Author's Note: OHMAGAWD a change of tense. Oo;; YES, the real world! Anyway, I'm thinking up some juicy plot ideas, so no worries. As for this episode... poor Heero. Aww. Shit, poor everybody. And for Wufei, being the paranoid one. (Strangely fitting, huh?) So that's all for now.


Warning Signs (part V) Happenstance

By Onions Make Me Cry


/A warning sign
You came back to haunt me and I realized
That you were an island and I passed you by
When you were an island to discover/

-(Coldplay)


"Wufei!"

The cry echoed dully in the thick morning air, despite the panicked pitch which tainted the word.

Quatre Reberba Winner stood, one foot carefully rested on a precarious rock at the edge of the shallow cliff overlooking the river, and cried startled tears. His voluminous blue eyes were wide, and full of terror as he looked down into the scene below– At the stiff, immobile figure that claimed every ounce of his horror.

"Wufei, I found him!"

"What?"

The fumbling sounds of brush crunching under heavy boots drew nearer behind the blonde, until Wufei himself clambered down the final feet of the incline to greet his friend. But soon enough the Chinese boy stood as still as his counterpart, his own eyes rounding into circles of fear and alarm.

Silence took the boys, and Wufei laid a careful hand on Quatre's shoulder, though whether for the younger's comfort or his own, it would never be clear.

Duo lay half buried in the silt and mud of the shore, his skin a ghostly shade of white even in the murky light of early morning.

"Don't tell Yuy." Wufei suddenly spoke at last, sounding stiff with the effort to contain himself. "Tell him we didn't find anything."

Quatre whipped his head around to shoot Wufei an angry glare. "What are you saying? Just let him... rot there?" tears of frustration were welling in his eyes. "I can't! I won't!"

"You have to!" Wufei suddenly shouted, taking a hold of Quatre's sleeve. "We have to get out of here before Yuy and Trowa meet us in the middle! We'll come back for the body later... Don't you get it? That way, it'll be easier to break the news. Yuy will... he'll... I have no idea how terribly he'll react to this. We've got to go. Now."

But Quatre wouldn't come. Instead, he wrenched free of the grip on his arm, and began to clamber slowly down the face of the little cliff. Wufei stood and watched from above, his face cracking and contorting with sorrow.

"Alright, we'll get it now." the boy broke at last. "But we have to do it quickly."

"Do what quickly?"

Wufei jumped, and then turned to see Trowa sliding down the incline towards him. Briefly, he chided himself for being so indifferent to their surroundings. But then again, Trowa had always been able to appear with practically no trace. Heero was worse.

"Nothing. Go back." The Chinese pilot commanded, knowing full well that Trowa wouldn't listen. It was a matter of seconds before the tall youth was standing at his side. It took him even less time to understand what "it" was.

"...oh." the word came out slightly breathless. Trowa's eyes were glued to the scene below, though they lingered with quiet sadness on Quatre, now futilely trying to battle his way through the reeds along the near shore. Such an effort... quietly, the green-eyed boy bowed his head in respect.

Wufei on the other hand, continued to peer up and down the incline with a fearful eye. "Where's Yuy?" the question was peppered with anxiety.

Trowa shrugged a little, still preoccupied with what was happening beyond. "I'm not sure. We split up a while ago."

"Well, where do you think he could be? Did he say where he was going?"

"No." a shake of the head. "Just a sweep of the land. Like you."

"We can't tell him about this. He can't know." Wufei's tone was deathly serious... one which matched Trowa's subtle affirmative.

"I know."

They looked on in silence.


(DUO's POV— somewhere on the road...)


The concept dawns on me like the break of morning. Maybe I've gone totally bonkers. Really. Like, off the wall? Crazy and insane and institutionalized forever. End of story. End of... life. That's the same as death, right?

"You aren't crazy." Solo is assuring me again."You're dead. There is a difference."

I wonder why can't he just be an asshole. He would be so much easier to hate, then.

"Thanks." I sigh at him, though I'm not sure what I can believe anymore. Words are becoming harder and harder to drag out of me. That, at least, I can hold on to. Conversation, I mean. What the fuck do I have anymore, anyway? No power. No breath. No Heero. No heartbeat. No fuzzy local access TV, or those little toaster tarts I like to eat but can never get. I'm fucked.

"Will you quit being so gloomy? This isn't the end of the world."

I turn slow eyes to him, incredulous beneath several hundred layers of exhaustion and depression. And as I lean in, close to his smiling face, I decipher an appropriate answer.

"I'M DEAD!"

Solo jumps at the shock of my voice, and then frowns critically. "So?"

"So? SO? I'm lying all cold and comatose somewhere, aren't I? Just, tell me this... has rigor mortis set in?"

From his seat, Solo huffs a breath of something in-between amusement and dismissal, and I know he isn't going to answer me. Again. That son of a cock sucking piece of shit. If I had a shotgun, I'd blow a hole in his head so wide, a poodle could leap through it like a hula hoop. Screw the fact that he may already be dead. I could still fuck him up.

"Look, Duo. It's like this... you aren't going to gain anything by being angry. Just enjoy the ride, alright? Can't you lean back a little? Put up your feet, take a nap or something. Relax, man." there's that casual grin again... the one I'm growing to hate. "Because we may be together for a while."

"Easy enough for you." I mutter gloomily. "You do this all the time, I'll bet. Well, fuck that. I hate this. And I bet I don't even have to pee anymore, so we can't even stop for bathroom breaks, can we? Where's the end of this tedium, huh? We'll just go on, and on and on and on, until forever."

Solo shrugs mildly. "Maybe. Or maybe not. Dunno."

"What do you mean, 'you don't know?' How can you not know?"

"It doesn't work like that." The boy's eyes are distancing now, like he's thinking hard about something. But I doubt he'd evertell me what it is.

"Well, how the hell is it supposed to work, then? Couldn't you just-"

"Can it!" Solo cracks at last. "God damn it, can't you shut up for five minutes? You're making a bad impression!"

Shocked a little at the sudden display of irritation, I'm slightly taken aback, though, the reaction doesn't last very long. Who does he think he is? Bad impression on who? Fuck this.

"What the fuckingshitare you talking about, man?"

"That!"

Solo jabs a stiff finger out into the scenery in front of us, I suddenly realize what my friend has been looking at. He wasn't having a moment of introspective... he was trying to spot something on the horizon. Something that, until a few seconds ago, I hadn't realized was steadily approaching us.

"Holy shit. What does that mean?" I breathe, eyes wide with an awe I'm not sure I understand.

Solo is grim-faced now, and slowly, he brings the car to a halt. He yanks up the parking break with a final, excruciating screech, and we at last are still, bathed in the ominous orange light of the ever-constant dusk.

We've arrived at a crossroad.

Feeling eyes burning into the side of my face, I turn my nervously sweating face towards Solo. He, true to my intuition, is staring at me.

"You're bored? You asked for it, so here it is. This is judgement, Duo. Time to choose."


In the Real World...


River water swirled and circled sluggishly around Quatre's knees, lapping just a little at the fabric covering his thighs in a dreary attempt to drag his upright figure downstream. Standing amongst the slimy river rocks, the boy ignored the call of the river, and instead looked for all the world as if he'd lost himself somewhere along the forging.

"Duo..." the words escaped him, though more as a sigh than a spoken name... a sorrowful sound carried away on the hissing breeze, through the reedy plants which patched along the nearest shore.

From this distance, (a yard at most) it was almost impossible to misidentify the ghostly face of the half-beached body which lay sprawled before him. Duo's smiling features, now contorted cruelly into an expression similar to mild worry, were the most obvious sign by which to identify the body as the one which once had harbored his friend's congenial soul. The braid was next, a dark, muddy rope against the grey silt of the shore. His clothes were muddy as well... though, here and there a pinch of color would show through the mess to reveal a black and red cotton jacket, what was once a white t-shirt, and a well-loved pair of jeans the boy had insisted on keeping, despite the growing number of patches he personally had painstakingly sewn into their ragged holes. He was huddled in on himself, though half in the river, as if he were, even now, trying desperately to keep his body heat contained. One arm however lay upright and exposed, and his fingers trailed into the water, curling a little into his palm where tiny silver fish nibbled.

Quatre kneeled by the curling figure, and sighed a ragged, heart weary sigh. Almost instantly, his hand went out to caress the figure's wet bangs, pushing away the mud and smoothing the brow. Duo's head was freezing to the touch. It was only a moment before the blonde's vision misted over, and he buried his face in his now filthy hands.

Back on the incline, Wufei continued to warily eye their surroundings, though it was slowly becoming obvious that this task was nothing more than a tool for avoiding the scene below. Trowa recognized this instantly, though he said nothing. His brave friend couldn't bring himself to cry in the presence of others. That much was understandable. However, if Wufei continued to suck on the insides of his cheeks with the same jaw-grinding intensity, he would bite himself unintentionally and bleed himself sick.

/You can swallow up to a quart of blood before you have to throw up./ Trowa reminded himself dully as he observed the Chinese boy's expression of smothered unhappiness. /Maybe throwing up would make him feel a little better./

The silence dragged on, and they watched as Quatre knelt amongst the reeds of the far shore above the familiar body, and rocked in soundless sorrow.

"What is he doing?" Wufei suddenly exploded, now staring at Quatre's crouching back. A second later, he began to pace.

Eyeing the shifting youth with a hint of admonishment, Trowa shook his head a little. "Mourning."

"Is it really the time for that?"

"You can't choose when the impulse will claim you."

"You can." came the defiant reply, and Wufei clenched his jaw a little tighter. "He just isn't trying hard enough. Make him try harder. He'll listen to you. We've got to get out of here, and we've got to do it before Yuy shows up and kills us all."

"Why would he do that?" mild disinterest, bitter still with the twinge of sadness.

"Guilt by association. We're at the scene of the crime."

A shake of the head. "No. Heero wouldn't do that."

Wufei was chewing on his thumb now, rapidly shortening his nail to the quick. "How do you know that? Don't you know what Maxwell was to him? What kind of... relationship they had with one another? Yuy'll be literally devastated. He won't be able to handle it. He's too calm... too collected. No human can function under those inhuman parameters!"

Shooting the other a sharp glance, Trowa narrowed his eyes in a way which could almost be described as dangerous, if it weren't for the painful upturn of his shadowed eyebrows. "I know that. I just, have doubts about how he'll react. Not like you think."

"No?" Wufei gave a strained little laugh... a look which shortly after seemed to sicken him. "We'll all see what happens, if we don't move on. How would you feel if you found Quatre mangled and waterlogged at the bottom of a river?"

"Enough!" Trowa barked, causing Wufei to flinch. But the boy didn't continue. He merely brought his hand up from the fold across his chest, and smoothed his forehead in silence. Wufei frowned.

"I apologize." came the murmur from the ponytailed youth, at last. "That, perhaps was too far. But I still disagree with you. This crime scene won't be tolerated well."

Trowa shook his head. "This was no crime. See where the skid marks lead down the path here?" methodically, the tall boy gestured to a series of shallow gashes leading over the crest of the hill above them, to the place where the earth met the road. "This was an accident."

But Wufei was no longer paying attention. Instead, his eyes, now round with alarm, seemed to bug from their sockets as he stared in the opposite direction– down thirty yards to the river's bend.

There, sinking ankle-deep into the sludge of the muddy river floor, stood Heero.



Author's Note: Thank you so much to everybody who has taken some time out to review: K-myth (haha, your attention to detail pleases me ) Amy-chan (thanks for the suggestions!) ZaKai (kind commentary is always appreciated) ahnchan (consistent reviews! Yayaya!) Ravekizu (thanks for reading! I know it doesnt make much sense -.-;; ) and crazy-lil-nae-nae (haha, whats wrong with grabbing your own butt?)

Anyway, I hope to get the next chapter up soon. Stick with me here, y'all, I'm finally beginning to actually get into a real story. O.O;;

Until Next Time