Disclaimer: We don't own GW. If it's not cannon or basic grapevine, it's ours.
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Chapter 2
Hallucinating?
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It was two months later that Duo visited Heero in Japan. They were now heading to Duo's favorite restaurant for dinner, and Heero suggested the shortcut.
The two Gundam pilots followed the narrow, twining back alleys. "Are you sure this is a shortcut?" Duo said.
"Of course."
"Whatever you say. Huh?" Duo grabbed Heero's arm, though that was hardly necessary; the perfect soldier had already stopped.
The woman stood further down the alleyway. Her hair fell in a loose cascade, blending in with her long black dress. The only points of light were her pale face and hands. And almost invisible in the fading light, two large, deep violet wings spread out from her back.
Duo pointed at the woman. "Hey, it's you."
She turned. No, it wasn't her. The face was too pointed, too different to even be human. Her burgundy eyes widened, and she spoke. "You can see me?"
"Of course I can."
Movement attracted Duo's gaze; a lean, black dog watched him steadily out of ice blue eyes. "But how?" the woman asked. Duo blinked and looked back at her. She shook her head. "I don't have time." She turned and bent down, leaning on a black staff, holding out her free hand. Duo looked to the ground; a body lay in a crumpled heap. The man took the woman's hand and stood, leaving an identical person on the ground. The woman glanced at Duo again and turned away; she, the man, and the dog vanished.
The two boys moved to the body. As Heero checked the man, Duo stared at the end of the alley. It opened onto the next street, but the woman and her companions had not gone that way. Duo and Heero would definitely have noticed.
"He probably died from a heart attack." Heero closed the elderly man's eyes and turned to the braided pilot. "Who were you talking to?"
"You didn't see her?"
"Who?"
Duo blinked at Heero. Surely the Japanese pilot wasn't being serious. Except that he usually was, and he definitely looked it right now. "What are you talking about? She was standing right next to this guy. And then—" Duo stopped, blinking. He had seen two of the man. But how?
"Then?" Heero prompted.
"I don't know what I saw. Forget it."
Heero's eyes narrowed.
"I'm fine, Heero. I'm not hallucinating. At least, I don't think I am." Duo shrugged. "Come on, we should take care of this guy."
Duo entered his hotel room and closed the door. His hand paused beneath the light switch. There was someone there. Her.
Only the face and hands were visible at first, then slowly the onyx dress and plum-hued wings, lastly the ebony staff and hair. Duo snapped on the light. "Hey, what are you doing here? Who are you?"
The woman vanished.
"All right, I know you're there. Come on out. I don't want to have to do anything drastic, you know."
The woman reappeared exactly where she was the first time. But the wings and staff were gone, and the face was more gentle and rounded. She still wore the black dress, instead of jeans and a t-shirt. No, not a dress; it was a black robe, over dark pants and boots, with a wine-colored shirt visible at the open neck and where the sleeves split on her lower arms. Her violet eyes watched Duo steadily. It had to be the same person. "You can see me now?" the woman asked.
"Of course I can, but why do you keep asking me? And what sort of trick was that?"
"Good. Well, I must be going."
Duo shut the door and stood in front of it, crossing his arms. "I don't think so, not until you answer some questions."
The woman cocked an eyebrow. "What sort of questions?"
"Who are you? What are you doing here? How did you get in here? And why do you keep asking if I can see you?"
The woman chuckled almost silently. "You need not know the answers to any of those right now. If you will excuse me, I bid you good life." She walked towards the door, even though Duo didn't move. He lifted his chin to look down his nose at her. It was hard; even though he was sixteen and not short, this woman was taller than he, maybe even taller than Trowa. He lifted his chin another centimeter.
"I can't let you go, not unless you answer me," he said.
The corner of the woman's mouth flickered upwards. She stepped around him; he backed up against the door, feeling the button lock under his hand. The woman walked straight for the wall, and one foot went through it.
"Could you at least tell me who you are?" Duo stopped. He should be wondering how she could be doing this, what was going on.
She turned to look at him again straight on. "Takai. Erelah Takai." She vanished through the wall.
Duo threw open the door; the long hotel hallway was empty. He laughed quietly. "Why am I not surprised? Wait a minute. Takai?"
Takai set her staff on the wall pegs, the black wooden shaft gleaming smoothly in the light. She hung up her robe next to a similar white one and followed her nose into the kitchen. "Evening, Mary."
The woman seated at the table nodded. Kameko turned from the pots on the stove. "How did it go?" she asked.
"I was able to hide from him. I'm afraid I also allowed myself to tease him." Takai scratched Bayda's white ears before gently pushing the wolf out of the way so she could get a jug out of the refrigerator.
Kameko's pale blue eyes widened at her sister. "You teased a mortal? That hasn't happened for almost a century."
"I know. And I told him my name."
The shorter Fae paused in draining a pot of broccoli.
"He asked," Takai added. She finished pouring milk into the two cups and put away the jug. Nearby, the phoenixes rustled on their perches, and they cooed towards Takai. She paused long enough to scratch each bird's head.
"Are you going to tell him?"
"Not unless I have to. I'm not even planning on speaking to him again. Anyways, enough about my day. How are you, Mary?"
The spirit smiled. "Fine, thank you. I just accompanied Kameko on some of her assignments today."
"Two premature babies and one especially difficult C-section," Kameko said. She started dishing out the food. "I also had an attempted suicide. I was able to keep him from jumping until the police got there, and we coaxed him down." She placed two plates on the table.
"Good job. Shall I say grace?"
"Hey, Heero." Duo threw himself down in the chair across from Heero in the small cafe. "I'm not hallucinating."
The Japanese pilot simply raised one eyebrow.
"I saw her again last night. It was that woman from Morgantown, the one Quatre and I both felt something about."
"Are you sure you don't need—"
"Yes. I talked to her and she talked back both times yesterday."
"You could talk to your furniture and hear it respond. That doesn't mean the conversation's real."
"She was real." She had walked through a wall and then simply been gone, though. Duo shook his head. He wasn't going mad. "Takai means death, right?" he asked. Heero nodded, his brow furrowed, eyes still on Duo. He simply smiled back.
"Why?" Heero asked.
"That was her name. Takai."
Heero stood. "Come on."
"I'm not crazy, really. She was there when I got to the hotel last night. She did this whole little disappearing trick, but she came back."
"Where was this?"
"My room."
"How did she get in?"
"I don't know, but she walked out through the wall."
Heero's expression didn't change, but Duo could practically see the thoughts running through the stoic boy's mind. 'Report: Duo Maxwell has officially gone insane.'
Duo sighed. "She was there, I promise."
"How do you know?"
"I saw her. I talked to her."
"Did you touch her?"
Duo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm going to go up to some woman I don't know named Death and give her a hug. Not happening. You suggest that and say I'm the one who's crazy? But she was there. Quatre saw her the first time, too, and he felt something."
"No one else was there last night."
"No, see..."
Two men, identical down to the last lock of grey hair and the canvas-soled shoes, one dead from a heart attack, the other vanished with the woman with wings. Death.
Duo blinked. "I think she meant it. Wow."
Heero simply watched him, waiting.
"Her name is Death, right? Last night, I saw her take that guy's spirit. That's what was happening."
"Explain."
Duo described what he had seen in the alleyway. By the time he finished, Heero was sitting down again. "I'm serious, that's what happened. I'm not ill, I'm not crazy, and I'm not going to see a doctor," Duo said.
Heero regarded him closely. "How can you be sure?"
"Quatre felt something, too. I don't know, Heero, but there's something about her, and it isn't simply me being silly. There's really something there."
A smile tugged at the corner of Heero's mouth. "Don't let Hilde find out."
Duo stared at the quiet Japanese pilot for a minute, then he laughed.