Garou + Part 20 (cont)
Wolf Songs

"It's not a bad idea," admitted the boy slowly. "Yes, it would probably be better."

"She's undercover as a school doctor; we thought that the best way for us to see her would be to go to her school as students..."

"Furthermore, it would help us to go unnoticed in town, if we were lost amongst students our age," added Heero. "So are we doing that?"

"Fine by me!" answered the American.

Trowa nodded.

"Well, it's decided then, we go to America. Separately?"

"Mmm..."

"Frankly, I don't like that much ... Five new students of the same age arriving en masse in a new school, even if we spread it over a week or two, it looks too suspicious."

"Not if we arrive visibly together," grinned Duo.

"How do you see that?" asked Heero, puzzled.

The American took a few seconds to put his ideas in order, then began thinking out loud.

"If we all arrive together, let's say because our parents moved together... Let's say because of their work? Their company wanted to open a new branch or something like that? So as they were more or less friends, they decided to go together. And it will give us an excuse to know each other, if our parents are coworkers and friends, we have more than probably met the others already, at least during company diners or something. What do you think?"

"We'd need a true company incase of verification, and people to play our parents, because as many students all at once will attract attention," advised Quatre.

"We can ask Sally to find people there for us."

"Resistance? If they are from Chinatown, they're mostly of Chinese descent. For Heero and me, it will go over ok, we look Asian, but for the three of you, it will be harder..." answered Wufei, pensive.

"Quatre and me can pass for half brothers, we did it before. Must be the cheeks," answered Duo, pinching Quatre's. "A couple of parents less to find."

Quatre slapped his hand away, grumbling halfheartedly at him.

"I am not intending on going to school with you," said Trowa. "I need to meet with my info nets in Central America, I will probably only be there by intermittence. I'll have many people to see. And on top of that I need ammo for HeavyArms, I am beginning to be short on that. I can shop for you at the same time," he proposed.

"Ok, one ID less for me to create," agreed Heero. "Quatre? Objections?"

"It's probably as well like that. Do you intend on orbiting around our area?"

"Yes."

"As long as you are not too far if a mission comes, it should be ok. And if we are discovered, you will not be captured with us," agreed the lithe blond, keeping himself from sighing wistfully.

He would miss Trowa ... Well, he would not be far, and it was not for a long time...

"Duo, Wufei, objections?"

The two longhaired boys shook their head no.

"Well, I'll make the arrangements for the transport. Quatre, you contact Sally and you explain to her? Everyone else, do what you want this morning. After noon, we pack and erase the traces from the house, we're leaving tonight at the latest. I will have flight arrangements."

"For our IDs?"

"I'll complete that during the flight. I have a few already pre-made, it will be ok."

As one, they got up from the little table and put their coffee mugs away before going to their various occupations.

* * * * * * * * * *

They had arrived in America two days ago and all the minor details of their sojourn had been taken care of. They were supposed to meet with Sally sometime during the day, to explain with details what Quatre had only alluded to over the phone. Today was their first day of school.

The interview with their new school's Headmaster had gone fairly well, even if the options they had chosen and the need to balance the size of the classes had directed them in different ones, but at least Wufei wasn't alone, even if he was not sure if he really wanted to be in the same classes as Duo. Heero and Quatre were in two different classes. They would have to compare their timetables to be able to find each other incase of emergency.

Wufei's scar had provoked a polite question, and for a moment, he hadn't known what to answer. At the moment when it was becoming tense, Quatre had defused the situation by laughing and saying that Wufei was ashamed of saying that he had fallen flat on his face while cycling. Wufei had grumbled, but had made sure to remember the explanation in case he was asked again. The reason was stupid enough to make him say it with annoyance, which would only reinforce its credibility. He hadn't been ready to attract that kind of attention to himself.

As if he could feel his nervousness, Duo put his hand on the Chinese pilot's shoulder and winked at him. Wufei shrugged and turned away, but deep down, he was strangely relieved to know that the American would be with him. Taking a discreet deep breath, he knocked on the classroom's door.

"Yes?"

"Good morning, sir!" exclaimed the American jovially. "We're new students," he added, giving him the slip of paper the director had given them.

"Mister... Shen Long?"

'To hell with that braided cretin!' Wufei thought for the nth time. Heero should never have let him choose the names; he had used that opportunity to its fullest.

"Long Shen," rectified Wufei, trying to stay impassive. "Long is my family name, but the tradition puts it first."

"And mister..."

"Duncan Myles, with a y. And contrary to my friend, I place my name in the civilized order," he added with a malicious wink.

Wufei gave him a light slap on the head and glared, hiding that he appreciated his friend's sense of humor as a welcome stress relief.

The whole class was staring at them, but not many of the students stayed as silent as their teacher asked them. Still not back to his normal uncaring self, Wufei felt ill at ease seeing all the curious and calculating glances directed on them both, but he put all his pride in keeping a stony face. He stayed cold, vaguely disapproving of the lack of discipline the entire class showed. The teacher had tried to ask for silence but they didn't even pay attention over the noise... Maybe, it had not been such a good idea to come here after all.

Duo caught a glance of Wufei's constipated face, a definite sign of his unease and of his need to put distance between himself and his classmates, and decided to attract the attention on himself to relieve the boy some.

He gave a charming grin to the cluster of girls in the middle of the classroom. Immediately, they smiled back, giggling and whispering, having already nearly forgotten the Chinese boy with the constipated face at his side. One of the girls in the first row made place for him and he immediately accepted, while Wufei sat down at the end of the same row, as far from them as he could. As soon as he was seated, Duo began to chat away with the girls.

The Chinese teen sighed and readied himself to spend a long, tedious, totally boring day stuck in classrooms.

* * * * * *

The monotony of the lesson was broken around eleven am when his braided comrade got up from his chair suddenly. Wufei lifted an eyebrow, surprised.

"Sir, I don't feel that well ... Can I go to the infirmary please?"

Wufei nearly believed that Duo was suffering... He looked exhausted and his eyes had a strange look in them, and his whole body language indicated that he was in pain but trying to hide it. The Chinese boy even thought that he had seen his skin getting a gray tint.

Half a dozen girls proposed to accompany him, since the rules stated that he couldn't walk there alone in case he fainted on the way, but he decided to take along 'his friend Shen' and they left, Wufei half carrying the boy.

"Congratulations," whispered the Chinese boy once they were out of the building. Duo hadn't stopped playing ill longer than the half second he had needed to wink at him. "I nearly believed it. You're good at simulating faintness..."

"On the streets, it's a requisite for survival," answered the boy in a strangely wistful tone. "You learn how to look like you're more ill or hungry than you are to make people underestimate you... as you learn how to act the same even if you really are as bad off as you look not to get picked on more than you can handle."

Not knowing what to say, the Chinese teen only tightened his hold on his friend's shoulder, and Duo gave him an apologetic little smile before beginning to hum, as if he hadn't said anything special.

"And... I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free,

And I'm just waiting for moonlight and then my eyes you can see!

I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free,

Because the moonlight can release me from my miiisery!"

Wufei blinked, then sighed. Since he had come back, Duo was always singing songs that, one way or another, talked of wolves or of transformations, a full moon night, as if he was trying to get a collection. They were all lucky he sang quite well... and some of the mental images and turns of phrases used were interesting. And, on yet another side, treating the problem with such ease prevented him from getting afraid by thinking too much, pushed him to see things on the "Were " equals "magic," "gift" side, rather than the "curse" side. And since most of them came from Hard-rock, heavy metal bands, the songs had a good rhythm and an interesting energy.

Even if of course when he talked of them with the other longhaired boy, he rarely did anything else than complain about their violence and their lack of melody. After all you can't get into arguments about something you both approve.

"Miss? My friend is ill," called Wufei as a warning for the young woman who had her back to them, searching amongst her papers.

Sally didn't hesitate before signaling for them to enter; visibly, she had been waiting for them. There wasn't anyone in the waiting room, but she made them understand that someone was resting in one of the little bedrooms. She closed the door behind her and showed them two chairs.

"We can talk freely, but not too loud, I have a patient napping."

"Hey, Sally!" grinned the American.

She nodded back at them, smiling.

"For the details about Heero and Quatre, Quatre will talk to you about that. He's coming to see you tonight, is that ok? We're more here to talk about mister Feifei."

"Yes, I heard about it. Come here, Wufei," she asked, suddenly very professional.

She led him to the examination room, and Duo leaned against the other side of the half-opened door, listening in without looking to leave a minimum of modesty to Wufei. Sally examined him, trying to find any marks of physical abuse or unhealed wounds that could render him unable to fly, but she didn't find any. Duo heard the other boy explain to the woman his month of amnesia and the return of his memories, not that long ago.

"Do you still have symptoms? Headaches, loss of balance..."

"I haven't had any migraines for two days now," answered the Chinese teen. "But before that, I had them at least once a day and they were rather violent. Sometimes I couldn't even stand up. And even when I wasn't in the middle of a fit, I still felt it waiting to happen. But since then... not one yet."

"I see... It was probably from a mental origin, your memories trying to come back. Logically, it should totally stop in a short time. We don't know if the migraine will come back, but if it happens, you'll take this, and no more than one and a half pills, it's powerful. Do you still have blanks in your memory?"

"I don't know, I'm still in the process of classifying them. I don't think so, but it's still really confusing at times."

"And what provoked the return of your memories? The confrontation with the Gundams and Yuy, I bet..."

Wufei bit his lips. They were arriving to the hardest part.

"It had begun before. And ... It has been a trigger, but not the only one, and I would have needed weeks, I think if... Duo! I don't know how to tell her!"

The American entered the room and gave a curious glance at Wufei.

"Tell her about... you know what."

"Okay," sighed the boy, wondering all along why everyone wanted him to be the one to explain, when he wasn't really concerned. "Err, we'd better sit down, it's long, ok?"

Frowning, the young woman obeyed. She didn't like secrets nor the bothered face her compatriot had on. It didn't give her such a good feeling ...

"Well, so... A few months ago, Heero got bitten by a big beastie. He was very ill for a week or so, then he had a really bad temper for the three weeks after that, kinda like PMS, but worse, mood shifts, susceptibility, all that jazz. We didn't know what was happening to him, him neither. You following?"

She nodded. Up to there it wasn't complicated.

"His five senses began to get hypersensitive, well, some more than others, like his sense of smell and his hearing, and some times, he was even totally nocturnal. At the end of the month, he... I'll tell you later, but to keep things short, he got mighty pissed, bit Quatre, who, too, began to exhibit the same symptoms soon after, then Wufei was contaminated, probably by Quatre, we're not sure. Problem was that it was just before he disappeared. Still following?"

"One after the other your comrades got transmitted something that made their behavior aberrant?"

"Yep, that's it."

"You want an examination to determinate the source?"

"Err... No thanks, Sally. We know what's happening now. We don't think you can cure them anyway, I mean, even the scientists couldn't find a way, I don't even think it's possible to be cured, and even if it was I'm not sure they would all want to be... cured. Because... The unpleasantness I told you about, it was only symptoms. The reason behind them is already obvious, more than obvious," he added with a short laugh. "We just want you to be kept updated, if we needed any specialized help..."

"I am afraid I am not following you, Duo," announced the young woman after a few seconds of silence.

"The beast who bit Heero was a werewolf."

There was a longer stretch of silence.

"Say that again?"

"The beast who bit Heero was a werewolf. A human able to take on a wolf's shape. Not only the shape, but part of the behavior also. Heero has become a werewolf. You can ask him later, he'll even demonstrate for you. He has the ability to transform into a wolf, entirely or partly. He has its sense even in human shape. He has its instincts."

She looked at Wufei, sure that he would be fighting back a laugh, or smirking, satisfied to have tricked her, but he was still as serious as before.

"I wanted to explain to you before I told you the name, because if you had heard it first, you wouldn't have listened to the rest," added Duo, sounding sorry for having shell-shocked her.

She took a deep breath.

"And Quatre and you were contaminated?"

The Chinese teen nodded soberly.

"So, you are ... Werewolves too? Can you show me?"

"No. Quatre and me didn't become wolves. And I have not been a were long enough to have the control over my appearance Yuy has."

"What do you mean, not wolves?"

Duo shrugged.

"Well, that's the strangest thing, Sally, Quatre has become a cheetah and Wuwu is a tiger ... We don't get it. I mean, if it was a virus giving the capacity to change into a wolf, why did they become cats? Personally it threw me on my ass, 'cause from the legends I know... Ah, well, anyway, that's the thing that forced Wu's memories to the surface; he changed for the first time last full moon. The shock probably helped him to get over the blocks or something..."

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and stared at them.

"Sorry but I HAVE to ask. Is this an April Fools thing? I have to admit, it's not easy to believe..."

Wufei closed his eyes and concentrated on the tiger image he had glimpsed in a water puddle.

He didn't feel any change at all and reopened his eyes, slightly disappointed. Sally's eyes were bulging out of her head, and even Duo looked kind of surprised.

"Wow, kewl, man..."

The Chinese boy arched an eyebrow.

"Look at your arm, fast, before it disappears ..."

He had stripes on the external side of his arms, which under his eyes were slowly fading, going from dark brown to clear brown, then beige, until they melted with his natural skin tone.

Sally picked up her jaw and shrugged, fatalist.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy..." she cited before getting up. "Ok, Wufei, come here, I'm going to take some blood. Then we'll test your senses. I'll see what I can learn about your metabolism. I'll take a look at Quatre tonight at my house, find a way so that Yuy can come and see me today or tomorrow. Ok?"

"Ok, Sally!" exclaimed the American. "Err... You ok?"

"Ok, ok. For now. But I'm still shocked, so you'd better get out of there fast once finished, so I can close the infirmary and have a little hysteric fit in private, ok?"

"Ok," repeated the braided boy, keeping from laughing his ass of for the sole reason that the young woman had been perfectly serious.


+

songs: Fullmoon by Sonata Arctica, my favorite song ever *______*


Sitting on a corner all alone,
staring from the bottom of his soul,
watching the night come in from the window

It'll all collapse tonight, the fullmoon is here again
In sickness and in health, understanding so demanding
It has no name, there's one for every season
Makes him insane to know

Running away from it all
"I'll be safe in the cornfields", he thinks

Hunted by his own,
again he feels the moon rising on the sky

Find a barn which to sleep in, but can he hide anymore
Someone's at the door, understanding too demanding
Can this be wrong, it's love that is not ending
Makes him insane again

She should not lock the open door
(run away run away, run way)
Fullmoon is on the sky and He's not a man anymore
She sees the change in Him but can't
(run away run away, run away)
See what became out of her man... Fullmoon

Swimming across the bay,
the night is gray, so calm today
She doesn't wanna wait.
"We've gotta make the love complete tonight..."

In the mist of the morning he cannot fight anymore
Thousands moon or more, he's been howling
Knock on the door, and scream that is soon ending
Mess on the floor again...

We should not lock the open door
(run away run away, run away)
Fullmoon is on the sky and he's not a man anymore
We see the change in him but can't
(run away run away, run away) See what became out of her darling man

See what became out of that man



Waiting for the Moon by Rage (Rage Against the Machine, methinks, but it's not said on the MP3 and I don't remember right now U_U)

I believe in the dark
I am afraid of the world
‘Cause it scares me, I know

People don't like me, talk behind my back
Avoiding the look in my disfigured face

I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free
And I'm just waiting for moonlight and then my eyes you can see
I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free
Because the moonlight can release me from my misery

Hide my face in the day
Tonight I'll set myself free
I'm addicted to moonlight

Run with the wind, feel the wet in the air
A pleasure for me and my distorted soul

I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free
And I'm just waiting for moonlight and then my eyes you can see
I'm just waiting for the moon to come and set me free
Because the moonlight can release me from my misery

Hid my face in the day
Tonight I'll set myself free

Run with the wind, feel the wet in the air
Oh, how I'm longing for it
A pleasure for me and my distorted soul
I feel like the cat walkin' on a wall

I'm just waiting...

+

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