Disclaimer: The characters in this story are copyrighted by the makers of Gundam Wing. The use of these characters is merely for recreational purposes and is not in any way gaining me profit.
Claimer: The idea for this plot is my idea and if I see any copies I'll sic on you. Ye Pirates be warned.
My life is really strange. And I don't mean strange like sixteen year old Junior in High School strange. I mean living in a foster home full of nuts strange. See it's like this; kids above ten aren't usually adopted, so once you reach that age they kick the orphans out and stick them in what's called a Foster home. A Foster house is where a married couple with stable living conditions takes in an orphan and care for them for a while. Until they get shipped somewhere else or come of age, or rarely adopted. Some Foster parents are special; they take troubled kids, hard cases, that kind of stuff. There are, however, very few who take in the strange ones. But Treize and Une Kashundra have got to be the strangest couple in existence.
My normal daily routine comes as the alarm clock rings, followed by a large smashing noise as I throw it on the floor to get more sleep. (My nightly extracurricular activities tended to leave me with not enough sleep.) Then I get a precious few more minutes of sleep, before something very hot gets me out of bed with a yelp. As always that's Quatre with a match or lighter, big innocent smile on his face like he didn't just burn me. Then I hurry my way into the shower for lots of cold water. Quatre and I got the bedroom with the attached bath 'cause of the blonds' nasty habit. I swear I'm covered in burn scars by now…oh, did I forget to mention that lil' Cat is a pyro? Well, he is.
It then takes me an hour to get ready, mostly to dry my hair. It takes really long to dry hair like mine, I'll have you know. Then to breakfast, which is even stranger than waking with a fire under your ass, literally. So T-man and the Lady don't have a lot of rules for their house. It seems to be their policy as Fosters that the more you restrain the kid, the more he lashes out. God, I love that policy. The rules they do have, on the other hand, are absolutely enforced no matter what. School night curfew is ten, weekends is twelve. No drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. Rooming arraignments are not to be changed. Skipping classes is absolutely forbidden and the whole family is to eat together, exceptions made only 24 hours ahead of time. Yeah, well, T's a retired General with a fat pension and Lady's a really successful businesswoman. Their stickers about time. I got grounded once for being four minutes after curfew. I am now always five minutes early.
Now I know all you normal strange teenagers out there are going 'what the hell? That's a lot of rules, idiot.' But to us strange strange teens this is heaven. All the other Fosters? They tried to restrict all our strangeness too, and that was like denying us our souls. Besides, Quatre without fire handy is really scary and Wufei without a knife is a lot less scary and- well, you get the idea.
So, back to breakfast. We were required to eat dinner together, and eventually we picked up breakfast too. Even though me and 'Fei never eat anything, we sat at the table anyway. Right, so let me make proper introductions. Sitting on my left is Heero Yuy. He was orphaned really young, like me, and got adopted by this nut. So now he's obviously got problems. First and most obvious, no emotions! That guy bottles up his emotion, and I mean everything. But, unfortunately, bottled emotions have to come out somehow. Every once in a while the dam will burst and he gets really, scarily, emotional. Most of the time though, he just cuts himself. Masochist, that one, not that I mind really.
Next to him is Trowa Barton. He was in a city when it was attacked by the army as a kid, killed his whole family. It left him deaf too, with the acute fear of enclosed spaces. People did not want to adopt a disabled kid, though the Bartons' gave a fair go at it. Never did like them, Trowa did. Trowa, having not been born deaf, is able to speak; though his speech is strange and he doesn't do it a lot. Trowa can also read lips fantastically, and is teaching the other boys how to sign.
After Trowa was Quatre Winner, my previously mentioned roommate. Everyone still cringes when they hear his last name, the Winner family massacre from six years ago still firmly planted in their minds. He'd confided to me that he planned on changing his name when he turned eighteen, but I pointed out the difficulties of gaining his inheritance then. He had just humped and flicked his lighter on. Quatre's pyro tendencies had started about six months after the incident, and had turned into an all out obsession by the next year. He was jumped from one Foster to the next, until he was finally dumped here.
Between Q-ball and 'Fei sat T and Lady. On my right sat Wufei Chang, probably who I consider the sanest out of the five of us, which is really kind of funny in an ironic way considering all those pill he takes to stay that way. Ya see Wufei hears voices. This illness, while perfectly controllable on his medication, did not explain his fondness of sharp shiny objects and did a lot more to deter any potential long term Fosters. His past I'm not so sure of. I think his small town was held up by rebels and his sister was killed in front of his eyes to make her grandfather co-operate. Something like that.
Don't forget me! The names Duo Maxwell, I may run, I may hide, but I never tell a lie. That's my motto, me in a nutshell, the whole shebang. Well, okay, so I'm not so simple. I grew up on the streets, formed this nasty habit of finding things that aren't mine on my person, and then got pulled in by a church. Said church was burned down when I was ten by the militia, and I also got juggled by Fosters. Oh right and I forgot to mention that I'm a little sadistic too. It's something you can over look.
Duo looked down at the first entry in his Journal, satisfied that it met his standards. Then he let out a howl as Quatre knocked over one of his many candles.
"Lady! Quatre set fire to my notebook again!" Duo yelled, taking a damp cloth from the bathroom and beating out the spreading fire.
"I didn't mean to!" Quatre shouted back almost immediately. It was a miracle Duo could stand living with the boy, considering his own past with fire. He'd tried to find a way of weaseling his way into Wufei's room instead, let Heero deal with him. But of course, bed assignments were not to be changed. Trowa got his own room because of his claustrophobia, Duo and Heero are absolutely not to share a room, and Heero is not to have his personal belongings within four feet of Quatre's fire. When Heero's stuff caught fire the world trembled.
Duo sighed, blew on his notebook, and then stuffed it in his backpack. He skipped down the stairs, taking his spot at the table. His life was strange, but that was okay. He liked it that way.
Okay, I got this out, please review.
TS