Half A Chance – At Innocence
Thank you four your reviews of the last chapter. You guys make me happy! For all y'all, this chapter only got done because Leita asked me when the next chapter would be out. I said 'Probably Sunday'. This was on Saturday. I hadn't written anything on Saturday. It's first thing Sunday (I mean around midnight) You should all thank Leita for simply asking when. That little question motivated me, for it made me feel I had an obligation to fill. This is where I screw with the plot a little, starting with a library that serves tea… and the thing about shock is true. My mum told me so! So, all of you thank Leita now! *glomps Leita, who is happy because I told her where to get Velvet Underworld mp3. You know, the Weiss opening. We both love it at the moment*
So, at the moment, this one is for Leita for motivating me and making me read Hearts Desire, this is for Card Mistress who just keeps on reviewing (you're so very nice to me! THANKYOU!) And also for another reviewer called Rocky who made nice observations about Hiiro (THANKYOU!) And for the site that supplied me with the Weiss theme coz that inspired me too (I'm ordering the first video today) and also for the third reviewer I can't remember the name of (sorry, but it was short) and also for my good friend Katoru who has just turned up on the fanfiction writing scene. Go read her story, Untitled And Anonymous. I beta'd it, and it's cool! Go, go on then! Oh wait, read this first! *grins, and glomps all readers who I am grateful for, and glomps all reviewers who I am even more grateful for* Anyway, since I'm back to school now (NOOOOOOOO!) as many others are, I wish you all the grades you need, or better! And if you're working, I wish you have a job that is not boring and does not make you feel awful. Or I wish you pay rises and promotions!
Disclaimer: Nope! Don't own 'em!
'Cry, it's because we get hurt and get passionate
That we live to the fullest'
EVO, Digimon Tamers Evolution Theme (Wrong season, but it's a nice quote)
It turned out that Quatre already knew that Trowa wasn't dead, or at least to some extent did. Hiiro's confirmation of his suspicions made him a little happier for perhaps a second, but it seemed that this was not the only problem, and never would be. As for explaining why he wasn't eating or sleeping, it was simply because he wasn't hungry or tired. He said he was fine except for an awful headache at the moment. The nurse had come back, with some lovely Ibuprofen and Codeine tablets (known in England as Nurofen Plus!) and sent the three of them away. Keika was still pretty sure she'd gone unnoticed, simply observing the conversation that made no sense. There were so many questions. Where was Sanq? Who was Trowa? Why would Trowa be dead? She had concluded that she would never get a straight answer out of either of these two, and left it at that. By that time anyway, the bell had since rung, and it was break. Or rather, the bell for the next lesson was about to ring. Keika went away for a lovely dance lesson, not that anyone noticed. Hiiro went to play some B-Ball (well, I need to get rid of him) and Quatre went to the library.
In the Odaiba High library, lots of people went in and out daily. Bookcases lined the walls, and made aisles, and stairs lead up to more bookcases, all filled with books of many different subjects. There were many tables, and a small serving window, where they sold drinks, and at lunch, food. It was a good idea, as many used the library, and being able to get food if you are studying for an exam is fairly lovely.
Quatre walked around the bookcases. It was so odd to see so many books, real ink-on-paper books, in one place. Most books were disks for laptops or cartridges for flimseys(1) He had a lot of books himself, books with stories, books with information, books with music… but it still seemed so odd, all the same. He picked up a book on philosophy, one on psychology, and a book he'd never heard of called 'To Kill A Mockingbird'(2). Taking the paper to an empty table he started reading the story.
About twenty minutes later, someone started tugging on the book. Distracted, he looked up, and was about to ask why whomever couldn't get their own copy, when Sora smiled.
"Hello! You seem mighty interested in that book you know,"
"It's an interesting book."
"Yes… and it's a Japanese Translation, and you're not Japanese, as you probably know."
"Your point being…?"
"Does everyone speak Japanese where you come from?"
"No… everyone speaks Basic, which is just a combination of just about every language. I just know Japanese as well."
"Whatever… been reading it for long?"
"The book? Umm… not really, about twenty minutes I guess…"
"I mean in total."
"I did mean in total."
"Oh." The look of surprise Sora gave didn't go unnoticed. "Right… well you keep on reading. I'm going to get something to drink. Want something? Tea? Coffee? Misc. Beverage?"
"Tea would be nice, thankyou,"
Sora smiled, but still stood there, waiting for the full answer to her question. Not getting it, she pulled the book again. "Well, you want any sugar, milk and the like or what? I'm not a mind reader!"
"Oh… sorry. Three sugars, and milk, please."
Satisfied, Sora went away to get tea. She came back ten minutes later (I know, it's a long time to make two cups of tea) to find Quatre already on the next book.
"Did you get bored of the book or something?" she asked, handing Quatre the sugary milky tea (mmm… just how I like it…)
"No, I finished it."
Sora looked at the book quickly. "Are you serious? You read a book that took me nine hours in under half an hour? What did you do, not pay any attention to the words?"
Quatre was smiling now, and Sora took it as him thinking it funny of how she was behaving.
"It's not funny! I'm one of the fastest readers I know! Only beaten by Izzy, who knocked this one off in 6 hours straight!"
"I read fast."(3)
It seemed the only answer, and Sora sighed, pulling up a chair and delving into the case thingy to retrieve the book she was reading. It was some book on scientific anomalies. She read it, sipped tea, read, sipped, ad carried on this routine until she had nothing left to sip. She looked up, to find her prey gone, along with the books, but not the case. He's still here, she thought quickly, guess he went to find more books. Knowing her things were safe, Sora went to have a look around.
*~*~*
Quatre settled into the dark corner and sighed. Sora was nice enough, she was a distraction to say the least. She felt powerful emotions, that changed a lot, but she was fun. However, her feelings were quickly overwhelming. It was obvious she liked him, and the emotions were about as subtle as a heard of giant flying elephants in tutu's, ballet dancing in the middle of a world-and-space-wide broadcast. He couldn't figure out WHY she liked him, because he could see someone else for her. But then, Quatre is a boy, and wouldn't get girl things. At least he probably wouldn't if he didn't happen to have 29 sisters of various ages.
But now, away from her, and form the other people in the library, Quatre found himself feeling very alone. It wasn't like the feeling was unusual, with his ability he felt he needed to be around people. It helped to be around other people, to take his mind off of things even a little. But then, everyone needs to be alone at some point, and 'face the music' so to say.
Hiiro had said that Trowa was alive so now he shouldn't be guilty. Is that how easy it was for Hiiro? He did everything by his heart, so he'd never regret. He never had anything to tell people, because if there was something wrong he would be able to sort it out. It must be wonderful to be Hiiro. All Quatre saw himself as was someone seeking attention, someone everyone else would get along fine without. He never told anyone what was wrong in an attempt to make them stop worrying, but more and more they treated him like fragile glass.
Why can't people leave me alone? Why can't they only be there when I really need them? Nobody needs me, so why do they care?
*~*~*
Sora found herself drawn to the furthest bookcase up the stairs. It wasn't really any real reason to go if she had a feeling, but as she got closer to her destination she thought she heard someone crying. She stopped, and listened for a while, and heard nothing for a while. She was about to keep walking when she heard what she thought, and realized she wasn't hearing anything. It was something she was hearing in her head. She shrugged it off and went to find her friend.
She found Quatre in the darkest corner, knees drawn to his chest, staring at her blankly. Something akin to a smile was etched on his features, and he looked like he was about to laugh, to cry, or perhaps, to do both.
A mental cry of anguish hit her, and she knelt down by the boy who was fast scaring her. His eyes had taken a dead gray tone, but there was a yellow-gold tint that seemed completely wrong.
"Cat, are you okay?"
The fact she didn't get a response would have suited her just fine. But instead, she got a delayed one. And wished she hadn't asked the question.
"I'm fine. In fact, I'm better than fine. Why don't you just run along now?" His voice was calm and even, but with some kind of psychotic lilt. She had to wonder what was wrong, and felt somewhat sympathetic.
"I don't need your sympathy."
Sora blinked. She hadn't expected that.
"I said: I don't need your sympathy. I don't need anyone's. And before you ask again, I am perfectly fine. Just tell me where to find Hiiro and I'll be ever so happy."
Sora could hear sarcasm, calmness, power, something that scared her to no end, but at the same, a silent pleading for help, fear, remorse, guilt. She shouldn't be able to pick up so many things in a small sentence, but for some reason at this moment she did. She could suddenly relate to the fear, wondering suddenly why Quatre would need to ask where Hiiro was. They had gone their separate ways and stated where they were going. She could tell he was not a forgetful person; so who was she speaking to now? Fear was starting to take hold as she felt someone calling for her help. She needed to know what was wrong, with who, where, why, how she knew, and the like.
"You're scared."
Sora was broken from her thoughts and blinked once more. How could Quatre, or whoever he was, know that? Was it that obvious?
"Why are you scared?"
Blinking again. For some reason she couldn't think of much else to do.
"I understand. You should be scared."
Sora stood slowly, as if preparing to turn and run like the wind. She was wondering why she was scared herself. But curiosity got the better of her, as it has many. The way he was saying things, just lead to people wanting to know more. So she asked.
"How do you know?"
The answer seemed to be spoken as if it was so obvious.
"Because it's so blatant,"
Quatre was smirking. There was something completely wrong about his tone of voice, the words he spoke, the way he was acting, and his eyes… her mind was set to run like hell and find Hiiro. She stared to leave.
"Wait. I want to know where Hiiro is."
Sora did as she was told and stopped. She didn't dare turn around to be faced with those eyes.
"I don't know where he is,"
"Then why are you going to him?"
How had he known that? Was it the course of action so obvious? "Well, you don't know where he is, so I guess I'll go find him for you. You said you wanted him, right? I'll go get him!" She could not hide the fact she was nervous for love nor money. Well, wouldn't you be nervous if someone you don't know too well suddenly seems to have a split personality or something?
"No. You wont. I'd like to… surprise him." There was something that seemed to suggest that she needed to run, to hide, to be anywhere that wasn't near Quatre. But still, there was something there, a silent pleading for her to find Hiiro ASAP.
"But really, I could do it for you! It's not a problem!" She forced back the nervous laughter as she started to walk again.
"It is a problem. You will stay here. Do you understand?"
Sora stopped dead. That voice, it was cold, dark, menacing, threatening, powerful, but still there it was, the quiet pleads to find help in anyone if she herself could not help. She turned back round to face him.
He was almost directly behind her, and even though he was shorter and smaller, he was intimidating. She wanted to do something. Then she had something akin to light-bulbs and said, "Okay then! Why not we just go together then, huh? Or we could both look, it's a pretty big school, he could be anywhere!" She latched onto his arm, only to have it roughly shoved off. "Aw come on, if it's as urgent as you're making it out to be, then you'll need some help, right?" She knew she was being sincere. Something in his tone told her this was urgent. She thought it was urgent. He seemed to contemplate this, but before having a proper chance she grabbed his hand and would have pulled him down the stairs had it not been for the sudden feeling she got. He could dimly note them both sinking to the ground as an odd form of pain overtook all her senses. She wanted to scream, but could not find the voice. She wanted to move, but her body would not comply. She felt the familiar wave closing, one full of fear, guilt, sadness, remorse and the like. She could hazily feel hot salty liquid make tracks down her face, when suddenly everything rushed back to her. She was kneeling on the floor, as was Quatre. She couldn't pay attention to anything for the second, as the dull throb in her head left far too slowly for her liking. Her thoughts snapped back, and she looked around quickly. Her hand was on the floor. She looked at Quatre. He was clutching his chest and looked in an awful lot of pain.
"Quatre…?"
She didn't get a reply. Only harsh breaths. She looked at the surroundings once more. They were still in the corner, and no one could see them. She didn't know what to do, she didn't know what was wrong. Should she go and find someone like the nurse?
"Quatre… what's wrong?"
His eyes, previously shut, opened and bore into her. She felt odd under his full attention. Like he could see her every secret.
"Find… Hiiro…!"
*~*~*
Scoring a fifth time, Hiiro smiled. It felt nice to be good at something, as others darted around, trying to match him, but his skills far exceeded there own. Being a Gundam Pilot was probably an unfair advantage of course, but he'd won the respect of his peers. He prepared to start yet another game with another individual, he saw from the corner of his eye one of those CCs, the Sora girl, running full steam towards the court. He thought maybe she wanted to play him, but dismissed the thought as soon as he saw the urgent look on her face. He left the court, leaving everyone else in the dark.
"Hiiro!" Sora was practically screeching. Something had to be wrong.
"What?" he spoke in his famous deadpan.
"Just follow me!" She was rushing, and seemed to be avoiding entering the school itself. Maybe it was because you weren't allowed to run in the halls. That must mean that this was worth his attention. They finally came to the outdoor entrance to the library, and he was sure that had the door not been open she would have run clean through it. He followed her up the stairs slowly as she rushed ahead, but waited at the top. She slowed considerably to catch her breath after all that rushing. She'd learned from someone else that Hiiro was playing anyone and everyone at B-Ball, but the court was on the other side of the building. She stopped to breathe and Hiiro waited patiently. Finally she caught her breath and started to talk, rather slowly.
"Hiiro, you do know how difficult you are to find at times, don't you? Cat told me to find you. First he was talking about surprising you, and he didn't know where you were. I don't know why though, you two always seem to know where the other is. But when he was talking there was… something wrong. Then things went fuzzy… and then he told me to get you." By the time she was done with the miniscule explanation, they were by the dark corner, and Quatre seemed to be asleep against one of the many bookcases. He was shaking ever so slightly, and beads of perspiration covered his face. Sora had to wonder when he had fallen asleep, or how. She went to try and wake him up.
"Come on Cat, up you get. You're not supposed to sleep in school, remember? I got Hii-kun for you,"
She shook him lightly, but the contact left her with strange flashes of images that fleeted before she could grasp proper hold. She stopped, and his eyes snapped open.
"Thankyou… Sora… I'm sorry…"
She couldn't quite contemplate what he meant, but decided that whatever was to be sorry about was forgiven. Quatre looked up at Hiiro, shame and guilt blatant. Sora backed away as Hiiro knelt beside the smaller boy.
"It's alright," he whispered, Sora hearing something oddly comforting in what was usually a monotonous drone. He cared.
"Hiiro… I-"
"It's okay now," Hiiro spoke with such certitude it was hard to refute him. "It's okay. Don't worry."
Hiiro pulled Quatre into a tight embrace, to chase away demons, as his shirt soon became damp and warm, muffling quiet sobs. He looked to Sora and smiled gently, a silent thank you.
*~*~*
Sora tasted the tea, and grimaced instantly.
"Ewww, just how much sugar is in that?"
Quatre smiled. "That's mine. This one is yours."
Sora tasted the other cup, but it was still sweeter than usual.
"I only take one sugar."
"Yeah, well, my sister always says that you should drink tea with an extra sugar for shock."
"And just how many sugars are in yours?"
"Well, I take three, so I've got five. One for shock, one for good luck."
Hiiro sipped a black coffee nonchalantly.
"I don't see why you don't just drink coffee anyway. It's better for keeping you awake."
"Caffeine is bad for me. It makes me hyper."
"And 5 sugars in a small cup of tea doesn't?"
"Nope!"
Hiiro was forced to smile. How odd it was to be in this place, and just have the sort of conversations normal teenagers would. Well, almost normal.
TO BE CONTINUED
(1) I made up flimsey. It's just like a small thing with a screen and a thin cartridge pack. Like a Game Boy, but thinner, and it can be folded up and the like.
(2) I'm doing 'To Kill A Mockingbird' at school at the moment, and I don't know what's with the philosophy book. The psychology one was to do with my old story Crossing Paths. Sora read a lot of Psychology books in that
(3) Well, he's definitely got way above average intelligence, and I guess he has to read al sorts of things fast, so he read a book in a half-hour. It actually did take me about 11 hours total.
Well, that it! I'm REALLY tired now, gotta sleep… please review so my lack of sleep can be hypered by reviews!
