22-Jul-2000
Hi~yee! ::waves to everyone:: Here is part ten. A
smashing part where things are discovered and danger
appears and..
H,D,T,Q,&W: GET ON WITH IT!
Pern: Ok...touchy this morning aren't we?
::death glare from all::
Pern: EEK! ::posts quickly::
Warning: slight OOC and 1X2, 3X4
Disclaimer: GW and Video Girl Ai aren't mine. 'nuff
said.
The limousines dropped the boys off at nearly 3:00 AM.
Exhausted from their dates, they crawled into the house. Quatre and Duo had left the porch lights on for them, so they wouldn't have to be looking for their keys in the dark. Trowa wanted to fall over.
Heero felt like a two-ton elephant had been dropped on his back and he was forced to carry it. Shutting the door behind him, Heero gave the living room the once over. He'd been expecting Duo to still be up, but the familiar braided boy was no where to be seen. The TV and lights were both off and there wasn't a pile of snacks on the coffee table. Shrugging his shoulders, Heero went to his room. He must have gone to bed, he thought as he turned on the light. Still, I'd have thought he would have waited up for me. Heero sighed and pictured a smiling Duo hopping down the stairs demanding to be told how the date had gone and then scolding him for not using the right lines.
The second day after Duo and Quatre's arrival, Duo had met Heero at the door and told him in no uncertain terms that he wanted every detail about what had happened. Heero had grunted and walked past the Video Boy. Duo was undaunted and had followed him into his room. There perched on his bed Duo proceeded to badger Heero to the point that Heero actually nearly lost his temper. He'd snapped at Duo and told him to get out. The Video Boy smiled broadly and congratulated him on showing some emotion. That it was key in any relationship to share feeling, no matter if they were positive or negative.
"I was beginning to wonder if you did anything more than grunt." Duo had joked. Heero grabbed his pillow and walloped the braided boy with it. Duo smiled mischievously and snatched it from him; he then went running out of the room announcing that Heero did have emotions. Trowa snickered and had told Duo; of course Heero has emotions. It just takes a mouthy braided baka to make him crack. Heero wasn't sure which he'd wanted to hurt more, Duo or Trowa. He settled on leaving both of them alone and going to hide out with Quatre in the kitchen.
"Dammit, he should still be up. Why isn't he?" Heero growled opening the door to his room.
His room was as he'd left it. The polish and rag were still beside his computer chair. Seeing them reminded him of Duo and how he'd behaved that afternoon. He was only doing his job, Heero reminded himself. And I went and... what if he never speaks to me again? Glancing over at his VCR, which he hadn't touched since Duo had popped out of it, he noticed that the hours had slowly been ticking away. Suddenly he wondered exactly how long he had this tape for and looked for the case. After a moment or two, he found it under his bed. In bright blue letters it said "Seven Day Rental". Heero counted back the days.
Counting today, he had three days left before he'd have to return Duo. Something about the thought of returning Duo to the video store didn't appeal to Heero in the least. Whether he realized it or not, Duo had become part of his life. The talkative, sometimes annoying, normally cheerful, and almost always friendly Duo Maxwell, Instructor of the Heart, had weaseled his way into Heero's narrow vision of his life.
"What's going to happen after his time is up?" Heero wondered aloud. A sick aching feeling was developing inside him. Without a second thought, Heero got up and left his room. He needed to talk to Trowa, and he needed to talk to him now.
Trowa answered the knock on his door with some surprise. He'd been expecting Quatre to appear and ask him how the date had gone, then chide him for not doing something that he should have. Instead, Heero asked to come in. Trowa let him and Heero stood in the middle of the room for a moment before beginning.
It'd been ages since he'd been in Trowa's room. Nothing much had changed except the computer had been upgraded and there were a couple new posters on the wall.
"Is there something I can help you with Heero?" Trowa asked tentatively. Heero held up the cassette case.
"I have to return Duo to OZ Video Rentals in three days." It took a moment for Trowa to grasp the deeper meaning behind that statement. He swallowed realizing that he'd have to return Quatre too.
"Three days. They only have three days left. Then what?"
"That's what I came up here to ask you." Heero replied. Trowa was terribly uncomfortable.
"I have no idea."
"Hn."
"I guess we could check them out again."
"That doesn't mean they'll be the same. Neither of us know what is going to happen when their tapes run out." Trowa nodded. Feeling frustrated, which he didn't feel all that often, Heero began to pace. Duo would pace when he got agitated, like when he tried to teach Heero pick up lines. It was pretty funny how his face would scrunch up in such a way just before he chewed Heero out for not using the right emphasis.
Heero had never even thanked him for all the lessons. It wasn't in his nature to say thank you very often. He really needed to though; Duo needed to hear those words before his time ran out. Maybe he could buy him a present or something. He always dressed like a priest; perhaps a crucifix would suffice.
"Heero? Heero?"
"Hn?" Trowa sighed.
"I said, I think we should wait until later to discuss this. We're both tired and we should probably have a talk with Quatre and Duo about this too. I'm sure they are aware of their time limit and might know more about this than we do."
"All right."
"See you at breakfast."
"Hai." Heero got up and left Trowa's room. As he descended the staircase, he paused to look down the hall at the guestroom where both Duo and Quatre were most likely asleep. He sighed heavily and went to bed. He wanted to talk to Duo, but didn't want to wake him. It would be rude to just barge in and he'd most likely end up waking Quatre up too. No, it was probably better to wait until morning when everyone was awake and alert. Pulling the blankets up over his shoulder, Heero lay on his side and closed his eyes.
Unfortunately, true sleep evaded him. Heero kept having very, interesting dreams. The first involved Relena, who for some reason was wearing her hair in a braid identical to Duo's, and was fairly mild until she began removing her clothing. Once she started unbuttoning the shirt, Heero woke up. He lay in bed trying to dash the vision from his mind. When he finally got back to sleep, he found himself running all over his house looking for Duo. He couldn't find him anywhere. Becoming more panicked by the second, Heero finally found Duo in the guestroom completely naked, hair down, with maple syrup dripped all over him. After that point it got very kinky and the Heero in the dream was enjoying it immensely.
The alarm on Trowa's nightstand went off. Cursing mentally, Trowa rolled over and shut it off. He'd been having a good dream. He didn't have them very often. Normally his dreams were dark and depressing.
He was always alone in either a desert, on a mountain, or at sea. No one ever came to visit him, except for shadows that he would chase and chase in hopes that they were from an actual person, but they never were. Trowa hated those dreams, but he hadn't had one since Quatre had come into his life.
Last night's dream had been particularly good. It had involved him, Quatre, a stuck elevator, whip cream, hot fudge, and cherries. Quatre had been awfully hot and sticky, which was why Trowa was reluctant to get out of bed. He really wanted to continue the dream. Breathing slowly, it took him a few minutes to recover, then he rolled out of bed and headed for the shower. As he turned on the cold water, Trowa confronted himself with the question that had bothered him since yesterday. Why had he enjoyed the little strip tease he'd given Quatre? The dream had made things worse and if this morning was any evidence to that fact, he really needed to sort things out. Shivering as a frigid cascade pounded on his naked body, Trowa continued to debate.
The little voice inside his head was screaming that he should stalk over to Quatre, kiss him, on the lips, hard, and drag him off to his room. The more sensible side of him was screaming "What in the world to you want to do that for?" Quatre was a Video Boy and would disappear in three days time anyway. Besides, he had to complete his mission. But was the mission really that important? Trowa chewed thoughtfully on his bottom lip. He felt as if his life was nothing more than one long series of mission with no end in sight. Didn't he deserve more than that? Didn't he deserve someone to love and cherish? Someone who would hold him when the nightmares got to bad?
Suddenly he wanted to go find Quatre and curl up in his lap like a kitten and just tell him about those horrid dreams. And Quatre would pat him on the head and tell him it would be all right. Or at least that's what Trowa hoped. First though, he had to deal with Dorothy. Trowa shook as he remembered last night.
The dinner had gone wonderfully, but afterwards things had deteriorated. Dorothy had invited Trowa back to her place after the movie and they had started making out. Trowa fully admitted he had no experience with this and had fumbled along. Dorothy seemed to be having the same problems. Suddenly she had shoved him away. Startled Trowa tried to apologize for his inexperience and that if she wanted him to stop he would. She had smiled and said thank you.
"No, you're not the reason, I am." Dorothy confessed. "You see I've been in love with someone, but they think of me as a friend only. I thought by going out with you, it would help me get over them, but it isn't. Oh, Trowa, you're such a nice guy. You're such a gentleman, that any girl would be lucky to have you. You're thoughtful, you're romantic, you're everything a girl could want, but I can't get over my first love. I'm so sorry I led you on."
Trowa sighed remembering how he'd spent the next few hours consoling Dorothy and telling her that it was all right and even offering his help and advice.
Quatre would have been proud. All his lessons had paid off and although Trowa hadn't won the girl, he did complete his mission in a way. He'd gotten Dorothy to ask her father to send money to the scientists. She'd even gotten her father up out of bed to write a check out so Trowa could deliver it in the morning. After that they'd talked some more and Dorothy mentioned something about Quatre and how cute he was. Then she'd gone on to joke that he and Trowa would make a nice couple and Trowa had laughed. Now Trowa wasn't laughing. Maybe Dorothy hadn't been joking and had seen something Trowa had never noticed about himself until now.
Turning off the water, Trowa stepped out of the shower and dried himself off. Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
"Just a minute." Trowa called.
"Trowa, have you seen either Duo or Quatre? I can't find them anywhere." Heero's worried voice floated through the door.
"Nani?"
Heero had awoken to the sound of his alarm. He'd promptly smashed the thing and flung it across the room. Groaning, he'd gotten up and dressed. Wandering out of his room he immediately noticed that there was no smell of breakfast being cooked.
Curious, he wondered if the Video Boys had opted for cold cereal this morning rather than oatmeal, eggs or French toast. Walking into the kitchen, he found no trace of them. They must be upstairs; he thought and had gone up to their room. He opened the door and found the place a mess. Pillows were on the ground; bed sheets had been pulled off and were scattered about. A knot formed in Heero's stomach as he remembered his dream from the night before. Hurrying to his parent's room, he found no sign of either Duo or Quatre there. He'd rapped on Trowa's door, but there was no answer. Somebody was in the shower, he assumed it was Trowa and knocked.
After giving Trowa the details of his search, they both went to the guestroom to inspect it.
"There appear to be signs of a struggle." Heero stated as Trowa walked about the room. "The night stand is knocked over and pillows are torn in places."
"Aa." Trowa replied. Stooping down he picked up something. It was a business card with the name "OZ Video Rentals" printed in thin block letters. "I think we need to go talk to OZ."
Fifteen minutes later, two boys, one dressed in a green tank top and spandex, the other in jeans and a turtleneck, burst into OZ Video Rentals. Guns in hand they stalked towards the cashier and set two videocassette cases down on the counter.
"Where are they?" Heero demanded.
"Who are you people and what are you talking about?" a woman in her late teens demanded. Her dark purple, nearly black hair was cut short except for her bangs, which rivaled Trowa's in length.
"We rented these videos from here five days ago. Someone from here broke into our house and removed them from the premises and left this card." Trowa said believing that he was the calmer of the two at the moment as Heero was already aiming his gun at the woman's head.
"I have no idea what you are talking."
"Omae o korosu."
"Don't you even think about."
"ONNA!" Wufei called appearing. He took one look at Heero and Trowa and came over. "What are you doing? You still have another two days on your rentals."
"They're gone." Trowa told him.
"Nani?"
"Duo is gone." Heero growled.
"Duo?" Wufei looked confused. Then he looked at the cases. Picking them up he noticed they were empty.
"Where are the tapes?"
"In our VCRs." Trowa stated.
"If we shut them off, they'll disappear." Heero growled.
"Who?" asked the woman whose nametag read Noin.
"Duo Maxwell and Quatre Raberba Winner."
"The guys in the videos." Wufei said. Suddenly his eyes grew wide and he looked at Noin. "You don't suppose they came out of the videos." He turned back to Heero and Trowa. "Did they?"
"Hn."
"Aa."
"I'll take that as a yes." Noin said. "But if they came out and have now disappeared and their tapes haven't stopped..OH MY GOD! Treize and Zechs must have them!"
"Who?" asked Heero and Trowa simultaneously.
"Treize and Zechs are the owners of this store. Their families have owned OZ Video Rentals for years. The two were away at a conference in Hawaii and weren't due back until next week. If they got wind of any problems with a tape, then they'd come back and deal with the problem." Noin told them.
"What sort of problem?" demanded Heero.
"Some of our tapes are very special." Explained Wufei. "The characters can actually come out, but only if the person truly needs their help. Normally, they go back when the tape stops and they have no memory of ever having been out to begin with. Occasionally, something goes wrong and they remember. Treize and Zechs deal with that by erasing the memory, but I've never heard of them having to take back a Video Person when their tape hasn't completed. Something must be VERY wrong."
"Listen." Trowa snapped, getting visibly angry for the first time in his life. "We don't want either Quatre or Duo's memories erased. We like them how they are and we'd like them to stay with us. Permanently."
"That's rather hard to arrange." Noin said trying to remain calm as Heero still had the gun to her head.
"We can't actually do it. You see Video People will never be able to have emotions other than the ones given them."
"Matai. Noin, isn't it possible that these two Video Boys could have somehow become more human than they are supposed to and that is why Treize and Zechs took them?" Wufei asked. Noin thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
"It's possible. If there was some sort of glitch maybe."
"How about two VCRs that small children had gotten a hold of and stuck with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?" asked Trowa beginning to calm down a bit.
"That would cause a glitch." Wufei admitted. "And if they are becoming more human, then.." He paused.
"What the hell are Treize and Zechs thinking!? There is a serious injustice about to happen and I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!" Wufei dove behind the counter and pulled out a sword. He tossed a gun to Noin. "We have to save your friends before our bosses go completely psycho and delete them."
"NANI?" Heero snapped.
"The only way to get a Video Person to stop acting human is to delete them and start again from scratch." Noin told them. "Chang and I feel that if a Video Person has achieved at least some resemblance to being human outside of their original programming, then they should be allowed to continue to develop their humanity. Treize and Zechs don't feel the same way."
"So they'll delete them?" asked Trowa in horror. No, he couldn't let that happen to Quatre. Glancing over at Heero he knew that he couldn't let it happen to Duo either.
"Hai." Replied Noin.
"Look. There is a chance we can get them back." Wufei said as he started looking for some keys. "It'll be dangerous as I don't know what exactly is in the dark room. Noin and I are forbidden back there, but we know that's where they do the memory erasing. I don't know if we'll make it in time, but we'll try. We can't let this injustice occur!"
"That's right!" Noin agreed as Wufei found the right key. "Are you with us?" Neither boy had to be asked twice.
"Ninmu ryokai." Heero stated.
"Follow us!" Wufei called as he headed for the back room.
End Part 10
~Tigress Pern
Please send comments to: tigresspern@yahoo.com