Duo shifted the heavy grocery bags in his hands in an attempt to get the
keys out of his pocket. With a groan, he finally gave in and put the five
bags down on the cement walkway in front of the door to the house. Fishing
around in his pocket for a minute, a triumphant look appeared on his face
as he pulled out his keys. Selecting the correct one, he unlocked the door,
and opened it a crack.
After much shifting, Duo finally had all five bags in his arms again. The door flung open under the weight of his hard kick and he strolled inside, using his hip to close it again.
Looking around, he couldn't see any of the three he had left here an hour ago. 'Hmm, wonder where they all are.'
Dumping the food on the counter, Duo began to sort through the piles and put things in their rightful places. 'Ah well, it's not worth going to find them, everyone ends up here eventually.' With a smile, Duo finished putting everything away, and grabbed the jar of peanut butter and the box of Ritz crackers before flopping down on the couch and turning the tv on.
* * * * *
'Uhh.....what the....oh yeah...' Solo's eyes slowly flickered open, trying to remember why he was in so much pain that he couldn't move, and why he was staring up at Wing Zero.
Looking down, Solo froze as stabs of pain went through his head and neck. 'Oh that's right, I fell and crashed here thanks to this kid.' Summoning a small bit of strength, Solo threw Heero's still unconscious body to his side. Or at least, he had meant to throw him, but just that movement caused his entire back to scream out, so he settled for rolling the boy off of him.
As Solo lay there, he tried to take a few deep breaths, but felt like something was stabbing through his back. 'Wow, okay, note to self, don't do that ever again. Ah, my muscles feel like they're about to pop out of my skin.' He tried to roll over, before gasping out in pain. 'Or light on fire. Definitely one of those two things.'
Taking a very deep breath, which caused a flash of pain in it's own right, Solo sat up straight. He immediately regretted it. His back felt like he had snapped every muscle in half with just that one movement. He leaned forward in his sitting position and braced himself with his arms. Looking down, he could see them shaking from the pain and exhaustion. After a few minutes, the pain subsided, and he decided to try standing up. Pulling his knees up beneath his chin, he was pleased to find that they didn't cause him any pain.
Slowly he eased his weight onto his arms, now in a painful crouch. 'Come on, you can do it.' With one strong push of his undamaged legs, Solo found himself standing, and struggling to stay that way. His head was swimming, and colored dots surrounded his vision. His back felt a miniscule amount better now that he was standing. It still hurt when he moved though.
Once his head had cleared, Solo looked down at himself. A large red spot had soaked through his shirt. 'From where Heero's head had been.' Looking at the boy, Solo was shocked at the large puddle of blood they had been laying in. 'That must be one nice gash to do all that.' Solo head continued to throb, and feeling a bad premonition, he reached up and felt the back of his head. Sure enough, his head was now bleeding as well. 'Must have landed...well, as hard as I thought I guess.'
Sighing, Solo looked around, praying that his coat was nearby. Ten feet away, it was a dark, shining puddle of leather.
Walking didn't hurt as much as Solo had thought it would, especially if he walked softly and didn't jar his back when his feet would land. Taking a few minutes to think about the best way of doing this, Solo stuck his foot under his coat. Gently lifting it up, he brought it to where his hand could grab it. 'Ha, didn't even hafta been down.'
Solo tried to bend his wings up, so that he could put his coat on, but found that the pain nearly caused him to black out. 'Yeah, okay, I don't care if people are falling to their deaths. Screw them. I'm not flying again in my life unless I have to.' Pouting, he slid his jacket over both arms and let it fall on his back, lightly. He was once again thankful that the coat was nice and loose.
The weight of the coat on his back and shoulders hurt, but he could handle it. 'Once I get into Duo's room, I can take this off so it won't bother me anymore.'
Glaring down at Heero, the thought crossed his mind for the hundreth time. 'Why did I save you?' In Solo's opinion, Duo's brief sadness was nothing compared to not having any competition for the boy. 'Without him, Duo would probably come back to L2 with me...' Solo reached back and pulled out his knife. Bending down painfully, he picked up the boy's prone body. Using one hand and arm to support his weight, Solo brought the blade up to Heero's already bloody scalp. 'Duo wouldn't be able to tell a gash from a knife wound...and neither would that guy Trowa.' Solo paused, looking around at the blood and feathers on the floor. Remembering that his head was bleeding already, Solo slipped the knife into it's sheath.
'Damn it. Guess I have to go for the hero angle.'
Shifting his burden, Solo began to walk up the two flights of catwalks.
When he was five feet from the crack of light that signified the door, he paused. 'Me, covered in blood, carrying an unconscious bleeding Heero who looks like he got wailed on with something metal...hmm....I hope Duo doesn't kill me.' * * * * * *
Duo looked up from the cartoon on the tv as soon as he heard the door to the hangar open. Expecting Heero, he turned around on the couch and laid his head on his hands, looking and smiling over. Instead, Solo came walking in, looking tired, in pain, and bloody. Duo's smile fell into a concerned look as he stood up and began to walk towards Solo. A small trail of blood was running down his face, and he could see his golden hair had red seeping through it. Only then did Duo finally look down and see what Solo had been struggling with.
Heero's head had an obvious gash running down the top and back of it, dripping blood slowly to the floor, running over Solo's arm as it did. The rest of Heero's body looked to be in perfect condition, but he was unconscious and Duo didn't give a damn. 'How could he.'
Duo stalked forward, taking Heero's prone body from Solo. Solo took a step back when he saw the look Duo gave him, his violet eyes were shadowed by his hair and looked black as obsidian.
"I-" Solo paused and bent over a bit, one eye wincing at the pain he felt when he spoke. He hadn't taken a breath that deep and now his lungs rebelled against him. Duo had his back turned to him by now and was walking over to the couch. He slowly laid Heero down on it, propping his head up on the arm, making it easier to treat.
"I'm gonna go to your room and clean myself up." Solo finished and walked down the hallway. Occasionally he would step to hard and his back would be jarred, causing his whole face to wince in the sharp pains. 'And I always thought knife cuts were bad...sheesh.'
Solo gently closed the door and walked over to his duffel bag. After a while of rummaging he found some semi-clean clothes he could put on.
* * * * * *
The closet of the house looked to be a mix between a mechanic's and a paramedic's. Duo picked up a few power tools and put them on a different shelf. 'Stupid Howard, there must be about five closets in this house and he keeps everything in the same one.' Duo touched something sticky and pulled out a peanut butter sandwich from who knows when. Stuffing most of it in his mouth he put the last half back where he found it and continued his search. 'Ah ha.' Duo pulled out the large box of medical supplies where the bandages where kept.
He dropped this box on the floor next to the couch and quickly sterilized Heero's wound. 'It's not really that bad, I'm actually surprised he's been out this long.' Duo wrapped the gauze around and around, before taping it in place with the medical tape. 'There we go, he should be good as new.'
"Uhh...." Duo's head snapped to the couch as Heero moaned as he painfully opened his eyes.
"Hey Heero, I bandaged up your busted head, how are you feeling?"
"....arr....Solo..." Heero still sounded slightly dazed but Duo didn't hang around to see if he was really okay. His feet pounded on the carpet as he sprinted towards the door of his room.
* * * * *
Solo was just letting his jacket slide painfully down his arms, it had been harder to get off then on for some reason, when the door to Duo's room burst open. 'What the-' Worried it might be Trowa or Heero Solo quickly put his jacket back on and let out a small yelp as his back burned at the touch.
Solo let out a loud sigh as he realized it was just Duo and smirked at him.
"So-" But before he could continue Duo was in his face and grabbed a hold of the front of his jacket.
"What did you do to him!?!" Duo pushed with all his strength, and being weakened already, Solo couldn't fight back. Duo picked him up slightly, and slammed him hard against the wall.
"AHH!!" Solo screamed out, as his eyes rolled back in pain. For a few seconds, he felt like the pain would make him pass out. Duo saw this look on his face, he'd never seen this look and Solo had never once made a sound when he was in pain. 'Something's wrong...his back was hurting earlier, but not that much.'
"What's wrong, Solo?" Duo had let go of Solo's jacket and he had fallen into his arms, unable to continue standing.
Under the weight of his best friend, Duo was bending down and his eyes were drawn to the floor beneath Solo. Blood was slowly pooling outward from his feet, and it was running down the backs of his calves.
"Solo, hey Solo. Stand up!" Duo shouted at him as he helped him stand. Solo was returning from the daze he had been flung into and stood up straight, looking a little embarrassed at falling onto Duo.
"I'm okay, really Duo, quit worrying so much."
"What happened, why are you and Heero both bleeding, did you attack him or something." Duo slowly made his way around to his back as he asked Solo this, searching for a visible wound that could be causing all the blood.
"Hey, maybe he attacked me!?!" Solo shouted back, insulted at his so called best friend taking Heero's side. "But no, we didn't fight. Heero fell and hit his head, that's all."
"Then why are you bleeding so much." Not finding any open wounds but the very small one on his head, Duo glared at Solo's back. "Solo, take your jacket off."
Solo wheeled around to face Duo and put his hands up." No, no, that's okay, my backs fine."
Duo didn't smile or even respond, he just kept staring at Solo, anger fading slowly away.
"Oh I can't believe you, you suck do you know that." Solo turned around and pulled his arms back again, bracing for the pain that would come when his sore back was being touched by his leather.
Duo gently reached up and tried to pull the coat off as slowly and gently as possible, still Solo flinched every now and then, but having his arms behind him was making the it slide off as easily as it could.
Solo heard Duo audibly gasp as he felt the jacket completely removed.
"What's wrong Duo?"
"Oh God Solo..." Duo's eyes were huge when Solo craned his neck over his shoulder to see his frightened expression. Then his eyes wandered from Duo's stare to the mirror behind the boy. After seeing his reflection, Solo nearly passed out for the second time in the past five minutes.
His wings were mangled. Not broken, not bruised or bent. Mangled was the only word to describe them. Of the two, the left one was less injured. Chunks of feathers had been ripped out and the skin beneath them was scraped up and red, like a rug burn. Blood oozed out of the burns, once again staining his wings red. The right wing however, was far worse. Half way along the first bone of his wing, something white and red was protruding from a gash in his skin. It took Solo and Duo both a few seconds to realize that the bone had been bent back and broken in half, the sharp point of the bone stabbing through the skin.
Blood practically poured from this wound, and the rest of Solo's right wing hung limp at an odd angle, also scraped and missing some feathers. But Solo couldn't figure something out, he could see the bone of his wing, but not the point. It was about half way down his back, to the side of his spine, but still he couldn't see the sharp end.
"Duo, where's the point of the broken bone." Being behind Solo, Duo had a better view and could see what Solo couldn't The bone had broken through the skin, then been forced back into Solo's back. Duo decided that was where most of the blood was coming from.
"Solo, has breathing been painful since this happened..." Duo's voice got quieter and quieter as he continued, eventually dropping off.
"Yeah, but I figured I just pulled a muscle, why do you-" Solo paused as his shocked mind suddenly made sense of the numerous shocks of pain going through his body. 'The broken bone, it stabbed me in the back. How ironic sounding. I stabbed myself in the back.'
"Solo you might have punctured your lung, I can't tell how deep the bone's embedded. And I can't take care of wounds like this."
" I'm not going to any hospital if that's what you're thinking. No way in hell are a bunch of quacks gonna be doing experiments on me."
"Okay fine. But the only person I know who can fix broken bones like this is Heero. He was trained a lot more than any of the rest of us, especially in medicine. That way he wouldn't have to ever risk a hospital visit if he was seriously hurt."
"Oh yeah, even better, that kid ain't seeing this or touching me Duo."
"Solo, listen to me, if you're wings try and reset themselves with that bone stuck in your lung, it's gonna tear straight through it."
Solo paled at the thought and gulped away the lump of fear in his throat.
Duo walked over to his desk and reached into a drawer, pulling out the knife Solo had left him years ago. With a few precise slits, Solo's shirt fell off in pieces.
"Lay down on the bed, I'm going to go get Heero and the medical supplies."
"No Duo." Solo tried to say as he did as he was told. But his voice lacked the conviction from earlier, he was too tired to argue now. As Duo reached the door, he paused and turned to look at Solo trying to bend over and lay down on the bed.
"How did that happen, and what really happened to Heero?"
Solo sighed as he finally fell to the bed, then looked up at Duo. His long blonde bangs fell in front of his face as he spoke. "I was telling the truth, Heero was cleaning the top of his gundam, when he slipped and fell, cutting his head open and getting himself knocked unconscious. Then I kinda tried to catch him, but I was too tired, I could barely keep myself up, so we sorta fell to the ground and then I was unconscious too." Solo smirked up at Duo's surprised expression.
"You saved Heero? And at your own risk. Wow, I never woulda guessed I'd see this day." Duo walked out of the doorway and down the hall, and just barely heard Solo angrily shout, "Don't tell him!"
'I understand Solo. But right now I'm gonna have some problems of my own right now.' With a sigh, Duo approached Heero, who was sitting on the couch and trying to inspect the bandage on his head.
"Hey Heero, how's your head?"
"Fine, I don't have a concussion."
"That's good." 'Usual pilot small talk, only in our group.' Duo shook his head and tried to get back on course.
"Heero, Solo's hurt and I need you to help him, he needs a bone to be set."
For just a second Heero glared in the general direction of Solo before looking up at Duo. His soft violet eyes were begging for help, and despite his better instincts he nodded his head.
"Okay, thanks Heero. But first I...uhh....you kinda.....hmm.....you kinda need to know something about me and Solo."
Cobalt eyes darkened and expected what they'd already seen.
"I think it would be better if I showed you. Even we don't really know why it happens, but it just does."
"What happens?" Heero's brow came together in confusion, he thought for sure Duo was going to say something about them being lovers, or boyfriends or something.
"Something happens." But before Duo could continue, Heero interrupted again. "Duo, I don't understand." With a sigh, Duo decided he had no other choice, there was no way he'd be able to convince Heero unless he showed him, so why bother.
"Okay, just, promise not to scream or shoot me or anything, okay?"
Heero nodded and Duo took a few steps back. Slowly, with an unsure look on his face, Duo began to unzip his red shirt that he'd been wearing. Heero's eyes widened a little and his jaw began to slack. With a shake of his head to clear his thoughts, Heero brought back the calm face he usually wore. 'Don't drool. Do not drool. Oh no, he's taking off his pants....DON'T DROOL!'
Duo's red shirt had been discarded to the floor, and now he was struggling to pull the loose black jeans he had on down. After a bit of shifting back and forth, Duo managed to get his pants down to his knees, then smiled, satisfied. Heero just blinked in confusion before Duo quickly pulled his pants back up and zipping them back in place. 'Hmm, it's like he had a problem getting them down, but not getting them up.'
"Okay Heero. Remember, I can't explain this, so don't waste your breath asking questions. I can answer two that you're already going to have though. Yes this is real, you're not dead or dreaming. And second, no I am not a demon."
If possible, Heero was now even more utterly lost and even Duo could see it in his eyes. 'Okay, here we go. I hope he takes this well..." The chest he was staring at rose with a deep sigh, and Heero tore his gaze up into Duo's eyes. They were apprehensive. Then, something dark moved, and Heero's eyes flicked in that direction. Something large and dark was appearing behind Duo.
"What the hell?!" It took Heero a minute to realize he had yelled that out loud as two enormous black wings stretched outward from behind Duo. The skin rustled as it was slowly stretched out, the folds in the skin being pulled taught as the bones also unfolded outward. The tips of Duo's wings grazed the two walls, easily 30 feet across from each other and Duo stopped stretching them. As Heero looked from one side to the other, he realized that these wings were much more like a bird's wings in structure, even though the black colored skin stretched across the bones made them appear like a bat.
After letting the surprised pilot soak everything in for a few seconds, Duo pulled his wings into a relaxed position, hanging behind him, the tips touching the floor as the angled out to his sides.
"Well, you didn't scream or shoot me, so I'm very proud. You did say "What the hell?" but that's okay, I would have said the same thing." Duo paused, noticing that Heero's eyes were still fixated with his wings.
"Woo-hoo. Up here. Hey, I'm talkin to ya here." With a pout, Duo's wings pushed out a little farther, his emotions once again being betrayed by his body language.
"So why are you showing me this?"
"Because I'm not the only one who has these....things."
Heero's eyebrow merely raised a bit. Then he nodded for Duo to continue.
"Yeah, okay, I don't know why, maybe there are angels or gods or something out there and one decided he was gonna listen in on me and Solo one day. You see, Solo died, when we were young. He was the leader of a little gang of kids that all were homeless on L2. I kinda ended up the second in command, and, to make a long story short, everyone in the gang died but me."
Now Heero seemed more interested. He didn't know anything about the other pilot's pasts, although he'd heard glimpses of Trowa's while they traveled together. He's just assumed the other three had normal lives and families till they became pilots.
"Yeah, so, the most the two of us have been able to put together, and this is just our thoughts, after all, we don't have a clue why it happened, but suddenly Solo was alive again. And he had these freakin huge angel wings, and I get stuck with a pair of bat like ones. So we figure someone decided Solo deserved a second chance at life, and for some reason we both have to have these things pop out of us every few years or so to remind us to stick together. You see once these things come out of us, the only way they'll go back in is if we see each other, you know, hang out for a while."
Again, Heero just blinked and looked dazed.
"Okay Heero, I know it's a lot to think about, lots of questions to be asked, yadda yadda yadda. But we have an emergency right now and Solo needs your help."
"Why does he need my help?"
"He...uh, he kinda fell down and broke his wing. Badly. And it punctured a lung, I think."
"And you need me to set the bone back in place."
"Exactly. It needs to be set really well, when these wings go back into our backs, they seem to set themselves inside, against our bones so that there's enough room to fit them. If his is at the wrong angle..." He shuddered at the thought of what a broken bone could do to Solo's organs if it was trying to reset itself.
"Okay."
Duo smiled, before turning around walking down the hallway to his room, tucking his wings in so they wouldn't hit the walls and doorframe. Heero followed a few feet behind, avoiding the large limbs.
When Heero walked into the room, the smell of blood surprised even him. Looking at Duo's bed, he could see why. The bleeding from Solo's back and wings hadn't stopped, it had slowly been spreading through his wings and onto the bed.
At the sound of footsteps, Solo pulled himself up on his hands and knees and turned around to look at the door. No patronizing smile, no sardonic grin. His face was as stoic as Heero's as he glared at said pilot.
"Well, Duo says you can help, or are you just gonna stand there like an idiot all day long."
"Solo lay down and shut up so we can get you fixed up." The golden eyed boy snorted and did as he was told. Heero approached slowly and reach his hands out to start investigating how badly he was injured. But Duo's hand stopped his. Heero looked down at thin but strong hand holding his own and took a deep breath before daring a look into the violet eyes. Duo shook his head and mouthed the word 'wait'. Then he paused and looked around the room, searching for something. Then he turned to Heero and mouthed 'let me use your gun'. Heero shot him a surprised look. 'Not like that' he mouthed, 'just trust me okay?'. Heero reached to the waist of his spandex and pulled the gun from it's hidden holster. Duo took it and smiled, nodding to Heero.
Before anyone had time to react, Duo leaned over and hit Solo in the back of his head as hard as he could with the gun. Solo's body went limp, all tension draining out of it as he fell unconscious.
"Solo's not good with having people help him. If he even let you near him without a punch or kick, he would be bitching the whole time. It's better for everyone this way."
"Whatever you say. Go get the box of medical supplies that are in the living room."
"Right." Duo sprinted off and was back in the room in less than a minute. He put the box on the floor by the bed and took a quick look at Solo's head. A very small bump was forming where he hit him. 'Hehe, he's gonna kill me when he wakes up and realized what happened.'
* * * * * * * well, bit of a cliffhanger like thing there. ^_^ the next chapter will be the last of The Past Becomes You. Thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing. :::Tiv perks his ears up::: Tiv says thank you too. ^_~ I hope you'll enjoy the finale ending ...at least..it's the ending until I write the sequel to this fic which won't be ready till summer, sorry readers!
After much shifting, Duo finally had all five bags in his arms again. The door flung open under the weight of his hard kick and he strolled inside, using his hip to close it again.
Looking around, he couldn't see any of the three he had left here an hour ago. 'Hmm, wonder where they all are.'
Dumping the food on the counter, Duo began to sort through the piles and put things in their rightful places. 'Ah well, it's not worth going to find them, everyone ends up here eventually.' With a smile, Duo finished putting everything away, and grabbed the jar of peanut butter and the box of Ritz crackers before flopping down on the couch and turning the tv on.
* * * * *
'Uhh.....what the....oh yeah...' Solo's eyes slowly flickered open, trying to remember why he was in so much pain that he couldn't move, and why he was staring up at Wing Zero.
Looking down, Solo froze as stabs of pain went through his head and neck. 'Oh that's right, I fell and crashed here thanks to this kid.' Summoning a small bit of strength, Solo threw Heero's still unconscious body to his side. Or at least, he had meant to throw him, but just that movement caused his entire back to scream out, so he settled for rolling the boy off of him.
As Solo lay there, he tried to take a few deep breaths, but felt like something was stabbing through his back. 'Wow, okay, note to self, don't do that ever again. Ah, my muscles feel like they're about to pop out of my skin.' He tried to roll over, before gasping out in pain. 'Or light on fire. Definitely one of those two things.'
Taking a very deep breath, which caused a flash of pain in it's own right, Solo sat up straight. He immediately regretted it. His back felt like he had snapped every muscle in half with just that one movement. He leaned forward in his sitting position and braced himself with his arms. Looking down, he could see them shaking from the pain and exhaustion. After a few minutes, the pain subsided, and he decided to try standing up. Pulling his knees up beneath his chin, he was pleased to find that they didn't cause him any pain.
Slowly he eased his weight onto his arms, now in a painful crouch. 'Come on, you can do it.' With one strong push of his undamaged legs, Solo found himself standing, and struggling to stay that way. His head was swimming, and colored dots surrounded his vision. His back felt a miniscule amount better now that he was standing. It still hurt when he moved though.
Once his head had cleared, Solo looked down at himself. A large red spot had soaked through his shirt. 'From where Heero's head had been.' Looking at the boy, Solo was shocked at the large puddle of blood they had been laying in. 'That must be one nice gash to do all that.' Solo head continued to throb, and feeling a bad premonition, he reached up and felt the back of his head. Sure enough, his head was now bleeding as well. 'Must have landed...well, as hard as I thought I guess.'
Sighing, Solo looked around, praying that his coat was nearby. Ten feet away, it was a dark, shining puddle of leather.
Walking didn't hurt as much as Solo had thought it would, especially if he walked softly and didn't jar his back when his feet would land. Taking a few minutes to think about the best way of doing this, Solo stuck his foot under his coat. Gently lifting it up, he brought it to where his hand could grab it. 'Ha, didn't even hafta been down.'
Solo tried to bend his wings up, so that he could put his coat on, but found that the pain nearly caused him to black out. 'Yeah, okay, I don't care if people are falling to their deaths. Screw them. I'm not flying again in my life unless I have to.' Pouting, he slid his jacket over both arms and let it fall on his back, lightly. He was once again thankful that the coat was nice and loose.
The weight of the coat on his back and shoulders hurt, but he could handle it. 'Once I get into Duo's room, I can take this off so it won't bother me anymore.'
Glaring down at Heero, the thought crossed his mind for the hundreth time. 'Why did I save you?' In Solo's opinion, Duo's brief sadness was nothing compared to not having any competition for the boy. 'Without him, Duo would probably come back to L2 with me...' Solo reached back and pulled out his knife. Bending down painfully, he picked up the boy's prone body. Using one hand and arm to support his weight, Solo brought the blade up to Heero's already bloody scalp. 'Duo wouldn't be able to tell a gash from a knife wound...and neither would that guy Trowa.' Solo paused, looking around at the blood and feathers on the floor. Remembering that his head was bleeding already, Solo slipped the knife into it's sheath.
'Damn it. Guess I have to go for the hero angle.'
Shifting his burden, Solo began to walk up the two flights of catwalks.
When he was five feet from the crack of light that signified the door, he paused. 'Me, covered in blood, carrying an unconscious bleeding Heero who looks like he got wailed on with something metal...hmm....I hope Duo doesn't kill me.' * * * * * *
Duo looked up from the cartoon on the tv as soon as he heard the door to the hangar open. Expecting Heero, he turned around on the couch and laid his head on his hands, looking and smiling over. Instead, Solo came walking in, looking tired, in pain, and bloody. Duo's smile fell into a concerned look as he stood up and began to walk towards Solo. A small trail of blood was running down his face, and he could see his golden hair had red seeping through it. Only then did Duo finally look down and see what Solo had been struggling with.
Heero's head had an obvious gash running down the top and back of it, dripping blood slowly to the floor, running over Solo's arm as it did. The rest of Heero's body looked to be in perfect condition, but he was unconscious and Duo didn't give a damn. 'How could he.'
Duo stalked forward, taking Heero's prone body from Solo. Solo took a step back when he saw the look Duo gave him, his violet eyes were shadowed by his hair and looked black as obsidian.
"I-" Solo paused and bent over a bit, one eye wincing at the pain he felt when he spoke. He hadn't taken a breath that deep and now his lungs rebelled against him. Duo had his back turned to him by now and was walking over to the couch. He slowly laid Heero down on it, propping his head up on the arm, making it easier to treat.
"I'm gonna go to your room and clean myself up." Solo finished and walked down the hallway. Occasionally he would step to hard and his back would be jarred, causing his whole face to wince in the sharp pains. 'And I always thought knife cuts were bad...sheesh.'
Solo gently closed the door and walked over to his duffel bag. After a while of rummaging he found some semi-clean clothes he could put on.
* * * * * *
The closet of the house looked to be a mix between a mechanic's and a paramedic's. Duo picked up a few power tools and put them on a different shelf. 'Stupid Howard, there must be about five closets in this house and he keeps everything in the same one.' Duo touched something sticky and pulled out a peanut butter sandwich from who knows when. Stuffing most of it in his mouth he put the last half back where he found it and continued his search. 'Ah ha.' Duo pulled out the large box of medical supplies where the bandages where kept.
He dropped this box on the floor next to the couch and quickly sterilized Heero's wound. 'It's not really that bad, I'm actually surprised he's been out this long.' Duo wrapped the gauze around and around, before taping it in place with the medical tape. 'There we go, he should be good as new.'
"Uhh...." Duo's head snapped to the couch as Heero moaned as he painfully opened his eyes.
"Hey Heero, I bandaged up your busted head, how are you feeling?"
"....arr....Solo..." Heero still sounded slightly dazed but Duo didn't hang around to see if he was really okay. His feet pounded on the carpet as he sprinted towards the door of his room.
* * * * *
Solo was just letting his jacket slide painfully down his arms, it had been harder to get off then on for some reason, when the door to Duo's room burst open. 'What the-' Worried it might be Trowa or Heero Solo quickly put his jacket back on and let out a small yelp as his back burned at the touch.
Solo let out a loud sigh as he realized it was just Duo and smirked at him.
"So-" But before he could continue Duo was in his face and grabbed a hold of the front of his jacket.
"What did you do to him!?!" Duo pushed with all his strength, and being weakened already, Solo couldn't fight back. Duo picked him up slightly, and slammed him hard against the wall.
"AHH!!" Solo screamed out, as his eyes rolled back in pain. For a few seconds, he felt like the pain would make him pass out. Duo saw this look on his face, he'd never seen this look and Solo had never once made a sound when he was in pain. 'Something's wrong...his back was hurting earlier, but not that much.'
"What's wrong, Solo?" Duo had let go of Solo's jacket and he had fallen into his arms, unable to continue standing.
Under the weight of his best friend, Duo was bending down and his eyes were drawn to the floor beneath Solo. Blood was slowly pooling outward from his feet, and it was running down the backs of his calves.
"Solo, hey Solo. Stand up!" Duo shouted at him as he helped him stand. Solo was returning from the daze he had been flung into and stood up straight, looking a little embarrassed at falling onto Duo.
"I'm okay, really Duo, quit worrying so much."
"What happened, why are you and Heero both bleeding, did you attack him or something." Duo slowly made his way around to his back as he asked Solo this, searching for a visible wound that could be causing all the blood.
"Hey, maybe he attacked me!?!" Solo shouted back, insulted at his so called best friend taking Heero's side. "But no, we didn't fight. Heero fell and hit his head, that's all."
"Then why are you bleeding so much." Not finding any open wounds but the very small one on his head, Duo glared at Solo's back. "Solo, take your jacket off."
Solo wheeled around to face Duo and put his hands up." No, no, that's okay, my backs fine."
Duo didn't smile or even respond, he just kept staring at Solo, anger fading slowly away.
"Oh I can't believe you, you suck do you know that." Solo turned around and pulled his arms back again, bracing for the pain that would come when his sore back was being touched by his leather.
Duo gently reached up and tried to pull the coat off as slowly and gently as possible, still Solo flinched every now and then, but having his arms behind him was making the it slide off as easily as it could.
Solo heard Duo audibly gasp as he felt the jacket completely removed.
"What's wrong Duo?"
"Oh God Solo..." Duo's eyes were huge when Solo craned his neck over his shoulder to see his frightened expression. Then his eyes wandered from Duo's stare to the mirror behind the boy. After seeing his reflection, Solo nearly passed out for the second time in the past five minutes.
His wings were mangled. Not broken, not bruised or bent. Mangled was the only word to describe them. Of the two, the left one was less injured. Chunks of feathers had been ripped out and the skin beneath them was scraped up and red, like a rug burn. Blood oozed out of the burns, once again staining his wings red. The right wing however, was far worse. Half way along the first bone of his wing, something white and red was protruding from a gash in his skin. It took Solo and Duo both a few seconds to realize that the bone had been bent back and broken in half, the sharp point of the bone stabbing through the skin.
Blood practically poured from this wound, and the rest of Solo's right wing hung limp at an odd angle, also scraped and missing some feathers. But Solo couldn't figure something out, he could see the bone of his wing, but not the point. It was about half way down his back, to the side of his spine, but still he couldn't see the sharp end.
"Duo, where's the point of the broken bone." Being behind Solo, Duo had a better view and could see what Solo couldn't The bone had broken through the skin, then been forced back into Solo's back. Duo decided that was where most of the blood was coming from.
"Solo, has breathing been painful since this happened..." Duo's voice got quieter and quieter as he continued, eventually dropping off.
"Yeah, but I figured I just pulled a muscle, why do you-" Solo paused as his shocked mind suddenly made sense of the numerous shocks of pain going through his body. 'The broken bone, it stabbed me in the back. How ironic sounding. I stabbed myself in the back.'
"Solo you might have punctured your lung, I can't tell how deep the bone's embedded. And I can't take care of wounds like this."
" I'm not going to any hospital if that's what you're thinking. No way in hell are a bunch of quacks gonna be doing experiments on me."
"Okay fine. But the only person I know who can fix broken bones like this is Heero. He was trained a lot more than any of the rest of us, especially in medicine. That way he wouldn't have to ever risk a hospital visit if he was seriously hurt."
"Oh yeah, even better, that kid ain't seeing this or touching me Duo."
"Solo, listen to me, if you're wings try and reset themselves with that bone stuck in your lung, it's gonna tear straight through it."
Solo paled at the thought and gulped away the lump of fear in his throat.
Duo walked over to his desk and reached into a drawer, pulling out the knife Solo had left him years ago. With a few precise slits, Solo's shirt fell off in pieces.
"Lay down on the bed, I'm going to go get Heero and the medical supplies."
"No Duo." Solo tried to say as he did as he was told. But his voice lacked the conviction from earlier, he was too tired to argue now. As Duo reached the door, he paused and turned to look at Solo trying to bend over and lay down on the bed.
"How did that happen, and what really happened to Heero?"
Solo sighed as he finally fell to the bed, then looked up at Duo. His long blonde bangs fell in front of his face as he spoke. "I was telling the truth, Heero was cleaning the top of his gundam, when he slipped and fell, cutting his head open and getting himself knocked unconscious. Then I kinda tried to catch him, but I was too tired, I could barely keep myself up, so we sorta fell to the ground and then I was unconscious too." Solo smirked up at Duo's surprised expression.
"You saved Heero? And at your own risk. Wow, I never woulda guessed I'd see this day." Duo walked out of the doorway and down the hall, and just barely heard Solo angrily shout, "Don't tell him!"
'I understand Solo. But right now I'm gonna have some problems of my own right now.' With a sigh, Duo approached Heero, who was sitting on the couch and trying to inspect the bandage on his head.
"Hey Heero, how's your head?"
"Fine, I don't have a concussion."
"That's good." 'Usual pilot small talk, only in our group.' Duo shook his head and tried to get back on course.
"Heero, Solo's hurt and I need you to help him, he needs a bone to be set."
For just a second Heero glared in the general direction of Solo before looking up at Duo. His soft violet eyes were begging for help, and despite his better instincts he nodded his head.
"Okay, thanks Heero. But first I...uhh....you kinda.....hmm.....you kinda need to know something about me and Solo."
Cobalt eyes darkened and expected what they'd already seen.
"I think it would be better if I showed you. Even we don't really know why it happens, but it just does."
"What happens?" Heero's brow came together in confusion, he thought for sure Duo was going to say something about them being lovers, or boyfriends or something.
"Something happens." But before Duo could continue, Heero interrupted again. "Duo, I don't understand." With a sigh, Duo decided he had no other choice, there was no way he'd be able to convince Heero unless he showed him, so why bother.
"Okay, just, promise not to scream or shoot me or anything, okay?"
Heero nodded and Duo took a few steps back. Slowly, with an unsure look on his face, Duo began to unzip his red shirt that he'd been wearing. Heero's eyes widened a little and his jaw began to slack. With a shake of his head to clear his thoughts, Heero brought back the calm face he usually wore. 'Don't drool. Do not drool. Oh no, he's taking off his pants....DON'T DROOL!'
Duo's red shirt had been discarded to the floor, and now he was struggling to pull the loose black jeans he had on down. After a bit of shifting back and forth, Duo managed to get his pants down to his knees, then smiled, satisfied. Heero just blinked in confusion before Duo quickly pulled his pants back up and zipping them back in place. 'Hmm, it's like he had a problem getting them down, but not getting them up.'
"Okay Heero. Remember, I can't explain this, so don't waste your breath asking questions. I can answer two that you're already going to have though. Yes this is real, you're not dead or dreaming. And second, no I am not a demon."
If possible, Heero was now even more utterly lost and even Duo could see it in his eyes. 'Okay, here we go. I hope he takes this well..." The chest he was staring at rose with a deep sigh, and Heero tore his gaze up into Duo's eyes. They were apprehensive. Then, something dark moved, and Heero's eyes flicked in that direction. Something large and dark was appearing behind Duo.
"What the hell?!" It took Heero a minute to realize he had yelled that out loud as two enormous black wings stretched outward from behind Duo. The skin rustled as it was slowly stretched out, the folds in the skin being pulled taught as the bones also unfolded outward. The tips of Duo's wings grazed the two walls, easily 30 feet across from each other and Duo stopped stretching them. As Heero looked from one side to the other, he realized that these wings were much more like a bird's wings in structure, even though the black colored skin stretched across the bones made them appear like a bat.
After letting the surprised pilot soak everything in for a few seconds, Duo pulled his wings into a relaxed position, hanging behind him, the tips touching the floor as the angled out to his sides.
"Well, you didn't scream or shoot me, so I'm very proud. You did say "What the hell?" but that's okay, I would have said the same thing." Duo paused, noticing that Heero's eyes were still fixated with his wings.
"Woo-hoo. Up here. Hey, I'm talkin to ya here." With a pout, Duo's wings pushed out a little farther, his emotions once again being betrayed by his body language.
"So why are you showing me this?"
"Because I'm not the only one who has these....things."
Heero's eyebrow merely raised a bit. Then he nodded for Duo to continue.
"Yeah, okay, I don't know why, maybe there are angels or gods or something out there and one decided he was gonna listen in on me and Solo one day. You see, Solo died, when we were young. He was the leader of a little gang of kids that all were homeless on L2. I kinda ended up the second in command, and, to make a long story short, everyone in the gang died but me."
Now Heero seemed more interested. He didn't know anything about the other pilot's pasts, although he'd heard glimpses of Trowa's while they traveled together. He's just assumed the other three had normal lives and families till they became pilots.
"Yeah, so, the most the two of us have been able to put together, and this is just our thoughts, after all, we don't have a clue why it happened, but suddenly Solo was alive again. And he had these freakin huge angel wings, and I get stuck with a pair of bat like ones. So we figure someone decided Solo deserved a second chance at life, and for some reason we both have to have these things pop out of us every few years or so to remind us to stick together. You see once these things come out of us, the only way they'll go back in is if we see each other, you know, hang out for a while."
Again, Heero just blinked and looked dazed.
"Okay Heero, I know it's a lot to think about, lots of questions to be asked, yadda yadda yadda. But we have an emergency right now and Solo needs your help."
"Why does he need my help?"
"He...uh, he kinda fell down and broke his wing. Badly. And it punctured a lung, I think."
"And you need me to set the bone back in place."
"Exactly. It needs to be set really well, when these wings go back into our backs, they seem to set themselves inside, against our bones so that there's enough room to fit them. If his is at the wrong angle..." He shuddered at the thought of what a broken bone could do to Solo's organs if it was trying to reset itself.
"Okay."
Duo smiled, before turning around walking down the hallway to his room, tucking his wings in so they wouldn't hit the walls and doorframe. Heero followed a few feet behind, avoiding the large limbs.
When Heero walked into the room, the smell of blood surprised even him. Looking at Duo's bed, he could see why. The bleeding from Solo's back and wings hadn't stopped, it had slowly been spreading through his wings and onto the bed.
At the sound of footsteps, Solo pulled himself up on his hands and knees and turned around to look at the door. No patronizing smile, no sardonic grin. His face was as stoic as Heero's as he glared at said pilot.
"Well, Duo says you can help, or are you just gonna stand there like an idiot all day long."
"Solo lay down and shut up so we can get you fixed up." The golden eyed boy snorted and did as he was told. Heero approached slowly and reach his hands out to start investigating how badly he was injured. But Duo's hand stopped his. Heero looked down at thin but strong hand holding his own and took a deep breath before daring a look into the violet eyes. Duo shook his head and mouthed the word 'wait'. Then he paused and looked around the room, searching for something. Then he turned to Heero and mouthed 'let me use your gun'. Heero shot him a surprised look. 'Not like that' he mouthed, 'just trust me okay?'. Heero reached to the waist of his spandex and pulled the gun from it's hidden holster. Duo took it and smiled, nodding to Heero.
Before anyone had time to react, Duo leaned over and hit Solo in the back of his head as hard as he could with the gun. Solo's body went limp, all tension draining out of it as he fell unconscious.
"Solo's not good with having people help him. If he even let you near him without a punch or kick, he would be bitching the whole time. It's better for everyone this way."
"Whatever you say. Go get the box of medical supplies that are in the living room."
"Right." Duo sprinted off and was back in the room in less than a minute. He put the box on the floor by the bed and took a quick look at Solo's head. A very small bump was forming where he hit him. 'Hehe, he's gonna kill me when he wakes up and realized what happened.'
* * * * * * * well, bit of a cliffhanger like thing there. ^_^ the next chapter will be the last of The Past Becomes You. Thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing. :::Tiv perks his ears up::: Tiv says thank you too. ^_~ I hope you'll enjoy the finale ending ...at least..it's the ending until I write the sequel to this fic which won't be ready till summer, sorry readers!