Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The D.C. Saga ❯ The D.C. Saga, Part Twenty-One ( Chapter 21 )

Title: The D.C. Saga, Part Twenty-One

Warnings: Shounen-ai, one little kiss, bonding. No, not bondage, bonding!

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"Heero?"

"Hmm?"

"You go first."

Heero sighed. The puppy barked from the corner they'd set up in the room (Heero had made sure that he had food, water, and some newspaper before they blocked it off, awarding himself a tender smile from Duo), and Duo leaned on one elbow to watch his Japanese comrade carefully.

"Fine. Lay down, then." He held out his arm and Duo was attached to his side in an instant. Heero breathed in the sweet coconut scent of Duo's hair before clearing his throat and taking a deep breath. "Now don't make fun of me because of my accent," he warned. "It gets worse the more I talk."

"I wouldn't make fun of it," he assured him, draping his arm across Heero's muscled abdomen. "I like it."

He scowled darkly. "I don't care. I hate it. So don't make fun of me."

"You have my word."

"All right. The nightmare. Well...Damn. there's a little bit of a story behind it, if you don't mind me going into that."

"Not at all," he breathed, aching with anticipation. Finally, finally Heero would open up to him. At long last, Heero was ready to share a small part of his past.

"Don't interrupt me once I get started or we're going to forget the whole thing."

Exasperated, he exclaimed, "Dammit, Heero, I'm getting gray hairs just waiting for you to even talk! I won't interrupt, I won't make fun of you, I'm just going to lay here very quietly and saying nothing at all. How about that?"

"Sounds good to me."

Duo pinched his side lightly. "Smartass. Talk."

"Fine." Heero's voice rumbled beneath Duo's ear and he listened intently as the boy began to speak. "I started...I think I started really training with Dr. J when I was...maybe around nine years old. I lost the only parental figure I'd ever had, and J found me and asked me if I wanted to pilot. I said yes. I went through intense training, I'm sure you did as well...But Dr. J wanted the perfect soldier, one without emotions. So he proceeded to stamp them out of me.

"I must have been thirteen or fourteen when it happened. It was a routine mission, destroy the base. But I screwed up. I overestimated the amount of explosives and when the mobile suits went off, it set off a chain reaction and sent a suit into a nearby civilian apartment building.

"Wait...I'm getting too far ahead of myself." He pushed Duo away from him and instead curled up at the braided boy's side, plucking Duo's arm and placing it around his own shoulders. Amused, Duo just held him close instead of commenting. "Before that, I'd escaped J for a little while and I went running through the park just outside the lab. It was fun, just to be free for a little while. I think I laughed for the first time in months.

"A little girl was walking her dog and she came over to me. She gave me a flower. Her dog's name was Mary...I don't want to say what she said. Maybe another time.

"Anyway, back to the mission gone wrong. The civilian apartments were decimated, and I was furious with myself." He paused for breath. "Itee...It hurt so badly to see what I'd done. And when I looked around at the wreckage, I found a little puppy, dead. It was her puppy, Mary.

"Duo-kun...I mean, Duo...I don't think I've ever cried in my life, really, but God, I wanted to then. I thought my grief would overwhelm me. I grieved for the loss of her little life, and I felt guilt that it had been caused by my hands.

"Found out Dr. J he...Wait, hold on." He collected his thoughts before continuing. "Dr. J found out. He sent me in for more retraining. Said that a machine didn't need the feelings of grief and compassion, and he wanted them removed from me. After that...I refused to feel again. I never want to go through that retraining process ever. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemies."

Duo, who had been holding his breath for most of the explanation, let it out in a whoosh. Heero cleared his aching throat. "So my nightmare is about that horrible mission and the period after it where I was wiped of my humanity."

He looked very seriously into Duo's wide violet eyes. "For telling you that, I think I deserve to at least touch half of your hair unbraided."

Duo smiled a little. "Let me tell you my story first, okay?"

"Okay."

Duo pushed Heero away from him and curled up at his side. Heero chuckled and looped an arm around him and Duo reached up, touching Heero's hair softly before threading his fingers through the thick, unruly locks, as though using it to keep himself grounded. "When I was young, I lived at a church. There was a nun there that wanted to cut my hair, but I wouldn't let her. One day she braided it. End of story."

Heero blinked. "That's it? I mean, that's all?"

"That's all for now," he said evasively. "I'll tell you more later."

Heero seemed to pout. "I hardly think that is a fair exchange."

"No?"

"No. Not at all."

"Hmm. Let's fix that." Duo sat up and snapped the elastic off the end of his plait, unbraiding it with his fingers. Heero watched with the strangest expression on his face while Duo shook out the long, chestnut-hued locks until the lay in waves across his shoulders, pooling on the mattress at both sides and in his lap. "There. Happy now?"

"C-can I touch it?"

"Well, yeah. That's the reason I took it down." Duo closed his eyes as Heero righted himself, his heart pounding loudly. This was momentous for him, even though Heero couldn't know that. Another human being had never touched his hair unbraided before, not since Sister Helen. His heart was thundering painfully in his chest and he felt rather than heard Heero move closer, felt the heat from his strong, young body.

Felt the supple fingers, delicate now and also deadly when they wanted to be, touch the shimmering locks. Felt those same fingers glide through from top to bottom, over and over and over, repeatedly. Heero was fascinated with the yard-long strands, and after nearly ten minutes, he didn't seem tired of combing.

"Heero?"

"Hmm?"

"Really, why do you like my hair so much?"

"It's just...beautiful. I've never seen anything so incredible."

Duo blushed and looked down at his folded legs, trying not to fall asleep with the rhythmic movements.

"Duo?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you...can you maybe leave it down to sleep?"

"Nah, can't. It gets way too tangled."

"Oh." Heero's hand fell away and Duo chanced a look at him, stifling a smile. Heero looked like someone had just taken Christmas away from him.

"I'll leave it down tonight if you'll be willing to help me brush it in the morning," Duo offered, wondering why he was letting his friend into the most personal of his personal space. Evil thoughts! Evil thoughts! God, I just really want to kiss him right now...BUT I CAN'T! And I won't! No, no, no!

"Of course," Heero said immediately. They settled down again for the night, and D.C. pushed the door open, having come in from a late night stroll. She let Duo know that she was okay by nuzzling the hand he dangled over the bed, then left again. Duo almost told her to shut the door before he realized how silly that sounded.

Crawling out of bed, he shut it himself, forgetting that the house he was in was haunted, forgetting that he'd let Heero Yuy see and touch his unbound hair, forgetting how big of a step of trust that was.

He watched Heero watch him for a moment. Their eyes met and Duo felt something electric, intense, something tender pass between them. No words were needed for what they'd shared. From then on, a little piece of Duo lived inside of Heero's soul, and a little piece of Heero was nestled firmly in Duo's heart. For now...it was good. Not great, not perfect, certainly not what one would call light conversation...but it was good.

And as Duo moved in closer, as he laid down in his friend's arms, as his thoughts twirled around his head, he knew that he would never be the same again.

He drifted off easily enough, listening to the light barks and rustling of the young dog in the corner. He felt lips press against his own, lightly, chastely, and wrote it off as part of his strange dream where he screwed up a mission and killed civilians.

He never knew that Heero had given him his first kiss.

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