Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Shinigami Zutto ❯ On the other side of the Wall ( Chapter 7 )

Tsuzuki opened his eyes and shook off sleep in an instant. Hisoka had been missing for over 24 hours now. Who knew what Muraki was doing now that he had the young empath in his hands again? Duo was less worried for Quatre - after all the petite blond was a Gundam pilot, a warrior. Hisoka had been an ordinary, somewhat abused, civilian before becoming a Shinigami, and a sheltered one at that, what with his parents locking him up and then the enforced hospital stay thanks to Muraki's curse.

Although Tsuzuki didn't know that much about his partner's life, Hisoka understandably did not enjoy reminiscing, he knew enough to know that the boy would not be reacting well to being captured. Hopefully Quatre's presence would prevent him from slipping into suicidal depression, providing that they were being held together.

The violet eyed Shinigami grimaced as he stepped under the shower spray, cursing the fact that the two empaths of the party, the only two who had a hope of communicating without the help of normal, technological, means just had to be the ones captured!

He tugged at his hair in annoyance and then fought back the tears that threatened to break loose thanks to his exhaustion. Dammit, he thought that he had dealt with the loss of his braid!

Duo sank to the floor of the shower and bowed his head under the water, closing his eyes. It was too much… they had spent a large chunk of the night - until 4am - trying to find any clue of Muraki's presence, and it was now 7am. Three hours sleep. He could survive on three hours, he had before. Hell, he had before he became a pilot! Living on the streets did not make for safe, dreamless nights. Piloting a Gundam didn't either, and the nightmares made for disturbed rest even when it was relatively safe.

He bared his teeth in a silent snarl. Why was he thinking so much about the past? He had managed to put it behind him in Japan! Why was his carefully constructed façade falling now? Was it being in Sanq? Seeing the other pilots again? Being with Heero again?

A shudder wracked his body. Heero. As soon as he had seen those blue eyes again, all he had wanted to do was fall into them. Fall into his arms, tell him the truth. He should have known that they would be here; the job was so them. Absently Duo wondered what Heero had done after his death. If he hadn't married Relena… an image of the wedding photo with Wufei holding the violet ribbon bedecked scythe floated into his mind and he was able to laugh and throw off his black mood.

He shut off the water and dressed quickly. Coffee. Everything would look brighter once he had a good dose of caffeine inside him.

He found the others in Heero's office, all looking sleepy. As soon as he was in the room, Merian pounced on him.

“Tsuzuki! Look, these idiots do not agree with me that the doll is significant. Tell them!”

Tsuzuki blinked in confusion. “The doll? Ooh… actually, that is kinda odd.”

Three heads immediately snapped in his direction. Duo laughed nervously, holding up a hand.

“What do you mean?” Trowa snapped, his green eyes intense.

“Muraki has this thing for dolls. He really likes them for some reason. Him leaving one is odd - there were others ways for him to make up aware of his presence. The doll is a clue. Heero, what did you say it was holding again? I was too busy checking that it wasn't a bomb.”

“Opera glasses.”

“Opera glasses?” Wufei asked curiously. “How the hell did you know what they were?”

“Relena used to drag me to them.”

“Ah.”

“Is there an Opera house in the capital?”

“Of course there is. It has shows regularly.”

“Ok, lets go check it out.”

 

The opera house was… big. Much bigger that the concert hall where they had used Hijiri as bait to call out Saagatanasu. Of course, that had backfired slightly when Tsuzuki had been possessed by the damn demon… thank God for Konoe's love of sweet things and Hisoka's perceptiveness. Tsuzuki shook off the grim thoughts and focused on the fancy scrollwork and gold gilt. Jeez, the place was opulent. Quatre would have been at home there. It had been a long running joke that Sandrock was the only Gundam with velvet seat cushions and drink holders.

Still, after getting permission to roam backstage - he had a feeling that Heero's death glare had played a large part in acquiring that permission - they couldn't find any evidence of Muraki. The man was striking enough to be remembered, but no-one had seen him. And Muraki was the kind that liked to be seen, especially if he was trying to draw someone out.

They headed back to the skyscraper tired and discouraged. But as they walked, Merian, who was in front, stopped dead, staring at a large building on the left. As she was in front, the whole group had to stop.

“What is it?” Wufei grumbled.

“Ni shi sha gua,” she said absently, crossing the road.

“Onna!” Wufei screeched, dashing after her while reaching instinctively for the sword he was not wearing. The rest of the group watched them dodge the traffic for a minute, shrugged, then followed.

“Dunno why he's so upset, she only called him a fool,” Duo muttered absently. Heero gave him a sharp look, but the commotion caused by the arguing Chinese couple distracted him.

It turned out that Merian had been perceptive enough to notice the large, converted opera house. According to the signs on the front it was now a museum. Wufei had been more worried about the fact that his beloved wife had crossed the road without looking. Duo found that slightly hard to believe, but he supposed that she had died on him before, after all.

Most of the argument had been over the fact that she was already dead, so looking before crossing roads was a little pointless. Wufei apparently saw a point.

Heero pulled out a mobile and auto-dialed a number. “Trowa? Merian just thought of something interesting… yeah. Are there any old opera houses in the city? Other than the one that has been converted into a museum. We already found that one. Ok. Hai. Ja ne.”

~*~

Heero sighed as he opened the door to his room. He was so tired! They had spent the afternoon researching all the opera houses within a 20 mile radius. There were a surprising amount - six in all. Two were already accounted for. One had been destroyed in a fire. One was now a movie theatre. And the last two were reputedly deserted. They would both be checked out early tomorrow morning.

The group had stayed up all night researching, and Heero was feeling the effects. Tsuzuki had had a nap for a few hours that morning, he knew, and he wished that he had had the foresight to do the same.

The blue-eyed Japanese man flopped onto his bed and sleepily curled around his pillow. He idly wondered where that habit had come from… then he stiffened as he remembered. Duo. Once his love had disappeared, he hadn't been able to sleep without curling around his abandoned pillow and breathing in the lingering scent of Duo's hair. Once the smell had faded, the pillow itself became his comfort. It still had the same pillowcase on it, a black cotton one that was soft and nubby with age.

Heero closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Tomorrow they would find the missing members of their team and get Muraki once and for all!

 

He woke with a start, the sheets twisted around his waist and legs. It was hot, too hot, and all he could remember from his dream was a pair of violet eyes, shadowed by chestnut bangs, and a rough, calloused, slightly tanned but still very pale hand teasing him.

Duo.

He was hard and he didn't think that a cold shower would quell this desire. Almost unconsciously he wriggled, and found that the sheets rubbed delightfully around his arousal when he moved just so. An unconscious moan spilled from his lips.

~In the room next door, Tsuzuki froze, stabbed to the soul by a sound he hadn't heard in so long… he dropped the shirt he was holding and took a step closer to the wall.~

Heero was panting now, his mind's eye filled with pictures of Duo. But in some his hair was shorter… Heero frowned but didn't stop, he was too far gone.

With a growl of frustration he tore the sheets off of his body, almost ripping them in his haste, and wrapped a hand around his erection, unable to stop his hips from bucking up as he took himself in hand. Oh God, that was what he needed. It had been far too long…

“Duo…” he moaned.

~On the other side of the wall, Tsuzuki stiffened and blinked, tears starting into his eyes. After all this time… Heero still thought of him? Oh God…

Duo dropped to his knees, the sounds of Heero pleasuring himself filtering through the wall and into his ear. He was hardening himself just listening. And, tentatively, he slid a hand down and rubbed himself through the open fly of his jeans.

“Fuck!” he hissed as an extra loud moan sounded in the other room.~

Pre-cum wasn't lubing his hand as much as he would like but Heero lacked the patience and the mental capacity to go and get something to help. He licked his palm instead and used that.

It had been so long, but he wanted to draw it out a little. Almost whimpering in frustration he slowed down slightly, not wanting to in the slightest but knowing that he would thank himself later. There was a slight noise from the wall above his head, but his blood was hissing in his ears and the rasp of his elbow against the sheets drowned out all other noises.

~Duo pressed his hand flat against the wall and fumbled with the fastening on his jeans. The last few buttons on his black shirt were already undone. He felt guilty, but the knowledge that Heero was doing that less than a meter away just made him wish that there was a peephole or something. It had been so long…~

Unable to take it much longer, Heero focused on the mental snapshot of Duo wearing leather pants and pouting, squeezed a little and let go of his control, spilling all over his hand. He lay panting for a moment, then lazily reached for the tissues on the bedside table.

 

Heero couldn't figure out why Tsuzuki had blushed the moment he had seen him that morning. The violet eyed Shinigami was a mystery. So many things about him seemed familiar, and yet Heero was sure that they had never met before.

He took a few minutes out of his opera house search to look up the little phrase Tsuzuki had said in the mall, the one that had sounded so familiar - Woah, all the way. Unfortunately, a lot of songs had those words in them. One band caught his eye - the Rolling Stones. He vaguely remembered someone mentioning them once. On a whim, Heero added `rock' to the search parameter.

Nothing that looked vaguely familiar came up. Heero was sure that it was a song, though. He cut out the `woah' and added `classic'. The search now read [classic rock “all the way” lyrics] but still nothing recognizable was coming up on the first page. He tried to remember anything else about the song… something about flying? Being high? Taking away `classic' and adding in either of the two words and still he recognized nothing and was beginning to get frustrated. He abandoned the search and began to search for a site that could identify lyrics.

The first few sites he looked in still came up with nothing. But Heero was intrigued now and determined to figure out where that phrase had come from and why it had sounded so familiar. He felt vaguely guilty for not spending this time searching for more information about the opera houses, but they weren't leaving for a bit.

Just then, Tsuzuki wandered past the open door to his office. “Ne, Tsuzuki!” Heero called, curiosity getting the better of him.

The other man jumped, blushed, then turned to face him, apparently unwilling to meet his eyes. “Uh, hai?”

“You said something at the mall - woah, all the way. What is that from?”

“Uh, High Enough. It's a song.”

“Arigato.”

“Um, well, if that's all I'll just be going, uh, yeah. Bye.” Tsuzuki backed out of the office, still babbling and blushing. Heero shrugged off the strangeness and searched for “High Enough” The third site down caught his eye. There were many artists who had written songs with the words `High Enough' in them, but “Damn Yankees” struck a chord in his memory.

The song sounded vaguely familiar, and Heero decided to download the MP3 on the spot. Once he knew the artist and title it was a matter of five minutes of work.

Soft strings filled the air of his office and he leaned back in his chair as the soft voice of the singer echoed through the still air, accompanied by the soft sound of an acoustic guitar.

He remembered where he had heard it before. He had admitted some of his feelings to Duo one night. Duo, for once, hadn't known what to say, and the violet-eyed pilot had bolted into the gardens of Quatre's mansion.

He had found him in the rose garden, sitting on a marble bench with tears running down his face. After a few minutes of watching from the shadows, he was about to step forward, when softly sand shakily Duo had begun to sing.

The Japanese teen had had no idea that the American could sing, let alone sing well.

As he remembered, sitting at his computer, Heero felt tears begin to run down his cheeks as they had had that night.

~*~

Quietly, Duo slipped to the floor of the corridor and rested his head on his knees as his own tears spilled from his eyes. He was unable to prevent a few silent sobs from shaking his slender frame. The song resonated through the air and he now remembered clearly why Heero had wanted to know and why telling him had been a bad idea.

Soft footsteps warned him of someone's approach, but he was too miserable to care. He needed to tell Heero that he wasn't dead - he could hear soft sobs coming from inside the office over the music.

“Tsuzuki, daijoubu ka?”

“Iie…” he groaned, looking up into Merian's concerned face.

“What's wrong?”

“I…this song… I sang it back in the war.”

“Nani?” Merian questioned. “Tsuzuki, something strange is going on and I want you to tell me what it is. I'm not stupid, I've seen how you have your own version of `mission mode' and how you fit in with the others and how you avoid any mention of the second pilot. What is it? Were you killed by the pilots in the war?”

Duo took a long look at her face and decided to trust her. “Promise not to tell?”

“Hai.”

“Tsuzuki Asato is not my given name. I do not know my given name. But the name I gave myself was Duo Maxwell.”

 

TBC

 

I think I'm gonna leave it there….mwaha. Chapter a little shorter than normal, sorry, but it was such a great place to leave it!!

 

 

Ni shi sha gua - You are a fool, Mandarin. (According to insultmonger.com, anyhow)

Lyrics for High Enough (in case you are wondering):

I don't want to hear about it anymore,
It's a shame I've got to live without you anymore.
There's a fire in my heart,
A pounding in my brain, it's driving me crazy.

We don't need to talk about it anymore.
Yesterday's just a memory; can we close the door?
I just made one mistake,
I didn't know what to say when you called me baby.

Don't say goodnight,
Say you're gonna stay forever,
Oh, whoa, all the way.

Can you take me high enough
to fly me over yesterday?
Can you take me high enough?
It's never over and yesterday's just a memory,
Yesterday's just a memory.

And I don't want to live without you anymore.
Can't you see I'm in misery?
And you know for sure
I would live and die for you
And I'd know just what to do when you call me baby.

Bridge & Chorus

I was running (woah)
I was running for the door
The next thing I remember (woah)
I was running back for more
Ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Repeat Bridge & Chorus.