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"Amanhã "Written By: Painted Smile Disclaimer: Not mine Rating: PG 13 Warnings: Some violence, yaoi, supernatural theme Pairings: 1x2, 3x4 Summary: Sudden storms, disappearances, murders.
Strange creatures and even stranger animals on the streets. Duo knows
something wierds happening, and he knows the other pilots know what
it is. But they won't tell him. Amanhã
O que eu hoje é importante, porque eu estou trocando um dia de minha ida por ele (What I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it)[1] * Hi.
That’s kind of depressing. Everything I am, all summed up, in five sentences. Kind of belittling. Bet Heero would have less though. Something like ‘My name is Heero Yuy, and I am a soldier’. Quatre would probably put loads about his family and his friends, and what he is to them. Wufei, well do you really need to ask? Oh wait, you didn’t ask. Trowa…. What would Trowa put? I just realised, I don’t know much about him at all. Hell, I don’t even know what cereal he eats, and I live with the guy! Still, three out of four ain’t bad. - extract from the diary of Duo Maxwell * The clacking of keys had stopped. I looked up in time to see Heero walk out of the room. I grinned, slamming shut the notebook, and followed him. “Hey Hee-chan!” I yelled, bouncing into the kitchen. Quatre groaned. The little Arabian was sitting at the kitchen table, head in his hands. Trowa passed him a painkiller. “What’s up Quat?” I asked, this time quietly. “Headache.” Trowa muttered. That’s our Trowa, king of the one word answers. Now where’s Heero? I wandered through the door to the living room, and noticed Wufei. The Asian pilot was oblivious to the evil smirk on his comrade’s face, being totally focussed on whatever was on his laptop monitor. Geez, these laptops are like a disease. I should cure him. I leapt onto the sofa, landing with a soft thump next to Wufei. Wufei yelped, then glowered at me. “Hey Wu-man! Watcha lookin’ at?” I gave my best winning smile. Unfortunately, Wufei, like Heero, seemed to be naturally immune to it. “Go away Maxwell.” .He thinks he’s so cool. A grin slipped over my
face. “Aw Wu-man, that’s not nice. All I’m trying to
do is be friendly.” Disgruntled, I abandoned Wufei to his laptop. Funnily
enough, he seemed rather pleased by that. Oh well, I’ll get him
later. We had to lay low until the fuss had blown over. Some stupid reporter had found our last safehouse (don’t ask me how). It took me, Wu and Quat to stop Heero from killing the man, and that was after we’d hidden his gun. There weren’t too many places he could hide. The apartment was big, but not that big. Let’s see…. Three rooms checked, seven rooms in the apartment. He wouldn’t have gone into Quat and Trowa’s room, or Wufei’s. Which left the bathroom, and the spare room. Somehow, I couldn’t see even Heero hanging around the bathroom for kicks. Spare room it was. The spare room is pretty much empty. Scratch that, it’s entirely empty. There’s one armchair. And a poster on the wall. That’s it. But now I could hear unfamiliar voices, coming from the room. I froze. They can’t have found us again! Creeping closer to the door, I pressed my ear up to it. And the door opened. I fell forward, and found myself looking up into a pair of gorgeous cobalt eyes. Ok, I admit it. Shinigami has an itty-bitty crush on the Perfect Soldier. Maybe a bit bigger than itty-bitty. But there was not a chance in hell I was gonna tell him. I like living. On second thoughts, he wouldn’t kill me. The doctors would have to train a whole new pilot. Which would be detrimental to any missions that required all five of us. He’d just not mention it. He might even move to Wufei’s room. Urgh. Suddenly, I noticed the voices. The disembodied voices. I’m sure my eyes must’ve gotten at least as big as saucers, before I noticed the radio. Oh. “Heh… Hey Hee-chan. What’re ya up to?” I asked with a hopeful grin, getting to my feet. Heero opened his mouth to reply, but a loud, and I mean LOUD thunderclap got in his way. It was immediately followed by a brilliant flash of lightening. I dashed to the window. “What the fuck? It’s supposed to be fine today.” Heero came to stand beside me. Even he seemed surprised by the scene which greeted him. Roiling dark clouds covered the sky, denying every sliver of light access to the city. Were the clouds…. red? Yes. The glow originated from the west. “Fire.” Said Heero brusquely. I nodded, slowly. Behind us, the radio crackled on. …..reports of unusual and dangerous weather conditions, which are further aggravating the firestorm. Residents are encouraged to hose down their roofs, and be prepared to evacuate. The fire appears to be moving to the east, but with uncertain winds, there is no way to tell whether it will continue in that direction. The chief of emergency services, Mr Alan Blunt..... Heero reached over and switched off the radio. “Duo.” He said quietly, and dangerously. Hell, he does everything dangerously. Just part of his charm, I guess. Wait, what charm? “Yeah Heero?” “Quat, Heero wants you. Don’t ask me why. Don’t look at me like that, I’m just the messenger.” Trowa was glaring at me, for making his angel’s head hurt more than it already did. “Why?” I shrugged. “Duo, just stay here, ok? Don’t eaves-drop, please.” I glared. They continued on their merry way, leaving poor little Duo-rella on his lonesome. Since when did they all talk behind my back, anyway? Yet somehow, I wasn’t going to eaves-drop. I wanted to, but something was…. I don’t know, stopping me. Not because Quat had asked me not to. Something else. Restlessly, I wandered into the living-room. I had to force myself to do it. I was very reluctant to go near the spare room, and I didn’t know why. Switching on the TV, I flopped onto the couch, and sighed. The five o’clock news was on, and the cheerful blonde anchorwoman was smiling toothily at the camera. “Three more disappearances, two women and a man, all from Southside, have been reported to police earlier this afternoon. A tentative link has been drawn from the brutal murders that have shocked the city over the past week, to these increasingly numerous disappearances. In other news, the raging firestorm that has consumed one eighth of the city, appears to be spreading, and there is apparently very little chance of dousing the fire before it reaches into the surrounding suburbs. Surprisingly, despite all the negativity floating round,” here she grinned, and winked. “ Tourism appears to be on the rise. People have been flocking from all over into our fair city, which just goes to show-” The TV blacked out. I stared at it for a moment, then at the remote in my hand. Nope, it wasn’t me. Twisting around, I stretched over and flicked the light switch. Nothing. Suddenly it struck me how dark it was, with the smoke, ash and clouds obscuring the sun. Fumbling around in the gloom, I located the emergency torch under the coffee table. It felt kind of stupid, using a torch in the afternoon, but it was frikking dark. Swearing as I stubbed my toe on the table leg, I headed out into the corridor, and down the stairs. The elevator wouldn’t be working, if the lights weren’t. Six floors later, I finally reached the lobby. I was not looking forward to walking all the way back up. The doorman nodded at me as I passed. “I’m going to check the fuse box.” I informed him. “But, sir, I think that’s…. ” “I’m not going to stumble around in the dark while you wait for someone else to fix this.” I snapped. Hey, I’d just walked down six floors in the dark, you can’t blame me. I yanked the keys off his desk, and walked away, ignoring the protesting man. Stomping out the door, I glanced around. And stood, for a moment. Shit, it was humid. Those clouds should’ve been pouring with rain. But they weren’t. There was something…. unnatural about that. The acrid smell of smoke was all around me, blasting into my face, borne by the stinging wind [2]. Coughing, I raced along the side of the building. The wind almost seemed to be pushing me along. Finally I came to the plain door in the side of the building. Unlocking it and pushing through the door, I shone my torch around the small, pitch-black room. There, against the wall. The fuse box. Yanking open the panel, I checked it quickly. Yeah, everything was working fine. No broken wires, everything in place. Guess the fire must’ve disrupted the electricity. Locking the door behind me, I headed back out into the wide world. And tried not to breathe. The smoke was so thick, I couldn’t see a thing. But I could hear. A piercing scream shot through my thoughts. A woman. To my left. I hesitated. It really wasn’t my problem. On the other hand…. I was a soldier. It was my job to fight. To fight in order to protect people. People like this woman. I turned, and battled my way out onto the road. No one was stupid enough to drive in this weather, and the street was deserted, other than me and the woman. And whoever had made her scream. “Where are you?” I yelled, loud as I could. The scream came again, then suddenly cut off. I broke into a run, heading in the direction of the noise. Turning a corner, I stared. In the smoke and darkness, I could easily believe my eyes were playing tricks. But I could see a tall man, holding the still twitching corpse of a woman. He hadn’t seen me. Yet. He tilted the woman’s head to the side, and kissed her. Wait…. Kissing her neck? Shit! He was biting her. The first thought in my head was vampire. But they’re not real, right? It’s just the light and the smoke making me see things. Suddenly the man’s head whipped around, and he stared right at me through the smoke. And from behind me, I heard a soft padding noise. Funny, how in the middle of a firestorm, when you’re practically blind and it hurts to breathe, little things like the sound of dogs paws can terrify you. Shadows slunk past in the haze. They were keeping to the walls, avoiding the light, and I couldn’t make out exactly what they were. But there were at least seven of them, all about waist high, and on all fours. An animal then. Big dogs? Right size, right shape, their paws made the right noise. Then the first of them stepped into the light. And no. It was not a dog. The yellow eyes of the pack were fixed upon the man and the body. The man snarled, actually snarled, at the wolves. But he had no hope. The wolves rushed him, snapping at his feet as he turned to flee, dropping the body. They chased him to the end of the street, then turned back. And began dinner. It was disgusting, watching them devour the woman. But I wasn’t dumb enough to jump out and risk, and loose, my life for a dead body. A half eaten dead body. It didn’t take them long to finish it. Seven hungry wolves eat fast. When they were mostly finished, they trotted off, one of them dragging a bloody leg. The limb flopped around in an almost funny way. If a man-killing wolf hadn’t been dragging it, that is. I counted to twenty, then made a break for it. Back onto the street, and pelting across the road, into the lobby of my building. Chucking the keys at the doorman, I raced straight for the stairs, and kept running. At about the second floor, I slowed down. But I kept looking over my shoulder. When I reached the apartment, I shut the door, and dead locked it. Then I turned around. And for the second time that day, I found myself eye to eye with the Perfect Soldier. “Where were you?” he growled. Behind him, I could see Quatre watching me anxiously. Behind him I could see Trowa and Wufei, leaning against opposite sides of the doorway to the living room. I managed a shaky grin, and jerked my thumb at the door. “Checking the fuse box. Power’s out all round here.” Heero’s eyes narrowed. “The landlord has people to do that. You don’t need to.” I shrugged. “Well, I did them a favour. Don’t
know what you’re so pissed off about.” Oops. “Well, there’s a few freaks running around out there. I saw some guy kill this woman. I didn’t get there in time to stop him. Actually,” here I forced a laugh “I thought he bit the lady’s neck. I thought he was a vampire.” Far from the derogatory comments I expected, the others traded serious glances. “I’m sure it was just the smoke.” Quatre said finally. Somehow, I was far less sure of that, than I had been before he spoke. * [1] Said by Thomas Simmons [2] I live in Canberra, Australia, and last summer we had a firestorm here. 400 houses were destroyed. Two houses across the road from me were razed to the ground. One of my strongest memories is me and my friend, trying to cross an oval during the fire. The wind was unbelievably strong, and the smoke was so thick it was almost impossible to breathe, and when you did, it felt like it was ripping the skin from your throat. |
