By: Spooks
~ ~ ~ ~
At seven thirty the next morning, a hard, twice repeated knock at his and Heero’s bedroom door roused Duo from his sleep. Blinking his eyes open, he decided that he had imagined it, rolled over, and buried his face in his pillow.
After a moment, he raised his head and flipped the pillow over to its cool side. The side he had been sleeping on all night was warm and slightly sweaty. Gross.
Yeah, Duo thought, sleep hadn’t exactly been easy, therefore he must be imagining the knocking. Indeed.
Then the knock was repeated, exactly the same as before. Decisive and to the point. Dream knocks were usually not so lucid, Duo admitted. “Heero? Can you see who’s there?”
No answer. Then the sounds of the shower running registered in Duo’s sleepy mind. A glance at the other side of the bed confirmed what his brain had already decided: Heero was in the shower. Great.
With a groan, he flopped onto his back, threw off the sweaty covers and tumbled his legs off the side of the bed. He wandered his way over to the bedroom door, rubbed his eyes in an attempt to look as sleepy as possible, and opened it with all the bleariness he could muster.
“Yeah?” He asked, yawning. He wanted the other person to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had woken him up.
“Good morning, Duo,” It was Rashid, big as life, and somehow managing to look both sharp and droopy at the same time. Duo reasoned that the big guy must be tired too. Damn, and Rashid was here to do them a favor. There went Duo’s planned guilt trip. Now he was the one who felt guilty. Irony sucks sometimes.
Behind Rashid stood a dark haired teenager who stared at Duo with alert, very curious eyes. Rashid cleared his throat politely after a moment. “Do you have the package ready for me to send?”
The American blinked. “Um, yeah. Sure. It’s in the room, I’ll grab it,” he glanced over his shoulder as he heard the water in the shower stop. “Just a minute. I’d invite you to sit down in the room, but Heero’s in the shower and I don’t know if he heard you knock. Oh, and wouldn’t that be embarrassing if he just came out of the bathroom?”
The boy standing behind Rashid snickered loudly, running a hand through his hair. Rashid sighed and rolled his eyes at the teenager’s reaction, then nodded to Duo. “Go on. We’re fine here.”
Duo grinned and eased the door closed, then ran across the carpet to the bathroom and flung the door open. A thick cloud of steam rolled over him. “Whew! Heero, how long were you in here? This is a lot of steam, man!” He coughed, fanning the billows of hot air away from his face.
“Not too long,” the other answered. He had a towel wrapped around his waist and was rubbing at his short hair with another. He stopped after a moment and turned to neatly fold the towel and hang it up on a rack to dry. “I woke up and felt sweaty, so decided to take a shower. Who’s at the door?”
“Rashid and some kid. They’re going to take the sample package to town and send it to Geneva for us,” Duo answered, letting his eyes wandered over his still-damp partner. “I feel kind of bad about it, Rashid actually looks tired.”
Heero shrugged, pulling the towel from around his waist and hanging it up beside the other one, which left him naked. His hair stuck up in strange places from the toweling, and little bits of water still dotted his body.
He spoke seriously, his brow furrowed with concentration as he chose his words carefully. “Well, aren’t they waiting for you to take them the package now? And shouldn’t we find out who the kid with him is? Not that I don’t think Rashid is a good judge of character, but we are on the lookout for our stalker here, and I for one would like to be aware of all new people around us, especially those people that may have an opportunity to tamper with evidence pertaining to the stalker’s identity.”
Duo burst out laughing.
“What?” Heero asked, his face serious. He stood in the middle of the bathroom and crossed his arms over his chest. His toes curled on the floor mat.
Duo shook his head back and forth a few times, waving his hands in front of him in a placating gesture. “What you---“ snort “---said is totally right, and I agree, yes, yes, whatever. But if you could just see yourself right now.” He leaned heavily on the doorframe, still trying to stifle his laughter and failing horribly. It felt so good to laugh.
Heero furrowed his brow. “Huh?”
The American shoved away from the doorway and moved to stand right in front of his lover, so close that their noses bumped. “Dear, you’re naked and logical. Think about it. You’re absolutely gorgeous, absolutely naked, and just slightly disheveled. What’s worse, you’re damp...and you still have the power to sound logical. It’s amazing. And it’s hilarious.”
“Are you making fun of me?” Heero asked in a dark tone, letting his eyebrow lift just a fraction. An amused light shone in his eyes.
Duo winked. “Of course I am! But in a good way.”
That said, he leaned forward, stole a quick kiss, and tugged on one of Heero’s earlobes playfully.
Heero rolled his eyes. “Give me a second, and I’ll go to the door with you.”
“All right,” Duo replied over his shoulder as he picked up the package. He checked the address and the postage once more, then made sure the box was well sealed. They had prepared it the night before, prior to going to bed. Borrowing the postage and the shipping material from Quatre had been no problem, but digging out the “stalker memorabilia” had been something they had wanted to get out of the way as soon as possible.
However, the old adage of “out of sight and out of mind” did not apply here. Duo shuddered, remembering the bite of the razor blades on his hand. He glanced down at the almost completely healed cuts. He’d have a scar or two, that was for sure...and not necessarily just the physical kind.
“Okay?” Heero’s voice whispered over Duo’s shoulder.
He nodded. “Yeah. You ready?”
“Sure,” the Japanese man replied, tugging on the sleeve of his dark green shirt.
Duo held the package, so Heero opened the door.
“---but, Uncle Rashid!”
Uncle?
“Uncle?” Duo asked, his mouth suddenly overtaking his brain. He would have slapped his forehead if he wasn’t holding the package. Three cheers for the direct-as-hell approach to finding out the kid’s identity!
The boy turned, his expression open and unguarded. He just blinked at Duo. “Um...”
“Perhaps introductions are in order,” Rashid said after a moment of silence.
“Perhaps,” Heero echoed, a smirk settling on his face.
“Duo, Heero, I’d like you to meet Abdul’s wife’s sister’s son,” Rashid ticked off the relationship on his fingers as he said it. “His name is Hakim. Hakim, this is Heero Yuy and Duo Maxwell. To answer your implied question, Hakim isn’t actually my blood relation. Rather, he is related to me through the brotherhood of the Manguanac Corp.”
Duo nodded his understanding, while Heero nodded his head in a gesture of greeting.
“Hello,” Hakim grinned, tugging on the tail of his black shirt. It had a big, bright yellow smiley face on it. The smiley face had fangs. “Wow! It’s great to meet you. I’ve seen you on television and stuff, and I’ve heard stories from the Corp and all that, so it’s kind of weird, too...uh, yeah. Now I feel stupid.”
Duo laughed, handing Rashid the package. “Hey, don’t feel stupid. It’s all right.”
“We’ll get this to town safely for you,” Rashid took the package in hand. He glanced down at the teenager standing beside him. “’Safely’ being the key word.”
“Okay, look, I’m not that bad of a driver!” The boy protested, wrinkling his nose. He turned to look at the couple. “In case you guys were wondering, the only reason I’m conscious this early in the morning is to drive. I want to get a license, but everyone thinks I’m too reckless or something and need more practice.”
Rashid placed one big hand on Hakim’s shoulder. “You must learn patience and hone your skill. I thought you said you wanted to join the Manguanacs one day? Although we don’t fight in mobile suits and participate in wars anymore, we still have our ways.”
Hakim sighed. “I know, I know. I can’t even parallel park without jumping the curb, and yeah, I know you’re not just talking about driving here.”
Rashid folded his arms over his chest, the package held easily in one big hand. “Right. Good,” he turned and bowed his head slightly to Heero and Duo. “Now, if you will excuse us, we’ll be going.”
Heero nodded. “Thank you for taking it for us.”
“You're welcome,” Rashid returned.
Hakim poked the large man in the arm. “Car keys!”
Rashid surrendered the keys with a wince and a sigh.
“Bye, Rashid, and thanks again. Bye, Hakim, nice meeting you!” Duo said, craning his neck to follow the progress of the teenager as he all but ran down the hallway, jangling the keys loudly.
“Um, right back at you guys!” Hakim waved. “Come on, Uncle Rashid. I want to drive.”
Rashid sighed again and put on an expression of long suffering. “Despite how it may appear, your package will arrive at the transit office and be sent safely. I promise you that. And may I reiterate that you both have the support of the Manguanacs in dealing with your situation. If you need something, do not hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you, Rashid,” Duo smiled up at the man. He glanced back down that hallway. “Uh, Hakim’s gone.”
“Oh, I’m not worried about him. Despite how...enthusiastic...he appears, he’s really quite competent,” the Arabian replied. “Just the same, however, I think it would be best that I go and make sure that my confidence in him is not unfounded. I will speak with you later today, perhaps.”
“Okay,” Duo nodded.
Beside him, Heero made a small noise and nodded as well, mirroring his partner’s gesture.
With that, Rashid turned and hurried down the hallway, his footfalls masked almost completely by the thick carpet.
Heero and Duo turned together and went back into their bedroom, shutting the door behind them. The American ruffled Heero’s damp hair, causing it to stand up in strange directions. “I guess I’ll take a shower now. It’s not fair that you get to be all squeaky clean and I’m still all nasty with sweat.”
“I take it that you didn’t sleep well either?” Heero asked, following the other man into the bathroom and sitting down on the closed lid of the toilet seat. He watched as Duo unraveled his braid and slipped off his sleepwear, chucking the garments into the corner.
“That’s a slight understatement. I tossed and turned so much that I was afraid I would wake you up, actually,” the longhaired man replied as he turned on the water in the bathtub, running a hand underneath the faucet. He adjusted the water, then stepped into the shower, closing the curtain behind him.
A moment later, Heero watched Duo’s shadowy form turn on the shower spray.
The American raised his voice to be heard over the splattering of the water. “This whole thing is starting to get to me, you know? I hate it. I’m really glad that other people are going to start showing up soon, maybe it’ll help get our minds off of this shit.”
Heero nodded to himself. “Hopefully. This isn’t going to blow over, though. What are we going to do later?”
“I don’t know. I don’t see the sense in worrying about it right now. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m not worried,” Duo replied.
He scrubbed at his scalp with one hand, suddenly wary of overusing the hand that had been cut up by the razor-lined envelope. It ached in the way that old wounds sometimes did, the phantom cuts suddenly seeming more tender than they should be. It was probably because he had been thinking about them earlier. He sighed quietly.
“It seems like he’s working up to something, though,” Heero muttered.
“What?” The American asked over the noise of the water. “I couldn’t hear you!”
“Nothing,” Heero spoke up.
On the other side of the shower curtain, Duo frowned.
~ ~ ~ ~
At high noon, Quatre’s phone rang. The call came in with no video feed and no caller identification available.
“Hello, Winner residence,” the blond answered, picking up the audio component of the phone. Behind him, Trowa muted the vid-set. The three couples were a rec room watching a movie.
“Quatre, dear, what’s with all this security? I can’t get in the front gate. It’s not polite to invite people to your home and then not let them come inside,” Dorothy’s crisp, teasing voice came storming across the phone line.
“Oh, are you outside right now?” Quatre asked. He covered the audio pickup and hissed over his shoulder. “It’s Dorothy.”
“Indeed we are,” Dorothy replied. “In fact, I’m on my portable phone, watching Mariemeia try to find a way to scale the perimeter wall. She just might find a way, knowing her. Of course, she’ll probably set off a few alarms or two, considering the security you seem to have. Or maybe she won’t. Perhaps I’ve trained her better than that.”
Then Dorothy laughed, and Quatre seriously wondered if she was being sarcastic or not.
“Um, Dorothy, please don’t let Mariemeia try and do anything like that. I’ll send someone out, okay? Do you have many bags?” The blond man asked after a pause. He flagged down a passing staff member.
“Just a few, nothing too big or too heavy. Everything is on wheels, so carrying our luggage in isn’t really going to be a problem,” Came the reply. “Seriously, though. Last time I visited you, the level of security was definitely not this high. Are you going to tell me why the sudden need for fortification?”
“Why don’t you come inside first?” Quatre asked, sending the phone handset a weird look. Dorothy sometimes got carried away with the novelty of portable phones. She could have used the intercom system by the front gate, but knowing her, she probably thought this was more dramatic or interesting.
Covering the audio pickup again, he told the staffer what needed to be done while he listened to Dorothy.
“So the mystery will be solved when we enter the fortress?” Dorothy asked in return.
Meanwhile the staffer nodded his understanding at what Quatre had said to him.
“Yes, Dorothy,” he said into the receiver after he finished his instructions. The staff member left.
“All right, then. See you in a few minutes.”
Click.
Dial tone.
Quatre rolled his eyes and disconnected the line at his end as well.
~ ~ ~ ~
Ten minutes later, Dorothy made her entrance in a swirl of long blonde hair and voluminous dark green skirts. Behind her, Mariemeia walked, a less forceful presence in casual jeans and a blue shirt. She spoke quietly with one of the younger maids.
Duo recognized the maid as the one that had been bringing towels and linens to his and Heero’s room. It was good that Mariemeia was talking to someone a bit closer to her own age. For so long, the girl had lived in a world filled only with adults, so learning to mesh socially with her peers had been a slow, almost agonizing process.
It didn’t help that her face had been plastered all over the news, either.
“I must know! What’s going on around here! We’re here for a party, right? So why the security, and why does everyone look absolutely wretched?” Dorothy asked bluntly as she sat herself down on the edge of a chair, arranging her skirt around her as she crossed her ankles.
Her smooth smile faded as her eyes darted around the room, taking everything and everyone in. “Seriously.”
“Hello, everyone,” Mariemeia said quietly. She shot an amused look in Dorothy’s general direction. “It’s nice to see you all.”
“Yes, well, hello May. And hello to you, too, Dorothy,” Duo grinned slightly. Beside him, Heero gave the girl an acknowledging nod.
“Oh, I forgot that part, didn’t I?” The blonde woman sniffed. “Hello, all.”
“Dorothy, you never change,” Relena sighed, rubbing her forehead. She was smiling.
“Thank you.”
“How have you been, May?” Wufei asked the girl. She hadn’t sat down yet. Rather, she still hovered near the doorway next to the young maid. For her part, the maid stared down at the ground awkwardly.
“I’ve been fine, Wufei,” Mariemeia smiled, tucking a lock of red hair behind her ear. She wiggled her pinky finger at him as she completed the gesture, then turned to look at the girl standing next to her. “So, when you get off, will you come and find me so we can hang out more?”
“Okay,” the maid replied quietly, finally bringing her gaze up from the floor.
“All right, well, um, I guess I’ll see you later, Jenny!” Mariemeia smiled.
“Okay,” the maid, Jenny, nodded minutely. She smiled shyly. “Bye.”
“Bye,” the red haired girl replied as the maid turned and left the room. Mariemeia yawned as she made her way to an empty armchair in the corner, settling down in it in a manner that was somehow completely self-possessed and yet open at the same time.
“Well now,” Dorothy cleared her throat. “Do tell.”
“About the security?” Quatre asked.
“Yes, yes,” the woman replied, impatience flashing in her eyes. “It’s obvious that something’s not right around here when Chang can manage to look more relaxed than Maxwell. Nice braids, by the way.”
Wufei sighed and closed his eyes. He should have taken out those damn little braids, but Relena kept redoing the ones that unraveled...and he liked that.
“Well, I think that it’s not up to me to tell you,” Quatre said after a minute, then shifted his gaze over to where Duo and Heero were sitting.
Duo looked at Heero and nudged him with his elbow. They hadn’t really decided how much, if anything at all, they were going to let out about the damn stalker. The expression on Duo’s face told Heero that the American was fine with letting out the whole story, but it was up to Heero how much of the story they told. If Heero took the lead in the conversation, then Duo would trust his partner’s judgment.
However, the look on Duo’s face also told Heero that the longhaired man would much rather tell the truth, and all of it. Usually, Heero followed Duo’s assessments in dealing with other people...but...
Heero frowned. Telling the whole story to the other former pilots and Relena hadn’t really been that big of a leap in trust, but he wasn’t sure about Dorothy. And what about Mariemeia? After years of knowing the girl and watching her change from child into teenager, Heero felt a weird urge to protect her, even from hearing about unpleasant things such as the bombing and the stalker. He knew it had a lot to do with the twinges of guilt that still hung on to him from when he had shot her.
Six years was a long time to hold onto something, but then the guilt had changed slightly into the need to protect, and Heero knew that he had always felt the need to protect people. It stemmed from before the wars even started and was part of what had made him who he was, not only on the battlefield, but later in life as well.
However, in those six years he had come to understand that other people’s opinions and viewpoints could also highlight things he himself had missed. It wasn’t as though they had been keeping anything from the Manguanacs, or even the staff, so keeping information from people he considered friends would be unfair, and just plain not right.
Plus, sharing information could be beneficial, if he decided to be logical about it. Dorothy was ruthlessly intelligent, and Mariemeia had a unique way of looking at the world. Besides, Heero didn’t like hiding things, and concealing something this big would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, especially if their stalker sent them another maliciously interesting item.
And really, when he got right down to it, there was no reason for them not to trust the two newcomers. They weren’t as close friends as the other former pilots, but Heero did count both young women among those he trusted.
Heero nodded to Duo. “You tell it.”
“All right,” the American smiled at Heero. It was a closed-mouth and serious expression. He took a deep breath. “See, O Impatient One, it’s like this...”
Duo summarized everything that had happened, starting with the first package, to the bombing, leading to each subsequent package and clue. He left out all the emotional impact that the events had, figuring that if he, Heero, and everyone else actually appeared to be affected, then the disturbing consequences of the stalker were probably obvious without him having to specifically talk about them, which was a relief.
“---And there you have it. Just the facts, ma’am,” he finished with a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
Meanwhile, Dorothy’s eyes had hardened into chips of ice. “Well.”
“Excuse me,” Mariemeia said suddenly, her face a troubled blank. She rose from her place in the corner and left the room, her footsteps light and very quick.
Dorothy’s eyes lingered on the doorway the girl had passed through. “Hm. I had better---“
“I’ll go,” Wufei said, his face worried. He was already halfway to the door.
Dorothy nodded at his back, her eyes suddenly flashing to take in Heero’s tensing posture. “Thanks, Wufei, I’m sure she’s sick of looking at me after spending the last few weeks together.”
By the time she finished speaking, though, Wufei was already gone.
For a brief moment, Heero wondered why the blonde woman had narrowed her gaze at him, then he noticed he had been clenching his jaw, and that his shoulders had suddenly squared into tense knots. Strange, he hadn’t realized it. He forced himself to relax, but it was difficult. He hoped that Wufei would be able to calm Mariemeia. Twinges of guilt ate away at the edges of his conscience. So much for protecting her...but not telling her would have been worse.
Heero remembered how Duo had explained his philosophy on not lying. He’d said that telling half of the truth was as good as telling half a lie, and that hiding things from those you cared about was one of the worst ways you could betray them.
Heero was inclined to see the wisdom in that statement. Living up to it was sometimes intensely difficult, though. By nature or probably by nurture, Heero found trusting...and sometimes caring...extremely hard. Thus the reason he had needed to mull over whether or not to share the information about the stalker with Dorothy and Mariemeia.
Dorothy pulled herself up from her seat and sat on the couch beside Relena, the place that Wufei had vacated. She glanced at Heero after she sat down again, then looked at the rest of the room. “May will be fine. She’s been a tad sensitive lately, caring a bit too much, but I wouldn’t worry about it.”
She lifted her chin a little, and took a deep breath, and looked as though she were trying to convince herself of the truth in her own words.
“What do you think?” Trowa quietly cleared his throat. Sometime during Duo’s recitation, the tall man had put his arm around the back of the sofa, framing Quatre.
Dorothy shrugged, a loose gesture. “I don’t think anything just yet, at least not about this stalker idiot. I think, however, that The Idiot is indeed leading up something, as you implied, Duo. Although, considering the possibility that The Idiot may be the one responsible for the bombing, then whatever he or she is leading up to must be quite large,” she sniffed. “How unpleasant.”
“Even if the analyses from the Geneva lab come back showing a match between the building materials and the stuff you received in the mail, that doesn’t really prove anything,” Quatre said thoughtfully. “It just proves that the stalker had opportunity on his side and just picked up a handful of rubble.”
“Yeah, but at least it’s better than nothing,” Duo muttered. “Maybe we’ll get wildly lucky and the DNA will miraculously match up with someone extremely arrestable.”
“Maybe,” Heero snorted sarcastically.
“Do you think he’ll send you something else today?” Relena asked, her face thoughtful. “You were missing one more invitation, weren’t you?”
Duo nodded. “Yeah. Wonder if he spells out another wonderfully cryptic message for us?”
“Would you mind satisfying my morbid curiosity later and letting me see the misguided tokens of affection The Idiot has sent you?” Dorothy asked. She paused, raising an eyebrow. “And why do you all keep referring to The Idiot with masculine pronouns? Gender equality has to go both ways, you know. The Idiot could be a woman. After all, haven’t the majority of your stalkers, Duo, Heero, been women?”
Duo made a face. “Yes, even after the Tahiti photo hit the papers...remember, the one that pretty much outted us?”
“How could anyone forget that photo?” Dorothy chuckled. “Quite the view.”
The American rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, shut up. Well, between the both of us, and besides the weird obsessive types, most of our other stalkers have been women, you’re right. I don’t really think we’ve been thinking of the stalker as a man, really, or even as a person...but it’s just easier to say ‘he’ instead of ‘he or she.’”
“I agree,” Heero nodded. “I don’t think we’ve been thinking of the stalker as a person, really, but more of an entity. We might as well be referring to him...or her...as an it.”
“But,” Dorothy tilted her head to the side. “Maybe you should think of this one as a person. After all, have any past stalkers taken things to this level? If worse comes to worse, hiring a behavior scientist or a psychologist of some sort to assist you in tracking this stalker’s goals may be your best course of action. Well, that is, if events continue to escalate.”
“That may be a good idea,” Duo said thoughtfully. “Hell, if need be, we can always call in a few favors at the Preventers. The way Sally was talking, if there was a connection between the building materials and the stuff we received in the mail, then I’m sure she’d all but insist that we get someone in the profiling department take a look at the bomber case, if she hasn’t already. Well, assuming that the stalker and the bomber are the same person, which we shouldn’t automatically do...or even if there is a connection, it doesn’t mean that he, she, it, whatever, actually did it. Damn. This is frustrating.”
“Hopefully the lab work will reveal some sort of answers, or at least something solid we can rule out,” Quatre put in, sending Duo a small smile.
The longhaired man was broadcasting enough irritation that the blond was having trouble blocking it all out. It was starting to hurt.
Duo looked down at his hand, which had linked with Heero’s at some point in the conversation. Huh. It was odd, but he couldn’t remember who had reached for whom, or even when they had twined their fingers together. Natural. Kind of like the way his braid felt against his back.
“Eh. Hopefully,” The American replied. His smile was lopsided.
~ ~ ~ ~
Wufei found Mariemeia in the hallway, leaning against the wall a few feet away from the door, her head tilted back so she could stare at the ceiling. Her arms hung at her sides listlessly, but her fingers were curled into tight little fists.
“Out with it,” Wufei demanded, crossing his arms over his chest. “What’s wrong?”
She answered without shifting her gaze away from the ceiling. “Nothing.”
Slowly, Mariemeia let her head tip down until she was looking at Wufei. The Chinese man was mildly alarmed to note the shine of unshed tears in the girl’s eyes. Well. Shit. Not good.
Wufei canted one eyebrow and sighed quietly. Stubborn girl, he’d have to pry it out of her. “Nothing? Look me in the eye and say that.”
“I can’t,” the red haired teenager replied, rolling her eyes. She wiped at them hastily. “Look, it’s stupid, okay?”
“Somehow I doubt that,” Wufei said. He laid a hand on her shoulder, shaking it a little. “Come on, the next room is another rec room. I’m sure you don’t want to stand here in the corridor and discuss this thing.”
“I don’t suppose there’s any way to escape this?” Mariemeia asked, laughing a little as she pushed off from the wall. She wiped at the top of her cheek quickly.
“Not a chance,” Wufei shook his head, letting a small grin find its way onto his face.
They walked into the rec room, which turned out to be filled mostly with bookshelves and audio equipment, leaving the door cracked open just in case anyone came looking for them. Wufei grabbed a box of tissues and thrust it at the girl before sitting down in the chair across from hers. “Here. Speak when you’re ready.”
She took a tissue and dabbed at her eyes delicately, then blew her nose. “I didn’t mean to cry. Now I feel even more embarrassed.”
Wufei rolled his eyes. “Okay, first off, you didn’t actually cry. That involves sobbing and breaking into loud wails. I’d say that either you wept with compassion...or something poetic like that...or that your eyes happened to leak a little.”
“My eyes leaked? That’s really gross,” Mariemeia wrinkled up her nose as she set the tissue box beside her in the big armchair. She took a deep breath, and looked back up at the ceiling. “I hate crying. Eye leaking. Whatever.”
“Well then, this so-called nothing must be something, if it can make you do something you hate,” Wufei reasoned.
“Yeah, maybe,” she nodded, bringing her eyes back down. She picked at her used tissue gingerly. “I was just thinking about how unfair all of it was. It pissed me off and it upset me, I guess. It’s like---it’s like---we can never escape our pasts, you know?”
Wufei nodded, waiting for her to elaborate.
Mariemeia chewed on her lower lip for a moment, gathering her thoughts as she smoothed a finger over the outer seam of her jeans. Her resolve hardened her face, but her tone remained quiet. “It’s not right. Heero and Duo were the good guys. They did good things in the war...and...” she paused. “And against the Barton family...and they get put in the papers because of it. Then people get obsessed with one of them because of that coverage, and then get tormented. They did good things, and what do they get? Shit like this.”
“I’d venture to say it was injust, but I wouldn’t want to risk overusing the term,” Wufei grinned slightly. Once, when Mariemeia was only eleven and he had been watching her for Une, she had lectured him on the injustice of his injustice speeches. She had told him that if he kept up his tirades, then people would become accustomed to them, and therefore desensitized to the meaning behind what he was actually saying. The little bitty, redheaded girl had rendered him speechless.
Mariemeia caught the subtle reference and smiled. “Oh, I think ‘injust’ is the appropriate word here.”
“Well, I can certainly agree with what you’ve said. It isn’t right. We can both empathize with them in some aspects, I think, at least about not being able to escape the past,” the former scholar leaned forward. “Is that why you were upset? At least partially? Because you can empathize?”
If he was right, then the teenager was most likely feeling guilty for being a part of the reason for their reluctant fame, and she was probably also remembering what she herself had went through as a result of the conflict. For crying out loud, they had named it after her. That was the kind of thing that stayed with you, to say the very least.
Mariemeia looked up from her tissue. “Yeah, but I feel so selfish about it. The focus should be on Duo and Heero and their stalker guy. I understand that I was used since I was just a baby, used for the Barton family’s goals, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. If I hadn’t been there, then none of you would have it quite so bad. I mean, heck, Wufei, the lashing you alone took from the media was awful. At the time I didn’t really understand, but now, looking back...I feel so guilty about it, but every time someone recognizes my name or my face and sneers at me, I feel like I deserve it. It’s my punishment for being stupid. A pawn.”
She broke off, her face twisted bitterly. A tiny, choked sob escaped her lips. “See, you’ve got your sobs now. I guess I’m crying.”
Wufei felt distressed. He got up from his chair and crouched down in front of her, brandishing the tissue box. “Let it out if it’ll really make you feel better.”
Mariemeia ran her fingers through her bangs, sweeping the short strands back away from her face severely. She tugged, then released the captured locks. “It won’t.”
“Then don’t,” he replied simply, giving the girl a searching look as he continued to crouch in front of her chair.
There was something else. It had been a few weeks since he had seen her, so they hadn’t had the chance to talk in a while. Wufei was acutely aware that Mariemeia thought of him as a surrogate brother...maybe even a father figure. It made him proud, uneasy, and strangely happy, all at the same time.
Proud because of the obvious: she was a smart, strong person, and she had forgiven him for everything he had indirectly done to her. He had been the cause of Trieze’s death, and even if May never really knew Trieze, it was still a huge relief not to have her hate him for that alone. Hell, he was thankful that she didn’t hate him for not trying to help her see the truth when Dekim Barton was using her as a puppet, but she forgave him for that, too, understanding that he had his own demons to worry about at the time.
Of course, it made him uneasy because he had known her real father. He didn’t want to somehow, in some bizarre way, encroach upon that sacred territory that Trieze had once somehow walked, even in absentee. It was a weird thing, but Wufei did his best to deal with it. Despite all the changes, and how much Wufei had learned about himself and life since the man’s death, Trieze was a ghost that still haunted his memory. He and Lady Une had actually had several long discussions over the past few years about the man. In fact, they still did.
Finally, Wufei was happy because, well, the only family he had was a surrogate family. The other pilots were his brothers. Mariemeia was his little sister, in the very, very least. Relena...well, he wasn’t sure where that was going quite yet. The point was, that although the war that had taken his clan, his colony, his wife...it had left him with nothing...it had also given him a new set of people that had come to be his new family. A family he loved because he chose to, not because he felt obligated to because of blood relations. ...Not that he’d ever say any of this out loud.
He could certainly tell that something was still bothering Mariemeia, that was for sure. And he sure as hell wasn’t about to let her wallow in her pain alone.
“What is it? I know that there’s something more,” he said softly, poking her in the shin with his index finger. Wufei straightened up from his crouch, popped his back, then ruffled a hand through her short hair. “You might as well have out with it, and not make me have to get out the verbal crowbar.”
A harsh bark of laughter escaped Mariemeia’s lips. She scrubbed at her face with a fresh tissue. “You know what? I just got this mental picture of you reaching into your pocket and actually pulling out a crowbar with the word ‘verbal’ written on it.”
“Oh, ha ha,” Wufei snorted as he settled back down in his previously vacated armchair. After a long moment, he raised his eyebrows. “Well?”
Mariemeia straightened her back and composed herself. “Did you know why they wanted to live in Japan?”
Huh? What did that have to do with anything? Wufei shrugged. “Those two travel a lot. I’m surprised they didn’t end up there sooner, actually.”
“Well, that is true, but I think there was a more important motive behind their move this time,” she pulled fresh tissue out of the box and started to shred the edges. “You know when you were on that case in another colony, and Une had to go to Earth? I stayed with Heero and Duo for a week because they were actually in the same colony as main headquarters for once. Do you remember that? It was about six months ago, I think.”
Wufei nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, um, I know that you don’t like to talk to me about certain things, and I can’t talk to Une about certain things either...” she bit her lip for second. It was obvious what those ‘other things’ were, or rather, who.
Wufei shifted in his chair uncomfortably. It wasn’t that he actively didn’t want to talk about it, it was just that he felt that it was such a complicated, emotionally tangled subject...but he wasn’t sure how to broach that with May without sounding like an idiot.
The girl continued. “Duo was off buying groceries or something like that, and Heero and I started talking about family and stuff. And, well, I got the impression that he wanted to move to Japan because he never knew his parents...he wasn’t really obvious about it or anything, but now I’m worried that something like this will put him off of that need to connect with his roots...even if he never knew the actual identity of his parents. I think he just wanted to feel closer to them, maybe even start looking for them eventually. What if this puts him off?”
“Hm,” the Chinese man rubbed the bridge of his nose. What Mariemeia had just said was all news to him. It made sense, though. That is, moving to his country of origin to feel closer to the parents and the past that he would never know. It was subtle, a very Heero thing to do. He’d have to ask Duo about it later.
“Well, say something!” Mariemeia burst out. She crossed her arms over her chest impatiently. “Do you think that it’s stupid? I mean, damn, talk about compounding worries over here.”
“Definitely not stupid,” Wufei shook his head. The movement reminded him of the little braids as they bounced against his ears. “Look, May, stop thinking what you say may be silly or frivolous or whatever. You’re anything but stupid.”
“Oh, I know I’m not stupid,” she frowned. “I’m just bad at reading people sometimes. I’m paranoid about it.”
Well, that made sense, considering how she had been used as a child, of course she’d be insecure about that. “I’m sure that this incident with the bombing, or the stalker for that matter, will really discourage Heero if he did decide to look into his origins in such a manner. In fact, since he hasn’t actively searched---as far as I know anyway---then at best it was a casual sort of interest.”
“Casual? I hardly think something like finding out who your parents were, or even just going to their supposed country of origin in order to feel closer to them--well, I hardly think ‘casual’ is the right word,” Mariemeia looked at Wufei incredulously.
At least she was feeling better. Wufei rubbed the bridge of his nose again. “Casual wasn’t exactly the word I should have used, I know.”
Mariemeia sniffed, a gesture that looked remarkably similar to Dorothy’s haughty nose wrinkle. “Hmph. Admitting your mistakes is the first step in not repeating them. Very good,” she dropped her aloof expression and giggled.
“Hey...didn’t I teach you that?” He asked, rolling his eyes.
Before the petite redhead could respond, a soft knock sounded from the wall beside the door. It was Relena.
The blonde woman smiled, her eyes sparkling. “Just thought you two would like to know that lunch was almost ready.”
“Okay,” Wufei replied, shooting a glance at Mariemeia.
The girl tilted her head forward in the tiniest of nods. She was all right. “Sounds good! I’m hungry.”
The two stood and joined Relena at the doorway. Mariemeia left the room first, walked into the corridor boldly, then realized that she didn’t know where she was going. She turned back to look at the couple behind her. Wufei had a hand resting on the small of Relena’s back as the two walked together out of the room. It was amazing that they were still trying to keep their relationship out of the public eye, that they even could keep it secret. They were completely and utterly into each other. Mariemeia suppressed the urge to “aww!”
“Hey, love birds,” she spoke up. “Lead the way. I’ve never been here before.”
At least they had the decency to look a little flustered. Cute! Mariemeia giggled as she followed them to...wherever they were going. Dining room? Kitchen?
~ ~ ~ ~
“Um, I think we’re going to need a bigger table...or at least a couple more chairs...or something,” Duo said, looking dubiously at the kitchen table they had been eating at for almost two weeks. It hadn’t been set yet; the kitchen staff wanted to know where they preferred to dine before having to set out all the places.
“Well, it was made to seat six, but if no one minded, we could probably fit in two, even three more chairs comfortably,” Quatre muttered. He folded his arms over his stomach. “We could eat in one of the dining rooms, like when Rashid and some of the Manguanacs ate with us.”
“I don’t mind squeezing in,” Relena said after a moment. “Does anyone else?”
Various responses of no and/or indifference answered her.
“All right then, two more chairs and we’ll eat in the kitchen again,” Quatre told one of the staff. He watched as two more seats were located and brought to the table. He frowned as eight sets of utensils and dishes and glasses were placed amongst the newly brought out food. There was barely any table space visible. “I think, though, when more people begin to arrive, we’ll have to eat in a dining room.”
“But more people aren’t here yet,” Trowa said. “For now, it’s fine.”
The blond man let the frown relax from his face. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“As long as no one minds getting an occasional elbow in the eye, we’re fine,” Duo winked, plopping down in a seat.
Quatre closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head, also sitting. He laughed. “Right, Duo.”
By this time, everyone had found a place and had started passing around serving bowls and platters of food. Conversation started up, but stayed thankfully away from the business of the stalker.
The phone rang, causing Quatre to groan dramatically. “It has to be a telemarketer. No one else has such bad timing.”
“So don’t get it,” Dorothy suggested. “Or fake an accent. Pretend you simply do not understand them. Or better yet, threaten their pathetic existences for daring to disturb your meal. Those people know fine well what they are getting into when they take such a demeaning form of employment.”
“I can’t do that,” Quatre said over his shoulder as he picked up the audio hookup stationed in the kitchen. There was no video feed on this phone unit, only a call ID box. He noticed that the call was coming from a local pay phone as he answered. “Hello, Winner residence.”
“Hey, Quatre?” A feminine voice asked tentatively.
“Hello? Who is this?” He returned politely. The other voice didn’t sound particularly threatening, but one couldn’t be too careful.
“It’s me! Hilde! You said that I could come early, and I said I would call because I wasn’t sure how early I would be. I know I said I’d be later than this, but the people I was traveling with wanted to go to the next city early to go to a theme park. So, uh, here I am,” she said in a rush.
“Where is ‘here’?” Quatre asked, blinking.
“Across the street.”
“Oh.”
“Hey, how come I can’t see you on the vid screen?” She asked suddenly. A banging sound came across the line, so loud that Quatre had to hold the phone away from his ear. “Damn thing! I paid for the full use of this piece of shit. What a rip-off!”
“I’m in the kitchen, this phone doesn’t have a video pickup,” Quatre said quickly, before Hilde could assault the pay phone again and thus potentially deafen him.
“Oh, oops. Wait a minute...Are you guys eating? I’m sorry!” She laughed nervously.
“It’s okay. We thought you’d be a telemarketer,” the blond man replied.
“Nasty. Well, I’m certainly not one of those,” Hilde said, her voice suddenly distracted. “Hey, your mailman’s just pulled up at the end of your street. Mmm...he’s getting closer. Oh, he’s cute!”
“Okay, I’m going to send someone to go open the gate and help you with your stuff. Could you grab the mail when you head off the flirt with the mail carrier?” Quatre asked, sighing.
“What, you can’t just buzz me in?” She asked, puzzled.
“Not unless you go around to the staff gate. It’s around the side,” the man replied.
“Uh, okay, well, send someone to let me in, then. I don’t really have that much, though,” She sounded harried. “Oh, hey, he’s almost to your house. See you and everybody in a minute, I guess! Bye!”
“Okay, bye,” Quatre replied, then hung up. After snagging a member of the temporary staff to go and let Hilde in the gate, he returned to the table. “That was Hilde, calling from across the street to let us know she was going to be here soon. Soon being five minutes, I guess.”
“Really?” Duo grinned. “Awesome! She’s early!”
“Right now she’s talking to the mail man. She thought he was cute,” Quatre shrugged. “So she’ll be inside in a minute.”
“She’s bringing in the mail?” Wufei asked. A shadow seemed to cross his features. The mail.
Quatre nodded, his mood suddenly dampened as well. “Yeah.”
“Great,” Heero muttered, putting his fork down slowly. He looked as though he were preparing himself mentally, just in case.
The atmosphere of the room seemed to thicken with tension. Conversation had halted. For the six that had been there the past two weeks, the sudden anxiety was nothing new, but to the two newcomers, the situation was anything but normal.
Mariemeia shifted in her seat, glancing around the table.
Dorothy’s expression clouded. She frowned. “Oh, for God’s sakes! If you could see yourselves right now! Yes, it’s entirely possible that The Idiot has sent another threatening package or letter, but really, this is intolerable. The Idiot is trying to get to you, and you are letting it succeed!”
Duo twirled a butter knife between the fingers of his left hand. “Yeah, we know.”
“Then how can you continue to act in such a manner?” Dorothy looked puzzled, and more than a little worried.
“Because it’s simple. He, she, it, whatever...well, is getting to us. Denying it would be a lie. So he’s won a little victory. At least we’re not lying to ourselves,” Duo met Dorothy’s gaze calmly.
She nodded, her expression clearing. “I suppose mere knowledge cannot change your emotions. I understand what you’re trying to say.”
“You don’t agree with it,” he returned, casually.
“Of course not,” the blonde woman replied, raising a forked eyebrow. “But then, this isn’t happening to me.”
“That does make a difference,” Heero broke in, frowning.
Mariemeia bit her lip, speaking quietly. “I don’t think this is a matter of winning or losing. I think it’s about him hunting you. So just don’t be prey.”
“Hunting...” Quatre felt slightly nauseous. The girl had hit the nail right on the head.
It was chilling.
“Damn, May, when you put it like that,” Duo whistled. “That’s not only disturbing, it’s scary as hell.”
She looked stricken. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it to sound that way! That’s just how it seems to me...”
“No, no, you’re right,” Wufei cut in, his voice reassuring. “That’s precisely why it’s so unsettling.”
Mariemeia just took a sip of her drink, focusing on picking up the glass and putting it back down again. She didn’t know what to say.
At this moment, though, Hilde ducked her head into the room. “Hi, guys! Just let me drop off my duffel bag and I’ll be right back! Oh, hey, here’s has your mail, Quatre!” That said, the woman let her huge duffel bag slip off of her shoulder and fall to the floor with a loud thud. She strode into the room, armed with a big handful of envelopes that she promptly forked over to the blond man.
“Thanks,” Quatre replied amidst the various replies to Hilde’s greeting.
Hilde looked around the table, running her fingers through her green hair. “Okay, before I forget, I got the mailman’s phone number. Go me! Now. What the fu---“ she looked at Mariemeia, swallowed, and continued. “---heck is going on here? Why do you look so gloomy?”
Quatre handed an envelope to Heero, who was closer to him than Duo. “You’ve got one.”
Duo looked at Hilde. “Find a chair, you can put your bag away later. To make a long story, really, really short, Hilde, we’ve got a stalker. Heero and I, that is. A very persistent, disturbing, possibly lethal stalker. He’s been sending us mail regularly, local postmark. Oh yeah, and he followed us from our other apartment, that’s why the local postmark is a big deal.”
Hilde’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped slightly. “Really? That sucks. So, what, did he send you something today? Oh, ick, and I brought it in? I feel the sudden urge to wash my hands!”
Meanwhile, Heero examined the envelope. It was plain white, mailed locally once again, and of course bore no return address. It was lightweight, and when he held it up to the light, it only appeared to contain a folded piece of paper.
“It’s not addressed to both of us this time,” Heero suddenly said. Strange that it took him so long to notice the change from the stalker’s normal modus operandi.
“Odd,” Duo muttered.
Everyone leaned forward.
Carefully, Heero sliced the edge of the envelope open with a knife. He had taken to carrying a pocketknife with him, even in the house. Paranoid, or careful? Heero wasn’t sure, and he didn’t really care at this point. He dumped the contents of the envelope onto a bare space of table.
It was a folded piece of paper. Plain white and crisply folded into triquarters, business style, it sat innocently on the table, waiting for him.
“That’s it?” Duo asked, his voice barely above a whisper. “There has to be a catch. Either that, or he’s playing with us again.”
Heero took the edge of the knife and poked it between the folds of the paper, tilting it up. There was writing on the inside of the folds. A message? This could be a letter finally describing the stalker’s intent.
But why was it addressed to him, and only him?
Finally satisfied with his initial examination of the paper, Heero picked it up and unfolded it. Beside him, Duo leaned closer to read what the stalker had written. It was the same handwriting as before, all capitals, black ink, no punctuation. The words had been nearly ripped into the paper from the force behind the pen, but it was the contents of the simple message that made Heero’s eyes widen.
FOUND YOUR PARENTS
Heero swallowed, and set his face into an expression of pure stone. “Excuse me.”
Ignoring the puzzled looks and questions his friends were sending him, he stood up and left the table. On the other side of him from Duo, Trowa had frozen, undoubtedly having read the message over his shoulder. He would fill the others in. Right now...right not Heero needed to be somewhere else.
Before he knew it, he was standing in the middle of he and Duo’s bedroom. Heero stared down at the note in his hand, its black words. He pondered the message’s meaning as he watched it flutter from his numb fingers. It sailed to the ground gracefully, landing facedown at his feet, peaked slightly upwards from the folds in the paper.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
The door opened and closed behind him.
Quiet footsteps. Warmth at his back.
“Heero?”
“Duo, tell me that he was lying.”
“No, I won’t. I can’t. You know that he could be bluffing, but he could just as easily be telling the truth. You yourself had just started looking into your past,” Duo replied softly, circling his arms around Heero’s waist from behind.
“But what would that bastard do...what if he wasn’t lying, Duo?” Heero’s voice was almost inaudible.
“I don’t want to think about it,” Duo replied, his voice thickening as he tightened his embrace.
Heero leaned back into Duo, drinking in the comforting warmth. “Neither do I.”
They stood there in silence and tried desperately not to think...and failed.
~ ~ ~ ~