---------------
Kyuuketsuki Duo
Episode 10
Bad Religion
Chapter 4
---------------
	"Iria?"  Quatre knocked politely on his sister's bedroom door.  
It was just after school, but Iria was on her half day schedule today.

	"Come in," she called through the door.  Quatre opened it, 
revealing his older sister, sprawled belly down on her bed, reading a 
magazine.  She sat up when he entered, and scooted over, gesturing him 
to have a seat.  "What's up, kid?" she asked cheerfully, ruffling 
Quatre's fine blonde hair when he sat down on her light blue covers.

	"Iria!"  He shrugged her hand off and straightened his hair 
irritably with a shake of his head and a pat of his hand.  "I'm not a 
kid anymore!"

	His brunette of a sister sobered almost immediately.  "You and 
Father had a fight again, didn't you?  I heard you two, last night."

	Quatre's shoulders slumped, and he nodded miserably.

	"You think he was treating you like a child again?"

	"He *was* treating me like a child," he retorted angrily.

	Iria sighed.  This was nothing new.  It happened far too often 
for anyone's liking.  "You know he just worries about you, Quatre."

	"Worries about me?  Iria, he was trying to make me throw away a 
gift from a friend.  It was just a little silver charm!  That was it.  
But it had possibly mystical connotations, so it had to go.  End of 
story.  How can that possibly be fair?"

	She chewed on her bottom lip a bit, trying to find an answer.  
"Maybe it's not," she admitted reluctantly.

	"Was he always like this?" he asked, a wistful note finding a 
way into his tone.

	Iria didn't bother trying to misunderstand what he was asking.  
She understood his frustration.  "I don't think so.  I remember him 
being a boisterous, loving father when I was young.  That was when 
Mother was still alive.  After that, though...."

	"Was it me?" Quatre asked in a small voice.  "Does he blame me?"

	"Quatre!  No, of course not!  And you can't blame yourself 
either, understand?  It's not your fault Mother got sick towards the end 
of her pregnancy.  Your birth went rather well, all things considered.  
It's not your fault that Mother just didn't have the strength to bounce 
back afterwards, okay?"  She only continued when she had received a tiny 
nod of acknowledgement from her little brother.  He had been born sickly 
and weak himself, but had recovered nicely.  "I think you must just 
remind him of her so much.  You're the only one that inherited her 
looks, you know."

	"So I've heard.  But that doesn't explain his whole supernatural 
angle.  Do you remember if he was always against that?"  He blinked in 
sudden realization, then rushed to apologize.  "I'm sorry, I don't mean 
to interrogate you or anything.  I just ... I just --"

	"Want to understand him?" she finished for him.  Quatre nodded.  
"It's alright, Quatre.  I understand.  Hmmm...."  She considered his 
question for a few moments while Quatre fidgeted nervously.  "You know, 
now that you bring it up, I seem to recall that he was rather into 
spiritual things.  Mother more actively so than him, though.  Perhaps 
that's why he hates it so."

	"Just another strike against me that just isn't my fault, then, 
is that it?"  He couldn't completely keep the bitterness from his voice.

	"Quatre, that's not fair--"

	"Fair?  If life were fair, then Mother would never have died in 
the first place and --!"  He choked off his next words, and sighed 
tiredly.  "I'm sorry, Iria.  I don't mean to take out all my frustration 
on you.  It's just..."

	She hugged him softly.  "I know, Quatre.  I know."

                              ************

	Was he, or wasn't he?  The question was beginning to wear on 
Wufei's nerves.  Throughout the entire school day, he had 
surreptitiously kept an eye on the mysterious lad, taking careful note 
of his every move and behavior, and analyzing it all.  It was 
inconclusive.

	Duo had joked around with Quatre and Meiran, same as always, 
same as any other normal teenager.  He'd turned in his homework, took 
notes, answered questions correctly in class.  He showed up on time, 
never talked or passed notes in class, in fact, never really did much of 
anything that would bring any large attention to him from the teachers, 
or his classmates.  But then, Trowa was the same, except for the joking 
part.  And Quatre sometimes seemed to know things that others didn't.

	But Wufei noticed that Duo never really ate much during lunch, 
or, in his recall, did he really ever have anything to drink at the Cafe 
other than half a cup of coffee, which he only sipped at.  Was it 
something else he typically fed upon?  And then there were those times 
when Wufei had been studying Duo from behind, or from afar, but Duo had 
seemed to sense it anyway.  And of course, those eyes, those 
otherworldly, strangely violet eyes that seemed to hint that he knew 
much, much more than he was letting on.

	But if he was really a demon bent on devouring men's souls, then 
what was he doing, masquerading as a rather normal student at a fairly 
average high school?

                              ************

	"We've got Shinma activity to the north of here," Heero advised 
his partner, as he walked through the door.

	"Eastside, too."  Duo sighed as he shrugged off his pack.  They 
compared notes briefly, and Duo sighed again.  "Going to be a few more 
busy days, ne?"  On top of the last stray, two upcoming quizzes, and an 
unpleasant tingling that had been running along his othersenses all day, 
he couldn't wait for the end of this excruciating week.

	Heero examined Duo's aura carefully, noticing the light fraying 
at the edges.  "Your power flaring up on you again?" he inquired, 
invoking a small amount of his own power and massaging it skillfully 
into the trouble spots, adding just a bit of soothing strength to the 
irritated areas.

	Duo closed his eyes with a soft, dreamy smile on his face and 
enjoyed the smooth ministrations of his partner.  In response, he moaned 
something affirmative.  "Yeah, just enough to set me on edge all day, 
today.  I think it wants me to know something's up.  Maybe this is it."

	"You going to be okay?" Heero asked, closing in on the guardian 
from behind and laying his hands on his shoulders.  He set about 
applying a slight, relaxing warmth to the muscles there.  When the power 
wanted to tell the youth something, it usually didn't care much for the 
guardian's welfare, whether the message was in a vision, or with a sharp 
headache.  The Shinma could technically wait.  The strays would still be 
there if they did nothing, yet Heero was never one for procrastinating, 
nor was Duo one to let a stray victimize more mortals than necessary.

	"Oh yeah, but I'm never gonna get started if you keep that up, 
love."  He tilted his head up to capture Heero's lips in a short, sweet 
kiss.  "Let's get going."

                              ************

	"Wufei, what's wrong with you?" Meiran asked when they got home, 
trying to be non-confrontational.  She failed.

	"What?" he demanded short-temperedly.

	"You've been totally distracted since you came back last night.  
Late, I might add.  Just where were you?"

	"Out," he answered curtly, trying to dismiss her concerns.

	"That's not good enough," she refuted, stepping into his path as 
he attempted to storm up the stairs.  "Wufei, you of all people should 
know that you shouldn't be out wandering alone around at night!"

	"And you of all people should know that I must be out 
'wandering' at night!" he half-shouted angrily.  She knew him, his 
family, his duty.  She knew what he was up against, what darkness lurked 
in the nights.  She should understand.  His features set in a stony 
mask, he stepped around her and continued up to his room without looking 
back, shutting the door behind him with a dull finality.

	Meiran stayed quiet until she heard him disappear down the hall.  
"I'm just worried, that's all," she spoke into the trailing silence.

-------
i'm skipping a lot of small periods of time in this story arc.  which is 
good, because they're boring.  everything just kinda status quos during 
those times.  wufei agonizes some more, quatre broods over his father, 
meiran broods over wufei, duo hunts shinma, and trowa... well, just 
stays trowa.  i feel rather bad about ignoring him, but we already know 
his tragic story.

_________________________________________
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been an entirely automated message.
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last modified : 7/16/2001 20:38:22 PST