Life Goes On Part 13
Solo closed his book and yawned widely. From within his shirt, he could feel his tail aching to stretch along with the rest of his body as he raised his arms overhead. It'd been a long day and after a couple hours of studying, he was worn out despite the early hour of the evening.
Raising his arm to glance at his watch, the blonde neko commented, "I better get going and see about dinner." When he looked over to his tutor, he found him staring off again. It was only the second time the other boy looked so distracted during their lesson, but it was enough to draw attention to it.
"You all right, Duo?" Solo heard himself asking, his head tilting a bit.
As if waking from a dream, his braided instructor shook his head. With a sheepish expression, Duo met the brown eyes watching him and replied, "Yea. Sorry, just a few things on my mind. We probably should call it a night. You're getting a good handle on what we worked on tonight."
Much as he hated to admit it, Solo had to agree that the way Duo had explained things to him made a lot more sense of what he'd been taught in Misses Tishim's class. Even when he was listening in her class, he couldn't make sense of what she was saying.
Law certainly never intrigued him. However, he was actually starting to see how someone could become interested in the field now.
Putting his books into his backpack, Solo rose from his chair at the living room table and asked, "Same time, same place tomorrow, then?"
Duo gave him a mischievous smirk and shrugged, "If you earn it." At the almost nervous look that he was rewarded, he laughed, "You're finished with your classes before noon tomorrow, right?"
Almost worried to answer honestly, Solo resolved himself to enduring whatever his next test would be. Nothing could have been worse than what he had endured at the cafeteria that afternoon.
Then again, when he really thought about it, he had to admit that the experience with Beth and Chad was nowhere near as bad as he'd imagined such a thing would be.
With a deep breath, Solo finally nodded, "Yea."
"Great. So am I," the braided neko grinned from ear-to-ear, his tail swaying excitedly and his ears perking. "Meet me in the gymnasium at twelve thirty."
Solo knew by the look on the other teenager's face that he was not about to reveal what he had in store for him. Deciding that it was probably for the best, instead of having him dwell on it until it actually came, he replied, "All right. Twelve thirty, then."
Just as the blonde was about to head out, the door opened before him to reveal Heero. When their eyes met, both widened in surprise, a deafening silence fell on the room. Glancing over to his lover with a looming question in his cobalt eyes, the unruly-haired art student waited patiently for the answer.
"Hey, Heero," Duo grinned. "Perfect timing. I just finished tutoring Solo for the night." Those deep blue eyes blinked in shock just as the said blonde neko ducked and hurried past Heero with a hasty 'good night'.
Stepping into the room as the door slid closed behind him, the Japanese teenager repeated, "Tutoring?" Heero shook his head and frowned deeply, "So he was after something all along with his little act, just as I had thought, and you're still helping him out?"
A smirk of his own tugged Duo's lips as he commented, "Oh, not without having a little fun." His best friend raised a dark eyebrow for an explanation. "I'm going to make him earn each lesson. Today, for example, I made him enjoy a nice lunch in our busy cafeteria with Chad, Beth and myself. His goons were all there to watch first-hand, too."
Heero laughed loudly at the image of that. He had the pleasure of meeting both Beth and Chad on several occasions. While they were both good people and he enjoyed their company, he knew the cruel stereotype placed on them. For Solo to have actually agreed to sit with them in the presence of his classmates only proved how desperate he was to endure the harassment that he was sure to get from his friends.
The braided neko's smile grew as he said, "And wait until he finds out tomorrow that he's signing up for the Glee Club to sing with them at the campus Christmas party. No self-respecting frat boy would ever sign on for choir, or associate with anyone who did."
Knowing the truth of that, Heero's laughter bubbled out all the more. He shook his head in amusement, "You clever little devil. I never knew you had it in you. Damn, I just wish I could be there to see his face when that happens."
When he peered to the clock just above the television set, the Japanese art student winced, "Sorry I'm so late. My discussion with Lady Une to prepare me for my interview this weekend went a lot longer than expected." Sighing deeply, he muttered, "As if I wasn't nervous enough about this meeting before she drilled me just now."
At the mention of the upcoming meeting with one of art's elite promoters, Duo frowned deeply. He'd almost completely forgotten about the whole thing. He supposed that when one learned that they were dying they tended to forget a lot of other things that were going on in their lives.
"Duo?" Heero's concerned voice called through the haze of his drifting thoughts. Blinking his violet eyes, he returned to the present just as his lover ran a hand lightly through his long bangs and asked, "Are you all right?"
The dread building inside him was enough for Duo to find no comfort in the light touch. Not even a purr rumbled from his chest. Swallowing hard, he plowed ahead into the storm. "There's something that I need to tell you," he heard himself whisper, his head lowered as he studied the floor.
His concern only growing, Heero nodded firmly, "All right." With a hand on the small of the neko's back, he gently urged him towards the couch. Once they were seated beside each other, his stomach tightened in finding that Duo had yet to look up at him.
It was painfully obvious that whatever it was that needed to be said was not about to be pleasant for either of them.
Placing a finger under his lover's chin, Heero urged his braided head up to force their eyes to meet and reassured, "Duo, whatever it is, you know you can talk to me." He gave small smile and shrugged, "Whatever it is you have to say, we'll get through it together-just like we've gotten over everything we've already been through. Just tell me what's wrong."
Together. That word stuck out and ingrained itself in Duo's mind. While their helping each other throughout their ordeals before always saw them through, it might not be enough this time.
Small tears prickled the corner of the neko's violet eyes as he began in little more than a whisper, "Back when I collapsed, before the break..." He licked his lips and continued, "When I came to in the hospital. Remember how I hurt myself?"
A shudder ran through Heero's body in recalling the incident. Running into the room to find his lover's inner arm cut and bleeding as it was certainly wasn't something he was about to forget anytime soon. No more than he'd forget the helplessness and terror in his best friend's eyes as he tried desperately to free himself from what he thought was his cell at the lab that he had been created in.
With a rough swallow, Heero nodded, "I remember."
Nervously chewing the inside of his cheek, Duo summoned up the last of his courage to raise and opened his balled fists that were resting in his lap to reveal the nails that had been quickly growing all day. Where before he could have gone a day or so before having to file them down, they were returning more rapidly and were beginning to curve when left along long enough.
Gasping sharply at the sight of the nails, Heero's eyes widened as he reached up to take the trembling hands into his own. "Duo," he breathed, looking back up into the reddening eyes before him. He frowned deeply and shook his head and thought aloud, "I should have thought more into that incident to wonder how you managed to hurt yourself like that. I was just so relieved when Treize and Sally announced that you were fine that..."
Sudden realization filled the Japanese youth's cobalt eyes and they widened once more. "But you knew," he spoke just as the thought came to him. "This whole time, you knew," he frowned deeply. His brown furrowed as a glare formed on his features.
"I would have noticed something like this over the last two weeks," Heero growled deeply. "Which only means that you've been hiding these," he emphasized by raising the nails closer to his lover's face. Duo whimpered, tears rolling freely down his face as his tall ears and tail sunk. "So what do these mean?" the taller boy demanded. "You wouldn't have gone through so much effort to keep this from me if you didn't know what it meant."
His body shaking, the braided neko bit back another whimper and answered in little more than a breath, "I-It's the s-start of a reverting process that the professors who made me thought might come about eventually. I c-called on one for help."
Everything in Heero's vision went red as he shot forward to grip the smaller teenager's shoulders to shake him. As he brought their faces close, he shouted, "So you could go to them but you couldn't come to me with this! Damn it, Duo, I thought after everything between us, I thought that you could come to me with anything! Why? Why on earth did you keep something like this from me?"
Lowering his head, Duo sniffled and shook his head, "I didn't want to upset you."
At that, Heero rose from the couch and yelled, "And I shouldn't be even more upset by the fact that you hid the truth from me on top of what's happening? How many other people knew about this before you told me?"
When his lover looked up at him with wide, wet eyes but could not find his voice as his mouth opened and closed, the art student leaned down until their noses almost touched and bellowed, "How many!?"
Finally finding his voice, Duo answered brokenly, "Only Treize and Howard, the doctor that I called. I swear no one else knows." A sharp sob escaped him as he fell to his knees to wrap his arms around his partner's waist, crying, "I'm so sorry, Heero! Please don't be mad with me! I-I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know how! I never meant to hurt you!"
Anything else that Duo wanted to say was lost as he fell cried uncontrollably. His whole world was falling apart around him as he clung desperately to the only person that kept him from shattering along with it all. While he could not blame the anger directed at him, the grim and bitter realization that his actions had so badly hurt the person that he loved was tearing him in two.
There was a long pause before Heero finally released the air that he had been holding in his lungs since his lover hung tightly to him. Gazing down to the trembling neko, seeing and feeling how distraught he was over the whole ordeal, his own heart broke. There was still anger and disappointment, but he knew that that would pass. It was obvious that the smaller boy was deeply sorry for his deceit.
Very slowly, Heero reached up to run his hand over the braided head buried against his torso as Duo sobbed. As he continued to caress the long hair, he bit his lip and whispered, "I'm sorry for yelling like that. It's just... I don't like the fact that you felt like you couldn't come to me with something like this."
Carefully loosening the arms around his waist, the Japanese teenager lowered himself to his own knees. With one hand, he gently raised Duo's lowered head until their eyes met once more while his other hand soothingly wiped the fallen tears away from that heart-shaped face. His brown ears and tail still drooped, the neko frowned deeply with a wavering voice that breathed, "I'm so sorry, Heero."
"It's all right," his partner nodded, the sincerity heavy in his own voice, "I forgive you." Taking a deep breath, Heero resolved himself to the real problem at hand and sighed, "Now, I take it that if both Treize and this Howard know about the reverting process that is going on, they're both working together on solving it?"
Biting his lip, Duo nodded, "Howard has been at Treize's place since this last weekend. He flew out here as soon as I contacted him."
Pleasantly surprised that a scientist from the neko's past would go so out of his way to help the situation, Heero blinked his widened cobalt eyes. Before he could even voice the next question, his braided lover reassured him, "We can trust Howard, Heero. He left his work and Dekim's lab when his conscience over the reasons for my creation got the better of him."
Concern built back up in Heero's chest at the realization that Duo was still avoiding what Treize and Howard had actually found. With it evident that he would have to spell out what he wanted to hear, he came out and asked, "And what is the prognosis that they've come to? There is a way of keeping you from reverting back to your cat state, right? There has to be." Even he heard the desperation dripping from his voice at the last statement.
Just when the last of his tears had been dried, more sprung into Duo's violet eyes at that. The sight of them made Heero stiffen. "They're trying to stop it, Heero," the smaller teenager answered quietly. "But if they can't find a way to do so soon enough, I..." his voice failed him as his mouth opened and closed. Having to force sound from his throat, he announced abruptly, "I'm dying, Heero."
There was a long silence at those words. His cobalt eyes wide with small tears slowly filling them, he shook his head and murmured, "No. You can't be." Knowing better than to try and find a way of answering him verbally, Duo sniffled and rested his head against his love's strong shoulder as the trembling overtook both of them.
Firmly holding the neko against him, Heero whispered through the tears rolling down his face, "God, this can't be happening." For a long moment, they just clung to each other and willed the rest of the world to go away and just let them be.
Lightly pulling Duo away from him so their watery gazes met, Heero told him with all of the determination he could muster, "We're going to get through this. Somehow. I'm not about to lose you now or ever."
In seeing the resolve in those deep blue eyes, Duo couldn't help but give a small smile and nod. If there were anything that could be done to save him, he knew that Heero would see to it. He couldn't allow himself to give up now. Not when there was still a chance.
And so long as he was still alive, there was a chance.
* * * * * *
Sally looked up at the ringing of her vidphone. Stepping over to the center of the living room where it sat on the table there, she opened the small screen and answered the call. When the face of the caller appeared, she smiled, "Well, hello, Heero."
A small, almost sad smile tugged the art student's lips as he greeted, "Sally. I hate to be a bother to you, but this is terribly urgent."
TBC...
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