Duo was pacing.
At least, that was his definition of the tightly lapped circles the other was doing on the thin carpet of the hotel room they had managed to turn up. It was a far cry from the plush, spacious rooms staying with Relena had afforded them, but it was far from the worst place he and his partner had ever stayed. How Usagi, over in the adjoining room, felt was something he didn't know, but he had yet to hear a complaint out of her, so he was counting that as a technical point in their favor.
"You're sure?" Duo finally broke off pacing to ask.
He nodded slowly and definitively. "Absolutely. Usually the dream takes several hours, if not days or longer, to happen. It's never happened in just a few minutes like this before."
For a long moment, he debated on telling Duo about some of his other dreams, the ones where the American was missing. There was no point in making an already tense situation even worse, though. And this situation was plenty tense enough without adding something like that to it. Adding a match to hydraulic fuel seemed an apt comparison, given Hurricane Duo's occasionally explosive temper and newfound ability.
"So, why then would it change?" Duo was saying. He was pretty sure that it was a rhetorical question, so he kept silent and let the other man try to think. "There would have to be some kind of reason for this kind of change, a catalyst of some sort."
Something different and probably newly added... "Usagi-san. That's the only thing different exception location. And I've been on the move since this started, so I doubt that's it." It was the only thing that made sense, yet at the same time, it was worrying to even consider. How could one person--
"How could she be doing this?" Duo echoed his thought aloud. "I'm not saying I doubt your theory or anything, Heero. I just don't see how it makes sense."
"It could be that she's doing it unconsciously," he offered.
"It'd almost have to be." Duo sounded frazzled, frustrated even. He hesitated for a long second that felt an eternity long then reached out to put his hand on the other's arm. For what it was worth, the American calmed quickly and sounded a bit closer to his usual self when he spoke again. "I mean, can you imagine her doing anything even remotely spiteful?"
His imagination certainly wasn't the best, excluding its recent forays into pornographic imagery, but all in all... "Not really, no." He started to lower his hand, but instead the other man caught it, turning it to place a brief kiss on his palm, before letting it go. Flustered and surely a bit red, he managed to choke out a somewhat breathy "Duo?"
"Thanks," the other replied softly. "I guess I sort of needed that."
He was refusing to meet indigo eyes that were no doubt staring at him. Instead, he fixed his attention on the various small objects around the room that were a few subtle centimeters off where they had been only moments ago. The complimentary coffee pot that had awaited them in the room, for instance, sat a scant breath away from toppling over onto the bathroom floor.
Keeping his eyes fixed on the precariously settled combination of glass and plastic, he quietly returned, "It's no problem. It's not as if I did anything really to help out." No, all he had done had been to overcome years of conditioned behavior not to touch anyone unless he meant to hurt or kill them. One minor miracle at the time...
Outside the room, thunder suddenly crashed loudly. A half-second later, he heard a deluge of water suddenly start pouring down.
"I thought the forecast was calling for an utter lack of rain for the next week," he commented in confusion. While weather reports were rarely on the dot, they usually managed to get the basics right: rain or no rain, at least for the day they were reporting on.
"This sounds awfully familiar, like the rain we just left at Relena's place," Duo stated blandly, "rain that wasn't in the forecast..."
"But started up anyway," he continued the thought. He took a deep breath before finishing out his no-doubt crackpot theory. "And stopped again the minute you cheered up Usagi-san."
Duo let out a heavy, overly dramatic sigh of relief and then grinned broadly. "I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking that. It all keeps seeming too weird to be true, doesn't it?" Without hesitation, he nodded once in agreement. "And then it keeps on happening anyway. So what could be causing it now, do you suppose?"
Thunder pealed loudly outside twice before he answered slowly, "I'd imagine it'd have to be her somehow." He wasn't at all clear on the 'how's here, but he was pretty sure his 'who' was accurate at least. Lightning lit the entire room bright as day, and he frowned hard. "Why, though?"
The thunder popped loudly once more, followed by another bright flash of lightning--and then darkness. Every bit of electronics in the room went out all at once.
From the area he roughly recalled Duo standing at, the other man sighed again--and this time, he just sounded tired. "The lightning must have killed the power. Of course. Just perfect."
He vaguely recalled tossing his bag on the bed closest to the door. He eased his way over to it wordlessly, going through it completely by touch, until he felt exactly what he was looking for.
The single beam of light was startling bright in the pitch darkness, but it at least let him place where everything was in the room, including Duo. Apparently, the American had claimed a seat on top of the low dresser they had both previously been leaning against. An amused smirk covered his face in the harsh light. "Always come prepared for anything, eh, Heero?"
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Like you aren't?"
If anything, the grin only grew. "I never said that. But instead of a flashlight, I've got a pretty nice lighter Hilde found me."
He found himself frowning at that, not that that was a huge change for him. Even so, he tried to sound as casual as possible when he asked, "Should we go see what the problem is? Aside from the obvious downside of her finding out that we know..."
"Plus the slightly less obvious danger of invading a woman's bedroom. That can definitely be dangerous."
"And how would you know?" he found himself demanding before he could stop himself and winced.
"And you're jealous," Duo immediately teased.
"No, I'm--"
A noise that seemed a lot like a muffled scream came through the wall behind Duo, the wall that led to Usagi's adjoining room. The other man was on his feet and they were both at the door almost faster than he could process.
The lock on their side seem to be stuck, he decided when Duo stepped away cursing. He was about to try his own strength against it when it snapped over to the unlocked position completely on its own. Okay, maybe that new talent of Duo's had some really practical purposes that he hadn't considered before. Now was not the time, though.
He tapped on the remaining door between the rooms and asked, "Usagi-san? Are you all right?" Privately, he was a little surprised at two things: that he sounded so calm and that he had automatically started off in their shared native language.
"Y-- Yes, I'm okay," she shakily returned in kind.
Behind him, he could hear Duo mutter something along the lines of "First chance I get, I'm learning the damn language."
It did actually seem a little rude to be holding an entire conversation in a language one person here didn't know. Switching back to English, he translated quietly, "She says she's all right."
Duo pointedly glanced back in the direction of the windows, beyond which the strange storm was still raging, and then back at him. "Something tells me otherwise."
That was the truth: if Usagi was as all right as she claimed to be--and if their theory about the weather was indeed correct--then it should have cleared up by now. "Agreed," he finally returned. Unspoken, though, was the question of what they were supposed to do about it.
Duo, on the other hand, seemed to already have an idea in mind, though. Stepping up to stand next to him at the door, he spoke just loudly enough to be heard by all of them. "You don't sound very 'all right', Usagi." He paused, but there was silence from the other side of the door. "Do you want one of us to come over there?"
She remained quiet for several long moments, long enough that he was about to decide she wasn't going to answer. He was also starting to think that the noise of the storm outside might have covered it if she had.
The sound of the other door unlocking, though, seemed to be louder than the thunder outside. The lightning lit up both rooms, showing her wide eyes that seemed impossibly blue in the brilliant light. "Please" was all she said, though, stepping aside.
25 June 2012
I've had this chapter sitting in reserve for over three years, mostly due to a lack of interest. Not on my own part, because I adore this story, but due to a lack of hits and reviews. I'm planning on finishing it during JulNoWriMo 2012, though, so I'm posting what's in reserve.