Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from GW.damn.

Part Two

I had dozed off in a feverish sleep; but a throbbing pain in my back woke me. I opened my eyes and came face to face with Quatre. He was awake, fearfully looking behind me. "Lemme guess." I groaned, "A really ugly ogre that should attempt to take a bath without filling the tub with piss first is standing behind me." Quatre didn't get a chance to answer before I got another kick in the back.

I clenched my teeth to stop any sound trying to get out of my mouth. "What the hell do you want now?" I mumbled; keeping my teeth held together tightly. I noticed that my fingers were no longer holding Quatre's, but instead, he was holding mine. I looked across at him and he was looking at our hands overly confused. I would have laughed at the oh-so-adorable expression on his pale face. Unfortunately, I couldn't without the probability of me or him getting beat to a bloody pulp.

"I ask the questions 'round here." Another kick in the back. "And right now, I wanna know who the hell you are." Someone grabbed my braid and pulled hard. It hurt like a bitch! These assholes were gonna die. They had a date with Death and Death wasn't gonna stand 'em up. "Now tell me, who the hell are you?" He spoke slowly as if I couldn't understand.

"I can't remember." I mumbled. I almost spoke Japanese to be sarcastic but then figured it could have triggered something in Quatre's head. And him regaining his memory at that moment was not exactly what we needed. Deathscythe's cannon was what we needed.

"What do you mean you don't remember?" He growled, breathing his rank foul breath into my face. I had to use all my willpower to stop myself from retching right there.

"Is the fact that I have forgotten something that hard for you to comprehend? I thought 'I can't remember' was pretty self explanatory." I hissed. I was pulled up into an almost standing position by my hair, I won't describe the pain. Okay, I /can't/ describe the pain. It felt as though my hair was gonna be torn off my head. Anyway I was still tied to Quatre. He was pulled under me, so he was on his back. I was dropped and I tried to separate my hands to catch myself before landing on him and he had the same idea. As it turned out our hands were forced above Quatre's head and I landed across his body. He cried out as I hit his ribs.

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly once he was able to breathe. I nodded, speechless. Being this close to him was the most indescribable feeling I had ever felt. It was a good feeling, no a great feeling and I never wanted to move again. And if that bastard hadn't grabbed my hair and pulled me away, I would have begun that forever.

But well, all good things, or incredibly great things, must come to an end. I was pulled away again, this time the rope that bound Quatre's hands to mine came loose from around my hands and I was pulled slightly to my feet. Quatre had to bend his knees so I could stay standing.

"I told you, I don't remember." I hissed against the pain from him pulling my braid. I wondered who he was with. Oz perhaps and he was only playing with us. The last thought almost made me laugh. Almost. They had turned Quatre into a sex slave and had beaten him so bad he couldn't remember who he was. Even Oz wasn't that cruel and they were really ugly.even more so than Oz.

"Well, maybe your little friend here can help you." Foul breath invaded my nose and I had to turn away. The clown thought he had found a weak spot though. "If you don't tell us who you are, I'll let Horris here.play with him." The voice hissed. Horris lumbered over and drew near Quatre. I wasn't about to let him touch my friend again.

"My name is Heero Rabarba and he is Trowa Maxwell. We were camping somewhere and were swept into the ocean by a large wave. You found us and beat him and now he can't remember who he is." Words spilled from my mouth faster than I could think of them. Whatever had happened to 'I may run and hide, but I never tell a lie'?

"Heero Rabarba? Alright then, that wasn't so hard was it?" The other guy let me go and pushed me forward, I fell onto Quatre again. The two men left us and locked the basement door. We were silent and I knew something was wrong. As if on cue, Quatre spoke.

"Is that who I am? Trowa Maxwell?" He whispered, "And you're Heero Rabarba? You lied to me, you told me you didn't know who you were." He sniffed quietly. I didn't know what to say, not one of my lies had ever blown up in my face so fast before. I mean whenever Oz caught me.

"I did it to protect you." I said simply. "You and I are involved in something that is very dangerous. The little that people know the better, and since you don't have your memory.you don't know." I sighed. "You're real name isn't Trowa Maxwell either. It's Quatre Rabarba Winner. My name is Duo Maxwell. Heero Yuy and Trowa Barton are friends of ours." I began to explain to him about who we were, what we had done and how we had gotten there. I told him what they had done to him and at the end he was quiet, which was something I expected.

"Duo," He finally whispered. "Were we lovers?" He asked quietly.

For some reason I couldn't answer with the truth, but I couldn't lie to him either. "We never had sex if that's what you mean." I said.

"It's not." He replied and my heart beat faster, wondering what he was getting at. "My chest is all funny. I think I'm in love with you." He whispered finally, "Is that bad?"

I looked at him and smiled, then carefully slipped my arms around his body so my hands were at his back. He took this cue and carefully put his arms around my neck. We both had to do it carefully because our wrists were still tied; at least they weren't tied together anymore. "Of course it's alright Quatre! It's better than alright!" I said, hugging him as much as I could. I was lying on my side now, having slipped off of his body and my arms were limited because they were tied by the wrists.

We looked into each other's eyes and I suddenly couldn't breathe. What I saw amazed me. His eyes were pools over flowing with confusion, but amid all the uncertainty there was trust. Trust for me, a stranger he had known for months but had just met. "Quatre." I whispered breathlessly. "I want to kiss you." I licked my lips.

"I want you to kiss me." He whispered just as softly as my words had been. Silently we drew closer and our lips met in a tender kiss that lit fireworks behind my closed lids. His lips were incredibly soft, even more so than the softest silk in the entire world. I was once told that a spider's web was the world's softest silk. Well, if it was true, it wasn't anymore.

He tasted of innocence, if innocence had a taste and even with a bit of dirt he tasted like chocolate cherries, something I loved a lot, and there was a taste that was him, totally and pure Quatre. The kiss was chaste for the length of it. I didn't want to scare him so I didn't force his mouth open or anything that would have perhaps made him panic and break the kiss, oh no, that was the last thing I wanted to happen. If he wanted something he was going to have to make the first move. Chaste as it was, it was long and when we finally separated, much to my disappointment, we were both out of breath.

He looked at me, not knowing what to say. Finally he took a breath. "Did you return my feelings.before?" He asked softly. 'Before' meant when he had passed out then lost his memory. I could imagine a large line that was labeled 'Before'. Screenshots of precious memories were captured and hug on a black background that seemed to float in space. There was one of Quatre fighting in Sandrock and a lot with his sisters while growing up. One where he met each of the pilots because I know that meeting us meant a lot to him. And there was even that dreaded time with the Zero System. Then the line was stamped and new memories began. Darkness and confusion surrounded each memory. Quatre was unable to view the memories on the other side of the line, as if the line acted as a door and it was locked. Hey, it was my imagination.

"No." I shook my head and saw his disappointment. "It's not that I didn't want to. You didn't tell me." I said gently trying to explain. I would have done anything to have that hurt look in his eyes disappear, I pulled him closer so that the tips of our noses were touching. "I didn't know how you felt until after they had hurt you. You confessed just before you passed out." I explained, gently kissing the tip of Quatre's nose.

"I want to know how you felt about me. You act as though you cared but I just.want to know." He whispered, cuddling closer which was difficult because our hands were still tied.

"I did care. I still do. Quatre, you were my closest friend. I can look back on it now and see that I had thought about you before, but I didn't bother with the feelings. We were in the middle of a war. Does /than/ really matter? We have now and we're together. That's all I care about." I whispered.

"I want to remember. I want to remember everything, my life, my friends and family.you. If you care for me then I want the whole person, not just the body with a screwed up mind. There's something." He nibbled his bottom lip, a habit he had when he was trying to think of a way to explain something. "I feel as if I would do anything to make you happy. Is this new?" I could have laughed at his cuteness. It was like a child discovering things for the first time, and in a way, I guess he was.

I smiled. "No, it's not new. You always wanted to please everyone and you put them before yourself, even complete strangers. I think it might have had something to do with your childhood but I'm not sure since you never talked about yourself." I shrugged, "You hated war and pain. Well, all of us did but you the worst. You even gave the enemy a chance to surrender instead of being killed. I admired your innocent manner." I spoke softly. Then we were silent.

He took a breath. "Tell me about Heero, Wufei and Trowa?" He asked softly, shivering slightly as the room grew cold. There was no window only a very dim light hanging from the ceiling. I did a few quick calculations in my head and figured out it was about 8:00 PM. Okay, okay, I'm not as talented as Trowa Barton. I looked at my watch from behind Quatre's back. It had been under the sleeve of my space suit and luckily hadn't been broken by the fight, the explosion of Sandrock, the bath in the ocean or the abuse from Beavis and Butthead.

"Well." I began as we cuddled even closer together. He was against a wall. I had pushed him there for two reasons. One, he'd be warmer and two, if they were going to do anything to him, I'd be in their way. "The other three are really quiet. Heero's supposed to be this perfect soldier but he's not, at least not anymore. None of us are perfect, we all have hidden secrets and we never ask about them. Trowa's a real mystery to me. You and Heero were the only ones who got close enough to him. None of us are really open either, though there are times when someone will surprise someone else and they catch a glimpse of the real person under the soldier act. Wufei's very honorable and has a problem with women. At least, that's what it seems like. I don't know why he's so...well, it sees like he's got a stick up his ass twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Although there are times I find myself to be able to relate to him." I shrugged.

"What of my family?" Quatre asked quietly, a little hesitant to ask. Hell, I was a little hesitant to answer. I could tell him what I knew of his sisters, but his parents? Even I didn't want to remember that and they weren't even mine! I didn't answer right away and he noticed. "Duo?" He asked. I loved how he'd say my name.

"You have twenty nine sisters." I said, starting with the easy stuff. He looked very shocked.

"Twenty-nine.wow." He looked surprised.

I nodded, "Your mother." Here we go, "Died when you were very young." He didn't need to know just /how/ young. I saw that his eyes widened slightly by the words I had spoken.

"How horrible." He shook his head sadly, his dirty blonde bangs tickling my forehead. "And my father?" He looked at me hopefully. I didn't answer right away again and he noticed but said nothing and waited patiently until I answered him.

"He's dead too." I said quietly. He figured as much. We were silent again and this time it wasn't broken for an extremely long time. I could see that he was crying, and I smiled internally. Quatre was crying for people he didn't know. "You know, you act just like you used to." I whispered, hoping it would make him feel better.

He smiled slightly, it was forced but it made me feel a little better. "We should sleep, they aren't feeding us so we have to conserve our energy as much as we can." I said softly. He nodded and closed his eyes. I pulled him closer and he nuzzled his cheek against my neck. After a while I finally heard his breathing become deeper and I was able to fall asleep too.

I awoke from a sound, and became wide awake and alert immediately. I relaxed when Quatre began to cough again, the noise in which had woken me. I rubbed his back the best I could until he had calmed down again. He was sweating and I could feel the extra heat from his body. He was still asleep and I didn't want him to wake just yet, wanting him to be fully rested. He looked like death, and I should know what death looks like up close, I'd seen plenty of it, hell, I claimed to be it. "You take him Shinigami and I don't know what I'll do." I whispered as I studied Quatre's face.

He looked so young, so lost.so fragile. He reminded me of a small child I had seen when I was still a street brat on the streets of the L2 colony. It had been an outrageously cold night and I had been hiding in a back ally. Upon hearing a noise I had gone to investigate. I had found a small blonde boy huddled inside a small box. He was asleep but shivering. Since I had been near exhaustion I lay down with him and kept him warm for the night. In the morning he was gone, but he'd left a juicy red apple. I always believed that was his way of saying thank you.

Now I was near exhaustion like so many other times since my training, I wanted to fall back asleep myself but I found this feeling burning in my chest and I felt anxious. I had learned about this feeling while living on the streets. My entire chest would become knotted and tight, then it would feel as if my insides were on fire, like heartburn, indigestion and it felt as if I was going to throw up. Something was about to happen and soon.

Thinking upon it again I decided that waking Quatre would be better than to let him sleep so we'd be ready for anything. Just in case that something was going to happen /this/ soon. I ran my fingers through his damp hair as I gently kissed his face, his eyes, his cheeks, his nose and his lips, not caring if I caught his cold or not. No doubt I'd be sick soon anyway. "Quatre, come on. You have to get up." I whispered as he began to cough again. He sniffed, trying to breathe from his nose but it was stuffed. The coughing never died and he tried to cover his mouth but his arms were still around my neck. "Don't worry, just let it out." I rubbed small circles on his back, the rope digging into my wrists as they moved.

"I don't feel good." He croaked, his voice was so scratchy that I could feel his pain. He coughed again but ran out of air, so when he could he drew in a shuddering breath and coughed again, he hurt his ribs.

"I'm going to sit you up. It's going to be difficult but just go along with what I do." I said. He nodded and I rolled so I was lying across his body. I carefully lifted myself up by my wrists so I was leaning over him and his back was across the floor. "Bend your knees." I huffed, leaning on my wrists was painful, and I had to jump, being careful that I didn't twist his ankles or mine. As he pulled his legs up so they'd bend I jumped and shuffled my feet along the floor until my butt was in the air and my wrists were about to break, so he could do what I had asked. With his knees bent I could stand and I did, picking him up with me. He coughed easier now but just as frequently. Every ragged cough shuddered through his body and I was forced to hold him up.

I looked around the room and spotted a box. Carefully I jumped over to it, moving for both of us. "Here, sit." I said gently and bent down so he could sit. I ducked from under his arms then brought my arms over his head. With my hands still tied I untied our feet completely and then his hands. I used my teeth to undo my own hands. No, they were definitely /not/ Oz soldiers. But I had definitely done a number on my wrists from the ropes that had been around them. The skin had been rubbed raw and blood appeared in places. But I had to ignore the pain for now, I had to get us out of there.

I sat on the box beside Quatre and pulled him into my arms, he was terrifyingly light. When had he last eaten? He rested his head on my chest as he kind of curled up into a ball in my lap. I rocked him slightly and rubbed his stomach with my free hand, hoping it would calm the coughing fits. "It hurts." He whimpered softly and more coughs racked his terribly slender body. All I could do was rock him and automatically I pulled him closer, hugging him gently.

"I know it does." I whispered. I had to get him out of there. This wasn't an ordinary cold. I sat with him until he finally fell asleep. As carefully as I could I laid him on the box, which was an old crate of some sort. I looked at the words on it and laughed bitterly to myself. It figured with Stupid and Stupider out there. On the box were the words 'THIS END UP' but they were upside down and the arrow was pointing into the ground.

When I figured Quatre was as comfortable as he was going to get I left him and silently crept up the old wooden stairs. I stepped along the very sides, where the stairs connected with the wall, hoping they didn't creak. When I finally reached the door I tried the knob, just to be sure. It was locked. I knew the type of lock well, it was really old, like the ones I used to pick on L2. I pulled out a pin from my hair and began to tinker around inside. After a few short seconds it clicked and I could open the door.

Cautiously I looked out. There was nobody in the room I suspected to be the kitchen. It was an old abandoned cabin, like those that belonged to hicks. You know the kind, they always find the aliens.or is it the aliens always find them? God, I wonder what those aliens are thinking about the 'intelligent' life on Earth. Slowly I crept around the house. It was empty and there was no vehicle outside. This was our chance to escape. I quickly ran back down the stairs and carefully picked Quatre up, then carried him up and out of the cellar. The movement had woken him and he looked around the room sleepily.

"Duo? What's wrong?" He asked as I sat him on the table that was sitting in the middle of the small dilapidated kitchen. The only way I figured it was the kitchen was because there looked to be a stove in one of the corners, though I doubt it had been used in years. Quatre's eyes widened as he noticed where we were. "You got us out of the basement!" He was more alert now and I was relieved to see that his coughing had subsided for the time being.

"Yeah, we have to hurry before they come back." I said finding an old backpack from the living room. I filled it with any food I could find from the cooler, which was also in the living room, and from the cupboards in the kitchen. "Here." I handed him a jacket and a blanket. "I'll carry the food." He nodded and slid off the table. I took his free hand and locked our fingers. "Let's get outta here. I pulled him out of the front door. We ran down the rickety steps and into the trees and brush surrounding the house.



Please Review.to be continued.