1 June 2001
TITLE: Pussycat, Pussycat
AUTHOR: kumiko
PART: 16
FANDOM: Gundam Wing
PAIRING: 6x2/2x6, hints of 13x6 and 13x5
WARNINGS: yaoi
DISCLAIMER: Gundam Wing belongs to Sunrise, Bandai, and Sotsu Agency.
"I was worried about you," Duo said, arms tight around Zechs. "So I just... just wanted to make sure..."
"I'm glad you came," Zechs whispered in reply. "You always seem to know when I need you."
Duo smiled, but it was bittersweet. Stroking the long, blond hair he wondered if indeed it was *him* Zechs needed, or was it the man who spoke to him from the letter?
"He told you how much he loved you, didn't he?" the braided boy murmured.
"Yes, he did," Zechs said, "He said he still does, wherever he is..."
That made the American wince, feeling a sharp stab of anxiety pierce through him. "Yes," he muttered, "wherever he is..."
Zechs seemed to sense that something was wrong and he gently loosened his grip on Duo, holding him back a little ways so that he could see the boy's face.
"And he told me something else, too. He told me to find someone -someone who could help me out of the darkness... someone to be my light."
The two of them searched each other's eyes for a long lingering moment, Duo half excited, half terrified of what he was about to hear.
"You *are* my light, Duo," Zechs whispered. "You're exactly what he wished for me, and I couldn't have been luckier to find you..."
"Zechs..." Duo whispered back, stunned by the depth of the other man's feeling. "You really mean that... don't you?"
"Yes, Duo. I do mean that - with all my heart. I need you so much. I need your laughter and your intelligence... and I need your way of looking at things, of being open to people. You can save me from myself, you see?" He hesitated for a moment and then added, "And in return, I'll love you as much as you can stand."
Duo slipped his arms around Zechs's chest, burying his face against it. "I can stand an awful lot," he murmured into the cloth of the blond man's shirt.
"It's yours," Zechs whispered. "It's all yours..." /And when I die, Treize - I will tell you everything he did for me.../
They sat there for a long time, listening to the rain, before Zechs straightened up and said, "We should find Wufei. He must be freezing by now."
The had found the Chinese boy dozing in the fort and now they were all back in the car and heading towards London again. The tension that had been evident between Zechs and Wufei since they'd met in the museum seemed to have eased, but neither man spoke of his letter to the other. The appeared content to have their own and leave it at that.
"She seemed a very friendly woman," Zechs ventured after a time. "Mrs. Lyons, that is..."
"Yeah, she was," Duo mused.
With Zechs driving and Wufei insisting on the back seat this time, Duo was free to go over the conversation with Mrs. Lyons. It left him thinking about the lawyer, and how different he probably would have been in life, from the frail, disturbed specter Duo and Mouse and met.
/Mouse! I can't wait to tell him about all of this! Will this mean that the tall officer will disappear, too? Yeah, the kid'll be happy, no doubt.../
It was then that it happened - the feeling of something not quiet right, of something not square with what he knew to be true. What was it? He frowned a little and tried to work it out. /Something Mrs. Lyons said... something in that conversation that didn't fit... about her brother? About that day? Damn! It was just outside his awareness...
They pulled alongside the house in Berekeley Square at 1:30pm, all hungry again, and wanting lunch. Duo volunteered to go the kitchen and ask the cook to find them something, and so, ten minutes later, he found himself at the large kitchen table, waiting for her to finish a comm unit call to the grocer.
"Now then," she said when she had rung off, "what is it you're wanting, dear?"
"Zechs - the master - and Wufei and I were wondering if we could get some lunch. I know we're a bit late, but we also happen to be starving and we'd love you forever if we could have *just* a bit of something?" He tried his winningest smile.
"No need to turn all that dazzle on me, young man," she said sensibly. "I'm an old woman - you save it for the girls. I'll make up some sandwiches, if that will suit you all."
"Thanks!" Duo grinned and then added, "Ah... can I help?"
She looked at him in surprise for a moment and then said, "I suppose... why don't you choose the garnishes."
As Duo rummaged in the large refrigerator he called back over his shoulder, "I've met your son, you know."
She turned and stared at his back. "*Have* you now?" she said, "Well it *is* a small world, indeed. Fancy you meeting my boy!" She was slicing bread and smiling proudly. "He's the best son a mother could have, you know. Quiet and serious-like. Loves to study, he does."
"Yeah," Duo said smiling as he brought out lettuce and tomatoes and onions. "He seems like that type."
"Oh yes," she said, spreading mustard on the bread slices. "Always was the best in school, even as a young one. Teacher's loved him., they did. So polite..."
She began placing cold roast beef on top of each sandwich, Duo following along with the garnish. "No, I've always been lucky when it came to him. I realized that when we moved in here and he took the third floor room. There were rumors, you know, about that floor, but my boy never said anything against it."
Duo looked over at here quizzically, the feeling he'd had in the car beginning to come back, stronger this time. /What *had* Mrs. Lyons said...?/ "What rumors were those?" he asked the cook, who was now slicing the sandwiches and stacking them on a large plate.
"Well," she said hesitantly, "I don't like to speak ill of the dead, but when I came to work here they told me about woman who'd been here two cooks before me. *She* had a son, too, and it seemed she was unhappy with him nearly every day... drove her to drink he did. She became quite an alcoholic."
/ 'May I ask how you knew of these letters...?'/ Duo's mind felt as if it were buzzing - the faint connection he needed to make just outside his grasp....
"And of course," the cook was continuing, "you know how people are when they get that way. She started neglecting him..."
/'I'm staying in Treize Khushrenada's house... the people in the house still talk about it at times...'/
From far away, Duo could hear the cook say, "Began wandering the streets, she did - as if she'd completely forgotten about him...up there..."
/'I remember Arthur telling us about his visits there. He was fond of the cook's son, I believe, because he was going into law school...'/
Duo looked up sharply at the woman. "Excuse me," he said, mouth feeling dry, "excuse me, but... what's your son's name?"
Pulled from her recollection of past gossip, the woman blinked several times and then said, "Colin. Colin Hamley - just like his father."
"And... how old is he? Colin?"
"He'll be twenty-two this year," she said, "Why?"
Duo felt the world begin to spin slowly around him. "Then who... who's the boy living on the third floor?" he said, voice nearly a whisper.
The cook looked confused. "On the third floor? There's no one living up there. Hasn't been since Colin moved out two years ago. "What are you playing at?" Her eyes took on a frightened look and she backed away from him slowly. "Don't you go pretending on me - I won't hold with you trying to scare me..."
"Who is he?" Duo said again, more to himself than to her. Then, forgetting all about the sandwiches, he turned and fled the kitchen, running to the front hallway and taking the stairs two at a time.
Whoever Mouse was, he was certainly not the cook's son. Dashing up the flight of stairs to the third floor, Duo had the sinking feeling that a simple identity switch was not the least of what was strange about the boy he'd been helping.
End of Part 16
(:./kumiko/2road33)
