Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Heresy ❯ Hating Scars ( Chapter 5 )

Warnings and Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. :sighs: oh well…

 

Contains blood (and lots of it!!!), knife-fighting, shounen ai/yaoi (1x2), language, some ridiculous worrying

 

Heero takes a knife to the chest and Duo is locked in a life-or-death struggle with the guy who did it.

 

Hating Scars

 

Duo Maxwell never thought he would live to see this. He was pretty sure no one would ever see it happen. How could someone manage to surprise Heero Yuy? Not just any surprise. Not a nice, happy surprise like a birthday party or something. A bad surprise. A very unpleasant surprise. A knife in the heart kind of surprise.

 

They weren't even on a real mission; they were just helping another team of Preventers round up a few druggies on a colony. It was an informal kind of thing. Just a casual, regular kind of thing. But they should have known better. Known it was too quiet in this warehouse. An unnatural, tense silence. Like someone was just waiting for them to come in.

 

But they didn't think anything of it. After all, they were ex-Gundam pilots. Surely they could handle a few addicts? Maybe not.

 

The attack was so sudden that Heero didn't do anything. Couldn't do anything. One minute it was quiet; in the next moment, a knife was heading toward his heart. It was almost inhuman how fast it was. So fast that Heero saw it coming but didn't do anything. He couldn't move. He just watched it come toward him. Watched it enter his heart. That was when he finally moved. It wasn't voluntary.

 

Duo watched in horror as his lover fell, a knife buried to the hilt in his chest. A spray of blood followed him down. It wasn't slow-motion like he would expect something so dramatic like this to be. One minute Heero was standing, the next he was flat on his back on the floor. Not moving.

 

Duo's instincts quickly took over and he stared hard into the darkness, his mind already having calculated the angle and direction from which the knife came. Even though he couldn't see the person who threw the knife in the darkness, he knew that he was looking directly into that person's eyes. He knew that they were right-handed and almost certainly male, based on their height. And he knew that while he himself was good at throwing knives, he wasn't that good. The thought of how well this guy could throw almost made him tremble. But then he remembered his lover, lying on the ground hurt. Or dead. He couldn't even take the time to check. Because, in the time it would take him to glance at Heero, he would most likely meet the same fate.

 

So he stared into the person's eyes until he felt a waver of that person's attention, then he dodged, down and to the right slightly. He knew it wasn't enough for the knife to completely miss him, but it was enough. The knife sliced into the flesh of his left shoulder instead of burying itself in his heart. It was time to get moving.

 

Duo knew he couldn't beat this guy in a throwing match, so he ran straight at him, hoping to catch him off guard like he'd caught Heero off guard. He knew he hadn't succeeded when he saw several flashing silver objects heading his way. He dodged them, not even getting another scratch. He realized that the person had thrown in a panic and was grateful for it. Because now he was in the guy's face and there was no chance that the guy could throw something at him. Duo grinned at the slight surprise on the guy's face. Then he plucked one of the knives out of the guy's fingers and swiftly brought it toward the guy's neck.

 

The guy wasn't just good at ranged attacks like Duo had been hoping. He knew how to fight up-close and personal as well. The guy dodged with a split-second to spare and had another knife almost to Duo's neck by the time Duo could bring his left arm up to block it.

 

Blood spurted from his arm, a few drops spraying across both of their faces. Duo was starting to doubt he would get out of this alive.

 

But in a crazy, irrational part of his mind that he kept under lock and key, he was worried about something else. Something that it didn't make sense for a warrior to worry about. The man had just scarred him. He had just received another scar.

 

That crazy part of him was really upset. He remembered what his lover had said a long time ago. While sitting on a bed talking to each other, Heero had mentioned how much he loved Duo's skin. He loved it that Duo had so few scars. Duo had noticed how often Heero would tell him to take his shirt off so that he could run his hands over Duo's smooth stomach. He didn't touch his back. His back that was scarred from falls, beatings, and stabbings. Duo noticed this and increased efforts from then on to avoid getting anymore scars. That crazy little part of him freaked out every time he got a paper cut.

 

What if Heero didn't love him anymore?

 

It seemed so stupid to think about, when his life was in danger and Heero's may have already ended, but he couldn't help it. If the improbable happened and they both made it out of here alive, Duo would have at least one more scar. Would Heero decide that it was one scar too many and leave him? Would he be disgusted and not want to look at him anymore? Would he lose the one thing that made his life worth living?

 

Duo's hands shook as he looked at the blood covering his arm. Would he lose his love forever? He heard a groan behind him and knew that Heero was alive. Instead of making him feel better, he felt worse. Worrying about this was stupid. He had to get Heero to a hospital soon. And in order to do that, he had to defeat the enemy that was in front of him. Screw the consequences.

 

Regaining his resolve, Duo brought his left arm up to guard and his right arm up to strike. He dodged a few blows and returned a few of his own. Eventually, they got into a rhythm. Duo would lash out with his right hand, while the guy would either dodge or block with his left arm; then the guy would strike with his right hand while Duo either dodged or blocked. The left arms of both men were covered in cuts and blood within a minute. But they kept going.

 

Duo knew that the guy was just waiting for him to falter. For him to show weakness. Then he would strike. Duo didn't show weakness. So they kept going. Duo started noticing that his opponent's eyes kept glancing toward Duo's right hand. Like he was expecting Duo to make the move to end this. Duo decided to surprise him.

 

Instead of striking first, he dropped his left arm slightly, giving the guy a prime opportunity to strike. The guy took it without hesitation. Duo knew it was an instinctive move - the guy hadn't planned it. He would even venture to say, based on the surprised look on the guy's face, that he hadn't wanted to do it. Duo smirked, even as the knife slammed into his chest, above his heart.

 

The surprise on the guy's face increased when Duo's left hand came up to hold the knife in place while his right arm moved from his side. Duo moved it across his body slowly. In an explosion of movement, Duo sliced through the air, his arm a blur as it moved from his left side back to his right. Duo's opponent could only watch while the knife in Duo's hand came straight toward his throat. Duo smiled, Shinigami coming out to play, when the knife tore through the man's neck, savagely ripping it open. One clean, deep slice through the neck. It was so deep that Duo could see the man's spinal cord. He smiled again.

 

Blood covered their faces and necks. Their left arms and Duo's hand were dripping it. The carpet beneath their feet soaked it up greedily. Duo watched the life die in the man's eyes before the body fell with a thump to the floor. Duo breathed out loudly, trying to dispel the rush of adrenaline moving through his body. It was a mistake.

 

Pain gripped his chest as the knife wound let itself be known. Duo couldn't believe he'd forgotten, however temporarily, about being stabbed. But he had, and now he remembered. His arms came up to cradle his chest, but the cloth of his shirt rubbed the wounds on his left arm and he could only moan harshly as he fell to his knees, his arms at his sides.

 

He heard a quiet noise behind him and turned around slowly, conscious of his injuries. Heero was dragging himself toward him with his right arm. He left a trail of blood in his wake. Duo cried out, too worried about Heero to be able to form words. Duo stood up without using his hands, putting his weight on his knees before pushing off with his toes and the balls of his feet. He staggered slightly from the effort before stumbling toward Heero. He fell to his knees again when he was next to him.

 

“Baby! Stay still! You're hurt.” He reached toward his lover with his left hand without thinking. He flinched at the pain and let it fall to his side before reaching with his right hand to stroke Heero's cheek as he lay on the ground.

 

Heero opened his eyes, not realizing he had closed them, and looked at Duo. “Baka.” He said affectionately. “You're hurt just as badly as I am.” He started to smile, but faltered when a tear slipped down Duo's face. He'd never seen Duo cry. He didn't know what to say.

 

“Oh, baby. I'm so sorry.” Duo sobbed weakly.

 

Heero felt a stab of alarm. “Duo?! What's wrong?!” Heero was relatively certain that neither of their wounds were fatal, at least as long as they got to a hospital soon, so he didn't know what could possibly make Duo upset enough to cry. Duo didn't cry. Even when he thought he was going to be executed, or when there seemed to be no hope of winning Duo never gave up. So why…

 

“Do you hate me now?” Duo finally managed to gasp out.

 

Heero could only stare in confusion. “Why would I hate you?” He asked, surprised.

 

“Because I have more scars now! You always said how much you hate scars and now I have even more!” Duo thrust his left arm toward Heero, showing him the deep, ugly cuts in his skin.

 

Heero relaxed, glad that it wasn't something to worry about. He reached out and gently held Duo's hand. Then he pulled himself into a sitting position, even as Duo protested that he should stay on the floor. He pulled on Duo's arm until Duo had to move closer. He used his other hand to gently grasp Duo's chin, forcing Duo to look into his eyes. Still looking deep into those liquid jewels, he brought his lips to Duo's arm, kissing the worst cuts gently so as not to hurt the braided boy.

 

Duo's eyes sparkled with more tears and Heero was about to say something to soothe him when Duo bent down and kissed him gently on the lips. Duo knew that Heero could feel all of his thanks and love, so he didn't say anything as he pulled back. Heero's eyes were closed, and there was a beautiful smile on his lips. Along with a smear of blood.

 

“Ew! I can't believe you just kissed my arm! My bloody arm! And then I kissed you! Argh! Disgusting!” Duo complained loudly.

 

Heero just smiled and Duo soon joined him. They were smiling and wiping the blood off of their lips when the medics came in.

 

Owari.

 

A/N: This probably isn't as good as it could have been, but thank you for reading it and I hope you like it! If you did like it, review!