Title: What's Hidden in the Dark of Night (Dark of Night 2 for short)
Author: Dark Nuriko
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Humor/Romance/Supernatural
Pairings: 1x2, some 3x4
Warnings: Gender Change, POV, Language, Lunacy
Rating: PG to PG-13
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters don't belong to me. I don't write to make a profit and merely do this for my own enjoyment.
Author's Note: After much thought, I've decided to try my hand at writing, seeing as life pretty much sent me a few curve balls I hadn't been expecting, and so figured a sequel to 'What's Really in the Dark of Night' would be a good place to start. Before people start reading, let me be perfectly clear here. Duo is a girl in this story. I know most of you don't like it and that's fine. I have no problems with him as a guy loving Heero either, look to most of my other stories for that. This was done because I needed the male/female aspect to play off of and it also made a nice twist. So don't read now if you don't like it. Some people reviewed at the last chapter of the last one saying it was good till I made him a girl, yet it made me wonder why they finished it if that was the case.
This one also won't have my wonderful Co-Author, Jess_Eklom's, wonderful writing style in it. So it will be told completely from Duo's POV, perhaps a little of Trowa's thrown in for good measure. There were many of you who wanted to know what happened afterward. That there was much left unsaid. So, I'm going to attempt to write this story and see if I can't provide closure for most of you.
'Italics' mean something a spirit is saying.
Enjoy.
What's Hidden in the Dark of Night
Chapter One; Duo POV:
My name is Duo Maxwell. I'm a twenty-three year old Paranormal Investigator. I work for H.O.P.E., or rather Hunter's of Paranormal Events. It's a company that was created by Heero Yuy, Quatre R. Winner, Trowa Barton, Wufei Chang, and myself a mere year ago. While it was our business, it was also a little bet project of ours. A test, if one would want to call it that.
You see, there are many mysteries in this wide world we live in. A lot of them tend to come from the minds of paranoid people who believe something's out to get them. The whole ghost/spirit/poltergeist scene is all pretty normal for people nowadays. If something is unexplainable, then it must be otherworldly. At least, that's what most people tell me in my line of work.
We've been busting our humps attempting to make it legit and not into something that people would laugh at. I mean, hell, look at T.A.P.S., the Trans-Atlantic Paranormal Society. They are a real band of Ghost Hunters who have their own television show and are about as legit as anybody can be in their profession.
Of course, we work under the same principles. We go out to places that were rumored to be haunted, examine them with the correct equipment for such cases, and see what we could learn. But at the same time we also have an edge that the others don't. You see, we are a little different from your average team. We don't use psychics or any of that mumbo jumbo people hear about. Nope, we merely use our eyes and ears. Well, my ears and my boyfriends eyes, to be precise.
Okay, now I know people are probably wondering how that helps anything, but I can say proudly that it helps a lot more than one would expect. See, I've always had a gift for hearing spirits. The undead love to talk and my ears pick up the words that most human's can never hear. My boyfriend, on the other hand, has the best set of peepers in the world. His eyes cross the veil and are able to see the spirits in a more corporeal way, so when they are around and about, his eyes can spy them out.
Now with a team like this, you would think we'd have it made. But, because of an old saying from my family, a long time ago, as well as one from his, we make up more than anyone else could guess. For whenever we're in contact with one another, like holding hands or the like, we can share our abilities between one another and see and hear at the same time. It also helps that together, we can exorcise those spirits that are actual threats to the people they are around and help solve their terrible problems that have been plaguing them.
The main sad thing about all of this is that a majority of most of the people who come to us are all full of shit. And I'm not talking the small kind either. I mean the full blown horse manure kind. The kind that smells so bad it hurts to stay around it. After all, we aren't like those guys on TV. We are simply a new, little band of wanna-be Ghost Hunters who just happen to be a little good at our job. Provided we actually have something to work with to begin with.
"Duo?" my boyfriend's voice called from the front office, causing me to shake myself out of my reverie and answer him.
"I'm in the office," I called back, a smile warming my lips. After our adventures in High School, where we first met and had to deal with some of the worst people ever, we'd gone off to college and both got degrees were we'd need it most for our current business. Quatre R. Winner, my uncle whom I call my cousin, due to him being the same age as me, had helped us build this place and as such, had even joined it, part-time, of course.
I went into paranormal science, since that was what our business was going to be about. Honestly, it didn't matter if one had first hand knowledge of the spiritual realm. When it came to the sheer science behind the truth, it was downright amazing. There was a lot more to the paranormal than just talking with spirits, I was sad to find out. Heero, my boyfriend, had gone into business, so that we wouldn't suddenly go under and die within the first couple months of our venture. Trowa had joined in as well. It seemed most of us were really very special. At least, our little art group from Highland Academy for Gifted Youngsters was pretty unique. Of course, at the time, we'd never known that.
Quatre, being from the Winner Clan, is also pretty gifted. He's an empath. That seemed to always help him when he was with us during a ghost hunt. We ended up finding out that Wufei had a talent for touching old items and learning of their past history. It came in pretty damn handy when they were exploring a place that was presumed to be pretty old. With one touch from the Chinaman we could find out just how old the place really was. Of course, then there was Trowa. If there was ever a wonder if people were just being plagued by animals in the middle of the night, Trowa was the man to see. His gift leaned toward understanding animal language and he could communicate with then like I can with the dead.
Honestly, we really did make the best Paranormal Investigation team out there. Now if only people would give us a chance. Hearing a sound at the door way, I looked up and saw Heero walking into the room. His chocolate colored hair and Prussian blue gaze were the same breath stealing color and length they'd been back in high school. But Heero himself had gotten a little taller and had managed to put on a little more muscle. A soft, mind-stealing smile rested on his lips.
"What are you doing in here?" Heero asked, coming into the office and glancing around the décor. There really wasn't much here either. Just an old oak desk, three leather chairs on one side of the desk, one behind it, which I was sitting on, a couple file cabinets behind me, and pictures from the various places I've been to.
"Hey, just because its closing time doesn't mean I have to go home right away," I replied, my voice warm, even as I knew my violet eyes would have been shimmering with love for him. Ever since we'd gotten together in our last year of high school, I had found myself wanting to always being by his side. Sure, we were still just boyfriend and girlfriend, even after five years, but I didn't mind. Heero was still MY Heero and that's all that mattered.
"We're supposed to meet up with Quatre and Trowa at Wing Zero, remember?" Heero responded, his slight monotone voice holding just a tiny trace of warmth to it. Something only I could hear.
"I know. I guess I just wanted to make certain I got all the information down for tomorrow's case," I told him, brushing back some of my bangs from my face. My hair was still as long as ever, trailing down my back in a single thick braid. My clothes were all black and made me look a bit like a boy. Honestly, even though most people knew I'm a woman, I preferred they see me as a male. It made things less complicating and kept a lot of people from wondering why a woman would head a team like this one in the first place.
"You really are looking forward to it, aren't you?" Heero asked, walking over to me and taking the file folder off my desk.
"Hell ya. Its my dream place, Hee-chan. The Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Its really sad that T.A.P.S couldn't find anything and they had that really rude asshole who screwed with their tape, but I really believe that place is haunted. It's a free trip down there and we get to spend time on the ship, including the sleep there! Honestly, I couldn't be any more stoked than I already am," I exclaimed with absolute joy, toying around with a single piece of paper from those on the table.
Heero laughed softly and reached out to caress over my cheek, bringing a soft pink flush across my face. Honestly, I was really glad my Aunt Helen wasn't around tonight. She'd died a while ago, but because she was constantly worried about my Uncle Damien, she was never going to leave. Which was nice in a way, but it also kept Heero and I from having much time alone. Granted, most spirits kept us from being honestly alone, but it was all right. The fact Heero was still with me let me know that he wasn't planning on leaving me. No matter what.
"All right, my little spirit hunter, time to put up the file and go spend time with friends. We can do the happy fan-girl moments when we get there," Heero told me, helping me collect the papers I had pulled out from the folder and moving to put them back into it. "Besides, Trowa and Quatre said they'd be coming with us tomorrow."
I knew my face had to of lit up at those words and I stood up swiftly, throwing my arms around Heero and hugging him close. "You mean we're going to have our whole team tomorrow for the first time in over three months?" I asked, grinning from ear to ear.
Heero laughed, something he did a lot of whenever he was around me. "Yes. They told me the good news right before I started locking up the office." I smirked and kissed him softly, before slipping from his light grip and dancing away toward the door.
"Then what are we waiting on, Hee-chan! Let's go meet the boys for drinks!" I called out, moving toward the door with a spring in my step and a brightness in my smile. It was going to work. We were going to be a group again. Helen would certainly be joining us as well. After all, she wasn't one to miss out on a good ghost hunt. Especially if that meant Heero and I could end up alone for a night. Sadly, Helen was a stickler for the traditional. If we weren't married, we weren't to be doing anything overly physical. I didn't mind that either, since it was safer for all involved if we didn't breed just yet. We were still far off from being at my parents level of compatibility as far as our joint abilities went and until we could master the abilities of a Spirit Charmer, marriage certainly wasn't in the cards. At least, that's what I believed.
To Be Continued….