Fire Mated Part 5
The now familiar scene faded in around him, like water washing over a canvas to reveal a hidden painting under years of mud. Blinking he found himself standing within the cabin, dim morning light shining in through the window. He swore the scene was more realistic each time; this time he could smell the sharp smell of pine and cedar from outside the cabin, floating in on the soft breeze.
Duo turned around and found that once again the boy was sleeping on the cot, his face to the wall as he was curled into a tight but comfortable ball. Duo approached the boy cautiously, his feet crunching the loose pieces of dirt across the packed floor. Odd, he didn't remember being barefoot in his other dreams. Holding his breath he reached out and touched the boy's shoulder.
As his hand touched the scene flashed a deep blue for a split second and the boy disappeared, the single blanket drifting to the cot like a feather through the air. Duo spun around to see the boy standing behind him, watching him with a confused look.
Duo's heart skipped a beat in surprise. The boy was actually looking at him, interacting with him! In all the other dreams the boy had always been oblivious of his presence, ignoring him or just not seeing him. But now the boy was looking at him, in fact Duo watched the boy's deep blue eyes travel over him, the look of confusion very apparent on his face.
"Y-you... you're awake." Duo squeaked out.
Deep blue eyes flickered to Duo's face, but otherwise the boy's expression remained confused. After a moment he nodded.
"Who are you?" Duo whispered softly. "Why do I keep seeing you every night?"
Duo watched in frozen awe as the boy lifted his hand and lightly rested it on Duo's cheek, almost in a loving motion. The skin was cold; practically dead to the touch and it made Duo shiver slightly. A small, sad smile crossed the boy's face and he pulled his hand away, taking a step back.
The boy crossed the room, walking toward the door. Suddenly it slammed shut before him, a loud sound that practically made the cabin shake. Shutters crashed down over the windows, locking out the sunlight and leaving the two standing in darkness. The sounds of crackling and voices whispered up around them, growing steadily louder with each second. Duo's breath quickened as the familiar panic swept through his body.
No, not again.
The boy whirled around and his eyes locked with Duo's. "Leave." He spoke the one word, his voice angry and yet pleading at the same time. Smoke began to seep under the door behind him, filling the room like a deadly mist.
"I..."
"You don't need to live through this again."
"But you... you'll burn."
A sad look crossed the boy's face and he shook his head. "Please leave," his voice took on a more urgent tone, soft and sad.
"I don't want to leave you." Duo whispered stepping closer as the smoke filled the room around them and burned his throat. He coughed loudly and clutched his throat as it burned his throat. He eyes stung and his mind screamed at him to leave, but instead he kept moving toward the boy, reaching out toward him.
The boy's hands lifted and grabbed onto Duo's, that deathly cold skin sending a shock through his system. Duo gasped as the boy shoved him backward with all his strength.
Suddenly Duo was soaring backward. Closing his eyes and curling his body up he waited for the impact with the cabin wall...
But none came.
His eyes snapped open and Duo found himself lying in his room on his bed. He gasped for air and was treated to a sharp pain as his dry throat sucked in the air too quickly. Covering his mouth he coughed in pain and rubbed his eyes, only to find them wet with tears.
Sitting up slowly he glanced around the room for some semblance of time. How long had he been sleeping? Trowa was no where to be found and small slits of fading sunlight shown in through a small crack in the curtain. Massaging his throat and wiping away the remainder of the tears he stood up and headed for the bedroom door. Opening it slowly he found the small living room dark and quiet. He glanced around the room in question until he finally found what he was looking for.
Trowa sat on one of the old padded chairs, curled up comfortably with a thick textbook in hand. An empty plate sat in front of him, speaking of a quiet dinner and a good book. What better way to spend the night? Smiling Duo walked over and took the book from Trowa's sleeping hands. Marking the page carefully he set it on the table and laid a blanket over his adopted brother, tucking it around his shoulders.
Leaving Trowa to sleep soundly, Duo made his way to the kitchen and found a Tupperware container with the other half of the dinner Trowa had made. Grabbing a fork he retreated silently back to the bedroom. Flicking on the overhead light he sat on the floor near the window, eating and carefully regarding the story outline he'd been pondering.
He finished up the dinner quickly and left it sitting in the corner with his notebook, then crawled back into bed. This time he slipped off into a light, dreamless sleep with a small smile on his face.
He didn't know why but he was happy the boy had finally spoken to him and taken notice of his presence. It didn't even bother him that the boy seemed to recognize him, after all the boy was only a creation of Duo's imagination wasn't he? So of course he'd recognize him.
To Duo's surprise he slept the rest of the night without any dreams of burning. He would have to remember to thank the boy for shoving him out of the dream and letting him get his first good night's sleep in a long time.
~*~
Dear Uncle,I got your letter along with the sketch. I'm at a loss however as to how the sketch figures in to all of this, but I'm not going to forget about it and I'll keep looking.
Surprisingly, even though this is my first week or so here I've had amazing luck. Within a day of showing up in town I ran across the name we've been looking for, Heero Yuy. As it turns out he's a very popular amateur writer in this town and photocopies of his unpublished books belong to many people. However he is very hard to find... or so people say. I suspect and have good reason to believe that Heero Yuy is merely a pen name for another student who attends classes, named Duo Maxwell. This is mostly just a hunch, but of all the people I've met Duo seems to know the most about this elusive author so it would make sense.
I wonder, is the name Duo Maxwell linked in any way with Heero's? Could you check on that one?
Also, I found that the name Barton is quite common in this area. This may or may not figure into things but I figure it's worth remembering just in case.
Other then that the graveyard search turned up nothing, and frequent library searches have been equally depressing. I am going to concentrate on hunting down the author and see where that takes me. Hopefully I'll run across a few other leads to follow while I'm at it.
Oh, and something strange to note that you might be interested in. I witnessed Duo getting angry at another student the other day and I swear his eyes shifted color. Generally they are a light violet, but for that one day they were a dark icy blue. It could have been a trick of the light but I am reasonably sure I wasn't imagining things. The outburst itself was very unlike his character, he doesn't seem like the type to get so angry over such a small sounding disagreement. But then again I could be just imagining things. Anyway, I thought you would be interested in that little tidbit.
That's about it from me and I don't have much time to write anything else any way. I've made a good set of friends already up here and I was invited to a party at Mariemeia Barton's house. I would write more but I'll wait until I have more time and possibly find more information. In the meantime don't loose yourself in that huge empty house of yours, it must be lonely since I'm not hanging around there any more.
Write back soon,
Quatre
Quatre signed the letter and set the pen down. Reading it over quickly, to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything he folded up the letter and slipped it into an envelope that was already addressed. Sealing the envelope he leaned back in the chair and massaged his temples.
Well, first part done. It was Saturday and his first week in this new town was officially over, with better results then he could have hoped. But still, these new results only brought up more questions, not to mention that he also had homework to deal with. The classes at this school were taking time to get used to, so different from home schooling. He sighed and stared lazily up at the blank ceiling. He knew he would have a lot of work to do starting tomorrow, just on the homework side of things, and he wasn't looking forward to it.
A gentle knock sounded on the door and Quatre turned his head slightly. "Yeah?"
"Quatre," the old lady said through the door. "Your friend is here."
Quatre nodded to himself and sat back up. Standing he reached high in the air until he heard his back crack, then started toward the door. As an after thought he grabbed the envelope with him and left the room, heading down the stairs.
He found Duo waiting at the door with a bright grin on his face. Quatre grinned back and left with him for the party at Mariemeia's house.
~*~
The two boys found the party in full swing by the time they got there. The party itself was pretty standard as they go among teenagers. Mariemeia's parents were gone for the weekend and had actually given their daughter permission to have a party, or so she said, as long as the house was cleaned by the time they got back. So, naturally, she invited half the school.
Her house was one of the largest on the block, three stories with a huge gated yard and a pool in the back. It was painted a mossy green, the type of color only a married couple would like, and most certainly their kids would detest. Still, the inside of the house, along with the outside, showed a significant amount of taste and wasn't anywhere near cluttered. In fact one could almost call the decorating style spacey, in a good way.
The night swept up the two boys and the rest of the party-goers into a large mix of dancing to techno music, talking, drinking non-alcoholic drinks, playing strange games and just lounging around.
Duo eventually found himself dropping onto a couch in Mariemeia's living room after an exceedingly interesting game of twister. Twister by itself was interesting, but playing it as the only guy around a bunch of giggly girls who had had too much caffeine and weren't stopping anytime soon... he couldn't help but smile. It had been a blast, but it was also exhausting.
Dropping onto the couch he opened a can of pop and just decided to sit there and relax for a while as the others had their fun. He closed his eyes for a moment and heaved a sigh of relief, completely relaxing. However, that relaxation was frozen when he smelt something familiar in the air. Duo's hand clutched tightly around the can of pop, bending the thin aluminum, and his eyes snapped open.
Smoke.
His eyes flew wildly around the living room, searching for the source of the smell. He was just imagining it, he had to be, but his mind was already starting to fly into panic mode. Setting down the can of pop with a trembling hand on the table beside the couch he clutched onto the couch instead, trying to keep himself calm. Taking a few deep breaths didn't help, instead they only reaffirmed that he could smell it in the air, there was smoke.
Holding the couch as if his life depended on it he slowly forced his body to turn around and look behind him. Not to his surprise he found a group of about three teens crouching by the fireplace, trying to start a fire with a set of matches. One of them, a girl, was wearing a spaghetti strap tank top and shivering from the apparently cold air. Duo's body trembled as they lit the match finally and tossed it into a pile of crumpled up newspapers in the fireplace, the papers flaring up almost instantly. At that moment the girl turned to look at Duo in surprise and concern.
It was like Duo had been physically slapped and his body shuddered violently. His mind spun and he couldn't take his eyes off the flickering and dancing flames in the fireplace. He knew he was going to start panicking or going into shock any moment and he had to get out of there. Forcing himself he stood up on shaky legs and bolted for the nearest door, not caring who he hit on the way there. He just knew he had to get out, had to get out before he completely lost it. Had to run. Had to leave. Get away. Get away to where it was safe.
~*~
"Duo?! Wha- ah!" Mariemeia cried out as Duo rushed past her, knocking her to the ground, hard. She landed flat on her bottom, her shoulder hitting the door frame and she winced. Holding her shoulder she stared after the braided boy as he rushed out the front door and into the night. Frowning in confusion she stood up and looked into the room where he'd come from, her eyes immediately settling on the guilty trio by the fire place. Her eyes narrowed and she forgot about her smarting shoulder, instead anger grew inside her and she marched over to them.
"What the hell did you three think you were doing?!" She screamed, using her drink to put out the fire in the fireplace. "You know how his parents died, hell the whole town knows and you still did that?!"
The boy holding the matches let them slide out of his hand and bit his lower lips while the other shook his head. "We didn't see him there," the second offered feebly. The girl beside them merely kept hugging her shoulders from the cold and stared out the doorway, the way Duo had disappeared.
"Shit!" Mariemeia swore loudly, silencing whatever conversation was left in the room. Trowa and Quatre poked their heads into the room from her outburst, looking around in question. Mariemeia just sighed heavily and leaned against the brick fireplace.
"Mari?" Trowa asked softly. "What happened?"
"They lit a fire in the same room as Duo, that's what happened! He disappeared like a bat out of hell into the night. He could be halfway across town by now." She ran a nervous hand through her hair and flashed Trowa a helpless look.
But Trowa didn't answer her. Instead he set his drink down quickly and grabbed his coat, racing out the door at top speed. He completely forgot about the party and all the people there. Duo had disappeared and now Duo was his top priority, nothing else mattered until he knew Duo was safe.
Rushing out into the street he ran to the crossroads, quickly throwing his jacket over his shoulder and racing out of the cul-de-sac that Mariemeia's house sat in. Glancing quickly in both directions he chose one and kept going, dropping into a light jog as not to tire out. As he ran his mind flew, running over possibilities, trying to think of all the places Duo might have gone. He paused for a moment under a street lamp to catch his breath and reevaluate his choices.
"Trowa!"
Trowa glanced behind him and found Quatre racing up behind him. Quatre stopped a few steps behind him and rest his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath.
"What are you doing here?"
"I... figured... I'd help... you look," he said as he hungrily swallowed up air. "Jeez you run fast, you ever thought of joining track?"
Trowa couldn't help but flash a light smile despite the bad circumstances. "Adrenaline helps. This way."
Setting off at a brisk walk the two moved down the street. Trowa's sharp eyes scanned the roads and alleys around them, scrutinizing everything they passed until he was sure there was no sign of Duo. Quatre tried to look as well but it didn't take him long to realize that Trowa probably saw much more then he did. So he dropped into just looking and trying to think of other places where Duo could have gone in town.
Eventually the two found themselves near an older area of town. The streets were noticeably dirtier and huddled figures dressed in thick layers of old clothing hobbled by and sat on the street corners. Quatre blinked at the change of scenery and, as a result, nearly tripped over a man lying on the ground. Recovering quickly he jumped over the sleeping body and moved closer to Trowa. The problem was he didn't notice Trowa had stopped moving and as a result bumped into his back. Quatre quickly jumped back a step.
"Sorry," he murmured.
Glancing around uneasily he took stock of where they were. The atmosphere was quite different from the stretch of the city which surrounded their school. Everything around them seemed dirtier, dustier, darker and more bleak. Rubbing his nose absentmindedly Quatre followed Trowa's gaze.
Trowa was watching a small patch of land, scorched deep black. Ruins of a foundation could be seen under the burnt remains of wood and personal belongings. An old dead tree marked the burnt remains with its long empty and gnarled branches, much like a natural marker forbidding entrance to a sad place. Quatre blinked.
"Trowa?"
Trowa stepped forward, toward the old ruins with a blank look on his face, but his eyes held a sad expression in the moonlight. "Duo's old house," he murmured softly.
"What... what happened to it?"
Trowa knelt down beside the burnt pile and moved away what was left of one of the darkened support beams, to reveal a book, of which there was nothing left but the roasted bindings. "A fire started, in the kitchen they think, and his parents were trapped in the basement. My father got him out, but..." Trowa stood up and let his sentence hang in the air, not willing to say any more. Nothing more needed to be said. Quatre figured out the rest for himself.
"Oh," he responded softly. Suddenly the night air felt colder and he hugged himself for warmth. Glancing around he tried to think of something to say, but instead his eyes settled on a shadowy figure standing near the old dead tree. Quatre turned completely and blinked.
The boy who stood near the tree was about Quatre's height, maybe a little taller. He stood in a sad sort of stance, half standing and half leaning against the tree as he gazed at the burnt remains with glazed over eyes. The slight breeze ruffled his already messy short hair, making the dark strands glimmer and glint in the moonlight. Bright blue eyes stared out from under long bangs, just watching the remains and not noticing anything else. The boy looked so sad and yet not... almost as if he were confused. Quatre blinked.
If it weren't for the boy's modern clothes, and if Quatre didn't know any better, he would have sworn the boy was some kind of apparition.
"Excuse me?"
The boy jerked out of his melancholy state to look at Trowa who now stood a few feet away from the boy. The boy's bright blue eyes watched Trowa cautiously but otherwise he didn't respond.
"Did you see someone pass by here? With a long brown braid?"
The boy shook his head slowly. Then his eyes drifted back to the burnt ruins, almost as if they were drawn by some unseen force or urge.
Quatre ventured to take a few steps closer to the strange boy, but never got the chance. For as soon as he started moving the boy seemed to break out of his trance once more and shoved his hands in his jean pockets. Giving both Trowa and Quatre a slight nod he turned away from them and walked down the street, disappearing from sight.
"Strange," Trowa murmured softly.
No kidding, Quatre added silently to himself.
Another hour or so of searching went by with less then good results. The two looked nearly everywhere in town but there was no sign of Duo. Everyone they spoke to hadn't seen him and he'd left no clues as to his whereabouts. So, after checking nearly every corner of the town and looking under every porch the two finally headed back for Trowa's house.
Trowa sighed as he walked up to the door and dug in his pocket for his keys. "Come on, the least I can do is offer you a drink or something since you helped me look."
"Sorry I wasn't much help."
"No, don't worry about it. You can't find Duo if he doesn't want to be..." Trowa's sentence trailed off as the door opened for him before he even got a chance to slip the key in the lock. Frowning he pushed the door open completely and took a step into the dark house. Quatre stepped in behind him and followed him all the way to the bedroom...
Where they found Duo lying on his bed, sound asleep. He hadn't even bothered to take off his shoes and instead was just curled into a ball around his pillow, sleeping as soundly as most babies.
Trowa blinked a few times then just smiled and shook his head. "Here the whole time?" He murmured just slightly above a whisper.
Stepping away from the room, and closing the door behind them Trowa smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.
"At least we know where he is." Quatre said softly.
Trowa nodded. "I feel like a fool now for combing the entire town. But I'm glad he's back. Umm... you don't mind if I give you a rain-check for that drink do you?"
Quatre smiled. "Not at all. Get some sleep, I'll see you on Monday at school."
"Yeah."
With that Quatre headed out the door. But one important fact wasn't lost on him from that night.
Why were the bottom of Duo's shoes covered with ashes?
TBC...
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