Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Demon ❯ One-Shot

Hari heard a slight rapping at her bedroom door. She sniffed back her tears, bushed back her chocolate brown hair, and looked over towards the door.

"Knock, knock!" greeted a well-known voice.

Duo poked his head into the room, his usual jester grin spread across his face.

"The front door was open. I figured you wouldn't mind if I came in and raided your fridge… then I was hoping to walk in on you while you were walking out of the shower or something, so I decided to come here first." Joked her best friend.

Hari couldn't hold back her slight laughter, letting spare tears make their way down her already moist cheeks. Duo couldn't help but take notice.

"Hari… what's wrong?" Duo inquired while making his way to his friend's side.

Hari just shook her silently shook her head and placed a picture frame on the nightstand next to the bed she sat upon. Duo looked over to the frame and saw a picture of her parents… her late parents.

"Aw, Hari…" Duo said, kneeling in front of her, "I know that they meant a lot to you…"

Just wanting to let loose, Hari flung herself onto Duo. She just let her tears go and cried in her best friends arms. Duo tried his best to comfort her, practically everyday. He tried to be there for her, ever since her parents had died. For almost a year now. But this was too much; she had to learn to move on. Everyone has to move on sometime.

"Hari…" Duo pull her gaze up to him, "I know how much you loved your parents and that losing them really hurt you… but you have to move on. I'm sorry to be so blunt but, you can't mourn for them forever. Frankly… I can't comfort you forever…"

Hari was shocked. She could only stare at him with a hurt and deeply pain look. She stepped away from him and soon her expression was anger and betrayal.

"How could you tell me to move on? To just let them go? You can't say that you know how much I'm hurting… you never even knew your parents!" she argued defensively, "You can't just expect me to forget them just like that! I can't believe you would say that…"

She turned away in discontent and mistrust. She couldn't believe that her only friend turned on her when she needed him the most.

That was the last string. Duo had had enough of all of her crying, mourning, and complaining. He had tried to be as subtle as he could and she had snapped at him. He had put up with it long enough.

"You really believe that you can't stop hurting?" he asked as she was turned away.

"Are you insane? My parents were a part of me… Now this pain is a part of me…" she answered.

"Good then." Duo replied, now donning a mischievous smirk.

"Good?!" Hari echoed in ferocity and turned to face Duo again, "What was that about?"

"I'm glad that you're hurting. In fact, I hope that you suffer more." Duo continued calmly.

"How could you?! You don't even know what this pain feels like, but you think to make fun of it? Who do you think you are?!" Hari screamed in outrage.

"I made you! I am the reason why you suffer so much!" rang Duo's voice.

All of the sudden everything in the room began to age years in a matter of seconds. It seemed like this was just some illusion, some kind of bad dream. Hari grew very uncomfortable in the fear she tried to repress. She nervously watched as wooden furniture rotted away as fast as she could blink. Cobwebs seemed to grow and cover almost every corner of the room. Everything was now colorless, nothing but deeply faded fabrics and dead gray, all of it covered in a thick skin of dust. This place she stood in was no longer her room. Hari felt as thought she was in another world. A dead one.

"And do you know why that is? Do you want to know why I make you pain all this time?" spoke a familiar tone, reminding the girl that she wasn't the only one in the room.

Be cause of what happened to the room they were in, she was reluctant to guide her eyes in Duo's direction. She was afraid of what aged and rotted appearance he had now. But, against her will, Duo had walked up to her and turned her gaze toward him.

To her surprise, her stare met a young, normal looking Duo Maxwell; skin still as flush and soft as her own, and his eyes still glowed the same deep violet that they always had. The only difference she saw of him was his dark attire. No longer were they modern jeans and a tee, but a loose fitting long-sleeved shirt, it's front open and baring his chest. His pants were also a loose fit, belted around his waist.

"Because I am Death. I took them from you. I was the one that ripped your parents away from you… I saw when they were in that crash; the very moment when your father hit the steering wheel, giving him a concussion and breaking his spinal cord; right when your mother was flung through the windshield, hitting the asphalt, breaking her neck and killing her instantly…" Hari shut her eyes, trying to block the visions and pictures of her parent's death, but it didn't help her at all, Duo beamed a smirk, "Because I enjoy watching you cry, watching you suffer… Watching you be torn away little…by…little."

Hari finally opened her eyes. She began to study the demon before her. She fought hard to see why this creature was so cold. Cold and hateful. Not too much longer, she found her answer. Was it possible that he wasn't so hateful? Could he actually know how to love? Could it even be that he yearned for that feeling?

"…You're lying." She spoke, no longer afraid, and still analyzing what she saw in his eyes.

"Lying?" Death inquired with a small tilt of his head and a raise of his brows, "What proof of that have you?"

"Your eyes…" she paused, "You're only so hateful because you can't love. Who would ever love a demon like you?" Death questioningly stared at her as she began to pace around him, "You're the one who takes away the people they so dearly cherish… How can they love Death? The very essence, the very cause of their suffering… But no…" Hari stopped in deeper thought. Death was surprised with what she had said and was curious as to why she had said that, "You've suffered…" To that, Death tensed and tightly shut his eyes. The pensive girl made her way before the demon once more, "No matter who or what anyone had lost… No one has suffered more than you… have they?" Hari waited for an answer.

Death sighed heavily and opened his eyes. His will failed and a stray tear rolled down his cheek. Hari was surprised at his response. She had no idea that she was right. She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him close.

"I want it all to stop…" he said as he hugged the girl back, "I hate it. So much pain… so many tears… I've practically gone insane. You don't know what it's like to take a life away and watch how those left behind must live in tears and mourn." He whispered as his eyes welled.

"how can anyone think Death a demon?" Hari whispered in return, "You're more of an angel than anything near a demon… An angel in so much suffering of your own…"

Without any warning at all, Death quickly pushed away from her.

"Never call me that!" He immediately reprimanded, "Never say that I am an angel!"

Hari tensed in shock at what happened, "But I…"

Death calmed himself down so he wasn't yelling, but he was still terribly upset, "I was one of them. Before any of this." He explained, talking with his hands, making gestures and pointing, "I was once part of that `paradise'; an angel. Then the first death came." Hari listened, afraid to speak, "I was the on chosen to complete it that day. When I returned… I returned with this…" Death showed Hari his palms. He once pure hands now stained in blood, "You know how it is up there… it's Heaven! When the others saw what happened they didn't want to go come the next death. They didn't want to get their hands dirty like mine."

Death walked away. He walked over to the wall and pounded on it with his tightly clenched, bloody fists.

"I'd rather be a demon than one of them…" he softly continued. He rested his forehead on the wall and opened a hand as he looked at it, "…Hell is better than what I do…" he shut his eyes and turned away as if disgusted by what he saw.

Silent still, Hari walked over to his side and studied his open hand. Death felt her finger run down his open hand and looked over to her. Hari closely examined her, now, tainted finger. The blood began to absorb itself into her skin. Short after the blood completely vanished, flashes followed.

Before her eyes…corpses. Where she stood…blood. What she smelled… rotting flesh. What she heard… screams and yells, groans of agony and intense pain. All around her… death. Finally realizing that this is what Death saw after a war, she became sick and frightened. So many sacrificed lives… Soon the setting was different. Soon the bodies she saw where smaller. Bodies of ones no older than 10 years; children. Children and their parents. Flash after flash, more children, dead children more dead parents. Drive by… school shootings… just… pointless killings. Innocent lives wasted. No… no more… no more! ENOUGH! She could feel herself wanting to cry out. She heard the words echoing in her heard, driving her mad.

Her legs gave out from beneath her. Everything was too much for her to handle all at once. Before she hit the floor Death quickly caught her in his arms. She was quivering and in tears. Death gently stroked her face, his hands no longer covered in blood. He spoke to her softly trying to calm her down as he gently laid her on the floor. Her shivering soon settled and she opened her eyes to see Death's worried expression She hugged him tightly and whispered.

"I'm sorry…" her eyes shut in tears, no longer for her parent but for him, Death.

Death held her tightly and replied, "Don't be…"

"You've had to see all of that… Everything…" Hari asked.

She opened her eyes and saw her room again. Everything to the way it was before Duo ever came in. She looked back into the sorrowful eyes that started it all.

"All that and more…" Duo answered, "I am Death…"

"I'm sorry… I never knew that someone could ever know so much pain…" Hari apologized, a bit mortified about making a big deal about the loss of her parents.

Duo smiled softly, "Don't worry about it… I'm just sorry that you had to see them… I didn't know that would happen… No one's really… um… done… that before…"

"About what I said about… loving you…" Hari mentioned.

"Don't… You're right… You don't need to apologize for telling the truth." Duo said before she could go on.

"No… Duo. It's not true…" Hari replied, "Because I love you."

Duo gave her the strangest look, thinking that everything that happened really had driven her over the edge.

"I always had, Duo. I've loved you since practically the first day we met… And now knowing that you suffer like that… It only makes me want to be there for you more…" Hari continued, "I know that I might not be able to do much in healing that wound, Death, but let me try and help it from getting any worse…"

Hari held out a hand toward him. Duo was hesitant at first, but then looked at his hand. Blood stained and shaking. He looked to the girl in his arms.

"Are you sure you want to be a part of this?" he questioned.

Hari pressed her open palm to Duo's, sealing the deal. Their palms glowed a soft red and when they separated, they were clean. Hari looked at her hand. She was a part of it now. Life… Death… none of it would be the same ever again.

"There's no going back now." Duo mentioned.

"I wouldn't dare." Hari said before pulling Duo into a kiss.