My beta reader humbly suggested that all readers who don't live in or near London would benefit greatly from looking at this picture before continuing to read this episode. =^_~= This has one of the craziest stunts ever pulled off in a fic yet. Boggles my mind just thinking about it...
Disclaimer: This year, for my birthday, I asked for omnipotent control over the five Gundam pilots contained herein, which I didn't think was too extravagant or outlandish. What did I get? A set of green plastic see-thru picnicware from Zellers. I hope my now-ex-boyfriend puts a little more thought into his next girlfriend's birthday gift. If you want to sue me for control of the picnicware, well, whatever floats yer boat, I guess... =P
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Episode Thirteen: A Higher Perspective "The follies which a man regrets most in his life are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity." ~Helen Rowland August 5th, 1901 The hours between breakfast and lunch were spent on a impromptu shopping trip, inspired by Heero's plan of making practical use of the hidden niches buried in the blueprints of Bridlewood Manor. He had discovered no less than a dozen spots in the house that could be secret passages or nooks that had been covered up for nearly fifty years, and had a mind to try converting one or two of these into his own personal storage spaces. To do this, however, he needed some specific small tools and hardware, necessesitating a venture into town, and Duo was only too happy to tag along. Any excuse to get out of the kitchen. Plus, it gave him the opportunity to discuss something with Heero. "Frankly, I'm a little bit jealous," he said, pouting and fiddling with the end of his braid. "You talk to Trowa in Spanish, you talk to Quatre in...in...whatever it is he speaks, and then there was that German landlady the other day. If you want to say anything to anybody in secret, you can do it, and nobody else will know what you're talking about, but you can't do it with me, and I'm supposed to be your assistant!" He shoved his hands in his trouser pockets and kicked stones as they walked down the busy street full of shops. "I just feel left out, that's all..." Heero was only partially listening, the rest of his concentration being focused on his shopping list and where to fill it. "Hn. What do you expect me to do about it?" "I want you to teach me another language!" Duo exclaimed. "Then we can do all that covert communication stuff like in 'The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter'!" Heero blinked, then realized what Duo was talking about and rolled his eyes. During his search for the blueprints in the attic, the chef had stumbled upon a few boxes filled with back issues of the Strand Magazine, between six and twelve years old, and had been devouring the fanciful stories of Sherlock Holmes at an alarming rate ever since. When he came across a word on the faded pages that he didn't know, he even had the good sense to try the dictionary before bothering his roommate for the definition. Discovering the possibility of secret passages in the house only got Duo more fired up, and he fancied himself and his partner to be the 20th-century reincarnations of Holmes and Watson. Nevertheless, enthusiasm and a vivid imagination were hardly an excuse for Heero to waste his valuable time trying to teach Duo a second language he might never use, especially since he hadn't yet mastered his own language. Heero's silence only got on the chef's nerves. "Come on! This is a good idea! What if we were captured by the enemy and had to plan our escape under their very noses, huh?" The butler sighed and tried to ignore him, shuffling through a basket of brass door hinges outside a repair shop. Why did I agree to take him along? While he picked out some fixtures, rivets, nuts and bolts, Duo slithered up to his left ear. "You're not purposely trying to keep me dumb so I'll be easier to control, are you?" Heero released another prolonged sigh. "I think your detective stories are making you paranoid." Duo thought about that and shrugged. After another minute or two of boredly staring at the ordinary street bustling with countless mid-morning shoppers, he decided to switch tactics. He leaned in closer to his partner's ear, until they were almost touching. "Say you'll teach me Japanese, and I'll take you on another little adventure tonight," he purred. Heero nearly dropped the bag of hardware he was carrying to the till. Duo congratulated himself. Ha! Got him on his adrenaline addiction and his national pride! I am so happening! Within moments, Heero had regained his senses and walked away from Duo to pay for his miscellaneous bits of metal, but they both knew the suggestion shook him on a fundemental level. When he turned around, the silent question was pasted across Duo's innocent smile--'Well?' "I'll think about it," Heero said defensively. "That's all I ask," Duo said, "and no horses this time, I promise." They let the subject drop while visiting a few more shops and collecting more bits and pieces, like combination locks and squarish plates of heavy grey metal. As they began making their way through the next city block to look for some ingredients Duo wanted for that night's dinner, a strange commotion caught their attention. A young woman in a fern green dress was standing on a streetcorner with an armful of leaflets, which she was eagerly handing out to passers-by. She demonstrated all the hot, fiery energy hinted at by her strawberry blonde hair, which was swept up in a fetching, puffy style under her feathered hat. As the leaflets were circulated, the women in the street generally read them with great interest, while a few old men here and there merely laughed. The blonde woman stood her ground, pontificating at the scoffers without a trace of apprehension. "Speak up now and end this patriarchal tyranny! Support votes for women! Do it for your daughters, your sisters, and even your mothers! Let all who share in the work, share in the responsibility!" There wasn't very much in the way of a crowd surrounding her, but she was certainly drawing the lion's share of the attention on that particular corner. Duo poked Heero in the arm. "Should we take the long way home?" he asked. Whether his paranoia really was getting the better of him, or he just preferred to avoid confrontation, Heero couldn't tell. "There's no need," the butler answered, walking straight into the fray on the strength that his glare alone would deter any of the hecklers from trying to strike up a conversation. As they passed through the sparse crowd, the glare seemed to be working, as people tended to back away from the pair and let them pass rather quickly. Suddenly, the blonde woman turned around, spotted Heero's stern expression, and interpreted it as opposition to her holy cause. "You sir!" she shouted, closing the distance between them in two steps. "Can you honestly say, with your hand on your heart, that the Empire would suffer detriment from allowing women their rightful voice in government?" The crowd seemed to close in on Heero a little, eager to hear the answer of someone so young and presumably untainted by propaganda from either side of the debate. Fixed especially firmly on his eyes were the eyes of the suffragette in the green dress, standing patiently with one hand on her hip. She seemed to have a strange natural immunity to Heero's glare. He had very stupidly trapped himself into this by not following Duo's suggestion, and the only way to vindicate himself was not to take the easy way out and simply walk away. "It is reasonable to presume that the percentage of women who know what they're doing is equal or greater to the percentage of men who haven't got a clue," he said, looking over at the group of old, snickering 'gentlemen'. The woman squinted, tilted her head to the side, and smiled, as much impressed by the evasiveness of his answer as by the sentiment it contained. "You seem like a smart young man. I'd enjoy seeing you at one of our meetings." She handed Heero a leaflet. "First Tuesday of every month, at the Opal Room of the Barnsbury Hotel in Pentonville. Perhaps you'd like to bring your ideas to the podium..." Heero took the page with a noncommittal tilt of his head. "Perhaps." His eye travelled rapidly to the bottom of the leaflet, looking for the publication notice:
"Doctor Poole...is this you?" Heero asked without any hint of disapproval. "Yes, that's right," the woman said, piping up so as to be clearly heard by the disbelievers. "I am a doctor. Not a nurse, not a midwife, not one of the Holy Sisters of the Divine Stethoscope," she quipped, eliciting amused giggles from the ladies in the crowd. "A proper doctor. Proof that women are neither inferior, nor incapable of excelling in so-called 'men's professions'!" Before the hecklers had a chance to jump in with their rebuttal, Duo leapt out from behind his partner with a wide smile. "Aw, cool! Really? Could you take a look at my arm? I think I'm getting tennis elbow from stirring the pancake batter." He offered his right arm for inspection while Heero shook his head with a smirk. Immediately charmed by the boy, the doctor gave his arm a quick once-over and prescribed rest, liniment, and more milk in the pancake batter. While they chatted, Heero looked over the fairly ordinary leaflet he'd been given; it was mostly a collection of women's suffrage articles, many with very worthy ideas, and meeting annoucements, including the one in Pentonville. The woman herself was more a puzzle; she certainly didn't sound English, and there was something odd about the narrowness of her eyes, as if they didn't quite match the rest of her face, by English standards. Heero filed her image away in his mind and tucked the leaflet into his inside coat pocket. All information was eventually valuable. Next to him, the diagnostic session continued. Dr. Poole had put her leaflets away in a large shoulder bag and was gently cradling Duo's jaw with both hands, checking for swollen glands just below his ears. Duo closed his eyes and mewed softly at the motherly contact, probably the first of that kind he'd ever experienced. "And are your wisdom teeth coming in alright?" Dr. Poole asked. "Yeah, but this one back here's been hurting a bit..." Heero looked around and saw that most of the crowd had dissipated, leaving him alone with the good doctor and her nutty patient. Now he was beginning to look at his watch impatiently. I don't believe this! he thought, I take him on a supply run and he ends up getting his yearly physical in the middle of the street! How do these insane things happen!? "You're looking a bit underweight to me," Dr. Poole said, "take some mild dandelion tea with breakfast each morning. It'll help your appetite." "Thanks!" Duo said cheerily. "And I stubbed my toe the other day--" "Duo," a tenor voice growled, "we've taken up more than enough of her time, now let's go." Heero grabbed his assistant by the braid and led him away. "Good day, Doctor." "Ow! Leggo!" Duo yelped. "I was just being friendly!" Dr. Poole smiled at the pair as they walked away. She then took her leaflets back out of the shoulder bag and resumed pitching her enlightenment to the crowd, with the usual mixed results. As the boys began their trek back to the manor with their purchases, Heero's analytical side couldn't shake the feeling that Dr. Poole didn't quite fit her environment somehow. Unfortunately, he simply had too much on his plate to start investigating every person he met in London who was a little bit odd. Duo could keep him occupied on that count for several months. He pushed the meeting to the back of his mind and carried on. **********The afternoon's overcast sky was something of a blessing to the city, for it cooled the air to a slightly more bearable temperature. It reminded the people that the days would soon be getting shorter, and London would eventually turn rain-soaked and bitter cold once again. Before that happened, however, Quatre was going to make the most of the weather; the air was just perfect for his flower gardens, humid but not stifling. He knelt on the grass in his overalls and gardening gloves, delicately nipping off stray branches of a sage bush with the pruning shears, surrounded on all sides by lilies, violets, and bluebells. This is so relaxing, he thought, and so beautiful! Even though I hate to think of the circumstances, I don't regret coming to England. You just can't find some of these lovely blossoms in the desert... "Penny for your thoughts?" a girl's voice asked. The gardener looked up. There, in a pristine white sundress like the gown of an angel, was Dorothy. Quatre was immediately suspicious, but didn't let it show. "My thoughts aren't worth a farthing, never mind a whole penny," he joked with a smile. "Oh, I'm sure that's not true!" the girl giggled, bashfully covering her mouth with a daintily-gloved hand. She bit lightly on her lower lip and smiled, looking between Quatre and the garden. "That's quite a view you've got down there," she said melodiously. Quatre blinked at her for several seconds before realizing what she wanted. "Oh! I'm sorry!" He whipped the handkerchief out of his top pocket and laid it down on the ground, so Dorothy could kneel in front of the flowers without soiling her dress. Always the gentleman, was Quatre. Dorothy gathered up her skirts and availed herself of the resting place, settling down near a patch of violets. Removing her gloves and dropping them on the grass, she reached out to run her thin, peaches-and-cream fingers over the petals of some pale blue flowers. "These are exquisite," she cooed, batting her eyelids coquettishly, "what are they?" "Those?" Quatre said, looking over from the sage bush. "Those are myosotis palustris...forget-me-nots." "How fascinating! And these?" she asked, switching to a pink cluster. The gardener glanced over once again. "Hydrangea hortensis, same as those blue and purple ones over there. You can change the colour of the blossoms by changing the acidity of the soil they grow in." Dorothy sat back on her heels and looked suitably impressed. "My goodness, you seem to know a lot about plants and flowers and growing things, don't you?" She gave him another timid smile and twirled her hair around her fingers. She's up to something. Even if I didn't have my sixth sense, I could tell. She's so obvious. Quatre smiled back politely. "Well, it is my job to know." When she blushed falsely and looked away, he peered through the hedge to make sure his bodyguard was still hidden on the other side. Sure enough, he caught a glimpse of Trowa's dark green turtleneck, and knew he would leap out and defend him if anything went awry. "Tell me something," Dorothy said in a shy voice, "what can one do to help a flower that isn't thriving on it's own?" Quatre thought about the question. "It would depend on what's wrong with it. If it's just not getting enough water, or enough sunlight--" "What if everything the flower needed had been given to it in abundance, but it still wilted? What if it had all the water it needed, all the beautiful sunshine it could ask for, but no matter what, it just couldn't grow?" Her eyes misted over in feigned sadness, and it seemed as if she could cry at any moment. A brief pause followed, and Quatre set his hands on his knees. "I would suspect the soil it was planted in of being too harsh or the wrong mixture for it," he said, guessing that this was exactly what she wanted him to say. "I'd try transplanting it into better soil." "Oh," Dorothy gasped quietly. She turned to him and tucked her hand under his chin, tilting his face closer to her own, every sound and movement dripping with drama. "And is that the only way to make it well again?" she whispered. Her hand wandered up to his forehead, brushing aside the soft, feathery hair and travelling lightly down the side of his face. Quatre cleared his throat softly and pulled her hand away. "M'lady...please..." "I know it's terribly uncouth of me to have such feelings for my hostess' servant, but I just can't help myself!" Dorothy grabbed her gloves and began wringing them in her pale hands, tears flowing freely down her rosy cheeks. "I'm so worried about you, risking your health to slave away in this wretched heat! You're going to wither and die in this place, I can feel it! You must get out of here! You must!" The gardener was unaffected by her tears, because he felt in his heart that they were completely false. "And where should I go?" he asked, knowing full well what the answer would be. Dorothy dried her eyes with one glove and gazed sweetly at him. "You could always take that clerical position at Lady Une's estate," she said hopefully, "she told me all about it, and I think it would be much better for you! I even convinced her to forgive your friend for being so rude to her in the street! She's willing to give you another chance and all you have to do is say 'yes'!" Quatre focused on her misty eyes and concentrated, reaching out with his mystical understanding to peel away the mask she wore. Deceit...lies...but something else as well. Why does she want me to go? If I could just get closer... "It takes a strong spirit to admit physical weakness, Quatre," the girl pleaded, "won't you give your poor body and soul a chance to heal somewhere more peaceful? If the only way to save that wilting flower is to transplant it into softer, easier soil, then you know what you must do." A longer pause this time. "Thank you for your concern, m'lady," the gardener began slowly, "but there is no possible way for me to leave Bridlewood. Miss Relena needs me here much more than I need to get away, and for the final time, I don't feel the least bit sickly." Trying to look detached and professional, he picked up the pruning shears and waved them towards the sage bush. "Now I'm very sorry, but I have to get back to this." He turned away and went straight back to his work, cutting errant twigs off the large plant and saving them in a basket, to dry the leaves and give them to Duo for his herb and spice collection. Dorothy's brow wrinkled. She had used two large handfuls of tricks from her massive flirting arsenal, but they seemed to have little or no effect. Never mind, she thought, I always keep a few aces tucked away in reserve. She placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned in close. "I only want what's best for you," she whispered, drawing even nearer, and finally touching a delicate, petal-soft kiss to his cheek. Quatre's eyes widened at the contact, but it wan't the kiss that shocked him. The close physical contact heightened the ability of his emotional instincts, giving him a much deeper glance behind the mask; he didn't like what he saw. Greed! That's what I couldn't pick up from her before! Pure, awful greed! But if it's aimed at me, then that means... Dorothy rose and brushed stray blades of grass off her dress, gave the boy one last smile, and wandered off, fanning herself with her gloves. As soon as she was well out of earshot, Trowa magically appeared from his hiding place behind the hedge and crouched next to his young charge. "I heard that. She's got some nerve..." "Trowa, did you tell anyone about the tontine?" Quatre asked quietly, giving the sage bush a blank stare. "Of course not!" the taller boy exclaimed, shaking his head. "Well, somebody told, and if it wasn't you, then it must have been one of the others." Quatre took off his gardening gloves and ran his hands through his fair hair nervously. "I have this awful feeling she knows about the money, and that she's trying to lure me away because of it." **********The cloud cover only got thicker as the night wore on, but the rain stubbornly refused to fall. Instead, the setting sun and the rising moon were obscured by a thick gray haze of stagnant moisture, so much that by ten o'clock, the world outside the house had gone depressingly dark. Perfect for sneaking about. While the rest of the house was being tucked in for the night, Duo prowled the halls looking for his partner, carefully avoiding the floorboards he'd identified as the creaky ones. Dressed once again in his shabby brown suit and cap, he crept this way and that until he found Heero in the kitchen, locking the back door for the night. Duo wanted to sneak up and scare him, but the butler's keen hearing wouldn't allow for it. "Come to spirit me away into the night, have you?" Heero asked dryly without turning around, attempting to sound disinterested. "Try to contain your enthusiasm," Duo sneered. He went to the cupboard under the washbasin and took out three very odd items, considering where they came from. The first was a grungy tin with a screw-top lid bearing the faded label, 'Mastic Gum Resin.' The second was a brown paper bag lightly covered on the outside with a fine white powder, with a long-handled paintbrush sticking out of it. Lastly was a length of heavy chain, about an inch thick, and nearly four feet long. Heero watched the peculiar parade of items with a raised eyebrow, but said nothing. Naturally, after just having locked the back door, Duo insisted that they take the back route instead of exiting out the front, and they left the kitchen to creep around to the front of the house and away down the street. They walked for a long time down practically empty roads, the only other people out at such a late hour being policemen and the occasional drunkard. After stopping at a pub along the way for a quick meal, at Duo's insistence, they wandered until reaching Fenchurch Street, near the banks of the River Thames. "Ready for your next adventure?" Duo asked. Heero looked around for anything remotely dangerous. "Are you suggesting we jump in the canal?" "Nuh-uh, my hair and filthy canal water that two thousand ships have flaked rust into don't mix! Follow me..." With a wink, Duo turned and headed straight for the massive landmark that had been looming a short distance away and listening to their conversation--the maginificent Tower Bridge. Spanning the width of the Thames with two massive medieval-looking towers was the recently-built lift bridge that had just revolutionized the way land traffic and sea traffic coexisted in the same spot. A long walkway stretched between the pillars just above the water, with a seam in the middle so the two halves could be raised to allow the passage of ships. Duo waited until there was nobody looking and led Heero partway across the bridge, hugging the siderail. "Beautiful, ain't it?" Duo remarked, stopping at a point where some light scratches had been etched into the siderail's paint. He sat down on the bridge and opened the tin of resin. "I was hanging around a lot while they were building this thing, just a little kid, really. Never got close to it during daylight hours, of course, so I had to do all my exploring at night, preferably when there wasn't a full moon." Heero regarded the structure around them thoughtfully. Even though it was almost pitch black out, it did look like a rather impressive piece of architecture; still, he didn't see what Duo could possibly expect him to learn from it. Still comfortably seated, Duo opened the paper bag and carefully poured some of the white powder into the tin, mixing it with the paintbrush as he did so. "Finding those nooks 'n crannies in the blueprints the other day made me kinda nostalgic for this place. You wouldn't believe how many hiding places there are on this bridge for an experienced thief, let me tell you!" Heero folded his arms. 'Experienced thief'? Was his partner trying to drag him into a life of crime? Not that Heero hadn't ever stolen anything before, but that was business...it was totally different... "We're not stealing anything, either. Whatever you have to show me, you can do it without breaking th--what are you doing?" Duo looked up and smiled. He was taking off his shoes and socks. "I'm going to treat you to the use of an invention of mine, but the ingredients are a secret, okay?" He gave the contents of the tin another stir and lifted the paintbrush, revealing a gooey, amber-coloured substance that clung to the bristles in huge globs. "Yep, this stuff has served me well over the years..." He rolled up his trouser legs and began painting the bare soles of his feet with the sticky goo. "Duo, if anyone walks by, you just escaped from a mental institution and I've never seen you before in my life, agreed?" "Wuss." Once his feet had a thick layer of the alien stuff, he began painting the palms of his hands as well. "If you ever wanna quit your job and become a professional pickpocket, this is the stuff to have." When he was finished, he picked up the length of chain and got to his feet, enjoying the befuddled look on Heero's face. "Your turn!" "Excuse me?" "Get your shoes and socks off and do like I did!" While Heero showed absolutely no signs of moving, Duo was dangling the chain by one end in his right hand and looking up. Above their heads, stretching in a graceful arc from the riverbank to a point nearly a hundred and fifty feet up the side of the nearest tower, was a steel suspension strut. From the lowest point, coincidentally located about where they were standing, it climbed at a steeper and steeper angle until it connected with the tower for architectural support. The ribbon of blue-painted steel looked just about the right size for a human to balance on. "You can't be serious." "You're right! Serious is boring!" Duo gave the chain a few heavy swings and threw the loose end over a metal bar just out of reach. Grabbing the other end, he now had an extended grip on the bar, and a maniacal grin to boot. He tossed his cap to the ground. "Besides, can serious people do this?" With the agility of a lemur, Duo hung from the chain and stuck his feet to the thin vertical support leading up to the blue steel. He continued to reposition the chain over and over, scaling up to the top surface of the metal ribbon until he hauled himself on top of it. He now stood on the lowest point leading up to the stone tower. Heero shook his head in disbelief. He really is insane... "Tonight's goal is to make it from this spot right here, up to the top of the support where it meets the tower," Duo called down, pointing to the pertinent area, almost two hundred feet high. "If you chicken out and head back down, you lose. If you freeze up and I have to come rescue you, you lose. If you fall..." He looked at the walkway and the river's surface far below, then smiled at Heero and shrugged. "...well, obviously." The stakes were getting higher. Duo's smirk was getting wider. Humiliation versus a possible gruesome death was always a tough call. I can't believe I'm doing this. Heero sat down next to the tin of resin, divested himself of his shoes and socks, rolled up his trouser legs and painted four thick swatches of the gummy substance on his hands and feet. Immensely pleased with his partner's determination, Duo tossed down the chain, and Heero gave him one last glare before following his example. It took a bit more effort, indicating that Duo had accumulated a lot more practice at this bizarre exercise, but Heero made it on top of the blue steel ribbon without incident. That was the easy part. "Ready?" Duo asked. "Does it matter?" Heero growled. Duo grinned at him, and giving him a light punch to the shoulder, started walking carefully up the narrow strip of steel, the makeshift glue on his feet making a curious crackling noise with each cautious step. "We won't need that anymore," he called back, pointing to the chain, and Heero obediently dropped it. The boys began their odd climbing expedition with relative ease; though the way was narrow, their ascent was easy for the first few minutes...but the route grew steadily steeper with each careful step. Soon, merely balancing on the narrow steel was insufficient, and they needed both hands to pull themselves along. Every few feet, Duo had to look back to see if Heero was still there. If he fell, he wouldn't even lower himself to screaming, even when he hit the pavement. It took all of Heero's concentration to execute the precarious climb safely. Set feet on flattest portion of steel...set hands twelve inches forward...unstick feet while pulling with hands, repeat process. Ignore the fact that it's too dark to see. Ignore the fact that the wind is picking up the higher you climb. Most of all, don't look down... Heero looked down. It wasn't that bad, only a hundred feet. Nothing to be concerned about. He tightened his grip slightly. Just then, he became aware of a light set of footsteps on the bridge. If it was a policeman, they were cooked. Heero froze, but Duo kept climbing, already too far away to hear them. He peered down at the bridge and waited. The footsteps grew louder, and a figure appeared far below...a figure in white, with jet black hair pulled into a ponytail. The stranger stopped, glanced around, then looked straight up at Heero. You again! Heero thought. Why are you following me? Who sent you!? The stranger continued to stare straight up, and it occurred to Heero how ridiculous he must look, sloppily dressed and stuck to the metal support like a beetle climbing a drainpipe. Unfazed by the curious predicament, the stranger in white looked at him for a few moments, his expression totally blank, then turned and walked away, disappearing into the night as quietly as he came. Heero tore his eyes away from the bridge below. Duo was getting too far ahead of him, and it was against the rules to stop climbing; he had to put the stranger out of his mind and press on. "How ya doin' back there?" Duo was almost at the top and looked completely at ease, scaling the most vertical section of the steel. His voice was almost lost on the moisture-soaked wind, whipping about them at a much higher velocity than it did on the ground. Ask me again when I'm close enough to strangle you. Just then, the distraction of his own angry thoughts combined with the extra mist in the air to make his hand slip off the edge of the steel. He lashed out and wrapped his other arm around the strut to regain his balance, narrowly avoiding a deadly fall. The glue didn't work perfectly on wet metal. "Fine, thank you." The next time he looked up a few minutes later, Duo was gone. Heero actually gasped, then began frantically searching the ground for his friend. He looked at the black, murky water and instantly felt sick. "Duo!?....DUO!!" Moments ticked by. "Up here!" Heero's head snapped back up to see a hand waving out from the shadowed area where steel met stone. One deep sigh and a vow of revenge later, Heero crawled up the last twenty feet of the nearly vertical climb before the glue decided to give out entirely. When he was near enough to be reached, Duo grabbed the other boy by the jacket and helped him pull himself up to the little hiding place. Physically and mentally spent, Heero leaned against a wall, not caring where it was or how it got there, and gradually caught his breath. Duo struck a match and lit a small candle fragment, giving them their first good look at their surroundings. They sat in a tiny niche literally chipped out of the masonry where the blue steel support was fastened to the tower. It was completely separate and sheltered, invisible to the casual observer, and apparently unnoticed by the building inspectors. The floor of the niche was littered with assorted junk, like cheap jewellry, scraps of leather and metal, broken watches, and more tins of resin. A thief's hideaway. Duo leaned against the opposite wall and started peeling the resin off his hands and feet. "You can bet you're the first person I've ever brought up here," he said, balling up the wads of goo and flattening them into the floor. "While they were building this, I thought to myself, 'Self, if you can claim a little piece of that as your own, in a place nobody would ever think to look, you'll always have somewhere to go, and you'll never really be homeless.' So I did." Heero followed suit, peeling off the resin and sticking it anywhere that was still bare rock. It was beginning to harden, and came off fairly easily. "You carved this out of solid rock?" "Not really," Duo said, "I sorta cheated. I waited until they were cementing these stones together, then made my first climb up that night, and just pulled a bunch of 'em out before the cement dried. The steel was already in place, and they kept on going the next day. Never bothered to look. Then I chucked all the spare rocks into the river." It was impossible not to be impressed by his knowledge and skill. An explosives expert, a chemical engineer, a stonemason and a master chef, and all before he could read or write. If I hadn't met him, I wouldn't have believed it. Heero squinted at his soon-to-be ex-partner in the candlelight. A pity...he would have been a great help to me, but for his own safety I have to tell him-- "Done with peeling that stuff off? Only I'd better blow the candle out before someone looks up and spots us." Heero nodded, and they dove back into the darkness while he tried to find an easy way to say what he had to. It had felt horrible when he thought Duo had fallen, and he knew letting Treize get his hands on the boy would feel even worse. "We need to talk..." "Before we get into a big dialogue," Duo interrupted, "let's just enjoy the view for awhile, huh? That's the best part of coming up here! Just look at that!" There was a huge smile in his voice as he turned to face the small opening through which the glimmering lights of nighttime London could be seen. The advent of electricity made for a breathtaking picture of a shoreline, dotted with thousands of bright specks that looked especially lovely in the heavy mist. "I used to come up here when I wanted to forget what my life was like. You can only get here at night anyway, and by then it's so quiet...no voices, no clattering wheels, nothing. You just stare at those lights and you could be anywhere...I used to sit here and pretend I was back home in America." He pulled his braid over his shoulder and stroked it like a soft, thick lifeline as he painted an image of his sad childhood. "I don't even remember what America looks like, just that we took a boat here when I was five, for a holiday, I guess. We saw all the big touristy places, Buckingham Palace, the Parliament buildings, Kew Garden, all first-class and in serious style! Then...I don't know what went wrong. Mom and Dad were fighting, they seemed mad at each other, mad at me, mad at the London weather, and one morning we just up and went to the train station...I guess we were going on a day trip somewhere to find some sunshine. The train pulled up and people started rushing around...I turned around and they were gone. "Everything kinda went downhill from there, but you knew that already, right?" Duo said with a bitter smirk. "From that day, it's been tough just staying alive, and man, I hated seeing the sun come up in the morning because it just meant another day full of problems." His eyes left the glittering landscape and fell on his friend's face, almost timidly. "I wanted to let you know...that I'm really glad you caught me in that alley. Life's gotten a heck of a lot better since you did." Utterly humbled by the admission, Heero didn't know what to say. He tried to refocus on what he'd been intending to say for days, until Duo picked it up and threw it into the river. "And I'm really glad we've hooked up into this partnership sorta thing! I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing than helping you crack open a big, fat mystery with all the trimmings!" Duo tucked his knees up to his chest and tapped his feet excitedly. Guilt stabbed at Heero. Great. How am I supposed to tell him it's over now? He frowned, grateful that the darkness obscured it. "What did you want to say, Heero?" This mission was too much for him. Maybe he'd tell him later. "...nice view." "Yeah...we still gotta get some sleep, though. We oughta go soon." Heero looked down at the metal tins between them. "More resin?" "Oh no, I never use that stuff on the way down, only up." "How exactly are we getting down, then?" Heero asked hesitantly. "Well, y'know that big staircase at the manor that goes from the front hall to the second floor?" ".........yes...." "Didya ever get the urge to slide down the banister?" |
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Next, in Episode Fourteen: The season's crowning social event, the Lord Chamberlain's fancy dress ball, rules over the household. Duo and Heero discover unseen question marks about their friendship, while Relena plans the perfect night with the object of her desire. Hovering in the background, however, is a sinister plot being woven together that could mean the worst for Heero, as he is forced to see Count Khushrenada's true strategy...all in a special Double-Length episode of Bridlewood Manor!
*rotfl* I had to put the banister thing, I know it could never really happen, but it just seemed too cute to waste. Let's say for arguments' sake that they made it down safely. People have been wondering what snapped in Treize's head to make him behave the way he did recently, but rest assured, there is a reason why... =^_~= And please. For the love of all that is good and reasonable in the world. Do NOT put glue on your feet and try to climb something!!! =@_@= I can't afford personal injury lawsuits right now! What you've just read about Tower Bridge is entirely fictional, but hey, purely for academic purposes, I'll be posting a picture of the bridge on my site showing exactly where the theoretically ended up after their climb, if anyone wants to know...hehehe... *takes deep breath* ...let's say next episode on the...13th. *lets out deep breath* Baibai!