Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. All Gundam Wing and music references are not owned by me.
Synopsis: Six children lost their parents on the same night. Now, nine years later, they are still recovering. They are 17. Each has found a new family, new siblings. When Duo decides to start writing songs for Heero, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei's band, all bets are off. The plot that killed their parents is revealed and they finally discover the meaning of true family. Pain is their bond. Vengeance, their motive.
Clutch: Chapter IThe eerie sound of haunting violin slid through the walls. A dark room in the house began to wake slowly to the sound. Wufei opened his eyes sleepily and stared at the ceiling.
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Duo smiled to his family as he walked into the kitchen the next morning. Wufei was sitting quietly with the newspaper as usual, a picture of the new restaurant that everyone fell in love with on the front page. His aunt Helen smiled at him as well. She poured him a glass of orange juice.
"How did you sleep?" She knew he hadn't slept. She heard his beautiful music all night. She just wanted to see if he would tell her the truth.
"I slept great! Never better," he said with his biggest fake smile. These days he wore that a lot. He picked up half a bagel that was sitting on the table and started munching on it. His stomach growling a little, signaling to his aunt that at least something would never change.
"I made you some waffles as well. They're over on the stove, keeping warm." At this he brightened for real. Food always did that. He bounded over to the stove with his braid swishing behind him. His typical black clothes contrasting with the white and yellow tiled kitchen. Wufei put his paper down and surveyed the braided boy. His brother started not sleeping a few months ago. Duo threw himself into his music. Enveloping himself in the ghosts of his parents. Wufei knew how Duo felt. Gods know that Wufei felt his pain. It was his pain as well. It was all of their pain. Quatre, Trowa, Catherine, Heero, Duo, and his pain were all one. They had all lost their parents on the same night. Their plane had crashed in Switzerland on their way to Italy. Treize Khushrenada had sent them on vacation all together as a bonus for completing the gundanium metal formula. The nine died while their children were left in their hometown. Now each one has made a new family. Duo's aunt, Helen, adopted Duo and Wufei. She was Mr., Maxwell's sister. Helen was a woman that let the boys take care of themselves. She knew they could. She was more of an advisor than a parent now. Trowa, and his twin sister Catherine had been adopted, along with Heero, by Treize and his wife. He and Lady Une had been high school friends of their parents. And Quatre had been left in the care of his eldest sister, Iria. All had lost their parents but everyone found their family.
Duo's pain was different though. While everyone else had come to peace with their parents' deaths, Duo never had. Trowa and Catharine had lost their mother when they were born and still they had accepted it. Duo pushed away from the group and buried himself in his car or his music.
"Hey 'Fei, do you guys have band practice today?" Duo asked through a mouth full of waffles.
"Yeah. The town concert in the park is only 6 weeks off. Did you want to come?"
"Naw, man, I was just wondering. Hilde, Noin and I are tweaking the Rampage today." Duo's car was ancient but it was his baby. It was a 1983 Dodge Rampage 3.2 Turbo. He had put a 3.2-liter engine in it 4 month ago. Defiantly not stock. It was a small version of an El Camino and far more ugly. But Wufei had to admit that it could haul ass. The lightweight car swept most the races that Duo was in. It was black (of course) with the outline of silver bat wings on the sides.
"Good. Tell them hi for me."
"Will do, 'Fei." Just then Duo looked at his watch. "Shit! I gotta get to the garage! They're waiting." He swallowed one more waffle and ran waving out the door.
"Be back for dinner, Duo!" Helen called after him. "So, Wufei, where are you guys practicing today? Quatre's house?"
"As usual." Wufei smiled at his adopted mother. "I can't wait for the concert. I think we're really getting good." Wufei's face suddenly fell a little as he realized that his band was still looking for a way to bring more variety into their music. "I just wish that I could convince Duo to write some songs for us. His music is so . . .powerful. Late night concerts in his room don't do it justice!" Helen smiled at that. Wufei was always about things being just. She stood up and kissed him on his hair.
"I think you should keep trying. Sooner or later I think he will be ready to share it with the world." She smiled to Wufei as she walked to the laundry. She hoped that Wufei could convince Duo to write for the band. It might start giving Duo some peace.
--
Heero lay awake in the early morning on his four-poster bed. One arm behind his head, he had been studying the carvings on the wooden posts for the past hour. A barely audible knock brought him back from his inner world. A small sigh fell on his lips as he got up from his bed and crossed the wood floor of his rather large room. His hand twisted the doorknob just as another small knock fell on the door. His brother Trowa was on the other side of the door.
"We have band practice today." Trowa was never one for long speech. He left all of that to his twin sister, Catharine. Heero gave a small nod and yawned.
"I'll be ready soon. Did you come up with anything new for us to practice today? I didn't think of anything." He stretched out his body with several popping noise echoing through the hallway.
"No. I hope Quatre did." Trowa nodded at Heero and walked to his room. Heero shut his door and walked over to his bathroom. Turning on the shower, he took of the boxer he had worn to bed. The hot water soon filled the bathroom with steam. His shower was quick and efficient. In and out in 3 minutes flat, Heero was downstairs for a small breakfast with Trowa in 8 minutes. Catharine just woke up and had stumbled down the stairs in her fuzzy slippers, PJs and an open bathrobe.
Stifling a yawn she said, "I don't know how you guys get up so early in the morning all the time. I guess you have band practice today. When is that concert anyways?" Heero looked at her, wondering how she could talk that much without taking a breath.
"The concert is in 6 weeks," was all he said. He looked at Trowa's one visible green eye and signaled that they had to go. They stood together and gave Catharine a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Later, bros!"
"Bye, Catharine." They said together.
Two matching jeeps and a classic mustang sat side by side in the garage. The first jeep was black with white angel wings outlined with blood red on the sides. The second jeep was as green as its owner's eyes. On the left side of the car there was half of the smiling side of a clown mask painted on. The right side had the frowning side of a clown mask. The mustang fastback was midnight blue. No decals.
"My car or yours?" Trowa asked.
"Mine today. I feel like driving." The cars had been gifts for the three 17 year olds on their 16th birthdays. Treize and Lady Une had always given their adopted children all they had ever needed without spoiling them.
The drive over to Quatre's house was uneventful. Heero dialed the front gate code as they arrived, swinging the giant rod iron gate open. It revealed a extremely large residence that seemed practical if you knew the family. Even though there were thirty children in the family, everyone got their own room. Except for the two pairs of twins and the set of triplets. They all shared a room with their respective womb-mates.
Quatre bounded out the door when he spotted them driving up. His ever present smile shining in the morning sun.
"Hey you two!" Quatre flung himself into Trowa's arms and planted a small kiss on his lips.
"Good morning, little one." Trowa smiled down at the smaller boy. Heero gave the tiniest smile at the two boys. He loved to see his friends so happy together.
"Is Wufei here yet?" Heero asked as he looked around for evidence of their Chinese friend.
"No, not yet. Hey, did either of you come up with anything new last night? 'Cause I am totally drawing a bland." Trowa and Heero both shook their heads.
"Nothing." Heero said.
"Well, let's go inside a warm up while we wait for Wufei."
--
"Duo, we have been waiting out here for 45 minutes while you finished up your beauty sleep!!" Lucrezia Noin yelled at the smiling Duo as he sauntered up to the two short haired girls that were currently standing in front of their garage. For Duo's 16th birthday his aunt had pitched in some money to buy him a car, the Rampage. Duo had used some of his inheritance to buy a small mechanics garage. He had very few actual customers but it kept some cash in their pockets. Hilde and Noin glared at him as he took out the keys.
"Jeez, ladies. Have some put some sugar in your coffee or something. Might make you less cranky!" Duo barely dodged Hilde's good right hook. "Whoa there! Be nice to the Duo. Precious commodity."
"Oh, shut it, Duo." Hilde smiled at her braided friend. "Do you have the new parts for the Rampage?"
"Oh yeah. I got them in yesterday afternoon. The new boast should give us about 20 more horses and a pretty cool sound when we hit 3,000 rpm." Noin and Hilde smiled as they donned their matching blue jump suits. Numerous grease stains marked each suit. Each stain had a story to them. Duo switched on their beloved radio to the local 20th Century station.
"In the next hour on Retro Radio, 12 songs in a row from the 1980s! Coming up . . Billy Idol, Madonna, Phil Collins, Journey and more."
Last night a little dancer came dancing to my door
Last night my little angel came pumping on the floor
The music was drowned out by the three fighting over the best way to install the new parts. Which ended in a grease fight, some soda, and a blue print on a napkin.
--
Wufei arrived at the front door of Quatre's house and knocked. Soon one of the maids opened the door.
"Good morning Mr. Chang. The others are already here. I believe they have gone out to the studio." She smiled at the Asian boy. She thought that all of Quatre's friends were lovely.
"Thank you Maria." He smiled back at her and walked a direct path to the back door, exited, and walked to the studio that Iria had given Quatre a few months ago. She told them that they need a place to practice besides the house. She was starting to get headaches.
Wufei opened the door to the three boys discussing their music . . or lack there of.
"Hey guys. No luck then on more songs?" Wufei wished that someone had come up with something.
"Nothing yet." Quatre said dejectedly. "I can't seem to come up with anything that sounds any different that my usual stuff." Wufei sat down at the table with them. Each one sitting in a nice computer chair, thinking of their various music tastes.
Heero broke the silence. "Guys, I wanted to ask you about something we've never done before." Heero looked a little nervous about asking the next question. "I want to cover a song by Nickelback. I know we don't usually do that but there is this song that I think would be a lot of fun to play. Q, you'd have to play back up guitar but I think it would work."
"What song are you thinking of Heero?" Quatre piped up.
"Never again, off their Silver Side Up album."
"I really like that song. . . I think we should do it." Trowa loved dark songs like that.
"I'm game." Wufei threw in.
"Me too." Quatre said.
"Great."
"Ok, while we're bringing up things we don't usually do. . .I had a small idea." Everyone looked at Wufei. "I know we're all not doing well with coming up with new material and I was thinking that maybe we need some new blood to get us going again." The boys looked at him strangely.
"What kind of new blood." Heero said cautiously.
"I think we should bring Duo in. He's got amazing stuff. Quatre would ever be happy with it. He loves playing his violin." Wufei hoped they would say yes. If Duo would let them play some of his music then this band would go from being good to amazing. "What do you say guys?"
After a few minutes of thinking it over, Trowa spoke up.
"We haven't seen Duo in a while. I think you should bring him in and we'll see what he's got. We'll decide from there." Heero nodded along with Quatre.
"Ok, I'll bring him in on Wednesday." That just gives me three days to convince him to come, Wufei thought miserably to himself.
"Great" Quatre said as he stood. The other three boys got up and they all walked to their instruments. Heero handed out the appropriate music to each member of the band. After an hour, Never again was blasting through the room.
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So tell me how you like it so far. There is more coming soon. Reviews rock. I'll try to make the next chapter longer. Thanks.
Paetyn