Disclaimers: Gundam Wing characters
belong to Mixx Entertainment, Koichi Tokita, the SOTSU
Agency, Sunrise, Kodansha
and anyone I may have forgotten, not to me. I make no money off
of this.
Drugged, he realized. Drugged...someone drugged me...who could get that close?
Cheerful whistling came from
the bathroom, dragging his gaze up unwillingly. The door was
wide open, giving him a decent
view of the back of his captor. The person was short, dressed
entirely in black, with boots
and a cap on, but it was the hip length braid that gave him away.
That, and when he closed the
medicine cabinet, the cracked mirror clearly reflected large violet
eyes.
"Duo..." Heero growled, his voice a little slurred.
"Oh, hey, you're awake!" Duo
grinned, turning around, hands on his waist. "Great, I knew you'd
wake up fast. At first I thought
I'd want to keep you like this forever, but then I decided, nah,
better to finish this up quickly
and get it over with. Everyone gets what they want then, yeah?"
"Duo...what are you doing?"
Heero tugged hard against the chains around his hands. The metal
gave, but not quickly enough.
"You'll see. Just a sec, I
just need to get something." Duo crossed in front of Heero and
scooped the shiny crucifix
from the table. Heero's eyes widened in anxiety. That large blurry
object he'd seen before was
his handgun. Duo ignored it for a moment as he fixed the cross
around his neck and hid it
under his clothing. "Okay, all ready."
Heero said nothing, using the
time to fight the chains again. The metal creaked and groaned as
he worked, excruciatingly
slowly sliding his hands down through the cold links. He inwardly
groaned. This would take too
long.
"You don't have to struggle,"
Duo smiled, looking straight into his eyes. "I know you'd get out of
there if you had enough time,
no problem. They're just to hold you still a few minutes. You
would never agree to this,
and I don't want you getting away." He waved one hand casually as
if this didn't matter, and
his hand brushed against Heero's waist.
"Omae o korosu," Heero hissed. How dare he do this to me? I trusted him!
Duo's smile stayed put, but
it slowly became apparent that he was forcing it, that it was too
cheerful. His eyes were slowly
filling with tears, marring the effect of a gleeful mask. "I know,
Heero. In fact, I'm counting
on you destroying me."
"What?"
Duo lowered his head so that
his cap concealed his face. "I know you're leaving with Relena.
Quatre told me. You're gonna
be her boyfriend or bodyguard or whatever. Well, I can't stop
you, so this was really my
only other choice."
"Killing me?"
Duo looked up again, shocked,
and two tears spilled down with the sudden movement. "No...I
could never do that." He took
a peek at Heero's bindings and shook his head. "Damn, you really
are quick. You're almost free.
Damn. I kinda wanted a little more time to do this, but I should be
glad I even got this far."
He took a step closer and gently put his hands on either side of
Heero's face, holding him
still. Heero jerked at first, trying to pull away and his efforts towards
freedom became much more urgent.
Duo's smile became invisible, and he leaned his body
against Heero's before finally
laying his mouth on him. Heero stood absolutely still, even his
hands stopped moving, but
he didn't respond to Duo's advance. The amazement was too much
and froze him. The kiss lasted
for an unbearably long time, threatening to suffocate him, until
Duo finished off with a smaller
kiss and backed away. He furiously wiped the tears from his
eyes, then retreated to the
far corner of the room to watch.
It didn't take long. Heero's
hands had been halfway through when Duo had kissed him, it only
took another half minute to
free them completely. Confused and dazed, Heero lunged for the
gun and held it up at Duo.
The braided pilot just smiled again and stared intently at him, never
moving, never concerned.
"I meant it when I said I'd kill you," Heero said, as if he was warning him.
Duo nodded. "I know." He didn't look away.
Why the hell am I hesitating?
Heero wondered. Why is he looking at me like that? Does he want to
die? "Why are you staring
at me?" he demanded.
Duo's smile perked up a bit.
"Because I like to look at you. Because I love the way your body
moves. Because I love your
personality. Because I love...you...and I want the last thing I ever
see to be your face."
The barrel of Heero's handgun
wavered, dipping up and down. Duo noticed and calmly stepped
forward until he was at arm's
length. The gun was still between them, but he careful positioned
himself so that the barrel
was right over his heart.
"Do it, Heero."
Heero narrowed his eyes. "Why are you doing this?"
Duo's smile returned, softer
this time, happy and miserable at the same time. "Because
tomorrow you leave to go to
Relena."
"What does that matter to you?"
"You'll be hers," Duo whispered.
He chuckled at Heero's stunned expression. "It's all right,
whatever makes you happy.
But I can't live in a world where you belong to anyone else but--"
he broke off abruptly.
"Anyone else but who?" Heero insisted.
Duo lowered his eyes, afraid
to give say it still, then remembered he was going to die and
looked back into Heero's eyes.
"But me..." he sighed, almost inaudibly.
"You?" Heero's face registered nothing but confusion.
Duo nodded, tears rising up
in his eyes again. He blinked, and they streamed down his cheeks,
but he didn't seem to notice
them. Instead he grinned again and stared back up at Heero. "I
know you don't want me, no
one ever could...but I still love you."
Heero took a step back, all
but reeling from these unexpected announcements. "That's why you
drugged me and locked me up?
To tell me that?"
Even Duo's fake grin couldn't
withstand that blow. It crumbled pathetically into tiny pieces,
leaving him at the beginnings
of a major crying jag. "It's not important to you but...it was to
me...even if I don't matter
to you...and I knew you'd kill me, so I wouldn't have to deal with the
pain of losing you." He sniffled
once, blinking hard to clear his eyes. "So just hurry it up and kill
me."
Heero took another tiny step
back, the gun shaking in his hands. Duo frowned and got close
again, pressing himself against
the barrel. "Just shoot me, Heero. It's better that way."
Heero shook his head, uncertain about this. It seemed far too surreal. "Why?" he whispered.
"No one will miss me," Duo
insisted. "You can forget about me and go off with Relena. There's
no war I have to fight in
now. Just kill me, and everyone will be happy. You get revenge for me
kidnapping you, and I...I
got to finally kiss you. Don't worry, Heero, I'm happy. Kill me."
The ticking of the clock on the wall was the only sound for nearly a minute.
Finally the hesitant look fled
from Heero's face, replaced by cold certainty. Duo smiled again,
then gasped in surprise as
Heero seized his shoulder and spun him around. The gun stopped
digging into his body and
disappeared.
"Heero, what are you--?" Duo
started. His knees were suddenly kicked, sending him to the
ground. He heard something
crash to the floor behind him while some unknown fabric was torn
apart. Before he could try
to ask another question, his hands were firmly pulled behind his back
and bound with the thin curtain
cord. He tried to look over his shoulder and was rewarded with
a cruel yank on his braid,
making him face forward again. "Execution style?" he asked in
amazement. "All I wanted was
to see your eyes when I died."
"You are a little fool," Heero
growled, dragging him back to his feet and pushing him onto the
bed. "You drug me, tie me
up, and force yourself on me just to tell me that you love me?"
"Quit mocking me and finish
me off!" Anger mixed with misery, creating hot tears that almost
burned Duo's chilled skin.
"Such an idiot," Heero muttered.
He grabbed the base of Duo's braid in one hand and wrenched
his head back so that he looked
right up at him. "You could have told me sooner and saved us a
lot of trouble."
And before Duo had any idea
what was happening, Heero forced a kiss from him. None of Duo's
earlier despair or Heero's
confusion was held in this kiss. Both of them responded and took
cues from the other, and this
one lasted three times as long as the first, although neither was
in danger of running out of
air.
"Heero? But...I thought...you would...kill--"
The taller boy glared at him. "You do all this to me, and expect to get off with a quick death?"
Duo paled. "What...are you gonna...?"
"I'm taking you with me." Heero placed the forgotten handgun back in its holster.
"To Relena's?"
"Yes."
Duo laughed bitterly. "Proof of your undying love for her?"
Heero sighed and shook his head. "I don't love her."
"What?"
"She's only a tool to achieve
total peace. Nothing more." He stared at Duo again. "You should
have said something sooner,
without the theatrics. Now I'm going to have to keep you tied up
until I can trust you again."
Duo began to sob at that point. "Why...? You're so cruel, mocking me...you don't love me..."
Heero, who had been trained
to kill but never to comfort, awkwardly put his arm around Duo
and held him tight. "I do.
And it may take awhile for you to believe it. But that can come later.
For now..." he wiped Duo's
tears away, then gave him another kiss. Unbelieving or not, Duo still
took advantage of it.
"For now, this will have to do."
"Do you love me?" Duo timidly asked, staring into his eyes again.
Heero came as close to a smile
as was possible for him and pulled him closer. His warm hands
trailing through the long
braid was all the answer Duo needed.
End
