Muffled Cries
Chapter One
By: Ann Lowe Chapter Created: December 26, 2002
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. Sad, huh? But I do, however, own the plot of this story! I would really hope that no one is unoriginal enough to steal this, but if they do.Well, I'll borrow Sylvie-chan's angry penguin squad and hunt you down! MUAHAHAHAHA! Oh, and if you do so happen to decide to sue me, I'm gonna have to sell all the stuff I bought from you in order to pay you.so it's completely pointless! So.please don't!
Author's Notes: Erm, WARNING! This is a YAOI story! I repeat, YAOI! That means boy/boy love and affections! Also, there will be LIME in this story! SERIOUS lime! So, what I'm saying is this (in layman's terms): If you don't wanna read about two guys making out, don't read ANY of this story. Sure, they won't do anything for a while, but hey! If you won't appreciate all of it, don't read any of it. I mean that, it's a rule to live and learn by! Also: any asterisk (*) seen within the story will have a note with it at the end of the chapter. This means: READ THE NOTES AT THE BOTTOM! There will be an author note at the bottom of every chapter. Read 'em, please! It'll do you good! And there'll be hints of the next chapter! *nudges and wiggles eyebrows* Please read them! I don't write this for my health you know! (Well, actually I kinda do.but hey!) Now, enjoy the story! Go on, enjoy!
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A young man turned in his sleep, haunted by the dreams of the past. Haunted by the returning fear of pain and sorrow. Something, he did not know what, haunted his life and dreams. And he didn't know what that something was. And he wasn't the type who didn't care about knowing the future. No, if his future didn't contain something stable and read, he was afraid. He hated not knowing things. And those things usually hated him right back.
He shifted once more, and closed his eyes tighter, subconsciously, as he wasn't awake.even in the slightest. He let out a slight whimper, and curled into a fetal position, unconsciously crying. For the, seemingly, millionth time in his life.
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December 1, AC 205 Brussels Preventer Headquarters Research Room No. 105 Research Personnel: D. Maxwell, W. Chang, S. Chang, Z. Merquise. Research Objective: Locating Missing Person
"Okay. Now, let's find this guy!" Duo Maxwell clapped his hands together. "Heero's the only one of us who hasn't contacted Preventer for a job! The ten-year anniversary is coming up at the end of the month! He has to be there! Now! Everybody know their duties?"
"Yes." Chorused three voices.
"Great! Now, let's try the obvious first, just in case." Duo shrugged and promptly got slugged on the back of the head. "What?!?"
"Stop acting like an idiot!" Sally bopped him on the head again. "He'd never make himself that easy to find. He's too.secretive." She rolled her eyes.
"More like anti-social." Wu Fei grinned and laughed. "He may talk more than Barton, but he sure isn't a better person to have a conversation with. Hell, Barton is better at conversing!"
"He probably is!" Duo shouted, irritated. "But, we should still look. Start at the easy and work our way up."
"Fine. Which records should we check first?" Zechs sat down at the computer and opened up a search screen.
"How about the L1 area? Residential records, I mean. He's from there, so maybe we can get a start." Duo suggested, causing everyone to look at him funny.
"How the hell did you find that out?" Wu Fei looked mildly impressed.
"Eh, he told me. I just asked."
"I do not understand you. Either of you." Zechs rolled his eyes. "Fine. Should we enter a name?"
"No. Most definitely not." Duo grimaced. "He's so good at changing his name that he may not even remember his real one." The rest of the group had to agree. "Fingerprint?"
"Good idea." Zechs pulled up the Preventer records, and copied the prints onto the search file, and hit 'search'. For about twenty seconds, the machine searched.and found a match. Everyone there felt their jaw hit the ground, then they face-faulted.
"Uhh.guys? Did we just get a result? From a regular search engine?" Sally's eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets, and she looked up at the name that had matched prints.
"Wow." Duo looked stunned. "I actually had a good idea. Well, who is this guy? Is it Heero?"
"Well, let's see." Zechs clicked on the name. Rei Lowe.
A picture and data popped up. Everyone's jaws became reacquainted with the floor.
"It's.him." Duo was always one for pointing out the obvious. And he was right, too. Dark blue eyes stared back at them from the computer screen, and an emotionless face, that they all remembered so well, was placed before them.
"That was far too easy. What's he doing? Going senile?" Wu Fei was still recovering from shock.
"No.just becoming a little less protective of himself." Sally shrugged. Suddenly Duo's eyes got irritated and his lashes shaded his eyes. A large sweatdrop situated itself on his forehead.
"Either that or he knew we were going to be looking for him, and decided to give us a break, and is monitoring this and secretly laughing at his own being right. The bastard." Everyone laughed, even the stoic Lightening Count.
"Well, Sally, Wu Fei, you two know what you have to do, correct?" Zechs confronted the two long-term partners.
"Of course. Go and get him. Bring him back. Even if we must do so with him in ties and bonds." They both mock-saluted, then fell over laughing. "We're going now!" They laughed and stumbled out of the room.
December 3, AC 205 L1 X10001 Colony Residential Area
Sally and Wu Fei just stared at their surroundings.
"Wow. This is so.normal." She glanced back at her map. "Are you sure you got the right address?"
"Yes, for the fifth time. I suppose he just wanted a normal life. I just didn't think he would. Now, we're on the right street, look for house numbers."
"Okay, what number is it?"
"Eighty-eight."
"Okay, that's on my side."
"That's why I told you to look."
"Wu Fei."
"Yeah?"
"Shut up." (*)
"."
"Oooo! Here it is!"
"What?!?"
"Right there!" She pointed to a medium-sized white house with the number 'eighty-eight' in black letters on the front.
"Wow." They pulled over to the side of the curb and looked at the house, then slowly, but surely, got out of the car. Together, they walked up to the door and rang the bell. No one came. They tried again. Same response.
"Umm. Isn't today a Tuesday?"
"Yeah."
"And it's three-thirty?"
"Yeah."
"Won't he be at work?"
"." He glared at her.
"Ha! I bet I'm right!" She ran around the side of the house and pressed her face to the window of the garage. No car. "Yeah! He's gone!"
"Okay, so we wait."
"No, we go do something, and come back later."
"Fine, what do you want to do?"
"Well, this colony is renowned for its Chinese and Japanese food! Japanese, mostly, as most of the inhabitants are Japanese, but there's supposed to be this great restaurant here that's a mix of the two! Can we go, please!" She pushed out her lower lip.
He sighed and rolled his eyes. "I suppose." Then smiled lightly as she jumped, bounced rather, all the way back down to the car.
About two hours later, deciding that since most people got off at five, the two returned to the home, to see the garage door open, and a lovely blue sports car inside.
The walked back up to the door, and rang the bell. They were shocked at what they heard.
"Coming!" Was yelled from the inside of the house, and they heard the sound of a pot lid being put onto its namesake. Then, there were footsteps, and the door opened. They were face to face with none other than Heero Yuy himself, casually dressed, and casually living.
"Wow. Hey." He smiled politely and opened the door. "You weren't exactly who I was expecting!" He laughed lightly. "But trust me, I'd rather you here that who I expected." He rolled his eyes lightly. "Come in!" Wu Fei and Sally were too far into shock-relapse to argue and walked inside.
The walked inside to a relatively light décor. Not that they were expecting much. They were in the living room. It was furnished with a large armchair, sofa, vintage stereo, television, bookshelf, and a small glass-cased shelf with breakable items inside. Just like any normal home would have.
Over the years, all the pilots and their friends had matured, physically and mentally. Wu Fei had grown taller and slightly bigger in most places. His muscles, which had formerly been strong, but not visible, were now prominent and caused him to look rather buff for someone as small-boned as he. For, though he had grown, he was still only about 5'8". Sally hadn't grown any taller, or any broader, but her features had softened a little, and her figure was more noticeable.
Of the others, Zechs hadn't done much growing at all, except for longer hair and more maturity, Duo had grown taller and more masculine, Quatre had remained small, he was only 5'5", Trowa had grown taller yet and definitely more masculine, yet hadn't lost his grace, Relena had grown taller as well, and had a more developed figure, Hilde had not grown taller, but she had filled out more, and Noin had stayed, for the most part, the same. Well, maybe her attitude was lighter, and she was currently quite fat. But, that was mostly due to her being pregnant.
Now, as the men who were once boys had all grown taller and more masculine, there had to be one exception. Heero had not grown more masculine, surprisingly, and still had the same figure. One relatively similar to a woman's (**). He had grown taller, but only a little, and may have been slightly shorter than Quatre, if not the same height. His muscles weren't very focal, and he didn't seem to have filled out in his bones. He still looked, for all reasons and purposes, like a young, teenage boy. One who hadn't quite reached puberty. And they all knew that he'd stay like that, too, as he was well into puberty, and didn't have any more time left for his body to develop.
But, that was to be expected, one might suppose. He had never been very masculine. Not even during the war.
However, there were more changes to the group than just the obvious and visual ones. First off, there had been marriages. First, Zechs and Noin had been married. Their seventh anniversary was coming up shortly. Wu Fei and Sally had married slightly over four years ago, and Hilde was engaged to a man she had been blindly set up with, thanks to Duo, named Charles Courier.
Noin was expecting her second child sometime in March of 206. The first had been born April 10, 200. A little boy named Mickeleon. He had his father's hair and his mother's eyes. This caused him to look slightly over- innocent and sweet. Though, he'd turn your house into a pigsty if you let him run wild for even a minute. More of a brat than anything, but they all loved him, and he loved them all back.
The moment all were situated in Heero's living room, he swiftly left into the kitchen, and came back shortly with odd-shaped brown glasses with tea for them. "Here. It's green tea, very good for you, and very good for your taste buds!"
"Thank you!" Sally smiled politely and sipped at it. She was surprised at how good it tasted. She had always thought that green tea was only for health freaks and tasted like the rest of the stuff health freaks ate.
"Yes, thank you." Wu Fei replied as well. He had tasted green tea before, but this was much better than he remembered.
"Very good!" Sally complimented. Heero just smiled lightly.
"Yes, it's a Japanese custom to serve it. It's also a family recipe. Tea leaves are actually moderately simple to raise and brew, if you know how to do it and have done it before." He smiled and sipped his tea.
"So how are you?" Wu Fei asked politely, and friendly, too.
"I'm fine. I haven't been doing much, though. It's rather boring." He yawned, possibly to accentuate his point, but most likely because the tea was making him sleepy. The married ones were realizing this was the case with them, too, right about now. "How about you? How is everyone?"
Wu Fei related a non-detailed summary to the man of disappearance.
"So what are you doing here? I'm doubting you just wanted to chat."
"Well, as you know, it's the ten-year anniversary of the end of the Eve Wars, and the Gundam Pilots, as a whole, have been asked to give a speech for the ceremony. Each of us was asked to give one. But you didn't leave a place where you were going to be, so we had to come and find you." Wu Fei told him plainly.
"I see. Sorry for making you look. I didn't hide my information. It's not like anyone is looking for me anymore. And the ones who might be already know I'm here." Though hardly noticeable, there had been a note of something in his Heero's voice as he said those words. Something along the lines of.disgust and fright.
"It's no problem. We had a very lucky guess on where to start looking, and found you in five minutes. We had assumed it would take days, but it didn't." Sally was still surprised, and let it show.
"Oh, sorry. No, I don't feel I should have to hide. I doubt very much that I'll be murdered in my sleep." He smiled and laughed.
"Yes, a little birdy with a big mouth said you were from this area, so we checked the L1 area residential records, by using your fingerprints." Wu Fei said stoically.
"I think I know who that was." Heero laughed slightly. "The only person I told that to does have a big mouth, now doesn't he? Oh well, it's not like it's personal information. Not that big of a deal." He stood up suddenly, and stretched. "Would either of you like something to eat?"
"No thank you." Wu Fei said, scowling at Sally. "She dragged me to about thirty restaurants here in town."
"I see." Heero chuckled. "There is some pretty good dining here. It's the only thing we ever get tourists for! This is the smallest colony in all of the network. We have about.two thousand people living here. We mainly use the areas around for resources."
"Didn't this use to be a resource satellite?"
"Yeah, then it was attacked and discovered by the government. The family that had been living here secretly was killed, so they say, and people moved in."
"That's horrible!"
"Yeah, since it's a true story."
"You're serious?!?"
"Yes. I knew them. Well, I knew the few that lived. Since the incident occurred when I was four-years-old." He smiled, if somewhat sadly. Wu Fei and Sally were still shocked to see the change in him. The man who had had seemingly no emotions during the war was just like them. No, he wasn't. Wu Fei looked at the eyes of his comrade. They were blank. Devoid of emotion, care, or any other hint of feeling. He was still the same on the inside. He'd just changed costumes.
"That's so sad." Sally trailed off. "I hope they found their way to heaven."
"Yes, only the ones who lived won't make it there." He walked, rather quickly, back into the kitchen, throwing over his shoulder: "I'm going to put away my dishes. I just finished supper before you arrived." After a little while, Sally brought her and Wu Fei's cups into the kitchen, and planed them on the counter when directed to by Heero. After a while, he returned to the living room, to sit with his friends.
"So what are you doing now?" Wu Fei was referring to his job and life.
"I'm a High School teacher. I teach History." He smiled lightly. "I like teaching. I like to believe I'm rather good at it, too."
"I assume you would be. You were able to explain things to even the most hard-headed of us. Even if the ways you explained it didn't make sense right away, they made more sense, perhaps, later than the facts would have at the beginning if you'd explained it in a conventional way."
"I suppose that's just my style." Heero shrugged.
"So what name are you going by?"
"The one I was born to. Rei Lowe is my real name." He just looked up at them, completely peaceful.
"Is Rei short for anything?"
"No, it's Japanese. Rei. R-E-I. It means 'zero' or 'nothing', which is mildly appropriate, if you think about it." He smiled sadly once more. "And I have my mother's last name. Lowe. If I were to have taken my father's, it might have caused quite a stir."
"I can't remember my parents." Wu Fei said quietly.
"I can't either. Don't feel bad. They died when I was four."
Wu Fei and Sally thought about that for a while, then looked back at him. Heero was looking out the window, his eyes narrowed and sad.
"But, I can remember my brother!" Sally said cheerily, trying to bring the mood back up.
"Hmm.? Oh, yes, I remember my siblings. My parents had four children. Just a couple too many, really, for them to put up with!" He laughed. "My sister and I nearly drove our parents crazy several times." He looked up at them. "I had two older brothers, and a twin sister. Christopher, Charles, and Riley." He smiled. "Charlie and Riley died when the base exploded in 195. It was in March. About three weeks before Operation Meteor began." He looked down this time. "Chris is still alive, but I would prefer he wasn't. Bastard." His eyes were narrow again, but this time with fury, and his knuckles were white, as he was squeezing his hands tightly.
"Hey. It's all right, you know?" Sally smiled reassuringly at him.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. He just upsets me a little. It's not really a big deal."
"Oh, all right." Anyone could tell she didn't believe him.
"I have pictures of all of us, if you'd care to look at them. I have to go to bed, I have work tomorrow. Oh, right, the speech. I can do it, as long as it's over Christmas break."
"I believe the speeches are on the actual anniversary, Christmas Eve. Right when everyone is together with their families and can watch them peacefully." Sally smiled gently.
"That's good. Yeah, I can make it. Where do you want me to show up?"
"Brussels International Airport. We'll have a Preventer vehicle pick you up." Wu Fei stated facts, and nothing else.
"All right," and he got up and left the room, coming back several minutes later with an album, two blankets, and two pillows. "You two will stay here tonight, right? The hotels around here are horrible."
"Oh, sure, why not?" Sally smiled politely and both husband and wife said their thanks when handed bedding materials.
"I don't have a spare bedroom, but the couch pulls out into a bed." He reached down and pulled it out, Wu Fei and Sally standing up so to not be in the way.
"Well, I suppose we'll see you in the morning."
"Yeah, Oyasumi nasai." Heero smiled politely, bowed, and headed up the stairs to go to bed.
"Well, care to look through it?" Sally asked her husband, holding up the album Heero had brought down for them to amuse themselves with.
"Why not? He said we could. In fact offered it to us."
"Okay!" She opened it to the first page, and automatically noticed the hand-written note on the inside cover. She pulled it out and read its contents.
Hey! This is Ann! I'm making a wonderful little photo album of all my family! Andrew, the jerk, persuaded me to write this little note in English, rather than Japanese, the party pooper. I originally wrote it in Japanese, and you can read that if you turn this over, but hey! It's in English now, and that's all that matters! Well, these pictures are all of my family! My husband, children, and pets! Not that we'll ever have any pets, since I'm allergic! But hey! Who cares, eh? It sounds good! Well, I've got little labels in both Japanese and English under each picture, so you can go ahead and read on! Bilingual photo album, here we come!
Sally laughed a little as she finished it, and Wu Fei just smirked. On the first page, in nice big letter, was: "The Family Album of Andrew Yuy and Ann Lowe, the Only Married Couple This Side of Mars with Different Last Names!" Both Sally and Wu Fei almost fell over at Heero's father's last name. It really was Yuy! They turned the page, and the first page after was blank, the back side of the first, but the next page had two large pictures on it. The one on the left was a young woman with midnight-black hair and piercing blue eyes. She didn't seem ready for the photo, since she was walking the other way, and had turned her head to meet the camera, hair flying around her. Under her was the name 'Ann Lowe'. The following data was also included: 'Date of Birth: August 8, AC 150.' Next to her was the picture of a young man with chocolate brown hair and the same color eyes. His hair was slightly messy, but he looked cute even with it that way. Under him was the name 'Andrew Yuy'. He also had some vital information: 'Date of Birth: April 4, AC 150'. When they turned the page, wedding photos filled in their vision. They, then too, saw something rather shocking. The pictures showed, quite openly, the man who had married the couple. And he was no other than King Peacecraft himself! The Queen stood next to him in a picture, and the label underneath said 'The King and Queen, May they Rest In Peace'. The album had obviously been made after the death of the two. Or the label had been replaced. The latter was much more likely than the former.
When they turned the page again, there was the picture of a young boy with chocolate brown hair and the same eyes. At first they thought it was Andrew again, but the label read 'Christopher Alexander Lowe'. Underneath that read 'Date of Birth: December 21, AC 170'. The two pages in the spread were covered with pictures of him. Through the pictures alone, the two could not see why Heero disliked his elder brother so much. But they assumed there was a good reason, for Heero did not upset quite so easily.
They turned the page again, and another child was on the widespread. It was another little boy, he had chocolate brown hair and the same color eyes. His hair, however, has straight, rather than messy, like his brother and father's. Under his picture read: 'Charles Michael Lowe'. 'Date of Birth: January 11, AC 172'. The pictures of him were of little use to Wu Fei and Sally, as the boy was already dead. On the next widespread, the two were shocked. In the upper left corner, where all of the labeled pictures had been, were two pictures. The two in the pictures were completely identical. Underneath each picture, from left to right, read: 'Riley Corrigan Lowe' and 'Rei Lark Lowe'. There was one date of birth 'March 14, AC 180', but there were two other little labels. One, the one under Riley, read: 1:14 a.m., and the other, under Rei, read: 1:29 a.m. Both small children had chocolate brown hair, but these two had dark blue eyes, the same as their mother. In the spread, they were always dressed alike, but the labels told them in order on the picture. But even after all the pictures, Wu Fei and Sally could not tell them apart.
When they turned the page once more, there were several group photos. Christopher and Charles were much older than the twins, and it was apparent. There were group photos of each little group, too. First there was the, obviously older, picture of just Ann and Andrew, then one of Ann, Andrew, and Christopher, then Ann, Andrew, Christopher, and Charles, then the addition of the twins.
They turned again, and found that there was only one more widespread left after this one. And on this one, there were random photos that were obviously loved by Ann.
When they turned once more, another note fell out, and they read it.
Hey! Riley (and Rei) here! We found this thing in the attic of the house, it was obviously mum's! She's the only one obsessed with records! (Here the handwriting changed.) Since she's dead (by about eight years), the two of us are going to show you everyone now! We'll even grace you with mum and dad's graves! How's that for nice of us? (And it changed back.) Ototo-san is very rude in issues like this! So what if they're dead! They'd still like seeing these pictures. Anyway, here are the pictures of everyone as of June 27, AC 192! Enjoy!
On that page were more up-to-date pictures of everyone. They noticed quite subtle differences in everyone but Riley. Her smile shone beautifully and she looked amazingly happy. They could tell the difference in Christopher immediately, however. His smile was rather cruel and as though he were plotting something. Charles looked more naïve than a five- year-old. Heero, however, also had a noticeable difference in features. In contradiction to the adorable four-year-old, happy as can be, there was a soon-to-be teenager, scowling rather harshly. His eyes were cold, but not quite devoid of emotion. His eyes, though dying, shone with sadness, pain, regret, and any number of sorrowful emotions. They weren't happy, they weren't neutral, they were dying. Dying out. In stark contrast to Riley's beautiful emotion-filled eyes, which they could assume would be what their friend's would look like if he didn't hide everything, Heero's eyes were dying. That was the only term they could think of.
They turned the page once more, and Sally almost choked. On the back were pictures. The first two were graves, then a person, then two more graves, then another person. Each picture had something written under it. The first: 'Ann Lowe. 8/8/150-1/12/184', the second: 'Andrew Yuy. 4/4/150- 1/12/184', the third: 'Christopher Lowe. 12/21/170-?', the fourth: 'Charles Lowe. 1/11/172-3/13/195', the fifth: 'Riley Lowe. 3/14/180-3/13/195', and the last: 'Rei Lowe. 3/14/180-?'.
Sally's eyes watered. "She died a day before her birthday?!? What happened! I want to know now!" Her voice was raspy and kind of hard to listen to.
"Look." Wu Fei pointed to something taped to the back cover of the album on the inside. It was a video recording. The label read: 'Riley Lowe, Eyewitness Reporter into the lives of the Lowe family! Dates recorded: 1/25/192, 2/6/194, 3/12/195. Dates w/ clips included: too many to list!'
"I think we should wait until tomorrow. When he's gone to work."
"I agree."
And they put away the album, slipped under the blankets, and fell into a fitful sleep. Minds unable to think of anything but their recent discoveries.
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Author's Notes: WUAHAHAH! I'm evil, I know it! Sorry, but this chapter and (probably) the next chapter just introduce things. But if you don't read, the rest may not make sense! I beg you to stick with this, since I know *most* of the plot right now! Well, clip for next time: dunno. Don't have any written. Teaser: watch a video of the young life of Heero Yuy and family, an odd 'out-to-lunch', and something weird. Sorry if some of that doesn't appear in the next chapter, but I'm planning on it! Now, to the asterisk notes!
(*): Erm.I stole this from an awesome fic I read by Kouri Arashi. It was an X/1999 slash Tokyo Babylon fic surrounding Subaru and Seishirou. I give all credit for that line to her! Kouri-sempai rules! Give her credit, go here: y.so I thought that this was the perfect holiday! Well, gtg! Bai bai!
~Ann Lowe.the lovable authoress who's going to write a LIME about two guys.you gotta give me SOME credit for that!
By: Ann Lowe Chapter Created: December 26, 2002
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. Sad, huh? But I do, however, own the plot of this story! I would really hope that no one is unoriginal enough to steal this, but if they do.Well, I'll borrow Sylvie-chan's angry penguin squad and hunt you down! MUAHAHAHAHA! Oh, and if you do so happen to decide to sue me, I'm gonna have to sell all the stuff I bought from you in order to pay you.so it's completely pointless! So.please don't!
Author's Notes: Erm, WARNING! This is a YAOI story! I repeat, YAOI! That means boy/boy love and affections! Also, there will be LIME in this story! SERIOUS lime! So, what I'm saying is this (in layman's terms): If you don't wanna read about two guys making out, don't read ANY of this story. Sure, they won't do anything for a while, but hey! If you won't appreciate all of it, don't read any of it. I mean that, it's a rule to live and learn by! Also: any asterisk (*) seen within the story will have a note with it at the end of the chapter. This means: READ THE NOTES AT THE BOTTOM! There will be an author note at the bottom of every chapter. Read 'em, please! It'll do you good! And there'll be hints of the next chapter! *nudges and wiggles eyebrows* Please read them! I don't write this for my health you know! (Well, actually I kinda do.but hey!) Now, enjoy the story! Go on, enjoy!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A young man turned in his sleep, haunted by the dreams of the past. Haunted by the returning fear of pain and sorrow. Something, he did not know what, haunted his life and dreams. And he didn't know what that something was. And he wasn't the type who didn't care about knowing the future. No, if his future didn't contain something stable and read, he was afraid. He hated not knowing things. And those things usually hated him right back.
He shifted once more, and closed his eyes tighter, subconsciously, as he wasn't awake.even in the slightest. He let out a slight whimper, and curled into a fetal position, unconsciously crying. For the, seemingly, millionth time in his life.
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~
December 1, AC 205 Brussels Preventer Headquarters Research Room No. 105 Research Personnel: D. Maxwell, W. Chang, S. Chang, Z. Merquise. Research Objective: Locating Missing Person
"Okay. Now, let's find this guy!" Duo Maxwell clapped his hands together. "Heero's the only one of us who hasn't contacted Preventer for a job! The ten-year anniversary is coming up at the end of the month! He has to be there! Now! Everybody know their duties?"
"Yes." Chorused three voices.
"Great! Now, let's try the obvious first, just in case." Duo shrugged and promptly got slugged on the back of the head. "What?!?"
"Stop acting like an idiot!" Sally bopped him on the head again. "He'd never make himself that easy to find. He's too.secretive." She rolled her eyes.
"More like anti-social." Wu Fei grinned and laughed. "He may talk more than Barton, but he sure isn't a better person to have a conversation with. Hell, Barton is better at conversing!"
"He probably is!" Duo shouted, irritated. "But, we should still look. Start at the easy and work our way up."
"Fine. Which records should we check first?" Zechs sat down at the computer and opened up a search screen.
"How about the L1 area? Residential records, I mean. He's from there, so maybe we can get a start." Duo suggested, causing everyone to look at him funny.
"How the hell did you find that out?" Wu Fei looked mildly impressed.
"Eh, he told me. I just asked."
"I do not understand you. Either of you." Zechs rolled his eyes. "Fine. Should we enter a name?"
"No. Most definitely not." Duo grimaced. "He's so good at changing his name that he may not even remember his real one." The rest of the group had to agree. "Fingerprint?"
"Good idea." Zechs pulled up the Preventer records, and copied the prints onto the search file, and hit 'search'. For about twenty seconds, the machine searched.and found a match. Everyone there felt their jaw hit the ground, then they face-faulted.
"Uhh.guys? Did we just get a result? From a regular search engine?" Sally's eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets, and she looked up at the name that had matched prints.
"Wow." Duo looked stunned. "I actually had a good idea. Well, who is this guy? Is it Heero?"
"Well, let's see." Zechs clicked on the name. Rei Lowe.
A picture and data popped up. Everyone's jaws became reacquainted with the floor.
"It's.him." Duo was always one for pointing out the obvious. And he was right, too. Dark blue eyes stared back at them from the computer screen, and an emotionless face, that they all remembered so well, was placed before them.
"That was far too easy. What's he doing? Going senile?" Wu Fei was still recovering from shock.
"No.just becoming a little less protective of himself." Sally shrugged. Suddenly Duo's eyes got irritated and his lashes shaded his eyes. A large sweatdrop situated itself on his forehead.
"Either that or he knew we were going to be looking for him, and decided to give us a break, and is monitoring this and secretly laughing at his own being right. The bastard." Everyone laughed, even the stoic Lightening Count.
"Well, Sally, Wu Fei, you two know what you have to do, correct?" Zechs confronted the two long-term partners.
"Of course. Go and get him. Bring him back. Even if we must do so with him in ties and bonds." They both mock-saluted, then fell over laughing. "We're going now!" They laughed and stumbled out of the room.
December 3, AC 205 L1 X10001 Colony Residential Area
Sally and Wu Fei just stared at their surroundings.
"Wow. This is so.normal." She glanced back at her map. "Are you sure you got the right address?"
"Yes, for the fifth time. I suppose he just wanted a normal life. I just didn't think he would. Now, we're on the right street, look for house numbers."
"Okay, what number is it?"
"Eighty-eight."
"Okay, that's on my side."
"That's why I told you to look."
"Wu Fei."
"Yeah?"
"Shut up." (*)
"."
"Oooo! Here it is!"
"What?!?"
"Right there!" She pointed to a medium-sized white house with the number 'eighty-eight' in black letters on the front.
"Wow." They pulled over to the side of the curb and looked at the house, then slowly, but surely, got out of the car. Together, they walked up to the door and rang the bell. No one came. They tried again. Same response.
"Umm. Isn't today a Tuesday?"
"Yeah."
"And it's three-thirty?"
"Yeah."
"Won't he be at work?"
"." He glared at her.
"Ha! I bet I'm right!" She ran around the side of the house and pressed her face to the window of the garage. No car. "Yeah! He's gone!"
"Okay, so we wait."
"No, we go do something, and come back later."
"Fine, what do you want to do?"
"Well, this colony is renowned for its Chinese and Japanese food! Japanese, mostly, as most of the inhabitants are Japanese, but there's supposed to be this great restaurant here that's a mix of the two! Can we go, please!" She pushed out her lower lip.
He sighed and rolled his eyes. "I suppose." Then smiled lightly as she jumped, bounced rather, all the way back down to the car.
About two hours later, deciding that since most people got off at five, the two returned to the home, to see the garage door open, and a lovely blue sports car inside.
The walked back up to the door, and rang the bell. They were shocked at what they heard.
"Coming!" Was yelled from the inside of the house, and they heard the sound of a pot lid being put onto its namesake. Then, there were footsteps, and the door opened. They were face to face with none other than Heero Yuy himself, casually dressed, and casually living.
"Wow. Hey." He smiled politely and opened the door. "You weren't exactly who I was expecting!" He laughed lightly. "But trust me, I'd rather you here that who I expected." He rolled his eyes lightly. "Come in!" Wu Fei and Sally were too far into shock-relapse to argue and walked inside.
The walked inside to a relatively light décor. Not that they were expecting much. They were in the living room. It was furnished with a large armchair, sofa, vintage stereo, television, bookshelf, and a small glass-cased shelf with breakable items inside. Just like any normal home would have.
Over the years, all the pilots and their friends had matured, physically and mentally. Wu Fei had grown taller and slightly bigger in most places. His muscles, which had formerly been strong, but not visible, were now prominent and caused him to look rather buff for someone as small-boned as he. For, though he had grown, he was still only about 5'8". Sally hadn't grown any taller, or any broader, but her features had softened a little, and her figure was more noticeable.
Of the others, Zechs hadn't done much growing at all, except for longer hair and more maturity, Duo had grown taller and more masculine, Quatre had remained small, he was only 5'5", Trowa had grown taller yet and definitely more masculine, yet hadn't lost his grace, Relena had grown taller as well, and had a more developed figure, Hilde had not grown taller, but she had filled out more, and Noin had stayed, for the most part, the same. Well, maybe her attitude was lighter, and she was currently quite fat. But, that was mostly due to her being pregnant.
Now, as the men who were once boys had all grown taller and more masculine, there had to be one exception. Heero had not grown more masculine, surprisingly, and still had the same figure. One relatively similar to a woman's (**). He had grown taller, but only a little, and may have been slightly shorter than Quatre, if not the same height. His muscles weren't very focal, and he didn't seem to have filled out in his bones. He still looked, for all reasons and purposes, like a young, teenage boy. One who hadn't quite reached puberty. And they all knew that he'd stay like that, too, as he was well into puberty, and didn't have any more time left for his body to develop.
But, that was to be expected, one might suppose. He had never been very masculine. Not even during the war.
However, there were more changes to the group than just the obvious and visual ones. First off, there had been marriages. First, Zechs and Noin had been married. Their seventh anniversary was coming up shortly. Wu Fei and Sally had married slightly over four years ago, and Hilde was engaged to a man she had been blindly set up with, thanks to Duo, named Charles Courier.
Noin was expecting her second child sometime in March of 206. The first had been born April 10, 200. A little boy named Mickeleon. He had his father's hair and his mother's eyes. This caused him to look slightly over- innocent and sweet. Though, he'd turn your house into a pigsty if you let him run wild for even a minute. More of a brat than anything, but they all loved him, and he loved them all back.
The moment all were situated in Heero's living room, he swiftly left into the kitchen, and came back shortly with odd-shaped brown glasses with tea for them. "Here. It's green tea, very good for you, and very good for your taste buds!"
"Thank you!" Sally smiled politely and sipped at it. She was surprised at how good it tasted. She had always thought that green tea was only for health freaks and tasted like the rest of the stuff health freaks ate.
"Yes, thank you." Wu Fei replied as well. He had tasted green tea before, but this was much better than he remembered.
"Very good!" Sally complimented. Heero just smiled lightly.
"Yes, it's a Japanese custom to serve it. It's also a family recipe. Tea leaves are actually moderately simple to raise and brew, if you know how to do it and have done it before." He smiled and sipped his tea.
"So how are you?" Wu Fei asked politely, and friendly, too.
"I'm fine. I haven't been doing much, though. It's rather boring." He yawned, possibly to accentuate his point, but most likely because the tea was making him sleepy. The married ones were realizing this was the case with them, too, right about now. "How about you? How is everyone?"
Wu Fei related a non-detailed summary to the man of disappearance.
"So what are you doing here? I'm doubting you just wanted to chat."
"Well, as you know, it's the ten-year anniversary of the end of the Eve Wars, and the Gundam Pilots, as a whole, have been asked to give a speech for the ceremony. Each of us was asked to give one. But you didn't leave a place where you were going to be, so we had to come and find you." Wu Fei told him plainly.
"I see. Sorry for making you look. I didn't hide my information. It's not like anyone is looking for me anymore. And the ones who might be already know I'm here." Though hardly noticeable, there had been a note of something in his Heero's voice as he said those words. Something along the lines of.disgust and fright.
"It's no problem. We had a very lucky guess on where to start looking, and found you in five minutes. We had assumed it would take days, but it didn't." Sally was still surprised, and let it show.
"Oh, sorry. No, I don't feel I should have to hide. I doubt very much that I'll be murdered in my sleep." He smiled and laughed.
"Yes, a little birdy with a big mouth said you were from this area, so we checked the L1 area residential records, by using your fingerprints." Wu Fei said stoically.
"I think I know who that was." Heero laughed slightly. "The only person I told that to does have a big mouth, now doesn't he? Oh well, it's not like it's personal information. Not that big of a deal." He stood up suddenly, and stretched. "Would either of you like something to eat?"
"No thank you." Wu Fei said, scowling at Sally. "She dragged me to about thirty restaurants here in town."
"I see." Heero chuckled. "There is some pretty good dining here. It's the only thing we ever get tourists for! This is the smallest colony in all of the network. We have about.two thousand people living here. We mainly use the areas around for resources."
"Didn't this use to be a resource satellite?"
"Yeah, then it was attacked and discovered by the government. The family that had been living here secretly was killed, so they say, and people moved in."
"That's horrible!"
"Yeah, since it's a true story."
"You're serious?!?"
"Yes. I knew them. Well, I knew the few that lived. Since the incident occurred when I was four-years-old." He smiled, if somewhat sadly. Wu Fei and Sally were still shocked to see the change in him. The man who had had seemingly no emotions during the war was just like them. No, he wasn't. Wu Fei looked at the eyes of his comrade. They were blank. Devoid of emotion, care, or any other hint of feeling. He was still the same on the inside. He'd just changed costumes.
"That's so sad." Sally trailed off. "I hope they found their way to heaven."
"Yes, only the ones who lived won't make it there." He walked, rather quickly, back into the kitchen, throwing over his shoulder: "I'm going to put away my dishes. I just finished supper before you arrived." After a little while, Sally brought her and Wu Fei's cups into the kitchen, and planed them on the counter when directed to by Heero. After a while, he returned to the living room, to sit with his friends.
"So what are you doing now?" Wu Fei was referring to his job and life.
"I'm a High School teacher. I teach History." He smiled lightly. "I like teaching. I like to believe I'm rather good at it, too."
"I assume you would be. You were able to explain things to even the most hard-headed of us. Even if the ways you explained it didn't make sense right away, they made more sense, perhaps, later than the facts would have at the beginning if you'd explained it in a conventional way."
"I suppose that's just my style." Heero shrugged.
"So what name are you going by?"
"The one I was born to. Rei Lowe is my real name." He just looked up at them, completely peaceful.
"Is Rei short for anything?"
"No, it's Japanese. Rei. R-E-I. It means 'zero' or 'nothing', which is mildly appropriate, if you think about it." He smiled sadly once more. "And I have my mother's last name. Lowe. If I were to have taken my father's, it might have caused quite a stir."
"I can't remember my parents." Wu Fei said quietly.
"I can't either. Don't feel bad. They died when I was four."
Wu Fei and Sally thought about that for a while, then looked back at him. Heero was looking out the window, his eyes narrowed and sad.
"But, I can remember my brother!" Sally said cheerily, trying to bring the mood back up.
"Hmm.? Oh, yes, I remember my siblings. My parents had four children. Just a couple too many, really, for them to put up with!" He laughed. "My sister and I nearly drove our parents crazy several times." He looked up at them. "I had two older brothers, and a twin sister. Christopher, Charles, and Riley." He smiled. "Charlie and Riley died when the base exploded in 195. It was in March. About three weeks before Operation Meteor began." He looked down this time. "Chris is still alive, but I would prefer he wasn't. Bastard." His eyes were narrow again, but this time with fury, and his knuckles were white, as he was squeezing his hands tightly.
"Hey. It's all right, you know?" Sally smiled reassuringly at him.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. He just upsets me a little. It's not really a big deal."
"Oh, all right." Anyone could tell she didn't believe him.
"I have pictures of all of us, if you'd care to look at them. I have to go to bed, I have work tomorrow. Oh, right, the speech. I can do it, as long as it's over Christmas break."
"I believe the speeches are on the actual anniversary, Christmas Eve. Right when everyone is together with their families and can watch them peacefully." Sally smiled gently.
"That's good. Yeah, I can make it. Where do you want me to show up?"
"Brussels International Airport. We'll have a Preventer vehicle pick you up." Wu Fei stated facts, and nothing else.
"All right," and he got up and left the room, coming back several minutes later with an album, two blankets, and two pillows. "You two will stay here tonight, right? The hotels around here are horrible."
"Oh, sure, why not?" Sally smiled politely and both husband and wife said their thanks when handed bedding materials.
"I don't have a spare bedroom, but the couch pulls out into a bed." He reached down and pulled it out, Wu Fei and Sally standing up so to not be in the way.
"Well, I suppose we'll see you in the morning."
"Yeah, Oyasumi nasai." Heero smiled politely, bowed, and headed up the stairs to go to bed.
"Well, care to look through it?" Sally asked her husband, holding up the album Heero had brought down for them to amuse themselves with.
"Why not? He said we could. In fact offered it to us."
"Okay!" She opened it to the first page, and automatically noticed the hand-written note on the inside cover. She pulled it out and read its contents.
Hey! This is Ann! I'm making a wonderful little photo album of all my family! Andrew, the jerk, persuaded me to write this little note in English, rather than Japanese, the party pooper. I originally wrote it in Japanese, and you can read that if you turn this over, but hey! It's in English now, and that's all that matters! Well, these pictures are all of my family! My husband, children, and pets! Not that we'll ever have any pets, since I'm allergic! But hey! Who cares, eh? It sounds good! Well, I've got little labels in both Japanese and English under each picture, so you can go ahead and read on! Bilingual photo album, here we come!
Sally laughed a little as she finished it, and Wu Fei just smirked. On the first page, in nice big letter, was: "The Family Album of Andrew Yuy and Ann Lowe, the Only Married Couple This Side of Mars with Different Last Names!" Both Sally and Wu Fei almost fell over at Heero's father's last name. It really was Yuy! They turned the page, and the first page after was blank, the back side of the first, but the next page had two large pictures on it. The one on the left was a young woman with midnight-black hair and piercing blue eyes. She didn't seem ready for the photo, since she was walking the other way, and had turned her head to meet the camera, hair flying around her. Under her was the name 'Ann Lowe'. The following data was also included: 'Date of Birth: August 8, AC 150.' Next to her was the picture of a young man with chocolate brown hair and the same color eyes. His hair was slightly messy, but he looked cute even with it that way. Under him was the name 'Andrew Yuy'. He also had some vital information: 'Date of Birth: April 4, AC 150'. When they turned the page, wedding photos filled in their vision. They, then too, saw something rather shocking. The pictures showed, quite openly, the man who had married the couple. And he was no other than King Peacecraft himself! The Queen stood next to him in a picture, and the label underneath said 'The King and Queen, May they Rest In Peace'. The album had obviously been made after the death of the two. Or the label had been replaced. The latter was much more likely than the former.
When they turned the page again, there was the picture of a young boy with chocolate brown hair and the same eyes. At first they thought it was Andrew again, but the label read 'Christopher Alexander Lowe'. Underneath that read 'Date of Birth: December 21, AC 170'. The two pages in the spread were covered with pictures of him. Through the pictures alone, the two could not see why Heero disliked his elder brother so much. But they assumed there was a good reason, for Heero did not upset quite so easily.
They turned the page again, and another child was on the widespread. It was another little boy, he had chocolate brown hair and the same color eyes. His hair, however, has straight, rather than messy, like his brother and father's. Under his picture read: 'Charles Michael Lowe'. 'Date of Birth: January 11, AC 172'. The pictures of him were of little use to Wu Fei and Sally, as the boy was already dead. On the next widespread, the two were shocked. In the upper left corner, where all of the labeled pictures had been, were two pictures. The two in the pictures were completely identical. Underneath each picture, from left to right, read: 'Riley Corrigan Lowe' and 'Rei Lark Lowe'. There was one date of birth 'March 14, AC 180', but there were two other little labels. One, the one under Riley, read: 1:14 a.m., and the other, under Rei, read: 1:29 a.m. Both small children had chocolate brown hair, but these two had dark blue eyes, the same as their mother. In the spread, they were always dressed alike, but the labels told them in order on the picture. But even after all the pictures, Wu Fei and Sally could not tell them apart.
When they turned the page once more, there were several group photos. Christopher and Charles were much older than the twins, and it was apparent. There were group photos of each little group, too. First there was the, obviously older, picture of just Ann and Andrew, then one of Ann, Andrew, and Christopher, then Ann, Andrew, Christopher, and Charles, then the addition of the twins.
They turned again, and found that there was only one more widespread left after this one. And on this one, there were random photos that were obviously loved by Ann.
When they turned once more, another note fell out, and they read it.
Hey! Riley (and Rei) here! We found this thing in the attic of the house, it was obviously mum's! She's the only one obsessed with records! (Here the handwriting changed.) Since she's dead (by about eight years), the two of us are going to show you everyone now! We'll even grace you with mum and dad's graves! How's that for nice of us? (And it changed back.) Ototo-san is very rude in issues like this! So what if they're dead! They'd still like seeing these pictures. Anyway, here are the pictures of everyone as of June 27, AC 192! Enjoy!
On that page were more up-to-date pictures of everyone. They noticed quite subtle differences in everyone but Riley. Her smile shone beautifully and she looked amazingly happy. They could tell the difference in Christopher immediately, however. His smile was rather cruel and as though he were plotting something. Charles looked more naïve than a five- year-old. Heero, however, also had a noticeable difference in features. In contradiction to the adorable four-year-old, happy as can be, there was a soon-to-be teenager, scowling rather harshly. His eyes were cold, but not quite devoid of emotion. His eyes, though dying, shone with sadness, pain, regret, and any number of sorrowful emotions. They weren't happy, they weren't neutral, they were dying. Dying out. In stark contrast to Riley's beautiful emotion-filled eyes, which they could assume would be what their friend's would look like if he didn't hide everything, Heero's eyes were dying. That was the only term they could think of.
They turned the page once more, and Sally almost choked. On the back were pictures. The first two were graves, then a person, then two more graves, then another person. Each picture had something written under it. The first: 'Ann Lowe. 8/8/150-1/12/184', the second: 'Andrew Yuy. 4/4/150- 1/12/184', the third: 'Christopher Lowe. 12/21/170-?', the fourth: 'Charles Lowe. 1/11/172-3/13/195', the fifth: 'Riley Lowe. 3/14/180-3/13/195', and the last: 'Rei Lowe. 3/14/180-?'.
Sally's eyes watered. "She died a day before her birthday?!? What happened! I want to know now!" Her voice was raspy and kind of hard to listen to.
"Look." Wu Fei pointed to something taped to the back cover of the album on the inside. It was a video recording. The label read: 'Riley Lowe, Eyewitness Reporter into the lives of the Lowe family! Dates recorded: 1/25/192, 2/6/194, 3/12/195. Dates w/ clips included: too many to list!'
"I think we should wait until tomorrow. When he's gone to work."
"I agree."
And they put away the album, slipped under the blankets, and fell into a fitful sleep. Minds unable to think of anything but their recent discoveries.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Author's Notes: WUAHAHAH! I'm evil, I know it! Sorry, but this chapter and (probably) the next chapter just introduce things. But if you don't read, the rest may not make sense! I beg you to stick with this, since I know *most* of the plot right now! Well, clip for next time: dunno. Don't have any written. Teaser: watch a video of the young life of Heero Yuy and family, an odd 'out-to-lunch', and something weird. Sorry if some of that doesn't appear in the next chapter, but I'm planning on it! Now, to the asterisk notes!
(*): Erm.I stole this from an awesome fic I read by Kouri Arashi. It was an X/1999 slash Tokyo Babylon fic surrounding Subaru and Seishirou. I give all credit for that line to her! Kouri-sempai rules! Give her credit, go here: y.so I thought that this was the perfect holiday! Well, gtg! Bai bai!
~Ann Lowe.the lovable authoress who's going to write a LIME about two guys.you gotta give me SOME credit for that!