Perfect Part 7
"Hey, there ya are!" shrieked Snow when he sighted Duo. "Oh, man! Ya'll never guess!"
"Guess what?" said Duo absently. He still wasn't awake. He'd slept badly; haunted by nightmares and fears he couldn't even remember. God please let Tomas be the guy. Please... He found his grin and looked up at Snow.
"A guy got whacked down the hill! Just last night!" Duo couldn't decide if Snow was happy, scared or excited about the murder.
"Oh, yeah? Anybody we know?"
"I've seen him around, but some of the other guys knew him." He leaned close to Duo, dropping his voice to a whisper. "He likes -- liked the really young guys. Jade used ta go with 'im until he hurt 'im."
"Good riddance, then." He gave Snow a quick squeeze.
"Movin' in on my guy?"
"Jus' keepin' 'im warm fer ya," Duo replied, turning to grin at Rose.
Rose punched him lightly on the arm. "He's always warm. C'mere, cutie." He pulled Snow into a tight embrace and kissed him hard. "You okay?" he murmured when they came up for air.
Snow nodded, tucked against him. "Yeah. He wasn't one of mine."
"Good thing. I'da done 'im myself," said Rose gruffly. He looked at Duo and frowned. "Hey, you okay? You don' look too good."
"Bad night. I need some coffee."
~*~
Duo turned his head slowly, eyes closed. Someone was watching him. It didn't particularly bother him. It certainly didn't frighten him. He had no curiosity about the identity of the person. If the watcher planned to hurt him, he would have done so earlier; therefore he was not in danger. What he was, though, was awake when he would rather be asleep.
Sighing inwardly, he said quietly, "I usually charge twenty for watching."
"Hn."
Ah! Heero... I wonder why...
"Is there another problem, Heero? Have I screwed up again?" His eyes remained closed.
"You haven't screwed up; not now, not at all."
Duo smiled in spite of his lethargy. "Then why were you all here last night? It was as if the SWAT team of assassins had descended to take control of a dangerous situation." A silence followed; Duo waited almost drowsing.
"I'm sorry, Duo. It was not our intention to call into question your abilities." He fell silent and Duo waited patiently. "I'm not gifted with the skill to turn a fine phrase," he began softly. "In my early life, the man who raised me was not a verbal person. My later training with J did not require verbal skills. My duty is simply to listen to my orders and carry them out. That has not been difficult until now." Again he was silent. Duo listened curiously, but made no comment.
"I find myself... This is not easy for me to say, Duo; please bear with me." Duo nodded slightly. Heero really wasn't comfortable with small talk; this was already more than he had heard the Japanese youth say in all the months he'd known him. "Being part of a team is not as difficult as I expected. It is... good to have others to rely on. And I do rely on all of you. You have never disappointed me."
'You?' Is he talking about 'you' as in all four of us, or 'you' as in me?
"I find that my human capacity for social interaction was not destroyed by my training after all... I believe I consider you my friends. I am concerned for your welfare."
Duo sat up to stare at the Wing pilot. "Who the fuck are you, and what have you done with the real Heero Yuy?!" Not a particularly friendly thing to say, but he was unable to stop the deeply rooted reflex.
But Heero just looked at him. "I can't begin to explain why that's irrelevant," he said, his voice still soft and almost gentle. "I didn't intend to make this about me. Duo, what happened the other night?"
Duo lay back with a sigh, arms under his head. "You guys arrived like the damn cavalry and ignored me. You all just... just took over my mission, so I took a walk."
"I'm sorry, Duo. We're all getting anxious. We want to get you out of this. But that's not what I meant. Why did you kill that guy?"
Duo looked at him, his eyes dark and unreadable.
"I was concerned. I didn't know you were armed. I followed you in case you were... bothered."
"That's good of you," Duo said tightly, "but I'm a trained assassin; I can take care of myself."
Heero nodded. "I saw. What I didn't see was a reason."
"Would you prefer groveling or whining? I can do either; I'm very versatile. Ask my tricks."
Heero stiffened. "I don't want you to do either! I want you to give me an honest answer. Why did you kill that guy?"
"Because he wanted to fuck me and when I said 'no', he tried to force me! He could do that to someone else, but not to me, because I am a goddamn motherfuckin' TRAINED ASSASSIN! And I fought back!" He looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes, relaxing with difficulty. "If you have a problem with that, file a complaint with the Terrorists' Union."
Heero looked down at his hands, sighing to himself. "It's not a problem, Duo. I was just concerned." He essayed a touch of humor to diffuse the leaden atmosphere. "Next time, though, would you mind disposing of the body?"
A long silence stretched even longer as Duo processed his possible options. Finally, he said wearily. "Sure thing, boss. Next one goes in a dumpster."
Heero nodded. "Thank you."
"Thanks for the donuts. I was hungry when I got back. Killing does that to me."
"Me too."
Duo looked over at him, then closed his eyes and let the little death enfold him.
TBC...
Back to PlaidDragon's Fanfictions Page