Echoes in the Garden, by Zephyrus
zephyrus_black@yahoo.com
PG
5x4
sure, go ahead and archive, but tell me please!
* * * * *
There was something wrong with Quatre. Wufei knew it, Trowa knew it, Duo
too-hell, even Heero noticed something.
Wufei wondered if it had something to do with Trowa. But that had ended a
long time ago, and as far as he knew, they were both on friendly terms. Wufei
mentally snorted. As if Quatre would never forgive anyone.
Yes, Wufei knew something was wrong with Quatre. But, he conceded, it was not
his place to do anything.
* * * * *
"Something's wrong with the Q-man."
Well, this topic certainly seemed quite popular lately. Outwardly, Wufei said
nothing, merely lifted an ebony eyebrow.
"Seriously, Wu, I think something's up. And I don't just think it's some
moody-PMS-depression thing that we all go through-" the other ebony eyebrow
lifted- "well for some of us it's a full time deal, but something is
definitely not quite straight with Quatre, and-yeah, that's not what I-I mean,
sure he's not, but really what I meant to say-"
Wufei had already left the room.
* * * * *
"Wufei." The normally silent Trowa appeared before Wufei.
He was more than a bit surprised, really. The lanky Heavyarms pilot rarely
spoke to him, then all of a sudden...
"Something's wrong with Quatre."
Well, that wasn't a surprise. Wufei matched a blank face with Trowa. The
lone green eye gazed at him expectantly. For a few long moments they stared
at each other, until Wufei realized Trowa was not going to say anymore. He
frowned a little, then shrugged silently. "Duo mentioned the same thing to
me," he said, as if that explained everything.
As Wufei left the room, he could feel the eye staring in his back.
* * * * *
A sudden tingling of his sixth sense, and Wufei turned to see Heero standing
behind him. What was this? Everyone-bother-Wufei-day? Irritated, he
frowned. But before he could say anything, Heero spoke.
"Wufei. Something's wrong with Quatre."
This succeeded in only irritating Wufei more. He attempted to turn his frown
into an 'This is an injustice!' death glare, but Heero remained unaffected.
Possibly because he saw the same face in the mirror everyday, Wufei supposed.
But before he could speak, Heero had already left the room.
* * * * *
Wufei contemplated. He could not understand why they would all turn to him,
but then no one could understand what went on behind Heero's frozen blue eyes
or Trowa's expressionless gaze. And rarely anything of any importance went on
inside Duo's head.
Wufei was finished contemplating. Decision in hand, he sought out Quatre.
* * * * *
He found Quatre in a garden, sitting affably on a stone bench. Wufei sat down
beside him, breathing in the heavy scent of flowers. Quatre had given him a
small, sad smile as he walked up, but said nothing. Wufei reflected on that
smile, thought how all Quatre's smiles were not only given, but shared
somehow, private yet free.
It seemed a long time, just the two of they sitting there, alone in their
thoughts, companions in their silence. Finally Wufei surprised himself by
speaking first.
"The gardens on Earth are like no other. On the colonies they grow and die,
endlessly, because there are no seasons. Because there is no natural order."
Silence. Wufei wondered if Duo had poisoned his food somehow to make him
babble on like himself, the baka.
"On my colony, the gardens were the epitome of beauty, life itself. When it
was destroyed..." He was spending way too much time with duo. "I wondered if
that life had forever ended." A small rustle of fabric, Wufei could feel
Quatre turning toward him. "But then, I returned to Earth, to China. I saw
the gardens were still there, the original gardens, my ancestor's gardens.
They had always been there. I had just not seen them."
Still silence. Wufei took a breath, a deep, glorious breath of magnolias and
lilies and roses. He wondered just exactly what he was saying. Had he been
talking to Quatre or himself? He could still feel that warm delicate body
next to his own, could still feel those aqua-blue eyes boring into him.
A pale hand touched his shoulder lightly. "Wufei?" He turned his head toward
the Arabian. He met aqua-eyes offering, asking for the same in return. "I
had just not seen them." His own words echoed in his head, and he saw them in
the ramblings of Duo, the far-seeing eye of Trowa, the loud silence of Heero.
He could feel them in the hard bench beneath him, in the thick scent of the
roses and magnolias and lilies, and in the beauty of the gardens.
A bronzed hand clasped a pale hand, and Wufei smiled in return.
(
geocities.com/tsfhwgs)