NIOBE'S VIOLETS
by Ashura
DEDICATION: For Dan, for his 1x2 School fic contest
DISCLAIMERS: The usual. I don't own any of the characters, names or places from GW, I've just warped them.
WARNINGS: Yaoi (3x4, 1x2), Yuri (HxC, RxD)
AUTHOR'S NOTES: AU, Humour, Drama. Contrary to what you may think, the inspiration for this actually came from watching "Real Genius" for the millionth time, but influences include the X-Men, Harry Potter, Escaflowne, the Young Ones, and the Heralds of Valdemar. The title...well, that should be explained later.
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Chapter Seven
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The mood was sombre as the students gathered in Dorothy's elegant bedroom once more. Wufei motioned for Heero and Duo to precede him through the door, and called out, "I found them," as he followed them inside.
Dorothy waved the trio in and directed them toward a clear space at the end of her bed. "Have a seat."
"Bad news?" Heero asked, perching birdlike at the foot of the blonde girl's bed as Duo settled next to him.
She nodded, and without further preamble explained simply, "Romafeller says they're going to shut down the school."
Hilde slammed her hand onto the floor in frustration. "Why? They're the ones that /started/ this place, I thought we were one of their pet projects!"
Dorothy smiled grimly. "We were. Now we're getting 'out of hand.' Which is to say, they had plans for us that Mr. Treize flatly refuses to go along with, so they don't think they need us around anymore. Or at least not around with /him/. I know for certain that at least Trowa, Quatre and I will be receiving separate offers from Romafeller about the time they close us down. Apparently they still have 'uses' for us."
Quatre grimaced. "That sounds promising. A hacker, a siren, and a doppelganger they want to keep around."
"It's not real likely they're like taking 'no' for an answer, either," Relena noted. "You'd have to hide really well."
"Not if we keep them from closing down the school," Quatre countered, his voice flat.
Dorothy nodded her agreement. "Which is why we're all here, of course. I for one don't want to let them close us down, and I definitely don't want to work for them!" She tossed her long hair defiantly, her eyes flashing. "And I think they're after more than Quatre's Talent, when they want him in their pocket. They try to be sneaky, but they're not /that/ good."
Relena twisted to face Dorothy from where she curled on the floor at her lover's feet, and rested her cheek against the taller girl's leg. "What's the special project they want us for?" she asked, putting voice to the question in all of their minds.
Dorothy frowned. "You're not going to like it."
Relena rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm not, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't know what it is."
"I imagine they want us to be a weapon," Heero interjected. "And use Dorothy and Trowa as intelligence agents." His deep blue eyes flickered to the girl at the other end of the bed. "Am I right?"
Dorothy nodded. "That's right. It's not hard to see how most of us could be used to their advantage, to secure their power base."
"But what about Mr. Treize?" asked Catherine, shifting uncomfortable on the floor. "Aren't they worried that he's not going to let them just come in and take everything he's worked for away?"
Dorothy's frown deepened. "Either they don't see him as much of a threat--in which case, the more fool them--or they've got something planned to take him out of the way already." She spread her fingers tensely, pressing them into her knees. "I have a feeling it's the latter. Even Romafeller has to understand how powerful Mr. Treize is."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Quatre admitted softly.
"They'll have to get past Une first," Catherine offered consolingly. "Not to mention Zechs and Miss Noin."
Hilde shook her head slightly. "And I'm sure they've thought of that. If they've got plans for Treize, they've figured out a way around the rest of them." Her blue eyes lit with a wicked gleam, and she added, "Except perhaps us."
"If they can take out Treize, they'll have little trouble with us," Wufei interrupted calmly. "Much as I hate to resort to such, it seems deception may be our best course of action."
Trowa, who didn't seem to share the firestarter's distaste for subterfuge, nodded. "Let them believe we know nothing. If they contact you, be reluctant but give in as if you see you have no choice."
"There's one other thing," said Dorothy, before the discussion of actual tactics could progress too far. "According to the files I snuck into, they don't know about Duo yet."
The long-haired boy felt every eye in the room focused on him, and part of him wanted to shrink into Dorothy's delicately-embroidered blankets away from their gaze. But he didn't. "Guess I'll be your secret weapon, then," he said with a shrug. "If we can figure out how to aim and fire me."
"We can," said Quatre, almost wearily. "And if it comes down to it...we will."
********
"Hey, Duo, wait up!" Hilde pelted down the hallway after him, finally grabbing his arm to stop her headlong flight as she caught up. "I'll walk up to our hall with you. What've you got planned now?"
"Nothing, really," he answered with a shrug. "Hang around in my room until dinnertime?"
She wrinkled her nose at him. "We just had lunch! What do you do, measure your existence in mealtimes?"
He made a face at her right back. "If I did, I don't think I'd be more than eight years old," he reminded her dryly. "I just don't have anything else I really need to do at the moment. You can come do nothing with me, if you want."
Hilde just flashed him her trademark impish grin. "I think I will."
They ended up spending the afternoon lounging around in Duo's room--well, Duo was lounging, sprawled out on his bed with a series of comic books Quatre had lent him. He hadn't realised just what sort of comics they were, but since everyone had witnessed the handoff, he was determined to read them without blushing. Hilde, meanwhile, stole occasionally glances over his shoulder with questions like "Is that even physically /possible/?" while trying to rearrange his meagre decourations to something that better suited her taste.
"Will you knock it off?" he asked, tossing his pillow at her as she moved--for the fourth time--the Star Blazers poster Catherine had donated to his otherwise virtually empty room. She thwapped him over the head with it and plopped down onto the edge of his bed.
"Why? Am I distracting you?" She leaned over, peering over his shoulder at the comic. "Holy--Duo, what's that they're /doing/? You said /Quatre/ gave you this?"
Despite his earlier determination, Duo felt colour flooding his cheeks. "Yeah. He said he thought I'd like them. I think he's secretly very bitter that I accidentally threw him into the wall, and this is his revenge."
Hilde giggled. "He's a wicked little creature, isn't he? And he always looks so damn innocent. I wonder if he's tried any of this personally...."
"Hilde!" Duo flipped the comic closed and buried his head under the pillow. "I'm not listening to you."
There was no apology in her gaze or her voice as she yanked the pillow away. "Aw, come on...aren't you even the littlest bit curious either?" She made a grab for the comic in question and flipped through til her blue eyes widened--and so did her grin. "Look here," she directed, shoving the page in front of Duo's eyes. "I don't think real men can even /do/ that. Do you? Or more importantly," she added, her eyes taking on a wicked gleam that made Duo wonder if he could make it to the door in one piece before she could catch him, "/can/ you? Shall we find out?"
Duo let out a yelp and curled as tight as he could around himself, flailing arms fumbling for the pillow again. "Eep! No, I can't! At least, I'm pretty sure I can't--I'm not about to try--ACK! HELP!" He finished in an extremely undignified scream as his pillow-shield was yanked away again and used to beat him soundly over the head. The part of his brain that was still functioning in something besides self-defense suggested that at the next opportunity, he ask Iria Winner for another pillow. He was fairly certain Hilde wasn't serious in her proposition, especially judging from the fact that though she now had him almost entirely at her mercy, she was more intent on ferreting out all his ticklish spots, and beating him into submission with a feather pillow, than on seducing him.
Which was probably for the best, since he still had a too-vivid image of her tangled up with Catherine firmly imprinted on his brain.
Besides, some of the pictures /had/ been...interesting.
"Duo, are you okay in the--Hilde? What are you doing to Duo?" The girl rocked off him, and Duo struggled up onto his elbows to see Heero staring at them from the doorway.
"Nothing," Hilde protested defensively, before her eyes darkened evilly. "Just having a bit of a debate, that's all. I don't think this position is physically possible-do you?" she asked, sliding off the bed and skipping to the door with the picture in question held out toward him. "D'you think Duo could do it?"
Heero actually backed up a step, his face bright crimson. "Na--nani??" he stuttered, forgetting in his surprise that neither of the room's occupants understood Japanese.
"I have an idea! Heero, c'mere, we'll test it out and see--"
She didn't even get a chance to finish her sentence. Heero fled.
Hilde tossed herself onto Duo's bed with a disappointed sigh. "Well--bugger!"
Duo whimpered.
*********
He lay in bed, wrapped in the soft comfort of his new down quilt, staring into the darkness that enveloped his room. The afternoon had been spent idly, especially considering the crisis the school and students had found themselves embroiled in. But when he'd asked, Dorothy and Quatre had told him there was nothing he could do. And, he noted grumpily, they were right.
Dorothy was hacking the Romafeller foundation. It was fascinating to watch--he'd never seen he manifest her talent before, and he was impressed. She had a laptop computer stored under her bed that apparently needed no battery, or power source, or phone connection. She had only to touch it--a faint blue spark of electricity shot from her fingers, and it buzzed to life. She rested her hands on the keys, and closed her eyes, and coded data began scrolling across the screen at speeds he couldn't even manage to read.
Quatre had gone to get in touch with Iria, and taken Trowa with him. This was a talent Duo finally had a chance to witness as well--with brief concentration, the doppelganger's skin had stretched, his vivid green eyes darkened and changed colour, his hair had fallen and shifted as well, and he had taken the form of a tall Arabic man Quatre said was in his family's employ.
Duo decided he didn't understand Quatre, who had given him homosexual comic books without warning him, and expected him to read them while the rest of the school was working on infiltrating the enemy. But then, he was the one crowned King of the World--apparently he had a fair grasp of strategy. Duo certainly felt out of his depth, and it was generally easier just to go along with the Siren than attempt to dissuade him.
Besides, he wasn't the /only/ one not doing anything. Heero, Relena and Hilde were all at loose ends as well--which meant he was Hilde's main form of entertainment, which while it was nice to have friends, was downright exhausting. And Heero had staunchly avoided them both ever since the afternoon, with Hilde and the comic books....
Dammit, Duo thought, feeling his cheeks flush again, /was/ that physically possible or not? And now that Hilde was gone, he could freely admit to himself that he /did/ wonder if Quatre and Trowa had tried it--
This was getting him nowhere. He had class in the morning, and he didn't want to miss breakfast again.
But still, it wasn't every night a fellow had to come to terms with the fact he was probably gay, was it? Let alone that he was developing a distinct fixation on a certain elfin mutant with deep blue eyes?
In retrospect, he realised, that could very well have been Quatre's reasoning for lending him the books. Heero had explained that the Siren could sense emotions as well as manipulate them, and they had been working rather intensely together the past two days. Maybe it was just his way of getting Duo do come to terms with things before the shit really hit the fan.
Maybe he was thinking too hard.
But he couldn't help it. Attempts at sleep were met by the agonisingly distorted images of Sylvia's murals, where the images of his newfound friends writhed in pain and cried his name. He was set free from their morbid embrace only by the distraction of a faint burning on his chest, and when he rubbed at it, he felt the crisp shell of violet paint the artist-oracle had left there.
For some reason, none of it ever flaked off on his fingers. Despite the texture of it against his skin, it looked more like a birthmark, or maybe a tattoo, than paint. It was a complicated knot, and when he tried to trace the design with his fingertips, he invariably lost his way.
//Sleep.// It was no more than a whisper--but no, it wasn't even that. It was an echo inside his head, insinuating itself through his being. //Rest now.// Infinitely compelling, it caressed his mind like a dream.
And Duo, already exhausted, succumbed to it.
***********
