Blue Forest Banshee Part 90
Afterburn
You don't think my rather selfish circumvention of Heero's moral code solved all my abduction-related whim-whams, do you? Of course it didn't. But it did enable me to gather most of my threads together into one bundle again, which was definitely a plus for my mental health.
And my wonderful, strong Wyvern - proving me right once again - was not particularly traumatized by the experience. Pheromones can smooth over a lot of pot holes and open trenches.
I didn't exactly bound out of bed singing a happy song the next morning; I was too stiff and battered for that, with the bruises to show for it, but my head felt clearer than it had in weeks.
Heero was sitting up in bed when I awoke; my head was pillowed on his thigh and he was industriously working on de-knotting the parts of my hair he could reach without dislodging me.
"Heero..." I murmured rising up to kiss him lightly.
He returned my kiss fondly and then again with a little more heat when I whimpered. "Idiot. You are not allowed to seduce me with those hallucinogens again." His smirk countered any real censure I might have felt.
I pouted and snuggled up to him. "You're sure? Never?"
He made a show of considering. "Well... Only if you happen to get kidnapped again. But next time, I want to kill the bastard. Please." His tone of voice suggested a certain delicious anticipation.
As a measure of how much better I felt, I was able to laugh at that. "I promise; you can kill the next one."
His expression became feral. "I've been cataloging ways..." He scooped me up and got off the bed, heading for the bathroom. "Your hair needs to be washed again; we'll never get a comb through it without conditioner."
My hair wasn't the only thing that got washed, conditioned and combed out, but that's all I need to admit to.
~*~
On our way to the office, a detour was required to Mistress Loquinn's office, where she deftly banished my bruises with barely a raised eyebrow. Her only comment came as we were leaving.
"Gentlemen," she said crisply. We paused and she tilted her chair back, smirking at us. "I'm only going to do this once a month. Any more often than that, you're going to have to wear them until they fade naturally."
Heero just nodded and looked at me. "I may end up killing Chang."
"I'll talk to him," I promised. Wufei, for all of having lost me to Heero in that contest I never even noticed until it was over, is probably more vocally protective of me than my Wyvern. There's a small part of me that loves that; I admit it. But I still think it would be nice to hook him up with someone; he's a great guy and he should have his own love to protect.
And dammit, I still think there's something there, between him and Trowa.
We took the stairs to the office this time and Trowa was waiting at the top with an armful of parchments for Heero to sign.
"Duo?" he said while Heero was busy. "Are you feeling better? Q said you were upset at the sheriff's station." That single visible emerald eye regarded me with concern.
I'd already thought about whether or what to say regarding that and I had already decided that I was going to do something that Heero probably wouldn't like. For now, though, I just answered the question.
"Yeah, I think I really do feel better," I admitted with a smile and Trowa brightened. "I still have to go sign that statement I made," I explained. "And I want to get Heero to go to lunch with me; do you think that'll be okay?"
"I don't see why not," he said quietly, glancing around the room automatically. "There's nothing important or pressing going on right now. The Freaky Five are behaving for the moment and the contract renewals don't start until next week, so Heero doesn't have to be here." He looked around to make sure Heero was out of earshot and then lowered his voice even further. "Besides, he could use a little break. This has been hard on him too," he said solemnly.
"I know," I sighed. Then I remembered. "Hey, Teal is supposed to be here by then. I think Heero'll feel better about leaving me alone if he's here. Like a stand-in guardian," I joked.
"Oh, yeah," Trowa agreed with a wink. "I'm looking forward to meeting him. And your niece; she looks like a little doll."
"She is! I can hardly wait, especially since... Well... since it's pretty much all over now. Finally."
Our co-workers began drifting in and Heero checked with everyone on the status of various investigations while I looked over some of my cases. They won't let me out of the office yet, so it's a little annoying to have to try to visualize what's going on from someone else's notes, but I do okay.
Usually Inazuma is the one who is always late, but today Enrique stomped in at five after, practically leaving footprints in the stone steps and snarling under his breath.
Moira asked what was wrong, but he waved it away as "not important." Eyebrows were raised, but no one argued. Enrique isn't a whiner, but he's not one of those "I can handle it all" people either; if it was something he needed help with, he would tell us. Zuma drifted over a bit later to try to talk to him and they had their heads together whispering for several minutes. Wufei eyed them narrowly. The females regarded them curiously. Heero spared only a brief glare and Trowa ignored them entirely. Estaban did too, although he also managed to look as if he was straining to catch every word. Once again, I have to sigh at Estaban. He's a pretty decent guy, for a Wizard, but he's awfully high strung.
After an hour, I snagged Heero and began dragging him toward the door. He grumbled, but didn't argue, and I waved to the others as we headed down the stairs.
"I thought we were going in after lunch," he muttered as he followed me obediently through the tunnel to the parking lot.
"I changed my mind; I want you to take me to lunch after, so I can enjoy my food," I said sweetly. "And I want to make a stop before."
He blinked at me; he has no clue what I have in mind. It's a good thing; he won't be pleased. My mind is made up, though, so arguments are useless anyway.
I took the keys out of his hand and headed for the driver's side. Heero raised one eyebrow, but got in on the passenger side without arguing. He's trying so hard not to over-protect.
We did some talking last night; it wasn't all about him nailing my needy ass to the bed, although I made sure there was plenty of that. No, I primarily wanted to impress upon him that regardless of how twitchy or nervous I get in certain situations, he is not to automatically jump in to protect me. He needs to at least let me try to handle it. In return, I promised to ask when I start to lose it and know I can't recover on my own. Today is the first test of that agreement and so far, he's being wonderful. I know how much it's costing him, too, so I'm going to be very careful to uphold my end. Trowa's right; Heero's been on high alert for almost a month and he needs to step back, at least a little, before he has a heart attack or grows an ulcer.
I'm determined to get this behind me, and stop whimpering at loud noises and jumping at shadows. All done with that, dammit, and past time.
Once I'm out on the road, Heero takes hold of the end of my braid. It's long enough that he can do that without distracting me and it seems to make him happier to have contact with me. I actually enjoy it too. The leash goes both ways, it seems.
He claims that I am an excellent driver, for all of having learned less than a year ago, but he's not so confident of my ability to park, so I head for the public lot, rather than try to shift into a space on the street.
Where are we going? You probably know. Heero doesn't. I didn't mention that little detail to him last night. He's going to grumble and maybe even glare and growl, but I worked on it in the back of my head all the while the front of my head was dealing with Zephyrus and the godawful idea that Julie's father molested her until she became crazy.
I don't know if I can forgive what she did to me, but I can try to look at it from the angle of a trapped animal. She's never had any kind of support system and maybe she really couldn't see any other way out. I know a little about Humans and the weird ways they behave regarding sex; enough to know that they often do irrational, stupid and dangerous things because of all the social and cultural junk they've attached to sex. I still think she should have reported it to someone, but if she was really that scared, that truly might never have occurred to her.
Julie still doesn't have a support system - don't you love the terms they give these things? I guess "support system" sounds better than just saying "someone who gives a crap."
I do have people who give a crap about me; some of them a lot more than that. Would it kill me - really? - to share a little with her? To not hate her? I know why she did it now, and that was mainly what was twisting me up inside. She had a reason; not a good reason or a sane reason, but I guess it made sense to her at the time. And considering how I responded, maybe I don't have a lot of room to talk about extreme behaviors.
Right now, my bottom line is that she was a friend and she has no one else. Maybe we'll never be friends again. I still have my Wyvern and my other friends and my job, so I think I'm still better off. I can afford to be... forgiving. In some way.
I ignored Heero's sharply indrawn breath as I slid the car into a vacant space - tons of room, no problem.
"Wait for me?" I asked. He blinked, frowning slightly.
"You don't want me to come with you?"
"This is... I need..." Great; I couldn't figure out how to explain what I was doing without explaining what I was doing. Should have given this more thought on the way over.
But something flashed behind his eyes and the frown smoothed away. "All right, angel," he murmured. "I'll wait."
I kissed his cheek gratefully and headed for the shop.
~*~
Yeah, well, she asked for a hook and some yarn... I can totally understand the frustration of not being able to occupy your hands. She's already locked up; probably won't see the outside of a cell for a while...
She was a friend... and she doesn't have anyone at all.
And I do.
So I bought some yarn and some hooks and a couple of pattern books and a few sets of needles too, just in case.
Since the shop was empty, but for me and Danielle, I also spilled my guts about what had happened. Danielle gasped, clutched her heart, then clutched me in an unbreakable hug, and proceeded to give me a lecture on being too forgiving for my own good. Maybe she's right; maybe it will all blow up in my face eventually. But I explained my logic; that Julie is crazy and has no one, while I am just... a flake... with plenty of friends.
She finally let me leave, with a promise to not go overboard, and another promise to bring Heero with me next time. I think I'll kind of have to, after all this.
Heero eyed the bags suspiciously, but didn't ask. I guess he's beginning to figure out the way my mind works sometimes. He didn't even sigh when I parked at the sheriff's office and dragged the bags back out again.
Detective Anderson was waiting for us. She did not look too angry, more exasperated, if anything.
"I spoke to Mr. Winner about this notion of yours," she said after we'd finished with the statements. It took me a few seconds and a couple of clueless blinks before I realized that she was talking about Q. I've never heard anyone call him Mr. Winner.
She wasn't quite looking at us, being rather more interested in the stuff on her desk.
"He did not seem surprised when I told him what you want to do."
I shrugged. "I guess he understands the way my mind works," I muttered. Heero snorted; he understands me pretty well, too, and he wasn't arguing or yelling, so I guess he was going to let me do what I wanted to do. I'm sure I'll hear about it later and especially if it backfires on me.
"I also spoke to the psychiatrists who have been seeing Ms Strauber. They don't seem to think she's dangerous to herself or suicidal, so they have agreed to let her have some yarn and a hook." She looked down at the two bags sitting next to my chair. "That looks like a lot more than some yarn and a hook, Mr. Maxwell."
I decided to go for bold. "It would be six hooks in different sizes, three sets of double pointed and circular knitting needles and twenty - no, twenty-two skeins of assorted yarns. Julie's a yarn nut; she'll start half a dozen things and work on them all at the same time."
Detective Anderson blinked at me. "But..."
"I know because I'm a yarn nut too, and that's what yarn nuts do. We start things and then start more things and then start even more things. New patterns, new techniques, new yarns, new colors..." I shrugged. "Just the way it is. Now, can I give her the yarn?" Now that I was here, I wanted to get it over with. Something inside me was... waking up.
"Not all of it," she growled. "You can give her one hook and one skein of yarn. We'll decide whether and when she gets anything more." The woman was getting a little testy. I could feel Heero next to me, radiating... amusement.
"This isn't just for busy work," I snapped. "She'll make things; useful things. She'll blow through one skein of yarn in a few hours."
"Mr. Maxwell, she is being held pending kidnapping charges. Charges that involve you! And you want to play Lady Bountiful?"
I didn't get the reference, but that didn't stop me. "Julie is crazy; whatever she did to me, she did because she's crazy. Because that perverted prick of a father of hers made her crazy! I'm not happy about it and I don't think I can just forgive and forget, but I'm not going to be mean to her now just to make myself feel better! She's out of her mind, but we were friends before this, and I'm not going to forget that! Can I give her the bloody yarn or not?!"
Heero's fingers brushed my arm in warning; not a good idea to piss off a cop, even a relatively nice one.
Detective Anderson glared at me, but compared to one of Heero's glares, it was nothing; I didn't even flinch. She huffed at me and stood up.
"Yes, Mr. Maxwell; you can give her the bloody yarn," she growled. I beamed my biggest, most consciously adorable grin.
~*~
It felt funny to be walking through heavy doors and down hallways and signing into a visitor's log, instead of just... being there. Sometimes, if I have to use teleporters a lot, I almost forget how to get places on my own. I wonder sometimes if the porters ever have that feeling.
I didn't realize I was nervous until we were right there in front of Julie's cell. My hands were damp. My heart was pounding. I was a couple of ticks away from hyperventilating. :: Stupid! :: I yelled at myself. I was here yesterday and didn't feel half this nervous. What the hell?!
Well... Yesterday I didn't have an... entourage. An audience. Ah, crap... Why didn't that occur to me before I trooped down here with half the sheriff's department in attendance?
I took a deep breath, held it for ten seconds and then let it out slowly, all the while stuffing my anxiety back into its box. When I opened my eyes, Julie was talking to the detective.
Rather, the detective was talking and Julie was nodding like a dutiful child. The guard had retreated to a discreet distance, but there were still three other people there, two women and a man. They stayed at the other end of the hallway from us; I figured one of them must be Julie's psychiatrist.
"Mr. Maxwell?"
I blinked. Sometimes it takes me a few seconds to remember that that's me. I stepped up to where Detective Anderson waited. There was a metallic click, and the cell door was unlocked. She held the door and motioned me through. I hesitated, not really wanting to be locked in the cell.
"It's all right," she said softly. "I'll keep the door open."
"Thanks," I muttered. She immediately moved back onto my "happy" list.
Julie stood in the middle of the cell, hands clasped in front of her. She smiled at me, but her eyes seemed just a little too bright and the little lines at the corners of those eyes suggested something other than pure happiness.
"Hi, Duo," she said and sounded no different from the day before. "She said y-you brought me something." That slight hesitation tipped me. For some reason, today she was... afraid. She hadn't been afraid yesterday. What the hell changed?
"Hullo, Julie. I brought you some yarn." I held out the two bags and her eyes widened.
She took the bags hesitantly. "You brought me... yarn...? Really...?" She looked into the bags. "But... They said I was bad..." Her glance flickered to the trio standing a few meters away. "Why...?"
I swallowed; damn, why was this suddenly so hard? And why would a shrink tell her she was "bad"? I thought they didn't make judgments like that.
"You're not bad, Julie," I said quietly. "You did something very bad, but you aren't bad."
"I hurt you...?" She didn't seem sure, like she was having a hard time believing it.
"Yes..."
"You said that yesterday; I remember. I just wanted to get away from him... I didn't think he'd hurt you," she said slowly.
"He did hurt me." Not going to feel guilty about this; it was not my fault. "But what you did hurt me even worse. Julie, you gave me a drugged drink. It made me sick. It nearly killed me."
She looked confused. "But I was really careful not to use too much..."
"I'm not Human; I'm a Magical Creature, a Banshee. Human drugs are like... like poison to me." She stared at me, her mouth hanging open. "I had convulsions and hallucinations. I killed Kevin when he hurt me. I nearly killed one of my friends when he tried to help me."
She swallowed and looked past me, to where Heero waited. "The monster..." she breathed. "But..."
"Heero is my boyfriend; he's a Dragon. He was very worried about me."
She looked down at the bags of yarn; I guess she was a little overwhelmed. Hell, even psychologically stable Humans get overwhelmed by us sometimes. She apparently decided to just ignore the Magical thing. "You brought me yarn... Why did you bring me yarn?"
I shrugged. I hadn't expected a conversation. I'm not sure what I expected; groveling gratitude, maybe? "You asked for yarn. Look... Julie... You showed me how to crochet and we were friends. I'm still... upset with you, but I know how much you love to crochet. Just make practical things. Make some things for the kids in the hospital or the kids who don't have homes. Make things to help people. I'll see that you have yarn, but you have to make things to help people." I was having trouble putting my thoughts into words; I just kept going back to the notion that she really didn't understand what she'd done to me. My intentions came out sounding so trite and simplistic, I half figured she would laugh in my face. She didn't, though.
She sat down suddenly right on the floor and dumped out the bags, her eyes wide with wonder. "I just have to make things for kids?" Her fingers wandered over the skeins and hanks of yarn and found the pattern books. "I can make anything for them? Any of these?"
"Yeah. Or any other patterns you already know."
"And you won't be mad at me anymore?"
Crap. I was really hoping that wouldn't come up. I still didn't know how to answer it.
"Maybe not as mad," I said after a moment. "I'm not sure I can ever be not mad at all. Maybe one day..." Just keep it together... Just a few more minutes...
"Okay..." She picked out a skein of fluffy yellow yarn. "This'll make a great hat for a little girl, won't it? And you'll come see me?" she asked hopefully.
That hit me like a wet fish to the face. "I-I... Julie..." The detective stepped in then and I could have kissed the woman.
"We'll have to see, Julie. That depends on how well you respond to your treatment and on what the judge says. Mr. Maxwell said he'll make sure you have yarn, as long as you make practical things, but we're making an exception for this visit."
Her face fell, but then she spotted something in one of the books and her smile came back. "You're my best friend, Duo. When I'm good again, you'll come back."
"I'll... think about it..." I whispered.
"And you'll tell me what a Banshee is?"
"Yeah... I'll tell you what a Banshee is..."
"Okay. Thanks, Duo... For killing him. You're a good friend."
I hadn't realised that I was edging backwards until Heero's hands closed over my arms. I managed to get a few of my stunned brain cells working enough to say, "Just... take care..."
And then Detective Anderson was closing the cell door and Heero was steering me back the way we'd come, and I was trying so hard not to hyperventilate that I could barely walk. Those few minutes were just gone by the time I got my breathing back under control, but we were out of the building and heading toward the car and I was never going back in there again; ever.
~*~
I was shaking by the time we got back to the car. I handed Heero the keys and crawled into the seat and curled up in a quivering ball of misgivings and anxiety. He leaned over the center console to stroke my hair and nuzzle my ear.
"Was that the stupidest thing I've ever done?" I muttered after a few minutes. It took that long to convince myself that I was not really in danger of throwing up.
"Hn. It was very... generous. I would not have been so generous." He was quiet for a minute. "Do you think she will understand what a chance you are giving her?"
"I don't know. She'll understand making things. I meant what I said about yarn nuts; we can't not make things. Maybe she'll get better, maybe she won't, but even if all she does is knit and crochet, she'll be doing something good for the charities, for kids who don't have anything at all. That's gotta count for something against her karma, don't you think?"
"If she believes in that, then it will."
The day was nicer than yesterday, no sign of rain and even getting a little warm at mid-morning. I'd left my jacket in the car before going in to see Julie; I definitely didn't need it now. Heero put the top down and then reached for me. Next thing I knew, I was sprawled across his lap, the console and my seat and he was kissing the hell out of me. In the middle of the sheriff's parking lot. In broad daylight. With the top down.
Territorial display, you think?
He had a firm grip on one of my hands, his other hand tangled in the base of my braid. The position I was in, with my shoulders almost in his lap and my back arching over the console, put most of my southern end higher than my northern end, and his lips were definitely stirring a volcano. He kissed and nibbled and sucked at my lips, my neck and my ears until I was about ready to just strip down and straddle his lap; to hell with where we were. Just when I thought I couldn't stand it another second, when my toes were curling and my knees were somewhere north of my groin, he picked me up and deposited me back in my seat, obscenely uncomfortable jeans and all. He smirked at me, blue eyes sparkling with mischief, as I squirmed and adjusted and made faces.
"Dammit, Heero..."
"I don't need pheromones," he declared smugly. "Now, where shall we have lunch?"
I tried to glare at him, but it's just not possible to be mad when he does stuff like that. And after all, I'd done pretty much the same thing to him the night before. Turn-about, and all that.
He was offering lunch so I forgave the case of blue balls. I'll just get him tonight again.
"What about the steak house over on Dogwood? Do they open for lunch?"
"Sure do." He started the car. "You want one of those booths with the wrap around walls?"
The hot date booths. The booths that no one can see into unless they stand square in front of the booth. Damn, Heero...
"Are you trying to get us into trouble?"
He smirked at me. "I don't know; am I?"
I opened my mouth to snap back at him, and caught something, some little flicker behind his brilliant eyes. Interest. Appraisal. Consideration. Ah. Distraction. He was doing this to distract me, to keep me from thinking. To keep me from worrying or over-analyzing what I'd just done.
My indignation fled. My heart melted. Right down, all the way into my boots.
Instead of calling him a jackass, I leaned back over the stupid damn console - that bloody thing is always in my way, dammit! - and caressed his cheek, letting my thumb brush his perfect lips gently. He arched one eyebrow at me.
"Heero Yuy... you are wonderful," I whispered.
The brilliant blue softened a bit to deep velvet. "Only trying to match you," he murmured. He took my hand and kissed my palm. "My Banshee."
My throat tightened. "Yours," I agreed faintly.
~*~
Lunch. It was good. All finished with the shaking and hyperventilating, I was actually starving without feeling nauseous at the same time. I sucked down 10 ounces of medium rare cow and a salad the size of Nebraska. And had my toes planted in Heero's crotch for most of the meal. He took it like a Wyvern, though, in spite of my efforts to make him flinch or giggle.
What? Giggle? Oh, yeah, the Wyvern does indeed giggle. Sounds kind of like shaking pea gravel in a metal cup, but it's a giggle. And always followed by a glare. It's so cute.
It was probably a good thing we didn't get all giggly and silly; we still had to go back to the office. Heero drove while I pulled out some yarn and needles from my otherspace and started a hat.
What can I say? When in doubt, grab yarn and make something. It calms me down and accomplishes something at the same time. Heero glanced my way, smirking. Little does he know that this hat is for him. It's not the usual stocking cap style; it has a wide brim and a crown, almost like a cowboy hat. He's going to look so cool.
I kept my eyes on his profile most of the way home. My Wyvern. Gods, goddesses and Great Dragons....
I still can hardly believe that this guy wants me; goofy, naïve, weirdly-wired me. All my faults, all my baggage, all my stupid fears and notions...
One of these days, I'm not going to be able to hold it back.
~*~ (Warning: POV change)
I would have been perfectly content to go back to our rooms for the rest of the day. Duo's very determined brightness didn't fool me at all. He walked into that sheriff's station feeling scared to death and walked out shaking with anxiety. My efforts at distraction were somewhat successful, though. He recognized what I was up to almost immediately, but he didn't argue; just added his own determination to it.
We flirted over lunch and drove back to the Castle by the back way, through the woods. He laughed at my jokes and knitted automatically, nervous fingers flying over the growing fabric of yet another Banshee creation. I didn't poke at him or try to discuss what he had done for Julie. It was clearly something he needed to do, for his own conscience, and me telling him that she didn't deserve his compassion would only upset him.
So I kept my irritation to myself, at first, and later I began to realize that this was not some foolish politically correct response from him. He truly does believe that she had been pushed beyond her limits and that she wasn't entirely responsible for her actions. It's also probable, given some of the things he has said, that he sees her actions as somehow akin to his destruction of both the toad demon and the rapist. If he is not to be held responsible for those moments of terror in the face of danger, then he doesn't hold Julie responsible for her breakdown of humanity.
I am not sure I can agree with that comparison; Duo's actions were taken in the heat of the moment while under attack, with no room to debate or consider. Julie's actions seem entirely too well-considered for my comfort. But Duo was the one hurt by all this; if he must grant some measure of forgiveness to her in order to relieve his own mind, then so be it. I will keep my cynical exasperation to myself and mark this down as just another mysterious part of my beloved Banshee.
Once back in the office, we went about our usual business, although I did spend a bit more time watching him for any signs of... well, too much. He seemed fine, though, so I made an effort not to hover. I think he noticed that, because I caught several sweet smiles thrown my way.
Hn. Would rather catch him thrown my way, but never mind.
Late in the afternoon, when everyone who works in the office happened to be in the office, Duo very deliberately rounded everyone up and announced that he had something to say to all of us. I assumed that he was going to say something pertaining to Teal's impending arrival. He would very much like Teal and Dael to stay in this area, and has been gathering tempting information to accomplish that goal since Teal's last call.
He sat himself cross-legged on his desk and began rather nervously.
"I want to thank everyone for putting up with the last few weeks..."
My phone rang and I stepped back to answer it. It wasn't an emergency, but it required my attention for a few minutes. When I hung up, Duo was saying, "-- was a friend; I've known her since last fall. Anyway, the creep raped me and I killed him. And that's why..."
I blinked at him in shock. We had agreed to keep that part quiet; that was the reason Q had concocted the 'hates Magical Creatures' story. Rather... Q and I had agreed... Thinking back, Duo never actually agreed to any of that...
Well, shit.
"So, that's what really happened, and why I had to go there yesterday and today. But it's all finished now, for real, so I hope you'll forgive me for sticking you with my work and for being such a... a... wuss this month. I'm really sorry for being such a pain in everyone's ass. Um... See you Monday..."
And he was off the desk and through the doorway to the stairs before anyone could much more than blink. I started after him, of course, and got perhaps three steps before everyone... pounced on me.
"Yuy! What the hell did you do to him to make him think he had to do that?!" Wufei, of course; Duo's ever-loyal guard dragon.
"He didn't need to..." Trowa; bewildered, confused, a little worried.
"Heero!" Tiffany; blocking my exit and in no mood to be ignored. "Explain this!"
And the rest a jumble of shock, disbelief, anger and worry.
Estaban grabbed my arm; the Wizard looked decidedly pale beneath his coppery coloring. "Heero, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" he babbled. "I never imagined-!" I shook him off rather sharply; the males in this office know better than to lay hands on me.
"Later!" I roared. And dived for the stairs.
I half expected him to just vanish, as he seemed to do under stress, but I found him near the bottom of the steps, leaning one shoulder against the cool stone wall, hand planted firmly in front of him and his forehead resting on his arm. His shoulders were slumped and I could see the rise and fall of his heavy breaths.
I stopped a few steps from him. "Duo? Baby, are you... all right?"
He shook his head slightly. I dared to reach for him, to lay my hand on his shoulder; he was trembling.
"Can I...?"
I didn't want to scare him or anger him, but he is so chameleon-like in his moods sometimes.
But he nodded faintly, so I eased closer, wrapping one arm around his waist and the other around his shoulders and rested my head on his shoulder. We just stood like that for a minute.
"Heero..." he breathed then. "Why did I do that?"
I blinked. "Don't you know...?"
"Not a clue," he wavered. "It just... built up and exploded... Before I even thought about it." He sighed. "I feel so stupid..."
"You don't like to lie, angel," I reminded him. "And the story Q told was... sort of a lie..."
He sighed again, whether in denial or agreement, I couldn't tell.
I loosened my hold on him and slid around to face him. He just looked... tired. "Baby, shall we go home now?"
He nodded slowly, not even noticing my use of that particular endearment. "Yeah. Yeah, that sounds... good. I'm... I'm really tired..." He stepped down to the next step and nearly went all the way down, his knees buckling under him. I had him, though.
"Duo!"
"I'm -!"
Okay, he meant to say, but he caught himself, clinging to me, gasping silently for several seconds.
"I guess I was in a hurry," he said instead, in a small embarrassed voice. "I slipped..."
He slipped... On the stone steps?!
"Did you fall?" I demanded, ready to scoop him up and carry him straight to Mistress Loquinn.
"No! I just... It made me... I... scared myself... I guess," he admitted.
Ah; I should have recognized the fading adrenalin rush. No wonder he was so shaky; he'd already done this once today.
"Can you walk, do you think?" I asked carefully. I wanted to carry him off, but I'd made that damn promise to let him try by himself first. I stepped back, still holding his forearms and let him try a few small steps. He looked up at me then.
"I... Heero... I think I'm too shaky." The admission of weakness hurt; I could see it behind his wide eyes.
"It's all right," I soothed. "I'll carry you this time, but after this you have to get yourself home when you do something insane again, hear?"
He snorted a laugh and reached for my shoulders as I swung him up in my arms. "Silly Banshee," I murmured into his ear. "We'd better get going before the rest of them think to come after us."
"Did anyone say anything?" he wondered softly.
"Wufei demanded to know what I'd done to you."
He snickered. "Heero, we have to find him a boyfriend; then he'll stop growling at you."
A cheap attempt to get me to relax my stance on his desire to match make.
"Let him growl all he wants; the only reason he isn't sushi by now is that I happen to like the little jerk." Hmm... Oops. I'm not supposed to admit to liking the pissy Dragon. Damn.
"I know that," he murmured, and I could feel the smile against my skin. "I see you smirking at each other when everyone else thinks you're fighting. You might fool them, but you don't fool me anymore; I know my dragons."
Now, honestly; what more could I ask for?
Well, actually there is quite a bit more I could ask for, but I didn't have to, as Duo readily volunteered to reduce my component parts to thick goo, as long as I didn't fuss too much over him. And yes; the capabilities of my dragon-tongue had a lot to do with it.
TBC...
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