Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Wherever You Will Go ❯ Rooftop Races, Guttering Galore ( Chapter 14 )

Hey everyone…….what say we dish out a little more action?…Read and review!!!

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"What the hell are you doing here?" Duo sat up, his eyes wide as he glared at the Japanese pilot kneeling before him. He ignored the previously overwhelming pain of his injuries and instead found himself concentrating on the squall of emotions warring for dominance in his mind. Just what the hell does he think he's doing? Why is he here? What the…

Impending questions left unanswered raced through the American's mind with little clarity, and more than a little confused as to what he actually felt, Duo's eyes finally narrowed in suspicion, though as to what he had no clue. Chaotic remnants of their last meeting suddenly flooded into his mind, and finally after what seemed like a lifetime, he settled on anger, and frowned. Leaning forward, the braided pilot raised an arched eyebrow and caught Heero's eyes with his own.

"Well?"

Heero's common frown deepened, and he raised his chin in decision. Hn, what do I say? he thought, his mind scrambling for something. What would sound…plausiable?

"I had a mission. I was hacking into an OZ database and found out that you were here, and in trouble no doubt. It was not out of my way." His words came out a little harsher and more clipped than he had expected, and Heero found himself sucking in a barely audible gasp as he caught Duo flinch ever so briefly.

When Duo replied his tone was uncharacteristically like ice and it was Heero's turn to hide a wince. "How did you know where I was?"

"I - I," Heero stammered ever so slightly, though finally he seemed to settle on a decision. "The alarms went off on the base, and I followed the direction the other soldiers were going."

Duo cocked his head to the left, and inched his head forward, coming almost nose to nose with the Japanese pilot. Baka, Heero scolded himself. He saw you hesitate…

"How did you-"

Heero knew the question before it was finished, and Duo immediately shut his mouth when Wing's pilot glared and held up a discarded OZ uniform. He saw the American bristle in anger at being cut off, and was about to say something, when faint footsteps caused him to raise his hand in a warning.

Duo just nodded curtly and frowned, folding his arms across his chest and turning his head away. Heero saw him wince briefly before he covered it up with a flick of his braid. He's injured? Where? Wary Prussian blue eyes scanned the braided boy for injury, while listening to the approaching footsteps; they were far enough away at the moment for him to check on Duo. All at once he seemed to take in the blood soaked braid, and the boy's arm cradling his ribs.

"You're injured." Not a question, but a statement, Heero whispered his words.

Duo jumped and spun his head around to face the cobalt-eyed boy, his braid whipping against his back and leaving a crimson smudge where it struck his chest, bouncing with its own energy against the fabric. The braided boy scowled.

"I'm fine," Duo hissed tersely, instantly shrugging off the Japanese pilot's words.

"You are not-"

"It's nothing, okay! I don't need your help." Duo backed off to lean against a crate as Heero moved towards him, and gingerly turned away from his partner, trying to reach his lockpicks. Ignoring the pain the movements caused, he bit his tongue before he could emit so much as a gasp and turned his head away from Heero. Duo struggled to stay upright as a wave of dizziness washed over him, causing him to sway ever so slightly, while pushing his arms up… What is the point in talking to Heero anyway? A mission? Something's not right…

Heero scowled and shook his head as Duo cut him off, bringing himself to his feet with fluid ease. He watched the American boy as he tried to dismiss his injuries while reaching up to the lockpick embedded in his braid. Baka. Why does he hide his injuries?…though inside he knew why. Knew all of the reasons.

"Duo." Heero covered the short distance between them, and reached behind the other boy's braid. The jingle of metal on metal assaulted the steely silence, and swiftly Heero pulled the small item from the thick mass of chestnut hair, ignoring Duo as he pulled away from him.

"Dammit Heero. Give me that!" Duo cursed at the Japanese pilot when the lockpick was pulled even further out of his reach. Why the fuck can't he just leave me be? I ran off, and he has to find a mission to chase me! Can't he even trust me to complete a mission? Heh, guess that's too much to ask.

Duo felt his eyes tear at the pain that ripped through his injured side as he jumped forward and made a praise-worthy effort of retrieving the object from Heero's hands. Red hot tendrils of fire seemed to claw its way across his chest, and up around his right shoulder, making him unconsciously wince. Vaguely he noticed the blood - dried or otherwise - caking on his ripped sleeve.

"Baka," Heero muttered as he stopped the other boy from hurting himself more. He reached toward the cuffs around Duo's wrists, and was met with further resistance from the braided boy as he moved away. "We don't have much time left if-"

"Well then I suggest you give me my lockpicks back, so I can get on with undoing these." Duo spat the words out in anger, and from beside him Heero could see him bare his teeth. When the Japanese pilot made no move to do so, Duo's shoulders seemed to slump and grudgingly, Heero let his will subside by placing the picks in the boy's hand. Duo jumped at the contact, and his glistening violet pools betrayed him to confusion only briefly before he set to his task and efficiently unlocked the steel cuffs.

Heero stood from his position beside Duo and hurried over to the door, putting an attentive ear on the cool metal, listening for voices. Hearing all he needed, his brow creased in concentration as he looked around the room. A click and a breathy laugh told him Duo's hands were free.

Heero turned toward the injured pilot, and reached out a hand, hoping to help him up; hoping to have any contact other than the icy glare. When Duo merely looked away and discarded the lockpicks, pulling himself up on the nearby crate, Heero snorted.

"We have to get out of here."

"Oh thank you Mr. Obvious, don't you think I've been trying that?" Duo replied sarcastically as he leaned heavily on the box, an arm cradled protectively around his tender ribs. Heero didn't answer, but kept scanning the room until his eyes landed on a bag across the other side of the room.

"Are they explosives?" Heero questioned with an unusual amount of animosity, and he flicked his prussian gaze to Duo then to the roof, and lastly the crates with the small foot-ladder sitting innocently against it

"What? Oh yeah they-" Duo's stormy face grew into a lopsided grin as he realised what Heero was intending, and despite his anger at his Japanese partner, his eyes widened further and he laughed. "Oh shit, man." Please don't tell me getting out was that easy. I must be a bit more hurt than I thought.

"We have to hurry." Heero swept the bag effortlessly off the floor and carried it to where Duo sat. He sat down next to the braided boy, who inched away from the stoic pilot. He was about to speak when further voices spoke from down the hall, a little louder than he would have liked, and finally he heard the door handle being jostled.

"-Thompson? Dobson?-"

"-Why aren't they answering?…"

"-locked, sir."

"-Then break in Anderson, since we have no entry authorisation, find something to get in with!"

They got there sooner than expected, Heero frowned. Turning to Duo he gestured for him to set explosives, while he stood and lunged for the door, awkwardly jamming the remnants of a rather flimsy shelf under the handle.

From the other side of the room the Japanese boy heard Duo laugh, and he sharply turned back to the American pilot and saw him bow ever so slightly - mockingly of course.

"Excuse me, your most unfriendly spandex-ness, the explosives are long since ready."

"Good," Heero snorted, silently reassured that Duo was fast returning to his normal self, though through no assistance of his own. "We'll have to get out on the roof. Can you manage?"

Duo's expression as he rolled his eyes was overly reproachful, and he sniggered as Heero took the bomb out of his hand and jumped up onto the crate, quickly attaching it to the roof. In no time the two were over the other side of the room, concealed behind a large crate in the corner.

"Ready?" Duo asked with more than a little sarcasm in his voice.

"More than you are, baka."

"Fine." Heero winced at the frost the American boy breathed with his voice, and not for the first time that day he wished he could turn back time, and take things back. His earlier thought pushed back into his head, and he sighed waiting for the explosion so they could escape. Maybe he's not coming back to his normal self, he thought ruefully.

The very walls rattled as a loud explosion ripped through the room, showering dust and debris everywhere. Heero coughed as his vision was obstructed by the fine white power, his ears ringing with the callous sound. As soon as the noise and rattling settled down, and his lung calmed Heero was alerted to a different person coughing.

"Duo?"

"H-hai?"

"Daijoubu?"

"…S-shit. Maybe I rigged that one a little too much. But yeah, I'm fine." Heero heard Duo gasp, and as the air began to clear he saw the braided boy more clearly. Obviously not fine, Duo was hunched in over himself like a turtle trying desperately to withdraw itself back into its shell. The boy's breathing was rough and raspy, and at first glance he appeared to be intact but closer inspection revealed that was anything but true.

Before he could so much as comment, a series of sounds indicated that something solid was being slammed the door. Heero looked to the door, which was just now becoming visible through the clearing air and settling dust. Small, pointed indentations were becoming clear on the strong surface as repeatedly something solid was forcibly slammed against the door, closer to the hinges to break the door down.

Vaulting to his feet, Heero sprinted the short distance to where the explosion had originated, and more than a little gratefully, he surveyed Duo's praise-worthy precision. The explosives, aside from the minute shards of dust, wood, plaster and weak roofing everywhere, had been set just powerful enough to blow a sizeable hole in the once-was ceiling. Just over two metres wide, the gaping and very improvised cavity was good enough for climbing out; the edges hopefully strong enough to support their weight. With the ladder there to cover the extra two or so metres to the roof, it would be easy enough to escape over the rooftops, and get to their gundams. It was only Duo he was worried about.

"It okay?" A slight, husky voice called over the din. Turning around, Heero met Duo's slightly clouded violet eyes and nodded.

"Appropriate. You ready?" This time the question was reversed, and though he expected it, Heero received no backward answer, or smart reply.

Duo simply nodded, and directly after Heero, he scrambled onto a nearby crate, swaying awkwardly despite his issue of readiness. Once on the highest crate possible, the braided pilot narrowed his eyes in dubious and utmost annoyance as his suspicions about climbing the ladder became correct.

Even though the crates were not all that large in height, his ribs had screamed bloody murder at him as he stretched and pushed them in effort to scramble on them. His shoulder and arm, though now reduced to a numb ache, had even bitched at the slight movement the jostle had caused. It was this that caused his doubt as to climbing up the ladder. He paused before placing his hands on the cold rungs and hoisting himself up after Heero, hopefully leaving the constant ringing of the ram on the door behind - it had long since given him a headache.

"Duo? Are you sure you can do this?" Unconsciously Duo snickered at the words, missing the undertone of worry lacing the edges of the last sentence, and hearing only reprimand and conviction.

"Look Heero, for the last damned time I'm-"

A loud crash cut him off, and from behind him he heard coughing as men busted into the room, obviously unexpectedly sucking in the polluted air. His eyes were dragged back to the hole in the roof, however, as Heero grabbed his arm and began hoisting him up, as gently as possible under the circumstances, though still sending his vision red and black. Still causing him to gasp and fight off the dizziness as pain sent an intrepid onslaught up his fiery side.

"Shit, they're getting away-"

"-02 Freeze-"

"-We will shoot-"

"Come on, it won't hold them for long"

Jumbled voices broke past Duo's barrier of pain as he felt a rumble, then solid ground under him, and again he had the feeling of being allowed no rest - instead hauled to his feet. His vision cleared somewhat, and Duo realised he was being half-carried, half-dragged along a reflective, grey corrugated iron rooftop. The sun rebounding off the steely surface told him he was outside.

Looking up, Duo met the cool eyes of Heero, whose arm was slung tightly around his shoulders, supporting him.

"Duo?" Heero questioned as he ran, an emotion akin to worry making his deep voice catch. "Can you walk?"

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Duo nodded despite his doubts, feeling as noncommittal as Heero usually was. Come on man, show him what you've got. Give 'em hell! Duo grinned as he stood shakily, Heero watching him with a trace of amusement, but more untraceable emotions running deep under his callous stoic surface.

"I'm fine," Duo nodded emphatically making his head pound, and not sure whether he was trying to convince himself more than his Japanese partner.

"Can you make it?"

Again Duo nodded, and with a curt inclination of his head, Heero took off at a speed slightly quicker than a jog, and getting faster. With a sigh Duo followed, his feet growing steadier as he pushed on, though his breath came shakily from his lungs; expelled in short, sharp expulsions, so as not to cause further damage to himself.

For what seemed like a long while the two ran - or more, it seemed like a long time to Duo, who was having a hard time keeping up with his ever-accelerating partner.

"Heero, it's not…a fucking…marathon," Duo all but gasped out as he saw Heero leap from about twenty metres away effortlessly over another gap in the roofing, only to land easily and keep running.

Upon hearing the braided boy's voice, Heero skidded to a hasty stop and spun immediately around. The Japanese boy's eyes widened and he pulled out his gun. Confused and a little warily, Duo tried to do the same - realising a little too late that his gun was back in the other room, the borrowed one discarded on the floor in the same place.

Heero took aim and fired, where Duo turned his head to see a unit of OZ soldiers following not far behind, their guns drawn. Vaguely he heard shouts from both directions, and hastily he whipped back around to face Heero, who mouthed only one word…

"Run!"

Caught in the middle of the open gunfire, and in desperation, Duo sprinted for his life, ignoring any injury he might have previously sustained. His overactive heart pounding in his ears, all the braided pilot saw was Heero and he fired bullet after bullet into the space above, left, and right of him, his eyes cold, but wild.

A matter of mere metres from his goal now, Duo tensed his muscles to jump as he reached yet another open gap between the rooms, and as he jumped, what he considered to be a few too many things happened at once.

As he leapt, Duo looked first into Heero's wide eyes before looking down to the ground - a good two storeys below. In mid range, a bullet whizzed under his foot, and yet another one landed on the terse guttering before him.

When he landed on what looked like an older part of the building, his foot caught the guttering as another shot sailed past his left leg, and he lifted the limb in question in order to avoid the ricochet off the roof.

Off balance from the lift and already inconsiderable pain, Duo felt another shot graze his calf muscle. It was all that was needed to push the injured pilot further off balance, and he slipped off the precarious guttering as it fell also, barely managing to catch the sharp remaining roofing as he fell - both hands slipping.

The initial jolt from the rebound as Duo swung and hit the building now in front of him was enough to cause him to see bright lights - stars. The second time Duo hit the building he felt his already weakened ribs prod deeper into his injured side, as fire waltzed a cruel and painful dance unrelentingly up and down his injured shoulder and side.

In a matter of seconds Duo felt his grip slip completely - his injured arm, then his uninjured one sliding loose from the sharp surface. As he fell, he heard what sounded like two very different voices yell his name from what seemed to be close by….two? Then with an alarming abruptness, a third sharp pain jolted his awareness, sending him into blessed unconsciousness; his last thought hoping like hell that Heero would make it out okay.

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Okay everyone, you have to tell me what you think, alright? I'm nearly done ^v^……what do you think of my action scenes and my character interaction?…they believable, …no one is OOC, I hope?

Anyway, please please pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease review this chapter and tell me what y'all think of it.

Cheers for reading!

§kaara!