=X_x= Only one chapter left after this one...I don't think I can stand the suspense!
Disclaimer #1: I don't own GW...*cries*...but if I DID own it, things would be SO different, but then again if "ifs and buts" were candy and nuts, we'd all weigh 300 pounds, so there. =P
Disclaimer #2: I was an English major, so when I write, I write wordy. You have been warned. =P
Disclaimer #3 (last one, I promise): This is a very confusing story. Gomen nasai. Don't get lost. =^_~=
~~~~~~~~~~Relena ran, legs pounding, head aching, heart racing wildly. Random students called out a greeting, using Duo's name; she ignored them all. None of them were the person she was looking for. She ran up and down the halls until her lungs felt they would crack under the pressure of her breathing. It actually felt good to run, despite the circumstances. Duo's body had been kept in top condition all his life, and his slight, lanky form was so easy to pilot from wing to wing of the campus, even at full speed. But she was certainly far past "full speed" by now.
Every hallway, every classroom, every lecture hall and secret corner she thought to search turned up nothing. Leaning forward on her knees to catch her breath, she thought something so absurd she laughed out loud. Now, if I were Wufei, where would I be...
**********The contents of Relena's gym locker were strewn out all over the bench in the ladies' changing room. There was a buried treasure in there somewhere, and Duo had emptied the locker trying to find it..."Aha! Gotcha!" Victoriously, he drew a hair dryer from the mess, plugged it in, and worked the warmth through his sopping wet hair. Relena's hair. He kept forgetting that minor detail. About the twelfth time today, too...
Never mind, he had what he really wanted. Heero was finally his, God was in his heaven, and all was right with the world.
Almost right; Duo stopped moving the hair dryer when he really looked at himself. The face of Relena was less defined than before; I must finally be going crazy, he thought. When he studied his reflection more carefully, he saw his own nose in place of hers, his own thin lips where her fuller, more curvaceous ones should be, and his eyes...
The quiet of the room was shattered by the sound of the hair dryer falling to the floor, cracking the case, and pulling the plug out of the wall socket, silencing it for good.
**********Desperate and exhausted, Relena leaned against the door to the library, panting. Wufei was nowhere to be found, and time was running out before that conniving, braided thief took Heero away for good. Finding nothing inside, she moved outside and ran across the grounds.
**********The clattering that came from the girls' changing room left Heero's nerves slightly on edge. He knocked on the door, and waited. Another knock. "Daijoubu desu ka?"
Shuffling noises and the sounds of more items being dropped were heard inside. "Yeah, I'm just...shoot! I'm coming!" Duo poked his semi-dried head out of the changing room after squishing Relena's gear back in her locker and slamming it shut. "Dropped my hair dryer," he said with a slight smile, squeezing a few drops out of his braid, "maybe it'll dry in the sun, huh?"
Heero nodded and stepped back, giving his friend room to swing the door open; as soon as he did, his eyes widened. Duo had judged the old pink top and skirt to be ready for the laundromat, and unworthy of another wear. Unfortunately, Relena didn't keep anything else in the way of clothes in her locker, and he couldn't go walking around in gym shorts the rest of the day after stepping out of the shower, obviously. Taking the time to jimmy open all of the other lockers in the changing room, he had put together an outfit consisting of a clingy black crop top, black capri pants, and black sandals. He'd even swiped some hair gel and spiked his bangs. Heero looked it over and raised an eyebrow appreciatively.
Duo smirked. Black is definitely my colour, in my body, or in anyone else's. They walked out into the late afternoon sun together for a leisurely stroll around the grounds.
As they made their way to the grand courtyard in front of the library, the crown jewel of the campus, Duo's eyes fixed on a figure in white, seated by the goldfish pond, reading quietly. Wufei was alone. There is a God. Breathing a sigh of relief, he wondered if he should run over and tell him that poor Duo was cracking under the pressure and not making much sense, and could he please ignore anything he says that sounds unbelievable.
Instantly, it was decided for him, as he saw his other "self" run around the corner of the library and make a beeline for Wufei, collapsing on one of the decorative rocks around the pond. Wufei looked up from his book with concern; he was talking to the visitor, but they were too far away for Duo to hear the conversation, or even to lip-read it. His mind worked feverishly on a plan to get through to Wufei before Relena did.
"Heero, would you mind meeting me a little later for dinner? I have to go take care of something."
"Iie..." He'd gotten too used to the good life, and now he wouldn't let go.
"Just for a little bit, huh?" Duo flashed his trademark smile. "Girl stuff. You wouldn't understand."
Heero rolled his eyes slightly, then relented. Duo turned and tried not to break into a run towards the goldfish pond, not wanting to arouse suspicion. As he got closer, he caught his breath when he saw Relena was already talking animatedly to Wufei. Suddenly, Wufei's head turned towards Duo...but instead of looking at him, he looked straight past and stared at Heero, who was still standing where Duo had left him.
Stopping halfway between them, the puzzled pilot looked back and forth at the others. Wufei had put his book down to look intensely at Heero, and he contorted his gaze as if to say "Well?" Heero looked at him for a moment with a slight scowl, then walked away. Relena began shaking Wufei's arm, trying to get his attention back, but he just stared after Heero with a look that said he was never more ready to start drinking in his life.
Duo steadied himself and walked toward them. Never mind, it's your word against hers. Just act natural.
He stopped in front of Wufei, clasped his hands the way he'd always seen Relena clasp them, and smiled.
Wufei's eyes widened beyond believable proportions. "...MAXWELL!?" He didn't want to believe what he was seeing.
Duo sighed heavily and slouched. "If this is going to be a long lecture, can you chop out the boring parts? I've kinda got a full social calendar tonight."
Setting his book down carefully on the rock, Wufei rose and walked a complete circle around Duo, examining him extensively. A slight flush overcame Duo's borrowed face as he thought of where his friend's eyes must be travelling. Coming to a halt squarely in front of the oddity, Wufei straightened his white jacket, folded his arms, and raised an eyebrow.
An uncomfortable silence followed. "...God, somebody say something! Or at least quit lookin' at me like there's petunias growing out of my ears!" Duo whined.
"You see!?" Relena chimed in. "It's all about him! I don't matter, what Heero wants doesn't matter, nothing has any importance except this sick game of his!" Her tears were flowing freely now, and she unrolled her sleeve to sop them up. "This is a hundred times worse than being dead! I'm alive, but my own life isn't mine anymore!" She fell off the rock and onto the grass, sobbing uncontrollably.
Disgusted by her display, Wufei reached down and clutched her arm, dragging her to her feet. "Stand up straight, onna." he commanded quietly. His eyes were nothing short of blazing. "I do not care who you are underneath. Until this is sorted out, as far as the world knows, you are not a snivelling weakling, you are a Gundam pilot. Try to comport yourself with some dignity."
She looked shocked at first, but nodded, lowering her gaze away from his. He released her arm and barked out more orders. "Now go and clean yourself up while I discuss this with Maxwell. Now!" It was the first time all week she clearly knew what she was supposed to do, and she left grateful for it. As soon as she was gone, Wufei's glare switched to the strange Shinigami in capri pants.
"I know what you're going to say," Duo began, holding up his hands in surrender. "This is conduct unbecoming a pilot, it was a rotten, insensitive thing to do, I've been a very bad boy and you can all take turns spanking me until I've learned my lesson, ok? It won't change the fact that this is all your fault..." He lowered his head, half-expecting a smack in the face.
"MY fault!?" Wufei snarled.
"Yes, your fault! You sent me on that God-damn journey of self-discovery, you told me to find my inner voice and all that crap! Well, this is what my inner voice told me to do, so I was only following orders like a good little soldier. If you'd let me sit around and sulk like I wanted, me and Relena wouldn't be walking around dazed and confused like someone put our souls in a blender!"
Wufei paused. "That must not have been all it told you. It must have told you how." The eyebrow raised again.
"No..." Duo sighed and sat down on the rock vacated by his doppelganger, leaning his elbows on his knees. Wufei did the same, listening intently. "This thing in my head..." he said, tapping his temple, "...this God of Death...it's real. I've always felt it, but this is proof beyond what I ever hoped to find. When I was out there, alone...it spoke to me in ways...I couldn't understand. Then it loaded me up with all this knowledge and mysticism...scared the hell out of me, most of it. Then I came back, right away she comes crying to me about her and Heero, it was like she was handing him to me with a great big bow around his neck.....you know how I feel about him, Wu..."
"Golden opportunity, right?" Wufei's very presence, calm and logical, had a relaxing effect on Duo today.
"Yeah, but it keeps getting tarnished around the edges."
"Gold doesn't tarnish, you're thinking of silver."
"Whatever..." Duo didn't have the strength or the will to argue. "If it weren't for her, constantly..." he trailed off.
Sitting up a little straighter, Wufei looked carefully at Duo's hair. "Was it really necessary to dye it to make her look more like you? I thought the premise behind this was that Heero didn't want you that way."
Duo looked confused at first, then pulled his braid over his shoulder and looked at it. "This? I swear to God, Wu, I didn't do anything to Relena's hair. Not consciously, anyway..."
Again the eyebrow flew up. "Not consciously?"
"I noticed it a little yesterday, but I thought I was imagining things. Then today, it was like this; okay, I spiked the bangs a little, but that's all."
Wufei studied his face. "And your eyes?"
"I've kinda got a theory that explains that too. One of the things I learned was how to transmute matter. I can tinker with it a little, but I can't really do anything major..." To demonstrate, Duo plucked a tiger lily from the marshy area at the edge of the pond. He held it up for Wufei to examine it, and after a nod of affirmation from him that, yes, it was indeed a flower, he grasped it delicately by the stem and watched it intently. His face knit with concentration, and slowly, the stem began to liquefy and wobble, letting the head of the flower bob back and forth like a toy on a spring. A second later, the stem turned rigid and blanched to a sandy colour; the new substance spread up and down until the entire flower was a stiff, brown image of it's former self.
Duo handed the flower to Wufei, who turned it over in his hands, impressed. "Porcelain," he remarked, tapping the petals gently.
"I think that's what I've been doing to Relena's body, but I didn't do it on purpose."
"Did you tell Heero about this?"
"Oh, that reminds me, I simply must borrow her makeup and paint over the word 'idiot' on my forehead, 'cause obviously everybody can see it but me." Duo snorted. "Do you think I'd tell him!?"
"Sorry." Wufei sorted through the scattered facts in his brain. "You two seemed...friendly, just now."
"Yeah, Heero's loosened up a lot since last nigh--" The sound caught in Duo's throat. Did he say that out loud?
Wufei turned in horror, shrinking away from Duo. "You didn't." He took his silence as an admission of guilt. "...you did. Oh, hell..." He sank his head into one hand, feeling a migraine coming on. "I should have gotten through to him...I should have pushed him into listening to me..."
This time it was Duo's turn to look shocked. "Pushed who into listening to you? Shit, you weren't talking to Heero about this, were you!? How could you have known--"
"Remember the fight in the hall? I knew something wasn't right. It wasn't JUST the fight either...when I looked at you...at Relena...I felt something like..." The Chinese pilot struggled for words, a rare sight. "...like your chi was out of place. The sight of you and how your presence felt, even at a distance, was out of sync." These words worried Duo immensely. Quatre could be at least as sensitive to the supernatural as Wufei was on his best day, and he'd seen both him and Trowa yesterday. They might both know by now...
Wufei looked up, finally. "I saw you shortly afterwards, or what I thought was you. It makes sense now to assume it was Relena; she was entering the nurse's office, and when I called your name, she ignored it. You looked like hell, too," he added, with a tiny smirk. "I felt the same sense of unbalance looking at her as I did looking at you. Then I went to Heero; I found him in your dorm room. He had just received a mission and was on his way to look for you when I stopped him and began telling him that something was wrong with the pair of you..." His eyes darkened and he looked down at the grass. "But...he cut me off before I'd barely begun, and he seemed angry that I even spoke your names together. He just...didn't want to hear it."
Duo froze. "So...he doesn't know?"
Wufei shook his head. "I don't see how he could." He looked up at his friend. "You know now that this is why I stayed behind during the mission to wait for you...I wanted to see if the change was permanent. As soon as you arrived, I felt your chi and your body were in harmony again, otherwise I would not have allowed you to pilot Deathscythe."
"Nice to know someone's lookin' out for us," Duo said, smiling.
"If you don't sort this out soon, you're on your own."
"Used to it, don't mind at all."
"Lucky Heero gets to console you in your hour of need."
"You gettin' fresh with me, cutie?"
"Shut up, Maxwell."
**********Heero sat typing away, oblivious to all but the footsteps that began down the hall, and grew louder and closer, the thin dorm walls doing little to muffle the sound. When the knock came at the door, he knew who it was without having to look. He turned off his laptop and closed it, rose from his chair, and opened the door for the visitor in black.
~~~~~~~~~~
=0_0= He can't keep up this charade much longer...can he?