Duo's Family
Duo Maxwell brushed his bangs out of his face, only to have them fall back in his eyes. Sweat started dripping off his face and his clothes clinged to his skin. It was incredibly hot that day, hotter than usual.
"God, I can't stand this heat!" Duo complained to his partner and friend, Heero Yuy.
Heero sat up and stretched. He peeled his tank top away from his chest and adjusted his seat on the leather chair.
"Yea, too hot." The silent soilder replied. He grabbed his water bottle and took a drink from it, Duo did the same with his.
"How much longer?" Duo slouching down in his seat.
"Not too much longer now, we're almost there."
The two Gundam pilots had been asigned to destroy an army that had invaded a small village somewhere in Africa. They took the mission not knowing about the scorching temperatures that the island had been experiencing.
"I need a shower." Duo complained some more rolling up his sleeves and wiping his face with his hands.
"Quit complaining, it'll be cooler outside." Heero seemed to be in a snappy mood, and Duo knew why.
"Heero, Relena was-"
"I don't care about Relena anymore, I'm over her and I don't your sympathy!" Heero landed the plane and stood up. "We're here." He turned around and left the cockpit.
Duo watched his partner leave feeling hurt, but not as hurt as Heero probably was inside. Ever since Relena had left, Heero had been even more anti-social. He acted like everything was okay but Duo knew it wasn't.
When Duo exited the cockpit, he saw Heero packing up some explosives in a backpack.
"You really should have done this while we were flying here." Heero snapped.
"Well sorry, I was too busy trying not to die of heat exhaustion!!" Duo retorted.
Heero grumbled some kind of insult but Duo chose to ignore. The two pilots gathered up explosives and headed outside.
Outside, the was a small wind that blew Duo's braid in Heero's face.
"Hey!"
Duo grabbed his braid and tossed it over his other shoulder, "Sorry." he mumbled. Heero looked at him sideways and took a step onto the sand. His feet sank into the ground all the way up to his knees. "Quicksand, help me out."
Duo grabbed his partner's wrist and dragged him out. He didn't even bother to ask if Heero was okay.
The two pilots leaped over the quicksand and headed towards a cluster of large huts and wooden buildings.
As they walked, Duo looked over at Heero and saw a long scar on his cheek. Before he could ask where he got it, a small bomb landed fifty feet in front of them and exploded, sending a funnel of sand high into the air and back down like a torrentual down pour. The gundamn pilots instinctively covered their faces and braced themselves against the strong wind. The hot sand stung their faces and arms, leaving them feeling almost numb.
When the sand died down, Heero shook himself off and brushed the sand out of his hair. Duo did the same but left most of the sand in his hair, it would come out when he took a shower.
"Was that our welcoming?" Duo sputtered spitting sand out of his mouth.
"Probably, maybe they don't like newcomers and tried to scare us away, but they have to try harder than that, right Duo?" Heero looked at his friend and gave a little smirk then started to trudge through the sand. Duo looked back at him in shock. Heero, smiling and making a joke? He shook his head, it was probably a mirage, or denial.
"Hey, wait!" Duo ran best he could in the uneven sand. He stopped next to Heero who was looking at a giant sand dune in front of them.
"Only way to go but up." He started his ascent only to slip and slide back down to Duo's feet. He stood up and tried again, this time actually making some distance on it. Duo sighed and followed, this heat was really getting to him and climbing wasn't what he wanted to do.
They ascended the dune, sliding and slipping and trying to grip onto nothing. Finally they made it to the top and stopped to catch their breath.
"There it is, I can see the army's guards patrolling the streets." Heero looked down at his partner who had managed to scramble up the dune and fall to his knees.
"Well, what's the best approach?" Duo gasped while catching his breath.
Heero scanned the village and stopped one on point. "The best way is to go in at the westside and-" Heero was suddenly cut off but a gunshot. He grabbed his left side and fell to his knees.
"Heero? Heero!" Duo pulled his partner down to the other side of the sand dune and laid still, trying to grip the dune with his feet. The gunshots continued for a while then stopped and left an erie silence.
"Heero, are you okay?" Duo leaned over to his partner.
Heero was silent for a moment but then lifted his head, "I'm fine, let's go." He sat up and glanced over his shoulder at the village. He ducked as bullets whizzed over his head.
"That's it, it's getting old fast!" Heero grabbed a gernade, pulled the pin with his teeth, stood up, threw it, then fell to his stomach. A short moment past and an explosion was heard.
"You idiot, we're suppose to kill the army, not the citizens!"
"No, we're supposed to save the village, and destroying part of it may save it!"
Duo looked up, "How?"
Heero stood up without answering and slid down the dune. Duo stood up and slid down behind him. The silent soilder stop and the self-proclaimed Death God slid into him and sent the two rolling and sliding down the rest of the dune.
Duo stopped at a pair of shoes. He noticed that the shoes had legs, and the rest of a body which happened to be a soilder of the army. The soilder reached down to grab Duo but Heero shot him before he could reach them.
"Hey thanks-" Duo was cut off by another explosion. This time a building had exploded nearby and bits and pieces were flying everywhere. One landed next to Heero who didn't even flinch.
"Let's go before more army men come." Heero stood up and pulled Duo up. The two ran in the town and started shooting at soilders. Two by two they fell, grabbing their chests with blooding oozing out of their hands. Some coughed up blood while others screamed in pain and fell to the ground. The citizens ran screaming for their loved ones. Soilders through gernades at houses and flushed the village people out of burning buildings, shooting the ones that were too slow. Heero stopped and saw a soilder beating a woman who was holding a bundle in her arms. The woman hunched over and protected the bundle, which Heero relized was a baby. He cocked his gun and fired at the soilder who fell back. Heero walked over to the woman and kneeled down to her. She looked up at Heero, her face was bruised and battered. The bundle stirred and cried in her arms. Heero reached to help her up but felt something hit him in the back of the head. He spun around and punched the soilder in the neck. The woman screamed and scrambled off.
Duo ran up a hill and turned around and shot the soilders chasing him. He looked over and saw a man and a woman rushing out of a house. The man was carrying a small child with long brown hair. The family stopped and hugged eachother. Duo gazed at the family with a sudden feeling of lonliness. The child looked over at Duo and gave him a little smirk.
A soilder jumped in front of Duo and socked him in the gut with the butt of his gun. Duo gasped for air and fell to his knees. He looked up just as the soilder hit him on his head with his gun. Everything in Duo's mind became blurry and muddled. He felt dizzy and soon gave into the darkness that surrounded him. . .
"Duo, wake up." Heero's voice sounded far away, "Come on, we gotta go!"
Duo opened his eyes and saw Heero kneeling down next to him looking down at him. The sun was setting and casted shadows across his face. The soilder that beat Duo up was laying nearby with a puddle of dark red sand.
"They're gone?" was all Duo could manage to speak.
"Yes, every last one of them, let's get home." Heero helped him up and stood there. Duo brushed the sand off of him and fought his dizzyness to walk. He leaned on Heero who held him up.
They walked through the remains of the village, bodies were laying everywhere, some were soilders, others were villagers. Buildings had turned into burning ruins, some collapsed as the pilots walked by. Some villagers were still roaming around looking for their loved ones, while others held their remaining possesions in their arms while running out of the village into the desert.
Duo heard a child cry nearby, he broke away from Heero and stumbled over to the ruins of a hut. He pushed aside some rubble and saw a small child laying amongst it crying. Duo immediatly recognized him as the child with the long hair and the smirk. He reached out to the child and the boy grabbed his hands and stood up. The boy ran to Duo and hugged him. Duo put his arm around the boys waist and stood up.
"What should we do with him?" Duo asked
"We can't keep him, he needs his parents." Heero argued
"But we don't know where his parents are, or if they're alive." he finished the last of the sentence in a whisper so the boy couldn't hear him.
"Well if we take him home, how will his parents find us? And what would we do with him until then?"
"But we can't just leave him here!" Duo looked at Heero with pleading eyes.
Heero took a few steps and stopped, "We were only assigned to destroy the army and save the villagers."
Duo walked up behind him, "But this is saving the villagers, if we left him here, then we'd be failing our mission!"
"No we wouldn't," Heero snapped, "Leaving one child isn't failing it's-"
"Inhumane," Duo finished, "Dammit Heero, I thought Relena had restored most of your humanity!"
Heero spun around and faced Duo, "I thought I told you not to mention her!"
"Relena, Relena, Relena, my God Heero, cry me a river, build me a bridge and get over it!"
Heero pulled out his gun and aimed it at Duo's forehead, "I don't cry for anyone or anything, and we can't take care of this child!"
Duo hesitated, "Heero..."
"No, we can't keep him."
"Well the least we could do is try to look for his parents!"
Heero put his gun away, "We don't know what they look like."
"I saw them before I was knocked out, I don't remember exactly what they looked like but I'll recognize them when I see them."
Heero sighed, Duo was too damn persuasive sometimes, "Fine, let's look for an hour."
Duo smiled, "Arigatou, Heero." He turned around and started walking through the rubble. He set the child down on his feet and kept walking. Heero sighed again and followed.
"Where did all the villagers go?" Duo stopped and faced Heero.
"They went east, his parents could be with him, or they could still be here." He glanced around at some villagers picking through the rubble.
"Fine, let's head east." Duo picked up the child and started walking opposite of the setting sun.
Heero jogged to catch up with his partner. He couldn't believe it, all this trouble for a mere child. But then, Duo had been hanging out with Quatre lately, maybe the blond's caring nature had rubbed off on the braided death god. The caring nature reminded him of Relena. The blond princess was the only thing he had any feelings for. She was so happy and caring, it took her weeks just to get Heero to go out with her. They had been inseperable for a year and a half until Relena had to leave. He didn't want her to, but she had no choice. She couldn't even tell him why she left.
Duo glanced down at the child who was dozing off in his arms. He had never gone this far as to save a child but the boy just reminded Duo so much of his own childhood. He thought of Sister Helen and Father Maxwell and felt a small pain in his heart. They had been like family to him, family he never had. This child was lucky to have parents who loved him, lucky enough to even have parents, if they were still alive. . .
Duo Maxwell brushed his bangs out of his face, only to have them fall back in his eyes. Sweat started dripping off his face and his clothes clinged to his skin. It was incredibly hot that day, hotter than usual.
"God, I can't stand this heat!" Duo complained to his partner and friend, Heero Yuy.
Heero sat up and stretched. He peeled his tank top away from his chest and adjusted his seat on the leather chair.
"Yea, too hot." The silent soilder replied. He grabbed his water bottle and took a drink from it, Duo did the same with his.
"How much longer?" Duo slouching down in his seat.
"Not too much longer now, we're almost there."
The two Gundam pilots had been asigned to destroy an army that had invaded a small village somewhere in Africa. They took the mission not knowing about the scorching temperatures that the island had been experiencing.
"I need a shower." Duo complained some more rolling up his sleeves and wiping his face with his hands.
"Quit complaining, it'll be cooler outside." Heero seemed to be in a snappy mood, and Duo knew why.
"Heero, Relena was-"
"I don't care about Relena anymore, I'm over her and I don't your sympathy!" Heero landed the plane and stood up. "We're here." He turned around and left the cockpit.
Duo watched his partner leave feeling hurt, but not as hurt as Heero probably was inside. Ever since Relena had left, Heero had been even more anti-social. He acted like everything was okay but Duo knew it wasn't.
When Duo exited the cockpit, he saw Heero packing up some explosives in a backpack.
"You really should have done this while we were flying here." Heero snapped.
"Well sorry, I was too busy trying not to die of heat exhaustion!!" Duo retorted.
Heero grumbled some kind of insult but Duo chose to ignore. The two pilots gathered up explosives and headed outside.
Outside, the was a small wind that blew Duo's braid in Heero's face.
"Hey!"
Duo grabbed his braid and tossed it over his other shoulder, "Sorry." he mumbled. Heero looked at him sideways and took a step onto the sand. His feet sank into the ground all the way up to his knees. "Quicksand, help me out."
Duo grabbed his partner's wrist and dragged him out. He didn't even bother to ask if Heero was okay.
The two pilots leaped over the quicksand and headed towards a cluster of large huts and wooden buildings.
As they walked, Duo looked over at Heero and saw a long scar on his cheek. Before he could ask where he got it, a small bomb landed fifty feet in front of them and exploded, sending a funnel of sand high into the air and back down like a torrentual down pour. The gundamn pilots instinctively covered their faces and braced themselves against the strong wind. The hot sand stung their faces and arms, leaving them feeling almost numb.
When the sand died down, Heero shook himself off and brushed the sand out of his hair. Duo did the same but left most of the sand in his hair, it would come out when he took a shower.
"Was that our welcoming?" Duo sputtered spitting sand out of his mouth.
"Probably, maybe they don't like newcomers and tried to scare us away, but they have to try harder than that, right Duo?" Heero looked at his friend and gave a little smirk then started to trudge through the sand. Duo looked back at him in shock. Heero, smiling and making a joke? He shook his head, it was probably a mirage, or denial.
"Hey, wait!" Duo ran best he could in the uneven sand. He stopped next to Heero who was looking at a giant sand dune in front of them.
"Only way to go but up." He started his ascent only to slip and slide back down to Duo's feet. He stood up and tried again, this time actually making some distance on it. Duo sighed and followed, this heat was really getting to him and climbing wasn't what he wanted to do.
They ascended the dune, sliding and slipping and trying to grip onto nothing. Finally they made it to the top and stopped to catch their breath.
"There it is, I can see the army's guards patrolling the streets." Heero looked down at his partner who had managed to scramble up the dune and fall to his knees.
"Well, what's the best approach?" Duo gasped while catching his breath.
Heero scanned the village and stopped one on point. "The best way is to go in at the westside and-" Heero was suddenly cut off but a gunshot. He grabbed his left side and fell to his knees.
"Heero? Heero!" Duo pulled his partner down to the other side of the sand dune and laid still, trying to grip the dune with his feet. The gunshots continued for a while then stopped and left an erie silence.
"Heero, are you okay?" Duo leaned over to his partner.
Heero was silent for a moment but then lifted his head, "I'm fine, let's go." He sat up and glanced over his shoulder at the village. He ducked as bullets whizzed over his head.
"That's it, it's getting old fast!" Heero grabbed a gernade, pulled the pin with his teeth, stood up, threw it, then fell to his stomach. A short moment past and an explosion was heard.
"You idiot, we're suppose to kill the army, not the citizens!"
"No, we're supposed to save the village, and destroying part of it may save it!"
Duo looked up, "How?"
Heero stood up without answering and slid down the dune. Duo stood up and slid down behind him. The silent soilder stop and the self-proclaimed Death God slid into him and sent the two rolling and sliding down the rest of the dune.
Duo stopped at a pair of shoes. He noticed that the shoes had legs, and the rest of a body which happened to be a soilder of the army. The soilder reached down to grab Duo but Heero shot him before he could reach them.
"Hey thanks-" Duo was cut off by another explosion. This time a building had exploded nearby and bits and pieces were flying everywhere. One landed next to Heero who didn't even flinch.
"Let's go before more army men come." Heero stood up and pulled Duo up. The two ran in the town and started shooting at soilders. Two by two they fell, grabbing their chests with blooding oozing out of their hands. Some coughed up blood while others screamed in pain and fell to the ground. The citizens ran screaming for their loved ones. Soilders through gernades at houses and flushed the village people out of burning buildings, shooting the ones that were too slow. Heero stopped and saw a soilder beating a woman who was holding a bundle in her arms. The woman hunched over and protected the bundle, which Heero relized was a baby. He cocked his gun and fired at the soilder who fell back. Heero walked over to the woman and kneeled down to her. She looked up at Heero, her face was bruised and battered. The bundle stirred and cried in her arms. Heero reached to help her up but felt something hit him in the back of the head. He spun around and punched the soilder in the neck. The woman screamed and scrambled off.
Duo ran up a hill and turned around and shot the soilders chasing him. He looked over and saw a man and a woman rushing out of a house. The man was carrying a small child with long brown hair. The family stopped and hugged eachother. Duo gazed at the family with a sudden feeling of lonliness. The child looked over at Duo and gave him a little smirk.
A soilder jumped in front of Duo and socked him in the gut with the butt of his gun. Duo gasped for air and fell to his knees. He looked up just as the soilder hit him on his head with his gun. Everything in Duo's mind became blurry and muddled. He felt dizzy and soon gave into the darkness that surrounded him. . .
"Duo, wake up." Heero's voice sounded far away, "Come on, we gotta go!"
Duo opened his eyes and saw Heero kneeling down next to him looking down at him. The sun was setting and casted shadows across his face. The soilder that beat Duo up was laying nearby with a puddle of dark red sand.
"They're gone?" was all Duo could manage to speak.
"Yes, every last one of them, let's get home." Heero helped him up and stood there. Duo brushed the sand off of him and fought his dizzyness to walk. He leaned on Heero who held him up.
They walked through the remains of the village, bodies were laying everywhere, some were soilders, others were villagers. Buildings had turned into burning ruins, some collapsed as the pilots walked by. Some villagers were still roaming around looking for their loved ones, while others held their remaining possesions in their arms while running out of the village into the desert.
Duo heard a child cry nearby, he broke away from Heero and stumbled over to the ruins of a hut. He pushed aside some rubble and saw a small child laying amongst it crying. Duo immediatly recognized him as the child with the long hair and the smirk. He reached out to the child and the boy grabbed his hands and stood up. The boy ran to Duo and hugged him. Duo put his arm around the boys waist and stood up.
"What should we do with him?" Duo asked
"We can't keep him, he needs his parents." Heero argued
"But we don't know where his parents are, or if they're alive." he finished the last of the sentence in a whisper so the boy couldn't hear him.
"Well if we take him home, how will his parents find us? And what would we do with him until then?"
"But we can't just leave him here!" Duo looked at Heero with pleading eyes.
Heero took a few steps and stopped, "We were only assigned to destroy the army and save the villagers."
Duo walked up behind him, "But this is saving the villagers, if we left him here, then we'd be failing our mission!"
"No we wouldn't," Heero snapped, "Leaving one child isn't failing it's-"
"Inhumane," Duo finished, "Dammit Heero, I thought Relena had restored most of your humanity!"
Heero spun around and faced Duo, "I thought I told you not to mention her!"
"Relena, Relena, Relena, my God Heero, cry me a river, build me a bridge and get over it!"
Heero pulled out his gun and aimed it at Duo's forehead, "I don't cry for anyone or anything, and we can't take care of this child!"
Duo hesitated, "Heero..."
"No, we can't keep him."
"Well the least we could do is try to look for his parents!"
Heero put his gun away, "We don't know what they look like."
"I saw them before I was knocked out, I don't remember exactly what they looked like but I'll recognize them when I see them."
Heero sighed, Duo was too damn persuasive sometimes, "Fine, let's look for an hour."
Duo smiled, "Arigatou, Heero." He turned around and started walking through the rubble. He set the child down on his feet and kept walking. Heero sighed again and followed.
"Where did all the villagers go?" Duo stopped and faced Heero.
"They went east, his parents could be with him, or they could still be here." He glanced around at some villagers picking through the rubble.
"Fine, let's head east." Duo picked up the child and started walking opposite of the setting sun.
Heero jogged to catch up with his partner. He couldn't believe it, all this trouble for a mere child. But then, Duo had been hanging out with Quatre lately, maybe the blond's caring nature had rubbed off on the braided death god. The caring nature reminded him of Relena. The blond princess was the only thing he had any feelings for. She was so happy and caring, it took her weeks just to get Heero to go out with her. They had been inseperable for a year and a half until Relena had to leave. He didn't want her to, but she had no choice. She couldn't even tell him why she left.
Duo glanced down at the child who was dozing off in his arms. He had never gone this far as to save a child but the boy just reminded Duo so much of his own childhood. He thought of Sister Helen and Father Maxwell and felt a small pain in his heart. They had been like family to him, family he never had. This child was lucky to have parents who loved him, lucky enough to even have parents, if they were still alive. . .