Disclaimer: We don't own Gundam Wing or anything like that. We tried to lay a claim on them…Angel now has a missing shoe that she thinks Bandai stole because they tried to claim it. So…they don't own it.
AN: Sorry for the wait! But chapter 2 is finally here!
Chapters: 2/13
May 2004 – Angel & Piksi
This Is Home
It's been three weeks since Duo Maxwell stepped into my life. I've had him over once; my mother invited him to stay for dinner. He politely declined.
"He's so hurt inside, Heero." She'd sated, after he'd left. And I guess he is.
"Hey, Duo!" I call. He hasn't come to gym yet and to the honest I didn't expect him to today.
"Hey Heero." He says, pulling out his gym uniform. Their mandatory. Blue and silver. Shorts and tank. Pretty standard.
"So, my mom wants you to come over again." I glance over as he pulls his navy hoodie up over his head.
"Okay." His muffled reply surprises me. Last time I had to pester him all through English to get him to come over, and he only agreed then because Quatre told him he should. Those two are totally getting along, like they've been best friends for their entire lives. It's amazing.
"Well, I'm having Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei, you know, from homeroom, over tonight. I'd like it if you came over too. We're planning on renting movies and getting junk food and stayin' up all night. It'll be fun." We actually do this the first and last Friday of every month. Trust me, there are a lot of old movies out there.
"Sure. I'll ask Helen after school." I nod. I've only met Helen once. She's almost thirty, and really pretty. She's a nun, but the kids at the orphanage just call her Helen. She's really nice.
"Cool. Do you like horror movies?" I ask, as he finally finishes tying his shoes. Something flashes in his eyes, but I didn't catch it.
"They're okay." He says, and the two of us head out onto the court.
He's good at basketball. I mean, unbelievably good at it. I've seen some good basketball players; I'm center on the school team. But him… what's the term they use? Pure undaunted talent? Yeah. That's it. Because if he's never played before and can shoot like that…
"Man! He's on my team next time!" Someone calls, as Duo lands another three pointer. I smirk. Duo's on my team and I think he will be all year; because every time he makes a shot, he grins at me. And I sort of like it.
The thing about Duo is that he could be so popular. When we finally made it to the cafeteria, people were waving and calling him over.
"Heero…" he says, nervously. We never stay in the cafeteria long; Duo's still pretty scared of it.
"Yeah?" I ask, looking over. He's got a death grip on his tray. "Whoa, hey, are you alright?" Duo shakes his head, and his tray falls to the floor, clattering and spraying food everywhere. I put my tray on the nearest table, and then grab his arms to sit him down. Across the cafeteria, Quatre, Trowa and Wufei stand up and make their way over.
"Duo? Duo, what's wrong?" Quatre asks, as Duo finally sits down.
"I… I… I thought I saw S-Solo…" Duo states, trembling. I look at the others. Duo's never mentioned anyone named Solo before.
"You couldn't have seen Solo." A voice states, and I look up. Hilde, in bright pink overalls, is standing with her arms crossed over her chest. Duo looks up too, and Hilde continues, in a softer voice, "You know Solo's dead." I look at Duo as he puts his face in his hands.
"Hild, I saw him, I swear I just saw him. This isn't fair; why me? I always…" He looks up and I'm surprised to see tears trickling down his cheeks. "I never meant to hurt him, you know that, right?" I look at Trowa, who's looking as confused as I feel.
"I know Duo, I know. Come on, let's get you home."
Somehow, Quatre knows something we don't. "Alright, spill." I state. We're on the curb in the student parking lot, waiting for Trowa to get out of track. Quatre looks up.
"Spill what?" He asks, trying for the wide-eyed-innocent look. It would have worked if I hadn't known him so well. He's not as innocent as he'd like everyone to think he is.
"What do you know about Duo? And don't you try to change the subject; that look you had at lunch says you do know something." He sighs.
"Okay, yeah. I was gunna show you today anyways." He opens his book bag and takes out an old newspaper clipping. "Here. Rashid found it… he thought I should know before I got 'to attached to the Maxwell child.'" I take the article.
"Children of murdered parents." I read aloud. I spot Duo's name in the opening sentence. "Duo couldn't have done this… Quatre… he was five…" The news article read that Duo had been found by his parent's bodies. The picture was gruesome; someone had gauged out their eyes and mutilated parts of their bodies. There was another buy in the picture; older with light hair. Maybe five years older than Duo had been. I scan the article for a name. "Solo… was his brother. Quatre, they accused a five year old and a ten year old for murdering their parents!" Quatre nods, then hands me another article.
"That's Solo's murder." He states, and I look over it. Duo would have been about seven.
"He was twelve. That's awful. Did they accuse Duo of his murder too?" Quatre closes his eyes for a moment.
"They say he's crazy. But Duo was at school that day; it couldn't have been him, Heero. And look. These;" he pulls out a pile of articles, "are the deaths of twelve of the families Duo's been with. I think someone's trying to kill him, Heero. There's got to be something big here." I nod. Duo's been through fourteen deaths he must be traumatized.
"Can you find out why they put him into Saint Augustains?" I ask. Quatre pulls out a file folder. Have I ever mentioned how prepared Quatre is?
"Way ahead of ya. After the last murder, they noticed Duo didn't respond to anything; if you touched him, he wouldn't notice. Talking to him was like talking to a brick wall. So they put him there for help." I slowly nod looking over the file. There's a lot of things in here I don't understand; but I do understand some of it. "Wow. Duo's pretty messed up Quatre." I say, then immediately want to take it back. Quatre smacks me one.
"Heero, don't you dare say that about him. It's not his fault"
I sigh. "I know. I'm sorry" He nods, and we return to waiting.
We rent seven movies. Most of them are old vampire movies, and we settle down with spoons and glasses as Trowa puts the first one into the VCR. My mind, though, is stuck on Duo, so I don't notice when my mother's standing in the doorway until she clears her throat. "Heero, sweetie? There's another boy here. Come on in, Duo. Their in here." I jump up. I hadn't expected him to come after what had happened in the cafeteria today.
"Hey! Come on in, have a seat!" Okay I sound a little eager. But he comes in anyways.
"Hey." He says, quietly, as he takes a seat beside Quatre.
"Okay, so which did you choose, Tro'?" Wufei asks, as the previews start.
"Queen of the Damned. Which first, ice cream or popcorn?" Quatre grabs the ice cream container, squealing.
"Ice cream it is!" I exclaim, laughing. We all go silent as the movie starts.
Three movies in, Duo shifts closer to me. I don't think he meant to; but I can hope, can't I? "Okay. Which now; Gangs of New York or… wait… how'd Titanic get in here? Q-man…?" I look from the case in my hand to the giggling mass of blonde at my side. Quatre's got a low tolerance of two things; violence and mass intakes of sugar.
"What? Everyone needs to watch it once in a while; romance does the mind good." I roll my eyes, and 'Fei groans. Beside me, Duo smiles a small smile.
"I like that movie." He states, and I glance over. He's got his braid wrapped around his hand, and it's cute. Trowa puts an arm around Quatre, smirking.
"I think we should watch Titanic too, Hee-chan."
I laugh. "Seems we're out-voted, 'Fei" I state; but I had already given in as soon as Duo said he liked it.
"How can you compare Jackie Chan to Jet Li? Jackie Chan most definitely kicks Jet Li's ass." Wufei's movie choice, it seems, was a Jackie Chan film, while Trowa's was a Jet Li one.
"Cradle to the Grave beats any Jackie Chan movie. Let Li is the greatest." Trowa states, arms crossed over his chest. You can tell Trowa's the oldest of us, mom says, by the way he argues. Sometimes I've got to agree.
"I say… Jet Li wins." Quatre states, finger on chin and in deep thought. 'Fei groans.
"You always take his side, Quatre! No matter what it is!" I grin. 'Fei's got a point there.
"I think their both good." I state, trying not to laugh as 'Fei and Trowa roll their eyes.
All eyes turn to Duo, who looks like a deer caught in headlights and 'Fei and Trowa pelt him with the question. "Who's better Duo?" Duo blinks slowly.
"Hmm. Well… Jackie Chan. Totally Jackie Chan." He says, and I swear, 'Fei looked like he's going to kiss him.
"See? The Chan master wins!" he exclaims, putting one arm around Duo's shoulders. Duo laughs.
"Fong Si Long." He states, and Trowa raises an eyebrow. Duo laughs. "Fong Si Long. It's Jackie Chan's real name." Wufei grabs him and grins.
"Yes! You are a Jackie Chan fan too?" Duo nods enthusiastically. "Yes!"
I roll my eyes. "Oh boy…" I state, popping the Jackie Chan movie into the VCR. We all sit down again.
"So, how'd that go again? Relena likes Heero, who hates Relena, whose best friends with Noin and that Dorothy chick. Noin is in love with Relena's brother, and Dorothy likes Quatre, who's dating Trowa. Trowa's sister, Cathrine, is dating some guy in the football team, whose best friends with Treize… who's, what, dating Une? And who's Sally Poe?" Yes, I admit it. We're all a bunch of gossips at heart, and it seems Duo is too.
"Yeah, Treize is dating Une, whose best friends with Sally, who really like-"
"You, 'Fei!" Wufei glares at Quatre's interruption. "Yea me. But I don't date." Duo's who's totally loosened up in the past four hours, nods.
"Well, I heard that Relena's brother, Millardo? What kind of name is that anyways? Anywho, Hilde says he likes Noin, and that they're dating secretly behind Relena's back." He's right; Relena's the only person who doesn't know about those two dating.
"Yup pretty messed up isn't it?" I ask, and Duo shrugs.
"It's high school." He states grinning.
Quatre giggles. "Did you hear, guys? Howard got into that mechanics school he wanted to get into!" Howard's this guy in senior year; he's famous for his Hawaiian shirts. He applied for the school in the summer; he wants to own a shop someday.
"Cool!" Wufei states, and tosses some popcorn at Trowa. "Man Trowa, don't you have to apply some where's this summer?" At our school, you apply for collages in the summer after eleventh year. If you get accepted, you have to maintain your grades until you graduate to actually go to the school. It's weird.
"Yeah. I might go for accounting or something; someone's got to do the paperwork for the circus." Trowa actually does most of the paperwork anyways.
"Cool." A piece of popcorn bounces off Trowa's head, and he turns to glare at Wufei. Fei, on the other hand, is pouring himself more soda, and Trowa's glare slides to Duo, who's trying not to giggle.
"Think you can get away with that, do ya?" Trowa asks, smirking. He reaches for the popcorn bowl…
"Guy's, my mom will kill me if you get popcorn everywhere!" I cry, as a fist full of popcorn goes flying at Duo.
"Oh, you're going down, Barton." 'Fei says, as popcorn lands in his orange pop. Quatre tosses a stray popcorn at Wufei, and I squeak.
"Guys?" They don't hear me; I duck behind the couch as popcorn flies, taking all liquids with me. No way an I leaving anything out there that can be spilt.
"Incoming Heero!" Duo calls, as puffs of white fly over the couch.
"Hey! Leave me out of this!" I call, trying to hide and shake kernels out of my hair at the same time.
"You're no fun, Hee-chan!" Trowa calls, and I peek over the top of the couch just long enough to spot Trowa, popcorn in hand, heading towards the couch. I let out an 'eep' and dart behind Duo.
"Take him! I'm just an innocent bystander! He threw the popcorn in the first place! Nooooooo!"
Needless to say, Quatre's sleeping bag became a casualty. I accidentally spilt his water on it. "Heero, now where do I sleep?" I motion to Trowa's large bag.
"Oh, you know you want to sleep with him." I state, and he turns read. Duo grins.
"Aww. Quatre's embarrassed. How sweet." He's really opened up; he's not shy and quiet at all. He's loud and for the first time since I met him, he's happy.
"Yeah. Doesn't he just look so innocent like that?" 'Fei asks, and I grin.
"But we all know he's not. Quatre's one of the naughtiest people-"
"I am not! Trowa make them stop!" Trowa is trying not to laugh. It's hilarious to watch, and Quatre's getting mad. "Trowa, it is NOT funny!" he states, smacking Trowa's chest. Trowa can't hold it back any longer and he bursts into laughter.
"No, Quatre…" a giggle, "I don't mean it!" Quatre pouts, arms over chest.
"Aww, come on, Q-man. He couldn't help it. He gave into peer pressure!" Duo exclaims, and I can't help but laugh. Trowa, giving into peer pressure… it's never happened.
"You guys are so mean." Quatre states, but he's smiling. He can't stay mad for long.
I think I'm in love with Duo. I can't stop wanting to touch him, he's just so… great.
"Heero, you asleep?" How can I sleep with Duo lying beside me?
"No, Duo. What's up?" I roll over to look at him. It's probably around one; 'Fei dropped off around eleven thirty, and Quatre and Trowa snuggled up to sleep at about twelve fifteen.
"Nothing. Just… thanks for inviting me. No ones ever been so nice to me."
I smile. "Hey, what can I say? I like ya."
He smiles. "Heero, I should tell you… you need to know… I was in Saint Augustains before I came here." He looks cautious, I don't blame him.
"I know." I state, and he blinks back in surprise.
"You… did?" he asks, and I nod. "You do know what that is, right?"
I nod. "Yup. But I like you for who you are now."
He sits up still shocked. "Heero… they thinks that I killed my family. All of them."
I shake my head. "And did you?" I ask. He shakes his head no. "Well, there you go then!"
He sighs, frustrated. "I'm kind of crazy." He states.
I shrug. "Who isn't?" I smile, patting his arm. He smiles, and lays back down. Yawning, he takes me hand.
"You're the best friend I've ever had, Heero."
I smile. "You too."
I don't think I'm in love with him. I know it.
AN: Well, here ya go folks! R&R please! Again, flames'll be used to keep our feet warm at night! XD