So when I started writing this story it was just spouse to be a sappy Romance that was only going to be, maybe, two chapters, just to give me a break from my other stories, but this is turning into a big story full of adventure/friendships/Romance. Also, thank you jeangreymullinsjr for offering to beta my stories. I really needed the help. Now on with the story….. I am forgetting something hummmm oh ya Gundam Wing is so not mine.
Shades of Purple
Heero's Past
Waking up, I could hear a whining at my door. "Duo?" My eyes coming into focus, I remember the dog. Looking to my left, the clock giving off a harsh red light, read 5 A.M. I dragged myself out of bed. The dog was pacing back and forth when I finally got to the front door. "Ok,ok," I said, shoving on my flip-flops and opening the front door. Fluffy bounded for the elevator, and pressing the button, the elevator doors closed.
Opening the glass doors, I noticed it was still dark outside; the dog sniffing around. I looked away to allow him some privacy. Twenty minutes later, we were back in the house; no work today. My mind went to the idea of crawling back into bed but quickly rejected the idea. Since I'm already up, I might as well do some work. Grabbing my suitcase from where I left it, I pulled out my laptop. My mind screams that it needs coffee before it could even think about looking at a computer screen. Contrary to popular belief, I don't like working on my laptop unless I absolutely have to. Walking to the kitchen, my hands reach out for the coffee can, putting ¾ of a cup into the filter. I wait until I can smell the percolating coffee mmmmm….French vanilla: love the stuff! Shifting over to my laptop, I start sifting through my E-mails replying to the ones that need immediate attention.
I took a second job to fill my time: working on computers. Nothing long term to jeopardize my job with the preventers, but something to help save for my dream house. Even now, the only thing I have ever wanted was a place to call my own, that was truly mine. After the war, I donated all of my money that was obtained through Oz to a bunch of orphanages on Earth and L2, since it was my fault half the children were in the system to begin with. Starting from scratch, I only did computer programming for companies that were trying to make it in an economy that was circling the drain, which helped with the bills, not that I had that many to begin with…when you're used to living with nothing it just sort of stays that way. Plus with my wages at the Perventers, I was pretty well off and should reach my goal fairly soon.
It wasn't until after the second war that I started to paint; drawings here and there, but nothing that stuck. It wasn't until I started to paint, that I realized, never before had I felt so relaxed, so thrilled that something I created didn't have to end in door bell jerked me out of my thoughts and I left my laptop to get to the door. Opening the door, Wufei and Duo stood cocking their eyebrows. Opening the door the rest of the way, I walked back to my small kitchen; laptop still sitting on the counter and the smell of coffee waiting for me. "Why are you here?" as I pulled down three cups, pouring them each one grabbing the sugar and cream off the counter and shoving it towards them. Not that I mind when Duo comes to see me, it's always a good morning when I can see him. His smile makes my stomach flip and my heart flutter… Oh god, I am becoming a sap! I wasn't sure if I wanted to shake my head in shame, or smile.
When Fluffy decided it was time to check things out, he stuck his head into the kitchen whined, sniffing the back of a pant leg. Wufei then whirled around, "Yuy when did you get a dog?" Duo shuffled his feet and smiled, "He's dog sitting for the neighbor girl." He held out his hand for the dog to sniff it gently and Fluffy started to wiggle his tail. I repeated myself, "Why are you here?" I watched as Wufei pulled out a file from his brief case and handed it to me. Opening it, I saw the name Alex Woodward; no picture was attached. The file was thin which either meant there was nothing that this person has done wrong, or that this identity only existed for a short while. Continuing to read, the police were called when a dispute between him and another individual had become heated. Which, resulted in Alex unloading a 9mm into a platform at the bus terminal; both fleeing the scene. Only one was arrested. "What does this have to do with me?" Duo pulled out what looked like a picture and handed to me. "The man is asking for Heero Yuy." Puzzled, I took the picture, and turning it over, my blood went cold.
Three children stood in front of a red brick building. There were no distinctive marking, but I knew the place like the back of my hand. My eyes landed on the girl in the picture: brown hair down to her chin and gray eyes where shining back in a smile. She was on the right. On the left, was a taller boy around the age of 10: blond hair and hazel eyes; a small smile was on his lips. In the middle was another boy around the same age. It was like staring at ghosts that just suddenly appear in front of you. "Heero, Heero?" Was someone talking to me? Looking up, my eyes met Duo's. Concern was in written on his face. "Where did you get this?" There shouldn't be any pictures of my childhood in existence "Alex Woodward had it on him said to give it to you." Looking down at the boy in the middle, both his arms were wrapped around the girl and the boy's shoulder.
His little face was set in a smile. I remembered that day so well one of the happiest days of my life. It wasn't long after that, that my world fell apart. Staring at the picture again, looking at my ten year old self, I noticed my nose was crooked from having it broken so many times. My face was covered in bruises from the foster parent that beat the shit out of me every day for three years; taking the beatings that were meant for the other kids. Lisa and Eric. God, it's been so long since my mind has pulled up the memories with them in it. If only I knew what I know now…. "Heero, Heero!" I looked up at Duo's knitted eye brows, "where is he at?" I needed to find out why and how he had this picture because both Lisa and Eric where the only ones that had a copy of it and they were dead. "HQ, of course." Nodding, I shut my laptop. "I'll be just a minute." I picked up my laptop and went to my room to change into my Preventer uniform, which only took a couple of seconds. Then I was out of the door with Duo, Wufei and Fluffy fallowing on my heals as we left my apartment complex.
Twenty Minutes later, we were in front of the Preventer kennels dropping Fluffy off. It was another ten minutes before we made it to the interrogation room, adjoining the room that had a two way mirror. As I walked through, my eyes landed on the man in question. Biting his nails, he had jet black hair that had a hint of blond at the roots, but his eyes where hazel. Feeling the blood drain out of my face, my mind went to the past.
"Eric, Lisa, come on! We're going to be late if we don't go now!" Lisa was smiling at me as she packed her backpack. "Ok, hold on Leland. Let me grab my lunch pail then we'll go." Eric was smiling at me, "Excited, huh?" Nodding my head enthusiastically, "of course it's Hero square, and you know how long I have been waiting to see it!" Eric's eyebrow went up, "are you sure your feeling up to it?" Glaring at him, I watched him hold his hands up. "Ok,ok. Ya know, if looks could kill..."
"Lisa, this way. There's a short cut that I know." Eric grabbing Lisa's hand and she held on tight. "I don't think we should go this way Eric." The old abandoned building was in front of
them.
"Eric, we should go. It's only going to be ten more minutes if we go around; no big deal." Eric let go of Lisa's hand. "Did you guys lose your since of adventure? Before now, we use to call places like this home, and now you guys don't even have the guts to go in one? Don't forget who we were before. Let's go!" Blocking Eric's path, I objected, "we haven't lost that Eric, it just feels wrong. Please, let's just go around." Looking into my eyes, he nodded, "fine." It was in that moment that the world slowed down.
Two men came stumbling out of the abandon building, guns drawn when they saw us. "No witnesses," one of them mumbled. He took aim and fired, hitting both Lisa and Eric in the chest. Freezing, I felt the sting as a one of their bullets tore through my shoulder and knocked me to the ground. My eyes met Lisa's cold and distant ones. She was so still... "Lisa," my voice whispered, grabbing her hand trying to wake her up. "Lisa," my voice cracked, tears starting to slide down my face. My body stilled as I heard footsteps approach. "They're dead." There was some more shuffling of feet. "Wait, this one's still breathing." The man that was checking on me, left his gun in front of my face as he checked on the other boy. "Finish it. He doesn't want any witnesses." Hearing the rustlings, I grab the gun in front of me and turn over; my sadness turning to anger. The man's face was in shock as my finger pulled the trigger; the recoil on the gun causing me to drop it. I watched the man fall onto Eric. "You stupid Fucking brat!" That was the last thing he said, when someone came from the dark alley firing a shot, that killed the man instantly.
I shook Eric. He was so cold, or maybe it was me. Hearing the footsteps coming closer, the pain in my shoulder was intense as I try to pull the man off of Eric. "Eric, Lisa, come on. We need to go." The steps that were coming towards me stopped. "They're dead, boy." I looked up at the older man. "NO!" Scrambling over to Lisa, I grabbed her hand. "Wake up, Lisa….Please!" I brought my hand to the wound on her chest to stop the flow of blood, but there wasn't anything to stop. Placing my forehead against hers, I kept thinking she had so much life after everything we did. This was how it was going to end. "You're going to kill me, too?" I watched the man put his gun away. "That depends on your answer, and it needs to be quick." Staring at him, he continued, "I can kill you, or you can live, by coming with me." I looked down at Lisa and Eric; their eyes both glazed over. Could I go on without them? Could I wake up each day knowing that I was alive while they were not? There was nothing left for me in this life. "Kill me." Watching as he took out his gun again, I closed my eyes. I could feel the pressure of the barrel on my forehead. Sirens in the distance becoming a searing squeal in my ears, feeling the blood slowly drain out of my arm. I took deep breaths: one, two, three… then there was nothing but the pain that told me I was still alive. Opening my eyes, I could see the man across from me. "I don't kill children." Standing up, I noticed that my arm had been wrapped up in a make shift bandage. I stepped out of the little alcove, only to see I was standing in front of Hero's square. I laughed bitterly; tears of sorrow running down my face. "Boy?" I stared at the statues of the empires from a long ago country. "Call me Hero, old man." I watched his eyes widen when I said the name. "Heero it is then." I wasn't about to correct him. "Maybe we were distained to meet, Heero."…"Hn." That day I went numb from the pain. Shutting off my emotions, the only thing left was the instinct to survive. "The name is Odin, boy."
"Hey you ok man?" Turning off all the recording devices, I said abruptly, "everyone leave," addressing the two agents that were sitting in on the interrogation. Not giving my command a second thought, they got up a left. How could he still be alive? I watched him die. This is not Eric; his body was cold when I left him in the alleyway. "Don't give me that crap Heero." Sighing and sitting down, I began, "I knew a boy named Eric." I pulled out the picture and handed it to him. Wufei was sitting next to me, I continued, "the last time I saw him, I watched him die." Duo turned to me, "you think that this person is Eric?" I shrugged, "guess I'll find out." I left them in the room as I walked over to the adjacent door. Walking in, his hazel eyes met my blue as I stood there in front of the man. I walked over to the table and took a seat in front of him. "Leland, is that you?" My body did not register the name, but my mind was in shock. I just stared at 'Alex.' "Come on Leland, it's me: Eric. I know I have changed, but not as much as you have." I wanted to flinch at that comment, but I didn't allow myself to. Clearing my throat, I flipped open the file in front of us. "Your name is Alex Woodward. They told me that you requested me." Flipping another page, I added, "it states here that you unloaded your firearm into a bus terminal plate form. Can you tell me the reasoning for it?"
'Alex' looked at me seeing the anger build, it wouldn't be to long before… "Fuck you, Heero!" He pushed his chair back to stand up and pace. "I thought you died along with Lisa, but they never found your body." I had not realized that as soon as I set my eyes on Eric, I was harboring some hope that Lisa would still be alive. My fist where clenched together as I stared at Eric. 'This is not Eric', I chanted to myself, 'he died, you watch him die.' "You remember the little park we used to play at, pretending we were kids?" how could I forget; recalling how it felt when all the parents called their kids in at night. The three of us had to drag ourselves to whatever was suitable at the time. "She was buried up on the hill overlooking the park. She always loved that place." The pain in his voice was still fresh, like it only happened yesterday. "I should have died that day, not her. I am sorry." It was like he was trying to pick at a scab, not wanting to experience the pain; the vulnerability that he was trying to open up. I needed to take control back over this conversation. "Let's get back to the problem at hand." He sat back down, anger visibly gone from his shoulders as he slumped into his seat. "Tell me what happen this morning," I began. He started to laugh, "The man I was trying to get away from was Patrick." He watched me as my breath caught in my throat for the umpteenth time today. "He's looking for you; blames you for everything shitty in his life; wants his revenge or some shit like that; had to unload a clip into the ground to cause a distraction. It was luck that the dick at Preventors had a picture of you on his desk…figured you would have become a doctor, not a Preventer..."
Cutting him off, I interjected, "you said the name Patrick. Who is he?" My body was going numb at hearing that name, but my mind was whirling that this man knew a lot about me and things that nobody should know. Somebody was just putting the pieces together to fuck with me. Was it Patrick? His records indicated that he had died during the war, but then how many times had I died and come back to life? "Still pretending that you don't know me, huh …He wanted to know where you were and thought that I would know. He put a gun to my head and told me that if I didn't tell him where you were, he was going to blow my head off. That's when someone came into the bathroom. He bolted towards the platform and I shot into the ground. I was afraid that he was going to shoot and hit someone else…. He fucking lost it Le-Heero! All he sees is his revenge!" He sat back farther in his chair. I responded, "so you expect me to believe that you just coincidently found me?" I shook my head. 'He really thinks I am going to believe that!?'
"Now, when you have the real story to tell me, we can talk," I continued, getting up from my chair. I started to open the door, when he burst out, "fuck...I am not Eric. He told me what to do and told me what to say. He wanted me to talk to you. Please, he has my wife... you of all people know what he can do!" It felt like cold water was just thrown on me. The thing was, I wanted Eric to be alive. "Who are you then?" He put his face on the table and stated dejectedly, "Brian Stone," then rushing on, "The only way he will let my wife go is if you see him. Please, don't let him kill my wife!" The last part ended with a sob. Taking out a pen and paper, I handed it to him, instructing, "Write everything down that you know." Throwing in a glare for good measure, I continued, "Do NOT leave anything out." I started to walk out the door, when he suddenly called out to me, "Wait Heero, he gave me this."
He slid an envelope towards me and I picked it up by the corner. I purposefully looked down at the paper I gave him and reiterated, "Write," closing the door behind me. Duo was standing right outside of the door and questioned, "what the hell is going on, Heero?" I found an evidence bag and slipped the letter into it. I start walking towards the lab; my only response being, "Hn." Duo grabbed my arm and pulled me into the nearest vacated office. If it had been anyone else, they would have had a broken arm. "Who the hell is Patrick?" I stared into his eyes, noticing that they changed again: deep lavender with specks of violet and blue filled his irises. My hand slowly went to his face, touching his soft skin. I hated to see any sadness in his eyes. I watched as a shiver makes its way through his body; was it need? My mind was quick to replace it with revulsion, seeing the look of panic on Duo's face as I dropped my hand. "Stay out of it." Duo didn't follow as I left the room.