Operation: Lost Boys Part 5
Heero scowled as he trudged after Wendy. "Why are we doing this?"
Wendy glared right back. "I am TRYING to get you to have some fun here! I'm sorry if it's inconvenient for you to actually loosen up a bit!" She glanced over to where Wufei and Duo were arguing. "What is Wufei's problem with Duo, anyway?"
Heero followed her gaze. "Wufei was brought up in a strict environment. Of all of us, Duo is the only one who doesn't fit his mental views as a proper Gundam pilot. Trowa and I were both raised as soldiers. Quatre... well he wasn't raised for this, but he knows how to conduct himself in battle. Wufei views Duo as a loose cannon. Duo is too enthusiastic about everything."
Wendy grinned. "And Wufei is jealous of that..."
Heero, for once, returned the grin with a slight smirk. "You hit the nail on the head. We all envy Duo his love of life... even Quatre wonders how he does it."
Wendy nodded. "So Duo's attitude ruffles Wufei's feathers. Maybe... maybe there's a way for them to meet equal ground."
Heero nodded. "I hope you can. It'll make our battles a lot less tense. It's hard fighting OZ while fighting against one another as well."
Wendy nodded. "Well... enough about that. This thing is simple. You sit on the sled, and nudge yourself onto the slope. You use the rope to steer and you watch for obsticles. You want me to steer?"
Heero shook his head. "I'll do it." He frowned as Wendy sat behind him. "I thought I was steering!"
Wendy nodded. "You can't steer if you can't see where you're going." She smiled. "After the first run, you can take the slope by yourself. All right?"
"Yeah." He used his feet to start the sled down the hill, then quickly brought them up as the sled started moving on its own. He stared for a second at the passing scenery, then concentrated on keeping the sled going. He was actually starting to enjoy the cold air rushing past him when the sled slowed.
Wendy beamed at Heero's amazed expression. "Found something you liked, huh? You're the type who'd like skiing, but the hills aren't steep enough here for that." She giggled and got up. "Okay... now let's see how you do on your own."
Heero nodded, surprised at how much he was looking forward to going down the hill again.
Duo grinned as he walked to stand next to Wendy. "Well... whaddya know? Am I hallucinating, or is Heero starting to have a good time?"
Wendy laughed at that remark. "Mission accomplished, ne?" She glanced over to where Wufei was struggling to climb the hill. "Do you actually enjoy arguing with Wufei? It seemed that the only reason you left the table last night is because you couldn't fight back."
Duo shrugged. "Eh... if I argue with him, it makes him more comfortable around me." He grinned. "He's straight, but he's attracted to me, and I'd rather fight with him than let him relieve stress in the other way. I deserve to be more than a quick roll in the hay. Besides... he doesn't need to have that sort of confusion."
Wendy was about to answer back when an alarmed shout got her attention. Her eyes shot to the hill just in time to see Heero crashing into the ground.
Duo paled as Wendy left his side. "No." He shook his head in denial. "NO!" He bolted past their hostess and all but collapsed next to Heero, who was blinking dazedly. "Heero? You okay? Oi! Answer me, man!"
"I would if you would give me a chance." Heero groaned as he sat up. "What the hell just happened?" He almost pushed Duo's assistance away, but one look at that terrified expression and he couldn't bring himself to be mad.
Wendy chuckled. "You decided to take a nosedive into a snowdrift. You weren't paying attention to the obstacles on the ground and the sled tipped when it hit a rock." She tilted her head. "Looks like you bumped your head on something, too."
"I had gathered that." From the way Duo was fussing over the tiny cut, one would think Heero had split his head open.
Wufei sighed when he saw that Heero was all right. "Maxwell... from the way you're acting, one would think he was DYING!" He missed the way Duo paled. "If you're that worried, then you should get Sally." He blinked as Duo stood up and spun away... walking purposefully towards the house.
Wendy would have rebuked Wufei, but she saw the true regret in his eyes that he'd hurt Duo in some way.
Heero pushed himself off and ran after the baka. "Duo! Duo, wait up!" He caught up and fell into step next to him. "Duo... I'm all right." He half-grinned when Duo stopped about a foot away. "I survived a 50 story fall with nothing more than a few bruises and a broken leg that I was able to set myself. A little bump on the head is not going to do what that fall didn't accomplish."
Duo turned to Heero. "I didn't consider you my friend when you took that fall."
Heero shook his head. "All right... but you started considering me a friend after that, right?" When Duo nodded, Heero grinned in earnest. "I survived a self-destruct. BARELY, but I did survive. I repeat... a little bump on the head is NOT going to be able to do what hundreds of suicide attempts couldn't do." He swore when Duo flinched. "Sorry. I know you hate being reminded about how self-destructive I was when I first got to Earth." He let out a breath. "Duo... I'm glad they all failed and I'm glad I couldn't bring myself to kill you. I don't know what I'd do without you around. God knows that I need every bright spot I can grab on to."
Duo smiled back at Heero. "I still want Sally to take a look at that bump."
Heero nodded. "Ninmu ryokai."
*****
Duo watched over Heero a while as the silent boy slept. Sally had given him a couple of sleeping pills so he wouldn't do anything to aggravate his head injury. It WAS minor, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt Heero like hell. After a while, the inevitable happened... Duo got bored. Since everyone else was downstairs, he decided to do a little snooping.
He bypassed his room and opened the door to Wufei's. The scent of incense permeated the room. 'No wonder Wufei's clothes always smell of the stuff.' He noticed that, like Heero's room, there wasn't a lot of bric-a-brac. Still ... that was hardly surprising considering the type of person Wufei was. He frowned as he glanced over a sheet of paper with Wufei's neat handwriting. He didn't read it... he was invading Wufei's privacy as it was. He carefully let himself out.
Trowa's room was next. He peeked in, not surprised when he noticed that it didn't look as if the acrobat had taken up residence. The closet was empty and the bed had obviously not been slept in. He closed the door and went into Quatre's room. Sure enough... the two of them had decided to bunk together. Although the room was tidy, he could smell the two colognes. Quatre's spice mixed well with Trowa's musk. 'Man... even their COLOGNES make a good match.' There really wasn't much difference except that Quatre's violin and Trowa's flute were sitting on top of the dresser. He closed their door and then went to the final room. He tried the knob and frowned when he discovered that it was locked.
'Never stopped me before!' He reached up and pulled a pick out of his braid. He concentrated completely on hitting the right tumblers.
"You could always ASK to see my room, you know."
Duo eeped and spun around. 'CAUGHT!'
Wendy giggled and shook her head. "Duo... I would have let you poke around if you had asked." She unlocked the door with her key. "I knew you were probably getting bored. I take it you've already peeked into the other rooms?"
Duo grinned a little. "Yeah... well..." He opened the door. He was a little ashamed of himself, but that didn't stop him from wanting to see Wendy's room. He turned the light on and breathed deeply. "Longing... you wear Longing?"
Wendy's eyebrows shot up. "You can name a perfume just by smelling it?"
Duo shrugged. "Came in handy... the more expensive the perfume, the less likely someone would have cash on them." He glanced around at the various odds and ends. "Looks like a kids room in here."
Wendy shrugged. "I don't like throwing anything away. After the explosions destroyed almost everything I owned, I got into the habit of hoarding things."
Duo frowned and paused when he spotted a music box. "Well... as a thief, then a Gundam pilot, I couldn't risk getting attached to anything I couldn't carry." He wound the music box up and smiled at the tune it played. "I liked that song. Quatre loaned me his CD player the night before we met you... this was the song that I listened to."
Wendy smiled and placed the music box back on the shelf. "Miss Dream. I wrote the words down in Japanese when I was feeling particularly lonely." She sighed sadly. "This is my mother's... she sang my brother and I to sleep with this when we were little." She waited for the music to stop before speaking again. "She still sings to me whenever she's allowed to visit."
"Why did they put her in a hospital? She doesn't sound dangerous to me. She just sounds like a mother who wants to believe her child is nearby." Duo fingered an old, yellowed, coloring book.
"That's what I've been trying to tell them. They think that I have an ulterior motive... since I'm a popular singer. The hospital thinks I just don't want the scandal of my mother being in the nuthouse." She bit her lip and walked over to her bed, picking up an old doll on the way and hugging it as she sat down.
Duo hated seeing Wendy unhappy. "Hey... you said yourself just yesterday that you had a good feeling this year." He grinned as he knelt in front of her to look up into her eyes. 'Eyes that mirror my own...' He shook the odd coincidence away and took a breath. "You said that you felt he was near... that THIS was the year you would find him. When you do, you can rub it into whatever doctor's face. So don't cry." He brightened even more. "After all ... Christmas is only a few days away! And the night of your party is even closer! And I believe that you're going to find him and have the best Christmas this year. I KNOW I am. I haven't had a good Christmas for as long as I can remember."
Wendy smiled and leaned forward to hug Duo. "Thank you." She kissed his cheek and pulled away. "I needed someone else to say that for a change. Many of the volunteers give me their hopes and wishes, but not one of them has ever told me that they BELIEVE that he's out there. To tell the truth, many of them have stopped the search and are concentrating on finding homes for the orphans they discover." Her smile fell. "They go on as if I don't know, but I do... which is why I have my own computer in here."
Duo turned to the computer and whistled. "Man... Heero'd kill to get his hands on one of these! This baby has to be every hacker's wet dream!"
"I'll keep that in mind." Wendy grinned as he studied it. "Figure out the password, and you'll have earned the right to poke your nose into it to discover every nook and cranny of my mainframe. Until then..." She stood up. "I think you had better leave."
Duo grinned at her. "Yeah yeah... just keep hoping. Don't give up." He reached forward and tapped her on the nose with his finger. He turned and walked out of the room, missing the shocked expression on Wendy's face.
TBC...
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