"Spend all your time waiting, for that second chance, for a break that would make it okay / There's always some reason, to feel not good enough, and it's hard at the end of the day / I need some distraction, oh, a beautiful release, as memories seep from my veins / In this sweet madness, oh this glorious sadness, it brings me to believe..."
--- "Arms Of The Angel"
It's A Hard Knock Life Part 6
Maxwell's Angel: Morning After
He was so warm. Warm? He? What in the hell-
// Heero... No, not Heero. // A sadness crossed Duo's face. // Never Heero. //
Duo opened his eyes, suddenly wide awake. His cheek was resting against Solo's shoulderblade. The older boy lay beside him, and Duo saw that his arm was thrown over Solo's back, curled around his side. His arm looked so pale over Solo's back, tanned by the excruciating L2 sun. So much for colonial climate control.
Solo. Damn, he had never known Solo would be like that. He closed his eyes, remembering. Mouth and hands everywhere at once, hungry and fast. Jesus Christ, it was like fucking a hurricane. No wonder he made more money than any other trick Duo knew.
He looked at his friend, and was startled to find warm tears pricking his eyes. Solo looked so gentle when he was asleep, and innocent. Fragile, something Solo had never been, and probably never would be. Like Duo, he had lost innocence as a child.
Duo saw something he hadn't noticed before, now that he had time to look. By the time they had gotten back to Haven the night before, he had been too... ah, occupied to notice. Touching had taken priority over looking at the time.
There were tattoos on Solo's back, in the form of angel wings that covered his shoulder blades and almost touched at the small of his back. A crucifix was tattooed to the nape of the older boy's neck. The tattoos were beautifully intricate, done in a metallic ink that shimmered in the half- light, and Duo knew that Solo must have spent many painful hours in a tattoo parlor to have the body art done.
Duo lifted his arm off of Solo's back and burrowed under the covers like a kid, with nothing but the top of his head sticking out. He suddenly felt like hiding. He was happy and confused and sad and embarrassed, all at the same time. He felt like an emotional smoothie. He curled up against Solo's side, burrowing.
The older boy snorted in his sleep, sighing and mumbling a little. "Quit wigglin'... go back to sleep."
Duo sighed, putting his forehead against Solo's back. He felt the muscles there as Solo tensed up, waking. Solo woke up exactly like other L2 kids did, deep asleep one minute, thrumming with nervous energy the next, looking for danger and a blade to fend it off with. Languid was hardly in their vocabulary.
"It's okay, Solo. It's me."
The older boy shifted in bed, turning around to face Duo. They were both lying tangled in the braided pilot's not-so-braided hair.
"Hey, buddy," Solo said, smiling gently. He traced his fingers along Duo's waist, over the curve of the pilot's hip, not exactly sexual now, more of an affectionate touch than anything. His hand landed on a scar over Duo's side, running his fingertips over it. "Interesting new beauty mark, kiddo. Where'd you get this one?"
"Shot a guy. Thought he was dead and turned my back on him. Turned just as he was aiming." There was a disturbed look on Solo's face, as if it bothered him that Duo had come so closer to being killed, even though he himself cheated death on the streets every night. "Another inch over and you wouldn't be here right now, buddy"
"Yeah, I really thought I was gutshot. Couldn't believe I was still alive."
Solo yawned, leaned forward and pulled Duo towards him, nuzzling the back of his neck, making Duo shiver. "Let's not talk about it anymore."
Duo buried his face against Solo's neck, started to just curl up and go back to sleep, safe and protected and happy in the arms of the closest friend he had ever had, but then a thought broke his reverie and made him groan.
"Oh no... oh shit!" He pulled out of Solo's embrace, looking for his clothes frantically. His hair was a wild mess trailing behind him like a mahogany cascade.
Solo muttered, protesting against the absence of warmth Duo's absence left behind. He cracked one brilliant blue eye at the braided pilot. "What in the hell are you doin'?"
"I forgot, I was supposed to meet somebody yesterday, and I forgot, and oh...he's going to be so pissed..."
Solo was suddenly quite interested. He gazed at Duo with mischievous intentions, reading the pilot's face. "Eh, and uh... who is this... mysterious guy?"
Duo looked back at him, his pants on, but the top of his habit rumpled in his hands. "Huh? Oh, it's Heero. He's the guy I came to L2 with. I was supposed to meet him yesterday morning, but we slept all day, and then we went out last night, and then-" Duo blushed. Solo just laughed at him.
Solo grinned. "Sounds like you have a thing for this guy. He isn't going to hunt me down for takin' advantage of you, is he?"
"No! Well... maybe... I guess. But he's oblivious. And he's always gonna be oblivious. Oh, shit! I've gotta find some way to sneak back into the hotel before he catches me....oh, I hope he doesn't hunt you down. You'd never see him coming."
"No point in going after a guy who isn't interested, yeah? Maybe he just doesn't swing that way, if you know what I mean." Solo made a lazy see- sawing motion with his hand, smirking.
Duo shook his head. "The guy is an asexual being. Sexy, but completely and utterly not interested. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't even jerk off."
Solo laughed. "You always did go after the hard ones." You were pulled from the wreckage.
Duo shrugged into his shirt and started to walk out, but then turned around, his amethyst eyes serious for once. "What did last night mean, Solo?" Solo raised up on his elbows for a minute, smiling at Duo, then shrugged. "I was happy to see you." His smile faded a little. "It meant something to me, Duo. I thought it meant something to you. But now you're runnin' off to meet with this other guy."
"It did mean somethin' to me, Solo. It always will. But-"
"But you fell hard for this other guy, huh."
"How do you know?"
Solo laughed again. "You made that face. You know... the chocolate ice cream with gummy bears face.I know that face. You're smitten, Duo-kid. Absolutely and positively smitten. You tripped hard, man."
Duo nodded a little. "Yeah... I guess I did. But I don't think anything's gonna come of it, though. It's just so hard."
"Yeah, well... life is too fucking short to waste on guys who are oblivious, Duo. You know it. I know it. Right?"
Duo thought a minute, then nodded. "Yeah... I guess I do."
Solo smiled at him, that blinding, brilliant smile that had insured that he could always have someone to warm his bed, if he wanted them. He wrapped himself in the blankets, curled up in the sheets on the bed, stretching like a cat. "Then you know where to find me, right?"
Duo smiled a little back. "Always."
"Good. Then you'll come back?"
Duo thought about the pilots, the war, the Missions.... then banished them from his thoughts. He was sick of that shit. Why couldn't he have a good time, too? He made up his mind and looked at Solo resolutely. "I promise."
Solo's smile faded. "That's what you said last time. Don't promise. Just come."
Duo nodded, still smiling a little. "I will." // But first... I gotta deal with Heero. //
Solo watched Duo leave, then rolled over onto his stomach, burying a grin in his pillow. / He'll be back. /
~*~
Heero stalked the hotel room, pacing like a caged wild animal.
He had been up all night, drinking sludge coffee from the little machine beside the bed, working on his laptop and trying not to worry. Iie. He didn't have to worry. This was Duo's colony. Duo was fine. Duo would always be fine. Duo was probably fine right now... wasn't he?
"Dammit!" Heero went over to the window, scowling as he scanned the streets. Duo had been missing for over a day.
// Duo, where are you?! Are you hurt? Were you captured? Dammit, why don't you tell me where you are? Why didn't you come back? //
These frenzied thoughts raced through the Wing pilot's head. They didn't show on his face. If anyone had looked at him, they wouldn't have known he was even worried at all.
A new thought crossed his mind. What if Duo had defected? What if he had turned traitor? Or what if he had simply said "fuck the war" in that impulsive, carefree voice of his, and just decided to blow it off? To disappear back into the streets he grew up on?
Heero would not let that happen. Did Duo have no sense of obligation, no sense of duty to his colony? // He doesn't care that I'm worried about him. // Heero's scowl deepened. // Flippant American fool. //
But underneath the veneer of anger was the deep, turbulent anxiety he had felt ever since finding out that Duo would not be returning for a day. When he had not returned even after that, Heero found himself not only worried, but a little lonely too, alone on a colony he had never visited before, one that Duo was much more comfortable on than he was. He had never before thought that he would miss Duo's company.
But he did.
He sighed, sitting himself down by the window again with complete and resigned patience, immovable commitment. He would not move from the spot until Duo returned. Or until a Mission called him from the colony.
// He'll be back. //
He gazed out the window, eyebrows knitting in a troubled expression.
// Duo... come back. //
// Please. //
TBC...
Back to CleverYoungThief's Fanfictions Page