Title: Breaking the Habit
Rating: PG
Warnings: Violence
Notes: Part four of an iTunes shuffle meme. The song in question is 'Breaking the Habit' by Linkin Park.
Breaking the Habit
Heero blurred into motion the moment he realized the group of punk kids were serious about making him the recipient of a night of violent mischief. Feet and fists met target after target in a relentless barrage. There were four of them and only one of him but it really was no contest. Heero would eventually beat them back, and after they retreated he would dutifully remind himself that it was stupid to wander about the inner city at this time of night alone. Of course he could take care of himself, but that didn't mean he should take unnecessary risks.
The fact that Heero knew these dregs of society would find a twenty-something such a tempting target that they would leave alone those much less able to defend themselves was a thought that the former Gundam pilot kept shoved in the back of his mind. Vigilantism was not something he and his fellow pilots fought for.
Tonight's group was tougher than most, they didn't immediately run once face-to-face with a victim that fought back. They retaliated with the modicum of skill found in a crew used to brawling together and managed to get in a few blows. Nothing noteworthy and nothing to put Heero on guard for the searing chill that slid easily into his side. He pulled instinctively away from the sensation, grabbed and twisted until the knife was in his own grasp and one of the kids grimaced over his newly broken wrist. The others fell back for a moment to regroup. But only for a moment.
In that same moment, the scent of his own blood hit Heero and the streetlamp light caught on the edge of his blade throwing a red glare into his eyes. Status: Adrenaline levels elevated. Pain, bearable. Threat, present. Unacceptable. He shifted his grip on the knife and with a sharp motion buried it to the hilt into the chest of the assailant in the process of pulling a gun.
Heero would never fully remember the rest of the fight that followed. All he knew was that by the time he calmed down and regained his senses, they were dead and the stab wound, situated directly above a scar from one of his most harrowing training missions, had already started clotting. He would, however, remember this night for the rest of his life: every time Duo would innocently ask if he had changed his mind about joining the Preventers, every time the news would report another senseless urban crime, and every time Heero's frustration threatened to spill over into property destruction at the fact that the peace he had sacrificed so much for was not really all that peaceful.