By: Spooks
~ ~ ~ ~
And so there were five of us.
After Heero's wonderful 6 a.m. arrival, I fell back asleep till about noon. Ah, blessed sleep. I'm telling you, there is nothing quite like the day-before-something-starts sleep. It's great because you know it's the last unadulterated rest you're going to get for a while, but it always feels like it doesn't last long enough, leaving you feeling vaguely unsettled. So it's good and bad at the same time, overall, though, I have to say that sleep is always a wonderful thing. But now it was time to get my butt out of bed and enjoy my last day before classes as an awake and reasonably coherent person.
I rolled nimbly off my bunk, landing lightly on the balls of my bare feet with a light thud. I felt so proud of myself for not half falling out of the bed for the first time ever that I tripped over my own feet. I somehow managed to land ungracefully on my ass with a nice thump. Good afternoon, Duo, this is your punishment for sleeping late.
The loud noise of my ass colliding with the hard floor drew the attention of my still-pretending-to-sleep roomies. Quatre poked his tousled blond head off the side of his bunk and blinked down at me blearily.
"Duo? What time is it?" He asked, trying to blink the sleep out of eyes.
"I think it's about noon," I answered, gathering myself up off of the floor, rubbing my poor offended butt. "And guess what? I'm hungry! We should eat," I paused for a second as I grabbed a change of clothes and my hairbrush. "Oh, and the new guy's name is Heero. He's in the mysteriously curtained lower bunk of my bed." I waved my brush in the general direction of the bunk as I wandered into the bathroom. Bwha! I got to the bathroom first. I felt so proud.
Emerging ten minutes later, hair suitably rebraided and fresh issued clothes on me, I noticed that Wufei was sitting on his bed, talking to Trowa and Meiran. Quatre was blinking and staring furiously at Heero's lower bunk, which was still obscured from view by two sheets tucked under the mattress of my bed, thus creating an effective curtain.
I waved at the two boys and one spirit girl sitting on Wufei's bed. Meiran waved back cheerfully, and Wufei nodded sleepy hello. Trowa immediately got up and went into the bathroom, carrying his stuff. Wufei and Quatre were already dressed. I hopped up to sit by Quatre on his bed, wondering what the hell he was doing.
I waved my hand in front of his glazed over, staring eyes. "Yo, Earth to the Q? Come in Quatre?" I asked in my best mission control voice.
His aqua eyes came into focus and he looked at me with a slightly confused expression. "Oh, yeah. I'm here," He leaned closer to me, whispering in my ear. "What's up with the new guy? Heero, right? I can't pick up much from him, just a bit of pain, everything else seems to be shielded. I've heard movement from him, but he hasn't come out of his little, uh, cave thingy yet."
I turned and looked at the curtained bunk. I could hear slight movement every now and then, but nothing else. Tuning into my other senses, I let my filters drop. Lately I had started to use my senses a lot more than I ever had before. I guess because now I knew they were real and not just a product of madness. Focusing in, I couldn't see anything obvious, not like with Meiran, or the worry demons surrounding Trowa. All I could pick up was little twinges of pain. It was almost as though Heero's spiritual aura were being dampened.
Of all the people I had known, no one had ever looked quite like this. Not even the few autistic people I've met were this vacant. Usually paranoids, like Heero, were absolutely brimming with things floating around them, and their auras shone brightly with all sorts of strange things. It was weird, to say the least, that Heero wasn't showing anything.
I shrugged and whispered back to Quatre, "I can't tell anything outright. It's weird, never seen anything like it before. Let me see if he's up yet." With that I hopped back down from the bunk and walked quietly over to stand in front of the closed entrance to Heero's little haven.
I stood there wondering how one goes about knocking on sheets when the curtains suddenly parted and I found myself on the receiving end of laser intense blue eyes. Blinking in surprise, I grinned out of instinct. "Uh, Heero? We're going to get something to eat in a few minutes. You going to come with us?" I asked, trying to sound friendly and nonthreatening. I leaned forward, putting my hands on the upper part of the bunk frame, and peered into the little curtained area.
Heero was fully dressed in brand new issued clothes, arms crossed over his chest as he sat with his legs tucked underneath him. In the corner of the bed were his other clothes, neatly folded, and his small bag that he had carried in with him this morning. Underneath him, his sheets were tucked perfectly under the mattress, making me wonder how in the world he could make his bed so impeccably without standing up. I was impressed.
Noticing that I was now the subject of another, harsher, glare, I blinked and quirked my eyebrows at the serious boy. His glare softened slightly and he gave me one sharp nod before standing up, brushing past me in the process. I pushed away from my leaning position and stood next to him, feeling very uncertain all of a sudden.
Quatre finally hopped down from his bed and stood in front of Heero. My cute little blond friend smiled angelically at Heero, holding out his hand, "Hi, Heero, is it?" Heero nodded once sharply and stared at Quatre's outstretched hand. Undaunted, Quatre drew his hand back and continued, "I'm Quatre Winner, glad you're in our room. I hope we can be friends."
Wufei came to stand with us, Meiran's spirit trailing behind, a curious look on her face as she stared at Heero. "Greetings. I am Chang Wufei," Wufei said succinctly. Heero just stared at the Chinese boy. Wufei continued, "I don't care if you talk or not, as long as you don't communicate with anyone what we speak of in our group."
I was shocked that Wufei just came right out and said that. I mean, sure the rest of us were probably thinking it (I know I was), but damn, to be so blunt. My already high respect for Wufei went up another notch. Quatre just stared open mouthed for a moment. I believe the Chinese boy completely stunned him. Meiran was just sending off little bright peels of silent laughter, and she floated over to give Heero a good once over to satisfy her curiosity before returning to float near Wufei again. She rested a hang on her husband's shoulder lightly.
A few moments later, Trowa re-entered the room, clothes changed and ready to go. He padded over to us, and looked at Heero calmly. "Trowa," he said, giving a slight nod. And that was all he said. You've got to hand it to the guy, all those years of listening to various voices made him a very efficient conversationalist. Enough said to get his point across without distracting him for too long.
For a few seconds, we stood there in silence. Well, enough with that, I was hungry. "Let's eat!"
This broke the mild tension that had settled over the room. As we were leaving, I noticed that no one had uncovered the mirror yet. Reaching out a hand as I walked by, I yanked the cloth off the shiny surface. Within seconds, I found myself lying on my back on the floor, a pair of legs straddling my chest and a firm hand pinning my arms above my head. A surprisingly strong Heero was trying to yank the cloth out of my grip. Since I was completely unprepared for such an assault, I immediately let go of the cloth. Heero jumped up and away from me, taking the cloth and re-covering the mirror.
He then looked down at me, not glaring, but with almost an apology shining from the depths of his dark eyes. Momentarily speechless, I opened and closed my mouth a few times before I could find my voice. "If you wanted to leave the mirror covered, you didn't have to do that. Please don't tackle me again. There is always less violent means to solve a problem, okay?"
Looking down impassively at me, he seemed to be weighing my words carefully. The other guys were just standing there, slightly agape and waiting for Heero to do something. After a few moments, he finally moved.
Heero silently held out a hand and helped me up off the floor.
He then nodded once, just looked at me for a moment, and turned his gaze to look blankly at the door, then looked back at me. And so we learned about the first of Heero's many quirks. Shrugging, I led the way out the door and to the cafeteria. I was too preoccupied to deal with Trowa trying to find the way and end up being accidentally locked in the basement (again).
~ ~ ~ ~
For a while the day went as well as could be expected. We ate lunch and then went to pick up our class schedules. I looked mine over with a grimace. I really hate home economics, and here I was enrolled in it again. I failed last year because I kept falling asleep in class out of sheer boredom. They won't let us do anything in there but look at pictures. I suppose you can't have a bunch of loonies playing with scissors, needles, or hot objects. I remember we used to be allowed to learn how to clean, but some guy thought the vacuum was an alien brain sucker and decided to violently attack our poor, innocent little Hoover with a big chair. He killed it.
Looking back on the whole incident, it really was pretty damn funny. Too bad it killed our last bit of hands-on experience in that class. (Not that vacuuming was fun, but it sure as hell beat staring at pictures of people demonstrating various techniques for using attachments to clean curtains.)
Besides home economics, I also had chemistry (No, we don't get to play with acid. Don't be stupid.), Calculus I, and a literature class. Oh, good, we get to read some regurgitated bullshit that supposed to be tailored for good mental health as well as being a positive learning experience. What wonder and excitement would await us, seriously.
Finally, I had Art III. I love art classes, it's the only classes with a teacher that isn't completely brainwashed into trying to reform us crazies with every carefully worded, manipulative, propaganda laden lesson.
Oh, and of course, right after my scheduled lunch was the mandatory psych sessions. Looking on the back of my therapy sheet, I gave the days a good once over. Twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had group sessions with my roommates. Wow, never been in a group with such varied "illnesses" before. Usually I was either with fellow hallucinators or fellow suicidals. Hm, that should be interesting.
On one of the other days, Monday, I had the one-on-one sessions with a Drone. Oh, goody, staring at inkblots, talking about my childhood, and maybe even hypnotherapy. Joy.
Happily, I had free periods on Friday and Wednesday after lunch, which was wonderful. Even though we are fenced in this place, during the day we are given free rein of the grounds. I love being outside, even if we are stuck on a damn colony. See, since we are such a well-funded shithole, they planted honest-to-God trees around the yards. Of course, they have all been specially engineered to live on the colony, so they're a bit different than normal trees, but hey, they're pretty and they smell nice. Oh, kiss my ass, I happen to like our trees. There was this little arbor that I particularly like to go to, but I'll get to that later.
On the way back to the room, I pointed out most of the important places in the building to the ever silent Heero. He just took in everything with his intense gaze, processing it all for later use. The entire time we were eating and while we were picking up our schedules, he still hadn't broken his silence. I was beginning to wonder if he could speak at all, and if not, what could have happened that was traumatic to cause him to go completely mute. I mean, hell, Quatre even had to give his name to the Drones so he could get his class sheet. But I suppose we all have our reasons, so I didn't hold his silence against him.
After eventually arriving back at the room, we settled in a circle on the floor and proceeded to compare our schedules. Right off the bat we all noticed that we were scheduled the same for our one-on-one sessions, so all of us had free periods after lunch on Fridays and Wednesdays. That would be great, it meant we could go hang out somewhere and have fun.
We also compared our classes. Wufei was in home economics with me, much to his embarrassment at having to take such a "feminine" subject. Meiran promptly swatted the back of his head good-naturedly. Trowa and Quatre were in the same math class, trigonometry, and I was in chemistry with both of them. Wufei and I also had literature class together, which would be great.
Noticing that Heero hadn't shown us his schedule, not that this was surprising, I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed at the piece of paper clutched tightly in his hand. He stared and me, blinked once and handed it over. Wow, I couldn't believe he was so cooperative. After he handed over his schedule he got up and walked in the direction of his curtained bunk.
On first glance at his schedule, I noticed that he was in very advanced classes. He and I were in the same Cal I class, and on my first look, it appeared that it was the only class he shared with any of us. Before I could look further, Wufei nudged me in the ribs with his elbow and pointed to Heero.
The dark haired boy had climbed up on my bunk and was leaning off of it, straining all the muscles in his slight frame in an effort not to fall from his perch. He was concentrating, pushing the lever on the ceiling vent, attempting to close it. His reach wasn't long enough, however, and he could only get the slats half closed. After a few seconds of straining, he leaned even further out. I guess he knew he had leaned too far out, because his eyes widened and his face actually showed a slight bit of fear as he started to tumble, face first, off the high bunk bed.
Before I could blink, Trowa had leapt up and caught the falling Heero, pushing him back enough to catch his balance back onto the bunk. Dark blue eyes wide, Heero turned his gaze at Trowa, a slightly confused expression gracing his features. It was as though he couldn't believe someone had helped him.
Finally getting up, the rest of us made our way over to the bed, gathering to stare up at the mildly shocked Heero perched there. I was the first to speak, "Hey, you want some help? We could move the bed over so you can reach or something."
Oh, let me tell you, this earned me some weird looks from the other guys. I explained to them later that it would have been much easier to humor Heero than to argue with him. Little did I know, as Trowa and I pushed the bunk the distance needed for Heero to reach the vent, that by making my suggestion I had earned a tiny bit of trust from the stoic paranoid.
As soon as he had completely closed the vent, he jumped down from the bunk and single-handedly moved it back. Wow, Trowa and I had really been straining with its weight, too. Heero was one strong guy.
Immediately after pushing the bunk back into place, Heero turned and inspected the one set of wall plugs beside one of the bureaus. Apparently, the wall outlet did not pass inspection, because Heero started to try and push the nearest bureau in front of it. Strong as he may be, he couldn't even make it budge.
Shrugging at each other, the rest of us got behind him and helped him push. Heero looked at us with obvious surprise this time, confusion managing to clearly make its way past his impassive mask. After moving the bureau in front of the plug, he strode to the center of the room, put his hands on his hips, and glared around the room. He zoned in on the curtain and shut it tightly, blocking out all the light from the outside, darkening the room considerably. He then turned his back to the curtains and gave the room another once over, fists clenched tightly and on his hips in a no-nonsense posture if I ever saw one.
Apparently satisfied for the moment, he dropped his balled up fists from his hips and relaxed. Then he glanced at us, looked down at his schedule still in my hand and then looked up at me expectantly. Remembering that I didn't finish looking at it, I flipped on the light switch and went back to my place on the floor. The other guys followed, settling back where they had been sitting. Even Heero sat cross-legged beside me again.
Now you might be thinking that just dismissing Heero's odd behavior so quickly is unusual. On the contrary, once you've spent a reasonable amount of time thinking you yourself were insane, or spent any time around other people with mental problems, you learn very fast to adapt to and forget about harmlessly bizarre behavior. If it helped Heero's paranoia to have the windows, vent, mirror, plugs, and bed covered, thus making him feel safer and more comfortable, who the hell were we to question it?
Once we were settled again, the conversation started back up of its own accord, taking the direction it normally did before Heero had arrived. The others started discussing their own topics, and Wufei would occasionally speak to Meiran, as would Trowa. I glanced over at Heero, to see how he would react to our relaxation around him. He was focusing on each person in the room one by one, staring silently, studying, before moving his gaze focus on the next person.
But for the moment, I was out of the conversation and I was till curious about Heero's classes, so I looked down at the schedule still in my grip. Sliding my gaze down the paper, I noticed the advanced classes again, and also noted that he had much more free periods that the rest of us. That was odd. And for his last class of the day…Art III. Heero was taking art? Never mind that it was also an advanced class, but hell, I didn't think the Drones would let a paranoid take such a creative class. But then, they might have thought they could analyze his work to determine his state of mind.
The thought made me sick to my stomach. That was supposed to be one of the classes they left you alone in, contrary to what you'd normally think. Our teacher is a firm believer in art being meaningful, sure, but she also realizes that not everything has some deep hidden meaning. Some things are just for fun, just because, and with no deep intentions. Our teacher wanted to make sure that we were concentrating on our expression, not worrying what the psyches would say. Of course, if the Drones wanted to change the rules, then who could stop them? They made the rules.
Quirking an eyebrow at Heero, I asked him, "Art III? We have that together, as well as Cal I."
Eyes widening slightly, he wordlessly took his paper from my hand. He blinked at me and nodded, once, slowly. Well, I suppose it was better than the quick, curt nods he had been giving us earlier.
After a few minutes of our normal chatter, Heero quietly still observing, Quatre brought up a question that had been nagging on the back of my mind all day. "What are we going to do about these group sessions together? Do you think it would be good for them to know how close we've gotten and why we've gotten so close?"
A novel question.
"Well, I don't know how it could hurt for them to know we're friends," I replied, shrugging my shoulders. "Honestly I don't think knowing the other stuff would be conducive to their opinions of us. I mean, what are we going to say? They won't believe that our so-called hallucinations are not hallucinations, never mind the way we all back each other up on that little fact. They'd split us up for sure, or worse, commit us to the big loony bin of no return."
Heero's eyes widened slightly, but his expression remained otherwise blank. This was the first time we had really come right out so bluntly and said anything about our shared experiences. Also the first time he heard about how we knew that we were not just hallucinating, but were seeing/hearing/feeling real things. We hadn't been acting any differently, certainly not hiding anything, but it's a whole different thing to have it said just like that.
Before anything else could happen, however, a knock sounded at our door, causing us all to jump. I remember hoping to God that whoever was on the other side of the door hadn't overheard anything. Guess we'd find out in a second.
"Come in," Wufei called out, glancing at me nervously. Meiran's spirit hovered protectively over her living husband, arms encircling his neck as she shined nervous energy out to shield him.
A few moments later, one of the Thugs walked into the room. By Thugs I mean one of the male orderlies that look like they eat raw meat and kill small furry animals with their bare hands for giggles. The types that probably jerk off watching snuff films. And no, I am not being spiteful or unfair. The Thugs are huge, nasty, and like to torment us patients when other members of the Drone squad aren't looking.
I can understand why you need big, burly guys to help out around here, some of the more violent head cases need major muscle to stop them. But there are a few of these big guys that you know weren't allowed to sleep with teddy bears when they were little kids, if you know what I mean. The type of guys that when they were kids pulled little girls' pigtails, stepped on toes, and beat up the smart kids who wore glasses. I don't know who hired the Thugs, but most of them must have connections in high places to keep their jobs.
Don't get me wrong, not all male orderlies or male nurses are like these guys. Just a few of them actually earn their disgusting place in the Thug category. I've had a couple run-ins with them, and let me tell you something, never talk back to them or piss them off, or you'll be very sorry. I did once, and I found myself not only getting beat up in a janitor's closet, but also being reported to the psyches for being disorderly. I tried to tell them what those damn Thugs had done to me in the closet, but they had only hit me hard enough to hurt, not hard enough to bruise. Of course I was just being "delusional" again. Who'd believe a smart-ass kid who says he sees demons?
And one last thing about those damn Thugs…well, let's just say I'm glad I'm not one of the female patients or one of the weaker attractive males around here. Some Thugs like to have fun with the girls (or even a couple of the boys) that can't fight back. I've seen 'em looking at me lately, which makes me nervous. If they really wanted to do something, there would be nothing I could do to stop them. And they know it. I think I make them nervous, though, can't imagine why. But anyway, let's just leave it at that, okay?
Back to the Thug that had just walked over the threshold of our humble room. He was so big that his ugly hulking mass almost took up the entire doorframe. And my God, he had bad hair. Black, weird shaggy cut on the top, shaved on the sides, Thug Mueller was one ugly mother fucker.
The brute stood there for a second, making sure we noticing how he big he was and how physically loomed over us, a malicious smile pasted on his face. "Heero Yuy is scheduled for a session, I have been sent to escort him," Mueller said in a polite voice belayed with menace, gesturing with one large hand in Heero's direction. Well, this was unusual, normally Thugs didn't lower themselves to such menial, ordinary work.
Glancing over to check out Heero's reaction, I almost recoiled in shock at what I picked up. Despite his stoic face and steely glare, I could sense the fear and pain literally wafting off of his aura. This was more than anything I had ever picked up from him before. Wondering if Quatre was getting any of this, a mere sideways glance told me that he was. Quatre's face was twisted in sympathy for our silent roommate, his hand painfully clutching Trowa's for support.
For a few long seconds, Heero did nothing but stare at the Thug in the doorway, not moving from his position on the floor. Every muscle in his thin body appeared to be tensed and straining, ready for some sort of action. Mueller frowned impatiently, all semblance of decorum flooding quickly from his expression. "Move it, or you'll be sorry later," the ugly Thug spat out, eyes glaring pure contempt.
Without softening his expression or gaze, Heero gracefully picked himself up off the floor and stalked over to the waiting orderly. Coming to a halt in front of Mueller, I could see just how petite our new roomie really was, his head didn't even reach the height of Mueller's hulking shoulders.
"How nice of you to cooperate," the Thug said sardonically, encircling one of Heero's thin arms with one meaty hand and forcibly pulling him out the door.
Wufei stood up in anger at this rough gesture. "Hey! Don't yank him around like that! All he did was hesitate, he doesn't deserved to be treated like a dog!"
Mueller turned slowly, still gripping Heero's arm. Heero's arm below the Thug's grip was already turning a scarlet, bruised hue. Above the grip the skin was turning a whitish color. It was a wonder the silent boy was still expressionless. I know I would be showing some pain.
"Are you questioning my treatment of this patient?" Mueller hissed back, menace clouding his features. I could see the muscles in his arm tense as he tightened his grip on Heero's arm even more. A flash of pain arched up in Heero's aura, but his glare and expression remained stony.
Knowing that Wufei had no idea what he was messing with, I jumped up from my seat on the floor and laid a hand on my Chinese friend's shoulder. "No, he's not. He was just confused. Please, sir," I paused, "He's new here."
"Well, little Maxwell, he had better learn quickly," the Thug snarled before stalking away, literally dragging Heero with him. Watching him go, I noticed him relax his grip as he passed the nurses' station, only to retighten when he was past it.
After slamming the door angrily to block my view of poor Heero and that bastard Mueller, I leaned against the cool wood and slid down to slump on the floor.
"Duo!? Why did you stop me? That bastard was hurting Heero!" Wufei asked me, anger flashing in his dark eyes as he stood over me with his hands on his hips. Surveying the others' reactions, I could see the confusion and anger in their auras and postures, too.
"Do you know what will happen to Heero, to you if you argue with one of those guys?" I asked quietly, resting my head in my hands. I spoke softly, letting my words be the focus of what I was about to say, "Mueller is one of those big guys around here that you don't fuck with if you want to stay safe. I once talked back to his brother, another Thug named Alex, last year. I ended up getting the shit kicked out of me in a broom closet and then got reported to the psyches. No one believed my side of the story. Not all the male orderlies are like that, but there are enough that makes it dangerous to act up with them."
Wufei looked momentarily stunned, plopping back down to the floor with a light thump.
Aqua eyes wide, Quatre asked, "That's terrible. Would he have done that to Wufei?"
"Without a doubt, and maybe more," I replied, my eyes boring holes into the floor beside my feet. "You also don't want to get caught alone with one of those damn Thugs. They've been known to have a little bit of…recreation…with some of the more attractive girls…and a couple of guys, too."
"And of course, no one will believe the crazies," Trowa said, a dark tone of sarcasm entering his voice.
"Of course not," I replied in an equally dark tone.
We sat there on the floor a few more minutes in silence, contemplating our own thoughts. Meiran hovered right behind Wufei, pressing against his back and placing a glowing hand on each of his shoulders protectively. The rage demons circling his head had multiplied with the confrontation with Mueller, angrily spitting little orange flames. Meiran kept trying to flick them away, but they were managing to escape her swats.
"Do they normally come and take us to sessions like that? I don't want one of those big guys having to be anywhere near me," Quatre said quietly with an almost imperceptible shudder.
I shook my head, my braid coming free of where it was trapped between the door and my back. "No, those damn Thugs usually come for the violent ones or guys that finally just snap. They usually have straight jackets with them. The only other time I've seen one of those bastards come to escort anyone to a session was this one roommate I had a while back…" my voice trailed off as I remembered the Thugs coming for my second roommate at unexpected times. Judging from Heero's reaction, I don't think he knew he had a session today. Odd.
"What happened to him?" Wufei asked, leaned forward, his chin on his folded hands.
"Well, he was a few years older than me, about 17 when they started to come and get him at weird times. I was stuck living with him, me, a few years younger than him, because they were renovating and didn't have the space for single rooms. Thugs just kept coming and getting him during the day, sometimes taking him out of classes…that was when we had shared classes between grades, by the way. We've came a long way these past few years in terms of funding. I guess we got extra money from somewhere, I don't know," I paused thoughtfully.
"When was this?" Trowa asked this time.
"Well, I'm 17 now, so about four years ago, very soon after I first came in here. My first roommate, incidentally, decided to attack me with a toothbrush, very interesting story," I winked at my friends, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"What happened to him?" Quatre asked, eyes shining now with curiosity instead of fear.
I frowned, looking back down to fiddle with the hem of my shirt. "Well, the guy's name was Milliardo. God, he hated that name. He's actually Nurse Peacecraft's baby brother, by the way. Anyway, for a couple of months the Thugs started to come and get him at weird times. He never said anything about those sessions. Well, actually, he stopped talking altogether after a little while. He always came back from those surprise sessions just oozing pain. Then one day, I came back to the room after dinner and his stuff was gone. I never saw him again," I shrugged again, for lack of anything better to do.
"He was just…gone?" Wufei asked, his dark eyes wide.
"Yeah, I asked about him a few times, but, well, that's what got me in trouble with the Thugs, and I told you about that," I sighed, toying with a loose string on the edge of my shirt. "I stopped asking after a while. Next roommate I got killed himself while I slept, and I always sort of felt like it was karma coming back and biting me in the ass for not finding out what happened to Milliardo. And then I got you guys, so I guess it evened out." I smiled at my new friends woefully.
"Wow, that sucks, Duo," Quatre said, patting my shoulder sympathetically. "Did you say that this guy was Nurse Peacecraft's little brother?"
I nodded. "Yeah, they both come from an obscenely rich family. I think she went into the mental health field because of her brother. If ages go right, she was probably in college while he was here. It would explain why someone so rich decided to go into such an unpleasant job."
"Maybe she hoped to be able to help her brother," Trowa mused, almost too quiet to hear. I bet he was thinking about his own sister, the one who had sent him to this place.
"No doubt," Wufei said softly.
For a while we were lost in our thoughts, sitting around and just not talking, like only truly good friends can do. As much as I love talking, silence can be blessed around the right people.
~ ~ ~ ~
Time passed, as it has a habit of doing. After a while my butt fell asleep from sitting on the floor for so long. Having nothing else to do, I decided to take a nap. Oh, what? Come on, I had got woken up at six in the frickin' morning, and tomorrow I'd have to get up for classes at eight!
Besides, Quatre and Trowa left as soon as I had stood up and moved away from where I was leaning against the closed door. I had a feeling they were going to go exploring more than just the school grounds, if you catch my drift. Wufei was talking quietly with Meiran, so softly that I could only make out bits and pieces of his side of the conversation. They looked so cute that I didn't want to disturb them. And hell, I just didn't feel like doing anything, so I decided on my favorite hobby of napping.
Climbing up on my bunk, I stretched out on top of the covers and tucked my hands behind my head, feet crossed at the ankles. I toed off the slippers I was wearing and stretched my bare toes (we aren't allowed real shoes, by the way, they're too heavy and might be able to be used as weapons). Staring up at the ceiling, blinking sleepily, I almost immediately drifted off into sleep.
God, I wish I hadn't been able to fall asleep so quickly, maybe this whole damn mess might have been avoided. Or maybe not, I don't know. Looking back on all this, I don't think I'd have not wanted to know…But anyway, as soon as my eyes drooped closed I started to dream…
~ ~ ~ ~
I was standing in a dark room, and everything was out of focus. Turning around, I noticed that I kept getting waves of vertigo every time I moved my head. So this must be a dream. Damn dream demons must be messing with me again. Little fuckers.
Looking around, I waited for whatever demon it was that had brought me here to come out and show himself. Instead of spying a violet-eyed dream walker, I saw a door melting into existence out of the wall in front of me. Knowing a definite hint when I saw one, I walked up to the door, bare feet almost gliding in the nether realm.
I opened the door and peered through it cautiously, intending to look before taking the proverbial leap. Unfortunately someone had other plans, because I suddenly felt a sharp kick connect solidly with my ass. I went tumbling face first into the gloom on the other side of the doorway, but instead of falling I was drawn quickly up and forward. It was almost as though I were flying, directed through the chasm of the dream into places unknown.
I found myself landing gently on my feet in the center of a grassy, flowered field. I looked around with interest. Dream demons usually weren't this nice to me. Any second I expected the grass to sprout acid-dripping tentacles, the flowers to grow sharp teeth, or the sky start to pour blood. The quiet reigned for a moment as I let my nervousness build. When I heard footsteps behind me, I whirled around, causing my head to spin and my heart to leap up in my chest.
It wasn't some dream demon standing in front of me, it was Heero. Wow, that was unexpected. His eyes were actually expressive, and a relaxed expression was gracing his usually blank face. Best of all, his aura was sparkling, lively even, and although I couldn't really read it very well, at least I was picking it up.
Duo.
I turned around, looking for the source of the voice. It couldn't have been Heero, his lips didn't move, and besides, he didn't talk.
Duo, look at me.
There it was again! I turned to see if Heero had heard it too. To my complete and utter shock Heero was smirking at me, arms folded across his chest. He nodded once at me, his smirk getting wider.
Yes, it's me.
Holy shit.
"Um, okay, hi," I said nervously, not really knowing what to make of all this.
I need to show you something…
The voice broke off abruptly. Heero's smirk disappeared and his eyes clouded with pain, and in front of me he dropped to his knees, his face now contorting in obviously excruciating pain. The sky above us darkened, and bruised swollen clouds rushed to cover the brilliant blue sky. All of a sudden the air felt heavy and it was hard to breath. The wind began to pick up, and I could hear an ominous shriek in the distance that positively made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I ran over to where Heero had fallen, kneeling in front of him and gently lifting his head up with my hands so I could look at his face. He was crying, but his tears weren't clear, they were a bloody crimson red. The shrieking came closer, almost close enough to vibrate the heavy air around us.
I looked down at Heero again, and almost recoiled away in shock. The haunted, lost look in his eyes, the utter pain betrayed in those deep blue pools actually caused me physical pain. I didn't move, though, because I wouldn't desert anyone in so much agony. I had been through enough of my own hell, and I never want anyone to experience anything like that all alone. For a moment, the wind and darkness abated, and the pain momentarily left Heero's eyes.
Duo…help…
Without warning, the shriek was all around us, shattering the momentary calm that had bubbled around us. I blinked, and found myself hurtling back through the darkness again, flying at break neck speed on wings I couldn't see, guided somewhere I did not know.
I felt myself being drawn back to reality after only a few seconds of flying, wildly looking around in the dreamscape, I blinked again and caught a glimpse of Heero, bathed in red light and screaming silently…
~ ~ ~ ~
My eyes snapped open.
"Duo! WAKE UP!" Wufei was shaking me, a panicked look on his face, his hair mused up and rising around his head like a dark halo. Meiran was on the other side of the bunk, concern shimmering out in light silver waves.
I wheezed, trying to catch my breath. That was one intense experience. I sat up and weakly smiled at my two concerned Chinese friends. "Did I scream or anything?" I asked, struggling to keep a smile on my face.
"No, but I saw a flash of something beside your bed, then Meiran told me that you were having a bad dream. She said she could sense it somehow," Wufei said, concern still etched on his features.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and cradled my head in my hands. "Yeah, it was one hell of a nightmare," I said from the sanctuary of my bangs and concealing fingers. "It was basically Heero, speaking without moving his mouth, and then there was…pain. Terribly intense pain, and then you woke me up. He was trying to tell me something, I think."
The door opened and Quatre walked in, supported heavily by Trowa. The small blond boy was panting slightly. As soon as the pair was in the room, Quatre stumbled forward quickly, barely catching himself from falling in his haste. He gripped my hanging legs to catch his balance, looking up at me with concerned wavering eyes.
"Duo, what happened?" He asked, voice thick with worry. "I felt pain from you, and then I picked up on just plain agony but I couldn't figure out who it was coming from, it was muffled and I couldn't pick up on it until I felt your pain! Duo, it was just awful, terrible, are you okay?" Quatre finished in a rush, gasping from his panicked outburst.
Trowa ghosted up silently behind him and led Quatre to sit down on his own bed. I hopped down and sat on the other side of Quatre, and Wufei perched opposite us on the curtained edge of Heero's bunk, careful not to pull down the sheets, Meiran floating at his side. I filled the two new arrivals on what I had already told Wufei and Meiran.
The four of us just sat there, blinking at each other in silence. Before another word could be spoken, a loud knock sounded on the door, causing us to jump (again). Meiran floated up and poked her head through the door, then brought her head back in again and spoke. Once again I wished I could hear as well as see, but if wishes were dollars, I'd be a millionaire.
Trowa nodded, as did Wufei, both standing and going to the door. Wufei carefully opened the door, Trowa standing ready at the doorway. Quatre and I exchanged a confused glance, standing up to see what our friends were doing. As Wufei eased the door open, Trowa prepared himself, and suddenly found himself catching an armful of shaking, semiconscious Heero Yuy.
As Trowa helped support Heero's weight, I quickly went and took Heero's other arm, throwing it over my shoulder to help Trowa. Together we walked the sweat soaked boy to his bed, Quatre drawing the curtains open so we could sit him down on it. Meanwhile Wufei stood at the door, glaring at someone on the other side of the threshold. Not wanting to move from my spot by Heero, I sat there looking quizzically at Wufei.
"What have you done to him?" Wufei asked the person in hot anger, the rage demons once again spewing fire everywhere.
"I didn't do anything, I just escorted him back, okay? I almost had to carry the little bastard," the gruff voice said.
"Hey, who is it?" I called to Wufei. He shrugged and opened the door more so that I could see the Thug standing on the other side. It was Thug Alex.
"Hi, Alex. He came out of his session like this?" I looked directly at him, trying to gauge if he was lying to me or not.
"Yeah, Maxwell." Well, he sounded like he was telling the truth.
Wufei gave a curt nod, "Fine. Get out."
Alex just shrugged and left, muttering something about stupid little runts (or something just as intelligent, I'm sure).
The Chinese boy shut the door firmly. "He was telling the truth, I could tell. I can always tell."
Quatre nodded in agreement with Wufei and sat down on Trowa's bed opposite where Trowa and I were still supporting Heero. Or more accurately, Heero was leaning almost completely on me, his face pressed against my shoulder, his dark sweaty hair plastering itself onto the skin of my neck. Pain was literally rolling off his previously blanked aura in dark red waves, rippling through the air in all directions and eventually dissipating into the surrounding air.
Wufei came and sat by Quatre, looking downright furious. I could feel my own anger bubbling up, what the hell had the psyches done to Heero? They weren't supposed to hurt the patients, on the contrary, they were supposed to advocate a calm, peaceful solution to our mental problems. Such brutal treatment is something our lovely facility is supposed to be opposing. It sure as hell looked like someone had put Heero through the ringer, though. If it wasn't the Thugs, then who could it be?
After a few minutes, Heero managed to gather himself back together. The pain started to ebb, and his aura eventually voided out again. He sat up away from me, face blank, but eyes sparkling with something I couldn't identify. He looked at each of us in turn, then focused in on me. He reached under his pillow and withdrew a small pad of paper and black ink pen. He wrote something on the paper and handed it to me.
"Outside," I read it out loud, reading the single word written in small neat capital letters.
I just looked at him for a few long moments. He took the little notebook back from me and wrote on it again. Handing it back, I looked down again.
"Onegai," the word was, again written in the machine efficient handwriting, and then crossed through. Beside it was the word's English meaning, "Please." Hm, our mute roomie knew Japanese?
I'd have to ask him about it later so he could stare at me and blink.
I focused my eyes on Heero's dark blue gaze, reading their depths. Something in them flickered, and I knew that I couldn't deny the silent boy. Maybe I was imagining that flicker, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Coming to a decision, I stood up carefully. Without speaking another word, I flicked my eyes at the door and nodded my head in that direction, braid swinging behind me. Understanding, Quatre stood up, nudging Trowa's arm. Wufei nodded and stood up, too. Finally, Heero stood shakily to his feet. I held out a hand and grabbed his arm, steadying him carefully. That bastard Mueller had bruised Heero's arm pretty badly. It was already turning a sickly purplish blue.
Helping to support Heero as we walked, I led our group silently outside to my favorite place in the yard. I couldn’t help but wonder what had made Heero decide to breach his communication void and write out those few simple words, but hopefully once his request was fulfilled, he would open up again, and maybe more.
~ ~ ~ ~
On the way outside, I asked Heero about the Japanese word he had first written. He looked as surprised as I could imagine him looking. Through a few little questions and answering curt nods, I found out that blue-eyed, brown-haired Heero was Japanese. Go figure. Quatre actually overheard our conversation and commented on it. Who would have thought blond little Quatre was Arabian? Well, learn something new everyday, huh? Good thing Trowa didn't tell me he was an Eskimo or something. I might have seriously doubted my sanity all over again.
Eventually we made it outside to the small grove of genetically engineered trees that stood near the fence surrounding our humble little compound. The trees were supposed to be there for cosmetics, meant to help conceal the deadly wire topped fence from our poor, delicate eyes. Everything about the trees contributed to this end, from their insanely thick trunks to the multitudes of small, sprawling limbs forking out randomly like hair on a frightened cat.
Anyway, by the time we got to where I wanted us to go, Heero had mostly recovered and was almost walking under his own power. Almost. I still had his arm over my shoulders, and my arm hung loosely around his waist. I wasn't used to being so close to someone like this, but I didn't mind. It felt nice. In fact, I was almost disappointed when we reached the little arbor.
Like I mentioned before, these trees are special, they were specially engineered to grow quickly on colony soil under colonial weather control. They were also specially designed in a lab to grow hollow so they would need less water to live. A wonder of modern science, the gardeners only have to have a gallon of water to supply ten of our trees with enough moisture to last a month. Something about hybrids, I'm not too sure how they managed such a thing. The dark irony is that they spend so much time and money developing trees for cosmetic decoration at a nut house while multitudes starved to death and died on the streets. Science confuses me sometimes.
I should mention that the limbs of the trees do not extend near enough to the fence for escape to be possible by climbing up onto the thin, sprawling branches, not to mention the low weight tolerance designed into the wood. Yes, folks, another wonder of modern science, these trees wouldn't support a hangman's noose. Gotta hand it to the Drones, they have their rubber duckies in a neat little zigzagging rows.
The whole reason I had brought us so far out here was because the biggest tree on the yard was located in this arbor, and best of all, it had a hole in its base that faced the fence. A person could crawl through the hole and into the very hollow of the tree's trunk. It was dark, but it was private, cozy, and had been my secret hiding place over the years, my private escape. Milliardo had shown it to me when I first moved in with him, before his strange sessions started.
Anyway, we reached the tree and I eased myself away from Heero so I could show everyone why the hell I had dragged them out to this particular spot. Grinning madly, I dashed into the tree, retrieving the flashlight I had stolen last year and turning it on. I shined it up on my face and grinned out of the darkness of the hollow.
"Come on in, guys," I invited cheerfully.
"Duo, are you sure there is enough room in there for all of us?" Wufei asked skeptically.
"Well, it'll probably be a little tight, but these trees are completely hollow," I informed him. "What, you think we've got cooties?" I teased for good measure.
Wufei rolled his eyes and dropped to his knees, crawling into the hollow of the tree with me. Quatre and Trowa shrugged at each other, then looked expectantly at Heero, still silently leaning against the trunk. The mute boy dropped to his knees and crawled in after Wufei, dark eyes darting around in the gloom before he settled down beside me. Quatre came in next, closely followed by Trowa. (While they were crawling in, I caught Trowa checking out Quatre's butt, by the way! Mwaha, I raised my eyebrows at him and he actually blushed! It was so cute.)
Setting the flashlight down on its base in the middle of our tight circle, the beam shone up, illuminating the weird tunneling of the branches above us. I hadn't been here in a few months, and I wrinkled my nose at the slightly musty, pulpy damp smell of our little wooden cave. Remembering the whole reason we came out here in the first place, I reached into my waistband and retrieved Heero's little notebook and pen he had handed me earlier and gave them back to him.
He blinked at me and took back his things, setting them down on the ground in front of his crossed legs. He didn't move. I looked around at my friends, faces only barely visibly in the backwash glow from the flashlight's beam.
"Well, why did you want us to come out here?" I asked. After I had came all the way out here and showed off my little haven, I wanted some return, damnit.
With a silent sigh, Heero rolled his shoulders, stretching his muscles. His opened his mouth, face tensed, and he looked to be in a state of intense concentration. We waited, staring at our silent compatriot in anticipation while he silently opened and closed his mouth.
After a few minutes, he slumped forward, seemingly exhausted. Reaching forward, I gently grabbed his shoulder. He looked up at me in response, dark eyes wide with an expression I can only describe as haunted. For a few seconds time stood still, and I remembered the way he had looked up at me in my dream. After a moment he leaned back against the smooth inner wall of the trunk, pen and pad in hand.
Heero wrote for a few minutes, and then handed me his paper.
Grabbing the flashlight, I read the little capital lettered writing quickly, curiosity rising within me parallel to disbelief and sorrow. Here is what Heero wrote:
"I do not have paranoia. There are things being done to me that I cannot tell you about. I wish I could, but if I try, an intense pain stops me. I believe it is a programmed reaction to protect those that do things to me. I know I can trust you four, and the spirit girl, because I have been observing you today. I have abilities that aided me in my evaluation of you. I cannot outline these abilities, again, because of the fail-safe programmed into me. This fail-safe is also why I cannot speak. I suspect that the correlations between your abilities are no mere accident, and will one day be exploited in the manner of which I am being exploited. I do not want that. Please, help me."
I stared at the paper for a moment, totally speechless. Noticing the concerned looks the others were giving me, I handed the light and the paper over for them to read. Heero was looking at me, eyebrows raised, eyes expressive.
"Are you okay?" I asked softly.
He shook his head solemnly, still slumped weakly, back leaning against the inner trunk.
"You tried to talk to tell us this, didn't you?" Wufei suddenly spoke up. Meiran had her ethereal arms wrapped around him, hugging onto him and reading over his shoulder. The fear and concern were fluxing off of her and oozing out of the wooden trunk surrounding us.
Heero nodded again.
"Do they do…things to you in these surprise sessions, like the one today? Experiments?" Quatre asked quietly, eyes shining in the darkness.
A dark look of pain crossed Heero's face again and he clutched his sides, mouth open in a silent groan. Not knowing what else to do, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him to me, letting him clutch onto me as the waves of agony wracked his frame.
"I'll take that as a yes," Trowa muttered angrily, glaring down at the piece of paper and its neat black writing.
"What can we do?" Quatre asked, edging closer to Trowa in the gloom of the tree's hollow.
I looked up from where Heero was still shaking, wrapped tightly in my arms.
"I don't know."
~ ~ ~ ~
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