Warnings: AU, TWT, angst, shonen ai, some language, mentions of yaoi.
Author's Notes: My muses spent a LONG time vacationing with Shira's muses. Duo and Wufei finally decided to come back and they brought with them the inclination to write this little fic start to finish. Don't blame me!
Main Pairing: 2+5
Dedication: This fic is dedicated to Shira for sending my muses back to me and to Rhina for allowing me to care about her. The part of Vow is written in memory of Patches.
Dark Clouds and Silver
A Gundam Wing Fic
By: Yuuki Miyaka
Chapter One
Wufei swallowed heavily, well-aware that the most recent session with his captors had resulted in at least one broken rib. He wasn't really ready to catalog all the collateral damage that came with the rib, wasn't ready to face everything that his captors had done to him. Rape had been just about the only torture technique they'd left out. He was beginning to suspect that his sanity was wearing out. After his sanity went, it wouldn't be long before they would break him . . .
He woke, gasping out breaths while shaking violently. The war had been over for two years, and yet here he was, shivering at the past. So he'd been tortured. They all had at one point or another. So it had nearly broken him. He was fairly certain he wasn't the only one whose sanity had become a casualty of war. If only . . . If only he had someone near him, someone he could talk to. Quatre had Trowa, and he strongly suspected that Heero had Relena, though he'd never seen any evidence of a relationship on the news. Only he and Duo had been left partnerless, and knowing Duo, he'd gone out to find Hilde as soon as peace was announced. The chestnut-braided boy had regaled Wufei with tales of Hilde's exploits before. He was the only one left alone.
Of course, Wufei reasoned sourly, being alone did have its usefulness. No one was around to see him acting like an infant. No one was around to mock him for being hung up on events that were in the past. No one was around to see him finally break from the ages-old torture. No one.
The knock came just as he set his tea down on the table. Wufei glanced at the clock, stunned that anyone would be knocking on his door in the wee hours of the morning. And wee hours it was, just barely past 2 a.m. He rose gracefully, went to the door, and opened it.
"Hey," said the forlorn figure on the doorstep, clutching a duffel bag in one hand and his braid in the other. Silently, Wufei stepped back into the house, allowing Duo entrance. Duo slipped in, seeming almost guilty as he looked around. "I'm sorry to bother you, Wufei."
"Think nothing of it," Wufei said smoothly, eyes taking in Duo's rather tattered and miserable appearance casually. It was only when Duo peeked up from beneath his bangs and Wufei saw the black eye and swollen lip that the Chinese man swallowed. Something odd pinged at Wufei's consciousness, but he was too tired to figure out what. "Come in, Maxwell."
"I was wonderin' if you had room to put me up for a night? It's a little late to look for a cheap place to stay." Wufei ignored the question, turning and walking into the kitchen to get another mug and some hot chocolate as his mind attempted to process Duo's appearance. The beating had been at least a couple of days old, but if Duo's attack had occurred on L2, then it stood to reason that the trip here would have healed him a bit. The question of having room wasn't a concern. He owned the house. Granted, it wasn't overly large, but his study had originally been a second bedroom and he'd left a futon there to accommodate the non-existent guests he'd had over the years.
"Just a night?" Wufei asked, stirring milk into the hot chocolate to both cool it and make it taste richer. He looked back at Duo.
"Yeah. I'll find another place in the morning. I'm sorry to put you out so much, Wufei. I just couldn't think of anywhere else to go." The something odd pinged again, but this time, Wufei was quick enough, and awake enough, to catch it.
"You're calling me Wufei. You never call me Wufei." The words were out before Wufei could stop himself, but he set the mug down in front of Duo, taking the duffel bag and placing it on the floor. "What happened, Maxwell?"
Duo just shook his head, grasping the mug in both hands. As he lifted the drink to his lips, his sleeves slipped away from his wrists, granting Wufei a decent view of the scars there. Though a few were questionable, at least two sets were clearly self-inflicted. Wufei'd never been close to Duo, but they were still fellow Gundam pilots, and he'd be damned if he'd let Duo slip away when the American clearly needed someone's help.
"Very well. We'll discuss it later. I have an extra room. It's yours for as long as you need it," Wufei said, then changed his mind. "For as long as you want it," he amended briefly. "There's no need to find another place. When you're ready, we'll talk."
Gratitude flashed through Duo's eyes, and his grip on his braid relaxed slightly. The sheer relief in Duo's face sent a tingle of pleasure through Wufei, though he showed none of it to his companion. For a single moment, he was grateful that the nightmares had awakened him yet again.
Whimpering. Wufei felt his ribs, wincing when he discovered the broken ones, then stopped. The whimpering was new. He hadn't heard it before, but it almost sounded like Duo. Painfully, he made his slow way to the other side of the cell, looking for the source of the miserable sound. But try as he might, he couldn't make it all the way to the wall. Pain kept lancing through him, making every step a trial. Each time he moved, his vision greyed out a little, and he finally sank to his knees, shivering at the cold of the stone floor and pleading with Duo to just give him a moment, that he was coming . . .
Wufei sat bolt upright, sweating as he tried to figure out what was different. His hands automatically went to his ribs, holding them together against the phantom pain of the break as his mind whispered that the whimpering was still around. He blinked, hands once more lowering to his sides as the conscious thought trickled through his tired brain. He'd let Duo in, had set him up in the guest bedroom. Duo was whimpering. Those two facts seemed terribly important.
The Chinese pilot swung his legs over the side of his bed, making his ungraceful way to Duo's room. He'd never been his best without enough sleep, and waking twice in one night just made him miserable. But as his mind slowly roused itself to full wakefulness once more, his steps grew more sure. He didn't stop at Duo's door, instead slipping inside and staring down at Duo's shaking and sweating form.
"Stop him. Please stop him," Duo said, and for a moment, Wufei thought that the American was awake. But no, Duo was clearly dreaming. It took Wufei only a moment to decide that he must wake Duo before his fellow pilot's bad dream progressed any further.
"Duo, wake up," Wufei said, laying a hand on Duo's shoulder and hoping for the best. "It's only a dream." The pilot Wufei had often thought of as a braided maniac - particularly in the midst of battle - leapt out of his bed with a shriek. The shriek startled Wufei so much that he stumbled backward, landing on his rear on the floor. The two stared at each other for a long minute, then relaxed.
"Care to tell me what's going on?" Wufei asked quietly over breakfast. It was a little early, but he'd felt the need for nourishment. And Duo had, surprisingly enough, offered to help. Even more surprising was how much better the food had tasted after Duo was done tweaking things. It wasn't just the physical additions, either. Duo had added caring to the dishes, and it showed, if only in Wufei's fancies.
"I've just had a rough coupl'a years. You?" Duo's evasiveness bothered the Chinese pilot, but Wufei let it pass, nodding.
"Indeed, it has been rather rough." They let the discussion drop at that. It was only after breakfast that Duo announced he'd better get out of Wufei's hair. And though Wufei had only the night before been grateful that there was no one around to see him panic after his nightmares, he froze. "You . . . are welcome to stay as long as you like, Maxwell. I meant what I said last night. And . . . it would be nice to have company for a bit longer." The last sentence, while a ploy to get Duo to stick around long enough for Wufei to ferret out the source of Duo's unhappiness, nevertheless rang true.
In response, Duo merely looked at Wufei measuringly.
