All for you Ryoko-onee
Chapter Seven
Hayden had woken up to an empty room. And an empty bed. For some reason, Kaori had left his side sometime during the night, or that morning. He'd gone to his own dorm room on the fifth floor, taken a shower, and gotten dressed like every other Sunday morning. Luke hadn't been in the room when he arrived, but then again, it had been nearly 10:00 in the morning.
By the time he'd made his way to the cafeteria, his other friends were there. Except for Kaori. Daniel, Mei, and Luke greeted him like they did every other day.
"Where's Kaori?" Hayden asked, worried about her.
"I dunno," Mei mumbled. "I didn't sleep in the dorm room last night. I slept in my parents' apartment. She should be up by now, though." Mei continued eating her bagel.
"So, what'd you do last night?" Daniel asked innocently.
Hayden turned on him. "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean…what did you end up doing after we left? Man, I was just trying to get some conversation going. Excuse me. Didn't know that somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Daniel huffed. He took a drink of his orange juice.
"You mean the right side of the wrong bed," Luke teased with a smirk. Hayden's head snapped up and his eyes widened in surprise at his brother's remark. "Oh, yes, Hade. I know that you never came home last night."
Mei was just about to ask what was wrong when her attention was diverted to the three figures entering the cafeteria. The grim air about them stilled conversations of leisurely munching students. Kaori walked in the middle between her father and Duo Maxwell, holding her father's hand as they walked. She looked rough. Her hair was still pulled into its normal ponytail, but she was wearing the same jeans she'd worn yesterday and an old sweatshirt. It looked as if she'd just been woken up and dragged out of bed. Halfway through the cafeteria and towards their table, Mei saw their strides hitch a little as Heero and Duo came to a stop, pulling Kaori to a stop as well. Heero put an arm on her shoulder and whispered something into her ear. Kaori's head nodded in affirmation. Both Col. Yuy and Colonel Maxwell smiled at the table of friends and turned, leaving the cafeteria.
Kaori walked slowly to them. Hayden watched each placement of her foot, one landing directly in front of the other. Her steps made a straight line across the floor, and made her hips sway slightly with each stride. As she got closer, he got nervous. He didn't know what to do. Should he just say good morning to her and pretend like…nothing happened last night? Did she want him to kiss her hello? Did she want to be in a relationship or what that just a one night thing?
She answered his questions for him, bending down to kiss him lightly on the mouth before sliding in a seat next to him. He sighed in relief, slipping a hand into hers under the table.
"So what's going on?" Luke asked, leaning forward and raising his eyebrows.
"Going on where?" Kaori asked. She hoped he wasn't going to ask what she'd been doing with her father and Col. Maxwell…she'd have to tell him the truth…
"Between you two, silly," he said with a Duo-smile spread across his face. "So, am I correct in assuming you're an item now?"
Hayden stiffened a little. How was Kaori going to answer this? He wanted her to say yes…
"Yea," Kaori said lazily. She leaned over and put her head on Hayden's shoulder, looking up at him in the process. "I don't feel well," she told him in a weak voice.
Mei was on alert. Kaori was never weak. Not unless her heart hurt. The realization that something was terribly wrong overshadowed her momentary glee for Kaori's new relationship. She didn't get sick over little things. The last time Kaori acted like this was when their parents found out Luke and Hayden's mother died. Mei sent a silent prayer to anyone who'd listen, hoping that all their families were safe.
* * * * * * *
"Anybody heard from the Cat family?" Duo asked after Wufei entered his office during lunch Monday. To his disappointment, Wufei shook his head no. If Quatre and Trowa had gotten his message quickly and interpreted it correctly, then they would have arrived at the Preventor Academy sometime this morning. With each passing minute, the hopes of their safe escape from L4 waned.
Something caught Sally's attention. "Cat family?"
"Yea," Duo said with his mischievous grin. "The Cat family. Quat, short for Quatre; Cat, a nickname for Catherine; and Little Quat, Quatre Junior's nickname." Duo smiled widely now, proud of the little tease he'd put on Quatre's family.
"I bet he hates that," Sally said.
"Of course," Duo laughed. "That's why I insist on calling them that. I first noticed when he and Catherine got married. I'll bet if they ever had a girl, her name would have been Quatrina or something."
Heero and Wufei laughed in spite of themselves. Duo certainly had a way of lightening the mood. The two more serious pilots had missed his entertaining antics over the years. It was good to have him back around again. Especially in a tense situation like this.
"How are the kids, Heero?" Duo asked.
Heero thought back to the class he taught this morning. Mei and Luke carried on like normal. Hayden seemed overly concerned for Kaori, but that was somewhat normal considering Kaori still felt a little sick, despite the fact that she slept most of Sunday away. "They seem normal," he answered. "Kaori still doesn't feel well, but that's expected. And she's doing a pretty good job hiding it from the others. Thank goodness they haven't asked her what's wrong yet."
Duo nodded. "Yea, like you, she's horrible at telling lies."
"What's that mean?" Heero said, more defensive that Duo was insulting his daughter than insulting himself.
"No insult, buddy," Duo said with a goofy smile. "I'm just saying that you two answer questions truthfully. You don't like telling lies if you can help it. Hell, Heero, during the Mariemaia fiasco, you even had me punch you in the face before you knocked the wind out of me – just to keep it fair!"
"Quit making fun of him, Maxwell," Wufei said, pushing the braided man. "You have to go and teach class now. And act natural around the kids, 'cause I have to teach them after you," he instructed.
"Yessir!"
* * * * * * *
Wufei's class came to order. The Chinese instructor announced that today, they would resume with the analysis he'd conducted on the first day. Only this time, each student in the class was required to pair off and spar with every other student in the class, instead of sparring with him. This was to be their last set of activities before the end of the semester.
"But sir," Daniel asked, unable to restrain himself, "We're still nine weeks from the end of the semester. What you're suggesting won't take that long, will it?"
"It will," Wufei answered. "Because only two matches will take place at one time. Two students will be selected each day to spar with each and every other student in the class. I want everyone to pay attention to the two matches at the front. You'll learn from watching each other, as well as hone your own skills against many different types of opponents."
Wufei watched the expressions of the class. Some faces gleamed as they perceived the upcoming challenge. Others looked a little scared at having to fight with everyone else in the class. He knew that his original martial arts training would have looked down upon this technique of "teaching students with students." His own training emphasized the importance of using a particular master's style of fighting and honoring his masters by utilizing their style and recognizing the styles of others. But such formality and style was not needed when all dispatching an enemy was all that mattered.
His duels with Heero reminded him of that constantly. He'd never beaten Heero in a sparring match. Not that Heero was too much stronger than him or more trained, he had to remind himself. But Heero had no qualms about mixing his own martial arts training with the vulgar version of combat simply called street fighting that he'd learned while wrestling with Duo. Heero's mix of street fighting and more elegant martial arts made him a far more difficult opponent than someone who just knew one or two styles of fighting.
Allowing the students to fight each other was a perfect way of introducing them all to variations in fighting technique. No one fought in the same way, so fighting everyone in the class exposed a student to as many different types of combat as possible.
Wufei explained a bit more, seeing the confusion creep into the faces of his students. He told how two students would position in the front right and front left of the gym. All other students would take turns in matches against them.
Partway through the second part of Wufei's explanation, two children ran into the gym, skirting around the group of sitting students and heading directly for Wufei. He smiled and got down on one knee, ready for the tackles he was about to receive.
"Uncle Wu!" they shouted as they wrapped their small arms around him.
"Hello there, little ones," Wufei said to them, embracing them warmly and patting them on their heads. "I see you arrived a little early."
Both small heads nodded vigorously.
Wufei looked out over his students and spotted his own daughter and Kaori sitting next to the Maxwell boys. He turned the two children around and pointed at them. "Go and see your big cousins for a moment," he instructed. "Your Uncle Wu still has a class to teach."
The two children kissed him on the cheek and went to their cousins. Both of them collapsed into Kaori's lap, looking up at her with beaming eyes.
"Hello Natalie," she said, wrapping an arm around the little girl with chocolate hair and striking green eyes. "And hello little Quatre," she said to the boy who looked exactly like his father.
"Hello Cousin Kaori," they said in unison.
"Shh…" she hushed them, leaning close as if it were a secret. "Uncle Wu is trying to be serious."
They giggled, then waved hello to Mei. Mei waved back heartily and put a finger to her lips, warning the visiting children to be quiet too.
Wufei was finished with his explanation. He went over the order he'd put the students into. His mental list told him that he'd picked Kaori and Mei as the first two challengers. But with Trowa and Quatre's kids visiting, it might not be a good idea for him to leave the two children alone. So he scrolled down the list in his mind and sought out the next two.
"Maxwells!" he called out. "You're up first!"
Hayden sighed and Luke mumbled something foul as they stood up and made their way to the front of the gym. The rest of the students moved from their clustered seating positions and formed a circle around each brother. A random volunteer from each circle stepped forward to challenge Hayden. Another volunteer from his own circle stepped up to challenge Luke. His volunteer just happened to be Mei, and she smiled wickedly at him as she settled into a fighting stance.
Kaori stood up, holding the hands of each of the children, and took her leave of the gym.
* * * * * * *
Trowa had an arm around both Roddy and Catherine as Quatre paced back and forth in Duo's office, telling Heero and Duo about their near escape from the mansion.
"All I know is that we were packing to go to France in order to attend my annual business conference. Like we do every year," he added, running a hand through his shaggy blonde locks. "All of a sudden, I hear shots ringing. I threw myself on Catherine, because she was close by. And I yelled for Quatre Junior to stay where he was. I knew that he'd be running into our room any minute to check and see if we were all right. The shots came in through the window, and made holes in the wall by the door. Three shots." He shook his head, not believing that someone would try an assassination attempt in his own home.
"That's when I came," Trowa said, speaking for the first time since their hasty arrival. "I had just checked the message you left when I heard the shots. I yelled at Roddy to get the kids and rushed off to find Quatre and Catherine. They were behind the bed and out of range of the window, but I had to be careful not to expose myself by walking through the door."
"So he just told us to grab a suitcase to use as cover. We'd take what had already been packed in the limo and bolt for the shuttle port. Since we were planning on leaving L4 anyway, it wouldn't look like fleeing to anyone but us and the assassin. And Trowa said you already knew…" Quatre stopped pacing and looked up at Heero.
Heero nodded slowly. "Jin called yesterday morning. They'd recovered a hit list. All our names are on it, including our families. And no one but those on the list will know what's going on…"
