A/N: Look at that length- and that's WITHOUT the reader responses (which'll be elaborated on at the end). And look! We FINALLY get some background information on people! YES!
How sad is this? I didn't even realize Prodigy could be considered dark until I saw I'm in a C2 called "Death tones", and then I was all, "What? But…Prodigy's FUNNY!" And then I skimmed the whole thing and realized that this really IS kind of depressing.
I'm a nerd, as you know. "Informoia" is a splicing of the words Information and Paranoia, and was one of the original title options. Then I decided it was just stupid and went with Prodigy! Yay for random trivia!
And WOW is Duo aggressive when he wants to be. That said, read on!
Prodigy
Chapter 12
Informoia
The barn was green. He didn't know if he was running towards it or from it, but wherever his eyes turned it loomed over him, glaring its insidious intent over the twelve-year-old. The grass was wet, the sky was a murky shade of gray, and he could still hear the crows.
"Come on, kid," an eerily familiar voice sighed from behind him, resignation dripping from his lips. "You really want to risk her life?"
He pivoted, spinning back to see the speaker, but the barn was still there, always in front, and he couldn't escape it.
"She's my sister," his empty voice echoed around the field, and the thigh-high grass shifted in a breeze he couldn't feel. "She's mine."
"And the other way around."
Again, Trowa twisted, but the speaker wasn't there. Panicking emerald eyes spun, but everywhere the barn stood, the crows screamed, and the man was always right behind him, regardless of how hard he ran.
"Let her go, kid."
"You first," he snapped, and decided.
His feet pounded against the frozen earth, crunching the dying grass with his bare feet, and the green barn slowly grew larger and larger in his line of sight.
"CATHERINE!"
"Trowa!" a voice called out.
"CATHERINE! CATHERINE!"
"Trowa!" It sounded familiar, and panicked, and he didn't WANT That Voice to sound so scared.
"Make your choice, kid," the man spoke, utterly disinterested. "They're both waiting."
He chose, and his eyes met scared aqua. "Trowa? Trowa, can you hear me?"
"Quatre." His voice was hoarse, but that didn't keep the blonde's face from breaking into a heart-bursting smile, and he flung his arms around the brunette, carefully hugging the injured boy.
"Oh, Trowa," Quatre whispered. "I was so worried."
Trowa blinked at the ceiling, which was surprisingly interesting for once- someone had painted little blue butterflies all over the ceiling tiles. "Why?"
Quatre tensed. "WHY? You were SHOT, Trowa! And then you started screaming out 'Catherine'." And from that tone of voice, Trowa could tell that was probably not what his boyfriend had wanted to hear him call out in the middle of the…day? What was going on? How long had he been out?
"She's my sister," Trowa said quietly as Quatre withdrew back to his chair.
"I didn't know you have a sister," the blonde frowned, obviously hurt by this omission.
The brunette's eyes slid closed as he winced. "Not anymore. She's dead."
And, Trowa thought wryly, the silence probably could have eaten the metaphorical white elephant sitting dazedly in the middle of the room in one big bite.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Wufei said simply, and Trowa nodded.
"I'm going to go back to sleep, Quatre," Trowa said tiredly, and looked up at Quatre again, trying to ignore the tortured look that HE had put on his face. "Wake me up when Heero gets back?"
"Of course," Quatre said, trying to smile for the injured young man. "Goodnight, Trowa." When Trowa had fallen back into a true sleep, determined aqua eyes snapped over to Wufei.
"Guard him with your life, understand?" Quatre snapped, and Wufei snorted.
"I'll guard him with my mortally wounded," he deadpanned.
"If he's injured, and you're still alive, you won't HAVE a life," Quatre glared, and Wufei couldn't help but shrink back into his seat a bit from the sheer vehemence of the intense blonde. "I'll be back soon."
With that, Wufei moved to the chair next to the bedside, and Quatre walked out into the hall, cell phone snapped out as he began dialing. His feet guided him to the nearest waiting room, and the call finally connected.
"Yes?" A deep man's voice answered, terse yet respectful and to the point.
"I need you to get anything you can about a Catherine Barton," he said, having only a moment of regret. If Trowa wasn't going to talk about it, Quatre would find someone who damn well would. This could be something important after all, he reasoned to himself, and therefore there wasn't any time to wait for Trowa to get over his information paranoia (which was far too common in their little group anyway). Speaking of which… "Get everything you can on Trowa Barton, too."
"…Forgive me, Master Quatre, but-"
"I know, and I've already made up my mind," Quatre cut him off. "Thank you for your concern, though."
"I'll have your information as soon as possible," the man said in the same respectful tone, and Quatre found himself glaring at the linoleum floor tiles.
"See that you do. You have 24 hours," Quatre said, his cold Business Voice slipping on, and before he could finally change his mind he snapped the phone shut, hanging up on his associate and striding back into the hospital room, to take the quickly vacated seat. He held Trowa's hand again, and turned his head towards the window, for once unable to look straight at the brunette who'd tried to give his life to save Quatre's.
"The birds are quiet today," Quatre said calmly. Wufei didn't respond, glaring at the door. Quatre just tightened his fragile connection with Trowa, unwilling to admit he needed it far more than the sleeping boy did.
x---x
Duo knew he was getting close as soon as he heard the first kid smash into the lockers.
"Oooh, so the pretty faggot can hi-" A voice called out, only to be cut off by a shriek, followed by a very loud thud, which was quickly accompanied by yet another set of locker doors grating against their metal sides.
"SHIT! Did you see that!" A voice shrieked, and Duo turned the corner to see a shifting huddle of boys surrounding a glaring Heero, wrath billowing off his frame. For a moment, Duo was tempted to just let the psychotic scientist deal with it, but decided that dealing with a murder trial would be a bad thing to deal with along with the people already trying to kill them.
One boy had a hand jammed into the slits of a locker door, limply hanging from the appendage as a swelling bruise began to form on his left cheek. Another was slowly sliding down the adjacent metal surface, eyes rolled up into his skull and a surprised twitch stuck on his face. Two boys were slowly backing away, and the other idiots were obviously slow to realize Heero Yuy wasn't a weak little pretty boy.
"You know, calling him pretty makes you kinda gay too," Duo called out, a devilish smile twisting his lips.
"Go away," Heero growled, not even glancing at his braided companion.
"Yeah right," Duo snorted. "You think we can pay for a few murder trials right now? Not to mention I'd be chained and re-jailed before you can scream out 'self-defense'." He stretched, overemphasizing the motion as he sighed.
"That's why I'm fighting them, and not you," Heero said calmly, and Duo snatched his hand as it started to travel down towards his old mustard-colored sneakers. Or, more specifically, what was stored in the ratty old shoes. Blue eyes glared daggers at him. "Let go."
"What do you think I am, STUPID? I'm not gonna let you explode the idiots, Heero! They may be ignorant sons of bitches, but that doesn't mean you get to blow up them AND the building before me!"
Just as he was about to shout back, Heero paused, simply STARING at Duo with shell-shocked eyes.
Duo frowned. "What? I've got dibs!"
"You said we."
"Huh?" Duo's head tilted to the side, and Heero's eyes just seemed to grow larger by the second.
"You said 'we', Duo."
"Uh…" Duo shifted, trying to ignore the fact he was blushing. He couldn't remember the last time he'd blushed, but that could have been the almost scary intensity in Heero's eyes getting to him. He took a deep breath, and his indigo eyes fearlessly snapped straight into Prussian blue. "Yeah, I said 'we'." His head tilted to the side, gaze blazing as he closed in on the scientist. "You got a problem with that?"
Heero smirked. "I p-mmmmf!"
He was cut off by the slightly chapped lips that were suddenly pressed against his own. Heero's eyes widened in surprise just as Duo's slid shut, and a hand fisted in his shirt, a firmly demanding pull that brought them closer together as Duo deepened the kiss, tongue running along the roof of Heero's mouth as his other hand snuck into disheveled brown tresses. Heero shuddered, and his eyes closed at the intoxicating sensation.
Duo was kissing him. DUO WAS KISSING HIM, and all Heero Yuy could manage to do was hold on and try not to melt into the floor at the excruciating pleasure of what that sinfully perfect tongue did to him. Before he realized it they were up against the lockers, said tongue drawing back and HOLY FUCK, Duo just bit his lower lip, and Heero whimpered like a kicked puppy at the sharp delight of Duo's teeth nipping his skin.
"We're gonna have a nice long chat real soon," Duo muttered against his neck, and all Heero could do was nod enthusiastically, hands sliding under the ubiquitous black t-shirt and onto unbearably perfect muscles and OH god that bite on his neck was going to leave a mark, not that he really cared because dear fuck did that feel good.
His pulse was racing, not really caring that the few remaining kids in the hall were full-out gawking at the scene they were making. But, Duo would probably care (though he had no idea why, they were all idiots anyway), so he managed to groan out a husky "People".
Not that Duo noticed, of course, being too busy exploring and burning Heero's neck and tasting every bit of skin he could get to, and possibly moving to some not so easily accessible in the near future. Not that Heero was objecting, but he decided to try again, gathering all his cursed resolve and moving Duo just that little bit away so that they weren't pressed against each other and the wall of cold, biting metal lockers.
The betrayal in those purple eyes was enough to make Heero downright ashamed. Pulse racing, still more panting than breathing, he motioned to the group of gaping students behind Duo. "Audience," he managed to get out, and watched as Duo's flushed face turned scarlet, then a ghostly white, and then seemed to settle at a brilliant shade of pink.
"I think we've been at school long enough, don't you?" Duo managed to get out, and Heero nodded quickly. "Okay then." With that, all that was left of Duo was a blur headed straight for the parking lot.
Smirking and very proud of a job well done, Heero followed after.
x---x
"Turn right." Heero's voice sliced the car's unnatural silence into tatters.
Duo's knuckles turned white on the steering wheel, face tight. "I'm going back to the hospital."
"Please turn right. It's important."
Duo glared at him. "How important are we talking? One-hour-to-save-the-world important, or forgot-to-turn-off-the-stove important, or dingoes-ate-my-"
"Important," Heero cut him off, face eerily impassive.
With a shrug, Duo complied, and soon enough found himself parking in front of the mental institution, a somber Heero striding up the steps with a determination Duo had only seen when he was making Wufei's face hit the ground, or blowing something up. It was a frightening combination, to say the least.
The receptionist gaped at the two as they entered, eyes immediately latching onto Heero with watery amazement. "Dr Yuy…! We heard you were dead!"
"I am," Heero stated, glaring daggers at the frozen, terrified woman. "I need to see Miss Peacecraft." He paused, and the daggers turned to long, sharp, deadly cold icicles. "NOW."
As the woman gulped and scurried in front of them, escorting them down an ominously empty hallway, Duo glared at the scientist.
"What the HELL is going on?"
Heero's face remained impassive, a shadow lurking in his eyes as he remained silent.
"Listen," Duo snarled. "If you don't tell me, I'm going to MAKE you-"
"Here we are," the receptionist said, fear adding a warbling tone of panic to her words as she stopped in front of a wooden door.
"Key," Heero stated, and the woman's shaking hands fished a bandolier from her neck, fingers quivering on what was obviously the master key, so full of ridges and bumps it looked like it had been run through a wood chipper. "You can run now, but don't call anyone for a couple hours."
And run she did, almost falling out of her black leather heels as she tore down the tile hallway.
Heero ignored her, though, and Duo could only watch in amazement as the clearly deranged man (not that it was new, but there was something DIFFERENT about this batch of crazy…) frowned and opened the door with a practiced twist of a key. Before Duo could even consider his options, the psycho grabbed his wrist and pulled him in, sitting him in a plain chair resting in the corner with the barest hint of apology showing in his blue eyes.
The figure in the white bed shifted, honey brown hair sliding along the pillow. Light blue eyes opened, and blinked up at the scientist suddenly standing over her. "…Heero?" She frowned, rubbing at the sides of her eyes. "What brings you to Sanq-"
"Relena." His voice was eerily hypnotic. "Relena Darlian, listen to me."
The girl froze for a moment, and then her eyes weren't so big and bright, her face wasn't so peerless and innocent. She sat up, entire awareness fixed on Heero Yuy.
"He's coming."
Duo stared at the exchange, dumbfounded. That wasn't the voice he'd heard before, that of a silly, regal little girl. Something had changed.
This wasn't a frivolous little princess. This was a woman, in all her dark intelligence.
Heero seemed to return her intensity, yet glanced back at Duo for a moment.
"I know," he said, and paused. "I'd like to ask you to do two things for me."
An eyebrow rose eloquently. "You can ASK…" Duo could just feel the answering smirk.
"Relena Darlian, I'd like you to meet Duo Maxwell," he said, and dear lord, did he almost sound nervous? Shit, that was making HIM nervous now…
But, as soon as wry blue eyes shifted to him, it was gone. "I'm glad to finally meet you," this Relena said, a soft, true smile on her lips. "I'd always wondered what sort of person Heero would introduce me to. You're treating him well?"
"Uh…" Duo said intelligently, simply STARING at the woman, who laughed, amused, as Heero actually blushed and muttered "Relena…" like she was an older sister bent on his humiliation.
"Well, I'm very pleased to meet you, and hope we get to talk more later, preferably when HE isn't around," Relena said kindly, sending a teasing, lacy-white elbow into Heero's ribs as she winked at Duo. Heero glared at her, but there was a small, bittersweet smile on his lips.
"Yeah…me too," Duo said, almost surprised by the honesty of his own words.
With a final warm smile at him, Relena turned back to Heero. "Well, lover boy? Next request?"
Heero paused, not even reacting to the obvious gibe as he sobered, face paling slightly. "It's not a request. I need you to do it, but you have a choice." Again, he paused, and when he spoke again his voice had a slight quiver to it. "Relena, I need you to either forget me too, or remember everything."
Stark horror showed through Relena's face. "No." Her knees suddenly rose up, and her arms circled them. "No, Heero. NO!" She was suddenly rocking, face pressed against her knees. "I don't want to I don't want to please Heero PLEASE I don't want either oh god oh godohgodohgodnotTHEM-"
There was something WEIRD going on, because immediately Relena froze, her knees dropped, and her head tilted back. For a moment, the world froze, and Duo watched as her back arched in slow motion, head tilting back as far as it could go. And then, she screamed, the sound tearing out of her soul and wrapping around the walls of the room.
As Duo stared, he found himself wrenched out of the chair again, and forcibly hauled out of the room, the door snapping shut behind them and cutting off the screams with a terrifying abruptness.
"What the FUCK was THAT, Yuy!" Duo snapped, ignoring the haunted look on Heero's face because all he could see was that poor girl shrieking for help from whatever the bastard scientist had done to her. "There is something SERIOUSLY fucked up about EVERYTHING you seem to have something to do with, and I'm SICK of it! Sick of the secrets, the on-off-ness, the INSANITY, EVERYTHING! First it was that goddamn equation of yours-"
"It's not mine."
Heero's whisper scorched through the hallway, cutting Duo off mid-rant. And then all the indigo-eyed boy could do was stare while hunted, barren blue eyes slowly met his own. Years of SOMETHING looked back up at him.
With a slow, almost cautious motion, the scientist's arms wrapped around Duo, head propped against the unresisting underachiever's shoulder, and shook.
"Hey, you okay?" Duo's hands found themselves moving onto Heero's back, trying to stop the almost violent shaking. If it weren't for the fact his shoulder was purely dry, he would have thought Heero was crying.
"I'm sorry," Heero whispered into his shirt, grip tightening.
"It's okay," Duo whispered back. "Hey, whatever it is, you can always fix it. And if you can't do it, I can, eh?"
A harsh, choked laugh was muffled but effective proof Duo had said the right thing. A long, deep sigh said that no, he didn't believe a word Duo said, but it was kinda nice to hear anyway.
"I promise I'll tell you the truth," Heero sighed again, making no motion to move. Not that Duo was complaining. This was pretty nice, actually. "You deserve it."
"Gee, thanks," Duo muttered.
"You're welcome."
Duo snorted. Typical Heero. "Idiot."
"Dumbass."
"Freak."
x---x
A/N: They just REFUSED to be utterly fluffy. Stupid boys.
Random Buffy nod: "Baby-Eating Dingoes" is the name of Oz's band. I couldn't resist.
And yes, Relena really DOES have a point! Wow. After I finished up Sea of Silence, I actually became a fan of her. Yes, that's right, I'm a ravenous 1x2x1 fan, AND like Relena! Well, the Endless Waltz/non-"Heeeeeeerrrrroooooooooo!" version of her.
Oh? What's this then? BACKGROUND next chapter! WOOOOWWWWW! (bounces about giddily) Yes, after…dear god, I've been writing this thing for WAY over a year! Holy CRAP am I slow. Sorry 'bout that.
READER RESPONSES:
If you didn't get an email, I am SO sorry. I'm having trouble remembering stuff nowadays, so…sorry, my darlings. I really am crazy about you all, promise! And I'll probably catch you later on, so…yeah!
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Now, a VERY important question (to me). I have ANOTHER fic (three chapters done already), but this one Naruto, and NaruSasu, and so very weird.
Description: A jutsu experiment sends Team 7 into a dark world where Naruto's been hokage of the ruined Konoha since he was 13, Sasuke murdered Itachi at 9, and Sakura's trying to kill both of them. What's going on? And how can they get back to their own world, when they barely know how they got there in the first place? SasuNaru, SakuIno
It's tentatively titled Reality in Alteration. The first chapter can be found on my livejournal, but…should I put it up here? Yea or nay?
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As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to review! Love abounds!