Feed the starving author..... please?
Title: Dreaming of Memories (working title)
Author: Me
Genre: not sure yet - AU, romance, action?, possible citrus warning later
Pairing(s): 13x6x13 (pre-estblished), more to come
Notes: Most, if not all the characters will be OOC. I'm not sure where this is going to take me or how long it's going to get. My first ever GW fanfic. *nervous* Comments, criticisms, suggestions welcomed.
Prologue
[Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada]
Light. Warmth. Searingly, blindingly bright. He groaned and buried his face in his pillow. What was the problem now?! Blinking, Treize opened his eyes. It would have to be of earth-shattering proportions for anyone to dare disturb his rest before evening.
Growling, he stood and pulled on a uniform, one of the few garments he owned that was doomed to be dashing, brightly-colored, and all but impossible to care for… only to realize that there was no one waiting for him in his sitting room. What on earth…?
Now more puzzled and intrigued than angered, Treize walked back into his bedroom, only to find his most annoying friend on the planet, seated calmly on his desk, grinning widely.
“’Mornin’” came the lazy drawl.
“One of these days, Duo Maxwell, I am going to snap, and kill you on sight.”
“I doubt that, my dear General Khushrenada…” Duo grinned and sauntered over to properly greet Treize with a bear hug.
Rolling his eyes, and unable to keep from smiling back at the younger-seeming man, Treize returned the gesture with interest. “Sooo. What have you been up to, my fine feathered, or, should I say, braided felon?”
“Oh, nothing much, I’ve picked up a few odds and ends here and there,” a ruby ring appeared, as if conjured, in Duo’s hands, and he fiddled with it for a moment, still grinning. “Mostly I’ve just been wandering the globe, trying to find someplace to call home.” This last brought a slightly melancholy glint to the braided teen’s eyes, though the grin didn’t fade.
Treize gave Duo a sharp look. “I thought you said you were content to remain a wanderer until the end of days…”
“Things change, people change with them, and the times change faster than we can keep up with them as a society. You know that as well as I do, Treize. There’s a lot of unhappiness out there, these days. It’s depressing.” Duo turned to gaze out the wide window, which he’d unveiled to wake his friend.
Walking up to stand next to the one person he’d known nearly all his life, Treize sighed. “Don’t I know it.” After a short silence that threatened to lengthen unto eternity, he added, “I know it all too well.”
~+~+~+~
[New York City, New York, USA]
Opening the window to let some air into his apartment, Trowa was hit by a wave of noises and smells diverse enough to dizzy an acrobat. He had reason to know this, since he was an acrobat. Having grown up as a part of the Barnum and Bailey circus act had left its mark on him. Lithe and graceful, he could do just about anything with his body that he wished, despite, or perhaps because of, his height. At 6’4” he towered over most of the other acrobats, taller than they by about a head. Being tall had its perks though, he had to admit… It made getting around much easier - he could see over the heads and shoulders of the other people on the sidewalks and avoid obstacles as though prescient. His best friend had accused him of prescience more than once…
Realising he was standing at his window woolgathering, Trowa turned and walked out of his room, and into the tiny closet-like room in his apartment that masqueraded as a kitchen. Setting about making himself breakfast, Trowa sat silently and tried to gather his thoughts into some semblance of order while his coffee perked. Checking his mental calendar, he found that he had no pressing plans to attend to today, and chalked the day up to relaxing and studying for his college entrance exams.
Noting that his coffee was done, he poured himself a mug, and set it down on the table before plopping down in his single chair. He rarely had company, and thus, no need for another, after all. Why waste the precious little space he had in his shoebox apartment? At some point during his musings, he absentmindedly ate a meager breakfast, consisting of his usual bowl of cereal, cup of coffee, and slice of buttered toast.
Rinsing off the dishes, and leaving them in the sink for the time being, he flopped down on his bed and picked up his quantum physics text… and sighed. Some subjects were just so boring without someone to explain what was going on. And, besides, Trowa had found, through long experience that he learned much better and more readily from people than he did from books.
A knock on his door resounded through the apartment. Trowa jumped.
“Who…?” Getting up to answer the door, Trowa tossed his text onto his bed and made his way to the door, peering out to see who it was before opening it.
“About damned time you opened the door,” a voice growled.
Trowa smirked. “ Hello to you too, Heero.”
“Hn.”
Trowa stood aside and allowed Heero room to squeeze by through the narrow doorway. “So, what brings you to my humble shoebox?” Heero shrugged.
“I needed someplace quiet to read and work. My roommate is being loud again. Your place was the first to come to mind.”
Amused, Trowa shrugged back and replied, “I hope you don’t mind using the kitchen table, or some portion of the floor. There’s not much else available.”
“As long as it’s clean and quiet, I could care less.”
Trowa quirked an eyebrow at him. “… Antisocial much?”
“Dumb question. Why ask if you know the answer?”
“For the sake of rhetoric, of course. Even the best of us falls prey to the need to use hyperbole or exaggeration now and then.” That comment gained Trowa a skeptical look. “Oh, that’s right… The great Heero Yuy is above and beyond the rest of the human race. He need not exaggerate, he need not use rhetoric. Hell, he barely uses words. He is, after all, perfect.” Now the look was a rather venomous glare. Heero hated being teased with a passion, and Trowa knew it… and exploited this solitary chink in Heero’s stoic façade.
When the glare didn’t bleed into a less harsh look, Trowa relented. If nothing else, he knew when not to push his luck teasing Heero. Making a sweeping gesture that encompassed most of the room, Trowa spoke once again, this time having redonned his customary poker face. “Make yourself comfortable. Tea? Coffee?”
Unfazed by the change in his friend’s demeanor, Heero shook his head. “No, thanks. I’ve already had enough of the stuff this morning. Any more and I’ll be high enough to look down at the clouds.”
Trowa snickered, and spoke in an aside to an imaginary audience. “My friend seems to have suddenly developed a sense of deadpan humor. I’m not sure if I ought to be frightened, for now I know the world is surely going to come to an end today…”
Heero rolled his eyes and muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath in Japanese. Trowa’s smirk widened. Giving Heero the most innocent look he could, Trowa added, “Saaa… has anything interesting happened to you in the last couple of days, since I saw you last?”
~+~+~+~
[Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada]
Standing out on his porch, watching the rain fall, Quatre wondered where Wufei was and what it was he was doing, that was so important as to drive him out in the pouring rain to search for something. Wufei was being very tight-lipped about the whole issue as well. His friend’s silence only served to make Quatre the more curious, however. So, the little blonde strategist stood, meditatively thinking, listening to the splats of the raindrops impacting all around him.
It was a flicker of movement that roused him from his near-trance state, bringing him back to full alertness, though he didn’t let the change show in his posture or expression. Being a master chess player had its advantages at times, allowing him to plan out various permutations of his plans daily, and almost always manage to accomplish everything he needed to, and still have spare time to spend relaxing as well.
Carefully, not allowing his tenseness to show in his demeanor, Quatre turned slowly in the direction which the movement had come from, and was greeted by the sight of Wufei leading a stranger up to the house. No, that’s no stranger, Quatre thought with a smile.
Letting his delight show on his face, he called out a cheery welcome to the two of them. It has been forever since I’ve seen Duo. I wonder what brings him out here... And, for that matter, where’s his motorcycle? He treats that machine better than most guys would a girlfriend.
Duo, who had been looking more than a little miserable and wet, brightened hearing Quatre’s greeting. “Quat! How are ya, man? It’s been ages!”
Quatre laughed. “That is has, Duo. Come on in, I think we can find you something dry to change into… you must be frozen half to the bone.” Here Quatre paused, then added with a snicker. “And you look like a drowned rat.”
“Oy! Be nice, Quatre. You would too, if you’d been stuck in the rain for over an hour and a half!”
Leading Duo and Wufei into the kitchen, where they could drip where they wished without ruining anything, Quatre could no longer hold his curiosity in check. “An hour and a half?! What on earth happened, Duo? Where’s your bike?”
With a rueful sigh, Duo started spinning his tale. He’d been visiting friends On Prince Edward Island, and had a blast, but the trip over to see the two of them had somehow ended up being plagued by a long series of minor mishaps. First he’d ended up stranded on the Transcanada Highway near Victoria, before he’d even gotten to the Confederation Bridge, after about a quarter hour, a kind motorist stopped and lent him a gallon or so of gas from the spare canister in his trunk. “... So, I reimbursed the guy, cause there aren’t enough drivers out there with the courtesy to stop and help a guy out,” Duo interjected into his story. And from there, the tale of woe continued. Duo managed to get as far as Fredericton, New Brunswick after that near brush with boredom, and then disaster struck again. This time non-mechanical. It started pouring rain so hard Duo could barely see the road 30 feet ahead of him. At that point he’d decided to take shelter for a while, and picked a shopping centre at random in Fredericton to wander around in and dry off, and whiled away about an hour thus before the rain moved on… only to find, once he was on the road again, that the rain was moving in the same direction as he was, and that he was stuck with it for the rest of the trip. “I was getting more than a little angry at the weather god at that point. I mean, not only was it pouring rain… It was pouring cold rain.” Duo exaggerated a shiver, to emphasize his point. “And then my bike broke down a second time, fickle womanly thing that she is, and left me stranded about 30 miles from here. So I called Wu-man, here,” Duo paused to grin at the scowling Wufei, “and asked him for a pick up, and not to tell you, ‘cause my visit was supposed to be a surprise.”
Once Duo was finished with his tale, Quatre did a double take. “Oh, Duo, I’m sorry, I should have waited until after you dried off before I started pestering you with questions.”
Duo laughed. “Nah, Quat. It’s alright. Don’t worry about it. It would take more than a little water to do me in, anyways.”
Quatre, however would not be swayed once he’d made up his mind. “Come with me, Duo, I’ll find you something dry to wear. Wufei you wouldn’t mind lending him a pair of sweatpants, would you?”
Bemused, Wufei watched Quatre take charge, and assented to the request, knowing he’d never get any peace if he refused. Quatre had one of the longest memories of anyone he knew, and a mind for details. “Best to just let him have his way and mother you, Duo. He’ll feel guilty if he isn’t allowed to.”
Quatre blushed at the teasing remark. “Wufei!”
Duo grinned and then winked at Wufei. “No worries, man.” Letting Quatre lead him deeper into the house, Duo relaxed somewhat and listened to the blonde chatter, letting Quatre rid himself of his nerves and embarrassment. Smiling, he stopped his friend mid-sentence. “Oy, Quat… chill. I’m not going to bite.”
“Oh yeah? What’s with the fangs, then?”
Duo blinked. “Whaa?” Running the tip of his tongue over his teeth to make sure they weren’t really visible, he hid a sigh of relief. “What do you mean, ‘fangs’? Sure I own fake ones from last Halloween, but I’m not wearing them.”
Quatre wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that remark. “I could have sworn… Duo, are you sure you didn’t put them on and forget about them?”
At that, Duo grinned widely, showing his teeth. “Absolutely.”
Duo’s smile always was contagious. Quatre couldn’t help smiling back. “It would have been so like you to just randomly wear fangs outside of Halloween just to see if we’d notice.”
“Hey. Good idea!”
Quatre groaned. “Eeh ghads. What monster have I unleashed upon the unsuspecting world?”
More laughter followed this comment, and the melodramatic delivery. “Quatre!” Duo had fallen against the wall for support, bent nearly double by his mirth. Quatre smirked.
“Yep. Still got it.”
“You sure do, Quat. And you have the innocent baby face to pull it off with, too.”
Once Duo was dressed in something warmer, the three of them sat around in Wufei’s study and brought one another up to date on what had been going on in each of their lives. Duo regaled his hosts, telling them about the friends he’d just visited on Prince Edward Island, and what had transpired there, and Wufei and Quatre told him of the monotony his visit had broken.
~+~+~+~
Author: Me
Genre: not sure yet - AU, romance, action?, possible citrus warning later
Pairing(s): 13x6x13 (pre-estblished), more to come
Notes: Most, if not all the characters will be OOC. I'm not sure where this is going to take me or how long it's going to get. My first ever GW fanfic. *nervous* Comments, criticisms, suggestions welcomed.
Prologue
[Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada]
Light. Warmth. Searingly, blindingly bright. He groaned and buried his face in his pillow. What was the problem now?! Blinking, Treize opened his eyes. It would have to be of earth-shattering proportions for anyone to dare disturb his rest before evening.
Growling, he stood and pulled on a uniform, one of the few garments he owned that was doomed to be dashing, brightly-colored, and all but impossible to care for… only to realize that there was no one waiting for him in his sitting room. What on earth…?
Now more puzzled and intrigued than angered, Treize walked back into his bedroom, only to find his most annoying friend on the planet, seated calmly on his desk, grinning widely.
“’Mornin’” came the lazy drawl.
“One of these days, Duo Maxwell, I am going to snap, and kill you on sight.”
“I doubt that, my dear General Khushrenada…” Duo grinned and sauntered over to properly greet Treize with a bear hug.
Rolling his eyes, and unable to keep from smiling back at the younger-seeming man, Treize returned the gesture with interest. “Sooo. What have you been up to, my fine feathered, or, should I say, braided felon?”
“Oh, nothing much, I’ve picked up a few odds and ends here and there,” a ruby ring appeared, as if conjured, in Duo’s hands, and he fiddled with it for a moment, still grinning. “Mostly I’ve just been wandering the globe, trying to find someplace to call home.” This last brought a slightly melancholy glint to the braided teen’s eyes, though the grin didn’t fade.
Treize gave Duo a sharp look. “I thought you said you were content to remain a wanderer until the end of days…”
“Things change, people change with them, and the times change faster than we can keep up with them as a society. You know that as well as I do, Treize. There’s a lot of unhappiness out there, these days. It’s depressing.” Duo turned to gaze out the wide window, which he’d unveiled to wake his friend.
Walking up to stand next to the one person he’d known nearly all his life, Treize sighed. “Don’t I know it.” After a short silence that threatened to lengthen unto eternity, he added, “I know it all too well.”
~+~+~+~
[New York City, New York, USA]
Opening the window to let some air into his apartment, Trowa was hit by a wave of noises and smells diverse enough to dizzy an acrobat. He had reason to know this, since he was an acrobat. Having grown up as a part of the Barnum and Bailey circus act had left its mark on him. Lithe and graceful, he could do just about anything with his body that he wished, despite, or perhaps because of, his height. At 6’4” he towered over most of the other acrobats, taller than they by about a head. Being tall had its perks though, he had to admit… It made getting around much easier - he could see over the heads and shoulders of the other people on the sidewalks and avoid obstacles as though prescient. His best friend had accused him of prescience more than once…
Realising he was standing at his window woolgathering, Trowa turned and walked out of his room, and into the tiny closet-like room in his apartment that masqueraded as a kitchen. Setting about making himself breakfast, Trowa sat silently and tried to gather his thoughts into some semblance of order while his coffee perked. Checking his mental calendar, he found that he had no pressing plans to attend to today, and chalked the day up to relaxing and studying for his college entrance exams.
Noting that his coffee was done, he poured himself a mug, and set it down on the table before plopping down in his single chair. He rarely had company, and thus, no need for another, after all. Why waste the precious little space he had in his shoebox apartment? At some point during his musings, he absentmindedly ate a meager breakfast, consisting of his usual bowl of cereal, cup of coffee, and slice of buttered toast.
Rinsing off the dishes, and leaving them in the sink for the time being, he flopped down on his bed and picked up his quantum physics text… and sighed. Some subjects were just so boring without someone to explain what was going on. And, besides, Trowa had found, through long experience that he learned much better and more readily from people than he did from books.
A knock on his door resounded through the apartment. Trowa jumped.
“Who…?” Getting up to answer the door, Trowa tossed his text onto his bed and made his way to the door, peering out to see who it was before opening it.
“About damned time you opened the door,” a voice growled.
Trowa smirked. “ Hello to you too, Heero.”
“Hn.”
Trowa stood aside and allowed Heero room to squeeze by through the narrow doorway. “So, what brings you to my humble shoebox?” Heero shrugged.
“I needed someplace quiet to read and work. My roommate is being loud again. Your place was the first to come to mind.”
Amused, Trowa shrugged back and replied, “I hope you don’t mind using the kitchen table, or some portion of the floor. There’s not much else available.”
“As long as it’s clean and quiet, I could care less.”
Trowa quirked an eyebrow at him. “… Antisocial much?”
“Dumb question. Why ask if you know the answer?”
“For the sake of rhetoric, of course. Even the best of us falls prey to the need to use hyperbole or exaggeration now and then.” That comment gained Trowa a skeptical look. “Oh, that’s right… The great Heero Yuy is above and beyond the rest of the human race. He need not exaggerate, he need not use rhetoric. Hell, he barely uses words. He is, after all, perfect.” Now the look was a rather venomous glare. Heero hated being teased with a passion, and Trowa knew it… and exploited this solitary chink in Heero’s stoic façade.
When the glare didn’t bleed into a less harsh look, Trowa relented. If nothing else, he knew when not to push his luck teasing Heero. Making a sweeping gesture that encompassed most of the room, Trowa spoke once again, this time having redonned his customary poker face. “Make yourself comfortable. Tea? Coffee?”
Unfazed by the change in his friend’s demeanor, Heero shook his head. “No, thanks. I’ve already had enough of the stuff this morning. Any more and I’ll be high enough to look down at the clouds.”
Trowa snickered, and spoke in an aside to an imaginary audience. “My friend seems to have suddenly developed a sense of deadpan humor. I’m not sure if I ought to be frightened, for now I know the world is surely going to come to an end today…”
Heero rolled his eyes and muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath in Japanese. Trowa’s smirk widened. Giving Heero the most innocent look he could, Trowa added, “Saaa… has anything interesting happened to you in the last couple of days, since I saw you last?”
~+~+~+~
[Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada]
Standing out on his porch, watching the rain fall, Quatre wondered where Wufei was and what it was he was doing, that was so important as to drive him out in the pouring rain to search for something. Wufei was being very tight-lipped about the whole issue as well. His friend’s silence only served to make Quatre the more curious, however. So, the little blonde strategist stood, meditatively thinking, listening to the splats of the raindrops impacting all around him.
It was a flicker of movement that roused him from his near-trance state, bringing him back to full alertness, though he didn’t let the change show in his posture or expression. Being a master chess player had its advantages at times, allowing him to plan out various permutations of his plans daily, and almost always manage to accomplish everything he needed to, and still have spare time to spend relaxing as well.
Carefully, not allowing his tenseness to show in his demeanor, Quatre turned slowly in the direction which the movement had come from, and was greeted by the sight of Wufei leading a stranger up to the house. No, that’s no stranger, Quatre thought with a smile.
Letting his delight show on his face, he called out a cheery welcome to the two of them. It has been forever since I’ve seen Duo. I wonder what brings him out here... And, for that matter, where’s his motorcycle? He treats that machine better than most guys would a girlfriend.
Duo, who had been looking more than a little miserable and wet, brightened hearing Quatre’s greeting. “Quat! How are ya, man? It’s been ages!”
Quatre laughed. “That is has, Duo. Come on in, I think we can find you something dry to change into… you must be frozen half to the bone.” Here Quatre paused, then added with a snicker. “And you look like a drowned rat.”
“Oy! Be nice, Quatre. You would too, if you’d been stuck in the rain for over an hour and a half!”
Leading Duo and Wufei into the kitchen, where they could drip where they wished without ruining anything, Quatre could no longer hold his curiosity in check. “An hour and a half?! What on earth happened, Duo? Where’s your bike?”
With a rueful sigh, Duo started spinning his tale. He’d been visiting friends On Prince Edward Island, and had a blast, but the trip over to see the two of them had somehow ended up being plagued by a long series of minor mishaps. First he’d ended up stranded on the Transcanada Highway near Victoria, before he’d even gotten to the Confederation Bridge, after about a quarter hour, a kind motorist stopped and lent him a gallon or so of gas from the spare canister in his trunk. “... So, I reimbursed the guy, cause there aren’t enough drivers out there with the courtesy to stop and help a guy out,” Duo interjected into his story. And from there, the tale of woe continued. Duo managed to get as far as Fredericton, New Brunswick after that near brush with boredom, and then disaster struck again. This time non-mechanical. It started pouring rain so hard Duo could barely see the road 30 feet ahead of him. At that point he’d decided to take shelter for a while, and picked a shopping centre at random in Fredericton to wander around in and dry off, and whiled away about an hour thus before the rain moved on… only to find, once he was on the road again, that the rain was moving in the same direction as he was, and that he was stuck with it for the rest of the trip. “I was getting more than a little angry at the weather god at that point. I mean, not only was it pouring rain… It was pouring cold rain.” Duo exaggerated a shiver, to emphasize his point. “And then my bike broke down a second time, fickle womanly thing that she is, and left me stranded about 30 miles from here. So I called Wu-man, here,” Duo paused to grin at the scowling Wufei, “and asked him for a pick up, and not to tell you, ‘cause my visit was supposed to be a surprise.”
Once Duo was finished with his tale, Quatre did a double take. “Oh, Duo, I’m sorry, I should have waited until after you dried off before I started pestering you with questions.”
Duo laughed. “Nah, Quat. It’s alright. Don’t worry about it. It would take more than a little water to do me in, anyways.”
Quatre, however would not be swayed once he’d made up his mind. “Come with me, Duo, I’ll find you something dry to wear. Wufei you wouldn’t mind lending him a pair of sweatpants, would you?”
Bemused, Wufei watched Quatre take charge, and assented to the request, knowing he’d never get any peace if he refused. Quatre had one of the longest memories of anyone he knew, and a mind for details. “Best to just let him have his way and mother you, Duo. He’ll feel guilty if he isn’t allowed to.”
Quatre blushed at the teasing remark. “Wufei!”
Duo grinned and then winked at Wufei. “No worries, man.” Letting Quatre lead him deeper into the house, Duo relaxed somewhat and listened to the blonde chatter, letting Quatre rid himself of his nerves and embarrassment. Smiling, he stopped his friend mid-sentence. “Oy, Quat… chill. I’m not going to bite.”
“Oh yeah? What’s with the fangs, then?”
Duo blinked. “Whaa?” Running the tip of his tongue over his teeth to make sure they weren’t really visible, he hid a sigh of relief. “What do you mean, ‘fangs’? Sure I own fake ones from last Halloween, but I’m not wearing them.”
Quatre wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that remark. “I could have sworn… Duo, are you sure you didn’t put them on and forget about them?”
At that, Duo grinned widely, showing his teeth. “Absolutely.”
Duo’s smile always was contagious. Quatre couldn’t help smiling back. “It would have been so like you to just randomly wear fangs outside of Halloween just to see if we’d notice.”
“Hey. Good idea!”
Quatre groaned. “Eeh ghads. What monster have I unleashed upon the unsuspecting world?”
More laughter followed this comment, and the melodramatic delivery. “Quatre!” Duo had fallen against the wall for support, bent nearly double by his mirth. Quatre smirked.
“Yep. Still got it.”
“You sure do, Quat. And you have the innocent baby face to pull it off with, too.”
Once Duo was dressed in something warmer, the three of them sat around in Wufei’s study and brought one another up to date on what had been going on in each of their lives. Duo regaled his hosts, telling them about the friends he’d just visited on Prince Edward Island, and what had transpired there, and Wufei and Quatre told him of the monotony his visit had broken.
~+~+~+~