I Dreamed of Angels
Part Four A
Trowa stumbled past the bushes and almost tripped over a
large root. He pushed his way alongside draping vines, climbed up a short tree
and crawled under a lodged piece of wood. He tiptoed across a ledge, jumped
high and landed directly on the clearing next to a clear puddle.
"Perfect as always." he said as he looked
at his reflection in the water. He was now seventeen, tall and charming, still
dressed in fine clothes and still as stubborn as he was when he was younger.
He straightened out his clothes, smoothed
his hair out and sprayed his mouth with some mint flavored freshener and
continued on a narrow pathway leading out into a street not far.
Before reaching his intended location, he
checked his watch, counted to ten then stepped out into the street saying "Good
afternoon, Angel. Would you like to go out with me today?"
Duo, still not used to Trowa's afternoon
appearances, jumped back into Heero, hit Wufei and almost dropped the soda can
he was holding onto Quatre's shirt.
Trowa grabbed the can with quick reflexes,
emptied its contents on the ground and threw it into the trash behind. All
three steps were done swiftly without taking his eyes off of Quatre.
"So what'll it be, Angel?" Trowa asked
while ignoring the three friends who looked like they were ready to murder him
with their looks of disapproval.
Quatre looked down and sighed.
Before Trowa could open his mouth again,
however, Wufei stood in front of Quatre, effectively blocking the view.
"Quatre," Wufei said. "Why don't you show
Mr. Barton here that paper you have?"
Quatre complied and fished out a folded
paper from his pocket and handed it to Trowa without even raising his head to
look at the expectant boy.
"A love letter? For me?" Trowa asked,
enthusiasm evident in his manner of speaking. He looked through Wufei and right
into the boy on the other side as if the obstruction weren't there.
Not receiving a reply, he quickly unfolded
the paper and read its contents. After reading it thoroughly though, he decided
that a second run would be necessary to confirm the simple message. The message
itself held a collection of ordinary words which when stood alone held a lot
less significance, but when put together, he realized, was strong enough to
separate him from the one person he respected. This time, he had more of a
concentrated look on his face as he read the contents again and again, making
sure that he didn't miss a word of it.
"A restraining order?" he asked in a hushed
tone, a look of disbelief crossing his face. "Why?" He couldn't continue as his
face now held that of disappointment and anger slowly seeping out of his
system.
Of course, he could only hold his temper
for so long as he voiced out the only thing that he could say in line with the
surprise of the news.
"My father will hear about this," he said
through clenched teeth. Although he was still considered a brat, he was now
more restrained in his actions, watching his behavior especially when he was
around Quatre. There was just something about the boy that urged his conscience
to think twice before indulging in his mischievous and oftentimes malicious
ideas.
"What's your father gonna do?" Duo asked.
"You've kidnapped him more times than I could count and I don't think that the
judge would even consider listening to your lame excuses."
"But he's supposed to be my tutor." Trowa
rationalized. "Aha! So how is he going to tutor me if I can't even go near
him?"
"You can find another tutor."
"He was assigned to work with me."
"You could always be assigned another
person."
"I don't function well without him."
"It's not like he's part of your internal
organs. Deal with it."
"I could always demand that he be the one
to teach me."
"It doesn't matter as long as you stay
three hundred feet away from him."
"How am I going to do that if I need to
speak with him?"
"Find a phone three hundred feet away."
"That won't be good enough for me. What
makes you think that this piece of paper is going to stop me?"
"Because I know so."
"That's what you think, Mary."
Duo was flabbergasted at the reminder of
one of his most humiliating experiences. He was furious at the boy for bringing
up the hated topic and immediately went for Trowa's cheek with his fist. A
quick yank from Heero, however, stopped him from the intended assault.
"I only played that part once and *that*,"
he said "doesn't make me any less of a man."
He stood indignantly without making a move
to attack, but as soon as Heero let go, he lunged for Trowa again, the exposed
throat a new target.
"Leave him."
This time Heero opted to speak with a
commanding tone, deciding that it was better than holding back his friend who
was too stubborn to give up.
"He'll get what he deserves."
Duo fell silent and stopped his attack
knowing that Heero's words were enough to sting the other boy's ego more than
he let out.
By this time, Trowa had run out of enough
witty and derogatory remarks to rebuke any further comments so he reached into
his pant pocket to retrieve his portable phone.
He dialed a number, almost damaging the
buttons and suppressed a yell as spoke into the receiver.
"Pick me up. You know where."
He ended the call, pushed another button
and shoved the phone back in his pants.
Duo took this chance to chide away at the
vulnerable boy.
"Yeah. It's about time you went back to
your daddy!" he mocked. "And remember, three hundred feet ...three hundred feet."
Trowa tried his best to ignore him lest he
couldn't control himself and inflict damage on one of Quatre's closet friends.
He tried to clam his nerves as he stared far off into the road, taking on a
proud stance despite his current disposition.
Silent and standing unnoticed in the back
of his protective friends, Quatre sighed again and gave the defeated boy an
apologetic look although the other didn't notice. He'd wanted to stop the
arguments earlier in fear of someone getting hurt or at least join in on the
conversation, but he obviously wasn't given the chance considering the
intensity of the battle that was presented before him. He decided that this
fight between Trowa and his friends was going far more than was necessary and
he had to stop it.
He made a move to go near Trowa and console
the fallen boy, but he was pulled back into place and efficiently held back by
his friends.
Trowa paid no attention to what was going
on and kept calm. It was not until that one statement, however, that Trowa reacted
vehemently.
"Quatre," he heard the voice say. "It would
really do you a lot of good to stay away from him ...permanently."
Trowa would've been able to handle all
other remarks, but the last words spilled forth hurt him worse than all other
insults on his character would have inflicted. He decided that it was unjust to
condemn him to his meaningless existence and deny him of the one thing he had
been searching for so long.
He shoved the three aside, this time with
barely controlled rage. His strength seemed to share the passion of his anger
as he sent his opponents down on the hard ground. He was embarrassed at such a
childish display but found himself satisfied with the act. At least he was able
to perform the deed his little demons were coercing him to do.
He smirked, enjoying his handiwork then
transformed his face so that he looked like the oppressed victim rather than
the guilty party. When he was satisfied with the face he was putting on, he
looked back at Quatre and gently laid a hand on the other's shoulder.
"Don't worry, Angel." he whispered. "They
can't keep me away from you for long."
Quatre raised his head, momentarily
forgetting about his fallen comrades and smiled at Trowa.
"I'll call." Trowa mouthed, making sure
that none of the other boys tangled on the ground noticed.
"Ok." Quatre whispered in return.
Moments later, Trowa's ride came by and the
glowing boy left just as confidently as he entered.