2: Moderato: Duo-centered v1.02

"Pffffffft," went Duo as he took an enormous breath and blew out all 50 candles. He put on his facade of joy and delight in front of the other pilots, but behind the masquerade, Duo was miserable. He knew inside that he was aging, and that it becomes more apparent every day.

His long, shiny, chestnut-brown braid of the past now is beginning to turn into a bleached, frayed rope. Already, his hair is whitening at the root, and Duo can instinctively feel that no more new hair would grow, nor would any of his remaining ones too. He can tell that the strands of his curtain of hair are loosening and will fall very soon.

As he entertained the fellow pilots, Duo's mind was elsewhere, comparing himself to them.

While annoying Heero, Duo thought, "Damn, even at this age, Heero's hair is still perfect. No whitening, no split ends. Just the perfect messiness reminiscent of the past."

"Quatre and Trowa also have maintained their hair well over the years," thought Duo, "Bah, considering Quatre's fortunes, the money he spent on their hair makes only a small dent in the Winner estate."

Even Wufei had a full head of slick, raven-black hair.

Everywhere Duo looked, he saw everyone to be better than him. "I'm hideous compared to them. In a few years, I probably won't even recognize myself. I can't let this happen to me; I REFUSE to let it continue. I must stop it," Duo muttered to himself.

Quatre seemed to see Duo was in some sort of pain and offered his counselling.

"What's wrong?" Quatre asked, "You don't seem like yourself."
"Sometimes I just feel like I want to die .... my hair," came the reply.

Luckily, die and dye are homonyms. Nobody caught Duo.

When his party was over, Duo knew the only way to preserve what's left of his beauty was to cease his existence. Once his biological decay stops, his aging would stop too. And to end his biological decay, he must end himself, biologically.

To preserve his hair, Duo put, in a Ziploc bag, his hair in which he whacked off with scissors from the kitchen. Fortunately, Duo escaped the horror of wrinkles, which many in their 50s would be doomed to suffer from.

Before he started to stop his life, Duo stopped and pondered for a moment. "Why not?" he thought. Duo took a pen and a pad from the kitchen table and wrote:

"Heero. Suki da." (1)

A glimmer of light caught Duo's eyes while he stood up. He turned towards it, seeing a sharp Gundanium exacto knife that Heero gave him as a gift.

A quick slice and a moment later, Duo's trance of awaiting death was broken by his door opening.

He saw Heero enter his abode. Heero didn't notice Duo on the ground, but did see the note Duo left. Heero turned and saw a pool of blood bathing Duo's limp body.

Heero clutched the dying body.

"Duo, I love you too. But ... you didn't have to do this."
"I have to Heero. Can't you see I'm aging? Look at me! I'm ugly. I need to preserve whatever beauty I have left."
"Duo, you'll always be beautiful."
"Heero, you wouldn't understand."

Duo felt weaker every passing second. His last few seconds of sight were all too clear.

Heero was crying. Crying for Duo.

"Heero ...." was all he managed to say before blacking out.

~owari~