Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Shinigami Zutto ❯ Re-meeting Relena ( Chapter 11 )

Duo had always hated hospitals. Tsuzuki hated them even more. Just being in a hospital building was liable to give him flashbacks, and a few times he had gone into shock. His phobia had lost him several partners.

Heero managed to figure out that a) he had a problem b) what it was and c) how to deal with it before they had got up to the nurses station. Well, of course, he had been the `Perfect Soldier' once upon a time.

“Duo… Tsuzuki… Daijoubu. You're safe, it's clear. No one is gonna hurt you,” he muttered, keeping up a continuous monologue which he only paused to mutter something quietly to the nurse. Duo's hand strayed without his knowledge or consent to lightly touch the back of Heero's. Heero turned, smiled, and entwined their fingers together. The violet eyed Shinigami suddenly felt extremely young as his old comrade led him down the corridor, giving anyone who looked like they were even thinking about stopping them a toned down version of his glare o'deathâ„¢.

Even toned down, his icy blue gaze was extremely intimidating. Tsuzuki just kept his head down and hoped not to be noticed.

Heero paused at a door, tapped on it, and then barged in without waiting for a reply. The room was empty, except for an old woman apparently dozing on the bed, a vase of red roses on the table beside her.

“We must have the wrong room,” Tsuzuki said. “Quick, let's go before she wakes up.”

Heero gave him an odd look. “This is the right room,” he said.

“Nan ka? But… who is she then? I thought we were here because of Relena-san.”

The old lady on the bed opened a pair of sharp blue eyes. “I am Relena, young man. Since you use my name so freely, dare da?”

“Watashi wa Tsuzuki Asato desu. Shinigami desu. Anata wa… Relena?! Masaka!”

“Relena-san,” Heero injected. Relena gasped.

“I must have gone mad,” she whispered, fisting the white bed sheets tightly. “You look exactly as Heero did.”

“I am Heero, Relena-san. I'm a Shinigami now.”

“Isn't that what Duo used to call himself? Shinigami?”

“Yes, I did. Now it's a real job, Ojousan! I'm even getting paid,” Duo said, getting over his shock at Relena's age… technically speaking she was nearly 100…

“Nan ka… Duo? Duo Maxwell, is that really you?”

“Yes Ma'am.”

Relena blinked at him, fumbled for the glasses hanging from an elegant gold chain around her neck, put them on and blinked at him again. “Duo… what happened to your hair?! How could you cut it off? It was so beautiful… if a little impractical. Anyway, where did you go?”

“I was taken by a scientist… it seems that peace wasn't as thorough as we had hoped, ojousan.”

“Gomen.”

“It was not your fault.”

Relena fell quiet and seemed to collect herself a little. “Duo…. You said that you really were Shinigami now. Does that mean…?”

“Ask Heero, he was the one that brought me here.”

Relena turned to Heero. The Shinigami ran a hand through his perpetually messy hair and nodded reluctantly. “You have until dawn.”

“So I will see my last sunrise?”

“Yes.”

“Am I allowed to call people?”
“Yes, just don't mention us,” Tsuzuki said. Relena gave him a sharp look.

“You're entire demeanor just changed… it was like we were strangers for a minute. You have changed, Duo. Was that a glimpse of the Shinigami I saw? How long have you been doing this?”

“Over 70 years.”

Relena looked sad. “You died a long time ago now, Duo. I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” the Shinigami admitted.

“Not as much as Heero did, though. Say, can I hug you?”

“I am corporeal, you know. So's Heero, how else could we open the doors? Look pretty weird if we just walked through them.”

“Other people can see you too?”

“Yes, unless we don't want them too.”

“Duo, you are talking too much,” Heero interrupted.

“Heero, she's gonna be gone soon anyways. Hey, we can stay with her until the end just to make sure that she doesn't tell, ok?”

Heero nodded. “Ok. I'm going to call the office. The others will want to know.”

“The others?” Relena questioned.

“Quatre, Trowa, Wufei and Meiran,” Heero listed. Relena smiled.

“Oh, I will enjoy meeting them again!”

“What about `Soka?”

“Kurosaki-kun will probably stay back at base. Meiran might too… she died before Relena could meet you. But we will never find out unless you stop asking me questions so that I can make the call.”

Relena winked at Tsuzuki. “I see he hasn't changed.”

“Oh I wouldn't say that… he's come a long way since that baseball game.”

“Baseball game?” Relena asked. “Do tell! I haven't heard this story, and when you get to my age there's not a lot that you haven't heard.”

“Ok… it all started when we ended up in Seattle after the war…”

 

Seattle was one of the last cities to still have a proper arena for games. So, of course, Duo had to go. And that meant that Heero had to go too.

“Aw, come on, man! It's just one game. I always wanted to see a game of baseball! Just this once? Please?”

Heero sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine. Will they search us on the way in?”

“Uh… I don't know. Wait a minute…” the braided teen eyed his partner seriously. “You aren't thinking of taking your gun to a baseball match, are you?”

“Of course. Weren't you?”

“I was gonna take a few knives… it'll be crowded, Heero. Gunshots could cause a panic.

“Hn. I shall still take my gun.”

“Fine! So long as you'll go with me. Some of the baseball shirts or jackets are pretty baggy, you should be able to hide it ok.”

“Shirts?” Heero inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, if we're going, we're going all out! This is the Mariners! They're like, the only team that has played continuously all these years! Even the Red Sox stopped for about 20 years before they started up again! And look at them now! They don't even have a proper home stadium anymore!”

“Hn.”

“Oh, Heero, this'll be great, just you wait and see!”

They had got to the pitch about ten minutes before the game started. “I'm gonna go get something to eat. You want anything?”

“Iie. I'm fine.”

“Don't trust the food, huh? Probably wise.”

“If you buy anything with garlic in it I'll refuse to kiss you,” Heero said matter of factly.

“Man, Heero!” Duo whined. “But those garlic fries smell so good!”

“I never said that you couldn't have any, I just said that I wouldn't kiss you if you did.”

“Hmph. Same difference.”

Duo reappeared five minutes later, carrying two containers of drink, a bag of cotton candy, a hotdog and two bags of peanuts. He had a new baseball cap on his head, with the Mariners logo emblazoned on the front and there was a bag hooked over one of his arms.

“Phew, carrying all that lot was hard!” he exclaimed as he sat down next to his… extremely tense and worried partner who was staring around continuously and had one hand on his weapon. Not good. Proceed with caution.

“Heero? I got you some water.”

There was no response.

“And some peanuts, in case you get hungry later.”

Heero looked at him for a moment, expressionless, and then went back to scanning the crowd.

“I also got us some jackets, cause it's probably gonna get cold later - Earth doesn't exactly have environmental controls.”

“Baka, of course it doesn't.”

Ahh! A response. Probably safe to touch him now. Duo laid a cautious hand over Heero's. “Heero? Are you ok? It's clear, they're all civilians, and the war is over.”

“…Hai.”

“Daijoubu ka?”

“Daijoubu.”

“Good. I didn't get anything with garlic, can I have a kiss? No-one is watching.”

Heero looked around, still partially in mission mode, and then leant down to give Duo a lingering kiss on the lips. Once he drew away, he blinked and sighed, his hand finally falling away from his gun.

“That's better. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you alone,” Duo said regretfully.

“It's ok. Hey, it looks like you missed the beginning of the game. I'm sorry.”

“Don't worry, it's ok. Let's watch and eat! Besides, this is only the opposing team, the Mariners play after them.”

“Ok, explain this to me… which team is which?”

 

Duo laughed. “He was so tense and uptight that entire game! I had to jerk him out of `Mission Mode' five times! I think the worst was when I went to the restroom in the 5th inning, and a little girl from the row in front tried to talk to him.”

Relena smiled. “So that's why he used to go misty-eyed every time we went to a baseball game - which wasn't often, mind you. Mariamaia's daughter wanted to go and see a game for her 16th birthday, and she wanted us all to go, so we did. Heero must have been remembering you.”

“I was,” Heero's deep voice interrupted. “The others are on their way. Are you up to visitors, Relena-jisan?”

Relena hoisted herself straighter in the bed. “Of course I am!”

*

Duo rested for a while in the waiting area close to Relena's room. He needed some time out of there to think. The other ex-pilots had arrived, and were talking to Relena. None of them seemed to be shocked at her age, as he had been. It was disconcerting. Duo had never been old, never had a chance to, and seeing Relena lying in bed with a face full of wrinkles and her hair faded to white had been a shock to his system - although he had managed to hide it fairly well from the others.

He hated hospitals. He was nervous and jumpy, and his hands were trembling. Funny, how he used to be so proud of the way that his hands never shook while hacking or wiring explosives, but he couldn't handle an ordinary hospital, when he wasn't even ill! Of course, he hadn't been ill when Muraki had captured him either…

When they said `scarred for life' it really does mean life, he reflected.

“Tsuzuki?”

“Hai?”

He looked up into Wufei's deep black eyes.

“How are you? I imagine that this must be rather uncomfortable for you, seeing as you did not know Relena.”

“Oh, but I did,” Duo murmured softly.

“What? You died a long time ago, when she was still a girl. How could you know her?”

“I may as well tell you, it's all going to come out soon anyway. Meiran knows. She was 26 when I died, exactly the same age as me, and I last saw her when we were 17 or so. You were there, I think.”

“What?”

Duo sighed and allowed his old accent to show in his voice. “Man, `Fei, wouldn't of thought you'd a' forgott'n `bout me so soon! We useta be buddies, `member? All the hackin' an kickin' ass?”

Wufei's eyes stretched so wide Duo was afraid that they would fall straight out of his head. “Maxwell?” He asked incredulously.

“Lovin' the hair, `Fei. Seriously, `M honored. Ya don't pull it off half so good as I did, tho!” Tsuzuki dropped his head and dropped the jester's act at the same time. “Yeah, it's me. Learnt how to talk properly since we last met.”

A hand on his shoulder made him jump slightly, and he looked up into a compassionate face. “You always talked properly, Duo. Except for your mangling of my name, which I do not mind as much as I did, there was nothing wrong with the way you talked.”

“I had an L2 street kid's accent, Wufei! That was considered unacceptable in most parts of the Earth Sphere!”

Wufei shook his head, and pulled Duo into a hug. “I'm sorry if your accent ever coloured my responses to you or made me question your abilities,” he murmured into Duo's hair.

Duo lifted a shaky hand and ran it down the length of Wufei's braid.

“I miss my hair,” was all he could say.

“Then I promise that I will somehow find a way to get it back for you. You have my word.”

 

Masaka - “It can't be!”

Ojousan - Almost like “Milady”, what Duo used to call Relena.