Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Sea in I ❯ XXVI ( Chapter 26 )

07/13/11-Sorry yall. I thought I had posted everything here as well. Thanks phenix237, here's the rest. And yep I finished it ^_^

AN: So I figured it out in my grogginess-icky-zoombiness, there's no part b ^_^ just the next chapter. I was wracking my brain trying to figure it out and it comes to me when I'm sick. ^_^

I've hinted at it but realize I never actually explained when it is they are supposed to share blood. Blood bond - a part of their marriage ceremony where the bonded pair, who are of age, takes the blood of their betrothed into themselves. It's usually a small cut on the ring finger and both suck on the others' finger at the same time. They can only have children with their partner and if they need help controlling their powers or need to be suppressed, only their partner or a member of their partner's family can help them. In the beginning, Jirrad and others abused this, forcing their blood on others who were not bonded and killing those they couldn't control.

To those just joining us looking for the beginning

Italics ~ thoughts

Warnings: Angst, death, violence, blood sharing?


Pairings: 1x2/2x1, and the pen dabbles around a bit

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Disclaimer: I don't own any of the sexies in Gundam Wing AC, I just love to h elp them live a little.
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He had failed again.

Unexpectedly, he felt arms around him, holding him and easing him down. The plush grass became withered and the ground became rough and dry beneath him. Then the grass was pushing at him as it re-grew and teased his sensitive ears. Heero forced his heavy, blearily eyes open and found Duo pulling at the straw weaving on a basket. Heero blinked curiously, while pink frothy bubbles came out of one of his nostrils. He was drowning and he didn't understand how. He hadn't been near any water, but the distress of the thought was fading.

Heero blinked slowly on his next cough, the building pressure and dead-weight in his chest had become unbearable. All he wanted to do now was close his eyes, but he didn't want to lose sight of Duo again. So he struggled to keep them open, his lashes fluttering until his vision grayed out. Heero's last glimpse of his bonded was his suddenly emotion filled face and the glint of something in Duo's hand.

Then there was a hard, persistent pressure to his numb side and a sharp, needle-like but fleeting jab of pain and the pressure in his chest became lighter. Muted light broke through the gray clouding his vision, before the gray haze faded away and he could see a blurry profile. Heero heard a strange low, wet popping whistle nearby. He choked, trying to alert the person he realized was Duo about the strange sound, but he couldn't breathe.

“Shh,” Heero heard near his ear, the simple sound soothed his mind. Then he felt the straining burn on his right lung ease as cold hands pressed against the skin on the right side of his chest and slowly slid across to his numb left side. Something in his chest shifted along with the movement and the numbness of death was replaced with bright, hot pain.

Heero's head snapped backward, smacking painfully into the ground despite the plush grass beneath him. His screams were garbled and gargled when they burst from his open mouth as unrestrained tears streamed from the corners of his wide eyes. Heero choked and jerked, his eyes seeing nothing as broken bone mended and snapped back into place, careless of the tissue and muscle it tore to correct itself. The pain from the damaged and torn muscles lessened but never faded until there was only one sharp piercing pain in his left side. The needle sharp pain persisted, agitating his lung every time it tried to expand.

Heero jerked when the needle was suddenly yanked out. He tried to curl in on himself to protect his side, but a cold hand quickly covered the wound, soothing away the pain. Heero gasped desperately for breath, and then he felt himself being turned fully on to his left side despite the newly healed bones' and tissues' protests and promises of pain. He jerked up, staying on his left side but resting on his elbow, his side arching away from the ground like it was on fire.

The pain grew when he turned his head to vomit, coughing up more blood and bright pinkish phlegm than the air he was trying to inhale. He continued to heave until all he hocked was thick, clear spit. He took large gasping breaths that filled his lungs until they protested and his chest expanded its full capacity with a teeth grinding soreness.

Heero's lips thinned as he concentrated, resisting the pull of shock and regulating his breathing until finally his heart calmed. He could breathe without having to put thought into controlling it. He blinked glossy, unseeing eyes open and inhaled cautiously. He felt only the strain, soreness and the ache from vomiting as well as the left side of his chest. Heero blinked, his eyes clearing when he met dark eyes a mixture of violet and a blue so dark, it looked nearly black.

“D-D…” when his voice failed him, Heero shakily pushed himself up to a sitting position and buried his hand in Duo's messy hair. The movement was clumsy and rough. He was certain he pulled Duo's hair more than once, but Duo didn't speak or try to remove his hand. Heero watched the swirl of color in the dark orbs and kept moving forward until they were nose to nose. He inhaled his bonded's scent, his lips faintly brushing against Duo's cold, soft and motionless ones.

“D-Duo...” he winced, his throat was so dry and raw it even hurt for him to whisper, but that was all he could do for now. “Duo, stay with me.” He touched his lips to Duo's, putting all that he was feeling into the firm but gentle action.

Duo jerked, stiffening beneath his hand. Heero quickly clamped down on the hurt and anger that flared up by Duo's reaction. Neither did he let the pressure in the touch of his lips to Duo's nor the looseness of his fingers in Duo's hair change. That way if Duo wanted to pull away from him, he could. Heero let out a pleased breath when Duo hesitantly pressed back.

Then the next thing Heero felt was his back touching the ground. He gasped at the pain lancing up his left side and welcomed the sweet distraction of Duo brushing his lips tentatively against his own. Heero ran his tongue along chilled lips until Duo opened to him. Their kiss remained gentle as they shared each others breath and let their tongues touch, reintroducing themselves as they slid against each other.

Heero's ears twitched at the half-pained, smothered sob Duo gasped out between them. He didn't know when his eyes had closed on him but when he peered at Duo through his lashes, Duo was staring back at him. Duo had a pale blush flushing his cheeks, the white of his eyes returning to reveal Duo was looking at him cross eyed.

Despite all that had happened, Heero couldn't stop the airy chuckle that left him as his lips curled in a smile. Duo stole that breath, kissing him until Heero found himself struggling to breathe between kisses. Heero moaned into Duo's hot mouth as Duo pressed their bodies together and continued to kiss him fervently. Heero turned his head for a quick breath and Duo turned it back, taking possession of his mouth and making him wince.

Duo had bitten down on his lip and made it bleed, but he didn't release his mouth long for Heero to think anymore of it. Duo sucked on his lip, devouring his mouth with a passion that left him limp beneath him and had his toes curling within his boots. Heero gave himself up to the feeling he had only ever really enjoyed with Duo, and accepted the fire Duo kindled within him.

Duo released his mouth and shook against him, pressing him bodily into the grass covered ground. Heero stared up at Duo, his kissed bruised lips already missing his bonded's lips while confusion crossed his usually stoic face. Heero could feel the raging energy singing throughout Duo's body and trickling into his own without even trying, but he blocked it. Not wanting to do anything that would make Duo distrust him. He met Duo's half closed eyes and saw that the black had returned to Duo's pupils, which were ringed with Duo's usual blue-violet hue.

“Duo.” he rasped out in a breathless relief. Heero rubbed his nose against Duo's while he tried to recover, “I-!”

Heero blinked wide eyes at him. Duo had pushed fingers covered in blood into his mouth before he could say anything else. Heero swallowed once reflexively, and then the shock wore off. He started pushing against them with his tongue and jerked back, hitting his head against the ground in confusion, but Duo only pressed them in again. Heero's eyes watered and he gagged when Duo pushed them past his tongue. He tried to move his free hand but Duo caught it, intertwining their fingers and holding it down by his head with ease. Heero pulled on Duo's hair and Duo relented, removing his fingers and kissing his mouth closed in apology.

The blood wasn't his.

Heero didn't want to complete their bond under such circumstances. He thought about asking Duo if he wanted to be tied to him once they got away from Maheran and had healed. He didn't want to rush it or force Duo into anything if he felt differently. Duo would need time, but for him there would be, could be no one else for him except Duo.

They had been children when they chose each other and had swapped blood in their youthful understanding of what the bond meant between their parents and other adults. It was only because they were children that the bond wasn't permanent and it had grown weaker ever since Duo had left him. Heero had thought it was gone, that Duo had left, before he took him into custody at the Gaults. It surprised him by growing stronger the more time they spent together, but Heero knew that without renewing their blood bond, Duo would be free to choose again.

He also knew the person above him wasn't wholly his Duo. He had felt it in their kiss. He wanted, needed to be sure this was what Duo wanted. Heero searched Duo's face for doubt of any kind. He saw none, except for a brief flash of confused hurt. Heero gave him his acceptance by swallowing.

Heero shuddered when the connection between them blew open. He shook as his body went into convulsions under Duo while he was flooded with power, the likes of which he had never experienced before. He felt Duo's breath hitch against his neck and Heero remembered and stopped himself from being lost to flood crashing into him. He unclenched the hand he had unknowingly fisted in Duo's hair. He gritted his teeth, refusing to let the pleasure make him lose sight of what mattered most. He worked at calming and suppressing the turbulent forces that made his chest and Duo's heave and expand painfully against each other.

Duo held onto him, chilled hands running over his feverish skin and squeezing him close every time Heero bucked against him. But there was still more, so much more than he could have imagined one person capable of wielding.

It was too much. He couldn't take more into himself. He couldn't calm it all or suppress the power inside Duo without killing him.

Unconsciously, Heero dug his fingers into the ground and held onto Duo when the ground trembled beneath them. He squinted out the corner of his eye and saw the grass and soil wobble like the surface of water. He felt so full that he could only think of releasing it. He felt the pull from beneath his fingers, and he let it go. The ground rippled and shook, throwing people off their feet as a pale wave of light followed. Heero kept channeling it, sweat poured off of him as it flowed out of Duo and into him.

Quiet descended in the wake of another pulse of light. It left them in a rolling, circular wave that made them the center.

The quiet stretched and Heero took several shaky breaths and swallowed gingerly, his throat was still tender and sore. He stared up at the sky where the clouds had lost their lumpy lobe shapes, smoothing out to the placid grays of a stormy day. The twirling funnel of clouds that had been descending above them drifted apart and the dark sky was replaced with the dull light from the stars of early night, before the surrounding clouds hid them away.

Duo struggled to lift his head, the move sending a tremor through both their bodies and Heero gritted his teeth as pain flared across his chest. Heero glimpsed regret flicker across Duo's face before his violet eyes closed and Duo's head thumped against his shoulder. Heero kept staring blankly at the sky where Duo's head had been. He reached out across their connection, checking on the power that had raged inside of Duo. After feeling a calm hum from it, he closed himself off with a heavy breath.

They lie there for a long moment. Heero was too tired to do anything other than feel the counter rhythm of Duo breathing against him. His vision blurred and he blinked rapidly at the slight numbing sensations running over the surface of his eyes with a frown.

Soon, the sound of rain replaced the murmur of the people around them and curls of smoke - steam he realized - rose from the ground. In some places he could hear the hiss where the rain came in contact with the ground. Heero peered at the sky through the minuscule shield of his fingers and through the falling rain as the raindrops grew fatter and heavier. He opened his mouth to let the cool drops sooth his throat. The gray clouds overhead grew darker and night chased the last faded remnants of day toward the horizon. The rumble of thunder had him closing his eyes and tightening his arm around Duo when he felt the rumble reverberate within his sore chest and through the ground.

Heero opened his eyes, remembering where they were and what was happening around them. He tensed, his body quivering from the sheer stress of everything that had happen to him, to them and scrutinized everybody near them. He stopped his hand from reaching for a weapon he didn't have and stared on in pleased surprise when the soldiers started working with the townsfolk, as well as Quatre's people, to pull the smoldering pyres a part.

Minutes later, the rain came down in heavy sheets. Heero pushed himself up on one elbow, coughing and pushing his hair out of his face. He struggled to sit up, refusing to lose contact with Duo. He watched them as they pulled off a large chunk of mud and looked away at the despair on their faces.

“They're alive!” Heero's eyes shot back to the pyre, where the dirt covered face they uncovered was washed clean when the woman tilted her head up to the sky.

He glanced around watching as other people emerged from the water soaked mounds, breaking off large chunks of earth to free themselves. The misery filled cries changed to sobs of relief and Heero was brought back to Duo, who made a pained sound against his chest.

“Du-?” Heero winced, throat closing up on him from the lingering pain. He rubbed Duo's back to try and get his attention. Heero's brows bunched together as his hand came across a warm wet spot low on Duo's back, yet the rest of Duo was cold from the rain. His fingers rubbed at the wet warmth. The thicker consistency prompted him to raise his hand to get a better look and he couldn't take his eyes away from it. The rain obstructed his vision, but the blood from Duo's back clung to his hand, leaving a pinkish stain the rain couldn't completely wash away. Heero's back grew rigid when Duo felt heavier against him.

He was deaf to Relena and Wu Fei's water logged steps, even though he saw them approaching. His gaze shifted from his hand as he levered himself up to a sitting position with his arm shaking from the strain to support him. He stared down at the red stain seeping through Duo's clothes and started pressing down on the wound with shaking hands. He searched frantically for their attacker, but there was no one close enough to have inflicted such a wound on Duo without him noticing, without the blade cutting through him as well. He pressed down harder, trying to staunch its flow.

“Heero, can you believe this!?” there was relieved laughter in Relena's voice, “They stopped fighting! Everyone is helping each other and it's raining!”

Heero willed the healing ability Duo had used on him to work and his hand began to glow a faint blue before fading away. Heero scooted from under Duo, hesitant to stop applying pressure to the wound but having no choice but to do so if he didn't want to drop Duo on the ground. He kept himself focused or else exhaustion and shock would pull him under. He shifted Duo gently to the sodden ground, pressing his fingers to the clammy skin of Duo's neck to check for his pulse and quickly reapplied pressure to the wound.

He trailed bloody fingers over one sallow cheek and then turned Duo's head to the side, shielding his nose from rain with one hand. His ears twitched and the hand that had been applying pressure to Duo's wound, snapped out to grab Relena when she was in reaching distance. He yanked both her and her living crutch down to them.

“Ow!” she glared in angry confusion, then her eyes filled with concern at the stricken look on Heero's face. She touched the trembling hand on her arm and Heero's hand slid away, leaving a bloody trail down her forearm to her wrist.

“Hee-?” she stopped, realizing immediately that Duo wasn't moving in front of them. “Duo? What-?”

“Heal him, Relena.” but he didn't need to prompt her. Relena had already pulled away from Wu Fei, the bloody hand print on her wrist was being washed away as the downpour grew heavier.

Heero's breath hitched, the feeling in his chest that always comforted him and told him Duo was near was fading. It left a growing icy pit in its place with none of Duo's warmth or his element. He was dying. “Relena-”

Relena gasped and shook her head, pulling back slightly with shaking hands. Heero glared at her while she clenched and unclenched them, trying to collect herself. She reached to her side for her nonexistent medicine bag and Heero grabbed her hand, making her wince.

“I know he's in pain. Just-!” Heero rasped and eased his grip, bringing her hand back over the wound.

She shook her head, a pale blue light returned, lining her hand. Heero released her hand, when he saw the light try to inch up his arm. “It's more than that Heero.”

But her words fell on deaf ears. He couldn't feel Duo's breath against his hand anymore.

“Relena!” Heero snapped, his eyes were fierce and his nose flared as he stared down at Duo.

“I know!” He heard her taking a steadying breath. “I know. Breathe for him. His heart is still beating.” He heard her say in a consoling manner that did nothing for him. Heero leaned over him, pinching Duo's nose closed with an unsteady hand and breathed for him. He let Duo's chest fall before repeating the action.

Relena sucked in water on her next breath and coughed. He could feel her eyes on him, but he stayed where he was, his head directly over Duo's, shielding Duo's face from the downpour with his own. He saw her dig the fingers of one hand into the ground, the pale healing light coming from her other hand darkened over Duo's wound before she jerked in place.

She glanced around with a shudder, and knew she must be noticing for the first time that there were no bodies to be seen. Heero knew she had seen people cut down, and the way she looked at the ground, it seemed like she expected it to be drenched in red and not covered with plush green grass. Her eyes fluttered shut and she eased her fingers from the ground. Heero could see the white of bones through the soil she had displaced and unknowingly pulled closer to the surface. He couldn't feel anything for her at the moment. Relena then tried for the soil by Duo's leg and stopped abruptly, a frown curling her lips as she fought back a queasy look on her face. There were had to be bones everywhere.

Heero couldn't spare the breath to grow at her for slowing herself down and wasting time Duo didn't have by trying to find a bone-free spot. He was tempted to grab her hand again, but she squeezed her eyes shut while pushing her fingers forward again. Her arm jerked in place as she resisted the urge the draw her hand back again. Heero felt the ground shift beneath them, and the bones she had pulled to the surface were no more.

“H-how...” she cleared her dry throat and tried again, “How long has he been like this? Since you suppressed him?”

“Not long.” Heero chuckled to himself, but there was no humor in it. It took an almost panicked sound when he rushed down to breath for Duo again, angry at himself for lapsing. He stayed hunched over Duo, keeping the breaths continuous and breaking up what he was trying to say. “He-he's stronger… than anyone imagined… I was dying, Relena... He resisted the emotions… driving him and the elements... a-and… saved me. Saved all of us.”

Relena raised stunned eyes to him and Heero refused to acknowledge her. His eyes were fixed on Duo. He watched the rain run over his pasty skin. He tried not to notice the veins in Duo's face grow darker and focused instead on how Duo's hair became wavy silk in the water on the ground.

“He helped me stop himself.” Heero muttered with a bitter smile, brushing sodden bangs from over Duo's closed eyes.

“He couldn't have done it without you, Heero.”

Heero stiffened at Wu Fei's words as he breathed for Duo. He was surprised at the depth of feeling, admiration and honesty he heard from him. He frowned, glancing at the shape shifter. Before he could think of any else, Duo gasped. His breathing came in labored and low while mottled bruises began to appear. They stood out starkly against his pale skin. They decorated Duo's neck where his hair had easily kept them hidden and trails that led under his clothes, starting at the back of his right shoulder.

“Heero?” the airy, shocked quality of Relena's voice drew him away from the struggling rise and fall of Duo's chest. “He-he…”

Heero turned his frown on her, watching her hand shakily glide from one of Duo's hips to the other and then up his torso.

“Relena, easy now,” Relena ignored Wu Fei as he moved over to support her weight when she started to droop and turned to Heero.

“He had a child.”

Heero's stared at her for a long moment, his frown frozen in place neither changing into something more severe nor giving way to the shock he felt to his core. He swallowed, having already known that Duo hadn't gotten away unscathed, but this... he wasn't prepared for.

He turned away from Relena, squeezing his eyes shut and forcing himself to breathe evenly. For awhile he couldn't hear past the ringing in his ears. He slumped forward, holding himself up with the bloody hand gripping his bent knee. The rainfall began to lighten when he managed to straighten his back again. He focused on Duo's breathing and tried not to think of how many times he had almost lost him. He noticed that as each breath Duo took became less of struggle, the rain eased a little bit more.

“Is there any way of knowing…?” He couldn't bring himself to finish that question, his throat closed up on him painfully. Although, he knew there was a good chance the child had survived, especially since Duo had.

Relena shook her head, freeing her fingers from the soil to let that hand join the other coasting over Duo's body. “Heero... The damage left him barren. I'm sorry.”

Heero caught the repetitive movement of her head out the corner of his eye and took hold of Duo's hand. Unable to say anything else while his mind worked. He vaguely recalled a faint new smell masked by the soap in the room. But there hadn't been any signs of a child in Jirrad's rooms and Trowa hadn't mentioned seeing one either. He only wished Jirrad was alive so he could get the answer out of him then kill him again.

Tbc…