Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ How to Be Dead ❯ Dizzy ( Chapter 9 )

Part 9 "Dizzy"

Heero did not recall falling asleep on the couch in the living room of a man he’d first met while lying on a cold metal table, but indeed that was where he woke up sometime later. Darkness had reclaimed the awfully silent apartment, and the dead body woke to the sight of a moonlight-painted closed door and no trace of the morgue worker. His entire body ached, though it was not from coming back from the dead. For a few moments, he only blinked quietly, confused as to where his host had disappeared in the dead of night.

Maybe he knows, his mind told him. He left you, he was so terrified. As does everyone else.

"It’s to be expected," Heero muttered gloomily to himself. Finally, he let out a groan of a sigh and took the effort to lift his head up from the pillow on the couch ever so slightly, ignoring the constant ache running through his veins. He lifted his arm to run his fingers through his ragged hair, and found it weighed down by a blanket, this one clean of any blood.

That he did not remember either—the last image he had before the blackness of sleep was that of Duo standing next to him, after he’d handed him a pillow, telling him in a voice that was already sounding distant and dreamy that he didn’t look so hot, that maybe he should seriously consider crashing with him for the night. And then, bliss of ignorance. Now that he was awake this monstrous affliction was brought painfully back to his attention.

With another groan of pain, he was attempting to lift his pained and rather empty body when the door swung open and brought with it Duo Maxwell’s distinct silhouette in the golden square of light. He held a brown paper bag to his chest as he swung the door shut behind him and slung the lock.

"Ha. You’ve got impeccable timing, you know that?" he chuckled at him through the darkness. The lights came on momentarily, again filling the room with the comfortable candle-like cast. "Time for dinner. You just wake up?"

"Aa," Heero grunted, sitting up and scratching less-than-delicately at his disarrayed head of hair. He guardedly watched Duo, though, while he put the brown paper bag on the island and began extracting the take-out meal, filling the small apartment with the warmth and aroma of freshly cooked, hot and greasy food. It was a pity that it was not what for which he hungered so.

"Hope you like cheeseburgers and fries, because fast food and donut shops are the only things open at this god forsaken hour," he said casually, as if Heero were someone he’d known his whole life long, and grinned out at him, sitting in his living room, painted by the soft light. When he didn’t give the slightest response, Duo’s mouth slung downward in a grimace. "Fuck. You’re a vegetarian?"

Heero stared back at him, motionless for a few moments, until his face betrayed him and he actually snorted and smiled in amusement. It was an actual, textbook smile—movements of both lips into an upward curve of at least ten degrees, and it was as if someone had flipped on a billion-watt bulb in the room to Duo, though it wasn’t unpleasant on the eyes in the least.

"No," Heero said quietly, shaking his head. "Not at all."

"Well, than get your lazy ass over here and eat!" Duo told him firmly, turning around to snatch up some clean plates from the very back of the cupboards. "I didn’t pay for you to just sit there and ogle your dinner!"

Considering what he really was, and how oblivious the morgue worker seemed to be to that fact, the comment was tantalizing in a very excruciating way, as Heero inevitably found his eyes drifting toward his host’s exposed skin on his neck and even his wrists, his body filled with an empty ache. He let out a breath before forcing himself to stand up despite his lame leg and gingerly hitch his way into the kitchen.

Heero felt odd, dressed in Duo’s clothes, sitting in his kitchen, and slowly eating the dinner he’d brought home for him, and simultaneously wanting nothing more than to throw him down on the counter and sink his teeth into his hot, thick, pulsing veins and suck him numb—but that wouldn’t be very polite. And after scaring the living hell out of him, causing him to have a minor heart attack and induce a mild concussion, choking him until he passed out, and causing him to run over a hapless young man with his car, Heero was suddenly concerned about being somewhat tactful.

It seems a little late for that, doesn’t it? Hunger hissed at him, resentful that it had to settle for some second-rate, cholesterol-doused French fries. Come on, one little nip. He wouldn’t even feel it in the morning…

But Heero couldn’t do that. And with every bite of greasy burger, he only felt his true hunger deepening. It was a much stronger want, burning in his bones and howling through his veins. Needless to say, this hunger was not going to be satisfied by a stomach full of warm food.

"So, Heero Yuy," Duo drawled at him from across the island, spinning his fork idly through the remaining pasta on his plate, "how old are you?"

"Can the questions wait until after we’ve eaten?" he asked wearily. His eyes were fixed on the blood red tomato sauce drenching the fettuccine noodles.

"No way in hell, bud. I want some answers now. I fixed you up, as promised, so now it’s time for you to hold up your end of the deal."

"Fine." His enthusiasm soared.

"Besides, you’ve done nothing but stare at me since I got back, and I’d like to ask my damn questions, and get you the hell out of here," he continued, casually taking a swig out of the soda sitting beside his plate, as if it were the most commonplace thing to say.

A nerve twitched in Heero’s brow at that, and he hid the downward movement of his mouth by concentrating on the chunk of dry beef in his mouth. See? He wants you out of here more than you do, so just do it and leave. He’d be no worse off. Just sore afterwards. He seems like he may even enjoy it.

"Shut up!"

"Excuse me?" Duo asked, sitting up rather rigidly, giving him a pointed look.

Heero hesitated, realizing just how loud his inner hunger was becoming if he was forced to snap at it to drown it out. To ignore the temptations it whispered to him, coaxed him toward. And the morgue worker was staring at him and the way the soft light fell over his face had the most peculiar effect on him. He simply bit his tongue and hoped his own face betrayed nothing. It had been a flawless defense before, but somehow it began to wither beneath his violet-eyed stare, baring him open.

Duo twisted his head to point one eye at him. "How old did you say you were again?"

"About your age," he said calmly.

"Uh huh." The answer obviously didn’t make him happy in the slightest. "And where do you come from?"

"Just the other side of town," Heero again answered nondescriptly.

"And why were you dead tonight, exactly?"

"A very good question. I don’t see why I had to die."

Heero resisted a smirk at the crumpled and severe look he received. But rather than steam openly at him, Duo’s face smoothed with a bright smile, showing too many teeth. "And I’m the one to bring you back to life and you act like I’m the shit that had the nerve to smear on your fucking royal foot. That’s rather curious to me, as well."

Heero blinked at him.

See? Hates you. What’s there to loose if you just take a little taste and leave? One, innocent taste—

No!

I won’t!

The corpse only stared quietly in return, and finding it so excruciating just to keep a perfectly emotionless face after that painful thought—so much so he was temporarily oblivious to his overwhelming need to feed—he decided that there was nothing that could be said. He simply stood up and let his eyes drift down to the plate of unfinished food before him.

"It’s about time I left, anyway," he bid coldly.

He hoped he sounded nothing but indifferent, but somehow it wasn’t how he felt, knowing that he’d be returning the cold streets. "Thank you," he mumbled once he had turned around, preparing to stalk back out down the corridor, down the stairs, and out the door in Duo’s clothes, still in the bandages he’d administered, and slinking away into the night.

"Wait a minute, now," Duo sighed in a blustery tone. Heero heard his chair scrape against the floor as he stood up and walked after him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Hold it right there. I didn’t mean to scare you off, for god’s sake! Listen, I’m a real asshole when I’m in a bad mood, all right? I’m sorry. But it doesn’t help when you decide to join the jackass society, too—no, I’m sorry about that too… Sometimes my mouth just runs off with me, ya know." He chuckled half-nervously. "Jeeze, man, don’t just split on me like that."

Heero hadn’t turned around yet. He was staring quite fiercely off into the shadowy depths of the room, eyes widening, jaw setting tightly. A hot, blood-filled hand lay on his shoulder, burning straight through his skin into the shrieking hunger just beneath. Fuck. This is not good, he thought, while his mind was going white and out of control.

"Come on," Duo’s voice was coaxing him, sounding rather apologetic now that the dead body had gone for the door. "Don’t storm off. I’ll cut the questions, okay? ‘Was only trying to get my head around you, all right? I wouldn’t mind having someone to talk to for a while who’s as… well, let’s say as interesting as you."

He chuckled to himself but quit abruptly, now just noticing that Heero had shut his eerie blue eyes tightly and his lips were curling back around his teeth in a pained grimace.

"Yo, Heero? Something wrong?"

The dead body was as tense as an elevator cable beneath Duo’s hand for a taut second, before he heard him whisper, his head of tousled brown hair turned away, "Sorry for what I’m about to do in advance."

He glanced around skeptically once, wondering if Heero were speaking to actual voices or just ones residing in his rather pretty dead head. "Well, that’s nice of you, but what the hell are you talking about?"

Faster than Duo could even register it, the corpse had turned around and promptly threw a fist into his face.

The force knocked him backwards so hard the air escaped cleanly out of his lungs in one fell blow and he was on his back the next moment he could see somewhat clearly, already sensing his lip was split wide open along with a trickle coming down from his bruised nose. Along with that pleasant sensation, something else was descending up on him, and this one had a pair of long, perfect legs in his old blue jeans and was hungrily crawling up, flush against him. It was all Duo could to do to give the expected gasp of surprise before Heero had pressed his mouth against his, sucking on his bleeding lip. After the burst of movement, the entire body pressed against of him seemed to sigh in relief, and Heero moaned into his mouth, flattening closer to him.

If you’re ever going to be assaulted, this is the way to go, Duo’s mind told him slyly, and inducing the returning sound he gave to the dead body’s… well, dead body giving tiny sparks of friction as he seemed to try and melt directly into his body heat.

Duo’s hands were allied, though, with the rational and currently very bewildered part of his mind. He instinctively tried to push the corpse off of him, but only found themselves on his hips, unable to move them an inch if they truly didn’t want to be, and making the predicament a thousand times worse (but, according to the sly voice in his head, so much better). He dug his fingers into Heero’s side as he did his best not to moan, and therefore invite the corpse to do more.

He finally got his air again when Heero’s mouth left, but kept possessively close to his skin as he tilted his head up. His quickened breath ran across Duo’s face, his body shifted against his as he moved to lick up the slow stream of red from Duo’s bruised nose. And as aroused as he felt he was becoming, Duo had to admit his breath reeked off burger grease and something he feared might be ode de rodent, and that wasn’t attractive in the least. He opened his eyes, Heero’s bangs falling over them, and stared up at in very close proximity at the corpse that was licking the front of his nose, readily sucking up the blood there.

All he could think of at the time to say was, ‘Hey, don’t eat the snot,’ and in hindsight, it would have been the most ridiculous thing possible if he had had the breath to do so. A strange man had physically assaulted him, was very literally sucking his face, and was on his way to doing god knew what, and the first thing he could come up with was a warning not to ingest any of his nasal mucus.

His tongue stopped where it had been on his cheek, lapping hungrily at a spot of blood he’d missed, and Heero stared at him quite abruptly, as if he had been the one to throw them to the floor. Duo found himself dry of any remark whatsoever looking into those blue eyes, the stain of his own blood decorating his slightly agape lips. That’s when he felt the corpse distinctly mouth the words, "Oh, shit," and his rather compelling position was quickly revoked.

He had stood up before Duo even knew it, and he bolted up as well, breathless. His heart was throbbing somewhere in the vicinity of his upper mouth and he felt like he’d been pumped full of electrifying acid, burning through him. Well, rape isn’t normal for the firstdate, but that wasn’t so bad…

Heero had already issued his apology, luckily, because he seemed too shocked by what he had done to issue it now, and he momentarily looked down at Duo, the fresh nosebleed resuming down the front of his face, pooling in his lips, and then staggered backwards. He had meant to turn and run, but the back of his legs had hit the coffee table and he was thrown backwards by his own alarmed momentum—with a thud loud enough to wake the dead, coincidentally.