The battle was over, and nobody won. The sky grew increasingly darker by each passing moment. Vast, dark rain clouds were beginning form, and it looked as though it would begin storming at any time. Heero, who had been searching for Duo for about an hour now, finally met up with the other Gundam pilots. Heero, in particular was growing increasingly worried of the whole situation. Every moment that passed he thought more and more that he would never find Duo. Naturally, Heero did his best to cover that fact. And did a very good job at that.
“Did anyone see where he was when he activated the self destruct mode?” Trowa asked in his usual tone.
“No, I wish I did though…were you there when it happened Heero?” The blond Arabian boy asked looking over to Heero who didn’t seem at all to be in the mood to answer him. He just seemed to be too deep in thought for the moment. So Quatre decided against asking Heero anymore questions and headed over by the comforting arms of his beloved Trowa.
The stupid fool…Heero thought to himself. There really wasn’t any need for him to self detonate like that. But what was done was done. And there wasn’t anyway that they could change that. Turning sharply, Heero had heard some light moans and groans coming only a few feet away from him. They sounded as if they were coming from Duo. He walked in the direction of the sounds dreading having to see Duo in whatever condition he may be in.
Upon finding the pilot, Heero paused for a moment as he looked at his friend, who was now lying in a pool of his own blood. Don’t worry…I’ll save you…I refuse to let you die…Heero thought as he scooped the semiconscious pilot up into his arms, trying his best not to encourage anymore blood to escape from the deep gashes in Duo than already has.
Heero carried the prone form to where the other Gundam pilots were and set him down. Stepping back he looked at the others, not really to see if he could get their approval but more to assure them that Duo was OK.
“He looks terrible,” the young Arabian finally cried out, kneeling down by the defenseless pilot. Rubbing his hand up and down the arm of the pilot he picked up Duo’s hand and ever so gently he placed his pointer and middle finger on the boy’s wrist and then neck to see if he was still alive. “There is a heartbeat.” Quatre after a long moment finally announced. “But it’s very faint…. And I’m pretty sure that he will die unless we get him some medical attention immediately.”
Heero didn’t know what to say. He was just speechless.
Picking up the pilot, Heero set off on his way. It was going to be a long journey and he was fully prepared for it.
“You don’t plan on carrying him like that all the way do you?” Trowa asked from behind.
Heero just ignored him and continued on his path home. He was prepared to do anything for Duo. Even if it meant at the risk of his very own life.
Duo had become increasingly paler in the next hour. Heero stopped to take a break and laid Duo down. The sky was beginning to clear and the storm clouds moved along on their way. It never actually stormed like it looked like it was going to. Heero glanced back down at Duo. Then took a seat in the grass to rest a little and catch his breath.
“Are you getting tired Heero?” Trowa asked from where he sat by Quatre. “You know I can take care of carrying him for a while, just so you can have a break. I really don’t mind.”
Wufei watched silently. He knew very well that Heero was tired. And that carrying Duo was becoming harder as the boy seemed to become heavier. But The ‘Perfect Soldier’ wasn’t about to admit all of that…not to them at least. Leaning back in the grass, he gratefully welcomed the darkness that had been so long pulling on him to come…and he drifted off to sleep.
Time was not on their side. Not at all. It was becoming increasingly apparent that Duo was only looking worse and they had to hurry if they ever hoped to save him. Night was coming on quickly and the warm summer air soon began to cool. Wufei got up and stretched for a moment. Then headed off towards the woods. He would have rather stayed there and just slept, but he knew that it would soon be dark. And that the wild animals and such were going to be coming out.
“Where are you going Wufei?” Quatre asked a bit apprehensively.
“To get some wood.” Was all the Chinese pilot had said before disappearing into the woods.
Quatre was wishing that he had brought something to keep himself warm. Looking down at his feet he shivered for a moment trying to think of something else. Just then he felt a warm, comforting hand rest on his shoulder and he looked up to see Trowa. Trowa smiling down at him in a way he had never seen him. Then kneeling down behind Quatre, Trowa wrapped his arms around his beloved in attempts to warm him. Quatre managing a smile leaned his head back on Trowa’s shoulder.
Heero, who was now sitting in the grass by Duo, looked down at American’s face. Who began mumbling a few things incoherently. Heero smiled slightly. Not just any smile…but a warm, straight from the heart sort of smile. While Heero was watching Duo’s motionless body, just then Duo’s body shivered slightly. Heero became concerned. Too weak to even shiver…I just hope he doesn’t get sick…Mumbling some more Heero strained for once to see if he could understand /anything/ that Duo was saying. But he couldn’t.
Just then Heero leaned over the vulnerable boy and whispered to him, “Just hang in there, Duo. I’m not going to let you die…not here, not now…” Heero reached over and picked up the long braid It felt soft to the touch…just about as soft as it looked. Playing with Duo’s braid he gazed at Duo’s face, wishing that this had never happened. That he could have been there to stop all of this, or at least help his friend. But he wasn’t…and he felt that somehow this was his entire fault. But what was this feeling he was getting…He had never quite felt this way before. Was this guilt? He also wished that Duo were OK and that he could just gaze into his beloved’s violet eyes once again.
Wufei, who was just returning from a venture into the woods, was carrying some wood.
“Is that for a fire, Wufei?” The young blond pilot asked as he cuddled closer to Trowa.
“Yes.” The Chinese answered very plainly, as he set the wood into a pile. Then he picked out two pieces and began rubbing them together. “Hmmm…”
“Do we have any food?” Quatre asked as he watched Wufei fumble with the wood to get the fire started.
“We should have enough to last a few days.” Trowa answered promptly.
Quatre looked up at Trowa puzzled then over to Wufei and let out a sigh. “Wufei? Why don’t you just use some matches to start the fire?” After Quatre asked that question he wished he hadn’t.
“Don’t you think I would have by now…?? But I seem to be out of them at the moment. I should have expected you to say /something/ like that though. You rich kids don’t know the first thing about survival. And that’s why I consider your kind to be weak.”
Quatre was half expecting him to say something like that. But the comment about rich kids being weak and all. That hurt. But then he remembered this comment was coming from someone who thought that even his own Gundam was against him. And thought that Nataku thought he was too weak and not worthy. Quatre sighed as he lay his head back against Trowa’s shoulder.
Trowa smiled and reached into his back pocket where he kept a box of matches just in case something like this came up. He handed the box to Wufei who was a bit reluctant to take them, but he eventually did. Wufei looked down at the small, rectangular box then opened it and started the fire.
He never even thanked me…Trowa briefly thought to himself. But then again…I guess I wasn’t really expecting him to.
Heero who was sitting off by himself just looking at the stars began to shiver. Wishing that he had longer sleeves on than his tank top. But then again, how were they to know this would happen?
“Heero…” Trowa summoned from next to the fire.
Heero turned to look over at the other pilots but didn’t answer.
“Heero, why don’t you come over here? You must be cold.” The young Arabian called out to Heero. “I don’t want to see you getting sick now.” He saw no sense in any of them getting sick. They could all get through this if they could all just work together. He wanted to know why he couldn’t get that through to all of them.
Heero sat up all night and during every passing moment Heero was becoming more and more concerned. Duo hadn’t more than stirred all night. And it was becoming increasingly obvious to the other’s that Heero was worried. But Heero didn’t really care what they thought. All that mattered to him was that they get Duo to the hospital and fast. And for these emotions not belonging in the war…he just didn’t care about that either. With that the young Japanese laid down on the ground by Duo and gently laid his arm across the braided boy’s chest. Taking in a large breath a relaxed look came over his face and body as he drifted off to sleep.
Trowa who was lying in the grass with Quatre stirred as he slowly began to wake up. He rubbed his eyes tiredly as he slowly sat up. Looking around he then leaned over Quatre and lightly kissed Quatre on the cheek than pulled back. Quatre shifted a bit then smiled in his sleep.
Wufei, who had already been up a while, was training. He usually found that a good way of spending your time. Or to pass the time. You can never be strong enough…Wufei thought to himself, or at least that’s what Nataku always said…Wufei walked around a little before finally taking a seat in the grass. Looking around he saw that Trowa was up, so he decided to talk to Trowa maybe about the plans for that day.
“Trowa, do you think that we should get them up now…we should be on our way.” Wufei said with that usual, weak people shouldn’t fight tone in his voice.
“Yeah, maybe. We have to hurry up if we want to make sure Duo doesn’t die.” Trowa said. Just then Trowa got hit with the thought, why should we care so much whether Duo lives or not?? After all it was only one of us, we shouldn’t have to go through all of this. But then Trowa quickly dismissed such thoughts from his mind. No, that’s just thinking crazy now…we can’t afford to lose any of us.
“Trowa?” Wufei asked with an unusually puzzled sound in his voice.
“Oh, sorry about that.” The pilot of Heavyarms said turning to face Wufei once again. “Now where were we…?”
“We were deciding whether or not we should get going. It would be a good idea for us to get started early today.” Wufei said as he fixed his highly loosened ponytail. “What were you just thinking?” Wufei asked as a small grin came over his lips.
“Uh? Nothing…why?” Trowa answered as calmly as he could.
“It’s just a moment ago you looked as though you were deep in thought. You can tell me, if anything’s bothering you…” And with a slight nod of the green eyed pilots head, the young Chinese sat up anxiously awaiting Trowa’s reply.
“OK. I just thought…why should we have to go through all of this for Duo?” Trowa sighed looking down at the ground for a moment then back at the Chinese boy who was still listening contently to his every word.
“And…?” Wufei interrupted, when he saw that Trowa had stopped.
“Well…” Trowa began then glanced over to see that Heero and Quatre were still asleep and seeing they were he let out a sigh and turned to face Wufei. “Well, I was thinking that, maybe, we could eliminate Duo right now. After all he is as helpless as a kitten…and no one has to know it was us…”
“Hn, but wouldn’t that only show our weakness? Killing someone so vulnerable?” Wufei said looking up at the sky. “Nataku dislikes weakness. I can sense it.”
“True.” Trowa hadn’t thought about it that way. But then again with Duo out of the way their journey could be cut down on time and this way they could just go straight home rather than stop at the hospital.
After a short time, Trowa had finally persuaded the young Chinese pilot that it would be so much easier if they were to eliminate Duo. After all he was only dead weight. With that the two set out towards the two sleeping Gundam pilots.
Carefully, as not to wake the sleeping Heero, which would have been otherwise impossible had he not sat up all night. Trowa quickly rested Quatre where the once sleeping Duo had lain before. Going off a little Wufei laid the sleeping American boy in the grass, where he slowly began to move a little…
“Huh…What the…?” Were the first words that weakly came out of the young American’s mouth.
And with that Trowa and Wufei looked at each other surprised.
Heero stirred. Then moving slowly he leaned over the sleeping boy without even bothering to open his eyes and gave the boy a light kiss on the cheek and smiled.
“Oh, Trowa…” the Arabian boy said as he slowly opened his eyes to see Heero hanging over him instead of his beloved Trowa. “Heero…?!” Quatre whispered, as he lay back afraid to move, and keeping perfectly silent. How on earth did I get here?! Quatre thought to himself. He was shocked.
Running his hand through the blond boy’s hair, Heero was looking for his beloved’s braid…but with no avail. Not finding the braid he slowly opened his eyes, rubbed them, then looked down to see a terrified Quatre.
“Huh?!” Was all that Heero could say as he quickly moved away from the terrified blond. “How did you get there?? And where’s Duo??”
“I don’t know…” Quatre finally responded. “The first thing I know I’m going to sleep with Trowa…then I wake up to find I’m with you…I really don’t know.”
The young Arabian seemed to be telling the truth. Standing up Heero looked around the immediate area to see if he could see where Duo could be. He was no where to be found. In addition Trowa and Wufei were know where to be found. Wherever they are…I’ll find them! The cobalt blue eyed pilot thought staring straight ahead.
“Where am I?” The American pilot asked dazedly, then turned his head and began coughing up blood. “Oooohhhh…man does my head kill…” He said holding his head, then lying back in the cool grass. Licking his lips he squinted a bit… “and the inside of my mouth tastes like…blood? Hhnnnn…” Duo groaned lightly. He was still way too weak from all of the blood he had lost earlier. The Gundam’s did succeed in stopping the blood…but they couldn’t exactly replace the blood he had lost previously.
“Well?” Trowa asked looking over at Wufei. “Ready?”
Wufei snuck up on the unsuspecting Duo wrapping his arm around Duo’s neck.
“Hey! Wufei! What…are…you…doing man?!” Duo managed to finally choke out.
“You are no longer needed! You’re too weak! You can no longer be of any assistance to us!”
Duo choked and coughed which ended up in him coughing up more blood. “You guy’s <can’t be serious! Are you!?!>” Duo also managed to choke out.
Wufei glared down at Duo for a moment. “Oh, we’re serious all right, <dead serious!>”
“Let him go!” Came a stern voice from behind. Wufei and Trowa turned quickly to see Heero standing behind them aiming his gun straight for Wufei’s head. “You heard me…let him go!”
After hearing Heero’s voice all of a sudden Duo’s vision became increasingly hazy and he passed out cold.
Trowa, who looked as though he were ready to jump at Heero in attempts to take the gun away, was double surprised when he saw Quatre walk out from behind some bushes aiming his gun for his head.
“Don’t even think about it Trowa! Don’t come any closer Trowa!” Came the shaky response from Quatre.
Trowa gave Wufei the signal and with that Wufei pulled out a small knife and quickly held it up to the unsuspecting Gundam’s neck. “If you come any closer…I’m going to slit his throat…” Wufei said with a completely serious look on his face.
Quatre looked down for a moment as a tear ran down his cheek. “Trowa.” He finally said.
“Yes?”
“We shouldn’t be doing this…we should be working together to get us home. Not trying to kill each other. What did Duo do to you?”
“Nothing.” The green-eyed pilot answered as he stared at the gun aimed towards his head.
“Then why are you going to kill him?”
“He’s making it harder for us to get home.”
Quatre sighed. “Don’t you think you’re taking this a little too far! Let me put it this way. What if it were Wufei and Heero, and they wanted to kill me? How would that make you feel? Or maybe even yourself, because we thought you couldn’t keep up with us?”
Trowa glared at the ground for a moment, then gave Wufei the signal.
“But…?” Wufei asked confused as he took the knife away from the now unconscious American’s throat.
“Put him down…” Heero, said as he slightly began to pull the trigger of his gun.
Wufei laid the still unconscious Duo on the ground and took a step back and raised his hands. “Go ahead and shoot me.” Wufei said with a small grin on his face. “But I see no point in ‘dragging’ Duo along with us…He’s just too weak…”
Heero growled quietly, not knowing what to say. He looked down at Duo and glared.
“He’s too weak…he’ll never make it.” The Chinese said with a hint of irritation in his voice. “He’s even weaker than Relena…Heero’s weak onna…” The young Chinese found pleasure in saying it that way. Relena, ‘Heero’s weak Onna.’
Quatre watched Trowa cautiously. Quatre’s hands began to shake. Was he nervous? The trembling didn’t stop there though. It had somehow made it down his arms and he fell to his knees and began crying. Setting his gun down beside him he buried his face in his hands.
Trowa, who had previously put his hands up, took them down and stared emotionlessly over at the blond Arabian, who was now crying? Could it be his nerves? Trowa thought as he looked on at the blond pilot.
Quatre glanced up and then noticed that Trowa had been staring at him. Reaching for his gun he quickly aimed the gun, shakily at Trowa. “We shouldn’t be doing this…Trowa…” He managed to get out. “We shouldn’t be fighting each other like this, it’s just not right.”
Trowa said nothing, as his eyes continued to stare blankly at Quatre. “Well,” Trowa began as he raised his hands again. “Go ahead and kill me…I probably do deserve it after all…” His voice trailed off.
“You can’t be serious.” Quatre said after a long wait. “You know very well that, that was wrong. You know Duo can’t fight back or anything.” Quatre gazed compassionately through tear filled eyes. …Come on Trowa, we’ve made it this far…besides, I don’t think that I could kill you.” Quatre whispered looking down at the ground with a sigh.
Hearing this Wufei quickly turned to look at the blond pilot. Noticing Wufei was now looking at him he glanced up to see what the Chinese wanted. “Yes?”
Wufei said nothing as he glared down at Quatre. Finally after a long while the young Chinese broke the heavy silence. “I always knew you were a weakling, Winner!”
Quatre’s eyes filled up with more tears as he turned shakily to look back at Trowa. Then without warning, the blond Arabian got to his feet and made a run for it towards some trees out of sight and threw up what little he did consume.
Looking around, Wufei tried to figure out just why was Winner in such a hurry. His comment couldn’t have bothered him <that> much! Glancing around, he began to notice that he wasn’t the only one puzzled by the mystery. Noticing then that most of the puzzled stares were now being directed to him, Wufei answered with a simple <shrug>.
Quatre was tired. He also didn’t really feel too hot anymore. How much longer now…the young blond asked himself as he slowly made his way over by the other G-boys.
“What happened?” Trowa asked with a hint of confusion in his voice.
Heero looked at Quatre, a small grin coming over his face. “Yeah, what happened?” He asked, not really caring at all.
“I just kind of all of a sudden became sick…” Quatre said as he placed his hands over his stomach. “It’s nothing really. I just threw up, that’s all.”
“Oh.” Was the only response Heero could come up with.
Then in spite of everything, Quatre picked up his gun and aimed it at Trowa again.
Everyone else sighed.
“You mean you still want to kill me?” Trowa asked in a cautious voice.
Quatre nodded impatiently. “How could you do that to me?!? Trick me like that!!”
Trowa let out a sigh. But didn’t answer. Could the blond pilot be right? Or was he just plain over reacting to the whole situation. “Well, like I said before Quatre, go ahead and shoot me, if that’ll make you feel better.”
<Humph!!> Quatre thought as he pulled the trigger of the gun, hitting Trowa in the arm.
Trowa fell to the ground, there really wasn’t much else to do…Looking up at Quatre he quickly placed his hand on his arm. “I hope that helped you…”
Everyone else was speechless. They all thought that Quatre and Trowa were inseparable and now Quatre of all people was shooting Trowa?!? It just didn’t make any sense. Not at all.
Then, all of a sudden Quatre fell to his knees and began to cry, burying his face in his hands. Trowa noticed Quatre, was crying and slowly inched his way to Quatre’s side. Placing his hand under the blonde’s chin, he gently pushed the boy’s face to be eye level with his. Trowa tried his best to smile, but winced at a sudden flare of pain in his arm.
Quatre all at once began feeling extremely guilty. Leaning his head on the other boy’s shoulder he whimpered slightly at the thought of what he had just done. Then moving back he took a good look at the bullet wound in Trowa’s arm.
Bandaging up Trowa’s arm made Quatre feel a little better, but not much. “I’m sorry.” Quatre finally whispered to the other boy. He knew that it would probably take more than that, and a simple sorry wasn’t going to help it heal any faster. So he quickly looked down and closed his eyes. Expecting the worst. But, just then he felt a familiar embrace. Was it…? No, it couldn’t be…Quatre opened his eyes to see that Trowa was holding him close. And with a sigh of relief, Quatre hugged the other boy back. He knew he was forgiven.
Heero and Wufei saw this and they were once again, turned speechless. They didn’t get it. The first thing they knew, Quatre was trying to kill Trowa. Now, they were hugging? They both turned to each other and shrugged.
A little while later they were still on there long journey home.
“Does anyone know how much further? I mean, how do we even know we’re heading in the right direction?” Quatre asked looking at the others.
At the moment that was a very good point. Though they haven’t really thought about that before. They were more or less depending on Heero’s sense of direction to get them home now. Nobody said a word.
At length the silence was finally broken. “This is useless. Who knows how long it will be, before we ever make it anywhere!” The pilot of Nataku said. He was beginning to lose faith and fast. It was kind of true though. They have been traveling an awfully long time, with no sign of civilization for miles.
Heero said nothing. Glaring at Wufei he turned away continued on his way. “At least we can’t say we never even tried…” The pilot of Wing Zero finally said. He was acting way out of character, ever since they found Duo.
Quatre smiled happily, he was especially happy ever since he and Trowa had made up…(after the argument they made up, not out.) But Quatre was also becoming increasingly worried by the injury in the other boy’s arm.
Trowa, noticing Quatre gazing at the bandaged arm leaned over to the blond and whispered to him. “Don’t worry about it…I know the pressure must have been so high. I’m sorry I tricked you like that.” Trowa glanced forward. “I do after all realize you had every right in the world to be angry at me…” Trowa said as he suppressed an oncoming yawn.
“Kind of…but that didn’t give me the right to kill you. And that was what I was going to do you know…”
“Let me just ask you something…”
“OK.”
“If you’re real intentions were to kill me. Then why did you only hit me in the arm? Your aims usually so much better than that…” Trowa said as unemotionally as he could.
Quatre began to blush a bright shade of red. “Well…” He finally said. “Well, you see, there was still this part of me that wanted to be with you…” He said as he rest his head on Trowa’s shoulder. “I just couldn’t do it…” Quatre said with a sigh.
Oh, Quatre… Trowa thought to himself. I don’t think I’ll quite understand you…not totally at least. Trowa sighed and looked ahead to Heero. Heero sure did seem to be acting differently. Could it be that he was worried about his friend’s life? But that was just too unlike him. Heero always prided himself in being the ‘perfect soldier’. And he also believed strongly that love didn’t belong in wars. Now, more confused than before Trowa took a moment to look around at the surroundings. Taking in the beautiful scene, as if it were the first and the last time he would ever get the chance.
A few hours later…
Heero stopped, and gently laid Duo on the ground. A smile came over his face as he looked down at the boy. Heero, the whole time, was the only one who had never lost faith, not in the least. Looking around the pilot of Wing Zero finally took a seat by the braided boy as he attempted to catch his breath.
The other boys, who were steadily following behind, finally caught up, and they too took a seat.
Duo stirred slightly then gradually began to open his eyes, to see Heero gazing at him, with concern in his eyes. Huh? Duo thought to himself, as he slowly attempted to sit up. Only to have Heero’s hand lightly push him down. Why do I feel so weak…? And why is Heero looking at me like that…? For a brief moment, Duo could have sworn that he saw wings on Heero. But a second looked confirmed that he was just seeing things. Heero? An angel? That’s a good one… It must have been from all the blood loss or something… Duo then reached up and rubbed his head with his hand. Noticing the dried blood in his hair and on his clothes he whimpered slightly. Then looking back up at Heero he asked, “What happened?!? Am I dead?!?”
Heero only smiled back. “No. But you should have been…who do you think you are? The ‘perfect soldier’? You know that’s always been my part…” Heero trailed off. He meant that more as a joke than anything.
Duo smiled and laid his head back on the ground, and began to watch the clouds go by. “No actually I consider myself to be Shinigami. How long was I out anyway?” The young American asked, the usual glow of life he had was gone. But Heero was happy just to see Duo was OK. At least good enough to travel a little longer.
Heero looked down at the boy for a moment. “About a few days now.”
Duo gasped. “That long?!? What did you…how did I…?!?” Duo stuttered.
Heero reached down to the heavily confused boy and placed a finger over his mouth to quiet him. Duo fell silent and gazed at Heero.
“I carried you…” Heero whispered, as if it were a secret he kept from the others. Heero removed his hand from he boy’s mouth.
Duo was speechless. He had no idea what to say. So he didn’t say anything.
Wufei was alone. He looked around at the other boys. Then decided to walk down by the creek bed. This was just too much. He was becoming increasingly irritated with the way the others were acting. He saw it more like foolishness how Heero worried so about Duo like that. He was acting almost like he loved him. Wufei knew that they would have been better off if they would have gotten rid of the loud-mouthed American when they had the chance.
Wufei sighed slightly as he took a seat in the grass by the creek and began to remove his shoes and socks. The temperature around this time of year was hot during the day. The young Chinese was kind of confused. How come it gets so <cold> at night. Sticking his feet into the cool water Wufei continued to think to himself.
Nataku would never approve of such behavior. I’m just glad she’s not here to see this. Wufei let out a big sigh and leaned back in the tall grass. If it were up to me…which it never is…that American would have been dead long by now. And we probably would be back home by now. Wufei closed his eyes. And soon he fell asleep.
Trowa had wondered off a little on his own for a while. He decided as long as they were stuck out there they might as well enjoy it. After all they had to look on the bright side, if they ever wanted to get home.
Walking up to some trees he felt they were talking to him. Like they had something to say to him. But he just brushed that off as foolish thinking. Bending over he picked up a small leaf. And turned it over and over in his hand then dropped it, watching it as it gracefully drifted to the ground. It had been a while since he had been home. It was actually beginning to seem like forever. He was beginning to think that the only thing keeping him sane was the fact that Quatre was with him. There really wasn’t any other reason.
Trowa continued walking then came across the creek. Walking down to the creek he thought about their whole situation. When he reached the creek bed he found that Wufei too had the same idea, and was fast asleep with his feet in the water and shoes and socks neatly placed next to him. Trowa smiled slightly then walked over and took a seat next to the sleeping boy and looked up at the sky.
Sighing deeply Duo looked at Heero, who was sitting remarkably close to him. Why isn’t he keeping his usual distance? Duo thought to himself as he looked back at Heero’s face. He seems so different for some reason. There’s a different look in his eyes than usual. Duo thought to himself. He knew there was something different about the pilot of Wing Zero, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on it.
Noticing the two boys, the young blond began to blush as he stood up. Bringing Duo and Heero’s attention towards him. “Umm…I’m guessing you two would like a little privacy.” Quatre said as he began to slowly take a few steps back.
The other boys were speechless. They just looked at each other for a moment then back to the blond.
Is it that obvious?!? Heero thought to himself as he then heard the words involuntarily come out. “Well…I guess…”
“Say no more than…” And with that Quatre headed off to see if he could find where Trowa had disappeared.
Duo sighed. Then looked at Heero, who was watching Quatre. “Why did you do that…?” He finally asked breaking the silence.
Heero looked down at Duo. “Do what?”
“Why did you go through all this trouble to save me…? You know it probably would have been easier to just leave me where I was…” Duo trailed off as he noticed the blank stare on Heero’s face. Duo sighed.
“I just couldn’t do it…” Heero said. “I know just how painful it is to self dectruct. After all, I have done it before.” Heero then looked thoughtfully down at the braided boy. “Does it hurt?”
“Huh?”
“Does anything hurt right now?”
“No.” Duo said as a smile slowly formed on his face.
Heero looked down at Duo, puzzled. “What are you so happy about?”
“Well, to tell you the truth…” Duo finally started. “I was in a lot of pain, and I felt very alone…” Duo sighed and stopped talking feeling just a little embarrassed.
“When?”
“Right after I self detonated. The only thing I can remember from then was we were in the heat of battle, I couldn’t really see a way through, and I was just about out of fuel. Seeing that we were all surrounded I figured the blast from Deathscythe’s explosion would take care of enough of the enemies for you guys to take over.” Duo sighed, but then continued on. “When the dust settled, so to speak, my whole body felt like it had been beaten on for hours on end and I could hardly move. I thought for sure that I was going to die right there…” Duo knew that the whole purpose of the self detonation button was to kill yourself along with your Gundam. But it would have been terrible, if he hadn’t been able to tell Heero just how he felt.
Heero was speechless.
“I guess you now think of me as some kind of fool…right?” Duo closed his eyes. He felt so stupid that he had told Heero all of that. But it was too late to take it all back now…Sighing deeply; Duo suddenly felt something-warm pressing up against his cheek. He then opened his eyes to see that it was Heero, hanging over him and kissing him ever so lightly on the cheek. Duo didn’t say anything. He only smiled as he reached up and put his arm around Heero’s neck.
Heero sat up and looked down at Duo. “You know…you didn’t have to sacrifice yourself for us. Nobody ever ended up winning that battle anyway…” Heero felt like maybe he could have just squashed every hope of Duo’s. Like he took all the things Duo had just gone through and made it seem very insignificant. But who knows? Maybe if he hadn’t done that maybe that battle wouldn’t have ended. Or maybe worse…
Heero shook away those thoughts for now. The only thing that mattered to him right now was that Duo was all right.
Duo sat, quietly for a moment. Just watching the clouds as they rolled by in the sky. “Where are the others? Are they all right?”
“Yeah, they’re fine…” Heero sighed as he looked up at the sky as well.
“Heero?” Came a very inquisitive voice.
“Yes?” Heero asked as he then looked down at Duo. Pushing some of the bangs from his eyes.
“Did you ever wonder…well, this is kind of personal…did you ever wonder what your life would be like if you had never became a Gundam Pilot?”
Heero’s eye’s widened. He looked surprised by that question and was completely speechless. “I guess I’ve never really thought about that…” Heero finally answered. Turning his body away from Duo. He didn’t quite understand it. But somehow that question had just made him feel very uncomfortable all of a sudden. Heero grumbled a few things and started to stand up slowly, only to have Duo grab hold of his wrist. Heero turned sharply to look at Duo. Let me go! Was what his first reaction would have been…if it weren’t Duo. But looking down at Duo, the way he was and everything, not to mention what he had gone through to get him here, Heero sighed and sat back down in the grass next to Duo.
<Sigh> “I’m sorry, Heero. I didn’t mean to bother you with that question…”
Heero didn’t answer. He just nodded slightly as he looked out at the horizon. Duo smiled.
A little while later…The other boys had come back, and they had been traveling a little.
Heero looked at Duo with concern in his eyes as he watched his friend stumble to go on. It looked like it was very painful for Duo to walk.
“Are you sure your ok, Duo?” Heero asked.
“Yeah…I’ll be fine…” Duo winced with pain for a moment.
Trowa and Quatre were behind. They were just talking and enjoying the scenery around them. Wufei, who was really far behind, mumbled the whole time. Mostly complaints about the injustice of it all. Pausing for a moment however, Wufei thought about what would Nataku say if it could see him now.
“Yuy!!” Wufei finally yelled out from behind.
Heero stopped as soon as he heard his name called out. “Yes Wufei?” He said in his usual emotionless voice.
“How do we know your not just taking us around in circles, or something? We’ve been depending on your ‘sense of direction’ for days now and we still haven’t gotten anywhere!”
Heero grinned evilly. “Well, if you have any suggestions of which way we should go. Then go ahead!”
Wufei glared at the ground. He knew Yuy would say something like that.
“Huh? What was that Wufei? I couldn’t hear that…” Heero was clearly becoming increasingly irritated, by all that has been going on lately. What Heero really needed was some time to him self. But he couldn’t seem to find any. Heero started walking again when he didn’t get any response from Wufei.
“Trowa?” Quatre asked, kind of in a whisper.
“Yes Quatre?” Trowa answered.
“What do you plan on doing…if we ever get back home that is…?” Trowa smiled, then turned his attention up to the clouds.
“I guess I’ll just go back to life as usual. And you?”
“Yeah, pretty much the same here…” Quatre was disappointed. But then again, what else did he expect? Then out of the blue, Quatre felt an arm reach around him, and he was pulled closer to Trowa. Smiling he knew that this would make the trip a little more bearable. Mostly to know Trowa was with him…all the way.
Wufei stayed as far back as he could. He was tired and cranky and he was glad that Nataku wasn’t there to see him. Sighing deeply he turned his attention up ahead of him. Where he saw Duo and Heero in front, walking together…and Trowa and Quatre, <Ahem> walking rather close to each other…<I like to be alone…I like to be alone…> Wufei thought to himself over and over again. Seeing the others and how happy they were, he wish that he had someone to talk to. Closing his black eyes for a moment he thought about how he’d rather be somewhere else, doing something else…Opening his eyes he let out another sigh. To see that all that did was make him feel worse.
Duo sighed lightly. Then turned his violet eyes up to the sky for a moment, noticing that it was beginning to get dark. “Heero?”
“Yes, Duo?”
“Do you think we could stop to rest for a moment?”
Heero let out a sigh, then turned to see Duo’s beautiful violet eyes gazing at him. The look in Duo’s eyes didn’t seem quite right to him they looked like they were filled with so much pain and exhaustion, instead of the usual life and energy. Heero’s tone and expression changed all at once. “Ok, sure.” The two boys stopped and took a seat in the grass together.
Quatre and Trowa stopped as well. “So were stopping for now?” Quatre asked, as he pushed the blond hair from his eyes.
“Yes…” The air, once again, was beginning to cool as the night set in again. Wufei headed off towards the woods as he collected some wood for a fire. Walking back he quietly set them into a pile and started a fire…<Using Trowa’s matches…from before…>
Quatre and Trowa moved a little closer to the fire, as Heero and Duo sat quietly and watched the flames as they danced almost hypnotically in the summer night.
Duo suddenly let out a low whimper and quickly shut his eyes. Placing his hands over his chest.
“What’s wrong Duo?” Quatre asked, sympathetically.
“Oh…I…just had a <gasp> sudden flash of pain…But…I’ll…be fine…<pant pant> Duo managed to get out, as he winced in pain.
Quatre leaned forward to help Duo, only to have Heero raise his arm and hold his hand out at him. “I can take care of him…” Heero said. The blond Arabian was surprised. Why was it so important that Heero help him? He’s been like this ever since they found Duo.
“Ok.”
Wufei shook his head slightly. <What’s the big deal all about anyway…it’s only Maxwell…> The young Chinese thought as he lay back in the grass, and looked up at the stars. Closing his eyes he let out a sigh and fell asleep.
To be continued…