Zero-One Versus Zero-Four

By APs

A/N – So, ridiculous part of my life is over, which means I can stop neglecting the internet. Trying to get back into the swing of things. Sorry to everyone that was waiting.

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy! Reviews are nice, too!

Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?

---Sun Tzu

He found the blond sitting in the music room, starring at the keys of the piano before him. Again. Fourth time in as many days. Stepping inside, he locked the big, solid doors behind him. The soft click echoed through the large, empty, acoustically formed room, drawing the other's gaze. He recognized pain, old pain in those soft eyes.

"What were you going to play?" he found himself asking when the blond didn't speak.

"I-" light blue eyes shifted back to the keys, "Nothing, just a duet I can't quite remember anymore."

He stopped in the middle of the room, "Duets require two players."

"Yeah," the other agreed grudgingly. Silence echoed off the walls, muffling the birdsong and sunshine through the leaded windows. Finally, the fairer boy stood from the bench, "I can't remember and I can't quite forget."

"Why don't you just play?" Pale blue eyes turned toward him as the blond paced up to him in the center of the room. The other paused, searching his usual harsh expression with a hint of confusion.

"I don't think I can anymore," he whispered before stepping past him, heading for the door.

He clamped a single hand about the blond's wrist, "Or, maybe you just need a counterpoint."

The blond barely had time to blink in confusion before a fist breezed past his cheek. He leered through dark bangs, but the pale boy seemed frozen, so he attacked. He pushed. The blond scrambled, dodged, called his name, screamed that they shouldn't be fighting.

"We're not," he replied, challenging even in its neutrality. He snapped a kick at the blond's side, who blocked, twisted, pushed him off balance. When he'd recovered, pale blue eyes had sharpened. He grunted and lunged again. The blond remained stubbornly defensive, but this time something was different. There was rhythm, purpose. The other blocked more than dodged, moved little, didn't lose ground, but gave it. Keen, pale blue eyes dissecting.

Soft, ragged breath mixed with matching, irregular footfalls in the sun streaked air to fill the perfect acoustic silence. Then the blond clamped down on his leg. Blue met blue for an instant. He twisted, the blond met him with a knee. He countered and felt an elbow dig into his ribs. He punched, but found a fist lightly brush his jaw. He grappled only to find himself on his back, gasping to refill his lungs.

The blond was staring at him with those soft pale blue eyes again, "What was the point of that?"

"We can't afford to fear ourselves." He stayed sprawled on the floor in the dappled light.

The blond started toward the door again, "We fear what we can't control."

He stood, dusting off his barely rumbled school uniform, "You didn't hurt me."

The soft click of the lock sounded clearly, but pale blue eyes cast back a single glance from the doorway. Then the blond was gone.

windwraith – I do enjoy my similes. 'That grin like a gun' was a reference to an earlier description of his grin and, yes, I was taken with the alliteration, too. Thanks for reading!

Hugglesbunny – Thanks a lot!

Xardion – If you got a laugh out of it, then my job here is done. Thanks, again!