The bell finally rang and ended Quatre's miserable orchestra class. For the whole 50 minutes, he had only touched his instrument 3 times since Mr. G had to devote all his attention to the brass section. Not that Quatre minded. It gave him time to think.
Quatre started to clean his violin. His hand mechanically brushed over the body of the violin while his eyes stared down at the wooden furnish of the instrument without much real interest. Since the beginning of the rehearsal, Quatre's mind had drilled on the issues surrounding the leader of the flute section. He had even stolen a few furtive glances at the flute section whenever he had the chance.
And the questions repeated themselves in his head like the endless carousel. Should he walk over and apologize to Trowa for not showing up as he had promised? Would Trowa hate him? Would Trowa even REMEMBER that they were supposed to be there on the weekend? Did Trowa notice him?
Quatre shook his head lightly, silently reprimanding himself for being so selfish. His childhood friend was in some kind of trouble and here he was thinking about some other guy.
Bad Quatre. Selfish Quatre. Confused Quatre.....
Quatre polished his violin harder and sighed. How odd. He had never been this confused. The whole Sunday Heero had disappeared. Quatre had assumed that he had met with someone, most likely Duo Maxwell. But it would seem that he was wrong. When Heero came back from his mysterious trip, he had locked himself in his room, supposedly working on his paper. But then an hour or two later, Quatre heard the thumping on the basketball court.
Quatre had to admit it was kind of neat to see Heero finally took some initiative to do something. Anything. But then when he looked out the window and watched Heero played basketball on the driveway, a sensation of loneliness projected from Heero washed over Quatre. Quatre grieved. It had seemed that Heero had somehow opened his heart. But then something else was also bothering Heero.
What was it?
Quatre placed the violin in the case. He would give anything to know what the heck was going on.
Quatre closed the case and stood up from his seat. He lifted his head and ready to pack up his stuff. But before Quatre had the chance to gather up his music folder, his eyes stared into a pair of intense green eyes. Quatre gasped as he realized it was Trowa who stood only a few inches in front of him.
Quatre did not know if he should be happy or scared.
* * *
//I thought you have feeling for this kid.....//
"Go away." The long hair boy sat in the dark alone. His head leaning back on the cold wall. While one of his hands lay lifeless on his lap, the other rested on the equally cold floor, holding a small black semiautomatic pistol.
-*Smirk*-//No one escape your love. No one.//
"Shut up!" The boy irritatedly brushed back his hair behind his ears but his unbounded hair kept coming back to block his eyesight. He started to load his pistol.
//How are you going to do this? Behind his back? His temple? Up in his mouth?//
"Leave me the hell alone!" The boy's hand trembled as he picked up the bullets from the floor and inserted them one by one into the magazine.
//Or are you going to have some fun before you ...//
The boy clicked the magazine into place. "My God! Just -- Shut -- up---!" He frantically stood up and shouted into the empty room.
-*Smirk again*- //God never listen to your prayers, remember? No one did. No one but me. ....I saved you....I fulfilled your wish....//
"Shut up....." The boy's anguish sound reduced into helpless whisper. With gun still in his hand, the boy raised his hands and covered his ears.
//I ended your parents suffering....///
The boy dropped back to the floor and pulled himself into a ball. His feet drew closer to his body, forming into a fetal position.
//I numbed you when he entered you...when he savagely.....//
His long chestnut hair poured down his body, engulfing the boy in its softness.
//Those nine days never ended you know.....//
The boy sobbed as the voice in his head laughed.
* * *
Odin Lowell sat in the car alone. His fingers impatiently tapped on the wheel. He did not like this. This is bright daylight. Any mistake would have scared the target away. Any wrong movement would have notified the target their presence.
But he had no choice. If he didn't move now, Quinze would be out of the country and disappeared without a trace. If only their cover didn't blow.....
Odin tensed. His hand slapped on the wheel and cursed. His people shouldn't have planted the "bug" underneath the desk.
UNDERNEATH THE DESK! Odin irritatedly tossed the old cigarette outside of the window. Who is this incompetent idiot that he entrusted the job! You plant the bug INSIDE the phone tap. IDIOT! Somewhere secretive so that people didn't bend down and saw the device.
Odin lighted another cigarette in the car and watched his agents surrounding the house.
It was their goddamn luck that someone had informed them or Quinze would have slipped through their fingers and Heero would be......
Odin abruptly stopped his thought when he saw that his agents kicked the door open and rushed into the house in groups of threes.
Odin hurriedly opened the door and stepped out of the car. He flipped the cigarette aside and took out his gun from his back. As he ran toward the house, one thought sprang into his mind.
God, Merian. I hope you are not too late.
* * *
Heero Yuy sat on the bench in the fencing locker room alone for Wufei had told him earlier that Quatre and him had some business to take care of. And the other fencing people had already changed and went to do warm-ups already.
Normally Heero wouldn't mind the silence. Heck, he wouldn't even notice it. But today was different. Heero felt unusually restless.
Duo Maxwell had never showed up in the class.
Throughout the whole day, Heero had walked down the hallway, surveying the area with his acute eyes, looking for this one particular person.
He never found the long-braided arrogant bastard he wanted.
Frankly it worried Heero. Especially when he remembered Duo's vacant eyes. Compared to his own past, Duo's was much worst.
Heero clenched his fists.
He didn't understand. He was in total confusion. One moment Duo was flashing his arrogant grin at him and the next moment he was telling him about his dark childhood. And then he turned his back on him and now he was nowhere to be seen.
Why?
After he took out his fencing uniform, Heero closed the locker. He sat on the bench and bent down to loosen the shoelace. All of the sudden, Heero heard a few footsteps occurred behind his row of lockers. Though he was startled by the sound, he ignored it and concentrated on his shoes. After he took off his shoes, he started to strip off his tight jeans, leaving only his black spandex. But as he began to pull his white T-shirt over his head, Heero thought he saw a quick flash of long chestnut braid out of the corner of his eyes.
"Duo?" Heero threw the T-shirt quickly aside and stood up.
No one answered.
Heero hesitated. He slowly bent down and was ready to pick up his fencing suit before he heard another random set of footstep sound running toward the exit of the locker.
"Duo?" Making up his mind, Heero let go of the uniform and ran toward to the origin of the sound, not caring that he was only in his green tank top and black spandex.
And barefoot.
* * *
"So what is it that you need to tell us about?" Wufei eyed at Trowa impatiently. He did not trust this guy.
Trowa only stared at him. His face stayed impassive.
Quatre nervously shifted his feet. The once familiar music room felt like it was constraining him. He licked his dry lips before he started to talk. "I am sorry I broke the promise....."
Upon hearing the words, Trowa's eyes were momentarily clouded with confusion. But it passed and Trowa looked into Quatre's blue eyes. "It's not that." Before Quatre's face brightened with joy, Trowa spoke again. "I am supposed to kidnap you two."
A moment of silence sank in before Quatre tightened his eyebrows while Wufei laughed. "Okay. This is a waste of my time." Wufei grabbed Quatre's hand and ready to drag him out of the door.
"Quinze had ordered the abduction of Quatre Winner and Wufei Chang and the termination of Heero Yuy. The operation was to be executed immediately." Trowa calmly stated.
Wufei swirled around. His eyes narrowed with fury. "Who are you?" Wufei growled.
"Nanashi." The tall boy replied flatly.
Quatre no longer felt the tight grip of Wufei's hand bruising his arm. Instead, he widened his eyes and his heart sank.
* * *
Heero stopped in front of the old equipment storage room, not far away from the gym locker. He had followed the ghostly figure and the sound of the footsteps up to here. Though his mind was warning the oddity behind all these chasings, Heero didn't care.
He needed to see Duo.
Heero turned the doorknob and the door swung open with a loud squeaky sound. Just as Heero was thinking that the door needed to be oiled, a hand violently grabbed Heero's hand and pulled him into the darkness of the room.
Heero tumbled in and landed heavily on the floor as the hand released him. Then the door shut loudly behind him. The darkness and silence engulfed Heero. His eyes still did not have the time to adjust to the darkness. But Heero stayed calm. He placed his hands on the floor, trying to feel his way out.
Suddenly, a powerful arm grabbed Heero from the waist and lifted him up in the air. In a matter of seconds, Heero felt his back pressing against another man's chest. The arm tightened around his waist, aching his abdomen. The man behind him leaned toward Heero's ears.
"Miss me?" The voice whispered.
Giggling sounds started to emerge around Heero and the light was suddenly switched on.
Not accustoming to the sudden brightness, Heero squinted his eyes while his hand frantically tried to peel the arm off his waist.
The arm only held Heero tighter. The man behind Heero started to nibble on Heero's ears.
"You know...." The other arm came up and it went underneath Heero's tank top, feeling the young and tight muscle. The hand brushed over Heero's sensitive spot and Heero suddenly felt weak in his knees. "Your friends are not coming to save you tonight...."
Heero brought up his right hand and aimed his elbow at the stomach of the man behind him. He dropped his elbow hard, hitting the vulnerable flash underneath.
"OHHH." The man screamed in pain as Heero dropped on the floor. But before Heero could get to his feet, more hands pinned Heero down.
Heero's eyes finally got used to the brightness as he saw Treize approached him.
With his right hand still holding his wounded stomach, Treize kicked the chestnut hair wig
aside. He sneered at Heero as he dropped his weight and kneeled next to Heero.
All but one other football players withdrew their hands and stood back.
Still pinning down on the floor, Heero only glared at Treize.
"That was a good fight you put." Treize ran his hand down Heero's cheek. "Your boyfriend gave us some trouble this afternoon..... " Treize licked his lips. "But you will pay it back.... All of it."
* * *