Merrillian Part 4
Trowa was in love? With another boy?
Heero was still blinking from the shock of that revelation. He'd never had anything against males falling in love with other males, or females falling in love with other females, or multi-partnered couples for that matter. It was other people's relationships and not really any of his business to pry into. To hear that Trowa had been in love with another boy wasn't what was so shocking. It was the fact that somehow Trowa had managed to hide it from his twin sister and his best friend for who knows how long. That was what shocked him.
Now, the morning after Catherine had revealed all of this, most of the shock had worn off, but not all of it. After that little revelation, the rest of the night had moved in a blur. Heero had done the best he could to assure Catherine that it wasn't her fault that she hadn't seen the events coming, that she didn't need to blame herself for something in the past. After he'd finally gotten her to agree to that idea, he'd walked her home and stayed with her in her room until she'd fallen asleep.
And now? It was bright and early in the morning, one week before classes were over and Heero was heading down the street with a piece of scrap paper in his hands. He'd left Catherine in her room, but only after he was sure she'd be all right and wouldn't try anything stupid. Who would have known that all those jokes about her keeping the biggest secret in the world weren't jokes at all... what bigger secret could she hold than the truth to why her brother committed suicide? Apparently, even her parents didn't know she'd overheard what had happened that night.
He should have been angry at Trowa's parents for being so pigheaded and blinded. But he wasn't really, and he guessed that was mostly because he was still in shock over the news. Thankfully, he'd been rational enough to ask Catherine the boy's name and now he was headed to said boy's house, after a short bus ride to the other side of the city, a piece of paper with the scrawled address in his hand.
The houses around him were very different from the kind he was used to. Granted, neither his family or Catherine's was poor, they lived comfortably enough, but they certainly weren't this rich. The houses weren't particularly large, but they still spoke of high money with their perfectly kept lawns, large garages and expensive cars. He could only imagine what the insides looked like, not to mention the owners. In spite of himself, Heero began to feel a little young and worried. This wasn't his neighborhood and he felt that he stuck out like a sore thumb.
Glancing down at the paper, he found that he'd arrived at the house and he stopped to stare for just a moment. The house was tall, easily the largest on the block, if not a block in itself. Ok, that was exaggerating but the house was huge. It had pillars surrounding the door and a perfectly cut line of hedges serving as a fence. Each window had a perfectly tended flower box full of brightly colored petals and there was even a small fountain that he could see in the back garden. He couldn't see much of the house thanks to the hedges, but that didn't ruin the effect. If he'd felt intimidated before, now he felt like running scared.
Slipping the paper carefully in his pocket, he took a deep breath and forced away his nervousness. The last thing he wanted to do was appear like a blithering idiot, so he slipped on the mental mask that he used when speaking with the owners at his father's museum job. He knew how to deal with authority, given enough time to prepare. Taking another deep breath, he moved down the walk toward the front door.
A gentle knock, since there was no bell, brought an immediate answer and Heero soon found himself face to face with a young woman dressed in a simple black dress and white apron. A maid? He didn't think people still hired them!
"Can I help you?" The woman asked in a soft voice.
"I came here to see-"
"Dawn?" Came a cheerful voice from behind the maid. Heero glanced over the woman's shoulder but she blocked most of his view and he couldn't see who it was coming from. "I'll take it! I know who it is."
The servant looked surprised for a second, but then she nodded and took a step back. With a small bow she signaled it was clear for Heero to enter and he took two timid steps inside the door.
His eyes scanned the entry hall and it took almost all he had to not let his mouth hang open. Furniture was scarce emphasizing the sheer size of the room, vaulted ceiling, shimmer chandelier and all. Heero's eyes traveled over the tasteful decorations until they came to the twisting stairway and settled on a boy about his age with golden blond hair and a bright smile.
"I thought I recognized your voice." The boy said, coming to the bottom of the stairs. "You're Heero, aren't you?"
Heero blinked in surprise. He'd never seen this boy before in his life! No, wait, that wasn't true. He did vaguely recognize the boy, but he couldn't quite place from where. Something about his short blond locks and aquamarine eyes made him stand out in Heero's mind. Maybe they'd passed once or twice at school, since the boy looked to be about his age. Or possibly he'd seen him on TV... Heero blinked in realization. No, he knew where he recognized this boy from; he'd been the one he'd seen at the graveyard only a few days ago!
"Do I know you?" He asked in surprise, forgetting that he was the one who'd showed up unannounced at the door, not the other way around.
The boy smiled and laughed softly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, its just that I haven't seen anyone my age around here for so long... would you like to sit down and talk? I assume you came by to talk to me about something."
Heero nodded numbly, trying to shake off his surprise. A second later, he'd mostly succeeded and followed the boy back up the stairs to a room not very far away. Stepping into the room immediately calmed him, because it was a very familiar world.
Gone were the tasteful decorations and very little furniture, giving way to a simple desk, dresser and ruffled bed that looked like it was allergic to being made. A cluttered bookshelf covered one wall while papers were spread across the desk with a small pile on the floor. Familiar territory indeed, it reminded Heero a lot of his own bedroom.
"Sorry about the mess," the boy said with an embarrassed smile. "I wasn't expecting company."
"Don't worry about it," Heero said with a shake of his head. He was quite glad that at his words the boy made no move to clean up the mess, apparently he got the hint that it set Heero at ease.
"Do you want to sit down?"
Heero blinked in the boy's direction, then couldn't help but smile a bit. "I'm sorry, I don't even know your name."
The boy's eyes widened and he laughed. "Oh! My apologies for that, guess I got carried away. I'm Quatre Winner, but don't let the last name intimidate you."
Heero couldn't help but stare at a moment from the boy's last name. Winner? It hadn't even occurred to him when he'd looked up the address, but now that he thought about it, he remembered that the Winner family practically ran everything in this town. Heck, they even had the college library named after them thanks to the large amount of money they'd donated to it while it was being built. Not only that, but Heero was sure that the Winner family, or at least one of their companies, owned the museum that his father worked at.
He nodded and took the seat offered, which was the boy's desk chair, while the blond sat down on a window seat not too far away. Quatre's happy expression sobered a bit and dropped down a simple smile, once again putting Heero a little more at ease.
"How did you know who I was? I'm pretty sure we haven't met before."
"Oh, that's simple enough. Trowa told me all about you and I used to see him with you and his sister a lot. So I just put two and two together... guess I was right."
Heero just nodded, that made sense.
"I assume you came here because of Trowa?" The boy's expression dropped a little more, but that was to be expected, especially when Heero considered the fact that Catherine had said Quatre was the name of the boy who Trowa had been in love with. "You just found out about it, didn't you?" Quatre asked quietly.
"About you and Trowa? Yeah." Heero offered a very small smile. "I'm sorry, it's still a bit of a shock. I didn't know up until now why he did it, he didn't leave a note or anything."
Quatre nodded.
"I don't blame you for it or anything," Heero added quickly as an afterthought.
"Oh, I know that. And I'm not surprised you didn't know, we kept it a secret from everybody until he told his parents. By that time my parents had figured it out and he'd wanted to tell his parents so much. He always hated lying to people."
"Yes, he did."
"He was always talking about you and his twin sister. He said you were practically a brother to him. He said he hated lying to you two most of all. I think he was going to tell you..." The blond let his words drop off softly, letting the sentence hang in the air.
Heero's eyes drifted quietly around the room, shifting to the desk. Standing up from the chair, he walked over to it and looked closer at the picture frame sitting next to the computer. It was a very simple wooden frame, only stained a light natural color. Within that frame was a picture of Trowa with his arms wrapped lovingly around a very happy Quatre. A small smile was on Trowa's face, the kind of smile Heero recognized as his rare one, one he only smiled with when he was truly happy. Heero couldn't help but smile softly at the picture.
"He looks very happy."
Quatre smiled and came to stand beside Heero, looking at the picture with him. "We were," he said in a soft voice.
"How long were you two together?"
"A year."
Heero looked up in surprise and met the blond boy's eyes. "A year?" He echoed in surprise. Trowa had managed to hide this for a full year and not tell anyone? He never would have guessed! Which only went to show how careful Trowa had been about his actions and words, and how cautious.
"A whole year. We met when his class went to the botanical gardens on a science field trip. Or rather, that's when I got up the courage to finally talk to him." A small blush crossed Quatre's cheeks but it quickly faded.
Heero remembered that trip. He'd thought it strange that year that he and Trowa hadn't ended up in the same class. But then again, in high school the faculty seemed to go to great lengths to keep friends and siblings out of the same classes, for fear of them not paying attention to the teachers. By rotten luck that year, even their fieldtrips had been scheduled for different times. He did remember, though, that when Trowa walked home with them that night, he'd seemed particularly happy. They never did get a chance to weasel the reason out of him.
"I should have guessed it was that day. I swear I'd never seen him that happy before. But he evaded the subject and we just kind of forgot about it." Heero gave a small shrug. "What was he like? The Trowa you knew."
Quatre smiled and sat back down on the window seat, leaning against the wall. "He was really quiet. He didn't like to talk much, but he always had other ways of talking. I never felt like I was talking too much when I was around him, even though I swear sometimes he never said a word."
Heero nodded and took his seat back on the desk chair, listening silently.
"There was one subject he did talk about though. He loved circuses, especially the clowns. You wouldn't think that such a quiet and soft spoken guy would like the circus, but he always said he was going to take me to one one day, with you two. He said that he loved the way that Catherine would always gasp when the people danced on the tightropes, afraid they would fall. And that you... he said your eyes would always light up when you saw the large cats."
Heero chuckled softly. "I didn't think anyone noticed how much I loved the lions."
"I didn't believe him when he said the clowns made him laugh. He didn't laugh often enough; it was always a quiet chuckle or something very soft. I always kidded him that he didn't laugh enough."
Quatre's eyes slid shut and his smile shifted to a dreamy one, as if he were remembering. "And he was one of the most caring and loving people I've ever met. I was never sad around him, even if we didn't get much time together. He always made it feel like it was worth it, that another minute was worth almost any price. Just to see him a little longer..."
"You really loved him, didn't you?"
"With all my heart." Quatre whispered back.
Heero sat there silently, just watching the boy sit there in the window seat, his eyes closed as he basked in his own precious memories. He could only imagine what it must have been like to go to all that care of hiding a relationship, only to see it torn to pieces one morning. What had it been like to wake up one morning and realize that the person you loved was dead? That you never get to see or speak to him again. He just couldn't imagine what it would have been like. Which was why he had no intention of speaking until Quatre gave him permission. If anything, this young boy deserved more than anyone to be able to look back and smile. Heero wasn't about to interrupt that.
Unfortunately, there were people who disagreed with him, because at that moment a light knock sounded at the door. Both boys turned to see who it was as the door opened and they found a taller man standing outside, his head bowed in a stance of respect. Heero guessed it was another servant.
"Master Quatre, your parents request your attendance on the veranda for lunch."
Quatre winced at the title and nodded. "Please tell them I'll join them in a few minutes. I have to see my guest out."
The door shut and soon they could hear the man's retreating footsteps down the stairs. Quatre flashed Heero a slightly embarrassed look.
"He does have a habit of being horribly formal, sorry about that. And I apologize for not being able to invite you to dine with us, but my father isn't fond of unexpected guests. He always thinks he has to do something big and formal for them."
Heero nodded. "That's all right, I'm not very hungry right now anyway."
Standing up, Quatre led Heero down to the front door. Once they arrived there, he smiled brightly at Heero. "I'm glad you stopped by. I don't talk about him much with my family, I really did enjoy it."
"You should join us some time, for an afternoon or something. I'm sure Catherine would love to meet you."
The blonde's eyes brightened at that suggestion. "I'd like that. I'd like it a lot."
Heero smiled and nodded, then headed out the door, waving as he moved down the sidewalk to the main street.
Quatre remained at the door, watching him walk away with a light smile at his face. He hadn't expected Heero to show up at his door, but all the same he was very happy it had happened. It had given him a chance to spend some time talking about the past, something he didn't let himself do that often. Not nearly as often as perhaps he should.
"Thank you." Quatre said softly as Heero disappeared from sight. Then he shut the door and went to join his parents for lunch.
~*~
Heero arrived home to find his house quiet as usual. Mimir greeted him at the door in her usual way, by weaving through his feet and trying to trip him as he walked. He smiled down at the tabby and picked her up, scratching under her collar until she was a happy purring mass.
A soft tune drifted from his father's office and Heero knew that he was doing some work for the museum, even though it was the weekend. Either that or he was catching up on his hobby of reading books on random subjects. His father loved to read thick academic volumes that had nothing to do with his chosen career and then share his new found knowledge with his son. Heero didn't mind at all, considering that such conversations with his father usually led to new ideas for unique paintings.
Turning and heading for the office, he passed a mirror on the wall and was reminded about what he wanted to ask his father. He stepped into the study to find his father sitting at his desk, a thick volume in his hands. Odin didn't even look up as his son entered the room.
"Heero, you might find this interesting. They just published a study about psychic talents, you know like telekinesis and empathy and the like. Well this study has a completely new take on the idea. The author claims that it might actually be genetic and therefore passed down through one's genes to their children. Of course it's a very rare recessive gene."
"Of course," Heero agreed, not really listening. "Dad, do you know anything about hand signals?"
His father glanced up from the book and frowned for a moment. "Possibly. I know a bit of sign language from my years in high school, if that's what you mean."
"I'm not sure." Heero shifted Mimir to one arm and used his now free hand to mimic the movements he'd seen the boy make in the mirror.
Odin frowned for a moment, asking Heero to repeat the movements a few times then grinned at him. "Of course, you're spelling out a word. I believe it's d u o. Duo, as in two of something. What's this for?"
Heero glanced at his hand for a second then looked back at his father and shrugged. "Just something I saw in a dream."
"That's pretty precise for a dream." His father cracked a lopsided smile. "Maybe it's knowledge from a past life."
Heero made a sour face at that one. "Yeah, right dad. Even you don't believe in that reincarnation stuff. I'll let you get back to your book, don't stay up too late."
Odin snorted and looked back down at the volume, turning the page. "You know, sometimes it boggles me that my nineteen year old son goes to sleep earlier than me. Aren't you supposed to be out partying or drinking? You are in college after all."
"Dad, I'm not legal yet. You're not suppose to encourage me."
Odin smirked at his son. "Oh yeah, oops." But the sarcasm was thick in his voice and one would have had to been deaf not to hear it. Heero just shook his head and headed up for his room, his cat curled snuggly against his shoulder. When he reached his room, he let the cat down onto the bed and glanced over to his desk.
His college textbooks lay spread out; barely even touched since he'd dropped them there on Friday. He supposed he should have been studying for his finals next week, but they just didn't seem that important. He'd always managed to listen well in class, despite the spacey look Catherine claimed he always had, and as a result didn't need to do much studying at the end of the semester. By sheer luck, this semester he hadn't taken any classes that required major papers or excessive amounts of research on his part. So next week would fly by quickly with a rush of exams and then nothing for another three months.
He frowned at the books, almost wishing he did have a paper to take his mind off of things, but he knew that even if he did have one he wouldn't have been able to concentrate. Between the messed up dreams, the anniversary of Trowa's death, finding out about and meeting Quatre and his recent hallucinations; the last thing he needed was homework to worry about. At least he'd solved part of the puzzle though. He now knew why his friend had died and despite the fact that it only rubbed in the grim reality of Trowa's death more, it did make him feel better to know the reason, even if it really didn't change anything.
Dropping his shirt to the floor, he laid out across his bed and began running his hand through Mimir's fur as he let his eyes drift shut. He wasn't tired but he was impatient. He wanted to know if his father had been right about the hand symbols. Duo? The boy had held up two fingers before spelling out the word, so maybe that was right. But what could that possibly have to do with anything?
Unless of course it was the boy's name...
What a strange name for someone to have.
With those thoughts, Heero drifted off into a light sleep and the dreamscape wasn't far in coming.
~*~
Once again, he was surrounded by darkness. The pull had been quick this time and the time it took him to be pulled every night was growing shorter and shorter. It almost felt like he was traveling somewhere, yet each time he took the journey, it became easier and quicker. Like his strange destination with the boy was getting closer each time.
White light. Mechanical beeping. Darkness.
Heero landed on the ground softly, his bare feet causing the cold concrete to send a shiver up his body. Rubbing his eyes, he glanced around. The chains around him twinkled lightly as if it were almost raining... or as if he was looking at the whole scene through tears of watering eyes. He frowned and looked up, not at all surprised to see the boy there.
Those sad violet eyes looked back at him with a type of expectation, a shimmering of hope. The boy looked hopeful, like he was waiting for Heero to reveal something. Heero gave him a very small smile and kicked off the ground so he could float up next to the boy, which had also become increasingly easier each time.
"Your name is Duo isn't it?" He said softly.
The boy's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. Heero watched as those beautiful but thin lips curved into a bright smile and the boy nodded, causing the chains to tinkle around him. A lock of hair drifted down and fell in front of his face, blocking one of his eyes.
Heero smiled back. He'd finally discovered the boy's name. And now they'd found a way to communicate, if only in small words in the mirror. They'd communicated just once, but the resulting feelings made him feel like he could soar to the moon for this boy. He'd discovered his name, finally!
"How can I help you?" Heero asked, the world rushing out of his mouth. "How do I get you out of this? How do I get rid of these chains?"
The boy's expression shifted, turning more thoughtful as he chewed on his lower lip. It took nearly all of Heero's patience to not keep asking the boy questions. He wanted to keep asking, wanted to know so much, but he realized that it wouldn't help them any. So he stayed quiet and waited to see if Duo could find a way to answer him.
After a while, the boy tried to move his lips, to mouth out a word very slowly. Heero's brows knitted together and he frowned. Everyone always said that reading lips was easy, but Heero just couldn't do it. No one understood how hard it was in real life, especially if you'd never heard the person speak before in real life. Every movement of the lips could be so many different sounds that it was mind-boggling to even imagine how some people could do it. Heero certainly could not.
He sadly shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."
The boy's expression fell and he seemed to sag in the chains. Heero's expression fell too and he frowned deeply. There had to be some other way for them to communicate than the boy trying to speak. But him asking questions and getting the boy to nod or shake his head yes or no would take too long, and they never seemed to have long enough in these dreams. It was impossible to know what would cause the chain reaction and send Heero flying back. They couldn't afford to waste any time.
This was, of course, all assuming that this boy was actually real and was actually asking for help. Heero shut his eyes sadly as those logical thoughts started to invade his mind. When exactly had he decided this boy was real? What had made him think that? How did he know that he wasn't just an elaborate figment of his ima-
Heero's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as the image of bright and purple eyes filled his mind. His eyes snapped open and his head jerked up to look at the boy, who was watching him intently.
"Did you do that?" He whispered softly.
The boy's eyes widened a bit and he nodded.
"You can send images like that into my head?"
The boy nodded again, quicker this time.
"Tell me how I can help you. Please. Is there someone who can help you get out of this? Someone who I can contact and talk to?"
The boy's brows furrowed in thought and after a moment he closed his eyes. Heero closed his eyes as well, watching as an image began to form in his head. It was of a very young boy, a little older than ten years old. He had beautiful golden curls and aquamarine eyes...
Heero's eyes snapped open, he knew that face!
"Quatre?!"
The boy's eyes flew open and a look of surprise crossed his face. But at that same moment, the same red light shot up around them. The light was hotter this time and Heero actually heard the boy cry out with a strangled sound. Heero was shoved backward and this time nothing caught him. He was falling, faster and faster, unable to stop his fall and he closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact.
TBC...
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