Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Helping Hands ❯ Part 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Okay, to get this out of the way, no, I don't own them and I do tend to switch point of view throughout the story. I do own Katherine, and I hope she surprises you, at least a little. Oh, and this chapter is, again, short, but the next one is almost 3 times longer. It's lemon/lime flavored so, go figure. Next one, not this one. Sorry, you have to wait one more part. ^_^ Okay, on to the story!

Helping Hands part 6

The next morning, Duo woke up with a start. Blinking sleepily, he tried to get his tired mind in gear and working again. He almost fell out of bed as memories of the previous night came back to him.

"The ghost! We really saw the ghost! I don't remember anything after that, so I must have passed out. I can't believe I did that. And...Heero." Duo sighed. "Oi, Heero, what am I going to do about you? I may be in love with you, but I can't ever tell you that. You can barely tolerate me most of the time, even if you are supposed to be my best friend, so I'm pretty sure you'd never be able to feel for me the way that I feel about you. Take into account the fact that we're both guys and it's pretty hopeless. You're hurting inside, though, and that hurts me. I wish you could just tell me what you need, but I know that that will never happen. You go on and help the ghost, Heero. I'm gonna find a way to help you. I love you too much to just stand by and let you suffer."

Still talking to himself, the braided boy got together some clean clothes and headed into the bathroom for a shower. He never noticed the cold spot in the corner of the room where Katherine stood, listening.

Katherine had spent the rest of the night playing around in Heero's dreamscape. She had found that, if left alone, his dreams were full of death and destruction. It had been very difficult for her to turn his dreams into anything pleasant, until she had an idea. Insert Duo into the dreams. With Duo present, Heero had been quite willing to dream of something other than death and destruction.

Katherine had been very amused to find that anytime the dream had the potential to become somewhat erotic, Heero had shied away, resisting the idea. Not because he hadn't wanted something to happen, but because he was so certain that Duo would reject him that he wouldn't even allow it to happen in his dreams.

The ghost stood in Duo's room for a while, thinking. Concentrating on the two pilots allowed her to temporarily ignore her own loneliness and kept her focused on the present, instead of being locked into the past. In life, her personality had been very similar to Duo's, and the spirit decided that it was time for her to start acting like the person she had once been, instead of the tragic ghost she had become.

Heero was trying to help her, Duo was trying to help Heero, and she wanted to do something to help them both. It didn't bother her that they were both boys. They were in love and they had had so much pain and sadness in their lives that she was determined to help them acknowledge their love and, hopefully, find a little happiness. Hadn't somebody once said that you could never have too many helping hands? She smirked and began planning as Duo came out of the bathroom and headed downstairs to look for Heero.

He found him in the dining room, sitting at the table, with papers scattered everywhere. He was attempting to plot out a search pattern that would cover the entire house as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

Heero looked up as Duo entered the room. "Quatre contacted me. He and Trowa will be joining us in two days. Wufei already has another mission and will be gone for at least a month." That said, Heero turned his attention back to the papers on the table. Duo shook his head silently and went into the kitchen to get some breakfast before joining Heero in his search. He knew Heero would expect him to help, and he had no objections. Searching the house would give him time to come up with a plan of his own to help Heero.

The day passed uneventfully, with the two boys searching different areas of the house, following the plan that Heero had drawn up. By evening, Duo had regained his customary good cheer. Heero had prepared them a simple meal and he ate silently while Duo chattered away about the house and several interesting items he had seen while searching for the journal.

After dinner, Duo did the dishes and Heero checked his laptop for messages. Not finding any, he rejoined Duo, and the two played cards for a time, discussing their planned search areas for the next day, and chatting idly. At least, Duo chatted. Heero mostly sat and listened, only occasionally making a comment in response to something Duo said.

Katherine stood in a corner of the room and watched the two interact. It was obvious that they were friends and partners, following an established, comfortable pattern in their relationship. It was equally obvious, at least to their unseen observer, that neither of them was happy with simple friendship, and that neither of them would do anything to change the way things stood between them. Both boys were very careful not to bring up anything even remotely personal as they talked.

Katherine frowned at Heero and continued to watch them as she considered different ways she might be able to get them to open up and really talk to each other. Heero's dream self had been much more open and animated with the dream version of Duo, so she hadn't realized just how difficult it might be to get Heero to talk to Duo about his feelings. Heero dropped most of his protective walls in his dreams, so it was too bad that Duo couldn't see that side of him. Or could he?

Still unseen, the ghost began to grin as Heero and Duo packed up the cards and went upstairs. They said good night and went into their respective bedrooms, with Katherine following Heero into his room. She thought of several possible scenarios as she waited patiently for Heero to fall asleep, finally settling on one particular scene that she had seen in Heero's own mind. She hoped that its familiarity would relax Heero even further. Enough so that he would either talk about his feelings or act on them. Katherine's grin turned decidedly wicked. After 300 years of celibacy, she was hoping to see some action!

Eventually, Heero fell asleep. "Oh, goody," the ghost whispered softy. "Showtime!"

tbc...