Disclaimer: This story was written by a fan only for the enjoyment of other fans, without any monetary compensation. Gundam Wing and its characters are registered trademarks of Bandai Entertainment Inc.™ and Sotsu Agency. All rights reserved.
STOP!!! This is the 3rd story in a arc. In order to fully understand the plot and characters you should have read "The Portrait" completely and "The Well" up to chapter 10.
The Junkyard
Chapter 1
"Maxwell...Hey Maxwell, are you home?"
A third bang at his door finally got Duo's attention, and he pulled out his headphones. "Come in!"
The young man was lying belly down on his bed, flipping through the newest issue of a pop magazine when his new 'landlord' entered.
Letting his gaze wander over a array of moving boxes and bags Heero frowned slightly. It had been almost a week now since his fellow schoolmates had moved in, but by the look of the room it might as well have been two hours ago. "Are you ever planning on unpacking those, or do you just prefer to live out of boxes? If so we could just move the furniture out of your way."
Duo couldn't quite tell if the other youth was being sarcastic or actually serious, so he settled for a sheepish smile and scratched his head. "Sorry, I haven't gotten around to it yet. Did Wufei sent you to chew me out about it?"
"No, I came to tell you, your car is in the way."
"In whose way?" the braided young man asked surprised. "I made sure not to put it in the driveway."
"Exactly. Tomorrow is Friday, street sweeping day, unless you want to find a ticket on your windshield when you wake up, you'd better move it."
Duo sighed as he rolled off the bed. "Alright, where should I put it?"
Heero seemed a little surprised by the question. "In the garage of course."
"I thought that's where you keep your cars." Duo knew his friend owned a silver Corvette as well as a impressive looking Jeep 4x4; he had seen him drive both. "There will be still room for another truck?"
"Oh, yes. There is plenty of room, don't worry. Let me show you," Heero gestured for the other youth to follow him. "I have a spare garage door remote for you too, somewhere."
#
From the entry, a door and then a flight of steps let into the underground garage. Duo had never been down here yet; hadn't had a reason to. He just followed Heero, who waited for him at the bottom of the stairs.
"Right here to the left is the control panel; lights, manual door opener, AC, " he explained while he reached for the switch.
As the lights flickered to life Duo's jaw nearly dropped. His eyes went wide and for the first time in a long time, he was speechless. He blinked, just to make sure his eyes didn't play a trick on him, then finally let out an impressed whistle.
"I will be damned!" Oh yes, Heero was defiantly right, there was still room for his truck...or for two...or three... dozen.
The place was huge, not only as large as the entire house, but the entire property, backward and all. To the left, closest the door, stood the Corvette and Heero's 4x4, on the other side was a completely equipped mechanic station. But the most impressive part was the lineup of classic and vintage cars parked behind Plexiglas partition in the back of the garage. As far as he was concerned, this was no garage, it was a car museum.
Letting his gaze wander over the vehicles Duo couldn't help but notice their prestige condition. Even the oldest ones looked like they had just rolled off the assembly line. Someone had obviously put a lot of money, time and effort into restoring them, it seemed.
"J and I fixed those up ourselves," Heero explained as though he was reading his mind, and the hint of pride in his voice was hard to miss.
"Cars was something you and your father had in common then?"
"I think it started more as an attempt to interest me in science; his way of proving to me that there was more to it than reading dull and boring books, and that it is actually useful. I'd have never imagined how much physics and math are involved in rebuilding a car."
"Mind if I take a closer look?"
"Go ahead, but let me turn off the alarm system first. Trust me, you don't want to be anywhere nearby when that bell goes off."
Duo grinned. "I can imagine down here it's probably loud enough to make your ears fall off."
"No, but you might wish it would." The young man walked over to the control panel to push in the code that disarmed the alarm and slowly opened the Plexiglas barrier. "It's a bit overkill if you ask me, but the insurance company insisted on the security system."
"I can't blame them." With another impressed whistle Duo approached one of the cars. "A Marcos 1500GT?" he asked, looking back over his shoulder.
"1600," Heero corrected.
"Do they really have a wooden chassis?"
"Complete with termites if you're not careful."
Duo huffed in amusement as he continued walking down the line of cars, until he reached the last one. "Wow, is that a Bugatti 101? I read they only made 7 of those."
"I believe so. J found it at an auction in pretty bad shape. We were still working on it when he died. I haven't touched it since."
The other youth nodded thoughtfully. "Because that would bring back too many memories?" he assumed.
"No!" Heero frowned slightly. "Because I can't find a fuel injector for it. Getting parts for those old models can be tough." He walked over to his jeep, removed the garage door remote that was clipped to the sun visor, and tossed it at Duo. "Here use this one for now, until I find the other one."
#
"Have you ever thought of checking Pete's junkyard?" the braided youth asked as the two of them headed back up into the house.
"Pete's junkyard?!"
"Yeah, it's located right of the interstate, a few miles out of town."
"I think I have seen the place driving by. You mean looking there for parts?"
"Yeah," Duo nodded. "You most likely won't find any old Bugatti sitting around there, but pretty much anything else you can think of. I go there all the time if I need to fix my own car."
"Is it legal?"
"Of course. Pete opens the place every weekend to the public. You pay 50 bucks and anything you can find on the lot and carry out on your own is yours for the taking. He says it give old cars the chance to live on, one part at a time."
"Hmm... What if you don't find anything?"
Duo shrugged. "It hardly ever happens, but if so I just take some parts that seem useful and sell them to get my money's worth. Let's go there on Saturday, what 'ya think?"
"You sure you don't have any other plans already?"
"Not really. We were going to go to the mall, but not until later. Wufei will probably spend most of the morning at the dojo anyway."
"Alright then," Heero nodded. "Let's do it then."
####
"Hey Pete, how is it going?" Duo Maxwell greeted the middle aged man sitting inside the little shag at the junkyard's gate.
"Ah Duo, haven't seen you around for a while. Your truck acting up again?"
"Yes and no, today I am actually here with a friend. Meet Heero, Heero meet Pete king of cars, ruler of rebuild transmissions."
The gray-haired man shook his head as he laughed. "Isn't he something? You are looking for something specific?"
"More or less looking today. Would be nice if I could find a pair of original headlights for a 1960 Studebaker Hawk. The ones you can buy online are mostly replicas. I like to stick with the real thing whenever I can." Heero explained.
"Ah yeah, I hear you." Pete nodded. "Duo, you know your way around, show him where the old cars are."
"Sure think."
"How long will you be staying?"
"Not sure," Duo shrugged. "Why?"
"I'm leaving in about an hour, need you to be out before then. No charge today, okay. Come back tomorrow if you need anything more. I'll be here after noon.""
"You got it." Nudging his friend on the shoulder Duo gestured for Heero to follow him. The two of them had left their car in the parking lot just outside the gate.
"The really old stuff is in the back here. I think Pete mentioned once that they have cars here that go as far back as when this place opened around 1930."
Looking around as he followed his friend, Heero let his gaze wander over rows and rows of old, piled up cars, some gutted to its bare frame, some still intact and almost complete, while others looked like they had been in various kinds of accidents... After a while his eyes fell upon a dark blue, almost black Buick Regal. It wasn't a new model but neither old enough to be called a antique. Probably mid-80s the young man guessed, the models looked too similar to determine the exact year without checking some details.
Heero wasn't sure what it was about the car; it was in bad shape, damaged from what seemed front impact and in advanced stage of corrosion, but something about it just seemed to draw him in. He took a slow step toward the wreck, then a second and third. That's when it hit him. It was like a flashback, an image that jumped into his mind...no, not an image, more like a scene.
He was looking through some kind of window, outside that window, things were moving. Suddenly there was a bright light, a violent jolt and then the world around him turned to chaos...
"Hey, you coming?"
His head snapped around, Duo's voice had startled him back into reality.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Heero shook his head. "I just.... was looking at this Buick."
"Wow." His friend stepped closer. "That's a serious piece of junk." Taking a few more steps Duo raised his hand to shield his eyes as he looked inside the car. "Yikes, water damage too. You need parts for a Buick, too? There have to be better ones around."
"No, I was just...looking."
Duo frowned slightly. "You okay?"
"Yeah."
"Well let's go then. I want to show you where the good stuff is, before Pete throws us out."
"Right." Heero confirmed, but even as he followed his friend he could not help but look back over his shoulder a couple of times.
#
"What did I tell you, this place is great. A set of wheel cylinders and a rear view mirror for a Studebaker in less than an hour," Duo bragged as they loaded the parts into the pack of Heero's jeep. "And it didn't even cost you a dime."
"Yes, I didn't think we would get that lucky."
"We should come back tomorrow."
"Good idea." Heero checked his watch as he climbed behind the wheel. "Let's grab lunch on the way home, my treat," he suggested.
"Sounds good."
They pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the interstate in silence. Duo wasn't sure why but somehow his friend seemed preoccupied with something.
"Duo..." Heero asked, quietly and without looking at him. "Do you remember your parents?"
Duo blinked. That was unexpected. So he reacted in the way he always did when he was caught off guard; with a joke. "Which ones?" After all he had spent his childhood in half a dozen different foster homes.
"You know what I mean," Heero finally turned his head toward him. "Your real parents."
"No. I wouldn't. I was too young. From what I've been told I was left at the steps of a church only a few days after I was born. I spent the next few years in their orphanage, so I guess Father Maxwell and Sister Helen are the first 'parents' I have known...."
"You couldn't stay there?"
"No," Duo propped his feet onto the dashboard and leaned back in the leather seat with his fingers interlaced behind his head. "The Maxwell orphanage wasn't able to care for school aged children. So I had to leave when I was about 6. But the memories I have of the place are the best I've ever had. Why do you ask?"
"I don't have any at all." Heero admitted, staring onto the road again. "Memories, I mean... of my earliest childhood I mean, or my parents. The first things I do remember is being with J, at his house. But I was already 5 by then."
"You don't remember anything?" Duo frowned.
"No. I try so hard to remember, but it's just a blank."
"Why? I mean why are those memories important?"
"Because I want to know who my parents were...who I am. Have you never wondered?"
Duo shrugged. "I would be lying if I said no. Back at the orphanage we would all make up stories, about our parents but as I got older I realized that the only person who determines who I am is myself."
"Maybe." Heero agreed but he didn't sound too convinced.
"Did...J never tell you anything about your parents?"
"No, he never spoke of them at all when I was little and when I got older and started asking questions he just told me it was a closed adoption and he didn't have any information about my parents. Still I want to know why they decided to give me up. Was it something I did?"
TBC
Author's Note: The Junkyard is the third story in my ghost arc. This fic will be focusing on Heero and Duo, their relationship and some discoveries they make about something that happened in the past and about themselves.
The story starts just shortly after Duo and Wufei move into Hero's house. I'll be writing it the way it develops, parallel to 'The Well'. I have never tried anything like it, but I think it will be interesting.