Disclaimer: Okay, really? Every single time? I don't own Gundam Wing. Anyone dumb enough to think otherwise, please go away. Save me the turmoil.
Note: I did research, but research is never perfect.
So, show of hands... who backlogged a lot of schoolwork in November? /raises hand/
By Your Side
Chapter Ten
Better To Have A Dog Welcome You Than Bark At You
Duo didn't have that much time to formulate a plan, and anything that involved any sort of thinking had to fly out the window pretty quick. He perked an ear and half-turned his head, then leaped from the bed as Kelas turned his head to look outside. The old bastard was fast, but instead of going for him, Duo ran to the dining room. When Kelas fired, the bullet punched into the wall to Duo's right. He whirled into the dining room and hunkered down. His bad leg throbbed.
"Bastard," Kelas said. Duo sniffed and listened. Kelas was hanging back, waiting for Duo to make the next move. He couldn't go to the kitchen; he couldn't take the chance of getting any potential antidote shot at. And he could hear Kelas waiting wear he could easily see the hall. Duo would have normally had the advantage of time, with Preventors searching for him. But he didn't. He struggled to remember the antidote in the kitchen, struggled to sniff and compute trajectory. He found himself smelling and acting more on the scent. Where was the scent? Avoid the scent. That was all that entered his head.
And dammit, he was growling. And hunkering down. And raising his hackles. He wanted to shiver at the way his body tensed on its own, but he couldn't. It was like his body wasn't paying attention to his thoughts anymore.
And as he thought that, he found himself creeping forward. He ordered with all his might to stop, to stand the hell still and wait, that Kelas didn't know how far gone he was – Kelas would believe Duo had all the time in the world. Kelas would make his move. Duo didn't have to move. Yet his feet slunk forward nonetheless. His body bent; his snarl grew louder. He had to amend his plan again.
He ran out again, then ducked back in, just barely avoiding the gunshot. He panted and turned again, going off the adrenaline to punch him back into control. The man had several bullets left, too many for Duo to keep playing the trick and live. He turned behind him and grabbed a shotgun from the back of the room with his mouth, careful to keep the barrel away from his body. He dropped it beside the entrance to the hallway and scratched at the thing until the safety clicked off.
"Duo Maxwell. In your state, you can't win." Duo didn't bother looking up, though his ears flicked to attention. "You must know that there's truth to what I say."
Duo planted one paw behind the gun, making sure it couldn't move around on him, and scratched the trigger. It pounded out one sharp, loud blast, pummeling into the wall. Kelas gasped. Duo pressed the trigger again, but the plaster held up under the strain. He wanted to check the magazine of the gun, but he couldn't remember why. He felt his heart jackhammer and shook his head. He ran to grab another gun, but Kelas was moving now. He ran back to the shotgun and hunkered low, hoping for the best. Kelas pulled his gun around the side of the room, hiding the rest of his body behind the wall, and Duo barked and rolled. Gunshots rang, and Duo just barely had the sense to look at the position of the gun and dodge again and again, until he was underneath the gun and his doggy instincts took over, leaping him up onto his hind legs and clamping on the barrel of the gun. The powder and heat almost made him drop it, but even a dog knew danger, and he ripped the gun from Kelas' hand with a snarl and a thrash of his head.
Duo spit the offensive thing from his mouth and charged around the hall, using the opposite wall as a launching pad and snatching Kelas' bad wrist in his mouth once more, grinding down on the man's flesh. He yelled and stumbled back, but kept his feet underneath him. Duo's throaty growls seemed to fill up the air. He hardly noticed the man's blood, only knowing the stench that preceded victory. He focused on that gray face, those gray lips pulled into a grimace, and he leaped again, using his weight and his clench on the man's hand to finally tip him over, and Kelas fell hard to the ground, Duo on top of him, releasing the wrist for the man's neck.
"Stop or you'll never get your antidote! You can't know it from the rest!"
But Duo was heedless of the words, already ripping his jaw open and pulling the man's flesh into his mouth, crunching until the man's words garbled, until the liquid flow of blood made the man's voice gurgle. Duo tasted it, running in rivers and rivers down his teeth, and something in him screamed. He released the man and looked at him, at the hands that clutched at his neck, at the eyes wide as saucers.
Murder!
He backed away, confused. Why should he care about the man's death? He was dangerous; Duo had been the one attacked. He could still taste the man's blood on his tongue, in his throat. Proof that he was the champion, that his life was the one that would continue. Why was that bad? He thought of Heero, an indistinct image that brought the scents of wood and gunpowder and the feel of hands on his fur, of a deep, smooth tone and a voice calling him 'Duo.' Heero hadn't ever told him to bite someone. Maybe Heero would be upset with his action? Suddenly he understood his hesitation, and he stood whining as the man on the ground rolled up, reaching blindly along the carpet, one hand still holding the side of his neck. Duo stepped aside for him, not knowing what to do. He looked around. Should he leave? But he felt like he shouldn't. Should he try to help the human? But how?
He thought about it and remembered the bandages on his leg. Something told him that would help. He looked around again, this time with purpose, and he saw what looked like a blanket on the back of the couch. He went to it and grabbed it in his teeth, then went back tot he human. The blanket unfolded behind him, bulky and cumbersome, but he brought it and dropped it, panting slightly, thinking to get praise. But he didn't, even as the man snatched it and put it to his throat. He supposed that was acceptable; he had, after all, started it. And there was a mess on the floor now, a gray liquid that smelled of what he'd tasted. The man was gasping, short, liquid-y sounds. Duo could smell death on the man. Something in him felt sick. He was in so much trouble.
The man reached forward for the piece of metal again, the piece Duo had wrenched from him. What was the man going to do with it? Duo cocked his head, watching the man's movements. He felt like he should stop the man, but the last time he'd done that, he'd gotten himself in trouble. Besides, there was no impending danger from the thing; it smelled bad, reminded him somehow of death and pain, of a constant edgy fear and a tension that itched between his shoulder blades. The man's fingers curled around the metal, around a piece of it, and he hacked. "You dare," the man said, and Duo hardly understood the words, "you dare do this... you'll never... they'll do it now... I told them... if I don't..." The man picked up the metal and one finger curled around a little piece. Duo looked at it and felt the curl of danger in his stomach, but still he hesitated, not knowing how to get out of trouble for what he'd done, afraid of hurting the human even more. But when the man turned to him and started moving the metal so that a piece of it pointed at him, he found himself moving forward again despite himself, crunching down on the thing, onto the handle and the man's fingers, and he howled and lost his aim. A loud noise thundered into Duo's ear, and he yelped around the taste of blood and flesh and bone, and the man dropped the metal. It clattered to the floor.
"Damn you," the human said, and his head fell to the ground. He gargled something, something Duo couldn't find in himself to understand, and though he watched the human as if doing so would save him, the gray liquid spread farther, forcing Duo back in order to avoid it, stinking up the whole place, fighting with the smell of the metal's smoke. And then man's hand finally slipped from his neck, bending awkwardly around until finally coming to rest. The blanket fell from the neck. Shortly after, Duo could smell the scent of death. He shook his head and snorted. He looked around then. Heero wasn't there. Should he wait? He knew he had a punishment waiting for him. He knew he'd done something wrong, though he wasn't quite sure what. The human was dead now – maybe that was what he'd done wrong. Maybe he shouldn't have had this human die.
He walked away from the body and sniffed around, going up the stairs. There were a few bedrooms, and he could smell the scent of the dead man within one of them. He went in there and looked around, but there was nothing of real interest. A bunch of papers, some metal, other boring stuff. He thought he could smell another one of those pieces of metal that the man had held up to him before. The thing he'd been unnecessarily afraid of. He ignored it and went on looking around. He couldn't smell Heero anywhere. Was he supposed to stay in this strange place without Heero? With the dead human? Or should he try to find his human?
He ended up sitting in the hall with the dead human, not knowing what else to do. He hardly knew time, only knew that it was dark out and his human still wasn't anywhere nearby. Should he search for him? But he'd been left... no. He had a vague memory of being led here by the dead human. He held on to the memory as if it were important. He remembered something strange, strange thoughts of his own – trying to remember twists and turns of something, in order to leave. Should he leave? He looked to the door, then the window. Those, he knew, led outside. He thought he knew how to open them, though he had strange visions of a human doing so. Human hands, human fingers. Why?
He couldn't trust those strange visions. They weren't normal. He would stay.
He could smell his human now.
He looked over to the scent. There were things blocking it; he was inside a human building, after all. He could smell gas on them, could hear doors opening, heard a person talking. Heard his human saying something. He barked.
Humans outside moved faster then, each speaking and some weird humanoid noises were coming in, too, like the humans had turned metallic, and he almost thought that meant something, something about ears and speakers – whatever those were – and he heard some humans go to the back. His human went to the front. He knew his human would come. He barked again, his tail wagging, before he looked back down at the dead human on the floor. Oh. Right. He was in trouble. He sat back down and whined.
It didn't take long for the humans to come in, bursting through the doors in the front and back. His eyes locked on his human, and he ran to him, heedless of the punishment he knew he would get as soon as his human understood the situation, simply glad to have his human back again. As long as he wasn't left behind again, he would take the punishment for killing the human. The humans talked some more, but his human bent down to him and hesitated before putting his hand on Duo's head. Duo panted. "Duo," he said, then again, "Duo. What happened?"
Duo panted and barked before jumping on his human's knees.
"Duo?"
"Maxwell. I see you managed on your own." Duo looked over and cocked his head. This was another of his humans, though not as important as his Heero human. He barked at him, too. "What?"
"I don't know. He's not..." Duo stopped panting when Heero's voice changed, when his scent altered from something good to something bad. He whined. "Duo." Heero put his hands on Duo's shoulders. He whined again. Something was wrong. Was this going to be his punishment for killing the human? "Duo, are you okay?" Duo cocked his head. "Are you all right?" he repeated, and Duo whined. His human sounded like he was in pain. "Oh, my God. Are we too late?"
More humans were still talking, talking around them, above them, in the other room. Glasses clinked together. Someone was looking at the dead human. "Wait, Yuy. Just wait." and Wufei walked off. Duo watched him, whining still. He knew he'd done something wrong. What was going to happen to him? Was his human really that upset with him?
He looked back at his human and found himself looking at the deep blue of his human's eyes. "Duo. Duo, please answer me. What my name? Tell me my name?"
Duo cocked his head and barked.
"Oh, God." And his human squeezed his eyes shut and grimaced. The look reminded Duo of the look of the dead human and he whined again, leaning forward to nudge Heero's face with his nose. His human smelled sad. He could smell the scent of tears. He nudged his human again and licked the man's forehead. His human reached for him,w rapping those human arms around him and hugging him close. Duo felt a short period of fear and anger; the move was the same as a demand for a battle. If his human were a dog, he'd think he was being attacked. But his human wasn't like him, and the smell was all wrong. His human was sad. This was a sad gesture. Duo understood that, and he let himself be pulled into the embrace. "Oh, God. Duo."
"Yuy! Get him out here now!"
Heero looked up, and though his cheeks were clear, Duo could still smell the scent of tears in his human's eyes. He felt the arms around him shift, understood he was going to be lifted. It was kind've fun, being able to be high up and see more. His human wrapped those hands underneath him and brought him up to the air. Duo looked around, seeing from where he was the banister on one end of the hall, the kitchen and the table on the other. He could smell Wufei in the kitchen, just as he smelled his other humans, Quatre and Trowa, coming, too. They were still outside the human building, though.
"What is it, Wufei?"
"Get him out here." And Heero turned to corner into the kitchen. There were humans everywhere, moving around. Lots of glasses, too, full of things that smelled strange. Duo lifted his head and sniffed around. Wufei came toward them, the man smelling of gunpowder and blood, his spicy scent still caked into the fibers of his flesh, and in his hand was something that smelled like shit. "Put him on the floor and hold him down," Wufei said.
"Wufei?" But Heero did as told. Duo found his legs being bound and struggled in his human's grip. He growled.
"This is the antidote." There were more voices, and Duo missed what his human said, but Wufei said, "I remember what we were working on," and bent over Duo. "Duo, don't bite me. You have to swallow this."
Duo growled as his jaw was pried open, then as Heero rearranged himself over Duo until he could keep Duo bound and free up one of his hands, and he helped Wufei hold his jaw open and the liquid was poured on the back of his throat. He gagged on it, almost choked, and tasted on his tongue something that he didn't seem to have a name for, something vile and nasty that made him shake and slap at the taste on the back of his tongue. He pulled and writhed underneath his human's hands and hips, for once angry about his human's extra strength. His growls turned to snarls, and his human kept saying, over and over again, "please." Duo heard the same sadness from before in his human's voice.
Then things starting getting fuzzy, twisting and twirling, and on a whine he stopped moving and laid his head down. Why was the world spinning? Had he fought too much? Maybe he'd been bleeding. He looked back at his hind leg, thinking to lick it, and found the world on its side. He whined and closed his eyes again. He felt hot and restless. He moved underneath his human's hands. It was getting really hot. And something in him was pounding.
"Duo? Duo, please don't let it be too late. Please."
"Everyone out!" Wufei said, and the voices and shuffling halted. "Everyone get out of the room! Someone find something to cover a body with and leave it outside the room."
"Wufei, it isn't... why?"
"Because when Maxwell wakes up, he will most likely be unclothed."
Heero's hands pressed on Duo's back, sliding through his fur. His fingers curled into the short strands. "He didn't answer, Wufei. It... what if...?"
"Shut up, Yuy, unless you have something helpful to say." Wufei pulled Duo's head around to look at him. Duo felt something burn his eyelids before things turned white. He panted for air and closed his eyes, whining a low, long keen. "I can't see anything for sure. Po and I had only seen the beginning of the antidote take shape, and with her still unconscious, I can't know what else she may have learned."
"What will happen if it doesn't work?" Heero asked. Duo could hear Heero's heart pounding, pounding in his chest.
"He will either die or live out his life as a dog."
Heero's breath stilled.
Duo stopped whining only because he had to pant, only stopped wriggling against Heero's hold because he was too damn tired to continue. He laid his head on the floor and felt a darkness creep around him, thick and deep. He heard Heero's voice, heard the man promise to do it right this time, if only...
And he slipped into the black.
"Duo!" It was a blond voice, one that was like a bright sky. It glided in and faded out before Duo could catch it.
"We don't know... the doctors say that there might be something wrong. He should be awake by now."
"What don't we know?" Trowa. That one was Trowa. And the one before it... the one before it. He sighed.
"Maxwell didn't respond to Yuy's questions. I found the antidote in that mess in Vandura's kitchen, and we gave it to Maxwell. You saw us put him in the ambulance – you knew he'd turned human again."
"Yes." It was the bright sky speaking there. Duo felt heavy where he lay, and though he knew he was in a hospital room, he didn't know why or how he knew. He felt like there was a fuzz in his brain, like it had been stuffed with cotton balls. "You told us you needed us to find out what was going on with the neighborhood."
"And we did. Maxwell came in for a check-up and..."
"There are... complications."
It was the voice again. Duo's mind wrapped around it like a cocoon. That voice. His... No. Not his human. Heero. His partner. Heero.
"What kind of complications?" Trowa asked, when Quatre could only make a small sound and cut it off. Duo heard cloth move, heard Quatre make another sound. "What kind?" he asked again.
"They managed to take care of his leg," Wufei said, answering, for some reason, for Heero. "They were worried about it; he'd reopened it and re-injured it so many times, they'd thought it might have been permanently ruined. But the injuries were all clean, and they were relatively shallow when compared to his canine form."
"But that's not what Heero was talking about," Trowa said.
Duo felt almost hot, restless. It seemed now as if every part of his body was sore; his skin, his muscles, his very insides. Every time his heart beat, he felt something akin to pain.
"He didn't age," Quatre said, his voice quiet. "Or if he did, it isn't noticeable."
"The doctors can't be sure about that," Heero said. "They don't know. They... they've never dealt with anything like this before."
"Sally has taken over primary care for Maxwell," Wufei continued. "It's the mind and organs she was worried about. It will take some time for Maxwell to be fully human again, if... ever."
Quatre hissed. "What do you mean?"
"Will he have dog senses forever?" Trowa asked, and Duo felt something in him churn. Dog senses? More gray?
"No," Wufei said. "I mean his mind." And Duo heard the man pull in a deep breath. "He may never have his human mind again."
Everyone was quiet then, quiet enough for Duo to start paying attention to more than the voices. He felt an itch in his arm that spoke of an IV. He heart the beeping of a heart monitor. His hands and feet felt bound. Bandages? He couldn't be sure. There was another bandage-type thing on his left arm, his left cheek. His right leg was definitely trapped in something. It felt like more bandages, thicker than the others. A cast? No, but almost.
His brain still felt packed with white. He tried to figure out why he was in the hospital bed and saw images of gray, smelled the grass and the warmth of the sunshine, heard the sounds of voices talking from far, far away. Felt a tight, claustrophobic feeling clamp around his chest. Felt Heero's hands on him, those fingers in his fur. Remembered the scent of Heero's tears. He didn't want to go back to that. He felt like he was trapped in a small space, with a lonely, empty room on one side and a tall, gray room on the other. In both Heero was too far to reach, the empty room void of human existence, the gray room filled with a depth he couldn't breach. He didn't want to return to either.
"We found files in the townhouse," Trowa said. "This isn't over yet."
Wufei hissed. "Have you spoken to Une?"
"Yes. For now, she's canceled Relena's appointments and is watching out for her in the Peacecraft mansion. It can't be continued forever. A few more days, and the public will panic."
Heero. Why wasn't Heero talking anymore? The cotton fuzz seemed like a cloud of thin cord, pulling tighter the more he struggled against it. He knew there were things in it, things he could remember if only he tried. Things he should remember, things he should never forget. He thought he could feel Heero's hands on his back, lifting him, helping him. Those eyes watching over him, that voice speaking softly to him. He thought he remembered his partner's panic at his absence. But it all seemed washed in gray, in scents he knew couldn't exist – lion piss, for instance, or a scent of wood on someone who hadn't been in the woods for months. And he thought he could still taste blood on his tongue, and something so disgusting Duo doubted anything but the phrase 'shittastic' could express the nastiness. He thought he could remember sitting in front of a mirror looking at an image of a gray dog and thinking that's me. It sounded ridiculous. It was ridiculous. Had he been dreaming? Had he been injured on the last bust?
He tried to remember the bust, but all he could think of was singing off-key in the shower, of how Heero had left and gotten pizza, pizza with mushrooms – but he had smelled that, he hadn't been there. It was part of the dream. But the singing wasn't, or at least he didn't think so. He'd gone back home and had... had talked to Heero because the man might have been feeling lonely. He'd grabbed a Gatorade. He...
He'd woken up to gray.
"His heart monitor," Heero breathed, and then Duo felt Heero's warmth by his side. "Duo? Can you hear me?"
Heero was talking again. His partner was waiting for him to wake up. He must have gotten injured on the bust. He must have dreamed it all. He'd thought he'd heard Heero scream. He thought he remembered hearing a cry so loud he'd thought surely Heero was dying. The cottonball cloud in his mind seemed to want to get thicker, but he pushed through it as much as he could.
"Duo? Can you hear us?" Quatre.
He wasn't imagining it, was he? He really had run on four legs. He remembered the feel of it, the rip of the glass along his back leg, the feel of the bullet ripping across fur and flesh. He wasn't making it up. And jumping up on his hind legs, grabbing door handles in his mouth... it wasn't something he'd made up. The weird Scrabble game, the Morse Code barking. He hadn't imagined that.
Heero. Heero really had screamed like that. Heero had feared for Duo. Heero had...
Duo opened his eyes, feeling a strange burn along his eyelids, like even those muscles were tired and sore. The world was white for a moment, and he feared seeing the gray again, feared feeling his body lying on its side, his fur prickling against his skin. He blinked. Quatre was gasping his name. Wufei called for him. Heero and Trowa were silent. He thought he could see color on the edges of his vision, and he turned to it. Heero was right there beside him, head bent slightly over Duo's vision. He could see the deep blue of Heero's eyes, but thought he'd seen it in the Gray Days. But the man's hair – wild and crazy and brown – brown. Heero's hair was brown.
"Human?" he asked, and found it difficult to speak. His tongue felt fat and heavy, his lips bruised. He blinked again, much slower than he thought he should. He tried to move and found every part of his body protesting.
"Yes," Heero said. "You're human."
Duo let his gaze roam around. Quatre's blond hair, so bright it almost hurt his eyes. Wufei's shirt, stained slightly with red. Colors. He could see them again, so glaring they seemed to pop out from where they sat. The heart monitor picked up slightly. He tried to curl his fingers and toes and found a painful pricking at the back of his eyes. Why would curling his phalanges make him want to cry?
"Maxwell." Wufei leaned over, grabbing Duo's attention. He hardly had the strength to turn his head. "Maxwell, can you tell me your name?"
Duo frowned. He thought he could remember things more clearly now, now that he knew the gray world was gone. His world was the empty one; the one without Heero in sight. But Heero was right in front of him. His partner. His partner who had worried about him. That would be enough. That was more than enough. He was human.
"Shinigami," he answered, and smiled. Heero pulled back slightly, his eyes wide and unfocused. The man's breath stopped. "You all called me Shinigami. Ha."
And just like that, everyone started talking at once, bombarding Duo with sounds and emotions. Trowa laughing, Quatre thanking his god, Wufei yelling at Duo to not think about something so ridiculous when they'd all been worried about him. His eyes slid to Heero, the one who didn't speak. The man looked deep in thought, his eyes carefully shuttered again. But Duo would take it. He thought he remembered Heero wanting him around. He remembered Heero's concern for him. If nothing else, it meant their partnership was true. Close. It meant that Heero cared for him. He would take it and run with it. At least now he could stay by Heero's side again. "Hey," he said, and the others quieted, looking between him and Heero. Heero didn't look up. "Hey," he said again. "You had pizza without me. That's not fair. You owe me pizza."
Heero looked up, eyes still slightly wide – or maybe wide all over again. "Duo?"
"When I... when I was a dog," he said, stumbling over the very thought of it, "I'd smelled pizza in your house. You had pizza without me, you shithead. I want pizza."
Heero sat blinking for a while, until Quatre chuckled. "Duo, you're in the hospital. They'll be keeping you in here for a while for observation."
"Pizza," Duo said, emphasizing the syllables, as if doing so could make it appear. He hadn't really given a damn before, but suddenly he was ravenous. "I'm starving."
"I'll get a nurse," Trowa said, and Wufei suddenly found it necessary to accompany him. Quatre made some excuse, too, and waved good-bye as he exited the room. Duo watched him go, taking the color with him, and suddenly found himself feeling claustrophobic again. He looked at Heero's hair, at his Preventors uniform, a deep blue. Heero was silent, looking back down at his hands.
"Thank you," Duo said, and it made Heero raise his gaze again, his brows puckered. "Thank you. For not giving up on me."
Heero's breath hitched. His crossed fingers clenched.
"I'd panicked," Duo continued, "when I realized what had happened – what I'd become. Seeing you stop to pick me up was like seeing a miracle. Knowing you guys were safe. Knowing I was going to be able to stop you from – from turning out like me." Damn, he'd already said it once. Shouldn't the words come easier with practice? "You kept fighting to find me, and then to change me back. Thank you."
Heero flushed. "Duo – the things I did – when you were a dog." Duo blinked at the coating of pink on Heero's cheeks. "I..."
What was he talking about? "Heero." Duo tried to move his hand and felt the sheet above him against the hairs on his arm. It seemed to prickle, almost, and tingled a bit. Every muscle seemed fifty pounds heavier. He had to concentrate on how to move, as if the joints were unfamiliar. He barely managed to pull it out from under the covers before he was exhausted, but he got his hand on top of Heero's. Heero reached up automatically, holding Duo's hand. Heero's skin was warm, his fingers calloused. Duo sighed. "Thank you for finding me. And I'm sorry I worried you."
Heero didn't say anything to his words, but those fingers stayed wrapped around his hand. It was good enough. Better than enough. "I have things to make up for," Heero said. "Things I have to say to you."
Duo hummed. "All right."
But they were silent then, each drifting in their own thoughts. Duo found himself looking through the cotton-y cloud to the memories that seemed surreal. But he kept seeing Heero's face during those first couple of days, when no one had known where Duo had gone. He remembered Heero breaking down in front of him, shouting that Duo had to be alive. He remembered Heero pulling his dog body up into an embrace, remembered Heero hugging him close. Remembered Heero's hands on his crotch.
Ah. Maybe that was what Heero was embarrassed about.
"You didn't know it was me then," Duo said, and gave Heero a little smile. When Heero's brows furrowed, he said, "when you were... searching for particulates. You didn't know it was me."
Heero blushed and looked down at his lap. The sight of it made Duo blink. His grin widened. Somehow it was different from just smelling it. Seeing it on Heero's face, seeing how his cheeks turned pink. More proof he was human again. And better, something else he's found himself starting to fear – the feel of his manhood twitching. Thank goodness that little baby still worked. "Heero." But Heero wouldn't look up. "Heero. What happened after Kelas took me from Preventors? I can't really remember."
Heero frowned. "We were hoping you could tell us," he said.
Well, that didn't sound good. Duo focused in on the strange memories. "I remember him coming and saying there was another bomb in the precinct." Duo stilled then and turned to Heero.
"We found it," Heero said.
Well, thank goodness for that, at least. Duo nodded and closed his eyes. "There was... a car. And I tried to remember the turns, but my damn head... it felt like every turn was recorded and then just... slipped out. Like I was trying to hold onto sand. There was something weird about the neighborhood, too. I could smell old scents, people who had been there a while ago, but no one new. Everything seemed kind've stale and empty. The only new scent for the place was his – Kelas'."
"We..." Heero paused for a moment, and Duo thought he heard Heero take a deep breath. "We found that he'd bought the area, though he'd kept the original tenants' names. Apparently he'd threatened them out of the area."
How? But Duo accepted the explanation, his thoughts turning muddled. "I... he led me into the house. Told me... he'd told me before, that he was the only one with the antidote. I didn't know if it was true, but... I'd felt myself slipping away. I'd known I didn't have that much time left."
Heero hissed.
"He... was talking to me." Duo frowned. "I couldn't understand it, but I knew I was screwed if I didn't get away. I managed to run to the dining room. There were weapons, and I shot one at the wall. I wanted the plaster to give, but it didn't. He came after me, and I... I attacked him. Grabbed his wrist. He kept fighting." Duo's eyes widened. "I – I think I bit his neck." His throat convulsed. He really thought he could taste it – the old man's blood. He shuddered. "Jesus."
Heero leaned forward then. "But he'd attacked you?"
Duo shook his head. "Yes, but... Jesus. I can't remember it clearly. I'd made him drop the gun, I think... I pulled it away and kept attacking." He paled. His eyes opened on Heero. "I murdered him. He didn't have his weapon anymore, Heero. I murdered him."
Heero's eyes were wide.
Duo squeezed his eyes closed again. "I can't – after we all swore never again." He felt something inside him turn leaden. He'd adjusted slowly, of course, to the idea of what he'd done, what he'd become, and the shift from that to... but he and Heero and the others had all sworn, though the words were never actually spoken, that none of them would ever kill again. He'd broken his word, gone against his own principles. He'd never purposefully killed an unarmed person before. He couldn't say he'd never killed a citizen, but he could say he'd never aimed for one before.
"It's all right, Duo." Heero reached forward as if to touch him, but he placed his hand on the bed instead. "We'll take care of it."
"Shit, Heero. What have I done?"
"We'll take care of it," he said again, and his voice brooked no argument. Duo's lips lifted slightly. Trust Heero to take what could be a traumatic experience and liken it to mission specs.
"Thank you."
Heero didn't say anything to that, but Duo didn't need a response. He was tired, and he knew Heero really would handle it. It was comforting to fall asleep on the bed, his body human, with Heero once again sitting diligent by his side. Two humans again. He couldn't regret not being anything more than Heero's partner – he was too damn glad to have that. Human.
Thank goodness, he was human again.
"Not until he wakes up," Heero said with a hiss. The words alone were enough to wake him up, even if the tension in Heero's voice hadn't tipped him off. He felt a little better now as he woke, as if his muscles had been stretched and were starting to heal. It was a little easier to breathe, too, and his eyelids didn't feel like lead weights. He blew out a breath and opened his eyes. Wufei was standing beside Heero, who still sat in his chair. The usual posture he had was gone. Duo was used to waking up and seeing Heero sitting straight in the chair, his hands lying on the sides of the chair, his eyes on Duo's face. Now Heero looked ready to stand, his lips pulled back into a snarl. Wufei looked ready to lean down and smack Heero in the head.
"I'm up," Duo croaked.
Both turned to him. "Duo." And Heero ignored Wufei just like that. Duo watched Wufei seethe for a moment before turning to him, as well. "I've spoken to Une about your fight with Kelas." And apparently he wasn't going to be saying anything to anyone else unless Duo okayed it. It made Duo smile. "She said the circumstances will be difficult to take into account, and that once they were, any charges would most likely be dropped."
Duo tried for a grin. "You mean like 'cause it was the dog's fault, and the dog's gone?"
Heero sat back. "Something like that."
"What happened?" Wufei asked, looking from Heero to me. "Did you go against regulation?"
Duo winced. Wufei was still the usual stickler. It was bad enough that he'd almost broken down in front of Heero. The fact that he felt guilty about it probably wouldn't help much, either. "I disarmed him first." He watched as it crept into Wufei's brain and sank into the wrinkles; if he wasn't so scared of Wufei's reaction, he would've enjoyed the show.
"Ah. You were predominantly animal then," Wufei said. "You reacted on your instinct." Wufei looked down to the floor, then looked up. "Commander Une is right. There is nothing to hold you accountable for." Duo's jaw dropped. "Now, Yuy." And Wufei turned back to his original prey. "You are to come with me to the Peacecrafts. Now."
Heero grimaced, but he stood. "Duo. Will you be all right here?"
Duo raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think I'd get in trouble in a hospital?"
"Because we know your track record," Wufei said immediately. "And lately, it seems to have gotten worse."
Duo stuck his tongue out at him and laughed in surprise when the man blushed. What was that about? But then he remembered licking the man's face. Maybe that was why. His laughter turned a little evil.
Heero lingered for a moment as Wufei left, and he leaned down. "I really do have something important to talk with you about," he said. "I won't let it go unsaid after all this."
Duo blinked. Unease trickled down his back, but he nodded. "All right, Heero. You manage to get back here in one piece and breathing, and we'll talk."
Heero nodded. "Mission accepted," he said, completely serious, and Duo laughed in his face. Heero turned, and for a second Duo thought he heard a short breath of air whoosh from Heero's mouth. Was he doing that little laugh of his? Duo smiled at the thought.
Then he frowned. He thought he could remember Heero and the others talking about all of this not being over. He thought he could remember Kelas talking, saying something... he squinted his eyes and focused on those last hazy hours of his dog life. He thought... he thought he could remember that old man saying...
"They'll do it now... I told them... if I don't..."
The words filtered in, one small breath after another, as if tripping through layers and layers of fog. Duo cursed and struggled from his bed. Were the others really going to leave him behind for all this? Actually, that made sense, but hell if he wanted to hear it. He'd been the one to see the least amount of action during this entire damn debacle, despite the fact that he was the one up to his neck. The one who'd been touched the most by all this. He pulled out his IV and ripped off the rest of the trapping. His bum leg was in a half-cast, one of those wannabe things, most likely on Heero's orders. Cuts didn't need casts, but wayward patients did. He took a minute to look at them. They weren't as deep as they'd been when he was a dog, but maybe that was just perception? A dog's leg was thinner than a human's. His hands were bound, too, and he thought he remembered ripping up the pads of his paws as a dog. He felt the pain of burns on his upper arm and his face, and when he checked, he could feel bandages there, too.
Then he was standing and almost fell flat on his face. He felt a strange feeling of dizziness, finding suddenly that his height was too much, that he should be lower to the ground. For the first time that he could remember in his life, he felt unsteady on two (practically) perfectly healthy feet.
And that damn flatlining sound was going to hit a nerve real quick.
Then he was walking – more like hobbling, stupid wannabe cast – to the front register and checking himself out. He was given those hospital pajamas-type outfits and sent on his way, the nurses scowling at him. His first order of business would have been to get his own damn clothes, but he realized with a start that such was no longer possible. He no longer had a home. But he was used to that, too, and slipped on the familiar if uncomfortable feel of his old street rat self. He didn't have any damn money on him, and the only thing he could really do was either go out in the ostentatious hospital clothes and pickpocket some poor sap or call one of his friends, thus bringing the mother-henning horde down upon his head.
He sighed. When the hell did he become so damn full of scruples?
Quatre picked up rather quickly when he used the front register's phone, and as soon as Duo spoke, the man was telling him to stay put so he could be picked up. Duo sighed as he heard the others' voices in the background. Great. "Just hold the others back," he said with a sigh, and Quatre chuckled.
"I'll see what I can do."
It wasn't all that promising a statement, and Duo finally hung up and thunked his head on the desk. All it did was garner him a funny look from the nurses behind the counter. Maybe, just maybe, he should have stayed in bed.
A/N: I made this a little longer to make up for the shorter chapter earlier. ^_^; Hope you enjoyed.