Fire Mated Part 6

Mariemeia's eyes crossed over the sheet of paper before her as she switched her backpack to her other shoulder. Glancing through the office windows at the students passing through the halls she leaned against the wall and frowned. Another new student? Great, there went her weekend.

She'd taken this job of showing students around the school as a favor to one of the teachers, and also because she loved meeting new people and talking to them. No one could deny that she'd met some pretty cute ones thanks to the job, Quatre being a prime example, but some days it just wore on her nerves. Besides that this time it wasn't even a guy, it was a girl. A girl by the name of Hilde S... Mariemeia squinted at the last name.

"Is that word even pronounceable?" She murmured softly. Shrugging to herself she turned the paper over and scanned the girl's classes. She wasn't at all surprised to find that the girl shared many of her own classes, so talking with her wouldn't be that hard. And hopefully she would be interesting, the last thing Mariemeia wanted was a new student that followed her around like a home-sick puppy dog.

"Excuse me?"

Mariemeia lifted her eyes from the paper to look at the owner of the voice and couldn't help but flash a smile of welcome. The girl before her had short dark hair, cut close around her head with longer bangs that brushed lightly over her midnight colored eyes. Her clothes spoke of someone who paid attention to current fashion tends and yet didn't feel like wasting the money to wear them, thus she developed her own style of good looking clothes that still fit. A simple short T-shirt with a design of dark blue flames along the edges with black jeans fit her just perfectly. Mariemeia couldn't help but grin; she recognized a kindred spirit when she saw one.

"I'm supposed to find the person who's going to show me around." The girl stated.

"I'm Mariemeia, you're Hilde right?"

Hilde nodded, her face turning into a frown. "Shoot," she groaned. "I was hopin' you would be a cute boy, nothing better then having a cute boy show you around. Guess I can't always be that lucky though." Hilde added with a grin, showing she was joking... sort of.

Mariemeia laughed. Most definitely a kindred spirit. "Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I am female. That doesn't mean, however, that I can't introduce you to some of the guys."

"You're not worried about me being competition?" She asked with a smirk.

"You don't stand a chance, but you're welcome to try."

The two grinned at each other in good humor. If there were two who had become quicker friends Mariemeia didn't know them. All she knew was that Hilde would be fun to hang around with. She was the kind of friend most girls asked for, someone who had a sense of humor and was enough like you that she seemed like she would understand anything. In a matter of minutes the two had just clicked, two peas in the same pod and ready to take on the entire school side by side. Mariemeia didn't even try to hide her grin as she led Hilde to her class and they chatted about every subject under the sun.

Life was great! Of the new students she'd shown around the school in the last two weeks they were both on her good side. Quatre was cute and reasonably good at playing hard to get, though not completely off limits, and Hilde was all she could ask for in a confident her own age. This year just kept getting better and better.

~*~

"Um... Duo."

Duo glanced up from his lunch to look across at Trowa, lifting an eyebrow in question. He, Trowa and Quatre were sitting on the roof of the school building, eating together in the large fenced off area. In fact, Duo had been the one to suggest it; since the schoolyard was starting to get so full of students. Most students didn't venture to the roof, or at least didn't stay there long, since the building was so high and on windy days it was impossible to hold onto one's belongings. Though today the weather was being merciful and there was only a light breeze, the kind that made hot summer days tolerable... even enjoyable and hinted at the coming fall, which wasn't too far away.

The three ate in relative silence until Trowa spoke up.

"Yeah?" Duo responded, finishing off his sandwich.

"What happened Saturday night?"

Quatre's eyes widened slightly at Trowa's question. Trowa was generally the silent type and definitely not the type to bring up something like this around other people. But, then again Quatre had helped him look for a good portion of the night, so maybe Trowa figured that they both deserved an explanation. Either way Quatre knew when to keep his mouth shut and just listen.

"Saturday night?" Duo murmured thoughtfully. He shrugged.

"I mean at Mariemeia's party. Why'd you rush out of there all of a sudden?"

Duo frowned and took a sip of his drink. "I'm not too sure..." he murmured softly. "I guess I panicked when I saw them light the fire. It's all kind of hazy, I think I just shot up and ran." He shrugged once more, his eyes flickering to Quatre for a moment in silent question.

"I helped him look for you after you ran out." Quatre answered, quickly looking back at his food. He felt uncomfortable, like he was eavesdropping on a personal conversation. He found himself wishing that Trowa hadn't brought it up in front of him.

"Sorry to have worried you guys." Duo said, his voice slipping back to its normal tone. "I guess it still kind of effects me. I mean you'd think that after this many years I wouldn't be so afraid of fire..." He sighed and let the sentence just drop off, not feeling the need to state the obvious.

And that was the end of that, conversation ended. No one spoke, nor did they try and change the subject, because none of them knew what to change it to. No topics of interest popped up and they just ate on in silence, listening to the muffled echoes of the students far below them in the schoolyard. Oddly it all seemed too far away from them, like echoes of another world. Echoes of something they weren't quite part of.

"There you are!"

A familiar cheery voice shattered the silence as Mariemeia opened the main door and stepped out onto the roof, pausing in her steps to run a hand through her short red hair. "We've been looking all over for you guys! Why'd you decided to hide all the way up here?"

"Heya Mari!" Duo said with a grin and waved. Immediately the awkward silence was gone without a trace, almost as if Duo's bright greeting had completely scared it away. Quatre actually breathed a small sigh of relief. He'd never thought a roof could feel so cramped.

Mariemeia grinned. "You three aren't trying to hide from us, are you?"

Quatre snickered. "Of course not."

"Like I would ever try to hide from my beautiful cousin." Duo said, painting a fake smile of innocence across his face.

"We?" Trowa asked in question.

Mariemeia smirked. "That's right. I've got someone to introduce to all of you." Taking a step to the side she allowed someone else to step out on to the roof. Hilde took the invitation and did so, smiling at the group. "Meet Hilde, she just transferred here."

Trowa nodded a greeting while Quatre smiled. Duo said nothing.

In fact, Duo's violet eyes met Hilde's and suddenly, at least to Quatre, the roof seemed very cramped again. He suppressed the strange need to shiver as Duo finished off the rest of his drink in slow, very calculated movements.

"I know you three, you were all at Mari's party last Saturday." Hilde said with a cheerful smile. She didn't seem to notice the strange change in Duo at all, either that or she noticed it and it didn't bug her. However, after a moment a frown did cross her face, her eyes flickering to Duo. "And I wanted to apologize, I guess. I was the one who asked them to start the fire, I was cold. I didn't realize-"

"Forget it."

Duo's voice came out cold and sharp, an icy phrase that made Hilde freeze mid-sentence. She took a step back without even realizing it, her eyes widening just slightly. Duo's face was no where near its normal cheerful self; instead it had dropped into a blank expression, locking off his feelings on the matter from the rest of the world. The blankness was cold, almost dead as he stuffed the rest of his lunch back in the bag with his garbage and stood up. Picking up his backpack he pulled it onto one shoulder and headed for the door, his eyes still locked on Hilde in that dead stare.

At the last moment he stepped off to the side and pushed past her, moving down the stairs at a quick, but yet not hurried pace. All four just stared after him in surprise and confusion.

"What is with him lately?" Mariemeia fumed. "Trowa, he's been acting really strange ever since about a week ago... did something happen..." Mariemeia's voice trailed off as Trowa quickly turned his head and stared out over the courtyard.

"I should go... you know, find my class so I don't get lost." Hilde murmured, inching for the door.

"I'll help, I can show you where it is." Quatre said quickly jumping to his own feet. Gathering his things he and Hilde both vacated the area as quickly as they could. Both knew when to take a hint on this one, and they knew this was a private conversation.

"Trowa?"

Trowa stood up and turned completely away from his cousin, his gaze turning out to look at the students scattered across the lawn below. He couldn't help but watch them, his emerald eyes noticing all the happy couples sitting together. Their hands clasped... their faces shining with smiles. He felt his throat twist slightly in pain but gave no sign other then his fingers wrapping tightly around the twisted metal coils.

Mariemeia's hand touched his shoulder, resting there lightly. "Something did happen, didn't it?"

He swallowed and nodded, very slowly.

"Please tell me. I know we're two completely different people... heck sometimes I can't even believe I'm related to you, we're so different. But you can trust me Trowa, I swear you can."

Trowa shut his eyes tightly, the pain in his throat twisting more as he tasted the rising tears. No, he refused to cry, there was no reason to. His other hand clasped onto the metal fence, both sets of fingers wrapping around the cold metal until his knuckles grew white. He felt his body tremble once as he drew a shaky breath, trying to calm himself. He willed the words out, but they barely came, his voice only a soft whisper, nearly swallowed by the warm breeze around them.

"I fell in love with him, Mari... I love my own brother."

Mariemeia's eyes widened in disbelief and her hand dropped away from Trowa's shoulder, raising to cover her mouth in shock. "You can't be... you love... oh god."

His hands tightened around the fence even more, the fresh memory of Duo's reaction flashing through his mind. The memory was so vivid that for a moment he could have sworn his cheek stung, but then the small pain was gone, leaving only the twisting and turning knot that had moved to his stomach.

"And you told him." Mariemeia whispered softly.

Trowa nodded.

"And that's why he slapped you that day," she whispered, even softer.

"I ruined everything," Trowa choked out softly. "I should never have told him. I should have left things be."

"Trowa Barton don't you dare blame yourself for this!"

Trowa's eyes snapped open in surprise and he slowly turned his head, glancing over his shoulder at his cousin. She now stood there, her hands on her hips and a very serious expression on her face. She frowned deeply at him.

"Don't you dare!" She said sharply.

"No, it is my fault."

"Trowa!" Grabbing his shoulder she forced him to turn and face her, yet still he turned his face away. She sighed and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Now you listen to me cousin, and listen good. Don't you dare belittle yourself for feeling something like this. There is nothing wrong with loving a person. There is never anything wrong with being in love."

"But he's my brother, I can't-"

"Duo is not your brother. You two are not related. You were simply raised in the same house, and you know as well as I do that there is nothing wrong with that. If Duo feels uncomfortable because of it then that's something he needs to deal with. He shouldn't be taking it out on others. And it is not your fault for telling him how you really feel. If nothing else I would fault you for not having told him sooner. There is nothing worse then lying to yourself."

Trowa closed his eyes and shook his head. "It doesn't matter. If I hadn't of said anything..."

"If you hadn't of said anything to him your life would be even more miserable, and you know it. How hard was it to live in the same house as him? Sleeping in the same room as him, for god's sake, and not being able to say something? That had to be awkward! Would you go back to that and nearly killing yourself with guilt every night? I know you Trowa, I know you'd let your guilt eat away at you until you were an empty shell and don't you dare deny it! You're just like your father on that one. I know guilt was a major part of the reason he adopted Duo, I know that. You can't let it eat at you. Trust me, if you hadn't have told him you would have blown up or he would have found out eventually and things would have only gotten worse."

He sighed. Trowa knew she was right. For all the times that Mariemeia may have acted like a teenage airhead or a loud mouth she was usually right.

"You can't blame yourself for this," she whispered softly.

"What am I supposed to do?" He murmured back. His eyes drifted down to look at his own hands, which he held in a helpless gesture. "So I told him, but what am I supposed to do now?"

Mariemeia smiled softly and hugged her cousin, wrapping her arms around him in the comforting embrace that one can only get from a family member. "Don't worry about it so much. Duo's probably still in shock over the fact, just like you. Things will clear up, I'm sure. You just have to be patient."

Nodding to her and to himself he hugged her back.

"Now, get to class before you're late. You've got a test today don't you?"

Both cousins pulled out of the hug and Mariemeia stood there silently with a small smile on her face as she watched Trowa grab his stuff and head down the stairs toward his class. Once he was out of sight her smile slid away to a serious look.

Well, that finally explained everything. Trowa telling Duo about his feelings explained Duo's strange mood lately perfectly. Especially the strange mood swing he'd had when she confronted him by the lockers. And it also explained Hilde, Duo was just probably over stressed. Yes... that had to be it.

Sighing to herself she headed off to her own class. As she walked she made a mental note not to use her tactic again. She was so used to pretending Duo and Trowa were a couple, and mentioning it to other boys to find out what their orientation was, that she'd never actually considered it to be a possibility. She couldn't help but give a sad smile at that thought.

Who would have ever thought that little fib she'd told Quatre during his first day of school would actually be the truth?

~*~

Duo dropped his book-bag on the floor and fell backward, flopping onto his bed with a great sigh. He didn't care that Trowa was in the living room and could hear him, he didn't care about anything at the moment. Rolling on his side so his back was to the door he slid one arm under his pillow and halfway hugged it, staring blankly at the wall. Staring blankly at the of-white wall his mind wandered and swam around. Closing his eyes he tried to shut it all out, tried to quiet his thoughts but it didn't work, they just kept spinning around and around and around...

First the fire in his dreams, the constant dreams that had attacked him since the day both his parents had died. Those dreams never stopped, always returning, always with something burning. Always that same strange boy burning in his cabin. Always the screams. Always the smoke.

Then Trowa telling him that he was in love... Duo frowned. As if he didn't have enough to worry about in his life with school and his annoying dreams and writing his stories. But now... now he found himself watching Trowa.

At first it was just something normal. He would find himself staring off into space or even at Trowa pondering how Trowa could have actually fallen in love with him. It wasn't that he disapproved of homosexual relationships, of course not! He was very open minded about them, or so he thought. But this was completely different! He'd always thought of Trowa as his actual brother. He didn't want to tarnish his memories of his adopted brother.

But at the same time he couldn't help but wonder. And he wondered far too often now. What was it about him that Trowa had fallen in love with? And how did he really feel about Trowa? He knew he could tell himself over and over again that Trowa was only his brother and there was nothing else... but now he doubted even himself.

What if what he thought was brotherly affection was something more?

Duo rolled onto his stomach and groaned softly into the pillow.

No! Damn it! No!

Trowa was just his brother!

"Why does it have to be so confusing?" He murmured to himself, his soft voice swallowed by the thick pillow.

How did life suddenly get so complicated? It all seemed so simple before his birthday, so normal. Not always happy and not always perfect but it had been normal. He used to hate that normalcy, always using writing and his pen name as an escape from the normal things he always thought were boring.

Now he just wanted it all back.

He wanted to go back to his normal school life, where Trowa was his adopted brother and everything was fine and dandy.

Closing his eyes tightly he curled his body around the pillow and shut out the entire world. He just wanted to sleep. He wanted to relax, sleep and not worry about anything. A night of freedom where his whirling and confused mind shut down and finally gave him some peace.

Even that strange dream would comfort him, he knew that. It was like an old friend, returning without fail, no matter what his life was like. Maybe he could hide there like he hid in his stories. Maybe he could hide from the world there on a nightly basis. Running from a burning cabin seemed so much easier then dealing with mixed emotions.

When sleep finally did sweep over his body it was a very welcome escape. And if Duo could have, he would have welcomed it with open arms and a grin on his face.

~*~

The house around her was empty and deserted, the large decorated rooms looming above her with deep shadows around every corner. But it wasn't something that scared her, in fact the silence and darkness was relaxing to her mind. The perfect opposite to a long day of school full of talkative friends and bland monotone teachers.

Still... she couldn't deny that her parent's huge house was more often then not very lonely.

Mariemeia dropped her things in the entryway, her book bag and jacket falling to a pile on the floor over her shoes. Normally she would have placed them nicely in the closet, but she knew her parents weren't home to complain so she just left them. For a moment she considered leaving them there for when her parents did get home, but no. She wasn't like that.

Sighing softly she made her way through the dark house to the kitchen, intent on finding something for dinner that only involved running the microwave. She hated to cook.

Her parents always seemed to be away doing something. She knew Barton was a very big last name to have and Barton Towers was quite a large company in the next city over but that didn't mean she had to like it. Thanks to their jobs her parents traveled far too often. What was the point of being able to afford a huge house if you were never home to enjoy it? Most kids would love this much freedom but Mariemeia hated it. In the end the only real reason she had large parties at her house so often was a lame attempt to fill the empty hallways and room with life and noise, something the house almost never saw.

"Maybe I should just stay over at Trowa's house tomorrow night or something."

Despite the fact that Trowa was her cousin, his family was almost the polar opposites of hers. Granted they shared the same last name, but Trowa's father and mother were not members of the family company. They had their own job which caused them to spend months at a time overseas. In reality they came home less often then Mari's parents did, but she still envied Trowa. At least he had a brother to live with him.

"Or better yet," she murmured to herself, stepping into the kitchen. She hadn't turned on a single light on her way through the halls. She liked the dark and besides, she knew the house layout well enough she could have walked through it blindfolded.

"Maybe I'll invite Hilde over for a few nights. We could stay up, order pizza and watch bad chick flicks."

Pulling open the refrigerator door she frowned. The bulb had burnt out again and she could barley make out the food before her with the light shining in through the window from the outdoor pool. Squinting she moved a few packages around, her fingers crossing over Tupperware and aluminum foil. In reality she didn't need any light to see what was in the fridge, it was always the same. Leftovers from take out meals because she hated to cook, and enough fixings to make a reasonably easy meal for school.

It took several minutes but she finally realized there was nothing new and interesting in the fridge and settled for a box of leftover fried rice and a can of pop. Pulling the white container and can out of the fridge she dropped them onto the table and went hunting for eating utensils.

As she was grabbing a fork from the drawer she could have sworn she saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. Spinning around quickly she turned to face the window, only to find the pool light outside glowing lightly and giving the water a hazy surreal look. Shrugging to herself she sat back down at the table and started to eat at the rice, not even bothering to warm it up.

It was about that time that she started to notice a strange scent in the air. It wasn't over powering, if fact it was barley noticeable, at first. But once she noticed it she couldn't forget it. It made her nose sting and itch and she noted she was starting to get a small headache. Frowning to herself she glanced around the dark and empty kitchen for the source.

It didn't smell like burnt or rotten food, the scent was different. Not sweet or citrusy, more sharp...

Standing up she wandered toward the door to the kitchen, her hand searching for the light switch. She froze however when she recognized a soft hissing sound.

The hissing of the gas stove.

Mariemeia's eyes widened and her hand froze, a breath away from hitting the switch. She knew what she was smelling now, gas from the stove. She quickly pulled her hand away and stepped backward, far away from the light switch. Gas from the stove, it must have a leak. If she had turned the light switch she might have made a spark and blown the entire room up.

Swallowing hard she inched away from the stove, her mind rationally trying to figure out what to do. She knew she had to get out of the house, it was too dangerous. But she didn't have time.

In a matter of seconds many things happened at once and she barely even had time to blink.

Movement behind her.

The snap of a match.

Bright, burning light.

A force slamming into her.

Screaming.

Glass breaking.

Water.

Darkness.

TBC...

 

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