Chapter 4

          Clutching his long braid between his hands, he wove in and out of heating tables, stoves, knife racks, and infinitely more dangers that potentially lie around a kitchen. Not far behind him raced a tall, lanky, rake of a man, who’s chimney hat scarcely stayed on his head, obviously, the head chef, screamed obscenities at him for refusing to obey the health code regulations by not either wearing a hair net or cutting his hair. “ You are most fortunate Master is merciful. I have heard of masters that have inflicted gross torture to those that are insolent such as yourself!” He ran into a small closet, obviously used as storage area for unused pots, pans, and other various cookwares; he crawled into a far corner and waited until he was certain no one had followed him this far. The wait unfortunately lasted longer than he had hoped; eventually, he fell asleep.

          The door creaked slowly while opening, awakening the dozing young man. He cursed under his breath and slid farther into a dark corner, hoping that the person who was entering would not venture to that part and would not notice him. The door slowly opened further, as he could hear someone struggle with something either large or heavy or both, the person was opening the door with his backside; his hands a little too occupied to do it themselves. Other than the fact that there was a large pot in the guy’s arms, he looked awfully familiar, however, with his face shrouded in the shadows he could not be certain. “No, it can’t be.” He struggled to get a better glance at the intruding figure but the lighting was terribly poor, and he could not tell for sure until it would be too late. The man placed the large pot on its shelf, “I am supposed to be a janitor, and not a kitchen staff lackey. This is injustice,” the young man mumbled to himself as he stood at the door sighing and refuting the idea of returning for more kitchen clean up duties. In the corner, Duo realized who the intruder could be, thus standing to be noticed, in the meantime scaring the living daylights out of the young man at the door.

“The second I heard the word ‘injustice’ I knew it was you Wufei.” He pointed to his little corner and winked while the Chinese pilot was still holding his hand to his chest to relax his speeding heartbeat. “Never do that again Maxwell,” he threatened. The American grinned ear-to-ear and flashed a ‘V’ shape with his fingers, “Aw, come on… you liked it!” The raven-haired youth frowned deeply and padded over to where his counterpart was standing, flashing him all the while a look of certain death.  They both sat down on the cold concrete floor side by side with an exasperated sigh. “There going to come look for me eventually you know. And when they do, they aren’t going to be happy about it.” Duo nodded pensively, “But I’ve been here for hours and not a single person has found me yet.” Scribbling aimlessly at the floor with his finger, Wufei began to ask him if he has seen any of the other pilots around, or if even he might have some idea of what had happened, considering after a day of being there, Duo was the first person that he was familiar with in this strange place, who simply shrugged and mentioned that he had seen both Quatre and Releena, but not close enough to be able to speak with them. He also added with sigh on his breath, that he had thought to have seen Heero earlier, but he concluded to himself, that he was only hoping too strongly, he reasoned that no matter what kind of uniforms they had to wear, Heero would never go without his green tank top.  His eyes began to sparkle with the mention of his Japanese partner. “So anyways,” Wufei stated quickly to get Duo’s mind back on track, “How did Releena and Duo… um I mean Quatre look? Did they look well or hurt or what?” “Can’t say really” he replied earnestly. “I saw Releena for just a moment sitting a few seats down from the master, she didn’t even notice me, not that I’m surprised, she was staring out into space like if she was drugged or something.” Wufei pinched his lips together, attempting to picture the princess of the Cinq kingdom, looking all out of sorts. “And Quatre?” he wondered. “Well, this is kinda tough to say too ya know. He was sitting right next to the master, and if was any closer you’d think he was trying to sit on his lap. They seemed kinda cozy, if you ask me.  Yeah… I know that Quatre and Trowa are sorta serious, BUT, the looks they were passing each other, man, that made me want to just look away. I think Quatre’s happy here. It is his scene and all. Actually, come to think of it, this place reminds me a lot of that underground city that him and I stayed in for a little while when hiding from OZ.” He rested his head softly against the stonewall, allowing the room to renew it sense of calm that lulled him earlier to sleep. Eyes rolling to the side, he finally took a good look at the Chinese that kept his company, who shifted uneasily, like he was fighting with words that tempted to leave his throat, and he tried to keep the stillness that for once wafted about the American’s presence. He placed his hand over his mouth numerous times, to leave it and twist the tips of his black locks, only to replace his fingers upon his lips nervously. “Hey Wufei, relax. Remember it’s just like on he lunar base, that’s all. You kept me sane, why are you freaking out? Did they do something to ya? I didn’t want to bother but you look like shit. Well, your clothes do anyways, and your hair is down, I have NEVER seen you with your hair down.” He shuffled himself around until he was directly sitting in front of Wufei, peering at him with an eyebrow raised and hands on the other’s knees. “Come on, you can tell me, I’ll be quiet.” “You want to know?” He nodded empathetically.

“I simply woke up here. In another servant’s bed, I was, imagine our surprise when he woke up. Alarms were sounded and they questioned me thoroughly as to who made me and where did I come from. At first, they didn’t really realize that I was different from them, I mean, my hair is the same and all, but my whole face shape and skin tones, everything combined, I didn’t look quite right. They began accusing me of being another’s slave, and locked me away in some hole, just outside the dorms, where I could hear everyone talking, but no one could hear my screams. It was hell that lasted only for a few hours; basically, no other slaver can to fetch me so I was fair game. Truthfully, I haven’t yet even seen the master, although, everyone speaks of him. I’m kind of jealous, because, maybe if he saw me, he would have allowed what has happened to happen.” His lips began to quiver uncontrollably and he turned his face sharply to the side, taking in a deep breath, his eyes remaining cool and focused, he bit his lower lip, that offending tremble was sure to make him weak. “You don’t want to know what they had done to me to admit that I was a spy” he continued half reluctantly, and still, the weight of his tale lifted his spirits, to tell it to his American counterpart, with whom he had indeed kept sanity in a most desperate time. One could say they almost took their final breaths together, sharing the same last iota of oxygen remaining in the large cell they occupied, forever lasting on his mind, perhaps delirium from such an experience, but somehow, felt all the better for doing so. Nonetheless, “They tore at me, in more ways I would like to admit. I am very fortunate for my strength that I had survived, but I almost wish that I hadn’t.” The braided youth’s face dropped, he had suspicions of where that scenario was heading and there was no way that he would want another to relive it, even by retell it from his mind’s own memory, and at such, felt guilty for even making him explain in the first place. “If it’s any consolation,” he said with a slight chuckle and quirky grin, he tucked strands of dark hair behind it’s owner’s ear, to keep the offending obstruction from view and grabbed his eyes with his own. “You do look kinda cute with your hair down.” Wufei’s eyes widened slowly and his mouth moved into a half smile, teasingly. “Maxwell, I didn’t know you cared.” He smiled openly and laughed, nothing meek or held back, but a good heart felt release of anxiety that he had retained for too long.

“Come on, it’s late, everything is shut down for the night now. I think we can make our get away if we hurry.” He opened his eyes, and Shinigami was standing in front of him with a hand stretched out to help him up, and like a strange force had lifted him to the sweet silence of death’s hand, he took it and hoisted himself from the cold floor. “We should take the exit at the back of the kitchen, I’ll show you the rest of the way to the back fence where there is a large tree. If we are lucky, we can climb it and get over the fence, if not, we can hide in it until daytime to plan some sort of escape route. Being up in a tree, we can see the whole property and just wing it from there.” “Sounds good. Let’s go!”

Within a matter of minutes, they were out of the kitchen and stealthily creeping along the vast winding hallways that led toward the rear of the massive building, unfortunately, heavily guarded areas had prompted them to reroute towards the dormitory and the opportunities of them being spotted were greatly increased, but as Duo had not so mildly put it, it was better to be spotted by servants than by guards, to which Wufei strongly agreed. In another strange turn of events, the dorms were virtually and seemingly deserted, the Shenlong pilot noted that there was much more commotion going on the night before and this sudden silence was rather eerie, safe for a few voices scattered about, the two moved forward with renewed confidence that they could accomplish reaching the large tree that had seemed impossibly out of reach. The dimly lit main hall provided perfect cover for the refugees, dodging systematically in and out of shadows, an unusual ballet with the motions of the dancing trees on the wind outside the windows that cast silhouettes from the moon, and keeping in time with the coming and goings of the dorm residents. After passing most doors, and nearly reaching the final exit that would soon lead them out of the structure, a conversation piqued their ears, voices incredibly familiar, and their own names being mentioned. Wufei, who was a few paces ahead, motioned to stop, and listen to the door he pointed to, that was where he had heard the voices.