Chapter 6: The Day Heaven Rejoiced
Duo was walking outside the large estate in Arizona. It was another hot day in the desert and Duo was after a snake in the brush. It wasn't a big snake, quite young, truly, and non-lethal, and it had hissed at him one to many times.
He and his four friends had lived at the large house for nearly a year, and he was feeling safe and completely at home there. He had his own room, though he hardly slept there. More often than not, he would be found during the waking hours of the morning in the hammock that stood on the back patio, and Heero or WuFei would be called to carry him back to his bed.
Many physical changes had happened to him as well. He had begun to fill out his clothes, building his muscles back up, and his hair was now a little past his shoulders. WuFei cut his hair to the same length as Duo's to make him feel better. And it did. The other's, mainly Heero, still taught him like he would disappear at any time, always following him, never letting him be alone for long. Absently, Duo wondered where his shadow was.
"Damn!" Duo cursed aloud as the snake dodged under a large rock. "Well, crap."
"Duo, don't curse, it's a bad habit."
"Quatre!" Duo shouted in happy relief. He was a small bit angry that he had allowed Quatre to startle him.
Quatre laughed and came up beside him. "What are you chasing now?"
Duo looked into the dark crevasse below the rock. "A snake."
"Oh yuck!" Quatre exclaimed, taking an automatic step back. "Those are nasty!"
Duo looked up and grinned at him. "For sure! That's why I like them. And besides, you don't want me to let it crawl into yours and Tro-man's bed tonight, do you?"
Duo laughed till his face and chest hurt at the yelp and little boogie dance Quatre did, his face resembling that of a person that just ate something they didn't really want to eat.
"That was so damn funny!" Duo brushed a tear from his sun-kissed cheek. "What a classic!"
"Ha ha, very funny," Quatre admonished, "Listen, Heero and WuFei have been called back to work for an assignment, and Trowa has to go take care of the circus for Catherine for a while, so it looks like it's just going to be you and me for about a month."
Duo's eyes got wide and he took off in a full run towards the house, leaving Quatre calling after him in his wake.
~(*)~
"You're not really leaving, are you?!" Duo yelled at Heero as soon as he was inside the room, only to see... it was true. Heero's things were all aligned perfectly on the bed, being packed into an already half full suitcase.
Heero looked up and would have smirked at the dusk dulling Duo's hair had he not seen that look of desperate fear in Duo's eyes.
"I've been called back. I'll only be gone for a while. Duo, what's the matter?" Heero answered, watching Duo slouch and walk to a pulled out chair that belonged to his desk.
"I don't want you to go," Duo told him softly, his head falling to his chest.
Heero's brow creased. He didn't like the way Duo clinged solely to him. At the beginning weeks of staying in the old safe house, the one that Duo was last in before the camp, Duo wouldn't leave his side, always nervous about shadows. It was obvious that he remembered the place somewhat by the way he looked at things, even the way he walked around outside the house, always knowing where things were hid.
"Duo," Heero came to kneel before Duo, his hands resting on Duo's knees. "Why?"
Duo closed his eyes tightly, faint tears brimming in them. "Because."
"Because why?" Heero gently urged.
Duo spoke his last sentence so quietly that Heero had to think for a moment whether or not it was thought to him or actually said. "Because I love you."
Heero gasped involuntarily. Had he just heard...?! "What?" he asked in a voice much smaller than he'd hoped.
Duo clenched his fists, his eyes shut tighter. "I love you."
He had heard it! Oh gods! Oh shit! Oh mother fucking hell! Heero swallowed the lump in his throat, the words of Duo's letter coming back to visit him: 'I just wish you could have loved me too.'
"Duo, I... I don't..." //I don't know what to say! What to do!// Heero's mind screamed frantically at him. "I-"
"Look, don't," Duo interrupted him. He stood and walked over the door. His eyes were still downcast, though one could easily tell by the tears that escaped them that he was hurting, as his fingers grasped the handle in pained resignation. "It doesn't matter anyway. Just be safe and come back." Duo shut the door behind him.
Heero stood with his mouth open and working, though no sound came from it. The door opened again, only this time, it was WuFei.
"Let's go."
Heero nodded and picked up his bag.
~`~(*)~`~
Two weeks had passed and there was no word from Heero or WuFei, though Trowa called regularly. Duo was sad. He had told him. He had confessed it all. His heart still stung and every time he thought of his words, (which was regularly) he would find a hiccuping sound coming from his throat and feel hot tears falling down his cheeks. Quatre asked him what was wrong more often that not, and Duo would shrug it off and say he missed Heero and WuFei. That wasn't a lie, because he did miss them, terribly, but for very different reasons.
The mid-August night was as warm as all the others, and there were no clouds in the sky. Quatre smiled and sighed at the sight of Duo brushing his hair in front of his bedroom mirror.
"Duo," Quatre started into the room.
"Yeah?" Duo said. He set the brush down and turned to look at Quatre with a smile in eyes. Quatre could tell it was forced.
"There's an eclipse tonight, and I was thinking how mush you used to like that stuff. Would you like to watch it with me?" Quatre asked, leaning on the wall beside the dresser.
Duo smiled, a real one this time, and nodded his head happily.
"Good," Quatre said. "It starts in about an hour. I'll call you when we need to go."
"K, Q-man," Duo told him, rummaging through his draws for a shirt.
~(*)~
Quatre waited for Duo at the foot of the stairs. He held two blankets in his arms, though he was sure that they would only need them to lay on, due to the thermometer reading eighty-five degree's outside.
"Let's go!" Duo quipped, walking down the stairs. Quatre gasped softly. Duo did make a sight. He wore his hair down and it brushed against his shoulders that were clad in dark vermilion, and his pants that were black and, for once, hugged his legs all the way down, showing off perfectly the natural sashay his hips took on.
"Uh, yeah," Quatre blushed as he found himself staring. "Come on then! It's about to start." And they left the house to a rock formation on the west side of the house.
Duo's digital watch read 11:17pm when the first of the moon was covered, and 11:39pm when it blacked out completely, a bright yellow rim shone around it, seeming to burn with the tears of heaven.
"Wow, that is really neat," Duo said dreamily. He looked over, expecting to see his blonde friend, but saw nothing, as it was too dark to see past the end of one's own nose. "Q?" he asked, feeling for him. He wasn't there. Surely he would have told Duo if he was leaving somewhere, Quatre was never one to leave and not tell. Duo became frantic. He searched around the blanket a good ten feet out, calling as loud as his constricting throat would allow, but there was no answer.
As the moon was uncovered, Duo saw three figures; one was struggling to hold one much smaller than itself, holding something that glinted in the brightening light.
A blade, Duo thought in the back of his mind.
And the other was standing beside him, grinning madly. Duo recognized that grin. His blood ran cold and he was frozen to the earth that seemed to engulf his legs as Mark walked closer to him.
"Run," he warned, "or scream or do anything that you know I wouldn't like, and the young meat is dead." He motioned back to Quatre.
Duo couldn't breath. They were here. They were right in front of him. He couldn't run or scream or do anything even if he wanted to.
Mark came to stand before him, his face looming over Duo's, and he ran a callused finger down Duo's cheek. "It took us a long time to find you again, my pretty pretty pretty."
Duo drew in a sharp breath at the contact. His eyes grew large and Mark laughed. Suddenly, as if through a haze, Duo heard a screech as Steven did something to Quatre.
"Quatre!" Duo lunged forward, but he was stopped by Mark grabbing his hair.
"I thought we told you that long hair was a liability!" he snapped. Duo's body flung back to him, and absently, Duo felt an arm come around him and an unseen gun press to his temple.
I have to get to him! Quatre can't stand this! He never could stand stuff like this! Hold on, buddy! I'm right here and won't let them do anything to you!
Duo's eyes searched the ground by him for a weapon, any weapon, but there was nothing but the pale dirt sparkling in the moon's full light. Nothing. What to do?! What to do?!
"Don't go getting any ideas," Steven's voice lilted. Quatre yelped. "We can fuck ya just as good when you're dead."
Duo ceased his struggles and went limp.
"Not that easy, you little coward, wake up!" Mark jerked him.
Duo did nothing but flopped about like a rag doll.
"Steven, why don't you see if you can help him wake up," Mark snarled.
"Only too happy to oblige, Mark." And Steven began to grope Quatre, and Quatre screamed, his voice filled with tears. Steven pressed the same blade used so long ago on Duo to his throat and made a small slash there, only deep enough to cut the skin and cause minor pain. Quatre whimpered into silence.
"NO!" Duo screamed, coming out of his act. He lunged forward again, only to be jerked back by the still punishing hold on his mane. He yelped as he crashed into Marks body.
"So, you're awake. Good." Mark's tongue flickered out into Duo's ear, and Duo pulled away from the assault.
"Don't hurt him, please," Duo begged. "I'll do anything. Just please, leave him alone."
Steven dragged Quatre over. "Why? Are you his whore too? Or is he yours?"
"You can have me, just don't hurt him," was all Duo would say.
"Deal. But you just remember, one of us will have a knife to his gullet at all times," Mark hissed.
Duo nodded.
~(*)~
Quatre cried when Duo was taken over and over again. He could do nothing to stop it and it was happening to him only because Duo had made a deal. Quatre felt useless.
With one last piercing cry, Steven convulsed and collapsed on Duo. Duo's body was a beaten bloody lump under him, gashes from the still dull blade running up and down his body. Steven licked up the blood that tracked down Duo's cheek to the dust below.
"Still so tight," Steven laughed gruffly.
The next moments were a blur. Duo screamed out the same cry that he released so many years ago and ripped his tied hands apart, his fingers twining through the sweaty mop of hair that was above him and his wrists making a savage twist, the sound of bone breaking was deafening in Quatre's ears. Then, the figure of Mark was in the dirt, the knife lodged in his jugular, his eyes open wide and staring at the sky.
Duo was above Quatre now, and helped him to his feet, untying his wrists. Duo stumbled and Quatre caught him.
Duo's eyes rolled shut in the back of his sockets and his limps went limp against Quatre's body. And the darkness claimed Duo's body, and he was truly home.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Duo: o.o
Quatre: omigod.
Juliet: (~o.o~)
Epilogue: He's In My Thoughts and In My Dreams, My Valentine
Heero brushed the dead leaves from the head stone and sat before it. He took off the cross that dangled around his neck and put it over the little carved crucifix on the crest of the stone and smiled. He didn't know why, but he felt a strange painful peace. Though he wasn't there when Heero woke, his one love that he never got to hold was tangible in his mind when his eyes closed. He could still feel the hands muss his hair and he could still see the trusting orbs and he could still hear the whispered words, Because I love you.
It hurt, not being with him, and it was almost too much to bear having to say goodbye for the second time and knowing it was the last. A tear coursed down his cheek and he huddled deeper into the wind breaker, blowing in his hands and rubbing them, warming them.
It was October 31st, and none of the boys felt much like decorating. The house was silent more often that not, and little visions of Duo ran through the hall, laughing merrily and disappearing before anyone could really be sure they were there.
Heero spoke. "Hey. Quatre and Trowa are getting married and they want you to come. They're supposed to leave a seat open reserved just for you if you decide to show up. It's in early May. WuFei and I are taking a mandatory leave of absence from the Preventers, orders of Une. She thinks we need some time to recuperate. I don't think so. It only leaves time to think, and thinking hurts."
"Heero!"
Heero turned around and looked at Quatre running towards him up the hill.
"That's Quatre. I have to go." Heero stood and sniffled, wiping his nose on his sleeve before bending over and taking the cross. He re-clasped it and bent over once more to press a lingering kiss in the cold white marble. He turned and started down the hill, the whispered words of "I love you, Duo," lingering in the air.
P.S. To those on Fanfiction.net: I AM SO SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Damned computer.... *plots revenge* Please forgive me. here's the rest of it. *offers it up on a golden platter so the readers won't kill her.* hehehe....
Duo was walking outside the large estate in Arizona. It was another hot day in the desert and Duo was after a snake in the brush. It wasn't a big snake, quite young, truly, and non-lethal, and it had hissed at him one to many times.
He and his four friends had lived at the large house for nearly a year, and he was feeling safe and completely at home there. He had his own room, though he hardly slept there. More often than not, he would be found during the waking hours of the morning in the hammock that stood on the back patio, and Heero or WuFei would be called to carry him back to his bed.
Many physical changes had happened to him as well. He had begun to fill out his clothes, building his muscles back up, and his hair was now a little past his shoulders. WuFei cut his hair to the same length as Duo's to make him feel better. And it did. The other's, mainly Heero, still taught him like he would disappear at any time, always following him, never letting him be alone for long. Absently, Duo wondered where his shadow was.
"Damn!" Duo cursed aloud as the snake dodged under a large rock. "Well, crap."
"Duo, don't curse, it's a bad habit."
"Quatre!" Duo shouted in happy relief. He was a small bit angry that he had allowed Quatre to startle him.
Quatre laughed and came up beside him. "What are you chasing now?"
Duo looked into the dark crevasse below the rock. "A snake."
"Oh yuck!" Quatre exclaimed, taking an automatic step back. "Those are nasty!"
Duo looked up and grinned at him. "For sure! That's why I like them. And besides, you don't want me to let it crawl into yours and Tro-man's bed tonight, do you?"
Duo laughed till his face and chest hurt at the yelp and little boogie dance Quatre did, his face resembling that of a person that just ate something they didn't really want to eat.
"That was so damn funny!" Duo brushed a tear from his sun-kissed cheek. "What a classic!"
"Ha ha, very funny," Quatre admonished, "Listen, Heero and WuFei have been called back to work for an assignment, and Trowa has to go take care of the circus for Catherine for a while, so it looks like it's just going to be you and me for about a month."
Duo's eyes got wide and he took off in a full run towards the house, leaving Quatre calling after him in his wake.
~(*)~
"You're not really leaving, are you?!" Duo yelled at Heero as soon as he was inside the room, only to see... it was true. Heero's things were all aligned perfectly on the bed, being packed into an already half full suitcase.
Heero looked up and would have smirked at the dusk dulling Duo's hair had he not seen that look of desperate fear in Duo's eyes.
"I've been called back. I'll only be gone for a while. Duo, what's the matter?" Heero answered, watching Duo slouch and walk to a pulled out chair that belonged to his desk.
"I don't want you to go," Duo told him softly, his head falling to his chest.
Heero's brow creased. He didn't like the way Duo clinged solely to him. At the beginning weeks of staying in the old safe house, the one that Duo was last in before the camp, Duo wouldn't leave his side, always nervous about shadows. It was obvious that he remembered the place somewhat by the way he looked at things, even the way he walked around outside the house, always knowing where things were hid.
"Duo," Heero came to kneel before Duo, his hands resting on Duo's knees. "Why?"
Duo closed his eyes tightly, faint tears brimming in them. "Because."
"Because why?" Heero gently urged.
Duo spoke his last sentence so quietly that Heero had to think for a moment whether or not it was thought to him or actually said. "Because I love you."
Heero gasped involuntarily. Had he just heard...?! "What?" he asked in a voice much smaller than he'd hoped.
Duo clenched his fists, his eyes shut tighter. "I love you."
He had heard it! Oh gods! Oh shit! Oh mother fucking hell! Heero swallowed the lump in his throat, the words of Duo's letter coming back to visit him: 'I just wish you could have loved me too.'
"Duo, I... I don't..." //I don't know what to say! What to do!// Heero's mind screamed frantically at him. "I-"
"Look, don't," Duo interrupted him. He stood and walked over the door. His eyes were still downcast, though one could easily tell by the tears that escaped them that he was hurting, as his fingers grasped the handle in pained resignation. "It doesn't matter anyway. Just be safe and come back." Duo shut the door behind him.
Heero stood with his mouth open and working, though no sound came from it. The door opened again, only this time, it was WuFei.
"Let's go."
Heero nodded and picked up his bag.
~`~(*)~`~
Two weeks had passed and there was no word from Heero or WuFei, though Trowa called regularly. Duo was sad. He had told him. He had confessed it all. His heart still stung and every time he thought of his words, (which was regularly) he would find a hiccuping sound coming from his throat and feel hot tears falling down his cheeks. Quatre asked him what was wrong more often that not, and Duo would shrug it off and say he missed Heero and WuFei. That wasn't a lie, because he did miss them, terribly, but for very different reasons.
The mid-August night was as warm as all the others, and there were no clouds in the sky. Quatre smiled and sighed at the sight of Duo brushing his hair in front of his bedroom mirror.
"Duo," Quatre started into the room.
"Yeah?" Duo said. He set the brush down and turned to look at Quatre with a smile in eyes. Quatre could tell it was forced.
"There's an eclipse tonight, and I was thinking how mush you used to like that stuff. Would you like to watch it with me?" Quatre asked, leaning on the wall beside the dresser.
Duo smiled, a real one this time, and nodded his head happily.
"Good," Quatre said. "It starts in about an hour. I'll call you when we need to go."
"K, Q-man," Duo told him, rummaging through his draws for a shirt.
~(*)~
Quatre waited for Duo at the foot of the stairs. He held two blankets in his arms, though he was sure that they would only need them to lay on, due to the thermometer reading eighty-five degree's outside.
"Let's go!" Duo quipped, walking down the stairs. Quatre gasped softly. Duo did make a sight. He wore his hair down and it brushed against his shoulders that were clad in dark vermilion, and his pants that were black and, for once, hugged his legs all the way down, showing off perfectly the natural sashay his hips took on.
"Uh, yeah," Quatre blushed as he found himself staring. "Come on then! It's about to start." And they left the house to a rock formation on the west side of the house.
Duo's digital watch read 11:17pm when the first of the moon was covered, and 11:39pm when it blacked out completely, a bright yellow rim shone around it, seeming to burn with the tears of heaven.
"Wow, that is really neat," Duo said dreamily. He looked over, expecting to see his blonde friend, but saw nothing, as it was too dark to see past the end of one's own nose. "Q?" he asked, feeling for him. He wasn't there. Surely he would have told Duo if he was leaving somewhere, Quatre was never one to leave and not tell. Duo became frantic. He searched around the blanket a good ten feet out, calling as loud as his constricting throat would allow, but there was no answer.
As the moon was uncovered, Duo saw three figures; one was struggling to hold one much smaller than itself, holding something that glinted in the brightening light.
A blade, Duo thought in the back of his mind.
And the other was standing beside him, grinning madly. Duo recognized that grin. His blood ran cold and he was frozen to the earth that seemed to engulf his legs as Mark walked closer to him.
"Run," he warned, "or scream or do anything that you know I wouldn't like, and the young meat is dead." He motioned back to Quatre.
Duo couldn't breath. They were here. They were right in front of him. He couldn't run or scream or do anything even if he wanted to.
Mark came to stand before him, his face looming over Duo's, and he ran a callused finger down Duo's cheek. "It took us a long time to find you again, my pretty pretty pretty."
Duo drew in a sharp breath at the contact. His eyes grew large and Mark laughed. Suddenly, as if through a haze, Duo heard a screech as Steven did something to Quatre.
"Quatre!" Duo lunged forward, but he was stopped by Mark grabbing his hair.
"I thought we told you that long hair was a liability!" he snapped. Duo's body flung back to him, and absently, Duo felt an arm come around him and an unseen gun press to his temple.
I have to get to him! Quatre can't stand this! He never could stand stuff like this! Hold on, buddy! I'm right here and won't let them do anything to you!
Duo's eyes searched the ground by him for a weapon, any weapon, but there was nothing but the pale dirt sparkling in the moon's full light. Nothing. What to do?! What to do?!
"Don't go getting any ideas," Steven's voice lilted. Quatre yelped. "We can fuck ya just as good when you're dead."
Duo ceased his struggles and went limp.
"Not that easy, you little coward, wake up!" Mark jerked him.
Duo did nothing but flopped about like a rag doll.
"Steven, why don't you see if you can help him wake up," Mark snarled.
"Only too happy to oblige, Mark." And Steven began to grope Quatre, and Quatre screamed, his voice filled with tears. Steven pressed the same blade used so long ago on Duo to his throat and made a small slash there, only deep enough to cut the skin and cause minor pain. Quatre whimpered into silence.
"NO!" Duo screamed, coming out of his act. He lunged forward again, only to be jerked back by the still punishing hold on his mane. He yelped as he crashed into Marks body.
"So, you're awake. Good." Mark's tongue flickered out into Duo's ear, and Duo pulled away from the assault.
"Don't hurt him, please," Duo begged. "I'll do anything. Just please, leave him alone."
Steven dragged Quatre over. "Why? Are you his whore too? Or is he yours?"
"You can have me, just don't hurt him," was all Duo would say.
"Deal. But you just remember, one of us will have a knife to his gullet at all times," Mark hissed.
Duo nodded.
~(*)~
Quatre cried when Duo was taken over and over again. He could do nothing to stop it and it was happening to him only because Duo had made a deal. Quatre felt useless.
With one last piercing cry, Steven convulsed and collapsed on Duo. Duo's body was a beaten bloody lump under him, gashes from the still dull blade running up and down his body. Steven licked up the blood that tracked down Duo's cheek to the dust below.
"Still so tight," Steven laughed gruffly.
The next moments were a blur. Duo screamed out the same cry that he released so many years ago and ripped his tied hands apart, his fingers twining through the sweaty mop of hair that was above him and his wrists making a savage twist, the sound of bone breaking was deafening in Quatre's ears. Then, the figure of Mark was in the dirt, the knife lodged in his jugular, his eyes open wide and staring at the sky.
Duo was above Quatre now, and helped him to his feet, untying his wrists. Duo stumbled and Quatre caught him.
Duo's eyes rolled shut in the back of his sockets and his limps went limp against Quatre's body. And the darkness claimed Duo's body, and he was truly home.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Duo: o.o
Quatre: omigod.
Juliet: (~o.o~)
Epilogue: He's In My Thoughts and In My Dreams, My Valentine
Heero brushed the dead leaves from the head stone and sat before it. He took off the cross that dangled around his neck and put it over the little carved crucifix on the crest of the stone and smiled. He didn't know why, but he felt a strange painful peace. Though he wasn't there when Heero woke, his one love that he never got to hold was tangible in his mind when his eyes closed. He could still feel the hands muss his hair and he could still see the trusting orbs and he could still hear the whispered words, Because I love you.
It hurt, not being with him, and it was almost too much to bear having to say goodbye for the second time and knowing it was the last. A tear coursed down his cheek and he huddled deeper into the wind breaker, blowing in his hands and rubbing them, warming them.
It was October 31st, and none of the boys felt much like decorating. The house was silent more often that not, and little visions of Duo ran through the hall, laughing merrily and disappearing before anyone could really be sure they were there.
Heero spoke. "Hey. Quatre and Trowa are getting married and they want you to come. They're supposed to leave a seat open reserved just for you if you decide to show up. It's in early May. WuFei and I are taking a mandatory leave of absence from the Preventers, orders of Une. She thinks we need some time to recuperate. I don't think so. It only leaves time to think, and thinking hurts."
"Heero!"
Heero turned around and looked at Quatre running towards him up the hill.
"That's Quatre. I have to go." Heero stood and sniffled, wiping his nose on his sleeve before bending over and taking the cross. He re-clasped it and bent over once more to press a lingering kiss in the cold white marble. He turned and started down the hill, the whispered words of "I love you, Duo," lingering in the air.
P.S. To those on Fanfiction.net: I AM SO SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Damned computer.... *plots revenge* Please forgive me. here's the rest of it. *offers it up on a golden platter so the readers won't kill her.* hehehe....