Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Wild Wings ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 10 )

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Chapter 10

 

A gentle nudge to his foot woke him with a scream ready on his lips. He strangled the sound ruthlessly. It came out as a minor whimper.

 

"It's not a good idea for you to sleep just yet." Three's voice sounded not at all apologetic. Duo resisted the urge to throttle him from behind. The man was right but he could at least sound like he cared if Duo died or not.

 

The pilot repressed a snort. Three cared about something alright, he wouldn't be here suffering otherwise.

 

He let his head drop and started. He hadn't eaten the ration bar yet. Chewing on the thing stopped the thinking for a while. After the ringing abated his mind was frighteningly silent and Three wasn't playing any music if he had any. He probably didn't even enjoy music, the stone.

 

"So, do you want to tell me why your Gundam wasn't where it should have been?"

 

Duo groaned. He really didn't want to be thinking about that mistake right now.

 

"Should I take that as a no?"

 

The pilot shifted. "With the information I had, the river was a better position to act from." He ripped a bite off the ration bar. "And I didn't plan on getting hurt."

 

"And if someone had to help you back?"

 

"You weren't supposed to." Duo muttered.

 

"I beg your pardon?" Three's head popped around the chair, honestly surprised. His bangs obscured half his face but Duo could see a single wide green eye well enough.

 

"I would have left you."

 

The eye narrowed.

 

"Hey it's just the truth." Three returned to his seat and the cockpit was silent for a long while. Duo finally split it. "Why did you save me?"

 

Three was silent for so long Duo wasn't sure he would get an answer. "The mercenaries never left one of their own behind."

 

Ah.

 

Duo was familiar with that kind of tight camaraderie. He'd been a part of it back on L2 with Solo and the other kids. There was nothing he wouldn't have done... didn't do if Solo asked it of him. And there wasn't a chance in hell any of the others would be left behind if there was breath in his body.

 

The plague had been a new enemy Duo didn't know how to fight against. There was no running away from that kind of assault.

 

And too many were left behind.

 

Duo drew his legs up and let his knees brace on the back of Three's chair.

 

"Hey, you alright?" The pilot asked.

 

"Yeah..." Duo rest his head on his knees gingerly, "Yeah, I'm fine." You know what fine means, don't you?

 

"You shouldn't fall asleep yet."

 

"I know."

 

But 'I know' wasn't the same as 'I won't.' Duo slipped into non-dreams a moment later.

 

--//--

 

It wasn't the shift from vertical to horizontal that woke him. Rather, it was the voices just outside the cockpit that brought him back to the world of the living. He would berate himself for the inattention later.

 

"The baka's warhead is what started this whole fiasco and he's not even back ye—"

 

"I have him in Heavyarms."

 

Duo blinked sleep from his eyes. The stiffness in his muscles warned him not to move. It was going to hurt.

 

"You have him?! Where's his Gundam then?"

 

"Back in the river, I imagine."

 

Heero's voice dropped into lower tones and several curses that Duo couldn't quite make out. The light cut when Three popped his head into the cockpit.

 

"Hey, Two. We're grounded. I lay Heavyarms down so you won't have to belay."

 

He appreciated that. He really did. But getting out of the machine was going to require movement and he just wasn't up to it. Not right now. Maybe in two or three more days. Duo let his eyes fall shut again with a sigh.

 

"Oh, no you don't." Three's hands on his arms made him jump and every muscle screamed in protest. Duo moaned.

 

"Come on then, they're all awake now you might as well get it over with."

 

The man was right, damn him. Duo pulled himself up with his arms and blinked in the sunlight. He started testing his legs unsteadily when Heero pounced.

 

"There you are- just what were you thinking giving me a live warhead to deal with the size of my forearm? We were blowing up a base not the moon!?"

 

"It was all I had at the time." He said, weary. Three helped him navigate down to the grass.

 

"All you had! You can't possibly tell me it was easier to get a warhead then a pile of C4?" Heero was worrying this topic like a dog with a bone, it was rather out of character. Duo suspected it wasn't really the warhead that was grating the nerves.

 

"As a matter of fact it was. I raided a Cancer unit for the weapons. I didn't have the time to hook up with anything else." He stumbled. Three caught him around the waist and pushed open the den door.

 

"Bed to your left."

 

"Thanks." He collapsed on it. Heero stood at the foot, clearly not finished. "What?" Duo goaded him, irritated, now. "Do you want to critique my field dressing while you're at it?"

 

"You've compromised us by leaving your Gundam at the base—"

 

Duo hissed, "Oh like I did it on purpose!" He pulled his shirt off when Three sat on the edge of the bed with another med kit.

 

Heero growled, "If you hadn't changed your extraction point none of this would have happened."

 

"Bullshit!" Duo sat up to yell. Three took the opportunity to start wash out the cuts on his chest and ribs with alcohol. "You set off the bomb seven minutes early, seven fucking minutes, Heero!"

 

"Don't try and shuffle this on me! That warhead was a mistake from the beginning, I told you—"

 

 

He threw up his hands, "Fine! I screwed up, alright!" Duo shouted, "Is that what you wanted to hear? I screwed up, it's all my fault, go ahead and blame me—AH!" He whirled on Trowa tugging the gauze and pointed in his face, "And fuck you, too!"

 

Trowa lifted an eyebrow but continued his task. Heero crossed his arms; "Yeah, you screwed up and we barely got out alive because of it."

 

"You think I don't know that?!" Duo splayed his blood-stained fingers then flipped Heero the bird.

 

Heero snatched his hand at the wrist and wrenched it to the side. Duo cried out. Trowa just shifted to give them more room while he wrapped another series of cuts along Duo's left arm. "I think you shouldn't be piloting that machine if you can't follow orders." Heero hissed, "I think you put us all in needless danger because you didn't have all the facts befo—"

 

"Only because you didn't give them over. The river was a logical strategic pos—"

 

"Don't you think they know that!?" Heero shouted over him, "Don't you think they would have taken into consideration every possible angle before giving us our instructions?"

 

Duo tugged his hand but Heero's grip was absolute, "Well how should I know, have you talked to them all? I didn't even know there were more of us until Four ran across our conversation."

 

"Oh for the love of—" He dropped Duo's wrist with a snarl and pointed instead, "I refuse to work with you again."

 

Duo leaned forward and spat in his face, "Get out of my sight, One." Heero turned. Duo slashed the air with his free hand, "And don't even think about coming back!"

 

The door slammed viciously. Duo had the irrational urge to curl his tail up... but he didn't have a—oh yeah. He beat the feeling back to whatever hole it was hiding in for the past several hours. Duo flopped back on the bed and threw his right arm over his eyes with a groan. Three softly added his thoughts. "That was, perhaps, not the best move you could have made."

 

Duo lifted his arm. Three regarded him steadily. The American huffed and pulled out of Three's tender care. He turned his back to the pilot with another sniff of derision. Three shifted on the bed as if the move had been his suggestion and started treating Duo's back without a pause. The cuts here were numerous but superficial.

 

Duo considered the grain on the wood paneled wall in front of him. Yeah, Heero was right, moving his Gundam without consulting him or verifying the facts had been a bad move but if the hit had gone to plan it wouldn't have changed anything. He would have left the Aries hanger by the front instead of the back and 'Scythe would have been right there, ready for takeoff.

 

He was sure of it.

 

It wasn't his fault Heero was getting his tights in a wad over the warhead. What was he supposed to do with such a limited time-frame? He didn't have contacts in every country, every city. Arms weren't innumerable.

 

Duo traced the weathered grain with one unsteady finger. What irritated him most was Heero's unflagging faith in the scientists they were getting their missions from. No, he didn't think the men could take into account every possibility- he'd stolen Deathscythe for fuck's sake.

 

Not to mention G's lack of info when it came to his own pilot. Heero and he had already met by the time G deigned to tell him about the other pilots.

 

No, he didn't trust the scientists with the information they passed along and he would question it every time it came along. Nothing was going to convince him to do otherwise.

 

At length Duo sighed. "Hey, Three?" He sounded defeated.

 

"Yes?"

 

"... I'm sorry."

 

Three nodded once. "I know. Me too."

 

Duo relaxed under the Latin's touch. It wasn't forgiveness, but he didn't deserve that, not yet anyway.