Chapter: 4

Another Time Another Place 4

In The Car:

"And he's out." said Quatre, as Harry slid into a deep sleep, just as they were entering his property.

"Aww, he's so cute," said Duo twisting around in his seat to get a better look at the boy in Trowa's arms. "And short."

"Hai. He's smaller than we were at fifteen," Heero said parking the car, "without the aid of the growth inhibitors."

"You think he's lying about his age?" asked Trowa, passing the sleeping Harry to Heero as they all got out of the car.

"Nope," said Duo. "When I hugged him I could feel his ribs – through the leather jacket. Kid's malnourished, for his size and weight, I'd say for the majority of his life."

"Agreed," intoned Heero, laying him down on the living room couch.

"He looks so…innocent, helpless," commented Quatre.

"He's not," declared Heero, flipping up the right hand sleeve of Harry's coat, revealing the leather holster and knife.

"Ooh…pretty," cooed Duo, withdrawing the knife. "Well cared for, sturdy, perfectly balanced, not very flashy," he withdrew something from one of his pockets, and gave a low whistle as it was cut straight through, "And perfectly sharp. My kind of knife," he said placing it on the coffee table.

"Are we thinking streets?" asked Wufei.

"He's touch starved, you could see it, he practically melted into our hugs and his face lit up every time Trowa so much as touched him. That's more consistent with abuse than life on the streets." said Quatre.

"Well, he doesn't have any records so he didn't attend any type of school," said Trowa.

"Yeah, and I know why." Everyone turned to look at Duo. He was sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch. In one hand he held Harry's hat and glasses, the fingers of the other were softly stroking his –

"Cat ears?" hissed Wufei in disbelief.

"Yup," popped Duo, as the others gathered close, "And I'm willing to lay odds that ain't a fur belt." He pointed to the patch of fur he could see in the gap of the coat.

Trowa eased Harry up, removing the leather jacket, and got a sleepy mumble of protest. Harry quietened instantly when Trowa ran his fingers through his hair, and after a minute of the petting fell back into a deep sleep.

"That's definitely a cat's tail," said Wufei.

"Gene manipulation?"

"It would have to be severe; I doubt anyone could have survived it,"

"Well, someone obviously did." Trowa indicated his brother, and then looked at his face again. "How was he wearing glasses? He doesn't have human ears."

"That's why I took the cap off in the first place, I couldn't pull his glasses off," he handed said glasses for inspection. While the frame and first two inches or so of either arm was the same as a regular pair of glasses, Harry had attached a piece of elastic around it turning them into goggles so that they stayed on his face.

"Wouldn't contacts be easier?"

"He probably couldn't get them."

"Wouldn't any sort of gene manipulation mess up DNA results? Wasn't that why Heero's tests came back inconclusive?"

"So he might not be my brother?"

"Can we keep him anyway?" Duo turned puppy dog eyes towards his lover, "I'll feed him and play with him and love him ever so much."

"Baka," muttered Wufei.

"Do you have the DNA comparisons?"

"Yeah, here."

GWxHPGWxHPGWxHP

Harry woke to someone shaking his shoulder. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he identified the blurry mass as Duo.

"Here you go, Harry-kun," Duo said, passing him his glasses, "Trowa's finished making dinner, it's time to eat."

"Thanks." Harry said, slipping his glasses on, being careful not to catch his ears. He froze, staring wide eyed at the muggle in front of him. There was nothing stopping him from seeing his ears. "My beanie?" He all but whispered.

"Coffee table," Duo pointed. "Doesn't that get uncomfortable? Squeezing your ears in?"

"I'm…I'm used to it," Harry whispered, twisting his hands in the fur of his tail.

"So…the rest of us are figuring someone went all Dr J on you, and messed up your genes. What makes it interesting is that gene manipulation should make DNA matching impossible."

Harry froze for the second time. "Trowa's my brother," his voice was soft, but firm. It was true, it had to be. Trowa was his blood dominant.

"Yeah, he is. See that's what's odd…your DNA is perfectly ordinary…except for the extra bits."

"Extra bits?"

"Yep…you've got all the genes off Trowa's brother, 'cept at the end of every chromosome is a bunch of extra genes…that the original computer program just ignored as an error." Duo explained. Harry nodded along…having no clue as to what Duo was talking about. "Come on then, dinner's ready."

Harry reached for his beanie on the coffee table.

"Don't worry about it," said Duo. "Leave 'em out."

"You don't mind?"

"Mind? Nah, they're cute." Harry pouted and Duo leaned over, ruffling his hair and scratching behind his ears. Harry nearly purred. "Come on, food." Duo grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him towards the open plan kitchen and dining room.