*****
"Duo's from L2?" Sally asked, looking at the x-rays.
"Yes..." Wufei answered suspicously. "Why?"
She sighed, and looked back at the test results in the folder in
her hand. "Don't you kids watch the news?"
"Onna, if you don't tell us what's wrong with the damn baka--"
She bit her lip, trying to remind herself that Wufei was very
stressed at the moment, worrying about his friend. "L2 is a
very poor colony," she finally said. "They don't have a
reputation for following health codes all the time. The
Department of Human Rights has a certain set of regulations
that a colony must follow to remain fit for human habitation;
this involves flushing waste, water purification, and so on.
"Recently, it has come to public attention that certain areas of
L2--the more inner city ones--don't change the air filters
regularly. A virus mutated in a few of these filters eight to
ten years ago and caused a plauge, wiping out a great deal of the
population living on the streets before doctors could come up
with a vaccine."
She sighed and set down the files. "A mutation of this virus has
been incubating in Duo's lungs for quite some time. Cases like
this have been popping up all over L2 recently; I had a doctor friend
of mine there fax me a copy of all the information he has on it.
It's not contagious, but that won't help your friend."
"Can you cure him?" Heero asked, mouth tight.
"I don't know, Heero," she responded. "Time and medication should
be able to clear his body of the infection, but the virus is
resiliant. He'll probably have a few relapses." Sally pointed
to a few spots on the x-ray. "You can see here and here that there's damage to the lung tissue; if you'd been half an hour later,
he'd be coughing up blood right now."
"Prognosis?"
"He'll probably pull through. He's young and otherwise healthy."
*****
Duo's chest rose and fell slowly, and Heero was sorry he hadn't rushed more. The oxygen mask covering the American's mouth and nose looked strange on the boy, as did the IV bags hanging around him, and the monitors behind the bed. The pallor of his skin, accompanied by the light sheen of sweat across his face, did nothing to allay the Wing pilot's fear that something was dreadfully wrong with this picture of the normally vibrant Shinigami.
He allowed one hand to touch Duo's bangs, brushing them off the boy's
forehead; a tender look at the sleeping boy, just this once. Duo...
Duo was special. Leaning over, he gave into his urge to kiss the
waxy skin of Duo's cheek, right next to the edge of the oxygen mask.
It was a mere brush of the lips, but Heero felt something electric
move up his spine. "Duo..." he whispered, and shifted the mask aside
to get a better look at those lips.
Duo shifted a little, and sighed as the oxygen mask shifted. "Hilde..."
Heero froze. He could feel something inside him grow cold and hard,
lodging itself in his stomach.
What an idiot he was.
Replacing the oxygen mask, he silently turned and left the room.
Right outside the room, he bumped into Wufei. Great. Someone to
pity him.
"What's wrong, Heero?" the other boy asked quietly as they stood just
outside the doorway to Duo's room.
"Get out of my way," Heero said, just as quietly.
"It is not weakness to have feelings," Wufei said. "Nataku taught
me that."
Heero did not feel like learning about Wufei's baka gundam. "I'm
not weak. Step aside."
Wufei, instead of listening, put a hand on Heero's arm. "Maybe,
what you could not find with Duo, you could--perhaps--find with me."
Heero swallowed and looked up from the hand on his arm to his eyes,
into his eyes. Did he know the pain of loneliness, too? Was he tired
of the cold? Could he and Wufei...?
With a sigh of acceptance, he took the other's hand from his arm and
held it in his own. The feel of Wufei's fingers tingled slightly
in his own; Wufei had pleasant hands. They were hardly a match made
in heaven, but it would do to keep out the cold.
Back in the hospital room, Duo shifted uncomfortably in his sleep.