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Chapter Five
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"Of course," Treize assured, "I'm not about to force you, if you're worried about anything going wrong...."
Quatre shook his head, flashing Duo a reassuring smile. "No, it's all right. I'll do it." Duo tried to sink into the back wall and make himself invisible, but his as-yet-unclassified talent apparently did not include either of these features. "You just want me to scare him?"
Treize shook his head. "Not 'scare', exactly, Quatre. Terrify. Whatever it takes to get some supernatural response from him."
The blonde Siren merely nodded. "Are you ready, Duo?"
"Come away from the wall, if you please," Treize directed, with a protective glance at the framed photographs gracing his wall. Duo did. "Thank you. Now—Duo, do whatever comes naturally to you, but try to pay attention and remember exactly what happens. Quatre—whenever you're ready."
Quatre nodded acquiescence, with another small smile for Duo. Then he opened his mouth and began to sing—wordless, melody only, and suffused with /power/ that crackled along Duo's skin.
The song raised goosebumps on every exposed inch of his skin. His heart raced, his breath coming ragged and heaving in his lungs. Never in all Duo's life—his days on the streets, cold nights in homeless shelters, haphazard flights from gangs like the one that had ended him up here—never had he ever been so frightened. He could put no name to this fear, and that made it all the more palpable. The chilling of his blood separated his own Power from it, and he felt it coursing through his veins toward his hands. In some detached part of his mind he saw Treize lean forward, watching—saw Quatre's eyes light up in fierce victory. The scream that rose from his throat and burst from his lips echoed in his mind the way a dream would, and the surge of energy bursting from his fingertips left no room for protest from his conscious mind. It ripped from his hands, a stream of light that lit the room around him and smashed brutally into the Siren, throwing him backward. The song cut off abruptly as the wind was knocked from him, and Duo's terror dissipated as Quatre hit the wall and slid limply down it.
"Quatre!" He was already running—a few paces, only, the length of the office—but Treize was there first, kneeling next to him.
"I'm all right," Quatre protested, pushing himself onto his arms. "Really. Just need to catch my breath."
"You're bleeding," Duo informed him miserably, though he couldn't identify the placement of the wound.
"Am I?" Quatre brushed his fingers across the skin Duo pointed to, his eyes widening in surprise as he lifted them away covered in dark red fluid. "Well. So I am."
"You," Treize directed, "are going to see Sally." He offered the blonde boy his hand, but even Duo could see that Quatre needed it to hold onto even in order to stand.
"I'm sorry," he whimpered again.
"I /said/ I'm all right!" Quatre snapped, leaning heavily against the wall. He forced his lips into an apologetic smile as Duo pulled quickly away. "Really," he said again, wiping his bloody finger off on his jeans. "I'll go see Sally when we're done here, if it makes you two happy, but we shouldn't stop now. We're onto something, did you see?"
"I /saw/ that I knocked you into the wall!" Duo snarled. "How is that 'onto something'?"
"It answered you!" Quatre returned. "Don't you get it? Now you know what it is and what triggers it, it's the first step to understanding how to control it!"
"It's a good first step," Treize inserted smoothly between the boys' heated conversation. "And it's finished for today. Neither of you are exactly in peak performance shape at the moment, and Mr. Winner, despite words to the contrary I can see from here you're injured. You will both report to Sally Po. When she gives the okay—and NOT before—you will carry on with your classes. And I'd like you both to report here tomorrow directly after lunch."
His tone left no room for argument, and Duo and Quatre nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Now then. Go see Sally. You've done a good day's work, you should be quite pleased." He ushered the boys out the door and pointed them in the direction of the infirmary.
"I really am sorry," Duo said again.
Quatre shot him a wry, amused glare. "And I said don't be. I'm okay. It takes more than that to damage me. Besides, I knew what was probably going to happen, but I did it anyway."
"Oh," said Duo. "Then thank you."
The blonde boy rolled his eyes. "No problem. Think of it this way—this is controlled circumstances. You're not likely to do anything irreparable with Mr. Treize in the room, so everything we do there builds up to your being able to harness that same power on call, when you want it. Worst case scenario, I get banged up a bit, Sally fixes me."
It was amasing, really, how Quatre could make it sound like the most logical, rational thing in the world, and Duo could only wonder how come it hadn't sounded so sensible before. "All right," he agreed. Quatre let out a sigh of relief, and led him through Sally's door.
The healer proclaimed them both fit for duty within minutes. Quatre was more shaken than anything; the blood came from a wound where his shoulder had caught a nail in the wall before he fell. It was the first time Duo had ever seen Sally work—she pressed her fingers against the parted skin, a soft glow enveloped her hands, and when she lifted it away again there was only a tiny scar where the injury had been. Duo she reminded to relax, and sent them both off to catch up on their classes before dinner.
Duo slipped into Philosophy about halfway through. Noin was filling in for Treize, and she merely nodded to him as he entered—no explanations were needed, and he slid into a desk next to Hilde.
"How did it go?" she asked under her breath.
He shrugged, taking the paper and pencil she passed to him. "Okay. Not great. Tell you later."
As he was trying to catch up on whatever it was Miss Noin was saying, a folded piece of paper skittered along the floor. It reached his chair and levitated upward, finally settling in the centre of his desk.
He shot Catherine a look—she caught his eye and winked, then went back to taking notes. Duo unfolded the scrap: //Is Quatre okay?// Simple enough, and it wasn't hard to figure out who was responsible for it. He scribbled underneath: //Just a little bruised. He's fine.// and was not in the least surprised when the note leapt off his desk to the floor and floated back toward the twins.
Noin cleared her throat pointedly. "One would think," she said dryly, "that whatever it is could wait another fifteen minutes until the end of class. Catherine—" The name was a directive, and Catherine sighed, obediently sending the note winging toward the instructor. She caught it in midair, unfolded it, and glanced down at the scribbled missive.
"I expect, Trowa, that you would have been informed /before/ Duo came back to class if anything was wrong. But," she finished, crossing to the doppelganger's desk and dropping the paper onto it, "we'll alleviate your worries here and now. Quatre's fine. Now can you concentrate on this for the next fifteen minutes?"
Trowa nodded sheepishly. "Yes. Sorry."
"Good." She continued, but Duo never did completely catch up, and he told Hilde so as they hurried for the dining room.
"Oh, don't worry," she said, nonchalant. "I'll help you out. And you can always ask one of the teachers for help. Besides, nobody expects you to really have a handle on things your third day."
Duo was too hungry to worry about it any longer than that.
"Hey," said Dorothy, in the midst of her meal, by way of getting everyone's attention. "Just wondering who's up for Friday game night? I got a few new ones from my grandfather yesterday."
"I'll come," said Quatre. "You will too, won't you?" he added, prompting a nod from Trowa, who sat next to him. "After all, Dorothy, you and I have a chess match to finish..."
"Bah." Dorothy waved the implied challenge away. "Who needs that? I just got Risk. Chess is so small-scale...let's see who can take over the world."
A feral, competitive gleam light Quatre's blue eyes. "You're on. Wufei?"
A nod from the Chinese firebrand. "Of course."
"Teams?" Catherine suggested. "Split up by sections?"
Wufei cocked his head. "So, since we know Sylvia won't play, that means Quatre and Dorothy and I each work alone...you and Trowa together, Heero and Relena, and Hilde and Duo?" He nodded. "That sounds fair."
"I think," Catherine grumbled to Hilde, "that we've just been insulted somehow."
Hilde shrugged. "Only one way to fix that. Beat 'em. You up to it, Duo?"
"Sure."
They finished eating, and adjourned en masse to Dorothy's room, where it appeared the group had staged similar events before. The chess board, in the middle of the game Quatre had already mentioned, was set up on the desk. Dorothy's room looked far more delicate than Duo would have expected from her—her curtains were eyelet lace, her bedspread silk with embroidered cherry blossoms, and the furniture was all matching dark wood, carved into Victorian swirls.
She was already dragging the Risk game from under her bed, as the rest of the students took their places on the floor. "Here—start setting up, picking colours. Anyone for munchies? I told you I got a care package...."
"Just so it's not any of those sugar-fied gummy things Hilde likes so much," Wufei said, passing out the boxes of armies to the players.
Dorothy laughed. "No worries—anyway I asked for things this time, here, this is for you." She passed him a box of something that made his face light up, and she giggled again. "Here's the rest. Mochi for Heero, chocolate for Cathy, pretzels for Hilde—you don't get any sugar, do you understand?—this is for Trowa...and Quatre...Duo, sorry, didn't get you anything. You weren't here yet when I was asking for stuff. You can share mine all you want. Relena, this is yours. And popcorn for everybody. We set up?"
They began the game. Duo had never played, but he found more than enough willing tutours, and as he was on a team with Hilde he never really had to formulate his own moves. And he discovered quickly enough that it probably wouldn't have mattered how many people were on his team, or how well he understood the game—Quatre, Wufei and Dorothy were so far superior to the rest of them in their grasp of battle tactics that it was all he and his teammate could do to hold onto Australia and keep themselves in the game. Catherine and Trowa held viciously to Greenland and eastern Canada, and Heero and Relena still owned Madagascar and were building up armies in Brazil.
None of them really even had a chance.
It took several hours past the point when the three losing teams had given up and draped themselves around Dorothy's room to watch, talk and distract the would-be dictators, but Quatre was finally crowned King of the World after wiping out Dorothy, taking her cards and countries, and launching an all-out blitzkrieg on Wufei.
"Wanna play again?" Dorothy asked slyly.
Quatre made a face at her. "Are you kidding? It's two in the morning. I'm going to go to bed now and bask in my victory. Trowa, you want to be my consort and come celebrate with me?" Not surprisingly to anyone, the taller boy agreed, and the pair of them disappeared out the door.
"You'd better get some rest too," Hilde said, nudging Duo, who had been falling asleep on her shoulder for the past half hour. "Sally says you have to rest, and you said you're working with Mr. Treize and Quatre again tomorrow...c'mon. Get up. Dammit, Duo, get off me! Go to bed!" Laughing, she hauled him up, fairly dragging him to the door. "Heero, wanna make yourself useful and carry him again?" But her suggestion was met only with a blush and a glare, and Hilde was stuck dragging the half-conscious Duo back to his room on her own.
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The following afternoon saw Duo, Quatre and Trowa standing in front of Treize' office, waiting for the headmaster to arrive.
"You're helping today too?" Duo asked the tall doppelganger, who nodded.
"Just keeping an eye on Quatre," he confirmed, evoking an annoyed grumble from his boyfriend.
"I said I'm fine! I told you all I'm fine! I caught my shoulder on a damn nail, stop worrying about me already!"
"I'm glad to see you all here," said a smooth voice, announcing Treize' arrival as he slipped past them to unlock the door. "Let's get started, shall we?"
They followed him inside, Duo and Quatre taking up the same positions they'd had the day before, Trowa standing protectively at Quatre's side.
"We established yesterday," Treize explained, "that Duo's ability is triggered by intense emotion—or at least, intense fear, because it's inclined to defend him against the thing causing that fear. Without his control, after all, it did aim straight for Quatre. Now I'd like to evoke that same reaction, only this time, Duo, stop it if you can. About the point when it pools in your hands, keep it there as long as you can—keep it from leaving your body. Close your fingers, and keep it inside."
Duo nodded. "I'll try."
"Good. Quatre?"
Despite Trowa's protective glare, Quatre nodded. He was standing against the wall this time, Duo noted—less distance to travel if he /did/ get thrown again. He began to sing, and Duo felt the familiar chill of terror spreading through his bones, and the rush of adrenaline that summoned the green glow of Power to his hands.
It coursed through him—pooled in his hands, and he clenched his fingers against it, willing it not to leave his body. It took more effort than he'd anticipated—what sounded easy enough in theory was considerably more difficult when his entire body was cold with fear and all the primal survival urges in his body said to smash the thing causing the fear until it stopped, until he was free of it.
He strained against the surge of Power trying to free itself, his mind bending under its onslaught, his heart frozen and pounding in his chest. He faltered at last, and the light burst from his hands in a wild rush even stronger than the one before—
And abruptly it lit the room, as it was repelled. A shield of visible, crackling blue energy had formed around Quatre, with Trowa at the centre of it. The strength of Duo's blow had forced the doppelganger to his knees, but it was his Power that kept Duo's strike from hitting his lover.
He heard Treize' voice in his ear—"Call it back to you, Duo. Calm it, ease it down...." The man whispered instructions into his ear, and Duo instinctively followed them, the green glow fading from the air until finally it was gone.
Quatre stopped singing. The shield that had kept him safe from Duo's blast dissipated as well, and Trowa let out a long exhausted breath.
"I think we're getting somewhere," Treize said, sounding pleased.
"Want to go again?" asked Quatre. Trowa fixed him with a glare. "Well you didn't /have/ to do that, lover, much as I appreciate it. If you're tired, don't do it again."
Trowa's expression alone was enough to indicate what he thought of /that/ idea.
But—"I think we should," Treize agreed. "A few minutes rest, though, for Duo especially. If you boys are willing to give up a Saturday afternoon for this..?"
Quatre nodded without hesitation, and Duo and Trowa voiced their agreement.
"Good," said Treize. "I'm glad to hear it. Catch your breath, then, and we'll get back to work...."
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Duo was exhausted. The entire afternoon, and indeed long past it, had been spent working on controlling his powers. It was a good thing, he reflected, that he'd managed to reign in the energy when he had, because while it seemed like Quatre could keep going forever, Trowa's shielding was wearing on him. He'd explained to Duo, during one of the breaks they spend catching their breath, that it was only a secondary talent for him, one he wasn't very strong at for the amount of energy it sapped from him. But he was fiercely protective of Quatre, and that was enough for him to blow himself out shielding his lover.
Duo had discovered, when they had finally split up for the night and the other two boys had walked arm in weary arm back toward Quatre's room, that he was profoundly jealous.
Not specifically of either of them—they were nice, and although he'd never thought of himself as being attracted to men, he could imagine himself re-examining his leanings for either one of them, under other circumstances. But they were completely wrapped up in each other, and he knew he wouldn't have had a chance anyway.
Really, he realised, trudging wearily back up the stairs to his room, he just wanted to talk to somebody.
So he passed his own door and stood in front of Hilde's instead, his hand poised to knock. He could hear voices inside, so he knew she wasn't asleep yet—he couldn't make out who the other one was, though he was fairly certain it was female.
Tap-tap-tap. He could hear laughter, but no acknowledgement that his section-mate had heard the knock, so he tapped again.
Still nothing.
He turned the knob slowly, easing the door open just enough to peak in and call out, "Hey, Hilde?"—
And stopped, colour rushing to his cheeks to flood his face. The other voice, he quickly discerned, was Catherine's, and she and Hilde were curled up in bed together—at least until he called. Both girls shot upright, the blanket succumbing to gravity to pool on the bed and reveal that neither of them were wearing any clothes.
"Um—sorry—um—" stammered Duo, feeling too awkward to even enjoy the situation he'd just found himself in.
Hilde giggled, diving for the blanket and burrowing under it. Catherine, less modest, shrugged gracefully.
"It's okay. Didn't hear you knock. Need something?"
Duo shook his head frantically. "No—I mean, I was just looking for company, that's all—"
A dark gleam lit up the telekinetic's grey eyes. "Company, huh? You wanna come play with us?"
"No!"
Hilde's arm snaked out from under the blanket to seize Catherine's shoulder and drag her back down. "Stop it, stop it! You're traumatising him! Be nice!"
"Um, I'm gonna go now—" Duo announced, slamming the door shut before things could get any more awkward.
Not wanting to return to his room, where he could be lonely /and/ hear the sounds of the girls' "play" through the wall," he wandered instead. Barely half of the building was actually used by the school, and the rest of it provided an interesting enough place to explore that he was able to keep himself busy long past the point he should have realised he was lost. He ended finally on a balcony off the edge of an unused room, gazing over the low railing at the garden below.
"What are you doing up here?" a low voice asked behind—no, above him, and he looked up to see Heero perched on the edge of the roof, his feet dangling over the edge. He didn't sound upset, just curious, and Duo craned his neck to see him.
"Just wandering. Exploring," he explained, as Heero jumped from the roof to the balcony and folded onto the wood next to him.
"Why?"
Duo shrugged. It sounded silly, now. "I was lonely, didn't want to go to my room yet. And Hilde's...busy. With Catherine."
"Oh." Heero sounded /almost/ amused, and he patted Duo's shoulder tentatively. "You walked in on them?"
Duo just nodded miserably. "I don't think I've ever been so embarrassed."
"Don't worry about it," Heero suggested sagely. "I embarrassed myself to Dorothy and Relena once, too."
Duo's eyes widened, and he sought the other boy's face for a sign he was joking—but there was none. "You're serious? All four of them? And then Quatre and Trowa—I mean, isn't that tipping the scales just a bit?"
Heero shrugged. "I don't know much about it, out in the real world. The girls here are all lovers with each other because they decided it's safer than being with men. Besides," he added dryly, "who are they going to pair up with here?"
"Well—I guess Trowa and Quatre are together, but you and Wufei are both available, aren't you..?"
Heero shrugged. "I guess so. But really," he added, unable to hide the smile that twisted his lips, "who'd want to date Wufei?"
Duo couldn't be quite sure, but he thought he sensed more, something else Heero had left unsaid, and like an open wound he probed at it. "What about you, though? Wouldn't you want somebody?"
Heero wrapped his arms around his knees and shook his head, staring down at the garden. "I'd be afraid," he answered, a tinge of disbelief in his voice as if he couldn't quite accept he was telling Duo this. "If I had a lover, I mean. I'd be afraid of hurting them. Besides, I wouldn't know how to act." He cut himself off, but Duo remained silent, too engrossed in watching—though he wouldn't have admitted it—the way the moonlight played off Heero's smooth pale skin, and how vulnerable his frail body looked folded in on itself with only the sky behind it. "Besides," he continued finally, "I wouldn't want anybody to know all my secrets the way they do. What if things didn't work out? They'd have more than anyone else to use against me. I don't want to be that open to anybody."
"I suppose I wouldn't mind," said Duo softly, "because I don't have anything to hide."
Heero smiled, a little sadly, and reached without warning to take the end of Duo's braid in his hand and stroke his fingers through it. "I suppose you don't," he answered. "Must be nice."
The moonlight cast its own shadows onto the vaulted roof behind them, and the boys fell silent—but Duo realised, unexpectedly, that he wasn't really lonely anymore.
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