Whispered Touches Part 12
"Heero!"
Heero looked up sharply at Quatre. "Yes?"
"Are you all right?" Quatre asked. "You completely zoned out."
Heero looked down at his lunch and shrugged. "I'm thinking about the picture of Duo's murderer."
"Didn't you do a bunch of different images on your computer?" Trowa asked, handing Quatre a cookie.
"Yes," Heero answered. "Duo and I will be looking at them tonight." Shifting a bit, he pulled out his vibrating cell phone. "Wufei?" he asked in greeting. It was rare for his friends to call during school hours; actually this was the first time.
"Have you heard from Meiran, Heero?" Wufei asked.
"No, I haven't. What's wrong?"
"She called me and sounded a bit upset. I couldn't go to her place because it was rather late at night and she said that she would see me today. But she's missed the morning class we have together and I can't find her at lunch."
"Can't find her?" Heero frowned. It wasn't like Meiran to skip school without good reason. "Did you ask anyone else if they'd seen her?"
"I did and they haven't," Wufei grumbled. "Where is she?"
"Maybe she's sick?" Heero hazarded a guess.
"She hasn't called me or answered any of my calls. Even when I call her house, I can only reach the answering machine."
"I haven't heard from her," Heero said. "Why don't you head over to her house to see?"
"I guess I'll do that. I just didn't want to wait until school was over. She sounded really strange last night."
"Strange?" Heero asked. "Class is about to start for me, Wufei. I'll try to give her a call when I'm finished school, all right?"
"Thank you, Heero. Sorry to have bothered you at this time of day."
"Don't worry about it. Let me know when you hear from her, okay?" Heero extracted the promise from Wufei before hanging up.
"What happened with Meiran?" Quatre asked, having listened to Heero's side of the conversation.
"Wufei said he spoke to Meiran last night and she sounded weird. He hasn't seen her or been able to reach her by phone since then. I'll try to call her after school, I guess."
"Hm," Quatre hummed. "It seems like everyone is in some sort of odd mood," he observed.
"Everyone?"
"You're thinking really hard about the picture. Just stop thinking about it and relax a bit. Maybe it'll come clearer like that?"
"Maybe." Heero shrugged. "Come on." He tossed the remainder of his lunch into the garbage can. "Let's go to class."
~*~
Wufei chewed on his lower lip as he looked at Meiran's house from across the street. The car was gone from the driveway; Meiran's father usually drove the car and dropped Meiran's mother at work on his way. Her bicycle was parked beside the house and locked to the pipe as usual, but that didn't prove that Meiran was home. Calling her cell phone again, only to reach the same message that she was unavailable, Wufei knew he had no choice but to ring the doorbell.
Crossing the street, he propped his bike against the side of the house with her bike, locking them together before he went up to the front door and rang the doorbell. No one answered and he tried again, feeling hopeful when he saw a shadow walk towards the door through the decorative glass of the window in the upper half of the door.
"Wufei?"
"Meiran," Wufei sighed in relief. "Where have you been? You haven't answered my calls."
"What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you, of course!" Wufei sighed. "Can we not talk through the door?"
"I'm...not properly dressed. Just give me a few minutes."
"Okay." Wufei watched as she walked back into the house before he turned and looked out onto the street again. With a sigh, he pulled out his cell phone to send a text message to Heero, informing his friend that he had found Meiran. Impatiently, he glanced at the door again, anxious to see Meiran. When she exited the house and locked the door, he studied her quizzically.
"What?" She asked, looking down the street.
"Are you all right?" he asked. "Why weren't you in school?"
"I wasn't feeling very well." Meiran leaned against the garage door.
"Why didn't you pick up any calls? What if you had fainted? Do you need to go to the doctor?"
"I left the phone off so I could sleep. I wouldn't have fainted; I was just resting. And no, I don't need a doctor."
"Meiran..." Wufei moved closer, standing directly in front of her. "I was worried," he said softly. "Don't do that to me."
Meiran shrugged a little. "It's...that time of month. I'm moody," she answered.
Wufei blinked; perhaps that was a bit too much information? He cleared his throat and dug into his backpack. "I copied you my notes from the classes we shared, and grabbed you the homework and handouts."
"Thanks." She accepted the papers.
"Do you..." Wufei trailed off with a frown. "You don't usually wear sunglasses." Wufei glanced upwards a bit. "It is sunny, but you don't like wearing sunglasses." He reached out to remove them, managing to draw them away a bit before Meiran turned her head, her hands coming up to stop him from taking them off. But Wufei had already seen what she was hiding, even as Meiran pushed the glasses back up her nose. "Who hit you?!" he asked, enraged at the black eye Meiran sported.
"No one," Meiran said. "I tripped on the stairs and hit the railing."
"Don't lie to me Meiran," Wufei grated. "Who hit you?"
"No one!" Meiran insisted.
Wufei took her by the shoulders. "Meiran," he said in a low voice. "Tell me. Who did it?"
"I told you I fell by myself!" Meiran pushed his arms away from her. "You don't trust me? If you don't then there's no point in dating each other!" With that, she stomped back to the house.
Wufei stood, stunned for a moment before he chased after her. "What's going on?" he asked. "Meiran!"
"Go away, Wufei!" Meiran snapped. "I don't want to date someone who cannot trust me!"
"But, you're lying to me!" Wufei replied, bewildered. "It's not that I don't trust you but it's a blatant lie-" He flung his arm out to keep the door open and Meiran visibly flinched. "Meiran?" He lowered his voice. "Talk to me, Meiran."
"Just go away, Wufei." Meiran pushed at him.
"No, Meiran-"
"Go away!"
Wufei stared at the door that had shut in his face. Completely confused, Wufei knew he would get no other answer from Meiran until the stubborn girl chose to speak to him again.
Still, he remained at the door for a good twenty minutes before he finally turned to leave her house.
~*~
Duo watched, fascinated as Heero opened and closed his mouth like a fish, unable to get a word in edgewise through the phone currently held to his ear.
Heero sighed as he listened on through the phone, frowning a little at some of the blurred words, wondering if he should kindly point out to Wufei that he was often switching to Chinese as he was apt to do in a rant. Given that he couldn't get a word in anyway, he settled for waiting until Wufei ran out of breath.
Duo shifted and lay down in the air, drifting a bit as he fiddled with his braid, tilting his head back so he could stare, upside down, at the partial face on the computer monitor. He and Heero had been considering the various options to do a compilation of the murderer's face when Wufei had called.
"Stop that," Heero grumbled, causing Duo to glance over. Duo blinked as Heero's eyebrows furrowed at him and he pointed to himself, silently asking the live teenager the comment had been directed to him. "Yes you," Heero mumbled. "It's distracting when you float like that."
Duo blinked and glanced around, suddenly realizing that in his contemplation he had drifted up towards the ceiling. In fact, his two feet had disappeared beyond the ceiling. Looking sheepish, he twisted around and floated on his stomach, eye level to the computer screen.
"I don't know, Wufei," Heero sighed. "I haven't dated a girl before, remember?" He paused, then sighed again. "I've known Meiran for just as long as you have. I know it's not like her to have a mood swing like this. Just give her a bit of time to cool off. Yes- I'd call her if you would stop ranting on the phone at me and taking up the phone line!" Heero raked a hand through his hair. "The only girl that I've ever dealt well with is Naoko-"
"Not really," Duo mumbled. "You can't get past her 'no' stage."
Heero shot the ghost a glare and Duo chuckled. "No, I won't call her yet; I don't want my head bitten off, Wufei. Let her cool down. It's not like she's going to leave town. I'll talk to her tomorrow. Yes. I'm concerned too, Wufei. Okay. I will get back to you. Do the same if you talk to her. Okay. Bye."
Tossing the phone to his bed, Heero leaned back and sighed.
"What happened?" Duo asked, propping his head up on his hand even though his elbow rested on nothing solid.
"Meiran missed a day of school and when Wufei went to her house to see her, he found that she had a black eye. He demanded to know who had hit her but she insisted that she had fallen and hurt herself. Then, she stated that Wufei didn't trust her and that there was no point in dating someone who didn't trust her."
"So she broke up with him," Duo deduced.
"For now anyway." Heero looked over at Duo.
"It could be that Meiran really fell by herself."
Heero shook his head. "Meiran fell down the stairs at a young age. She generally doesn't like to race up and down the stairs without good reason; it's a psychological fear of sorts, I guess."
"So someone actually hit her?" Duo asked.
Heero shrugged. "I guess only Meiran will know for sure. For the moment at least. "
"You meant what you said?"
"Well, Meiran is, for now, the only one who knows what happened. And her attacker, if there was one."
"No, I meant before that."
"What before?" Heero asked, frowning again.
"Stop frowning man," Duo chuckled. "You said to Wufei that you haven't dated a girl before."
Heero flushed a little. "Yea. That's...true."
"But you told me before that you're gay."
Heero reflected on that statement before answering. "Actually, you stated that."
"Are you not?" Duo asked, raising an eyebrow. Heero shifted a bit and Duo rolled over onto his back. "You're not sure." The ghost deduced. Heero half-wished that Duo wouldn't make these assumptions, especially when they were embarrassingly correct.
"Something like that," he muttered. Technically, he didn't like men or women; he liked a ghost.
"Maybe you don't like men or women?"
Heero blinked. Ghost didn't read minds, did they?
"I do."
"So you're bisexual."
Heero could feel the heat increasing in his cheeks. "Does it matter?" he asked, desperate for a change in topic.
Duo shrugged. "Red looks good on you, by the way."
Heero didn't ask whether Duo meant the bit of red on his polo shirt, or his flushed cheeks.
"Let's get back to this." He copied and pasted a nose to the picture.
"I can't quite picture the nose," Duo admitted. "Can we do the rest first? Just leave that there."
"Sure." Heero studied the picture and decided to do the eyes before the mouth. "Are these all right?"
"Not quite," Duo said thoughtfully. "Maybe a bit bigger?" He studied the alternative. "Not quite. A little closer-"
Wing barked and Heero shifted, the tingling behind his neck intensifying as he shifted closer to Duo. "Hold on, Wing!" he called out to his dog as he quickly shifted the eyes closer together. Wing barked again, then whimpered loudly. As Heero saved his creation, he heard a thump, followed quickly by Naoko's cries. Jumping up quickly, Heero's eyes widened as he came close enough to Duo to feel a wash of coldness over his skin and he stumbled before pulling back. Duo looked equally surprised but Heero put that away in his mind as he raced for the door and down the stairs to see Naoko picking herself up from the bottom of the stairs.
"Naoko!" He knelt and checked the toddler over carefully as Kanoko rushed out from her studio. "You shouldn't climb the stairs alone!"
"Wing!" Kanoko scolded the dog as she knelt to look her daughter over. Wing whimpered and ducked his head.
"Sorry mom," Heero apologized. "I should have come right down when Wing barked."
"It's not your fault," Kanoko sighed. "I should have come too." She wiped Naoko's tears and smiled. "All right now, Naoko?"
"Doh!" Naoko informed her mother. Heero glanced up the stairs and thanked the powers above that Duo wasn't there; otherwise Naoko would have tried to go up the stairs again. Instead, Naoko reached for Wing. Heero frowned when Wing seemed to flinch back, then sniffed Naoko's hands before moving closer.
"Naoko," Heero admonished. "Did you hit Wing?"
"Heewo-nii," she sang to him. "Doh!"
"I asked if you hit Wing, baby," Heero sighed, fairly sure that his sister couldn't understand him. To his surprise, Naoko hugged Wing, nuzzling the dog's neck.
"Sowwie, Wing," she cooed before pulling back and kissing the dog's nose. Wing nudged the baby's stomach, making her giggle.
"I'll take her upstairs," Heero said to Kanoko as he lifted Naoko up. He whistled to Wing. "Come on, boy."
"Let me know if she's disturbing your work," Kanoko said, watching her children vanish into Heero's room. With a sigh, she returned to her studio, thankful that her inspiration was still with her.
"Everything all right?" Duo asked as Heero entered with Naoko and Wing.
"Seems like Naoko wanted to come upstairs and wouldn't wait. When Wing tried to stop her, she hit him, and then she fell against the stairs."
"Bad Naoko," Duo admonished the girl, waving his finger at her. "No hitting Wing, okay?"
"Doh!" Naoko tried to grab the waving finger, but Duo narrowed his eyes a little and pulled it out of reach.
"Listen to me," he said in a stern voice. "No hitting Wing."
"Sowwie," Naoko said. "Wing, kissie." She blew a kiss at the dog, then smiled at Duo, who returned the smile.
At his sister's mention of 'kissie', Heero was immediately reminded of the close proximity between himself and Duo as he had jumped up from his chair. The only other time Heero could remember the sudden coldness against his own skin was when Duo had melted through his body. Just thinking about it made Heero shiver and he turned away from Duo, taking a deep breath to calm the sudden rush of heat within himself. The thoughts he was having made him think of the wet dream he'd have about the ghost and it was not something Heero felt was safe to think about when Duo, or Naoko for that matter, were around.
"Sorry about that, Heero," Duo said.
"What?" Heero asked, startled by Duo's voice.
"I didn't mean to be so close when you jumped up."
"It's okay. You and I had both been um, looking at the uh, computer screen."
Duo looked faintly amused at Heero's words. The tips of Heero's ears were turning a little red, he noted.
"I'm sorry too," Heero said quietly.
"What?" Duo asked intelligently, shifting his gaze from Heero's ear to his face. Heero was looking at Naoko, but when he spoke, his words were clearly directed to Duo.
"I didn't mean to um...get too close."
"It's all right," Duo answered quickly. All he had been thinking about was Heero's surprised expression, but the lack of physical impact between them made Duo forget that they had technically connected. Now that he thought about it, he himself must have been quite surprised to have had such an up close and personal moment looking into Heero's cobalt eyes.
Duo cleared his throat, wondering if he was blushing, or whether ghosts could blush. With Heero's close proximity at the time, that would only have meant...
"Did we just kiss each other?!" he blurted out. Then he mentally smacked himself; tonight he needed a good talk with his mind and mouth and discuss the need for anything coming from the mind to make a brief rest stop at his brain before exiting from the mouth.
Heero's face reddened some more. "Well, I..." He trailed off not knowing what to say. "We didn't really touch since you're not solid or anything..." The more words he spoke, the more Heero wanted to hit himself.
The two stared at each other for a long moment before Heero suddenly jumped, startled by the slap of Naoko's hand at his crotch as the girl tried to get his attention.
"Naoko!" Heero choked out, giving his sister a look even though deep inside he was thankful for Naoko's action. The not-so-gentle touch ensured that nothing would rise to the occasion while staring at Duo and knowing that the both of them were thinking that they had accidentally kissed.
Duo, too, flinched when he saw Naoko's hand make contact with Heero's...he shook his own head, not wanting to think about that part of Heero's anatomy.
"Cookie?" Naoko asked hopefully. Heero grimaced and took the girl's hand to lead her out of the room.
The toddler would never know that her action and single, questioning word had effectively broken an awkward moment and any emotional barriers Heero and Duo had carefully formed around their hearts when in the presence of each other.
~*~
"What do you have for me, Mr. Yuy?"
Heero pulled Duo's diary from his backpack and slid it across the table to Detective Collins. The detective flipped it open, then looked back to Heero.
"I've seen this diary," he said.
"I dropped it and it opened to the back." Heero said. "We hadn't opened it to the back before."
Detective Collins' eyes narrowed as he turned to the back and quickly read the entry. "It..." He trailed off, studying the man in the picture.
"Do you know the man in the picture?" Heero asked softly.
"Can't disclose that information to you, Mr. Yuy," the detective answered as he pulled out his cell phone and turned on the camera function to take a picture of the diary entry and the hand-drawn picture. "I'll take this for now," he said, looking at Heero with narrowed eyes. "You looked through all of the pages in the other diaries too?"
"Right after I saw this one," Heero's hand gripped his own knee; he could feel his hand sweating a bit.
"Okay. Let me run these through my databases for now. I'll leave this with you. Good day." Standing from the booth, Detective Collins exited the cafe quickly. Heero sighed as he finished his drink and paid the bill before heading to Trowa's store.
"Hey," Trowa greeted him. "How'd it go?"
Heero shrugged a bit. "He looked a bit suspicious, actually," Heero murmured, aware of Catherine's presence at the cashier at the front of the store. "But he didn't say much. Just took a picture of the pages and left."
Trowa nodded; from the corner of his eyes he could see Catherine looking towards him. "Yea, I think the beans are pretty fresh," Trowa said in answer to Heero's statement.
Heero grabbed a plastic bag and began to select the beans. "They are," he agreed.
They had done all that they could for now and could only wait for the detective to do the rest.
TBC...
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