Orphan Stage Part 2- Stage Relations by Terrasa
Standard disclaimers apply

Duo POV

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“WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO?!” Hilde ran towards me as I walked into my fifth period class, English. “I was looking for you everywhere!”

“Aa… sorry sorry.” She latched onto my arm and drug me across the room to an empty desk near one of the windows. I could tell that she was still mad about my little disappearing act by the way she was glaring at me. “I wont do it again.” I promised, hoping she would take the hint and not ask ‘why’ I had run away.

“Good, you better not!” She crossed her arms and made a pouting face which I couldn’t help but smile at. She was really adorable sometimes. Taking in my surroundings I noticed that Heero was also in this class, and only a couple desks away. Why hadn’t I seen him until now? Oh, that’s right, he’s so quiet he’s invisible!

“Hey Hilde,” I whispered while sticking my hand out to poke her in the ribs. “What’s up with Heero?” She flinched slightly and I kinda got the impression that I maybe shouldn’t have asked.

Sighing, she ran a hand through her bangs and looked in his direction. “You mean, why is he so quiet and… ummm what’s the word, cold?” She continued after I nodded. “Well lets just say that certain things happened to him that kinda made him act like that. I cant tell you, its not my place to say.” Just then Heero looked back at the two of us and glared. Woops, hope he didn’t hear us.

I took it I wasn’t going to find out anything about him from Hilde, I figure I could ask Trowa or Wufei, but if Hilde the loud mouth was reluctant to talk, then there was no way that I was going to get anything out of the ‘mime squad.’

“Hey Hilde,” Just for fun, I poked her ribs again, which caused a cute little glare to appear on her face. She doesn’t pull off the ‘I’m mad’ act that well. “Tell me about Trowa’s boyfriend.”

She looked a little surprised and her eyebrow raised in question. “Quatre? You want to know about him?” I nodded my head up and down enthusiastically. She leaned in closer to me so she wouldn’t have to speak loud and get us in trouble. “He’s a cute kid. One hell of a rich kid at that. Did you know that he’s the heir to the Winner Corporation? Well of course you didn’t. Anyway…” She paused as the teacher looked in are direction. The woman was pretty nice, her name was something like Poe, and I heard she was also a part time nurse. Hilde continued after Poe turned back to the board, her long curly pigtails bouncing behind her. “Trowa and him started going out in the beginning of the school year. I’ve never seen him happier. It was a little weird at first, you know, the whole ‘Trowa likes guys’ part. Especially since I had a little crush on him too!”

I chuckled a little and she gave me another ‘trying to be angry’ look. “About a couple months ago, it was rumored that his family was in a big feud over who was going to inherit all their dough. I guess some of Quatre’s sisters were pretty upset that he was getting the fortune since he’s the youngest. Did you know he’s got like a ton of sisters. I don’t know what his parents were thinking raising twenty or so kids!” Her face twisted in what I guessed was disgust. “Hmm, that’s all I really know about the kid. Except… there was another rumor going around recently that he was adopted, which would explain why the sisters were so mad. But that’s just a rumor.” ~Bingo!~ “If ya want to know more you might want to ask Trowa.”

That was something I definitely did not want to do.

So Trowa was dating my little brother… how I would love to be able to act like the good brother and threaten to beat him up if he didn’t take care of, or treat Quatre right. That would be fun! I sighed and looked out the window… sometimes life is not fair!

Outside there were people playing basketball. Must have been PE, my next class. I was about to turn my head when something caught my attention. On the court was a huge guy with red hair hovering over a short kid. Now the only reason this caught my attention was because the short kid was none other than Quatre. He was holding the ball near his stomach while looking for anyone open to pass to. All of a sudden he threw it over the giant guys head in a last effort attempt to get rid of it. Someone from the other team caught it and made a basket just as Quatre lost his balance and ended up falling at the giants feet.

I laughed out loud at this, which caused the teacher to glare at me. Quatre wasn’t good at sports, I guess I cant blame him. I was always the worst at sports until I got into High School, all of a sudden I grew a little and tried a little harder. Yeah, it was hard work, but it paid off.

I looked back out towards Quatre, he was in the middle of a group of guys laughing. A smile fell across my lips as I watched him. He looked happy, which was one of the things I had been worrying about. I had no clue if he was going to like his new family or not when he left the orphanage those ten years ago. I just hoped he was as happy as he looked.

The bell rang and I was hauled out the door by and overenthusiastic Hilde. “So what’s your next class?” She snatched the paper out of my hand before I could answer her. “Hmm, Physical Education! That sucks. But I think Heero might have that. Dontcha Heeeeroo?” She twirled around grinning at the grumpy looking boy. “Do me a fave and show him to class, ne?” She didn’t wait for an answer and ran down the hall looking like one of those gophers off of that one game with the giant hammer, popping up and down in various places while weaving through the crowd.

I was left with the glum looking Heero to be my guide. Oh, and what a cheerful guide he was! Talked the whole way, I wish. Actually I ended up running after him and his speed walk. When I finally caught up to him he just glanced at me from the corner of his eye and ignored me as I walked beside him.

“Geez, could you slow down a little? I feel like I’m trying to walk next to a car.” Surprisingly, he did slow down. “Ah, thanks man!” It took awhile to get to the Athletics building in the back of the school, but I wasn’t complaining. I kept stealing glances at the silent boy next to me. Oh yes, I was quite happy! Heero was one of those people you could never tire of looking at. He wasn’t perfect, no, but that’s what made him all the more beautiful. My eyes fell upon a tiny scar just above his eyebrow. Come to think of it, he had a lot of scars. I’ve noticed a few small ones that were fading on his arms, and I found out that he had one long scar on his left leg as we changed for PE. It was barely visible now, it would probably disappear with time. It rested just above his knee. How he managed to get it, I could not figure out.

Turns out, PE was a pretty fun class. We played basketball like all the other classes had. Heero was on the opposing team, and damn was he good! I thought that he would probably play half ass or something, but no, all his shots were with freakishly precise accuracy. Half way through the game I thought I was going to pass out from exhaustion. A pain was starting to build in my chest from breathing so hard and I could feel my hair sticking to my forehead in wet clumps.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more, Coach Khushrenada dismissed us to go change. I was a little worried, usually I don’t get exhausted like that so fast. The only thing I could think of was that it was caused from by stress. Yeah, it gets pretty stressful trying to get used to a sudden change.

On the way home my feet were starting to drag and I felt like I was hauling a huge elephant behind me. My bed sounded really, really good right then. I could probably sleep for days!

By the time I actually got inside my apartment, there was sweat dripping down my forehead and I was panting pretty bad. I didn’t pay much attention to anything as I made my way to my bedroom falling directly onto the big bed.

What an exhausting day. Its funny when you think about the things we can accomplish in a day. Things we don’t even realize. People can walk miles and miles without even stepping outside! I bet just playing basketball took about two miles worth of steps. Yet, in our minds, if we were to go out and start slowly walking a mile, most of us would get tired right off the bat. Why? Because of the boredom of it probably. It is something you don’t want to do, and therefore your mind interprets it as a bad thing and you get tired faster. It’s the weird things like that that make us pretty weird creatures, ne?

I didn’t even think I had done that much that day, but it was more of a mental drain on me than a physical one. I used to think that anything could be done with the mind. Like if you force yourself to believe in something it will happen. Well, it never really worked out for me, but I did try other things. When I would get sick, I used to think that if I kept telling myself that I wasn’t sick then I would get better. So pretty much I ignored my sickness and it kinda made it worse.

Yeah, I’m a little thick headed at times. Which is why I ignored the temperature I knew I had and went to school the next day. I felt like crap, but I wouldn’t admit to myself that I was ‘that’ sick. And in truth, I really didn’t want to miss the second day of school.

By the time lunch rolled around I was feeling much better. Food helped a lot, I had went to bed yesterday without anything to eat and in the morning I woke up late and ended up getting a doughnut again. I really needed to find a better place to pick up my breakfast.

I saw Quatre around the halls a lot, and let me tell you, the first thing that came into my mind was ’klutz’. I think he spilled his books at least five times! Not to mention the time he ran into a tree walking to lunch. It was hard not to laugh at him, he was so cute! Just like a little brother should be, ne? Trowa seemed to miraculously appear almost every time Quatre’s books hit the floor. The short blond would get all red faced from embarrassment, it was very amusing.

Was I stalking you ask? Why, yes I was. I couldn’t help it! I would scan the crowds every chance I got, hoping to see a patch of blond hair. Trowa almost saw me one time when I was following Quatre as he made his way to lunch, that was pretty scary. He’d probably think I was trying to steal his boyfriend.

At lunch I found out more about the guys, like how Wufei gets beat up by this one blond girl with forked eyebrows every once in a while.

“There is no honor in fighting a woman!” He had yelled when Hilde impersonated the blond girl trying to pick a fight. Picturing Wufei cowering with some girl hovering over him was to much. I was rolling on the floor laughing so hard that my stomach started to hurt.

“Oh yeah? And where’s the honor in getting beat up by a girl?” Wufei just scowled at Hilde, I could see he was a little embarrassed by the pink tint on his cheeks. Maybe he actually liked the girl? And that’s why he let her beat him up. That thought just made me laugh harder which earned a death glare from Wufei.

I also learned a little more about Trowa, like how he won all of the art contests in the city. No wonder he laughed at my drawing, damn him. He was also a son of a circus performer who left his family a couple years ago. Him and his sister live with their depressive mother in one of the older houses on the outer rim of the city. She had never worked and they were supposedly being supported by their dead grandfathers money.

Trowa hadn’t even batted an eye when Hilde had told this to me, like he really didn’t care much about his family situation being so bad an all. Kinda made me think a little and I’m reminded that I am not the only one whose had it hard. There’s are millions of other children worse off than me, like some of the kids at the orphanage.

A couple years back we got a little kid brought in whose parents beat him so bad he was now crippled in one arm. There was also a girl who was born blind and her parents didn’t want to deal with her so they put her in a dumpster outside of a bar. Things like that make me feel like I really don’t have it that bad. Especially now, since I have finally found my brother.

Hilde, of course, was the easiest to get to talk about herself. She was the daughter of a fashion designer working downtown. This was a little weird to here, seeing as Hilde is one of those people that you ‘know’ just jump out of bed and throw on whatever’s there. Kinda like me, clothes are clothes, and I’m not going to waste my time for the benefit of the people who look at me. Well, I admit I am a little picky about my looks, I seem to only buy black clothing cause I look best in it.

“You haven’t told us about yourself.” Hilde, so bluntly pointed out.

I groaned. “Umm, well what do you want to know?” Gah, stupid! I should have lied and said, ‘Oh my life’s boring,’ or ‘Yeah I have a mom, dad and my dog skip!’ Haha, wouldn’t that be funny!

“Morals? Values? Religion? Family? Pets? Why you moved here? What’s your favorite color? Sexual preferences?” Hilde listed off. I could fell myself blush slightly as she so calmly said the last one. And worse of all, Trowa, Wufei and Heero were now staring at me with interest.

“Jeez, you really want to know everything don’t you?” I glared at her, kinda hoping she’d say ‘Oh never mind Duo, I don’t want to know anything about you, nope none at all!’

Yeah right! Ok, so how do you get out of a situation like this, hmm? Well, luckily I am a master at the art of diversion. I looked around and saw Relena Peacecraft, the blond girl with freaky nails, walking over towards our table.

“Hey Hilde, who’s that?” I could see Hilde’s smile turn into an ugly frown as her eyes fell upon the girl.

“Ugh, Heero don’t look now but Queeny’s comin our way.” The table kinda gave a little jolt, which turned out to be from Heero as he jumped up out of his seat, silently disappearing into a nearby crowd. Trowa and Wufei snickered across the table.

“What?” Obviously they knew something I didn’t. My question didn’t get answered though since the Relena girl had reached our table.

“Do you guys know where Heero went? I saw him here just a minute ago… hmm strange, maybe he started back to class. Well I guess I could go meet him there. We have to get to work on our history project and all.” She flipped her hair behind her shoulders and smiled. “Well thank you anyway.” As she walked away I noticed how her plaid shoes matched her backpack. It made me wonder if she had a different backpack for every pair of shoes she owned. Which was what? Like fifty pairs? Dang, that would be a lot of money, and those back packs cost a lot. Wait… scratch that, the shoes cost more, I think. I wouldn’t really know, I’ve only had about five pairs of shoes in my life, always bought a couple sizes larger so when I grow they would last longer.

“Yeah! See ya later Queeny!” Hilde yelled back in a sarcastic tone. She crossed her arms while glaring at the blond girls back. “You guys ever notice how she treats us like we aren’t even there! She was having a frikin conversation with HERSELF!” I took it that no one liked Miss Queeny Relena by the way the others nodded in agreement with Hilde.

“So what’s with her and Heero?” I asked. This was good, diversion successful! Hopefully she would forget about what she had asked and give me time to think of an answer.

“Stupid girl, she lives right next door to Heero and has this little fantasy that ‘the boy next door’ is in love with her!” Rubbing her temple she looked at me, seeming pretty tired all of a sudden. “She reads waaaaay too many romance novels!”

“Hmmm… so does that mean Heero is a rich kid?” Hey I tried, so far nothing I had asked about him was answered. It was like ‘they’ all knew something and no one was going to tell me!

“Something like that.” Wufei answered for her.

Damn! Another half ass answer. I groaned and put my head down on the table. I was starting to feel a little dizzy again. Just great, especially since we were playing basketball again today.

By the time I got to PE, I was feeling like I had last night, dizzy and puke-ishly sick! Heero was put on my team this time, to my relief. Maybe I wouldn’t have to try so hard since he was so good.

Well my hopes were shattered when I was put up against one of the tall guys that was really good. Ten minutes were left of class and I was now ‘really’ feeling the effects caused by me ignoring my sickness. My feet were dragging and for the last twenty minutes Heero had been staring at me weird. I felt like I was going to pass out… And that’s exactly what happened. Everything seemed to fade out like one of those tricks they do with the movie camera. You see everything starting to blur and slowly go black from the edge inward. Then the world went dark. Kaboom! He’s down!

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I was having a really nice dream, something about puppy dogs and ice cream, when I abruptly woke to a big bang. Now you can imagine how scared I was when I opened my eyes to see a man with a scary nose and mushroom hair standing over me. I sat up quickly with wide eyes. It took me awhile to come enough to my senses to realize I was in a bed.

“What happened?” I guess I shouldn’t have sat up because right as I did I had the urge to puke, and I did, right over the edge of the bed.

“Ah, shoot! I knew I forgot something.” The old man whined as he handed me a bucket and started to rush around the room looking for cleaning utensils. “You fainted while playing basketball, seems you have a pretty high temperature… Ah there it is!” He came over with a washcloth setting it over my head. “Your stone faced friend carried you in.”

Surprisingly, I felt even sicker after what the man had just said. How embarrassing! Having to be carried in here, by Heero of all people! My day couldn’t get any worse! The doctor took my temperature after scolding me for not staying in bed this morning. I could feel myself getting more and more depressed as the minutes dragged on.

Tomorrow I would have to stay home! I wouldn’t be able to see Quatre! And I would probably be bed ridden, bored out of my mind. What could be worse?

Kemp entered the room about ten minutes later looking worried. His face showed relief as he saw that I was awake and had a pissed look upon my face. Yeah, I was pissed. I still couldn’t believe that I had gotten sick, stupid, stupid me!

“I got a call at work saying you had fainted at school, you scared the hell out of me kid.” He turned over and his eyes widened when he saw the weird looking doctor guy, well maybe he was a doctor but he was working in the school so he was probably a nurse.

The Doctor/Nurse guy gave Kemp a weird look, they just kinda stood there and glared at each other. “Ummm, guys?” My hands were waving around in the air in attempt to catch their attention. Kemp crossed his arms over his chest and looked away with a growl. The doctor just kinda chuckled a little.

“Glad to see you aren’t still causing trouble now that you are out of school. And a police officer, sheesh! What is the world coming to?”

“Oh be quiet you old bag! At least I’m not working as a nurse babysitting!” Kemp growled.

Hmmm… so it seems they know each other. “Hey! Don’t call me a baby!” I yelled at Kemp. He looked at me sheepishly apologizing under his breath. “I don’t know how you two know each other but I reaaalllyy want to get out of here, do you think you could save the sissy arguments until later?”

Kemp sighed and helped me out of bed, more than glad to leave. His arm rested around my shoulder giving me support though it kinda made me feel uncomfortable. I could walk just fine… well if you consider fine to be swaying back and forth a little.

“You didn’t bring your police car did ya?” I asked as we stepped out of the school.

He just laughed slightly as we came up to the car. “Sorry, cant help it.” I groaned loudly and he walked in front of me with one of his eyebrows raised in question. “Jeez, its not that big a deal is it?”

“Well so~rry if I don’t want to parade around in your bat mobile for all the world to see!” So I was being a little rude, I was sick damnit, and being in a bad mood did nothing to make it better.

He helped me into the car and we started to short drive to my place. As the car went through the city shops and past apartments, I couldn’t help but look down almost every alley and in every window. I knew that Hall wasn’t here, but my eyes wouldn’t listen to me as they scanned up and around all of the buildings just like they had done on the walk to school.

We drove past a supermarket where I saw a mother yelling at her son who was now balling his eyes out. It reminded me of sister Helen, and how she use to take me shopping and it would always end up bad, by me getting into trouble and her getting mad. I missed her, and father Maxwell. I thought it would be so great leaving the orphanage and living on my own. But now that I’m here, I realized that it isn’t so great being by yourself. I never thought I would miss them as much as I did right then, after all, they were my family. I’d have to see if Kemp would let me call them from the station or something.

I looked over to him and I started to feel a little bad for being so rude before, after all, he did come and get me. “Thanks fer pickin me up an all.” My voice was pretty raspy and it made me realize that my throat was pretty soar. Another problem added to the list.

“No problem, I’m just glad your alright.” He looked at me before adding, “Well, I guess your not ‘that’ alright.”

“So how do you know that old geezer?” I asked him as the car pulled into one of the apartment parking places.

He growled and I could tell he was pissed again by the way his lips stretched to form a thin line across his face. “His name is Gee. He was my mechanics teacher when I went to school.”

“No shit?” That was like what? Twelve years ago? I wonder what he was like back then. “Why do you and him seem to hate each others guts?” Kemps knuckles were turning white from the tight grip he had on the steering wheel.

“He failed me because he didn’t like me, so I kinda got in a fist fight with him. He ended up getting his teacher’s license, or whatever, taken away and I lost my credit for that class, plus was suspended.” He smiled and turned towards me. “But that’s all in the past, though I never could get to like the guy, he still hates my guts too. Come on,” Opening the car door he stood up and stretched. “Lets go inside and get something to eat.

Kemp ended up buying me take out for dinner and he stayed long enough to make sure I’d be alright. It was actually really fun hanging out with him, he acted like a giant kid. And he ‘still’ didn’t take off his sunglasses, even when in my dim lighted apartment. I’d have to ask him about those one day.

We talked a lot over dinner, which I barely ate because I was afraid I would hurl. Turns out, Kemp wasn’t all that rich as I had assumed he was. Jeez, me and my big imagination. Don’t know how I ever figure him for rich, just look at his shoes! They will tell you how poor he is. Well, he’s actually not that bad off, just not extremely wealthy either. Kemp told me that he lived in an apartment like this one about a couple blocks away. With his girlfriend.

“You’ve got a girlfriend?” My eyes were pretty wide as I stared at him, well I stared at his glasses.

“Yup, real sweet, she is!” His face seemed to light up while talking about her. For some reason I felt a little envious.

“Then what the hell are you doing here with me?!”

He scratched the back of his head and his forehead crinkled a little like it sometimes did when he was deep in thought, “Good point!”

I laughed at that, I don’t know how he ever ended up as a police officer, he just didn’t seem to be police material. Too much of a goofy nice guy. I couldn’t see him running down the street chasing someone with a gun yelling ‘freeze don’t move!’

“I guess I better get back, I’ll stop by sometime tomorrow and bring you some medicine.”

Kemp left, and I was alone in the apartment once again. The lonely feeling had come back. I don’t know how people are able to live on their own, I’m going crazy! I decided that the best thing to do would be to just sleep. Well, actually that was really the only thing there was to do, other than watch television. I ‘really’ wanted to walk around the streets and see the sights, but my stomach didn’t agree. The heater, I set a little higher than usual before falling into bed.

Sleeping seemed like a good thing to do at the time, but when your sick, sleeping can be painful. I don’t think I ended up falling asleep till well past one o’clock. My life seemed to be spinning more and more in a crazy direction. In all of two weeks I had; found out that my dad was out of jail, I moved to Vanibin, found my brother, found out that I might be attracted to guys, and had the fear of Hall finding me hanging over my shoulders… no wonder I got sick!

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Ding Ding Ding

Bang Bang Ding Ding Ding

I awoke to the freaky noise of somebody banging on my door while trying to ring the doorbell with the jingle bells tune. Sitting up a little too fast I ended up falling out of bed with the sheets tumbling after me. “Oof… ALRIGHT I HEAR YA!” I yelled. The noise didn’t stop.

I dragged myself to the dresser mirror to make sure I wasn’t sporting drool all over my face. I had apparently forgot to get out of my clothes the night before and they had big wrinkles now. My hair was still in its braid but had bits and pieces falling out everywhere. But the worst part was that I probably still smelled like throw up since I hadn’t taken a shower yesterday.

“Ah screw it!” Walking out of the room I made my way to the front door. My feet felt pretty heavy and I could feel the dizziness coming back. Finally reaching the door, I yanked it open hard, “WHAT?!”

Hilde stood wide eyed in the little hallway staring at me. I could see Wufei, Trowa and Heero in the hall behind her looking pretty much like they always do, expressionless.

“Jeezus Duo! You look like crap!” Hilde pushed her way past me walking into my apartment. Somewhere in my brain a little voice was telling me that they weren’t suppose to be here.

“How’d you know where I lived?” By now everyone was inside and making themselves comfortable on my little coach and chairs. They seemed a little surprised as they looked around my apartment.

“Aa, we went to the office and tried to get your address but the stupid people wouldn’t give it to us for some reason. So we had Heero hack into the school’s computer system to get it.” My eyes widened and I looked over towards Heero. Shit! What else did they find out?

“Y-you did?” Heero just looked at me and nodded quickly before turning his head to continue looking around my apartment.

“You live alone.” Wufei stated. I looked over and saw that he had come out of my bedroom. Gah! They were a big buncha snoops, all of them!

Hilde stared at me in disbelief. “WHAT?!”

Putting my hands behind my head I grinned at her. “Y-yeah, but… what are you guys doing out of school?”

Trowa made that clucking noise that’s suppose to pass for a laugh. Hilde just raised an eyebrow at me while staring at me in amusement. “Duo, it’s four o’clock!”

Ok, that was weird. I walked over and sat down next to Wufei on the coach, leaning my head back I closed my eyes and sighed.

My brain, which was really slow today, notified me that Hilde had started to speak again. “We came by to check out your pad and make sure you weren’t dead, who would have thought you’d be living by yourself! Aren’t you a little young? Do you have a job? Where are your--” She stopped speaking as Heero glared at her.

My stomach growled, interrupting Hilde and Heero’s staring contest. “Man… I haven’t eaten anything all day!”

“Well of course not, you were sleeping doofus!” Hilde jumped up and went over to my fridge. Like I said, they were all a buncha snoops! “I’ll make you something!” One look in the fridge, however, stopped her. “Damn, no wonder your hungry! How can you have nothing in your fridge?!”

“Sorry, hadn’t had time to go to the store, and I’ve been puking up everything that I do eat so what’s the use, ne?” They all looked a little green when I mentioned puking, well, all except Heero. He just kept looking at me with a weird look on his face. That was pretty freaky, and I started to fidget a little in my seat thinking that maybe he ‘had’ found out more in my school files. But ya never know, I don’t really think that they would put any information like that in there, it would be too risky seeing as even someone like Heero, a high-schooler, could hack into it.

The front door opened loudly pulling me from my thoughts. I was surprised to see Kemp entering with a couple of big brown bags in his arms. He looked over to me, “Ah! Duo, I brought you some medicine, sorry I couldn’t stop by earlier I was…” His eyes widened when he finally noticed the other occupants in the room. My heart started to beat a little faster and I jumped to my feet.

Shit. “Kemp!”

*******

TBC.

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