CHAPTER ONE
It was about two in the morning when the phone rang…
Quatre groaned as he reached over to his bed side desk and fumbled for the phone handle.
"And they tell me I'm lucky to be the only one with a line extension in my room…sheesh!" He muttered before grumbling into the speaker "Hello…?"
"HEY QUATRE IT'S ME DUO!!" The voice on the other side boomed, Quatre had to hold the receiver a mile from his ear.
"Dammit! Can't you talk any softer?!" He cursed, not even he was capable of being nice at that time of day "It's two in the morning!"
"Oh…" Duo lowered his voice "Sorry…I forget the time difference, it's like seven in the evening here"
"Whatever…" Quatre just wanted to get roll over and go back to sleep "What's up?"
"Uh…well…I have to tell you something…important"
"It better be important if you want me to ever forgive you for waking me up now"
"Err…well…see…I…umm…"
"Spill it Duo…I can't stay awake much longer…"
"It's Heero" Duo finally said "There's something…not quite right about him…"
"What?" Quatre's sleepiness wore off a bit "What's wrong?!"
"Well…we had some…trouble, and umm…" Duo decided to just tell him in one go "Heero got wounded and he had severe internal injuries and he ran a high fever for about two days and we had to hide in this little apartment place until he's fit enough to travel and I had to take care of him and…"
Quatre was getting more and more anxious as he went on "Why didn't you tell us earlier?!"
"I'm calling you now and you're still complaining it's too early!"
"Duo!!" Quatre yelled in frustration "You know what I mean!"
"Well I didn't' want any of you to worry so…"
"And by telling us now it's suppose to make us less worried?!"
"Nonono…just listen to me!" Duo rushed on "He's okay now…like, he's awake and he's healing nicely and everything…"
Quatre breathed a sigh of relief.
"But umm…there's one little thing wrong with him…"
Quatre tensed up again "What?! What do you mean?!"
"Well…you see…it seemed that…" Just then Duo was interrupted "Hang on for a sec…"
Quatre strained to hear what was going on but all he could make out was muffled yelps of "LATER!! LATER!!! STOP IT!!!"
"DUO!!" He yelled into the phone "WHAT IS GOING ON!?!"
But Duo didn't get back to him for what seemed like forever, when he did at last speak to him again, it was merely a rushed "Sorry, gotta go now! Look, we'll be back by around noon tomorrow, our time, which makes it seven pm tonight for you guys, I'll talk to you then!"
"WAIT!! DUO!!" Quatre cried desperately.
"Quatre I can't talk! I'll see you tonight!"
"DUO!! DUO!!!!!" Quatre shouted in vain, but all that came was an audible click, and the dial tone came on.
He stared at the receiver for a few minutes, before finally replacing it. His hands shaking a little, what on earth was going on over there?!
He looked up, and was surprised to see Trowa standing at the door gazing at him.
"Oh…how long have you been standing there?" Quatre asked, slightly embarrassed.
"Not that long" Trowa walked over to him "Is everything alright?"
"I don't know…Duo won't tell me!" Quatre started to feel frustrated again "He said there was something wrong with Heero but he didn't get a chance to say what it was! He just hung up on me!" He looked up at Trowa "What do you think could possibly be wrong?! He said that his wounds were healed and…everything…what could be wrong?!" He bit his lip, trying to hold back his urge to cry.
Trowa sat down next to Quatre on his bed and placed his arm around him "If Duo said he's okay, it can't be anything too serious"
"But…but he said something was wrong!" Quatre protested.
"If it was really serious, he'd have told us sooner, I'm sure everything's fine"
"I hope so! Oh I don't want anything to happen to any of you!" Quatre laid his head upon Trowa's shoulder "Ever…"
Trowa smiled faintly, and gently ran his fingers through Quatre's platinum blond locks. "Don't worry about anything now, just go back to sleep, it'll be alright"
Quatre calmed at his gesture, and soon, by his slow regular breathing, Trowa could tell he was asleep.
He placed him tenderly back onto his pillow, and pulled the cover over him. Just as he was about to leave the room, a sudden strange impulse came over him, and, instead of leaving, he laid down on the bed next to the sleeping figure.
It's so like you to worry and fret over a single phone call… Trowa thought as he watched Quatre…But that just reflects how kind hearted you are…that's what makes you so special.
* * *
"They should be here by now!" Quatre looked out the window anxiously "It's almost seven thirty!"
"Don't forget your source of that information was Duo" Wufei reminded him "That guy has no sense of time, if he said seven, I interpret that as been eight thirty, at the earliest"
"But…what if something went wrong? What if Heero got worse or something?!"
Wufei shook his head "Stop worrying about that, I'm sure everything's fine!"
Quatre was hardly convinced, and proceeded to start shredding napkins.
An hour passed…
Then two…
The pile of paper shreds in front of Quatre was building up to a small mountain, he had already worked his way through several packs.
Trowa placed another package on the table "They better get here soon; this is the last pack in the house…"
It wasn't until twenty minutes later when their doorbell finally rang. Not only that, it was accompanied by loud knocking and shouting.
"HEY! WE'RE BACK!!! OPEN UP!!" Blared the voice on the other side.
Wufei rolled his eyes "Typical Maxwell behavior"
"That wasn't Duo" Trowa corrected "That was Heero"
"It can't be!" Quatre exclaimed as he headed towards the door "Heero doesn't talk like that!"
"Think what you want, I'm telling you that was Yuy doing the talking"
Wufei and Quatre looked at each other and shrugged, mutually agreeing that Trowa was out of his mind.
"COME ON GUYS!!! OPEN UP OR I'LL KILL YOU!!" The voice boomed again, followed by a stream of laughter.
Quatre's hand froze on its way to the knob. No mistake this time, this was definitely Heero…but…what the hell's gotten into him?!
Wufei lifted a hand up to his forehead "I must be sick…I'm hallucinating"
Finally the door was opened.
"About time already!" Duo muttered as he came in "You'd think that after all this time away you'd miss us enough to rush to the door and throw it open at the sound of us"
"Umm…Duo…"Quatre began hesitantly "Was that you doing the shouting just then?"
"No, that was me" Heero spoke up "Sorry about that, but it was getting so damn freezing out there! Do I own any proper pants? These spandex offer about as much insulation as a layer of glue or something"
"You've worn glue?" Duo asked.
"No, but I guess it'd feel about the same…"
"Don't knock it if you've never tried, it may be warmer"
"Sure whatever, maybe one day I'll give it a whirl…"
"Ha! Really?! I'll put it to you as a dare!"
Heero laughed "Only if you do it as well!"
Quatre couldn't help but interrupt here: "Heero are you alright?!"
Heero looked quizzically at Quatre, then suddenly broke into a wide smile.
"Hey Duo…this is that Quatre dude you told me about right?! He's cuter than you described!" He approached Quatre and looked at him up and down so many times it made Quatre uncomfortable.
"Heero what's gotten into you!?" He asked desperately "Are you alright?!"
"Umm…that's what I need to talk to you guys about…" Duo stammered.
"Start talking fast Duo" Wufei has finally found his voice again "You've got a lot of explaining to do. But first tell us…" he pointed a finger at Heero "Who the hell is that?!"
Heero looked over at Duo, puzzled "I thought you said they'd all know me"
"Umm…yeah well…see I kinda didn't tell them some stuff and umm…"
"Duo just take it slowly!" Quatre intervened "Wufei don't give him a hard time"
"Aw…that's so sweet!" Heero yelped before grabbing Quatre and smothering him "Man! I just want to hug you and squeeze you and…eh…hug you and squeeze you and…umm…hug you and squeeze you…"
"Help! Trowa! Anybody!" Came the muffled cry of distress deep within Heero's embrace.
"Heero what do you think you're doing?" Trowa demanded as he tried to loosen the grip he had on Quatre "Snap out of it will you?!"
"Sorry guys!" Heero grinned "Caffeine high"
"You fed him coffee?" Wufei turned to Duo.
"Umm…yeah…dark with seven sugars…" Duo admitted guiltily "But that's not the real reason he's acting so weird…" He turned to Heero "Err …why don't you go and work on your laptop for a while or something…"
"Laptop?" Heero frowned "What do I do with it?"
"I don't know! You never explained any of it to me…just…go hack something or whatever"
Heero shrugged, but complied "Okay, whatever" And left, whistling. Suddenly he turned around "Wait a sec! Which one is my room?!"
"First one down the hall, left hand side"
"Oh…right…" They heard him open the door "Whoa! So neat! I must've kept a maid or something here!"
"No, just one very eager lady by the name of Relena Peacecraft" Duo muttered before turning back to his other three friends.
Who, at that moment, had become the staring, gaping trio.
* * *
"Amnesia?" Quatre uttered in disbelief "You sure?"
"Selective amnesia actually" Duo corrected him "It's like…he remembers everything…expect anything in association with the war, he knows the stuff you learn in school, like how to read and all that. It's not as if he's mentally an infant or anything, just he really doesn't know who he is"
"Welcome to my world" Trowa murmured under his breath.
"He couldn't even remember how to pilot his Gundam, they had to be shipped back on a carrier, and I had to accompany him on the plane back…"
The others simultaneously raised their eyebrows, Heero clueless about a Gundam… what's next?!
"How did this happen?" Wufei asked.
"Well, he was injured…" Duo began.
"Yeah we know all that" Quatre interrupted "Did he get knocked on the head or something?"
"Not exactly…the doctor says it's more the fever that did it, like it damaged part of his brain or something, and he's lost some of his memory"
"Will he ever get it back?" Quatre asked timidly.
"Um…well, there was this specialist who says it's a case of intended amnesia, like Heero, somehow, purposely erased the information from his memory…"
"What?!" Wufei exclaimed "How the hell do you do that?!"
Duo shrugged "Search me, I didn't get a word of the technical stuff…but anyway I think what he suggested was that if Heero is subjected to some traumatic experience he'd snap out of it…"
"Then shouldn't we try to stimulate him or something?"
"I don't know…" Duo shook his head "I thought of that too…but then, he seems so happy right now, more than I've ever seen him before, so I'm a bit reluctant to do that to him…"
"Hang on a sec" Trowa broke in "You said he lost his memory, but that shouldn't make him so hyper and crazy…I know I never got that way"
"Heh..Heh.." Duo laughed nervously "I guess that was kinda my fault…"
Three heads turned in his direction.
"What did you do to him Maxwell??" Wufei demanded.
"Well…see…I had to like, take care of him until he could travel…and well, you know me! I kind of subjected him to my influence and…" He sweatdropped "Since he had no real personality then…I kinda turned him into me…"
Group blink.
"Omigod" Wufei moaned "Two Duos? This can't be happening!"
"I didn't do it on purpose!" Duo objected "I didn't think that a bit of me talking and coffee and sugar and…a few episodes of the Looney tunes…would make a person so hyper!"
"You sure he's okay…like physically" Quatre couldn't help asking one more time"
"Yes! The doctor assured me about a million times, it's not his body that's gone out of whack, it's his mind"
"So what happens now?" Trowa questioned "What are we meant to do with him?"
"Do with him?" Duo never thought about that part "I guess we just…keep him and retrain him or something…"
"Retrain the Perfect Soldier…are you crazy?" Quatre protested "How can we possibly do that?! None of us were ever capable of doing the stuff he used to do…how can we retrain him?!"
"I don't know!" Duo threw up his hands in frustration "I didn't exactly plan this to happen!"
"There's nothing we can do about it now" Trowa said softly "I suggest we just go to bed right now…perhaps in the morning he would've come around"
"I doubt it…" Duo said "If he was to come out of it so easily he'd have already done it by now"
"But now he's back in this familiar surroundings and everything, maybe it'll trigger something…" Quatre put in hopefully "Maybe we ought to talk to him or something…"
"I think you'd better stay away from him for a while" Trowa cautioned "He may try to strangle you again"
"He wasn't trying to strangle me…he was just…umm…"
"Hugging and squeezing" Wufei finished for him "Look, I agree with Trowa here, we're all tired, I think Heero's asleep anyway, why don't we wait till tomorrow morning? We'd all be able to think better then"
The others nodded silently and headed wearily back to their own rooms.
Duo sighed…this is going to be a long and sleepless night…
Maybe the coffee wasn't such a great idea after all…