Dragon Lady: Oooh. Another Gundam Wing fic?
Ken: *sighs in disgust* And this still doesn't have anything to do with those Digimon fics that you haven't finished yet.
Dragon Lady: Sorry, Ken-chan. I'll get around to it one of these days. ^^;
Ken: Yeah right. -_-;;;
Dragon Lady: ^^ Um…yes. Neways, here's a new fic that I've started working on.
Ken: Unfortunately it's going to be another multi-chapter fic rather than a one shot. -_-
Dragon Lady: Yeah…well…I haven't written a one shot fic in quite awhile now. But…this fic is going to be fun. ^_^
Ken: All right, Dragon Lady doesn't own Gundam Wing or any of its characters.
Dragon Lady: And this fic was inspired by the book Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan, so I can't take any credit for the idea. And it is definitely AU. So its not going to have anything to do with Gundams or anything. Just the characters and occasionally their pasts will be used for this fic.
Ken: It's shounen-ai, yaoi, m/m coupling, whatever you people want to call it.
Dragon Lady: 1x2 and 3x4. Wow…I'm writing a story that is definitely 1x2 from the very beginning. A story that has definite 1x2 before any 3x4 even starts to develop. o.O *laughs* Now aren't you just so proud of me, Wil? ^_~
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"Quatre. Quatre, wake up."
Quatre groaned and grumbled something incomprehensible, shifting his position in his still dream-like state. He was very tempted to ignore the voice and return to that comfortable dark void where he had been only moments before, but this voice was very persistent in its nagging.
"Quatre, open your eyes," it commanded.
And so he did just that; blinking his eyes open in confusion. "…W-what?"
"We're almost to the town near the school," his sister Iria answered calmly. "We're stopping to put some fuel in the car and then we'll continue on."
Quatre frowned at her sulkily and turned his attention out of the window of their vehicle at the moving landscape. Iria had woken him from his nap to tell him that? Now all he had to look at was the desolate brown grass hills until they made it to the village. "There's nothing worthwhile out here," he noted irritably.
"The town is very small," Rashid, their driver, told him; taking his eyes off the road for a moment to observe Quatre in the rearview mirror. "I dare say there is little more than a few small stores there, to provide the necessities."
"What will I do for fun, then?" Quatre asked, his frown deepening.
"Don't worry, Quatre. I'm sure they'll have plenty for you to do at the school. Most of your time will probably be spent there," Iria reassured him.
Quatre "hmphed" at her. He didn't find that at all comforting. He'd be a social outcast at this place, he just knew it. He'd be lonely and stranded with masses of people who despised him. "I don't want to go here," he said suddenly.
"Quatre, you loved the idea of attending the Institute when Father first suggested it," Iria sighed in evident frustration. She loved her little brother, but he was making things so difficult for her.
"Well, I've changed my mind," Quatre informed her snappishly. "This is just a way to get rid of me, and I'm not going to cooperate. Father just doesn't want me around to remind him of Mother."
A dead silence descended upon the three occupants of the car. Quatre mentally winced. He shouldn't have said that. But it was the truth, wasn't it?
"Oh, Quatre, you know that's not true," Iria told him softly.
"Yes it is," Quatre replied just as softly. "For all everyone pretends, it is. And I'm going to be miserable at the Institute, without Wufei. He's my only real friend, besides you and Rashid."
"You will make lots of fine friends here, Master Quatre," Rashid told him in that serious, deep voice of his.
"Maybe," Quatre muttered without much hope.
He went back to staring blankly out the window.
* * *
They had gotten gas in the car, and had asked directions to his school from the station attendant. At first the man had been surprised at their even thinking there was a school for miles, but when they mentioned that according to the school it was an old remodeled estate he finally figured that they must be asking after the old Dermail place, a name that Quatre had not yet heard it called.
So they'd finally arrived at their destination after finally escaping the attendant, who was apparently very interested about the new purchasers of the Dermail estate.
When they had first caught sight of it, even Quatre had been excited into exclaiming over the beauty of it. It was enormous. Like a magnificent castle in the middle of drab dreariness. The Dermail House, or mansion as it were, was incredible. For a brief moment Quatre had thought for sure that maybe staying here wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. But then the car had pulled through the dark iron gates, and his whole perspective shifted for the worst.
Rashid pulled the car up in front, where a long, impressive stone staircase lead to the heavy oaken double doors of the St. Gabrielle's Institute. Quatre shivered as he looked upon it.
The house felt dark to him, not at all as lighthearted as it appeared to be. Quatre got a strange sense of foreboding, and it was not at all a pleasant feeling to have.
"Now we'll go check in with the headmaster," Iria declared. "You'll bring Quatre's bags, won't you, Rashid?"
She needn't have asked. Rashid was already preparing to do just that.
Quatre hesitated as they started up toward the doors. "Iria, I'm serious, I really don't want to go here," he whispered, suddenly afraid of who might overhear them. "Something is very wrong with this place. It's…evil."
Quatre glared at her when his sister laughed. "Don't be silly, little brother," she chided gently. "Its just nerves talking now. You'll see."
Iria's right, he tried desperately to convince himself. It's only nerves and an overactive imagination at work here.
But the closer they came to the massive doors, the worse the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach became.
Before either Iria or Quatre himself could touch the door, it flew open on its own accord, startling them both into jumping backwards. It took Quatre's eyes a few moments to adjust to the darkness inside.
An aged man stepped out of the doorway. "Ah, the last of our students has arrived, I see. As all the others are here I take it to mean that you would be one Quatre Raberba Winner."
The man had his attention trained on Quatre.
Quatre swallowed and nodded mutely.
"I am the headmaster here at the St. Gabrielle Institute. You may call me Doctor J, young man."
"Thank you for accepting my brother into your school, Doctor," Iria broke in smoothly, when it became apparently that Quatre had been momentarily robbed of his ability to speak. "I am sure that Quatre is going to be very happy here."
"Indeed Ms. Winner, we here at the Institute will do everything we can to make all of our young gentlemen feel at home in a place that has already become our home."
Iria smiled uncertainly, and nodded. Quatre noticed that his sister was also having a difficult time trying to keep herself from staring at Doctor J's mechanical arm.
"Well then, why don't we get the young Master set up in his room?" Doctor J suggested, gesturing for Rashid to come forward with Quatre's bags.
* * *
Quatre was astounded when he saw the room which Doctor J had shown him to. It was very luxurious indeed. Not at all what he had been expecting. The double bed set prominently against the right wall looked like the person went to sleep in it might get lost in all of the sheets and pillows on it. There was even a curtain that one could draw closed, to guard against the cold during winter months, Quatre assumed.
"How gorgeous!" Iria exclaimed.
"We only want the very best for our students," Doctor J replied with his strange smile which even Quatre could only describe as creepy.
"Excuse me, Doctor J," he spoke the name shyly, because he was used to addressing his elders with much more formality. "But won't I be having a roommate?"
"Why no," Doctor J responded as if surprised he should even ask. "We felt that it was most important that every young man have a room to himself, because there is more than enough of them. More gets done that way, now doesn't it?"
Quatre found himself having to agree with him there. Having no roommate meant less study distractions. Wufei and Quatre had planned on sharing a dorm when they got here, but the St. Gabrielle Institute had not accepted his friend, even though Wufei's transcript was surely much more impressive than Quatre's.
"So, what exactly are you expecting to learn at St. Gabrielle's, Master Winner?" the headmaster asked.
"Well…I…don't know," Quatre stammered out his reply with a small frown of confusion. Doctor J's question had caught him off his guard. Shouldn't he be the one asking Doctor J what St. Gabrielle's planned to teach him?
"Do you paint or draw? Like writing stories?"
"Well…I play the violin and some piano…if by that question you wanted to know what I could do in the way of arts, sir."
"Excellent, excellent. The arts are very important here at St. Gabrielle's. Each student will have a personal teacher to go to for their particular talents. I shall see that you get set up with our music teacher."
"Well, Quatre, it looks like you're all set up," Iria smiled. "We'll leave you now."
Quatre shot her a dark glare behind Doctor J's back. Traitor, his eyes accused her.
"Promise you'll write often, Quatre?" she moved to hug him. "We'll send the school's address to Wufei for you. I know you two will want to keep in touch."
"Goodbye, Iria. Goodbye, Rashid," Quatre returned.
"I'll just see this beautiful young woman out, then," Doctor J said. "I dare say the other young men will make themselves known to you soon enough, Master Winner. The dinner bell will be ringing in a short time. Six o'clock sharp, every evening."
"Yes, sir. Thank you," Quatre replied.
When they had all left the room, shutting the door behind them, Quatre went to the window and watched as his sister and Rashid got into their car and drove away. He didn't think the school's atmosphere had agreed with Iria, and yet she left him here. So much for his loving sister.
* * *
Quatre wasn't quite sure how long he sat at the window box seat staring out at the school grounds, but soon the door of his room opened with a terrifying bang and three boys entered. Quatre leapt up in alarm.
"Hi!" A boy with long, braided chestnut hair exclaimed enthusiastically upon seeing him. "You must be Quatre Winner. Oh, sorry. Did we scare you? Didn't mean to."
Quatre breathed as his heart rate slowed to its normal level and stared at the intruders in polite puzzlement.
"Isn't St. Gabrielle's just so cool?" the boy continued to babble on. "I mean, its all enormous and dark and old and everything. Just the kind of place where you'd expect to find ghosts and all kinds of creepy monsters roaming the halls, right? I love it! Only, it makes me feel a little awkward, because its awfully quiet here, isn't it? And I'm rarely quiet, so I guess I sound a little out of place."
"I see…" Quatre replied, sounding rather awkward himself, as he had no idea what he was supposed to say in this situation. He looked at the other two young men, who appeared to have been dragged into his room against their wills. Perhaps they were somewhat bashful about intruding on people's privacy.
"Oh, sorry! Here I am carrying on and I haven't even introduced myself! I'm Duo Maxwell, pleased to meet you. And these two quiet guys here are Heero Yuy and Trowa Barton," he pointed to both of them in turn.
"Heero and I have known each other for years, and when I found out that he was coming here too, I had hoped there would be some more talkative people who could possibly help me to draw him out of his shell a little. But no, I find out that Trowa is just as withdrawn as he is." Duo threw up his hands in defeat and then shrugged in a "but what can I do" kind of way.
"Its wonderful to meet you all," Quatre said.
Duo made a face at him. "'Wonderful to meet you'? Oh, no. You're not going to be one of those incredibly polite, snobby, stuck-up kinds, are you?"
"I'm not snobby and stuck-up," Quatre was surprised at his own indignant protest, he didn't even know these people, but already he felt very comfortable in their presences. "And what's wrong with being polite?"
"Good." Duo laughed and shrugged again, "And nothing's wrong with it, I suppose. Just as long as you don't start thinking you're too good to talk to us."
"That would get awfully lonely for me, with no one to talk to," Quatre pointed out.
"Yeah, I guess it would," Duo grinned in agreement, as if he were glad that Quatre was seeing things his way. He noticed Quatre's suitcases still piled up on his bed where Rashid had left them, still untouched. "Hey, do you need help getting unpacked? We're already all set up, so we can help to save you some time."
"No, that's all right. But thank you for offering," Quatre declined. "I'd rather just do it myself."
"Your call," Duo smiled.
"The dinner gong is ringing," Trowa spoke up for the very first time. Quatre and Duo both turned to look at him. "They want us to come down to eat, I suppose."
Quatre smiled uncertainly at him. Trowa had a deep evenly toned voice that was very pleasant to listen to. He found himself thinking it was a shame that the boy didn't talk much, as Duo had said.
"Great! Hope they've got some decent food here," Duo joked. "Come on, Heero. Food!" Duo grabbed Heero's hand and proceeded to drag him back out of Quatre's room.
Quatre only blinked after the strange boy.
"I hope, whatever the quality, they have enough food to feed a small elephant," Trowa commented, staring after Duo as well. "I can't believe he's still hungry after all the junk food I watched him consume earlier…"
Quatre laughed and smiled at him again. Something told him that he and Trowa could be very close friends. "Well, I hope he leaves some for everyone else, because I am kind of hungry myself."
Trowa made a soft noise of agreement and together they followed Duo and Heero's path from the room, Quatre stopping to shut the door to his room. He paused as it suddenly occurred to him that Doctor J had never given him a key for it. He ran his hands over the knob lightly, murmuring in soft spoken surprise upon a new discovery as he examined the door.
Trowa stopped walking and turned around when he realized that Quatre was no longer beside him. He saw the frown on the small boy's face. "Quatre," he called out, "What's the matter? Aren't you coming?"
Quatre looked up at him and reluctantly turned himself away from the door. "Sorry, I'm coming."
"What's wrong?" Trowa repeated when he caught up and they began walking again.
"Nothing," Quatre lied quickly. "Well, nothing much," he decided to elaborate when Trowa raised a clearly disbelieving brow. "I-I was just noticing how the door locks from the outside, that's all…"
Trowa nodded. Quatre was trying to make it seem like it was not that much of a deal, but Trowa could tell that it was worrying him, even though they had just met. He never stopped to consider how odd it was for him to find himself in tune with the delicate blond.
"I noticed that as well. That must make this house, the estate, very old."
"I wonder though," Quatre hesitated. "The attendant we talked to down in the village told Iria, my sister, that the house was renovated when it was finally bought by the Institute…I wonder why they didn't change the locks. It sounded like there had been a lot of damage to this place to make the renovation a major one."
"They probably just wanted to keep it authentic looking," Trowa suggested, trying to make Quatre feel better, as his tone spoke of increasing nervousness. "It seems like something Doctor J would do, he struck me as somewhat odd."
Quatre took a deep calming breath and nodded. "You're probably right," he agreed. I'm just being silly, he told himself again. "We'd better hurry now if we want for there to be anything left when we get to the table."
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Dragon Lady: Well, there we go, chapter one. ^_^
Ken: I thought you said that there was 1x2 before you started throwing out 3x4 hints…
Dragon Lady: There is. But it won't be obvious that the 1x2 started before the 3x4 until later chapters…
Ken: *rolls eyes*
Dragon Lady: Well, okay, but at least you definitely know its going to be there, right? ^^;;;
Ken: How sad. -_-;;
Dragon Lady: *coughs* Um…and I'm not really all that great at reading into characters yet. Sorry. I don't want to make them OOC, but I have a feeling it might be a little late for that. *sighs*
Ken: Whatever the case, review please.
Dragon Lady: Yes, please. Let me know if you like it, huh? That way I'll know if I should continue or not.