Chapter
4
On a semi-busy street, in a
small town located in a large but rather low populated state, Duo Maxwell
resided in a large four bedroom loft he had bought with his own money after the
wars had ended. Most of the time the eighteen-year-old pilot spent his days
there alone, going to work at a small computer repair business for most of the
day, stopping in at the Preventer HQ if he was needed, and then returning home
to the empty loft. He'd never really considered living with another person,
even though Quatre insisted several times that the Dethscythe pilot should give
up his rather lonely life style and come live in the Winner mansion. Duo told
Quatre that he really did prefer to live alone, seeing as that's how he'd spent
most of his life. Of course once he'd said those words he's made the
self-realization that he wasn't truly happy that way, it was just a normal
feeling and it kept him somewhat sane. As much as Duo loved action and
adventure, any kind of major changes to his life shook the foundations and made
him feel uneasy.
Which was exactly how he was
feeling when he opened the door to his loft and ushered Asuka and Shinji
inside.
"Um…you'll have to excuse the
mess. Things have been a little hectic lately." Duo said apologetically as he
closed the door behind him.
"Duo, you've been apologizing
for this, that, and everything else the entire drive over here." Shinji said
over his shoulder as Asuka admired the place, "It's no big deal, really."
"Have I?" Duo let out a short,
embarrassed laugh and he felt his cheeks burning. He absentmindedly scratched
the back of his head, "Gomen…er…I mean I'll stop now. I didn't realize I was
doing that so much. I'll show you up to your rooms." He added, quickly
shuffling off to the spiral staircase that lead up to the upper floor and the
four large bedrooms. Asuka and Shinji followed close behind, Asuka admiring the
rather large place. The bottom contained a huge living room with a plush white
round couch and a big screen TV complete with stereo system and speakers a
large kitchen with new appliances, and a small recreation area with a pool
table, small radio, and dart board.
"You live here alone, Duo?"
Asuka asked as she climbed the stairs. Duo nodded ahead of them.
"I had enough money after the
wars to buy a place like this, and I figured 'why not? I've been to hell and
back, I deserve a great bachelor pad!'" the braided pilot boasted, even though
he was turning rather red at the thought of using the words 'bachelor pad'
around Asuka. Duo stopped at the top of the hall.
"Okay, this room and this room."
He said, gesturing to the very top door and another next to it, "are my rooms.
This one's my bedroom; the other one's my office. It's got a computer and a few
other things in there. Feel free to use them. Oh, now that I think about it,
the school in the area requires like half your homework to be typed, so as soon
as I get the chance I'll get you two some laptops and some portable printers.
Until then you two are gonna have to fight over the one in there." Duo joked
with a huge grin, trying to rid himself of his uncomfortable feeling.
"So…what about our rooms?"
Shinji asked.
"What? Oh! Right, sor…um…right."
Duo blushed again, feeling himself stumble over words that were usually so
normal for him to say. He felt in such an awkward position at that moment, and
silently wondered why he had agreed to take the two survivors in.
Duh Maxwell…you couldn't
stand the way Asuka looked so lost and lonely…you know they're pain so well
that…that…
Duo nearly cursed out loud
right there. Even his own mind was getting confused.
Just get back to telling them
about their rooms, baka!
"Um…you two will have to
choose your own rooms, but it's basically this one," Duo explained, gesturing
to a sparsely furnished room next to the office, "and this one," he moved his
arm to point at the end of the hall, where another small room was, "They're
about the same size, and don't have that much except for a bed and a dresser,
but I promise I'll get more things for you guys when I get paid again."
Shinji walked to the room
closest to where he was standing, which happened the one next to the office. He
poked his head in and looked around for a moment.
"Did you want this one, Asuka?"
he asked.
"I really don't care…but which
one has the better view?" Asuka pondered. Duo smiled at her words.
"A girl after my own heart. The
one at the end of the hall way." Asuka wandered down there, peered in, and
looked back out with a tiny smirk.
"I'll take it."
Just as she said it the phone
rang shrilly downstairs and Duo rolled his violet eyes.
"Never a moment's peace…" he
grumbled, taking off down the stairs and grabbing the phone on the fourth ring.
"Do you think we're doing the
right thing?" Shinji suddenly asked Asuka.
"Why do you think we're not?"
Asuka retorted, folding her arms over her chest and eyeing Shinji.
"I feel like we're imposing…"
Shinji said rather dejectedly, putting his arms behind his back and refusing to
meet Asuka's prying eyes.
"He offered, Shinji. Would you
rather be back in Tokyo-3?"
"No…"
"Shinji…" Asuka sighed, walking
up to her friend and putting her hand on his shoulder, "This is all we have
now. These pilots…they're doing what they can for us. We should take what we
can get and not complain."
Shinji looked up at the auburn
haired girl with slight surprise.
"Strange words coming from you,
Asuka." He stated, even though his voice was no more malicious than his stance.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Asuka snapped, jerking her hand back as though Shinji were some kind of plague.
Before Shinji had a chance to redeem himself Duo came jogging back up the
stairs.
"I'm sorry guys but they need me
back down at the HQ. I really wish I could stay and show you around some more
but Noin insisted they needed me. There should be some frozen pizzas in the
freezer and some other food in the fridge. It's not much, but I'm broke until
next payday. Will you guys be okay here alone?" he explained, looking a little
irked at the sudden call back.
"Oh we'll be fine. Go do your
job, Duo." Asuka smiled, waving her hand like it was no big deal.
"Really? Thanks for
understanding. I should be back around one! Ja!" Duo called as he ran back down
the stairs, grabbing his jacket off the couch and running out the door. Asuka's
smile faded instantly once the door was closed.
"Well this sucks…our first night
here and we're stuck alone…" she complained.
"He can't help it, Asuka.
Besides, we should be used to being alone." Shinji assured the girl as he made
his way down to the kitchen.
"Yeah…but who's saying I wanted
to be alone again…"
Around
1 a.m.
Duo sighed deeply as he looked
at the still healing wound on his shoulder.
"Another scar for the
collection, hey Maxwell?" he asked to the silent, darkened room behind him and
the quiet night out in front of him. He stood on the balcony of his room,
scanning over the many scars that riddled his body. No one knew of the hundreds
of scars that marked Duo Maxwell's body, and Duo had all ready made the choice
that no one was ever going to know. Each tiny mark, each little section of
reddened flesh spelled out a lifetime of horrible pain that none of the other
pilots could begin to understand.
I'm nothing but a street
rat…a kid whose lived by his wits alone. No wonder I relate to Shinji and Asuka
so much…they're just like me…
Behind Duo the floorboards
suddenly creaked, the obvious sound of pressure being applied. Duo grabbed the
nearest weapon, which happened to be a simple steel pipe he'd left out there
from trying to fix some outside plumbing.
"Who's there?" he demanded in a
no-nonsense tone as he looked over his shoulder.
"Gomen…" a soft female voice
replied. Duo spun on his heel, rather surprised to see Asuka standing there in
nothing more than a large t-shirt and her underwear. She had Duo's small pistol
that he kept in the office in her hand and was obviously shaken.
"Asuka?" he nearly squeaked out
in surprise.
"I…just wanted to make sure that
was you who came in." she explained quietly, "Shinji didn't lock the door."
"I noticed…" Duo grumbled,
mentally reminding himself to scold Shinji in the morning for such a foolish
move.
"Your shoulder…it still hasn't
healed?" Asuka pointed to Duo's bare shoulder. Duo jumped and quickly pulled up
the collar of his blue button-down and re-buttoned the shirt with fumbling
fingers.
"Yeah, it's still pretty messed
up." He said in an angry tone.
"Is something wrong?" Asuka
asked, placing the pistol on Duo's dresser.
"Nothing's wrong…"
"Then why did you pull your
shirt up so fast?" Asuka demanded, completely catching Duo off guard. He looked
up with wide violet eyes that were strangely reflected from the streetlights
outside.
"I…just didn't want to remind
you of what happened, that's all." He responded rather slowly, using the only
excuse he really had.
"Oh…" Asuka sighed, not entirely
convinced, "You're not going to be running off every night, are you?" she asked
out of the blue, once again throwing Duo off.
"N-no. Of course not." He
tripped over his words; "They just needed tech support tonight. The main
computer was malfunctioning. Are…you sure you were all right here tonight?" Duo
asked the girl, taking a few steps forward and reaching his hand out to her.
Asuka refused to meet his gaze
as she replied, "We were fine."
"What about you?"
"I…" Asuka trailed off as she
finally raised her watery blue eyes to Duo. She blinked quickly and shook her
head as though to tell herself that crying was wrong, "I was fine. I'm going
back to bed."
"But-"
"Goodnight, Duo." She cut him
off, turning curtly on her heel and walking out the door. She stopped at the doorframe
and glanced over her shoulder, adding, "And thank you." before rushing in to
her room and closing the door.
Duo's arm fell limply at his
side and he let out a tremendous sigh, still staring at Asuka's closed door.
"Asuka…"