Reputations
Chapter 7"Let go of me, you bastard!" I growled.
They had dragged us into an alleyway.
"Heh, like I'd follow the advice of a child I could easily snap the neck of right now," the man, who had a slightly off accent, tightened his hold on me.
I think they were waiting for something, a car, perhaps.
There were two of them. One had Duo and this one had me. But I wasn't about to give up so easily. Even if it met death to me, I had to save Duo. With all the strength I could muster, I rammed the heel of my foot into the top of the foot of man who had me. I heard him wince and mutter something in English. While his attention had been diverted, I broke out of his hold and approached the man who held Duo swiftly. The man did exactly what I wanted. He turned his back to me so that I would be farther away from Duo. I kicked his back. The man yelled in pain and I thought I heard a small crack.
"Duo!" I yelled, "Come on! Let's get out of here!"
Duo, with a bit of my help, pushed the fallen man off himself and grabbed my outstretched hand. As we turned to run, the other man, whose foot was probably broken, block our path with both his arms on either side of him. This was the first time I had gotten a good look at him, in this standoff. He was tall, bald, a little tan, and his accent told me he was defiantly a foreigner. He had to be American or Spanish. The other man was as tan as a soccer player.
"You little brats!" the guy yelled, "Why don't cha just come along with us peacefully?"
I scowled and glared at him. My own arms were stretched out on either side of my frame to protect Duo.
"Over my cold, dead body!" I yelled.
Duo's hands were now bunching my shirt. His body was pressed as close to mine as I thought he could. With a little quick thinking, I locked eyes with the bald man in front of me and, while distracted, I shoved my foot, as hard as I could, into his crotch. The man went down like a demolished building. I grabbed Duo's hand tightly within mine and pulled him with me.
We ran.
We ran hard and fast and we ran until we had no more air in our lungs. We were at the house. We dashed inside and locked all the doors and shut and cover every window. Afterwards, Duo and I collapsed in the kitchen. We were panting hard from all the work we had ended up doing. My first thought was to call Odin and get him to come pick us up. When I voiced this opinion, Duo nodded, still trying to catch his breath.
I went to the phone and dialed Odin's office number. I got his office answering machine.
"Odin, it's me, Heero. I need you to come home and get us. These two guys just tried to kidnap Duo and I. We managed to get away without them following us, but I don't know how the found us in the first place and that means they might be able to find us here. Please, don't call back just come, we'll stay here."
I hung up the phone and turned to Duo.
Duo was at the door, his head down.
"Duo?" I called. Something wasn't quiet right.
"Heero," Duo stated, "Thank you. Thank you for everything, but… I should leave now."
"What?" my voice had given out, I couldn't believe what I was hearing, "Duo… why?"
"Because…" his voice sounded as sorrowful as mine, "Because I've brought you and Odin so much trouble… I should just go…"
His visible hand clenched into a fist of concealed pain. I felt my heart tighten in response. Duo's bangs prevented me from seeing his face, but in my mind he didn't want to leave either. I approached him silently and, without him detecting it, I wrapped my arms around his middle and hugged him to me.
"Please, Duo. I don't want you to go. Odin goes through all this all the time. It's his job." I lightly nuzzled his braid and neck. "I want you with me."
I felt his body shake and I thought he was laughing at me. But then I heard a little whimper from him and I knew he was crying.
"Oh, Duo…" I said. I turned him around and held his chin up.
He adverted his eyes from mine which made me think, 'how cute,' as I wiped the salty tears from the corners of his eyes and cheeks. I sighed and brought his head to my shoulder, cradling him gently. Duo grabbed on to my school jacket, bundling the fabric tight in his hands as I let his tears flow. We stayed like that until his sobs ceased.
"Duo," I said urgently, "Come on. We're getting out of here."
"Huh?" Duo looked a little alarmed. "Where are we going, Heero?"
"To Odin's office."
"How?"
"I'm seventeen. Odin has two cars. He always takes the nice one to work but he gave me the spares for the other. It should be over here…"
I let him go to go to the key box by the door. I opened it and found it empty.
"Oh crap," I said in reply.
"What's wrong? Oh. It's empty…"
"Crap. I left my keys in my locker."
"At school?"
"Yeah. Crap, crap, crap…"
Duo was silent while I thought of every option.
"Duo. We have to go to the school to get my keys."
"The school? Are you sure its safe? Maybe we should just wait for—,"
"No! We can't wait! Come on!" I grabbed his hands and opened the door. Closing it and locking it with a spare under the potted plant by the welcome mat, we made our way to the school cautiously, watching for Solo's cronies. I think they left the area after my ass-kicking moves. We snuck into the school, which was still in progress. I went to my locker. Upon opening it, tons of letters fell to the ground.
"Crap," I muttered. I bent down and organized them into a semi-neat pile. I threw them into another part of the locker. Duo looked nervously around.
"Heero," he said, "I have to go…"
"Huh? Go where?"
"To the restroom…"
"Oh… well, can you go by yourself? I'll try to find the keys while you're in there."
"Will you stay here…?"
"If I don't find the keys by the time you get back, yes. If I do, then meet me outside at the front. We'll walk back to the house together. Okay?"
"Okay…" Duo trotted over to the restroom, nervously looking all around as he did so.
----
When I found the keys, Duo was still in the restroom. So I trudged outside and waited. I waited so long, Kaonashi Natsuki came out and greeted me.
"Heero!" she called happily.
"Err, hi," I responded. I didn't care about her; I was beginning to get worried about Duo.
"Where were you this morning? I missed you."
"Uh, yeah. I wasn't feeling so well, I stayed home."
"Oh. You missed Yukihiro's party the other night."
"Yeah, I know. I was… busy."
Then she went into a rant about this and that concerning the party and I just nodded and smiled.
----
"HHHEEERRROOOO!!!" I heard.
Natsuki stopped, mid-sentence. We had walked to the student parking lot because I had begun pacing. But that distinct, panicked voice caught my eardrums like a fish on a bait line. I ran. I didn't care about Natsuki or what she might think of me for my rudeness. I just ran. And then I came within the front of the school and saw a gigantic crowd of students circling what sounded to be a fight. I ran faster.
I pushed my way violently through the throng of former peers. They all complained and threatened me as I continued till I broke threw the crowd. I saw red.
"Kobayashi!!!" I yelled as I swung my fist threw the air. It connected solidly with the back of the teen's head.
Kobayashi twisted his body as he fell to the ground roughly.
"You!" Kobayashi snarled, "You're just as bad; protecting a homo like him!" He pointed off to his side with something shiny. I glared at him and ran forward to attack again.
Kobayashi raised his leg and held it solidly out in front of him. It connected with my stomach in an unexpected move. I stumbled to the ground from the shock and following pain.
"H-Heero…" I weak voice called.
I shifted my vision to the source as Kobayashi stumbled to his feet. Duo was covered in dirt and blood covered half his arms, face and back, as he was currently facedown on the ground. I gritted my teeth.
"Duo! Get up and Get out of here! NOW!" I yelled.
"That's right, Duo. Go run and hide and let your BOYFRIEND deal with me!" Kobayashi looked insane and I felt by blood run cold. I got up with a grunt and got ready for round two.
Duo struggled to his feet and stumbled backwards.
"Come on, Yui!!! Come hit me!"
"Oh, you'd like that wouldn't you?"
"Aghh!" Kobayashi came at me with a hard right. I dodged and kicked him in his stomach. He doubled over briefly before recovering and turned around to face me again.
"Want some more of that, huh? Asshole!" I yelled.
Kobayashi gritted his teeth and came at me with a shove. I was knocked to the ground and Kobayashi fell with me punching me relentlessly. I felt the skin on my bottom lip and on my cheek spilt open, spilling my blood. I thrust my pelvis up to unsteady him and then tossed him off me. Taking in deep breaths to slow my heartbeat I picked myself up and got ready for round three. It was clear the score was tied.
Kobayashi pointed out the shiny object again and I heard someone yell, "Heero, he's got a knife!!! Watch out!"
My eyes widened. A knife? Geez, Kobayashi.
Kobayashi came at me again, this time thrusting the knife forward towards my chest. I stumbled backwards and fell on my ass with a grunt. He jumped at my fallen form, knife in hand. I dodged barely by rolling to the side. He came at me still and we ended up in a heap, fighting for control over the knife. We were kicking and screaming over it. My knuckles were white from the pressure of my grip.
I was now a little scared. "Duo!" I yelled, "Run! RUN NOW! IT'LL BE OKAY JUST RUN!!!"
"I'll just find the little HOMO again, Heero. He can't escape!"
Duo looked around wildly. I locked eyes with him briefly and said, "Duo, just do it! GO!"
"Run and I STILL kill you, you homo!!" Kobayashi had a madman's eyes.
Duo slowly got to his feet and began to cry. "He-Heero… I-I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"
Then, he ran off, pushing students aside.
Kobayashi and I struggled still. He grabbed my hair with his other hand and slammed my head into the ground. I heard him say as his weight was lifted from me, "I'll deal with you later."
My vision started to blur and fought against the unconsciousness I knew was sure to follow. I vaguely felt to sets of hands help me to my feet. Nausea swept over me and I thought I would lose it. "Duo…" I mumbled.
"He took off," Natsuki's voice claimed. "Kobayashi ran after him. Miyazaki-san, the principle, took off after them with a cell phone. I think she's calling the police."
"Kobayashi!" I exclaimed, raising my head more firmly. The nausea was gone now.
"Heero… you really shouldn't try to move—,"
"Out of my way!" I broke free of the hands and ran.
--Tsuzuku--
Yes! I finally continued it!!! And this fic is almost coming to a close! There's like… one or two more chapters… But fear not, my wonderful readers, for I shall try and try to push through to finish this fic up. Currently I'm still in the process of rewriting Fukai Ai Ichinen (Deep Love First Year) for Yaoi Underground LLC (now Yaoi House LLC)'s president, Takenouchi Kira-kaichou. She and her company may be the company to publish me so I am trying to focus all my immediate time and energy into redoing it.
I'd just like to say, to all of you who are supporting this story, that I hope that you will continue to support my writing/art (if you've been to my deviantArt account or website of which the link is in my profile). I promise you, especially those who are looking forward to the yaoi content of this story, that you'll not be disappointed in my other stories. When this particular story is completed I will include a link to my website and a brief summary of stories both completed (and hopefully set to be published) and in-progress. I sincerely hope that you become a fan of, not just my fanfiction, but also my fiction in general. Anyways! To those who are STILL reading this (What? Don't you guys have something better to do then wait for lil ol' me?), thank you. You are the reason for me to continue this story. I have many ambitions but once I start something, no matter how long it takes me, I WILL finish it. So please continue to support me. (And just because it sounds better and more formal in Japanese, "Anata wa sansei suru tsudzuku atashi kudasai.")
Until next chapter, so long! And Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!