Hey! People actually said hi! Yay! Thanks to all!
Vic: Don't stop glomping Wu, there's nothing wrong with it! Yay!
Wufei: That's what you think.
Yeah, well, we never listen to you. So it doesn't matter. And yes, the internet thing is dangerous, isn't it? But that's half the fun. Well, to me.
Reha: back again, I see. Yes, I wasn't really sure about the romance thing, I think comradeship is about as close as they're gonna get… for a while. I like the guys on line as well. I think they're cool.
Dreamweaver: Problem solved.
ShadowEyedCat: Yay! Don't hurt the author! And sorry about the length, that was just the only feasible place to cut things off.
Duo walked into school, finally released from hospital, a week later, once again wearing his black denim jacket. With his back t-shirt underneath and black cargo pants, he felt about ready to face the world. He had, tucked securely away in his bag, his sketching pad, ready for his next physical education lesson. He hadn't participated in one in years, but he was still required to go. So he sat at the sidelines and drew, occasionally helping their (very scary) teacher to collect balls and cones.
Duo had always called him the stereotypical sport teacher, as he was an ex-military, buff, shorts wearing midget. He also treated Duo like he was a scourge of the earth because he had a doctor's certificate saying that he couldn't do anything that involved running. But Duo wasn't complaining. It gave him time to think… and more importantly, decide what he was going to wear online that night. He made an effort to change his outfit at least twice a week, and PE gave him the time he needed to design things.
He was plotting something in fishnet and leather when he walked into the gym.
Everyone else was practically all there, milling around in the vague formation of a line.
Surprisingly enough, the two real jocks of the class weren't there. Not very surprising, however was the fact that both of the new students were missing. It took everyone a while to get used to the lay out. Duo smiled slightly, just picturing the two standing around outside the science block, on the completely wrong side of the school.
"Maxwell!"
Duo resisted the urge to shudder, and turned around to smile brightly at Mr. Payne.
"Good morning sir. Do you want me to get anything from the supplies shed?"
"What I want you to do, is get changed!"
Everyone in the gym went silent. No one could remember a time in living memory when Duo Maxwell had worn the school's sport uniform.
"We're doing javelin and discus today, so I don't see any reason why you can't join in. Hop to it!"
"Yessir!" Duo squeaked, abandoning his bag, and heading with slightly shaky legs towards the change rooms.
Even though it had been a while since he had used it, Duo still had a locker in the change rooms, and he did have a uniform in it.
When he entered the room, he noticed the two jocks of the class changing with the two newbies. The four people Mr. Payne wouldn't mind running late.
He resisted the urge to groan. They were standing around near his locker, and the last thing he wanted to do was change near them. Duo was a rather slight person, and rather thin. Helen was always claiming that he was a walking skeleton. And then there was also the thick padding and bandage over his left shoulder.
He didn't want to answer the inevitable questions that would come up. That was why he was wearing his jacket, to hide the obvious padding.
Duo walked up to his locker and smiled quickly at the others.
Heero Yuy and Chang Wufei. They excelled at all sports. Although they weren't popular (possibly because of their personalities) everyone made way for them in the corridors. Both remarkably short for their ages, and seeming rather thin, but they both had wiry muscular bodies and very stern eyes. Wufei had black hair that was caught back in a very tight warrior's tail at the back of his head, and Heero had hair that looked like it had been attacked by a weed whacker. Duo wasn't sure which won, but the results was hair that never seemed to look neat. His dark brown fringe fell into his eyes and somehow made him look wild, while other bits almost seemed to stick out in places.
The other two he merely identified at 'newbies'. The first was short, about his height, with bright blonde hair and wide, clear blue eyes. He boy with him was taller, and rather thin. Gangly. His eyes were firm and green, and his brown hair was short at the back, but ridiculously long at the front, his fringe swept to one side and hiding an eye as it defied gravity. While the blonde one looked approachable, the tall one seemed to keep to himself.
Duo removed his jacket with only a small amount of trouble, trying to ignore the twinge in his arm, and attempted to take off his shirt. He knew he should have worn something that buttoned up.
On his third try, he got the shirt off, and clutched his bandaged shoulder as it protested.
Heero inspected it with suspicious eyes as Wufei raised a thick black eyebrow.
"What happened?"
Heero lifted up the side of the bandage and peered inside, ignoring the indignant squeaks of the bandage's wearer.
Duo swatted him away and looked distinctly nervous.
"Bullet exit wound." He said. It was fairly obvious.
Duo laughed nervously, without humour.
"Now why would you say that?"
"Because you have a bullet-shaped hole in our shoulder."
Duo turned around and started fiddling with his lock.
He never lied.
"What happened?" Wufei demanded again, wondering why he didn't hear about this on the news. People always made a fuss when minors got shot.
"I got shot, what do you think, I tripped and fell on a bullet?" Duo muttered darkly, still twisting at his lock. He paused for a second, the slammed his fist into it near the bottom of the door making a huge banging noise.
Everyone else in the room jumped and went quiet.
Duo waited, then smile with glee as his locker slowly swung open.
"Hah! Still got the knack!"
Quatre relaxed. "Why did someone shoot you?" He asked, concerned. He was getting some very weird feelings from the boy, something that felt something like… pride?
Duo turned around and grinned at them. He wasn't going to lie, and it didn't really seem to matter anyway. Who would actually believe his story?
"Actually, I used myself as a human shield then bravely used my superior skills in hacking to save the life of the heir to a very substantial sum, and several bystanders when the chat room we were in was held up by a manic with a shot gun."
Everyone else stared at him, shocked.
"… what?"
*~*~*~*
Duo raised an eyebrow as he leant against one of the trees outside at lunchtime. He smiled wryly, then shook his head slowly.
"I'm never going to look at GOD sites the same way again."
Wufei grunted, his hands in the pockets of his white pants, clearly uncomfortable at meeting his partner in person.
GOD sites are originally set up by Duo, and it was a host site that was rather popular. He took Shenlong on as a partner a little while ago, and instantly gave him his full trust by giving him 49% of the stock. That left Duo in charge, but Wufei was still important. For his birthday the year before, Duo had given him something that made the two of them equal partners. 1% of God Of Death Site's shares, leaving both of them with 50%.
"I never expected that a meat-headed jock could be intelligent enough to run things… you learn new things every day."
"Meat-headed?! You call me meat-headed, you long-haired onna-wannabe?! "
Duo grinned again, knowing to ignore all the insults. They were just made in fun. "No doubt about it, you're Shen-kun."
Duo's cover had been blown in the biggest way. The largest secret of his life had just rolled over and died. And Quatre had glomped him.
"You saved me!"
Duo's eyes widened, and then locked on Trowa.
"Lemme guess," he started dryly, "You're his friend from the chat room?"
"Correct."
"Typical."
Wufei had revealed himself by saying the totally unsubtle line of "YOU'RE Shinigami? How the hell did an incompetent person like you ever run things without me?"
When the five had come out of the locker rooms and headed up to class, thing were infinitely different.
Heero was still as cold and distant as usual, but he kept sending suspicious glances at the other four. Trowa was sending Duo concerned glances, and well as sticking closer to his blonde friend than usual. Quatre was nattering to Duo about how grateful he was, and Duo was only half listening. He and Wufei were too busy shooting weirded-out glances at each other.
Duo looked away from Wufei and glanced at Heero across the other side of the field. He was glaring at the two.
Duo's senses told him that Heero knew more than he was letting on. He had looked as shocked as everyone else when they had realised who the others were, but didn't say anything. Not that that was unusual, but Duo knew he had seen him before, he just couldn't quite place his face.
Quatre came running up from across the field, Trowa trailing casually behind him, and stopped close to the two partners, panting, but still smiling infectiously.
Ever since he had found out that it had been Duo who had saved him, he had practically hero-worshipped him.
Not that Duo minded or anything, Quatre was a nice boy, and his friend Trowa accepted him. And Wufei hadn't left to go the library or gym yet… odd.
Could it be possible that he might have friends?
*~*~*~*
Heero glared at the four from his bench. It was just his luck that the four people that he didn't particularly want to see again would be in his school. His lunch of a mandarin sat on his lap, untouched as he thought and glared.
Something about the hold up in the bar was bugging him. His instincts told him that something was wrong with the picture. He needed to talk to witnesses, and the people it concerned. That meant that… he had to approach the heir and his strange friends again.
Resigned to the task at hand, Heero stood up and made his way purposefully across the field towards the tree that the four were standing under.
"Meet me at The Room tonight around eight. We have things to discuss." Heero stated, before turning around and heading back towards is seat.
"I KNEW IT!" Duo yelled like he had just discovered the cure for cancer, "you're 01!"
Heero kept walking, trying to ignore the frustration building up inside himself.
"Duo, what are you talking about?" Quarter asked, and Duo started babbling about his plot and instincts.
Heero sighed. Way to proclaim it to the known universe, baka.
Heero sat down on his bench and wondered vaguely why he had ever agreed to help J.
*~*~*~*
Otto really hadn't wanted to go into that office. Failure was unacceptable, especially at such an important time. But those two little brats had really beaten the snot outta him, and someone deleted his gun file. If that white haired wench hadn't thrown himself in front of that bullet, all their problems would have been solved.
And so now he was fired. He had picked up his personal possessions, and was walking out the front of Winner Enterprises when the personal assistant to the assistant director walked down the steps behind him.
"Mr. Otto, you're forgotten something."
Otto turned around.
Bang.
"Mr Kushrenada doesn't tolerate failure."
Ms. Une turned around and opened her mobile, ignoring the other henchmen that had appeared to deal with the body, and get rid of the blood on the pavement. It was a good thing this was a private road, because otherwise he would have had to die in Mr. Kushrenada's office. And she didn't want to get blood on the carpet.
"Get me Trent. Tell him we have some very important business that he needs to sort out." She deadpanned to the person on the other end of the phone.
That kid would be dead by tomorrow.
*~*~*~*
Trowa watched the faces of the others as they sat in their booth. The club they were in this time was a very popular one, filled with people dancing and booming music. Their seats were in a corner near the door, and vinyl. He never would have expected 01 to choose a place like this to meet, but then again no one would suspect five teens to plotting anything, especially here.
They agreed after several false-starts to mute all background music and after a few second of a booth full of empty-eyes, they were ready to talk business.
"I invited everyone here tonight to…" 01 started, but was cut off almost instantly.
"A party? For me? Oh, you shouldn't have! But you do realise that it's not my birthday, don't you?" Shinigami exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air and doing a scarily good impersonation of a giggling teenaged girl.
01 shot him a warning glare as Shenlong rolled his eyes and Triton and Sandrock tried not to laugh.
"You see what I have to put up with?" Shenlong muttered.
"Aww, I know you love me, Shen-kun."
"It's ShenLONG!"
A girly giggle followed.
01 waited for to two to quiet down and Sandrock to stop sniggering before he continued.
"I believe that the attack on the chat room was a stage for something bigger."
That shut everyone up.
"The reasons behind this belief are as follows. A) The armed offender was on his own. This is never a good tactic, especially in such an inefficient business as pin-raiding. B) He had obviously not done such a thing before. Although his aim with his weapon was accurate…"
"You're telling me."
"Anyone who had done such a thing before would know not to keep his or her back to the door, nor would they stand so close to it. He also stood around for entirely too long. An experienced raider could have collected half the account numbers and pin codes of everyone in the place during the time the man used standing around. C) He knew who Quatre was. Before he fired, the man said the name 'Winner'. Evidently, he knew what you looked like online before he entered the bar, otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to tell."
Sandrock looked uncomfortable, and shifted slightly closer to Triton.
"This implies that the man was not there for money, but to inflict damage on the heir to the Winner fortune. This is not entirely unreasonable, as there have been many threats to the Winner family before. Unfortunately, Shinigami got in the way, and the mission failed. It would have been a well-covered death, as these sorts of raid happen often on the internet, and it is not uncommon for a person to be killed. However, just because this particular plot fail, does not mean that there will not be another."
Sandrock looked very, very pale.
"You know what's ironic? I don't even want the position," he muttered.
Triton frowned.
"So why are you telling us this?" He asked in his usual, quiet and sensible voice. But something in his one visible eye said that he was concerned for his friend.
"Because you are now all involved. If you are going to associate with Quatre, you must be aware of the risks. It is probably wiser if you aren't seen online, Sandrock. It is probably easier to be killed in here. I recommend that you stay near your house and come straight back home after school for about a month, to confirm things."
A part of Sandrock wanted to sulk and be rude to 01 for being so direct, but he knew that what he had said was probably right. So he nodded.
"Alright, I'll go now."
The others watched as Sandrock flickered and disappeared.
Shinigami pouted. "Party pooper."
Shenlong coughed.
"Shinigami, I believe that we still haven't sorted out many of the thing that we didn't finish last night?"
With that, Shenlong pulled out several boring-looking documents and laid them on the table before his partner.
Shinigami groaned. "Don't we have secretaries for this?"
Shenlong arched fine black eyebrow and stared witheringly at Shinigami.
"Fine, fine… Who's got a pen I can borrow?"
*~*~*~*
Aria walked purposefully down one of the many long hallways in the Winner mansion looking for one of her sisters. She wasn't sure which, but she had stolen her Mills & Boons. Her long strides slowed down as she neared her brother's room.
She frowned. She knew that about know Quatre would be in the Internet, chatting to his friends or whatever else he wanted to do. So why was his door open? He almost always had it closed, especially when he was working.
She slowed down even more, then stopped dead in the doorway, terror clenching in her stomach.
"Quatre! BEHIND YOU!"
Oooh, I'm evil. I'm leaving it there, just to see how many people I drive insane. Please review na no da!
Avalan: -_-. Da no da.