Author: hostilecrayon
Pairing: 1x2
Rating: PG
Warnings: Sap, Memories
Disclaimer: Still poor. Gundam Wing is owned by Hajime Yatate and Yoshiyuki Tomino.
Notes: One more part to go, me thinks. Part XV of the Growing Up Mini-Series. Written for the Shell prompt at gw500.
Sunshine
The morning came like mornings should - slow and comfortable. The sun slinked its way through the blinds, laying lazily across the blanket in stripes. Despite the chaos over the last year, it felt natural to wake up with Duo spawled across the bed, one arm slung across me and a leg hanging off the bed. It was more satisfying than a million other mornings all put together and multiplied by infinity.
Memories of the previous night rolled gently through my mind, and I couldn't help thinking I was, as Duo would say, one lucky son of a bitch. There was a time when I never dreamed I'd wake up next to the only man I've ever loved again. It was as if everything was washed away and we had a chance to start anew.
It made me think of everything we'd been through in our short lives. With Duo snoring softly next to me, I couldn't help but remember a time when we didn't have the luxury of sleeping in; when a few minutes' time was the difference between life and death. There was seldom a time when the gunshots and bombshells weren't fresh in our minds - our ears would sometimes ring for days on end.
I remembered pulling shards of bullets from his otherwise soft skin and having no choice but to coldly bandage his wounds as best I could so that we could move on, and he frequently did the same for me. We were just kids, but our lives consisted of little more than carnage and death.
My fingers traced his wounds, many of which I witnessed him receive firsthand. It was a different world back then. We had no hope of surviving; no chance of being anything more than machines made to fight for the greater good. As if teenagers can even understand such things. As if we ever should have been expected to.
But we had our causes, and we fought what came to be our own personal war as best we could. We all had the devil's luck and somehow we came out in the end, but the memories never leave, even if they've faded in intensity over the years.
I honestly can't tell you how I ever let him go. I just don't know. After all that we had faced, there shouldn't have been anything strong enough to tear us apart. But then, we never had the chance to develop emotions like normal teenagers, and it ended up biting us in the ass.
I really am a lucky bastard. Not only did I escape death more times than I can count, I escaped a death far more painful than any I'd faced in the war.
The death of Duo and I.
The sun stretched farther now, brightening the wall with its now cheerful light. Duo stirred, gripping me tighter as he adjusted. I looked down and smiled. I had all the sunshine I'd ever need right there next to me.
For the first time in who knows how long, I rolled over and went back to sleep on a perfectly sunny morning.
OWARI
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