Ah! What a joy! The sun is shining and the birds are singing and it will be raining in two hours if I read the clowds right…
Here I am again, editing another chapter! This is where we find Duo doing the philosophy thing, as one of my friends says, and we find Heero doing the 'I'm really a nice guy'-thing and we meet Trowa's sister! I really, really like Catherine very, very much in the series. She's so cool!
So, let's go!
The Prince, the Hero and the Mystery of the Falcon
Chapter 7: Miss Detective
After Duo left the two men in hurry to put something on him, Trowa chuckled lowly.
"He's such a sweet kid", he commented. Heero almost nodded his agreement before catching himself and forcing himself to think about the bad sides in the boy.
"He's too loud and it seems like he'd die if there was a second of silence." Why were they not so bad things now that he said them out loud? There were so many things that confused him in the boy...
"But somehow he got under your defense, Heero", Trowa chuckled again before leaving to make that much talked breakfast, or lunch more likely.
Heero hn-ned. Like hell Duo had done that. Heero just felt responsible, that's all.
BRAKE
Duo let his body fall on the soft bed with a sigh. He felt so out of place here. He missed Hilde, he missed Howard... Hell, he even missed school! This place felt wrong somehow. But he still had no way out...
He had rebraided his hair feeling lost without its comfortable weight after he had pulled a nice warm cotton shirt on him. It was womens' shirt but it fit him, so it didn't matter all that much. It was also comfortably dark. Maybe it was red? or blue? He didn't know. To him it was just weird dark gray shirt. He missed the colors too, maybe more than anything. He promised himself to buy a bright yellow shirt once he'd get back home.
The door clicked shut behind him and he twisted his body on the bed to see who had come in. It was Heero, in dry clothes and a soft look in his eyes.
"That looks better on you than on Catherine", the man told him bluntly after just looking at him for a moment. Duo could just feel that Heero wasn't used to giving compliments, so he smiled.
"Thank you", he said. He closed his eyes tiredly. "Did you mean it, Heero?"
"Hn, the shirt?" Heero came and sat down on his side. He shook his head.
"No, about... me staying with you. Do you really want me to stay? I mean, I seem to annoy you and-" Heero placed a finger on his lips quieting him.
"I meant it, alright."
They were quiet for a while, before Heero moved his hand to touch the boy's cheek. It was so soft... He shook his head slowly to push that thought away. "I'm the reason you're in this mess..." he sighed.
"Heero?" Duo whispered sitting up and looking into Heero's eyes searchingly. Something was bothering the man. Duo himself had no personal experience in handling distraught people but he wanted to help Heero. He needed to help Heero.
"The book... I wrote it."
"Heero... what do you mean by that?"
"I wrote 'The Hero'."
Duo froze for a while before simply just accepting it. It made sense, in a weird way.
"Okay."
"Hn?" Heero looked at him confusedly. Duo wasn't mad? Didn't hate him?
"Okay, I understand." Duo laughed a little. "You thought I'd hate you, right? Well, I don't, be assured." He calmed down. "Do you want to tell me about it?"
Heero grinned unsurely. He wasn't used to smiling, unless it was for missionary purposes.
"I should, shouldn't I? You deserve to know."
BRAKE
In the mean while Trowa opened the door to his sister, who enveloped him to a warm hug.
"Trowa! I'm so glad to be home again, little brother. I would've come earlier, but it was raining so bad and my new shoes would've been ruined in the water. I had to wait for a brake in the bad weather." Trowa rolled his eyes.
"Cathy, any news?" The woman laughed as she put her hat next to Heero's.
"Straight to business, huh, little brother?" She laughed again, pleasantly. "Well, I did hear there's someone new in town, someone who has connections to Heero. Some chick. I thought they had all gone crazy, but then Zechs storms in and rages in his calm way about how Heero stole the prettiest girl in the world right from under his nose. You'd never guess he's gay, the way he likes to play with girls. Maybe he's a closet bi-sexual?"
She paused and looked at the wet coat in the hanger. "I was wondering ...that looks like his coat. Is he back yet?"
Trowa shrugged grinning his most annoying 'I know something you don't' -grin.
"Came back last night, with a surprise." Catherine frowned looking at her little brother behind her carefully set curls. He helped her to remove her coat.
"He brought her here?" Trowa grinned again.
"Well, you'll see soon enough", he mused, and added after a pause. "Why spoil a good surprise?"
"Trowaaaaah-" the woman whined childishly but Trowa held his ground.
"Nope."
She glared at him and then, with a flap of her skirt, she was marching up the stairs, wrinkling her little nose when she heard her brother laugh after her. She was about to open the door to her room when she heard quiet voices talking inside.
She got curious, like the miss detective she was, and remained still to hear what they were talking.
"Wow... Well, buddy... I can now officially say you've had some messed up life. Crazy wife, crazy psychiatrist ...crazy dog, but don't you miss the colors? Remember? Violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red... There's none of them here."
Who was this? Maybe she had heard them wrong, she had no idea what they were talking about.
"I mean... I really wanna go back home. I feel like I'm going insane here."
If she didn't know better, she'd sworn...
"I'm sorry, Duo. I really am. I guess I didn't think about the colors when I was making the book..."
Well, this certainly was Heero ...or was it? Heero Yuynever said sorry.Or talked this much...
"Not your fault! If it's anyone's fault it's mine. I mean, who steal a god damn detective book from a fucking crime scene? I'm so stupid! But Heero..."
There was a contemplating silence.
"Everything that happens, happens for a reason, right? I took that from some new-old tv-show, something about a plane crashing and people surviving on some island that has this monster freak and all, haha. Anyway, maybe I'm meant to be here. Maybe my whole life has been aiming to this point, where I'm with ...you."
"...You're underage and I'm-"
"-not like that." Adry chuckle.
"I know, neither am I. I didn't mean it like that. I meant, helping you."
A pause.
"I wanna help you, Heero. Maybe it keeps my sanity intact."
She thought this might be the moment to step in, so she did. She pushed the door open and the sight surprised her, no matter what she had just heard. Heero was sitting on her bed, way too close to a fragile looking girl with a braid longer than she had ever seen on anyone.
Currently she was leaning her head on Heero's chest, facing away from the door but when Catherine burst in she turned to see who it was. She had big light colored eyes and long thick eyelashes. Very pretty, she had to admit to herself. It took her a moment to realize that SHE WAS WEARING HER SHIRT!
Heero stood up and stood almost protectively between his protégé and Catherine, but the girl just pulled him back down and smiled at the woman. As she pulled her long legs up to the mattress, Catherine noted she was wearing her brother's pants. It made her think.
"Damn, you're pretty", was the first thing that came out of Duo's mouth. He tugged his braid from somewhere behind him and started fiddling it's end. He felt nervous under that gaze. In his mind he started thinking that the woman probably would've had brown hair in real life. And with that thought came the thought that the woman looked damn familiar! He just couldn't place her anywhere in his brain.
"You must be ...Catherine, right?"
"How did you know?" she was on her guard, like a dog in its own backyard. The woman couldn't be thinking... Not again!
"You came in like you owned this room and you looked at this shirt like you own it, so it was logical to assume you must be Catherine, the one who Heero said to own this shirt." The woman swallowed hard and then walked to him with fast steps. She pressed her hand against his chest, making him blush. Apparently his braid had done it again.
"You're a ...boy?"
TBC…..
Author Notes:
Oh my God, this was so fun to write! I had so much fun! Review, people! I love reviews!
