Oh yes...and some people HAVE been asking for this. Blame them. Standard
disclaimers apply. If you've missed the previous parts, they can be found
from here: http://home.att.net/~tasuki/temp/gwfanfic.html
Pyractomena Borealis VII
"Excuse me, lady! Sorry! Sorry!" Taking my life into my hands, I ducked
down and scooped bunches of bags and little boxes into my arms. "Here!" I
thrust the armload of stuff at the little old lady that I'd almost knocked
over in my haste to get through the crowd. She grabbed her packages away
from me and quickly disappeared off into the crowd, probably worried that I
was going to run her over again or something. I ducked quickly and fought
my way up to a more vertical position when some guy that must have been a
sumo wrestler in a previous life almost ran ME down. Low to the ground in
the middle of a crowded walkway in downtown Tokyo's shopping district on a
weekend was not a great place to be. And I'd managed to lose Heero. Again.
Damnit. I pushed through the crowd, liberally elbowing people out of my way
until I got to a small clear space right by the doorway of the store. And
as luck would have it, there he was, waiting for me and somehow managing to
look smug and impatient at the same time. "You know, you could try waiting
up for me."
He looked at me like I'd suggested the sky was green. "You could move more
quickly."
"We're shopping. You're not supposed to move quickly when you're shopping.
It's not a freaking mission." I glared at him, moving a little bit closer
so he could hear me over the dull roar of the crowd. "Chill out, will you?
I've still got a headache."
Heero snorted, then turned and melted into the crowd again. Shit. You'd
think that the only guy on earth with bad enough dress sense to wear
nothing but green tanktops and black spandex shorts would stand out in the
crowd. Not so. The idiot could vanish like a rabbit into the briar patch if
he felt like it. I took a brief moment to think about the way his shorts
looked on him...and how cool the tank top of his had to be in the melting
heat as compared to my long sleeved (HOT) shirt. Maybe he wasn't the idiot
in the scenario after all. I started pushing my way through the crowd after
him.
Despite all of my internal bitching, I still was having fun. It was the
weekend, and I loved weekends. It was during the day, so I didn't have to
worry about vampires, which was a bonus. Also, we'd decided that we needed
to take a break from trying to figure out how to deal with the new mess
because the confrontation with the vampire and his buddies had ruined my
last dress shirt, so I needed to buy a couple new ones if I wanted to show
up in the classroom on Monday. This was Heero's big idea, not mine. I had
absolutely no objection to not being able to go to class, but seemingly, he
was subscribing to the "misery loves company" school of thought. Still, it
meant being outside in the fresh air and sunlight, even if it was kind of
hot, and it meant I got to have Heero to myself for a whole day. I hoped.
Furtively, I glanced over my shoulder, half expecting Relena to jump out
from the side of a building. I was getting too paranoid. Still, she was a
lot more persistent then the vampires could ever hope to be...and unlike
the vampires, if she pissed me off, I couldn't shoot her.
I squeezed between a man and his wife and somehow managed to catch up to
Heero. I quickly grabbed the back of his shirt and held on. It wasn't a
leash, but it would work. He glanced back at me, and for just a moment, I
thought he smiled before he went back to cutting through the crowd, this
time towing me in his wake. He must have spotted whatever store he was
looking for, since he was moving with so much purpose that it was a wonder
the crowd didn't part for us like the Red Sea had for Moses. Heero pulled
an abrupt, almost ninety degree turn and I lost my grip on his shirt, then
managed to trip on a non-existent crack in the sidewalk. I love it when
that happens, really. For once, I didn't fall on my face. Instead, I just
stumbled around for a second in my best spastic fashion before someone
grabbed me by the arm and yanked me out of the heat and into the dim
recesses of a department store entryway.
It was Heero of course. For once, he had the common courtesy to keep a hold
of my arm until I managed to catch my balance. I glanced up at him, and he
was smirking. Shit, I hate that smirk sometimes.
"Are you done?" he asked.
I glared at him. "Bite me."
One of Heero's eyebrows twitched, and he gave me a
"don't-tempt-me-because-you-won't-like-it" look--the problem with that
being that I probably *would* like it, a great deal--before he turned and
went through the second set of glass doors that led into the store proper.
I managed to not trip over the tiles in the entryway and followed him
before the doors shut. It was like we'd stepped into a different world from
the street outside. It wasn't as bright, so I actually had to take off my
sunglasses, and it was even cooler than the entryway had been. I could even
hear the soft hum of chilled air being put through the ceiling vents over
the soft, new-agey music that was being piped through the store. I've never
understood why stores always have music like that playing. I guess it's
meant to be soothing. Instead, I either feel like I'm trapped in an
elevator, or depending on the new-agey music, like I'm watching "Invasion
of the Pod People" without the benefit of Joel and the bots.[1] It's
just...weird. Not exactly the shopping environment I'm looking for. Then
again, I've been in a store where they play my kind of music, as in heavy
metal.[2] That wasn't exactly my kind of shopping environment either.
Heero had paused for a minute when he got through the doors, and I managed
to grab the back of his tank top again. He looked back at me. "What?"
I tried not to laugh in his face. "Somehow, I don't think we're in the
right place to get me shirts." I pointed to the side, where several metal
racks festooned with bright red and blue lingerie sat. The entire floor was
a fest of bright colors garnished with flowing bits of silky pastel stuff
that might have been shirts or might have been nightgowns...I really
couldn't tell either way. "I mean, yeah, I guess one of those red things
would look good on me, but I don't think it comes in my cup size." I
wiggled my eyebrows at Heero.
"Baka." He commented, then surveyed the floor slowly. For once, he seemed
at a loss for something to do. I guess his training hadn't covered the
eventuality of ending up in the middle of the women's department.
"And you have to admit, the kinda gold lame
type...er...whatever-the-hell-it-is over there would look great on you..."
Sometimes, I really don't know when to quit. I was rewarded with a classic
Yuy death glare. I grinned at him, grabbed his arm, and pulled him into the
depths of the store, searching for a sales clerk.
It's kind of funny how the clerks always go on break at the same time. I
mean, really, you'd think they wouldn't want to young men wandering around
in the underwear department unsupervised. After about ten minutes of
wandering aimlessly through isles of purses and shoes and god knows what
else, we managed to find someone, or rather, someone managed to find us.
One minute I was walking along, minding my own business and trying to find
a clerk or a floor plan or something, and the next I was viscously attacked
from behind. Before I knew what hit me, I was engulfed in a cloud of sickly
sweet flowery scent. I whipped around to confront my attacker, a short,
mousy young woman that seemed to have a vapid smile permanently stuck on
her face. She bowed politely at me, still smiling, completely ignoring the
fact that we were now blocking the aisle, which appeared to be causing a
pretty bad traffic jam.
"Good day, ma'am!" she chirruped. "That's our famous white lace lilly
perfume. Lovely, isn't it?"
I just stared at her.
"Ma'am?" her smile faded a little, replaced with a look of genuine concern.
"Are you alright?"
I sneezed violently, then went back to staring at her, this time with my
eyes watering profusely. "...ma'am...?" I choked out. I heard a soft noise
behind me that sounded suspiciously like a quiet laugh, but I must have
been imagining it. Heero? Laugh at something other than mass destruction?
Naw. I sneezed once more. Then again...
The girl was watching me like I'd just grown a second head, which I suppose
I had, in a way. "I...I'm sorry, sir." she stuttered. "I just saw your
hair...and...oh, I'm so sorry!"
I sneezed again. I don't know how women manage to wear perfume...god, it
smells awful. "It's...ok." I managed to get out between sneezes.
Heero appeared from behind me. "It's alright." he said, a little more
gently than I would have thought him capable of. "It happens to him all the
time. I keep telling him that he needs to get a haircut."
"--hey!"
Heero firmly grabbed my upper arm and started pulling me away from the
girl, cutting right through the crowd. I glanced at him, and he was wearing
an expression that looked suspiciously like a smirk. "It's nice to see that
SOMEONE'S amused." I said in my most snide tone, even putting on my most
elegant of sneers just for him. The effect was ruined when I sneezed again.
"God..." I moaned, "I smell like Relena now."
"To be perfectly fair to...*her*...she wears less perfume."
"Oh, that is hitting below the belt, man..." I tell you, some days it just
isn't worth chewing through the restraints. I refrained from saying
anything else, because I had a feeling that if I gave Heero the opportunity
for another nasty jab, he'd take it. And then I'd have no choice but to
kill him. Well...try to kill him. Or at least maim him. Well...TRY to maim
him. Shit.
Eventually, we *did* manage to find our way up to the men/boy's department,
which was on the second floor, right next to the girl's department, and we
had to walk by the lingerie section again to get to it. Life's just not
fair. The crowd on the second floor was pretty thin, a nice change from
downstairs. I guess not too many guys go shopping on their days off. I know
that if I'd had my way, I would have been sitting around in my underwear
and reading, or even better, blowing shit up (well...I would have been
fully dressed for that). I had managed to steal a copy of the chem lab's
key yesterday...
We navigated our way through the boy's section of the floor, weaving in and
out between racks of merrily colored shirts with various licensed cartoon
characters on them, as well as miniature copies of the school uniform that
I was subjected to every weekday and several variations thereof. It's
amazing the amount people will pay and the lengths to which they will go to
dress their kids in the most humiliating things imaginable. I guess that
was one thing I managed to get out of by not having any relatives in the
land of the living.
The men's section had a counter specifically for school uniforms, which was
right next to the counter specifically for school uniforms for elementary
school girls and boys. As soon as Heero spotted it, he dragged me over,
narrowly missing running me into a big display of Sanrio products. He
didn't let go of my arm until we were both standing in front of the
counter, like he thought I was going to make a break for it or something.
Geeze...and I was the one that normally had to drag *him* out to go
shopping. Some people.
A little old lady popped out from under the counter and smiled at us both
without really looking at us, her face turning into a mass of wrinkles.
Considering that she looked like she was about 100, she didn't seem to be
doing too bad for her age--her hair was still nice and thick even if it was
pure white, and she was moving really well. "Good day, boys." her voice was
also nice and strong, almost commanding. She'd probably been one kick ass
lady when she was younger. "What do you need?"
Heero didn't say anything, so after a minute, I shrugged and decided to
take over. Since I was here, I figured I might as well get what I came for.
"I need three white dress shirts for a 78a style school uniform, please." I
said as pleasantly as I could.
The minute I spoke, the smile disappeared off of the little old
grandma-type's face. I've never seen someone change so completely before.
One minute, she was the old lady from across the street, a little loopy but
otherwise cool, and the next instant, she was a lioness--old, yeah, but
sure as hell not something you wanted to mess with or even get to close to.
"Duo Maxwell." she said quietly. All the friendliness had drained from her
voice, leaving nothing but cold behind.
I shivered slightly. It wasn't the voice...my teachers used that one me all
the time. No, it was something else. The old lady felt a lot bigger than
she looked, and I had the feeling that she could reach out and squash me
like a cockroach if I so much as looked at her wrong. This old woman had
*POWER*. "Yes ma'am." I said quietly.
She nodded slightly. "I recognize you from the memories that have been
shared with me. You have a great deal of explaining to do, young man."
The phrasing was just too perfect, but I didn't say anything. I knew better
than to joke around with this, even if I had no idea what the hell was
going on. I could feel Heero almost radiating tension beside me. "I don't
know what you're talking about, ma'am." I said.
"I don't suppose you would, since you're obviously an amateur." she said.
The room temperature felt like it dropped, and I glanced behind me, out of
instinct more than anything else. A man was walking toward us. Suddenly, he
stopped mid-step, then turned and headed the opposite direction, a faintly
puzzled expression on his face. "I was going to come looking for you when I
had a spare moment, but you've kindly taken care of that for me."
The hair on my arms stood up and did a little hula dance, and my world
shifted ever so slightly. The woman blurred, then snapped back into focus,
and she looked quite different. While she was still obviously old, she
looked much more well preserved...her hair was pure black without a trace
of white in it. A series of elaborate, blue ink tattoos crawled up her
cheeks and into her hairline. That wasn't what I was really looking at,
though. What had me was the fact that her eyes were pure white, sightless
and milky, yet somehow, I knew she was looking right at me.
"What are you?" I said, a lot more steadily than I felt.
"You already know." she said.
And I did. "You're a witch."
"Very good." she said quietly.
Her power breathed over my skin, enveloping me in a cloud of unseen energy.
"A very powerful witch." I said, "and very old."
"I am the highest of the high witches of the Tokyo coven, Duo Maxwell."
"What--" Heero started to say, his voice very dark.
"Be silent." The high witch gestured, and strangely enough, Heero shut up.
I was really tempted to ask her how she's done it. I would come in handy
next time Heero felt the need to rant at me about something or the other.
"Maxwell, you killed one of my witches."
I let myself have a little taste of relief. "That's what this is about? Let
me explain--"
"There are no explanations, Maxwell. I am well aware of the fact that she
was the servant of one of the more odious vampires that dared to tread in
our territory." The old woman's face showed just how distasteful she found
that to be...I would have rated it somewhere between a dead rat floating in
the pool and an infomercial marathon on channel 27.
It didn't make sense. "And you're mad at me for killing--"
"She was a witch, Maxwell. She belonged to me and the rest of the high
witches. She was ours to judge and execute. Rest assured that she would
have faced our wrath for her crimes, but your wrong does not make a right.
You came perilously close to revealing our presence. Only Hara saved us
from discovery, and that, too, you must answer for."
"Now wait a damn minute--" I started to say, but the witch interrupted me
again.
"This is for our protection as well as yours. You don't seem to be terribly
cautious about using what power you have, Maxwell. We aren't the only group
that you have offended and angered, but we are the first." She straightened
to her full height, which was, shockingly enough, taller than me. "You will
face the council of our coven, Maxwell, and you will explain yourself."
I saw Heero clench his hands into fists out of the corner of my eye, and
without thinking, I did the same thing. I was angry now. I wasn't a witch,
I was doing my job, and I was damn sick of people pushing me around. As if
pissy vampires weren't enough, I had to deal with a bunch of witches now
too. "I don't have to--" I saw the witch open her mouth to interrupt me
yet again, and my frustration level went through the roof.
Three things happened at once--the witch started to say something, pointing
at me in a rather threatening manner...I took a step forward, intending to
go toe to toe with her, since I was just that pissed...and I heard an all
too familiar voice squeal, "HEERO!"
Then the Sanrio display behind us exploded, sending flaming Hello Kitty
toys shooting in all directions like some kind of sick, too cute shrapnel,
and I had other things to worry about.
[1] Mystery Science Theater 3000 reference.
[2] This is a reference back to Carmelita's, the little shop of horrors
from Acherontia Atropos.
--
Katsu no Miko (ICQ me-13773131! Find me on AoHell-KatsunoMiko!)
High Mucky Muck of Naked Samurai Productions [homepage in progress]
Keeper of Duo's Angst, Stake, Mallet, and Browning .40 Hi-Power III
Wufei no Seishi, Duo's Grand Inquisitor and Head Torturer
AND: Keeper of Ad's Sanity! (
*snicker* What sanity?)
"Erst wenn die Wolken schlafen gehen/kann man uns am Himmel sehen/
wir haben Angst und sind allein.../Gott weiss ich will kein Engel sein..."
(~Ramms+ein~)