Orphan Stages Part 4 - Stage in Question by Terrasa
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Duo POV

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Heero got up and stretched out his limbs. “Your not going to like what you hear.” He said as he turned his back to me and started to walk towards the school. He stopped just before out of my hearing distance and I could see his head turn slightly towards my direction. “Come over to my house tomorrow… and I’ll tell you.”

He left me there, under the tree, my eyes frozen on his retreating back. I didn’t know whether to be surprised, scared, or angry at this turn of events. Heero… I would finally find out about him. And, he knew everything about me, all about my past and about Hall. Why did he go so far as to hack into my files? Just to find out about me? Was it just out of curiosity, or something more?

I heard the distant bell signaling the end of class, or school. Couldn’t really tell which, since I had been asleep. I really needed to get out of this ‘missing class’ habit. Tomorrow I’d probably be called into the office and scolded by Une. Well, that would be interesting, I wonder how far she will go to discipline me. Detention? Lunch duty? Maybe she would let me off the hook altogether.

Picking myself up off the ground, I started the short walk to the school building. People were running around on the grass and coming in hoards out the double doors, which told me that school was most definitely out for the day. Good thing too, I don’t know if I would be able to sit through a whole PE class with Heero.

After collecting my books from my locker, I was about to start walking home when Hilde came bounding up to me. Her huge blue shirt said ‘Vote for the Queen’ in silver letters.

“Duo! Guess what?” She threw herself in front of me, a gleam of mischief on her face.

“What? Did you talk to that Dorothy girl?” I asked after realizing she was waiting for me to reply.

She just shook her head and grinned wickedly. “No, no… I had already forgotten that.” She started to rummage through her bag and pulled out a piece of paper. I groaned inside as I noticed it was a flyer for the prom coming up in a couple weeks. “I’m running for prom Queen!” She announced while shoving the flyer in my hands.

I just stood there with my mouth gaping like a goldfish, flyer forgotten and slipping from my hand to the floor.

“Gee thanks! No ‘Congratulations Hilde’ or ‘I’ll definitely vote for you?’” Her bottom lip stuck out into a pout as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Aa… Sorry, sorry, just didn’t really think of you as the ‘Prom Queen type’.” I said in all seriousness.

“Thanks a lot Duo!” She huffed her breath while trying her best to look mad. But I could see the underlying glimmer of cheer in her eyes. She finally gave up her little act and gave me a mischievous smirk. “Ok, so your right… I’m only running cause I found out that ‘Blondie Relena’ was running. So I had Wufey boy nominate me.”

“So your hoping to beat Relena?” I guess I looked a little shocked cause her little pout came back.

“Hoping?” She snorted at me. “I’m going to win!” Her eyes seemed to glaze over happily, and I could tell she was thinking up strategically plans in that small head of hers.

This all came to me as funny for some reason. My shock turned into amusement and I started to laugh slightly clutching the edge of my locker in order to not fall over. “Y-yeah… sure you’ll win Hilde.”

“Duo!” Coming out of her thoughts, she growled at me. “How could you?” She shoved a finger in front of my face, waging her hand back and forth pointing at me madly. “I can not believe that ‘you’, of all people, don’t have faith in my ability to pull this off! What is it? My hair? My clothes?” She asked, grabbing my shoulders and trying to shake me out of my giggling fit.

“W-well… It… it could be the clothes.” I said between laughs. The look on her face made me cave in and fall to the floor, my face now red from trying to suppress my laughs.

“Duo!… Fine! I’ll prove you wrong… If I win the election then you are going to have to be my slave for a week, do you hear?” My laughter stopped and I looked up from the floor to see her smirking face from above. “What? Still think I’m not gonna win?”

“Hell no! But what do I get if you lose?” This was getting interesting, I was never one to turn down a bet.

Hilde put her hand on her chin, eyes squinted slightly in thought. “Well… I could always be your slave for a week.” She suggested.

“Nah, I have no use for a slave.” Smirking, I crawled up off the floor. “If I win the bet…” My smile grew as I thought of the perfect punishment. “You have to dress in all pink for a week. That means shoes and nail polish too.”

Her eyes got all big and I could swear her face turned a couple shades paler. “Y-you mean… you expect me to dress like RELENA? For a whole WEEK?”

“What’s the matter Hilde babe? Don’t think your gonna win?” A look of determination came over her as I mocked her and she put her hands on her hips, smiling at me prettily.

“I will win!”

She rushed away leaving me standing in front of my locker. As she turned the corner and was no longer in view I burst out into another fit of laughter. I was gonna have fun with this, and I was going to make sure Hilde was definitely not going to be Prom Queen. Now, if only I could find where Relena had gone off to. After all, the most assured way for Hilde to lose is to make sure her opponent wins! I’d just have to give little miss pink some advice to ensure that I get to see Hilde‘s embarrassed state.. There was no way I would be her slave for a week! That would be downright torture. You might as well shove me off to work in a sweat shop!

On my walk home, I once again found myself feeling uneasy. Looking around, I noticed that there was a definite lack of people on the streets than normal. Must be because it was a Monday, and all they wanted to do was go home from their laborious jobs and sleep. Like me. Even after my little nap in the tree, I was feeling exhausted. My body must have been working too hard trying to get rid of my sickness.

The uneasy feeling only grew as I turned down the street where my apartment was. My pace picked up and I started to hum softly to myself in hopes of getting my mind off my fears. As I came to the entrance of my apartment complex, I stopped dead in my tracks.

Anyone would have paid no mind to the litter that was sitting right in front of the door. They would have simply thought a bum had been hanging around smoking and begging for change. But as I stared at the green box, empty and crushed slightly, my mind only supplied one thought. Hall.

It’s the little things, that you always seem to remember. The things that are pointless and probably waste space inside our brains, and for the life of us we can not figure out why we remember such odd things. I could study a science book for hours and forget it all in a week, but remember a stupid slogan on television for years. The green cigarette case sitting there in front of me, was one of those small things yet sent chills down my spine.

Hall, those were what he smoked. I could remember one incident, an incident I could not forget, though so pointless to remember. I was sitting on the front porch, and had just gotten done crying my eyes out after Hall had yelled at me. Luckily he wasn’t drunk at the time and I didn’t have to get my face smashed in. Hall had come out of the house surprisingly quiet. I was always afraid of him, and that’s why I had tensed up when he sat down next to me. I think he had noticed cause he grunted something that sounded like ‘relax’. Pulling out his pack of cigarettes he started to smoke right next to me. I wanted to gag because of the awful smell, but was too worried he would yell at me for being a wimp. That was the only time I actually saw the box, green and worn, like it had been sitting in his pocket and forgotten about.

After all these years, that’s one of the things I can clearly remember. Maybe it was because Hall had actually sat down next to me without yelling, like a father would a son.

Standing in front of the apartment complex, I stared wide eyed at the green cigarette box I hadn’t seen in so long. I closed my eyes taking deep breaths trying to remind myself that ‘Hall isn’t here’ and ‘I am perfectly safe.’ I reached for the door and pulled it open not looking back to the street. Perhaps I was afraid that if I did turn around I would see Hall sitting on the steps smoking a cigarette like old times.

I think I got through the building to my door faster than I had ever before. The adrenaline rushing in me from my scare was making my arms shake slightly. Fumbling with the keys, I opened the door slowly peering into the lightly lit room.

Nothing, no one was there. Sighing in relief, I finally walked in, cursing myself for being so paranoid. After grabbing a quick snack to eat I made my way to the bathroom in order to take a long, hot shower. Hopefully it would get rid of some of the tension in my muscles.

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As I walked out the steps the next morning making my way to school, I noticed that the green box was still sitting on the steps. Growling, I threw it into the trash down the street. I really did not want to be reminded of Hall today. Today was the day I would go over to Heero’s. Today, I would find out what his ‘big secret’ that everyone but me knows about!

I know I should have been excited or at least a little bit happy, but for some reason I was dreading going, after what Heero had said. Was his story really ‘that’ bad?

The school day went by in a daze, all I could think about was Heero. He hadn’t so much as looked at me the whole day. Maybe he was mad, because I was forcing him to talk about himself. The major turn around in his behavior towards me was really starting to hurt. I don’t know when it was I started to think of him this much. But whatever the feelings were inside myself, they were not happy at Heero’s extra cold behavior.

During lunch I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn’t even go search for Quatre. Come to think of it, I think he may have passed me in the hall once. Instead of stalking the blond boy, I found myself mopping around feeling sorry for myself just because Mr. Stone Face was ignoring me! What a day!

In PE, I found myself stealing glances at Heero and more than once was yelled at for not paying attention. One time I actually got hit in the head by a tennis ball because I was so absorbed in watching his perfect movements. God, I was pathetic.

As the bell rang to dismiss us from class, I nearly tore out of the locker room. Heero had finished changing before me and I was afraid he was planning on changing his mind and leaving without me. Running down the hallway, I made my was to my locker to quickly get my books. Not knowing where else I would find him, I thought I would maybe go by the bus. Well, before I even stepped foot out of the school I saw Heero standing by a tree, eyes pinned on me.

The minute I looked into those dark blue eyes I felt a pull at my heart. He was looking at me, for the first time this whole torturous day. Taking a deep breath, I slowly made my way over to him, feet stumbling slightly on the cracks in the side walk. He didn’t say anything as I stood before him, just motioned silently for me to follow him. And I did.

We walked a couple blocks down the street. The silence was killing me, but I didn’t really expect him to start off a conversation. So it would probably be up to me. He stopped suddenly at a bus stop and sat on an old metal bench. The paint was peeling off which surprised me since this part of the town was fairly newer than the rest. I wondered if this used to be an old farming town before it became a city. A lot of big cities had started out that way. Once the ground was no longer fertile, they usually were forced to change, or move.

Sitting down beside him, I bit my bottom lip nervously, trying to think of something to break the uncomfortable silence. “Ah… W-where…”

“The school bus doesn’t go to my house, so we have to take the city bus.” His cold voice sent chills down my spine. I think he was a little angry… damn.

“Aa.” Looking down at the ground I noticed that Heero didn’t have any books or a back pack with him. “How come you don’t have…”

“I finish my homework in school, usually.” He stated simply.

“Will you STOP doing that!?” I jumped up crossing my arms over my chest. His attitude towards me was starting to get on my nerves. I don’t know why I had been feeling guilty before! He was the one who had looked into ‘my’ file after all.

“Doing what?” He asked, eyebrows raised in question.

“The… reading my mind thing!” I huffed, sitting back down and turning away in order to not have to look at him. I was pouting, I know, but I didn’t care. He had ruined my whole day with his little ‘ignore Duo’ act.

I could hear a faint ‘tu’ sound coming from him and I wondered if he was getting a kick out of pissing me off. Glancing over at him beneath my long chestnut bangs, I could see a slight smirk on his face. Surprised, I forgot about the whole ‘I’m pissed and will ignore you’ thing and looked up at him with wide eyes.

“You were doing that on purpose!” I yelled, pointing at him accusingly. “First you ignore me all day and make me start to feel a little bad about yesterday, then you make a game out of pissing me off!”

“I wasn’t trying to make you mad.” He said, the smirk was now gone, showing no trace of ever being there in the first place. “And I wasn’t ignoring you.”

“Oh, yeah sure.” My voice had a sarcastic tone to it which made Heero glare at me. We just sort of sat there staring at each other for a while before Heero finally sighed and looked away.

“I… didn’t mean to ignore.” His voice had that tone to it, the same tone as when he apologize to me the other day for looking into my files. “Just…” Bending over slightly he pulled a hand though his messy hair. He seemed to do that a lot when he was nervous. Yeah, it wouldn’t seem like he was nervous to any normal person, but I’ve watched him enough to figure out his little gestures show more of how he’s feeling then his facial expression. I watched him for a while longer as he struggled to find words to say. And do you know what I did? I actually started to feel sorry for him!

The bus rounding the corner and started to make its way towards us. I sighed, finally deciding that I wouldn’t make things harder on Heero by being difficult. “Its alright, you don’t need to explain… The bus is coming, how much does it cost to ride?”

He looked a little relieved at my change in topic. Heero was definitely not one for words and I was beginning to get an idea of what his early childhood must have been like. Maybe he didn’t have many friends, though I don’t see why… he was attractive and should have at least had a few ‘girl’ friends, if anything.

The bus ride was pretty short and the next thing I knew, we were walking along the side walk past huge mansions. The funny thing was that all of them were either white or beige, that is, all except Heero’s house. After passing a house with a hideous pink mailbox, Heero stopped walking. We stood outside of the black gate looking in at a huge gray structure. I couldn’t really call it a house, it just didn’t have the ‘homely’ feel to it.

It was made out of a smooth gray stone and if I would have passed it some other time, I would have thought it might be a police station or something. Bars covered most of the curtain less windows and there were vines growing along the walls in random patterns. Bushes were overgrowing and looked like they hadn’t been trimmed in years. The sidewalk was old and cracking which made me wonder how old exactly was the house? The over grown trees on the sides of the big yard seemed to hide the house from outside eyes. Which would explain why the neighbors let it stay here. That and the owners of this house were most likely rich and scared away all the complaints with large bills.

I followed Heero down the path and up to the big black door. It had one of those door knockers that had eyes and the knocking ring through its nose. It looked to me like a dragon, but it was probably a gargoyle or something. I would have asked Heero if I was not so nervous about actually entering the two story ‘creepy’ house.

Opening the door provided a loud squeak and I moved closer to Heero slightly as we made our way through it. The first thing I noticed as we came in, was the colors, all dark shades. The dark gray marble floor was polished and shiny making me realize that their was probably servants living here as well.

Heero started walking forward and I stuck right behind him taking in the contents of the long hall we were in. Small tables with flowerless vases were positioned between the doors that ran along either side of the hall walls. Not one door was open, all closed. Heero just walked straight, going down further into the house.

The lights seemed to fade slowly as we walked onward. Pictures were posted on some parts of the wall, none of people though. Some were of machines, others of scenery.

The silence was starting to bug me, for the only sound in the long hall was the ‘clank’ of our shoes on the hard floor. Heero walked to the end of the hall where you could go either right or left, he went right and I looked behind me to try and get a look at what was down the other hall. The lights were a little too dark though and all I could make out was a door with some designs painted on it.

Chills were running down my spine as we finally stopped in front of a random door. This house was really starting to creep me out. If I were to come here on my own, I would have thought it was a haunted house. The cold air, and seemingly lack of life would have ‘anyone’ freaked out.

Heero swung the door open softly and motioned for me to follow him down the stairs. I was hesitant at first, seeing as it seemed to get even darker and the walls were close together. This would not be a good place for my claustrophobia to kick in.

He just raised an eyebrow at me in amusement as if asking ‘What? Are you scared?’ Pulling myself together I slowly started after him. As I came to the bottom and my foot came off the last step, relief rushed over me and I sighed happily. He just looked at me weird again making my irritation towards him grow.

“Sorry.” I mumbled. “I don’t do well in closed spaces.”

Heero stood there for a while as if trying to figure something out, then nodded and walked towards the couch. We were now in a big windowless room, which was thankfully not so dark as I had thought it would be. There was a couch on the far wall where Heero was sitting and about five computers spread out on different desks throughout the room. A small bed was placed by the wall parallel to me, next to another door which might have been a bathroom.

“Is… Is this your room?” I asked while slowly taking a seat on the other end of the couch.

“Aa.”

Feeling finally safe from the creepiness of the house I decided to start questioning him a little. “What’s with this place?”

No emotion escaped his face as he answered me. “This house is in mourning.”

“Huh?”

He sighed and slumped in his seat as if knowing that he was going to have to explain a little more than that in order for me to actually get what the hell he was talking about. “The household is mourning the deaths of my parents.” I could feel my eyes widen a little at this.

“When did they die?” I asked, still not over my shock.

“Five years ago.”

“Huh?” Why the hell would someone be mourning a death for five years?! Something strange was going on in this house and I wasn’t all that sure I would want to know. I was beginning to agree with Heero when he told me I would regret it. Though my damn curiosity was going to drag me in further. “Why would they be mourning for five years?”

His eyes turned cold and I could see that he was no longer looking at me, but at some distant memory. “Why indeed…” Was the only answer I got. He stayed silent for a little while and then looked at his watch, face growing a little agitated. “We have to go get our dinner.”

“Eh?” I looked at my watch seeing that it was still early. “Its only four.”

“Aa… I don’t really want to explain now, lets just go, otherwise there wont be anything left.” He stood up and I followed him back up the stairs. We ended up coming back to the door with the weird designs on it, which I now recognized to be little pictures of coffee cups. Weird.

The door opened to reveal a bright room that was most definitely for dinning. A woman wearing a plain, black dress was setting plates and silverware down. She didn’t even look up when we walked past her to another door on the far side of the room, leading into a big kitchen. Cooks were hustling about every which way and I could here the servants listing off different foods which were going to be cooked for the nights dinner. It was a little creepy walking through the mass of people and realizing that none of them were even looking at me, or acknowledging my or Heero’s presence.

We came to the end of the kitchen where a long wooden table was set up with food arranged buffet style. Servants were loading up their plates and eating amazingly quick. One man glanced at me with a raised eyebrow before going back to his eating.

Heero directed me to take a plate and started putting food on his own. I hesitated at first, not really knowing what to take. Once I had picked out some food, which wasn’t much since my stomach was a knot of nerves, we set out, back to Heero’s room.

Once we were back in the safety of his computer filled room, I collapsed onto the couch with my food carefully balanced in one hand. “How can you stand living here? Barely anyone would even look at us!”

Ignoring my little rant, Heero started to eat his meal, which consisted on unbuttered bread, a slice of unseasoned meat and a couple vegetables. I looked down at my choice of food, some weird looking pasta and a slice of ham. How I came to grab that weird combination, I don’t really know. Once he had finished eating, he set down the plate on a near by desk before coming over to sit across from me.

“They aren’t suppose to talk to me.”

My eyebrows raised a little in confusion. “What do you mean? Why?!”

“The relatives forbid them to. If they are caught talking to me they will be fired.” I couldn’t believe the calmness he was showing as he said this. The confusion I was feeling tripled and I was left with my mouth hanging open in disbelief. At seeing my state, Heero took a deep breath as if preparing for the inevitable explanation.

“I…” He started, looking down to the ground in thought. He couldn’t seem to get the words out and ended up standing with a long sigh. “I guess it’d be easier to show you.” He motioned for me to follow him as he walked over to the door which I had thought was a bathroom earlier. As he opened it, I realized that it was another stairwell, this one leading up like the other, but was pitch black because of the spiral it seemed to make.

I stood frozen at the thought of actually having to climb up that dark, small staircase. Heero, seeing my distress, took my hand is his. I flushed slightly when my skin met his. He was warm. I know I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I guess I had always seen the cold side of him and assumed that he wouldn’t be warm like normal people.

“Close your eyes.” He said while leading me to the bottom step. I was a little hesitant at first but after seeing the look of reassurance on his face, I obeyed. “Your at the first step.” He directed me and I climbed up onto the stairs.

Slowly, we made our way up, left hand sliding along the wall while Heero led me with the right. I don’t know if it was because Heero was holding my hand or because my eyes were closed, but the fear was slowly leaving me as we walked up the steep steps.

“Your at the last step.” I heard him whisper. I opened my eyes and found that we were on a sort of balcony. It was more like a hallway with one wall, to the right and a door at the far end. To the left stood the railing overlooking the dinning room below.

“Where are we?” I asked. Heero held up a finger to his lips silencing me while leaning closer.

“Talk quietly.” He whispered in my ear. The hot breath sent chills down my spine and made me realize that he still had his warm hand clutched in mine. He led me to the railing where I could see the already set up dinning table. We crouched down slightly, hidden from anyone who was to peer up. “Dinner is going to start soon.” He said while looking at his watch, though I don’t know how he could read it in the dark shadows of the balcony.

For some reason, I was beginning to get a thrill from all this sneaking around. I smiled a little to myself, I had never seen this side of Heero, the sneaky yet thoughtful boy who would hold my hand to make me feel comfortable. Well, he had probably forgotten that he was still holding my hand. I wasn’t planning on reminding him though, no, no. I liked the feel of his hand pressed in mine.

A door opened downstairs and I could see a woman with gray hair that was almost the same color as the stone outside. Her long black dress was dragging slightly on the marble floor as she walked in and sat at the head of the table. After she was seated, two others entered and sat themselves on either side of the her.

To the right, sat a woman with long strawberry blond hair. Her pointed chin was held high as she greeted the old lady with a quick nod. The dark blue dress seemed to look a little awkward on her and I wondered if it was because it was a little to small for her slightly big frame.

To the left, sat a man with the same color hair as the woman’s, but his eyes were darker and seemed to be his most prominent feature. He was thin and looked frail, just the opposite of the girl.

“See the old bag at the head?” Heero asked quietly. I could see the anger starting to swirl in the depths of his eyes. “That’s my Aunt.”

My eyes widened slightly as I watched the woman claimed to be his ‘Aunt’. She sat too stiffly on the chair, cold eyes looking disgustedly at a servant girl pouring wine on the table. But what really shocked me was her voice, thin and sharp. With a demanding air that would have anyone shaking from fright.

“Hurry up, girl! We don’t have all day.” The poor girl jumped slightly and walked quickly away to the kitchen. At her exit, other servants came in with the food trays, setting them around the decorated table. All that commotion in the kitchen earlier for this? I had seen about four cooks, and they were only cooking for these three people?

Heero nudged me slightly and pulled back a little from the railing before speaking. “The other two are her children, my cousins. Just be glad you’ll never have to meet them.”

Their dinner started and I felt a little sick watching them eat, in silence, except for the occasional clink of a fork hitting the china. I was beginning to see a little of why Heero acted like he did, but there was still so much more that I wanted to know. Like why he wasn’t included in the meal, and why everyone ignored him. He said it would be easier to show me, yet all I have seen is a couple stuck up relatives ordering everyone to ignore Heero.

Wait a minute… Heero had said that his parents were dead. Maybe Heero had been pushed into his Aunts care and that’s why she was so cold towards him, because she didn’t want to waste money taking care of him. But that still didn’t explain why Heero had said the house was still mourning the death of his parents even after five years.

What was going on here?

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TBC

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