Quatre glanced around the kitchen as he came down the stairs, but only Duo and Heero were present. "Where's Trowa?"
"He and Wufei left early. They'll be back Tuesday," Duo replied cheerfully as he grabbed the note from the counter and waved it towards Quatre. Quatre took it and read it as Duo sipped his coffee.
"Oh."
He caught the disappointment in Quatre's voice. "What's the matter?" he asked as Quatre put the note down and took a seat at the table.
"Oh - nothing, really... I suppose it can wait."
Duo wagged his finger at the blond. "No, don't give me that! Tell me what it is!"
"It can wait until after breakfast," Heero interrupted them, delivering a heaping platter of pancakes to the table and taking a seat himself.
"Way to go," Duo muttered, and dug in.
"So what's up?"
The three of them were lounging on the living room couch now, with the news on the TV fading into the background.
Quatre chewed on his bottom lip. "Well, I thought I'd talk to Trowa about it first, and I'd really prefer if all of us were here... I... I guess I just don't want you to think I'm crazy or something, that's all," he replied with forced cheerfulness.
"Christ, don't worry about that. We're all a little crazy... well, you maybe more, but..." Duo yelped and tried to cover himself as Heero chucked yesterday's rolled-up newspaper at his head.
"What was that for?" Duo demanded as Quatre laughed quietly.
Heero merely shook his head.
Quatre contemplated for a moment how to phrase his query. "Well, I don't exactly know how to explain it, since I wasn't really sure of anything until last night - no, this morning." He frowned, then changed his tack. "Have either of you been having dreams of another life, in another world?"
At that moment, something very curious happened to the atmosphere in the room. A sudden subtle silence fell which spoke volumes.
"Shit!" Duo's exclamation and expression told it all, and for once Heero's normally straight face mirrored his sentiment.
"I take that as a yes?" Quatre asked. "You remember now too, don't you? Maybe that's the trigger...That's when I realized, when I met Trowa there, in that world, last night... and as soon as I knew it was him, I remembered everything about this world."
"It's not a dream..." Duo finally spoke. "I remember thinking there that all this was a dream. Funny, huh?"
"I thought the same," Quatre replied with a nod.
Heero just shrugged. "But it is just us, or everybody...?"
"I don't know," Quatre answered, "but I think it must either be just us, or a very small group of people. If it's the four of us - we three, and Trowa - then probably Wufei too. But I don't think it could be everybody in the world. We'd have heard about it long before this if that were the case, or we'd have certainly run across somebody in one world that we knew in another by now."
"I think that's about right," Duo added. "But... why didn't you talk with Trowa about it there? Or were you just not sure?"
Quatre went quiet. "Well... for one, I'm not sure he recognized me, or if he did he didn't show it or say anything to me."
"That's odd," Duo remarked. "Anyway, who are you there?" His question was addressed to the both of them; Heero answered first.
"Just a mercenary. Nobody interesting or important."
"Huh. Exactly what I would have thought," was Duo's reply. "It certainly fits you, being a soldier both here and there. What about you and Trowa? No, wait, don't tell me! I want to guess," he added suddenly, then stroked his chin in contemplation. "Well, I would have guessed Heero was a mercenary anyway, or maybe a prince -"
"A prince?" Heero interrupted.
"Well, you know... no, wait, never mind. Anyway, our personalities seem to be pretty much the same, don't they? But maybe a little more... extreme there. At least I know that's how it is for me. You sound pretty much the same." The last was directed at Heero.
Heero frowned, but refrained from replying.
"I think... I think you're probably one of two things: a politician, or a healer."
"Which one?" Quatre asked with a smile.
"Aha! So one of them is right. Score for me!" He settled down with a more serious expression. "I'll go with... politician."
Quatre held his fist out, thumb up... and turned it down. "Bzzt. Wrong answer."
"Aw... but that's what I really thought anyway! It certainly fits you. What about Trowa? Is he a mercenary like Heero?"
Quatre shook his head. "No... it's... well, complicated." He didn't know whether he should say, if Trowa cared about them knowing or whether Duo would persist until he pried it out anyway. Heero saved him from having to make that decision.
"What about you, Duo?"
"Me? Ah... well, I'd rather not say, actually..." he replied with a sheepish smile.
"Fair enough."
"I don't know if Trowa would feel the same way or not, so..." Quatre added, trailing off. His thoughts went back to that scene, in the shadows with Trowa - Trowa, the slave.
"Hey, Heero?"
"Hm?"
They were in Heero's room, Duo sprawled out on the bed, Heero at his desk on the computer.
"I was just thinking... do you want to meet? In that world, I mean." He twisted the end of his braid between his fingers.
"If you want."
Duo rolled over onto his stomach and propped himself up on his elbows. "That's all? Aren't you going to ask me why, after I said I didn't want to say who I was there?"
"Why do I need to ask? I don't mind not knowing."
"I don't believe that bullshit," Duo snorted. "Everybody wonders about everything. It's human nature."
"If I ask, will you tell me?"
"Hmm... nope. I think it should be a surprise," he replied with a grin. "Do you know where you are now?"
Heero's hands hovered silently over the keyboard as he thought. "Near a forest, I think. Ask me tomorrow - I'll remember better."
"Yeah, probably. It's still a little fuzzy, isn't it? But I wonder if we'll remember this there tonight."
"We should, if Quatre remembered meeting Trowa there."
"What do you think is up with Trowa, anyway? Quat said it was complicated..." Duo sighed. "You know, just because we're friends here doesn't mean we won't be enemies there. But a mercenary doesn't really have any enemies, do they? Not except for the immediate danger of 'this person is trying to kill me' in a fight, I mean. That's why I know I could meet you and not be worried about it."
"But not Quatre? Are you someone who the healers count as an enemy?"
"Christ, they've got enough of them it's hard not to be. But I'll let you keep guessing because I'm evil like that," Duo replied with a grin and tugged on his braid.
Heero resumed typing without rising to Duo's bait.
Quatre went to bed that night in a state of anxiety. He had hoped to speak with Trowa, but Trowa wasn't there and he would rather talk about it face-to-face than call. Trowa was quiet and withdrawn and it was hard to tell what he was thinking most days; but as Duo had pointed out, these were the points which were taken to the extreme with him in the other world. In Quatre's case, it was his own kindness and patience; and though he was torn between fighting and wanting peace here, his other-self rejected fighting completely and would not raise a fist against another creature or even touch a weapon - never mind that such a thing was against the healer's creed in the first place.
Tossing and turning in the dark, Quatre resisted sleep until it took him, though he realized it didn't matter and he would wake up there just the same.