Life Together - Part 4 by Maaya
Standard disclaimers apply

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It was that kind of day when you really, really hate to wake up to. That was Quatre Raberba Winner’s first thought when he came to awareness that early Monday morning. Well, it was his first thought, *after* the incoherent swirl of senseless words that always came to mind when he first woke up, but it was *almost* his fist thought.

Even before opening his eyes, he could feel that it was a grey day – a day when it was damp and warm even though it’s winter. When the blonde boy *did* open his eyes, that guess was confirmed, but it didn’t help to make him feel better.

A vague feeling of that something was wrong made him more awake than he usually was in the morning, and he looked over at the alarm clock in a quick movement that might be able to be described as a reaction.

*******

There was one thing Wufei had to admit – this morning was a lot different from the first one he had experienced in their shared apartment. While the Sunday morning had been calm and peaceful, this was something akin to a chicken-farm, filled with loud, obnoxious pullets.

Heero was trying to fix the kitchen table with the screwdriver he had bought the day before while driving home - though Wufei didn’t think that he was very successful since they had all tumbled at least once over the brown-haired boy’s legs that were the only part visible from his body, as the rest of him were under the table. Actually, Wufei was almost sure Duo had fallen at least three times over the legs, though he didn’t keep count.

The braided boy had seemed excited today, for some reason that Wufei couldn’t really comprehend. He himself was only feeling a slight lump of nervousness in his throat at the thought of starting school *and* meeting his future wife in the same day – though he didn’t try to run his excitement off like Duo was currently doing, around in the apartment.

Meiran. Today was the day when he would meet his wife for the first time ever. It would probably be a .. strange encounter. Wufei wasn’t sure what they should do, what they should talk about – he felt very much too young to marry someone, though he had known this day would come since he was a child. He had tried to ask his mother about Meiran; what kind of person she was and such, but the older Chinese woman had just smiled and told him to wait and see.

Wufei took that as a bad omen.

He was supposed to meet her after school, and for some reason that made him even more nervous. What if something went wrong? What if he came to dislike her? What if..? He forced himself to stop this uncomfortable line of thoughts as he went down the stairs and grabbed his coat.

It had stopped raining the day before, but everything, even the air, felt damp around him as he stepped outside. Idly wondering how it could be this warm in the middle of the winter, he began walking towards his school, carefully avoiding the big puddles of water that seemed to take up most of the streets.

*******

When Trowa was younger, he had been a loner. He still was – but it wasn’t such a great problem any more. Once, when he was ten, he had hidden under his parents’ car because he had been too nervous to get up on stage for the first time ever. They had found him, of course, but not before he had lost his chance to do his acrobatic number.

They had been angry, to say the least. His mother, who now was dead, had refused to acknowledge him for over a week, let alone speak with him. His father, who was currently running a circus down in New Zealand and had no chance to contact either him or his sister, had hit him. More than once.

He had told him that it was all Trowa’s fault, that the evening had been destroyed and that he wished he’d never gotten a son like him. The last thing had hurt the very most, making him feel like something useless, something completely unnecessary.

What could actually be worse to hear as a ten year old boy, than that your father didn’t want you?

Catherine, his sister, had taken care of him during that time, but as Trowa grew older he also got a sense of pride, making it hard for him to accept the loving care from his older sister. He had felt trapped, caught in a snare of expectations of that he, someday, would have to return the favour somehow.

And that was impossible.

How could he ever be able to return such a great favour? What would he ever be able to do to make it up?

The possibility that Catherine might not need, nor want anything in return, never occurred to Trowa. Thinking about that matter, he’d gone outside, escaping the nervous energy that came from a certain braided boy who was right now disturbing Trowa as he tried to think.

*******

Duo was restless and excited. And, even though he didn’t like to admit it, was also the tiniest bit nervous. He knew exactly what he was going to do today. First he would go to school. When that was done and he was free from that, he would go to the place he had gotten a job. Then, he would go home. His new home, will say.

Simple.

He was no stranger of doing things by himself; he had taken care of himself for a long time. Not had he only taken care of himself, he had also been forced to take care of his mother.

But that was something he kept in private.

The sixteen year old boy rushed around in the apartment, from his room to the living room, from the living room to the kitchen, and then back again, searching for books and pencils that he had already spread around himself in the living room and the kitchen. He rounded a corner quickly, but just as he passed the closed door leading to what now was Quatre’s room, it flow open with a loud ‘bang’, and a hurricane of the blonde boy came blowing out in the living room in surprising speed.

Needless to say, they both collided - falling on their rears onto the floor in ungraceful heaps of arms, legs and a certain braid, all tangled in one another.

“Ooof!” Was the only way to describe their yelps as they landed, and Duo’s next statement wasn’t much better.

“Owww..” He sat up with a wince, and rubbed his sore back and head. When he could focus his eyes again, he looked over to see who it was he had smashed into. “You alright?”

The other boy sat up quickly, pushing his blonde bangs out of his face in a gesture that spoke of dejection. “This is just not my day..” the voice was slightly strained, as if he was in pain, and he peered up between two fingers. “I’m sorry, are you okay?”

Then he seemed to get a better look at the clock hanging on the wall and he stood up. “I’m sorry – I’m late – Got to hurry – Bye!” He disappeared into the bathroom, leaving a startled Duo behind, still sitting on the living room floor and staring at the closed, white-painted door.

After a moment of confusion, he got up again and headed back to the kitchen again, only to stumble over a pair of legs that were still outstretched from under the table. Pushing himself up with his palms from the floor for a fourth time this morning, he winced as the owner of the certain legs emerged from under the table, looking very annoyed.

“Duo, this is the third time! Can’t you at least look three meters in front of you before you walk!?” The fact that they had only known each other for two and a half days didn’t seem to matter to him anymore as his temper flared. Heero paused and took some deep breaths, intending to continue soon. He lost the thread though, as the younger boy rubbed his ears in an annoyed manner, seemingly oblivious to Heero’s raging mood.

“No need to yell that loud.” Duo muttered as he stopped the rubbing a moment later. “I can become deaf, you know.”

Heero glared, not bothering to say anything as he put all of his anger, irritation, and own nervousness into that one stare.

The silence became thick in the small kitchen of theirs, and Duo began to rub his ears again absently, in loss of anything else to distract himself with.

A second later, Quatre had rushed into the kitchen – but he stopped short as he saw the two boys sitting on the floor beside each other.

“Wh-what are you doing?” He asked and his eyes wavered between the two, the glare was not to be unseen.

Duo jumped up quickly. “Why Quatre, you are late! Doesn’t your school start at half past eight like normal schools do?”

“Well, there’s only one High school in this town, so it *should*, at least from the logical point of view.” Heero had to put in.

Duo ignored him and continued. “It’s eight now, so you should hurry up.”

“I forgot to set the alarm clock last night.” The blonde said, embarrassed, and walked over to one of the cupboards, wearing something akin to a flush in his face. “This is where the glasses are, right?”

He spoke quietly and looked unsure, so Duo nodded enthusiastically. “Yes.” Then he thought for a while before adding. “Do you want me to wait for you? We could accompany each other since we’re going to the same school and all.”

Quatre looked mildly surprised bur recovered. “You’d be late too. There’s no need for you to wait.” He took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with fresh water from the faucet.

//I want to get to know you, stupid!// Duo didn’t voice his thoughts, but he still insisted. “Come on now.” He glanced at Heero out of the corner of his eye and suddenly smirked. “Heero can drive us, can’t you, Heero?”

*******

Merry East High School was not a big school. Only the mere amount of five hundred students went there and most of them doubted that they would ever have to enlarge the small building. It was a red brick building; four stories high but not very wide and there were three big windows for each room plus those in corridors and stairs. It gave the building a rather strange look from the outside since it was almost completely covered in windows in different forms and shapes.

Duo and Quatre entered the school together, both boys feeling uncertain and out of place in the unfamiliar territory filled with all the same very much unfamiliar students. Heero had told them that he had some business to do and had driven away with the promise that he would arrive later.

“It’s too bad we’re in different grades.” Duo muttered under his breath as he looked at a graffiti painting saying that ‘school is hell’ on one of the grey walls surrounding them. “But I guess the first thing we should do is to find the headmasters office. No one has told me where I should go otherwise.”

Quatre shrugged. “I guess so, but how do we get there?” He looked around in the main entrance with wide eyes. “This room has to take up most of the place in this school!”

The braided boy brought his braid over his shoulder to play with. “I have no idea.” He thought for a while before adding. “About where to find the office, I mean.”

There were students all around them, talking, laughing, shouting and teasing each other as they made their way to their class rooms.. it all mixed together to a steady, never ending murmur. It looked as if all the five hundred students were all crowding this room, and it felt for Quatre as if he would have to break that wall of noises before he would be able to take another step – but Duo solved the problem by grabbing the blonde’s arm, dragging him over to where a small group of girls stood together, chattering. They looked up when they came to disturb them.

Duo grinned with as much charm as he could. “Hi, we’re new here.. uhh.. could any of you show us the way to the headmasters office?”

Quatre did suddenly realize what a power his new friend and fellow tenant had – Duo’s smile was stunning and the blonde boy could see how the girls’ eyes suddenly lit up with new interest for these new students.

One girl, with short black hair with brightly red and blue coloured bangs spoke up. “It’s just up that step.” The girl made a gesture with her hand towards one of three stairs. “And then the first door to the left.”

“Thanks.” Duo, who had never let go of Quatre’s arm, did now haul him towards the stairs. The blonde boy idly wondered who was actually the older of the two of them. Duo seemed very used to take charge and do things for himself.

They walked up the short stairs and found themselves to soon be standing in front of a door that was presumably leading to their final destination, and it was for some reason decorated with a big picture of a cow. Duo reached out with a hand and knocked on the udder.

No answer.

He knocked again.

No answer.

Another knock.

There was no answer, but a strange sound was heard. Duo looked at Quatre, questioning.

“What should we do?”

That strange sound was heard once again.

“It’s obvious that someone is there, at least.”

Another strange sound.

“Maybe he didn’t hear you’?”

Quatre shrugged at that, but Duo continued.

“Maybe we should enter?”

Another strange sound was heard.

“Is that really a good idea?” Quatre was hesitant.

“Yes!” Duo seemed to decide and he put his hand on the handle, waiting for a minute before opening. He slid inside, with Quatre following close behind but as soon as they were inside they stopped dead in their tracks.

Behind them, the door slid closed automatically, not making even the faintest sound.

Quatre’s mouth fell open in surprise and Duo’s eyes widened enough to make it possible to see the whites all around the orbs.

A woman who looked to be around her thirties, with brown shoulder-length hair, stood in the middle of the room in front of a large desk. A pair of round glasses with grey steel-frames rested on her nose-bridge and she pushed them up further before beginning to put her hair up in two buns, one on each side of his head.

None of this was really surprising, but then there was that fact that she was only wearing a dark green, knee long skirl and nothing more. A man with ginger coloured hair stood behind her, in the middle of the task to close her tight sports bra.

Quatre had just managed to pick up his chin when she put on a slightly lighter green coloured blouse and began to button in quickly, with what seemed to be years of practiced ease. The blonde boy wondered just *how* many times a day.

She did finally look up at them. “I can’t recall I ever told you it was free to enter, Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Winner.”

The ginger haired man disappeared out of the door, closing it carefully behind him.

She must have been expecting them though, Quatre realized at the mention of their names, and he cleared his throat embarrassedly.

“Ahh.. no.. but we thought.. we heard..” He stammered in a hurried try to explain their actions. Unconsciously, he began to fiddle with the hem of his brand new school uniform jacket in a visibly nervous gesture and his eyes flew around the room as he tried *not* to let them rest on the headmistress chest, that he had recently seen bare.

Duo came to his rescue. “We heard a sound, ma’am, and thought that you had just not heard us.” He took a step forward and Quatre followed hesitantly. “We could never had guessed that the sound could.. have been..uhh..yeah.”

Both boys blushed a matching set of bright red in whereas Quatre was just maybe a shade brighter.

“Well, as long as it won’t happen again.” She paused and Quatre realized that she didn’t seem embarrassed in the slightest. “My name is Lady Une and I am the headmistress of this school..”

The woman continued to talk about rules, systems and schedules in a firm voice that tolerated no oppositions. She didn’t even seem put off because her listeners had just seen her only half dressed a while ago.

Quatre watched, fascinated, as she pushed her glasses up for a third time while talking. She used her index finger and she was using it hard, and it made Quatre wonder how she didn’t get marks on her nose from doing that. In the back of his mind, he was quietly hoping she would drop them only to see what would happen.

At the thought, he had to snort loudly to avoid a laugh and he let his eyes wander over to the room in trying to get a distraction.

The office was rather large, as if it had once been a classroom not an actual office, though the size was the only thing resembling a classroom. The walls were painted in a dark blue colour and the floor was clad in brown carped, but since there were two big windows going from floor to ceiling behind the desk, it wasn’t dark inside.

What Quatre found strange was the many various pictures covering the wall around them. There were three pictures of cows, white, brown and black ones, a small picture of a rose standing in fresh water in summer sun, and strangely enough also a reaper dressed completely in black and holding a scythe.

The blonde saw his friend turn his head slightly and he guessed that Duo was also looking around in the room.

He was in the middle of wondering if Wufei and Trowa had been here yet, when Lady Une finished her lecture.

“..you are dismissed now. Have a nice day.”

‘Period.’ Quatre thought after that final statement – it was obvious that is was period. Lady Une looked at them with firm eyes and both boys decided to move out of the office, immediately.

*******

After school

Heero’s hand snuggled further down into the warm depths of his pockets as he walked down the road towards his new home after having been on a small expedition around the town. The pace he kept was steady, slow in speed as he had to step in different directions and lengths in order to avoid the still growing puddles of water, coming from melted snow.

Every time a car came passing by, it had to slow down beside him so it wouldn’t splash him with the cold water.

The boy stopped by a crosswalk, looking first to his left, then to his right. As he saw a car coming rapidly closer, he decided to wait until it had passed – it wasn’t like he was in any hurry anyway.

Something he seemed to have miss, though, was the extraordinary big puddle on the road beside the sidewalk..

It wasn’t until the car was only meters away from him, as he noticed the matter, and he took a quick step backwards – but it was too late.

Heero closed his eyes in a mere reaction to protect his eyes as he felt millions of cold, probably muddy, water drops cover his entire body in a short moment of a monsoon, soaking him. As he opened his eyes again, he stood there without moving, surprised enough to become completely powerless to act. He stared in front of him stupidly, without really seeing anything. The cold water dripped from his clothes and hair, and he got muddy drops in his eyes.

“Hey!”

Startled, he looked up in the direction of which the shout had come from, desperately blinking in attempts to make the dirt disappear from his eyes. He peered at the person who seemed to walk towards him in a steady, fast pace.

It was a woman, probably around her thirties, with long honey blonde hair reaching past her shoulders as it hung free, some wisps of hair moving in the very slight breeze coming from her movements. A pair of blue eyes showed her wish to laugh at his bad fortune, as well as sympathy for his dirty and wet state. When she came closer, Heero could wipe away the last stains of dirt from the area around his eyes, and he noticed that she was taller than him, taller than any ordinary woman actually.

“How did it go?” She asked and looked down at him with those humorous eyes, that made Heero unsure about if she was serious or not. “What an asshole – he knew you were standing there all the time!” She actually looked offended for his sake.

“It’s okay.” Heero shrugged, before wiping his face with his sleeve in a try to clean the remaining mud away, but as his jacket was even dirtier than his face, it did more harm than good.

“Bullshit! Here, take this.” She searched around in her pockets for a while before taking out a clean, white handkerchief for him to take. The boy stared at it for a moment, unsure of what he should do.

The woman waved with her hand that was holding it impatiently though. “Hey, take it! It’s not like it’s going to bite you or something, and I haven’t used it yet. It is completely and fully clean. Here, come on kid.”

Heero, slightly offended at the fact that he was called ‘kid’ even though he was eighteen years old, finally accepted the handkerchief and he wiped it across his face. It helped a great lot more than his dirty sleeve had done.
When he was done, he held it out towards the woman again, but she just shook her head negative.

“Oh, no, don’t try to load it off on me. Keep it – you’ll be the one who throws it away later. I’ve got plenty.”

Though it hadn’t been his intention to ‘load anything off’ onto the other woman, he didn’t say anything, just put it in his own pocket instead.

She peered at him, seemingly curious. “Not a talker, are you, kid?”

Heero shrugged again, and it caused her to laugh.

“No, definitely not.” She grinned and held out a hand for Heero to shake.. “I’m Mari, by the way - Mari Thompson. I own the coffee shop down the street, called Sweet Tongues.”

If Heero was confused by the name, he did certainly not show it. Instead he stared at the hand with rather glossy eyes – the latest events had been too much to follow for his poor mind but finally, after a long moment of desperate tries to gather his thoughts, he took it.

“Heero Yuy.”

Mari brightened, though he didn’t know how it was possible as her grin already covered her whole face. “Oh, so you *can* speak. I thought for a minute that you were mute, kiddo.”

The brown-haired boy couldn’t help but notice the resemblance between this woman and Duo. Idly, he wondered if they were related somehow, though they didn’t look anything alike. Lost in thoughts, he didn’t hear as Mari continued to talk to him, not until she noticed and poked him into life again.

“.. Heero? Hey, Heero.” She touched his arm lightly, looking at him with concerned eyes. “Jeez, kid, are you all right? Maybe there was a stone to go with all that dirt.”

“I’m fine.”

“Sure, and I am the queen of England.” Mari snorted softly and tousled Heero’s bangs. “Hey, why don’t you follow me back to the shop, I’ll treat you some coffee.”

He stiffened as her hand reached out and touched his hair once again, but was unsure about how he should react. He settled with shaking it off. “I’m fine.” He repeated.

The woman shrugged, visibly disappointed. “Well, suit yourself then. Bye!”

She turned around and continued to walk down the road, leaving a confused Heero behind, staring at her disappearing back.

*******

Wufei looked at his watch, then up towards the big clock that was hanging on one of the great walls of the school building, and then down on his watch again. Both clocks showed the exact time and still, his wife wasn’t here in time.

It seemed like a freak of fate that he would end up with a negligent wife, as he was the most punctual and precise boy he knew about.

“Hey! What are you doing!?”

His head snapped up at that scream that was followed closely by a loud roar and another more feminine shout.

Wufei recognized all the signs and put it together two and two until he got the answer – someone had attacked a girl. It only took him a few seconds to consider if he would help out or not – he ran towards the sounds as fast as he could.

*******

Meiran Chang was a born fighter. When she had been younger and still lived in China with her parents, she had gone to a school teaching some forms of martial arts and she had been the best in her class – better than any girl, or boy for that matter.

After moving to another country, on the other side of the world, she hadn’t been able to test her knowledge in those arts, and when she then saw some older guys bully two younger girls in a dark alley not far from the school, she had seen red – and attacked. She could not believe how such cowardly acts could happen here, let alone in a school.

The smaller girls had escaped in the same second as she delivered the first punch, but that didn’t bother her the slightest. A fight was a fight after all, and she was supposed to fight to save the weaker ones.

The black haired girl threw a fast spin kick towards one of the guys and he kneeled over, clutching his stomach with a pained (and in Meiran’s opinion also stupid) expression in his unintelligent face.

She quickly considered if he would be able to stand up again, but decided no. Instead, she turned towards the two others, who stared at her with no little amount of shock. She guessed that they had never seen anyone, let alone a ‘little’ girl about half their size, take one of them down. She smirked.

“Want some more?”

They both attacked her as soon as the words left her lips and her brows furrowed in concentration as she hit one of them square in his face and managed to block the other one’s fist as it came flying towards her.

What she didn’t manage to do, however, was to block the other fist that came from the other side. Meiran grimaced as the guy’s knuckles hit her side, hard, and she gasped, trying to get some oxygen into her lungs..

A clutched hand came swishing past her head from somewhere behind and hit the goons chin. A sound akin to when two billiard-balls hit each other was heard, and the bully froze for a second before joining his mates on the ground among orange-peels and empty paper-bags.

Meiran wobbled on her unsteady legs, dangerously close to do the same thing, but felt a firm and warm, though slightly sweaty hand, grab her shoulder and steady her until she could stand on her own power again. She turned around to see who her ‘saviour’ was. “What in the hell do you think you are doing!?”

A boy in her own age stood behind her, startled by her angry tone, as far as can be judged by his widened black eyes. He was dressed in her school’s uniform with blue pants and a white shirt, and he was obviously from China, with his golden tanned skin and black hair to go with those black orbs.

“Excuse me?” He asked, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly as he rubbed the fist he had hit the bully with, as if he had hit a stone – not a chin. He used a tone as if he was talking to a small child, careful and soothing, and it only served to make Meiran even angrier. She pointed an accusing finger at him.

“I did certainly *not* need any help!”

“You should have told me that when you were being used a punching bag by that guy.” The Chinese boy retorted, nodding towards the body in question. “Without my help you’d be the one lying there, not he.”

“Are you trying to tell me that I’m weak?”

Wufei frowned at the Chinese girl, disapproving of her fiery temper, it seemed. “I’m saying that you’re inexperienced.”

“And you are of course *so* experienced, huh?” Meiran’s hands clenched, though she didn’t know why this guy bothered her so much.

The boy let out a soft, extravagated puff of air in frustration, knowing that he should get back to the decided meeting place, not argue with this arrogant girl. Still, there was something he had to tell her, there was something she would have to understand if she would become a strong martial artist. Something he strongly believed in himself. He decided to begin to make his point with a question of his own.

“What are you fighting for?”

“Why would you want to know? I don’t know you, and my reasons are mine and mine only.” Meiran replied and dusted herself off with still, though she hated to admit it, shaky hands. She passed Wufei, but for some reason she felt that she had to stop and look back at him over her shoulder before waling out in the sun light.

“You shouldn’t underestimate women – one day it might give you a disadvantage.” She leered.

She still didn’t move, and Wufei stared, surprised and not knowing what he should do, at her back.

“What’s your name?” He asked, finally.

“Long Meiran, why?”

Wufei choked on an intake of air, and he couldn’t force any sound past his throat, not even after he was able to breath normally again – because Long Meiran was the name of who would soon become his future wife.

Meiran, surprised by his sudden quietness, turned around slowly, staring at him.

“What..?”

*******

TBC

*******

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