*Melyn holds head down in shame* I goofed again. I promised this would come out sooner, it's just life got in the way. Stupid life always does that to me.
Well, on the bright side I passed all my classes (to the best of my knowledge) so yay for me!
Well, anyways....I will stop boring you now...
*****
Testament
*****
"So..." Quatre looked down at his shoes as he swallowed the lump in his throat. "What you told me last night was a lie..."
Trowa sighed. "We had too. We wanted to tell you right then, but Duo was there. We agreed that it would be best if he didn't find out."
Quatre slowly nodded. He knew that Trowa was right. If Duo found out, he would be worse off.
Duo had been making himself sick by not eating or sleeping. Although he hid it well, it was obvious to those around him that he was paranoid. He checked his back more often and practically locked himself in his room.
When Duo did leave his room, it was to shower. He'd been taking showers more and more often since they found out his secret (or so he called it). Though none of them knew the reasons behind Duo's actions or why he took so many showers, they had come to the conclusion it must be a way for Duo to calm himself down.
"What did the note say?" Quatre's gaze never left the floor.
Trowa shrugged. "Not much really, just a threat aimed at Duo."
"And that's not much?"
"Information wise, no." Heero stood in the doorway. "It was just a threat." His gaze pierced the blond. "And trust me, if Duo knows what it means, he wouldn't tell us."
*****
Duo sighed as the warm water flowing over him was slowly turning cold. It was better this way. The cold is what he deserved after what he had done.
He let the cold water fall for a few more minutes, as he was lost in his own thoughts. Finally he turned off the water and wrapped a towel around his shaking body. He quickly dressed and kept the towel wrapped around his hair. Slowly he went across the hall to lock himself up in his room with just his thoughts again.
He entered his room and didn't bother to turn on the lights.
"Maxwell." Duo jumped at the sound of his own name. He turned to find Wufei sitting at his desk. The Chinese man turned on the desk lamp.
"Go away." Duo glared and turned away, his ears twitched in annoyance.
"I knew it." Wufei smirked and shook his head. "I knew from the moment we met what you were. I told myself it couldn't be true, but it was."
"What was true?" Duo's wolf ears perked up as he turned back to face Wufei.
"My grandmother always told me stories about demons."
"I'm not a demon." Duo growled, his eyes narrowed.
"As a child I was told about your kind, but I never believed her. Never truly." Wufei shook his head again in disbelief. "I can't believe she was right."
Duo shrugged and threw the towel off. "The elderly know more than you think. Why did you come here?"
"Curiosity." Wufei smiled. "I was brought up with tales of your kind, but I never actually met one."
Duo rolled his eyes. "So you came to study me?" He snorted. "I'm not a lab rat."
Wufei raised an eyebrow. "And I'm not a scientist. So can I ask you a few questions?"
"No."
"No? Even for the sake of knowledge?"
"Yes." Duo turned away. "What's in the past should stay there."
"I'm just curious, Maxwell." Wufei's eyes met with Duo's, silently telling the wolf, he had no intention of leaving.
Duo rolled his eyes "You won't leave, will you?"
"Not until I get some answers." Wufei took what Duo said to be the closest thing he would get to a 'yes'. "How old are you?"
Duo snorted. "Older than you."
How did he know that answer was coming. "How long have you been alive?" He rephrased his question.
"You really won't leave..." Duo dropped himself onto his bed. "Fine, I'm old, how's that?"
"Why won't you tell me your history?" Wufei's temper began to flair. "Why is it so damn important to keep your past a secret?!" He rose to his feet as he yelled.
"Because it is not important and isn't very interesting."
Wufei glared. He knew that Duo would never tell him about his past. Duo even said he wouldn't tell them, so why did he even try to find out? 'Because you were so damn curious!' He mental screamed as he turned and left Duo's room.
"If you knew," Wufei turned back to Duo. He gazed out the window with sad eyes. "If you knew about my past...you would just get hurt..."
Wufei nodded in acknowledgement, though Duo couldn't see. He shut the door behind him and walked off.
*****
Heero looked up from his book as the front doorbell rang. He looked across the room to Trowa and Quatre, both looked as confused as he was. Heero nodded as he stood up, signaling to the others, he would be taking care of whoever was at the door.
He passed through the kitchen and saw Wufei sipping his tea. The Chinaman looked livid.
"Aren't you going to answer the door?" He snapped as the doorbell rang again.
Heero nodded and made sure his gun was loaded. "Going now."
Wufei arched an eyebrow as the Japanese man left the kitchen. "Isn't that over reacting?"
Heero knew it was probably him. At times he still felt like he was part of the war, and his training would come back. He knew there was nothing unusual with someone being at the front door on the weekends, but for some reason he felt like he needed his gun.
Of course, he would feel really bad pulling it on some poor Jehovah's Witness, scaring those poor people to death.
Heero concealed his weapon as he opened the front door. He opened the door an inch. "Who's there?"
"We want Duo." Heero couldn't see the person's face who was talking, but he knew it was definitely male. "Just send him out and no one will get hurt."
Heero glared. They wanted Duo...
From the sound of the voice, he was standing right behind the door. Heero gripped the handle hard as he gritted his teeth. Heero forced the door open as quickly as he could until he heard something brake.
"Ow! Son-of-a!" Heero looked up at the person holding their nose. He looked oddly familiar....
"Yuy! Ah!" The man cried out in pain. "You broke my nose!" He glared.
Heero could see the blood seeping through the hands still clutching against the pained face.
"Ah..." Heero swallowed as he realized who was at the door. "I..."
Quatre meeped as he came in sight of the door. "Mr. Peacecraft!"
"I'll get some ice." Trowa sighed as he walked off to the kitchen.
"I thought you were someone else." Heero moved to the side to let one of his bosses at Preventers enter.
"I would hope so." Millard growled as he entered.
"Why do you want Duo?" Heero followed Millard into the kitchen.
"Mr. Maxwell hasn't shown up for work in a while." He took the icepack from Trowa. "I came to see if there was anything wrong."
"Employers don't often do that." Heero glared.
Millard raised an eyebrow "Well, when you hire someone who was a key player in a war, usually there are people out to kill him and when he doesn't appear at work for over a week, you tend to worry if he was in trouble. Can I have a Kleenex?"
Quatre handed him a box. "We are so sorry about that we--"
"Do you usually answer the door in that manner?" Although he looked calm and dignified, they could see the anger in his eyes as he tried to stop his nose from bleeding.
"Do you want us to call a doctor or anything..?" Quatre forced a smile.
"What's going on?" Duo asked as he walked into the kitchen slowly. Everyone's eyes got big as they heard his voice and gasped.
"Duo...Where have you been?" Millard turned to look at the American.
"I haven't been feeling like myself." Duo smiled. He looked normal and human. His ears were gone and he had no tail and no claws and....
"I'm feeling better now, so I'll be back to work shortly." He smiled.
Millard stood up. "Glad to hear it." He nodded. "I'll show myself out, Heero."
Duo raised an eyebrow. "What happened to your nose?"
"Door accident." Millard nodded a farewell and made his way to the front door, Duo following at his feet.
"No really! You're bleeding hard and--"
Duo was cut off by a hard pounding on the front door.
"Maxwell!" The man outside screamed as he pounded. "I know your in there! Come out now!"
Everyone looked at Duo. "Who's that?" Quatre whispered.
Duo shrugged. "I think they're pissed...maybe they threw the brick..."
"Brick?" Millard raised his eyebrow again as Quatre motioned to the window covered in plywood.
"We had visitors." The blond smiled.
Heero walked up to the door and gripped the handle.
"Suddenly it makes sense..." Millard sighed and stepped back, still keeping firm pressure on his nose.
"What do you want?" Heero called out though the door.
"Just send out the little prick, and everything will be fine." Another man laughed. "We just have to give him back what he gave us!"
"And then some!" A third man yelled out.
Duo gulped as he took Heero's hand off the door.
"What are you doing?!" Heero hissed.
"I have to do this." Duo sighed. "The more I run, the worst I get beat." He smiled weakly and slowly opened the door.
****
Look at that, I really need to update more, huh? I'm sorry that I haven't, life got in the way. Next time I'll get it out sooner.
