Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ What Heero May Dream ❯ Duo gets home ( Chapter 1 )

Notes: I don't own them…

Also.. this was written really fast.. one time though, as a response to a drawing someone did. I really liked the drawing a lot… http://www.mediaminer.org/fanart/view.php?id=36741

What Heero may dream of….

Nix Winter

Duo stood in the doorway of their shared room, black pants, boots with straps on the sides, tools and weapons in the pockets of his cargo pants, jacket lost, so he's just got his white shirt, his braid laying over his shoulder, paralleling a dark streak of grease which he'd gotten in some passage he'd slipped through to put his bomb. Red colors the side of his face, throat, not really a bad burn, just red, from when he'd been exposed to the blast, which had been hotter than he'd expected.

The world had turned dark for him on this mission and he wasn't even sure why... maybe the two nights without sleep, days of moving boxes and pretending to be an oz civ contractor. Getting to know the other contractors... collaborators... remembering Father Maxwell's attempts to make peace... knowing he was there to blow up these people's jobs... because he couldn't let OZ put a Taurus factory on this colony. Maybe it was the burn on his hand or that he'd lost his coat, but alone on the way home, the world had turned dark, a black rain of furious self-hate, world-hate, of pain so deep .... like an itch in a healing bone, too deep to ever be scratched......

Now, standing in the doorway to the room he shared with Heero, the other boy .... not that they were really boys anymore... Heero's nineteenth birthday had been only two weeks past... And Duo expected he was about the same age. In some other world, the war would have been, should have been over with! Still, sleep held Heero, his brown hair laying around the first clean face Duo felt like he could ever remember seeing... though he knew that was an exaggeration. Bare shoulder showing under the white cotton sheet. Clean, Heero's sheets were always clean.... and that led to wanting to sleep in Heero's bed, not his own rumpled and unmade one.... which wasn't at all fair. The darkness fogged back around him and he sighed. Whoever Heero was dreaming about… they were lucky, even if they never knew it.

He peeled off his shirt, then as quietly as he could, Duo squatted down and started undoing the straps on his boots. Little clinkings of tools muffled into the night, and Duo held still, watching Heero to see if he'd wake, but he didn't...... The Japanese boy's face took on a look of intensity though... as if he might be kissing someone in his dream and Duo smiled.... The movement felt .... it felt like his face would break... or maybe break a mask that had dried on it. Heero. Heero.... the mask over Duo's heart cracked a little too... and it wasn't comfortable... it was like grabbing the first breath of air after being held under water for too long. Heero, he thought again, and he knew... he could go on fighting, he could crawl through too small passages, he could live with getting his ass kicked, could get caught in the blast of bombs that he shouldn't have to set off.... he could do anything, if it keep Heero safe, if he could see Heero and know... that's why he'd fight... so there would be the freedom and peace that Heero had grown to crave. Over the years, Heero had grown more idealistic, more human... and Duo... he thought he'd just grown a little taller, a little disillusioned maybe... at least he thought that until he could see Heero... see Heero sleeping, lost in happy thoughts.

He toed himself out of his boots then wiped at soot or something that had gotten into his eyes. He needed a shower... but the bathroom was here in the room and it would wake Heero... so he'd decided to just get his pants off, shirt off and lay down in his already messy bed... sleep till Heero was up.... with his little finger, he started undoing his belt, eyes still recording Heero's every movement...... Heero's lips were whispering to his dream lover now.... It was so voyeuristic to watch... but Duo couldn't stop...... 'I love you,' Heero mouthed silently, the words clear only because Duo could read lips, 'I love you so very much, Duo Maxwell.'

Duo blinked.... his pants were half way down his thighs .... dizzy he took a step to the side to get his balance and ended up going over sideways onto his bed in a clatter of tools and guns, wire strippers, and spare detonation devices.... He didn't land square on his bed either and ended up slipping off onto the floor with a thud.

Heero shot bolt up right, eyes wide awake.... and Duo felt like he'd just ended his own dream.

"Duo?"

"Hai, Heero," he said, grimacing as he got back to his feet, pulling his pants back up, only then realizing he was burned up his side too. "Oh shit! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up, Heero."

"No problem," Heero said, swinging his legs over the edge of his bed… The only light in the room came from the open door... it gave Duo an aura of light, making all the messy hair around his face glow golden. He looked aged, Heero thought, frowning. The dark was coming up on him again, and Heero didn't know what to do about it. Be his friend, he couldn't tell him how he felt about him, couldn't add that stress to him now.

Duo poked the edge of his burned side, trying to see how wide it was in the dark and was surprised to find his fingers coming away wet. A little dumbfounded he stared down at the dark on his fingers. Maybe he'd broken open a blister, or something when he'd fallen, but blisters didn't bleed. More light headed now, he licked his upper lip and gave Heero the brightest smile he could. "Thanks," he said, drawing the word out a little, because, he wanted to ask about the dream, but didn't know how. Staring at his fingers still he realized his side hurt, he hurt all the way down his leg… damn, he thought, wondering how badly he'd been burned after all.

"Are you okay, Duo," Heero asked, head tilted, watching him with those detail catching eyes of his.

"Sure," Duo said it so fast, not a lie, just the only value he knew how to apply, but even still, he didn't really want to move, not to take one step either way just then. "I got caught in the blast, just a little. That blast gel Wufei got, it was higher grade than I thought. Baka me."

Heero's bare feet padded across the room, and Duo felt his fingers taken into Heero's before he knew it. Strong fingers, gentle, caring, one slide through the slick on Duo's fingers and Heero, murmured, "Hn... You're bleeding."

"Not the first time," Duo said, shrugging, then grimacing, not at all sure why Heero felt the need to put an arm around his back or why so much of his weight was suddenly against Heero's side. "Hey, I walked home ten miles. I'm fine."

"You're not." Heero said firmly, and much to Duo's surprise, he found himself lifted into Heero's arms, his head against his shoulder. "You're not okay in body, or soul, and…" Heero stopped there, turning side ways as he carried him into the bathroom and flicked the light on. There in the mirror, they both just stopped and looked. Duo was burned from hairline down shoulder, ribs… the red and broken skin continued down to disappear under the waistband of his pants. At the edges, the imprint of the seams showed in his skin. Blood wept from where the skin had broken over his ribs.

Compared to Heero, who'd grown half a foot in the last year, Duo looked pale, almost fragile, and they stood there, a naked Heero holding a filthy and burned Duo in his arms. Tears slipped free of Heero's eyes and Duo watched in the mirror as they slide down his cheeks. With his burned hand, he reached up to touch one cheek, to brush away the tears. "It isn't so bad, Heero. It'll heal."

Heero nodded, once curtly, but pulled Duo close to him, holding him a little too tightly. Duo whimpered, but didn't resist, and then Heero whispered, "I love you."

All of time stopped then. Duo held his breath, his fingers moving over Heero's bare chest, as if he could get a grip on the shirt he wasn't wearing.

"I love you, Duo Maxwell, and it's not the burn that scares me… it's this cloud of dark that's sucking you away from me. I don't want to make things harder for you, Duo," Heero paused just long enough to take a breath, "But if that darkness gets you hurt… takes you away from me even more… I can wait out the darkness, but if you die, I can't wait out death, so I'm going to tell you now. I love you. I dream of you, of kissing you, of holding you; I dream of running my fingers through your hair. Duo Maxwell, I love you."

Duo leaned his head back a little, so he could look at Heero without looking in the mirror. "Heero," he whispered, for some reason he was light headed now, distant from everything, even what Heero had said, though it lodged in him… became a part of him… "I love you too. I want you to run your fingers through my hair. Kiss me?"

Their lips touched then, burned lips that tasted of blood and war and clean lips that had grown towards peace after Relena's death. Heero slipped his tongue into Duo's mouth, not giving allowance for the burn, only drinking in the tongue that darted back into his own mouth. Heero licked Duo's lips clean, put a dozen little kisses over his lips, glorying in Duo's breath on his cheek. Slowly Duo stopped responding, going limp in his arms.

Heero set him on the bathroom counter and pulled his arm from under his knees to search for a pulse at his throat... it was habit, even though he felt Duo's slow breaths on his cheek. His pulse was strong too, and Heero knew it was a faint, not the last pull of death.

He stared into the mirror, Duo's bleeding body held against his chest, the braid trailing into the sink, Duo's legs sprawled out over the counter, one bare foot touching the mirror. Peace. Without peace, Duo was going to get himself killed. Heero kissed the top of Duo's head, rubbed his cheek against dirty chestnut hair. Peace would keep the darkness away and he would bring Duo love and happiness. Even if he had to be king of the world to do it, he'd find Duo peace, safety, and chase away the darkness, love him with all his being. "Mission accepted."