by Queen of Sarab
Chapter 9
Duo lay awake for a long time after they had tyed up their captive
and locked him in the closet. Wufei was taking the first watch, prowling
quietly outside the door. With a sigh, he shifted his body to where
he could see Heero's form against the opposite wall, outlined in the moonlight.
He lay for several minutes like that, finally deciding to check on the
prisoner.
The door creaked a little as he opened it, and Duo flinched,
glancing in Heero's direction to make sure the noise had not disturbed
him.
That was a mistake.
He hardly felt the blow to his head, but the dots swimming before
his eyes before he blacked out completely were all too real.
"Duo!"
Duo groggily opened his eyes, flinching a pain shot through his
head. Ow. He kinda wished he'd let Celeste kill the guy.
"Duo, are you alright?" Heero's eyes were wide, scared.
Huh. Didn't think he ever showed emotion, Duo thought confusedly.
"Just 5 more minutes..."
"No, no, don't go back to sleep- you might have a concussion."
Silly Heero, why would he have a....whachamacallit....ok, so
maybe he was a little dizzy....
"Wuzgoin on?" he asked.
"The prisoner escaped," Heero replied. "HIt you over the head
and took off. Wufei, Quatre, and Celeste went after him." Anger flashed
suddenly over his features, and he had to restrain himself to keep from
shaking Duo. "Why the HELL did you open the door, baka?"
"When I remember or think of a good lie I'll tell you," Duo answered
irritably.
Heero sighed. "Back to normal, huh?"
"Was I ever normal?'
Aurora's small red convertible sped along the highway, going at
least 75 miles per hour. Looking extremely pale, Quatre was clutching the
passenger side door, while Wufei calmly sat on top of the seat as lookout.
"Remind me why you're driving again?" Quatre asked Celeste through
his teeth, knuckles white from holding on so hard.
"Because I'm special," shot back Celeste. "See anything, Wu-man?"
Sparing a second to shot her a withering look, Wufei returned,
"I'd tell you if I...stop."
Celeste slammed on the brakes, causing both Quatre and Wufei
to fell forward. "What?"
"I think I see something," Wufei leaped easily over the edge
of the car, jogging over to the side of the road. A sheer cliff, nearly
hidden by trees and bushes, started about 50 feet from the road. In the
near daylight, if was fairly clear- but at night, it would have been nearly
impossible to see.
"I found him," Wufei said grimly.
The drop of the cliff was around half a mile, marked with jagged
rocks and outjutting shrubs. About halfway down, on a jagged rock
edge, lay their fugitive.
"He's dead." Wufei stated as soon as the other two had reached
him.
"We should check to be sure..." began Celeste, but Wufei cut
her off.
"We'd kill ourselves trying to get down there. And at the
angle his neck is at, there's absolutely no way he could have survived."
He glanced at Celeste. "There's nothing else to do."
Three days later
Celeste threw a pair of leather pants into her suitcase,
then glanced around her for anything she might have missed. It had taken
alot of begging and persuading, but the combination of her, Duo, Aurora,
Quatre, and even a little bit of Wufei and Trowa had finally convinced
Heero that the girls should go with them- at least for now.
Aurora's bags were already packed and on her bed, and as Celeste
closed up her bag she grabbed it and headed down the hall to Duo and Heero's
room.
"You guys ready yet?" she asked, kicking the door open with her
foot. She let the bags fall to floor for a second, leaning her willowy
frame against the doorframe to rest.
"Just about," Duo quipped. "But you do realize we're not heading
out for like four hours, right?"
"Yes," grinned Celeste. "I do. But I'm going to go throw me and
Rory's stuff into the convertible. Now I'll leave you and Heero alone-
I'm sure you won't mind that, considering the fact you're in love with
him..."
"What?"
Unnoticed by the two, Heero had walked out of the bathroom, bare
from the waist up in a pair of shorts, still wet from his shower. He was
staring steadily at Celeste, eyes barely peeking through his sopping hair.
"I wasn't supposed to say that, was I?" Celeste opened her eyes
wide in mock innocence, and Duo realized she'd known he was there all along.
He made a mental note to kill her later. "I'll leave you two alone to talk..."
With that, Celeste slid unnoticed out the door, leaving the two boys staring
after her in amazement.
On her way out, she made sure her hand "slipped", locking the
door.