A/N: Ever write something all in one go, spur of the moment and then go back and think "Wow...where did that come from?"

Disclaimer: I do not own the GW characters.

Sleeping With the Reaper

At 0500 hours
A man came for me
I turned away my face
and said
"Fuck off and let me be."

The man didn't jilt
or jive. He swept a bow
and left.
I sighed and put my head
down
upon my desk.

My lover came in
and gave note to the window wide
His violet gaze was piercing
"I may run and hide,"

was his motto, back
back in the day. When the war
and love, and loss
swept red still on the shore.

But now he leaned his older
hands upon the shining wood,
his braid, not yet streaked
with gray, fell over his shoulder
casually. His eyes
so deep and dense, like a boulder
fell upon my chest.

"Do we run?" he asked, I looked away
afraid of what my love might say
To run, ah, to keep this paradise
to live another day, with him,
another year, another vice.

Or to face my justice?
Long in coming,
long with payback due.
"Wufei," he whispers softly
and all the strength I grew

seeps away, like a willow,
letting water go.
I shake
my head and tell him truthfully
that I no longer know.

He nods, and walks
away from me, back to the bedroom
door.
I follow, slow, each step a breath
my eyes are weak
and sore.

At 0800 hours
"I love you" crossed
my ear
and I loose the fight
in my blinding eyes a tear

X

"How is he doing?" was the
question at the door.
Duo looked at Heero
and shrugged, then
"don't make me tell you more."

"I won't," the sympathetic
reply. A coffee offered up
Duo sat behind his desk
and stared into the cup.

"He's dying," despite the wish
to keep the problem silent
Duo turns to his friend
waiting
because he needs the comfort?
or because he must repent.

"I know, the doctor told me,"
Duo smirked, "Chatty bitch."
Heero nodded, a rare smile
a silent digging stitch.

"I feel like I did this to
him." Duo confesses, his head
is bowed
like so many branches under winter
snow, like so many promises
disallowed.

"How?" The blue eyes snapped
"By watching his back for
fifteen years?
You love him Duo, and he loves
you, and who's to blame?
A stupid thing to even suggested
yes, a stupid fear."

"Because who was I that entire time?"
Duo asked, his cross in his fist
"what was my name? and take
a moment to consider my crime."

"You were death." Heero concedes quiet
like he's afraid that life
will catch the sound
"I was death," is the reply, "I
planted that seed, I made
that ground."

"And now Wufei is paying for it,
is that what you think?
Take a
moment to consider
you idiot. And you're coffee is there
for you to drink

Not stare at." Heero turned to his
computer. And his typing ended
the conversation Duo wished
he'd never begun
and the argument
he should have defended.

"Consider this," said Heero
after a moment of silence
had passed.
"is it death, who comes for Fei?
and you who holds tight
to the past?

"Or is it you, who appears to
your lover every morning?
And death,
who was foolish enough to stay
and fall in love
and find a cause for breath?"

Duo stared. Another beat.
"I know who you are Duo,
we all do.
You screwed up, it's okay
here's your chance
to make it up.
Let you be you."

Duo went home
shaken, with no warmth
in his hands
and sat, waiting for morning
for the window to open, he
waited
to understand.

X

At 0500 hours the
framed glass swung against
the wind
Duo didn't stand, why bother?
The man shook his head
and Duo smiled in kind,

they circled for a moment
a stretch of time sleeping still
Duo extended his palm
"Give it back" he demanded
and stepped up
to bend this creature to his will.

The anti-light, no moon
no sun,
shone through from a
mornings birth.
And a crack, at the mountain
tops, split open
mother earth.

The cape, ablaze, the scythe
a feather, fell
like sick children, to the carpet
A night in hell?
Unlikely, Duo had higher

places in mind.
His fingers around the feather
closed tight, the dawn moved.
a brilliant, shivering wave

At 0600 hours, into
his lover's chambers, Duo sat
and watched a moment
the sleeping face of Wufei
at peace with no enemy,
no combat.

And with a gentle prod
to stir the sleeping man
Duo leaned the scythe against his knee
mentally flipping the finger
to someone else's
master plan.

"Ready love?" he asked
and Wufei sat up in bed
"Duo," he rasped, his eyes bleary with
sleep, the corners
red.

"You won't run?"
Wufei said sadly. Duo
shrugged "No point,
my missions done."

"I see," a whisper,
broken, shook. The curtains
kept out the dawn.
"You will," Duo promised
and held out his empty palm.

Wufei took the hand
with a small sound
like a laugh
"No reason to fear the reaper,
I suppose. Nothing good
can last."

"Nothing wrong." Duo corrected
"And you know I never lie."
He chuckled "besides,
when you're sleeping with the reaper
you have any time to die."

Duo took his lover close,
and offered quick a kiss
Wufei leaned in, and held
on tight
and thought, and thought
and already began to miss.

"No," said Duo softly. "You're
not quite getting my drift
You have the reapers heart,
you live forever, Fei,
with the reaper, if you choose
and every soul I go to lift."

"I choose," said Wufei.

"What does the job entail?"
"The pay is terrible" Duo joked
and winked, "Just watch
and learn.

"What about the others?"
another question, hesitant
broke across the transparent
face
"It won't be pleasant"

Duo answered truthfully
"But in time they'll see us both."
"So I am justice now?
Ironic" And ready
for the leap he swept
a bow
to life.

Duo's eyes, his face,
his body
filled with laughter.
"No," he said ruefully
"We just
clean up after the bastard."