Disclaimer: I do not own the Gundam Wing franchise or anything even relatively as expensive.
Author Note: Alright, I know I know, it's been quite a while since the last update but you must realize that I'm a college kid and I'm so busy. If I'm not working then my roomies are distracting me, it's just insanity. Plus, my computer was having problems for a while. Anyhow, here is chapter 7. It's probably not the best chapter because it was written in so many different pieces, but this is about as good as it's going to get right now, though I do apologize for any crappy writing that occurs.
Enjoy!
Chapter 7
As gently as possible, Trowa placed Quatre across the back seat of Heero's jeep. Wufei, after moving everything in the back of the jeep to the front seat, laid Duo down in the back. Once everything and everyone was secure, Heero began the drive back. Trowa and Wufei were sure to protect their two friends as the jeep shifted and turned along the bumpy road; Trowa also took this time to assess all of Quatre's injuries. Trowa grimaced as he checked over the usually lively blonde.
"Trowa?"
The emerald-eyed boy looked up as he heard Wufei say his name. From the back of the jeep, Wufei was looking over the seat and watching Trowa's expression change from bad to worse as he checked over their friend. Trowa rubbed his head for a moment before replying.
"Sorry Wufei…it's just hard to look at him like this, you know?" Wufei nodded and waited for Trowa to continue. "Well, good news Quatre isn't actually as bad as he looks; bad news that's only the view from the physical side of things." Trowa sighed to himself. "On the outside, Quatre has some bad bruising, possibly some bruised or fractured ribs, a gunshot wound in his leg that seems to already be healing somewhat and a bad dislocated shoulder but other than that he could jog a mile in a few days and be just fine. Mentally on the other hand…I'm not so sure."
"With Duo still alive, he'll recover eventually." Trowa looked to the front of the car. "He already showed signs of looking better when he saw that Duo was still alive. Besides, we'll all be there for the both of them." Heero spoke in a monotone voice but the other two knew that what he was saying was completely heart-felt and true. "On that note, who's going to call Mr. Winner and tell him the news?" Wufei and Trowa groaned at the thought but eventually Trowa agreed to do it as long as the other two stood by for back-up.
Despite all of the work he had needed to finish that day, Mr. Winner had put it all aside and still anxiously waited for any news on his son. He looked at his watch for the thousandth time in the past few hours and sighed. It was nearing dinner-time and he had still not heard back from Heero or the others.
Not long after they had left, Mr. Winner had heard from his people that had gone to check out the shelter for any sign of Axel, Kale or the missing pilots. To his relief and despair, they had reported none of the people in question there; the wait for Heero to return began. With another sigh, Mr. Winner stood to go retrieve another glass of water for his dry throat but was interrupted when one of his many butlers opened the door to his office.
"Mr. Winner, sir?" The older man looked to his butler anxiously and urged him to continue.
"You have a phone call, sir." Mr. Winner mumbled his thank you as he ran for the phone and picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Winner?"
"Yes, who is this?"
"It's Trowa Barton." At this, Mr. Winner released the breath that he hadn't even realized he had been holding in and continued the conversation.
"You have news about Quatre? How is he? What's going on?"
"Yes, sir. He's fine, some minor injuries as far as we can tell at the moment. We're on our way back now."
"Oh thank goodness he is safe; my Quatre is safe." Mr. Winner took a moment to compose himself as he was overcome with relief. "I will tell my doctors to be ready."
"Mr. Winner?"
"What's wrong?"
"We are actually just going to take him home. We think he'd rather wake up in his own house and we are completely capable of managing his injuries." Mr. Winner became outraged.
"What? You cannot take my son away from me! He needs to come here so that he can be properly attended to. I need to see my son!"
"Mr. Winner…"
"No, no you can't do this to me! What do you boys know about taking care of an injured person? This is ridiculous!"
"Mr. Winner, please calm down…" Trowa was interrupted again by the man's raving on.
"I have highly paid doctors; Quatre needs to see them immediately so you have to bring him here right now!" Trowa couldn't take anymore of this.
"Mr. Winner!" Once he had calmed down, Trowa continued in a calmer manner, "Trust me when I say that Quatre is not going to want to be surrounded by complete strangers when he wakes up; you have no idea what the situation completely entails. And considering the fact that if he comes to your doctors we won't be able to see him, he is not going to be happy there. We've gotten him through thus far, please trust us."
It took all that Mr. Winner had in him to keep from screaming even more and he finally gave in.
"Alright Mr. Barton, I trust you three; you did rescue him in the first place, but I want updates as soon as they happen. And I'll be coming over once I can catch up with all the work I missed today." Trowa agreed to these terms and the two said their short good byes before hanging up. Mr. Winner sighed again and sat back down in his office chair just relieved that his son was alive.
As soon as they pulled up to the huge mansion, Heero was out of the jeep ready to help his friends. Tenderly, Trowa and Wufei carried Quatre and Duo into the house and straight to a guest bedroom. As those two set their friends onto the beds in that room, Heero was grabbing the first aid kit from the bathroom. Trowa looked down at Quatre when he noticed his facial features tightening in pain. He moved his fingers to the blonde's neck and was shocked to feel his still erratic pulse. Just as he was about to yell to Heero, the brown-haired boy appeared at his side with a sedative in hand. Trowa stepped back to give him some room and looked over to Duo and Wufei.
The Chinese boy was just about to look at his friend's injuries as he heard the braided pilot groan in pain. Wufei's eyes widened as Duo slowly began to shift on the bed before gradually opening his eyes. With a groggy and scratchy voice Duo looked at his surroundings and spoke.
"Wha…where am I?" Duo jumped somewhat as Wufei came into his view but was soon relieved to see his friend. "Fei? What's going on?"
Wufei looked at the braided pilot confused for a moment before explaining, "Duo, we're at Quatre's mansion, we rescued you from Axel and Kale?" Duo's eyes shot open in shock; unfortunately his body shot forward as well so before Duo could say a word, he uttered possibly the worst sound any of the pilots had heard in quite a while. Heero grimaced at his friends' wailing and both he and Trowa joined Wufei at the braided boy's side. Wufei forced Duo to sit back again while hushing him and telling him not to move so suddenly.
"Duo, you've got a few broken ribs you need to chill!" Duo held back any other cries of pain he had while softly clutching his rib cage and trying to get out the words he would've said had he gotten the chance before the pain arrived.
"Quat…re…where…is he?"
"He's here, in the other bed. He'll be alright Duo." Trowa flashed him a weak smile and moved so the braided boy could see. With sad eyes, Duo looked over at the blonde. He held in sobs at the sight of his friend covered in blood, dirt and unsightly purple bruises. Faintly he heard Heero talking to him in the background but his thoughts were consumed with his need to walk over to that bed and just hold Quatre in his arms so it would all go away. Suddenly Duo was again overcome with pain and closed his eyes tightly as he began to cough.
"Duo, are you listening?" Heero looked stopped his rambling to look down as Duo raised a hand to cover his mouth as more coughs consumed him.
"Shit…Maxwell…!"
Heero entered the room as silently as possible to check in on his two injured friends. He sat himself down in a chair between the two beds and looked over at Quatre and Duo and how the moonlight hit their faces. It had been only a few hours since they had gotten back but it felt like longer because of all that had happened in the time they had actually been there. Heero's mind couldn't help but wander back to the events leading up to now. Duo waking up and soon after beginning to cough then noticing that he was coughing up blood and watching Trowa immediately run to call Sally. Heero cringed as he thought back to having to hold Duo down as he threw himself about still coughing up a storm and probably making whatever internal bleeding he already had worse. Eventually Sally showed up and pushed the boys out the door so she could check on the two injured and the three impatiently waited. When Sally finally came back out of the room, she reported that the two would be fine with some rest and that she had taken care of all the bandaging and everything for them. They all bowed their thanks to the woman before Wufei showed her out.
'And now here I am…' Heero thought to himself hopelessly and continued to stare upon his friends' sleeping faces. He broke his stare away from them as he rubbed his temples. 'What would I do without them? What would any of us do?' Heero smiled slightly as he looked back to his two friends and felt as a lone tear slid down his cheek. Despite his efforts to hide his emotions, Heero could not help but shed a tear for his closest companions. Ever since the war when he had met up with his four friends, the lost soldier had never felt better about life but more importantly about himself. It was such a treasure to have friends like he had so it really did hit him hard when he came so close to losing even one of them.
Even though he had become much closer to Duo, Heero still felt a great connection with Quatre as well which is why he wasn't surprised when Duo had told him about his feelings for the blonde. Heero remembered the many conversations they had had where he had held Duo because his heart ached so much for Quatre but he was too scared to tell him. And though Heero already knew through Trowa that the blonde felt the same, he also knew that Duo and Quatre needed to work it out on their own. Heero chuckled to himself at the memories; the several dinners and such where Duo and Quatre would flirt with each other so transparently but neither knew of the others' feelings. You knew it was obvious when even Wufei questioned Heero and Trowa one day about the two flirting non-stop.
Heero stirred from his recollections as he heard movement and looked up to meet with Duo's violet eyes. The stoic pilots' own eyes widened as he stood to move to Duo's side and Duo looked up at him in a daze.
"Heero? What's going on?" Duo moved to sit up but was stopped by Heero's strong grip on his shoulders willing him back down.
"Duo, you should still be sleeping; you need rest." Duo looked up at Heero confused for a moment before the memories flooded back into his mind and he became suddenly exhausted at just the thought. Heero watched as Duo went from wide awake to drowsy and then back to being alert again.
"Okay, but now I'm awake and I intend to stay that way. So give me the update and don't pretend like there isn't one because there's always an update. The last thing I remember is coughing a lot." Duo looked at Heero, eyes full of curiosity so much so that Heero couldn't deny him his wish. With a sigh, the blue-eyed pilot pulled his chair closer to Duo's bed and sat back down.
"Well, you were coughing up blood so we called Sally. She showed up, kicked us out of the room and then when she was finished looking at the two of you she told us that you would be just fine after a few days and/or a week of rest." Duo blinked at the rushed explanation and would've demanded to know the whole story but he had the strangest feeling that Heero had already said it all so he kept his mouth shut. Instead, the braided pilot risked a glance over to his blonde friend. Duo took a deep breath and immediately felt the need to be closer.
"Heero?" Duo waited for his friend to look back at him before continuing, "Do you think you could move me a little closer?" Heero smiled softly at the boy before moving back to the side of his bed.
"I can do better than that." Especially gently, Heero picked up his braided friend and carefully moved him to the unoccupied side of Quatre's bed. Duo, shocked at first, looked up at Heero and merely smiled his thanks. Heero gave a quick nod in return before leaving the room.
Duo carefully rolled onto his aching side to face the other pilot. Quatre still appeared to be fast asleep and remained still even as Duo tenderly caressed the blonde's cheek and scooted closer to the boy. Duo once again closed his eyes as he nestled his head in Quatre's uninjured shoulder and fell back to sleep.
(---)
It had been two days since the two pilots had been rescued and still Quatre had not awoken. He showed all signs of healing and getting better so no one was too worried but Duo still took it hard. He stayed by Quatre's side continuously until he became restless and, though he was still not perfectly healthy himself, would walk about the house looking for anything that he could do without straining himself too much. No one slept or ate barely anything as their worry weighed down on them.
Trowa would stay with Quatre and read when Duo wasn't in the room with him. As he was reading, he would occasionally look up to check Quatre's breathing or sometimes even check his vitals periodically just to be cautious. All the pilots knew how important the blonde was to all of them as a fellow pilot and a friend; they didn't know what they would do without him.
Dazed and confused eyes scanned the pitch black room as a figure tried to navigate their way around. A light breeze ruffled their dirtied hair for a moment before dying down to a dull chill. Without them really knowing, the scenery changed and there was suddenly a small light off in the distance. Raising their hand to rub their eyes for a moment, the figure tried again to locate where they were. Their surroundings had no decoration whatsoever beyond the light and a cracked mirror on the nearby wall; anything else was shrouded in darkness. Slowly the figure made their way over to the mirror and gazed upon their reflection. A normally flawless appearance was suddenly ragged and torn; their platinum hair and bright eyes having lost their typical luster. Without moving an inch, the figure looked on as the mirror shattered in its place and the light had all of the sudden shifted right behind them. Barely getting a moment to turn around, the figure lost their balance and fell to the ground. Shielding their eyes from the abrupt amount of light, the figure stared up and watched as two other shadows seemed to be fighting each other. Not a moment later, a massive weight was suddenly on top of the blonde, hands roaming all over. The two bodies struggled against each other and a shiver ran up the blondes' back as their demeanor changed. Suddenly, they were filled with rage as they blindly reached for the person above them releasing a horrendous scream.
Trowa immediately dropped the washcloth he had been wetting as Quatre's cries rang through the house. He moved without thinking and ran to the blonde's bedside shocked to see his previously unmoving friend violently thrashing around in a deep sleep. Trowa tried to hold him down, as to not let him injure himself any worse, but was horribly failing at his task until he was suddenly joined by the three other pilots.
"What's going on with him?" Heero joined Trowa in trying to hold Quatre down as he spoke but even the both of them could not stop the blonde from kicking and screaming. Wufei was trying this best to check Quatre's vitals but anytime he would get close enough, he would be shoved away.
"Get away! No! DUO!" Quatre screamed louder than ever before and kicked even more at his friends restraining arms.
Duo instantly grabbed one of Quatre's thrashing hands, "Quatre, I'm here! I'm right here with you. Everything is okay." At this, Quatre furrowed his brow and stopped moving quite so violently to listen more as Duo continued talking. Once Quatre had calmed down enough for the two to let him go, Duo moved himself next to the blonde and continued to talk to him as Wufei checked him over. Remembering what he had been doing, Trowa returned to the bathroom to grab the damp washcloth and brought it back to put on Quatre's forehead. Duo took the washcloth from Trowa and placed it on the boy's forehead now whispering into his ear. Once Wufei was done checking Quatre over, he joined Heero off to the side.
"He seems to be doing just fine, a slight fever but nothing too bad; he was just having a regular nightmare." Heero nodded and couldn't help but frown as he watched the tears streaming down Duo's worried and Quatre's distressed expressions.
"Quatre…it's alright, I'm here." With Duo's words, Quatre's eyes groggily opened. After blinking a few times and a look around his surroundings, Quatre's eyes focused in on one person.
"Oh Duo!" With his good arm, Quatre immediately latched onto Duo and began to cry even harder. Duo merely hugged him back gently and sighed in relief that he had at least woken up. His words muffled in Duo's shoulder, Quatre spoke again.
"Thank goodness you're safe Duo…I…I…" With a small sigh, Quatre fell unconscious once again much to Duo's discontent as the braided boy resituated the blonde back in his bed.
"He's probably just still exhausted from…"
"I know," Duo cut Heero's faint voice off as he moved to the other side of the bed to lie down next to Quatre while addressing the pilots.
"I'm staying here with him until he's better." Knowing that there as no talking him out of it, the other pilots' consented and left the two to be alone for a while.
(---)
A few hours passed before Quatre's eyes flew open once again after having another nightmare. He blinked a few times before raising a hand to wipe the sweat from his brow and look at his surroundings. The room was dark but he was still able to recognize that it was a guest room in his mansion. Trying to sit up hurt too badly, so he just continued his scan of the room before his eyes fell upon the body next to him. For a moment, Quatre's breath quickened as he thought he was still dreaming, but he released a sigh of relief as Duo deeply inhaled and a small snore escaped him. With a smile, Quatre nestled closer to Duo's body and watched him for a little while. 'He just looks…perfect…' Taking a risk, Quatre then gently caressed Duo's cheek but stopped as the pilots' violet eyes fluttered open.
Quatre smiled, "Good morning." His voice was a little raspy but he was not about to ruin the moment by clearing his throat. Duo chuckled at this and took a moment to look at his watch.
"It's dinner time, silly." Quatre smiled even bigger at his friend and stared into his eyes, absorbing their wonder until suddenly Duo frowned a little.
"Q-ball, what're you even doing up? Are you feeling okay?" Quatre sighed and stopped Duo from putting his hand to the blonde's forehead; he had hoped this question wouldn't come up so quickly.
"I had another nightmare." Before Duo could bombard Quatre with more questions, Quatre cut him off, "Duo, I'm okay. Can we not talk about this right now? Please?"
Duo melted at the sight of Quatre's puppy-dog eyes and finally gave in, switching topics on the blonde.
"Then let's talk about something else…"
"Like what?"
"Well, I was kind of hoping to talk about…" Duo was interrupted by a light knock on the door followed by Heero entering the room.
"Quatre, you're awake?" Quatre looked up at Heero and smiled.
"Yes, I'm awake. How long have I been out?" Heero sat in the seat next to the bed as Quatre sat up and gently leaned against his pillow.
"About two days now, how're you feeling?" As Heero and Quatre conversed, Duo stared off with an annoyed glare and waited for Heero to leave.
"I'm feeling okay, I'll probably be up and running again in another day or so, but I just have to thank you so much for taking care of me. I know that we have a lot to talk about…"
"Yeah, we do but considering the glare that Duo's got on his face I think I have my cue to leave…" Heero raised an eyebrow at Duo as Quatre looked over to his face, curious to see what was going on. Duo's cheeks flared red for a moment as the two stared at him. Eventually, Heero rolled his eyes and patted Quatre on his good shoulder before exiting the room and closing the door.
"Duo?"
"Sorry….it's just, what I want to talk to you about…it's kind of impor-." Duo was interrupted yet again by the door opening and, this time, Wufei walking into the room.
"Hey, I heard that Quat was finally awake and actually not screaming." Wufei shot the two a small smile and sat down in the chair next to the bed. Quatre smiled back as Duo went back to his glaring.
"Hey Wufei, how're things?"
"They're alright but I was worried there for a while. How are you feeling?"
"He's feeling fine, he'll probably rest for another day or two but other than that he really appreciates your kindness." Duo butted into the conversation and flashed a sarcastic and fake smile before turning away about and grumbling to himself. Quatre blushed for a moment and looked back to Wufei embarrassed.
"Um, Fei? Do you think you could come back a little later?"
"Sure….what's his problem?"
"He's fine, he just has something he wants to talk to me about is all."
"Well, tell him to take a chill pill and to just ask me to leave next time." Wufei rolled his eyes at the braided boy and stood. "And if you need anything Quatre, just call any of us."
"Thanks." Quatre smiled to himself and watched as Wufei left the room. He took a second to think about how great his friends really were. Despite the fact that they saved his and Duo's butts in the first place, they were now looking after them and worried.
(---)
As Wufei shut the door to the guest room behind him, he looked up and saw Trowa walking towards him.
"Hey, I heard that Quatre was awake, I was gonna go in and see how he's doing." Trowa stopped walking as Wufei grabbed his arm and started to drag him the other way.
"Trust me; you don't want to go in there right now." Trowa blinked as he was drug away from the door and down the hallway.
(---)
Quatre released a content sigh as he turned back to Duo who he realized was still waiting to talk to him.
"Sorry Duo, what was it that you wanted to talk ab-."
Quatre was interrupted as Duo had suddenly pressed his lips against Quatre's. The blonde soon fell into the kiss as things heated up. He raised a hand to hold Duo behind his neck as Duo moved to deepen the kiss even more. Quatre moaned between kisses and completely melted in Duo's arms. The braided pilot slowly pulled away the slightest bit and chuckled as Quatre pouted.
"That is what I wanted to talk about." Quatre whimpered quietly.
"Less talky, more kissy." Quatre pushed his and Duo's lips back together as the two made-out until Duo parted them once again.
"So, I'm guessing this means we're a couple?" Quatre smiled at him.
"Yes…now quit ruining the moment you baka!" Duo chuckled and the two continued their make-out session.
(---)
End
Well? I know, it wasn't my greatest work in the least, but it was the best I could whip together right now. At least it was pretty long...right?
And don't worry, there is still more to come after this. After all, you still don't know how Quatre whooped Kale's butt! I hope you enjoyed!
Hoping to read your reviews,
Ice Princess
