Wu-fei always had the same nightmare. He could see them drag Duo out kicking and screaming, feel the cool metal that bound his wrists to thick cement walls, hear Duo's grunts and screams, smell the sweat, blood, and filth of the cell. He could hear the guards footfalls and the unsettling scrape of steel toes against cement floors. When they dropped Duo between Heero and Wu-Fei, he was still sort of breathing. Letting out rapid, shaky gasps. Heero was screaming his name, trying to get him to look, trying to get him to breathe. Wu-Fei could hear the wet sputters as Duo's bruised lungs began to fill with fluid and he could feel Heero's anguish.
Normally, he would wake up here, choking back sobs and the bile rising in his throat like it had that day as Duo lay dying just out of reach.
Heero had broken his wrist and thumb fighting the restraints, forcing a hand out of the tight shackles. He reached out and dragged Duo into his lap in time to watch the light leave his startled lover's eyes. As heero shook him hard, begging him to wake up, a lockpick slipped from his braid, the clatter of metal on concrete making Heero seek out the sound. Duo still resting in his lap with eyes open, Heero unlocked his other cuff and wrapped both arms around the boy's body.
This shifted Duo so that Wu-fei could see that vacant lifeless expression and he retched without even knowing he would. The sound, or perhaps the smell, pulled Heero from his grief momentarily. He gendly settled Duo to the floor, closing his eyes, and slid over to Wu-fei to unfasten his shackles as well. They didn't have much time until the bastards who did this to Duo would be back.
Wu-fei tried to will himself awake, but the dream pulled him in deeper. He'd never seen Heero cry before, and he knew the image would never leave his mind, much like those vacant violet eyes.
At the sound of footsteps, they had flanked the only door to the cell and rushed the guards the moment the door swung open. Bare hands snapped necks with a quickness neither had ever managed before. Heero spared a glance back to the cell and choked on a sob. "We can't." Wu-fei heard himself say. Though now he would have given anything to take those words back, to have Duo buried somewhere safe, to be able to visit. They took their time setting up any and everything that could possibly explode and set off a chain reaction and ran as fast as they could. Duo's gundam was the detonator. They pressed the manual destruct and ran like their lives were worth running back to.
Wu-fei shot up in bed as the compound burst apart with explosion after explosion, flames engulfing everything, including Duo's body. He swallowed hard and willed himself not to vomit as the dream flashed in his head over and over. As he moved to climb out of bed he heard a creak outside his room.
When he pulled the door open he found Heero, obviously exhausted, standing with his hand raised to knock.
"I have them too." He said softly, motioning Wu-fei closer. The other pilot obliged, following Heero down the hall to his room. The one he and Duo had shared at this safe house not more than a few weeks ago. He slid into bed, Duo's side, and turned back the covers on the side opposite him. When Wu-fei looked confused Heero replied with "Trust me, Chang."
And he did. That mission could have driven a wedge between them, could have forced them apart from one another, only working together for the sake of the mission, and it still might. Looking at Heero still made Wu-fei's chest tighten, taking him back to that cell with Heero bent over the body of the boy he'd allowed himself to love only months before. He stepped into the room and laid stiffly in the space Heero had left for him. He took in a shaky breath and inhaled the scent of Duo's shampoo. He closed his eyes, willing away angry tears.
Wu-fei hadn't even wanted the friendship of the braided pilot, but Duo had been persistent, determined to break down every wall he had put up. The other teen had ignored his angry protests, had pushed every button he could without stepping on a single sore spot. Duo goaded him into friendship, and once he had it, Wu-fei felt morally obligated to maintain the bond Duo had forced between them. Late night talks during surveillance missions, remembering the people they both lost on their colonies, times they dared to think of a future beyond this war. Duo confessed that he was in love with Heero in the middle of an infiltration mission and wu-fei didn't have time to process the jealousy he felt before Duo blasted open a wall and they had to focus on the mission.
A hand on his chest startled him from his memories and his head snapped to the side, onyx locking to cobalt. For a moment he couldn't catch his breath. Wu-fei had never looked for emotion in his comrade's eyes before, and the overwhelming pain echoing his own knocked the wind right out of him. His hand came up to press Heero's closer, heart hammering underneath. For a long while neither boy moved, not even to blink. Then, just like that, Heero withdrew his hand and rolled onto his side, back to the other gundam pilot. Wu-fei cleared his throat and did the same, eventually falling back into an uneasy sleep.