in. I searched his memory. "I met Janine." I said. At first the bouncer was confused, but then his face lit up right away. He let me go and smiled. "How is Janine?" he asked. "D'ya like her? She's a beaut ain' she?" I nodded. "Hey hurry up! We don' wanna wait all day!!" yelled someone in line. The bouncer pointed at the person threateningly. "You better watch it. I'm talking here. You got a problem!?" The person shook their head furiously. "I thought so." "Janine is very beautiful… But I'm sorry man." He looked at me curiously before he leaned in closer. "Sorry for what?" "She died not too long ago. Back in Jersey." I said. The man turned pale and leaned up against the wall. He stared off in space. Then he shook his own head and he looked back at me. "How?" "Got hit by a car. She pushed one of her friends out of the way, an' the guy kept going. She was dead before they could get to her." I put my hand on his shoulder. "It was a beautiful way to die. Suitable for such a pretty girl." Heero looked at me again. I shushed him with my hand. He was questioning my choice of words. " 'zat so?" He said. "My baby. Jo… Mah baby's made herself a name." He said, turning to the other bouncer. The other one, Jo, Nodded. The one bouncer mentioned for me to go in. "Thanks man. I'll be at her funeral t' say good-bye. Good kid, she was." I said, giving him my last few words of comfort. I walked in, Heero hesitating before following me in. As the doors closed behind me, I found the DJ playing some music that had some awesome beats to it. Lights were flashing red, green and yellow. Purple mostly. Then, the music stopped. The DJ went up to the stage and adjusted the mike. "Heeeyyy girls!" He called. The girls, obviously crushing over him squealed and yelled back. "I got a request by four girls who wanna get down and sing a little jam just for you guys! Whadda ya say!?" They all squealed again. "I'll take that as a yes." He laughed and rushed off the stage to mess around with the lights. Everything turned dark as the lights went out. A glow of yellow flowed from the stage where three girls had their back to the audience. Each were wearing extravagant costumes with fake furs trailing down their shoulders. They had those cancan dancer hats on their heads and those were fashionably tilted. I burst out laughing so hard when one of the girls turned around. I stared at Heero's face and I couldn't hold it in anymore. "At first I was afraid…. I was petrified! Kept thinkin' I could never live without you by my side…But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong, and I grew strong!" It was Relena! Relena was singing up on stage! I could hardly wait to see who was up there with her. "And so you're back. From outer space!" the other one turned around to reveal her face. Heero turned even paler. Dorothy Catalonia. "I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your faith, I should have changed that stupid lock, and made you leave the key, If I'd've known… that you'd be back to bother meee!" "Go on now Go! Walk out the door! Just turn around now, you're not welcome anymore! Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with good-bye. Did you think I'd crumble- Did you think I'd just lay down and die!" Oh too much! The next girl was none other than … Catherine Bloom! Heero, by now, would have fainted if I had not elbowed him in the gut. I was laughing so hard that people were beginning to stare and others were beginning to laugh now too. Suddenly everything went dark and the three participated in a chorus. "Oh nooo, not III!!" And the song erupted as the final girl of the four rushed out, the spotlight following her. And my heart stopped, but my mouth dropped open. Hilde!!! "I will survive! Oh as long as I know how to love I know I'll stay live! I've got all my life to live, I've got all my love to give and I'll survive. I will survive! Hey hey!" "Shut up Heero… Just shut up…" I muttered. Someone started laughing at me. "Heero, you dumb ass." But when Heero clung to my leg, then I immediately knew it was NOT Heero. I looked up and realized Heero was hissing at Relena to get down from the stage while Relena was singing in his face, "It took all the strength I had.. not to fall apaarrt!!" Then, Relena and the other girls grabbed a kicking and screaming Heero and dragged him onto the stage where he turned completely white. They linked arms with Heero and formed a single line. They did the can can with him in the middle. "Mariemaea!" I whispered. The red-headed girl giggled and simply let go of my leg and finally clung on to my hip. My smile grew and I ruffled her hair. She paused and frowned at me. "What?" "You never used to do that." She said. She shrugged and gave me a final hug. "Geeze! If the boss ever finds out that I'm here right now, then I swear that I'm going to be your permanent assistant. Not that I mind, though!" "Check out Heero." I yelled above the music. She looked up on the stage to see the hilarious sight of Relena forcing the microphone in front of his lips. All he said was, "Omae wo Koros- ooph!" And then Relena swung him around and started the whole can-can routine once more. "It's great to see you here!" "Ditto! How's your first time on Earth, Duo?" she asked. "In aaallll my years! I have never been so happy!!" I picked up Mariemaea and began to spin her high in the air. She laughed, from my excitement and fear of being lifted up so high. But she was enjoying it. "Discovery! Emotions! Reactions! Soo wonderful, Mariemaea! I don't think I ever want to leave!" When I set her back down, she gave me the biggest smile she had ever given me in all her seventy years of service. But then… she began to cry… and she sobbed and hugged me tightly. She cried on me. I knelt down with her and she cried on my chest. No one noticed us, but the crowd around us made it hard for me to hear her. And it was close quarters. "Mariemaea? What…. What's wrong?" I asked, worried that such a cheerful, innocent girl… was so sad. "Nothing… I'm just… just happy to see you. That's all." She said. And I never noticed the look in her eyes. I should have. But I didn't. It was the look that should have told me that she was lying. ******** When the song ended, Catherine collapsed on the stage and started snoring. Relena, Dorothy and Hilde started giggling. "I tink… we're aalllll… a little tipsy…" Dorothy giggled. Relena and Hilde laughed with her. They dragged the sleeping Cathering and put her on the bar. She sat on the stool, her head on the bar, and her arms hanging down. Hilde sat on the chair and noticed it was the squeaky fun kind. Hilde tapped Dorothy's shoulder. "Hey… look." She whispered. She grabbed the counter and thrust herself around. The chair began spinning wildly around. "IiiiiTT''ssss AAAaaa SSSssPPPiiNNiiiNNNggg ccCHHHaaaIIIrr!!!" She yelled, the fact that the chair was spinning too fast was blurring her words. It was supposed to be 'It's a spinning chair,' but it didn't really work. But Dorothy understood and convinced Relena to join in. They both grabbed the counter and began spinning themselves around. "Ohoo KRAP!" Yelled Dorothy as she slipped off her chair. She sat on the cold floor while all of them laughed their heads off, except Catherine who was now asleep, snoring loud as ever. Mariemaea rushed over to the bar around that time and we both marveled at the sight. "Hilde!" I cried aloud. Hilde stood up and stumbled toward me. She slipped and fell forward. I rushed towards her and tried to catch her. Unfortunately it rendered her on top of me. I was on the floor, the cold surface chilling my back. She craned her neck to look at me. "Youurree… pretty." She pecked me on the lips and giggled. My eyes widened, but they went even wider when she gingerly rubbed her head gently against my chest. She was treating me like a pillow… but I was too shocked to get up. She kissed me… "DDDUuuuoooooo!!!!" cried Maremaea. I looked up to see Dorothy grabbing Mariemaea's hand and doing the tango with her. Dorothy passed by a table and shoved a flower in between her teeth. "Lech guh! Hilecieo!" "What?" "I shed…." Dorothy took the flower out long enough to say, "Let's go, Horacio! To the mattresses!" "Heelllpp meee!" yelled Mariemaea. Dorothy popped the stem back in her mouth. "CHARGE!" "I can't help right now! And she doesn't mean to the bed! 'Go to the mattresses' means to go to war! Didn't you ever watch the movie, 'You've Got Mail?" And Hilde won't get off!" I said to Mariemaea. I pointed to Hilde who that, now that I thought about it… was cute when she slept. I could feel a smile pulling at the corners of my mouth. "I NEVER WATCHED MOVIES IN HEAVEN! I DUN' WANNA GO TO WAAAARR!!" she cried. I shook my hands out, trying to think of something that would help me get out of this mess. But when someone burst in and started yelling, everyone froze. "Reeelllleeennnaaaa!!!!!!" boomed a voice from the entrance of the club. Relena could be seen popping her head up from somewhere in the crowd. She suddenly got a panicked look in her eyes. She started rushing to the other exit out of the club. "Dorothy! It's Zechs!" She whispered to Dorothy as she passed her. Dorothy dropped Mariemaea, and they both ran faster than you can say, 'heaven on earth.' ******** "ooohhh maaaannn…" said Hilde. I could hear her from inside of the bathroom. I opened up the door to see Hilde bending over the sink. "Duo… don't ever drink…" Then she whipped her head back into the sink where he promptly threw up. "Hilde? Are you okay?" I asked her. I sounded concerned. It surprised me of how human-like I was beginning to sound. I was sounding more human every day. "It's called a hangover, Duo. Hangovers are alcohol's way of saying, 'Sucks to be you.'…So don't get drunk. Uuuugghhhh. My heaaddd…" She turned off the running water and she stumbled out of the room, clutching her head and massaging her temples. Hilde made her way into the kitchen where she sat down beside Catherine at the table and laid her head down on the polished wood. And for some reason, she lifted her head slightly and let it hit the tabletop, only to repeat the action again and again. And all the while she was muttering, "Make it stop. Make it stop." "How much did we drink?" Catherine asked, resting her forehead on her fingers, while her elbows rested lazily on the tabletop. "I don't know, and I don't think I ever want to know again. Catherine? Do you know any of those hangover remedies that make it go away… anything? At least a little bit?" Hilde suggested. She slouched in her chair and closed her eyes and Catherine got up and awaited Hilde's instruction.. "Yeah… I …. I think I know something that might help. You got a blender?" Catherine looked at Hilde. Hilde nodded as best she could and she pointed to the far side of the kitchen. Catherine, or Cathy, opened several cupboards and pulled out some unusual things like soy sauce, pepper, sugar and some tuna cans. There were some various others as well. I watched her as she dumped most of them into a blender, so interested in the process. What she had as the end result was some horrible smelling red mush. Mariemaea came into the small kitchen rubbing her eyes and yawning. She had her arms outstretched. Her hair was ruffled and she had little bags under her eyes. I smiled. She looked up at me and hugged me good morning. I hugged her back and messed up her hair even more. She never noticed. She simply reached into Hilde's refrigerator and pulled out some orange juice. Hilde didn't seem to mind. She set it down beside Hilde on the table and proceeded to pour herself a cup of it. Of course, that was when Catherine brought two cups full of the red stuff for Hilde's headache. She set them down beside Mariemaea's cup. I was about to say something, but I stopped myself. It was going to be a little amusing. Mariemaea blindly reached out for her cup of orange juice and when she found one she brought it to her lips. At first she was fine, but then her eyes widened as she realized it wasn't her juice and she threw the cup into the air in surprise. She ran into the bathroom. "Ew ew ew ew ew!" All the while, Hilde was covered in the red liquid. She didn't even flinch when the stuff hit her and splashed all over her hair. All she said was, "…shit…" After a few moments, Mariemaea emerged soaking wet. Evidently, she got a little carried away with washing out her mouth. "Shaddup, Duo. Shaddup." "I'm going to take a shower." Hilde said. She dripped all the way. ******** Well, a few hours passed. I was watching Catherine flip through the channels -I didn't know how to so I was asking millions of questions at a time about it.- and Mariemaea was snickering under her hand. "And… it plays? No rewinding? Just turn it off?" Catherine nodded. "DVD is a wonderful thing." She joked. She handed me the controller and I began to rapidly flip through the scenes of a certain movie. I didn't know what the movie was called, but it was very entertaining. Catherine got up to get a blanket from Hilde's closet. She was feeling sleepy. I set down the controller and headed for the shower, I was tired. In heaven, you never had to take a shower. Everything was clean white, and transparent blue. There was nothing there that could get you dirty. But down here on Earth, it felt completely disgusting to go for more than two days without a shower. And if you've never taken a shower in your life (because you never had to), then its weird and so inconvenient. I asked Catherine where I could find a towel. She pointed to the closet and yawned. Mariemaea waited a moment and poked her after she fell asleep. When she didn't respond, she pulled the blanket off Catherine and snuggled into the couch on the other side. And while she slept, I stalked into the bathroom, a green towel hanging over my shoulder. I slipped off my shirt and headed into the bathroom. As I opened the door, a seemingly giant cloud of steam overcame me. I was guessing she just had a hot bath. Of course I dismissed the thought and continued in. I closed the door behind me and headed for the stall. That was just about when I realized someone was still in there. She screamed and started throwing various objects at me. "PERVERT! HENTAI! YOU (#&0(#&%^&83$%!!!" she continued to cry. "I'm not done yet! Don't you have any manners!? GET OUT!" Then, a fork came flying. "Where'd you get a fork," I asked as it embedded itself in the wall a few millimeters away from my head. She paused. "I dunno…" There was a small silence before the screaming of me to get out on her part and the screaming of apologies on mine had resumed. I ran toward the door, my eyes closed shut, afraid to look at her and I grabbed the doorknob. I think she grabbed her towel and wrapped it around herself. That was what I hoped, because…. The door refused to open… "SHIT!" I cursed and I began trying to struggle violently with the door. "It won't open! I can't get out!" "Do whatever! JUST GET OUT!!!!" I started ramming the door and sighed in relief when I heard some voices on the other side. Another fork hit the door and I blinked…. "Duo! What's going on???" Catherine yelled above the hiss of the shower head. "It won't open! Get me outta here!" I yelled. I slammed the door while Hilde yelled and screamed in the background. "Stop hollering, and we'll get you out!" Mariemaea said. "That's not me!" I said to her, "That's Hilde!" I could hear some snicking and giggling behind the door. "Duo, you sly fox!" "I didn't mean it! Get mee oooutttt! It's not my fault! I thought she was done! I didn't know I swear! Mariemaea, I swear, if you don't stop joking around and don't start trying to get me out, I'll tell the boss about you and Joey!" "You wouldn't!" Mariemaea gasped. "I WOULD! Joey's an angel whose been asking for it and you know it!" "You said you wouldn't tell! Besides! It was only a fling!" Catherine could be heard on the other side asking, "Who is this Joey you both are talking about??" "He's no one! Leemee alone!" Mariemaea yelled. She grabbed the doorknob on the other side and pulled. And so did I. But… to my surprise there was a loud cracking sound from the other side and everyone froze. (Oh My God… she broke it… No..no… she couldn't have.) My worst fears were confirmed when she whispered, "Oopz… Duo's not gonna like this…" ******** "Nooooo," I mumbled and pounded the door a last time. "Forget it. They've gone to get help. It won't be a while until they come back. I don't like this situation either, but we've gotta live with it for now. I dunno about you, but I'm going to make myself comfortable." Hilde had a robe on, and she was brushing her wet hair. "This is embarrassing…." I wailed quietly. "Hey… at least you have pants! All I've got is a robe. And with a guy like you in the same room, I don't exactly feel like the most secure person in the world, you know. Just calm down." She set down the brush and sat down on the side of the bathtub. "Besides, you weren't the one being peeped at." "I am not a peeper. I mean a peeping tom. Whatever." I said. I finally gave up and leaned against the wall. Why was I so nervous around her. Why did I resent being with her then? Why? Was this human emotion? What was it? Why was I embarrassed and blushing? It should have been nothing. There have even been some other odd moments where I took a spirit who died… without any clothes on. Girls and guys alike. So why was I so shaky with Hilde without any clothes? I mean, besides her bath robe. But the bad thing about a robe is that if you move the wrong way, or walk the wrong way, it shows a lot. And my Reserve wasn't exactly…erm… yeah, you get it, right? There I go again… being jittery about nudity. Then, I wondered why reserves had personalities of their own anyway. All it did was stir trouble. I sighed. "I guess you're right." I said. Hilde made her way beside me and sat down to my left. "You know… I never did find out who you were." She said. "Of course you have. Duo Maxwell. I've told you many times before." I replied. She shook her head. A few water droplets streamed down her cheeks, making them real glossy. "No. Not your name. you. You never told me what your job is, where you live, if you're married, your age. Nothing. You're just as mysterious as that one Gundam pilot..erm…what's his face? Oh, Heero." "Oh I have my reasons for keeping secrets." "And besides, you never told me why you always hang around me. You're perfectly welcome to leave any time. It's not like I'm holding you back. … But you still stay." She said. "I mean, I like you here of course… but you have no reason to. We just met a week ago, so you're practically a stranger to me. And the first time we met, you had picked the lock to my apartment. You almost seem like a bodyguard. Or a stalker or something like that." "I can assure you, I'm no stalker." "Good." She laughed. "That's good to hear." She paused, and there was another awkward silence. Hilde was playing with her fingers, and I was rubbing the back of my neck. "So…" "So?" "…Why do you stay with me?" She asked. I internally kicked myself, and at the same time, my heart started to beat rapidly. I had been hoping she wouldn't notice it. I wracked my brain as I tried to think of something. Anything… "Because… because I like you, Hilde. You're a very nice person. I've never met anyone like you before." I said. Well it wasn't completely a lie. I never did meet anyone like her, even with all my years as Death. I turned to her and she looked away. I bent over slightly, trying to see her expression. "Are you mad? Did I say something wrong?" I asked. "Because if I did, I'm sorr-," "Oh… no…. Not that. That was nice. That's all. I dunno if anyone ever said something like that to me before. The only person who came close was Quatre, and it was sort of an understood thing. We didn't have to prove or say it, because we knew it was there." "Tell me about Quatre, Hilde. How did you … how were you two?" "Um… It wasn't…Hm…" She tilted her head back and closed her eyes. She was trying to find the words. She was thinking. I knew it was hard for her, but she seemed almost pleased I asked her. "He was perfect. Just perfect. He always used to send me gifts while he was away. Like boxes of chocolates and some flowers. Roses. Lockets and bracelets. Necklaces, whatever he could get his hands on, he bought it for me. And he used to pretend he didn't send them, but we both knew. When he visited me, he took me out to orchestras and fancy Italian restaurants. And he'd kiss my hand and he'd just whisper sweet nothings in my ear…" "And when he left, he'd always leave a note by an open window. Each one had a beautifully written poem, just for me. And other times, when he couldn't see me for very long… he'd leave a teddy bear at the door, then he'd ring the doorbell and leave so that when I opened the door, I'd look around a bit and look down to find something that was just as innocent as he was. So that I could hug the stuffed toy and pretend it was him. But… the thing that meant most to me was when he left his goggles. The one he always took into battle. I never threw them away. I still have them…The chocolates necklaces and the trinkets… nothing. But the goggles…. Everything." "Quatre treated me like a princess. Like I was the only one in his world. It was like he chose me over the rest of the world, just because I was me… He never talked to me on the vid-phone, because he said he'd rather have the real thing. He'd always kiss my hand and sometimes he'd just wrap his arms around me and I felt safe. It was like… there was no war anymore. There was just me… and him… He had my heart in his hands…" My throat was beginning to hurt. And my heart was beating slow. My breaths were shallow. I didn't have enough voice to speak, but only to whisper. "What does love feel like?" I was looking at my knees now, and no longer at Hilde. Hilde was smiling, but it was abruptly wiped away as she finally realized what my question was. "…Duo?" she sounded puzzled, and the tone of her voice was begging me to answer why. I shook my head again. "No. No…Can you just tell me… what it feels like." I frowned. "I wanna know…" "Duo." She whispered. She just stared at me for a long while. I could feel her gaze washing over me. "It… feels .. like… you are flying. It's… like you have no limits. You're free. There is no ceiling, there is no ground or floor. It's like it's vanished, and its vanished just for you. And everything else has gone with it, as if the world knows you're in love. It frees you. The wind in your face, clouds far off into the distance… and the sun is just setting, a bright orange and yellow exploding into the sky. While the light slowly fades, a twilight that goes on for an eternity and at the same time sinks briefly before night falls. And then the stars begin to shine. They're shining down on you as if to lead the way. And the moon comes into view, as if its beckoning you to stop flapping your invisible wings…and just glide on the night winds… Forever." I watched her smooth gestures and her rapidly changing expressions. Her eyes seemed dreamy and her smile was soft. She was almost like a memory herself. "Erm.. sorry. That must sound really stupid." She laughed nervously and broke off her sentence abruptly. (No.) I thought. (That was foolish to think that such a beautiful display of words was stupid.) I put my hand on her shoulder. "Don't. Please…. Tell me …more…" ******** When they finally managed to fix the door and get us out, Catherine and Mariemaea woke me up. I couldn't remember the details, but they told me that when they found us, we were asleep. What they also told me was that she had her head resting on my shoulder. My mind suddenly went back to yesterday night at the bar.
I looked up to the sky where clouds were floating by. I knew she was drunk… but it felt all nice and warm. Like she meant it. And she looked kind of nice, even with her partly ruffled hair and her messed up clothes. "Duo." Said a voice. I turned around, surprised to see Trowa there. I had just come out seconds ago and was sitting on the apartment steps. He must have been there to pick up Catherine or something. I guess he must have heard about the club incident from Heero. I chuckled softly. "Hey Trowa. Ya mind doing me a favor?" "As long as it doesn't have to do with suicidal themes, then yes. I think I can do you a favor. What is it?" He asked. "Listen." He was confused, I could tell. He didn't show a lot of it on his face, but I had lived long enough to know these things. "Have you ever fallen in love?" I asked him. I already knew the answer. I just needed someone to talk to. All the solitary thinking was making me so depressed. "Yes." He sat down beside me, much like Hilde did before. "But I was too young to realize it." "Oh. I remember. Midii." I pulled out her name from my memory. "She was a mystery, no?" He nodded. "A friend, then an enemy. And then she became something else all over again." "I know." I tried to read the expression on his face. He seemed distant, and I immediately knew what he was thinking. He was trying to remember and recall her face. He was trying to remember what she looked like. What a sad story. It was almost like a tragic fairytale that never really left any resolution for Trowa. The poor guy. But then again, Death has no resolution either. Its sad to say that I will forever be Death. Either eternity, or until I mess up. And whichever way I go, I know it isn't really something to look forward to. At least when Trowa dies and reincarnates, he'll be a lot happier. His next life isn't as harsh. Hey. The boy deserved a break. Even fate decided to give him a better life after this one. Heero, however, still had two lives to go before he lives his ideal life. And as for Quatre, believe it or not, this is the life he wants. His next one's normal, and then the next is chaos again. As for the final pilot, Wufei… It's not really known. It really depends on how he lives in this lifetime. Not really whether he's a 'good or bad boy' kind of thing. It's more of .. 'will he let Meiran go or will he hang on.' I think he can do it. I certainly hoped so. The guy may have been a little moody for my tastes, but I had grown fond of him over the years. "Maxwell?" He broke me out of my reverie. "Yeah?" "Is Midii…?" "Hm. Sorry. Yeah. She's gone." "Did she -?" "Trowa… with all her heart." ******** The rest of the day was uneventful. Me and Hilde kind of tried to avoid each other today. After the incident in the bathroom, it was always awkward to be around her. I always ended up turning pale, and she turned beet red. Catherine eventually left, Trowa going with her. Those two are so important to each other. It's such a special relationship. To Trowa, there is no other Catherine in his life. There's just one, and there will always be just one. Mariemaea was taking a nap upstairs. It had seemed I found her crying again. She just curled up into a little ball on Hilde's bed and cried herself to sleep. She never told me what was wrong no matter how hard I tried to get her to talk. Something was so wrong. (Why won't you tell me?) Well, anyway, a few hours later, I found a thug trying to get into Hilde's apartment and threaten her again. Hilde never knew about it, because I scared him out of his wits and he literally ran away screaming. I wasn't as harsh as I was that one night with the wings and the scythe, but my eyes were enough to scare him. Trowa and Heero had done their job. The gang was torn apart. I had asked them enough favors. There were just a few stray thugs still after her, but they knew I could handle it on my own. Hilde fixed me… soo-shee… It's a fun word to say. Sushi. Oh! And whenever you say the word 'sentence,' listen to how long the 'ssss' sound after it is. You never notice it until someone brings it up. And it's great here on Earth. In heaven, there is no accent. Everyone just has an echoing singing kind of voice up there. Down here on Earth, how you speak solely depends on where you're from. It's just amazing. I popped one of the sushi into my mouth and savored the flavor. Hilde was walking around the kitchen doing various things. She was mostly preparing dinner, so she wouldn't have to cook later. "I'll just cook it now. Before I lose that desire to do work and just be lazy. I'll just do it now. How does steak sound?" She said when I asked her about it. The doorbell rang. "Yuu wampf meeh koo geck dat, Hiwve?" I asked her, my mouth still half full. She nodded. "Yeah, could you? My hands are kind of full right now," She replied. Proud that she understood me, even with my mouth stuffed with rice, avocado and fish, I got off the stool and headed toward the living room to get the door. In a last effort to cram one more roll into my mouth, I opened the door with my free hand. "Hi! Um… I think I have the wrong apartment here… sorry!" It was Relena. Dorothy stood behind her, eyes watching me like a cat. She turned around and headed down the small flight of stairs. I abruptly tried to stop her. "Noo! Hiwdeh Ipf Infid!" I swallowed hard and managed to bring down everything in my mouth. "I mean Hilde's inside!" I recovered quickly. Relena smiled and made her way back up to the front door where I was standing. "Really? Since when did you start living with her?" Relena queried. I shrugged. Relena must have gotten the wrong idea – I don't know what idea she got, though.- because she narrowed her eyes, smiled like Dorothy…like a cat. She nudged me playfully with her elbow. "You guys are hitting it off aren't you! I bet you must be trouble for all the ladies!." "Huh?" I asked. She didn't seem to hear my comment because she grabbed Dorothy's hand and rushed inside. I shrugged and headed back into the kitchen where Hilde was keeping those little sushi rolls. ******** "Hey." I found Mariemaea. She was sitting on top of the roof staring at the setting sun. Another day as a mortal, another twenty-four hours gladly spent with some newly made friends. It also turned out that Relena and Dorothy were going to spend the night at Hilde's apartment. Come to think of it, Hilde's place was pretty big for an apartment. How did she pay for it on a one-person income? And as far as I knew, Dorothy and Relena never pitched in and gave her money. Not that they didn't want to, but it was just that they didn't need to. Not to mention, where does she work. The past few weeks, she had been at home. I strongly doubt she has a job working at home. Ah. If I don't stop being so curious, I might end up in a tight fix. "Hm…?" Mariemaea turned her head and found me walking up behind her, grinning. She smiled back and focused on the beauty of the sunset. "You know, this place always seems so different every time I come here." She said to me, mentioning towards the sunset. "I thought this was only your second time on Earth." She laughed and said, "That's what you think. I'm not as obvious as people say I am. I've been back here on Earth many times. People just never know when I'm gone. I'm a mastermind when it comes to stealth. Hmhm." I laid down on my back, my hands behind my head. I turned to look at Mariemaea and it almost seemed as if she wasn't looking at the sunset. It looked like she was trying to look past it. It was a surefire sign that something was on her mind and it was bothering her very much. "Are you okay?" I asked. She didn't answer. I frowned. At first, I thought that she didn't hear me. I thought that she just had too much on her mind to reply. And it surprised me when she suddenly did. "Duo?" She broke me out of my reverie and I scooted closer to her seemingly frail body. She looked up at me like a child. And it was disturbing. She wasn't a child. She was an adult angel: mature, smart, quick and … and yet she seemed to look so fragile. "I have something to tell you." "Mariemaea?" I didn't like the tone of her voice. "Mariemaea, stop that… the only time I have ever heard you use that voice was when you have been lying to me." I stood up. "And something tells me that this time, I'm going to regret asking." "Duo… they need you back at heaven." She didn't make any eye contact with me. "From the moment I came to get you to this very second, they've been needing you." "What?" I asked. She didn't move. She simply continued in a flat tone. "One hour before you left to do service on Earth, the Deity of Love was kidnapped." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. And she was keeping it from me… all that time… "And in succession, the deities of Illusion, Destiny and Fate had disappeared. Heaven has been thrown in chaos without the deities and they need Death to help restore the peace." "… They're calling me back?" I asked after a long time. "They promised me ample time on Earth. They promised me I could go back whenever I wanted. I could exercise my free will!" Mareimaea turned away. "Mariemaea…Why do they need Death to help restore peace… Death causes things like these… what do they need me??" "They think that Destiny did it. It is suspected that Destiny took Love. And they need you because if they find her, then it is you who will punish her." No… Destiny would never do that! It was Fate! I knew that Fate had done it! And it couldn't have been Illusion. He and I were buddies. And Destiny wouldn't do it because … she loved me… They both knew what the consequences would be. They knew I would have to punish them. They wouldn't want me to go through the suffering of punishing them… Damnit… It wasn't fair. I didn't want to leave. "Why?" I asked. She sobbed and wrapped her arms around her knees. "Duo…I didn't want to make you go. You don't deserve this." It was then that she finally had the courage to look me in the eyes. "I knew you loved it here on Earth. This is your first time and you've never experienced human feelings before…You loved it here. And I know… I know you had feelings for Hilde." "I…I never had feelings for her!" I screamed. "This is my first time as a human and you expect me to feel such ridiculous and primitive feelings! I think not! And I trusted you wouldn't violate your privileges! I trusted you! For Gods sakes Mariemaea! Why!? Why do you dare accuse such a divine being with accusations of emotions!" "Because I did!!!" Mariemaea stood up slowly. She placed her arm over her chest, accenting what she had said. "Because as my first time as a human… I fell in….I loved you." I stepped back. My heart stopped and I felt mybreath leave me. I was shocked. "I denounced my feelings for you once I remembered that Destiny had experienced the same emotion. She was so much more beautiful than me. She was perfect and still she was rejected by you. I knew that if such a wonderful deity such as Destiny was to be refused of her primitive emotions… then where did I stand?" Mairemaea…loved…me? I shook my head. She wouldn't. I knew my apprentice better than that. She didn't love me at any time. She was simply trying to get out of this. It was just a bluff so I would stop yelling at her. "No. You don't know what you're say-," I said. But she didn't let me finish. "Yes. I do. I learned of human feelings. I came back to heaven… and I was crushed." She said. "And its funny how women always fall for someone who can't feel back." She sat back down. "Oh yes… I forgot. I'm not a woman. I'm only a child. What do I know?" After my fear and my shock died down, my anger rose up. "That is no excuse Mariemaea…You damn well knew… and still you kept it from me. My faith in you… is gone." I said. Her eyes widened. And for the first time, I saw her cry. Really cry. I stared confused at her tears… beautiful crystalline droplets falling down her face. She was crying. And she meant it. What she felt was real to her. And to me. "Duo…?" she asked. I didn't reply. "Tell Hilde that she won't see me again. It was a pleasure to have known her. Tell her good-bye." I walked toward the edge of the roof and I leaped off. My wings flapped open and the wind caught me and lifted me. It lifted me higher and higher. Until I could just barely hear Mariemaea as she tried to reach me. "Duooo!!! Don't leave me here! I'm sorry! I don't… I don't want to be alone here one Earth… Not now…" I shook my head and shed my human clothes. My robe appeared on me and covered my body. My scythe appeared in my right hand. My Reserve disappeared. All that was left was my true form. "You can go back to heaven on your own. There is nothing stopping you. You have the full capability to go back." "But… I don't wanna go back …alone…" But I guess I didn't hear that part. Because I had already left for Heaven. So all that was left to comfort Mariemaea was the soft whisper of a summer wind. One that carried the dying cry of her hope. Well whadda ya think? If enough pplz review, I'll continue it! And yes something RILLY big is coming up in the next chapter. and yes this is a little scheme to get more reviews because I know this sux enough as it is! ^.^. So review! Okie dokee... bye.
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Casting Shadows
By: Shadowngel
Summary: (Alternate Universeà AU) Death’s Apprentice messes up and Death must pay for them both. But when being Duo Maxwell means helping a spunky little german girl named Hilde… maybe Community Service isn’t so bad after all… DMxHS, 2xH
Rated: Fiction T - English - Romance - Words: 18,156 - Reviews: 33 - Favs: 2 - Published: 2/5/2001 - id: 202164
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Full 3/4 1/2 Expand Tighten
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