|
"Blood or Chocolate?"Written By: Karen Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of
its characters. Otherwise, the show would've been way different. Warnings: First and foremost, this fic is supposed
to be a humor fic. Shounen ai and Yaoi next. Violence, blood and gore,
supernatural elements, such as werewolves, vampires, evil leprechans,
trolls, witches, and other stuff I think of along the way. Expect
lemons, limes, death of insignificant characters, and angst. (heh!)
OZ people are also going to really intermingle with the GW boys, particularly
with Duo. Pairings: Will be 5x2, 3x4, past 5x1 (and we're
talking WAY in the past), Meizer+2/2+Meizer and everybody+2 (hey,
everyone loves Duo). Summary: Duo Maxwell is an almost average guy
in a small, rural town. He works at the only gas station for miles
around, is gorgeous, but single. He also gets harrassed by the town's
rich idiot. But what makes him different is that he's a clairvoyant;
he can read thoughts by touch or he can simply 'hear' them. Kind of
complicates matters. Yeah. So when he runs across a man whose thoughts
he can't hear, although trying to gives him nosebleeds, he decides
that that is a fair trade. That is until he finds out that the guy
isn't a typical 'guy,' and that getting involved with him only leads
to trouble...and a few dead bodies. "Blood or Chocolate?"
That was my first thought when I woke up. The blinding
light and sterile-smelling environment could only be found in a hospital.
There were two shapes looming above me, and after blinking a few times,
I was able to see that the shapes were Hilde and Howard. Both of them
were on either side of me. I was overwhelmed by deja vu, and my world
stepped back into time. I was ten years old again and had just woken
up from the accident that killed my parents. The following thirteen
years of my life seemed to have been a dream. "Duo?" Hilde's voice brought me back to the present. She didn't
have the voice of a scared little girl anymore. She had the voice
of a strong woman. "Yeah?" "Oh thank god!" she whispered hoarsely, squeezing
my hand. "Thank god." "Damnit Duo, you scared the shit outta me!"
Howard bellowed. "Christ, you can't even go to the damn store
without gettin' into something!" "Leave him alone Uncle Howard!" Hilde said
harshly, slipping into ‘protective sister' mode. "How was
he supposed to know what would happen? At least he looked for Luna.
That loser Alex didn't even bother to check the suspiciousness of
the situation, and he's a cop!" Howard grumbled something incoherent
under his breath, but didn't comment. It was pointless arguing with
Hilde when she was in her ‘mode.' "I'm just glad his new
friend was there to help him." My...new...friend? Clearly confused now, I sat up and saw what she was
talking about. Hilde and Howard were sitting on the sides of my bed,
blocking my view of the room. In the corner sitting in a chair was
Wufei, as cool and calm as Jell-O. Hilde and Howard both caught my look. Howard swivelled
around and fixed Wufei with an absolute baleful glare, and Hilde grabbed
my shoulders, ready to shake the answers out of me if necessary. "Duo,
what did he do to you?!" "I must be going," Wufei announced, standing
up. God, his movements were so elegant I felt like a clumsy fool.
He gave me a gentle smile. "You have questions." This was a statement. He was absolutely right. "Yes."
He nodded to himself, then his attention turned to the
ceiling as he mulled something over. "I have questions myself,"
he admitted, looking back to me. "But I'm sure I can answer the
majority of what you need to know." Need to know. So he thought I needed to know. I believed
him. "When?" "Tomorrow night, about eleven in the evening is
best. My place." "No." My voice sounded authoritative. Huzzah
for me. He raised an eyebrow. "No?" "No." Guess that was a word he didn't hear
often. Howard and Hilde moved closer to me, thereby placing themselves
between Wufei and me. Yeah, real subtle that was. "We will meet
somewhere that's neutral. They will accompany me," my eyes flickered
between Howard and Hilde, "and you bring two others with you
as witnesses." He gave me an appraising look. I pleased him again.
"Where?" There was only one place I could think of that both
parties will feel comfortable and safe. "The pet cemetery,"
Wufei and I chimed, smirking at each other. He then gave me a slight
bow, which I mimicked, and he left, quietly closing the door behind
him. Howard quickly got up, grabbed the chair Wufei vacated and shoved
it under the door handle. Oh boy. "Okay damnit," Howard snarled, damn near crawling
into my lap as he sat back on the bed. "What the hell happened
tonight?" I felt my heart sink to my stomach. I didn't want to
tell him. "Well, when I found Luna, he--" "No, not about that. I don't want you to think
about that ever again. Ever!" he said, and nearly reached out
to him to comfort him as I heard the slight tremble in his voice.
He cleared his throat and tried again. "I mean, what the hell
happened to you tonight? Christ Duo." Howard stood up but kept
his back to me as he tried to regain his composure. "Do you have
any idea how I felt when I saw that man on your doorstep? I knew instantly
he was there to tell me something happened to you. And god damnit
I was right. I thought that whoever killed Luna got you too, and they
needed me to identify your body." He shook his head. "Lord,
these kids are all I have. What am I gonna do if something happened
to them?" He was silent for a moment, and in the silence I heard
his sniffling. Hilde and I remained where we were, holding hands and
waiting. When Howard cleared his throat again, he was back to normal.
"Well, I--I....I did have a seizure," I mumbled,
knowing that once they found out why I had it, who caused it, and
why I allowed him to leave without any bodily harm, they were going
to kick my ass. Hilde was quick on the uptake. "You tried to read
one of their minds, didn't you?" "Uh..." "Damnit Duo!" Hilde's shout made both of us jump. "You were shot across the bar because you tried to do that. Why the hell would you do that to yourself again?"
"Because I heard one of them moments before!"
I answered. The rest of the details I left unsaid. Someone came to the door and tried to open it. As you
probably guessed, that didn't work. Whoever that was then tried pulling
repeatedly on the door as if that would magically do it. Howard growled,
got up and removed the chair from under the doorhandle. Yanking it
open, he barked in that person's face. "Nothing wrong here. Family
business." He closed the door in their face. When they began
to open it, Howard grabbed the door, halting its movement. "I
said nothing is wrong, family business, bugger off!" This time
he slammed the door, rattling the walls. No one tried to open it again,
but I heard whomever tell someone else to call security. "Duo, you have to stop this. You can't do this
to people just because--" I didn't want to, but I had to tell my story. And fast.
"Shut up for a second Hil. Look, the reason I tried to read Wufei's
thoughts--" "Wufei did this to you?!" "Howie please! I tried to read his thoughts because
he was upset at the store, but it wasn't the right kind of upset.
He wasn't mad that someone killed Luna, but at something else that
pertained to him, I think." "He killed him?!" "No Howard, I don't think--" "Then he knows who did kill him." "No Hilde, I don't think--" "He doesn't know who, but he knows that person
is affiliated with him." Fuck yes! "That's right Howie. That's what I think."
Then I dropped my other bomb. "And whoever murdered Luna possibly
murdered Mooney too." Hilde's eyes went wide. Howard lowered his shades. "What?"
they said. "That's what I heard." The activity noise
outside the room was increasing. Everyone's brains were buzzing with
excitement. Bad news was coming my way. "I picked a thought out
of one of Wufei's friends. When he looked at me he was thinking of
Mooney. I think there's a connection and I want to check it out."
"How?" Hilde asked. God, they were going to kill me. "I want to go
to the morgue. Tonight." They were quiet. Then Howard said, "Okay."
"Okay? Not okay Howard!" "Hilde, think!" he snapped. "Duo is involved
in this shit now. If there is a way to find a connection and get his
lunatic caught, let's do it." Despite the fact that I won't read
Howard's and Hilde's thoughts, I couldn't help the flash of a vision
Howard had. He imagined they would find another mangled body, and
it would be me. He was terrified. "The better we understand what's
going on, the better we can prepare for it. We hit the morgue tonight,"
he gave us a stern look, "we meet with Wufei tomorrow, fully
loaded and ready for war," he reinforced this with a pointed
finger in our direction, "and if anyone suspicious crosses our
path, we shoot first and ask questions later, friend or unknown. Understood?"
"Yes Uncle Howard." "You got it Howie." "Good." He grabbed our heads and pulled us
forward. He kissed me on my forehead. Right then there was a brief
knock and the door opened. The doctor stepped in just in time to see
him kiss Hilde's forehead. The three of us turned and faced the doctor
as if getting interrupted during a tender moment was an everyday thing.
The doctor, ‘Saddler' his name tag read, cleared his throat uncomfortably.
There were two security guards at his elbows. "I've been told
there has been a disturbance in here," he said snottily. "Is
there a problem?" "Yes," I said, throwing the covers off me.
"I demand to be discharged. Now." *** The ride to the hospital's morgue was tense. We had
a sketchy plan drafted that I thought was good, but still we were
nervous. How could we not be? We weren't professional thieves or anything
like that. Hell, I never even skipped class in high school! Breaking
into a morgue was not something on my ‘Things To Do Before I
Die' list. Wow. And the night was only half over. Okay, once we got to the morgue, Howard was going to
provide a distraction (what that was not even Howard knew), while
Hilde and I took the stairs down to the basement where...you know
what was. After I did whatever I needed to do (whatever that was)
Hilde and I would jam out of there, grab Howard on the way out and
haul ass. See? Good plan. The butterflies in my stomach turned into bats when
we pulled into the parking lot. It was nearly midnight. I felt like
I was going to throw up in Hilde's car. I managed to contain it at
the last minute, but I still felt queasy. In fact, this was downright
perfect. "Let's ask to use the bathroom," I said. Hilde and Howard were not slow tonight. "I'll lead
the way," Howard said, and he walked on as Hilde helped me along.
We entered the hospital through the sliding glass doors, and noted
that the lobby was completely empty. At the admissions desk was a
security guard that was also an old friend of Howard's. This was looking
up. "Hey Gus!" "Oh no, he's alright. Just ate something that didn't
agree with him. Hilde, go ahead and help him to the bathroom."
"Oh, uh, wouldn't it be better maybe if *I* helped
him?" The words sounded like they were dragged out of him. "Nah, they're okay. It's better if they use the
girl's bathroom anyway. More room." "Yeah, that's true." I looked at Hilde. She returned my look. How the hell
would they know? I forgot completely about the comment when we were out of sight of the cameras. Without hesitation, Hilde and I broke into a quiet run, skimming the hallways and praying to everything that we wouldn't run into somebody. The first stairwell we came across was on Hilde's side, and she grabbed my arm and pulled me with her through the door. We closed it with a soft click. The sounding in there was just awful, so Hilde and I damn near tiptoed our way down. When we came to the last landing, a big black door with
‘Do Not Enter' written in red letters greeted us. Hilde shoved
the door open without a second thought, and I nearly lost everything
I'd eaten in the past twenty four hours to the smell. I will never be able to describe it. Once you smell
it, you'll know exactly what I mean. Hilde and I covered our mouths and waited until our
gagging passed. When I was feeling a little bit better, I started
forward. The fridges for the bodies were ahead of me and to the left,
in the wall. The metal tables and sinks were to the right. Hilde held my hand and together we inched our way forward.
I couldn't tell what doors had who, so I just started opening at random.
Thankfully, they were placed in head-first. The first one I opened,
I read her name on her toe tag. Nope. The second one was the same
way. This was getting easier. The third one I opened was Mooney, so
I pulled the sliding table out all the way. Thinking I was going to
be okay, I unzipped the bag-- --and barely made it to the sink before I threw up.
As I wiped my mouth with my arm, Hilde was at the sink
next to me, finishing. She used her arm to wipe her mouth too. Damn,
there was no way Hilde could not be my twin. "That was...horrible," she said in a tear-ridden
voice. "I know." Mooney was mauled to death. His
face, his eyes, his ears, had all been scratched away. His chest was
nothing but a mass of valleys. It really did look like a bear just
used him to sharpen its nails. Hell, I wouldn't have known it was
him if it weren't for the toe tag. "Duo, what are you going to do?" "I have to touch him," I said. "He's...gone.
I won't be able to get an impression any other way." She sighed.
She wasn't happy with that. Well, shit. Neither was I. Deciding to be ballsy for once, I steeled myself and
walked forward. I didn't look at his face or his body. I kept my eyes
on his shoulder. The shoulder was scratched, but not mutilated thankfully.
But once at his shoulder, I noticed a funny smell. He hadn't been
dead long, so it wasn't the smell of decay. It smelled like...almonds,
but foul. Spoiled almonds. How weird. "Duo?" Ignoring Hilde, I balled my hand up in a fist and extended
my pinky finger. I scrunched my eyes tightly closed. Ready to run
screaming like a little girl again, I touched his cold skin with my
pinky finger and gasped from the intensity of the emotions. Whoever killed him was full of blinding hate. Rage.
Disgust. Malice. This person wanted him dead. Him and everyone else
like him. That was similar to what I felt the night I met Heero and
Quatre. The feelings were held so tightly in check that I couldn't
tell who they were directed to or from. Hell, that might not have
even been anyone from Wufei's house. I didn't know who they were,
and couldn't do anything about it now. I pulled away from Mooney. The passion behind the crime
was so intense it left its stain, but nothing more. No name, no image.
"Shit." "What?" "I don't know who did this." "What now?" I sighed. I reeeeally didn't want to do this. "I
need to look at Luna. Is he here?" "Yeah, I think so." So we went through a game of ‘Who's Behind This
Door?' Hilde found him on her second try, and pulled the table all
the way out. She started to unzip the bag. I felt that I was prepared
enough since I saw him when his death was fresh. When I blinked I
was surprised to find myself at the sink again, and this time I had
to wipe my mouth with my shirt. Hilde was just finishing up, and wiped
her mouth with her shirt, glaring at me. "Damnit Duo, will you stop that?!" "What?! I couldn't help it! What about you, can't
you stop?!" "I didn't start puking until you started puking!"
"Christ. Let's get this done so that we can get
the fuck outta here." I stomped back to Luna. Again there was the strange
smell, only slightly stronger. On him, the almonds smelled bitter.
"Hey Hil, do you smell that?" She sniffed a few times, and her eyebrows crinkled.
"Almonds?" So it wasn't just me. Filing that detail away, I touched
his shoulder, this time using my middle finger. I gasped again from
the sensations, and found that they were the same. Whoever killed
Mooney, and a person, not an animal, killed Mooney, killed Luna too
for the same reasons. Satisfied with that bit of information, I zipped
Luna and Mooney back up and shoved them back into their makeshift
tombs. Hilde cleaned up the sinks. The two of us then scurried out
of there as fast as possible, running out the door and up the stairs
at full throttle, not giving a damn at how much noise we made. Once to the ground floor, we walked out to the lobby
and found Howard and Gus still yakking, talking about fishing spots.
Not caring if we were being rude, we each grabbed an arm and dragged
him out of there without so much as a ‘goodbye.' Hilde got into
the driver's seat and started to take off before Howard even had a
chance to close the door. "Damnit Hilde, can I get in the car?"
"Howard," I snapped, gaining his attention.
"We have a serial killer on our hands. You need to listen to
me." And he did. ~ * ~ (tbc)
|
