A/N: This is a one-shot that popped into my head and wouldn't let me sleep until I got it written down. As usual, I don't own Gundam Wing or any of the characters contained therein. Warning: this is a DEATH FIC. Not in the mopey, angsty, sad sense, but it does involve past tense character death. You've been warned. Also contains yaoi/malexmale love. Don't read if you don't like. Pairing: 1x2. Rating for very strong language and implied sexual situations.
Your Unknown Savior
Hello Universe,
My name is Duo Maxwell. Some of you know me and what I've done, but most of you don't. When I was younger, and a little foolish, I called myself Shinigami – the God of Death. Maybe you've heard of Shinigami, even if you've never heard of Duo Maxwell. But this isn't about me.
You probably don't know the man that I'm about to tell you about, either. That's okay – it's why I'm writing this to you.
Heero Yuy is the love of my life.
Heero Yuy died two days ago.
Heero Yuy saved most of your lives, but you don't even know who he is.
And I don't mean saved in any bullshit figurative sense. Like Heero, I was involved in fighting the last war. Maybe Heero would have failed without the rest of us, but he ended the fucking war. By comparison, I was just a player with a few good lines.
If you're alive today, if you've gotten married and had kids, or maybe grandkids, you probably owe all that to Heero. Those kiddos and grandkiddos are alive because Heero risked his own life over and over to secure your future.
You've never heard about Heero because he chose to remain silent, because he didn't want your adoration/pity/whatever else you were going to offer. But he also agreed that if he died before me, I could tell the world whatever I wanted about him.
Well, the asshole went and died before me, so I'm telling you what I think you should know. You see, it seems unfair to me that Heero saved your lives and you don't even know the color of his eyes. (Just so you know, they were the most fucking beautiful shade of blue you will ever see.)
So here is a short list of things about Heero Yuy, the man you owe more than anything in the world to:
Always put the good of others before himself
Breathtakingly beautiful
Created from something greater than mere flesh or blood
Dangerous if you pissed him off
Excelled at hacking into secure government computers
Frayed around the edges
Goosefleshed if you knew the right way to move your fingers
Had messy hair the color of seventy-six percent cacao dark chocolate
Into hardcore space metal that even I won't listen to
Jelly-kneed when I kissed him
Knew over one hundred ways to kill a person silently
Loved by so very many people
More than what his training told him to be
Never gave up on humanity
Only fifteen when he started saving the world
Particular about which colors of M & M's he would eat (only red, yellow, and blue)
Quiet by nature
Right most of the time
Steady as a fucking rock when he shot a gun
Terrible at keeping secrets from me
Used to life handing him lemons (he made a lot of lemonade)
Very insecure about shit you would have never expected
Well versed in Shakespeare's sonnets, Basho's haiku, and Smolna's technopoems
X-rayed twelve times during the war because of broken bones
Yearned for Earth Sphere peace the way some of us yearn for air
Zigzagged with scars from fighting
Those are just a few of the things you should know about Heero Yuy.
I used to lie awake sometimes at night, held in the circle of his arms, and I would watch his face bathed in moonlight, and all I could think was holy shit, he saved the world and now he's lying here holding me. Sometimes it was like he was too much to be real.
The next time you lie in the arms of a loved one, or vice versa, just spend a minute thinking about who fought, bled, and sacrificed to give you the freedom to do that. Or say a little prayer for Heero Yuy. Or fuck each other senseless and reaffirm the blessing that is being alive.
Heero would have appreciated any of those as a thank you.