Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.
A/N: I promise you this will be a boring chapter. But I also promise you the next chapter will be more interesting :) I can't write non dramatic for too long now can I? hehe!
Now onto the story...
Chapter 3: Meet the Winners
Posted 16th December 2007
Catherine hummed to herself, her fingers drumming to an unknown rhythm against the steering wheel as she turned the corner. Her eyes lit up at the sight of their house and she was reminded of just how tired she was.
As she pulled into her driveway she saw the lights on in the neighbouring house.
'Hmm… I thought it was empty…' She wondered to herself and got out of the car, locking it with a flick of the remote control key. She walked to her door, her heels clacking against the stone surface of their porch breaking the silence of the evening. Expecting the house to be empty considering Triton was let out an hour later than her, she was surprised when she opened the door and found him sitting on the carpet in the living room, holding his sketch book.
"Triton! How come you're back so early?"
He didn't answer her but instead opened his sketch book and started leafing through the drawings.
"Triton?" She stepped closer to him cautiously. He wasn't responding. He just kept leafing through the sketches. "Triton…are you okay?" She kneeled down in front of him and grasped his shoulder lightly and he looked up at her, his green eyes confused and disoriented. "Are you okay?" She asked again softly.
She watched as his eyes cleared up and he got up quickly grabbing a hold of Catherine's hand and pulling her towards the door, his sketchbook still held tightly in his other hand. "Triton! What are you doing?" When Trowa dragged her with him outside the house letting the door slam shut behind them she started panicking, wondering if he'd lost his mind. "Triton! Triton let go!" She said loudly but he pulled her along easily, her petite feminine frame unable to put up much of a fight against his more muscular one. He dragged her all the way to the house next to theirs, the one that had been empty just yesterday.
"What iswrong with you?" Catherine asked feeling annoyed when he finally let her hand go.
"Do you see them? Are they real?" He asked pointing to the windows of the house with the lights on.
"What's going on Triton?" She asked worriedly. Trowa was acting so weird…
"Do you see them or not? Is the house empty? Are the lights on? Which is it?" He asked looking annoyed and frustrated but he looked desperate as well.
"I see them." She told him, seeing the shadows move across the large windows, the details of the figures obscured by the light behind them. "There's someone there. It's not empty." She confirmed for him and he visibly relaxed.
"Do you remember Quatre?" He looked at her, his eyes sparkling. "Remember him?" He said pulling out a sketch of the blonde boy and showing it to her. It was his favourite sketch, he had drawn Quatre sitting on a bed playing the violin, his eyes soft and lost in the music.
"Yeah I remember… what's going on?" She squeaked when Trowa grabbed her hand again and tugged her towards the front door of the house, dragging her mercilessly across the lawn. "Triton! Goddammit!"
He pulled her to his side and rang the doorbell once, letting Catherine compose herself by fixing her skirt and hair. The door opened slightly and a middle aged man with dark brown hair and dark eyes greeted them. "Hello?"
"Hello Mr. Winner?" Trowa said and Catherine's eyes widened at the name. She remembered that name! "My name is Trowa and this is Catherine. We live next door. We just came to say hello." Trowa said with a small smile and Catherine felt faint with what she was hearing. She gaped at Trowa and then at the older man. Then she opened her mouth and closed it several times unable to talk.
"Oh hello!" He greeted. "Come in, come in." He said and stepped back from the door to let them in. "We were just sitting down for dinner, would you care for some?"
Catherine was about to refuse but before she could say anything Trowa squeezed her hand to shut her up and then proceeded to accept the invitation. They followed the man into the dining room that currently had boxes taped shut lined against the wall. There was a massive, mahogany table in the centre of the room with several chairs placed around it about half of them filled.
"Iria, scoot down a bit and let these two children join in as well. They're our neighbours." Trowa started at the name of Iria… there's no way there could be this many coincidences could there? He watched Iria get up, her hair tied back in a pony tail, longer than he remembered from his 'dream'. She poked her sister sitting next to her and then the whole room erupted into a frenzy trying to make space for the two new people.
"What are you doing?" Catherine hissed at Trowa through clenched teeth just low enough that no one else would hear. He ignored her, his eyes scanning the room looking for just one blonde boy.
"Catherine!" Mr. Winner called out and a petite blonde woman shuffled out of the kitchen wearing an apron. "Catherine, we have guests. Let the others know it's time for dinner." He said to her and she nodded glancing at Trowa and Catherine as they sheepishly seated themselves in the room dominated by women. The loud talking that had been going on when they came in was now quiet and every one of the five women – Trowa counted – was staring at them… more specifically at him.
"What's your name?" One of them asked, who was sitting across from him.
"Trowa." He answered easily and completely dismissed Catherine's glare shot at him. "And this is Catherine." He gestured to her with a wave of his hand.
"I'm Aida." She said. She looked like the oldest of them all. She had her hair tied in a braid and her eyes were blue just like the rest of the family… except Mr. Winner. She then pointed at the rest of the girls seated. "That's Amna, Fida, Alina and Iria." She introduced and got out a weak hello from all of them.
"Abbu?"(1) A small voice called from upstairs. "Quatre says he's not hungry." She explained when Mr. Winner stood under the staircase and looked up. The dining room was right in front of the winding staircase and Trowa could see the young girl leaning against the barrister talking to her father.
"Tell him we have guests." He said and the girl nodded and retreated.
"That's Rasha." Aida said distractedly and Trowa nodded.
"How many of you are there?" Catherine asked, her voice exceptionally shy. Maybe she was feeling overwhelmed by all the people in the house? Trowa mused.
"Ten in total." She explained. "Nine sisters, and one brother."
Forgetting her manners momentarily Catherine whistled in awe.
The girl named Amna sitting next to Aida laughed. "Yeah, we get that reaction a lot." She said, her hair were short, cropped to about an inch below her ear and she had a more mischievous look to her. "So do you guys have children?"
Trowa and Catherine looked at each other and then their eyes widened. "Oh no! We're siblings!" Catherine explained waving her hands in front of her as if to dismiss the idea. "I'm his sister."
Every one of the girls in the room made a silent 'oh' and before anything else could be said there was some commotion outside.
"Abbu, Quatre doesn't want to come." Rasha called from upstairs.
'Quatre?' Catherine mouthed and Trowa resisted the urge to smirk at her.
"Quatre!" Mr. Winner hollered suddenly and both Trowa and Catherine jumped. No one else seemed to think it was out of the ordinary. "We have guests!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Came a muffled voice from upstairs and then Quatre came… dragging his feet on the stairs and finally entering the dining room. His tired expression immediately vanished when he saw who the guests were. "Trowa!"
"Hello Quatre." He said, his voice softening and Catherine's jaw dropped open. He looked just like Quatre… well… the other Quatre… the one Trowa was in love with…
Trowa clutched the sketchbook tightly in his lap to make sure it was still there. He wouldn't want Quatre to get a glimpse of it and think he was a psycho of some kind.
Quatre quickly came around the table to Trowa's side and then started poking Aida. "Could you move sis? I want to sit here." He said pushing against her with his hips.
"I always sit here! Get your own chair!" She huffed and he pouted. Then he left for a minute, came back dragging a chair from somewhere. He dragged it all the way around the table and purposefully pushed it between Aida and Trowa. Aida glared but then scooted to the side letting Quatre cut in the middle.
"Hi Trowa." He said smiling, sitting sideways on his chair so that he was facing him. He leaned a little to the side to look at Catherine. "Hello?"
"Oh, this is Catherine, my sister." Trowa made sure to introduce her fully. He wouldn't want Quatre to think he was taken or anything. No… that wouldn't be good at all.
"Hi Catherine! It's nice to meet you! You're pretty." He said smiling brightly at her and she blushed against her better judgement. True she was older than him and he didn't look much older than eighteen… but still… he was quite a charmer.
"Isn't she a little old for you?" One of the sisters said snidely and Quatre ignored her while Catherine huffed indignantly. Trowa went through the list of introductions he had been given by Aida and decided it was Fida who had spoken. Completely ignoring the comment Quatre continued to talk to Trowa.
Trowa just basked in the presence of the blonde beauty beside him. After four years of believing that he would never see his love again… suddenly here he was… sitting right next to him, talking to him, smiling at him.
"Is something wrong? Something's on my face isn't there?" Quatre said suddenly looking self conscious and Trowa realized he had been staring.
He looked away but his eyes returned back to Quatre almost immediately. "No, your face is perfect." He said and Quatre blushed lightly at the thinly veiled compliment.
"Ummi… We're hungry." He called out and almost immediately the mother, Trowa assumed, walked in with a steaming pot followed by three more girls all carrying plates and silverware and stuff. "That's Zaria, Nadia and Maha behind Ummi." He introduced and Trowa felt like he was going cross-eyed. There was little chance he'll have everyone's names right. "Nadia and Maha are married, they're just here for a few days. Remember the kids fighting in the morning?" He asked looking sideways at Trowa, "Their kids. The little girl is Sara and the boy is Omar." Trowa nodded feeling slightly dazed with all the information. One quick glance showed Catherine struggling as well.
Seeing their expressions Quatre laughed lightly. "Don't worry, no one will kill you if you get their names wrong."
The rest of the dinner went fairly uneventful but Trowa was glad he had decided to stay. It was the first time he had seen what a somewhat normal family acted like.
After dinner Trowa got pulled into conversation with Mr. Winner and Quatre while Catherine pleaded exhaustion and left early. Even then Quatre's mom managed to hand her some left over dessert.
"Leaving already?" Quatre asked hovering in the doorway as Trowa pulled his shoes on.
"It's getting late." He offered in a way of explanation even though he didn't really want to go.
"Hmm…" Quatre grabbed a pair of sneakers sitting in the corner of the room and pulled them on. "Mind if I walk with you?"
Trowa smiled in answer. Shouting to the house that he was going for a walk he pulled Trowa out and closed the door behind him.
"Big family." Trowa said softly, the silence of the dark street making him feel as though he needed to whisper. "It's nice."
Quatre beamed up at him with a bright smile. "It is. But the lack of privacy gets to you. Not to mention the constant talk about color schemes and make up tips." He said gesturing with one hand to show his frustration.
"It must be frustrating to be the only boy in the family."
"Not as frustrating as it is lonely I guess." He explained and then shrugged when Trowa looked at him. "No one to talk to. My sisters get too emotional. My dad starts telling me about how nothing is more important that achieving a goal and the little problems along the way are just distractions. It gets lonely."
As they walked Trowa went right past his house, opting for more time to talk to the blonde boy. "You can talk to me if you want." Trowa offered and Quatre smiled at him.
"Thank you." He said sincerely. "I would like us to be friends."
"I already think we're friends Quatre." He answered his hand rising to pet Quatre's hair by itself, the habit from his dream suddenly manifesting itself. Trowa managed to catch his slip before the hand actually made contact with the gold strands and pulled it back to his side.
They walked in silence for a little while and Trowa made a complete round of the neighbourhood before leading the smaller boy back to his bustling house. "You already know where I live. Come over anytime." Trowa said to him as Quatre smiled and opened the door to his house.
"Good night Trowa." He said and closed the door gently. Trowa smiled a full, happy smile and then resisted the urge to skip to his house. No… skipping was more of Maxwell's thing.
His smile faltered as he thought about all the guys. Maxwell's loud brashness and loyal personality, Yuy with his quiet strength and leadership… Wufei's not so quiet strength and ideals.
Sometimes he really missed those guys. But at least, fate had been nice enough to him to give him Quatre back.
1) Abbu: Arabic for Dad. Similarly, Ummi: Arabic for Mom.
I had to do some serious hunting to find out what Mr. Winner was like. Am I wrong when I say he's depicted as stern? Also... anybody know his first name? I didn't watch the series in its entirety so... yeah...
A/N: It'll pick up soon... it's just going slower than I expected...
Hope you liked!
Persephone