----------------------
Untitled:
Chapter Nine
----------------------

Author: Tsu
Archive: if you want it, please, just ask.  I don't
bite/yell/scream.  Much.
Rating: PG
Pairings: 1+2
Warnings: Angst, Sap, and Fluff.  I think that's about
it.  Warnings: Angst, Sap, and Fluff.  I think that's
about it.  Sorry, no citrus.


Key:
---------------------- = scene change
(( beep )) = radio/speakers/vidphones/telephones/etc
//Hmmmm....// = internal thoughts





It was three days before Heero was convinced that
Wufei was well enough to be moved to one of the guest
rooms on the second floor, and even then Heero had
insisted on carrying the wounded boy so that he
wouldn't be further injured or fatigued.  A week after
the Chinese boy had been moved, Heero allowed him to
walk around and get some exercise, but only for a
limited amount of time.  It was driving Wufei crazy. 
That plus the fact that Duo had completely healed with
only minor scarring, and was keeping Wufei
'entertained.'

In other words, he was doing what Duo did best, which
was talking.  The subject ranged anywhere from the
lonely couple down the road to Harmony's growth spurts
to the coming spring thaw.

Heero had tried to get Duo to respond more like the
old Duo during this time, but hadn't had much luck. 
It was easier with Wufei there.  He found that Duo did
not like people sneaking up on him because it 'gave
him the creeps.'  He always locked his door at night
if he could and snuggled into his blankets if there
was the slightest chill.  He liked being with people
when he slept.

As Heero discovered what Duo liked and didn't like, he
did his best to accommodate for those needs, for they
did indeed fall under the 'need' category.  He now
slept in Duo's bed, and never pulled his braid (he
rubbed his jaw as he remembered that particular
incident.)  He always made some noise when he knew Duo
was around, and made sure that the bedroom door had a
deadbolt on it.

If Duo had said 'jump,' Heero would have asked 'how
high?'

Wufei noticed Heero's behavior, and found that the
once stone-cold pilot was also showing the same care
to him, if not to the same extent.  "I swear," Wufei
grumbled as he sat down at the dinner table a good two
weeks after he had arrived.  He was grateful just to
be sitting at the table and not up in his bed, for
once.  "Yuy's more of a mother hen than Winner is!"

Duo snickered.  "Ahh...Wu...wassa matter?  Angel's
just worried about you," he teased.

Wufei looked down at his plate, muttering.  Despite
Duo's constant presence, he still felt it a little odd
that the braided boy referred to Heero as 'Angel' all
the time.  It was cute, and endearing, and fit Duo
perfectly.  He had been surprised that Duo had not
given Heero the nickname sooner.  But Duo still didn't
remember the time before the accident, and so it made
Wufei nervous somehow, like he was intruding.

Heero took pity on him, for once.  "Well, if you both
bundle up, I guess it wouldn't be too much trouble if
you went outside for a little while today.  The snow's
melting, so I don't want to keep you guys in here
forever or you'll miss it.  But you can't stay out too
long," Heero warned, "and you have to be really
careful and if anything starts to hurt or feel funny
you either find me or go inside right away."

Duo jumped for joy at the opportunity to get out of
the house.  "Yeah!  We get to play!  Harmony, come
on!" he called, rushing off to find his rapidly
growing dog and forgetting all about the pasta lunch
he had been eating.  Heero laughed quietly to himself.

This, too, was something new to Wufei.  He remembered
a cold, stoic pilot who was determined, hardworking,
and mission-focused.  The new Heero he had seen these
past few weeks was still hardworking, and no less
determined, but he was also more laid-back, open, less
mindful of risks, and more of a mother hen to the sick
or injured.

In a word, Heero had become more human.

"Better hurry, or he'll get too far ahead of you,"
Heero commented.  Wufei snorted, but finished his food
as quickly as he could one-handed.  He was determined
to spend as much time as he could out-of-doors, and he
was so inclined to enjoy every moment of it.  He was
tired of being cooped up.

Heero made sure that Wufei was sufficiently dressed,
piling on coats, sweaters, scarves, and mittens.  By
the time they were finished, Duo and Harmony were
already out of sight.  Heero was worried, and took a
few extra coats with him as he went to search for the
lost boy, along with a pair of mittens.  Wufei opted
to take a slow, relaxing walk to the nearby meadow.

Heero, meanwhile, was becoming frantic with worry over
the long-haired pilot.  It was obvious that Duo
remembered how to cover his tracks, and was doing so
without much thought, if any.  Heero began to panic
slightly, hearing only the echoes of his own voice and
his own feet crunching the snow.  His breathing
increased, and he began to pant, his breath coming out
in short white puffs.

A dog's howling broke through the silence, and Heero
ran towards it, ignoring the snow that lightly fell on
his small form.  He slipped, but caught himself just
before he fell and hurt himself of the ice-covered
rock that was just above the small cliff.

Looking down, he saw that Duo hadn't been so lucky. 
Cursing and calling out to the unmoving boy below him,
Heero slowly made his way down the cliff.  He was
grateful to whatever deity that Duo was still warm and
alive.

But he was also unconscious, and the blood was slowly
oozing out of a shallow wound on the back of his head,
just above his neck.  His neck wasn't broken, but his
arm did look to be dislocated, his hip might have been
fractured, but more than likely bruised, and his left
knee and ankle were swollen.  Duo was not in good
shape, and would be in worse if he slipped into
hypothermia, but if not then he could be treated.  The
wounds from Deathsythe had been worse.

"K'so..." Heero cursed.  He had failed.  Had he come
so far to have all his hard work taken from him now? 
All the laughter, smiles, promises to try and live,
with or without the memories, together.  It had been
his mission to discover more about Duo and to help
bring Duo out of his memory-loss, but it had also been
his mission, both from Quatre and himself, to keep Duo
safe.  He had failed his second mission.  

He realized that he would fail it even more miserably
if he didn't get Duo home and safe now, so he picked
the fallen boy up even as he reprimanded himself for
his failures.  The coats he had dropped would be found
later, but he didn't have time to retrieve them as he
walked the safest way he could, even though the way
was longer, back to their house, their home.

It had taken a good half-hour or more to find Duo, but
it took less than ten minutes to reach the house. 
Wufei had somehow seen them, or had simply just known
that something was wrong, and returned to the house
with them.

As Heero gently set Duo down on the braided boy's bed
his legs buckled, weary from the walk and climbing the
stairs, and forcing him kneel at the injured boy's
side.  Tears fell, dropping down onto the dark cloth
that was keeping the American warm.

It took a few moments for Heero to realize that they
were his own.


AND FINALLY...

----------------------
Untitled:
Chapter Nine
----------------------

Author: Tsu
Archive: if you want it, please, just ask.  I don't
bite/yell/scream.  Much.
Rating: PG
Pairings: 1+2
Warnings: Angst, Sap, and Fluff.  I think that's about
it.  Sorry, no citrus.

Key:
---------------------- = scene change
(( beep )) = radio/speakers/vidphones/telephones/etc
//Hmmmm....// = internal thoughts





Heero stayed by Duo's side the whole night long,
silently reprimanding himself both for his failure,
and for his weakness.  The soldier had begun to
resurface, and had reminded him that if he hadn't been
so attached, then he wouldn't be feeling this pain. 
Wufei had come and gone from the room several times,
taking care of Heero's physical needs as Heero did for
Duo, but Heero would not leave Duo's side until the
braided pilot awoke.  "Duo, please..." he whispered
harshly, confused, but needing to voice his desires. 
"You can't leave me, not now.  This can't happen
again..."

Duo's hand twitched slightly under the blanket, but
Heero couldn't see the slight movement through his
tear-rimmed eyes.  He sobbed quietly, intent on the
still figure's face.  He didn't move when Wufei walked
in and awkwardly wrapped a blanket around the
chocolate-haired boy one-handed.

"Heero," Wufei pleaded gently.  "Come on, you need to
sleep."

"No!" Heero screamed, panting, sobbing, and Wufei held
him as he cried into the Chinese boy's shoulder,
afraid that if he left the injured boy, then Duo would
disappear forever.  "I can't leave him," Heero tried
to explain.  It was difficult, mostly because he
didn't understand himself.  "*He* can't leave *me*...I
won't let him..."

Duo moaned, the sound loud in the quiet room.  Both
Heero and Wufei were hovering at the injured boy's
side in an instant, and Duo slowly opened his eyes,
allowing the world to come into focus.  He saw Wufei's
calm, focus face, and wondered silently why he was
injured, and then looked to see Heero's...

openly worried, red, tear-stained face.

"Hee-chan?" he asked, groggy and hoarse.  Shock
registered on Heero's face before comprehension did,
and then, slowly, all his systems began to shut down
once more.

"'Fei," Duo asked, worriedly changing tactics, "what's
wrong with Heero?"

"Duo..." Wufei said slowly, confused as well. 
"Maxwell, what's the last thing you remember?"

"'Scythe gettin' all beat up and callin' for Heero ta
come an' help me out.  Is he okay?  He isn't hurt is
he?"

"Duo, that was over three months ago."

"WHAT HAPPENED?" Duo shouted, as he shot straight up
in bed and jarred his bruised hip, causing him to
whimper in pain.  You could still hear the capitals
echoing against the walls.

Heero was there to steady him before he knew what
happened, the soldier mask slipping.

"Ow...that hurt..." Duo complained.  Heero sat back
down in the chair beside Duo's bed, biting his lower
lip in a mixture of worry, hurt, and confusion and
looking at the floor in shame.

"Oh no you don't, Yuy," Wufei admonished as he
realized what was happening.  Duo stared at Wufei, but
was always keeping an eye on Heero.  Said boy still
continued to stare at the floor, but his fell lower,
ashamed at his weakness and failure, and something
else he couldn't identify.  He knew he cared for Duo,
and wanted the boy to live.  It was more than the
mission, and more than the fights.  He wanted the Duo
who he had come to know better than any other back,
but he wasn't sure if that Duo and the one sitting on
the bed now were the same person.

He wasn't sure if the one there now would accept him
like the innocent Duo had accepted his Angel.

"Heero," Wufei nearly growled, moving to kneel infront
of the Japanese youth though it hurt him to do so. 
"It took a Duo who didn't understand this world and
our fight, who didn't remember anything but his angel,
three months to get you to open up and come out of
that shell J calls a soldier.  I haven't known that
Heero for very long, but I liked the man I saw beneath
J's work, and I think I could be friends with him.  J
was a bastard; you don't have to listen to him
anymore.  Don't let this minor setback ruin all your
hard work."

Heero couldn't hold back a small sniffle, which
startled Duo, and confused him, but he thought it best
to let Wufei take charge for the moment.  He gave
Heero time to think through Wufei's words and to react
to them while he himself remained silent and
contemplated the situation.  He didn't like it that
Heero had been crying, especially not for a street rat
like him, but he did find that he liked this new, more
human Heero, and wanted to keep him.

"What's the point?" Heero finally asked after what
seemed like an eternity of heavy silence.  "It hurts
so much, Wufei.  Tell me, what's the point?"

"The point is that there's a boy over there who loves
you just as you are, and, believe it or not, you love
him just as much - if not, more - than he love you. 
Heero, if it didn't hurt to feel these emotions, it
wouldn't be worth it.  No one would care if they were
happy or not, because it wouldn't matter.  There would
be no better or worse.  Think about it, if I hadn't
cared for my wife, when she died I wouldn't have taken
her place.  I wouldn't be fighting.  And where, pray
tell, would that leave you?"
 
'I'd be lost,' Heero wanted to say, but didn't have
the voice to say what his heart felt, and didn't
understand it, either.

"Heero," Wufei continued, "if you can be sad, then you
can be happy too."

"Heero, come here," Duo commanded gently, feeling the
need to take over.  He understood some of what must
have happened, and knew that it must have been Heero
who had cared for him while he was hurt and...beyond
that he wasn't sure.  Heero cautiously kneeled on the
side of the bed beside Duo, staring at the blankets,
head low.  Duo reached out and pulled his partner into
a tight, reassuring hug.  

"Heero, I've got to be truthful to you, you know that.
 I don't really know what's going on, and I don't know
what's happened since Deathscythe and I got into that
bit of trouble, but I think you need to understand
something.  I do love you.  I don't care if you don't
love me back, and I don't care if you aren't willing
to be more than my friend, I can settle for that.  I
just want you to be happy.  I want you to come out of
that soldier façade and be a human being, just like
the rest of us mere mortals.  You wanna know why I can
just settle for being your friend, why I just want to
see you happy?"

Duo waited a few moments for Heero to finally nod his
head against Duo's chest and shakily ask "why," his
voice muffled by Duo's shoulder and shirt.

"Because if you're happy, then so am I."

Heero broke down for the second time in as many hours,
crying this time into the shoulder of the man he
loved.

"I'm sorry Duo," he whispered, "I love you so very
much.  I'm sorry."

"Shh," Duo calmed as Wufei respectfully left the room,
closing the door behind him.  He rubbed small circles
on Heero's back with his good arm, smiling as he saw
the deadblot slide home.  "You've got nothing to be
sorry for.  Now, tell me what happened."

And Heero did.


~End~

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