Author: Dae Yuy
Archive: No where at the moment. Ask if you want it.
Warnings: OOC, OMCs, OFC, slight sadness (I wouldn't go as far as to call it angst), minor cursing, cuteness
Rating: G - PG
Pairings: none
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters related to Gundam Wing.
Spoilers: Heero Yuy's Episode Zero
Feedback: Pretty please?
Author's Notes: This story was written in one day and I haven't really done anything like this before, with actual spoilers. That and the fact that the rating is PG which very rarely happens with my stories. Please review and tell me what you think. Also is longer than most of my one shots. I'm kinda impressed. :)
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"Th- the last few years... we spent together... W- weren't so... bad..." The boy shook himself awake at those words and pulled his blanket closer about his bared body. A little fire crackled merrily in a stone pit on the cave floor. The cave wasn't very deep, or very big but the outcropping kept him dry in the storm and sheltered from the wind. He sat in his underwear and blanket, his sopping clothes sitting next to the fire to dry. His little fingers were cold as he put another of the dry sticks on the little blaze.
He didn't know his name, but remembered, faintly that is was something Japanese, his new name he didn't want to use, memories of his only guardian still fresh in his mind. The man, Odin Lowe, had died just a scant few hours beforehand in an attack gone awry.
"Stupid old man." the child grumbled, bitterness tingeing his tone, "I told him not to get killed and he goes and dies on me." The boy fought the emotion growing within him, his tiny hands clenching tightly on the metal camping cup in his hands filled with old bitter coffee, one of the only things the child had salvaged from the pack. He looked through the cave entrance onto the fake night of the colony, with its fake stale rain and fake landscapes.
"Stupid old man." the child sniffled, throwing a stick out of the entrance and curling back up under his blanket. He would make the long trek back to civilization when day came. Hopefully, by then the rain will have stopped as well.
xx
He set out early that morning, the stink of old water heavy in the air, he always hated it after it rained, but today seemed to be worse. He felt weird in side, too old and too tired, his eyes itchy from crying in his sleep and his voice thick. His clothes were still damp and he kept his old blanket around his shoulders to ward off the morning chill, when the heating systems hadn't fully kicked on yet. He trudged through the mud, hearing the beginnings of bird song in the air. Early morning, the day after the rain with the first notes of the birds as company. People had written about times like these, Earth people, the boy couldn't understand what was so special about it. He just thought it was... icky.
His sensitive ears picked up the sounds of tires speeding through puddles and he shuffled a bit closer to the edge of the road, debating whether or not to seek coverage in the foliage around him. He didn't think there was much of a point really, the grownups would probably just think he was some runaway or orphan, or maybe one of the feral children like he had read about that time at that book store where Od -- The Old Man -- got his guns from. He grinned and mimed a low growling sound like a wolf cub. He giggled and covered his mouth quickly with a hand as he heard the vehicle slow. Furtively glancing at the tree line he wondered if it would look too suspicious if he took a diving leap into them. Most likely.
He peered over his shoulder to see that the vehicle was in fact an old black pickup truck and it was being driven by a man with a girl, maybe a little younger than the boy, in the passenger seat. The truck came to a stop beside him and he turned to see the little girl lean out the window that she had struggled to roll down.
"Hiya! Papa saw you an' was wonderin' if you wanted a ride to wherever it is you're goin'." her hair was dark, almost black and her eyes were wide and chocolate coloured, she was pretty the boy assumed, but wouldn't really know, girls were icky. He had never known any and he didn't want to. Toshiyori[1] had said that girls cause a lot of problems that are sometimes hard to handle. Toshiyori had also said that sometimes, on very rare occasion those problems can turn out to be good. The boy didn't really understand what that meant and he figured he never would.
He looked at the people with suspicion, the man looked friendly enough and the girl seemed comfortable enough with him. Toshiyori had always said to follow your feelings, and right now Panic wasn't screaming at him and Wariness wasn't poking. The boy decided at last and nodded his head. The girl beamed at him and opened her door.
"I'll schooch over." she offered. The boy wasn't exactly sure what 'schooch' meant but the girl moved over and he climbed in.
"I'm Alexi! What's your name?" she asked, blinking her wide eyes.
He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, scrunching up his brow, he thought for a minute, his fading knowledge of his first language fleeing his mind, "Michi[2]." he said at last, quietly.
"Michi." she repeated, nodding to herself.
Alexi's father smiled, and when he spoke his voice was soft and kind, "Hello Michi, you can call me Nikki. Where are you heading?"
Michi looked up at Nikki and for a moment his blond hair reminded him of Toshiyori, but the brown eyes made that image fade just as quickly as it had appeared. "I don't know." he answered truthfully.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Nikki said, and Michi knew the words were truthful and for a moment, he felt warm. Nikki was a nice man, and Alexi hadn't given him any cooties yet, so he figured she was pretty nice too. He turned his attention to the window, the lines of the trees whizzing past him was almost dizzying, but he kept his gaze locked, refusing to look at the man and his daughter.
xx
Nikki had offered to take him to a church where they could find someone to look after him, but Michi had respectfully declined. He had just told the man to drop him off at the park, regretfully the man had done so. Michi was happy that Nikki cared enough to worry over a boy he had just met, but sad too because he had made the nice man worry. But he had always wanted to play on the swings, he never got a chance before, he hoped he wasn't bad at it. Looking at the park though, he realized that it was full of children and their parents or baby-sitters or whatevers and suddenly he didn't want to go on the swing so badly anymore. For the rest of the day he had wondered around the city, looking in shop windows and going into the big candy store, the lady at the counter gave him a chocolate bar that he thoroughly enjoyed.
When night began to fall, he wondered where he could go to sleep and decided that the park would do, it wasn't the first time he had slept underneath the stars and he was sure that it wouldn't be his last. However, as he was heading back in the direction of the park, a man with a knife came up behind him, he was big and burly and his eyes were small, his stringy hair caked with grease and for an instant Michi wished he hadn't been so quick to refuse Nikki's offer. He took off on his little legs, charging down the near deserted street but the man was hot on his trail. Michi's wide blue eyes took in his surroundings just as Toshiyori had told him and his eyes landed on a rusty fire escape. He hoped that it would support the weight of his body but not that of the big man. He charged into the alley and heard the man laugh behind him, thinking that the chase was done. For a moment, Michi allowed a smile to flit across his face, the chase was just beginning and Toshiyori had taught him better then to go in an alley without an alternate exit.
The fire escape was just ahead now and he jumped, catching the bottom and clambering up, the metal creaked underneath his slight weight and Michi felt Hope rising within him, maybe the man would back off. He reached the first platform and swung around, using the pole for momentum then scrambling to the third level, one more and he would be on the roof, and hopefully to safety. Just as the child was reaching the edge of the building the metal screeched loud and clear in the night. His little hand was on the ledge when the last rung of the ladder fell from underneath his foot and the fire escape crashed to the ground, burying Michi's would-be attacker under its ancient weight. Panic started to scream, and Michi felt tears stinging his eyes, he got rid of the man with the knife but now he was hanging be his fingertips four storeys above the ground.
"Geezus." a young voice said from above, chancing a glance upward, Michi saw a boy, a couple years older then him looking over the edge of the building, dirty hands on the torn knees of his jeans.
"Whatcha doin' Vyse?" the older boy asked.
"Hanging around." Michi answered dryly, "Help me up! Please!" The older boy chuckled and leaned over the edge, grabbing Michi's wrists in a sure grip, Michi in turn wrapped his own hands around the other boy's who hauled him up. They tumbled to the ground, Michi landing on top of his rescuer.
His rescuer chuckled, the sound reverberating through Michi's chest, "You all right Vyse?"
"Yes." Michi answered quietly, scrambling up, "Why do you keep calling me that?"
"Because of that damned amazing grip you had on the ledge!" his rescuer grinned, "I'm Dasher, head of the Rat Pack."
"Rat Pack? I thought Sinatra was the head of the Rat Pack?" Michi blinked.
Dasher blinked right back, "Wow, I'm 'pressed." he brushed his long black bangs out of brown eyes, slanted like Michi's own.
"Pressed for what?" Michi asked.
"Impressed." Dasher amended, "What's your name Kiddo?"
He hesitated for just a moment, before replying, "... Michi."
Dasher snorted, "That won' do. If you're gonna run with us you're gonna be Vyse. That good?"
The newly named Vyse shrugged, "I suppose I owe you my life. So whatever you think."
"All right Vyse." Dasher slapped him good-naturedly on the back, causing Vyse to cough and stumble forward, "Let's go meet the Pack, eh?" The boy nodded. His life had changed so much in a manner of a couple days. He was at one time a nameless orphan, taken in by a kind ex-soldier then named Odin Lowe jr. Then he was once more alone, picked up by a kind man and his daughter and named Michi. Now he found himself, named once more by a hyper orphan boy just reaching adolescence. He was Vyse. He wondered absently who he would be in a few years to come, as he kept half his mind on his surroundings. He wondered if he would still be Vyse, an orphan on the streets of a L1 colony fighting for life and survival. He wondered if he would be Michi, an unknown wanderer and he wondered if he, at long last would let go of his grief enough to be Odin Lowe jr. once more. The son of an ex-soldier and deceased assassin who given his life trying to save the world from war. Something, a little voice in the very, very back of his mind was whispering that he would be following in the footsteps of the only father he had ever known, maybe even sooner than he thought.
xx
Two Years Later
"You can go Vyse! But don't get dead, 'kay?" Dasher told the boy. Vyse grinned, waving a hand.
"Yeah, yeah." he muttered, "Take care of this ragtag group while I'm gone. Don't go doin' nothing stupid. I'll bring back something good. I heard that the shop-keep on P-Street just got in a shipment of oranges. Ever had oranges?"
Dasher shook his head with a grin, "Can't say I have." The black haired boy was proud of the kid his protégé had become. It was a good impulse to save the boy, Vyse would be good for the pack if ever came time that he had to be. But Dasher wasn't willing to let go of the reigns yet, especially not to a ten year old kid.
"They're good." Vyse shrugged and slipped out the curtain into the alley where boxes and broken crates hid the hole in the foundation. He inconspicuously stole unto the sidewalk, it's edges crumbling from many feet treading its surface. It wasn't as bad as L2, a distant memory pulling up images in his mind of long hair and laughing blue-violet eyes, but L1 was still pretty bad; the cracked building walls evidence enough of that. He walked for a few moments more, undisrupted and undisturbed when a glint of red caught the corner of his eye, he turned.
"Hey." a grizzly voice, of an old man, "You have good eyes." Vyse just stared, and the man stared right back.
"Want to become a Gundam Pilot?" the old man asked at last.
Vyse stared some more, he didn't know what the hell a Gundam pilot was, but he figured he was pretty willing to find out. At last he replied, "Sure." A distant memory, of a voice, long since thought forgotten echoing through his young mind.
"Do as your heart tells you. That's the right path..." Odin.
End
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[1] Toshiyori means old man
[2] Michi means unknown
