Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Bonded ❯ What happened? ( Chapter 13 )

Thank you to those of you who have sent me comments.

Chapter Summary: What are the boys gonna do now? How can Duo help his blue-eyed mate?

/# blah blah #/ Duo's thoughts

Duo barely managed to get the two of them to his room before he collapsed from the painful emotional overload coming from his mate; who barely managed to keep Duo from kissing the floor, even though they both ended up there anyway.

"Duo?" J's trainee queried quietly. "Duo? Are you ok? What's wrong?"

"Blue Eyes," Duo whispered with his face pressed to the other boy's chest, "you're gonna be the death of me one of these days. I'm ok, just try not to overwhelm me with your emotions again." Duo wrapped his arms around the other's waist, squeezed once then let go and stood up. Holding his hand out for the other boy to take, he said, "Come on. Let's get comfortable. Then you can tell me what happened. After that, we'll decide what to do, together."

Taking the offered hand, J's trainee stood up. Once standing, Duo dragged them both to the desk – to grab some food and drinks – and then to the bed. Once they were both settled on the bed and had started eating the food they had chosen, Duo spoke.

"G told me we shouldn't be able to know how each other feels for at least another year or two, according to his sources. He said we must have a really strong bond to be able to sense how the other is feeling this soon with so little contact since our bonding. I don't really care about what he and his sources say. Right now, all I know is you're hurting, and have been for the last few weeks, and I want to know why. What happened?"

"Why?"

"Because we're supposed to be partners buddy," Duo replied, wanting to reach out and smack the other boy upside the head. "We're bonded mates aren't we? Doesn't that mean we're supposed to help each other?"

J's trainee hung his head. "I don't want to talk about it."

Reaching over, Duo gently raised his mate's chin to the point where he could see the other boy's eyes and said, "I don't care if you want to talk about it or not. We are going to talk about it, and you are gonna get past it, with my help – whether you want it or not. Do you understand?"

"Why?" J's trainee asked again, trying very hard to not meet Duo's eyes.

Returning his hand to his food, Duo replied, "Because if we don't, one or the other of us is not gonna make it through training; most likely me. You inability to deal with this situation on your own is causing me difficulties in concentrating, and I can't afford that right now. I have a gundam to finish building and programming, as well as missions to accomplish, and the erratic nature of your emotional control is messing up my control."

Duo let that sink in while he finished off his snack. When the other boy made no comment on what he had said, Duo decided to continue. "If you don't want to tell me everything that happened, you can just summarize it … like in a mission report. I need to have some idea of what happened to cause you to feel these negative emotions as strongly as you do. Alright?"

J's trainee thought about what Duo had said while he finished his snack, gathered their trash and threw it away. When he returned to the bed, he settled himself in the same position he had the year before (right before he'd asked Duo to bond with him) and pulled Duo over to him, silently asking Duo to stretch out beside him. Once they were both settled, with J's trainee sliding one hand up and down Duo's braid, J's trainee sighed and started speaking. "It was a destroy-the-base mission. I'd snuck in, in broad daylight, and planted the bombs I would be setting off that night – to minimize civilian casualties. I made it in and out without being caught. While I was waiting for night to fall, I decided to relax in the park next to the base. I met a little girl and her dog. She talked to me for a couple minutes before they ran off. I detonated the bombs as planned but one of the exploding suits caused another suit to fall outside the base onto a civilian apartment building."

As his mate paused in his story Duo raised a hand and placed it gently on the other boy's cheek. "Enough. I've heard enough to figure out what happened, and why you're having so much trouble. Why don't you try to get some sleep? You look like you could use it. While you're sleeping I'll try to come up with a way to help you get past this, or at least be able to deal with it better. Okay?"

A soft "Thank you" was all Duo heard before the other boy fell asleep. He lay there thinking for about ten minutes before the steady breathing and heartbeat of his partner lulled him to sleep as well. It didn't last long.

Duo woke to the sound of soft crying, like someone didn't want anyone to hear them. He raised his head enough to see the tears on his mate's face. He wasn't sure if the other boy was awake or not, as his eyes were still closed. He vaguely remembered dreaming of a base blowing up and seeing a mobile suit falling towards a building outside the base. /# Is this what actually happened, or is it just my imagination painting a picture? Only one way to really find out, but that isn't possible at this point in time, or is it? #/ Duo wondered but put it all aside as the crying increased and the body below him started moving.

"Blue Eyes, hey, Blue Eyes," Duo called softly but insistently. "Blue Eyes, come on buddy, wake up."

A gentle tug on his braid stopped Duo from repeating himself a fourth time. Looking at Duo were watery blue eyes filled with pain. Gently wiping away the last of the tears, Duo once again thought about the images of his dream, unconsciously broadcasting them to whomever could see them.

A gently spoken "Yes, that is what happened," interrupted his review.

"What?" he squawked in surprise.

"I said," J's trainee answered quietly, "that those images you just saw in your mind were actual images from what happened on that mission."

"How did you know what I saw?" Duo asked. "And how did I get them in the first place?"

"It would appear that your instructor was right about our bond," came the softly spoken reply. "It appears that if we are in contact with each other, we can inadvertently read each other's mind. I was dreaming about that mission again. You most likely picked up on it in your own dreams. Then, when you were thinking about your dream, I saw it again but it wasn't as clear, as though it was seen through a dirty window or something."

"So, not only can we sense each other's emotions, we can now sense each other's thoughts?" Duo questioned, rhetorically. "And here I was, just yesterday, wondering if we could develop the ability to talk with each other over major distances."

"That," J's trainee hesitated, "might be a good idea. It would certainly help to keep me from those negative thoughts and emotions I've been having lately."

"Then that is what we shall do," Duo said. "We shall work on strengthening our abilities, thereby rebuilding your self-confidence and increasing our chances of being able to help the other no matter the distance between us. However," Duo paused to yawn, "we need to get some more sleep before we attempt anything. Go back to sleep Blue Eyes."

As he put his head back down on the other boy's shoulder, Duo thought he heard his mate say something that sounded like "I just may be able to tonight."