Stay Together for the Kids

Authors: Lady Diamond and Kome

Disclaimer: We don't own GW or "Stay Together for the Kids" by Blink 182, so don't sue.

Warnings: Angst, language, death, suicide

Rating: R

Pairings: Duo's parents (we'll call them Jack and Carol)

Genre: Angst

Chapter: 1/1

Notes: We got no permission from GW owners or Blink 182 to do this fic. We're playing with them right now, but we swear we'll put them back when we're done. //Song lyrics// , /Thoughts/

Kome - I'm usually inspired to do fics from music I listen to, so when I was listening to this song, the idea came up.

Lady Diamond - It's pretty much how Duo would have become a Gundam pilot straight out of a family instead of going through a gang and a church.

Kome - ::Nods:: R+R!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

//It's hard to wake up when the shades have been pulled shut.

This house is haunted; it's so pathetic, it makes no sense at all.

I'm ripe with things to say. The words rot and fall away.

If some stupid poem could fix this home, I'd read it everyday.//

Fourteen-year-old Duo Maxwell woke up to the sound of his parents yelling. He winced and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His parent's fighting had been going on for some time now and Duo wondered if it'd ever stop.

~ ~ ~

"LOOK AT THIS!! YOU CALL THIS CLEAN?!?"

"Jack, I'm doing the best I can..."

"The best you can? I can't believe you call this goddamn kitchen fucking clean!"

"Jack, he'll hear you..."

"Fuck him, Carol. And fuck you, too!!"

Carol sobbed. "Jack, please!!"

"You're a sad, sorry piece of shit, Carol. You and that goddamn son of yours."

"He's your son, too!"

Jack snorted. "Duo's nothing but a worthless freak. I can't believe you let him grow his fucking hair out that fucking long! He's a man, for the love of fucking God!"

"Jack, he's just a little boy..."

"Just a little boy, my ass! He's going to grow up to be a fucking faggot because of you!!"

Carol slapped Jack hard across his left cheek. Time seemed to stand still until...

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!! DON'T YOU EVER FUCKING TOUCH ME AGAIN!!"

//So here's your holiday.

Hope you enjoy it this time, you gave it all away.

It was mine, so when you're dead and gone,

Hope you remember this night, twenty years now lost.

It's not right.//

Duo sighed and got out of bed. As he trudged toward his closet, he struggled not to cry. He didn't know if he could take much more of this.

He winced again as he heard the deafening slap of flesh against flesh. Then he heard silence, then yelling, then his father beating the shit out of his mother...again.

//Their anger hurts my ears. Been runnin' strong for seven years.

Rather than fix the problems, they never solve them; it makes no sense at all.

I see them everyday. We get along, so why can't they?

If this is what he wants, and it's what she wants, then why's there so much pain?//

"That's it, Carol. I'm so sick of your bullshit."

"Jack, wait. He needs you."

"Well, he can't have me when he's being pampered and babied by a selfish bitch like you."

With that, Jack was gone.

//So here's your holiday.

Hope you enjoy it this time, you gave it all away.

It was mine, so when you're dead and gone,

Hope you remember this night, twenty years now lost.

It's not right.//

Duo looked out of his bedroom window to see his dad leaving. He sighed. It wasn't a shocker for him. He knew it'd happen sooner or later. He just wished he knew why things had gotten so bad.

He sighed again and walked down the stairs to see his mother crying in the kitchen. He put on his jacket and went outside.

At first, it started out as a walk. Then a jog. Then in turned into a full- fledged run. He needed to run. Run to get away from his home.

~ ~ ~

Carol slowly pulled herself up from the cold kitchen floor. Tears and bruises covered her cheeks.

Once she was standing, she shuffled her way across the room to her set of knives she got as a wedding present when she married Jack.

She pulled one out, staring at the sliver blade for a short eternity.

Then, she slid the sharp end of the knife across her throat...not too deep at first...but then, when she got more courage, she sliced her own throat completely.

She fell back down to the ground, blood pooling around her prone body.

~ ~ ~

Duo decided to walk back home. As he walked, he saw police cars and ambulance vehicles surrounding a certain area of a street.

The young boy decided to take a closer look. Inching closer, he finally saw the car and the male body they were taking out of it.

His father.

"Yes," one police officer said to another. "He is dead."

Duo took one last look, then turned away. He didn't want to see his dead father's body. He just wanted to go home.

~ ~ ~

Once Duo reached his house, he smelled something a lot like blood.

/In fact.../

He looked into the kitchen. He stood there...frozen. Then, he ran for all he was worth out of his house.

He didn't know where he was going. He just let his feet take him wherever they wanted to go.

After about two hours of running (with very short breaks in between), he finally collapsed onto a sidewalk and vomited. The sun had set and there was hardly anyone around.

Except for one man.

"Hello," he said. "My name is Professor G. What's yours?"

//So here's your holiday.

Hope you enjoy it this time, you gave it all away.

It was mine, so when you're dead and gone,

Hope you remember this night, twenty years now lost.

It's not right

It's not right

It's not right

It's not right//

And then rest, as they say, is history.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Owari

Kome - Sad and depressing, I know. But hey, I'm a weirdo like that.

Lady Diamond - You're tellin' me.

Kome - Shut up...

Lady Diamond - Review, please.