Pretending To Be
"State your name," a robotic female voice asked. Pressing a few buttons on the keypad and scanning his fingerprint, the body leaning against the wall, smirked, and said his name.
"Duo Shinigami Maxwell."
"Proceed in" The voice responded, the door opening with a quick wisp to let in the light from outside.
Two prussian eyes stared out, longing and sad.
Six months. Six months since Duo Maxwell died in a fight against Treize.
It had been a hard fight to start with. Their estimates were completly off, the fighting power was greater and overall, the enemywas just more powerful than they suspected.
A Leo had got Duo from behind with a beam canon, shooting straight through the cockpit.
A bloody scream filled his headset in his helmet, and then the link fizzled out. Heero still remembered the ball of churning flames appearing on his screen, and the name 'Deathscythe' blipping off the radar.
He didn't know what to think.
At first, he felt nothing. Empty, and a loss of words. Then, a surge of rage he never knew he possessed filled him, his eyes for the first time showing true emotion. His Perfect Soldier mask was lost.
In a voice he never heard before, filled with malice and emotion, he screamed, "YOU BASTARDS!"
Wing Zero shot into the air and went bezerk. Not much he remembered after that, except the pain.
Loss, anger, guilt, rage. All this he felt in such an instant, it killed him from inside.
His heart pounded in his ears, hearing ferocios battle cries from himself, as Wing Zero body slammed the Leo's into each other. Then, soaring high oncemore, he took the remainder out with his gun.
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
Such rage and such power, his eyes glowed like the devil as he took them all on. Not one left in perfect shape, not one was recognisable as a mobile suit.
Wing Zero, now almost melted and burnt after the long battle, held a broken soldier.
His head slumped foward, body relaxed and eyes dilated. No tears came from those sullen eyes, only a long moan that escaped for a few seconds before silence engulphed him again.
Broken, dead, wilted, shot, killed... he was killed...
"Duo." he breathed, realizing his screen was still flickering on and off.
Though fizzled in placed, it was easy to make out the crisped Gundam Deathscythe, a steady stream of smoke coming from the cockpit and a few flames licking the melted metal.
His eyes widened. He didn't want to see. He didn't want to accept Duo's death.
He didn't die... he didn't die...
"He didn't die." He repeated out loud.
He felt around for the button to open the cockpit, pushing it and letting the rays of light sting his eyes. He felt a soft flow of blood trickle down his face from a cut.
"Duo... Duo..." He said with each limping step, each step taking him closer to his friend.
No, not just a friend. Maybe more.
Deep inside, whether he liked it or not, he wanted more from Duo. But Dr. J had told Heero to lock these emotions up, act on your will and your will alone - never your heart.
And so these emotions were never shown. Never to be explored.
None the less, they were always there. His eyes flickered concern here and there, but never a true, strong emotion. If he did, then he would be killed. Or so what was taught to him.
"Duo..." he repeated again, feeling his eyes burn.
The Perfect Soldier never cried.
Yet still, a single tear slipped from behind a closed eyelid, the owner climbing up onto the heaping pile of hissing metal. He looked down inside the open cockpit.
Blood soaked everywhere, yet Duo was nowhere to be found.
"...Duo...?" He whispered, eyes wide and body shaking. What was happening to him?
Had Duo subconsiosly dug himself so deep, so far down inside himself that he pulled these feelings out with his death? This wasn't the same Heero Yuy anymore, it was someone else...
"GODDAMN IT!"
And so, this brought along Heero's idea he brought upon himself. To restore Duo, to take Duo's place.
Hours of editing work on the footage he hacked from the media to make it look like Wing Zero had been shot instead of Deathscythe. Days upon weeks to grow out his hair, and still it hung at his mid-back. Weeks to perfect the lingo only Duo could pull off.
He turned himself into Duo, to cover the pain, forgetting he died.
"Still playing dress-up, Yuy?" A mildly irritated Chinese snapped from beside the doorway. Heero said nothing, only walking past Wufei and out into the garden.
"You're not convincing anyone, have you gone that mad since he died?" Wufei pursuid, almond-shaped eyes observing the way Heero walked. Just like Duo.
"It's none of your concern." Heero said, returning to the voice he once used. Closing prussian eyes, he continued to walk down the garden path, lined with colourful flowers and a wooden gazebo at his destination.
Wufei snorted, "I should believe it is! You've completly chaged Yuy, I wonder what the real Duo is thinking of all of this."
Heero stopped dead, his eyes widening slightly. Still, a calm, serene expression only Duo could have read as "shock" was plastered on.
"Nothing to say? Trying to push aside the fact that he's dead is not going to help. It'll make you weak." Wufei emphasized the last sentence as much as he could before turning and walking off, back towards the Winner mansion.
"I am not weak." The prussian-eyed teen told himself, though his voice wavered at the thought of Duo's approval of him.
Damn it.
The hallways below the mansion were always a place Heero cherished for the silence. He would constantly walk around with eyes closed when he wasn't working on Wing Zero or behind his laptop. He sometimes even bumping into Duo.
"I still don't get you man, walking around in one big circle?"
"It's none of your concern."
His thoughts often strayed back to the time he had alone with Duo, whether on a mission or simply when Duo found him in a trance-like state, walking around.
Quirking an eyebrow at Heero, Duo found himself walking around with him.
"Quatre said he found a secret facility where they're making Aries," Duo threw him one of his trademark smiles, "I'll have a fun time cutting them down to size!"
Heero stayed silent, but showd his acknowledgment with a "Hn."
Duo.
"Ever thought of going with Relena?" Duo pondered out loud.
"I don't think of these things in a war." Heero said in a cold tone, hoping it would shake Duo off. Instead, the pilot threw him an irritated look,
"But she's the only one for you! Unless you have someone else in mind..."
Heero didn't know what to think, or what to say. "Hn." Was the best he could come up with, only making the braided teen chuckle under his breath.
Something stirred, he didn't know what.
But he understood now.
He looked up to face the same metal-sheeted wall, the same he had leaned up against with Duo so many times before. Running his hand along the cold surface, he could almost feel the heat from Duo's body once there.
"Duo." His name rolled off his tongue so easily.
Clack.
The sound from behind him caught his attention, knowing that the three others were above in the main mansion. He snatched the gun from his side in an instant, clicking off the safety lock with his thumb. Swirling around, he held the gun to eye level, only to find his eyes going wide and the breath leaving his body.
Twenty feet away from him was Duo.
He wore the same outfit as Heero did now, the flight pants, the priests top, the braid - except Heero was wearing his hat, shading shocked prussian eyes from view.
Duo's eyes and face were filled with sadness.
Slowly, the ghost began to move its lips, mouthing out words:
"Why are you doing this?"
Heero's head slumped in thought, running over all the feelings he had possesed since six months ago. He had never questioned his motives, or asked himself why he was going to such an extreme. He only did what he felt was necessary... with his heart.
"Because..."
"Because I don't want you to die... Duo."
Realization stung in Duo's eyes, his mouth slightly open as a sudden wave of information hit him like a bullet. Heero raised his head, letting his short braid fall over his shoulder and his eyes glow the dark prussian they once were.
"I--"
A small smile crept up onto Duo's features, looking straight into Heero's eyes. But Heero's eyes were weak compared to his own.
"I understand." he mouthed out with glinting eyes.
Straightning his head, Heero looked foward as he saw Duo's body slowly dissapear, like mist in the morning. And he was still smiling.
Closing his eyes, Heero felt a pair of tears slide out from behind his eyelids.
"I love you." He whispered to himself.
I think I nearly died writing this fanfic myself. xD -stabbed for hideous pun-
This is my first 1x2 work, so please correct me where I need correcting - just no flames! D:
Oh, and please review! I love getting your opinions on my stories. ;)
-Drunken Shinigami