Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Just Communication. ❯ Communication Breakdown ( Chapter 2 )

Just Communication.

Chapter 2.

"The mission is a piece of cake you said." Duo grumbled in a half whisper, "A two hour job tops you said. We won't need Gundams you said; well guess what Heero, you may be a perfect soldier but your clairvoyant abilities stink."

Silence.

"And another thing," Duo continued, "What in the hell were you thinking wearing spandex and a tank top in this weather? I know you like to think of yourself as Mr-Suicide but seriously man there are better ways to go than from turning yourself into a human popsicle."

Silence.

Duo continued unperturbed, "You know it's four degrees Celsius out there don't you Heero? Normal people tend to wear things that actually cover their arms and legs in temperatures like this. You know what normal people are don't you Heero?...you know, the things we pretend to be when we hide out under cover. Jeez for someone who tells me off for drawing attention you sure don't care about sticking out like a sore thumb yourself do you?"

Silence answered him once again, not that Duo was seriously expecting a response. The object of his frustrations was currently lying on the floor of the small dusty storeroom covered in Duo's jacket, strips of green tank top binding a wound on the left side of his head firmly. He had yet to regain consciousness.

Duo sighed in concern and slid over from his seat to check on his friend. "Ne Heero, I think this mission has officially gone to Hell in a hand basket...what'd you reckon?"

Silence.

"Aa, I thought you'd agree with me on that." Duo muttered as he pushed the heavy brown bangs away from the perfect soldier's face in a caring gesture. "Gods man you're freezing, just stay there while I sort something out."

There were sounds of shuffling in the darkness of the small room as Duo moved around to Heero's head. Hooking his hands under Heero's arms he pulled them both backwards gently in the direction of the wall, which separated the two pilots from the main boiler room. The rough un-plastered brick gave off a faint warmth from the room next door although it wasn't nearly enough to banish the chill in the air. After a fair bit of difficult maneuvering, Duo had managed to get himself into a comfortable position, back against the wall, legs on either side of Heero's body and Heero himself pulled up in a semi-reclining position on the braided pilot's chest. Duo's jacket still covered Heero, fending off the frigid temperatures in the small room while Duo's body itself cocooned the Wing pilot in soft warmth. Duo raised a hand and smoothed down Heero's bangs gently before tucking the other pilot's head under his chin. He sighed and suppressed a shiver, not from cold but from worry.

"You know Heero, I really don't like talking to myself so anytime you want to wake up you just go right ahead and do it. Even though you never talk anyway I'd really appreciate a Yuy-trademark death glare or an 'Omae O Korosu' right now. Hell even a groan would do

for me, what'd you say buddy?"

Silence.

Duo closed his eyes in frustration and blew out a breath, ruffling Heero's bangs in the process. The braided pilot was truly worried about his friend, it had been over two hours since the mission had officially gone sour and there hadn't been a single movement from the Wing pilot at all in that time. No groans of pain, no small frowns or flickering of eyelids, nothing at all to show any signs of returning consciousness on the horizon...just this quiet, unnatural stillness, which had Duo's heart pounding in his chest and his vocal cords working overtime in a nervous gesture to fill in the dead silence. It was completely unlike the perfect soldier to be KO'd by a single blow to the head, especially for this long. No...Duo was definitely worried.

He shifted a little on the hard stone floor and wrapped his arms around Heero's body firmly, trying to share as much body heat as possible. A stray thought hit him and Duo's lips quirked into a weak imitation of his usual grin; the whole situation just seemed so surreal, he mused. Here he was, sitting on the floor of an Oz base storeroom hugging the perfect soldier, Mr Antisocial himself, tightly when just five hours earlier he had been in a deep sleep, snugly tucked into his single bed at the exclusive boarding school Bluecoats. He had been warm...bordering on toasty even...not a care in the world, relaxed. Well, as much as a wanted rebel can relax. Now however...

"How did it come to this, ne?" He sighed, thinking back on the mission more from something to keep his mind entertained than from any statistical reasons.

It had all started out so well too.

Infiltrating the base had been ridiculously simple really; just a matter of monitoring the delivery trucks and hitching an impromptu ride on one. The two pilots had clung like parasites to the metal undercarriage of the large, heavy-duty diesel van and had passed through undetected. As the van reached the halfway mark of the drive they had dropped and rolled, seeking cover from the overgrown grass verge close by. The building itself had been a piece of cake to enter; obviously the guards had become lax...trusting in their severe external security measures so much that they believed no enemy would ever get this far into the complex.

Once inside the building it had been easy to locate the data room and sabotage the stored data, adding their own special brand of virus as a final measure to ensure none of the results were ever located again.

And of course that was where it had all gone wrong. The first guard to enter the room had been easy to subdue but Duo hadn't even seen the second until it was too late.

The wooden axe handle had slammed into Heero's temple with a sickening crack and Duo had watched in horror as the Wing pilot dropped to the floor silently. After that his memories were jumbled, he had vague recollections of beating the guard into a bloody pulp but his next really clear thought was of hefting the still form of his fallen comrade over his shoulder and storming from the room.

They had needed somewhere to hide out. Heero's original plan had been to catch a ride out of the base under another delivery van…this was out of the question for the time being so Duo had done the next best thing and searched out a place of safety. The security team would be looking for them soon so he needed to get them both to cover and wait for Heero to wake up.

The small storeroom next to the boilers in the basement of the old building had been perfect. Tiny and dusty, it had obviously not been opened in years and the door was so well concealed that even the Master of Stealth himself had missed it on the first turn. Duo had made Heero as comfortable as he could in the circumstances, tended to his head wound and sat back to wait out the search. That had been over two hours ago now and to put it mildly Duo was bored. Bored and worried, a lethal combination at the best of times.

The braided pilot leaned back comfortably against the wall, hugged the figure of his comrade closer to him, and started out on his favourite method of banishing the silence.

"You got any requests Heero? I'm leaning towards 'This is the song that never ends' right now."

***

What little light there had been in the room had faded and Duo was on his forty-fifth rendition of a whispered "I am Henry the Eighth I am" when Heero made his first signs of returning to the living. An almost silent groan and a slight shifting of his head had been all but it was enough for Duo. The song stopped immediately and the questions began.

"Heero?"

The Wing pilot's head shifted again and Heero's eyebrows drew down in pain.

"Ne Heero? Can you hear me?"

"Nani? Duo?" came the slurred response. Duo grinned widely at the sound.

"Man, I thought you were preparing to sleep for the colonies there. How are you feeling? The guard hit you pretty damn hard, you okay?" He watched over Heero's shoulder as the dark blue eyes flickered open for the first time in hours. There was a dazed look in the navy gaze, which had Duo concerned…although, he argued with himself, you'd be confused too if you'd woken up wrapped in the arms of another person. Taking care not to jostle Heero too much he slipped out from behind the Japanese boy, propping him up against the wall, and knelt down beside him.

"You've been out for practically the entire day, we're still in the base and before you start with the arguing there was no way I was leaving you behind and you're too heavy for me to hold while dangling underneath a moving vehicle. Maybe you could do it but I know I can't." Heero remained staring at the Deathscythe pilot, a strange expression on his normally stoic face. Duo frowned in concern at the look; Heero was being too silent for his liking.

"Ne Heero, Daijoubu desu ka?"

Heero's eyes lit with recognition and he replied in a slightly slurred voice, "Hai, daijoubu."

Duo let out a breath in relief, "Thank the Gods for that. You've had me worried Man; believe me. I was this close to…" he tailed off suddenly as the expression of confusion returned to Heero's face. "Heero, you sure you're ok?"

"Nani?" Was the response. Suddenly though Heero seemed to come back to himself, realization dawned in his eyes and the glance he sent towards Duo held a multitude of questions, the main one being, "Ninmu?"

"Relax," Duo smiled, "Ninmu kanryu."

Heero nodded in relief and glanced around at the room they were in. Duo watched him closely. Something wasn't adding up, there was something weird about this whole situation but he couldn't put his finger on it exactly. The braided pilot opened his mouth to say something then closed it again with a contemplative frown as he continued watching Heero carefully.

The Wing pilot was not as recovered as he was trying to make out; his eyes still carried that dazed aura and his eyebrows were drawn down in obvious pain. Despite all this though Heero was not being idle, one hand bracing himself against the wall he was making a halfway decent effort to get up. Grasping the Japanese boy's free arm Duo slung it over his shoulder and eased the injured boy up the rest of the way. Heero's only reaction was to mumble a practically incoherent, "Itai. Bakayaro, omae o korosu."

Duo's whole body went cold as the stark realization of what was wrong hit him.

Japanese.

It was all Japanese.

He hadn't heard a single English word pass Heero's lips since he had woken. The small, fragile bubble of relief that Duo had been cultivating since the Wing pilot's eyes had opened, burst suddenly and disintegrated.

"Heero, um…" the Deathscythe pilot bit his lip in an effort to keep his rising panic from overflowing. This was ridiculous, he told himself; you're worrying over nothing. Still, best to make sure. He spoke slowly and sounded out each word clearly, trying not to think about how idiotic this whole scene seemed. "Could you do me a favour and speak in English? You know English right? Eng~lish. I don't understand Japanese, Man."

Heero looked up at Duo's face intently, equal measures of frustration, confusion, and annoyance flickering across his features, when he spoke again his voice was still slurred but now raised slightly.

And he still spoke in Japanese.

"Oh shit." Duo whispered as the angry foreign words flowed freely from Heero's mouth. Refusing to let the panic get him just yet he tried again, "English? You know English, Heero? Can you understand me?"

"Nani?" Heero looked downright livid now but it didn't last long as he tried to stand fully by himself, removing his arm from Duo's shoulder in the process. The shift in movement sent pulses of agony racing through his head and he winced in pain. Duo laid a hand on the Wing pilot's shoulder and spoke slowly, sounding out his words carefully and utilizing one of the few phrases of Japanese he knew.

"Heero, daijoubu desu ka?"

"Iie," Heero muttered, "Itai."

"I know, I know." Duo murmured soothingly, "Here right?" He touched his own head just above his left ear, using body language to make the meaning of his words clearer, Heero nodded in agreement, wincing again as the movement sent a spear of pain racing through his skull. Duo took hold of the Wing pilot's arm once more and returned it to it's position over his shoulder, "We're going to get out of this place first Heero ok? You're concussed right now, not thinking straight, that's all. Once we get you home and Sally's had a look at you, you'll be as good as new right? All you need is a decent night's sleep for once." The words rang false even to Duo's ears and he wondered for a second just who it was he was trying to convince.

Heero muttered something in Japanese in a weary tone and Duo nodded, listening more to the way Heero spoke than to what he actually said. "That's right. Just lean on me for now and let me do the worrying. Gods man, you really know how to do a number on yourself don't you?"

"Nani?"

Duo sighed, "Nothing, nothing." Angrily the braided pilot pushed down his feelings of anxiety, he needed to focus right now, there would be time enough for worry later when they got back to the school. Opening the door quietly he peered out into the dark corridor outside. It was clear. "Come on, let's get back to the others."

Without further ado the two pilots left the small room behind them and stepped out, disappearing into the dark corridor like two wraiths, almost as if they'd never been there at all. The corridors of the building were surprisingly empty considering the base had had a major break in just that morning. Still, Duo mused, most of the security would probably be scouring the grounds by now for them and the officials in the building would be too intent on retrieving what little data they could before the virus wreaked it's full havoc to pay attention to the hallways.

It was lax…everything about the place stank of bad management. They deserved to get broken into; it may serve as a wake up call for them.

They reached the outside door with little trouble and Duo paused for a second to adjust Heero's arm over his shoulder. The Wing pilot had lapsed back into silence and that small pit of worry in Duo's stomach was beginning to make itself known again.

Once they were outside the hard part of their escape started. They needed a car, a strong one as most likely they would be crashing the barrier. At this time of night though most of the employees had left and the resulting choice of vehicle was limited to say the least. Duo didn't want to wait long as faint tremors from Heero's body announced that the other boy was beginning to feel the cold.

And it was then that things finally began to go right for the pair. A security guard on the end of his shift arrived at the car park, completely oblivious to the two boys hidden a bare five feet from his position as he lit up a cigarette. He was ridiculously easy to overpower, Duo thought with contempt, but he provided the answer to a number of problems facing the braided teen.

Within a matter of minutes the guard was stripped of his clothing, tied up and gagged effectively. His car was located a few seconds later.

At 2.00AM on 10th October AC195 two weary Gundam pilots left Belvedere House and drove off into the night; one in a state of nervous anxiety and the other wanting nothing more than to sleep his injuries away.

But nothing in life is that simple is it?

TBC……..

Small glossary of phrases:

Daijoubu desu ka? - Are you ok?

Diajoubu - I'm ok.

Nani? - What?

Ninmu - Mission

Ninmu Kanyru - Mission completed.

Iie - No

Itai - Hurts

Omae o Korosu - I'll kill you.

Bakayaro - Idiot.

I know some of these need no translation but I want to be thorough :D