Quatre washed his hands. He didn't stop. By this time, all the blood had been scrubbed off, but the blond wasn't satisfied. His wide blue eyes could still see the scarlet staining his skin. They could see it dripping into the red water of the sink. In fact, it was only water that was dripping off of Quatre's hands, but he was delirious, and so saw only what he wanted to see. He saw only what his mind refused to let go.

"No," Quatre gasped. "Get off me, get off me, GET OFF ME!!!!" He leapt back from the sink, screaming uncontrollably and waving his hands frantically. He was trying to get the blood off, all of it. But there was nothing there, so his efforts were useless.

He tumbled back into the door and cried out in pain before sinking to his knees. He whimpered softly, and held his hands out in front of him, his wide and dilated eyes never leaving the quivering flesh before him.

"I SAID GET OFF!!!" Sobs wracked his body, and he curled up, crying and shaking "Oh, Allah.help me.Allah..I need you."

Quatre fell asleep like that, his knees curled up to his chest, his arms limp at his sides, and his head lolling back against the door. And he stayed that way, sleeping as though he had never slept before, until something woke him up.

"Q-man? Buddy? Yo, wake up," a small voice whispered.

"Hmm?" was Quatre's only reply as he let his head fall, his chin almost touching his chest.

"Heeeelooooooo? Quatre!"

Quatre heard his name, and his eyes snapped open. When he saw a face gazing down at him, he yelped and curled his knees up tighter. "Don't touch me! Don't touch me! Don't touch me! NO!"

Duo Maxwell leaped backward, his violet eyes snapping open wide. "Whoa! Quatre? Are you okay?"

Breathless, Quatre looked up at Duo. "Get out of here before I kill you! Get out of here!!"

Duo stared stupidly at Quatre. Indeed, he did feel stupid. Very stupid in fact. What could have gotten Quatre all messed up like this? Well, the answer was beyond him.

"Um..okay..Quatre, I need you to calm down, and tell me what happened. Please, just do this for me, okay?"

"No, no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO! GET OUT! Big bad monster, coming to KILL YOU! GET OUT!"

Duo's jaw dropped, and he stared at Quatre. "God, Quatre, what happened? Please tell me!"

"Killer..murdered.psycho..I did it.I did it, you hear? HAH, I did it!"

"You.Quatre, come on, what is going on?"

Getting a hold of himself, at least for the moment, he looked up at Duo with tear filled eyes. His voice lowered, becoming a hoarse whisper. "I did it.I killed him."

Duo's mind riffled through all the information he had gotten this morning. Murder. God."Quatre..you.did that?"

Quatre whimpered, then crawled over to Duo and gripped his pants, just above his knees. He laid his head on the braided boy's left leg and sobbed, blubbering words that made absolutely no sense except to Quatre.

"Please kill me," he whispered, the voice so soft that Duo could hardly hear it.

"No.no Quatre, I won't kill you. Come on, we have to goto the police"

"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Screaming and choking on his sobs, Quatre leapt to his feet and ran out the door, staggering badly before falling in a heap near the staircase that led down to the main doors. There, he began to crawl toward the stairs. His progress was slow, as his body was shaking so horribly. It was a wonder that he could even move at all.

Duo opened his mouth, then snapped it shut and ran after Quatre. When he reached him, he knelt down and stroked a bit of hair from the Arabian's face, his huge eyes pleading. "Q, come on, come on, baby, I need you to come through for me, you can't go on like this, PLEASE."

Quatre sniffled softly, then stopped his slow journey to the stairs. "Duo.?"

Duo nodded. "Yeah, buddy. It's me. You know me. Duo Maxwell, I'm your best friend. I'm here to help you out, okay? First you gotta get up. Can you do that for an old pal?"

Quatre nodded slightly, then, as Duo offered his right hand, took that and used it to help him stand. When he was up, Quatre trained tortured eyes on Duo. Duo quickly wiped away his tears, then stepped forward and wrapped his arms gently around Quatre, hugging him. Quatre laid his left cheek on Duo's shoulder and hugged him back tight, glad to have someone to hold onto other than himself.

"What do I do?" Quatre whispered.

"Sshhh..Quatre, buddy, you just gotta stay strong, okay? I need you. We all need you, okay? Just get through this."

"WHY? WHY DID I KILL HIM?!" Sobbing, Quatre buried his face in Duo's chest. "I didn't want to do it, I swear..I didn't.I could never.why? I don't understand!"

Duo gently rubbed Quatre's back, his own eyes shimmering with tears of their own. Quatre needed help, and badly. The braided boy didn't understand any of this, either, but he knew that Quatre had to come through or he would be doomed. True, the blond would be carrying the weight of this his entire life, but he had killed, too. Heero had, and Wufei, and Trowa. They had all taken innocent lives when they had been in the war. However, accidents happened all the time in the war, and sometimes there was nothing you could do to stop it. But here, now, when Quatre was 20 years old, many years after the war, he had killed again. And it seemed he had killed for absolutely no reason. It just didn't make any sense to Duo.

"We'll figure it out, okay Q? We'll figure it out together. You trust me, don't you?"

Quatre nodded and said, "Yes, I trust you, Duo. I know you would never try to hurt me."

"Yeah, that's right, man. Never. We'll always be here for one another..always."