Author: CleverYoungThief

Rating: NC-17. Some of you guys might not consider it that rough, but I wanted to be sure. There is probably going to be multiple deaths, and none of them will be pretty.

Warnings: I don't want to put too much stuff in the warnings, because I don't want to give too much away. However, there is going to probably be some majorly intense stuff ahead. So be warned.

Pairing: 1+2, 3+4

Archive: Gundam Wing Addiction

Disclaimer: Don't own 'em. Don't sue. College kids are like L2 kids; we got nothin'.

Notes: I'm sorry to anyone who is waiting on Endless Summer, I am working on it, I swear. It's just that I heard this Alice Cooper song and this fic came to me all at once, like getting struck by lightning. And I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to studying for my Bio exam until I at least got the prologue/teaser out on paper.

"I've lied to you
the same way that I always do
this is the last smile
that I'll fake for the sake of being with you
The sacrifice of hiding in the light..."

      --- Linkin Park, "Runaway"

Requiem for the Sinners Part 1
Smiling Judas

They were hidden away in the darkness of an alcove outside the great hall. The two of them were ready to go off to battle the same way they always had, only this battle would be one of power struggles and verbal traps, not beam sabers and gatling guns. It was a battlefield that they were unused to, but they attacked the same way they always had. Head-on.

"Duo, don't be stupid."

The warning, issued by Heero endless times over the course of his and Duo's friendship, was soft. It was softened further by Heero's hand as he slipped it into Duo's, squeezed, and let it fall away.

It was a familiar gesture, repeated hundreds of times during the wars, one that both had a brusque impersonal feel and was at the same time achingly intimate.

The ritual, as far as Duo could remember, had always been there, as long as they had fought side-by-side. It was usually followed by the warning, or something like it.

"Duo, don't be stupid."
"Duo, don't screw up."
"Duo, hanase ru. Stop. Think."

Was he so impulsive?

For Heero, the act was as natural as breathing. It was as ritualistic as Quatre bowing to Mecca before he fought, as Wufei's meditation, as Trowa taking exactly one shot of Cujo Mescal, playing one last game of solitaire. It was the way Duo lit two candles and crossed himself. It was the last act before death, before battle, before war.

Only there was no war, anymore.

Duo looked over at him, and Heero was surprised by the casual violence in the depths of those amethyst eyes. Duo's knuckles had been scraped and rough in his hand. Duo's palm was callused against his. Duo was a politician now, higher than Heero in rank. While Duo was one of the politicians, Heero was only the leader of Relena's guard.

Duo was the Councillor of L2, but his hands were not a politician's hands.

They were still the hands of a soldier.

He smiled, but there was no trace of humor in that carefree grin. It was not his politician's smile, either, the soft, charming, slightly cunning one. It was the grin of Shinigami.

His hands were shaking.

The conference was about to start. Duo's case would be made to all the leaders of the World Nation and the leaders of the colonies. Through him, L2 would voice the plea it had been crying since the uprising of OZ and the Alliance. Help us. Please help us.

"Duo?"

The former Deathscythe pilot closed his eyes, a small furrow forming between his eyebrows as he closed his expression away like a magic trick. Now you see the killer. Now you don't.

"I fought for peace, Heero. Didn't you fight for peace?"

"I... hai." Heero's voice strengthened. "Yes."

Beyond the doors of the conference hall, they could hear the whispered squabbles of the other councillors, the senators, the representatives of the Space Assembly. They could hear the rabid questions voiced by the press.

"It was all for nothing, wasn't it?" Duo asked softly, his head turned towards the huge doors, twice as tall as a man.

"No," Heero whispered back. His voice was soft, but there was great force behind it. "I refuse to believe that, Duo. I won't."

"Believe it, chum," Duo replied bitterly. "There are still armed 'peacekeepers' everywhere." He made the word sound like an obscenity. "I don't know about you, Heero, but I did not give nine years of sweat, blood, and tears to replace one dictator with another one."

He looked up at Heero again, and Heero saw barely contained fire flashing in that violent gaze. Duo gestured angrily at the hall. He kept his voice at a low hiss that only the two of them could hear. "That is the Alliance, Heero! They've just changed their name a little. It's happening all over again! And this time you're right there with them! So am I! What are we doing?"

"No." Heero turned Duo towards him, taking the other young man's face in his hands, forcing Duo to look into his eyes. He shook his head slowly. "No, Duo."

Duo pulled away from him. It was the first time Heero could ever remember Duo pulling away from him. Duo usually pulled people to him, not the other way around. He never had to be pulled to people, he was drawn to them naturally.

Strange.

Duo pointed in the direction of the mass of politicians behind the doors. His voice was low and furious. "We fought for peace, Heero. That's what we fought and killed for. This is not it. This is not it."

Heero sighed silently. "Tell them then, Duo. Tell them all. Telling is what you were always good at. But calm down and think. Wait and talk it out. That's what politicians are supposed to do. That's what you have to do now."

Duo shook his head. "I'm not here to be a politician. I'm here to help L2. The war is over and people are still dyin'. That is not peace, Heero."

"Duo..."

Duo glanced back up at him again, and Heero had to resist the urge to step back. This was not his old partner, the one he had risked his life to save. This was Shinigami. Shinigami like a corpse in a coffin, all dressed up with no place to go.

Duo was dressed up, and the clothes looked strange on him to Heero, the clothes of an aristocrat on a street kid; instead of making him look more sophisticated, they just emphasized how dangerous and unrefined he looked, like a dirty mongrel with a blue ribbon around its neck.

"I'm done waiting, Heero. I've been waiting for four years. We fought for peace and they called us killers. These same people would have seen us executed, Heero. I fought in the cockpit while they called us murderers and then, as soon as we won, we were heroes." He gazed into Heero's eyes steadily, not looking away.

His hands were clenched at his sides. His cufflinks shone under the overhead lights. Heero was struck again by the strange sensation of seeing an illusion, seeing a dirty, bloodied orphan dressed like a prince. But an illusion was all it was.

"I'm done with it. Enough waiting, Heero. We've waited too damned long." His voice trailed to a whisper. "And I think we're on the wrong side this time..."

Heero started to reach forward, started to touch Duo's shoulder, but then let his hand fall away. He wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't sure what he was doing, anymore. There was a darkness shifting beneath the surface of Duo's eyes like the shadow of a predator beneath murky water.

"I have to go be with Relena now, Duo."

"Go then." Duo's voice was sullen, tired. He looked up now and he was just a frustrated fifteen year-old again. It was Duo again, like he was before, during the wars. The same Duo he had fought alongside and killed with. The same Duo he would have killed for, or killed, if that had been necessary.

Just Duo. Just like always.

"Good luck."

Duo smiled wanly. "Bullshit. You don't believe in luck, Heero."

"Then just fight well. And think before you speak, Duo."

"Yeah."

Heero began to walk through the doors, pushing one of them open.

"Heero?"

He turned his head over his shoulder. "What?"

Duo looked at him, opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, then closed it and shook his head before speaking again. "...Nevermind."

Heero started to slip through the doors when he heard Duo's voice again behind him.

"Goodbye, Heero."

Heero paused. Duo always said see you later. He had never, ever said goodbye.

He turned around sharply.

But Duo was gone.

TBC...

 

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