Duo's Pain
Chapter 5
"Duo? What are you doing?" Wufie asked as he stared at the two long haired men standing in the kitchen holding plates of pancakes.
Wufie had decided that no matter how much he exercised, the problem of Duo was not just going to go away and the sooner he face the fact that he didn't know what to do about it, the sooner he would get some much needed rest.
Now, staring at the surprised Duo, he wasn't sure how to work anything out with him.
"We were hungry so I made some blueberry pancakes. Do you want some?" Duo asked softly, surprising Wufie even more.
"Are you sure they're safe to eat?" Wufie asked, not really thinking about what he was saying because he was still in shock that Duo had cooked something that didn't look like it was from a charcole factory.
Hearing what Wufie had just said, Duo abruply put down his plate and hurried out of the room, a sharp pain growing in his chest, before the other two in the room could say anything.
Shin started to go after him, but then spun around and punched Wufie in the face. "You ass! Do you have any idea about what you just did?" he yelled in the startled boy's face. "He offered you something he worked hard on as a peace offering and the first words out of your mouth are 'Are you sure ther're safe to eat?' What are you, stupid? You really hurt him!" Shin shouted then hurried out of the room.
He hurried to the room that Duo had woken up in, knowing that was where Duo would most likely head. As he headed towards the door, Quatre and Trowa poked their heads out their door.
"What's going on?" Quatre asked worriedly.
"Me and Duo made some pancakes and Duo offered some to Wufie and the first words out of his mouth was to ask if it was safe to eat." Shin said quietly as he put his hand on the door knob to the room Duo was in. While Trowa and Quatre looked at each other in shock, Shin hurried into the room and closed the door gently behind him.
"I can't believe that Wufie would say something lie that." Trowa said as he headed towards the stairs that led to the kitchen with Quatre right behind him.
"Neither can I but you know how Wufie gets when his he upset about something. Anything could pop out of his mouth and Duo never really attempted to cook anything, that we are aware of, before." Quatre said as he brushed his bangs out of his eyes.
"Let's just hope the damage isn't to bad that Duo won't trust us ever again. You know how sensisitive he is when he feels insicure."
"I don't see why I even bother. Nothing has changed. I'm still the same old Duo that has o one and nothing, and they are still the self-rightchous basterds that couldn't care less about me." Duo snarled as he angrily wiped at the tears that were flowing down his cheeks as he paced around the room. Shin just sighed and enfolded the protesting boy in a hug. After a moment of struggling, Duo abruptly leaned into Shin and started crying on his shoulder.
"It's ok, Duo. Wufie wasn't thinking when he said that. He was stunned at seeing you and he didn't know how to react. He just blurted out the first thng that came into his mind. After all, he had seen your food before, like the first time you tried to cook for the boys." Shin said as he sat down on the bed and Duo curled up in his lap, his arms still wrapped around the older man's waist.
"Yeah, that was a disaster." Duo said with a watery smile as he remembered it.
FLASHBACK
"Everyone, don't come into the kitchen. I want to make dinner for everyone!" Duo yelled as herushed into the kitchen and slammed the door behind him.
"Ok. But would you like a little help?" Quatre called as he headed up stairs to change out of h is greasy clothes. All the pilots had been working on their Gundams which had been damaged in the last battle.
"No thanks. I want it to be a surprise for you guys!" Duo said cheerfully and then began to make an all American dinner for the others.
"Let's see, for home-made french fries, I need to cut up the potatos and put some oil in a big pot...."
An hour later, the other four pilots were sitting around the table in the dinning room, waiting fo Duo to bring out the food he had just made. They had heards loud bangs and curses coming form the other room for a while, but a few minutes ago, everything had gone silent.
"I hope everything is alright in there." Quatre said quietly to Trowa, who nodded in agreement. Just then, the kitchen door opened and out walked a smokey, slightly burned and chared, Duo Maxell carrying a tray with charcole burgers and dark brown and black french fries.
After setting the tray down and serving everyone, Duo looked at the others expectantly. "I know it doesn't look like to much, but I'm sure they taste just fine." he said and took a big bite of his burger. The others looked at his silenly as he chewed and swollowed the bite.
"See? It's just fine." he said weakly, his face a pale green color.
END FLASHBACK
"That really was gross." Duo said as he sat up and wiped at his eyes.
"So why don't we go back downstairs and make somemore for the others. I'm sure they came out fine and I think Wufie wants to apolagise." Shin said and Duo nodded quietly. Silently, the headed back down stairs but stopped at the dorr to the kitchen. Inside they could here Quatre yelling at Wufie.
"How could you, Wufie?" Quatre screamed.
"I didn't mean to say that. It just popped out." Wufie said quietly.
"What if you just pushed him away again? I didn't spend the last year looking for him just to have you push him away just as we got him back." Quatre emanded but before ufie could say anything else, Duo and Shin opened the door.
"Don't worry, Quatre. I'm not going anywhere. And besides, you remember the last time I tried to cook for you guys, right?" Duo asked and Trowa and Quatre nodded.
"Listen Duo, I'm sorry for what I said." Wufie said suddenly and Duo just waved his hand.
"Don't worry about it. I understand. But at least try them next time."
"Sure."
"Now that we're down here, why don't we all eat some." Heero said from behind Shin and Duo. He had come down right after the two long haired men had and had heard everything that Shin had tiold Trowa ans Quatre and then what he had told Duo.
"We'll have to make some more but you guys can split eight already on the table." Shin said as he gently pushed Duo in the direction of the stove with a smile tugging at his lips.
"They really do smell good." Quatre said as he grabbed some more plates out of the cupboard and put them on the kitchen table where the others joined him in dividing the pancakes.
"These are really good." Trowa said after a minute with the others nodding before they turned back to their food. Within ten minutes all six were sitting at the table downing stacks of blueberry pancakes.
"Where did you learn to cook this good?" Heero asked after a little while and the others nodded.
"Living alone for a year, I had to learn how to cook and then just be carefull to follow directions. It's actually very easy once you get the hang of it." Duo said with a little smile.
"Yes it is," Quatre agreed as he brought his plate to the sink. "but I thought you hated to do work?" he added after a moment when Duo came up and gently pushed him out of the way and began doing the dishes in the sink.
"I've gitten used to it. Everyone, just dump your dishes in here once you're done." he said and then turned to Shin. "Did you happen to grab my cd carrier case? I'm really in the mood to listen to something."
"Don't you remember that we put it into subspace a while ago?" Shin asked as he brought his plate over. "And now that you're diffrent, you can get it for yourself."
"Really? I forgot about that part." Duo said thought fully as he placed a plate in the drainboard.
The other four pilots had no clue about what was going on and it was very evident on their faces.
"Maybe you should try to get my scythe before you try for the disks, just in case somethin happens." Shin suddegested and Duo nodded in understanding. He had some cds that you can't get anywhere anymore in there.
After turning off the water and drying his hands, he held out his open palms and concentrated on the scythe and with in a minute, it flickered into exisitance in his hand.
The others stared in shock at the green glowing scythe that Duo now held in his hands. They were just begining to relise that this was not the same Duo Maxell that they were used to.
"Ok. Now that you can call the scythe, send it back." Shin said and nodded in aprovment as it disappered. A moment later, a case that could up to sixty cds appered in it's place and Duo quickly opened it and pulled out a cd.
Looking around, he spotted the cd player that he had left behind two years ago when they were still fighting against Oz. Hurrying over, he poped the cd in and hit play. Within moments, Dido started singing.
I didn't hear you leave
I wonder how am I still here
I don't want to move a thing
It might change my memory
As the first haunting words filled the air, the others stopped what they were going and listened to it. After a moment of surprise at the choice of music he had put on, they found themselves watching Duo as he sang along with the song as he finished the rest of the dishes, which Shin had brought to him.
Oh I am what I am
I'll do what I want
But I can't hide
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
until you're resting here with me
I won't leave
I can't hide
I cannot be
until you're resting here with me
I don't want to call my friends
They might wake me from this dream
And I can't leave this bed
Risk forgetting all that's been
Oh I am what I am
I'll do what I want
But I can't hide
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
Until you're resting here with me
I won't leave
I can't leave
I cannot be
Until you're resting here
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
Until you're resting here with me
I won't leave
I can't leave
I cannot be
Until you're resting here with me
Oh I am what i am
I'll do what I want
But I can't hide
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
Until you're resting here with me
I won't leave
I can't leave
I cannot be
Until you're resting here
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
Until you're resting here with me
I won't leave
I can't leave
I cannot be
Until you're resting here with me
As the song finished, Quatre had tears in his eyes as he went over to Duo and hugged the surprised teen.
"What's wrong, Quatre?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy.
"That was beautiful Duo."
"What?" Duo asked, not understanding what the blonde was talking about.
"He means that that the song and your singing touched him." Shin said with an amused expression on his face.
Duo blushed and said in teasing voice, "If I had known that you we're going soak my shirt because of a song, I would have put 'It's My Life' from Bon Jovi on instead."
Quatre laughed as he released him and wiped at his eyes.
Heero stepped foreward said in a quiet voice, "We need to talk, Duo."
"Ok, what did you want to talk about Heero?" Duo asked. They were all sitting on he couches in the living room with Trowa and Quatre sharing a couche and Heero and Wufie on two chairs, and all of them surounding the chouch that Duo and Shin were sitting on.
"Duo, we want to apologise for how we acted a year ago. We realised when you were in the coma that we had made a big mistake and we should have never told you to leave." Heero said quietly and Quatre nodded, but Duo interruped before the blonde could say anything.
"It really hurt when you told me to leave. It was like I was something that you used until I wasn't needed anymore than tossed me away. You have no idea what that is like." Duo said as he ran a hand through his bangs.
"I understand to a point." Quatre said quietly. "For the first fourteen years of my life, I thought I was a test tube baby just so that my father could have a heir for his companies, like my twenty-eight sisters."
"What?!" Duo and Shin chorused.
"Yeah. I found out that I was wrong a couple of months before I left on project Meteor. All my life I felt that my dad only jad me created just to make sure a male decendent with the Winner name inherit. After all, as long as a male was born with the name, it didn't matter how he was created." Quatre said bitterly and Trowa quietly squeezed his shoulders in comfort.
"I was raised to find honor only in the strong. When I was younger I didn't want to learn how to fight, but they had decidied before I was even born that I was going to be a fighter just so that I could uphold the clan's honor in battle, even thought I wasn't suposed to be a Gundam pilot." Wufie said suddenly, surprising everyone, though Heero didn't let it show.
"I was used as what ever they wanted where I grew up." This was from Trowa and it was Quatre's turn to comfort his lover.
"I was raised to be a perfect soldier, no matter what I wanted and then after the war there was no more use for me." Heero said as he stared at Duo. "We have all felt like you do and it hurt all of us in one way or another. But we never ment to hurt you, after we calmed down, we realised that we didn't want you to leave, but as soon as we realised that, you shot yourself." he said, surprising Duo and Shin with both the length of his speech, and his in depth anlisis of events.
"I...I need to think about this." Duo said as he stood up and headed towards the kitchen.
They watched him disapper and then a minute later he was back with a can of soda. "Guys I was really hurt, but I guess I understand things fom your point of view. I was really a pain in the ass most of the time, even if I was trying to cheer you guys up. I...forgive you guys, but only if you forgive me for being a pain and flying off the deep end." he said and Quatre immeditally jumped and wrapped him in a hug with the others surrounding them.
Right in the middle of the happy celibrating, the front door was kicked open and men smashed in through the windows. "Everyone freeze. New Oz is taking you into custody."
Chapter 5
"Duo? What are you doing?" Wufie asked as he stared at the two long haired men standing in the kitchen holding plates of pancakes.
Wufie had decided that no matter how much he exercised, the problem of Duo was not just going to go away and the sooner he face the fact that he didn't know what to do about it, the sooner he would get some much needed rest.
Now, staring at the surprised Duo, he wasn't sure how to work anything out with him.
"We were hungry so I made some blueberry pancakes. Do you want some?" Duo asked softly, surprising Wufie even more.
"Are you sure they're safe to eat?" Wufie asked, not really thinking about what he was saying because he was still in shock that Duo had cooked something that didn't look like it was from a charcole factory.
Hearing what Wufie had just said, Duo abruply put down his plate and hurried out of the room, a sharp pain growing in his chest, before the other two in the room could say anything.
Shin started to go after him, but then spun around and punched Wufie in the face. "You ass! Do you have any idea about what you just did?" he yelled in the startled boy's face. "He offered you something he worked hard on as a peace offering and the first words out of your mouth are 'Are you sure ther're safe to eat?' What are you, stupid? You really hurt him!" Shin shouted then hurried out of the room.
He hurried to the room that Duo had woken up in, knowing that was where Duo would most likely head. As he headed towards the door, Quatre and Trowa poked their heads out their door.
"What's going on?" Quatre asked worriedly.
"Me and Duo made some pancakes and Duo offered some to Wufie and the first words out of his mouth was to ask if it was safe to eat." Shin said quietly as he put his hand on the door knob to the room Duo was in. While Trowa and Quatre looked at each other in shock, Shin hurried into the room and closed the door gently behind him.
"I can't believe that Wufie would say something lie that." Trowa said as he headed towards the stairs that led to the kitchen with Quatre right behind him.
"Neither can I but you know how Wufie gets when his he upset about something. Anything could pop out of his mouth and Duo never really attempted to cook anything, that we are aware of, before." Quatre said as he brushed his bangs out of his eyes.
"Let's just hope the damage isn't to bad that Duo won't trust us ever again. You know how sensisitive he is when he feels insicure."
"I don't see why I even bother. Nothing has changed. I'm still the same old Duo that has o one and nothing, and they are still the self-rightchous basterds that couldn't care less about me." Duo snarled as he angrily wiped at the tears that were flowing down his cheeks as he paced around the room. Shin just sighed and enfolded the protesting boy in a hug. After a moment of struggling, Duo abruptly leaned into Shin and started crying on his shoulder.
"It's ok, Duo. Wufie wasn't thinking when he said that. He was stunned at seeing you and he didn't know how to react. He just blurted out the first thng that came into his mind. After all, he had seen your food before, like the first time you tried to cook for the boys." Shin said as he sat down on the bed and Duo curled up in his lap, his arms still wrapped around the older man's waist.
"Yeah, that was a disaster." Duo said with a watery smile as he remembered it.
FLASHBACK
"Everyone, don't come into the kitchen. I want to make dinner for everyone!" Duo yelled as herushed into the kitchen and slammed the door behind him.
"Ok. But would you like a little help?" Quatre called as he headed up stairs to change out of h is greasy clothes. All the pilots had been working on their Gundams which had been damaged in the last battle.
"No thanks. I want it to be a surprise for you guys!" Duo said cheerfully and then began to make an all American dinner for the others.
"Let's see, for home-made french fries, I need to cut up the potatos and put some oil in a big pot...."
An hour later, the other four pilots were sitting around the table in the dinning room, waiting fo Duo to bring out the food he had just made. They had heards loud bangs and curses coming form the other room for a while, but a few minutes ago, everything had gone silent.
"I hope everything is alright in there." Quatre said quietly to Trowa, who nodded in agreement. Just then, the kitchen door opened and out walked a smokey, slightly burned and chared, Duo Maxell carrying a tray with charcole burgers and dark brown and black french fries.
After setting the tray down and serving everyone, Duo looked at the others expectantly. "I know it doesn't look like to much, but I'm sure they taste just fine." he said and took a big bite of his burger. The others looked at his silenly as he chewed and swollowed the bite.
"See? It's just fine." he said weakly, his face a pale green color.
END FLASHBACK
"That really was gross." Duo said as he sat up and wiped at his eyes.
"So why don't we go back downstairs and make somemore for the others. I'm sure they came out fine and I think Wufie wants to apolagise." Shin said and Duo nodded quietly. Silently, the headed back down stairs but stopped at the dorr to the kitchen. Inside they could here Quatre yelling at Wufie.
"How could you, Wufie?" Quatre screamed.
"I didn't mean to say that. It just popped out." Wufie said quietly.
"What if you just pushed him away again? I didn't spend the last year looking for him just to have you push him away just as we got him back." Quatre emanded but before ufie could say anything else, Duo and Shin opened the door.
"Don't worry, Quatre. I'm not going anywhere. And besides, you remember the last time I tried to cook for you guys, right?" Duo asked and Trowa and Quatre nodded.
"Listen Duo, I'm sorry for what I said." Wufie said suddenly and Duo just waved his hand.
"Don't worry about it. I understand. But at least try them next time."
"Sure."
"Now that we're down here, why don't we all eat some." Heero said from behind Shin and Duo. He had come down right after the two long haired men had and had heard everything that Shin had tiold Trowa ans Quatre and then what he had told Duo.
"We'll have to make some more but you guys can split eight already on the table." Shin said as he gently pushed Duo in the direction of the stove with a smile tugging at his lips.
"They really do smell good." Quatre said as he grabbed some more plates out of the cupboard and put them on the kitchen table where the others joined him in dividing the pancakes.
"These are really good." Trowa said after a minute with the others nodding before they turned back to their food. Within ten minutes all six were sitting at the table downing stacks of blueberry pancakes.
"Where did you learn to cook this good?" Heero asked after a little while and the others nodded.
"Living alone for a year, I had to learn how to cook and then just be carefull to follow directions. It's actually very easy once you get the hang of it." Duo said with a little smile.
"Yes it is," Quatre agreed as he brought his plate to the sink. "but I thought you hated to do work?" he added after a moment when Duo came up and gently pushed him out of the way and began doing the dishes in the sink.
"I've gitten used to it. Everyone, just dump your dishes in here once you're done." he said and then turned to Shin. "Did you happen to grab my cd carrier case? I'm really in the mood to listen to something."
"Don't you remember that we put it into subspace a while ago?" Shin asked as he brought his plate over. "And now that you're diffrent, you can get it for yourself."
"Really? I forgot about that part." Duo said thought fully as he placed a plate in the drainboard.
The other four pilots had no clue about what was going on and it was very evident on their faces.
"Maybe you should try to get my scythe before you try for the disks, just in case somethin happens." Shin suddegested and Duo nodded in understanding. He had some cds that you can't get anywhere anymore in there.
After turning off the water and drying his hands, he held out his open palms and concentrated on the scythe and with in a minute, it flickered into exisitance in his hand.
The others stared in shock at the green glowing scythe that Duo now held in his hands. They were just begining to relise that this was not the same Duo Maxell that they were used to.
"Ok. Now that you can call the scythe, send it back." Shin said and nodded in aprovment as it disappered. A moment later, a case that could up to sixty cds appered in it's place and Duo quickly opened it and pulled out a cd.
Looking around, he spotted the cd player that he had left behind two years ago when they were still fighting against Oz. Hurrying over, he poped the cd in and hit play. Within moments, Dido started singing.
I didn't hear you leave
I wonder how am I still here
I don't want to move a thing
It might change my memory
As the first haunting words filled the air, the others stopped what they were going and listened to it. After a moment of surprise at the choice of music he had put on, they found themselves watching Duo as he sang along with the song as he finished the rest of the dishes, which Shin had brought to him.
Oh I am what I am
I'll do what I want
But I can't hide
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
until you're resting here with me
I won't leave
I can't hide
I cannot be
until you're resting here with me
I don't want to call my friends
They might wake me from this dream
And I can't leave this bed
Risk forgetting all that's been
Oh I am what I am
I'll do what I want
But I can't hide
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
Until you're resting here with me
I won't leave
I can't leave
I cannot be
Until you're resting here
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
Until you're resting here with me
I won't leave
I can't leave
I cannot be
Until you're resting here with me
Oh I am what i am
I'll do what I want
But I can't hide
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
Until you're resting here with me
I won't leave
I can't leave
I cannot be
Until you're resting here
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
Until you're resting here with me
I won't leave
I can't leave
I cannot be
Until you're resting here with me
As the song finished, Quatre had tears in his eyes as he went over to Duo and hugged the surprised teen.
"What's wrong, Quatre?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy.
"That was beautiful Duo."
"What?" Duo asked, not understanding what the blonde was talking about.
"He means that that the song and your singing touched him." Shin said with an amused expression on his face.
Duo blushed and said in teasing voice, "If I had known that you we're going soak my shirt because of a song, I would have put 'It's My Life' from Bon Jovi on instead."
Quatre laughed as he released him and wiped at his eyes.
Heero stepped foreward said in a quiet voice, "We need to talk, Duo."
"Ok, what did you want to talk about Heero?" Duo asked. They were all sitting on he couches in the living room with Trowa and Quatre sharing a couche and Heero and Wufie on two chairs, and all of them surounding the chouch that Duo and Shin were sitting on.
"Duo, we want to apologise for how we acted a year ago. We realised when you were in the coma that we had made a big mistake and we should have never told you to leave." Heero said quietly and Quatre nodded, but Duo interruped before the blonde could say anything.
"It really hurt when you told me to leave. It was like I was something that you used until I wasn't needed anymore than tossed me away. You have no idea what that is like." Duo said as he ran a hand through his bangs.
"I understand to a point." Quatre said quietly. "For the first fourteen years of my life, I thought I was a test tube baby just so that my father could have a heir for his companies, like my twenty-eight sisters."
"What?!" Duo and Shin chorused.
"Yeah. I found out that I was wrong a couple of months before I left on project Meteor. All my life I felt that my dad only jad me created just to make sure a male decendent with the Winner name inherit. After all, as long as a male was born with the name, it didn't matter how he was created." Quatre said bitterly and Trowa quietly squeezed his shoulders in comfort.
"I was raised to find honor only in the strong. When I was younger I didn't want to learn how to fight, but they had decidied before I was even born that I was going to be a fighter just so that I could uphold the clan's honor in battle, even thought I wasn't suposed to be a Gundam pilot." Wufie said suddenly, surprising everyone, though Heero didn't let it show.
"I was used as what ever they wanted where I grew up." This was from Trowa and it was Quatre's turn to comfort his lover.
"I was raised to be a perfect soldier, no matter what I wanted and then after the war there was no more use for me." Heero said as he stared at Duo. "We have all felt like you do and it hurt all of us in one way or another. But we never ment to hurt you, after we calmed down, we realised that we didn't want you to leave, but as soon as we realised that, you shot yourself." he said, surprising Duo and Shin with both the length of his speech, and his in depth anlisis of events.
"I...I need to think about this." Duo said as he stood up and headed towards the kitchen.
They watched him disapper and then a minute later he was back with a can of soda. "Guys I was really hurt, but I guess I understand things fom your point of view. I was really a pain in the ass most of the time, even if I was trying to cheer you guys up. I...forgive you guys, but only if you forgive me for being a pain and flying off the deep end." he said and Quatre immeditally jumped and wrapped him in a hug with the others surrounding them.
Right in the middle of the happy celibrating, the front door was kicked open and men smashed in through the windows. "Everyone freeze. New Oz is taking you into custody."