Life Together - Part 3 by Maaya
Standard disclaimers apply

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When Heero looked up again, he was met by the sight of a woman, dressed in a big pajama – it had probably been dark brown, but now it had the color of a dark swamp, greyish brown. Her hair was black and unwashed and her pale blue eyes looked at them both with a scary amount of impassiveness. She ignored Duo and looked directly at Heero with a frown. “Who are you?”

Duo spoke up. “Hi, mom.”

Heero was surprised and he looked back and forth between the other two.
The woman glared at him with bitter eyes and there was no resemblance between her and the happy and spirited boy who stood beside him, still carrying the heavy box. There was no way this woman could be Duo’s mother! It took a while before he realized that Duo was still speaking, but with an increasing tone of wariness in his voice.

“..share an apartment with, his name is Heero Yuy..”

The short-haired boy blinked as his name was mentioned.

“..we should really get going again..”

Heero nodded mutely in agreement and followed Duo out in the hallway again. The woman, who seemed to be Duo’s mother, just watched as they walked past and didn’t say a word, only muttered something inaudible that Heero really didn’t want to hear. He simply ignored it, in hope to get away as soon as possible – rude or not.

As they reached the door, Heero realized that they would have to stop and put down the boxes, only to be able to put on their coats. Duo seemed to grasp the same thing, because he sighed quietly and put the box down, seemingly giving up all hope to get away quickly.

Heero let go of his own box, having to step over both before reaching the chair where his coat lay. Mrs. Maxwell followed them out in the hallway, watching quietly as the boys put on their garments. Heero felt unnerved by her staring eyes – it was like being watched by a big spider or a snake. Both animals were quiet and maybe slightly scary, neither showing any kind of emotions. He couldn’t even force himself to feel guilty about comparing Duo’s mother with a spider because of the striking rightness in his mental picture.

Just as Duo turned around to open the door before picking up the box - probably to avoid problems with trying to get the door open later, his mother spoke up again, making him freeze in his actions.

“Are you going to leave your Mom here alone, again? Leave, when it’s raining?”

There was an emphasis on the word ‘raining’ and Heero was surprised to hear that Mrs. Maxwell’s voice had taken a tone of melodramatic sadness and pain, very unlike the earlier snapping tone she had used when she had spoke to him. He turned to the braided boy to see how his fellow tenant would react.

The braided boy, earlier frozen in his movements, was now turning around slowly. “Mom, please..”

“You’re going to leave, just like your father!”

Heero saw the braided boy wince at the words, before looking straight at his mother and saying, quietly. “He didn’t have a choice in that matter.” He looked sad, so very sad, and Heero felt something stab his heart at seeing someone looking like that, especially such a vibrant and happy young man.

“Well, but you have!” Mrs. Maxwell flared up, now standing straight and looking sharply at her son - surprising Heero with the sudden change of appearance. He looked back and forth between mother and son, like he had done just moments ago, but his eyes was now taking in a different scene. As Mrs. Maxwell was trembling with something that only could be described as rage, Duo was standing – taking deep breaths to calm himself down but was as well standing immovable and looking at his mother with determined eyes.

“No, I don’t.” The words were spoken calmly, but Heero could hear a tone of uneasiness in the voice. He picked up his box, and hurried out of the still open door with Heero following close behind. The latter noticed that the floor around the open door was wet from the still pouring rain. Before he kicked the door closed behind him he heard the woman snarl something. “Du..” He never heard what she was going to say as the door shut closed, effectively muffling her voice.

Duo walked towards the car in swift motions, seemingly forgetting about the rain that was now soaking his hair – making the normally so unruly bangs hang heavily against his forehead. He waited by the car’s trunk until Heero, who had the key, caught up with him.

The shorthaired boy managed to hold the heavy box under his right arm as he searched in his pockets after the key. As he found it, he opened the trunk and allowed Duo to place his box in it first, since it seemed even heavier than Heero’s own.

Heero wasn’t really sure what he should say, or if he would say anything at all. He glanced at Duo as they sat down in the car; the braided boy looked as if he was deep in thoughts – a frown visible underneath the dripping wet bangs. He stared out on the grey road in front of them with a depressed look in his blue-violet eyes, seemingly far away. After a while, he solved Heero’s problem though and he spoke, still watching the road.

“You’re wondering what that was, don’t you?”

Heero nodded, but it wasn’t really necessary to do so as Duo didn’t see it and continued anyway.

“It’s Mom. She’s been like that since.. a while back.” The braided boy’s voice faded and he continued to stare out of the window. He didn’t say anything more and Heero was reluctant to press it, even if he felt curious. The silence was complete in the car until Duo reached out with his hand turned the radio on, and the voice from a strenuous radio announcer who exclaimed that Mariah Carey’s new song had made it to the top list, echoed in the car.

*******

Quatre peered out of the rain-stained bus window – trying to get a view of his soon to be house through the downpour. His attempts were useless, though, and soon he gave up and looked around in the bus instead. It was almost empty, with the exception of himself, the driver and a group of teenagers – probably as old as he was who were talking about various things in loud voices. The blonde boy got the impression that they had been to a party the night before and were now on their way home. The vague smell of alcohol confirmed his guess and he frowned as one of the girls in the group noticed him. She whistled once and winked, in ridiculous attempts if flirting with him and Quatre felt how his cheeks grew warm in embarrassment as everyone started laughing at the girl’s courage.

Luckily, the driver of the bus seemed to remember what Quatre had asked
him to do, to stop at the bus stop nearest West Side Street, and the bus slowed down before stopping completely. Quatre grabbed his two bags in his hands before taking a deep breath and going out in the pouring rain.

He began to walk down the road, feeling how the rain soaked him completely in just a few minutes, and he was shivering by the time he found a house with the number seventeen on it. The lights were on in the first floor, and a soothing light shone through the windows, making the blonde boy want to enter and settle down.

He found the doorbell and pushed the small button, but before he had time to hear the muffled ringing, the door swung open and he felt himself being dragged inside the house. “What..?”

He found himself in a small hall and he saw to his surprise that the one who had dragged him inside with a steel-hard grip was no one else than a short, old woman with curly grey hair. The old woman held a big white towel in her hands and she rubbed it all over his body in attempts to dry his wet hair and clothes.

“You stand still, dear. You’re completely soaked and I don’t want you to catch a cold.” The old lady said as she continued to dry him off. “I’m Norma Clape, your landlady.” She suddenly noticed the bags Quatre was holding. “Put down your bags, boy.”

Quatre did as he was told but was still surprised by his hostess actions and was relieved when Norma stopped her treatment on him and gave him the towel.

“Now, wrap this around you and follow me. What’s your name?”

The blonde boy smiled a dizzy smile, still feeling slightly overwhelmed. “Quatre. QuatreRaberba Winner.”

“Oh dear, what a name.” Norma opened one of the doors in the hall, revealing a kitchen which she now stepped into, motioning to Quatre to do the same. “Let’s see if I can remember it.. hmm..” She closed her eyes and leaned her head backwards, a small frown visible in her wrinkled face. After a while, she looked up again, meeting Quatre dumbfounded stare with humorous, but kind eyes. “Quatre Winner, right?”

“Ahh, yes, that.. will do.” He dried away a water-drop that was threatening to fall on the clean kitchen-floor with the towel, before holding the white cloth up. “Where should I hang this?”

“Oh, put it on your chair, dear – it’ll keep both the chair and you dry. I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to find the keys to your apartment right now, but I’m sure I’ll remember where I put them soon. Do you want to borrow the other room to change clothes?”

“No, it’s okay.” Quatre said, thinking that it would feel wrong to change clothes in a stranger’s apartment.

“Then just put the towel on you chair like I told you to.”

“Uhh.. okay..” Quatre, who was unused to this kind of openness and hospitality, was hesitating. At home there was usually a dull politeness in everything he and his family did and this warmth felt almost strange, but still tempting. He felt how a small smile curved his lips upwards as he sat down without asking *where* he should sit down. He had a feeling that he would like this place; hopefully the others would be this nice too!

The boy watched as the old lady rushed around in the kitchen, making coffee and taking out at least five different kinds of cookies – seven of each kind, and he grinned, his earlier nervousness long gone. He would definitely *love* this place. As Norma rushed around, she also managed to produce a lot of questions, all of which Quatre tried to answer. It wasn’t easy though, as he didn’t have enough time between each question. The old lady finally came to an end of her questions, and the last one was. “And now you’re probably curious about the other tenants, aren’t you, dear?”

“Yes, naturally.” Quatre nodded his head earnestly up and down. “Please tell me a little about them?”

Norma smiled, her eyes sparkling softly. “Of course, though I don’t know much about them yet. They’re all out right now, god help them.” She nodded towards the window and smiled once again as Quatre shivered by the mere thought of being outside yet again. “I haven’t met the last one yet. His name is Trowa Barton and should arrive soon.”

“How old are they?” Quatre asked letting that question express him worst curiosity. “Old, young, middle-aged?”

Norma put the coffee maker on before turning around, meeting the blonde boy’s eyes. “How old are you, Quatre? You don’t mind me calling you
Quatre, do you?”

“Not at all. I’m soon to be seventeen, by the way.”

The woman smiled kindly. “Then they should all be about your age.”

“Really? And they are all nice?”

“Yes, of course.” Norma seemed almost offended by the question. She snorted loudly before continuing. “I shouldn’t have accepted them otherwise. You see, there were a lot of people interested in this apartment and I chose *you* to get it.”

“Oh.” Quatre wasn’t sure what to reply on this. “Thank you.. I guess.”

“Oh, no need to thank me Quatre. Now, didn’t you want a little inside information about the others?” Norma’s eyes seemed to glance towards the window for a moment, but it could also have been Quatre’s imagination. She began talking. “There is Wufei Chang, a Chinese boy. Seventeen years old if I remember it correctly. Well mannered, polite, though a little too serious. Nothing that can’t be developed for the better, though.”

She paused for a while to let Quatre take in this new information before continuing. “He’s in America to get married, though you should ask him for the details for yourself later.”

“Oh, remind me to congratu.. wait a second!” Quatre’s eyes grew wide as the realization hit him. “Married when he’s seventeen?!”

Norma laughed, the quiet sound startled Quatre’s surprised state of mind. “I thought you would react that way, but please have in mind that he’s from a long-lined clan of honourable Chinese warrior-family. It’s an arranged marriage, if I understood it all correctly.” She went towards the window and leaned over the kitchen sink in a try to be able to see better through the wet glass. “I can’t see him yet.”

Quatre realized that she meant the last tenants, or maybe one of the others. “Have you invited them all for coffee?”

The old lady was now searching in a cupboard for something. “Oh, no, but if they arrive soon I’ll invite them then. Now, where was I?” She found a sugar basin in the cupboard and she placed it on the table before finally settling down on a chair beside Quatre. “Oh, yes. Then there’s a boy – sixteen years old. His name is Duo Maxwell and I’m sure you’ll like him. He’s like a dog I had once – a white and brown spaniel called Carmenlita. She was happy all the time and her tail started wagging every time she heard laughter.”

Quatre grinned at the mental image he got from the statement and he immediately pictured this Duo character as an adorable, innocent sixteen year old boy with big brown puppy-eyes.

Both Norma and her guest sat quiet for a while, the only sound in the room was the silent boiling from the coffee maker. The Quatre noticed that his clothes were slowly drying on his body and the water wasn’t dripping from his bangs any longer. Suddenly, Norma stood up – hurried over to a drawer and took out a towel; similar to the one Quatre was now sitting on. The boy almost fell off his chair, so sudden was the movement.

“The last one is coming now.” She said, breathless, giving Quatre a piece to add to his puzzle and making it all clearer in his head. He looked out of the window and sure enough, he saw a figure standing there on the rain-wet porch, holding out a hand to ring on the door-bell.

The blonde boy immediately decided to save the poor young man from
Norma’s drying technique, so he stopped the old woman just before she could put her hand on the handle, and took the towel out of her firm grip. “I can do that if you want.” He held a tone of politeness in his voice. “Go and make everything ready instead.”

Norma smiled thankfully at him. “Thank you, dear.” She spared him a glance before hurrying away to the coffee maker, and Quatre opened the door out to the hall to go and open. As he stepped out, he heard the woman’s voice calling after him. “Don’t forget to dry him off!”

A ting-a-ling was heard from the door, just as Quatre opened it. The boy shivered as breaths of air came in and he waved the other man – no, boy, inside quickly before closing the door again. As the wind was shut out he took his time to observe the other.

Before him stood a boy about his age, maybe older by a year or so.
Dripping wet bangs hid one green eye and the one that was visible looked straight back at Quatre – who was smiling nervously.

“Are you the owner?” The green-eyed one asked, looking slightly surprised. “I had the impression that it was a woman.”

Quatre wasn’t sure if he should be offended or not by the question but he held out the towel anyway. The other one accepted it and began drying his face on it. As he looked up again, the blonde boy realized that he was still waiting for an answer.

“Ahh.. no.. I’m just another tenant. Mrs. Clape is busy at the moment, making coffee. What’s your name?”

The newly arrived boy held out a hand as he replied. “Trowa Barton.” His voice was strangely quiet, but still soothing in a strange kind of way. Quatre shivered but he wasn’t sure if it was because of his cold clothes or the voice, or both of the facts. Anyways, he shook the hand.

“Quatre R. Winner, nice to meet you.”

“The same.”

Out of a sudden, the door opened again and another young man stepped inside. He looked to be of Chinese origin, with golden brown skin and eyes, and hair pulled up into a tight pony-tail. He wasn’t wet, as Trowa was and Quatre guessed that it was because of the umbrella he held in his hands. When he spotted the other two, his eyes widened – if just a little, from surprise.

When he recovered though, he held out a hand towards Trowa, who was the closest to him. “I believe we haven’t met each other yet. My name is
Chang Wufei.”

Quatre watched as the boy’s exchanged names before Wufei turned towards him. “I’m Quatre Winner.” He said, now completely ignoring the Raberba as he presented himself.

Norma chose that moment to peer out in the hall, and she lit up when she saw the three boys standing there together.

“Oh, welcome to my home.” She smiled before adding. “And yours too, I guess. My name is Norma Clape, and you are..?” He eyes sought at Trowa’s direction questioningly.

“Trowa Barton. Nice to meet you.”

Quatre felt as if his own way of introducing himself had been copied, but he didn’t know why. After all, there was a lot of people who said that when they met someone for the first time. He glanced at the green-eyed boy out of the corner of his eyes.

The blonde boy was interrupted from his thoughts as Norma shoved them into the kitchen again, closing the door behind her. Trowa seemed to notice how the towel lay on the chair because he laid his own in a similar way on the chair next to Quatre’s.

Their hostess told them to sit down, and they did so as she filled their cups with coffee. Quatre noticed that Wufei had asked for ‘just milk, please’ instead of the black liquid but he never gave it a closer consideration. It wasn’t his business after all, or was it..? The blonde boy had completely missed the smug look on the Chinese boy’s face as he sipped on his coffee for the first time.

It was just the years of practiced politeness in his childhood that made him able to not show anything about what he thought about the taste, on the outside that will say. On the inside, Quatre felt his throat and taste-buds ache and slowly die.

He looked up in time to see a small smirk tugging the corners of
Wufei’s mouth upwards and he scowled, turned his gaze towards Trowa instead. The green-eyed boy’s mouth was tightly shut and Quatre saw what he thought *could* be a small grimace. Their eyes met for a brief second, but the contact broke as Norma began talking.

“I wonder when Heero and Duo’s going to come back.” The old lady pondered out aloud and took a sip of coffee. “Anyway.. help yourselves!” She smiled and took a cookie from a plate to demonstrate that it was free for them to eat.

They ate for a while, chatting to each other about nothing really important, at least until Wufei seemed to remember something.

“We never chose rooms yesterday.” He put down his cup with milk before continuing, and Quatre assumed that ‘we’ indicated on Wufei himself, Duo and the last tenant. “We decided to wait with settling down until you arrived and could say something about it.”

Trowa and Quatre simply nodded in quiet acceptance of their choice.

After a while, they could all hear how the door opened, then the loud voice from a boy.

“..I wonder if the others have arrived yet, it’ll be great to finally be able to settle down in an own room..” The voice was interrupted by another, cooler and calmer voice.

“We need to get back to the car and pick up the remaining things.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming..”

The listeners in the other room heard as the door closed, effectively shutting out the voices. Quatre took a deep breath, suddenly nervous from an unknown reason.

Norma took another sip from her extraordinary coffee.

“Sounds like they’ve befriended each other quite well.” She remarked.

“What’s their names?”

All three looked at Trowa in surprise. The green-eyed young man hadn’t spoken much during the meal but now when he *did* say something, it was in a calm, or maybe slightly monotone voice.

“Duo Maxwell and.. uhh..” Quatre’s voice tailed off as he realized that he didn’t know the last one’s name. Wufei continued though.

“And Heero Yuy – Japanese.”

“Trowa?” Quatre asked, remembering a slight accent in the other boy’s voice. “Are you from America, really?”

The boy in question shook his head in a slight movement as he replied.

“No, I’m originally from France. I’ve been in USA for three years though.”

“Is that so?” Quatre spoke quietly to himself, wondering if it would be considered as nosy to ask Trowa why he was in USA. He decided not to. It would probably be time for that later anyway, when they knew each other better.

“Are you all going to school?” Norma asked, looking at them all. Three nods answered her question.

Their conversation couldn’t carry on for any longer as the door opened again. Norma stood up and hurried out in the hall, her thick curly hair flying around her like a strange head protector. Quatre didn’t doubt for a second that the woman would need an umbrella while going outside in the rain, the hair would keep her scalp dry anyway.

A short moment later she was back again, dragging two wet, surprised boys after her.

“This is Duo Maxwell and Heero Yuy.” She announced, looking at Quatre and Trowa as she spoke but gestured towards the two other teenagers as their names was stated. The boy with a long braid smiled and wriggled his fingers towards the last tenants and Heero just nodded slightly. Norma introduced Quatre and Trowa too. ”The blonde one is Quatre Winner, and the one next to him is Trowa Barton.”

“Nice to meet you.” They all said at the same time as they looked each other over. Quatre studied the new-comers with interest.

The one called Duo Maxwell had, as already stated, long chestnut braid and big violet eyes, but there wasn’t so much more feminine about him after that, more than the slim, if not thin, body. The braided boy smiled and had already started talking, even before he sat down. Quatre couldn’t help but like him.

The other one, Heero Yuy, didn’t speak as much as his companion, but he said something to Wufei quietly as he sat down on another towel. Quatre could only pick up the words ‘screwdriver’ and ‘bought’ though the Chinese boy didn’t seem to be able to help the small smile that tugged his lips upwards.

The blonde boy turned towards Norma and Duo instead, they were animatedly discussing literature. For some reason, it surprised Quatre that the braided boy seemed to know so much about books, but he felt slightly ashamed about assuming things without even knowing the person much. Lost in thoughts, he rested his chin in his right palm.

“..Quatre?”

“Ehh?” Startled, Quatre jumped and up straight in his chair again. “What?” He asked, looking at Duo. “What is it?”

“Do you like books?” The boy asked, smiling. Beside him sat Norma, smiling in the same way as she too, looked at Quatre.

The blonde boy shrugged, embarrassed. “No.. well.. rather, but I like music better.”

“What kind of music?”

“The most. I brought most of my CDs here; you can go through them later.”

“Cool.”

Quatre smiled slightly before resuming his earlier posture, staring out of the window. He could see how it slowly stopped raining but still, the sun didn’t seem able to break through the thick layer of grey clouds that covered the sky.

*******

TBC

*******

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