Hey there! This is my first full-length Gundam Wing FF. I've written a lot of one-shots, but this one turned out to practically be a freakin novel! Just kidding, but still. Read and review-let me know if you liked it!^^
Duo woke up and groaned. He was tired and hungry and felt like a ton of Gundanium bricks had landed on top of him. His head ached, throbbing in time with his slow, but thankfully steady heartbeat, and it felt fuzzy as though he had a cold. To be honest, his whole freaking body hurt, but his head was the center of his pain at the moment. Images of what had happened before he woke flashed through his mind, and he groaned again as he recalled them.
Man, that mission had NOT gone according to plan. By all rights, he should have died back there when the hanger collapsed. An OZ soldier had discovered one of the many bombs he'd planted around the mobile suit production facility and had accidentally triggered it, setting it off out of Duo's carefully planned sequence. The Gundam pilot was a demolitions expert—as long as everyone left his shit alone. Because of the soldier's interference, a bomb closer to the exit had gone off, thus trapping Duo in the hanger while the rest exploded randomly, set off by their counterparts.
The last thing Duo remembered was running desperately in the other direction, hoping and praying that he would make it to an inner exit before the whole building went up in flames. He hadn't really expected to make it, especially when the ceiling gave way and huge cinderblocks and steel reinforcements had started to rain down from above. Something had hit Duo hard across the shoulder, smashing bones before something else hit the back of his head and he passed out.
Yes, by all rights he should be dead. Seeing as he was not, Duo had to wonder what had happened after he fell into unconsciousness. Perhaps he had been seen by another OZ soldier? But really, if the place was collapsing, why would the solider bother to save him? It would have been more in character for him to leave the curséd Gundam pilot for dead or shoot him before rushing for an exit.
Duo opened his eyes and looked up, a little startled to see the Perfect Soldier leaning over his bed. Heero's face was blurry and with his head all fuzzy, Duo had a hard time focusing on the other boy's expression. "Hey, buddy, glad to see you made it out alive." He croaked, voice gravelly with sleep (and probably inhaled dust and smoke). "Status?"
Heero, relieved to see Duo finally awake, blinked at the other boy's odd statement, wondering at his choice of words to inquire about his condition. He answered anyways, rattling off what he had read on the doctor's chart. "Concussion and multiple bruises, especially on your left hip. A fractured ankle, but it should be mostly healed by now." He paused, and his eyes narrowed a little in anger. "You fell off the ladder while trying to fix the roof. I told you to leave it until I had time to help you, but you went out anyways. You must have slipped in the rain, because when I came home I found you on the ground under the ladder." He took a deep breath, reaching out to squeeze Duo's left hand tightly; the one that wasn't attached to the IV by his side. "When I saw you, I thought you were dead. You scared the hell out of me, koi."
Duo gasped at the name (a shortened version of 'koibito', the Japanese word for 'lover'), inhaled spit down his dry throat, and choked. "What did you call me?" he wheezed as Heero quickly offered him a glass of water with a straw. He sucked at the straw frantically as Heero answered, canting his head in confusion at Duo's question.
"I said 'koi'. Everyone here at the hospital knows. I had to tell them we were married so they would let me in to see you."
Duo blinked and looked around, latching on to the words 'everyone' and 'hospital', immediately forgetting everything else Heero told him. At first he had assumed he was in some sort of safe house where the pilots usually sojourned between missions, but now he could clearly see that he was in a hospital. His room was a sterile white square with pale green furnishings. A heart monitor beeped softly in the background, sounding farther away than it was thanks to Duo's hazy hearing.
Fear suddenly curled in his stomach.
"What were you thinking, Heero? How could you risk taking me to a hospital?!" Duo whisper-shrieked, keeping his voice down in case they were overheard. "You'll endanger us all; you know warrants are out for our arrest! I wasn't hurt that bad—you could have let Trowa take care of me in the safe house."
He tried to get up, ready to escape before OZ came looking for him. It was a wonder they hadn't been detected yet, especially since he and Heero were the most conspicuous Gundam pilots, having been caught and documented a few times by OZ in the past. His own movements made him dizzy and a little sick, but he fought it away in his desperation to leave.
Heero also experienced a feeling of gut-wrenching fear. "Duo, relax," he said, reaching out to restrain the other boy before he could pull out any of his IVs, "You're safe here. It's—it's…the war is over," he stated helplessly, not knowing what else to say. Duo clearly had been dreaming that they were still Gundam pilots during the war. Back then, it had been necessary for them to avoid hospitals and conventional health care facilities in case they were found there by OZ. They had been forced to tend each others' medical needs in the safe houses, using their basic knowledge to help one another. Trowa was usually deferred to on such matters, as he had the most military experience. They all knew what a risk it was—Quatre had nearly died of pneumonia once while his lover, tears in his eyes, had steadfastly refused to take him to a doctor—but it was necessary for the war. Duo had a right to be angry with him if he thought that was what had happened.
What Duo didn't understand, however, was why in the world Heero would risk blowing their cover to admit him. Heero was the most stoic and focused of all of them, so what on Earth had he been thinking, allowing Duo to be treated in a hospital? Unless…
Oh God! Duo thought, suddenly reaching around behind him to feel for his braid—what if Heero had cut if off so that he wouldn't be recognized? But, no, his searching hand found a long hank of braided hair, just as he had left it. So, if not that then…? His mind raced, trying to come up with an answer. That's when he remembered Heero's earlier reply.
"What do you mean, 'the war is over'?" he demanded angrily. He surely hadn't been out that long. If this was some kind of joke to get him to lie still—
Heero reached up to pull his hand back down, seeing the strain in the IV lines. He looked intently into Duo's violet eyes, trying to gauge his reaction, wondering if his gut had been right, that Duo really did believe he had just been on a mission. "The war is over," he repeated. "It has been for two years. Duo…it's After Colony 198."
Duo froze, stunned. What was Heero saying? If he hadn't known better, he'd say Heero was joking or something, but Heero never joked.
"…What?" Duo whispered, narrowing his eyes in confusion. "But…no. I was…the ceiling…"
"Tell me what you remember," Heero urged, taking Duo's hand again, a motion he made without thinking about it, being so used to their common touch in the two years since the war.
Duo looked down at their joined hands, feeling more afraid than ever now, upset by Heero's attentiveness and familiarity. Not that he didn't care for Heero touching him, but it wasn't normal and that scared Duo even more than the fact that it seemed more and more likely that he had lost his memory.
Shaken, he quickly related all that he remembered of the failed mission, ending at the part when he blacked out after being hit by the falling ceiling debris.
Heero, too, looked eloquently stunned. He swallowed and said carefully, "I remember that mission. I heard the bombs go off before schedule. I ran to the hanger and managed to pull you out of the rubble before the whole ceiling came down. I did take you back to the safe house and Trowa set your arm—you'd broken your collarbone and had a serious concussion. You still have the scar from where the beam hit your shoulder…" Heero reached up to touch it lightly, the jagged line clearly visible where Duo's loose hospital gown gaped around his throat.
Duo frowned, trying to recall the situation despite the distraction of Heero's warm fingers still tracing his collarbone. "But, you were on the other side of the base. You were closer to the Gundams than the hanger..." Duo suddenly turned paler than he already was and his head throbbed angrily. "You didn't try to rescue me, did you? You idiot! You endangered the mission—AND yourself! You should have just left me!"
To his surprise, Heero cracked a bitter smile. "That's just what you said when you woke up in the safe house."
Duo glared at him, pushing away his hand from his shoulder. "Yeah? And what did you say then?" he asked severely.
"I told you that you still had the data disk that you downloaded before setting the bombs. I went back for it and rather than search you, I just carried you out and brought you to the rendezvous point where the others were waiting. We put you in Deathscythe and carried you both back to the safe house."
Duo relaxed a little, seeing that Heero had gone back for the good of the mission rather than for him. "Well, that's something. I still don't see why you rescued me rather than just take the disk. I was a liability; you should have just let the ceiling take me."
"I couldn't be sure that OZ wouldn't find you and try to get information out of you," Heero intoned, now sounding more like his normal Perfect Soldier self. He was getting upset and when he did, he usually reverted back to his cold soldier persona as though somehow that would keep him from becoming over-emotional.
"You should have put a bullet in me then! Put me out of my misery!" argued Duo, tears of frustration welling up in his eyes. They had all agreed, all promised that the missions came first and their lives came second. How dare Heero go against all that and save him at the expense of—of everything?!
"Stop, Duo!" Heero shouted, standing fast, hands clenched at his sides. He couldn't take it anymore. "Don't ever say that!" With that, he turned and rushed out of the room, leaving the door to slam behind him.
The braided boy was surprised out of his anger. What the hell had gotten into him? He had never seen Heero get so worked up. Or, at least, not that he remembered…
Duo jumped and reached automatically for his non-existent gun when the door opened again. He relaxed when a blonde head popped in and he caught Quatre's worried aqua eyes.
"Duo?" he asked quietly. Obviously he'd been waiting outside and had witnessed Heero's shouting and sudden departure.
"Hey, Q-man. C'mon in," Duo said, suddenly tired. He fell back into the pillows and groaned again as his sore head hit the bound feathers. Quatre came in and sat in Heero's vacated chair, leaning over to speak to Duo.
"I'm glad to see you're alright, but perhaps you and Heero should save your fights until you're well enough to run out after him?" the Winner advised jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. His space heart told him that something had just gone terribly wrong between the two and he was trying now to smooth it out.
Duo scoffed. "Why would I want to run after that anal-retentive jerk?" Why indeed? As he said it, Duo had a sudden wild urge to do just that, to run after Heero and somehow make him not angry anymore. The thought disturbed him and he tried to push it away. He became serious again as he added to his Arabian friend, "How could you let him risk the mission, Quatre?"
Quatre gave him the same funny look Heero had given him earlier. "Mission? I didn't know you were on Preventer's business; I thought you fell off a ladder."
Well, that settled it, then. Duo really wasn't in the year he thought he was. Quatre had never been a very good actor and if Heero had been making some kind of sick joke, Quatre ruined it by his honest expression of puzzlement at Duo's statement. As it was, Duo was now forced to believe what Heero had told him, no matter how insane it seemed to him. He tried to sound frivolous as he filled Quatre in, but his voice wavered with a hint of the fear that was creeping up from deep in his stomach.
"Uh, I hate to break it to ya, Q-man, but according to Heero, I've lost my memory. The last thing I remember is being on a mission in the war in A.C. 195. Heero said it's A.C. 198."
Quatre didn't even have the decency to hide his horrified look. "He-he's right, Duo. It's finally a time of peace." He paused, looking thoughtful. "The doctor did say you'd hit your head pretty hard. Maybe, when you did, your memory reverted back to the last time you'd taken a similar injury?" He gave Duo a concerned look, wondering how the boy could be so flippant about his condition.
"Can it do that?" Duo asked incredulously.
Quatre sighed. "I think it just did," he pointed out. "It's the only explanation. I'll have to ask the doctor about it." He seemed to pull himself together. "Well, at least we know you're alright. You've been asleep for almost five days. You gave Heero quite a scare."
Memory flashed at the mention of the other boy's name and Duo heard Heero's voice from moments ago echo inside his head again: "I said 'lover'. Everyone here knows. I had to tell them we were married so they would let me in to see you…"
Feeling as though he'd just been doused with a bucket of ice-cold water, Duo looked over at his left hand to see a strangely familiar golden band around his fourth finger. "Quatre…" he whispered, dreading the answer he knew was coming, "Where did I fall off that ladder?"
At that moment, Quatre seemed to reach the same conclusion Duo suddenly had and his aqua eyes widened in shock. He answered brokenly, knowing it had to be said and guessing now why Heero had burst out of the room with tears in his deep blue eyes. "You were at your and Heero's house, in the yard. Duo…you've been married for almost two years…"