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Slice of Life	By : Starla_Q Category: Gundam Wing/AC > General Views: 1313 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of it's characters. I do not make any money off of this story, adultfanfiction does not make any money off of this story.

Chapter List
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Question: "After washing his hands, Quatre grabbed him." What did I mean?

Answer: It was a trick question. There really is no answer to who washed their hands first; either line of reasoning would be crazy. The point of the line was to display the lack of rational Quatre had; that's all.

Chapter 13: And it Thickens

They took up refuge at Quatre's house, sitting around a table in the bar room. Missy began, "My sister collects independent doujinshi's. I think she's hoping they'll make it famous so she can auction them off online; eventually. I snagged this when I noticed the names." She brought out a torn page from the first comic, wedged in a store bought manga. "I got this volume last week, so it was fresh in my mind," she showed them a page of the book along side the amateur one. They sported the exact same, non-explicit, pose. "They copied the art. Probably for both books." Which is the reason her sister gave it up willingly, it was worthless if plagiarized. "I don't think it's a conspiracy, I think someone's just good with the 'point and click' of it all."

"That explains how they did it so quickly." Duo snapped a finger, "I knew someone was good with computers. It can also explain how they altered the school registry; they've got experience." He prayed it wasn't another hacker, he wasn't looking for any sort of 'code' face off.

"Or they could have authority at the school," Quatre suggested, "Maybe a student counsel member, or event coordinator; they'd have access to the registry and all the student information." There were a lot of students who had 'pull' around the school, this seemed to be at a level one of them could handle. That in mind, it also meant a lot of students needed to be stepped on to get answers.

"So are we abandoning the idea that it's more than one person?" Duo asked, "Because we've found a lot of people involved; painters, inkers, people who said they went through someone else."

"Maybe it's one person, pretending to be many people," Naibun suggested, aloof as to how insightful it was. She was tidying a nearby shelf with an elongated duster and needed to give it lots of attention; there was no sitting down 'on the clock'. "Kind of, to throw you off."

"That's twisted," Duo commented.

"You said you got a number?" Missy asked.

"I wonder if it'll match anyone's number on the registry," Duo popped his laptop open and began digging. He didn't want to chance missing it and magnified the screen to maximum.

"Did you save a text document?" Quatre looked over his friend's shoulder, wondering how much of the student's information was leaked onto his hard drive.

"Nope; I left a back door open," he said, referencing the conversation they had earlier about the locker room. He peeked over top of his screen, "How about that drink?" he said to the dolled up miss, Missy.

She had agreed to it because she legitimately felt bad, thus the follow through. Naibun was even nice enough to lend her a spare. "Anything in mind?" she asked as she went behind the counter.

"Something with milk," Duo requested. He was unsure if such a thing existed.

"Something I won't like the taste of," Quatre made an odd request.

"Good choices," she said with a laugh. Upon opening the cupboard she was left speechless. The array of fancy liquors was more lush than the garden of Eden. It went to the ceiling. Her jaw fell open and she took a step back in awe, not wanting to strain her neck.

"Why not something good?" Duo was curious.

Missy answered for him, "The last time you had tasty drinks, it didn't end well." She ran her finger along the long line of liquor, landing on name after foreign name. "Let's go with something different. Do you have tomato juice?"

"Yes. There should be some in the fridge." Quatre directed her to the small fridge below the counter; his family's personal bar was stacked better than most pubs. Not that he was granted access, formally, but he was never told to stay out either.

"So, can we party here sometime?" she asked as she grabbed the bottle of red juice and white milk. Missy began mixing properly measured drinks for them, humming a song by some country singer; 'still to young to care' was the only part that was near audible.

"Not sure. I'll have to ask one of my sisters." The one left in charge, that is.

They paused their speech as the line of concentration shifted, Missy at the counter, Duo at the keyboard, slaving away. Duo broke the silence saying, "Your outfit looks good," without looking up. He was playing coy. "How did you have a spare one of those?" he asked Naibun as she passed by.

"You'd be surprised, these things snap after a while." She wasn't paying attention as she spoke, so she didn't see the fluster in Quatre when Duo elbowed him and mutter the words 'wonder why'.

"I don't think I could work like this everyday," Missy tugged the device upward, shifting how it sat on her rib cage. "I'm sure I'd rake in the tips though," she laughed.

"Nada," Duo said as he finished scanning the student directory. "It doesn't even start the same way as the numbers around here; I think it's from out of town."

"It's probably a pay as you go phone, too. If theses guys were covering their tracks, they did a good job of it." Quatre tried to make connections in his mind, but was interrupted with the two glasses being laid out for them. "Thank you."

To Quatre's, "Yours is a Bloody Mary." She pointed to Duo's, "Yours is a White Russian."

He gave it a try. "Not bad." The idea of drinking milk with his alcohol made him not want to drink too much. Milk coming back on you was awful, so it served as a decent 'control'.

"Yup," Quatre said after he tried a sip from his salt rimmed glass, his face said it all.

"Won't be drinkin' too many of those, will ya?" Missy smirked as she watched him try to take another mouthful.

"I could get used to it," he said, not sure if he could live up to that expectation.

"I'll add tobasco sauce if you want another, that should spice it up," she took a seat, now that she knew her patrons were satisfied with their beverages. Her blood ran cold when her eyes landed on something horrifying, she said nothing right then, "And I can make you a Black Russian next, if you like," she said to Duo instead.

"Black?" he said and looked in his glass, figuring it out right away, "Does that mean I'll get chocolate milk?" He saw her nod, "Sweet," and sipped from his straw.

"Where do we go from here?" Quatre asked.

"Depends," Duo said, "Did you let the guy hang up before you wailed on him?"

Quatre couldn't remember. "I'm not sure."

"Then we're not calling the number ourselves. I could go...nah," he thought about it some more, "I could get into the provider's system to triangulate a location it was used at, but it wouldn't be accurate enough to be useful. Plus they'd notice; I can't risk that." Getting caught for hacking the phone company would be jail time for sure, people's credit information was on the line. He was seventeen and didn't want a criminal record.

"Master Quatre," Naibun said, holding folded blankets. "Why not do a reverse look-up of the number online and call the provider pretending to be them?"

They all shared a quiet moment of contemplation, "Sounds good to me. Duo?" Quatre prompted him.

"All over it," Duo said and began the search.

Naibun continued to tend to her chores, glad she gave them a little spirit boost in the process. "Good luck," she said and left.

Waiting until the housekeeper was out of the room, Missy couldn't hold the question any longer, "So, Quatre, what's going on with your hand?" she asked, looking at his right hand, "You need ice?"

He looked to where she was pointing; his first two knuckles drew the attention, being all bruised and swollen. "How did I miss that for so long?" It took time to swell to capacity, was all. He got up and went to the bar's sink to run some water on it. It finally started hurting, now that he was paying attention to it.

Quatre decided to stay at his own house that week, due to all of Monday's commotion. More so because of the day after. It was too much for his head to handle. He had only acquired the dorm room a few weeks ago so the adjustment wasn't much of a strain on his routine to go back home for a while.

He assumed the fight yesterday did more damage than anticipated. "I must have hit it on the way in here."

"No way, that was from when you hit the locker," Duo scoffed at Quatre trying to act nonchalant about it.

"What locker?" he looked confused.

"Sorry man; did you not want me to bring it up?" he asked, figuring Quatre wasn't ready to talk about how aggressively he behaved. That changed when he could see the confusion in his friend's face. "Don't you remember?"

"I remember being on the roof...wait..." he tried to scan his memory banks. "How did I get there? I was sitting...with the book in my hand...I don't remember how I got it. I must have picked it up...in..." He was seriously looking for the images that led him to have the book in his possession. His control was slipping, he could feel his heart race. Why couldn't he remember?

"What, exactly, happened today?" Missy was intrigued and sat down with them again, holding out some ice in a bag for Quatre. She laid it on top of his hand and wrapped a cloth around it, "Hold it if you can." He could, but only with a couple fingers. She bunched the rest of the cloth in his palm, so he didn't need to close his hand so tightly.

"Heero and I were there watching. Do you mind if I tell her?" he asked Quatre.

"Not at all," he nodded.

Duo began to retell the whole scene. He also included the phone conversation, and how they could tell the student on the cell was talking to the creator. "At the end, Heero had to pry you off his neck; that's when he handed you the comic. You kicked 'buddy' in the ribs once and we left down the hall. You punched a locker so hard, it came off it's hinges. That's when you went to the roof until last class."

Quatre tried to imagine the scene in his head, "..."

Missy was stuck for words. How had this sweet looking guy possibly do something like that? The look on his face suggested that he wasn't lying, he seriously couldn't remember. Which is when it clicked with her, "You blacked out."

"I wasn't drinking," he said, hoping to find the answer within himself.

"You don't have to drink to black out. It's just, you really don't..." she tried to find words that wouldn't sound too abrasive, "...you don't strike me as someone who's very pushy."

"...I'm usually not," he said with a discouraged tone. He began to think there was something wrong with his head the moment he destroyed the space colony, years ago; why would it be coming back to haunt him now? It had to be something else, it happened too suddenly. "I think..." he pondered as he watched what Duo was doing. He was texting. "What's that?"

Duo didn't look up from what he was doing, "I thought Heero should know."

"Why?!" he got defensive.

"We don't need you losing your marbles again; I want to know what he thinks of this," he said and continued on.

"Nice. Tactful," Missy commented on Duo's words, they should have been picked more gracefully. If his friend was seriously going through any mental illness, coupled with the ordeal at school that day, he was feeling vulnerable. "He's concerned...and from the looks of it, scared."

Duo only lifted his eyes to look at her, "You weren't there," he said and went right back to the text. In his head, he compared Quatre's rage to a fire; if it were a flame, the school would have been in cinders. "What if that happens when someone isn't there to pull you away?" He closed his phone, finished with the message.

"You've got a point," Quatre was calmer now because the alternative was much worse, especially when said out loud. He truly had a passion for control, in any aspect; like, the drink in his hand, which he had emptied most of.

A phone buzzed and got flipped open. Duo spoke, "...Heero says: Make an appointment with your doctor," he flipped it shut again, "Or he'll do it for you."

It was good to see he had supportive friends around him, but Missy was starting to regret offering the drink in the first place. If she knew even half of what they were going through, she'd have kept quiet in the front seat of the limo and apologized to Duo one on one. At the same time she was glad to be there, she wanted to help out in any way she could. "That in mind, do you think you should be throwing drinks back; it is a school night."

"One more," Quatre asked, knowing Duo was getting another.

"Could you wait ten minutes?" she said as she watched him down another mouthful. "And I'm putting lots of hot sauce in the next one."

"That's fine," he said and turned his attention back to Duo. "Any luck?"

He nodded, "I found the number...but their name isn't listed. I did, however, find what phone company they're with."

"Ring em' up," Missy said.

"Let's see," Duo said while dialing the customer service line. The others only got half of the conversation, it had a strange introduction. "Hey there...you sure can. The number of the employe is," he rattled it off, "...No, I don't know the name on the account...or mine...yes, it's my number." The rep was giving him grief. "...or my birthday...or address...or activation date...I've got Lyme disease, okay! Stop making me feel stupid...thank you."

There was a long pause, one of Duo's eyebrows were cocked as he eagerly anticipated the success of his ruse. "...really? Is there only one name on the account?" He squinted his eyes, "That doesn't sound right; have I reached Sym Co.?" he made up a name, "...oh, that's why none of it's lining up. Didn't I tell you it was for an employee? Quit wasting my time." He hung up. Duo's acting was spot on, it seemed like he had done this before.

"What was all that?" Quatre asked.

"Customer service is fun to mess with," he said with a ruthful smile. "Apparently, the account holder is female. I can't get access." Duo looked bummed as he stuffed the cell back in his sweater's right pocket. He felt something else in there, but didn't bother with it. He quickly recalled Heero vowing to pummel whoever it was that made the comic; would his vow change now that they knew it was a girl behind it all?

Quatre was also taken aback by this new discovery. "It'd be a lie if I said I didn't see that coming. I was really hoping it wasn't going to be a girl." He definitely wasn't going to hit a female, rendering 'a beating' totally out of the question.

"Me too," Duo looked drained.

"I could scrap with her," Missy suggested, hoping she didn't really have to.

"As much as I'd love to see you mud wrestle some chick, no, we'll think of something else. We can always hope the phone number was under a false name." Duo passed the halfway mark on his cup.

Missy raised an eyebrow, "...why mud?" she asked to Quatre, who was probably the only one who could answer the question, for Duo was too deep in thought. Quatre could only shrug.

"We should have got you to call," Duo said to Missy. Looking contemplative, he went silent to think, "You're right, pudding would be way better."

She shook her head, "You've put too much thought into this," Missy replied, now wondering why she was serving alcohol to minors.
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Slice of Life