The Game of Questions
Title: The Game of Questions
Author: Genji
Warnings: Sap, weirdness, jumping times...(you'll see...sorta like the
flashbacks they had in EW...never did announce 'em, so you had to pay
attention, otherwise they're gonna getcha!)
Category: Response to 91 fic challenge
Pairing: 4 x C
Notes: Scherazade, I hope this fulfills your expectations...it was hard
enough getting them together, and I can never write Q-man correctly. Plus,
third person would've been too confuzling for my poor head. Hey! I could
write all my responses in the first, just so we can have some theme going
through it all....also, leave it to your imaginations what they do on
starlit hills
~/flashback thought/~
They say the best thing to happen is to fall in love with your best friend.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work out if your best friend happens to be a guy--
which is just my luck. However, my fate is not all that black. Having
become acquainted with the man I call Trowa, though he insists that he is
nameless, during the war, I have kept in touch with him. For the longest
time I didn't have any interest in his sister.
It was August 27th, AC 205 on the Spanish coast at the traveling circus's
last performance for the year. I had attended with the hopes of catching my
friend afterwards. It was during his act that my attention wandered from
where Trowa was standing, defying the knives that flew at him, to the source
of the blades. She was beautiful, like a faerie out of a story that began,
"Once upon a time..." A desert rose that bloomed from the arena's sand, if
you will. Even from my seat, high above the floor, I could feel her aura--
vibrant and full of life, so different from those that normally surrounded
me.
At the end of the show, which had been complete with fireworks, I slipped
away from the chattering crowds and took off to the only place Trowa went
after a production. He was standing near the lions' cage, talking quietly
so that no one would notice. I knew of these conversations, though.
He reminds me much of a boy named Chang Wufei, who talked to his mobile
suit. We all did, but Wufei came to believe that 'Nataku' was more than
simply a hunk of metal and wire. She was his lifeline in a turbulent time.
However, when the waves calmed, he learned to let go. We all did.
"Trowa?" I said quietly, not sure if I were walking in at an inopportune
time. He turned and looked at me. Those eyes hadn't changed in the decade
I had known him. However, I'd gotten better at reading them. They were
tinted with pleasure that evening.
"Quatre. What brings you here?"
"What always brings me here?"
"Should I know?"
"Do you?"
It's a game we play. Answer every question with another. Juvenile, I know,
but there were times when we all needed mental stimulation. It makes you
think. I still haven't gotten out of the habit. However, eventually the
diversion slowed, and we talked normally.
"Are you free for dinner, Trowa?"
"When?"
"Tonight."
Trowa shook his head, and motioned to the pacing felines. "They have to be
made ready for shipping."
There was a chuckle from the tent flap.
"Trowa, are you turning down a free dinner?" Catherine walked inside,
dressed in jeans and a button down short-sleeve blouse. She was absolutely
breathtaking in the simplicity of it all.
Courtesy prompted me to pose the proposition to her.
"Sure. I'm sick of eating nothing but soup. To be frank, I'm surprised ol'
one-eye over there doesn't jump at the chance for a different type of fare."
I couldn't believe my luck, as I walked out of the tent, bidding goodbye to
my friend, with the prettiest damsel in all the world on my arm.
The quiet evening turned into a night of surprises. I learned about her
separation from her brother at a young age, and how she had learned to throw
knives with such deadly accuracy. She opened up to a sympathetic ear, and
confided in me that she'd never really loved anyone, save for her brother.
In fact, her biggest fear after they found each other was losing him once
again. After dining at a reasonably priced restaurant (she had insisted on
nothing fancy), we climbed a hill and watched the stars. He passed the
night there, talking and being silent when we felt like it. Everything felt
so right when the sun came up that morning.
The relationship proceeded as most long distance relationships do-- I was
left chasing after dreams. But sometimes, just sometimes, fantasy became
reality. It was Trowa that made me realize that I wasn't the only one
feeling such confusing emotions.
I was perched on a rock, watching the surf, and the sun tinting the clouds,
in a symphony of color and sound. It was heavenly. He came on cat feet,
leaping from craggy rock to craggy rock with the silence of a sigh, but the
ability of a mountain goat. The man I had gone through so much stood behind
me, and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Quatre?"
"Trowa?"
"Why do you toy with her?"
"Does it appear that I am?" I responded out of habit, starting the duet that
we both were too well experienced with.
"Don't you know what you are doing?"
"What am I doing?"
"Do you know why she went to dinner with you last year?"
"Why?"
"Don't you know how she's felt since then?
"Does she know how she haunts my dreams? Does she know how many times I've
wanted to say what I felt, but couldn't, never knowing if she'd turn away,
disgusted? Does she know how much it hurts to simply be nothing more than a
'friend'?"
"Why don't you take a risk?"
He walked away from the game then, leaving me the victory, but what had I
won? Only more questions.
~/Why don't you take a risk?/~
It's been seven years and counting since we exchanged vows under the Iberian
sky. Duo was my best man. Who else did you expect it to be? Trowa was the
one who walked my faerie down the aisle, and growled quietly in my ear to
treat her right. I think he's pleased with the arrangements. The
ringmaster seemed thrilled to get a new trapezist.
~OWARI~
*makes face* not my best work, but *shakes head* I can only seem to see
Q-man w/ ol' one eye....*laughs* ok, slowly step away from the keyboard,
Genji.
C&C if you so wish, or hit the delete button.
~Genji~
Possessed by those lurking in her head:
Raine- The voice of Insanity
Ruth- The often missed voice of Reason
Amber- The seldom present voice of Inspiration
Aithne-The Voice of Fire (the pyromaniac inside us all)
Ursula-the sleeping bear. If woken, everyone suffers.