Okay, okay, so I was twenty minutes late. I had to spell-check it! =P I was still typing damn fast! w00! Hope you enjoy this, the final chapter of "Set In Stone"!! =^_^= Shounen-ai 1x2, angst and suffering...wait...the suffering is OVER!!! YEEHAW! Rated R for language and mild gore.
A.N. All, I repeat, ALL of the text in italics, excepting single words in other people's dialogue, but including the dream/memory sequence, are Heero's thoughts. =^_~= Didja get all that? Good.
Disclaimer #1: I don't own GW...*cries*...but if I DID own it, things would be SO different, but then again if "ifs and buts" were candy and nuts, we'd all weigh 300 pounds, so there. =P
Disclaimer #2: I was an English major, so when I write, I write wordy. You have been warned. =P
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Sally wanted to sedate Heero when he burst into laughter, but Duo stopped her. He didn't care if it was post-traumatic stress, it sounded damn good to his ears. Instead, she waited patiently for him to recover long enough to get his vitals checked over. She recorded his pulse and shone a penlight in his left eye. "I was starting to wonder about you," she teased. "Looked like you were going to miss a few days of work just for sleep." Heero swallowed; his throat was dry, sore, and terribly scratchy. "...where..." he choked out. "Peru," Sally said, switching the penlight to the other eye. He mouthed the word silently to Duo, as a question. Duo nodded. "Swear to God, a llama came by earlier and took your temperature. And you missed it." Sally rolled her eyes at Duo and continued while checking her patient's blood pressure. "We carried you out of that slime pit you were in, drove you back through the rain to the outpost, found out their most sophisticated medical facility was a first-aid hut, put you in our mobile suit carrier and flew you straight here. Our Lady of the Holy Something-or-Other, I didn't catch the name...but we're just outside Callao." Heero wondered who else she meant by 'we' until she moved away and he got a look at the bed to his left. Curled up comfortably, though covered head to foot in scrapes and bruises, was Noin. She rubbed her eyes, managed to give Heero a faint smile, and buried her head back into the stiff pillow. Duo poured a glass of water and handed it to him. "She had a punch-up with one of the creeps who set the explosives. Took a beating, but she's gonna be okay." The water looked only slightly better than the stuff Heero had just been pulled out of, but he gulped some of it down anyway. He looked to his right and saw the rest of his room. It was a long, stark rectangle meant to hold four hospital beds, although a fifth had been squeezed in at the far end. The walls were a bit dingy, some of the equipment looked antique, and the lemon fragrance was suspiciously overwhelming, but it didn't matter. Somehow, he had made it to heaven without dying. He glanced over the other occupants sharing his ward. Wufei was closest; Trowa and Quatre were in the two beds squashed into the floor space reserved for only one. All were sleeping. "What about them?" he asked. Sally threw her hands up, exasperated. "I honestly don't know! They won't let me do any work!" She walked around Heero's bed to stand next to Wufei, and brushed a strand of ebony hair out of his face. "I wish I knew what went on down there, but these guys have changed; all of a sudden they're stubborn and impractical and won't listen to anybody. They absolutely refused to leave this room, not even for x-rays...not until they knew what your prognosis was." She almost smiled as Wufei twitched sleepily at her touch. "Now that I sortof know, it's a shame to wake them." Her last words seemed strange to Heero. "Define 'sortof'." Sally ran an eye over his chart with an empty stare, then looked up. "I won't lie to you, Heero, I was hoping for a better result than this." Duo met Heero's eyes for a moment, then looked down. He already knew the details, and they didn't make him smile. "I'm not going to guarantee that you'll be able to walk again, because frankly, I just don't know," she continued. "You have multiple compound fractures and severe tissue damage. It's not even a simple task to set the broken bones because you're actually missing a few pieces. Plus," she said, flipping over a page, "you have a severe staphylococcus infection; I don't need to tell you how you got that. It started in your legs, but now it's systemic, and you've been running a high fever since we found you. I want to fly you to Kyoto tomorrow to see a surgeon that specializes in skeletal reconstruction, but they won't operate until we bring your fever down, and the drugs we've been giving you aren't doing very much." Heero absorbed it all quite calmly, pursing his lips in thought. "Anything else?" "Yes. You need a bath." She smiled a bit and poked Duo in the shoulder. "And would you please tell this one to go eat something? It's very difficult to concentrate while you've got a stomach rumbling at ninety decibels a few feet away." She turned and walked to the other side of the room to check the tensor bandage on Quatre's leg. "She exaggerates," Duo said with a shrug. "It was seventy-five at the most." He grinned. "I could use a bite, I'll bring you back something," Noin said, sliding gingerly off her bed. "Besides, you've got serious calories to replace after that little display earlier..." Heero raised an eyebrow. Duo looked guilty, but pleased with himself. "Yeah, well, that...it wasn't so bad...no big deal." "No big deal!?" Noin excitedly gave Heero the full report. "We're coming in through the emergency room, right? Duo woke up on the plane and he was just a little groggy, so he said he was alright to walk. They wheel you in, and then another bunch comes and gets this trigger-happy bastard we captured after tricking a confession out of him. I tell the nurses to put him in a different room from you, because he was responsible for your injuries. "This guy," she said, jerking a thumb emphatically in Duo's direction, "goes absolutely ballistic and tries to kill him while he's still on the stretcher! Hands around his throat so tight, I thought he was gonna rip the guy's head off...took all of us plus two orderlies to pry him away. And the mouth on this kid!" She put her hands on her hips and gave Duo a wide-eyed look; he grinned back proudly. "You never heard such a disgusting stream of filthy language in all your life! He even came up with a few I didn't know!" Duo shrugged. "I do some of my best work when I'm angry." "Yeah, right," Noin chided. "Anyway, I'm starving. I'll see you two after I hit the cafeteria." She left the room with a slight limp. Heero was impressed with the story for several reasons. If their positions had been reversed and Duo was the one at death's door, Heero decided he would have done the same. "I think," Duo said, reaching behind his back, "I can probably trust you with this now." He took Heero's gun out from it's resting place and set it on the tiny table beside him. "It'll give you something to do...you can polish it over and over until I can find you a book of crossword puzzles or something. You're going to be off your feet for a long time." Heero actually smiled at the gesture. "How is everybody, really?" Duo tilted his head to the side, running over a mental checklist. "Between them, they pulled about three dozen muscles, Wu's got a little chest congestion from the cold, Quatre's gonna be limping for awhile, cuts and bruises all round. Trowa did pretty well." "...and?" "And what?" Duo wilted under a Deathglare. "Okay, okay...I had a bit of a concussion and a little water in my lungs, nothing serious." He moved closer. "Sally says it would've been a hell of a lot worse if you hadn't been looking after me. I might not've made it." Heero glowered. "I almost got us all killed." "No you didn't!" Duo exclaimed. He grasped Heero's arm, being careful not to dislodge the IV drip. "I don't ever want to hear you talk like that again! We chose to stay. We decided it was worth the risk. And since you did such a great job looking after me, I'm gonna look after you. If I have to wheel you around for the next fifty years, I'll do it...because I choose to." Heero laid there in a stunned silence. Everything that had been said between them in the last 24 hours was completely genuine. He was appreciated, wanted, loved...it felt like the most important part of his stolen humanity had been reclaimed. I have a gift for you, to let you know I'll never treat my life so carelessly again. Heero started to say something, then winced and clutched his throat, wanting Duo to believe he couldn't talk easily. He beckoned him closer, and closer still. Duo kept leaning forward until his ear was only a few inches from Heero's face. With his left hand, the one without the IV, Heero reached up and pulled the boy's head so close, his lips nearly brushed against his cheek. He spoke gently in a perfectly clear voice. "Ai shiteru, Duo." He placed a warm kiss on Duo's neck just below his ear. Duo inhaled and shuddered with delight. When they pulled away from each other, his violet eyes were dancing and shimmering just as they had done at the carnival. "Whoa...I must've really done a number on you down there. Either that or it's the morphine talking." He sighed with relief. "At least now I can finally say it back!" Heero looked puzzled. Now that he thought about it, Duo had never admitted his feelings, although in retrospect they seemed self-apparent. "Why didn't you ever say it?" "I had a good reason for that," Duo explained, shifting his weight to the other foot suddenly. "If I told you how I felt and you didn't ignore me or punch me in the mouth for it, you might've just parroted the words back to me, to keep me happy or to shut me up, depending on what sort of mood you were in. That's why I've said everything but those words up till now, because I wanted you to say them first. I wanted you to really mean it." Stricken with alien emotions, Heero nodded. "I do mean it." "Then I guess you've earned this," Duo whispered, leaning forward again. "Ai shiteru, Heero." He kissed him once on the lips, feeling the boiling hot fever on his face. Duo stayed at his side until Heero fell asleep, and long after. He was at his side to press cool cloths to his burning forehead, and to smuggle extra desserts to him from the cafeteria. He was at his side on the plane to Kyoto, and was waiting for him when he came out of surgery. He was at his side when the physiotherapist explained how the titanium rods in his legs might affect his mobility. He was at his side when he tentatively climbed back into Wing a scant ten days later. Duo was forever at his side. **********Heero Yuy was a very different person during his convalescence. He was still a stubborn and impossible patient, as Sally expected, and he still recovered at an alarming rate, perhaps better than she expected. Duo was even happily prepared for certain changes in their relationship that might come down the road, which he knew would be rather un-Heero-like. What confused Duo, after getting Heero discharged to one of Quatre's luxury estates, was the way he behaved around his laptop for a particular two or three days. It has been nearly a month since the 'incident', and he had been too busy with physiotherapy to even touch the machine. When he finally did, a strange thing happened. Every time Duo entered a room where Heero was busily typing away, instead of ignoring the baka as usual, he would slap the computer closed and fold both arms over it, with an impish gleam in his eye. Once he even leaned an elbow on it casually, propping his head up with one hand, and wearing a look that said, 'And you would be coming in here, why?' Duo chucked a pillow at him that time. He was obviously putting a lot of effort into something, but for now it was a secret. Duo felt the same way about secrets as he did about suprises--he couldn't stand to wait. Each time, Duo would leave the room with no more information than he had when he came in. Heero realized in those few days how much fun it was making his friend squirm with annoyance. Revenge was sweet. **********Quatre walked quickly into the study, carrying the Friday morning news and abruptly disturbing Trowa's practice time with the sound of rustling papers. "Those two guys are being sentenced on Monday!" He sat down on the sofa and spread parts of the newspaper all over the coffee table. Trowa put his flute down carefully and joined him. They read the article at an equal pace. Burt would receive a lesser sentence because he showed remorse and concern for Heero and the others after the fact, and because he assisted in Louch's capture, but he would still serve some time. When interviewed, he apologized for his behaviour and publicly thanked Lucrezia Noin and Sally Po for setting him straight. As for Louch, he showed no remorse whatsoever, and the prosecutor was pushing for the maximum. Fifteen years seemed most likely. Their reverie was broken by Wufei jumping down the grand staircase, two steps at a time, pulling on his jacket. Instead of his usual attire, he had on a classy-looking outfit in muted blues and grays, with stylish, contemporary lines. Quatre could also detect a whiff of cologne. "Another date with Sally?" Trowa teased. "It is not a date!" Wufei barked. "We merely happen to be eating at the same restaurant and going to the same theatre afterwards. It would be wasteful to take two vehicles, that's all." "And you'll just happen to be eating at the same table to save on silverware," Trowa said, raising his visible eyebrow. "And your seats at the show will just happen to be next to each other to economize space," Quatre chirped. Wufei fastened a cufflink and smiled less-than-innocently. "Yes." He walked into the study, glanced at the paper, and stuck his hands in his pockets. "So where's the Bionic Man?" Trowa shrugged. "He took Duo somewhere this morning. Said they'd be gone for the weekend." "He left?" Quatre spouted short phrases in rapid succession. "What did he leave in? The car? Heero drove? He's not even supposed to be walking! How can he drive?" Wufei rolled his eyes slightly. "I saw him leg-press his own weight on that home gym you have but never use the other day. He'll be fine." The trio chatted aimlessly but cheerfully until Sally arrived. Wufei left Trowa and Quatre to their own devices once again, and all parties concerned had a pleasant, relaxing evening. **********Bright and early Saturday morning, Heero woke Duo with a military flair; he carefully put a pair of headphones over his ears, popped a disc into his portable stereo, and waited. At 0600 hours, he pressed play and blasted the dozy Deathscythe pilot with a loud recording of a bugler playing Reveille. Duo jumped a good foot and a half off the bed and yelped. Heero chuckled lightly at his prank, which earned him a swift hotel pillow to the face. After being so cruelly awakened, Duo realized with horror that Heero was already up, dressed, fed, watered, and his bed was made to quarter-bouncing standards and above. Curses on the morning people of the world. "Get up, we have someplace to go today." "I thought we were already there!" Duo whined, pulling on his shirt lazily. Heero shook his head. "The drive out here was only the first part. Meet me at the car and you can grab some breakfast on the way there." Duo moaned a bit, but went along with it. Heero was acting mysterious ever since yesterday when he practically dragged Duo to the car with two suitcases and drove for hours. When they got to the hotel, everything seemed arranged; there was a non-smoking double reserved, with a bed for each of them. Even though they had just passed a major emotional milestone together, they were content to take things slow for now. They made their way back to the car, at which point Heero took something out of the glove compartment--a purple silk scarf. Duo was too sleepy to notice him winding it into a band; before he knew what was going on, Heero had tied the scarf around his eyes and knotted it firmly at the back. "Oi! Heero! What's going on? Get this off me, you brat!" Heero slapped Duo's hands when he tried to take it off himself. "Leave it where it is. I don't want you to see where we're going." "....oh." Duo sensed a surprise on the horizon. They drove in a winding path for half an hour or more, and stopped. Duo felt hands guiding him out of the car and across a large area, which felt fairly smooth and flat; Heero kept him from walking into several cars as they crossed the parking lot. They reached a gate, and the man in charge compared Heero to a picture he had been emailed, and waved them both through. Everything was arranged. "Heero? Where are we? I hear people...and music...and I definitely smell sugar!" "Not yet..." He marched Duo past befuddled onlookers to stand in an open area. "Alright...now." Duo eased the blindfold off and blinked. All around him, there were flashing lights, children and adults running happily everywhere, the sounds of the midway, the smell of cotton candy and pretzels... "Oh, no way! NO WAY!!" Duo leapt for joy and hugged Heero with all his strength. "So this is what you've been doing on your silly computer!" He had tracked down the carnival's route since they last visited, and planned out a little getaway just for the two of them. It just about brought a tear to Duo's eye. "You haven't seen the best part," Heero said, pointing to the far corner of the park. Duo's eyes widened. Far away in the distance, beckoning with it's dizzying drops and ferocious speed, was the crown jewel of the carnival. The killer. The ultimate. The Quantum Death 3000. "Race you there," Heero challenged with a grin. "You're on!" They took their marks, counted to three, and sprinted all the way to the roller coaster. Heero won, but not by much. It never came up whether Heero was slowed down by his injury, or whether he let Duo keep a close distance behind just so they wouldn't be separated. He had gotten too used to them doing so much together, he didn't want it to end. Neither of them did. They wanted to stay at each other's side for the rest of their lives. Being together made them happy. ~owari |
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*sniffle*...no...it's OVERRRR!!! *waii* Oh well, more where that came from. *taps side of head* =^_~= Aren't you glad I made this a happy ending? I sure am! *taking deep bows* You've all been so great to me my first month here at FFN, I can't thank you enough! Until next story...bye! =D
ADDITIONAL NOTE (May 10, 2001): A few of you might be moderately interested to know that I have at least four more GW fics in the planning stages (and a couple non-GW ones, but we'll leave them for now, ne? =^_^=). I'm also putting up a web gallery which will host my drawings/fanart, copies of fics, and a few other nifty thingz; the art section might also be open to anyone here willing to pick up a pencil (or whatever). Will update as events merit, subject to approval, film at eleven, yada yada yada... =^_~=
