Labyrinth - Gundam Wing Style Part 10
Duo opened his eyes and groaned as pain flowed through his body. Sitting up slowly he rubbed the back of his head and glanced around. He was lying at the bottom of the stairs in his house, right across from the front door. Had he fallen down the stairs?
Sitting up completely he eyed himself and gasped as he found his clothes were torn and his hair had come out of its normal braid. He jumped as the large clock in the hallway clicked and started ringing, alerting the house it was midnight. Midnight...
Solo!
Duo jumped to his feet and raced up the stairs, his shoes pounding against the carpet hard. He ignored his protesting body and instead ran at full tilt straight for his room, throwing the door open so hard it hit the back wall with a loud thump. Quickly he flipped on the light and stared into the room.
A lump covered with quilts lay in Solo's bed, groaning and rolling over at the sudden light and noise. "Duo," he moaned. "You jerk, turn off the light."
"Solo!" Duo jumped at the bed and practically tackled his younger half-brother, burying him even further in the quilts.
Solo struggled under the covers and finally tossed them off, sending Duo to land hard on the floor. Solo sat up in bed and just stared. "What in the world...?" He trailed off as he saw Duo's state. Duo's clothes were torn, his hair disheveled and scratches covered his body. Solo's eyes widened and he swallowed. "It wasn't a dream?" He murmured.
Duo shook his head in response.
"Are you ok?"
Duo grinned and nodded, jumping forward to hug his half-brother tightly. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have wished you away. I swear I'll never do it again!"
Solo just sat there in the embrace, the shock moving through his system. For a long time he didn't respond, he just sat there as Duo hugged him. Then he smiled and pushed Duo away. "It's not just your fault, heh. I shouldn't have given you a reason to wish me away either. So, lets both agree to not anymore and I think we'll be fine."
Duo nodded. "Agreed. But you're still a twerp."
"Hey!" Solo jumped off the bed and tackled his brother, rolling on the floor laughing hard as the two mock wrestled, trying to pin the other to the ground. Finally they both just landed side by side, laughing and breathing hard as they stared at the ceiling.
"Glad to see you two are getting along now."
Both boys sat up and Duo turned to face the mirror. "No way... Quatre?"
The little fire demon smiled and nodded from the mirror. Both boys stood up and walked to the hallway full length mirror and stared, Solo doing a couple double takes until he was convinced the strange blond boy wasn't actually standing behind them. "Who?"
"You guys made it out ok?" Duo asked quickly.
Quatre smiled and nodded. "All three of us, in one piece. Though... Wufei did chip a nail."
Quatre's image faded out and Wufei was crouching in his place. His eyes narrowed. "Quatre!" He hissed in warning. Shaking his head sadly he glanced to Solo. "So you're the one who caused all the fuss... you're lucky kid. Lucky you've got him."
Solo nodded.
Wufei's image faded out to reveal Trowa, standing exactly to mirror Duo's stance.
Duo frowned. "What happened to the castle after I left?"
Trowa shook his head. "It's gone, like everything else."
"Gone?!"
The merboy nodded, his face expressionless.
"I... I destroyed it all, didn't I?"
"No," came Quatre's voice as he walked up to stand beside Trowa. "You just taught us all something we weren't willing to learn before. Just that we need to go home."
"Fantasies don't last, nor should they." Trowa added. Meanwhile Wufei, who was now curled at their feet, just snorted in agreement.
"And... Heero?"
All three shook their heads. "We don't know. We haven't seen him."
Duo's shoulders dropped but he nodded. He hadn't meant to destroy their home, but upon reflection of what they said he knew they were right. Everyone belonged home, in their own worlds. A fantasy was a great place to visit, but a horrible and lonely place to live.
As if echoing his thoughts the three boys bid their farewells and slowly faded from the mirror until Duo and Solo were left staring at their own tattered reflections. Duo grimaced when he saw what shape he was really in.
"Man, I really did do a number on myself," he murmured.
Solo nodded in agreement.
"I got an idea. I'll go get cleaned up and you order the pizza."
"Are you nuts? Mom would kill us!"
Duo just grinned. "Mom can go to hell. We are order pizza tonight, we deserve it."
And that's just what they did.
~*~
Time passed and things dropped back into the normal routine. Luckily, that night, Solo and Duo were never caught with the pizza, being that their parents didn't make it home until very late in the morning and were too tired to check on the boys. This was a very good thing considering Duo and Solo had fallen asleep on the floor next to the empty pizza box. They promptly threw it away the next morning before anyone could notice.
Summer passed and school started, bringing with it classes, homework and a whole world of things to fill their free time. Neither forgot about their strange adventure but at the same time it wasn't brought to mind often either. The lessons had been learned and were now put to daily use, their source filed away in the deepest part of the mind, reserved for the most cherished of memories. Solo got along better with Duo, not bugging him so much about his books, while Duo spent more time with other people, leaving his books to collect another layer of dust, but not to be forgotten.
Things were back to normal and no one, other then them, was the wiser. In fact, the entire adventure was the furthest thing from Duo's mind when he entered his classroom about a month later. His mind set more on the new teacher and how he would have to really struggle with his grades in this class; it was one of his worst subjects. He was so embroiled in his own thoughts he didn't even realize someone was sitting in his normal desk until he reached it. He blinked in confusion, finding this quite strange. His seat was in the very back corner, no one ever took it because he was always so early, but today a person had beat him.
Duo was about to say something when he caught a glance at the boy and stopped, his body growing cold with memory. Before him sat a boy his age, wearing normal jeans and a tank top, covered by a jean jacket. His shoulders were hunched and he appeared to be quite enthralled with the book in his hands. But it wasn't any of those features that caught Duo's attention. It was the hair. The disheveled brown hair that fell haphazardly across his head, shading his eyes from the room. Duo swallowed, knowing he could easily guess the color of those eyes.
A moment later his suspicions were confirmed as the boy looked up at him from the book, revealing his deep cobalt blue eyes, hidden just slightly behind a pair of wire frame glasses. Duo's breath caught in his throat and the world around him seemed to stop as the boy just stared at him in confusion.
Then the shock seemed to melt away, Duo's mind snapping back into motion. Smiling he nodded a greeting to the boy, knowing exactly what he should do. "Hey, my name's Duo Maxwell. Did you just transfer?"
The boy nodded slowly. "Heero Yuy."
Duo's grin widened and he took the seat next to Heero glancing at the book. "What'cha reading?"
Heero gave a small embarrassed smile. "The textbook."
"Cool! Listen, you don't think you could help me, do you? I mean, I really suck at social studies."
Heero's eyebrows knit together in confusion and he just stared for a moment, his mouth just slightly open. Taking a small breath he frowned. "You're serious?"
Duo nodded and ran a hand over his braid. "Yeah, I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't. Why? You don't believe I could get an F in this class? I assure you, I did it last year."
Despite himself Heero let out a light chuckle. "No, it isn't that. Just... most of the time people don't talk to me. I'm not very social."
Duo grinned. "Same here, usually." Duo leaned forward and whispered quietly. "I won't tell if you won't."
That brought a genuine smile to Heero's lips and he just shook his head.
"So what do you say, Heero, will you help me study? I know I'll flunk out if ya don't."
Heero just shook his head and chuckled. "Baka."
"Is that a yes?" Duo asked wiggling his eyebrows.
Heero laughed and swatted at him playfully. "Yes. Now quite it, class is starting!"
Duo grinned and straightened up in his chair. Turning his head he watched the teacher walking and start to write on the board. Despite his hatred of social studies he just couldn't stop smiling for the entire class. It shouldn't have surprised him really, that Heero turned out to be just a normal boy like him. It shouldn't have surprised him that the great and feared Goblin King actually turned out to be a teenage boy who hid behind thick books and a wire frame set of glasses. It shouldn't have surprised him at all, and in reality it didn't. All he knew was that this time he wasn't going to let Heero fall into his own world. This time he'd keep the boy smiling.
This time he wouldn't let him fall.
OWARI
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