Echoes in the Garden, by Zephyrus zephyrus_black@yahoo.com PG 5x4 sure, go ahead and archive, but tell me please! * * * * * There was something wrong with Quatre. Wufei knew it, Trowa knew it, Duo too-hell, even Heero noticed something. Wufei wondered if it had something to do with Trowa. But that had ended a long time ago, and as far as he knew, they were both on friendly terms. Wufei mentally snorted. As if Quatre would never forgive anyone. Yes, Wufei knew something was wrong with Quatre. But, he conceded, it was not his place to do anything. * * * * * "Something's wrong with the Q-man." Well, this topic certainly seemed quite popular lately. Outwardly, Wufei said nothing, merely lifted an ebony eyebrow. "Seriously, Wu, I think something's up. And I don't just think it's some moody-PMS-depression thing that we all go through-" the other ebony eyebrow lifted- "well for some of us it's a full time deal, but something is definitely not quite straight with Quatre, and-yeah, that's not what I-I mean, sure he's not, but really what I meant to say-" Wufei had already left the room. * * * * * "Wufei." The normally silent Trowa appeared before Wufei. He was more than a bit surprised, really. The lanky Heavyarms pilot rarely spoke to him, then all of a sudden... "Something's wrong with Quatre." Well, that wasn't a surprise. Wufei matched a blank face with Trowa. The lone green eye gazed at him expectantly. For a few long moments they stared at each other, until Wufei realized Trowa was not going to say anymore. He frowned a little, then shrugged silently. "Duo mentioned the same thing to me," he said, as if that explained everything. As Wufei left the room, he could feel the eye staring in his back. * * * * * A sudden tingling of his sixth sense, and Wufei turned to see Heero standing behind him. What was this? Everyone-bother-Wufei-day? Irritated, he frowned. But before he could say anything, Heero spoke. "Wufei. Something's wrong with Quatre." This succeeded in only irritating Wufei more. He attempted to turn his frown into an 'This is an injustice!' death glare, but Heero remained unaffected. Possibly because he saw the same face in the mirror everyday, Wufei supposed. But before he could speak, Heero had already left the room. * * * * * Wufei contemplated. He could not understand why they would all turn to him, but then no one could understand what went on behind Heero's frozen blue eyes or Trowa's expressionless gaze. And rarely anything of any importance went on inside Duo's head. Wufei was finished contemplating. Decision in hand, he sought out Quatre. * * * * * He found Quatre in a garden, sitting affably on a stone bench. Wufei sat down beside him, breathing in the heavy scent of flowers. Quatre had given him a small, sad smile as he walked up, but said nothing. Wufei reflected on that smile, thought how all Quatre's smiles were not only given, but shared somehow, private yet free. It seemed a long time, just the two of they sitting there, alone in their thoughts, companions in their silence. Finally Wufei surprised himself by speaking first. "The gardens on Earth are like no other. On the colonies they grow and die, endlessly, because there are no seasons. Because there is no natural order." Silence. Wufei wondered if Duo had poisoned his food somehow to make him babble on like himself, the baka. "On my colony, the gardens were the epitome of beauty, life itself. When it was destroyed..." He was spending way too much time with duo. "I wondered if that life had forever ended." A small rustle of fabric, Wufei could feel Quatre turning toward him. "But then, I returned to Earth, to China. I saw the gardens were still there, the original gardens, my ancestor's gardens. They had always been there. I had just not seen them." Still silence. Wufei took a breath, a deep, glorious breath of magnolias and lilies and roses. He wondered just exactly what he was saying. Had he been talking to Quatre or himself? He could still feel that warm delicate body next to his own, could still feel those aqua-blue eyes boring into him. A pale hand touched his shoulder lightly. "Wufei?" He turned his head toward the Arabian. He met aqua-eyes offering, asking for the same in return. "I had just not seen them." His own words echoed in his head, and he saw them in the ramblings of Duo, the far-seeing eye of Trowa, the loud silence of Heero. He could feel them in the hard bench beneath him, in the thick scent of the roses and magnolias and lilies, and in the beauty of the gardens. A bronzed hand clasped a pale hand, and Wufei smiled in return.