A Shot at Normalcy: University Life
Disclaimer: - How many times exactly do u need me to say that I do not own Gundam Wing?
Gomen ne. I haven't been able to update for a while now. No, no writer's block. It was just school, and extra curricular activities and life being a total bitch that prevented me from updating. But no excuses. No matter what, its my fault and I apologise. I hope this chapter is long enough and good enough. PLEASE READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END. IMPORTANT!
Chapter 17: Things get a bit serious.
He was walking down the halls with a building map in his hand. His hair was tied back in a tight little pony tail at the base of his neck and he was wearing a dark blue business suit that seemed to make him highly uncomfortable. His face held the same stern expression that it normally had, though his eyes appeared to be confused.
"I wonder what you call a scholar, plus a soldier who cannot read a goddamned map?" he muttered to himself.
"Incompetent fool," someone answered for him. It was a whisper. An angry whisper.
He turned around to see who said it. He just saw the end of a long black braid disappear around the corner. His eyes now held annoyance and anger. Who dares call him incompetent?! Ohhh! The next time he met that person, things were not going to be pleasant.
He walked along that same corridor and came to a dead end. He clucked his tongue in annoyance and turned back. His nose buried in the map that he had. The next thing that he knew that the map along with his other papers was out of his hand and he was sitting on the floor and someone else, someone with a long black braid was sitting in front of him.
"Idiot," she said rubbing her backside as she got up.
"Pardon me?" he said in an annoyed tone, while trying to gather his papers.
It was the first time that she seemed to notice him.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you," she said curtly as she bent down to help him gather his stuff.
"Me neither and I think you owe me an apology," he said gathering up his stuff.
"An apology? For what? If I'm not much mistaken I just apologized for bumping into you and it is you who owes me thanks for helping you."
"Listen woman, I don't have all day. You apologize for calling me an incompetent fool and an idiot."
"Watch your mouth mister. I did no such thing and I will not apologize."
He grabbed her arm and held her there.
"You will go nowhere until you apologize."
"Let. Go. Right. Now," she said with her teeth clenched,
He noticed her eyes for the first time. They were black like is, but the intensity of her gaze amazed him.
"I will not apologize for something I did not do and let go," She said in a calmer voice. It was like she was trying to regain the control she lost for that single instant.
He let go of her hand and asked her again, "Who were you talking about then?"
"Before.About a friend. Now.Myself."
He watched her again. She had pride. And strength.
"And now I believe you owe me an apology," she said with a smile, though her eyes were still hard.
"That I do. Sorry for that. I am a new professor around here." He said.
"Yeah, I figured you were new." She studied him for a while and asked, "Hurts to apologise to a female?"
His shocked expression was her answer.
"Not to apologise for my wrong, Feels bad to misjudge."
"I know what you mean. See you around." And with that she was off.
"And if you're looking for the main office, check the first floor," she said as she disappeared down a hallway.
"How the hell did she know what I was looking for," he muttered to himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What took you so long?" Duo asked Jade.
" I ran into someone."
"Who?"
"I dunno, Some new dude. Said he was a professor."
"New? Hmmm. That's odd."
"Yeah. I bet he isn't much older than you or me. I bet you'll be seeing him around."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Thank you for showing up."
"I am also a scholar."
"I know that. Lucrezia wants to know if its still the same you," Zechs told him.
Wufei smirked.
"Tell her that I am my usual self."
"So what will you be teaching here?"
"Chinese Philosophy and history. So what was I called here for?"
"You know Relena's here?"
"Yes."
"You know the rest are here?"
"The others?"
"Yes."
"So?"
"So nothing. You are just here so that you can protect the vice-foreign minister. There have been attempts to abduct her and two others people from the university have already gone missing."
"What has that got to do with me? You don't need me with the others here."
"True, but we work better if we all are together. The others still don't know about this, except for Duo."
"Again, what has that got to do with me."
"All of the abducted people were war orphans. We still don't know where they went or who took them. People who know them say they have no reason to just go wandering off and not come back."
"Sounds serious."
"It is serious. I'll be talking to the others soon."
"Something you are not telling me."
"Yes, you'll find it out by yourself soon. Noin is waiting."
"I thought it would be Peacecraft now," Wufei said, amused.
"It is. Its Lucrezia Noin Peacecraft," Came Noin's voice from behind him.
"Long time no see, Wufei. You haven't changed"
"Same goes for you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I think that new professor that you met was an old friend," Duo said.
"Hmm?" Jade said. She was looking around the cafeteria.
"Looking for me?" Trowa said from behind her.
"No actually. I was trying to find Heero."
"He'll be here, He thought he saw someone on the grounds with Zechs."
"Yeah, must have been Wufei." Duo said.
"A new Professor," Jade told him.
"Professor Who?!" Dorothy asked appearing out of nowhere.
"Professor Chang Wufei?" Jade supplied.
"Mr. Katana Up his ass? A professor?" she exclaimed and burst out laughing.
"Dorothy, you do know that he was a scholar before he became a soldier," said Quatre, trying hard to control his surprise.
(A/N: Don't you find it funny. People appearing out of thin air? I do^_^)
"Wufei's here." Came Heero's monotone.
"We know that." Came the collective answer.
"News travels fast and I have a feeling he is here for a reason."
"He's supposed to be a new professor, right?" Dorothy said.
"He was a Preventor and as far as I know, he hasn't resigned."
"Noin and Zechs are Preventors too." Duo said.
"I have a feeling, there is much more here than meets the eye."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Zechs called. He wants to meet us," Duo told Heero who was typing away at his laptop as usual.
"I heard. Where?"
"Heero asks where?" he said to someone on the vid screen. That someone had to be Zechs.
"How 'bout here?" He told Zechs.
"Fine. Make sure there's plenty of space and no eavesdroppers," Zechs said.
"Do you want me to call the others, too? Or just me and Heero."
"Everyone."
"Okay. I'll call the others."
"Call Dorothy, too."
"Okay. I'll call her too. But listen, if I call her, Hilde is going to come too."
"Who is she?"
"My girlfriend, Her roommate and an ex-soldier too."
"Fine, so long as she can keep her mouth shut."
"Tell him we are meeting at Trowa's." Heero called from his room.
"Heero says."
"I heard. So that other girl will be there too?"
"Yes." Heero said coming up behind Duo.
"You can stop worrying about her."
"I'm not worried about her." he said with a serious face.
"Is Relena coming?" Duo asked.
"No. She is better off not knowing about it."
"Wufei coming?"
"Yes. Will meet you in another hour. Be there."
"Okay, it's been two in one week?"
"Yes. We'll talk about it later."
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A/N: What do we have here? A plot? Maybe. Continue reading to find out.
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"Trowa, the company's coming."
"Who?"
"Everyone."
"Okay. When?"
"Like about right now."
"Thanks for the warning, Duo," He said moving out of the doorway, to let Duo in.
"No Problem."
"Where's Heero?"
"He's coming. Where's Jade?"
"In the bathroom. Taking a shower."
"Keep the door open, everyone is coming."
"Including the girls."
"Everyone except Relena."
A knock on the door distracted them from the conversation.
"Come in it's open."
The door opened and Dorothy and Hilde walked in. Soon after the two, Noin and Zechs walked in.
"Where's Wufei?" Duo asked.
"He decided to drop in at Heero's first. The two should be coming shortly."
Just then, Jade emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed in her PJ's, with a towel around her wet hair.
"Hey! No one said there was going to be company?!" she said cheerfully, though her eyes were trained accusingly on Trowa.
"I never knew till a few minutes ago. It's his fault," Trowa said in his usual emotionless manner.
"This is a meeting, you can stay if you want," Zechs informed her.
"Don't worry about me. I'll take a walk around the grounds. The food is in the kitchen, help yourselves," and with that she disappeared into her room.
"She came out of the bathroom, fully dressed?" Duo and Noin asked at the same time.
"Yeah, She does that everytime."
" I bet its cuz she is living with a stranger." Hilde said.
"Extraordinary."
She came out of her room a few minutes later. Her hair was semi-dry and you could see the curls and waves in her long hair. She was wearing an extra large sweatshirt. And black sweat pants.
"I have my cell, call me when you are done."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So what are we here for again?" Dorothy asked
"Lots of things have been happening lately. There have been attempts to abduct Relena. Two students have gone missing in the past one week."
Almost everybody present gave a silent 'Oh', except for Wufei, Heero and Trowa.
"When were these attempts made?" Heero asked.
"Just recently," Noin said.
"Have you tried to find out who the culprit is?"
"Yes. But we have had no success till now."
"What about the missing people?" Heero asked again.
"Both the victims were female. Both of them were war orphans, about the same age as you guys too" Noin said.
"Anything else?" Heero asked.
"Something tells me that the attempts to kidnap Relena and the missing girls are connected. Probably it's the same person? I have a feeling that we might not see those girls again," Quatre said.
"So what do you suggest we do?" Dorothy asked him
"Nothing, we need to keep an eye out for this person and look out for Relena. It's better if she doesn't know about it."
"How many people know about all this?" Trowa spoke for the first time.
"Not many. We never really took it that seriously since these people could have gone off their own accord. But now, since they have been missing for so long and no one has been contacted, we suspect that they were kidnapped too. We don't know if the two incidents are separate or connected yet. The Preventors are currently looking into the case."
"It's all so confusing. Why the hell does it have to be this way?" Hilde questioned.
"This is life and life is not simple. All we can do now is be careful," Duo said giving her a hug.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jade was walking along the grounds all by herself. There was a cool breeze blowing. She was just randomly walking, thinking about what the meeting would have been about.
(A/N: everything said here will be in her head.)
'Something doesn't feel right. Whatever they are talking about is pretty serious. I could tell. Both Noin and Zechs looked rather worn out.
What is Professor Chang doing here if he is still with the Preventors?
It is kinda weird that all the Gundam pilots should be at this place at one time. The last time that they were together, we had the wars going on. I wonder what is going to happen this time
I have a feeling that it has something to do with.'
All of a sudden she stopped. She knew this feeling well. Someone was watching her, from somewhere and it was giving her the creeps.
"Who's there?" she called and started walking towards the bushes. That was the only logical place that someone would be hiding. She was almost there when she stopped again. The feeling had intensified. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing now. It was as though, that somebody had now moved behind her. She turned abruptly, her eyes burning. Nothing there. No one. She started walking towards the clump of trees.
"Who's there?" she called again.
There was no answer. She decided to fine tune her emphatic abilities to try and feel what that someone was feeling. What she felt sent a jolt through her body. The feeling was dark and almost seemed to sap her strength. Her head snapped up. She started walking towards the trees again and then she heard a faint laughter. Laughter that she thought she had heard somewhere before but couldn't be sure and a voice in a whisper, "So flighty, so beautiful."
She tensed at these words. She did not want to hear those words.
"Not again," she said in a whisper that even she barely heard.
And there was that laughter again. She went towards it, nearer to the trees. She wouldn't give up this time. She was strong. She heard some rustling and then the feeling was gone.
Whoever it was probably ran away. And she thought she knew who that 'whoever' was and she was not happy about that.
She debated for a minute whether to follow the person or not. She was almost going to enter the woods when she happened to glance at the moon.
She stopped midway and just looked at the moon. It was full and it was red. It was as if it were surrounded by a bloody mist.
"The times are not good." She muttered to herself. She was brought back to reality when her cell phone started ringing. She looked at the number and terminated the call. They were done with their meeting. It was time for her to go back.
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Author's Note: well, well, well, Done at last. I know I haven't been updating for the longest and I am sorry for that. I apologise. This chapter is very different from the others and please tell me if you like it or not. The next chapters will be built on this and the earlier chapters. Thought it sounds serious, there is still going to be some humour in the coming chapters. As far as I know there will be about another 10 chapters or so before the fic ends. I have two endings for the fic. One is happy, the other is sad. You people get to choose. Majority wins^_^. So please review.
I thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter and e-mailed me.