Chapter Six
Hayden stared up at the bottom of Mei's bed as he lay on Kaori's bunk. He knew he shouldn't just be in their room, but he wanted to talk to Kaori. He wanted to tell her something, but he didn't know if he had the courage to do it. Despite the fact that they had gone out to a club tonight, since it was a weekend, he knew that Mei would be staying in her parents' apartment rather than the dorm room. That would give him a little more privacy to talk to Kaori. He was so absorbed in his thoughts about her, he didn't notice the door open at 01:47 that night.
Kaori knew he was in there before she opened the door. She sensed him inside. And she sensed that he was thinking, concentrating very hard on something. So she opened the door slowly and quietly to not disturb him. She closed the door just as quietly behind her, and he never looked over from where he lay on her bed.
The radio was on softly, playing one song over and over. She knew the song was on repeat because she stood through four rounds of it, watching him as he thought intensely about whatever it was he was thinking about. Kaori began to lose focus on Hayden, though. The song. He knew how this song reached her. He knew it.
She soon lost herself in the words that echoed in her heart. This song made her feel…different somehow. More confident. This song raised emotions in her that she was afraid to acknowledge. And with the song playing, she decided not to be afraid anymore.
Sighing and slipping off her shoes, she walked closer to the bed – her bed – that Hayden was laying on. He looked up at her, eyes widening a little in surprise. He probably hadn't expected her to be home yet. He probably hadn't expected her to walk up this close before he noticed her sound. But right now, she didn't really care about what he expected.
He sat up on the bed, swinging his legs over the side and sitting straight. Kaori walked closer, the sounds of the deep beat of the song thumping with her own heartbeat. She wanted to reach out and touch someone. She was glad that Hayden happened to be within reaching distance.
A sly, seductive smile pulled the corners of her lips, entrancing the young man on the bed. Her lips moved as the words of the song began. She put one knee on the bed, lightly rubbing her leg against the outside of his thigh as she did so. Leaning forward, she whispered the words of the song into his ear.
// she spreads herself side open
to let the insects in
she leaves a trail of honey
to show me where she's been
she has the blood of reptile
just underneath her skin
seeds from a thousands others
drip down from within //
Kaori's lips brushed over Hayden's ear and neck as she whispered the words to him. Her voice was husky and growled along with the male lead singer, making her breath warm over the sensitive skin of his neck. He longed for her to touch him, but even with the impossible closeness of her leaning near, she refrained from touching his body except for where her knee did against his leg. Her neck was only centimeters from his mouth, and he turned his head to kiss her exposed neck.
// oh my beautiful liar
oh my precious whore
my disease, my infection
i am so impure //
Throughout whispering the chorus to him, Kaori endured the soft kisses on her neck. After she finished reciting "impure," she returned the favor. She let her hands run lightly up his chest and shoulders, then used them to bring his face to hers and lock their mouths in a passionate kiss. As the second verse started, she pulled away from him slightly to whisper the words in his other ear.
// devils speak
of the way in which she'll manifest
angels bleed
from the tainted touch of my caress
need to contaminate
to alleviate this loneliness
i know now
the depths i've reached are limitless //
Hayden pulled on her hips slowly, moving her closer and closer to him so that she was on his lap, with a leg on either side of his body. He held her head to his as they kissed again, pulling her with him as he laid back slowly on the bed.
They never heard the rest of the song, because they were so involved in each other.
* * * * * * *
"Hurry up," Heero growled as he and Duo waited for the elevator to take them to the 7th floor. Kaori was already upstairs, having sprinted there immediately after delivering the message to her father. And Wufei was waiting with the message.
Heero grumbled a few choice words pertaining to the elevator's heritage as the doors opened up to reveal the seventh floor. He rushed down the hallway with Maxwell on his heels to Sally's office. Wufei had just happened to be there, getting something for Sally's research, when Jin's coded call came through.
Wufei paced his love's office floor. Too bad the individual communicators in the apartment rooms didn't have encryption, or this would have been a lot easier for Jin. As it is, she had to send the message to a communicator that decoded Preventor encryption, and such communicators were only available on the seventh and eighth floors of the Academy. Sally's office included. He'd called everyone he could to tell them that Jin was sending a coded message, but Kaori was the only one to answer the vid-phone in her room. Heero must not have heard the ring, or more likely he turned it off sometime earlier and conveniently forgot to turn it back on.
"He's here," Kaori announced, moments before her father and an out-of-breath Duo burst into Sally's office. Wufei wasted no time in pleasantries. He played the message.
Jin's face appeared on the monitor, and she was dressed in her Preventor field uniform. The background behind her was a plain wall, which didn't give any clue as to her true location. Even Heero didn't know where she had gone this time. "Sally," Jin began, looking tired. "I hope you forgive my intrusion into your valuable time, but I need your help. A horrible plot has been uncovered through our research and activities here. Please, go and get Heero and the other pilots before you play the rest of this message." Jin's voice paused, to give Sally time to press stop on the communicator and gather the required audience.
Instead, it had been Wufei to pause the message, but he doubted that mattered. Jin continued after only a moment. "Heero," she said, her voice laced with sadness and love. Kaori instinctively closed her eyes and put a hand over her heart, after hearing her mother's voice like that. "We've uncovered … its horrible. There's a List. Quatre's family is first: Quatre Junior, Catherine, then Quatre. After them, Kaori, myself, and you, dear." The digital face of Jin closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "We're all on there. Trowa's family, Duo's and Wufei's. Someone wants us all. Tell the others," she pleaded, "for I must stay here and remain invisible. I'm sorry I cannot return to you, dear, but I have to stay. Be safe." The monitor went abruptly black.
Duo released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. A List. The thought made him shiver, and he reached over to put an arm around Heero. Heero's eyes were cast down to the ground as he thought.
"Don't tell anyone," he instructed, still looking down. "She sent the message to Sally, which means she trusts only family. Wufei, call Quatre and Trowa at the mansion. Tell them to come here, we're all safer here at the Academy together then spread throughout Earth and space." He looked up, tears welling in his eyes as he reached his arms out. Kaori rushed into his outstretched arms and curled in his fatherly embrace, the severity and sadness of the situation making her feel sick. "Don't tell the children," he ordered.
* * * * * * *
- Quatre R. Winner, Jr.
Catherine B. Winner
Quatre R. Winner
Kaori Yuy
- Jin Yuy
Heero Yuy
Trowa Barton
Duo Maxwell
Chang Wufei
Roddy Adelphia-Barton…
Jin stared down at the list in her hand. Everyone's names were there. All of Trowa's family, Duo's family, and Wufei's family completed the long hit-list that she held in her hand. She hoped that Sally had received her message. She hoped that Sally had gotten a hold of Heero. She hoped that Heero knew what to do. She hoped they could stop this assassin before the first objective of his mission can be completed.
She closed her eyes, crushing the paper in her fist as she slid slowly down the metal wall of the shuttle she was in. The assassin had come after her already, destroying the Preventor ship and killing most of the crew in an attempt to get her. She'd narrowly escaped, fleeing through the colony that they'd been docked on and quickly getting lost in the crowds that walked down the streets. Now she'd caught a shuttle, heading to a different colony in a different cluster.
In fact, she didn't even know where she was going. That in itself was a good thing. Picking a random shuttle meant that she'd arrive in a random location, which would make her that much harder to find. But she wanted to go home. She wanted to help her family.
No, she thought to herself, shaking her head vigorously. No, if she wanted to help her family, then she'd have to stay out here and find out who made up this list. She had to find out who wanted them all dead. Taking a deep breath, she got up off the floor of the shuttle lavatory and stuffed the paper in her pocket.
"Are you feeling better, dearie?" the elderly woman in the seat next to her asked as she returned to her window seat. "You look like you might be sick."
"No," Jin answered, "I'm not sick. Just tired. I've been doing a lot of traveling lately." Jin didn't like lying, but she was in a delicate situation and her identity must be concealed from everyone.
"That's too bad," the woman empathized. Jin was thankful that the woman didn't ask her any more questions. The woman seemed content to let Jin close her eyes and "rest."
But Jin was not resting. Her mind worked endlessly, analyzing the names on the list. Quatre Jr.'s name was first, with a mark in front of it. That had to mean something special. Her name, too, had a mark in front of it. She could guess what that meant. Of all the people on the list, she was the only one away from the others. Perhaps her mark meant that she didn't have to be killed in the order listed on the paper. Obviously, they had come for her first.
What did Little Quatre's mark mean then? He lived in the mansion with Quatre, Catherine, Trowa, Roddy, and Trowa's little girl Natalie. The mark in front of his name must mean something different than the mark in front of her name.
Even the arrangement of the names was confusing. With Quatre and Heero's family, first the child, then the wife, then the Gundam Pilot would be killed. But with the others, the pilots would be killed right away, and their families' lives mopped up afterward. Why was it important for Quatre's son and her daughter to be killed first? What was special about them?
She frowned as she thought. The names on the List were in no easy order to decipher. The significance of the marks was still a mystery. All she knew was that someone wanted her friends and family dead. She had the hit-list to prove it.
* * * * * * *
Wufei called Quatre's mansion again from the communicator in his personal apartment. Still no answer. He was frustrated after the third call, and by this seventh call, he was absolutely a wreck. Finally, he decided to just leave a message.
"Quatre, Trowa, there's a problem," Wufei said to the recording communicator. He was about to spill everything he knew over the unencrypted line before he suddenly remembered Jin's care to keep the List secret. He had to be more secretive. "I know you guys were planning on coming here next week to visit," he lied, "But things will be busy with the students next week. Heero thought maybe you guys could leave today or tomorrow. See you soon."
"Good cover," Sally said from behind him. She'd been watching her love as he desperately tried to get through to Quatre's mansion for the past fifteen minutes. "So what's the real problem?" she asked as she kissed his neck in a warm greeting. "I take it this has nothing to do with those files I asked you to get from my office?"
"No," Wufei said sadly, gathering Sally into his arms. "Something's terribly wrong…"
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song from nine inch nails. I know its kinda random but I was in an odd mood when I wrote this chap.
