Chapter 10
(ADDITIONAL DISCLAIMER: The lyrics presented in this chapter belong to Gackt Camui. It is the English translation of his song, Metamorphoze. Although the character of Tetsuya Camui is inspired by Gackt Camui, it is NOT Gackt. We just used this song because it was too damned perfect.)
Kat did a double take to her brother. She'd never heard him be so forthright about that sort of thing. He damn well had to be freaking psychic if he was telling her that Zechs had spent the night with Cassandra. Her mouth moved open and closed for several seconds, making her look a lot like a fish, before she could answer.
"Q, I-What did you say? I don't think I heard you right."
"You heard me. I was wondering whether Cassandra was in a good mood because of Wufei's black eye or because Zechs spent the night with her last night." The blonde told her casually. "Why do you act like you're so surprised, Kat?"
The second blonde shook her head. "It's just that you surprised me, bro. I didn't expect you to say it. It's like, you're psychic or something."
A wide grin spread across Quatre's face as he stopped and looked back at his sister. "How do you know that I'm not, Katarina?"
Katarina blinked. She blinked again. She blinked a third time. "Uh…"
Luckily, Duo bounded up to them, in the nick of time as usual, and grabbed Katarina's arm. Quatre gave his sister an almost knowing look as all three of them stood there. Kat fought a blush as she turned her gaze to the brunette that had just joined them. Duo was grinning at her with a smile so wide it seemed like it would break his face. He was practically bouncing with anticipation.
"Finally! What took you so long? I'm ready to get started! Heero and Wufei have already started on the work for their computer chips!"
"And you need me for that why?" Kat asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"I didn't really. I just wanted you to hurry up so we could get started. I have some slight changes that I want to make to Deathscythe's skeleton. Hopefully it'll make it more aerodynamic." Duo explained, showing her a blueprint that he'd written over on a sheet of trace paper. Kat only nodded in response. She noticed Quatre wave a hand at her and walk off toward the skeleton of Sandrock and meet Trowa half-way across the floor.
As the two made their way over to the Deathscythe's skeleton, Kat dug around in the pocket of her overalls to retrieve a disc that she'd brought with her. Duo raised an eyebrow, but instead of asking her what was on the disc, he was cut off by Kat when she asked him a question instead.
"Duo, you were the last person to see Wufei, am I right?" she asked.
"Yes?" he replied in an unsure manner.
"How did he get the black eye?" Kat questioned, grabbing his hand and pulling him to a stop.
Duo stared back with quite a serious look on his face. The blonde in front of him felt her expression soften a bit as she took a step closer to him. "He said something about me, didn't he?"
"Hey, you know very well that you're my weakness, Kat. Wufei talks shit about you and he gets a black eye." The brunette said roughly, looking away.
Kat rubbed her thumb over his knuckles and watched him wince. Looking down, there were still open sores on his knuckles. "You just pointed something out to me, oh God of Death. You'd better hope that Orion never finds out about me, Duo. I don't want them to hurt you because of me."
The braided pilot whipped his head around to stare at her with wide surprised eyes. "Kat, what made you think of that? That's a serious question that you just asked."
The blonde nodded. "I know. I can't help but wonder though, Duo." She asked as she entwined her fingers with his and pulled him along after her. As they reached the Deathscythe, she released Duo and grabbed the stirrup only to be pulled back to the one whom she'd just released. Duo stuck his foot into the stirrup instead and grabbed the chord, wrapping his other arm tightly around her waist.
"I just want you to know that that's not going to happen. I won't let them get to you, Kat. You know what your problem is?"
"What's that?" Katarina asked in a suspicious voice.
"You worry too much."
"What?! You can't be serious! I've worked on your Gundams for years and I've seen the shape that they sometimes come back in. You can't possibly tell me not to worry!" Kat exclaimed, causing several heads to rise in curiosity.
Duo winced as he released her once they were both safely on the catwalk. "Okay, okay, so I can't tell you not to worry because I give you good cause. Just, PLEASE, don't bring this up to Lady Une. She'll take your ideas to heart and she might remove you from the operation. Please. Don't make her take you away."
Kat tossed him a wrench as she picked up a pair of goggles and a welding torch so that she could begin the modifications to the skeleton. "Alright, I promise. Now, let's get to work so we won't let Q beat us today, okay?"
The brunette grinned as he set to work right away, watching as Kat popped the disc into her laptop which held the new modifications to the skeleton. Little did they know that at the end of track four, the reaction would be quite unexpected for one individual on the other side of the hangar.
...
"So Kat decided to break early for lunch?" Quatre asked as he walked with Duo to his left and Trowa to his right.
"It would seem so." Duo replied. "I asked her if she was coming, but she asked me to bring her back a sandwich instead because she had some stuff to work on."
Trowa smirked as he continued on in silence, for the most part. "Perhaps she found something she had to take care of that didn't involve you, Duo."
A look of horror came over the brunette's face. There was no way that Kat could've told him something so she could go behind his back. Why would Trowa say something like that? It was clearly to throw him off. Shaking his head, Duo turned to see Quatre staring at him and chuckling lightly to himself.
"What's so funny, Q man? I don't get it."
Quatre laughed a little louder as they continued on their way to the cafeteria. "Don't worry about my sister, Duo. She's not that kind…most of the time. Anyway, what is your relationship to her now? I noticed that the two of you didn't get back to your quarters until quite late."
Duo's eyes widened as he almost tripped over his own feet. "What do you mean? Are you freakin' psychic, Q?"
"That was exactly what Kat asked me this morning when I asked her about something different. No, I saw you getting back and a little disheveled at that."
"I swear we didn't do that!" Duo practically shouted. "Kat's virginity is still intact!"
Trowa was snickering from Quatre's other side. The blonde was desperately trying to hold in his laughter as the trio continued down the hall. Duo was sputtering and stumbling over his words horribly until Quatre finally spoke up to stop him.
"Duo, I believe you. You don't have to keep trying to prove yourself. Anyway, why don't we just say that you and Kat have taken your relationship to the next level, shall we? That way, you don't have to tell us any incriminating details." The blonde offered.
The braided pilot nodded in agreement. Maybe that's why Quatre was so easy to get along with. He never tried to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Then again, Duo had to wonder about one thing and one thing only; Trowa seldom went anywhere with anyone, but when he did, it was with Quatre. Was it because Quatre managed to make everyone comfortable or was it because of something on a little more intimate level? A blush crept to Duo's cheeks as he desperately fought to shake that idea from his head. Quatre wasn't gay, was he? Dorothy would certainly kill him if he was, right?
...
Cassie saw Katarina's eyes brighten as Duo, Quatre, and Trowa reentered the hangar. As Duo rode the cable up to the catwalk, Kat rushed to meet him as he presented her with a sandwich that he'd smuggled from the cafeteria. Zechs watched the entire display with ironic interest. Luckily, little to nothing had been heard out of Wufei all day.
"I appreciate the sandwich, Duo." Kat said, smiling up at him. "Now, I'll eat this while you get back to adjusting those bolts, 'kay?"
"Yes ma'am!" Duo grinned as he saluted and moved to complete said task.
Kat, in the mean time, sat down on the catwalk and swung her feet gently over the edge as she ate her sandwich and pressed the resume button on her laptop. She issued a happy squeal that earned her several confused looks. She paused in mid-chew to explain herself.
"What? Camui is my favorite artist and this song is one of my favorites!" she exclaimed as she cranked up the volume, not noticing the painfully familiar look that entered Cassandra's eyes. Having said that much, Kat returned to munching on her sandwich and started to sing with the song.
A trembling heartbeat binds me
Pieces of you fell into deep darkness
In a world that cannot forgive the act of running away
Even though you only wanted to protect yourself
The blonde hopped up as she finished her sandwich and brushed her hands together to clean them off. She gave a bright smile to Cassie as she picked up her welding torch once again and placed her goggles back on her face.
"Well, break's over! I'd better get back to work! I want Deathscythe to be finished at the same time the others are!" Kat chirped cheerfully as she made her way over to Duo and the skeleton.
Still now, still even now, more than someone's tender words
Your lips, your lips alone, I want to touch them softly
"How sweet, Kat!" Noin called up from the ground. "Are you singing to Duo? If you are, that's so cute! I think Trowa lost the battle!" she snickered.
Duo stopped what he was doing to look at her while she was welding. "Trowa? Is there something I should know about?"
"Not in the least, my dear Duo. You have nothing to fear but fear itself…or something like that." Kat answered him without looking away from her current task.
"Noin!" Deathscythe's pilot whined. "What are you two talking about? I'm left out of the loop now!"
The dark-haired woman laughed as she prepared to give an answer to that question. "You're not the only one who had a crush on Miss Katarina there. Mr. Barton seemed to be quite fond of her himself in earlier days."
"Trowa?! No way!" Duo exclaimed as he shot a glance to the seemingly unhearing Kat.
"If you have enough time to chat, Duo, you've already gotten all the work done today that needed to be done. Therefore, you can start on the work for your Gundam's computer control chip."
Duo pouted as Noin snickered at him. He'd never understand women fully.
Even though this endless sky will someday come to an end,
I will never forget you whose image is burned into my eyes
My memory of you, more than any kind words,
Erases the pain in me that no one else could
Now, I continued calling out your name.
"Kat, do you want to go for dinner tonight?" Duo asked casually while tightening several replaced bolts with the wrench he'd been given.
The girl remained silent, as if contemplating her answer to his question. "That all depends on how much work you actually get done between now and the end of the day." She said playfully.
The brunette pouted as pitifully as he could. "Aw, come on, Kat! This'll be the first date we've ever been on! I feel like I need to take you out after making out with you last night."
"Oh, so you feel bad about snogging me senseless and want to make up for it by wooing me a bit so you can get some more out of me, is that it?" she asked in an angry tone.
"That's not what I meant and you know it!" Duo protested, sending glares to some of the other mechanics who were laughing at his predicament. "Stop being difficult, Katarina, and let me take you out!"
Kat tossed her long ponytail in an irritated manner, but she smiled as she continued to work. "Fine, fine. As long as you don't push me into giving it up to you, then we're cool. The minute you enter forbidden territory, it's all off."
The God of Death blushed at the heading of the conversation but nodded. "Roger. I may run. I may hide, but I never lie. You know that by now, Kat."
"I know that, Duo. I trust you. Just don't break that trust."
"Me? Never!"
"Why am I not convinced?"
Even though we repeat our mistakes countless times
I want to protect the promise you exchanged with me
Still now, still even now more than someone's tender words
I want to embrace you in these arms once again
Still now, I want to continue fighting for you
Until the day I can smile together with you one more time.
...
End Chapter.