Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Finding Forgiveness ❯ Numb ( Chapter 3 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: light of nataku 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.16.2009 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.2K | Visits: 243 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.16.2009 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.2K | Visits: 243 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I own no part of Gundam Wing or its characters. All rights are held by Bandai(as far as I know)
Chapter Three
**Flashback**
A.C. 197
Duo smiled at Wufei and winked as he walked by with the box. With a shake of his head Wufei gave him a quick kiss before heading out to get more of their boxes. Trowa and Quatre were outside at the truck arguing about how they should go about taking out the bed. “Its furniture. Just pick it up.” Heero snapped as he pulled out the dresser that he carried easily enough single handedly.
“Do you need help?” Wufei asked Heero as he walked around Barton and Winner. He figured it was better to ignore them.
“Got it. Just kick their assses into gear or they’ll never work.” Heero sneered as he carried the dresser towards the house.
Trowa flipped them both off and then turned to stare at his glaring koibito. “What.”
“Just get the frame.” Quatre snapped. As he pointed to the moving van. Trowa grumbled but climbed in and pushed the heavy frame out of the truck. Wufei stared at it as they did. When they had decided to move Duo had gone a little crazy searching for furniture and had found a pre-colonial bed with a heavy base board and foot board that had been hand carved. It had a beach scene with the sun starting to set over the water and seagulls soaring in the clouds. It had been expensive but Wufei couldn’t ave said no to Duo when he had found that bed.
“Don’t break anything or I’m coming after you both.” Wufei yelled as they walked towards the house. Arms wrapped around Wufei’s waist and lips crushed his. “You are incorrigible” Wufei smiled as he smacked Duo’s roaming hands away from him. “Knock it off Maxwell.” He chuckled as he tugged lightly on Duo’s braid knowing that it would only provoke him.
“Just wait ‘til they’re all gone. We have a lot of rooms to break in. Better save your energy Chang.” He wiggled his eyebrows at his lover.
Wufei laughed. “Just get moving baka.”
Duo grinned his eyes twinkling. “Just you wait.” He grabbed a trunk and ran for the house and Wufei smiled as he watched him go. He stared at the house that they had put a down payment on and sighed. A year ago he had struggled with this. Spent months trying to fight it even after they were together.
The house had been one Duo had chosen. This was the one he had said after they had spent weeks searching. It needed work. The pipes leaked and the roof was starting to cave. The balcony looked unsafe. Wufei had argued that they would spend more money fixing it up then they would to buy a brand new house but Duo wasn’t hearing any of it. Between the two of them they would get this house looking perfect. He had given in because honestly he would live in an alley if that was what Duo asked of him as long as they were together.
“I’m going to knock this wall out so that we have one large room and put up french doors.” Duo stood with Quatre guiding him through the rooms knowing that the blond Arabian would understand better then any of the others.
“If you got matching ones for the sliding doors that lead to the porch they would complement this room better then the sliders do.” Quatre suggested pointing at the doors in question.
“Yeah. Actually I was thinking of that.” Duo smiled excited. It just fed into his plans and got him going.
“Sit.” Trowa handed Wufei a bottle of water. “Its break time and they are too into what they’re talking about to even know were here.”
Quatre frowned as he stared at the warped floor. “I know a carpenter that can get you a good price on the wood for the floor. You’ve seen the wood that he used on our floors.”
“Ooh that’s nice.” Duo remembered the golden teak flooring that they had laid down when they had redone the house quatre had inherited.
Trowa smirked at Wufei. “You have fun.” He whispered remembering fully well what it had been like to lay out that floor.
“We could help you put them in.” Quatre offered.
Trowa’s head shot up. “Baby, you heard Duo earlier. They want to do this on their own. Don’t push them into agreeing to something that they don’t want. It will mean more to them knowing that they did it with their own hands.”
“But floors are nothing. Besides your family. It would mean the world to use to have you take part in building out home. Right Maxwell.” Wufei smirked when Trowa’s face plummeted when Duo nodded enthusiastically..
“See. Duo I can bring you by the carpenters place whenever you want. He was a good friend of my fathers.” Trowa groaned as they got into the plans and stared at the water bottle trying to will it into being something stronger. Wufei laughed and stared at the doorway where Heero stood quietly watching them. Wufei frowned it hadn’t been the first time he had caught the other man watching Duo and him. He had noticed the change in Heero’s personality in Heero since they had came out to the others admitting to their relationship. Heero noticed Wufei had noticed him staring and he nodded and walked out of the house.
“Fei?” Duo called concerned when they had repeated the question for the third time and still Wufei sat spacing out as he stared at the empty doorway.
“Huh.” He turned back to Duo how was studying him. “What.”
“Quatre was talking about the lighting. What do you think about track lighting.”
He shrugged and they rolled their eyes and continued their conversation while Wufei went back to analyzing the situation with Heero.
A.C. 205
Wufei sat by the cold metal table that Duo had been placed on and sat by his side. He had cleaned the blood from Duo’s body himself unwilling to allow anyone else near him. Now he just couldn’t bring himself to leave. He looked so pale. He always had this glow to him and now t was gone. “Wufei.” Midii said as she stepped into the morgue. When he didn’t answer she crossed the room and laid a hand on his shoulder. He had been given scrubs to change into when his clothing had gone stiff with Duo’s blood. “I know this hard.”
“I was going to leave. I told him I was through with him Midii. We all knew he wasn’t stable...” He whispered the last part. Few knew about the world that Duo lived in. Knew how he was on his own.
“It was a new prototype. There were faults.” She whispered. Wufei said nothing just held Duo’s hand in his own. “Heero is on his way into work his shift. I’ve told everyone that no one is to tell him. I called him and asked him to meet me in my office.”
“I have to tell him.” Wufei said with little feeling. He had made his promises and he would follow through with them. He owed Duo that. He had known how Duo was. He should have known not to let him walk away but Duo had seemed so normal. Had appeared to have his life under control. What he had been given proved to Wufei that Duo was still the master of disguise.
“I’ll tell him if you need me to.” There had been bad blood between pilot one and pilot five for more years then Midii could remember. She didn’t want to see how this went.
“I promised Duo I would. Id rather not see him but I promised.” He laid Duo’s hand gently down on the table and stood.
“I’m sorry, Wufei.” She whispered. “I understand how hard it is to deal with this.”
“Hai, you do. I know that well. It was my hands that took away Treize from you.”
She shook her head. “Something broke inside him. It was unavoidable. He’d either win or he would be killed we knew that when we set off for the war.” She shut the door behind them as they left nodding to Duo who stood by quietly waiting to look over Duo’s body. Wufei felt the weight of the object Duo had given him in his pocket. For Duo’s sake he would take that to the grave with him. No one would know but him. He followed behind Midii, silently as they headed for her office. “Yuki, please bring us in a pot of coffee.” She asked her secretary as they passed.
“Yes ma’am.” The young girl smiled at Wufei sadly. Preventors was a large corporation but they were also a close knit community. It was like they were in their own world, completely capable of sustaining themselves with no help from the outside world and when they lost one of their own everyone knew. Duo had been well liked by everyone. It was hard not to like him with his quick smile and charm. No one knew the other side. Not like Wufei did.
Midii poured him a cup of coffee and sat in her chair. “I never believed this would happen. He was a colonel. He doesn’t test pilot, agents test pilot.” The anger was setting in. She had moved past shock. Now she would be happy if she only had a chance to yell at Duo one last time for pulling one of his ridiculous stunts.
“Duo loved piloting his designs you know that.”
“He didn’t need to during testing.” She hissed.
“Then we would have been burying Agent Moro, telling his family that their son, husband, father... whatever was gone. Duo had Heero. He would have thought it a fair trade. To save an entire family sorrow when he himself believed that he lived on borrowed time. He would never have allowed someone else to pilot when he had concerns.” He cupped his hands around the cup praying for that the warmth to spread through his body. He was so unbelievably cold.
“Colonel Une.” Yuki poked her head through the door. “Colonel Yuy is here.”
“Midii I need to do this alone.”
She nodded and walked towards the side door that lead into the conference room. “Send him in Yuki.” She called over her shoulder. Heero came striding in not a minute later scowling at his phone.
“Midii, did you send Duo on assignment. I’m not getting through to him and nobody has . . .” He frowned at the empty desk and turned to see Wufei. “What the hell are you doing here?” He snapped.
“I came to meet with Midii.”
Anger flashed through Heero’s eyes. “What the hell did you say to Duo. Did you bother him?” That had to be the reason why he couldn’t get through to Duo. He had known something was wrong when Duo had left early this morning even though they weren’t due in until three.
“No. I came to see Midii.”
“Where is she? Where is Duo? Don’t lie to me, Wufei. I know that you saw him. I know that you have seen him these last few months.” He paced the office anger nearly choking him as he stared at the man that he hadn’t spoken to since their fight three years ago.
“Sit down, Yuy.” Wufei snapped.
“Why. Just tell me where he went. Midii said that she had to speak to me.”
“Sit down, Yuy!” He demanded as he stood. His voice angry as Heero just glared at him and stood his ground.
“Don’t fucking tell me!” He started to let the anger out. His Persian blue eyes darkened so they were nearly as dark as Wufei’s own onyx eyes.
“He’s dead.” Wufei screamed blurting it out. Heero stopped and looked at Wufei, his anger fading instantly as he tried to study Wufei. He tried to figure out if he was telling the truth or not.
“No.” He said softly in disbelief. Hadn’t he just talked to Duo this morning. He had watched as Duo had driven away. They were supposed to meet up here at work to finish their assignment.
Wufei sighed. He hand planned to tell him like that. He had been harsh and thoughtless. No one deserved to find out about anyone’s death that way but Heero wouldn’t have allowed him to talk. He would never have given him a chance. True he had never allowed Heero the chance before. Talking was not exactly the word he would use to describe what passed between them. “I was with Une in this office. He was test piloting a prototype in te field and there was an explosion. When we got there, he was still in the suit and they were trying to open the hatch. The suit was destroyed the metal was jagged and broken it pushed itself into the pit where Duo was and pierced his chest. Pulling the hatch open freed the bleeding and he bled to death before Sally could get to him. We couldn’t stop it.”
Heero sat there as the words tried to filter through his brain. It didn’t make sense. Duo knew what he was doing. He knew how to build suits. He could rebuild anything that he put his hands on, so this made no sense to him. “You’re lying.” He whispered almost desperate to believe Wufei would be heartless enough to tell him something like that. He knew better. He knew that Wufei’s feelings for Duo were too strong to allow him to treat Heero that way.
“I was with him when he died. I was with him when we brought him in. I would say a lot of things to you but not this . . . never this.” Heero stood stunned and then turned and flew out of the room. “Yuy.” Wufei screamed. Midii was coming out of the conference room as Wufei shot into the hall chasing after Heero.
“He took the stairs.” Yuki called out as her boss and the colonel Chang chased after colonel Yuy. She held her hands over the papers on her desk as they moved fast enough to send them flying.
“He’ll be heading to the morgue.” Midii called out wishing that she had never worn heels. All this running was killing her ankles. Wufei bounded down the stairs two steps at a time but no one could keep up with Heero now. Wufei slammed through the morgues door seconds after Heero and saw the other man’s eyes go dull as he caught sight of Duo laid out on the table.
“Heero I’m so sorry.” Sally whispered as she placed her hand on Heero’s shoulder when she left the table where she had been sewing Duo’s wounds. He moved past her and walked over to the table. His hand sliding over Duo’s face. “Hey koi, wake up.” He whispered as his hand swept Duo’s bangs away from his face. His shoulders fell as he felt the coldness of his lovers body. “Duo, please wake up.” He lowered his face against Duo shoulders.
Wufei looked at Midii and Sally and nodded towards the door. With a small nod they left but not without a last look towards the gurney. “It was fast.” Heero asked sadly. He still felt too numb to grieve.
Wufei sighed and walked to the stool and sat down on the other side of the table. “He lingered for about five minutes. He didn’t seem to be in so much pain. He didn’t suffer.”
“Did he say any thing?” Heero begged. He needed to know that Duo had some kind of passing thought about him before he went. Something to get him through this.
“That he loved you. He wanted you to know that he loved you.”
Heero laughed bitterly. “And you. Right? He told you that he loved you.” He sounded as if something had broken deeper inside him then Duo’s death had gone.
“Hai.”
Heero shook his head. “I thought that I could be enough. Spent all these years trying to make it so that he had no regrets. Praying that I would be enough for him and still he runs to you.” He said. “Go on lie to me. Tell me that you haven’t been seeing each other.” His voice dared him to tell him the truth but his eyes begged for him not to.
“Why would I lie to you? I owe you nothing.” Wufei shrugged.
“No, you don’t.”
“I broke it off. Today. We spoke. We had been planning this a while. I would take this position to be closer to him. The problem was I didn’t want to be the other man. I don’t want to sneak around. I gave too much of myself to be limited to that. So I told him we were through. Then I went to see Midii and he was gone.”
Heero laughed. “Ironic that neither one of us was ever enough for him.”
“Duo wasn’t capable of finding anyone that would be enough. He looked for everyone to fill that hole and never found anyone that could.” He stood. “He may not have known how to love just one of us. But he loved us with all that he was capable of giving. That’s enough for me.” He walked away to give Heero the time that he needed. He knew it wouldn’t get easier but at least he could give the other man time alone to say his own goodbyes.
Chapter Three
**Flashback**
A.C. 197
Duo smiled at Wufei and winked as he walked by with the box. With a shake of his head Wufei gave him a quick kiss before heading out to get more of their boxes. Trowa and Quatre were outside at the truck arguing about how they should go about taking out the bed. “Its furniture. Just pick it up.” Heero snapped as he pulled out the dresser that he carried easily enough single handedly.
“Do you need help?” Wufei asked Heero as he walked around Barton and Winner. He figured it was better to ignore them.
“Got it. Just kick their assses into gear or they’ll never work.” Heero sneered as he carried the dresser towards the house.
Trowa flipped them both off and then turned to stare at his glaring koibito. “What.”
“Just get the frame.” Quatre snapped. As he pointed to the moving van. Trowa grumbled but climbed in and pushed the heavy frame out of the truck. Wufei stared at it as they did. When they had decided to move Duo had gone a little crazy searching for furniture and had found a pre-colonial bed with a heavy base board and foot board that had been hand carved. It had a beach scene with the sun starting to set over the water and seagulls soaring in the clouds. It had been expensive but Wufei couldn’t ave said no to Duo when he had found that bed.
“Don’t break anything or I’m coming after you both.” Wufei yelled as they walked towards the house. Arms wrapped around Wufei’s waist and lips crushed his. “You are incorrigible” Wufei smiled as he smacked Duo’s roaming hands away from him. “Knock it off Maxwell.” He chuckled as he tugged lightly on Duo’s braid knowing that it would only provoke him.
“Just wait ‘til they’re all gone. We have a lot of rooms to break in. Better save your energy Chang.” He wiggled his eyebrows at his lover.
Wufei laughed. “Just get moving baka.”
Duo grinned his eyes twinkling. “Just you wait.” He grabbed a trunk and ran for the house and Wufei smiled as he watched him go. He stared at the house that they had put a down payment on and sighed. A year ago he had struggled with this. Spent months trying to fight it even after they were together.
The house had been one Duo had chosen. This was the one he had said after they had spent weeks searching. It needed work. The pipes leaked and the roof was starting to cave. The balcony looked unsafe. Wufei had argued that they would spend more money fixing it up then they would to buy a brand new house but Duo wasn’t hearing any of it. Between the two of them they would get this house looking perfect. He had given in because honestly he would live in an alley if that was what Duo asked of him as long as they were together.
“I’m going to knock this wall out so that we have one large room and put up french doors.” Duo stood with Quatre guiding him through the rooms knowing that the blond Arabian would understand better then any of the others.
“If you got matching ones for the sliding doors that lead to the porch they would complement this room better then the sliders do.” Quatre suggested pointing at the doors in question.
“Yeah. Actually I was thinking of that.” Duo smiled excited. It just fed into his plans and got him going.
“Sit.” Trowa handed Wufei a bottle of water. “Its break time and they are too into what they’re talking about to even know were here.”
Quatre frowned as he stared at the warped floor. “I know a carpenter that can get you a good price on the wood for the floor. You’ve seen the wood that he used on our floors.”
“Ooh that’s nice.” Duo remembered the golden teak flooring that they had laid down when they had redone the house quatre had inherited.
Trowa smirked at Wufei. “You have fun.” He whispered remembering fully well what it had been like to lay out that floor.
“We could help you put them in.” Quatre offered.
Trowa’s head shot up. “Baby, you heard Duo earlier. They want to do this on their own. Don’t push them into agreeing to something that they don’t want. It will mean more to them knowing that they did it with their own hands.”
“But floors are nothing. Besides your family. It would mean the world to use to have you take part in building out home. Right Maxwell.” Wufei smirked when Trowa’s face plummeted when Duo nodded enthusiastically..
“See. Duo I can bring you by the carpenters place whenever you want. He was a good friend of my fathers.” Trowa groaned as they got into the plans and stared at the water bottle trying to will it into being something stronger. Wufei laughed and stared at the doorway where Heero stood quietly watching them. Wufei frowned it hadn’t been the first time he had caught the other man watching Duo and him. He had noticed the change in Heero’s personality in Heero since they had came out to the others admitting to their relationship. Heero noticed Wufei had noticed him staring and he nodded and walked out of the house.
“Fei?” Duo called concerned when they had repeated the question for the third time and still Wufei sat spacing out as he stared at the empty doorway.
“Huh.” He turned back to Duo how was studying him. “What.”
“Quatre was talking about the lighting. What do you think about track lighting.”
He shrugged and they rolled their eyes and continued their conversation while Wufei went back to analyzing the situation with Heero.
A.C. 205
Wufei sat by the cold metal table that Duo had been placed on and sat by his side. He had cleaned the blood from Duo’s body himself unwilling to allow anyone else near him. Now he just couldn’t bring himself to leave. He looked so pale. He always had this glow to him and now t was gone. “Wufei.” Midii said as she stepped into the morgue. When he didn’t answer she crossed the room and laid a hand on his shoulder. He had been given scrubs to change into when his clothing had gone stiff with Duo’s blood. “I know this hard.”
“I was going to leave. I told him I was through with him Midii. We all knew he wasn’t stable...” He whispered the last part. Few knew about the world that Duo lived in. Knew how he was on his own.
“It was a new prototype. There were faults.” She whispered. Wufei said nothing just held Duo’s hand in his own. “Heero is on his way into work his shift. I’ve told everyone that no one is to tell him. I called him and asked him to meet me in my office.”
“I have to tell him.” Wufei said with little feeling. He had made his promises and he would follow through with them. He owed Duo that. He had known how Duo was. He should have known not to let him walk away but Duo had seemed so normal. Had appeared to have his life under control. What he had been given proved to Wufei that Duo was still the master of disguise.
“I’ll tell him if you need me to.” There had been bad blood between pilot one and pilot five for more years then Midii could remember. She didn’t want to see how this went.
“I promised Duo I would. Id rather not see him but I promised.” He laid Duo’s hand gently down on the table and stood.
“I’m sorry, Wufei.” She whispered. “I understand how hard it is to deal with this.”
“Hai, you do. I know that well. It was my hands that took away Treize from you.”
She shook her head. “Something broke inside him. It was unavoidable. He’d either win or he would be killed we knew that when we set off for the war.” She shut the door behind them as they left nodding to Duo who stood by quietly waiting to look over Duo’s body. Wufei felt the weight of the object Duo had given him in his pocket. For Duo’s sake he would take that to the grave with him. No one would know but him. He followed behind Midii, silently as they headed for her office. “Yuki, please bring us in a pot of coffee.” She asked her secretary as they passed.
“Yes ma’am.” The young girl smiled at Wufei sadly. Preventors was a large corporation but they were also a close knit community. It was like they were in their own world, completely capable of sustaining themselves with no help from the outside world and when they lost one of their own everyone knew. Duo had been well liked by everyone. It was hard not to like him with his quick smile and charm. No one knew the other side. Not like Wufei did.
Midii poured him a cup of coffee and sat in her chair. “I never believed this would happen. He was a colonel. He doesn’t test pilot, agents test pilot.” The anger was setting in. She had moved past shock. Now she would be happy if she only had a chance to yell at Duo one last time for pulling one of his ridiculous stunts.
“Duo loved piloting his designs you know that.”
“He didn’t need to during testing.” She hissed.
“Then we would have been burying Agent Moro, telling his family that their son, husband, father... whatever was gone. Duo had Heero. He would have thought it a fair trade. To save an entire family sorrow when he himself believed that he lived on borrowed time. He would never have allowed someone else to pilot when he had concerns.” He cupped his hands around the cup praying for that the warmth to spread through his body. He was so unbelievably cold.
“Colonel Une.” Yuki poked her head through the door. “Colonel Yuy is here.”
“Midii I need to do this alone.”
She nodded and walked towards the side door that lead into the conference room. “Send him in Yuki.” She called over her shoulder. Heero came striding in not a minute later scowling at his phone.
“Midii, did you send Duo on assignment. I’m not getting through to him and nobody has . . .” He frowned at the empty desk and turned to see Wufei. “What the hell are you doing here?” He snapped.
“I came to meet with Midii.”
Anger flashed through Heero’s eyes. “What the hell did you say to Duo. Did you bother him?” That had to be the reason why he couldn’t get through to Duo. He had known something was wrong when Duo had left early this morning even though they weren’t due in until three.
“No. I came to see Midii.”
“Where is she? Where is Duo? Don’t lie to me, Wufei. I know that you saw him. I know that you have seen him these last few months.” He paced the office anger nearly choking him as he stared at the man that he hadn’t spoken to since their fight three years ago.
“Sit down, Yuy.” Wufei snapped.
“Why. Just tell me where he went. Midii said that she had to speak to me.”
“Sit down, Yuy!” He demanded as he stood. His voice angry as Heero just glared at him and stood his ground.
“Don’t fucking tell me!” He started to let the anger out. His Persian blue eyes darkened so they were nearly as dark as Wufei’s own onyx eyes.
“He’s dead.” Wufei screamed blurting it out. Heero stopped and looked at Wufei, his anger fading instantly as he tried to study Wufei. He tried to figure out if he was telling the truth or not.
“No.” He said softly in disbelief. Hadn’t he just talked to Duo this morning. He had watched as Duo had driven away. They were supposed to meet up here at work to finish their assignment.
Wufei sighed. He hand planned to tell him like that. He had been harsh and thoughtless. No one deserved to find out about anyone’s death that way but Heero wouldn’t have allowed him to talk. He would never have given him a chance. True he had never allowed Heero the chance before. Talking was not exactly the word he would use to describe what passed between them. “I was with Une in this office. He was test piloting a prototype in te field and there was an explosion. When we got there, he was still in the suit and they were trying to open the hatch. The suit was destroyed the metal was jagged and broken it pushed itself into the pit where Duo was and pierced his chest. Pulling the hatch open freed the bleeding and he bled to death before Sally could get to him. We couldn’t stop it.”
Heero sat there as the words tried to filter through his brain. It didn’t make sense. Duo knew what he was doing. He knew how to build suits. He could rebuild anything that he put his hands on, so this made no sense to him. “You’re lying.” He whispered almost desperate to believe Wufei would be heartless enough to tell him something like that. He knew better. He knew that Wufei’s feelings for Duo were too strong to allow him to treat Heero that way.
“I was with him when he died. I was with him when we brought him in. I would say a lot of things to you but not this . . . never this.” Heero stood stunned and then turned and flew out of the room. “Yuy.” Wufei screamed. Midii was coming out of the conference room as Wufei shot into the hall chasing after Heero.
“He took the stairs.” Yuki called out as her boss and the colonel Chang chased after colonel Yuy. She held her hands over the papers on her desk as they moved fast enough to send them flying.
“He’ll be heading to the morgue.” Midii called out wishing that she had never worn heels. All this running was killing her ankles. Wufei bounded down the stairs two steps at a time but no one could keep up with Heero now. Wufei slammed through the morgues door seconds after Heero and saw the other man’s eyes go dull as he caught sight of Duo laid out on the table.
“Heero I’m so sorry.” Sally whispered as she placed her hand on Heero’s shoulder when she left the table where she had been sewing Duo’s wounds. He moved past her and walked over to the table. His hand sliding over Duo’s face. “Hey koi, wake up.” He whispered as his hand swept Duo’s bangs away from his face. His shoulders fell as he felt the coldness of his lovers body. “Duo, please wake up.” He lowered his face against Duo shoulders.
Wufei looked at Midii and Sally and nodded towards the door. With a small nod they left but not without a last look towards the gurney. “It was fast.” Heero asked sadly. He still felt too numb to grieve.
Wufei sighed and walked to the stool and sat down on the other side of the table. “He lingered for about five minutes. He didn’t seem to be in so much pain. He didn’t suffer.”
“Did he say any thing?” Heero begged. He needed to know that Duo had some kind of passing thought about him before he went. Something to get him through this.
“That he loved you. He wanted you to know that he loved you.”
Heero laughed bitterly. “And you. Right? He told you that he loved you.” He sounded as if something had broken deeper inside him then Duo’s death had gone.
“Hai.”
Heero shook his head. “I thought that I could be enough. Spent all these years trying to make it so that he had no regrets. Praying that I would be enough for him and still he runs to you.” He said. “Go on lie to me. Tell me that you haven’t been seeing each other.” His voice dared him to tell him the truth but his eyes begged for him not to.
“Why would I lie to you? I owe you nothing.” Wufei shrugged.
“No, you don’t.”
“I broke it off. Today. We spoke. We had been planning this a while. I would take this position to be closer to him. The problem was I didn’t want to be the other man. I don’t want to sneak around. I gave too much of myself to be limited to that. So I told him we were through. Then I went to see Midii and he was gone.”
Heero laughed. “Ironic that neither one of us was ever enough for him.”
“Duo wasn’t capable of finding anyone that would be enough. He looked for everyone to fill that hole and never found anyone that could.” He stood. “He may not have known how to love just one of us. But he loved us with all that he was capable of giving. That’s enough for me.” He walked away to give Heero the time that he needed. He knew it wouldn’t get easier but at least he could give the other man time alone to say his own goodbyes.