Part Eighteen
“So let me get this straight,” Duo said. “We’re going to go out there, stand as far away from the base as we possibly can, and you’ll shoot your bigass gun and blow the place to shit.”
“Essentially, yes,” Heero answered.
“And what am I here for? Decoration? I had homework.”
“To make sure no one shoots me from behind,” Heero said calmly. “And you wouldn’t have done your homework anyway, and you know it.”
“True, true,” Duo said cheerfully, grinning at Heero’s face on his screen. “Just wanted to make sure you love me.”
Heero rolled his eyes.
“How much further is this place?” Duo asked.
“Not much. A few more miles.”
Both of them looked up as their radios crackled. “ - me? Heero? Can you - ” Crackle. Static.
Heero reached over and fiddled with his controls.
“Can you hear me?” The voice came over the line again.
“Yes, we can hear you,” Heero answered. “What is it, Sally?”
“Could you possibly come back and help me?” Sally asked. “I hate to call in a favor, but we’re getting our asses kicked.”
“Who’s we?” Duo piped in.
“The resistance movement I’m part of,” Sally explained.
“You didn’t tell us you were part of a resistance movement,” Heero said, frowning.
“You didn’t ask,” Sally said defensively. “But now OZ is wiping the floor with us and we could use a hand.”
“Ryoukai,” Heero said, turning his Gundam around.
“All right! A good fight!” Duo crowed. “Much better than blasting a mobile doll base from fifty paces.”
It took the two of them about ten minutes to reach the fighting.
“Hey, Heero . . .” Duo asked. “Am I crazy, or are those Gundams?”
Can both be true? Heero wondered. “They’re Gundams. One looks like Quatre’s, one looks like Wufei’s, and the third looks . . . prehistoric.”
“Well, shit,” Duo said. “Think it’s them?”
The radio crackled again and a very familiar voice came over the line. “Please surrender. We don’t want to fight you.”
“That’s Quatre,” Duo said. “Next time remind me to shut up. What do we do?”
“I’m at a loss,” Heero admitted.
The radio came to life yet again. “Heero? It’s Trowa.”
“What the hell are you guys doing here?” Duo immediately piped in before Heero had a chance to respond.
“We didn’t know you were going to be here,” Trowa said. “I could ask the same question of you.”
“This doctor friend of ours called in a favor and asked us to come help out,” Duo said. “Remember, the chick that helped us at New Edwards?”
“I remember,” Trowa replied. “What do we do?”
Duo ducked as Xiaolong took a pot shot at them. “For now, we back up.”
Heero nodded and hastily backed away. Unfortunately, Xiaolong chose this moment to charge forward and slam his Gundam into Heero’s.
“Heero!” Duo turned to see Wing Zero slam into a building. “Ooh, that had to hurt . . . sure did when it happened to me.” He turned back to Trowa. “I’m not gonna sit here and get killed. Any suggestions?” He took a swing at Xiaolong with his scythe, trusting the Chinese boy to dodge in time, but effectively getting him away from Heero.
Trowa’s brain worked frantically. “Duo. Can you take Xiaolong out without wounding him?”
“Xiao - who?”
“Wufei,” Trowa hastily corrected himself. “Take the Gundam out of commission. I think with Wufei down, Quatre won’t want to continue the fight and we can get the hell out of here.” Duo nodded. “Okay then!” He thought for a second, then settled on the sudden and relatively startling charge. “Wu was never as good a pilot as me anyway,” he said with a grin, blasting forward. Xiaolong dodged out of his way, but not quite fast enough. Duo swung the scythe in a wide arc, cutting into the Gundam’s shoulder, almost detaching the arm. “That good enough for ya, Trowa?”
“Let’s see what happens,” Trowa said.
Rigel was desperately calling Xiaolong’s name over their radio line. “Can you hear me?”
“I’m fine,” Xiaolong said irritably. “Just . . . hit my head, I think . . .”
“No,” Rigel said, feeling a familiar but unexplainable pain shoot through his chest. “It’s worse than that . . . I can feel . . .”
“Rigel? Are you okay?” Trowa asked.
“I-I don’t know . . .” Rigel stammered. “My chest hurts again . . .” He let out a sharp gasp and started to slide out of his chair.
“I think we’d better retreat,” Trowa decided. “Xiaolong, are you still awake?”
No answer.
“Hey, Trowa?” Duo asked. “We’re just gonna clear out and let you deal with this. Promise not to attack the good doctor anymore?”
“Go away, Duo,” Trowa answered.
“Sure, sure, I’m so underappreciated.” Duo walked over to Heero. “Hey, Heero! You awake in there?”
“Hai, I’m awake,” Heero answered.
“Is your Gundam in working condition?”
“It seems to be better than I am,” Heero said, shakily making his way to his feet.
“Then let’s haul ass,” Duo suggested.
Trowa was waiting impatiently for Rigel to pull himself together, not sure whether the blonde boy was really hurt or not. “Rigel? Are you all right over there?”
“I think so,” Rigel answered, though he sounded decidedly unsure of himself. “Do you think we can pick up Altron if we work together?”
“Yes, but we’ll have to be careful,” Trowa answered. Between the two of them, they managed to pick Altron up and leave.
****
“Not again . . .” Treize thudded his head against the wall.
“They’re okay,” Une assured him. “Xiaolong has a concussion and a sprained wrist. Rigel . . . I think he was just upset over what happened to Xiaolong.”
“And of course Trowa is unharmed.”
Une raised her hands in surrender. “Of course.”
“Rigel seemed a bit more than ‘upset,’” Treize said. “He was, technically speaking, unconscious.”
“Well, there’s nothing wrong with him,” Une said.
“Don’t tell me that. Tell me something useful.”
“I don’t know,” Une said flatly.
“Great.” Treize drooped. “Any idea how the other Gundams just happened to be there?”
Une just shook her head. “You could ask Trowa.”
“True,” Treize said. “Maybe I will.”
****
Duo nearly tackled Sally the minute she left Heero’s room. “Is Heero okay?”
“He’s fine. Just a concussion. Can’t be good for you to slam into a building like that. He’ll be up and about by tomorrow, but I wouldn’t suggest he does any piloting for a few days.”
“Did you do a brain scanny thing?” Duo asked.
“No. It wasn’t necessary. Why?”
“You had to do one on me! Fair’s fair!”
“Duo.”
Duo looked innocent.
“Go see Heero.”
“Oh, fine.” Duo bounced into Heero’s room. “Hey, Heero, how’re you feeling?”
“I have a headache,” Heero stated.
“You are a headache,” Duo said. “And technically, it’s a concussion.”
“Whatever,” Heero said.
“I told Sally to do brain scanny things to you,” Duo said brightly. “To make sure your brain is in its proper container.”
“I assure you that it is. It hurts too much to be elsewhere,” Heero grumbled.
“Heero Yuy, brains of steel,” Duo intoned.
Heero threw a pillow at him.
Duo dodged and flopped into the chair. “So. What about the mission?”
“Quite obviously, we’re not on it.”
“Thanks, Einstein. Seriously. We needed to do that. But Sally says you shouldn’t pilot for a few days or so.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re a pain in the ass. That’s what I kept saying, and I was wrong, and you’re wrong. Now, what if I went?”
“You don’t have the long range weapons.”
“I could take Wing Zero, you know.”
“I suppose,” Heero said grudgingly.
“Geez, Heero, it’s not like I’m going to crash your Gundam.” Duo rolled his eyes.
“The Gundam isn’t what I’m worried about,” Heero said, without thinking.
“Aw, Heero, that’s so cute!” Duo grinned. “I’ll go tomorrow morning and I’ll be fine, so stop worrying.”
“Now why did that not make me feel any better?”
“Because you’re paranoid?”
“Shut up, Duo.”
****
“Don’t give me that look,” Treize said. “I know you’d far rather be sitting with Rigel right now. Trust me, I have other things I could be doing, too. But I’d like to know why the other Gundam pilots were there.”
Trowa folded his arms across his chest and glared at the older man. “I’m sure you would.”
Treize sighed. “I gave you my word that you wouldn’t have to fight the other pilots. I thought I might as well make it clear that it wasn’t by design.”
“I already knew that,” Trowa said.
Treize relaxed a little. “So for once you’re not blaming me?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Treize ignored this. “How’s Rigel doing?”
“Why do you care?”
Treize blinked and lifted his hands in surrender. “I like the kid, okay?”
Trowa just raised an eyebrow. “Oh well, in that case . . .” He paused a moment, letting the sarcasm hang in the air, “Rigel is still unconscious.”
Treize frowned. “Do you have any idea why he passed out at all?”
Trowa chose his words slowly and carefully. “He seems to react this way when a comrade gets hurt.”
Treize blinked. “Why?”
“Hell if I know,” Trowa remarked calmly. “Maybe if he could remember, he’d be able to tell us.”
Treize sighed. “I really wish we could come to a truce.”
“I wish we could too,” Trowa said. “But it’s not going to happen.”
With that, he saluted and walked out of the room.
****
“One destroyed mobile doll factory, coming right up . . . damn this gun is big. I can see why Heero likes this Gundam . . . sure hope it isn’t compensation for something else.” He aimed carefully and pulled the trigger. “Ta da!” He turned to go and found himself faced with at least a dozen mobile dolls. “Well, shit.” He cracked his knuckles. “No stupid non-piloted mobile whatchamacallits are gonna get the best of Shinigami! Especially now that I’ve got this bigass gun . . . which makes two bigass guns!”
His first shot took out six of them. “Damn this thing is cool.”
And then the world exploded.
Or so it seemed.
The mobile dolls multiplied and surrounded him, somehow managing to cut off his air supply, which was impressive seeing as mobile dolls had nothing to do with his lungs, but all Duo knew was that he simply couldn’t breathe. The world glowed yellow and then faded back to normal, and for some reason there were less mobile dolls than there had been a moment ago. Unfortunately for him, Deathscythe stood in their midst.
Duo’s logical brain attempted to take over and he hit his Comlink. “H-Heero?” he asked, cursing himself for his trembling voice. “That you?”
No answer, unless you counted a running charge as an answer. Duo managed to get the beam saber up in time to stop the scythe’s downward swing. “Wh-who are you?” his voice quavered.
After a long moment, a hollow voice answered. “Shinigami.”
“Oh shit oh shit oh shit ohshit -- ” Duo backed away hurriedly, nearly tripping over himself. He backed directly into something and whirled, trying to see what it was.
Another Deathscythe.
“Oh God -- ” There were dozens of them. Maybe even a hundred. “LEAVE ME ALONE!” Duo shrieked.
“You can’t escape us,” the hollow voice rasped, only it was multiplied and echoed, as if it was coming from everyone at once.
Duo lifted the gun. “Let me go or I’ll blast you all,” he said, trying to sound defiant and macho, which was difficult since his voice wouldn’t stop shaking.
The Deathscythes pressed closer. Duo closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.
When he opened them a second later, he was standing on an empty plain. The only thing that showed the whole thing hadn’t been a dream was the dozen or so piles of mobile doll wreckage.
Duo turned tail and ran.
****
Rigel’s eyes flickered open. His head was killing him. He peered upwards into a concerned pair of green eyes, one of them hidden under brown hair. “How are you feeling?” Trowa asked.
“My head aches,” Rigel told him. “What happened?”
“We accidentally went up against the terrorist Gundams,” Trowa told him. “Xiaolong took a little bit of a beating and we retreated.”
“Oh,” Rigel said faintly. “When did I pass out? Is Xiaolong okay?”
“Xiaolong’s fine; just a concussion and a sprained wrist,” Trowa said. “As for when you passed out, I’m not sure. It was right after Xiaolong got hurt.”
Rigel frowned. “I remember . . . right before I blacked out, I had another . . .” His voice trailed off.
“Another?” Trowa prompted, but he was pretty sure he already knew.
“Like that time in your room,” Rigel said. “My chest hurt and . . . I got this funny feeling.”
“And you still have no idea why?” Trowa asked.
Rigel shook his head, looking distressed. “And I know I promised you I’d go to a doctor if it happened again . . .”
“Don’t worry about it, if you don’t want to,” Trowa said.
Rigel brightened. “Can I go see Xiaolong?”
“No. You need to stay in bed,” Trowa said.
“But I wanna go see him,” Rigel said, trying not to whine.
“And I want you to stay in bed.”
Rigel grinned. “I know why you want me to stay in bed . . .”
Trowa blushed. “Rigel, you’re injured.”
“But I feel fine,” Rigel said. “Really.”
“Good,” Trowa said. “But don’t push it.”
“Oh, come on . . .” Rigel said. “Just one kiss?”
“I suppose I could manage that,” Trowa agreed.
****
Heero found himself uneasy. When Duo was over an hour late with no word, he went to the hangar to wait. Sally was reluctant to let him go, but Heero made it politely clear that she didn’t have a choice. He had been there less than ten minutes when Wing Zero came flying back into the hangar. It landed unsteadily with a resounding crash. Heero started forward. “Duo?”
The hatch opened and Duo tumbled out, sliding down the Gundam to land in a heap at Heero’s feet.
“Duo!” Heero started to lean down, but Duo started literally crawling up him, using Heero for leverage to haul himself to his feet.
“Heero . . .” Duo’s breathing was quick and light. “Heero . . .”
“Duo, are you okay?”
“Do I fucking look okay . . . not okay, not okay at all . . .” He clung to Heero desperately. “Please, don’t let them get me . . .”
“Them? Who’s them?”
“Them, y’know, them, Shinigami . . .”
“No, I don’t know.” Heero held Duo carefully. “What happened?”
“They were everywhere, oh God, they were trying to kill me . . .”
“Who? Mobile dolls?”
“No, stupid, of course not Mobile dolls, though I’m not quite sure what happened to the mobile dolls . . .”
“Duo, you’re hyperventilating. Calm down before you pass out.”
“I’d like to see you calm down . . .” Duo sniffled, hiding his face in Heero’s shoulder. Heero stopped in shock. Was Duo . . . crying?
He didn’t know how to deal with a crying Duo . . .
At least he’d stopped hyperventilating.
“What went wrong?”
“They were everywhere, I dunno . . .”
“Who?”
“I told you, the Shinigami . . .”
“I thought you were Shinigami?”
“It wasn’t me!” Duo yelled. “It wasn’t!”
“Don’t yell,” Heero said firmly.
Duo drooped against him. “They wanted to kill me . . .”
“A lot of people have tried to kill you, Duo. Why are you so freaked out over this?”
“They had my Gundam and there were hundreds of them and they were talking at me . . .”
“You are making less and less sense,” Heero informed him. “I’m going to take you where you can lie down.”
Duo’s arms tightened around him, nearly cutting off his circulation. “Please don’t leave me, Heero, if you leave me alone they’ll get me . . .”
“Baka. Who said anything about leaving? We do share a room. And it’s only a ten minute ride back to the school.”
Duo managed to let go of his death grip long enough for he and Heero to get into the car. They parked about a two minute walk away from the school, hiding the car. Heero looked at where Duo had curled up into fetal position in his seat. “Can you walk?”
“I-I think so . . .”
“Then let’s go.” Heero guided Duo back to the school, then up to their room. “Now lie down.”
“No.” Duo clung to him.
“Uhm, Duo . . .”
“NO.”
“Okay then.” Heero sat down on the edge of the bed and let Duo crawl into his lap. Heero decided to make another attempt to figure out what the hell was going on. At least Duo had stopped crying. “Now tell me, slowly and clearly, what happened.”
“There were mobile dolls . . . and I started shooting them . . . and then the world went all yellow and suddenly Deathscythe was there, and I asked if it was you because I figured who else could it be but it didn’t answer, and I backed up but got hit by another one and there were hundreds of them and they said they were Shinigami and they were going to kill me but when I fired the gun the world went back to normal and there was no one there.” Duo said this all in one breath.
Heero blinked. “Okay . . .”
“Please don’t let them get me . . .”
“They’re not going to get you.”
“Good . . .”
“Were you injured at all?”
“No.”
“Then I think you’d better get some sleep.”
Duo sniffled. “Promise not to leave once I’ve fallen asleep.”
Heero sighed in exasperation. “I promise I won’t leave.”
“Good.” Duo leaned his head on Heero’s shoulder and drifted off quickly into exhausted sleep.
Heero looked across the room at the phone. He wanted to call Sally, but he would hardly be able to manage it with Duo clinging to him like a limpet. Then he looked longingly at his own bed. Sleep sounded good . . . his headache had returned. After a minute of contemplation, he simply flopped over backwards with Duo still curled up in his arms. He was too tired to figure out how to get to his own bed. Besides, having Duo next to him was a decidedly nice feeling anyway . . .
Not about to deal with that.
Heero closed his eyes and slept.
****
Xiaolong was cranky. His head ached and his wrist ached and moreover, he felt like an idiot for having been caught off guard like that. A real pilot never would’ve moved so slowly, he censured himself.
“Hi, Xiaolong!” Rigel bounced into the room, looking altogether too cheerful for someone who had only just been allowed to get out of bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Horrendous,” Xiaolong answered succinctly.
“Oh, it’s just a concussion,” Rigel answered, plopping into a chair. “Don’t be so . . . so . . .”
“Cranky,” Trowa supplied, sitting down next to Rigel.
Xiaolong glared at them both. “I’ll be as cranky as I want. I’m injured.”
Rigel sighed. “Next time you’re going to be like this, let me know. I’ll bring my violin and play you a sad song.”
Xiaolong gave him a dirty look.
“So,” Trowa interrupted, “did they tell you when they’ll let you free?”
“Tomorrow,” Xiaolong grumbled, “as long as my head stops hurting by then. Who were those guys we were fighting, anyway?”
“They were terrorists,” Rigel said. “You know, the ones Treize told us about. With Gundams.”
“Oh, those terrorists.” Xiaolong rolled his eyes. “And what are we doing about them?”
Rigel blinked. “Nothing?”
“Nothing?” Xiaolong repeated, sounding indignant.
“Well, we’re hardly fit to go after them,” Rigel protested.
“I thought we were supposed to be the best pilots,” Xiaolong said. “And there’s three of us and two of them.”
“They beat us this time,” Rigel said, reasonably enough.
“That’s hardly a reason to give up, though,” Xiaolong said.
Trowa decided to intervene. “Treize told me he doesn’t want you facing off with them again. You’re too valuable.”
“But that’s cowardly,” Xiaolong said.
“No, it’s sensible,” Rigel corrected.
“Yes, but - ”
“Xiaolong,” Rigel interrupted, “Shut up. What, do you want another concussion?”
“No, I want to win,” Xiaolong said.
Rigel just sighed. “Well, if you don’t shut up, you may get a concussion from me.”
Trowa snickered.
“Oh,” Xiaolong said.
“Exactly,” Rigel replied.
****
Waking up this morning was an interesting adventure. It’s hard to untangle oneself from four limbs and three feet of hair that are all wrapped around him. I managed, however. I even did it without waking Duo up, which was good, because he seemed to need his sleep. Now I don’t know what to do.
I still have basically no idea what happened last night, except I’ve come to one conclusion: the Zero System did something very, very strange to Duo’s twisted little mind. Mental note: Duo does not use Zero System ever again, world without end, amen. He was completely hysterical when he got back, but he didn’t seem injured, so I tried to get him to go to bed. He refused to let go, and refused to sleep until I promised to stay with him. No objections here . . .
I think I need a cold shower.
Anyway, when I woke up this morning I decided I had better extricate myself from the situation before Duo woke up. I’m a bit afraid he’ll be embarrassed by what happened. Maybe that’s just because I am.
He was crying. I don’t know how to deal with a crying Duo. I don’t know to deal with a crying anybody, let alone a crying Duo. I wanted to . . . hold him . . . and make it all better. And I couldn’t. Well, I hugged him. For all the good that did.
There’s so much that I still don’t know about him.
But I can hardly ask. I don’t think he’d take to that too well.
And I STILL don’t know why he calls himself Shinigami, let alone why he saw hundreds of them last night.
I don’t get it. I hate not getting it. Especially where Duo is concerned.
****
Man, does my head hurt. I don’t even know why, and that’s pissing me off. All I can remember is that the mission last night went reeeeeaaaalllly badly. Some system malfunction that fucked up my head or something. Let’s not think about that. Anyway, I asked Mr. Stone Face and he just said that the mission had been a success and I’d simply ‘encountered some trouble’ on my way home. He’s hiding something from me, little prick.
See, here’s where I’m puzzled. When I woke up this morning, I was sprawled on my bed, well, not sprawled, because I was all curled up. And the bed smelled like Heero.
(Please don’t ask how I know what Heero smells like. It’s a pheromone thing, I think.)
Anyway, I noticed that his bed was untouched, and even he doesn’t usually make his bed that carefully. So he probably made it because he was hoping that I wouldn’t notice that he hadn’t slept in it. Or something. Did that make sense? I don’t know. It’s not fair! We slept together and I don’t remember it!
Course, all my clothes were on. So it couldn’t have been too exciting. But exciting enough! I mean, really. What the hell could I have done that would’ve convinced Heero Emotionless Yuy to sleep with me curled up with him? I’m boggled. Damn it.
And he was in the shower all morning. Like the minute I woke up! And there was still hot water when I went to take my shower! That tells you something there . . . he’s a frustrated boy.
Hmm . . . I’m seeing possibilities here.
I dunno though. I’m not stupid enough to think it’s anything other than hormones under pressure, but still . . . sometimes he looks at me funny and I don’t know what he’s thinking. I guess I can admit that I’d be terrified of any sort of relationship, but a quick bang would be nice. I bet Heero’s really great in bed. All that stamina . . .
The problem is convincing him that a) he wants to sleep with me, b) I want to sleep with him, and c) he doesn’t want anything else. I don’t think the first would be a problem. The second . . . hey, if I tackled him, I think he’d get the message. Wonder what he’d do if I went in there while he was in the shower? Ech, cold water . . . such a turn-off.
It’s the last that’s really a problem. But hey, who am I kidding? Like Heero I-Have-No-Temperature-Sensors Yuy would actually want a relationship. He probably just wants to screw me, like everybody else.
****