Chapter 5 Death Of A Child's Heart
****"Konichi wa! I have seen all of Gundam Wing except tape 13 and the third OAV! I got it now I need to sit and watch them! I know I don't have the things right, but I'll work in why it's all messed up some day. Just enjoy the plot. Maybe I'll make a prologue? If something bothers you, you know the drill. highpowerhyperlets@yahoo.com." AWM****
"Dominatrix." Hiro teased Garret after she pulled his paper work out of his hands and tossed it on the floor before straddling him and pulling off his cloths. "I was almost done with that."
"Well, I have to work in an hour and I want you now." She said as she pulled off her shirt. She kissed him passionately. He went completely limp, waiting for her to give him directions. She leaned against him with a sly smile. "Just do a good job and we won't have to try again."
"May I never do a good job then!" He grinned at her as he ran his fingers up her sides as she unbuttoned his pants.
"Huba huba!" The most obnoxious voice Hiro had ever heard whistled from their console to the right of the bed they were presently 'playing' on.
"Fredrick, what in the heck do you want?" Garret obviously had her own opinion of him. "And how dare you hack into our bedroom?!"
"I want to let you know that your brat was taken in a few minutes ago and is working with Kamerin and Jose. TTFN! I'll call back when things get better."
"Do and you will get a physical education you'll never forget! I'll de-sex you personally!" Garret hissed. Hiro hadn't even reacted, opting for the 'I am not part of this reality' look. When he hung up Hiro reached down and unplugged the power supply to the monitor. "What a mood killer!"
He frowned at her, quite in the mood himself. "Let me refresh the mood of our situation." He began kissing her enthusiastically.
She tangled her fingers in his thick hair. "Mmm...I remember now."
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"Mr. Yuy...Mr. Yuy wake up..." A soft voice said from kind of far off. A gentle touch to his cheek woke him fully, but he kept his eyes closed. He was only in boxer shorts and the room was cool.
His eyes snapped open as he curled into a knot. "What have you done with my cloths?" He asked the blond headed woman that sat next to him on the cot. He was still in his cell and there were two strangers with him. The man he recognized from Tiki's conversation about picking him up. He decided she must have given him a sleeping agent.
"We didn't want you to leave us prematurely so we took preventative measures." The woman put a hand on his knee and he was afraid that she would do something bad to him. He hadn't feared anyone else, but she set off alarms in his head. When he had hacked into the data banks when Sugar was out of the room he had looked up the white coats. There were two women. Laurenso worked with a man named Thomas and then Kamerin worked with Jose. The man looked Spanish and he took a gamble.
"Don't touch me Kamerin." He said it firmly, but non-threateningly. She jerked her hand away in surprise. He decided to bother the man by using a little information he remembered. "So Hose, how's the knee?"
"How'd you know about that?" Jose frowned.
"Details are boring. Let's go ahead and play the game. I believe that you like the cutting approach." He said as Kamerin shrank back.
"Are you afraid to die?" Jose asked Paul as he produced a gun and placed the barrel against his forehead.
He had seen it coming and remained very still. He forced himself to relax and think about the question. "No. If I die then there is nothing that could hurt me anymore. I would go to heaven."
Jose looked shocked, but tried to hide it. "How about pain?" He let the cold metal slide down his skin until it hit his shoulder.
"You already know that I am tolerant of thing inhumane." He looked down at his hands pointedly. Jose let the gun drift down him again. It came to rest between his legs. He shivered at the coldness that seeped through his boxers. He focussed on the truth of the threat. Either he would bleed to death quickly, die of shock, or embarrassment would make him will his life to end. Any way he looked at it, the triggering would be the most horrid part. The gun cocked. Jose forced him to meet his eyes. "Go ahead." He actually shrugged and did. Paul sucked in a breath as the gun fired, then shook his head laughing as no bullet hit him. "Nice one Hose."
They sighed dramatically and left him. Tiki came in and gave him his cloths. "Are you a few short of a dozen? They really could have taken your male qualifications right off."
"I'd have bled to death quickly though. Don't get me wrong, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go throw up now." He stood stiffly and made his way the short distance. He was very ill from the nervous adrenaline surging through his body. He came out a short time later to find Tiki waiting for him. He sat down on the bed and she came over and sat next to him. She brushed his hair out of his reddening face and he burst into tears. She wrapped her arms around him and held him for nearly an hour until he was sound asleep. She laid him down gently and kissed his forehead, feeling very protective. She walked to the force field and turned to watch him with new insight for his reaction to people. He could be strong as long as he had to and was very private about his true feelings. He was sleeping fitfully, struggling against a nightmare. "Please...Don't die like the others..." He whispered so pitifully she almost went and held him again, but forced herself to let him alone.
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"Mrs. Yuy, did Gariku ever witness a death or loose friends?" Tiki called after trying to do paper work for an hour and a half.
"I guess there is a lot I don't know about him, but I do know that he had a friend that drown at a beach party he went to when he was maybe twelve. He left the party before the accident though. That's all I can really tell you, but then I would have never guessed that he is a repressed genius either." Garret shook her head, showing how sad she was. "I thought we were really close, but I don't think he has ever been close to anyone." She brushed her hair out of her face and took a drink of coffee. "Sorry I couldn't help you."
"It was helpful. Don't judge him right now. I thought he was just crazy, but he is just very protective of others. He isn't helping them because he feels like he has a reason worth dying for. He pushed me away at first and I think it has something to do with others dying. He's going through a lot more then you can imagine right now so be patient." Tiki said with a bright smile.
Garret hung up and Tiki went and checked on Gariku. He was lying on his side sleeping quietly. Tiki started to leave him, but he suddenly sat up screaming for his mother. "Do you want me to get her?" Tiki asked, surprised by the rockiness of his dream cycle. He just looked guilty and shook his head. "It's ok to want your mother. Are you sure you are alright?"
"It was just a dream." He shook his head again. "Can I go home?"
"No, you won't be going back with your parents anymore. You've got to come home with me, but not until tomorrow when I'll have space for you. It was cramped with just me and so we are getting a bigger place. You have to take an equivalence test so, shall we start now?"
"Fine, they can know how smart I am and be mad about it all they like." He sat with his back against the wall. "Call 'em out."
"You don't want paper?"
"Can't hold a pencil." He pointed out. "So start." She read them out and he answered quickly. The longest it took him was for a very large number and that only took about twenty seconds. When he finished the test it had take half of the allowed time. "I guessed at four." He said as she fed it into an analyzing machine. He missed two of those guessed ones and resolved to study up on quantum physics. "I guess two is acceptable. I've still got over 99%, right?" He sounded satisfied with himself.
"I think I would pass out if I got anything close to that." Tiki frowned at his unexcited demeanor. "You should be very proud."
"But I have a lousy reason for getting the grade. I was born with exceptional ability. If I were born normal it would be different. You were born with about zero chance for personality and you have an ok one, now that's achievement. Being born a girl wasn't" He tried to explain as her frown deepened. "I think that didn't work for you. Um...Being able to cook? Some people can make anything edible, some can make anything deadly. Talent and achievement are way different, see? Talent can only be appreciated, achievement warrants celebration."
"I understand...Will you answer me one personal question?" She opened the force field and came to sit by his side. He waited, unsure if he would or not. "While you were sleeping, you said 'Please, don't die like the others.' Who died and made you so afraid of being alone?" His eyes rimmed with a reddish tent showing he was upset, but he smiled at her like she was silly.
"Like I said earlier, it was just a dream."
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Tiki left him in the care of his mother the next morning before going shopping with his measurements. She had said that she would dress him if he needed her to, but he couldn't wear his sweats and Velcro shirts when she took him out. He smiled at his mother, but she refused to look up from her papers. "I have to finish these." She said the sentence so coldly that Paul's face wrinkled in concern. She was upset with him. He had seen it directed at Peter enough to know. He stood silently until she decided to chew him out. "SNAP!!!" The pencil she was writing with broke in half, the eraser end flying off the front of the desk. "Go sit down will you!?"
Paul burst into tears. "Mama, what did I do? I'm sorry!"
She threw down the rest of the pencil and put her face in her hands. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't blame you. I just thought we had a great relationship and I find that I know nothing about you. I thought you shared things with me, but you didn't. I still love you. I just need to get use to not knowing you. You've turned into a stranger." She didn't move, but continued to hold her face.
He went over to her side and sat down on his knees and put his face in her side and hugged her. "Why do you think that?" He asked trying to calm himself, but finally giving up.
"Tests, the white coats, Tiki's question, you act so different."
"I always wanted to be normal, even though I knew I wasn't. I would have kept up my normal appearance except Fei Wo and I made a bet. I needed a friend really bad...(he was crying to hard to speak for a moment)... and I had to prove myself somehow. I know that it was a mistake, but I can't change it. I never told you that I was smarter then I pretended to be because I didn't want you to try and make me like Mauriku. He was so unhappy and I wanted to be like Peter..." He begged for her to understand the childish logic's and his now somewhat odd thoughts. She stroked his hair gently, finding that he was the same odd child as before they had become Yuy again. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you who died, yet. Maybe when it doesn't hurt so much. I'm sorry Mama. I love you."
She stroked his hair and rocked him, finding that she had gotten all hysterical over him for nothing more then he usually was capable of. He had gotten beaten up at school and had said much the same thing when he was in first grade. He hadn't told her for nearly a whole year, then just came into her study and sat much like he was now and told her everything that had happened and why. He had started Martial arts soon after that because he decided he lacked self-control. It was odd coming from a seven-year-old but it was Paul. Peter was into sports and so Paul had no gauge to regulate himself by and was a black belt in three styles by the time he hit middle school. Of coarse he couldn't play baseball to save his life but could do a number with numb-chucks. She smiled to herself as she looked down at him, finding him asleep. She went back to her paperwork, absently petting his hair when she paused to read. He was to old to behave like that, but she found that she hoped he wouldn't realize it any time soon.
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He slept on the couch, not sure how he felt about sharing a bed with Tiki. She didn't seem overly upset at his choice. He woke-up to find her sitting at the computer in a nightshirt and matching panties. She was eating toast and typing with her free hand. "What are you doing?" He sat up and stretched.
"Not sleeping like I should be. Want to talk?"
"Alright." He nodded. She blackened the computer screen before coming over and sitting next to him, offering him a bite of her cinnamon sugar toast. He accepted, trying to think of what to say. "I think I can tell you about Betana and Kyron." He said carefully guarding himself. "They are the ones that started the dying. When I was in third grade my friend Betanna got really sick and she died. Kyron was a really good friend of mine and he died a little after her. It was an epidemic and I lost four of my six friends in it and the other two and my brother almost died too, but they found a cure in time and I was the only one who didn't get sick and no one knows why I didn't like got sick either. Then I made three new friends and the next year one was murdered and nobody knows who did it. The other two were killed in a traffic accident. My brand new friend drown, then I decided to not have anymore friends and mama almost died on me..." He teared up and Tiki brushed one that escaped away. He sighed but continued. "One of my original friends that I grew up with named Retsuko...she got raped and she killed herself and I couldn't stop her. She said she'd never leave me...but she did...And I didn't even have a chance to say good-bye because you came..." He began to cry mournfully. Tiki held him, curious as to how he could blame himself for a tragic child hood.
"That's why you push everyone away. But I won't leave you. Nobody is going to leave you." She rubbed his back tenderly. He fell asleep, but when she let him go, he lapsed into a nightmare, so she woke him enough to bring him to the bed and tucked him in before brushing her teeth and coming to bed herself. She held him close, warding off his nightmares and went to sleep.
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Paul woke up completely rested and ready for anything. Then he found himself in the bed with Tiki and got confused. Her arm was across his middle and her head was rested on his chest as she slept soundly. Her leg was resting half on top of his and half in between his parted knees. He felt very uncomfortable and whispered her name insistently. "Tiki..." She stirred, snuggling into his chest deeply, then pulled away to look up into his wide eyed face. "Why am I here?"
"You were having a bad dream again so I brought you in here so you wouldn't feel alone." She said propping on an elbow and rubbing her eyes with the arm that had been holding him tightly. She didn't move from being half on top of him.
He wiggled slightly, needing to go to the bathroom and get a little distance between them. "May I please get up?" She smiled at him and rolled over onto her back, freeing him. He left and was hesitant to return after relieving himself, but he wanted the contact of another so he crawled back to beside her, gently putting an arm around her. She had rolled on her side to face the wall in his absence and he carefully leaned into her back and rested his forehead against her shoulder blade. She patted his arm reassuringly.
A few minutes later giggling shattered the peaceful moment. Tiki knocked him back into his pillow as she scrambled to a sitting position. "Wakie wakie!" Came an unfamiliar voice.
"Jannie, you could at least ring!" Tiki sounded highly annoyed. "What do you want?"
"Relax, I didn't interrupt any festivities!"
"Sorry to disappoint you." Tiki said sourly.
"You are blushing! He must not be too bad if you let him stay the night." The girl continued. "And he looks pretty good from here. Anyway you have a PRF in two hours, get up and don't get side tracked!" She bleeped out.
"Nerd." She said in disgust.
"Perverted nerd." He agreed.
"Come on and we'll take a shower." She stood and stretched lazily. She wandered over to her wardrobe and pulled out an outfit and tossed it on the foot of the bed. She took one out for him as well and put it next to hers. "Come on and get up. Unless you don't want breakfast this morning, I've got a schedule to keep." She pulled off her top and tossed it in a basket of dirty laundry. He blushed and took care to overt his eyes. "They won't hurt you, they are just breasts. Get up." He did get up and she ankled him quickly, forcing him backwards and out of his boxers completely before tossing them in the laundry with her things. She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him along. "Are you always so slow in the morning?"
"Taking a shower together doesn't bother you?" He asked, still slightly flushed as she began wetting them both down with the shower hose.
"Oh, I forget that you are so terribly innocent of things. I've seen about half of the men on this base naked because single people go to a public shower. Put your arms out so I don't get your hands to wet." He submitted, not sure how he felt about any of it. She used a body wash and a lacy sponge thing to scrub him down and he mused if he would break out in a rash like when Sugar had given him a bath with plain soap. At home he had used shampoo because it was the only thing he hadn't been allergic to. He flushed brightly when she passed below his waist, but she didn't seem to notice as she circled him to scrub down his back and legs. His body had reacted to her and that embarrassed him further, but he and calmed down by the time she had finished washing herself and began to rinse him off. That time her quick attentionless touch wasn't half as arousing and he curved his reaction quickly. He felt immensely silly standing spread eagle so she could wash him and told her so. She just laughed and had him kneel to wash his hair. Then she did her own and shaved her legs and under her arms.
"Me next." He teased, mimicking her posture and sounding as feminine as possible.
She cracked up. "You can be funny when you want. Hey, you aren't hairy!" She stared at his legs for a moment, then as his chest and arms. "Do you really shave?"
"No, it's from martial arts. We put on oils and tight armor daily and that cut down a lot and I did duct tape a few times because it's the style. If you are going to be all shiny and half naked in front of a thousand people, at least do it looking good." He smiled at her as she rinsed off again and led him to the tub, which just held the both of them comfortably.
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"I'm going on a mission. You are cleared to leave by yourself. Fei Wo will be there if you need anything." Tiki pulled on her combat boots.
"Who's gonna the hero when you're dead? All you'll do is kill yourself. You're another over prideful heart will here leave to die. Doesn't your body bleed and don't your eyes cry? Don't you understand what war is?! It isn't honor or pride but death! People I knew; people who loved; all of them are gone. They aren't coming back. You want to be part of the death of your friends?" Paul growled, showing his true temper. His eyes blazed at her as she put on her jacket. His voice had risen to flat out yelling. "You said you wouldn't leave me!"
"Calm down!" Tiki stopped and hugged the raving boy. "I'm not going to die, it's an easy mission and I'll be back in two days. I'm just picking up some documents from our sister base." She kissed him on the forehead before heading out the door. "See ya in a few!"
"Liar!" He hollered after her. He had a gut feeling that she was in major trouble. He knock a vase into the floor and watched it shatter, relieving some of his stress before calling Fei Wo. She was on her way to school and couldn't come over, so he called his brother. He was still in his pajamas as he answered the call. "Hi. Let's go do something." He smiled.
The twin terrors made a special effort to dress exactly alike and fix their hair the same way. They went bar hopping, basically checking out the people and not the alcohol, and then shopped for some pajamas for Paul since he felt a little odd in only boxers around Tiki. He got a pair of biker shorts and a muscle shirt for working out on the side. Then they went out to lunch. Clay met them and thought they were a riot, acting like mirrored images. He had his curly brown hair pulled back in a pony tail that reached his middle back. His eyes were a soft violet color and his skin was a rich toffee color much more a memorial of his mother then his father except for the eyes and constant grin. His little sister was with him and she sat in his lap and asked endless questions. She had really short hair in two pompom ponytails but looked much like Clay except her skin was much lighter. "Latessa, hush!" He clapped a hand over her mouth after the fourth dozenth question came out. They all laughed at her.
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Paul woke to the com system's impatient bleeping. He answered as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. Zola looked at him in surprise as he yawned. "It's after noon, you aren't up yet?"
"Since when do you care about my sleeping habits?" He was extremely annoyed at her for waking him. He had been up with an upset stomach most of the night.
"I don't. This is an official call. Enemy forces captured Lutenent Tikikoto Mitatsu Barton yesterday at 2200 hours. Her status has been decided as dead and no rescue mission will be launched. You will be moved into your parents quarters as of 1500 hours today."
"I am not a damn hot potato. I'm staying right here! She isn't dead, you are just trying to hurt me again! She's going to come back, you'll see!" He went off again, much like when Tiki had gone. "She promised me."
"Be ready. They will be there in two an a half hours." She hung up. He balled his hands into fists, ignoring the pain it caused him.
"She's coming back if I have to drag her back here!" He dressed in one of her uniforms, finding it pathetic that he could fit so easily and buttoned it up with great effort. He popped the re-implanted navel tracker and laid it on the table and set to work making himself disappear. He turned his frequency into someone else's and erased all the files they had on him. Then he reassigned his fingerprints to a pilot, which meant his brother was screwed since they had the same prints, and set up a departure time. He chopped off his hair until he looked like the Hiro Yuy he had seen in pictures and left to save her. He took extra measures to break every rule he could think of to break and then stole his plane.
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"Hiro?" A woman about his father's age spotted his as he crept through the alien base.
"Get out of my way." He said coldly, knowing full and well who she was. "I don't want to hurt you Relina. If you stand in my way I will kill you." He mimicked his father's favorite words from his file.
"Hiro!" She gasped, reaching out to him with a strange mix of emotion in her eyes.
"The girl, where is she?" He glared at her, giving life to her memories of the young man she had loved so long ago. She told him softly. She touched him lightly, then collapsed. He caught her and looked into the face of the woman that had very nearly become his mother. Ideals, lifestyles, and her brother had separated them. He laid her down in the shadows and went and found Tiki. He picked her up with great effort and carried her awkwardly back to his ship. He set it on auto-pilot and gave her a pain killer and blood thickener he had on him before cleaning up wounds and bandaging her battered body.
When he got near to base he cut the engines and set a distress beacon before using a jetpack to get him into the base undetected while they sent out shuttles to investigate. He pulled off the uniform and took it to the room they had shared for a day. He hacked the computer before entering and blacked out the surveillance on several floors so he could pass undetected. He put it in her laundry before leaving in his biker shorts and muscle shirt. He had put back in the naval ring and reinstated himself, making a false signature to be detected by a good hacker that made him hide in the containment sections for two days trying to cover himself. He had also made it appear that too many people accessing it at once had stuck his file in limbo. He went into the gym and began working out heartily to cover for his already fatigued body. By the time the black out was fixed he was sweating heavily and finished his round and crouched down for a rest.
As luck would have it, his mother and Zola came through the doors talking. "Well, I'm sure that he will show up sometime. He couldn't possibly get anywhere."
"Paul already has been missing for two days, you are positive that the white coats don't have him?" His mother asked.
"I am." He said from where he sat still panting. He straitened up after a moment. "I'm sixteen, don't worry so much." Both women stopped and gaped at him. He suddenly remembered that his hair was very different. "Don't like it?" He shook his head to get his bangs out of his face.
"You look like your father." Was what they both managed to choke out at the same time.
"Bad?" He asked as he pulled up his green muscle shirtfront to wipe away the sweat from his eyes.
"Where did you get the outfit?" Zola asked suspiciously.
"I had one at home but it was blue shorts and a brown shirt, so I bought this one a couple of days ago so I could work out. Did I do something mortally wrong?" He asked.
"Maybe it's a genetic fashion problem." Sugar popped up from behind them. This made him frown.
"What's wrong?" He asked again, starting to feel annoyed.
"Well, Hiro use to wear that exact outfit and the hair is the same. I think you need to gain about five pounds to actually be perfectly him though." His mother smiled at the irony of it.
"Only he lived in those stupid shorts and shirt. You at lease have the good sense to wear other things outside the gym." Sugar pointed out. "You are pathetically skinny! Spandex isn't supposed to look like droppers."
"Leave me alone about it. I haven't felt like eating. I still want you to find her and bring her back." He looked pointedly at Zola. She just shrugged her shoulders. He turned his back on her and gazed at the far wall. Then he began to work out again, using every ounce of concentration he owned to block thoughts from his mind, least he betray himself.
Zola's cell phone made a nasty noise and she answered it hastily. "Yes?...I see...Right away...Yes sir." She hung up. "They found Tiki and she's going to live. You can't see her for a while because they have to make sure she isn't contaminated, but I will fetch you from your mother's when it is permissible." Zola said brusquely before leaving.
Paul stopped his moving and allowed himself to smile a little before his face fell. "Contaminated?"
"They could have put a bomb, transmitter, or a number of other things inside her." Sugar told him softly. "But don't worry, I'm sure she'll be alright. It's just precaution. You did well, but you did make one mistake. She was given a coagulant and the one I give you is a personal blend." She smiled at him.
"I have all of mine if you are implying that I gave her one of them. I've only used one and Peter watched me use it." He shook his head. "I said I wouldn't work in the war."
"Then Relina really saw Hiro's ghost?" Sugar asked softly.
"I don't think you have any reason to believe that I would pretend to be a ghost. It seems silly. He is still alive, right?" He looked seriously at her. "Who ever this Relina is, maybe they are a few beans short of a complete Ty baby. Now can we stop being so alumnus and let me go take a shower?" He smiled.
"You are quite good." His mother returned the smile. "All right."
He went over and picked up a pack of dirty cloths and followed them out the door. "Don't make them believe it was me." He said softly as he followed them to the apartment. When they arrived Sugar made him strip and examined him completely before allowing him to take a shower with his brother.
****"Did you find the title to fit with Paul and Tiki's talk?! Let's find out what more I can think up in chapter 6! Man am I taking off with this plot! I have to work in some Duo screen time next and focus on the other people while Paul and Tiki adjust to each other. Should I write about Peter some?" Azusa Wariko Maxwell****
****"Konichi wa! I have seen all of Gundam Wing except tape 13 and the third OAV! I got it now I need to sit and watch them! I know I don't have the things right, but I'll work in why it's all messed up some day. Just enjoy the plot. Maybe I'll make a prologue? If something bothers you, you know the drill. highpowerhyperlets@yahoo.com." AWM****
"Dominatrix." Hiro teased Garret after she pulled his paper work out of his hands and tossed it on the floor before straddling him and pulling off his cloths. "I was almost done with that."
"Well, I have to work in an hour and I want you now." She said as she pulled off her shirt. She kissed him passionately. He went completely limp, waiting for her to give him directions. She leaned against him with a sly smile. "Just do a good job and we won't have to try again."
"May I never do a good job then!" He grinned at her as he ran his fingers up her sides as she unbuttoned his pants.
"Huba huba!" The most obnoxious voice Hiro had ever heard whistled from their console to the right of the bed they were presently 'playing' on.
"Fredrick, what in the heck do you want?" Garret obviously had her own opinion of him. "And how dare you hack into our bedroom?!"
"I want to let you know that your brat was taken in a few minutes ago and is working with Kamerin and Jose. TTFN! I'll call back when things get better."
"Do and you will get a physical education you'll never forget! I'll de-sex you personally!" Garret hissed. Hiro hadn't even reacted, opting for the 'I am not part of this reality' look. When he hung up Hiro reached down and unplugged the power supply to the monitor. "What a mood killer!"
He frowned at her, quite in the mood himself. "Let me refresh the mood of our situation." He began kissing her enthusiastically.
She tangled her fingers in his thick hair. "Mmm...I remember now."
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"Mr. Yuy...Mr. Yuy wake up..." A soft voice said from kind of far off. A gentle touch to his cheek woke him fully, but he kept his eyes closed. He was only in boxer shorts and the room was cool.
His eyes snapped open as he curled into a knot. "What have you done with my cloths?" He asked the blond headed woman that sat next to him on the cot. He was still in his cell and there were two strangers with him. The man he recognized from Tiki's conversation about picking him up. He decided she must have given him a sleeping agent.
"We didn't want you to leave us prematurely so we took preventative measures." The woman put a hand on his knee and he was afraid that she would do something bad to him. He hadn't feared anyone else, but she set off alarms in his head. When he had hacked into the data banks when Sugar was out of the room he had looked up the white coats. There were two women. Laurenso worked with a man named Thomas and then Kamerin worked with Jose. The man looked Spanish and he took a gamble.
"Don't touch me Kamerin." He said it firmly, but non-threateningly. She jerked her hand away in surprise. He decided to bother the man by using a little information he remembered. "So Hose, how's the knee?"
"How'd you know about that?" Jose frowned.
"Details are boring. Let's go ahead and play the game. I believe that you like the cutting approach." He said as Kamerin shrank back.
"Are you afraid to die?" Jose asked Paul as he produced a gun and placed the barrel against his forehead.
He had seen it coming and remained very still. He forced himself to relax and think about the question. "No. If I die then there is nothing that could hurt me anymore. I would go to heaven."
Jose looked shocked, but tried to hide it. "How about pain?" He let the cold metal slide down his skin until it hit his shoulder.
"You already know that I am tolerant of thing inhumane." He looked down at his hands pointedly. Jose let the gun drift down him again. It came to rest between his legs. He shivered at the coldness that seeped through his boxers. He focussed on the truth of the threat. Either he would bleed to death quickly, die of shock, or embarrassment would make him will his life to end. Any way he looked at it, the triggering would be the most horrid part. The gun cocked. Jose forced him to meet his eyes. "Go ahead." He actually shrugged and did. Paul sucked in a breath as the gun fired, then shook his head laughing as no bullet hit him. "Nice one Hose."
They sighed dramatically and left him. Tiki came in and gave him his cloths. "Are you a few short of a dozen? They really could have taken your male qualifications right off."
"I'd have bled to death quickly though. Don't get me wrong, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go throw up now." He stood stiffly and made his way the short distance. He was very ill from the nervous adrenaline surging through his body. He came out a short time later to find Tiki waiting for him. He sat down on the bed and she came over and sat next to him. She brushed his hair out of his reddening face and he burst into tears. She wrapped her arms around him and held him for nearly an hour until he was sound asleep. She laid him down gently and kissed his forehead, feeling very protective. She walked to the force field and turned to watch him with new insight for his reaction to people. He could be strong as long as he had to and was very private about his true feelings. He was sleeping fitfully, struggling against a nightmare. "Please...Don't die like the others..." He whispered so pitifully she almost went and held him again, but forced herself to let him alone.
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"Mrs. Yuy, did Gariku ever witness a death or loose friends?" Tiki called after trying to do paper work for an hour and a half.
"I guess there is a lot I don't know about him, but I do know that he had a friend that drown at a beach party he went to when he was maybe twelve. He left the party before the accident though. That's all I can really tell you, but then I would have never guessed that he is a repressed genius either." Garret shook her head, showing how sad she was. "I thought we were really close, but I don't think he has ever been close to anyone." She brushed her hair out of her face and took a drink of coffee. "Sorry I couldn't help you."
"It was helpful. Don't judge him right now. I thought he was just crazy, but he is just very protective of others. He isn't helping them because he feels like he has a reason worth dying for. He pushed me away at first and I think it has something to do with others dying. He's going through a lot more then you can imagine right now so be patient." Tiki said with a bright smile.
Garret hung up and Tiki went and checked on Gariku. He was lying on his side sleeping quietly. Tiki started to leave him, but he suddenly sat up screaming for his mother. "Do you want me to get her?" Tiki asked, surprised by the rockiness of his dream cycle. He just looked guilty and shook his head. "It's ok to want your mother. Are you sure you are alright?"
"It was just a dream." He shook his head again. "Can I go home?"
"No, you won't be going back with your parents anymore. You've got to come home with me, but not until tomorrow when I'll have space for you. It was cramped with just me and so we are getting a bigger place. You have to take an equivalence test so, shall we start now?"
"Fine, they can know how smart I am and be mad about it all they like." He sat with his back against the wall. "Call 'em out."
"You don't want paper?"
"Can't hold a pencil." He pointed out. "So start." She read them out and he answered quickly. The longest it took him was for a very large number and that only took about twenty seconds. When he finished the test it had take half of the allowed time. "I guessed at four." He said as she fed it into an analyzing machine. He missed two of those guessed ones and resolved to study up on quantum physics. "I guess two is acceptable. I've still got over 99%, right?" He sounded satisfied with himself.
"I think I would pass out if I got anything close to that." Tiki frowned at his unexcited demeanor. "You should be very proud."
"But I have a lousy reason for getting the grade. I was born with exceptional ability. If I were born normal it would be different. You were born with about zero chance for personality and you have an ok one, now that's achievement. Being born a girl wasn't" He tried to explain as her frown deepened. "I think that didn't work for you. Um...Being able to cook? Some people can make anything edible, some can make anything deadly. Talent and achievement are way different, see? Talent can only be appreciated, achievement warrants celebration."
"I understand...Will you answer me one personal question?" She opened the force field and came to sit by his side. He waited, unsure if he would or not. "While you were sleeping, you said 'Please, don't die like the others.' Who died and made you so afraid of being alone?" His eyes rimmed with a reddish tent showing he was upset, but he smiled at her like she was silly.
"Like I said earlier, it was just a dream."
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Tiki left him in the care of his mother the next morning before going shopping with his measurements. She had said that she would dress him if he needed her to, but he couldn't wear his sweats and Velcro shirts when she took him out. He smiled at his mother, but she refused to look up from her papers. "I have to finish these." She said the sentence so coldly that Paul's face wrinkled in concern. She was upset with him. He had seen it directed at Peter enough to know. He stood silently until she decided to chew him out. "SNAP!!!" The pencil she was writing with broke in half, the eraser end flying off the front of the desk. "Go sit down will you!?"
Paul burst into tears. "Mama, what did I do? I'm sorry!"
She threw down the rest of the pencil and put her face in her hands. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't blame you. I just thought we had a great relationship and I find that I know nothing about you. I thought you shared things with me, but you didn't. I still love you. I just need to get use to not knowing you. You've turned into a stranger." She didn't move, but continued to hold her face.
He went over to her side and sat down on his knees and put his face in her side and hugged her. "Why do you think that?" He asked trying to calm himself, but finally giving up.
"Tests, the white coats, Tiki's question, you act so different."
"I always wanted to be normal, even though I knew I wasn't. I would have kept up my normal appearance except Fei Wo and I made a bet. I needed a friend really bad...(he was crying to hard to speak for a moment)... and I had to prove myself somehow. I know that it was a mistake, but I can't change it. I never told you that I was smarter then I pretended to be because I didn't want you to try and make me like Mauriku. He was so unhappy and I wanted to be like Peter..." He begged for her to understand the childish logic's and his now somewhat odd thoughts. She stroked his hair gently, finding that he was the same odd child as before they had become Yuy again. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you who died, yet. Maybe when it doesn't hurt so much. I'm sorry Mama. I love you."
She stroked his hair and rocked him, finding that she had gotten all hysterical over him for nothing more then he usually was capable of. He had gotten beaten up at school and had said much the same thing when he was in first grade. He hadn't told her for nearly a whole year, then just came into her study and sat much like he was now and told her everything that had happened and why. He had started Martial arts soon after that because he decided he lacked self-control. It was odd coming from a seven-year-old but it was Paul. Peter was into sports and so Paul had no gauge to regulate himself by and was a black belt in three styles by the time he hit middle school. Of coarse he couldn't play baseball to save his life but could do a number with numb-chucks. She smiled to herself as she looked down at him, finding him asleep. She went back to her paperwork, absently petting his hair when she paused to read. He was to old to behave like that, but she found that she hoped he wouldn't realize it any time soon.
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He slept on the couch, not sure how he felt about sharing a bed with Tiki. She didn't seem overly upset at his choice. He woke-up to find her sitting at the computer in a nightshirt and matching panties. She was eating toast and typing with her free hand. "What are you doing?" He sat up and stretched.
"Not sleeping like I should be. Want to talk?"
"Alright." He nodded. She blackened the computer screen before coming over and sitting next to him, offering him a bite of her cinnamon sugar toast. He accepted, trying to think of what to say. "I think I can tell you about Betana and Kyron." He said carefully guarding himself. "They are the ones that started the dying. When I was in third grade my friend Betanna got really sick and she died. Kyron was a really good friend of mine and he died a little after her. It was an epidemic and I lost four of my six friends in it and the other two and my brother almost died too, but they found a cure in time and I was the only one who didn't get sick and no one knows why I didn't like got sick either. Then I made three new friends and the next year one was murdered and nobody knows who did it. The other two were killed in a traffic accident. My brand new friend drown, then I decided to not have anymore friends and mama almost died on me..." He teared up and Tiki brushed one that escaped away. He sighed but continued. "One of my original friends that I grew up with named Retsuko...she got raped and she killed herself and I couldn't stop her. She said she'd never leave me...but she did...And I didn't even have a chance to say good-bye because you came..." He began to cry mournfully. Tiki held him, curious as to how he could blame himself for a tragic child hood.
"That's why you push everyone away. But I won't leave you. Nobody is going to leave you." She rubbed his back tenderly. He fell asleep, but when she let him go, he lapsed into a nightmare, so she woke him enough to bring him to the bed and tucked him in before brushing her teeth and coming to bed herself. She held him close, warding off his nightmares and went to sleep.
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Paul woke up completely rested and ready for anything. Then he found himself in the bed with Tiki and got confused. Her arm was across his middle and her head was rested on his chest as she slept soundly. Her leg was resting half on top of his and half in between his parted knees. He felt very uncomfortable and whispered her name insistently. "Tiki..." She stirred, snuggling into his chest deeply, then pulled away to look up into his wide eyed face. "Why am I here?"
"You were having a bad dream again so I brought you in here so you wouldn't feel alone." She said propping on an elbow and rubbing her eyes with the arm that had been holding him tightly. She didn't move from being half on top of him.
He wiggled slightly, needing to go to the bathroom and get a little distance between them. "May I please get up?" She smiled at him and rolled over onto her back, freeing him. He left and was hesitant to return after relieving himself, but he wanted the contact of another so he crawled back to beside her, gently putting an arm around her. She had rolled on her side to face the wall in his absence and he carefully leaned into her back and rested his forehead against her shoulder blade. She patted his arm reassuringly.
A few minutes later giggling shattered the peaceful moment. Tiki knocked him back into his pillow as she scrambled to a sitting position. "Wakie wakie!" Came an unfamiliar voice.
"Jannie, you could at least ring!" Tiki sounded highly annoyed. "What do you want?"
"Relax, I didn't interrupt any festivities!"
"Sorry to disappoint you." Tiki said sourly.
"You are blushing! He must not be too bad if you let him stay the night." The girl continued. "And he looks pretty good from here. Anyway you have a PRF in two hours, get up and don't get side tracked!" She bleeped out.
"Nerd." She said in disgust.
"Perverted nerd." He agreed.
"Come on and we'll take a shower." She stood and stretched lazily. She wandered over to her wardrobe and pulled out an outfit and tossed it on the foot of the bed. She took one out for him as well and put it next to hers. "Come on and get up. Unless you don't want breakfast this morning, I've got a schedule to keep." She pulled off her top and tossed it in a basket of dirty laundry. He blushed and took care to overt his eyes. "They won't hurt you, they are just breasts. Get up." He did get up and she ankled him quickly, forcing him backwards and out of his boxers completely before tossing them in the laundry with her things. She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him along. "Are you always so slow in the morning?"
"Taking a shower together doesn't bother you?" He asked, still slightly flushed as she began wetting them both down with the shower hose.
"Oh, I forget that you are so terribly innocent of things. I've seen about half of the men on this base naked because single people go to a public shower. Put your arms out so I don't get your hands to wet." He submitted, not sure how he felt about any of it. She used a body wash and a lacy sponge thing to scrub him down and he mused if he would break out in a rash like when Sugar had given him a bath with plain soap. At home he had used shampoo because it was the only thing he hadn't been allergic to. He flushed brightly when she passed below his waist, but she didn't seem to notice as she circled him to scrub down his back and legs. His body had reacted to her and that embarrassed him further, but he and calmed down by the time she had finished washing herself and began to rinse him off. That time her quick attentionless touch wasn't half as arousing and he curved his reaction quickly. He felt immensely silly standing spread eagle so she could wash him and told her so. She just laughed and had him kneel to wash his hair. Then she did her own and shaved her legs and under her arms.
"Me next." He teased, mimicking her posture and sounding as feminine as possible.
She cracked up. "You can be funny when you want. Hey, you aren't hairy!" She stared at his legs for a moment, then as his chest and arms. "Do you really shave?"
"No, it's from martial arts. We put on oils and tight armor daily and that cut down a lot and I did duct tape a few times because it's the style. If you are going to be all shiny and half naked in front of a thousand people, at least do it looking good." He smiled at her as she rinsed off again and led him to the tub, which just held the both of them comfortably.
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"I'm going on a mission. You are cleared to leave by yourself. Fei Wo will be there if you need anything." Tiki pulled on her combat boots.
"Who's gonna the hero when you're dead? All you'll do is kill yourself. You're another over prideful heart will here leave to die. Doesn't your body bleed and don't your eyes cry? Don't you understand what war is?! It isn't honor or pride but death! People I knew; people who loved; all of them are gone. They aren't coming back. You want to be part of the death of your friends?" Paul growled, showing his true temper. His eyes blazed at her as she put on her jacket. His voice had risen to flat out yelling. "You said you wouldn't leave me!"
"Calm down!" Tiki stopped and hugged the raving boy. "I'm not going to die, it's an easy mission and I'll be back in two days. I'm just picking up some documents from our sister base." She kissed him on the forehead before heading out the door. "See ya in a few!"
"Liar!" He hollered after her. He had a gut feeling that she was in major trouble. He knock a vase into the floor and watched it shatter, relieving some of his stress before calling Fei Wo. She was on her way to school and couldn't come over, so he called his brother. He was still in his pajamas as he answered the call. "Hi. Let's go do something." He smiled.
The twin terrors made a special effort to dress exactly alike and fix their hair the same way. They went bar hopping, basically checking out the people and not the alcohol, and then shopped for some pajamas for Paul since he felt a little odd in only boxers around Tiki. He got a pair of biker shorts and a muscle shirt for working out on the side. Then they went out to lunch. Clay met them and thought they were a riot, acting like mirrored images. He had his curly brown hair pulled back in a pony tail that reached his middle back. His eyes were a soft violet color and his skin was a rich toffee color much more a memorial of his mother then his father except for the eyes and constant grin. His little sister was with him and she sat in his lap and asked endless questions. She had really short hair in two pompom ponytails but looked much like Clay except her skin was much lighter. "Latessa, hush!" He clapped a hand over her mouth after the fourth dozenth question came out. They all laughed at her.
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Paul woke to the com system's impatient bleeping. He answered as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. Zola looked at him in surprise as he yawned. "It's after noon, you aren't up yet?"
"Since when do you care about my sleeping habits?" He was extremely annoyed at her for waking him. He had been up with an upset stomach most of the night.
"I don't. This is an official call. Enemy forces captured Lutenent Tikikoto Mitatsu Barton yesterday at 2200 hours. Her status has been decided as dead and no rescue mission will be launched. You will be moved into your parents quarters as of 1500 hours today."
"I am not a damn hot potato. I'm staying right here! She isn't dead, you are just trying to hurt me again! She's going to come back, you'll see!" He went off again, much like when Tiki had gone. "She promised me."
"Be ready. They will be there in two an a half hours." She hung up. He balled his hands into fists, ignoring the pain it caused him.
"She's coming back if I have to drag her back here!" He dressed in one of her uniforms, finding it pathetic that he could fit so easily and buttoned it up with great effort. He popped the re-implanted navel tracker and laid it on the table and set to work making himself disappear. He turned his frequency into someone else's and erased all the files they had on him. Then he reassigned his fingerprints to a pilot, which meant his brother was screwed since they had the same prints, and set up a departure time. He chopped off his hair until he looked like the Hiro Yuy he had seen in pictures and left to save her. He took extra measures to break every rule he could think of to break and then stole his plane.
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"Hiro?" A woman about his father's age spotted his as he crept through the alien base.
"Get out of my way." He said coldly, knowing full and well who she was. "I don't want to hurt you Relina. If you stand in my way I will kill you." He mimicked his father's favorite words from his file.
"Hiro!" She gasped, reaching out to him with a strange mix of emotion in her eyes.
"The girl, where is she?" He glared at her, giving life to her memories of the young man she had loved so long ago. She told him softly. She touched him lightly, then collapsed. He caught her and looked into the face of the woman that had very nearly become his mother. Ideals, lifestyles, and her brother had separated them. He laid her down in the shadows and went and found Tiki. He picked her up with great effort and carried her awkwardly back to his ship. He set it on auto-pilot and gave her a pain killer and blood thickener he had on him before cleaning up wounds and bandaging her battered body.
When he got near to base he cut the engines and set a distress beacon before using a jetpack to get him into the base undetected while they sent out shuttles to investigate. He pulled off the uniform and took it to the room they had shared for a day. He hacked the computer before entering and blacked out the surveillance on several floors so he could pass undetected. He put it in her laundry before leaving in his biker shorts and muscle shirt. He had put back in the naval ring and reinstated himself, making a false signature to be detected by a good hacker that made him hide in the containment sections for two days trying to cover himself. He had also made it appear that too many people accessing it at once had stuck his file in limbo. He went into the gym and began working out heartily to cover for his already fatigued body. By the time the black out was fixed he was sweating heavily and finished his round and crouched down for a rest.
As luck would have it, his mother and Zola came through the doors talking. "Well, I'm sure that he will show up sometime. He couldn't possibly get anywhere."
"Paul already has been missing for two days, you are positive that the white coats don't have him?" His mother asked.
"I am." He said from where he sat still panting. He straitened up after a moment. "I'm sixteen, don't worry so much." Both women stopped and gaped at him. He suddenly remembered that his hair was very different. "Don't like it?" He shook his head to get his bangs out of his face.
"You look like your father." Was what they both managed to choke out at the same time.
"Bad?" He asked as he pulled up his green muscle shirtfront to wipe away the sweat from his eyes.
"Where did you get the outfit?" Zola asked suspiciously.
"I had one at home but it was blue shorts and a brown shirt, so I bought this one a couple of days ago so I could work out. Did I do something mortally wrong?" He asked.
"Maybe it's a genetic fashion problem." Sugar popped up from behind them. This made him frown.
"What's wrong?" He asked again, starting to feel annoyed.
"Well, Hiro use to wear that exact outfit and the hair is the same. I think you need to gain about five pounds to actually be perfectly him though." His mother smiled at the irony of it.
"Only he lived in those stupid shorts and shirt. You at lease have the good sense to wear other things outside the gym." Sugar pointed out. "You are pathetically skinny! Spandex isn't supposed to look like droppers."
"Leave me alone about it. I haven't felt like eating. I still want you to find her and bring her back." He looked pointedly at Zola. She just shrugged her shoulders. He turned his back on her and gazed at the far wall. Then he began to work out again, using every ounce of concentration he owned to block thoughts from his mind, least he betray himself.
Zola's cell phone made a nasty noise and she answered it hastily. "Yes?...I see...Right away...Yes sir." She hung up. "They found Tiki and she's going to live. You can't see her for a while because they have to make sure she isn't contaminated, but I will fetch you from your mother's when it is permissible." Zola said brusquely before leaving.
Paul stopped his moving and allowed himself to smile a little before his face fell. "Contaminated?"
"They could have put a bomb, transmitter, or a number of other things inside her." Sugar told him softly. "But don't worry, I'm sure she'll be alright. It's just precaution. You did well, but you did make one mistake. She was given a coagulant and the one I give you is a personal blend." She smiled at him.
"I have all of mine if you are implying that I gave her one of them. I've only used one and Peter watched me use it." He shook his head. "I said I wouldn't work in the war."
"Then Relina really saw Hiro's ghost?" Sugar asked softly.
"I don't think you have any reason to believe that I would pretend to be a ghost. It seems silly. He is still alive, right?" He looked seriously at her. "Who ever this Relina is, maybe they are a few beans short of a complete Ty baby. Now can we stop being so alumnus and let me go take a shower?" He smiled.
"You are quite good." His mother returned the smile. "All right."
He went over and picked up a pack of dirty cloths and followed them out the door. "Don't make them believe it was me." He said softly as he followed them to the apartment. When they arrived Sugar made him strip and examined him completely before allowing him to take a shower with his brother.
****"Did you find the title to fit with Paul and Tiki's talk?! Let's find out what more I can think up in chapter 6! Man am I taking off with this plot! I have to work in some Duo screen time next and focus on the other people while Paul and Tiki adjust to each other. Should I write about Peter some?" Azusa Wariko Maxwell****