Author: CleverYoungThief
Rating: Ah, I don't know. Probably R. That's a good safe letter.
Warnings: Shounen ai, uber-angst, post-traumatic stress disorder.
Pairing: 1x2
Archive: Gundam Wing Addiction
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em. Don't sue. College kids are like L2 kids; we got nothin'.
Note: Fic for the GW Addiction Fanfiction Angst Contest (really was an angsty Fourth of July holiday fic I never got around to finishing for the Fourth of July... *sheepish grin*)
Fire in the Sky Part 1
The American in the black-on-black tuxedo leaned up against the wall of the courtyard, taking a deep breath as he scanned the crowds for his partner. The warm July air was heavy and soaked with the smell of the honeysuckle climbing the brick walls.
Around him, the crowds of pacific aristocrats milled and mingled aimlessly, listening to the sounds of the orchestra playing on the balcony and chattering with each other. Nobody was talking to Duo, mostly because many of the guests were speaking French, and Duo's not-so-extensive vocabulary of French included such things as "Where's the bathroom?" "Do you speak English?" "Is there anything to eat?" and "Don't shoot me, I'm American."
Also, they were pacifists, and a lot of them didn't approach him because they knew exactly who he was.
"Duo Maxwell "
Relena Peacecraft walked down the set of stairs at the head of the courtyard where her celebration was being held, walking up to the braided ex-pilot. She curtsied. "I was beginning to think that you weren't going to show up "
Duo grinned, rubbing the back of his head with a rising blush. "Ah, you know me, `Lena. I've never missed a party, and I ain't gonna miss one tonight. Besides, the Fourth of July is my home country's holiday, anyway."
He took one of her hands with a melodramatic flourish, braid whipping through the air, and kissed it, grinning up at her like a Cheshire cat. The girls around Relena giggled.
Relena smiled. "It's good to see you. The rest are already here somewhere. Except...have you seen Heero? He didn't come with you?" Duo shook his head. "Nope. I was lookin' for him. I email him all the time, but I haven't gotten a reply in almost a year." When he saw the smile fade on Relena's face and worry replace it instead, he shrugged nonchalantly. "Oi, you know Heero. He's probably just holed up someplace. He's fine."
"I suppose..." Relena replied softly, scowling a little in concern.
Suddenly, the crowd hushed to whispers and finally silence. Heads turned towards the back of the courtyard at the entrance. The orchestra, noticing something was going on, did not stop playing, but quieted.
Duo looked in the direction that everyone else was looking, and let out a sigh. "He's here."
Heero moved through the crowds, parting them like the Red Sea. People moved back and gave him room, as if they were afraid combat and death were contagious. He moved with a slow, deliberate stride, and Duo could see by the fierce concentration on the Wing pilot's face that he was trying not to limp.
When Heero had been taken to the hospital after the battle against Mariemeia, lying in a coma, the doctors had said that he wouldn't live. They had advised that his life support be shut off. No one would let them do it.
There were two kinds of crowds outside the hospital, on vigil for weeks. One was adamant about the Perfect Soldier's life-support being shut down, saying it would be the greatest symbol for the death of war and human strife. The other group called Heero a hero, not a symbol, and declared anyone who said otherwise could go to hell.
In the first days of the new Peace Era, while Heero Yuy, the Perfect Soldier, slept dreamlessly in his hospital bed on the third floor, hooked up to IV and oxygen, fistfights broke out in the streets beneath him over his fate.
Duo was there for him. The others visited, even Wufei, who said that being held on to life by a thread was demeaning and that Heero himself would want the machines turned off. Relena visited too. A lot at first, but as the new peace called to her as a foreign minister, she had less and less time to visit him.
Only Duo stayed. Duo, who had no home to return to, no family to welcome him, no post-war responsibilities. Duo would work half-days at a salvage yard on L2, make the hour shuttle commute to L1, and stay with Heero. He'd sleep in the hospital (after a week of sleeping on the floor, the nurses took pity on him and moved a cot in next to his bed) and get up two hours earlier than usual to make the commute back to L2.
When Heero had finally woke up, the doctors told him he would never walk again. Heero told them they could go to hell.
When he was up and walking again, they told him he wouldn't walk without a pronounced limp for the rest of his life.
He was still working on that one.
As Heero walked towards them, cobalt eyes blazing with absorption in the painful task, Duo could only detect the slightest hint of a limp at all. Just an extra small shuffle to one hip. That was all. The crutch the Wing pilot had had to use for weeks was gone. Duo knew it would be history the minute Heero was released from the hospital. He also knew, with the deep intuition he had when it came to his partner, that it wouldn't be long before you wouldn't be able to notice that limp at all.
The whispering around them intensified as Heero made his way through the crowd. Most of it was French, quick and quiet and agitated. Some of it was English, though. Somewhere in the whispers, Duo picked out the word "hero" a couple of times. But from someone else, he heard the word "killer" distinctly. He knew Heero had heard it.
He wanted to go forward and say something, but the air was so heavy... so solemn... he couldn't bring himself to speak.
Finally, Heero stopped a few yards away from Duo and Relena, looking around as if he just realized that the entire party's attention was riveted on him. A hush fell over the crowd, as if they expected him to make a great speech. When Heero finally did speak, his voice was almost a growl.
"What are you looking at?"
And suddenly everyone found something else to talk about.
Duo walked forward and suddenly couldn't contain himself any longer. He practically tackled the Japanese pilot.
"Heero Where in the hell have you been? Didn't you get my messages? You scared the hell out of everybody, disappearin' off like that "
The Perfect Soldier stiffened in his embrace for a moment, then relaxed gradually. "I had graves to visit."
Duo pulled back and looked into Heero's face. One look in those dark blue eyes told him that the comment hadn't been a joke. He remembered what Trowa had said, about Heero visiting granddaughter of Noventa and the relatives of all the other pacifists he had killed...
"Yeah... well. You're back now, huh?"
"... Yeah."
Heero looked from Duo to Relena. Relena stood there, gazing at him silently. Duo looked at her face and thought that that was one very mixed up crazy confused expression. There was hurt there, anger, relief, sadness, happiness. A suicide of emotions.
Heero was the one to embrace, now. He wasn't good at it yet; it was a stiff, mechanical movement, almost painful to watch. But it was a start.
Relena's eyes widened as he hugged her. She put a hand to his back, tentatively. "Hee... Heero..."
He didn't speak. Heero only drew back, bowing a little. Relena curtsied back without thinking, still dazed by Heero's actions.
~*~
"You okay, Heero?"
Heero looked up at him, and Duo was hurt by the haunted look in those dark blue eyes. "Hai."
"Where've you been stayin'? I mean, what I mean to say was, do you need a place to stay? I mean, now that you're done... whatever it was that you were doing?" Duo rambled, completely aware that he was coming off as the same babbling fool he had been accused of being during the war, but not being able to help himself.
"I... don't know." Heero leaned up against the wall, and to Duo, it looked as if the Perfect Soldier was trying to look as small and insignificant as possible. He was staking the place out. And watching, observing all the guests with a critical eye, as if there was an assassin hidden behind every soft, arrogant face. He was always watching. Duo noticed his hand kept going to pat his jacket, where he knew there was a gun hidden. He was-Duo decided-a nervous wreck.
"I'm surprised you haven't checked the dip for strychnine yet, Heero."
Heero jerked at the sudden sound of his voice. Those cobalt eyes blazed at him. There were dark circles under those eyes. "Don't patronize me, Duo."
Duo held up his hands in surrender. "I'm not. But you need to relax, you know? You look-"
/half crazy/
"-a little tired."
Heero's eyes made another sweep of the party. None of these people were armed. They were soft, all of them. If he killed them now, they wouldn't even be angry or scared. Their last expressions would be stupid, bovine surprise.
// It's the war. They don't have to fight. Never again. Never fight again. //
He felt a twinge at that. He didn't like to kill people. He didn't like to make war. But he didn't know how to do anything else. And life without purpose pained him.
Duo put a hand on his shoulder. "You sure you're okay, pal?" Heero met his eyes. "I don't know. I don't know anything now, Duo. It's just that-"
There was a bright flash in the sky, and a boom that cut off his words like a knife.
~*~
// It's starting It's starting again I knew it wasn't over, it's never over War The war It's war again //
The fireworks that had been scheduled for the party exploded in the night sky, throwing red light over the guests. Everyone was clapping except for Heero. Duo glanced at his partner and saw Heero pulling his gun. The Wing pilot's eyes were dark and wild. He was facing Relena Peacecraft. Facing the Vice Foreign Minister with a gun.
/ Oh no Shit shit Heero Not now /
"NO HEERO "
Without thinking, he tackled the Japanese soldier. The gun fired into the air, and in the awed silence between fireworks, the gunshot was very loud. A number of women screamed. Heero was thrown to the asphalt, the breath knocked out of him. He wouldn't drop the gun.
/ Forgive me, Heero. / Duo grabbed Heero's wrist and twisted hard, almost to the point of breaking it. Heero drew in a gasp and dropped the gun. It clattered to the asphalt, and Duo slapped it out of reach. He grabbed his own gun, putting it beneath the Wing pilot's chin.
He grabbed Heero's shirt-front with his one free hand and shook Heero, half in terror and half in fury. He had been so close... so close to destroying the peace they had worked so hard for. "You can't, Heero You can't kill her Are you crazy? What are you thinking ? "
Heero looked up at him, and Duo was amazed to see tears in his eyes. He could feel Heero shaking under him. "Duo... fire... the fire in the sky...Duo, it's starting again...not again..." That last drifted into a low moan.
Duo looked down at Heero in disbelief. Heero had had a flashback. It was the fireworks. The fucking fireworks. He had actually believed Heero was trying to kill Relena. Jesus. Jesus...
He put his gun back in his jacket and loosened his hand on Heero's shirt, grabbing Heero's shoulders firmly. "Heero, listen to me... look at me... you lookin'?"
Heero was looking into his eyes. Duo had forgotten how deep those blue eyes were. "Hai."
"Not a dogfight. Heero, it's not a dogfight. It's just fireworks... just Fourth of July fireworks... no war. No explosions. It's over. It's all over. We're safe now. Safe. You're safe. I won't let them take you again. I swear. You know I never lie."
The Wing pilot stared at him without comprehending. Another firework exploded in the sky, raining down gold sparkles, and Duo was reminded himself of the way a destroyed mobile suit would fall to the ground in blazing pieces, like a tiny rain of comets.
Heero had closed his eyes tightly beneath him, trying to shut it out. He was whispering in a voice that made him sound like a scared little boy. Duo would never have believed this was the same man he knew had killed more people than he could count.
"Onegai... onegai... please, please... not again..."
The other party guests saw the gun in the light from the fireworks, and they milled in a panic, moving away from the pair of them. Relena stepped forward, but Duo stopped her with a whisper she could barely hear under the sound of the fireworks. She read his lips, more than she heard it.
"Don't, Relena. Not now."
He looked back at Heero. / Oh, Heero... /
Duo stood up and held his hand down to Heero. Heero flinched back from it as if he was going to be slapped. The look on his face made Duo's heart hurt.
"C'mon, Heero. Let's go."
Heero looked up at him for a minute, as if trying to place his face, then grabbed his hand. Duo pulled the Japanese soldier to his feet.
The crowd was looking at the two of them as if they were insane. The contempt and fear on their faces made a fierce hatred well up in Duo.
He grabbed the gun from the asphalt, and the pacifists cried out and backed away, some shrieking. He grinned at them harmlessly, his smile bright and terrible. It was Shinigami's smile, and the pacifists recoiled from it.
"It's okay, people. It's all fine and dandy. My friend here just got a little excited." He pointed the gun up into the air, firing until all the bullets were gone, the cracks of the gunshots resounding in the silence. Another firework exploded over their heads. The women were hiding their faces.
"Not a twenty-one gun salute, but it's the best we could do." Duo looked around at the frightened aristocrats, and his expression softened into sadness and regret. He looked over at Heero, who seemed to have been brought to his senses a little by the gunshots. Although Duo could still see the Japanese soldier's shoulders trembling in the half-light.
"C'mon, Heero. Let's get the hell out of here." Duo put his arm around Heero's shoulders, leading him out, then looked back at Relena and tipped a hand to her in a mock-salute. "See ya later, 'Lena. Great party."
TBC...
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