Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ 10 Seconds ❯ no argument ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10 no argument

 

I have made a mistake. I can realize it now. I have not seen Duo's face for some time now in this darkness, but I can picture it, and I know that everything I've done has been in vain as I imagine his lips curl back in a smile.

 

I got tricked. It wasn't supposed to be me who fell. It's unfair. His eyes were mirrors. They bent the rules. They turned my own scheme against me without even knowing what they had done. Pierced on my own sword. There was never a chance for me against a gaze like that, a beautiful soul that didn't need me in the least. The moment I reached for him, I was already over the edge and grasping at something I could not have. And no one bothered to warn me.

 

This is unfair. And it hurts more than I expected, so tender and innocent just a few days ago. Before the words of a book led me to believe that I could simply have Duo because I wanted him.

 

In fact, the pain tears through me. It's a superheated railroad stake that launches into attack, searing through the flesh of my upper chest, nestled in a hot, painful cove between my collarbone and shoulder. Another sits in the lining of my stomach. The second is sure to be as equally painful, but I cannot tell. There is little more than a fuzzy sensation of lessening existence spreading from my ribs downward. Thank the gods for small miracles.

 

My body screams without words and all I want to do is crumple into myself. Even though I know it will not do a thing to help me, I do it anyway. I do not know where I am, but I am unfettered by my usual caution and roll onto my side to better cringe at my wounds. The single movement casts whatever senses I had been grasping onto into terror and delirium. I can feel my head spinning even though I can't feel anything else. Darkness is the rule, and I don't have the energy to test it. All I have now is the clutching, desperate need to fix the pain I can still feel, but with every attempt I make, it deepens.

 

Death now seems the most attractive option. After all, I fell for Him.

 

For a few more minutes, hours, or days, I am unmoving in the dark and accompanied by pain. And, as abruptly as it began, I am back. And reality is back. Unfortunately, it does not leave my hungry friend behind.

 

It is dark. My eyes take longer to adjust than normal and it is only one of many worries I add to my mental list. It doesn't stop growing, either, when they do clear of pain and exhaustion.

 

Judging by the dim violet of the sky above, night is coming. I am lying on my back now, my vision allows me to ascertain, staring up into color and shivers of the forest canopy. The gentle hiss and hum of life around me is thick. Where I am still connected to my ragged body, I feel the tips of the grass touch my skin. On the furthest edge of my eye, I can see the camouflage net staked into the ground, concealing the enormous beasts, our greatest weapons, our lingering curses.

 

We are at our Gundams again.

 

Duo is sitting beside me. His thigh runs parallel with my hip. The heat coming from him runs past the point where I can feel anything. His neck is craned and he is looking out into the forest where some soft noise draws his attention, his braided tail of hair curling down his back. It comes to a halt just at eye level where I lay.

 

It must be safe. Duo would not take me here if it weren't.

 

But it everything was all right, he would not sit so close to me.

`

As if emerging from a dark tunnel, the pain thickens. Bullet in the muscle between the collarbone and shoulder bade of the right side. Bullet buried into the flesh of my right kidney, deeper than the other. Bleeding, even now. I can feel that. The hot liquid is pouring over the curve of my body and drips onto the back of my hand.

 

Weakness overtakes me and I part my lips. Something wretched makes a noise. It is a moment before I realize I can see again and the darkness clears, leaving only dancing white pearls in my eyes as it fades.

 

Duo is looking down at me. I can feel exactly where the wound in my stomach lies now, for his hand rests momentarily on the hasty bandage, and then disappears. The bangs move out of my eyes.

 

There is a line I had not seen before between his brows. The tones of his skin blur together when he moves. The hazy light turns the color of his eyes into something low and dark, and they look through me and into my bones, for I am too weak to be self-conscious. I am too close to death to scrounge for the energy to be afraid of what he may think of me. I'm tired of it.

 

“Hey.” My ears are still thick. He pauses longer than normal and pulls his mouth into a smile. “You alive?”

 

Neither of us move. The smile wanes.

 

“They're gone.” He reads the thought in my head. I cannot find my mouth to speak and he sees it with grim eyes. “They passed by us a few minutes ago.” A moment's silence, then a snorting laugh, but a tired and lukewarm sound. “And no, I was not in my mobile suit. Damn thing's not built for more than one.”

 

It's quieter now than before. The sinking colors, the deepening dark seem to draw them away with the sunlight, pulling away from the sleeping world as not to disturb it. It gently tugs at me, with chilled fingers, to come with it. And if Duo were not there staring, down at me, I would go with it. All I can remember now is being exhausted and lovesick and war-torn. I would go with it without remorse for the world if he were not looking down, pressing his lips tight together.

 

For a moment, I wish he would let me die in peace.

 

“I'm taking you to a hospital,” he says. “No argument.”

 

I don't say anything. I don't do anything for a moment but think about how beautiful he is. It's better than wondering when I should let go and slip away.

 

The sigh that runs through Duo shifts through his body and I feel it where his leg touches me. Somewhere blood is shifting, pouring out over skin, cold, stark, and new. Pain starts crawling down from the pit of my stomach, creeping towards my toes. Now I can feel the bullet screaming, puncturing the lining of my kidney, sending blood spitting up out of the wound. It's then that I want to push the pain out through my throat and crumple and never scream again.

 

But I am too weak. I open my mouth and cry out instead.

 

“I know, I know,” Duo says, and he holds the side of my face, tightening his lips when he looks down at me. His voice drops again, and even I can see his shoulders sink, weighed down, through my approaching death.

 

“I know. It hurts. You're hurt.”

 

Something cold is touching me, and growing bigger. Only Duo is warm, and he touches just below my eyes, rubbing the blood from the corner of my mouth. I sink into it, and am away from my bloody puddle in the woods. My eyes drift shut.

 

“But I'm taking you. No argument.”

 

Duo leans down. His arm snakes underneath my shoulder, gripping the skin, and it feels like knives, pulling at a body already wrenched to its end.

 

“Don't,” something distant moans.

 

It must have been me. Duo stops, and then apologizes in a voice I can barely hear. I feel my body moving, lifted by a pair of warm, shaking hands, and Duo's mouth on my neck, breathing words I cannot hear as he shakes his head and cradles a body I can no longer feel.