Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ❯ Part Four ( Chapter 4 )

Part Four

Heero grabbed Duo's left arm, now completely covered in fresh bandages. On impulse, Duo made to smack him, but then, as he brought his hand down, remembered his threat and stopped.

"I don't understand...."

"What do you want?" Duo spat.

"I don't understand how you become so injured. What do you do?"

"Nothing. I do nothing."

"Maybe you should."

"If I do, They might realize my potential. I'd rather be in pain than have them notice me."

Heero rose and eyebrow at him as he released his arm.

"Well, I suppose we all have something like that," Heero returned, his face dropping to its usual blank disposition.

Duo watched him curiously as he lay down in bed.

He turned his back to him and Duo gave a small smile.

Maybe.... Maybe he wasn't so bad.

He turned and walked out the door.

~~~

"Okay, Maxwell. It won't be fun if you sit there. This test has to do with fire.

"You will be given a small flame. You must envelop the room with this flame, surrounding yourself with it, but stay alive.

"If you deserve to live, you will."

Duo muttered under his breath, his hand nervously playing with his unbound wrist.

A small flame flickered in the torch near the wall.

He had to do this. Fire scared him and Duo thought they might know this. Who knew what they'd do if he didn't play their game?

Carefully he began to manipulate the air around him, testing it.

'This will be hard,' he thought. 'I need to keep oxygen for myself while giving it to the fire.'

Cautiously he divided the air. He separated the oxygen from the carbon dioxide. He built up a thick wall of carbon dioxide between him and the fire, keeping oxygen rich air on both sides.

Then, breathing very little of his air, he began to envelop the flame with oxygen, making it grow and leap across the walls.

He was a little frightened, but knew fire couldn't thrive without oxygen and he knew there was a gap the fire couldn't cross for he had made that wall of carbon dioxide. Not to mention he could pull all the oxygen from the fire right out of it and it would disappear quite nicely if it got too close.

Finally, all the oxygen was exhausted and the fire died out as he crumpled upon the floor.

~~~

As his eyes shifted open he saw the face of his best friend right above him, big blue eyes shining, face so close that his yellow bangs brushed against his cheeks, tickling them.

"Duo! You're awake!" Quatre cried happily, hugging Duo tight.

"Whoa, whoa...." he whispered, feeling extremely tired. All the muscles in his body felt like they would die right there.

"Sorry," Quatre apologized lightly, releasing him and resting on his knees beside his bed. "How are you feeling? Are you okay?"

"How'd you get in here...?" Duo asked, tilting his head over to look at his friend.

"He told me about you and asked me if I'd like to see you," Quatre whispered, jerking his thumb back to Heero who was leaning against the wall, watching them nonchalantly.

"Heero?"

"Yeah. I wanted to see if you'd be okay."

Duo smiled lightly. "Thanks."

He saw Heero smirk from the corner of his eye and turn his head away.

~~~

"Hey Heero, why'd you do that for me?" Duo asked that night as he tried to fall deeper into the warmth of the pillow.

"I thought you might like to see him."

"That's the only reason? Just out of the blue?"

"He's you're friend. I thought you might like to see him."

Duo realized he was touching on a sensitive subject by the way his voice grated as he spoke, as through speaking through gritted teeth.

"Heero?" he asked again after a few minutes.

"What?" the other replied wearily.

"Why weren't you brought here when you were little? Like most of us? Weren't people scared? Where'd you live before you came here?"

Heero sighed. "I would have never come here, if it had been my choice. Stupid missionaries made me come. I lived a good way from here. Right on the edge of the Rolock Sea. No one in my village cared; I used my Art for good. When people did start caring, I ran. The missionaries found me. End of story."

"Oh. What's it like?"

"What?"

"To...to be free? To be able to go where ever you want on any given day just because you felt like it?"

Heero turned over to look at the other and cobalt met Prussian in a wave of compassion.

"You don't...know?"

"I can't remember," Duo murmured, shame deep in his voice and Heero found that he felt pity for this other boy who hadn't set foot outside the bounds of this prison since he was just a baby. "They hated me so much, if they didn't fear me."

"I...."

"Heero, could you...would you...please.... Would you please maybe tell me...? Tell me what it's like to be outside a fence...? Describe what it's like not to be chained to something...?"

"I'm sorry, Duo," he whispered, unable to believe he actually felt sorry for this person that he had just met. "The beauty of being free is the one thing that no one can describe."

"I thought it might have been something...like that...." he replied, downhearted. "Thank you, Heero, for telling me that. At least.... At least now I have something to look for in the future. Good night...."

He clicked off the little light in their room and it plunged into darkness.

~~~

Duo awoke the next morning to find himself snuggled up against Heero, who was in his bed--!

He screamed and tried to push him out of the bed, but Heero awoke, and although he was a little offbeat from sleep, had managed to keep his ground and not land hard on the floor as Duo wished of him.

"What are you doing?!" he cried, realizing that if Heero wasn't going to get out, he'd scoot back.

So he did.

"Hey.... Calm down.... It's not like I raped you or something," he muttered, rubbing his eyes momentarily. "I wasn't the one who was so deadly scared last night, remember?"

Duo blushed when he realized the whole thing was his fault. He was the one who awoke screaming and begging Heero not to leave him alone in the dark like that.

It wasn't his fault.... The dream was just so real....

He couldn't figure it out, dammit! He couldn't figure out the secret and he couldn't look inside the book!

If he didn't would he...would he truly die encased in fire and shrouded in darkness as he did in the dream...?

"Try to be nice and see what you get...." Heero muttered to himself as he climbed out of Duo's bed. Duo tried not to reach out to keep his warm body close...but he was scared. He was scared of the Visions, he was scared he'd never get out of this Academy, he was scared of what the rising of the sun would bring....

He needed something there, real. Something he could be sure of before he completely lost his footing and tumbled over the edge of the cliff.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done any of that to you...." Duo apologized softly.

Heero sighed a little. "No, it's okay.... You remind...never mind."

"What?"

"Never mind."

"I remind you of what?"

"Never mind, okay?! I don't want to talk about it," Heero shot, turning his back on Duo once again.

"Okay.... I'm sorry...again...."

"Just...just.... Never mind. You shouldn't apologize. You can't help it that that's the way you are," he returned, admitting defeat but not liking it.

"I'm annoying, aren't I? Just like Wufei said...."

"You're not annoying, persay, just...frustrating at times."

"Oh, thanks," Duo replied, sarcasm dripping out of him.

"You'll learn. Just don't ask so many questions. People don't trust other people immediately. Sometimes you have to give a person a little time...." With the latter, Heero sounded more like he was talking to himself, than to Duo, but Duo decided that while on the subject of not asking questions, he wouldn't say anything.

~~~

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Duo cried as he walked up to his two friends. "And when did this little hook-up happen? Or more importantly, why wasn't *I* there?"

Quatre sat between Trowa's legs, a hand resting on his knee, and Trowa's over his, their fingers laced tightly together. Quatre lay his head against Trowa's shoulder and by the looks of it, before he interrupted, they had been feeding each other bits and pieces of their lunches.

"I'm glad you're taking this so well," Quatre observed humblely. "I was afraid--"

"Like hell I'm taking this well!" Duo cried, hands on hips as he looked at them resting in an unnoticed corner of the Courtyard. "My best friend got a boyfriend and he didn't tell me!"

Quatre blushed lightly. "I mean about--"

"Who the hell isn't gay in this place?" Duo asked, kicking the dirt before sitting down across from them. "I haven't seen a woman in so long I'm beginning to think my roommate is sexy."

Quatre giggled a little and squeezed Trowa's hand tighter.

"Well, then maybe I was foolish to have worried, but you must be able to understand."

"Ah, of course, however I always thought you two would make the cutest couple."

"Thank you."

"I hate to crash this party," Wufei muttered darkly as he seemed to once again slide out of the shadows. "I wouldn't start flaunting this. You don't know what They might do." The boys all knew that he meant the Council and the Teachers. "They may separate you just to be mean, They may think it's fun to watch people suffer. They seem to love to inflict pain."

Everyone was quiet and melancholy as they thought about his truly spoken words.

"I...I suppose you're right," Quatre murmured, making to move out of Trowa's warm embrace, but paused, seemingly chained to him. They all read his pouting look which clearly stated 'I don't wanna' before he moved out of Trowa's lap and directly beside him.

Enter Heero.

Duo noticed him limp in, trying to stand straight and tall, even though the bandages around his stomach and up his arms were obvious through the triangle-shaped tunic he wore. No one noticed as he made his way through and sat in the corner directly diagonal of the other four. The brick of the fifty-foot walls grated into his back as he glared at everything around him and sucked in his pain.

"They finally broke him," Quatre murmured when they noticed what Duo was looking at and took it in themselves.

"He did better than the others, though, you must admit. He's a strong one," Trowa stated blandly, brushing his fingers subconsciously across Quatre's hand.

"True.... How long did he last? Almost two weeks...?"

No one answered as Wufei looked down at the ground, having a lot of respect for this other man, though not wanting to show it.

Without another word, Duo stood to walk over to him. His three friends watched after him in surprise as he strode over, head lifted high, on a mission.

Nothing would stand in his way.

He was going to do something he didn't really want to do, but knew he had to.

He sat down next to Heero.

Heero moved his head to the side and uttered in defeat "okay, fine. What do you want? Do you want to rub it in my face?"

"No," Duo replied softly. "I wanted to see if you were okay."

"What is this? Are you mocking me?" he spat, not even having the heart to turn to face his 'enemy'.

"No! I'm not 'mocking' you! Sorry I'm concerned. It's in my nature, I guess. We have to stick together in order to survive. That's the one valuable thing this whole damned Academy has taught me and if this hell-hole can actually teach you something, it has to be something pretty damned important."

Heero didn't say anything to this comment.

"Now, look at me."

Heero refused so Duo jerked his head around and stared into his eyes.

"Tell me you'll be okay."

Heero scowled and stood, brushing him off and limping away.

Duo sighed. "After I thought I brought him out a little, he sinks right back in...."

Wufei walked up to him in the corner and watched his braided head fall into his hand in defeat.

"I can't do it, Wufei. That guy's always gonna be stone, isn't he?"

Wufei shrugged. "I suppose it all depends on how hard They work him. It will either break him to insanity, or make him retreat farther inside himself."

"Well, that's not very happy."

Wufei snorted in disdain. "And when did you decide that things were allowed to be 'happy' here at the Academy?"

~Til Then~