Somewhere Beyond Midnight Part 3
A strong surge of wind driven rain slammed again against the weather-beaten stable. The quaking structure vibrated at the forceful onslaught, the tin roof rattling with the pelting assault of wind and water. Heero flinched at the roaring din, arms and legs drawing up in defensive posture. His drowsy eyes suddenly widened at the outside noise's stimulus bombarding his confused perceptions.
"Duo, look out!" he screamed flinging his arms wildly, grabbing at the thin air around him that offered no secure handhold in return.
Duo intercepted the anxiously waving appendages, one to keep clear of a solid hit should one of the swinging arms make contact and, secondly, to keep Heero from further injuring himself.
Duo was surprised at Heero's power as he fought against his gentle, but firm, hold. But Duo knew from his own experiences, when sudden fear took over, how an adrenalin rush could multiple one's strength and resolve to get away from the whatever threat loomed over you. And whether the threat was real or imagined, the results were the same.
"It's all right." Duo answered in a calming tone hoping the soothing sounds would break through Heero's raw panic. "Heero." he called, "Please don't fight me you're going to hurt yourself."
Duo's pleas seemingly fell on deaf ears as Heero continued to struggle in Maxwell's grip. "Pull back." Heero yelled tensing his entire body, "Watch your flank! Damn it Duo I said pull back!" he exclaimed his breathing coming in short labored gasps. A renewed sweating beaded on his forehead and his chalky coloring became even paler.
"Move to 2.33." Heero ordered believing he was totally immersed in the heat of battle. "Attack range 4.8, speed 160. Aptitude angle120 degrees." Heero shouted out battle configurations and coordinates. "Keep it close." he choked out the words now gasping acutely for air.
Duo pulled Heero nearer trying to rein in his flinging arms. Now kicking legs had joined the violent movements as Heero's startled reflexes fought the bizarre imaginary exploding in his panic-stricken brain. Heero tensed once more, this time holding the taunt contours for a long moment. Holding his breathe he maintained the stiff pose frozen in place.
Duo used the momentary pause to pull down Heero's arms sliding his own arms around Heero's chest pinning them to his side. Then Duo braced for what he knew would be a second wave as Heero's breath suddenly caught with a jarring shudder. "NO!" Heero screamed with an anguished wail, "NOOOO!" he repeated straining as hardened muscles pressed against Duo's forceful hug.
Then as quickly as the wave of terror flooded over Heero's tortured mind and pain racked body, the maddening visions and wrenching convulsions let go all at once plunging Heero into a downward spiraling tunnel. Falling into the cold black void, what light that had kept Heero's mind from failing altogether began fading rapidly away being swallowed up by an unrelenting darkness.
Heero's eyes rolled back into his head. His breath faltered, sticking somewhere in his lungs as they collapsed in his chest. With a rattled wheezing, stronger and tighter than before, Heero fought to suck in any air at all. Each labored breath pushed harder and harder against his encumbered system until he had no strength left to fight. One last weak gasp and Heero pitched over falling heavily into Duo.
Heero went slack, arms dangling loosely at his sides like a threadbare rag doll. His eyes closed and his body became lax as his entire system lost its fading resolution to the overwhelming heaviness entwining its icy tentacles stoutly about his senses.
"Heero?" Duo cried trying to push back Zero's Master to better see his ashen face. His observation revealed a frightening scene. The pallid hue left no color behind and Heero's lips had begun to turn blue.
"HEERO!" Duo screamed shaking his unresponsive comrade, "Oh God, Heero, don't do this to me." Duo beseeched his motionless partner. "Please, Heero, wake up." he wailed shaking harder still.
Heero Yuy offered on motion, nothing in reply to Duo's shaking and screaming. He laid against Duo his wobbly head sliding down until it rested on Duo's shoulder. Nothing moved. Not his head, his body and not his chest as no air at all filled his lungs.
Duo laid him back onto the blanket slipping his hand under Heero's neck, tilting back his head to straighten his bent airway. Leaning over his cold, still friend and brother-in-arms, Duo opened Heero's mouth and cover the gaping space with his opened mouth sealing his lips.
Duo breathed out a centered breath as hard as he could. Heero's chest rose with the invading air, then sunk back as still as before. Duo repeated the forced respiration. Again Heero's chest rose perhaps a little higher this time. The third attempt expanded his lungs more as Duo pushed himself and Heero's endurance to the limit.
Suddenly a solid tremor jerked in Heero's chest. The strong spasm caused a pulsating twitch then, mercifully, breath caught in Heero's throat traveling with reviving speed into his lungs. A hard gasp further encouraged his system to acknowledge the renewed oxygen flow. With a third trembling shudder air filled his aching chest. As Heero coughed, taking in a deep gulp of air, Duo sat him up to aide his lung's refilling.
"Take it easy." Duo instructed, "Now don't fight it you'll get strangled."
Heero grabbed Duo's arm with a painfully tight grip Duo was certain would leave behind a bruise at each of Heero's fingers contact points, but he didn't care. Nothing mattered but the fact Heero had come back to him.
"Relax." Duo ordered, "I said don't fight it." He proclaimed pulling Heero nearer. "Heero, look at me. Let me see your eyes."
At first Heero didn't response to the sound of his name, his senses still too baffled by everything trying to return to normal all at once. Duo called again this time putting a thumb under Heero's chin guiding his eyes in line with his wide violet and, quite misty, orbs.
"Heero." he said softly stroking a single finger over Heero's pale cheek. This time Duo's calling was rewarded with a shifting of Heero's blue eyes until they locked squarely with the caring centers of sight looking back.
With a shaky breath flowing over his lips, Heero leaned into Duo letting the dark God Of Death and, now, his savior, hold him securely. Resting his heavy head on Duo's shoulder, a second sigh helped to calm the shivers of both his battered body and his weary, confused mind.
"Duo." he whispered moving to turn his eyes upwards to better view Duo's face.
"Shhhh." Duo answered his partner's searching gaze. "I'm here. Don't worry you are going to be all right." he declared with certainty.
"What happened?" Heero wondered as the puzzle pieces of recent events, still scattered in his mind, offered no clear picture.
"Do you remember going down in Zero?" Duo inquired trying to find the starting point of his explanation.
Heero nodded yes.
"Do you remember coming here, the night and the rain?" Duo continued narrowing the field of understanding a bit more.
Again Heero nodded affirmatively.
"Did I pass out?" It was Heero's turn to steer the questions.
Duo couldn't help but smile with a sense of relief and amusement at Heero's understatement of his nearly dying in his arms. "You did a little more than pass out." he declared, "But you will be all right."
Heero sighed as Duo wrapped the blanket back around his shoulder, relaxing in the warmth and comfort of Duo's enfolding arms. Lowering them both down onto the straw, pulling another blanket over their legs, Duo curved his body bowing to form a secure place for his reclaimed friend to rest.
Running a finger under Heero's tangled bangs, Duo laid his flat palm on his forehead to see if it felt hot, hoping Heero's chills had not evolved into a fever. Cradling Heero as close as he could Duo rubbed his hand over Heero's chest trying to ease the tightness still stubbornly attached to Heero's rippling muscles, hoping the firm massage would take away at least some of the soreness and help his wheezing.
Heero made no move to stop the comforting strokes instead he pushed against the soothing caresses that were sending warm sensations over his entire body. Another content sigh flowed out as he moved his hand until it closed over Duo's hand, entwining his stiff fingers through Duo's supple grip.
"Duo."
"Yes?"
"What time is it?"
Duo rolled his eyes marveling at the persistency of the Japanese Pilot. "Damn! Yuy!" he exclaimed, "Is that all you think about? You would think after all you've been through..."
"Duo." Heero interrupted squeezing tighter on his hand, "Please, the time."
Letting out a clearly perturbed hiss of air, Duo once again raised his wrist to eye level. "Its a good thing these standard issue watches have a luminous digital read-out or you would be bugging me to rub two sticks together and start a fire just so I could tell you what time it is." he declared leaning closer so he could see, "It's 11:15. Are you satisfied now?" he grumbled.
"Yes, thank you." Heero answered ignoring Duo's under-the-breath, curse filled murmurings. Heero let his head slip down until he laid on Duo's chest where he could feel his partner's heartbeat even through the dense fabric of his Perventers uniform jacket.
"I think the rain has about stopped." Duo decided hearing only a steady dripping off the roof. The wind, too, had quieted down improving the dampness content in the old stable's musty atmosphere. Overhead the pair of doves cooed and snuggled on their lofty perch enjoying the respite from the fowl weather.
Duo smiled up at the feathered duet marveling at their naturalness, the way they found peace in the simplest things. How he wished his and the other Pilot's lives could be simple that way. How he wished the senseless conflict would end and there would no longer be a need to fight and shed blood.
Shoring up his arms about resting comrade, he studied Heero's strong features, how his high cheekbones accented his strong jaw line. His eyes were closed but Duo had no trouble envisioning their liquid cobalt luster. He had no trouble recalling their brooding stare that could easily be leveled at him when Duo pushed too far in his attempts to get Heero of loosen up. Remembered the intensity of their Death Glare as Heero set his sights on some unfortunate enemy Mobile Suit. Their resolute resolve as he protected his fellow Pilots in battle or defended their lives during ground missions especially if the assignment took a wrong turn placing them in danger.
Thinking Heero was asleep, Duo leaned forward letting his entranced sight linger on someone who had suddenly become very important to him. The crash of Zero, the stormy night, almost losing Heero, all those strange elements had combined to stir something wondrously captivating in his heart.
He now saw Heero Yuy in a new light. A glittering, bright aura of fascination. But something more had stirred to life in Duo's soul. Something more deeply rooted than friendship and the commonality of the war and their Gundams.
Duo had witnessed a similar connection between Quatre and Trowa many times. He had always felt a wonderment, a sense of awe, at the special bond Sandrock and Heavyarms Masters shared. They had an intrinsic union that went beyond just physical, sexual attraction. It was as if their love had been forged from the same iron will, a perfect link of mind and heart and soul.
Duo had often envied Trowa and Quatre's peace of mind and the surety of their relationship. Now a smaller sense of that same inherent nature, that basic pure essence, had touched Duo's heart and he knew, without a doubt, Heero Yuy was the reason for his sudden awareness. Had those feelings always been there, lying dormant in his heart's guarded recesses, or had they developed slowly over time? So slowly that Duo was not sure when they had begun to grow?
Duo leaned closer feeling Heero's soft breathing brush his face. Heero's placid countenance had lost much of its dispassionate, strictly controlled, mask. The Perfect Soldier's stoic facade had given way to a relaxed, almost peaceful, appearance. Heero moved causing Duo to pull back not wanting him to wake up and find his Gundam partner's face only inches from his. Duo wasn't at all certain what reaction his unrepressed interest might inspire. No better to keep what he was feeling to himself, at least for then anyway.
"Hell, what would I say?" Duo thought to himself as Heero's eyes fluttered open. "I can't just blurt out what I'm feeling. I'm not even sure what it is yet."
Despite Duo's tendency to be spontaneous, sometimes to the extent of getting him in trouble, this was one instant Duo Maxwell had enough sense to keep his impulsiveness in check. Heero sighed finally feeling warm for the first time since Zero had gone down. He knew the blankets and Duo's shared body heat was responsible for much of his kindliness but there was something else that had lent itself to his comfort.
The cold spot that was always present in his heart, the numbness left over from his strict, impassive training had faded somewhat. The discipline maintained to give full attention to duty and keep the remnants of his shattered world from fraying until nothing remained had eased. The emptiness had not been wholly exorcised but it had relinquished some of its suffocating grip.
Heero locked his still drowsy sight with Duo's wide, expressive eyes as violet tinted pools welled up. Heero took immediate notice of the gathering tears, "What's wrong?" he whispered.
Duo shook his head closing his eyes, forcing the salty moisture to spill over his cheeks, "Nothing I suppose," he replied, "at least nothing I can put a name to," he answered, "and everything." he sighed.
Opening his eyes Duo gazed intently at Heero then fully expected him to draw back from the keen attention. But Heero didn't move. He now, also, had uncharacteristically softened blue eyes locked on Duo.
"Heero, I...." Duo began.
Heero raised a single dirty finger pressing it to Duo's quivering lips, "I know." came the simple reply.
Duo leaned back puzzled by his partner's response, "Know what?" he asked after a moment's pause.
"That something between us is different. I don't know what exactly and I sure as hell don't know how it happened, but something has changed"
A slight smile floated over Duo's lips as he realized Zero's Master's highly perceptive instincts were still in force. Without allowing a moment's hesitation to sway he emotions. Giving no time for his nerves to lose their resolve or his mind to say it was wrong, Duo leaned forward pressing his still quivering mouth to Heero's. The tentative brushing of lips on lips, for some reason, didn't seem odd at all. Duo's breath tickled over Heero's chin as if feeling its way to a second, more ardent, kiss.
Heero slipped one hand under Duo's braid softly catching the nape of his neck; the other folded over his shoulder centering his body for the next meeting of their lips. Duo opened his mouth inviting Heero's tongue inside. Then he slid his tongue into the warm moistness relishing every taste of Heero's sweetness. As the kiss deepened Duo laid back letting his Japanese lover dictate both the mood and the intensity of the kiss.
Heero rested his weight pressing his stiff crotch firmly on Duo's own rapidly tightening sexual center. Duo's lifted knee added a rubbing friction to the already excited tautness. Moving up and down Heero metered out his own brand of grinding resistance feeling a hot sensation building between their trembling bodies.
A low, soft moan, muffled by mouths literally glued to each other, was Heero's reward for his precisely targeted attention. A second, more intense, noise coming closer to a breathless whimper floated from somewhere deep inside Duo's quivering frame. Duo pulled harder trying to press their bodies together as closely as he could. Heero took in a short gasp and winced as the soreness of his injuries reacted to the increased pressure.
"Oh, Heero, I'm sorry." Duo apologized letting loose altogether.
"I'll be okay." Heero lied not wanting his pain to interfere with their pleasure. "Damn war!" he swore under his breath in fretted exasperation. Duo could see plainly, from the pained expression in Heero's eyes, he was not all right.
"No, I can't do this not if its going to hurt you." he declared even though he, too, did not wish for their passionate session to end.
Heero slowly rolled onto his side with a good deal of effort as over extended muscles twisted and drew up. "It's all right." he declared, "I just need to take it slow."
Duo braced an elbow in the straw pulling a blanket over he and his partner. Partner, funny how that word suddenly took on an entire new meaning. "As badly as I want to be with you, it would not be best idea now." He stated not wanting to, in any way, risk making Heero's injuries worse. His concern for Heero's well being far outweighed his need to love him right then.
"Maybe if we do it easy." Heero answered wanting just as badly to respond to Duo's fervent, quite passionate, overtures.
"I couldn't give you everything you need, love you the way you deserve to be loved, if I was worried about hurting you." Duo stated with sincere regard for Heero's health and speedy recovery.
"I want our first time to be perfect." he confessed, "I want to give all of myself to you and for you to be able to give all of yourself to me. Is that being selfish?" he asked lowly touching Heero's cheek.
Heero sighed at the warm tingle of Duo's touch. "No." he shook his head raising his hand to take Duo's, " I understand. In fact I feel the same way, but I want this so badly." he confessed unashamedly.
For the first time since his training had begun many years ago, Heero Yuy let down his guard. He dared to let his heart run an emotional gambit, opening himself up to a full range of strange emotions, both frightening and wonderful, and all without fear of hurt or rejection. And that odd concept of trust, so long abandoned and forgotten, was reborn as Duo's mouth met his with a reassuring kiss that he had not surrendered his soul in vain.
Duo settled back once more pulling Heero nearer, tucking the blanket over his trembling body, trembling not from the cold, but from the extraordinary serenity as his heart's shackles fell away.
"Just hold me." Heero whispered glowing in the warmth of his lover's secure embrace. "That is all I need now. Everything else will fall into place when the time is right." he declared with unquestionable conviction.
Both content lovers closed their eyes. The storm had passed, the wind was still and the only sound was the doves cooing overhead.
"Duo." Heero whispered close in his ear.
"Hummm."
"What time is it?"
Duo stirred pulling back just enough to see Heero's face, "Will you please tell me why the time has been so important tonight? I mean with all the other things going on, what difference does it make what time it is?" Duo paused then let a sweet smile travel over his lips, "I swear, Heero, you can be so damned single minded sometimes." he finished up with a soft kiss on Heero's forehead.
Heero returned the smile but didn't let it distract his question, "Please, Duo, the time."
Again it took Duo a few seconds to get his wrist around where his watch could be seen. "It's a little after midnight." he sighed, "I still don't see the importance." he added wiggling down more snuggly.
Heero ran his finger through his precious partner's bangs smoothing them aside, "The time was so important," he whispered softly, "because I knew if you got me through this hell until somewhere beyond midnight, until the new day began, I would make it. We would make it."
"Heero, I......." Duo began, but footsteps outside and a thin stream of light glaring through the wall's wide spaces cut up his words.
"Stay down." Duo instructed retrieving his gun from the straw. "Don't move no matter what." he ordered touching Heero's shoulder.
Moving to the stall's corner, raising up on one knee, Duo braced into a ready stance both hands folding about the pistol. With steady, unfaltering balance, he took dead-center aim at the stable door. "We have come to far to lose each other now." he hissed.
"If OZ wants Heero they will have to go through me!" he exclaimed inhaling deeply to further sure up his shot.
The door began to move back, the rusted, rain damp hinges whining in protest at being disturbed. Duo narrowed his sight prepared to do whatever he needed to do in the protection of his new lover.
"If the soldier's numbers are overwhelming, if they get through my first-line defense." Duo growled under his breath, "They will not take either of us alive." he promised himself. "I'm sorry, Heero, if it might be wrong, but I couldn't go on with you."
The door eased wider, a single beam of light shone through the larger space. One figure moved cautiously, step by step. Behind the first silhouette, Duo could just make out at least two more human shapes. "Not bad odds." Duo decided as his finger tightened on the trigger.
The lead figure stopped, slightly shifting his approach angle. "Duo?" a voice called in a questioning tone.
Duo wasn't certain of his hearing at first. The voice sounded vaguely familiar but, with all he had been through, could he trust his senses?
"Duo, it's all right, it's us." the phantom voice declared.
Duo squinted as the bright light was redirected towards his face making it difficult to identify the voice's owner obscured by its blinding intensity. Then the voice's pitch and inflection snapped in Duo's mind.
"Trowa?" he half-whispered praying for both his and Heero's sake his was right.
"I found them." Trowa announced, with great relief, to his fellow Gundam pilots standing a little behind him.
"Damn Barton!" Duo exclaimed loudly throwing the pistol's barrel up towards the roof in a safer position, "That's a good way to get yourself shot." he proclaimed with a hard puff of released tension.
Quatre and Wufei joined the point man just inside the door. "Are you all right?" Quatre asked anxiously "Where's Heero?" he added to his urgent inquiry.
"Back here. He's beat up but he'll make it." Duo answered moving to Heero's side. "I was afraid Deathscythe's homing signal would run out before you found it." Duo continued flopping beside his koibito.
Heero shifted in the dusty straw, wincing at his body's stiff response but clearly pleased to see the trio of rescuers.
"How are you doing?" Wufei asked his deep ebony eyes sparkling with excitement. "The signal was weak when we arrived." he explained squatting down to get a better look at Heero's eyes. Wufei could tell a lot about someone's condition by looking at their eyes.
His eyebrows pulled together as he studied the Zero Pilot's pale features. But, after a moment's examination, decided that Duo was correct, Mr. Yuy would make it.
"I knew if you found Deathscythe you could follow my personal signal and find us." Duo stated with a long sigh of relief.
"Well, actually," Trowa spoke up, kneeling by Wufei for his own survey of Heero, "We never did pick up your signal."
Duo's eye's widened, "But then how, I mean....."
"How did we find you two?" Trowa finished the stammering sentence. He turned to Quatre reaching up and taking his hand, "Quatre felt where you were." he smiled guiding his soul mate to sit by him. "We followed his lead and he never once hesitated." he proclaimed planting a kiss of Quatre's cheek.
"Thank you." Duo said touching Quatre's arm. The shy Sandrock pilot offered his fellow flier a sweet smile and a nod in acknowledgment of Duo's heartfelt appreciation.
"Hey, you two, do you want to sit here all night and talk or do you want to go home?" Trowa teased as he and Quatre stood up.
"We." Duo began then paused as the concept of "we" had suddenly taken on a totally new significance in his life. "Yes," he stated taking Heero's hand, "we are ready to go home."
*********
The first rays of morning light bathed the safe house in shades of pale pink. The same muted hues of dawn streamed through the window blinds painting narrow stripes of color over the walls and floor. Duo gently smoothed out the coverlet over Heero as he lay curled up hugging a pillow in an exhausted, but peaceful, sleep.
Soon after his kawairshii koibito had drifted off in the security of his own bed and Duo's comforting embrace, the God Of Death had quickly and quietly moved his meager personal belongings into Heero's room. As fatigued and hurting as he was, Duo knew he could not rest until he and Heero were, in every way, together.
From that moment on, Duo pledged, Heero would never be alone. Duo would not only share Heero's bed, but his heart and his life as well. Duo knew with his help and love, the lonely Perfect Soldier would someday regain some measure of his rent humanity. Duo prayed that some day Heero would be able to know the simple joy of living and loving as, together, they would tear down the self-imposed walls that had for so long imprisoned Heero's heart and soul.
Duo wearily stripped down to his tee shirt and boxers and eased in beside the focus of his life. Heero shifted in his sleep instinctively knowing his lover had joined him. Slipping his arm over Heero's waist, Duo snuggled close against his back.
Heero let out a long sigh turning over until his sleepy eyes found Duo's bright violet eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." Duo apologized although he was glad that Heero knew they were together.
"It's all right." Heero replied, "I couldn't have slept soundly until you were with me."
"I'm here now and I always will be." Duo promised, "Now let's both get some sleep. As a matter of fact," he smiled cuddling nearer, "we don't have to wake up until we want too even if it is well into the afternoon."
Heero nodded his head, "That sounds wonderful." he admitted, "Duo?"
"Yes, lover."
"What time is it?"
Duo raised up on one elbow leaning over near Heero's ear, "Don't start that again." he whispered, "We have all the time we need." he declared kissing Heero's neck, "All the time...forever."
OWARI
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