to lazy to insert mindless babble….
Warning: Shounen ai… fluff…. Eventual character death… you know, the normal. Oh, and this shouldn't be very long either. Just a little ficcie to pass the time
Legal crap: *fends off cookie guzzling lawyers* No! Back! Back I say! I own no cookies! *lawyers leave* ?.? Wow… that's all I have to say to get them to go away? *grins* Good to know!
"Duo, be careful. You can always make it shorter if it's too long, but you can't add more to it once you've cut it off." Quatre watched as Duo carefully clipped the small, flat copper wire in his hand. The wire cutters were dull, and slipped easily as Duo tried to continue with his delicate operation.
"Ack! It's too short!" Duo sighed and threw the small wire on the ground.
"I warned you," Quatre said, shaking his head. "You have to test it for pitch each time you trim it." Duo picked up a longer piece of wire and cut off a piece of about the right length. "What are you doing now?"
"I'm going to screw this up again if I try to cut it with these crappy scissors. So…" Duo pulled out a lump of clay from under his work-table, then stuck the wire into it. "Hmmm" Duo began to hum, holding a steady note as he flicked the wire, carefully tapping it in farther or pulling it out until the tones matched perfectly.
Quatre simply laughed at this new approach. "Very creative, but how are you going to get it to keep it's pitch when you attach it to the wood?" Duo smiled, then pulled out a black felt-tip marker.
"You have to start thinking outside the box Q." He gingerly slid the nib around the copper, being careful not to move either the clay, or the wire. When he was finished, he pulled the wire from the clay, and held it in front of his face while giving Quatre a big grin. "Genius, isn't it?"
"Quit goofing off and do the rest of them." Quatre glanced at the staff Duo had created to help him make the music box. "Honestly, why did you have to pick such a complex song? You're only putting more work ahead of yourself." Duo put the piece of metal down, and slung his arm around Quatre.
"I know, but it's worth it for Hee-chan!" Quatre smiled, and picked up another strand of copper.
"Then hurry up and finish it. He could walk in any minute now."
"Q, you've been saying that for the past three hours. What are the chances that he'll come walking into my room unannounced and discover what I've been working on for the past two weeks?" Duo then took the wire from Quatre and stuck it into the wad of clay, then began to 'tune' it as well.
After a few hours, Duo had finally gotten all of the notes he needed.
"Ahh!" Duo stood up and stretched, popping his back and arms in several places. "I thought I'd never finish!" Quatre laughed and pulled out a piece of paper.
"Well, it wouldn't have taken as long if you hadn't let the clay harden around the rest of our wire. Heero almost caught us when we came back from the store." Duo simply grunted at this. He didn't seem too pleased to be reminded.
"Now what do I do?" Quatre looked over the scraps of wood on the table until he found a few thin blocks.
"Now you attach the wires to the wood so we can mount it inside the base." Duo took two of the wooden scraps from Quatre, and slid the longest wire in between them. "Don't forget to check the pitch." Duo mumbled something under his breath, then flicked the wire.
"See? It's fine." Quatre laughed and handed Duo two nails to hold it in place. "I still don't see why I can't just use the drill. It would be a whole lot easier…" Duo then began to gently tap the first nail into the wood, just next to the copper wire.
"If you used the drill, you would change the sound. Just don't pound the nail in there and it should be fine." Duo continued to grumble until he brought the hammer down on his hand a little harder than he should have.
"Itai!!!"
"Well, if you had been tapping it lightly like I told you to, it wouldn't have hurt." Duo picked up another hammer and shoved it into Quatre's hands.
"Well, if you know so much, why don't you make the next one?"
"No," The blond said simply, placing the hammer back on the table.
"No?"
"No. I'm not going to help you make this. It's your present to Heero, so you're going to make it for him. I'm only here to tell you how to do it." Duo glared at Quatre, then started to tap the nail into the wood again. "It was your idea. You were the one that made me promise not to help make it."
Duo continued this tedious process for the rest of the day, constantly grumbling at Quatre for 'making everything more difficult than it needed to be'. Of course, Quatre always laughed at this, and helped the braided youth get out of any problems he managed to find himself in.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
"Okay Heero. What are we doing here again?" Duo leaned over Heero, and looked over the controls of the MS they had stolen.
"This mission is relatively loosely planned. We need to find the room where they're building a new model of MS. Then we prevent them from finishing it." Heero flicked a few switches, then reached up to grab Duo's braid, which had been swinging in front of his face.
"Hey! Let go!" Heero pulled lightly on the chestnut rope, making Duo fall over on top of him. "Itai! That hurts! Leggo!" Duo wrapped his hands around the base of his braid, then tried to free it from Heero's grasp.
"Keep it out of my way." Heero let go of Duo's plaited hair, then prepared to land.
"Right… right…" Duo slid behind Heero's chair so he wouldn't be seen when they received an identity check. As if on cue, the screen lit up, and a woman with short cropped blond hair appeared.
"Pass code and identity number, please." Heero rattled off a few memorized numbers and words. The pilot they had stolen the MS from had worked here, and he was stupid enough to have his pass code and identity number written on a card in his pocket. "Oh good. I was wondering when you'd be back, Lance. Why don't you come see me when you've finished delivering the package? We can continue what we started before you left…" Heero stared at the girl on the screen, then forced his voice to sound somewhat cheerful.
"I'll do that." The woman grinned again, then opened the door to let them in.
"Great! See you in a bit!" Then she cut the transmission off. Duo waited a few seconds before he burst out laughing.
"That was unexpected, now wasn't it?" Heero grunted, then opened the cockpit to let himself out.
"We'll meet back here. Set your half, and don't get caught." Duo grumbled and sprinted off to the right.
'Oi… he acts as though I've never done this before… Oh well. We get this out of the way, then I can give him his birthday present!' Duo grinned at the thought. 'I wonder what he'll think of it….'
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
After the mission, and back at the house….
"Oi, Duo? Daijobu?" Duo lifted his head slightly off of the table, and willed his eyes to focus enough to see Heero sitting next to him. He felt the cobalt-blue eyed pilot's tennative arm wrap around his shoulders, trying to give him the comfort that he had been trained to do without. Duo smiled slightly, then let his head fall to the table once more.
"I'm just tired.. and hungry…" Quatre laughed at this last remark, then slid a sandwitch across the table.
"Eat up, my friend. Then get some rest." Duo forced himself upright in the chair, and picked up the small meal. Heero removed his arm from Duo's back, then shifted uneasily in his chair. Although they had just returned form a mission, it hadn't been strenuous enough to fatigue Duo so much, so what was wrong?
"Can't…" Duo's hands shook so violently after the first bite that he dropped the sandwich. "Too tired…" Heero stood up and put his hands on Duo's shoulders to keep him from falling over.
"I'll take him upstairs. He can eat when he wakes up." Heero gently slid an arm around Duo and helped him stand. Once on his feet, the braided youth had to put all of his weight on Heero just to keep standing. His head rested on his shoulder for he lacked the energy to hold it up. Heero bent his knees slightly, then scooped Duo up into his arms.
"Arigatō…" Duo's voice was barely above a whisper, but Heero heard him clearly. Quatre looked at Heero, puzzled.
"Do you think—"
"I don't know what to think," Heero interrupted. He looked down at the sleeping boy in his arms. Duo's breathing was slow and light. The quiet exhalations through his slightly parted lips could barely be detected. "We'll just have to wait until he gets up."
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
"How long has he been out?" Trowa sat down on the couch next to Quatre.
"About 15 hours now." Quatre sighed and let his head rest on Trowa's chest. Trowa nodded slightly, then looked up at Heero.
"I think that if he still needs rest, he can always go back to bed after he's eaten something." Heero was already halfway up the steps before Trowa could finish his sentence.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Trowa wrapped his arms around the blond boy. He shivered, then looked up into deep emerald pools. "I really don't like this."
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
Heero walked into Duo's room, carefully stepping over the various pieces of old electronics that hadn't yet been used to make some weird new invention with no apparent use.
"Duo, wake up." The figure on the bed didn't move at all. "Duo!" Heero sat down on the edge of the bed and gently shook the boy. Still no reaction.
Fear gripped the brown haired boy and he reached out to search for a pulse. Duo's heartbeat was alarmingly slow and weak, and very uneven.
"Oh my god…. Duo! Duo!" Quatre burst into the room at the perfect soldier's strangled cries.
"Heero, what's wrong?"
"Quatre… Get help…. He-he won't wake up…"
To be continued…..
I know… I'm evil, aren't I? *grins* oh well. There should only be one more chapter… maybe two…