Merrillian Part 6
"Duo!"
A young boy of about ten turned around, a bright grin painted across his face. The movement caused his waist long light brown braid to bounce off his back and hit the picnic table gently. Duo smirked and leaned over the patio table, his grin widening from ear to ear as he waved to his cousin who was racing toward him.
As Quatre came closer, he realized that Duo was sitting with a bowl of water in front of him. The bowl was made of red tinted glass; the kind Quatre's mother always loved to collect. Quatre slowed to a halt as he came to the table.
"What are you doing?" He asked, his eyes shining with curiosity.
"I want to try a new trick I learned. Wanna try with me?" Duo's violet eyes smiled back at Quatre as he nodded and moved around the table to lean over the bowl of water with his cousin.
"What do we do?" The young blond asked.
"Ask the water a question. It'll answer back."
Quatre giggled. "No it won't, silly. Water can't talk."
Duo's eyes took on a glint of mischief as he glanced to his cousin. "How do you know that? Have you ever tried talking to water before?"
"Of course not! It can't talk; it doesn't have a mouth! You can't talk without a mouth!"
"Oh I don't know... I bet it can find other ways. Ask it a question already!"
Quatre giggled and leaned forward until he could see his reflection smiling back at him in the clear water. He pursed his lips quietly, trying to think of something to ask it. Then he shrugged. "Tell me about my friends, will I have many in the future?"
The blond stayed there for a moment, just watching his own eyes in the clear depths, reflected back twice off the water and the bowl. He could hear the bird chirping around him in the summer day and he could hear a soft breeze rustling branches above him. A bug zoomed by his ear, close enough to tickle... but there was nothing else. Quatre frowned and leaned back, away from the bowl.
"I don't think it worked, Duo."
Duo didn't answer, causing Quatre to turn and look at him in confusion. His cousin was very rarely silent. He found Duo rocking just the slightest bit back and forth, with his eyes slid mostly shut. Quatre frowned in worry.
"Duo?" He asked softly.
"You have one..." Duo said in a very soft voice. "A very close friend who means the world to you."
Quatre blinked. "Not funny Duo... stop joking around."
But Duo didn't stop. In fact he didn't even seem to hear Quatre's voice, he just kept speaking. "You... love him even. But you never get a chance to be together. Because soon he goes away..."
Quatre shook his head and grabbed Duo's shoulders, rocking him none too gently. "Duo stop it! You're scaring me! Stop it!"
"He goes away without warning... he dies... he-"
"Duo! Stop!" Quatre shook Duo so hard that the table rocked with them and the bowl of water jerked quickly from side to side. Water splashed over the sides and it tumbled to the grassy ground, landing upside down, no longer holding any water.
Duo's eyes blinked open and he gasped softly, glancing around in surprise. "What the...?"
"That wasn't funny!" Quatre said, jumping down from the table. Carefully he leaned down and picked up the bowl, glad to find it wasn't broken.
"I'm sorry, Quat." Duo said softly.
But his normally violet eyes held a haunted look, as if there was something he wasn't saying...
~*~
"Quatre?"
The blond groaned softly, turning his head away as Heero gently shook his shoulder. Another gentle shake and Quatre finally started to respond. He rolled onto his side and his eyes slid open. Blinking in confusion, he glanced around the room. The first thing he noticed was that the dream painting was gone; Heero had removed it from sight.
"What happened?" He murmured quietly as Heero helped him sit up.
"You saw the painting and then you fainted."
Quatre closed his eyes to remember what had happened, replaying the scene in his head, while Heero watched him closely. A second later he nodded, opening his eyes again. "I'm sorry about that. I just... I didn't expect to see him like that."
Heero nodded, not saying anymore.
"My apologies," Quatre said after a moment. "I think I understand now, and I shouldn't have blown up at you like that when you showed up at my house. It's just that..."
Heero took a seat on the bed next to him and frowned softly. "Something happened to him, didn't it?"
The blond boy frowned a bit and brought his knees up to hug them lightly. All his life he'd been raised in a household where one handled their own problems. His parents, despite the fact that they loved him dearly, had never had the time to play their proper role. To him, Duo had always been the sibling he'd never had and the two had shared everything. Yet after Duo had disappeared, he'd stopped talking to people. Only years later, when he'd finally met Trowa, did he begin to open up again. And then Trowa had disappeared...
His life seemed to be an endless cycle of opening up to people, watching them disappear, then shutting himself off from the world all over again. And here he was once again, debating opening up to someone. Still, he knew he couldn't stay hidden forever, and there certainly was something to be said about trying and trying again, because eventually he had to find a person who would stay and listen.
"He disappeared nearly five years ago. The police said he was kidnapped... but I haven't seen him since." He let his eyes drift across the room to where the painting of Trowa and Heero's mother was. "They never found any trace of him and eventually his case got put on the back burner, buried somewhere in a department file drawer with the rest of the cases that never pan out."
Heero frowned. "I'm sorry."
"Even though we were cousins, he was like a brother to me. We did everything together until he disappeared. You painted him exactly as far as I can tell. In fact the boy you painted looks exactly like how I would have imagined him to look today. We were practically the same age and the relationship we had was much like how Trowa always described you and him. The best of friends, possibly closer than siblings."
Heero nodded from where he sat and the two just remained there for a while, silent. Heero seemed not sure what to say and Quatre was busy gathering up his courage on one other small thing. Taking a slow breath to calm himself, he glanced away.
"I did see him, once." He said softly. Then his face cracked a smile and he gave a light chuckle. "To anyone else this would sound insane."
A smirk crossed Heero's face. "Who am I to judge? I see a missing boy in my dreams."
Quatre nodded. "I did see him once," he repeated. "The night I found out what had happened to Trowa I saw him in my dreams. He was exactly how I remembered him and just for that one night he held me and let me cry until the morning. But when the dream faded and I woke up that morning he was gone, and I haven't seen him since. He may be missing but... but I think he's still alive. And your dreams kind of prove it. What are they like?"
Heero leaned back on the bed and frowned in thought. "They always start the same; with me rushing over a long distance, like I'm caught in a stream and being pulled by the current. Then there's this flash of white and then I'm dropped into the painting. I can never get very close to him. He can't talk. And they only last for seconds at a time, rarely more then a minute, before I'm pushed out by this red light. Only once I've seen him outside of the dream, in a mirror in an art classroom."
Quatre frowned at that one and brought a hand to his chin in a thoughtful look. "I wonder why he showed up in the mirror. What were you doing at the time?"
"I went into the art classroom to look at other people's paintings and I happened to be thinking of him because one of the paintings reminded me of the dream. Then he showed up in the mirror as my reflection."
"That's odd."
Silence reigned once again as the two boys sat there, trying to place the pieces together for something more concrete. Below them the house was silent as well, until they heard the sound of the front door opening and someone stumbling in. Both boys looked toward Heero's door and the stairs.
"Heero? You home?" Odin's voice called out.
"My dad, I must have left some of the lights on downstairs."
Those words seemed to break the spell around them and Quatre gave a slight nod. Standing up off the bed, he smoothed out his clothes and glanced back to Heero. "I should get home before my father worries."
Heero tilted his head and followed him down the stairs. "Your father? Your mother doesn't worry?"
Quatre chuckled. "Nope. She always knows where I am."
The two arrived down stairs and Heero greeted his father then saw Quatre off, who still had time to catch the last city bus back to his house before they stopped their run. Quatre stepped on to the bus and watched the doors closing behind him and Heero's house fade into the distance.
Turning in his seat to look out the windows behind him, a small smirk crossed his face. If nothing else then tonight proved that Duo was alive. This time, he planned to keep up the search. This time, he wasn't going to give up because of hopelessness. First thing tomorrow, after he got a full night's rest, he planned to start searching again. Already he was planning what paths to look through, who to call and where to check again.
By the time he arrived home he already had a plan of action. In fact he almost wanted to skip the whole sleeping part and jump right into the search. But tired people made careless mistakes, and this time he wasn't about to miss anything. He would find Duo this time, with Heero's help. This time, he wouldn't stop until his cousin was found.
~*~
The next day, Catherine stepped out of her classroom to a very surprising sight. Blinking, she just stood there for a moment, then she ran up to him with a bright smile.
"Heero! I didn't expect to see you here today."
There was a world of difference between this Heero and the one she'd talked to yesterday. With one look, she could already tell that he was doing better. For one thing he'd taken the time to put on newer clothes that weren't wrinkled and his hair showed a bit more order then it usually did - if one could possibly call his hair ordered that is. And the fact that he actually turned and smiled at her also spoke a world of change. She came up to walk next to him and smirked.
"So, what dragged you out of bed?" She joked.
"I had to make up for the final I missed yesterday. I think I impressed the professor by turning it in so early. She wasn't expecting it until next week. But now all mine are out of the way." He turned to her. "Yours?"
Catherine shook her head and tried to look dramatic. "Two more of the blasted things. How is it you always get so lucky? I mean, by some luck of the draw, you either don't end up with finals at all, or you just get the simple ones. I swear I'd kill for a multiple-guess final instead of all these essay-write-me-a-twenty-page-answer crap. Remind me again why I'm taking these classes?"
Heero smirked. "Because you swore you'd never flip burgers."
Catherine laughed. Yes, the old Heero she knew was definitely showing his head. "Oh yeah, that's right. You know, up until just now I was actually considering changing my major, on account of my summer job. How's yours?"
Heero shook his head. "I get the same summer job every year, you know that."
"Oh yes, the back of the museum." She stopped and placed her hands on her hips in an attempt to look intimidating. "Heero Yuy, I forbid you to become an old and lonely night owl like your father!"
Heero laughed at that one. "You say that every summer."
She blinked. "I do? Well, I still forbid it!" But this time she couldn't succeed in looking stern and just gave up, dropping into smiling at his back as he headed for the bus stop. Chuckling to herself, she raced up to him to catch up.
"What about your summer job?" He asked as they waited with a small group of students.
"I got one at the local hospital. Nothing huge really, just running papers back and forth and hushing the crying kids in the lobby."
Heero tossed her a disbelieving look. "You said you were thinking of changing your major... to med? You know how much school that involves right? How many years?"
"Yuy!" Taking her book, she playfully hit him in the arm. "I can make it through school you know. At least I show up for my finals. I may not get the grades you do, but I'm still a pretty descent student."
"Sure you are," he said, the sarcasm thick enough to spread across bread.
Rather than coming up with a good comeback, Catherine just settled for sticking out her tongue at him and crossing her arms to snub him. She received a soft chuckle for her efforts as the bus pulled into sight. The two stepped on to the bus and paid their quarters, taking their customary seats in the very back of the bus.
They took the rest of the ride at the usual pace. Small bits of conversation popped up and disappeared with their responses, filled with small taunts and chuckling until they came to their stop. But to Catherine's surprise, when the bus stopped, Heero remained seated.
"You not going home today?"
He shook his head. "I'm taking the bus to Quatre's house, I need to talk to him about some stuff."
"Wish I could go with you, but I need to study for my final tomorrow. So I guess I'll see you later then." Smiling, she walked toward the door of the bus and stepped part of the way out to follow the other riders who were filing out. But she paused and glanced back. "Glad to see you're feeling better, Heero."
Heero flashed her a sincere smile and nodded.
Satisfied with that, she stepped off the bus and headed home.
~*~
To Heero's surprise, when he reached Quatre's house, he was greeted by a servant and ushered up to Quatre's room. It was almost as if the blond was expecting him, but Heero hadn't told him about his plan to stop by. It struck him as strange but he decided not to think anything of it, because the two had kind of come to a silent agreement. Somewhere along the line last night, they'd both silently agreed to try and find Duo for their own reasons and for each other. So him stopping by Quatre's house after classes made perfect sense... right?
When he reached Quatre's room he could only stare. Before the room had just been in a simple state of teenage cleanliness, but now it looked more like his father's office. Books and papers were laid out across the floor haphazardly, mixed in with lists and maps of the surrounding cities. Quatre sat at a newly hooked up computer at his desk, taking up all the space save for a small area now occupied by the picture of him and Trowa. The blond looked up from the computer at Heero and smiled a greeting.
"Looks like someone didn't get any sleep last night," Heero murmured as he stepped over the papers toward the middle of the room. Moving carefully, he finally made his way to a clear spot where he could crouch next to the floor and just marvel at the mess.
"No, I slept, but I woke up early." Quatre flashed a slightly embarrassed look. "I've kinda been at this all day."
"I couldn't tell," Heero responded dryly. "I guess home-schooling does have its advantages. But what is all this for?"
Quatre turned around in his chair to face Heero. "Mostly stuff I kept in storage. When Duo disappeared and they stopped looking I initiated my own search. I've gained quite a good number of connections thanks to my father's company and these are what's left from my previous search. After last night and some sleep I went to where I'd kept everything and I've been working on it since then. Following up old leads, double and triple checking the old places I'd looked and who I'd talked to. I figured this would be better then starting over again from scratch. I didn't want to miss anything."
"I doubt you've missed anything." Heero picked up one of the lists and found it to be about three pages of phone numbers with neatly written names and addresses to go along with them. He just blinked and shook his head, putting the paper back down and just marveling at all the information laid out before him. "Put you in an office and you'd probably be able to make a living out of this," he murmured softly.
"Hardly. Remember, even with all this I haven't been able to find anything."
Heero frowned and sat back, but first he moved the large map behind him to make room, and began to ponder. Where was the best place to start with all this? Frowning in thought, he remembered the many nights he'd seen his father in his office at home with much this same set up. His office was always overrun with papers and maps back when he used to teach classes at the college. Part of his job had been to plan out scenarios for his students where he would research a place, present them with the information and see what they thought could be found there on a dig. A significant amount of work always went into his scenarios and he'd always told Heero that it made up for the fact that he couldn't be out in the field anymore thanks to his job requirements.
Could he structure this search like he'd seen his father structure those scenarios? Would it work the same? Despite the fact that they were looking for a person and not a place where there could be artifacts, the principles should still be the same, right?
Heero reached over and picked up the phone list again, flipping through it silently as Quatre watched. Reaching the back page he scanned it and stopped at a name. Raymond Maxwell.
"Is this Duo's father?"
Quatre took the phone numbers list and glanced down. He grimaced slightly. "Yeah."
"I'd say our best guess is to start from the beginning. You've got a lot of stuff here and we'll probably get lost in it. Your best bet is to start from the primary sources... the people who knew him. Talk to them first, then branch out to town wide services, to city, to county and so on. If we start small and broaden the search we should cover the ground more effectively."
Quatre just sat there and blinked at Heero for a moment.
Heero cast him a questioning look.
"You sound like you've done this before." The blond said softly.
Heero chuckled softly at that. "No. But my dad used to work a lot with archaeology majors at the college. I know we're searching for a real person here and not some lost civilization, but I thought if we used the same idea... Starting small and widening the search seems like the easiest way to go about things with the lowest chance of error."
"I agree." Quatre said with a nod. "As much as I hate to call him, this is the best idea." Quatre took the list and stepped out of the chair. "The phone's downstairs."
Both he and Heero left the bedroom and headed down the stairs.
Heero soon found himself in what he guessed was the living room of the house. Or perhaps it was the dining room due to the large table tucked in the corner. The room was large enough that it could easily have been both the living room and the dining room, and that's finally what Heero decided it was. Tasteful decorations, much like the rest of the house, dotted the walls. A small painted chain of ivy had been added to the walls, curling around the doorframes and windowsills. He wasn't surprised to find the same design echoed on the perfect white of the seats and near the edge of the sheer curtains.
Even the phone matched the exact color of green, so perfectly shaded that it had to have been customized. Heero was almost afraid to sit down at one of the chairs because nothing in this house, save for Quatre's room, looked lived in. The whole house looked more like a show room then a home. It took him a few minutes to get used to the fact that those chairs were actually sat in before he could sit down. Quatre leaning against the ornate table that held the phone helped too. It made Heero feel silly to be tiptoeing about when Quatre seemed perfectly comfortable.
Quatre picked up the phone and dialed the number, taking a deep breath as Heero heard the rings. The blond hesitated a moment before hitting the button for speakerphone and hanging up the receiver. He glanced once at Heero and swallowed, showing that he was obviously nervous about this phone call. Heero frowned; why would Quatre be nervous about calling his uncle?
The phone clicked and Heero listened to someone pick up the other end. The greeting was completely skipped and Heero was quite shocked to hear the voice on the other end.
"I have nothing to say to you," came a thick voice.
Quatre's expression fell just slightly before he seemed to gather up his courage and he set his face in a determined expression. "Hello to you too, uncle."
"Hmph, I have nothing to say to any of you Winners, be it you or your father. Good day, Quatre."
"You hang up this phone and I promise you'll find me knocking at your door in less then an hour. And you know I'm telling the truth." Quatre said forcefully.
Heero could practically hear the man wince over the line as he grunted angrily.
The older man grumbled for a while then finally seemed to admit a slight defeat. "What do you want?" He asked, quieter this time.
"I want to know about Duo."
Something crashed hard on the other end of the line and this time the man was yelling in the phone. "Do you have no shame?! First you take my wife from me and now you come to rub in the fact that he's gone as well? I don't care how close of friends you were with him, cousin or not! You have no right to even call me after all the things your family did!"
Quatre responded with a strong voice of his own, leaning closer to the speaker on the phone. "I'm trying to help you find him, I'm certainly not trying to take Duo away from you."
"Find him? Ha! We went through this five years ago and what good did it do you?! He's gone, and it's all your fault. So fuck off Quatre Raberba Winner, you and your entire fucking family. Just rot and die, and leave me to mourn their deaths in peace!"
With those harsh words the phone was slammed against the table so hard it caused Heero to jump in his seat while Quatre sighed and leaned back against the wall, holding his head in one hand. Reaching over numbly, he hit the button that shut the phone off.
Heero frowned from where he sat, watching both Quatre and the phone. It was several minutes before he gained the courage to speak or break Quatre away from whatever thoughts he was having.
"Quatre, I..."
The blond shook his head. "Don't apologize, it's not your fault. I'm sorry you had to hear that."
"Can I ask... what was that all about?"
Quatre frowned and ran his hand through his hair in a nervous motion.
"Never mind, it's not my business."
"No," Quatre said quietly. "No, it is. Or at least it is now. If you're going to help me look for my cousin then you need to know the whole story around him and my family. It would at least make things a little easier to understand."
Heero nodded slowly.
"To simply explain things, my family has a long history of psychics. Laugh all you want, but it's the honest truth. Most of the women in the family have some related talent that shows up at the teenage years while only a few of the males seem to have it. The pattern follows a recessive gene of sorts, but we haven't really bothered with trying to figure it out scientifically since most experts laugh us out of the offices."
Quatre paused to gauge Heero's response, but Heero merely nodded, indicating he wanted Quatre to continue. The blond stayed quiet for a moment, as if he were waiting for Heero to burst out laughing at him. Only when he seemed to believe this wouldn't happen did he continue.
"My mother has it. And so do I, but only as of recently. Mine's very minor, mostly centering on telling when people are lying and sensing small things before they happen. It's nothing too huge and most of the time it's limited to being able to tell who is calling or who is at the door before they are answered."
Heero nodded as he remembered the first day he'd met Quatre. That perfectly explained how the boy had known he was at the door and who he was. The whole explanation of knowing Heero from Trowa's descriptions, now that Heero thought about it, was a little too farfetched. Especially since Trowa wasn't the talkative type.
"Well, Duo was the exception. As far back as I remember, he was always popping up with odd little talents and this strange habit of knowing things before they happened. He was always doing strange things, like guessing events. The one I remember the most is about a week before he disappeared. He did a little trick with a bowl of water and told me to ask it a question. I asked it about my friends in the future and he answered in a strange voice like he was in a trance. At the time it really scared me... but it all came true."
"Is that why he was so mad at you? Because of the... talent that Duo inherited from your family?"
Quatre nodded. "He blames us for everything. His wife, my aunt, died not too long after Duo was born. She was too weak after the pregnancy and just faded away after that. Despite the powers that Duo had, his father loved him for it. And he was civil with my family most of the time. Then Duo disappeared and he shut himself off from our family. He used the money from his wife's death to move farther away and then completely cut himself off from us. He didn't even collect on Duo's share of our money; he just lets it sit in the bank. I feel for him, really, but I just wish he'd be a little more cooperative. Or at least not hate us so much."
Heero nodded slowly, turning over this new information in his mind. "So... you think that when I'm dreaming I'm talking to the actual Duo?"
"Yes. As strange as that sounds." Quatre frowned slightly. "You don't believe me, do you?"
"No, actually I do. It would make sense, given the circumstances."
At those words Quatre's entire face seemed to light up. Heero took that to mean that no one had ever really believed the boy before and somehow he couldn't help but return the smile.
"Thanks Heero, I mean it."
"Is there any way I can help you with this? You seem to have all the bases covered."
Quatre smirked. "Actually, I have an idea." Turning, he led Heero across the room to where a thick book was laid out on the table. "Take this home with you tonight."
Heero reached down and turned the first page. "A photo album?"
Quatre nodded. "You said he appeared in the mirror when you were thinking of him. I think, maybe, this might help. I'm sure you'll see him in your dreams tonight, because that pattern hasn't changed yet. But maybe the photos will trigger something else."
"Well, it's worth a try."
"I have to warn you though, trying to trigger stuff like this can have strange affects. I don't know if it will make any difference, but when it's been tried before it's been pretty unpredictable."
Heero frowned at that but quickly pushed the frown away. "I'm going to help you find him. What's the big deal if we just add a little more weirdness on the side?"
TBC...
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