Yay! Another update! I'm nearing the end of this story so enjoy it!
Tainted for life
Chapter 10
'Oh' he groaned, he didn't even know his head could possibly hurt this much. Keeping his eyes closed he brought a hand up to touch his head, there was a large bump there. He groaned again and with all his might tried to open his eyes. One at a time he cracked them open to find a concerned face hovering over him, it was his mother. What happened? He tried to think but it was so hard with his head pounding like this! When did he bump himself anyway?
He searched through his memory, they went to New York, for the trial of his father, he said goodbye to Heero, he talked to his mother, he tried to talk to his sister, then... she helped him packing...? Then it all flooded back to him, causing his eyes to widen and his body to shoot up straight, his head pounded protestingly but he ignored it. He took in his surroundings. Another hotelroom, but not the one in New York, also, there was no sound of angry traffic outside, while the window was wide open. Where were they?
'Duo, sweetie are you okay?'
He slowly turned towards her, giving her a wide eyes look. 'Where are we?' He whispered. He saw her come closer and bury one of her hands in his thick hair, the other came up to carress his cheek.
'We're in a hotel... a few miles out of Los Angeles.'
His breath hitched as his mind supplied a mental map of America. They had travelled to the other side of the country! No! She couldn't do this to him! He felt himself panicking again, just like on the plane, she pulled him into a hug, if he had the energy he would push her off, he didn't feel like having her arms wrapped around him right now.
'The flight attendant said you passed out because of the altitude... but I knew it wasn't that...' She mumbled softly into his hair and then kissed the top of his head.
'Is this... Is this where we are going to live?'
She shook her head 'We have a few more miles to travel by car to reach our new home.'
'But... But why so far away?' He asked with the voice of a small child that lost it's teddybear.
'I needed to get away, far away from all the... pain. I thought you felt the same.'
Slowly he pushed her away and stared at the ground as he knew he wouldn't want to see her heartbroken face. Los Angelos... He was thousands and thousands of miles away from home... away from Heero, away from Quatre, away from Cat, away from Frankie. She couldn't just expect him to start all over again in life! He rose quickly but reached for the bed as support as he got lightheaded.
'Honey, you should take it easy, you've been out for five hours.'
'Take it easy! Hos can I take it easy! How! You... You kidnapped me!'
'Duo... no...' She tried to calm him down but this time he wasn't gentle while pushing her away.
'Yes! I am over eighteen and you didn't tell me where we were going!'
'I did say it would be far away...'
'NO YOU DIDN'T!' Then something dawned to him and he returned her teary puppy stare with his own crazy look 'You are just like dad, aren't you! You think that if you can keep me away from Heero, I'll like girls again!'
'Duo!' She looked sincerely shocked 'How can you say that?'
He was crying by now, he needed to scream at her, yell, he was so lost he could have hit her if it all became to much. But in the back of his mind he kept remembering how fragile she was, he could say nothing mean to her, that bothered him. Sometimes you just need to yell at your mother. But he couldn't... But she took him away! He buried his hands in his hair, his legs trembled as it took all his effort to keep standing up. The emotions were draining him. All the bad feelings he had ever felt crashed right onto him like he was standing under a waterfall. He remembered the pain of all of his fathers beating, the pain he felt verey time he looked in his mother eyes, the anger whenever Hilde blamed him, the anger and sadness for losing Quatre ever since he got a new boyfriend. To top it all came the loss of his friends and maybe even the loss of 'The One'. What he felt when he was with Heero... it was so... he couldn't describe it but he just wanted more of that feeling!
'Oh Duo... I'm so sorry...'
This time he didn't push her away as she stepped closer and gently wrapped her thin arms around his trembling body, rubbing his back, trying to soothe him.
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Still cranky, still angry, still heartbroken he now sat in the backseat of an expensive black car watching the scenery roll by like a film. They had been in the damned car for over three hours now and they had two more to go to reach the nice, but small neighbourhood in which he was going to spent the rest of his miserable and lonely life. The car was new and he smelled new. The penetrant smell sickened him, even with the window rolled down in was overwhelming.
His mother was behind the steeringwheel, his sister sat next to her in the passengers seat listening to the soft music of the radio.
He sighed and closed his eyes briefly, forcing the tears back as he was done crying. He had cried enough to last a lifetime...
The atmosphere was tense, Hilde obviously knew SOMETHING happened between him and mom, but she didn't knew exactly. His mother still felt guilty, she was jumpy and would sometimes loose focus. He heard of people dying in carcrashes because the driver was losing focus...
He himself was seething with anger, it ran through his veins and boiled his blood to the point where he could literally feel it tingling. He yawned, even though he had been out for a good five hours, he had never been this tired. Maybe it was because he was tired of life? He snorted, his father was locked away! This should be a happy time!
'There's a café not far from here.' Hilde commented. Duo hadn't even notcied she was studying the map. 'Wanna make a stop?'
His mother didn't respond so she shifted in her seat so that she could look back at Duo, who was mindlessly leaning his head on the windowstill of the car door, his bangs whipping in the wind, causing him to squint his eyes. She waited, all she got was an uninterested shrug.
'Aren't you hungry?' she questioned, remembering he also didn't ate breakfast that morning when he woke up.
He shurgged again.
Hilde sighed and turned back to their mother. 'What do you think mom?'
'We'll just keep on driving. The sooner we get there the better.' She said.
Hilde shrugged and folded the map, laying it on her lap.
They drove and drove till Duo noticed that the trees at the side of the rode no longer belonged to the small woods they passed but were planted as they all stood straight and about five meters apart from each other. He lifted his head and stuck his head outside to look up front, they were at the edge of the forest, wild large trees still in the landscape. Up ahead, at the end of the long straight road they had been driven, was a small neighbourhood. He counted no more then eleven houses. Not the place to make many friends. The huge houses were surrounded by large gardens and expensive cars stood parked in the driveway. This was the neighbourhood of the filthy rich kids and still the house they used to live in was bigger, he mused.
'Here we are.' His mother said unenthousiastically and the car stopped inf ront of the house he had seen on the pictures. The pictures he had looked at many times. Oh, how perfect it would have been if it was a few thousand miles east.
He climbed out, keeping his eyes on the house. His mother and sister got out as well and grabbed the three suitcases out of the trunk.
He frowned as he saw the door open. He hadn't exoected that after his uncle had dropped off his belongings, that he would stay, but he did. The old but still handsome man walked up to his sister to give her a tight hug and a kiss.
'Welcome home.' He said to her and then grabbed Hilde, also kissing her. He stopped in front of Duo, noticing the gloomy mood. He lay his hands on his shoulders and gave them a firm squeeze. 'It's gonna be okay.' He simply said and then also pulled him into a hug.
After that he walked them to the house, at the door step he made a small ceremony out of giving his mother the keys to the house. It made her chuckle. Duo couldn't deny that the chuckle warmed his heart. He knew he was doing the right thing, by staying with her. He could go back, he could live with Quatre, Quatre's parents didn't mind, but he couldn't leave his mother and sister here. Especially his mother. She needed him. So he was doing the right thing... even though it was shattering his heart...
The house was huge, but sounde dhollow as it was unfurnished. He looked around, he couldn't help but feel a little excited. Though it wasn't only furniture this house was missing. He blushed and looked away as he remembered the dream he had about Heero and him making out in the pool, that could be seen through the large windows in the livingroom, even though it lay behind trees and bushes. Just like the poolhouse, which could be barely seen.
He noticed the large boxes that were in the livingroom, their belongings... It was going to be a pain dragging those up the stairs.
His Uncle, André, showed them around, just as excited about the hosue as they were, though their gloomy mood did not allow them to show it.
They drank tea in the sunny backyard and after three hours his uncle rose, preparing to leave.
'You can sleep here.' His mother asked, wanting to keep him here as he was always able to lighten the mood.
He shook his head sadly. 'If I go back to the city now, I can catch the first plane back tomorrow. I'm sorry, but Gracy's ballet recital, I really can't miss it.'
His mother nodded, understanding that he couldn't miss such and important event in the life of his seven year old daughter.
They kissed goodbye and watched him leave in the cab they had called for half an hour earlier.
They were just about to close the front door after seeing him off when a jogger passed by and said hello to them, jogging up to their door.
It was a young woman, she was thin, due to all the jogging probably. Her blonde hair was held in a ponytail, she had large, kind green eyes. Her vest and leggings were matching, both the same colour pink. Despite the pink she looked nice though.
She reached out her hand and his mother shook it.
'Hello, I'm Amanda Greene, welcome to the neighbourhood.' She said friendly.
'Thank you. I am Helen Rose, this is my son Duo and my daughter Hilde.' She gestured at her children. Duo couldn't help but give a said smile as he noticed she used her own last name again.
'Why don't you all come over for dinner tonight?'
Helen sighed sorrowfully 'I'm sorry, I don't want to offend you but this is not the right time. We have a lot to deal with.'
Amanda looked compassionate and nodded 'That's okay, I understand. Well, if you ever need anything I live right across the street.' She pointed at the blue house, 'We all know each other in this neighbourhood, so please, feel free to stop by whenever you want.'
'Thank you.'
Amanda waved them goodbye and jogged across the street then entered her own house.
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They had devided the rooms, Duo got a large room that looked out on the front. He used to worry about the noice of tarffic but in this neighbourhood that didn't seem a problem. It was a large room, with large and much windows and even a giant walk in closet. But also the rooms of his mother and sister had one, but still.
They all settled for a silent companionship as they went shopping the next day, and boy did they shop! They all got a large, king size bed, they bought paint, lamps, a dinner table, couches, funiture and decoration over the course of two weeks. Of course his mother wanted the furniture to be perfect as well so she wasn't hurrying. Theyw ere so budy atht Duo even found that he sometimes forgot about home while they were dragging boxes through the house. They all did it themselves, no hired men, his mother had probably done that on purpose for some bonding, sicne it meant they'd have to work together a lot. It seemed to work, if only a little.
When everything was bought the neighbourhood was happy to help. Duo found that they were all kind people, especially Amanda, who, even though you'd never guessed as you look at her young body, had giving life to four children, the oldest was twenty five, the youngest was ten. Her husband had made a fortune with his company, which he sold when they had enough money to last six lifetimes. He wanted to be with his colourful family.
The people next door to the right was an older couple. But she was nice, a little Martha Stuwart like as you could always come over to borrow sugar.
The people to the left were a young couple with strange names: Zechs and Noin Merquise. But they were fun to hang around with, weird sense of humor but, depsite his mood, they almost made him laugh.
Everybody was so kind and happy to help it brought tears to his eyes at night as he lay in his nearly finished room. He loved those people, after spending only one and a half months with them. They felt like family, they ate together in the garden after a long day of hard work and he couldn't help feeling guilty for almost being truly happy without Heero and Quatre there with him.
After two months, in record speed, the house was completely finished. Painted, furnished and decorated. In the livingroom that blended with the dinning room and the open kitchen lay white marble. They chosen black, modern leather couches, dark wooden tables, white chairs at the dinner table. The kitchen cabinets were white, the counter was black and sparkled. The large windows had see through curtains. On the walls hung small collections of family photo's. Instead of putting them all in albums his mother picked the nicest to hang on the wallm since their family was so far away and they wouldn't see them very often.
He had felt a bit radical decorating his own room. The walls were now red, they looked good. He had chosen the same curtains as downstairs, not wanting to obscure the view. He had a large bed with red satin sheets, on the floor lay white carpet. His mother had suggested wood but he hated the feeling of a cold floor underhis feet when getting out of bed. He had a large desk with state of the art computer and expensive leather chair. His room was so large there was even room for a small white couch with red and black pillows that stood in front of his flat screen tv. It was the room any teenagers would want.
On the wall, behind the desk hung two large pictures. One of him and Quatre, the best one he had of the two of them and the most recent. He had wrapped one arm around the blonde's shoulders and they were smiling from ear to ear. The other picture was, sadly, the only one he had of Cat, Frankie and Heero. They were all standing in front of the tatooshop. Frankie stood with his arms folded in front of his chest, Cat was casualy leaning againt him, they were both smiling warmly. Heero in his turn had one arm wrapped around Cats shoulders the other arm was wrapped around Duo's shoulders. He didn't laugh like the other, he had a small smile on his lips and his eyes spoke more then Shakespeare could have ever said.
Currently Duo was sitting on the edge of his bed, looking at said pictures with a forlorn look. He flinched as the door was suddenly opened. Hilde stepped in. Their relationship had gotten better and he allowed her to come near, he still didn't like or trust her, but theywere getting along.
She flopped down next to him, following his gaze. She sighed. 'Mom wants to know if you have eaten already.'
'I did.' He lied.
'She's worried. I am too. You're not eating well.'
'How would you feel if you had to leave your loved ones behind?' He muttered absentminedly.
Hilde snorted 'In case you have forgotten I had to leave my friends as well. But the people here are so much nicer! You can make new friends!'
Duo shurgged, not interested in their freidnship. At least, not enough to rise from the bed and go over to them. He was content to just sit there for the rest of his life.
'They didn't even call. Don't you think that's strange?'
'They don't have my number.'
She snorted again. 'What about the phonebook?'
He whipped his head around and glared at her 'They are probably looking for the wrong name in the wrong state!' He snapped. He was now registered as Duo Rose. In the phonebook: D. Rose. In the state California. His friends were looking for D. Maxwell, in South Carolina.
'Why don't you call them? You have Quatre's number, right?'
'Don't you think i tried already! The number no longer exists!'
Guilty and intimiated she walked away and closed the door softly behind her.
PS: I have absolutely no idea if there are any neighbourhoods like this one a few miles away from Los Angeles. So don't email me about it.
I think (keyword: think) that the next chapter will be up soon since it's, in my country, right now eleven thirty in the morning and I have the entire day to write and I'm in a writing mood! Whether that's a good thing, I don't know... ; )
Crimson Waterfall
