Summary: Duo is a young man that visits the children in an hospital. Then one morning there's a new patient in room 24 that catch Duo's attention. AU. Warnings: yaoi 1x2 in later chapters. Hints of 3x4. Rating will change later.
A/N: I'm not good at summaries. Please R&R!
Sleeping - Chapter 1
The doors opened themselves up when the young man was about to crash in them. Duo was running from the raging storm as he passed the automatic doors of the Gundam Hospital. He had to wait under the rain for his bus and now he was as wet as the Atlantic ocean! His now-brown bangs were plastered to his face and his waist-long braid was heavy from water. His upper body had been semi-protected by his black leather coat, but his pants didn't had that chance and Duo was glad that they were black jeans, otherwise it would have been obvious that they were wet. Not that he cared, really. He always had had a thing for water. It was just really inconfortable to wear wet clothes.
Duo made his way to the counter where the receptionist, a nice red-haired woman in the fourties, was typing something on the computer.
"Hey Karen! Nice day uh?"
She glance up to find the grinning American in front of her.
"Hi Duo. Nice day you ask? Are you mad or something?"
Duo's grin grew larger.
"Or something. See ya later Karen!"
Karen returned to her computer with a smile on her face, her first of the day and it was nearing supper time.
"Yeah, bye." What a great kid, she thought.
Duo ignored the glares he recieved from the waiting room and continued down the hallway to the elevator. Just as the door was closing he heard someone call his name. He stoped the door from closing just in time to let a nurse come in. She was dressed in white and had short brown hair. She was near 35 years old maybe and had glasses on her nose.
"So how is my favorite nurse doing today?" Duo asked her with a kind smile. For him, she seemed to be exhausted but he asked anyway. Not that he expect an honest answer from her anyway.
"I'm fine." Bingo. Duo thought. The elevator started moving. "And you? How's school?"
Duo made a face. "Oh please, Julia! Could we talk about something other than school? 'Cause I'm kinda tired of it right now. I'm spending all my life there so I expect that when I'm finally out I could talk of something else."
Julia was silent for a second. "... it was that bad?"
The elevator stopped. Level two. Duo dropped the act and sighed. "Yeah," he said while walking out of the little room with the nurse, "it was." Images of his roommates passed in his mind. He shivered.
"Do you want to talk about it?" asked the concerned nurse.
"No it's okay. It's nothing I can't deal with on my own. Thanks anyway." He gave her a rassuring smile.
They were silent for a moment as they walked to a certain room at the end of the hallway, each lost in their thoughts. Stop. Duo thought. Stop thinking about them. You should be happy to visit the little monsters, not... just stop tormenting yourself about it! Duo took a deep breath of air and put a grin on his face. Yeah, that's right. Stay cool and enjoy your time with the kids. Make them feel happy. I can do it... not that it's going to be hard to do or anything. They're all so cute!
It has been a year now. Three days a week, after his classes, Duo would come to the Gundam play with the children. They were happy to see him every day. Sometimes, when he couldn't come the next days or weeks because he was sick or buried with school work, he would tell them and he'd got an armfull of kids begging him to come anyway, that they would be good. Some would think that the children would have grow bored from his visits, but no. They were always happy to see him, just like the parents were glad he was there for them when they couldn't. The kids would draw for him images of their home, their pet, their parents, brothers and sisters, their favorite toy or color or just an image of Duo and them playing together. Duo helped them to love their live. Some of them did have little to live but it was more than wanting to die or to curse every one for their demise. Duo sighed. They all deserved so much more.
"Duo?"
He turned to Julia. They had stoped in front of the door leading to the common room of the pedriatric level.
"Yeah?"
"I... I don't know how to say this. Benji... he passed away yesturday." She told him in a whisper.
"Oh no..." Duo knew who they were talking about, of course. The boy had sida and he had been sick for a week, each day worse than the day before. Benji had been a prankster ever since Duo red them 'Harry Potter and the philosopher stone' four months ago. His favorite parts had been about Fred and Georges, they were his idols. He loved life for every little thing he saw. He had almost forget about his desease.
"I'm sorry, Duo." Julia knew how attached Duo had been for to this particular child.
Duo took a deep shaky breath. Of course he knew this was coming. It's been a week Benji was sick and each day he feared that the kid would be dead. As the week passed, he almost wish for Benji to die; the boy had been in a great amount of pain and it had hurt to see it. Now it was over, but it still hurt Duo.
"Yeah, well I was kinda prepared for it. Poor kid to die so young... how's the Dad?"
"Not well... but he too was expecting it. I would say that in several months he'll be over him, but no matter how much he'll try, his boy will always stay in his heart and it will always hurt."
"At least, he has his daughter and his girlfriend. He's not alone in this."
"You're right. But I gave him the address and time for the reunions for parents who've lost their child anyway."
"How are the other kids taking it?"
"They don't know yet. We had to move Benji to another level, remember? So they don't know what happenned. Not that they didn't ask me."
"Hmm..." Duo didn't want to talk about this anymore and Julia seemed to understand that completly.
TBC
A/N: I know nothing about hospitals, their policy, the children department or anything else. If you see that what I wrote doesn't make any sense, sorry but I put the accusation on my ignorence there! This fic is soon coming in french. I know I said that almost every fic I do would be in french THEN in english, but I don't seem to be able to control myself anymore in that matter. Please review!