Disclaimer: None of the characters here are mine. I don't own Gundam Wing,
nor do I own individually Wufei and Duo. I'm only borrowing them, and I
promise to return them in good condition when I'm done. Furthermore I do
not own Hades and Hela, who come from Greek and Norse mythology
respectively. Yes, I know that I know they don't look or act anything like
I portrayed them. Yes I am aware that Hela is half a corpse. To be
perfectly honest I don't own much of anything, so suing me would be
pointless. This fic is yaoi, as I've already said. That means boys kissing
other boys folks. If this disturbs you, go away.
Wufei couldn't quite remember what woke him. He who never dreamed had been dreaming, a girl brilliant in silver and three people shadowed, music, green blond and blue, the intense sensation of speed, love and mourning, endless determination then reality burning like only reality could. There was a figure in his room, someone watching him. For a moment he thought it was Duo standing there in the darkness, braid twisted around long fingers, and that moment was just enough to keep him from snatching his gun off the bedside table and punishing the figure for it's imposition on his dreams. Even tired and disoriented Wufei would not put a bullet through Duo. "Maxwell, some of us are sleeping." He murmured groggily. The figure laughed goldenly in reply and it was at that moment it occurred to Wufei that he wasn't addressing Duo, his fellow pilot, his friend, and though he had a hard time admitting it, even in the darkest of night, silent, and only to himself, Duo was more than that, Duo was his obsession. Everyone has obsessions; they're like music, or poison. That snatch of tune that never quite goes away until a person's singing it over and over again and even though they hate it, even though it drives them mad in its own soft repetitive voice in the end they're the one responsible because they can't make themselves let go. Obsessions, they get into people's veins a death pushed by ones own heartbeat, by every breath. a person's own body acts so cruelly against them encouraging it, letting it spread, oh so slowly until it kills even that which has allowed it to survive, kills the body, or perhaps frees the spirit. No one would deny that Wufei had his obsessions. Hadn't they seen it, in his anger, in his rigidity, in his honor, in his unforgiving pursuit of justice? But among that, within all those cutting dangerous emotions that created a wall as unbreachable in its alien dedication as Heero was in his cold intensity or Trowa in his untouchable silence, no one would have dreamed there was room for one more, that centered in that acid whirlwind, standing protected in the eye of the storm was Duo. Always Duo. So he would never have put a bullet through Duo, or in this case the figure that had momentarily confused him. He could forgive himself the mistake, especially in the softness of the dark because the figure looked so much like the American Gundam pilot. Same long brown hair pulled back in a braid (lovely hair, when so little in this world was lovely), same colors, dressed in black (insanity, laughter, joy and light wrapped in darkness), and the same exact violet eyes laughing at him (endless eyes that held so much pain despite the humor, too much pain). The differences though became obvious the moment that the psudo-reality of sleep cleared away and he became fully awake. Even with only the soft definition of moonlight the differences were impossible to miss. The figure wasn't as tall as Duo for one, with a face to finely boned to be him. The outfit though the right color was different and it hugged what were defiantly feminine curves. No the figure wasn't Duo but could have been a twin sister if that weren't in itself impossible. The American may not speak of his past much (and none of them did if they could help it) but Wufei knew he had no siblings. "No, I'm not my brother. And I do sincerely apologize for intruding on your rest but my sibling and I could not think of another time appropriate for visiting." The voice was soft and sweet, just a shade lower than Wufei had been expecting. He glanced around, sitting up as he did so, and spotted the aforementioned sibling looming further in the darkness, with short cut black hair this one wasn't Duo either, but he shared the same violet eyes. The girl laughed again, like church bells, deep, warm, and meaningful. "I suppose we should introduce ourselves, what with breaking into your room like this. I would be Hela, called the Goddess of the dead, and my brother in the corner is Hades, called the God of the Underworld. You are of course a friend of our brother Duo, also called Shinagami or the God of Death." It was the other figure that laughed now, and it was a sound more sharp, more cynical than the golden music of his sister, "In the end it comes down to the same thing, corpses." He moved out of the corner still snickering and pushed a hand briefly through his unruly dark hair. In the hesitant light that came through the window he looked less like the Death Scythe pilot than his sister but there were shades of meaning in his tone that Wufei had heard too often on Duo's own lips. An excess of knowledge that could only lead to hatred. Wufei tried to take this all in stride, he was doing well all thing considered, perhaps it was the strange familiarity about them that kept him calm, that kept his voice under control, "So, I'm dead then?" He laughed now; Duo would be disappointed in him dying in bed, Duo who refused to die 'boringly'. The girl, Hela, shook her head, "No you're not dead. Dead would be a bad thing. He'd be simply furious!" She laughed again, "He may not remember us or his true self but I think he'd be angry with us on instinct." The other, Hades, snickered again, "Old habits die hard. He'd blame us if this one got a scratch." "Hardly our fault that he got into this line of work, or that this one did either. Injuries will happen, they're not our domain anyway." "We'd have to make it ours, or do you want to ask the others for a quick healing?" Hades laughed again, and his sister joined him after a moment. The two sounds twisted together strangely, honey laced with venom. Wufei found himself lost in the banter of the two visitors, intruders, midnight visions, "Why are you here then?" He growled, finding even with their resemblance to Duo they were nearing the end of his limited patience. Hades blinked and turned towards him again, slowly looking him over. Really looking him over, examining every visible portion of his body, still half covered with blankets. Wufei felt those violet eyes sliding over his bare torso cataloging every muscle, every scar, noting exactly were every strand of his raven hair (freed from its usual ponytail like he would never allow by daylight hours) fell. The eyes stayed even longer on his face then met his own and he suddenly couldn't felt he couldn't breath, vaguely he remembered that was a bad thing. but it didn't seem quite as important as it should be. Hades blinked. The contact was broken; air once again filled Wufei's lungs, in and out, in and out. "So he's the one? Pity, it will never work." Hades cynically detached voice had gained new depths and Wufei thought he might have heard the softness of affection in it, "Just like him. impossible." "I think you judge to quickly brother, there are more things on heaven and earth." "Don't quote Shakespeare at me I knew the man, he was a drunk. He's wrong in this case anyway. This one's too caught up in all his devotions. He'll never express anything, you must see that." A long drawn out sigh, "Ah Shinigami. little brother, why mortal? Of all the things to play at being." With a shake of her head Hela added her own sigh, "That's just the problem though isn't it? He isn't playing at it. Currently he is mortal. And subject to all the pleasures and pains they experience. You can't expect him to be wise without the memory of gaining wisdom." Hades put a hand to his head as if suffering a sudden migraine, "I don't expect the memory of wisdom, only the recollection of pain! Remember what the angel did to him? In the end it doesn't come down to what he," The god gestured sharply in his direction, "Feels for Shinagami, it only matters which of those feeling he can express." Wufei's temper snapped. He had no doubt he was in the presence of gods, the undeniable aura of contained power about them was almost overwhelming and in Hades jaded eyes he thought he might have briefly glimpsed the pain of forever. It didn't matter, as they stood in his room, speaking as if he wasn't quite there or didn't have the ability to understand. And Duo (Shinigami to them, a god once, but still Duo, always Duo) well they had no right to guess, no right to know his feelings towards Duo. "I feel nothing!" The words tripped over each other as he spoke them burning his lips with their dishonesty. They both turned to stare at him with expressions of surprise, "You have no idea what I feel about anyone, including Duo, and I feel nothing. I don't. I don't." (K'so! Damn it, Wufei, too weak even to deny weakness. Come on!) "Love him. I don't love him." Meant to be a vehement denial it came out as almost a plea. Hades caught his sister's eye and Wufei could not read what passed between them, then in a movement too quick and graceful to be classified as such he stepped forward and snatched Wufei's wrist, pulling him to his feet without appearing to exert any force at all. Wufei felt that invisible strength, saw how weak he was before this being and winced inwardly (Shimata! Some people don't need a Gundam!) Smiling with an edge of wildness, Hades released his wrist and took a step towards him. Wufei quickly took a step back, not because Hades was strong, or because he was now more obviously than ever a god, but because with that particular expression he looked so like Duo that Wufei knew he couldn't handle the closeness (weak, weak, weak) he took another step back and collided with his bed, fall only prevented by the fact that Hades snatched his arm again. In the same movement that caught him Hades pulled him forward and quite abruptly with no clear notion of how he'd gotten there Wufei was caught in his arms, their lips meeting and the world obligingly fading away (weak!). Vaguely in the background, part of elsewhere, someone knocked softly. Duo. no Hades pushed him away with a sardonic smile and the fire that had become the world left with him, left Wufei standing there lost. If that's you feeling nothing, I'll be back when you're interested." Hades took a step back, was gone in gray fire, Hela faded to the sound of golden bells. Another soft knock, "Wufei-kun?" The voice was hesitant and somehow strange but unmistakably belonged to Duo. Wufei hesitated staring at the door. He couldn't handle a midnight visit from Duo. Not after. not with the way he was feeling right now. There wasn't a choice in the matter though. Not with Duo outside his door sounding like that (admit it, sounding like anything). "Du. Maxwell, come in." There, now he'd said it and it was too late to change his words because Duo was standing in the doorway, silhouetted by the light of the hallway, shivering violently. Wufei not even vaguely cold despite the fact that like the other boy he was wearing only boxers, did not take the time to think on their different perceptions of the temperature. Snatching one of the few regrettably thin blankets on his bed he strode across the room and threw it over Duo's shoulders closing the door quickly as he pulled him inside. Duo's skin was cold fire; the touch froze but burned so much deeper. Seating Duo on his bed Wufei found himself settling himself much closer than he normally would in hopes that the proximity to someone else might keep him warm. He didn't expect Duo to take that a step further, didn't expect the braided pilot to move towards him like a cat to a fire, till Wufei awkwardly put an arm around him for conveniences sake (yeah sure, convenience) and the blanket was draped over both their backs, "What happened?" Violet eyes were focused on him for a moment serious, intense. Wufei wasn't sure what emotion showed on Duo's face, confusion perhaps surprise, "I went for a walk." It took a moment for the incredibleness of that statement to register with Wufei. Things had recently become slightly dangerous for the five of them and it had been deemed wise to hide out for a bit. The house provided was large, but there hadn't been a day without snow and though the weather was calm now, he knew it was well below zero. He wanted to scream at Duo, wanted to hold him closer until he was warm, also wanted to regain that old distance, say something cutting and get him out, make everything safe again. He was silent for a long time, and Duo shivered against him without gaining any perceptible advantage from being inside. The last registered even as the world refused to work properly. "Duo-kun, you're not getting any warmer, get under the blankets, ne?" Wufei was surprised by how quickly Duo responded to the order, cuddling into the spot that he had occupied not long ago. Twisting awkwardly so he could still see the shivering pilot he waited and when Duo, who never shut up, didn't say a word, just met his eyes he sighed trying not to show any of the mixed emotions he was feeling, "Well?" "Well what?" Duo asked and a slight suggestion of his normal grin began to play across his lips. "Well its not every night you go out for a walk in the freezing cold, then of all things come knocking on my door. So, explain Maxwell." Duo snickered and it did indeed hold shadows of Hades cynicism, "And here I thought I'd been promoted, I got a Duo-kun out of you a moment ago." The humor left as quickly as it had come, replaced by a serious express, "Sorry to bug you and all, but I didn't want to wake anyone up, and I had to crash somewhere." "That's what your bed's there for. Duo-kun." "Very brief, very intense anger flashed in Duo's eyes, "Didn't want to wake Heero." He stated it flatly. That surprised Wufei, it wasn't like Duo to hesitate to about coming in at any hour, by nature the other boy was something of a night creature (and now you know why, remember). "But you didn't mind waking me?" Looking vaguely confused Duo shook his head in response, "You weren't asleep. I heard your voice. I thought maybe you were talking to the lovebirds, but they aren't in here. Are they?" A glance around the room as if Quatre and Trowa might have stowed themselves behind a desk or chair. "They aren't here. I was speaking to. never mind." And what else was he supposed to tell Duo? That his family had stopped by to stay hello? Wufei started to get a kink in his neck from the awkward position in which he was seated, "Why were you outside in the first place?" Duo looked away, "I told you, I went for a walk." His voice had an edge to it. In a quicksilver change of mood he grinned, "Wufei-kun, lay down, it's weird looking up at you." There was a familiar tone to Duo's voice, the one used when he was trying to get the impossible, like when he'd tried to get Trowa to recite tongue twisters. Wufei just Looked at him. "Oh come on! I kicked you out of your bed, but there's room for both of us, and I can't talk to you like this, its just stupid and I'm still cold!" The last came out as a whine. "If you hadn't gone out in the dark, directly after an ice storm you wouldn't be cold Duo-kun." But even as he admonished him he gave in, slipping under the blankets, lying on the edge of the bed. Immediately he was treated to the shock of having an ice-cold body come in contact with his skin, "Maxwell! You're freezing!" "Mmm but you're warm." Duo's voice registered a sort of lazy content at the fact, "And I thought we'd decided to go with Duo-kun, hmm Wuffie?" "Don't call me that Maxwell!" Wufei snapped quickly, gritting his teeth in annoyance. He felt Duo shaking with laughter. "Deal, you don't call me Maxwell, I don't call you Wuffie." The room lapsed into silence as they lay there in the darkness. Wufei felt and heard Duo's breath becoming more regular and hardly dared to move. He couldn't sleep, he was having a hard enough time exerting enough strength of will not to do or think anything he would regret but having Duo, still shivering slightly lying in his arms, well it could drive him insane. Certainly it was enough to keep him from sleeping. "We had a fight." Duo's voice was sudden and surprising, unexpected in the silent darkness. It was also so soft Wufei had to strain to hear what he was saying. "That's why I went out walking, so I wouldn't kill him or anything. That's why I didn't go back there. Can't. Not anymore." Another long silence followed, this one waiting for words to fill it. Duo's breathing was not so even as before, it came in long controlled breaths, like someone who was trying to keep from screaming. "He. I mean I can't believe." Duo seemed to be having trouble forming words into sentences; with a pause he took another carefully controlled breath, "Heero and I are well. You know." "Lovers." Wufei filled in flatly. He should know, though their relationship wasn't as open as Trowa and Quatra's there were hints and more painfully than that Wufei had walked in on them once while they were. otherwise occupied. He had since taken up an unshakeable policy of knocking before entering. (See, stupid and weak, can't have him. He's Heero's) "Hmph, lovers. Yeah right!" Duo snickered echoing perfectly the sounds of the earlier night, "If there was one word that didn't fit our relationship. Love. Does Heero look like the loving type to you? Asshole! Perfect soldier. Riiight." The trivial insults continued until Wufei cleared his throat, "Anyway. Yeah sure, we slept together but lovers could not be a worse word for it." A lightning quick change of moods and Duo twisted to look at him, amethyst eyes searching, "Does that bother you?" Wufei shook his head, "Why would it?" (Why would it tear me apart to know every night that the two of you are together in the next room?) The shadowed form of Duo shrugged, "I don't know, it just gets to some people ya know? No one knows what you think Wufei-kun, you never talk, just yell about justice." Another shrug and Duo pulled the tie out of the end of his braid and started unweaving his hair, propping himself up on one arm, "I was tired of it. I don't know maybe I'm a romantic or somethin' but I want something more real than what we had. I mean well look at the lovebirds, somethin' like that. Told Heero as much, he. didn't take that so well." Duo's voice became heavy with anger, " He grabbed me, don't know what the hell he was thinking, I'm gonna have fuckin' bruises from it tomorrow." Duo laughed darkly, Hades voice sounding in the echoes, "Guess I got the best of it though, I'm pretty sure his jaw's broken. What the fuck was he thinking?" At this point Duo was literally shaking with suppressed rage, "You know what, I'll see you later, I'm gonna go beat the hell out of him." Wufei quickly grabbed Duo's wrist, preventing him from vaulting off the bed and going off to kill Heero, "We have to work together. Killing each other off would create weakness." Even in the dark Wufei could see Duo rolling his eyes, "That's all you care about, weakness and justice." Wufei tightened his grip on the other boy's wrist, leaned closer in the darkness. "You don't know me as well as you think Duo-kun. That isn't ALL I care about." His mind quite abruptly caught up with his body, and he dropped Duo's arm as if burned, sat up and turned away. (Baka!) He heard Duo moving behind him and continued to silently berate himself. "Wufei?" Duo was sitting up now too, was sitting next to him. Wufei studied the wall and refused to look over, "Wufei what did you mean by that?" Laughter cool and sweet, different completely from anything so far heard, well distant from the jaded sound of Hades, or Hela's resonate tones. "You know Fei-kun you're right, I don't know you. Not for lack of trying but you can be hard to talk to." Wufei couldn't help but at least glance at Duo; his voice was transfixing, still holding a touch of laughter. Duo was staring right at him when he looked cautiously over; the violet-eyed boy was wearing a smile that was. disturbing in its implications. Wufei found he couldn't move and furthermore had no real interest in doing so, "Don't you hate it when you misjudge someone? You end up wasting your time on people who don't deserve it." Duo reached towards him, twisting his fingers through the hair that fell for once loose around his shoulders. Wufei had long ago stopped thinking, he leaned forward, touched his lips to Duo's. Although unsure of exactly what he was expecting it wasn't what happened. Duo pulled him close, held him like he might run away or disappear. The kiss deepened and took on an intense, almost brutal quality, a painful kiss but then most things in their lives were painful; anything else would have been alien. They were no children, playing in the dark. They had never had a chance to be children; they had had to be soldiers. They made love fiercely in the moonlight, like it was the last time instead of the first. In both their minds it could have been with death looming always just at the edge of things. Death however, did not so much loom that night as snicker in the corner, until Hela told him to stop being a voyeur and leave them alone. Hades was reluctant to leave but did so muttering, "And does he even think to thank us for seeing to things? No."
Wufei couldn't quite remember what woke him. He who never dreamed had been dreaming, a girl brilliant in silver and three people shadowed, music, green blond and blue, the intense sensation of speed, love and mourning, endless determination then reality burning like only reality could. There was a figure in his room, someone watching him. For a moment he thought it was Duo standing there in the darkness, braid twisted around long fingers, and that moment was just enough to keep him from snatching his gun off the bedside table and punishing the figure for it's imposition on his dreams. Even tired and disoriented Wufei would not put a bullet through Duo. "Maxwell, some of us are sleeping." He murmured groggily. The figure laughed goldenly in reply and it was at that moment it occurred to Wufei that he wasn't addressing Duo, his fellow pilot, his friend, and though he had a hard time admitting it, even in the darkest of night, silent, and only to himself, Duo was more than that, Duo was his obsession. Everyone has obsessions; they're like music, or poison. That snatch of tune that never quite goes away until a person's singing it over and over again and even though they hate it, even though it drives them mad in its own soft repetitive voice in the end they're the one responsible because they can't make themselves let go. Obsessions, they get into people's veins a death pushed by ones own heartbeat, by every breath. a person's own body acts so cruelly against them encouraging it, letting it spread, oh so slowly until it kills even that which has allowed it to survive, kills the body, or perhaps frees the spirit. No one would deny that Wufei had his obsessions. Hadn't they seen it, in his anger, in his rigidity, in his honor, in his unforgiving pursuit of justice? But among that, within all those cutting dangerous emotions that created a wall as unbreachable in its alien dedication as Heero was in his cold intensity or Trowa in his untouchable silence, no one would have dreamed there was room for one more, that centered in that acid whirlwind, standing protected in the eye of the storm was Duo. Always Duo. So he would never have put a bullet through Duo, or in this case the figure that had momentarily confused him. He could forgive himself the mistake, especially in the softness of the dark because the figure looked so much like the American Gundam pilot. Same long brown hair pulled back in a braid (lovely hair, when so little in this world was lovely), same colors, dressed in black (insanity, laughter, joy and light wrapped in darkness), and the same exact violet eyes laughing at him (endless eyes that held so much pain despite the humor, too much pain). The differences though became obvious the moment that the psudo-reality of sleep cleared away and he became fully awake. Even with only the soft definition of moonlight the differences were impossible to miss. The figure wasn't as tall as Duo for one, with a face to finely boned to be him. The outfit though the right color was different and it hugged what were defiantly feminine curves. No the figure wasn't Duo but could have been a twin sister if that weren't in itself impossible. The American may not speak of his past much (and none of them did if they could help it) but Wufei knew he had no siblings. "No, I'm not my brother. And I do sincerely apologize for intruding on your rest but my sibling and I could not think of another time appropriate for visiting." The voice was soft and sweet, just a shade lower than Wufei had been expecting. He glanced around, sitting up as he did so, and spotted the aforementioned sibling looming further in the darkness, with short cut black hair this one wasn't Duo either, but he shared the same violet eyes. The girl laughed again, like church bells, deep, warm, and meaningful. "I suppose we should introduce ourselves, what with breaking into your room like this. I would be Hela, called the Goddess of the dead, and my brother in the corner is Hades, called the God of the Underworld. You are of course a friend of our brother Duo, also called Shinagami or the God of Death." It was the other figure that laughed now, and it was a sound more sharp, more cynical than the golden music of his sister, "In the end it comes down to the same thing, corpses." He moved out of the corner still snickering and pushed a hand briefly through his unruly dark hair. In the hesitant light that came through the window he looked less like the Death Scythe pilot than his sister but there were shades of meaning in his tone that Wufei had heard too often on Duo's own lips. An excess of knowledge that could only lead to hatred. Wufei tried to take this all in stride, he was doing well all thing considered, perhaps it was the strange familiarity about them that kept him calm, that kept his voice under control, "So, I'm dead then?" He laughed now; Duo would be disappointed in him dying in bed, Duo who refused to die 'boringly'. The girl, Hela, shook her head, "No you're not dead. Dead would be a bad thing. He'd be simply furious!" She laughed again, "He may not remember us or his true self but I think he'd be angry with us on instinct." The other, Hades, snickered again, "Old habits die hard. He'd blame us if this one got a scratch." "Hardly our fault that he got into this line of work, or that this one did either. Injuries will happen, they're not our domain anyway." "We'd have to make it ours, or do you want to ask the others for a quick healing?" Hades laughed again, and his sister joined him after a moment. The two sounds twisted together strangely, honey laced with venom. Wufei found himself lost in the banter of the two visitors, intruders, midnight visions, "Why are you here then?" He growled, finding even with their resemblance to Duo they were nearing the end of his limited patience. Hades blinked and turned towards him again, slowly looking him over. Really looking him over, examining every visible portion of his body, still half covered with blankets. Wufei felt those violet eyes sliding over his bare torso cataloging every muscle, every scar, noting exactly were every strand of his raven hair (freed from its usual ponytail like he would never allow by daylight hours) fell. The eyes stayed even longer on his face then met his own and he suddenly couldn't felt he couldn't breath, vaguely he remembered that was a bad thing. but it didn't seem quite as important as it should be. Hades blinked. The contact was broken; air once again filled Wufei's lungs, in and out, in and out. "So he's the one? Pity, it will never work." Hades cynically detached voice had gained new depths and Wufei thought he might have heard the softness of affection in it, "Just like him. impossible." "I think you judge to quickly brother, there are more things on heaven and earth." "Don't quote Shakespeare at me I knew the man, he was a drunk. He's wrong in this case anyway. This one's too caught up in all his devotions. He'll never express anything, you must see that." A long drawn out sigh, "Ah Shinigami. little brother, why mortal? Of all the things to play at being." With a shake of her head Hela added her own sigh, "That's just the problem though isn't it? He isn't playing at it. Currently he is mortal. And subject to all the pleasures and pains they experience. You can't expect him to be wise without the memory of gaining wisdom." Hades put a hand to his head as if suffering a sudden migraine, "I don't expect the memory of wisdom, only the recollection of pain! Remember what the angel did to him? In the end it doesn't come down to what he," The god gestured sharply in his direction, "Feels for Shinagami, it only matters which of those feeling he can express." Wufei's temper snapped. He had no doubt he was in the presence of gods, the undeniable aura of contained power about them was almost overwhelming and in Hades jaded eyes he thought he might have briefly glimpsed the pain of forever. It didn't matter, as they stood in his room, speaking as if he wasn't quite there or didn't have the ability to understand. And Duo (Shinigami to them, a god once, but still Duo, always Duo) well they had no right to guess, no right to know his feelings towards Duo. "I feel nothing!" The words tripped over each other as he spoke them burning his lips with their dishonesty. They both turned to stare at him with expressions of surprise, "You have no idea what I feel about anyone, including Duo, and I feel nothing. I don't. I don't." (K'so! Damn it, Wufei, too weak even to deny weakness. Come on!) "Love him. I don't love him." Meant to be a vehement denial it came out as almost a plea. Hades caught his sister's eye and Wufei could not read what passed between them, then in a movement too quick and graceful to be classified as such he stepped forward and snatched Wufei's wrist, pulling him to his feet without appearing to exert any force at all. Wufei felt that invisible strength, saw how weak he was before this being and winced inwardly (Shimata! Some people don't need a Gundam!) Smiling with an edge of wildness, Hades released his wrist and took a step towards him. Wufei quickly took a step back, not because Hades was strong, or because he was now more obviously than ever a god, but because with that particular expression he looked so like Duo that Wufei knew he couldn't handle the closeness (weak, weak, weak) he took another step back and collided with his bed, fall only prevented by the fact that Hades snatched his arm again. In the same movement that caught him Hades pulled him forward and quite abruptly with no clear notion of how he'd gotten there Wufei was caught in his arms, their lips meeting and the world obligingly fading away (weak!). Vaguely in the background, part of elsewhere, someone knocked softly. Duo. no Hades pushed him away with a sardonic smile and the fire that had become the world left with him, left Wufei standing there lost. If that's you feeling nothing, I'll be back when you're interested." Hades took a step back, was gone in gray fire, Hela faded to the sound of golden bells. Another soft knock, "Wufei-kun?" The voice was hesitant and somehow strange but unmistakably belonged to Duo. Wufei hesitated staring at the door. He couldn't handle a midnight visit from Duo. Not after. not with the way he was feeling right now. There wasn't a choice in the matter though. Not with Duo outside his door sounding like that (admit it, sounding like anything). "Du. Maxwell, come in." There, now he'd said it and it was too late to change his words because Duo was standing in the doorway, silhouetted by the light of the hallway, shivering violently. Wufei not even vaguely cold despite the fact that like the other boy he was wearing only boxers, did not take the time to think on their different perceptions of the temperature. Snatching one of the few regrettably thin blankets on his bed he strode across the room and threw it over Duo's shoulders closing the door quickly as he pulled him inside. Duo's skin was cold fire; the touch froze but burned so much deeper. Seating Duo on his bed Wufei found himself settling himself much closer than he normally would in hopes that the proximity to someone else might keep him warm. He didn't expect Duo to take that a step further, didn't expect the braided pilot to move towards him like a cat to a fire, till Wufei awkwardly put an arm around him for conveniences sake (yeah sure, convenience) and the blanket was draped over both their backs, "What happened?" Violet eyes were focused on him for a moment serious, intense. Wufei wasn't sure what emotion showed on Duo's face, confusion perhaps surprise, "I went for a walk." It took a moment for the incredibleness of that statement to register with Wufei. Things had recently become slightly dangerous for the five of them and it had been deemed wise to hide out for a bit. The house provided was large, but there hadn't been a day without snow and though the weather was calm now, he knew it was well below zero. He wanted to scream at Duo, wanted to hold him closer until he was warm, also wanted to regain that old distance, say something cutting and get him out, make everything safe again. He was silent for a long time, and Duo shivered against him without gaining any perceptible advantage from being inside. The last registered even as the world refused to work properly. "Duo-kun, you're not getting any warmer, get under the blankets, ne?" Wufei was surprised by how quickly Duo responded to the order, cuddling into the spot that he had occupied not long ago. Twisting awkwardly so he could still see the shivering pilot he waited and when Duo, who never shut up, didn't say a word, just met his eyes he sighed trying not to show any of the mixed emotions he was feeling, "Well?" "Well what?" Duo asked and a slight suggestion of his normal grin began to play across his lips. "Well its not every night you go out for a walk in the freezing cold, then of all things come knocking on my door. So, explain Maxwell." Duo snickered and it did indeed hold shadows of Hades cynicism, "And here I thought I'd been promoted, I got a Duo-kun out of you a moment ago." The humor left as quickly as it had come, replaced by a serious express, "Sorry to bug you and all, but I didn't want to wake anyone up, and I had to crash somewhere." "That's what your bed's there for. Duo-kun." "Very brief, very intense anger flashed in Duo's eyes, "Didn't want to wake Heero." He stated it flatly. That surprised Wufei, it wasn't like Duo to hesitate to about coming in at any hour, by nature the other boy was something of a night creature (and now you know why, remember). "But you didn't mind waking me?" Looking vaguely confused Duo shook his head in response, "You weren't asleep. I heard your voice. I thought maybe you were talking to the lovebirds, but they aren't in here. Are they?" A glance around the room as if Quatre and Trowa might have stowed themselves behind a desk or chair. "They aren't here. I was speaking to. never mind." And what else was he supposed to tell Duo? That his family had stopped by to stay hello? Wufei started to get a kink in his neck from the awkward position in which he was seated, "Why were you outside in the first place?" Duo looked away, "I told you, I went for a walk." His voice had an edge to it. In a quicksilver change of mood he grinned, "Wufei-kun, lay down, it's weird looking up at you." There was a familiar tone to Duo's voice, the one used when he was trying to get the impossible, like when he'd tried to get Trowa to recite tongue twisters. Wufei just Looked at him. "Oh come on! I kicked you out of your bed, but there's room for both of us, and I can't talk to you like this, its just stupid and I'm still cold!" The last came out as a whine. "If you hadn't gone out in the dark, directly after an ice storm you wouldn't be cold Duo-kun." But even as he admonished him he gave in, slipping under the blankets, lying on the edge of the bed. Immediately he was treated to the shock of having an ice-cold body come in contact with his skin, "Maxwell! You're freezing!" "Mmm but you're warm." Duo's voice registered a sort of lazy content at the fact, "And I thought we'd decided to go with Duo-kun, hmm Wuffie?" "Don't call me that Maxwell!" Wufei snapped quickly, gritting his teeth in annoyance. He felt Duo shaking with laughter. "Deal, you don't call me Maxwell, I don't call you Wuffie." The room lapsed into silence as they lay there in the darkness. Wufei felt and heard Duo's breath becoming more regular and hardly dared to move. He couldn't sleep, he was having a hard enough time exerting enough strength of will not to do or think anything he would regret but having Duo, still shivering slightly lying in his arms, well it could drive him insane. Certainly it was enough to keep him from sleeping. "We had a fight." Duo's voice was sudden and surprising, unexpected in the silent darkness. It was also so soft Wufei had to strain to hear what he was saying. "That's why I went out walking, so I wouldn't kill him or anything. That's why I didn't go back there. Can't. Not anymore." Another long silence followed, this one waiting for words to fill it. Duo's breathing was not so even as before, it came in long controlled breaths, like someone who was trying to keep from screaming. "He. I mean I can't believe." Duo seemed to be having trouble forming words into sentences; with a pause he took another carefully controlled breath, "Heero and I are well. You know." "Lovers." Wufei filled in flatly. He should know, though their relationship wasn't as open as Trowa and Quatra's there were hints and more painfully than that Wufei had walked in on them once while they were. otherwise occupied. He had since taken up an unshakeable policy of knocking before entering. (See, stupid and weak, can't have him. He's Heero's) "Hmph, lovers. Yeah right!" Duo snickered echoing perfectly the sounds of the earlier night, "If there was one word that didn't fit our relationship. Love. Does Heero look like the loving type to you? Asshole! Perfect soldier. Riiight." The trivial insults continued until Wufei cleared his throat, "Anyway. Yeah sure, we slept together but lovers could not be a worse word for it." A lightning quick change of moods and Duo twisted to look at him, amethyst eyes searching, "Does that bother you?" Wufei shook his head, "Why would it?" (Why would it tear me apart to know every night that the two of you are together in the next room?) The shadowed form of Duo shrugged, "I don't know, it just gets to some people ya know? No one knows what you think Wufei-kun, you never talk, just yell about justice." Another shrug and Duo pulled the tie out of the end of his braid and started unweaving his hair, propping himself up on one arm, "I was tired of it. I don't know maybe I'm a romantic or somethin' but I want something more real than what we had. I mean well look at the lovebirds, somethin' like that. Told Heero as much, he. didn't take that so well." Duo's voice became heavy with anger, " He grabbed me, don't know what the hell he was thinking, I'm gonna have fuckin' bruises from it tomorrow." Duo laughed darkly, Hades voice sounding in the echoes, "Guess I got the best of it though, I'm pretty sure his jaw's broken. What the fuck was he thinking?" At this point Duo was literally shaking with suppressed rage, "You know what, I'll see you later, I'm gonna go beat the hell out of him." Wufei quickly grabbed Duo's wrist, preventing him from vaulting off the bed and going off to kill Heero, "We have to work together. Killing each other off would create weakness." Even in the dark Wufei could see Duo rolling his eyes, "That's all you care about, weakness and justice." Wufei tightened his grip on the other boy's wrist, leaned closer in the darkness. "You don't know me as well as you think Duo-kun. That isn't ALL I care about." His mind quite abruptly caught up with his body, and he dropped Duo's arm as if burned, sat up and turned away. (Baka!) He heard Duo moving behind him and continued to silently berate himself. "Wufei?" Duo was sitting up now too, was sitting next to him. Wufei studied the wall and refused to look over, "Wufei what did you mean by that?" Laughter cool and sweet, different completely from anything so far heard, well distant from the jaded sound of Hades, or Hela's resonate tones. "You know Fei-kun you're right, I don't know you. Not for lack of trying but you can be hard to talk to." Wufei couldn't help but at least glance at Duo; his voice was transfixing, still holding a touch of laughter. Duo was staring right at him when he looked cautiously over; the violet-eyed boy was wearing a smile that was. disturbing in its implications. Wufei found he couldn't move and furthermore had no real interest in doing so, "Don't you hate it when you misjudge someone? You end up wasting your time on people who don't deserve it." Duo reached towards him, twisting his fingers through the hair that fell for once loose around his shoulders. Wufei had long ago stopped thinking, he leaned forward, touched his lips to Duo's. Although unsure of exactly what he was expecting it wasn't what happened. Duo pulled him close, held him like he might run away or disappear. The kiss deepened and took on an intense, almost brutal quality, a painful kiss but then most things in their lives were painful; anything else would have been alien. They were no children, playing in the dark. They had never had a chance to be children; they had had to be soldiers. They made love fiercely in the moonlight, like it was the last time instead of the first. In both their minds it could have been with death looming always just at the edge of things. Death however, did not so much loom that night as snicker in the corner, until Hela told him to stop being a voyeur and leave them alone. Hades was reluctant to leave but did so muttering, "And does he even think to thank us for seeing to things? No."