Peace Must Die
Thyme

I tapped my fingers on the desk in annoyance, my other hand ringing the little silver bell set among the scattered mounds of paper on the mahogany wood. I'd been doing so in such a fashion for the past five minutes, and now not only was I annoyed, but I was beginning to become a little irritated, and not-so-good thoughts were beginning to form in the back of my head, a tempting offer of murdering the guy that was ignoring me among them.

"Hey!" I leaned over the messy wooden desk, my braid trailing across it, knocking some paperwork from its place in the process. Somewhere -- most likely where the oh-so-tempting thoughts of murder were coming from -- in my mind I was vaguely pleased with this. "Could you please come out here?"

Somewhere from behind the door marked "Employee's Only," I heard a grunt.

I ignored it, much as that person had been ignoring me, and rang the silver bell louder.

"Just a minute!"

I stopped ringing, but continued to drum my fingers. Moments later, I could see an obese, middle-aged man hauling his bulk through the door. I smirked as a thought popped into my brain,

I'm surprised he can even fit through that door. No wonder he took so long!

Hiding my snickers with a well-placed cough and the back of my hand, I straightened my posture and did my best to grin. The large man behind the desk fixed me with a curious eye, a large, bushy eyebrow raised at me.

"Well, whaddya want?"

Doing my best to grin cheekily despite the irritability this man was doing an incredibly good job of bringing out in me, I waved a hand around in as if it were the most obvious and casual thing in the world.

"I want to see Heero Yuy, of course!"

The unpleasantly large bulk that was a poor excuse for a man (but undoubtedly would have passed for a cow, or a moose, maybe) laughed, his fat jiggling even after he stopped.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" he snorted.

I blinked, trying to avoid the temptation to reach out and strangle his fleshy neck, and calmly shook my head.

"Nope," I said, cheerfulness and a jovial tone of voice burying the anger he kept evoking from me, "I really wanna see Heero Yuy."

The man suddenly grew serious. "... Heero Yuy? Are you sure?"

I nodded, chestnut bangs dusted over my forehead. "Yep!"

He pressed a sausage-like finger to his temple and sat down in the blue office chair that was behind the desk, his fat overflowing the poor thing as it squeaked, howling in what sounded like pain and protest. I winced and looked away.

Finally, his unnervingly large and bulky hand held out a bunch of paperwork to me. I raised my eyebrows at him, silently questioning the gesture. But apparently his head was just as thick as his fat, and he stared right back at me until I finally voiced my confusion.

"What's this for?" I asked.

He stared at me as if I were the most beef-witted, bovine thing on Earth. Besides him, of course, my mind chuckled darkly.

"Heero Yuy. These are his papers."

My eyebrows rose a little more. "So?"

"So," he said, shoving the papers under my nose, "you said you wanted to see him."

I nodded. "Yeah. So what's with the papers?"

"I want you to make sure you know what you're getting into."

It was an act of pure will that I did not take those papers and slap him silly with them. I was rather proud of myself, actually.

"Listen," I said, gritting my teeth to avoid biting his head off, "I know exactly who Heero Yuy is. Now, please, if you would be so kind as to let me see him, I would greatly appreciate it."

The man huffed and set the information on Heero back down on his sloppy desk, and after a soft little whispering of papers, he had managed to ease his large body out of the chair and around the desk.

"Fine, then," he said, though somewhat grudgingly. "Stand against the wall, please."

I did, and hated every moment of the feel of his sausage hands feeling me over for weapons. I was definitely gonna have nightmares about that.

Hah. Like I needed any more nightmares, what with Solo, the Maxwell Church, the War, and now Heero.

"All right," he said, and moved away from me. I turned around again, just in time for him to sigh as he ran his pudgy fingers through his hair, his breath hitting me right in my face. I grimaced and turned away, fanning the stink of what seemed like a bad combo of onions and garlic away from me. When I looked back at him, he was already plodding down the hallway. Hiding a curse under my breath, I fanned away the last remnants of the disgusting fragrance and hurried after him.

He lead me through a series of doors, past several guards and some important-looking security codes. I took it upon myself to memorize them in case I ever needed to see Heero again. This guy was really beginning to get on my last nerve.

"Here we are," he said finally. "Room number seven-oh-three."

He took a pair of keys out of his pocket and looked at me sternly. He suddenly looked deadpan serious again, and said,

"Maximum security, son. I hope you really do know what you're getting into."

I nodded and thanked him as he unlocked the door, opening the heavy metal to reveal a white, padded room with very low lighting and plenty of dark corners. I slipped inside, and before the door closed he told me to "scream if I needed him."

I laughed nervously, stepping underneath the one, failing little yellow light in the room, my violet eyes flicking around for the person I came to see.

"Heero?"

"Duo."

I whirled around, surprised to find a dark form huddled in one of the poorly lit corners. I could hardly make out his features, but I could tell that his hair was grimy and unkempt, and the dirt stains across his face and hands gave me the impression that he hadn't bathed in a month, maybe. And for all I knew, maybe he hadn't. But the one thing that still stood out from all his features were his eyes; I could always recognize his eyes. They were blue, blue, blue...

"Why are you here?"

I blinked, a little embarrassed about being caught off guard twice in a row, but managed a tight smile anyway.

"To talk to you, Heero."

He snorted softly, head leaning against the whitewashed walls of his poor excuse for a room. More like a cell. A stinking, rotten cell.

"Hmph..."

I stepped a few paces closer to him. "And shouldn't I be asking you, that, Heero?" I narrowed my eyes, kneeling on the hard floor in front of him. "Why are you here?"

He looked up at me then, with those inconceivably blue eyes that I had to look away from to keep from drowning in; but the one, quick glance I had of them reflected pain, remorse, and a hint of betrayal.

"Why else?" His voice was soft, quiet; broken. "I told them the truth about peace. That it's never really there, and won't be so long as anger and hate exists... And that I can assure you, Duo, will be here as long as we human beings are." He lowered his head, fixing his cobalt gaze on the tiled panels of the floor. "No one ever wants to hear the truth, though. They don't want to accept it, so they've made up all of these lies about me. They think I'm going to destroy peace, but it's not here, and never has been, has it, Duo? War has always been and always will. People will find a way. Do you disagree?"

I shook my head slowly, my brown braid swinging past my hips with my movements.

"No," I said softly.

A small look of satisfaction passed over Heero's features. "I didn't think you would. Now, they call me insane, but I prefer to call it realism. I know when to drop stupid hopes and ideals and settle for reality, because it's the best I'm going to get. I refuse to believe in true peace. I'm not about to be deceived. Now," he narrowed his eyes at me again, and under his stern gaze I felt suddenly compelled to look him in the eye, "why is it you're here, really?"

I sighed, running one quick hand across his gaunt face and through his soft, though greasy brown hair before taking a few steps back. "Just to see you, Heero. To see if what they said was true." He looked up at me again, something clearly evident in those lovely blue eyes.

Sanity.

Smiling somewhat fakely, I feigned nonchalance and walked away to the door. "I'll see you later, Heero," I said, and left his room with the door shut firmly behind me. I looked over to the more than stout man that had led me there and smiled somewhat sadly.

"I'm ready to go now," I said, and he nodded and guided me back outside. He stood at the exit, waving as I started my car and pulled away from the impressive building. In the review mirror, I could make out the backwards lettering of "Lakeview Manor: Insane Asylum" in fancy, cursive writing, and muffled a choked-sounding sob as I drove away. It wasn't fair for them to shack him up there.

"Peace must die," I mumbled, determination setting into my features as the lettering in my review mirror faded away and eventually became just a memory. "Peace must fucking die!"