Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing! As in zip, zilch and nada!

a/n: Thank you for the reviews from the last chapter!

-o-

Hostage Taking

-o-

"Wha'd he say?"

"Mr. Winner has been informed and the ransom has been set. But we have to keep him here with us until further notice."

"What?! Further notice, my ass!"

"Then you go tell him that. I have to go out for a while. I'll see you later."

Quatre eyes fluttered as he slowly came to, the voices rousing him. He heard a door open and close followed by a sigh and the sound of someone sitting down. His eyes slowly opened and he resisted the urge to moan as he waited for things to come into focus. When they finally did, he found that he was lying on a bed in a room that he had never seen before.

What the…? He struggled to remember last night; the party, the guests, him going out to the garden and then… he remembered turning around and seeing someone there in the gardens with him and then someone had jumped him from behind

Kidnapped?! His mind screamed. I've been kidnapped?!

He tried to cry out, but he couldn't even open his mouth. He was gagged! And tied up, too, with rough chords biting into his wrists and ankles.

I have to get out of here!

Moving only his aquamarine eyes, Quatre glanced around. The bed was against a wall and on the wall was a window. To his other side, a closet. Its door was open, partially blocking him from the view of one of his kidnappers.

He looked at the window again. There were trees outside; it looked like he was somewhere in the woods West of the city. Shit, that's far. He thought and he glanced at the window again. Maybe I can get out through there…

Quatre shifted his gaze to the only part of his captor he could see, the man's feet, and prayed the guy wouldn't get up and check on him anytime soon.

He held his breath and scooted an inch towards the window. Paused. And then scooted another inch.

He looked at the unmoving pair of boots again. Good, he hasn't seen me. He told himself. Keep going!

Another inch. Another. Sweat beaded on his forehead and rolled down the sides of his face. Keep going!

At last he felt the cold wall on his back and he sat up as quietly as he could. Thankfully, his wrists were bound in front of him and he silently fumbled with the window's catch.

The latch snapped open with a sharp, metallic click that would have made his heart stop if the angry shout of "hey!" from his kidnapper didn't do it first.

Quatre grabbed the window handle. He could hear the scraping sound of a chair being pushed back hastily just as the window shot up as if it were greased.

And then rough hands grabbed his arms and yanked him backward.

"No!" He screamed through the gag, wishing he had gotten the damn thing off earlier. He twisted, kicked, flailing desperately for the window and screaming again.

"Cut it out!" His captor growled in his ear. A hand wrapped around his neck as he was wrestled away from the open window that might have been his last chance of escape. The room flew past him as he was flung away from the bed and onto the floor. The slamming of the window was deafening to his ears and he let out a dry sob as he lay on the floor.

"What the fuck was that?!" His captor grabbed his arm and forcefully sat him up. "You could have died jumping out of there!"

-o-

What's with this guy? Duo wondered as he spied Quatre from the corner of his eye. The blonde had been trying to squirm out of his bonds for the past half hour; his wrists were probably already bleeding. It was really pitiful. Duo had removed the gag earlier because he figured the blonde could scream all he wanted and no one would hear him since they were in a very isolated area and the others were gone.

Thankfully, there was none of that. The blonde just went on about trying to free himself without a word to his kidnapper.

"Stop it already!" Duo said exasperatedly. Quatre looked up at him, confused. "Your wrists are starting to bleed!"

The blonde glared at him.

"Yeesh, you some kind of masochist or something? You're really staring to freak me out."

"Do you always chat like this to your hostages?" Quatre asked sardonically.

Ouch. "Not really. We never had a hostage before. We're usually hired to kill."

The blonde paled a little at that but held fast. He's just bluffing…I hope. "You said we. Just how many of you are there?"

"There are four of us, including me." The amethyst eyed boy grinned.

Four?! Quatre's eyes widened and he frantically went back to trying to untie himself.

Duo winced when he saw the skin break and the blood drip down on the sheets. Yep, masochist. "Hey, hey, hey! You're getting blood on the sheets! Heero'll kill me!"

"Heero?" Quatre stopped. "And you're Duo, right?"

The braided one nodded.

"Aren't you supposed to keep your names confidential or something? I could have you reported and tracked down." If I ever get out of here, that is.

Duo gave a manic smile. "You can try but you'll never find us."

"…ah…"

"That's it!" Duo cried, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation. "If you don't stop that, I'll cut your damn hands off!"

"Well, why don't you just untie me then?!" Quatre challenged.

"Fine!" The braided one stood up from the chair he was sitting in and made his way to the bed where Quatre was.

"…you're joking…"

"I will." The braided boy grinned. "IF you promise not to run. Do we have a deal?"

Quatre looked at him as if he was insane but he nodded anyway.

"Great!"

-o-

Quatre sighed in relief when the ropes finally left his chafed wrists and ankles. "Thank you." He said, watching Duo beam at his pleasantry. The grin vanished, however, when Quatre launched himself at the braided youth, knocking Duo backwards and onto the floor.

Though Duo had been a pleasant…host…the blonde took no time to feel remorse for his actions as he made a frantic dash to the bedroom door, wrenching it open and slamming it shut behind him. Already he could hear the turning of the doorknob from the inside the room, well aware that the other boy was right behind him.

His mind was in complete panic as he hurled virtually everything in reach behind him, glad to hear Duo curse as he tried to avoid tripping over them.

Running as fast as he could down the hallway, his heart leapt at the sight of a staircase.

Yes!

Behind him, he heard a loud crash, indicating that Duo had finally tripped on something. He spared a glance over his shoulder for only a moment.

A moment too long.

A strange floating sensation came over him and then he was falling, crashing down the flights of steps and landing in a broken heap.

He tried to get up again, only to groan and give up when he felt how much it hurt.He closed his eyes tightly in an effort to block out the pain. When he opened his eyes again, he was looking straight at a pair of shoes.

And they weren't Duo's.

-o-

a/n: Hopefully, the next chapter will turn out better than this one since this was done in a hurry.