The Pain of Love

By: The Lady Priscilla Violet Regina

Disclaimer: *cuddles with Duo* Du-chan: She doesn't own me! Or anyone else!

Jen-chan: *evil grin* That's what you think...~.รณ

No, just kidding, I don't own them. *pouty lip*

Warnings: Shonen-ai...if you take it that way. Could just be great friends! We'll see...

Prologue:

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"Oh God, he's gone!

Shots were fired.

"No!"

More rounds blasted into the night, tearing through the alloy protecting the corpse of his beloved.

The yellow light faded, and the suit slowly turned off. Drifting closer and closer towards unconsciousness, the pilot's last thought was of him.

"Trowa...no..."

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Chapter 1.

Unseen Demons

A faint humming filled the air, mingling with the smell of sterility. And of blood. The blonde's eyes opened slowly, painfully, as he battled for consciousness. The blinding, white, fluorescent light hit his optic sensors, causing him to twitch involuntarily and look away, hoping for some relief. Covering his face with the blanket lying on top of him, he boy closed his eyes again, trying to remember where he was and why he was there.

Voice floated to his ears, sounding muffled, but easily discernable.

"How is he?" a stern, commanding voice asked, coming closer. The shadow of the speaker fell onto the blanket, giving momentary relief from the light. Another figure appeared opposite the former, and a lighter, airier tone came from him.

"Better than before. Hey, Quatre, ya gettin up taday? Or are you gonna sleep in AGAIN?" the voice asked, pulling away the comforting quilt to reveal a squinting, blue eyes Arabian.

"Unh...Duo? Heero? Where am I? Where's..." he broke off, tears forming in his already emotional eyes. He looked around the room furiously, hoping that it was all a bad dream, and his Trowa would be sitting nearby, reading a book or drinking some tea but...he wasn't there. No novel, no drink. No Trowa.

Duo knelt by the side of the cot, sad expression weighing heavily on his normally joyful features. "Quatre...don't you remember?"

He refused to believe it. 'No.' he told himself. 'It didn't happen!' Turning to the braided boy, he spoke his thoughts. "No, Duo...that didn't happen! I know it didn't happen! Where's Trowa?! Show him to me this instant, Duo! Now! Where's..." he was stopped by strong arms wrapped around his shoulders from behind. Fighting back tears, he struggled in Heero's arms, until finally being turned around fiercely, facing the boy and his burning Prussian blue eyes. Still struggling, but not as viciously, Quatre writhed in his arms, no strength left to fight, but sheer will keeping him going. "No, Heero! No!" Finally, he stopped, breaking down into a sobbing mess that drenched Heero's tank top. But the Perfect Soldier still kept his strong hold, almost excruciatingly so, on Quatre, until at last, he collapsed, unconscious again. Releasing him, he lied the boy down, blonde locks falling gently across his forehead as he slept more fevered nightmares.

Duo got up to leave, but stopped at the door, noticing the pilot of Wing Zero was not following. "You coming, Hee-kun?"

The fifteen year old shook his head. "No, Duo."

The pilot in the doorway smiled, then shrugged. "All right, I'll have your dinner sent in here, then. Do you want the light off?" he inquired, finger hovering about the switch. Receiving a nod, he executed the action, then left the room, closing the door silently behind him.

Joining Wufei in the recreation room, he sat down, fiddling with his cross while the Chinese one played Solitaire. Not looking up, Wufei asked quietly, "Where's Heero?"

"In Quatre's room. I think he'll be in there all night again. I wonder why he insists on watching him so closely..."

Nataku's pilot offered some insight. "Probably because he feels he's the one who caused all of this to happen to Quatre. He pushed the Zero System on him, so it's partially his fault. He also knows the effects of the Zero System better than any of us, so he's watching out for any bad signs. Heero has a heart, you know..."

Duo shrugged at this. "Or maybe he just has a thing for Quatre, ya never know..."

Wufei looked up from his almost beaten game of Solitaire and glared at Duo over the tops of his black framed glasses, sighing at his childish ways. "Grow up, Duo." was all he said as he placed the last King on top of the Ace pile of the suit it belonged to. Pursing his lips, he stacked the four piles carefully, then divided them in half to begin shuffling them.

"Hey, Fei-kun, can I shuffle them?"

Wufei looked at him, once more over the tops of his glasses. He knew Duo hated when he did that. Showing him the back of the cards, he shook his head furiously. "No. These are my special cards. You'll lose one!"

Duo analyzed the ornate, black backed cards, admiring the gold Chinese dragon embosses on each. "No I won't! I'll be extra careful, I promise!"

Smirking at the notoriously clumsy boy, Wufei shook his head again. "No."

"Please?!"

"No."

"Pretty, pretty please with sugar on top and chocolate and..." Duo trailed off, naming every sweet thing he possibly could, all counteracted by a stern 'No.' from Wufei.

Their arguing, or rather, pleading and denying, echoed down the hallways of Peacemillion, reaching the room Heero and Quatre were in. The former sat in the dark, still next to the cot, watching the latter as he dreamed. Although he knew they weren't pleasant dreams...it was quite evident in the fact that the sleeping boy frequently cried out, tears rolling down his cheeks as he reached for an invisible protector.

Heero knew he had to stay with Quatre. Trowa wasn't there...who else was there? Duo wouldn't have the patience, and Wufei honestly wouldn't care. Plus, they weren't the ones who caused all of this pain, this torture. It was all his fault this had happened. If he hadn't pushed that damned system on Quatre, none of this would have happened! They wouldn't have lost Trowa, Quatre wouldn't be in this hurt. Duo and Wufei wouldn't be arguing about who gets to shuffle cards because of the heated tension on the ship. Heero smirked. 'Hell, they'd still be arguing. They always argue.' Surprisingly, something that wasn't his fault. Everything else seemed to be...

He gazed down at Quatre's writing form, knowing the Zero System had done it's worst on this victim. Quatre wasn't strong enough for this system, just as Duo hadn't bee. 'No.' he contradicted himself. Quatre was strong enough, just not made to kill, like he was. The poor kid just cared so much that his emotions were toyed with by the system, twisting him, making him devoid of rational though. 'It did the same thing to me, but I learned to adapt to it, overcome it.'

But Quatre wasn't like him. He was blessed with the ability to show and express his emotions, it's how he had won Trowa. He envied their love like none other. How he wished he had even half of that with Relee--

"Quatre, what's wrong?" Heero's stern voice broke through the silence of his thought, trying to shake the pilot below him awake. He was screaming, hands reaching out to the darkness above him while he sobbed uncontrollably, continually repeating the name, "Trowa!" into the night.

'Why won't he wake up?' Heero thought worriedly, still shaking the blonde by the shoulders. Soon, he was yelling at him, desperate to end the horrors the Zero System plagued the boy with, knowing he didn't deserve half this much pain.

"Quatre, WAKE UP!" Heero shouted, giving the Arabian one rough shake. His streaming blue eyes popped open suddenly and he practically leapt into Heero's arms, trying to rum from the demons that turned his dreams into hideous nightmares. Heero pressed his lips to Quatre's burning forehead, arms wrapped around the boy as he silently prayed to no one, "Please, stop torturing him..."