The Life of an Overworked Teenager
My name is Heero. I can't say my real name because I don't know what my real name is anymore. I look like an albino mouse that was used in lab experiments. With stark white hair, a normal, overly skinny build, and permanent blindness in both eyes, life is harder on me then anything else. If I forgot to say this before, my name is Heero. Heero Yuy is my full name. This is an overview of my last six weeks of my life, before everything went insane. The memories come faintly now, but most of them are clearer then when it first happened. I wasn't blind back then, but the colors have already faded from my memory. It began…
It began on August 14, 2568, the day before I was supposed to start my new school. I was 15 years old then, becoming a freshman in high school in the next year or so. The buzzing of the rusted earthen alarm clock sitting on my crumbling cement block of a bedside table drove me reluctantly into consciousness. I rolled over onto my back, placing my hand on the faulty snooze button. I stared up at the ceiling of the deserted bomb shelter I had taken refuge in, thinking I had dreamed again. Ever since I had gone to the 'lightning count' and fought with him in Zero for the second time I had begun to dream the future. When I had come face to face with the creator of the crimson warrior, he had given me the warrior so I could see my future. The future I saw was destruction…destruction of everything I had ever cared for. I had seen the earth, all the colonies, and all the people, including Relena. The colony I had lived and trained on was already gone, destroyed by OZ, the alliance's military. The shock of what I had seen had taken its toll when I returned to the warrior's creator, nearly insane. However, I finally mastered both the warrior and Zero, at the expense of my idea of right and wrong. Anyone who had fought me in either of those times had not survived… I sat on the edge of the molding mattress, staring at my bare feet. I lifted myself from the mattress, drawing a deep breath as I yawned. The overwhelming scent of the shelter's ancient dust and rotting mildew choked my senses as I stood in the middle, clothed in the exact same forest green tank top and black shorts that I had worn the previous day; but if I had had the idea to buy soap and a washtub before I started living here, I wouldn't be washing myself and my clothes only once a week at best. I walked with a slight limp to the bathroom, turning to stare at my reflection in the cracked piece of glass I used for a mirror. I no longer recognize myself anymore. I had mousy brown hair, dark brown eyes, and the build of a normal, really athletic kid. Ever since I started training under Doctor J. for Operation Meteor, I just wanted to be part of their effort, since I was one of the ones oppressed in the colonies. However, while I trained, I lost my true self, but then I wouldn't have eve met Relena. I'm getting off track again. A knock on the door dragged me out of my thoughts yet again. Two people entered the room, a boy with his long brown braid draped over one shoulder, and a girl. I knew them both, but why didn't that boy cut his hair? He looked just like a girl. The girl had black hair that draped over one eye, like Relena's bodyguard. I didn't know who she was, but when she walked, I knew that she was badly injured in the past. She was using the boy as a crutch, hopping forward on her good leg. They were laughing about something, but stopped when they noticed me.
"Hey, you're up at last. We thought you had been too tired to move for a few more days. How ya feelin?" the boy asked, a cheesy smile all over his face. The girl giggled at the boy's comment.
"I'm fine. What happened while I was asleep?" I asked, both laughed, and then their expressions became serious.
"Dark things were happening. White Fang's on the move again." The boy explained.
"Libra means business this time 'round." The girl said quietly. My mind took a bit to register this bit of information. Libra was the battleship that OZ had created to keep their grip of power in space. I must have shown my thoughts on my face because both of my companions gave me a concerned look.
"Are you ok? Ya' look a bit pale." The brown haired boy asked a tone of confusion in his voice. I turned back to the mirror and looked back at my reflection. I did look a bit paler then usual, but I've never cared much about my looks in past or present.
"I'm fine. What did you come here for, just to bug me? If so, just get lost. I'm in no mood to talk." I turned back to my bed and collapsed on it face first, creating a cloud of dust to float around me.
"Sheesh, someone woke up grouchy." The girl said in a scathing tone.
"Drop it, Hilde. This is the way he's been all the time." The boy growled to his female companion, who retaliated with giving him a playful punch on the shoulder.
"You're insane, Duo." She said with a smile. Duo must have smiled back, but I couldn't see it, due to having my head stuck in the mattress.
"You two make a great couple." I replied when I had escaped from the mattress' headlock, but that was the wrong thing to say. I spent the next half hour fending off the two really ticked off pilots. Hilde or at least I think that was her name, was pretty good, for a girl, even with hopping around on one foot, trying to knock me over. At last all three of us were sprawled on the floor, dust covered, chuckling out loud. Laughing like this…I couldn't remember a time when I had laughed so freely in my entire life. Both Duo and Hilde were staring at me when I had finally stopped laughing.
"What?" I asked. Both pilots burst out laughing again. "What?" I asked, frustrated that they were laughing at me.
"Never heard you laugh, we haven't. You sound like a hyena with a head cold." Duo gasped between laughs. My raised eyebrows and skeptical expression made Hilde start giggling 'schoolgirl style'. I mastered my intent to knock Duo out cold by connecting my left fist with the floor with more force then I wanted to use, resulting in a numb hand and my bad mood returning with a vengeance. Before I could stop myself, I had Duo cornered with a bag of rock candy in one hand, a giant emu feather duster in the other and an insane smile on my face. I personally enjoyed Duo's torture session that ended with him on his knees in front of me, pleading for mercy. Hilde, on the other hand, sat in a corner with half of the rock candy, eating happily. I didn't wish to think of her on a sugar high. I had already made Duo insane, but now he was on a sugar high as well.
'This was definitely the worst thing to do, putting both of them on a sugar high,' I thought with a chuckle. Duo and Hilde were fighting over the rock candy, using the feather duster to make and break truces while I watched from safety of my mattress.
'Yep, definitely a good idea to stay out of this,' I sat there with my own stash of candy in my lap, munching on a rather large sugar-free lollipop (I don't care for sugar).
I noticed three people peering through the window, watching Duo and Hilde tug the rock candy bag back and forth until it ripped cleanly in half, making the candy all clatter to the floor. All I knew next was laughter from outside and anguished cries inside. Ms. Noin, Catherine and Sally entered, watching the couple squabble then looked at me.
"What? All I did was torture Duo with sugar and a duster and give Hilde half the sugar." I explained, fighting to keep a straight face. The others gave me skeptical expressions, until Duo and Hilde both noticed the lollipops in their hands that I had given them.
They howled like wolves and attacked the girls. I watched with a huge sweatdrop as they were chased around the outside of my 'house', the two sugar demons hot on their trail.
"I guess the coast's clear then," Quatre and Wu Fei entered, dust covered. "We were attacked by Duo. He was saying something about candy. What did you do to him?" Quatre asked. I couldn't help smirking, but quickly replied in a monotone.
"I tortured him with sugar and a feather duster."
"Oh." We looked back outside. The girls had Hilde calmed down and Duo out cold with a bloody lump on the back of his skull. As if Duo needed to lose any more brain cells, he has too few already. I heard something about "Heero" and "He deserves to be tortured". Oh great, torture's the last thing I need.
"Where's Trowa?" I asked to change the subject.
"He's working on his new act for the circus. I thought that Ms. Noin wouldn't allow him to bring a lion on the base, but Trowa said that his lion was tamer then some of her new pupils. I must say, that remark took her by surprise." Quatre replied casually, running his fingers through his white blond hair. I knew for a fact that Trowa and Quatre respected each other, but Trowa seemed to be becoming more distant lately with all of us, including those he cared for. Then again, he had been in OZ for short time to gather information to the best of my knowledge when he had found out that the rest of us had been captured. Wu Fei leaned casually against the wall, wearing his signature look of thinking hard. Quatre sat next to me on the mattress but leapt up again almost immediately with a yelp. He had sat on a giant, black rubber rat that had squeaked deafeningly on contact. I turned away so neither could see me laughing. Quatre was laughing as well. Wu Fei looked our way, shook his head and turned away. That guy is such a stick in the mud, and then again, I usually am too.
Yells from outside caught my attention. Then I heard cries of anger and sadness.