199 AC, June
Heero Yuy looked at Amanogawa Masayuki in confusion before looking back at the woman. The former said to his sister in a low voice, "Miyuki-neechan, what are you talking about?"
"I said, Kaasan and Tousan are waiting for Hiroyuki," Amanogawa Miyuki said, her eyes unchanged.
"This is Heero Yuy, my friend. A new transferred student. Hiroyuki is... dead...."
Heero glanced at the boy whose face was paling.
Miyuki giggled and suddenly burst in a maniacal laughter. "Heero Yuy, you said?" She said mockingly. "No. This is Hiroyuki. H-I-R-O-Y-U-K-I, Hiroyuki. Your twin brother." She laughed again.
"Hiro-kun is dead!" Masayuki's voice was bitter and full of pain.
She abruptly stopped her laughter. Her face turned serious. Those piercing eyes were even colder than before. If a look could have killed, hers could have killed an army of OZ soldiers. "Hiroyuki was dead. Yes, he was dead. I know because _I_ killed him." A smirk came to meet her lips. "But he's back. He's back again to meet us." She laughed out loud again.
"Neechan!" Heero could hear the despair in his voice. Suddenly Masayuki turned to him. His face was unreadable. "Yuy-kun," he said, "Forgive me, but please... please leave now."
Heero just stared at him before he throttled his motorcycle and sped away leaving the two siblings alone.
Heero sat in front of his laptop. He turned it on and punched in his password. He established a connection and soon he was inside the government's database.
It's time to find out more about Amanogawa Masayuki....
It's already ten o'clock. That new student hasn't showed up yet. I glance up at my buddy. Masa-kun is nervous, I can tell. He keeps fidgeting now and then.
Ooh, I smell something here. I remember noticing Masa-kun trying to follow Yuy home yesterday. Okay, I _may_ be delusional, but I know there's something about Yuy that my dear Masa-kun can't resist. Heck, there's something about Yuy that _every_ single girl in this class can't resist. Except me, of course. I have my June already.
I guess I read too much shonen ai. But... that can be fun! Eheh, I bet my mouth is turning into a devil's grin. I can just imagine Masa-kun and Yuy....
Hold it right there! The only reason why Masa-kun is interested in Yuy is because they have similar faces... sorta. Why, you hentai girl. Can't survive a day without a dirty thought, huh?
But if he's interested only because of their similarity, then why is he acting so strange?
Ooh. Gimme a Y! Gimme an A! Gimme an O! Gimme an I! Gimme YAOI!
Haaaaaalt!!! No yaoi thoughts! I don't want to be caught red-handed by Freud and accused of daydreaming, so wake up and pay attention!
The class turned to the door as a knock was heard. Freud glanced at his students and shrugged. He casually strolled to the door and opened it.
Heero Yuy was standing in front of the door. His eyes were, as usual, cool.
Freud smirked. "Well well well, ain't this our new student Heero Yuy? My, today is your second day here and already you _dare_ to come late. What a great student you think you are, don't cha? Huh?"
Heero said nothing.
"Do you have any excuse?"
The boy still said nothing.
"I'm waiting," the teacher tapped his shoe impatiently.
"...I have something important to do," he finally answered.
Freud didn't look convinced. "Oh really? And what can it be?"
Heero said nothing.
The teacher snorted and turned to the class. "Oh guys? Tell you what. Why don't you guys do Task 10 page 46 while Mr. Yuy here and I talk, okay?"
The students cooed, some answered "Yes, Sir", some cheered, and the others just didn't give a damn as the two walked out the class.
Masayuki turned green.
Ann glanced at him and turned back to her sketches. Ooh, another idea for a doujinshi....
Making sure the teachers' office was empty, Freud told his new student to come in.
Heero obeyed. He walked in and stopped before a sofa in the corner of the room. He instinctively glanced around observing the layout of the room.
Noticing his student's behavior, Freud sighed. "You can just sit down, Yuy. There's no one here to bug us or do whatever. Chill it down, boy," he said as he brought the two cups of coffee.
Once again Heero obeyed. He sat down.
Freud put a cup in front of the boy and kept the other. He sat down and sipped a bit of the black espresso before he started. "You know, you're not in my class because some headmaster picked out the lottery and exclaimed, 'What do you know! The new boy goes to class 2-5.'"
Heero stared at the teacher.
"You see," he started again, "Most of the guys in the class have their own problem. Like, you see the boy whose face is so similar to yours, Amanogawa? That boy's got a lot of nasty problems. Oh no, no gangsters, no mobsters, if that's what you think. You know, a little family problem and a BIG health problem."
"Health problem...." Heero remembered what he had found in the database the night before. Like him, Amanogawa was actually older than he seemed to be. He should have enrolled in college this spring, but instead he was stuck in the second year of high school. He had failed two years of school because of staying in the hospital too long during his struggle against some sort of unmentioned disease. "What does it have to do with me?"
"Well, there's only two people in this whole school who know your background. The headmaster, OC. And me too."
Heero restrained himself from inhaling sharply.
"But that didn't keep you off the school ordinance," Freud continued. "Yes, I feel sympathy for you. Damn I feel pity for you, though you might end up slaughtering me for that. But as I said, that didn't keep your ass off the school ordinance."
The boy stared at him with a 'So what?' expression.
Freud smirked. "So don't be late again, you smart ass! Now drink the damn coffee and back to the classroom."
Rolling his eyes, Heero obeyed. He drank the coffee and stood up. When he was at the door, he stopped. "Did Relena tell you why I'm here?" He asked without turning.
"The O Mighty Queen of the World?" The teacher scratched his not itching head. "Yeah, I think she did alright."
"Oh." That was all he responded before he closed the door behind him.
After a while, Freud slumped back with a 'humph'. "Man, one day I'll beat the crap outta that damned headmaster for dragging me into his troubles."
Masayuki walked out into the schoolyard, his head hanging limply. He had been trying to find Yuy the entire day with no result. He hadn't been in the classroom, he hadn't been on the roof, and he hadn't been anywhere in sight. Well, he had been in the classroom during the lecture, but whenever the teachers had left, so had he.
The familiar sound of a certain motorcycle coming from the distance captured his ears. He lifted up his head.
The motorcycle stopped right before him. He gasped as he recognized it.
The helmet the rider wore opened, revealing Heero Yuy's face. Before Masayuki could say anything, Heero snarled, "Hop in."
The boy's body reacted faster than his brain. Soon they sped on the road, heading out the city.
They arrived in a secluded clearing in the middle of a forest.
Masayuki climbed down the back seat and looked around him in amazement. Everywhere he turned to, he saw green trees. Most of them were eucalyptus trees. A little river cut through the little meadow, giving more beauty to the enclosed space.
In the center of it, a flamboyant tree was blossoming in orange blooms.
"Yuy-kun...," he was totally amazed, "This place... it's beautiful."
Heero merely snorted. He parked his motorcycle and tossed the helmet carelessly. Running his fingers through his dark brown hair, he walked up and stopped underneath the single flamboyant tree. He sat down with his back against its trunk, his arms folded, his legs crossed, and his eyes closed.
Masayuki caught up with him and sat in front of the silent boy with his feet tucked under him like in one of those tea ceremonies his parents often held. "...Yuy-kun...."
"Hn."
"Ano..., you brought me here on purpose, ne?"
Without opening his eyes, Heero mumbled. "You want to talk. I'm just making sure no one can hear."
Masayuki was surprised. How did Yuy know? Was it written all over his face? But considering what had happened the day before, of course the silent boy must have been smart enough to notice his discomfort. He silently admired the boy before him.
"Yuy-kun," he started. "Yesterday... I'm sorry about what happened yesterday. My sister isn't in a good condition, she tends to... babble about... things."
Heero didn't say a thing.
Masayuki fidgeted.
"That's all?" The silent boy opened an eye at him.
The restless boy looked anywhere but at that intense blue eye.
After a long moment of silence, finally Heero opened his mouth. Only with a phrase. "Manic depressive."
Apparently the phrase rang a bell with the other boy. In fact, he appeared more like someone had stung him with 15000 volts of electricity. Somehow he managed to stammer, "Wh... what are you talking about?"
"Your sister's state of mind," Heero said it bluntly, closing his one opened eye. "It's obvious that she was in her manic state when I met her yesterday."
Masayuki gulped nervously. "Yuy-kun... ano...."
"It's okay to talk about it if you want to," Heero unfolded his arms and finally decided to open his eyes and stare right to the boy's eyes. "That is what you want, right?"
A familiar expression flashed on Masayuki's face. Heero gritted his teeth grimly. He had seen that expression too much, so that he couldn't get it wrong. It was the expression he saw every time he thought about the little girl, the puppy....
...and Duo....
He had wondered whether he had made the right decision in leaving him and still he wondered. It wasn't... fair. He knew it.
But he just couldn't tell him.... The last thing he ever wanted was to see the long braided boy cry.
Even if it meant never seeing him again....
Masayuki was now practically sobbing. Or at least he was trying not to sob.
Heero stared at the boy for a moment before he reached out his hands and took the trembling boy in his arms.
The slightly smaller boy clutched at him desperately trying not to cry out but finally gave in. As he cried silently, Heero cradled and soothed him. But the ex-soldier couldn't help recalling the file he read the night before.
Amanogawa Masayuki, who used to be Yui Masayuki was a soft boy. He had been living in a peaceful neighborhood since the age of four, unscathed by the hellish war. He was ordinary in every way, except for his good looks and high IQ. It had been said that his IQ was over than 140 and he could have graduated from college already if not for his health condition.
However, the rest of his childhood had been harder. Yui Shirayuki, his father, had been a diplomat whose life had been wanted by the Feddies. He had tried to smuggle his family to Earth, because for him, they had been the most important thing and his own life had been nothing compared to them. Unfortunately, his plans had been a failure. As chaos erupted, he had been killed trying to protect his family. The older of the twins, Hiroyuki had been lost in the turmoil and was considered dead. The three remaining members of the family had managed to get to Earth and to obtain protection, but their bad luck hadn't stopped there yet. Feeling guilty of the loss of her brother, Miyuki had not been able to stop blaming herself and one day, her mother Koyuki found her trying to jump off a bridge. After being treated in the local asylum, Miyuki had returned to her family and they had tried to go on with their lives.
Then Masayuki had begun suffering from a disease. Heero hadn't found out which actually, but what ever it had been, it had forced the boy to spend years in hospital.
Ironically, that's how Yui Koyuki had met the man whom she married later. Amanogawa Hajime, the doctor in charge of Masayuki's health.
Masayuki was now sleeping peacefully in his arms. He sighed as Heero wiped the remaining trace of tears on his face.
Heero caressed the boy's hair softly. He tightened his embrace and leaned back into a more comfortable position.
He wondered when the boy would wake up. There were a lot of things to talk about....
...especially about his family....
~tbc~
Hime D.