Kiss The Sky [Part Two]
Mundane. That's how I described that day. It was one of those long, boring days when we would both spend time in the lab doing nothing. Let me rephrase that. I was doing nothing. Trowa, on the other hand, was busy. He was always busy. If not for the monkeys that lived in the labs, I would have lost my mind already. While Trowa did whatever experiments with those monkeys, I would look around the cages, either playing with the monkeys or just annoying them to no end. It wasn't the most helpful thing to do but it sure was a way to pass time.
After four straight hours of testing and calculating, Trowa deemed it necessary for lunch. Of course by then, I was exhausted and starving as well. He decided to walk that day and have lunch somewhere around town. I followed him all the way to a small café a block down from the University.
Trowa didn't mention anything the walk short walk there. It was the same everyday. I would keep on talking, deciding to amuse myself and he would keep to himself and act as if I weren't there.
It really didn't insult me all that much actually. Through the years, I've gotten used to our structured existence. I knew that he wasn't blatantly disregarding my presence. It was just our way of dealing with each other.
What did get me annoyed that day was the fact that he didn't mention what exactly he had in mind. It wasn't like I didn't know about his current infatuation already. I was always there to listen to whatever he had to say. He always came to me when he had something new in his mind, whether it was a chemical formula, a philosophical musing or even a silly thought. There was something different about that time, I knew for sure. This Quatre fellow struck a chord I thought no one could.
A short walk, a soft projection of voice and he had Trowa grasped on the palm of his hand. I thought then that I should at least help Trowa get what he wanted. After all, we were buddies for so long. I knew I would have done anything for him.
There was only one problem, however, that stood in my way. As I continued my irrelevant hullabaloo, I noticed Trowa shift his gaze from me to the outside of the café. There were people passing by as was the usual case but it seemed like he wasn't paying attention to the crowd as a whole like he usually did. He was looking at each individual; possibly matching their appearance with that of the person he'd seen the other day. This Quatre person had quite the effect.
Witnessing his actions and taking his personality into consideration, I realized that he wouldn't dare initiate a conversation with the blonde if they were to come across each other again. He was an observer and nothing more. It was that simple.
You see Trowa wasn't the kind to look forward to social interactions. Sure, he associated with me, if that was what you would call it. Aside form Catherine and myself; the world was filled with strangers that had no business with him and therefore never really concerned him. The world was his little lab and the people were part of his experiment. This new person concerned him but he was in too deep in his ideals of social order that he refused to break the mold.
"Trowa, are you listening?"
That was automatic with us. I would ask him a question every once in a while to zap him out of whatever trance he was having.
"He doesn't concern me," he said, almost to himself. "I don't need any further distractions."
Now that statement was really awful. I just had to object while I had the chance.
"Why don't you say that again and this time, listen carefully to what you're saying. Do you even know the implications of that statement?"
He didn't answer me. Instead, he put the rest of the sandwich in his mouth, picked up his coat and left a tip before exiting the café. If you thought that I was annoyed then, you were wrong. It was fine with me when he didn't pay attention to my nonsense but that was a serious question. Anybody would think it inhuman for a person to disregard what was in his heart and instead listened to what was in his head all the time. This topic did not concern being rational. It concerned being human. He must have been out of his mind because I was sure that I didn't want to die alone.
I picked up my coat as well and tried to catch up with him. I didn't say another word the rest of the walk back. I knew it was no use at that point. I would have to talk some sense into him at a latter time.
I've always known that his research was the most important thing in the world to him but I never thought that it encompassed his desire to find someone that would make him happy. I'm telling you, this guy was too serious for his own good.
When we arrived at the lab, I noticed something so obvious that I wondered why I never thought of it before. The lab was practically our hell. The two of us were merely toys scatters around playing with other toys and gadgets. His research was starting to look meaningless and our lives were becoming even more stagnant than it already was. I detested it right then.
I thought about how we usually came in on the mornings, taught a few classes a day and spent the rest of our time in research. The university was utterly dull and our lives were no better. For the first time in who knows how long, I wanted to have a life outside of all that. I wanted to experience what the romanticists and dreamers experienced. I was going to get myself a life and Trowa was coming with me whether he liked it or not.
That was exactly what I had in mind when we arrived home that night. I immediately slumped down on the couch and breathed out in exhaustion. I looked at Trowa, meaning to have a long talk with him and noticed him go directly to the bathroom of our shared apartment. I wasn't about to let my enthusiasm at that moment slip away.
I followed him inside, not caring when he got undressed and dipped himself in the tub. The air smelled like bath soap and he looked like he was going to fall asleep. He didn't usually dip himself in the tub whenever we got home. Maybe I was lucky. If he went directly to his books then I wouldn't have been able to have a decent talk with him.
I put the cover down on the toilet and sat there, waiting for him to notice my presence. When he didn't respond, I decided to begin the conversation.
"Trowa, I think we need a life."
He didn't answer but he looked like he was listening. That was good enough for me.
"I'm starting to get tired of spending so much time at the university. Face it, the students hate us and the company that's funding your research looks like it's going to go bankrupt soon. I don't think I could handle another presentation and beg those corporate people for grants. They always think you're too young and too naive to handle something big."
He didn't object to whatever it was I said. I think he agreed to some degree but I wasn't convinced that he would agree to what I proposed next.
"You know what? We should leave that place. The place is filled with intellectuals who act like pompous, arrogant know-it-alls. We should get a job somewhere else, earn big and fall in love."
He snorted. I never expected that. Perhaps, he never expected that line of thinking from me. He also never expected me to go through with anything. He may have felt the same way but he was willing to continue living that way and he was pretty sure that I would do whatever he decided on doing. I did say something, however, that did catch his attention.
"How about the sweet looking executive at that café yesterday? Do you think he's worth a try?"
He looked amused and dismissed my statement. I didn't see what was so funny about it.
"Later," he said and then went further down into the water.
I made no more attempt to disturb him then. I was tired myself and all I wanted to do was lay down on the sofa, stuff my face with potato chips and watch a long, horror movie until I fell asleep. We had no food for dinner so that was the next best thing. I know. It wasn't very healthy but there were always ways to get along just fine.
A few hours later, I woke up to find the TV station tuned in on the shopping channel. They were advertising an exercise machine that supposedly enhanced your body while you slept.
"Pathetic!" I said and then looked for a decent station.
As I stopped by soap a commercial, I suddenly realized that Trowa might have been out of the bath by then. It was a cue for me to approach him again. I thought that maybe that time, I would be able to have a more decent talk with him.
I supposed that he was in his room, figuring out those hopeful problems but I was surprised to find the room empty. I went to the bathroom to check if he ever came out and found him asleep on the tub. I must have underestimated just how tired he really was.
I snapped my fingers to wake him up and left to clean up the mess I made in the living room. I must have fallen asleep on the potato chips because there were little specks of them all over the place. When I came back to have that talk again, he was fast asleep. There was no use disturbing him then so I decided that I too needed some rest. I closed my eyes and fell asleep within minutes.
The following morning, I was awoken by Trowa's voice. It wasn't really loud enough but the soft murmuring was enough to wake me up. I didn't think that we had any visitors since that was next to impossible. I walked closer to Trowa to check what he was doing.
It wasn't a surprise really. His sister had just called and he looked like he just got out of bed. Catherine was checking on him again. I didn't bother listening so I decided to go make Trowa and myself some breakfast since we were both up earlier that day. Eggs sounded good. They were easy to make too.
As I was leaving the room, however, I heard Catherine ask a question.
"I know," Trowa answered, pausing to think some more. "I've been having this crazed fascination about him ever since the day before. It's been distracting and I don't know what to do about it."
So he was asking Catherine for advice. That was even better that I initially predicted he would do. I had to give him more credit sometimes.
"Some guy at the café the other day. Dear god, not Jules!"
I was sure that she was playing around with him so I left those two to their talk.
"Ok," he answered again.
I left him to suffer Catherine's 150 questions a day. She would start from 'have you been eating' and end with 'you're not eating'. I had better things to do than to listen in.
I had no intention of going to school so I thought up an excuse for myself. At that instant, my scattered little plans came together. I knew that since Trowa did have that unmistakable longing, I had to do something to help ease it. The job was going to be difficult since I barely knew Quatre but there was always a way as long as I knew Trowa. I knew Trowa like I knew myself and I knew exactly how he would react to certain things.
I decided to check the papers littered all over his desk and find out all I could from the pieces of information that I could decipher. They were overburdening for the untrained eye but I was glad that I could at least understand some of it. I needed to find a flaw.
Having decided after a few minutes of searching that there was nothing there, I decided to leave for school early. I wasn't going to attend classes of course. I was going to do a search that day. I was going to make a research on my own. I didn't know much about the corporate world but I did know everything that went around in the university. If I was lucky, I would find some information on that Quatre person. If he were as young as I thought he was then he would most likely be a student.
Heck, Quatre might have been some big guy in his company but in school, Trowa was the big guy. He may have been too young to be convincing but he was enough of a genius to be respected by those old coots. Besides, the University thought of him as an asset and would do anything to keep him there.
I stopped my urge to release the evil laughter that I knew was going to come out. If they would do anything to keep him there then they wouldn't object to my plans. It was all coming together and I thought myself a genius as well.
All I had to do was find a way to get Trowa to subtly and unconsciously agree to my plan. I knew nothing would get Trowa out of those research labs so I thought what better way would there be than to do everything in the lab setting. It was comfortable, it was familiar and most of all it was perfect.