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Prodigy
Special #1: Concerning Trowa and Heero’s First Meeting
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“First time I met him was on a tour of the labs last year. I took a wrong turn and stumbled into his lab. Before I knew it I was running for my life. I ended up locked in his vacuum chamber for three hours while he interrogated me.” He chuckled. “Ever since he let me out, he’s been my best friend.”
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Night.
It was one of those moments, he couldn’t help but think, where you expect to hear wolves howling in the distance, or maybe see a shady figure standing under a streetlamp in a hat and trench coat. One of those nights where you almost feel like you’re in a detective story, just waiting to see the resident gumshoe trailing your every move.
Trowa Barton frowned as he walked into the Saparta Laboratory Complex’s near-unlit west entrance, the other graduate students and TAs shuffling about uncomfortably. The tour guide- a balding, bland man with raccoon eyes- obviously couldn’t care less, flirting with the young student at the front desk. After a couple minutes more, a brave soul in the front of the group cleared his throat, and the tour guide whirled around, a surprised frown on his face.
“Ahem. Well then. Get on with it,” he muttered, waving an uncaring hand towards the hall in front of them. All forty pairs of eyes blinked at him as he passed out photocopied white papers, the faded black map almost indecipherable. “I’ll be in 432D if you need anything.” The man speed walked past the confused students, and Trowa blinked again.
Hesitating for a moment, he looked at the map, finally pulling a pen out of his backpack and attempting to trace the dull markings representing walls while the other students began mulling about, each going in a random direction. The woman at the front desk was busy popping her gum and looking about as happy about the situation as Trowa.
“Excuse me, but-”
“It’s a self-guided tour, hon,” the receptionist churned out around the glob of gum. “You’re a grad student, figure it out for yourself.”
So, Trowa found himself wandering the halls of the Saparta Laboratory Complex. It was literally built like a maze, being added on to at random, constantly under construction depending on the newest pet researchers and how much room they needed. Figuring he should treat the maze like a maze, he followed the left wall of the hallway.
He passed Archaeology, Astronomy, Botany, Biology, Chemistry, and then…then, he found himself staring down a small hallway, an intriguing red sign reading “DESTRUCTION EXPERIMENTATION” hanging next to a slightly charred metal door.
Trowa glanced back down at his map. This hallway, not to mention the section, wasn’t even on his map…unless it was that gray blob in the corner near where the elevators were…He sighed. He needed directions, and the tiny window on the door showed a blonde girl asleep in a chair…maybe she could help?
Cautiously, he opened the door, the mechanism letting out a gentle hiss. Of course, he couldn’t notice it, since as soon as the door was opened he could hear the girl’s gentle sobbing. Green eyes wide, he inched forward. “Miss? Are you-”
A gun was pointed at his head. Blazing blue eyes swarmed him. “Who are you?”
“Heero, no!” the girl sobbed, but the boy before him ignored her plea, glaring at Trowa. He could feel something slam into him, and suddenly Trowa was sitting in a chair, the gun at his temple and the boy- Heero? - behind him.
“Who are you? Who do you work for?”
“HEERO! STOP!”
“Stay out of this, or leave,” the boy called Heero said coolly, and more tears welled up in the blonde’s eyes.
“Where would I go?” she whispered.
Trowa was no idiot. He knew his attacker was probably more distracted right now than he’d be in the near future, so he did what any intelligent man of his background would- shoved the gun upwards, yanked it out of the other boy’s hands, and ran as fast and as hard as his long legs would let him.
Oh god, oh god, oh god…He could hear Heero’s feet
behind him. What had he found? WHO had he found? What was going on? Oh god…
He didn’t know how long he’d been running around, turning at random and praying to avoid a dead end. Oh god, oh god! He turned left, the soles of his shoes leaving skid marks. And just like the past however-many-times, the other boy was heard following him relentlessly.
Time wore on, and he turned quickly again…only to find himself in a giant room filled with glass-guarded presentations of inventions and ideas. But, more importantly, a dead end. Oh god…what would Catherine do? Following his train of thought, he did exactly what his sister would do- jumped straight onto the top of a nearby display case, and crouched down alo- OH CRAP! The crazy lab boy’s gun landed on top of the scale proudly displayed in the glass box, clunking down on one side as the measurements whirred, happily dinging to 2.49 pounds.
“THIS ITEM WEIGHS…TWO, POINT, FOUR, NINE…POUNDS!” A cheerful woman’s voice blared out of the nearby speakers as Trowa slammed his head against the display case’s woven top. “THAT’S…ONE, POINT, ONE, THREE…KILOGRAMS!” He could just hear the smirk in his pursuer’s casual steps towards him. “HAVE A NICE DAY!” The Scale for the Hard Of Hearing clicked off cheerily, leaving only the sound of a gun’s safety being clicked off in the empty hall.
“Get down.” His voice was crisp and firm, but undeniably amused. Trowa could tell. He was being laughed at by a quiet, undeniably crazy boy holding him at gunpoint. Oh, fun.
Trowa complied, jumping down as harmlessly as he could manage. As soon as his feet touched the floor, something slammed against his head. His vision quickly swirled to black as he fell to glossy tile floor.
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The door to the vacuum chamber opened hesitantly. Trowa stepped out, barely containing a sigh for the lost-looking boy in front of him.
“I…” Heero began, trailing off as that vacant expression took hold again, his eyes shifting to the girl curled up on the table, the only blanket in the room draped over her as she lay with her head resting on her ams. “I have to be careful.” He shook his head. “She…she’s innocent. Too innocent.”
“It’s okay,” Trowa said calmly, as if he was coaxing the lions into the cage.
“No, it’s not,” Heero snapped, his vacant expression evaporating into the usual fierce frown. “It won’t ever be okay. Ever.” He dropped down into the nearest lab chair, his disheveled brown hair hiding his eyes. “Get out.”
Trowa smiled softly. “No.”
“Go. Away.”
“No.” Before Heero could lock him in the vacuum chamber or shoot him again, he spoke again. “You need to eat something, both of you.” Trowa shrugged. “And my sister’s an excellent cook.”
Confused blue eyes met his, slowly clearing in understanding. For a moment, they simply understood each other, the knowledge they’d come to an unbreakable, unspoken agreement surprisingly comforting.
“Thank you,” Heero finally said quietly.
And Trowa smiled.