Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Never Say Let Go ❯ Chapter 16

Title: Never Say Let Go

Authors: Skeren Dreamera and Hoshi-Tachi

Chapter fifteen

What felt like a long time later, Duo threw himself down on his bed in the Slytherin dorms with a heartfelt groan. "Zechs? Could you do me a favor?" he murmured as he felt the animagus jump up on his bed. "Life-changing revelations are all well and good, but they're kinda hard on a guy. Can we save any more for later?"

Sirius looked around the dorm, which, as it was still lunch, was thankfully empty. He changed back and shook his head as the teenager sat up, alerted by the shifting of the bed when the weight on it changed. "Sorry, but no can do," he said firmly. "There are some questions I really need you to answer."

The young American closed his eyes with a weary sigh, resignation flashing over his face. "What do you want to know?" he asked quietly, laying back down and folding his arms beneath his head.

Sirius hesitated, then plunged on in. "There's a lot of things about you that don't add up. You carry knives up your sleeves, you threaten to blow people up, and you know way too many dead people." Right after he said that, he winced. Damn, but could he be any more insensitive...?

There was silence for a long moment. "My time isn't a very... happy one," Duo finally said, his eyes still closed. "Up until just before I came here, the entire world was at war. My friends and I fought in it."

The Animagus didn’t know whether to be stunned or angry. Do they never learn? If what Duo said was true, then it was beyond frustrating. It was the same thing they were trying to do to Harry! "So you’re a soldier."

The American took in the almost toneless reply. That hadn’t really been what was expected. "No... soldiers have backup. There were five of us, put in charge of the most powerful weapons, and we were told to save the world from more than one army. No, I’m not a soldier, I’m a terrorist."

Sirius sat there for a minute, contemplating those almost... casual words, and felt a rush of rage bury the numbness inside. Those bastards... How could they do something like this to a child? Make him believe himself to nothing more than a, a...

He shook his head helplessly. Damn them... damn them all to the deepest, darkest hells...

The animagus stopped his thoughts, and blinked. No, no, not hell. That was too good for them.

No, Azkaban would be far better a place for them. As he well knew...

Unnoticed, Duo had finally opened dull, cobalt eyes, and was watching him with an utterly blank face. "What are you going to do now?" he asked quietly, and the wizard started, looking up at the teenager. "Run? Scream? Hate me? Or hurt me?"

Sirius stared at him, confused. Hate him? Hurt him? Why would he expect...?

Then it hit him, seeing the hopeless despair in the boy's... no, the young man's jaded eyes. Terrorist. That was what Duo's world had named him.

And you didn't love terrorists. Not even when you were the ones they were fighting for.

Sirius' jaw clenched. He knew what he had to do, now. He had to keep Albus and the Ministry from making Harry into what his heir had become. He had to keep the light in those emerald eyes shining.

And most of all, he needed to help the damaged soul in front of him.

Duo saw the muscles in the older man's jaw tighten, and interpreted them the wrong way. He flinched, and closed his eyes to wait for what was to come. Really, he shouldn't be so much of an optimist, to hope that the ex-convict would understand. No one ever did, except the other pilots. It always turned out the same way...

He wasn't very surprised when a hand took hold of his shoulder and pulled him upright. The wizard had always struck him as the kind who acted for himself, not the kind that ran for help...

And so, the boy was shocked when, instead of feeling a fist impact his face, or his stomach, two arms went around him and held him tight.

He just sort of froze in the man’s arms, and Sirius rubbed a hand over the boy’s back, resting his cheek on top of his head. "I wouldn’t do that to you. You have yet to give me a single reason to do any of those things. I’ll admit the entire knife thing freaked me out a bit, but other than that, you’ve given me no cause to be afraid of you."

Duo stuttered out a breath, somewhat shocked by the utter sincerity in the man’s voice. "But..."

"Shh. I won’t judge you. That’s what you expected me to do, isn’t it?" He eased his hold a little as the boy still just sat there, but didn’t get far before he was being hugged back.

"Easy," he croaked out as he heard ribs creak under the force of Duo's 'attack'. Despite being half-strangled, though, Sirius held him tighter with one arm and freeing the other hand to wind itself into the boy's braid. "It's all right... You're not alone. I won't let you be..."

"Promise?" Duo mumbled into his chest, his voice high and young-sounding.

Sirius nodded, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of the teen's head. "I promise..."

The boy began to tremble in his embrace. "Heero promised, but he still left. We were supposed to stay together, the five of us, but he left... and now I've left..."

"You’ve mentioned him before. Can you tell me what happened?" He made his voice soothing, trying to be sensitive. It wasn’t like he had a lot of practice at it. He made sure the question addressed any and everything the boy wanted to tell him.

Duo seemed to tense a fraction, then just curled into him, closing his eyes. "He died! He survived everything he’d been through just to get sick and die when it was finally peaceful. Then I left... and now I’m here and, and..." He let out a shuddering breath, trying not to cry.

"Sounds like an extraordinary guy," Sirius commented gently, trying to keep him talking now that the joker mask that kept everything bottled up inside had dropped.

The braided teenager nodded, sniffling just a little. "He was. He was my partner. We always did missions together, and stuff... we were the best. No one could beat us, when we were together."

Feeling his back starting to ache, Sirius shifted them around so that he was leaning against the headboard, still clutching Duo to his chest. "So how did you meet?" he asked once they were settled.

He was startled when Duo giggled. "I shot him twice."

"...Huh?"

Sirius felt the boy grin through his robes, and the chestnut head nodded. "I didn't realize he was another pilot... I was just walking along, minding my own business... and maybe planning out how to blow up a stockpile of ammunition... when I saw this guy pointing a gun at some rich little snobby girl. I shot him before he shot her, though I wish I hadn't, considerin' how she decided to follow us around like a little lost puppy afterwards..."

"I take it she was a bit... annoying then."

"You have no idea! I mean, she actually blew our cover a couple of times when she managed to track Heero down at the school he was hiding out in. One time he even used my name to get into a school... I have a feeling she had something to do with it since he wasn’t talking to me at the time. I mean, she managed to locate us more often than the enemy, I’m just shocked nobody considered following her around, really." He paused to take a breath.

"But, Heero resisted the urge to kill her from that point on, which is good, because the girl was actually a princess... I think she was convinced Heero was her knight in shining armor, though I have no idea why. I mean, she yelled at me for saving her life! What kind of gratitude is that?"

"A very odd kind..." Sirius answered absently. Still, it did kind of remind him of how Snape hated James for saving his life... And he had the feeling this Heero was just as dangerous as a fully-transformed werewolf.

Duo nodded, then froze. "Oh, God, why am I talking about Relena, of all people? How did we get there?"

The wizard chuckled, a resonant rumbling deep in his chest. "I think you were talking about the first time you met Heero?"

The teenager took a deep breath. "Right. Um... change of subject?"

"Right. Okay... There were five of you. You’ve mentioned Heero and you. The others?"

Duo relaxed, an amused smile quirking his lips. It was so much easier to talk about the people who were alive and well where he came from. "That boy, Quatre, is one. He’s this blond haired, blue eyed little Arabian. I met him when Heero self-destructed. The bastard scared the crap out of all of us, we were so sure he was dead. But we found out later he was alive. When he came to save me, the bastard. He never let me live it down."

A pause. "But back to the Q. I remember one talk, our first one alone. We ended up talking together. It seems our controllers all had the same thing in mind. ‘Don’t worry about the colonies. Destroy them first. That’s your responsibility.’ It was word for word the same thing he’d been told. I never checked to see if it was the same for the others, but I’m sure it was. Take out the enemy, and the colonies would be fine. Never let them get you. I think Wufei is the only one that never tried to blow himself up... Arrogant little shit. I loved annoying him."

Another pause. "I’m pretty sure Trowa is keeping them from worrying about me. He was the calmest one out of everyone. I think he knew I was taking Heero’s death extra hard. I mean, I was the one put in charge of fixing him. Even with Sally’s help, we couldn’t figure out how to fix it. None of us trusted hospitals..." He stopped talking with a stuttered breath.

Sirius was only listening with half an ear by this point, as he went over those words in his mind. The words themselves seemed almost... innocent- at least, compared to what they meant for five children.

You don't matter. Your anger, your pain, your grief, they don't matter... As long as you bring back the enemy's head on a platter.

He shivered, unconsciously holding on even tighter to the still-rambling boy in his arms. Well, there's be none of that here. Not if he had any say in it.

Though Sirius had the feeling that what he said wouldn't matter much, if Albus realized there was a ready-made weapon to toss down Voldemort's throat residing beneath his roof.

Duo seemed to catch on to the silence and finally reigned himself into a stop after babbling about his time on the moon with Wufei, and how he’d asked him to stay with him until the end there. He peered up at Sirius in silence, trying to comprehend why he was so quiet.

The dark-haired wizard had an introspective, almost worried expression on his face, and seemed completely unaware that he was being watched. Duo looked at him for a few more seconds, then, following a half-formed whim, reached out and tapped him on the nose.

Sirius blinked at him, startled out of his thoughts. "What was that for?" he asked, slightly incredulous.

The American shrugged unrepentantly. "You were thinking too hard. That's bad for you, ya know."

"Why does everyone always say that? I don’t think and they call me insane, I think and they call it unhealthy!" He let his thoughts fall from his mind for later speculation. "I call things like that a conspiracy."

Duo smirked. "Nah. It's only a conspiracy if there's a point to it. Like if we really were trying to drive you crazy."

"Well, it's working, intended or not..." Sirius grumbled. It surprised both of them when his stomach seemed to agree with him with a rumble of its own.

The teenager blinked. "Oh, right, it's lunch time, isn't it?" he commented bemusedly, only then feeling similar pangs of his own.

Sirius nodded, and Duo quickly stood, hiding a faint blush as he realized he hadn't even remembered he was still sitting in the man's lap. "Well, come on, then. Let's see if we can still grab something." The longhaired boy started towards the door, but paused and looked back when he didn't hear anything behind him.

The animagus was still lying on the bed. "Hey, aren't you coming?"

Sirius grimaced, glancing downwards. "I would, but... I think my legs are asleep."

To be continued.