[Fic] Forty Miles of Bad Road
Feb. 25th, 2008 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
misanagiForty Miles of Bad Road
Rating: R
Pairing: 1x2x3x4x5 ^_^
Summary: Five boys are especially selected and trained since childhood to be soldiers of the government.
Warnings: AU. Violence
Notes: I'm posting the prologue to this story. I hope that you like it.
___
He had been picked in a test, just like everyone else. Of course they didn't care that he was an heir and that his life had been planned for him even before he was born. Preventers only cared for one thing: finding the brightest young minds in the country and shaping them into becoming their agents. It was a secret organization, an elite branch of the military only a selected few knew existed. Every few years they included a series of questions within the standardized test every ten year old had to take to discover the children that might be candidates for their program. He had been selected and then his life had been decided for him again.
His family was told that Quatre was a genius. He was offered a spot in an exclusive school and his father had accepted immediately, sending Quatre away. It wasn't until the third week that Quatre realized that he and all the other students were being conditioned, their brains molded slowly into becoming what Preventers wanted: agents, soldiers. He had stayed anyway. The idea of becoming a soldier was way more exciting than the life of a business man his father had planned out for him. Preventers had given him a way to escape, and he was going to take it.
It was obvious after the first two years that Quatre was at the top of his class. He excelled in physical and weapons training and he had no match when it came to strategy and planning. He was thirteen when he was ordered to move from the room he shared with other two kids and into a new one, where he would meet his team. No one was assigned a team before they were sixteen, so being picked at such a young age was a great honor. His team turned out to be other four kids his age. They had all been at the top of their classes and had been selected for especial training. They would become the elite of the elite.
Things were a little rough at first. The boys were all competitive and they couldn't seem to find a common ground. They were used to excel on everything but now they were faced with others who had the same capacities and even surpassed them in some areas. Heero was the best at computers and he was the most physically strong of the group. However, Duo was better at mechanics in general and weapon building, and Heero had yet to beat Wufei sparing, even though Wufei couldn't lift as much weight as Heero could. Trowa had no match when it came to speed. He was agile and his reactions were always a tad faster than the others. Still, he hadn't been able to out maneuver Quatre when sparing, even though Quatre was slower. Quatre seemed to move almost painfully slow sometimes, but he was so good at reading the others moves that he didn't really need speed. Heero had won a few matches, and Quatre was about even with Wufei, who without doubt had the best technique, but he couldn't win against Duo. Quatre couldn't read Duo's erratic moves and had only managed to beat him once, just because Duo was distracted.
There wasn't one stronger person in the group but that didn't stop them from trying to find the one. That lasted about four months until one day they were given their first exercise to complete as a team and failed miserably. Their trainers weren't happy that their perfect team wasn't working as expected and the group was punished with longer and harder training sessions and less sleeping and recreational time.
They had been running before dawn, carrying weights on their backs – so the muscles would build- when Quatre understood what he had to do. They had been doing those morning runs for two weeks. They were required to complete the lap around the complex and over the small hill in forty minutes, but since none of them wanted to arrive last they kept pushing themselves and ended up completing it in just a little over twenty. That made their trainers happy. What didn't, and resulted in more punishments, was that since they had pushed themselves so hard in the morning they weren't working at a hundred percent the rest of the day.
Duo was in the lead with Trowa following not too far behind. He followed Duo's pace and always accelerated at the end, arriving first. Wufei was third, pushing himself to match the irrational pace Duo was setting. Quatre followed, trying to pace himself as much as possible but not letting the others gain ground on him. Heero was always last. He ran slowly for the part of the lap and accelerated near the end, catching up with the rest. Quatre then made a decision that could have resulted in a lot of pain for him. He turned around and ran the other way. Two things could happen then. The others could ignore him, complete the run and then Quatre would be punished for disobeying orders. Or the others would think that he was up to something and follow.
Heero followed first, then Duo and Trowa and finally Wufei. Quatre picked up the pace, pushing himself to the limit to stay just a step ahead of the others. He ran into the woods, dodging branches and jumping over rocks until he arrived at a very small clearing, and stopped. The others almost stumbled when Quatre stopped suddenly.
"What the hell are you doing, Winner." Wufei was moving slowly in his place trying to keep his muscles warm.
The others were stretching, glaring at him. Quatre had simply sat down on a fallen log, stretching his leg muscles as well. "Why did you follow?"
"What do you mean why?" Duo walked closer, standing over Quatre. "What were we supposed to say when you didn't show up? I'm not getting more training sessions because of you."
Quatre turned to Trowa waiting for an answer but Trowa just shrugged. "Chang?" He said looking at Wufei. Back then they all called each other by their surnames.
"You are acting stupidly and it can hurt the team."
Quatre nodded and turned to Heero.
"I trusted you."
Quatre grinned and then explained that they didn't have a team and until they started working together things weren't going to change. Trowa remained quiet, Heero supported Quatre but Wufei and Duo weren't convinced at all. Quatre then delivered an ultimatum. Until they learned to work as a team he would continue to run the other way, so to speak, even if it got him punished more than the rest. Wufei and Duo didn't believe him and left the clearing to complete the run. After a moment Trowa followed them. Heero waited longer and then told Quatre it had been a good effort before disappearing behind the trees. True to his word, Quatre left the clearing only to run back to the gym in the wrong direction. He arrived after Duo, Wufei and Trowa but before Heero since the route Quatre had taken was shorter.
They were all punished with extra training and Quatre with another hour after curfew. When he returned that night to the dorms, tired, dirty and sweaty the others didn't speak a word but they all looked at him differently. The next morning Quatre ran half the lap before abruptly turning around and heading back. This time Heero followed him all the way back to the gym and they both endured the night training session. The following day Trowa joined them in their rebellious run and the subsequent punishment. Two days later, Duo and Wufei gave up and followed the others after Quatre started running the wrong way. The instructors extended the after hours training to three instead of one.
None of them ever complained when Quatre ran the other way for the next few days, but followed him anyway and accepted their punishments without any reproach towards Quatre. They always matched their pace on the way back, managing to arrive at the same time, running at an acceptable rate that allowed them to have enough energy to go through the day. Without them knowing, they were finally becoming a team. Then one day, Quatre didn't turn back halfway through the run. The others gave him questioning looks but they all subconsciously matched their pace for the rest of the run. They completed their first task as a team.
After that, the boys actually took the time to get to know each other and help one another. They stopped worrying about being the best in the group and focused instead on being the best group. By the time they were sixteen there was no other group that could match their skills, not even the older professional groups that had already finished their training. They worked perfectly together, taking advantage of each other strengths and covering their weakness. They also became good friends.
It was Duo and Quatre who changed their relationship. They were sixteen and their fraternization with people outside their group was minimal, not to say none existent. Their first kiss was shy and awkward but not uncomfortable. The next was a bit better and so was the next, and the next. They kept it secret for a month, stealing moments now and then when they knew no one was watching, but keeping it hidden from the rest of the team was affecting them both.
Then the team was sent on their first real mission. The first mission where they would have to prove what they had learnt in the last six years, the first mission where they might have to kill. And they did. Heero was the first. He shot a guard who spotted them on the way in and was about to shoot them. Quatre was next. He threw a knife through the neck of a man who was about to shoot Trowa. Wufei snapped the neck of a guard about to ring the alarm. Duo and Trowa were spared for a couple more missions, but by the time they were seventeen, they all had blood on their hands. They were given the code name Gundam.
It was the night of that first mission, when they were back at the dorm, silent and deep in thought, that Duo and Quatre shared a look and decided to offer the others what they had been keeping from them. It was awkward at first. Much more awkward than when Duo and Quatre had shared that first timid kiss. Still, they held each other, sharing no more than caresses and innocent kisses. By morning they knew they were more than a team, they were family.
As they grew older their touches became more secure and they explored each other further. By the time the Preventers realized that the five boys loved each other, none of them was a virgin anymore. Amazingly, Preventers didn't care and even encouraged the strange relationship. The Gundam team was the best and it was due to the close companionship of the members. As long as the team was successful, Preventers didn't care.
When they turned eighteen they were told they could move out of the dorms and go back to their families or college if they wished to. They would be on call and be expected to go to any mission in a minutes notice. Trowa, Wufei and Quatre had living relatives and went to visit them for a while, Duo and Heero were orphans and set out to the task to find a place of for all of them. Quatre told his father that he wasn't moving back home or taking over WEI. His father disowned him and Quatre returned to his team.
* * *
TBC
Rating: R
Pairing: 1x2x3x4x5 ^_^
Summary: Five boys are especially selected and trained since childhood to be soldiers of the government.
Warnings: AU. Violence
Notes: I'm posting the prologue to this story. I hope that you like it.
___
He had been picked in a test, just like everyone else. Of course they didn't care that he was an heir and that his life had been planned for him even before he was born. Preventers only cared for one thing: finding the brightest young minds in the country and shaping them into becoming their agents. It was a secret organization, an elite branch of the military only a selected few knew existed. Every few years they included a series of questions within the standardized test every ten year old had to take to discover the children that might be candidates for their program. He had been selected and then his life had been decided for him again.
His family was told that Quatre was a genius. He was offered a spot in an exclusive school and his father had accepted immediately, sending Quatre away. It wasn't until the third week that Quatre realized that he and all the other students were being conditioned, their brains molded slowly into becoming what Preventers wanted: agents, soldiers. He had stayed anyway. The idea of becoming a soldier was way more exciting than the life of a business man his father had planned out for him. Preventers had given him a way to escape, and he was going to take it.
It was obvious after the first two years that Quatre was at the top of his class. He excelled in physical and weapons training and he had no match when it came to strategy and planning. He was thirteen when he was ordered to move from the room he shared with other two kids and into a new one, where he would meet his team. No one was assigned a team before they were sixteen, so being picked at such a young age was a great honor. His team turned out to be other four kids his age. They had all been at the top of their classes and had been selected for especial training. They would become the elite of the elite.
Things were a little rough at first. The boys were all competitive and they couldn't seem to find a common ground. They were used to excel on everything but now they were faced with others who had the same capacities and even surpassed them in some areas. Heero was the best at computers and he was the most physically strong of the group. However, Duo was better at mechanics in general and weapon building, and Heero had yet to beat Wufei sparing, even though Wufei couldn't lift as much weight as Heero could. Trowa had no match when it came to speed. He was agile and his reactions were always a tad faster than the others. Still, he hadn't been able to out maneuver Quatre when sparing, even though Quatre was slower. Quatre seemed to move almost painfully slow sometimes, but he was so good at reading the others moves that he didn't really need speed. Heero had won a few matches, and Quatre was about even with Wufei, who without doubt had the best technique, but he couldn't win against Duo. Quatre couldn't read Duo's erratic moves and had only managed to beat him once, just because Duo was distracted.
There wasn't one stronger person in the group but that didn't stop them from trying to find the one. That lasted about four months until one day they were given their first exercise to complete as a team and failed miserably. Their trainers weren't happy that their perfect team wasn't working as expected and the group was punished with longer and harder training sessions and less sleeping and recreational time.
They had been running before dawn, carrying weights on their backs – so the muscles would build- when Quatre understood what he had to do. They had been doing those morning runs for two weeks. They were required to complete the lap around the complex and over the small hill in forty minutes, but since none of them wanted to arrive last they kept pushing themselves and ended up completing it in just a little over twenty. That made their trainers happy. What didn't, and resulted in more punishments, was that since they had pushed themselves so hard in the morning they weren't working at a hundred percent the rest of the day.
Duo was in the lead with Trowa following not too far behind. He followed Duo's pace and always accelerated at the end, arriving first. Wufei was third, pushing himself to match the irrational pace Duo was setting. Quatre followed, trying to pace himself as much as possible but not letting the others gain ground on him. Heero was always last. He ran slowly for the part of the lap and accelerated near the end, catching up with the rest. Quatre then made a decision that could have resulted in a lot of pain for him. He turned around and ran the other way. Two things could happen then. The others could ignore him, complete the run and then Quatre would be punished for disobeying orders. Or the others would think that he was up to something and follow.
Heero followed first, then Duo and Trowa and finally Wufei. Quatre picked up the pace, pushing himself to the limit to stay just a step ahead of the others. He ran into the woods, dodging branches and jumping over rocks until he arrived at a very small clearing, and stopped. The others almost stumbled when Quatre stopped suddenly.
"What the hell are you doing, Winner." Wufei was moving slowly in his place trying to keep his muscles warm.
The others were stretching, glaring at him. Quatre had simply sat down on a fallen log, stretching his leg muscles as well. "Why did you follow?"
"What do you mean why?" Duo walked closer, standing over Quatre. "What were we supposed to say when you didn't show up? I'm not getting more training sessions because of you."
Quatre turned to Trowa waiting for an answer but Trowa just shrugged. "Chang?" He said looking at Wufei. Back then they all called each other by their surnames.
"You are acting stupidly and it can hurt the team."
Quatre nodded and turned to Heero.
"I trusted you."
Quatre grinned and then explained that they didn't have a team and until they started working together things weren't going to change. Trowa remained quiet, Heero supported Quatre but Wufei and Duo weren't convinced at all. Quatre then delivered an ultimatum. Until they learned to work as a team he would continue to run the other way, so to speak, even if it got him punished more than the rest. Wufei and Duo didn't believe him and left the clearing to complete the run. After a moment Trowa followed them. Heero waited longer and then told Quatre it had been a good effort before disappearing behind the trees. True to his word, Quatre left the clearing only to run back to the gym in the wrong direction. He arrived after Duo, Wufei and Trowa but before Heero since the route Quatre had taken was shorter.
They were all punished with extra training and Quatre with another hour after curfew. When he returned that night to the dorms, tired, dirty and sweaty the others didn't speak a word but they all looked at him differently. The next morning Quatre ran half the lap before abruptly turning around and heading back. This time Heero followed him all the way back to the gym and they both endured the night training session. The following day Trowa joined them in their rebellious run and the subsequent punishment. Two days later, Duo and Wufei gave up and followed the others after Quatre started running the wrong way. The instructors extended the after hours training to three instead of one.
None of them ever complained when Quatre ran the other way for the next few days, but followed him anyway and accepted their punishments without any reproach towards Quatre. They always matched their pace on the way back, managing to arrive at the same time, running at an acceptable rate that allowed them to have enough energy to go through the day. Without them knowing, they were finally becoming a team. Then one day, Quatre didn't turn back halfway through the run. The others gave him questioning looks but they all subconsciously matched their pace for the rest of the run. They completed their first task as a team.
After that, the boys actually took the time to get to know each other and help one another. They stopped worrying about being the best in the group and focused instead on being the best group. By the time they were sixteen there was no other group that could match their skills, not even the older professional groups that had already finished their training. They worked perfectly together, taking advantage of each other strengths and covering their weakness. They also became good friends.
It was Duo and Quatre who changed their relationship. They were sixteen and their fraternization with people outside their group was minimal, not to say none existent. Their first kiss was shy and awkward but not uncomfortable. The next was a bit better and so was the next, and the next. They kept it secret for a month, stealing moments now and then when they knew no one was watching, but keeping it hidden from the rest of the team was affecting them both.
Then the team was sent on their first real mission. The first mission where they would have to prove what they had learnt in the last six years, the first mission where they might have to kill. And they did. Heero was the first. He shot a guard who spotted them on the way in and was about to shoot them. Quatre was next. He threw a knife through the neck of a man who was about to shoot Trowa. Wufei snapped the neck of a guard about to ring the alarm. Duo and Trowa were spared for a couple more missions, but by the time they were seventeen, they all had blood on their hands. They were given the code name Gundam.
It was the night of that first mission, when they were back at the dorm, silent and deep in thought, that Duo and Quatre shared a look and decided to offer the others what they had been keeping from them. It was awkward at first. Much more awkward than when Duo and Quatre had shared that first timid kiss. Still, they held each other, sharing no more than caresses and innocent kisses. By morning they knew they were more than a team, they were family.
As they grew older their touches became more secure and they explored each other further. By the time the Preventers realized that the five boys loved each other, none of them was a virgin anymore. Amazingly, Preventers didn't care and even encouraged the strange relationship. The Gundam team was the best and it was due to the close companionship of the members. As long as the team was successful, Preventers didn't care.
When they turned eighteen they were told they could move out of the dorms and go back to their families or college if they wished to. They would be on call and be expected to go to any mission in a minutes notice. Trowa, Wufei and Quatre had living relatives and went to visit them for a while, Duo and Heero were orphans and set out to the task to find a place of for all of them. Quatre told his father that he wasn't moving back home or taking over WEI. His father disowned him and Quatre returned to his team.
* * *
TBC
