Shinigami - The God of Death Part 3
Monday Morning
I hate Mondays.
Or at least, when I was alive I used to hate them, now it seems like a blessing. Today is Monday, that means I have until Saturday for Heero to figure out that that Duo he is seeing isn't me. That's a whole six days for him to figure it out. Heero's the perfect soldier, so he should be able to figure this all out, right?
I can't help but sigh softly at that thought as I hear the sounds of the guys waking up in the house around me. Oh yeah, blind hope against blind hope. Heero doesn't even have any reason to think that I should be dead, I mean as far as he's concerned Solo up there, who is currently sleeping in MY bed, is the real Duo. Heero has no reason to believe otherwise. I growl in frustration and attempt to slam my fist into the kitchen table, but instead it goes right through the dark wood and I stumble forward, falling to the ground without a single sound. Damn being dead sucks, you can't even vent your anger on inanimate objects!
It had taken me most of the night to walk home from where the car had crashed and where Solo had left me on the side of the road. And on the way home I'd gone over every single possibility I could think of, and still I wasn't any better off from where I started. The whole situation is so completely tipped in Solo's favor and I don't stand a chance. I know that if I get out of this and Heero figures it out it will be nothing short of a miracle... but then again miracles are kinda what us Gundam Pilots were known for in the wars right? I mean by all rights we should have all died a long time ago, but instead we were all alive... err well, ok so they were all alive and I was on the brink of death if not dead already, but lets not quibble with details.
I'm standing in the kitchen mulling over my thoughts and waited for the guys to come down to breakfast. We always eat breakfast together before work at the Preventers, so soon would be my first chance at getting them all to notice to me. Or at least try to. Yoshi! Ok, keep your chin up Duo; here's your chance.
Trowa and Wufei are the first to enter the kitchen, as usual, and they enter completely silent, each heading for their breakfast food of choice. Wufei immediately starts up a pot of his morning tea while Trowa turns on the stove and grabs a few eggs. I've always admired how he can walk around the kitchen and never drop the eggs, heck he could probably stand on his head and juggle them while cooking an omelet with his toes thanks to his time with the circus. Normally, had I been in the room any other morning, I would have been yawning and watching through sleepy eyes as he prepared eggs for us, but not today. As soon as he closes that fridge door I walk right over and try my darndest to knock those eggs right out of his hand.
Well, let's just say that Lady Luck does not like me today. What Solo said is certainly true; I can't touch a single thing. I wave my hand through Trowa's and the eggs at least a million times but he doesn't respond, not once. Oh this is sooooo frustrating!
So instead I turn my attention to Wufei, who is humming very softly to himself as he rummages through the drawer full of tea bags, trying to decide on a flavor for the morning.
"WUFEI!" I scream loudly in his ear. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Taking a deep breath I scream again, right into his ear with my hands cupped around my mouth, and once again the black haired teen does nothing.
Growling with frustration I turn away from him and glance back to Trowa, who is now scrambling the eggs and popping toast in the toaster. It's strange when you're in this form, because I realize that despite seeing Trowa's cooking, which is always good, I'm not hungry. I mean I want to eat the food, it looks so good, but my stomach isn't grumbling, as it should be. I guess that's what happens when you don't have a real stomach to fill. But to never eat again? Oh what a horrible fate!
Yep, that's me all right. Here I am with only six days to make the guys realize that I'm not really me and I'm still cracking jokes to myself. If the guys knew they'd probably think it hadn't quite sunk in yet, but that isn't right. I fully realize what is going on here, and how hopeless my situation is. But in truth cracking jokes is the only way I hold on to my fragile sanity, it's the only defense I have left against a world that has just recently decided to royally kick me in the ass.
Heero and Solo enter the kitchen next, Solo right behind Heero. Heero enters and immediately takes his place at the kitchen table, on the way snatching a plain piece of toast from the toaster to munch on. He's never been one to add things like butter or jelly or salt and pepper to his food. I always thought it was part of his training, you know some kind of message pounded into his head that during a war any food was better then no food. So instead of adding stuff to his food he always eats it plain. I swear the guy must have taste buds of steel, either that or he doesn't have any at all.
I'm about to turn all my attention to Heero but Solo catches my eye instead. He enters the kitchen and immediately his eyes lock on me, making it perfectly clear that he can see me and no one else can. Man, he just had to rub it in like that didn't he?
"You bastard," I hiss angrily. The fact that he was once one of my childhood friends doesn't matter to me one bit at the moment and all I can think about is he did this to me and he's currently stealing my life away. What he's doing is completely unforgivable; no matter what angle you look at the situation from.
Solo simply flashes a smirk in my direction, at my comment, and takes a seat next to Heero, eyeing Trowa eagerly for his food.
"Come on Trowa, can't you cook a little bit faster?"
My mouth drops open at his comment and I freeze. Solo wasn't kidding when he said he'd been watching me, I say those exact words practically every single morning. And practically every morning Trowa replies with...
"Almost done."
Solo drops back into the chair with an exaggerated sigh and I can't help but stare at him. It's like some strange kind of out-of-body experience to see myself going through the motions I do every morning, but yet I'm really standing off to the side just watching. Everything is so surreal my head should be spinning.
Wufei finishes warming up the water for the tea and pours three glasses, one for himself, Trowa and Heero, and sets them at the table. As he sits down to lightly sip his tea I see Quatre standing at the kitchen doorway, still dressed in his robes and looking quite pale.
Trowa looks up at him in surprise, the concern plain on his face. It's moments like these that those two look so cute. They look so much like a married couple some times I just want to melt at the cuteness, and part of me has always wished that Heero and I had the relationship those two have.. "Something wrong, Little One?"
Quatre nods. "I'm not feeling well, I think I'm going to spend the day in bed."
Trowa dishes up what should have been my eggs and leaves them on the counter walking over to Quatre. Without a word he places the back of his hand against the blond pilot's forehead, checking his temperature. Their eyes meet for a moment and they just stare at each other. They always do that. They always have moments of completely silent conversations, just long minutes of staring into each others' eyes and not saying a single word. Given some of the strange mind stuff I've seen Quatre do over the time I've known him I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he one day revealed to us he and Trowa spoke telepathically. Nope, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Instead I'd simply lean back against the wall and grin, saying to them all that I'd known all along.
Leaning forward Trowa places a soft kiss on Quatre's forehead and watches the boy leave the kitchen, then he turns back to the guys at the table. Munching on the last remaining piece of toast (which like Heero's isn't buttered) he brings over what should have been my eggs to Solo. I don't care if I wasn't really feel hungry at the moment, but seeing him eat what should have been my breakfast... arg!
Heero stands up from the table, done with his meager breakfast. "We're going to be late," he says flatly as he eyes Solo gobbling up the eggs.
"You say that every morning," Solo says between mouthfuls. "And yet we always get there on time." Solo quickly shoves the last bite in his mouth and washes it down with a glass of milk before dumping his plate in the sink. "See? All ready to go."
"Hn." Heero grunts, as usual, and grabs his jacket, heading for the car.
Heero's heading for the car... they're all going to work... It suddenly occurs to me that I need to get in that car with them or I'll be stuck at home to mope around all day and waste my time until they got home. Staying here and dwelling on my shitty fate wouldn't help me one bit, so I follow them out the door and pile into the car with them.
One would think that since I couldn't touch other objects I would actually sink into the center of the earth, never to be seen or heard of again. But nope, at least I'm lucky on that part. No, instead it appears that I can touch things, with my feet if I step on them. Basically it appears that I can step into cars and sit down in the seat, and probably even climb stairs, but I still can't touch objects. Don't ask me, I certainly can't explain it. And, understandably, it's the last thing on my mind at the moment.
I sit down in the car, in the front seat next to Heero, only to find Solo coming in after me. With a quick move of his arm he grabs my arm and shoves me backwards, causing me to fall through the car and land on the garage floor as Heero starts the engine. Immediately I jump to my feet and try to jump back into the car, only to be knocked back out by a hard punch from Solo. I land on the garage floor and push myself to my feet, but I can't catch up to them now. Instead I step out of the garage and stand in the front yard, watching the car disappear down the street, cursing to myself.
"Damn it!" I yell out, well aware that no one can actually hear me so I can swear all I want. As a result some very nice and colorful words come from my mouth. Let's just say I am thoroughly pissed.
Yet, someone does hear me, or rather some thing. As I am yelling at the disappearing car a stray cat walks by and stops to sit right near my feet. I pause in my yelling and look down to see the cat cock its head to the side and give a soft meow.
"You can see me?" I ask quietly. A cat can see me?! That's almost too good to be true! If a cat can see me then maybe there's a chance...
The cat answers me by standing up and attempting to rub itself against my leg, but when it walks right through me it stops and just looks at me.
"You can't touch me, but you can see me!" I cry out happily. It takes all my restraint to hold in my happiness. A cat can see me, that means animals can see me... shit now if only we had a dog in the house.
With a sigh of defeat I drop down to sitting on the grass, watching the cat silently.
"It figures," I murmur angrily. "I knew I should have tried harder to convince the guys to let me get a dog after the war but no... I had to listen to what Heero said and just go alone with his 'glare-of-death' routine. Like he would have killed me for getting a dog anyway."
So I sat there. I sat in the front lawn watching the day pass by and mulling over my thoughts in my head. The cat didn't stay long, and away with it went my hopes of using that particular ace I'd discovered. So instead I just sat in the front lawn, moping and waiting for the guys to get home from work.
TBC...
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