Notes: Okay, so the dream sequence is a bit of a BtVS rip, but it's more of a reference than a major plot device (so far at least). Not much action in this chapter, mostly exposition and setup. Action next chapter though!
Chapter One:
Six months earlier:
The library smells like books, Hotaru thought, all musty paper, pine shelves and faint mildew from a poorly done roof repair that had leaked all over most of the encyclopedias in the back room. She loved it.
Her favorite thing to do on a rainy afternoon was to curl up with a classic novel in the fourth-floor reading room. She went there to be alone, mostly.
She didn't like to get too close to other people. It's not that she didn't like people, just what happened when she touched them. With every casual brush against a stranger, on the bus, in class, and suddenly, she would KNOW things. A phone number. A favorite song. A sibling's name. Surface thoughts, mostly, but still uncomfortable, and frankly, embarrassing.
She shifted in the large, tattered armchair, curling around her book, twisting her long red hair around her fingers in an unconscious habit she'd had since she was little.
Hotaru's heart sped up… something was wrong here.
"Felicia?" called Mrs. Cummings, the elderly librarian, "Felicia, darling, we're closing in five minutes."
"All right." She replied, not sure if Mrs. Cummings was listening over the intercom or not, but still wanting to be polite. She unfolded her long legs from under her, and began to walk toward the stacks to replace her book.
'No!' Hotaru thought, trying to turn her unfamiliar body back toward the stairs. She kept walking forward, brushing her hair impatiently back over her shoulder.
Hotaru wasn't Hotaru anymore.
"Hey, Taru. You okay?" Mina asked, looking at Hotaru over their morning tea. (Mina was NOT allowed any form of coffee under any circumstances. They'd found that out the hard way through a rather messy incident involving Senshi power and the espresso machine.)
Hotaru shrugged, and rubbed at her eyes, as if she could wipe the dark circles away, and the memories that went with them. She sipped her lukewarm mint tea (Hotaru WAS allowed coffee, but she didn't like it.) and groaned, "No."
"Another one?" Mina winced, scruching up her pert nose.
"Yeah. You too?"
She shook her head, then paused, thinking. "Not this time. I'll have to check with Dorothy, but Quatre woke up screaming two nights ago, when you had the last one."
"Oh." Hotaru replied, her voice still a little groggy, "I thought you two were just… ah, forget I said that."
Present
Dorothy, more than a little drunk at this point, leaned over her glass and stared earnestly into Frank, the bartender's, eyes. "We'd been having bad dreams, all of us. Well, not Heero, who has the psychic ability of roadkill, and even then, only if that roadkill has been dead for a very long time. They weren't all that frequent for me, but Hotaru has more psychic ability than the rest of us."
She leaned back on her stool, and made a large sweeping motion with her arm, one of those grand gestures that only televangelists and the extremely drunk seem to be able to make. "Of course, the dreams should have been a dead giveaway that this was going to end badly, but noooo, we went anyway."
Six months ago:
The plane ride to Tokyo was rather quiet. Of course, Heero thought, That is probably due to Wufei restraining and gagging Duo within an hour of takeoff.
Though he'd been cleared of the blame for the hair-dying incident, Wufei was still rather cranky with Duo for starting the inane prank war in the first place. Duo (who, like Mina, was not allowed caffeine at all) had somehow managed to get his hands on a can of soda before the flight.
Jolt soda.
Heero looked over to where Duo was still bouncing a little in his seat, despite being duct-taped firmly to his chair. Shaking his head, Heero concluded it was probably for the best. Duo and caffeine didn't mix in the best of circumstances, but Duo and caffeine in an extremely confined space was a recipe for disaster.
Wufei was still muttering indignantly about 'braided bakas' about half an hour after he'd subdued Duo, so Hotaru had taken him over to the other end of the plane to try and calm him down. They were still back there, dark heads bent together in quiet conversation as she smiled gently up at the slightly taller boy. Heero fought off a quick spasm of jealousy that clenched at the pit of his stomach.
How long has it been since she's smiled? He wondered, realizing how tired and drawn she'd looked for the past month or so. Is it something to do with me?
If she'd expected a huge personality shift when he'd stopped using the laptop to suppress his emotions, she'd been sorely mistaken. After a bit of practice, it seemed he was quite able to suppress his emotions all on his own.
Or at least keep up the appearance of doing so.
Heero resisted the urge to bury his head in his hands and groan, settling instead for glaring at Wufei as he brushed Hotaru's hair out of her smiling face, a slow burn in his deep blue eyes.
"You look tired."
"Thanks. You look nice today too."
"You know that's not what I meant. Have you had another nightmare?"
Hotaru shrugged. Wufei took that as a yes.
"They seem to be getting more frequent."
Hotaru didn't reply, Wufei meant well, but he didn't seem to understand (or maybe didn't WANT to understand) that her dreams weren't really something she could control.
"Well?" Wufei prodded after the silence stretched out over a long moment, "Aren't you a little worried, considering what happened the last time you had… nighttime visitors?" He stumbled a little over a polite way to say 'the spirit of your dead friend'.
Hotaru let out a deep breath, shoulders slumping. "Iria thinks I'm over-reacting." She said, referring to Quatre's sister, their resident doctor, "She says it's post-traumatic stress affecting us. I guess that would make sense, I mean, it's not as if any of us have had the exact same dream."
Wufei frowned, "Then why hasn't Heero had any of these nightmares? He's had the most battle time out of all of us, at least out of the pilots."
Hotaru grinned wryly, "Iria actually had a pretty good explanation for that one. She says he's so fucked up that his brain doesn't actually function like us normal folks anymore."
Wufei smiled back at her, reaching over to brush an errant strand of hair out of her eyes. "We're normal?"
She laughed.
"But," He continued, "I don't think you should just brush off these dreams like they're nothing." His eyes flicked over to Heero momentarily, "Remember, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't anyone out to get you."
Quatre's eyes moved from Heero, to Hotaru, to Wufei, finally resting back on Heero who was seething silently as Wufei fussed over Hotaru near the back of the plane. Quatre, sitting near the middle, could make out faint strains of the conversation over the faint hum of the plane engines, and Mina's soft breathing as she dozed, stretched across his lap, and the two seats adjacent to it. It was completely innocent, Wufei worrying about the strange dreams, and Hotaru, a little exasperated, but amused, tried to reassure him.
However, from Heero's point of view, up near the front of the plane next to the hyperactive (but thankfully tied down) Duo, it looked considerably less than platonic.
Heero and Hotaru's relationship, while still extremely shaky, had been progressing very slowly, but steadily. At least until these strange dreams had started, interrupting sleep, and making Hotaru snappish and worried. Not sure what to do, Heero seemed to retreat back behind his emotionless façade, pulling away. Hotaru was then frustrated by getting the cold shoulder from Heero, which, of course, resulted in her baiting him further, trying to get SOME sort of reaction out of the perfect soldier, if only annoyance. Instead, it drove him further into himself, creating a vicious cycle, spiraling down with their relationship. It also didn't help that Heero, used to being the strongest and most efficient pilot, was having a lot of trouble getting used to his vastly decreased power levels. Iria was helping him wean himself off using his programming and power boosts. Now, with Hotaru mad at him, it seemed that he was losing his motivation to stop programming out his emotions entirely.
This latest glaring match seemed promising though. If Heero could still muster up a death glare for Wufei, then he still felt something for Hotaru. He hadn't withdrawn totally.
Maybe this was a good thing. They seemed to be the type of couple that thrived on adversity.
Maybe.
For now, there was trouble in paradise.
Quatre's pilot pulled off the runway on Tokyo International Air/Spaceport to allow his passengers to de-board. Heero exited first, scowling that Quatre had not allowed HIM to fly the jet. They were trying to keep a low profile after all, and a teenager flying an (overseas-capable?) jet would have raised eyebrows, not to mention inconvenient questions. Heero's fingers still itched for the controls though. Quatre had laughed, not sympathetic at all (all due to Mina's influence, Heero had no doubt), and said he was just being a control freak. Heero almost felt insulted. He thought it was perfectly reasonable not to trust his life to someone he didn't know, and hadn't personally drug tested.
Once his feet were back on the ground, he allowed himself a tight smirk, he'd hacked the coordinates of crystal Tokyo last night, so there was no uncertainty remaining.
He was definitely driving.
As Heero rocketed off to the car rental parking lot, Mina rolled her eyes and helped Quatre collect their things. Despite living together for a few months, and dating one of Heero's best (and only) friends, Mina and Heero had yet to learn to like each other. Mina placed this blame squarely on Heero. (Come on, like she was going to blame herself for his horrid behavior)
Even Hotaru can barely stand him lately, and they're supposed to be dating! Well… if whatever mutated form of flirting/ trying to kill each other/ making out when they think we're not looking, counts. (Mina was either very optimistic on Hotaru's behalf, or just so much of a perv that she couldn't imagine a relationship without the smoochies because there was certainly none of that going on as of late)
Mina finished shoving her magazine into her purse and climbed down the stairs in time to see Heero disappear into the terminal. She snorted, "Idiot" she mumbled, sleepily stretching. She was about to gather her suitcases from the cargo area under the plane, when a sudden gust of wind blew a piece of paper into her face mid-yawn.
"What-the-…" She sputtered, dropping her bag, and batting at her face in a panic. It turned out to be a set of co-ordinates, and a small road map. "Hmm." Mina said, "Must be the directions to the site. Heero must have dropped it in his freaking sprint to get off the damn plane." (Mina, though usually chipper, is not at her best first thing after waking up from a nap.)
She grinned evilly, shoving the paper into her pocket. Lets see how far you get without this.
She cackled a little more, savoring her small triumph, ignoring Trowa's raised eyebrow, and bent down to pick up the contents of her carry-on, now scattered all over the tarmac.
The laughter cut off abruptly.
No. Mina insisted to herself. No. This is NOT happening.
The wind toyed with the magazine mockingly, lifting the corners slightly, but not actually turning the pages. The magazine was one of Quatre's, a three-year-old architectural digest that had featured a communications tower of his in a long, flattering article. Quatre had been rather pleased with the article, reading it over several times, never losing the thrill of seeing his building praised. Logically, it made sense, that the magazine would fall open to the most creased part of it's spine.
Mina groaned. The communications tower had been built on a rather tricky site, and at the end of the article it had a small blurb about upcoming projects on notoriously difficult land, but in valuable location.
One plan was in Tokyo, a large complex of about ten buildings.
She reluctantly dug the coordinates Heero had dropped out of her pocket.
Why me???? She thought, Why don't the freaky-ass, one-in-a-million coincidence plot-devices ever happen to anyone else?
The coordinates matched.
"Umm… guys? I think we have a problem."
In the time it had taken to drive to the site, a sullen Heero having reclaimed his precious directions from a reluctant Mina, the entire group had time to mull over Mina's discovery.
Mina was worried and a little annoyed that she was constantly the bearer of disturbing news. Quatre was enthusiastic, reasoning that the strange reports were probably from human intervention than any mystical source. Wufei agreed with Quatre, but worried about the effect of the inherent energy of the site on the people living there. Dorothy was unfazed, sarcastic and bored, causing Wufei to repeatedly ask if she was REALLY needed on this mission. Duo, still twitching from his caffeine buzz, wanted to know if he could blow the building up. (The only thing he missed about OZ was ample opportunity to blow things up.) Hotaru was brooding out the window, convinced there was some sort of doomsday plot afoot, and, as usual, if Heero or Trowa had opinions, they kept them to themselves.
As they jerked to a stop, Heero's stone expression cracked a little, his eyes filling with horror.
Dorothy, jolted awake, squinted at the tinted windows of the van, trying to figure out why they'd stopped.
"Are we here?" She asked, a little disturbed at the expression of collective terror that had filled the faces of the menfolk. She read the sign standing by the gate, and whimpered a little.
"Peacecraft Academy." She read out loud. "Please, please, PLEASE tell me that's not a high school." She groaned.
"Okay," Trowa replied, his voice steady, not betraying the grimace on his face. "That's not a high school."
End chappie.
Next chapter preview:
We find out how the gang gets roped into the high-school life! Eeeevil rears it's ugly head yet again!
"Okay, that's not a high school."
"Hah."
"No, it's really not."
"Really?"
"It's hell with fluorescent lighting."
Oookay, notes… readreadreadreadreadreadreviewreviewreviewreview
Iria may be taking a break for this installment, I'm trying to pare down the number of characters, unless, of course there are some Iria fans out there who would like to try and get her a few scenes.
At the moment the roster stands as follows: (As if anyone actually reads this anyhow)
Main Characters:
Ladies: Hotaru, Mina, Dorothy
Gents: Heero, Duo, Quatre, Wufei, Trowa
As well as some mystery eeeeeevilness, assorted teachers and students….
Optional cameo characters: Iria, Relena (possible for cameo, I don't think I could write her as a regular without totally overhauling her personality into my Relena from 'Don't Tell Me')
So… again, sorry about the long wait. I'm trying to get these out as fast as I can, but there's the sad fact of school (architecture, 2nd year, bruuuuutal work load. To think, my friend in Med school not pre-med. Med. told me that MY program was insane. Sheesh.) Work, (Gotta pay rent/food/heat somehow!), Training(Rowing team… because I thought it would be a good idea to work out at five in the a.m! sarcasm), and a pathetic attempt at a social life take a fair bit of time.