Thanks to: The War Room, the regular reviewers, and anyone else who has to put up with me for any extended amount of time.
"There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep."
--- Homer
"Dawn: when men of reason go to bed."
--- Ambrose Pierce
"I don't drink to get drunk, I just get really thirsty and someone gives me something for that. Then I usually get really confused."
--- Yo
Requiem for the Sinners Part 25
BS: Thou Shalt Not Drink
Heero braced himself for the storm...
But it didn't come.
Instead:
"Oh Lord, what have you boys been doing now? Why can't you learn how to play nice for once? Silly boys. Kneel down here so I can look at that face. Faster, Yuy, they didn't break your legs, did they?"
Heero complied, kneeling in front of the nurse he had expected to hurt him. Instead, he felt soft, wrinkled hands handling his jaw delicately, turning his head this way and that, running smooth fingertips along the edge of his jaw, where a deep bruise was forming, like a crow's wing.
Great. One to match the other side.
She clucked at him like a hen, patting at his split lip gently, then turned away from him with a world-weary, oh-why-won't-these-boys-stop-playing-war sigh. "Follow me."
Heero followed her silently, tension building up in him like the wires of a bridge about to collapse. She walked onto the ward, stopping to check on the young soldier with the broken arm (who was soundly asleep) and then rummaged in a metal cabinet against the wall at the end of the corridor.
He couldn't take it anymore. If there was one thing he had never been able to stand, it was the delay of punishment. He remembered once, when he had struggled against one of the doctors who was administering nanotech treatment to him, the man acting as a nurse promised that he would be punished for breaking the syringe and blinding the doctor with it. It had taken them five men to restrain him.
He had waited for his punishment, every hour and every day getting worse and worse, until finally he relaxed, thinking maybe... just maybe, this time they had forgotten. This time, they wouldn't hurt him for hurting them.
And then... the shock treatments. They had dragged him out of his cell in the middle of the night.
How could he have thought they had forgotten? How could he have been so wrong?
"Do you know why we're doing this?"
"... Aah!"
"Do you?"
"D... D-ah! Doctor!! The doctor! Onegai..."
"Why should we show you mercy? You showed him none."
"Nnn... Hhayaku inaku nareyo! Ah! Koro shite yaru!"
"Not if we kill you first."
"If you're going to beat me, or have someone do it for you, just do it now," Heero said flatly, standing behind her, arms at his sides, fists clenched. She was a woman, and old, but he had had woman doctors as well, and they could be just as vicious... if not more so.
He couldn't help that last. He still felt the shocks from before. He had been taught that blinding one's enemy, either with a sharp object or one's thumbs, in hand-to-hand combat, was an effective way of disabling your enemy. One of the best. Still... after that, he had never done it again. Ever.
One thing about the shocks, he thought. What a mindfuck.... but oh, so effective.
Marge looked back at him, startled. "Who-why in the world would I do that?"
Heero smiled a little, pretended he had been making a rare joke, but that thrumming anticipation of pain and punishment never left him. His hands clenched and unclenched uneasily at his sides. "You said that if I left the ward, you would make me wish Duo had killed me."
"It wasn't literal," Marge replied, taking him by the arm and ushering him back towards the bed. She made him lie down as she went off to make an ice pack. "And if it had been," she added matter-of-factly, as she came back over, "I am completely too tired to be killing you tonight. Or this morning, rather. Lie flat."
Heero did as he was told, and an iced compress was pressed against his jaw.
The old woman scowled at him disapprovingly, and disapproval from that kindly face was almost as bad as a beating, he thought. "There. Hold that there for a few minutes, so the swelling goes down. Who was it, that Harper boy? I knew that would be trouble."
No, not Harper.
He considered telling her that. But then, he realized, she would ask him who it was that had hit him, and he wasn't sure if he would be able to explain that he and Duo had just beaten the daylights out of each other. Heero knew a lot of things, but he didn't know how to explain that and make it come out to sound normal.
"Hn." The side of his face was going numb from the cold, and his lip was stinging where Duo had busted it. He slung one leg off the edge of the bed, staring up at the waterstained ceiling.
Marge threw a clean sheet over him, that tired distracted look still on her face. "Now, you rest. Do I need to tell you not to get up again, or am I going to have to chain you to the bed? Do you need a painkiller?"
"No. ...And no," Heero replied, not looking at her. He didn't want to take drugs if he didn't have to, and he had been in worse pain before without any kind of drugs. If there was anything he could do, it was handle a little pain. He even liked it, a little. It verified his existence in a way that nothing else could ever touch.
"Fine. Sleep well, then." The elderly nurse turned her back on him, walking slowly back down the hall, her flats making dull tapping sounds on the tile floor.
"Miss?"
Marge turned around, smiling a little in surprise. And pleasure, Heero realized, at being addressed by a name that sounded so young. "Just Marge. But do you need something?"
Heero's eyes were closed, but she could hear his soft reply as he turned his face away towards the wall, his shoulders slumping with exhaustion. "... Thanks."
She smiled, walking out of the ward and closing the door gently behind her. The ward was silent again, that hushed stillness that only came in the very middle of the night.
Heero felt the soft coolness of the sheets, the whirring of the ceiling fan overhead. Even over the silence, he heard the murmur of voices outside in the halls. Far away, he could feel the vibrations of thermonuclear power from the ships in the docks. The heavy, steady breathing of the sleeping soldier a few beds down from him lulled him.
He slipped into sleep, pretending he was fifteen again, with Duo snoring lightly in the dorm bed next door, the sound of boys laughing in the hallway.
~*~
"Don't give me an excuse, Ching."
The Chinese pilot's expression tensed furiously as he eyed the man standing in front of him. He was fully clothed again, in his Preventers uniform, the bars and medals of recognition shining at his shoulders and on his chest, and he was not vulnerable enough to put up with shit from Duo's lackeys again. Particularly not this one.
"That is Commander Wufei Chang to you. I am the CO of an enemy fleet and you will address me in a manner befitting my rank. "
Harper cocked his head, smirking. He relaxed a little, laughing softly. He glanced around at the soldiers to either side of him, a wide-eyed feigned expression of awe on his face. "Hear that, dagos? Greencoat says he's a commander."
The group of black-clad soldiers that had formed an armed human wall around Wufei laughed with him.
Harper grinned at Wufei, taking a deep breath before stepping forward, slinging his automatic rifle slightly to the side. "In that case, Commander, I haven't had the pleasure of introducing myself." He drawled, inducing a few snickers from the men around him. "Mercy me, my manners fail me."
Wufei didn't like the expression on his face, but he did recognize it. It was the grin of Duo at his most dangerous. It obviously wasn't just Duo's method; that same blade-sharp, black humor was the fallback of L2 itself. The jokes Duo spouted constantly had always just been a way to distract from the stalk hidden in them. They were only the bait of the trap.
Harper held his hand out, smiling. The smile was friendly and complete and utter bullshit. Wufei didn't believe it for a moment.
"Pleased to meet you, Commander. I'm Vice General Isaac Harper of Legion. My friends call me Harp." The grin grew colder, dangerous, more a snarl than a smile. "You can just call me Vice General."
Wufei smiled a little back at him, extending his hand to take Harper's. The L2 vice general's grip was painfully strong, but Wufei squeezed just as hard. "I'd say the pleasure is mine, but I'm adverse to lying."
"Stop this shin-kicking schoolyard bullshit," a tired, bleary voice echoed through the emptied hangar. The techs were in the middle of the graveyard shift-switch, and the new techs that had been sleeping were suiting up to go to work where the day-techs had left off.
The group of armed men and Wufei turned to the source of the new voice.
"Duo!" Harper called cheerfully, letting go of Wufei's hand. It throbbed, but Wufei stubbornly refused to give the L2 soldier the satisfaction of shaking it out.
Slightly more sober, Duo walked down the center of the hangar, Howard trailing at his side and a little behind, like an ever-faithful dog at heel. Hilde was also with him, a grin on her face, hands laced behind her head as she walked. She had always been a complete and total night owl, and sometimes Duo wanted to kill her for it.
Duo glared balefully as he saw the group of men surrounding Wufei. "What is this, a fuckin' slumber party? Give the guy some breathing room, would you? You can see he doesn't have anything on him, and I know you didn't let him in without searching him. Right?"
The guards looked at each other.
Duo smiled, but even to Wufei, it appeared forced. The general's face was pale except for the dark bruises, and his eyes were hidden behind reflective sunglasses that shone under the fluorescent lights. He waved a hand at the men. "G'on, get. You know where you're supposed to be. Find a post and watch it, why don't you?"
"Sir, yes sir," the men answered, heading off in droves. Only Harper and Wufei remained behind.
"Now..." Duo pushed his glasses up, smiling a little. "Nice to see you without a gag in your mouth, 'Fei. And all dressed up, too."
Howard chuckled at that, and Wufei glared at him. The Preventer commander turned his gaze on Duo, a scowl on his face, but the emotion behind his eyes was questioning. Finally, he smiled back, but there was no good humor in it.
"Call, Duo."
Duo raised an eyebrow at him. "Huh?"
Wufei's calm, cool smile never faltered. "Call. BS. Bullshit. Whatever you want to call it." His voice was deceptively gentle. "Where is my second admiral?"
Duo was silent for a moment, then his eyes widened in realization. He smirked, tilting his head lazily, his eyes dark and dilated with alcohol. He leaned close, putting his hands on Wufei's shoulders. Wufei could smell the vodka on his breath. "That depends. Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?"
The corner of Wufei's mouth twitched slightly, but he didn't smile. "I don't understand you."
Duo sighed as if it was the most stupid remark he ever heard, leaning heavily on Wufei, almost close enough to where their foreheads touched. His voice was a whisper. "Sure you do, you're just playin' dumb. Can't bullshit a bullshitter, my friend," the general inflected solemnly, his words only slightly slurred. He turned abruptly, walking towards the dock quarters.
Wufei scowled after him. "Where do you think you're going, Maxwell?!"
"To the bathroom."
Howard laughed softly, and Hilde rolled her eyes. Before he could think it over or stop himself, Wufei called out the inevitable, irritated. "Why?"
"Because otherwise, I'm going to throw up on your shoes."
TBC...
Notes:
Koro shite yaru - I'll kill you (to a superior)
Hhayaku inaku nareyo - Fuck off
dagos - guys
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