Chapter 2: Reflections
Sally didn't know if now was the right time to interrupt Duo, because he looked so lost, but so was Heero, and she had this feeling that they needed each other more than ever. Sally knocked tentatively on the doorframe to the open room.
Duo broke his gaze from the window and quickly came back into the world he had tried to escape from with a single tear. He wiped it away from his face and turned to see Sally standing timidly. He nodded his head to say that it was all right.
"Duo, you'd better come to Heero's room. I think he's crying."
"There's no way he'd cry, Sally. I think you're just imagining things." Duo looked out the window again. "Sometimes I wish he would, but that guy has killed so many people. If he wanted to cry, he would have done it a long time ago." He bit his lip, "Sorry you had to see me like this, Sal, but I'm not the perfect soldier, and you know that."
"Well," Sally sighed, "when you've had some time to think about everything, I hope you'll pay Heero a visit. He's awfully upset. I'm not used to seeing him like this."
Sally left Duo alone, but not for long. Duo was up and out of the room quickly enough. If it's anything Duo learned during the war, it was that emotions were less harmful when expressed briefly. If emotions were not expressed at all, then you'd be Heero, and practically no one wanted that. If emotions were expressed too much, you'd end up like Quatre, too fragile and too kind. In the war, kindness was a weakness, which is why all of them had struggled so much.
Walking into Heero's room, Duo felt a twinge of sadness as he saw that the other boy looked like he had been crying. Heero wasn't as shocked as he was happy that Duo had come back. Heero was so happy, in fact, that he failed to notice that Duo's face was still stained with tears. I guess love can blind people sometimes.
"Hey Heero." Duo's braid flew behind him as he grabbed a chair and ungracefully sat down on it and stared at Heero, waiting for a response. He had never seen Heero so out of it. It was like he was in a totally different world, or maybe Duo was just confused by Heero's wide-eyed expression, because it was one that he had never seen before.
"Earth to Heero?" Duo smirked and Heero came to his senses.
"Duo," He stared, but then looked away, "I was so sure you weren't coming back."
Duo was a little shocked. Sally had said Heero looked really upset, could this have been the reason? Heero really did need him, Duo thought, not because of affection as Duo had hoped, but if only because Duo was the only person he had remembered. Didn't Heero realize that they were friends?
"Heero, you don't think that I'm going to leave you now, do you? Seeing as how I got up at 6:00 this morning to see you, we'd have to be pretty damn good friends. You must be insane if you think that I'm going to leave you, now, when you need me most. I wouldn't be your best friend it I did." Duo meant every word, even though there was so much that he hadn't said.
Heero smiled at this. He had a friend, now. He was so thankful. When he woke up on the hospital bed, he didn't have anything, but now he had someone who really cared about him, and Heero knew that Duo's friendship was the most valuable thing he had right now. It was a little ironic, though. Heero never could have admitted before that Duo's friendship was always the most valuable thing he ever had.
"Thanks, Duo," Heero looked at him and Duo started to melt again. The former Deathscythe pilot never could understand what it was about Heero that did that to him, but he wasn't complaining, "Thanks for being my friend."
"You never have to thank me, Heero. That's what a friendship is, when you do stuff for somebody without expecting anything in return."
"So you'll stay?"
"Hai." Duo said confidently as he watched Heero's cobalt-eyes close slowly. Heero's lips slid into a type of smile and his former partner rolled over as he drifted off into a very contented sleep.
Duo kept his word and stayed with Heero all that morning as the cobalt-eyed boy slept, occasionally leaving and roaming the halls and getting into very interesting conversations with complete strangers. When it was a little past eleven, Duo went to the hospital cafeteria and got some lunch, well, it was more of a snack to the braided boy, but it would have been lunch for any normal person.
He brought it back to Heero's room. Duo had also gotten something little for him because he figured Heero would be hungry when he woke up.
Well, when Duo came back, Heero was still sleeping. Duo gazed lovingly at his former partner as he ate his lunch. Heero was even more adorable sleeping than ever, and Duo was very glad he had the chance to see him again. There had been so many times when Duo thought that he wouldn't ever see Heero again, but I guess fate had other plans. He loved Heero, there was no doubt about that.
He guessed that fate knew. What other reason would there be for fate to keep bringing them together, of course, he could never tell Heero how he felt. The old Heero wouldn't understand, and the new Heero certainly understand. The situation was becoming more and more complicated by the minute, which is why Duo hastily went back to chewing on his lunch.
Duo sighed loudly and Heero tossed uncomfortably in his sleep. Duo decided that he'd go talk to Sally. As much as he'd like to look at Heero all day, but Duo was confusing himself and growing more and more restless by the minute.
"Hey Sally!" He waltzed into her office.
"Hi Duo. How's Heero?" She asked, looking up from her papers for a moment before she continued rapidly scribbling. Duo collapsed in a chair.
"Still sleeping. Hey, do you know when he's going to be well enough to walk?"
"I don't know, Duo, it's still too early to tell, I guess. We used to think that his legs were useless. After that, the specialist doctors came in and told us he had about a year before he'd be able to use them," Sally held her hands to the air in frustration, "and from the evaluation we made today, it should only take a week or two. I swear that kid's not human!"
Duo laughed, "That's Heero for you, all right!"
"Duo, why don't you go home? There's nothing more that you can do here, and we'll call you when Heero's well enough to come to your house" Sally notioned, but Duo simply shook his head.
"I can't leave him."
"I understand." Sally watched as Duo left the room and headed back to Heero's room. She stopped her work for a minute, and saw the awkward position Duo was put in. He was forced to be Heero's protector and his friend, when both were so hard, all at once. Duo didn't know how to protect someone who had always seemed to protect him in the past, and Duo didn't know how to be someone's friend when he knew that it had become so much more to him.
Sally felt pity for the braided boy, and she knew he wouldn't like others feeling sorry for either him, or Heero for that matter, but it was hard not to sympathize when everything was such a mess.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Duo found himself waking up the next morning in an upright position on the chair he had spent all of yesterday watching Heero in. It was even weirder, though, to find that Heero had been watching him sleep.
"Hello Duo. Sleep well?" Heero inquired as Duo got up to stretch his arms. Duo yawned lazily.
"Yes, Hee-chan, I slept quite well. How about you? You're the one who slept all day yesterday." Duo accused and chuckled slightly.
"I'm better." Heero finally decided. It was about 1:00 in the afternoon. He had woken up at around 7:30, and Sally brought him breakfast at around nine. When she saw Duo sleeping, his head cocked to one side of the chair, she laughed, and Heero begged for her not to wake him. He had been watching Duo as he slept, and although Heero could no longer see Duo's lovely violet eyes. Heero had finally decided, although it wasn't hard to figure, that Duo was just as beautiful as he slept. However, when Duo awoke, he knew that his affection for the braided boy went deeper than that. The energy and life Duo brought to the room was almost addictive. Yes, it had been a wonderful morning.
"Good," Duo glanced at the clock, "Hmm, only 1:00? I thought for sure I'd sleep later than that." He grinned and winked at Heero, "NOW do you see what a big thing it was for me to wake up at 6:00 yesterday?"
Heero slightly smiled back and watched as Duo blushed when his stomach made a noise.
"Looks like it's time to get something to eat," Duo glanced at Heero as he was walking out the door, "Want anything Hee-chan?"
"No thanks. Sally already brought me something to eat."
"Okay then. I'll be right back," Duo slid through the door and out to get lunch, or breakfast. It didn't matter as long as he got something to eat.
The rest of the day went pretty much the same way, with the exception of one thing. Duo had gone back to his apartment for a little while that day, of course after explaining to Heero the importance of personal hygiene and the fact that he seriously needed a change of clothes and a shower. Heero understood, of course, although the time Duo was away seemed twice as long as it actually was, for both of them.
Duo got back a little late in the afternoon. Heero was reading a book Sally had given him, but he wasn't really concentrating very hard. It was so quiet around the hospital, and it was hard to concentrate when it was so quiet.
All of the sudden, Heero heard the now familiar sound of Duo's shoes against the tile of the hallway, and he looked up from his book in anticipation as the braided pilot walked in the door carrying a cardboard box that made a muffled clunking sound when it landed on the night table next to Heero's bed.
The chestnut-haired teenager smiled and greeted the confused cobalt eyes of the one he loved.
"Hey Hee-chan! You miss me?"
"Hn." He wasn't feeling very talkative, "What's in the box?"
"Memories, Heero," Duo smiled meekly.
"Memories? Duo, I can't," Heero bit his lip, "I can't remember anything. It would only be too painful...." Heero stopped to look up at Duo who was trying to maintain a fake smile.
"You can't loose anything by trying to remember, Hee-chan." Duo reached for a photo album from inside the box. "Look here."
He opened up to the first page where Heero saw himself in the middle of some kind of party, posing with a bunch of people he didn't recognize, with the exception of Duo, that is, who had one arm slung around his shoulder and was waving at the camera.
"This is a picture from a party Quatre invited us all to, there," he said pointing to a young man with blond hair and smile on his face, "that's Quatre."
I looked at the young blond's face. It was so happy, like Duo's....well, maybe not quite so happy, but Heero noticed his own face. It was so cold, like stone. It stood out from all the others. Was he the only one who wasn't having fun?
"Quatre's one of my best friends?" I asked.
"Yours and mine, pal. He's filthy rich, and we all envy him to death, but he was a Gundam pilot, too. So were Trowa and Wufei." He pointed to two other boys who were perhaps the coldest faces at the party besides his own. "I called all of them yesterday. They're coming to see you, too, Heero. They should be here at some point tomorrow."
Heero knew he didn't deserve such good friends, but it was a nice thing to know that he had friends. And Duo, he hoped was more than a friend, although Heero knew he wasn't deserving of the braided beauty any more than he was deserving of friends that were willing to drop everything to come and see him.
"Could you tell me about my friends, Duo?" Heero asked, at first startled by his own words, because everyone should know their own friends, but he saw Duo summon a smile and was at ease in his loving gaze.
"Sure, Hee-chan." Duo said as he began to tell Heero about every person that he had ever known to the best of his knowledge, and Heero was soothed by his soft words. He was looking forward to seeing his best friends, but they didn't matter so much as long as Duo was there. Heero just wanted Duo to stay there forever.
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Hello *smiles*
Hope you liked the second chapter!
Please Review!
Thanks so much!!!!!
Sally didn't know if now was the right time to interrupt Duo, because he looked so lost, but so was Heero, and she had this feeling that they needed each other more than ever. Sally knocked tentatively on the doorframe to the open room.
Duo broke his gaze from the window and quickly came back into the world he had tried to escape from with a single tear. He wiped it away from his face and turned to see Sally standing timidly. He nodded his head to say that it was all right.
"Duo, you'd better come to Heero's room. I think he's crying."
"There's no way he'd cry, Sally. I think you're just imagining things." Duo looked out the window again. "Sometimes I wish he would, but that guy has killed so many people. If he wanted to cry, he would have done it a long time ago." He bit his lip, "Sorry you had to see me like this, Sal, but I'm not the perfect soldier, and you know that."
"Well," Sally sighed, "when you've had some time to think about everything, I hope you'll pay Heero a visit. He's awfully upset. I'm not used to seeing him like this."
Sally left Duo alone, but not for long. Duo was up and out of the room quickly enough. If it's anything Duo learned during the war, it was that emotions were less harmful when expressed briefly. If emotions were not expressed at all, then you'd be Heero, and practically no one wanted that. If emotions were expressed too much, you'd end up like Quatre, too fragile and too kind. In the war, kindness was a weakness, which is why all of them had struggled so much.
Walking into Heero's room, Duo felt a twinge of sadness as he saw that the other boy looked like he had been crying. Heero wasn't as shocked as he was happy that Duo had come back. Heero was so happy, in fact, that he failed to notice that Duo's face was still stained with tears. I guess love can blind people sometimes.
"Hey Heero." Duo's braid flew behind him as he grabbed a chair and ungracefully sat down on it and stared at Heero, waiting for a response. He had never seen Heero so out of it. It was like he was in a totally different world, or maybe Duo was just confused by Heero's wide-eyed expression, because it was one that he had never seen before.
"Earth to Heero?" Duo smirked and Heero came to his senses.
"Duo," He stared, but then looked away, "I was so sure you weren't coming back."
Duo was a little shocked. Sally had said Heero looked really upset, could this have been the reason? Heero really did need him, Duo thought, not because of affection as Duo had hoped, but if only because Duo was the only person he had remembered. Didn't Heero realize that they were friends?
"Heero, you don't think that I'm going to leave you now, do you? Seeing as how I got up at 6:00 this morning to see you, we'd have to be pretty damn good friends. You must be insane if you think that I'm going to leave you, now, when you need me most. I wouldn't be your best friend it I did." Duo meant every word, even though there was so much that he hadn't said.
Heero smiled at this. He had a friend, now. He was so thankful. When he woke up on the hospital bed, he didn't have anything, but now he had someone who really cared about him, and Heero knew that Duo's friendship was the most valuable thing he had right now. It was a little ironic, though. Heero never could have admitted before that Duo's friendship was always the most valuable thing he ever had.
"Thanks, Duo," Heero looked at him and Duo started to melt again. The former Deathscythe pilot never could understand what it was about Heero that did that to him, but he wasn't complaining, "Thanks for being my friend."
"You never have to thank me, Heero. That's what a friendship is, when you do stuff for somebody without expecting anything in return."
"So you'll stay?"
"Hai." Duo said confidently as he watched Heero's cobalt-eyes close slowly. Heero's lips slid into a type of smile and his former partner rolled over as he drifted off into a very contented sleep.
Duo kept his word and stayed with Heero all that morning as the cobalt-eyed boy slept, occasionally leaving and roaming the halls and getting into very interesting conversations with complete strangers. When it was a little past eleven, Duo went to the hospital cafeteria and got some lunch, well, it was more of a snack to the braided boy, but it would have been lunch for any normal person.
He brought it back to Heero's room. Duo had also gotten something little for him because he figured Heero would be hungry when he woke up.
Well, when Duo came back, Heero was still sleeping. Duo gazed lovingly at his former partner as he ate his lunch. Heero was even more adorable sleeping than ever, and Duo was very glad he had the chance to see him again. There had been so many times when Duo thought that he wouldn't ever see Heero again, but I guess fate had other plans. He loved Heero, there was no doubt about that.
He guessed that fate knew. What other reason would there be for fate to keep bringing them together, of course, he could never tell Heero how he felt. The old Heero wouldn't understand, and the new Heero certainly understand. The situation was becoming more and more complicated by the minute, which is why Duo hastily went back to chewing on his lunch.
Duo sighed loudly and Heero tossed uncomfortably in his sleep. Duo decided that he'd go talk to Sally. As much as he'd like to look at Heero all day, but Duo was confusing himself and growing more and more restless by the minute.
"Hey Sally!" He waltzed into her office.
"Hi Duo. How's Heero?" She asked, looking up from her papers for a moment before she continued rapidly scribbling. Duo collapsed in a chair.
"Still sleeping. Hey, do you know when he's going to be well enough to walk?"
"I don't know, Duo, it's still too early to tell, I guess. We used to think that his legs were useless. After that, the specialist doctors came in and told us he had about a year before he'd be able to use them," Sally held her hands to the air in frustration, "and from the evaluation we made today, it should only take a week or two. I swear that kid's not human!"
Duo laughed, "That's Heero for you, all right!"
"Duo, why don't you go home? There's nothing more that you can do here, and we'll call you when Heero's well enough to come to your house" Sally notioned, but Duo simply shook his head.
"I can't leave him."
"I understand." Sally watched as Duo left the room and headed back to Heero's room. She stopped her work for a minute, and saw the awkward position Duo was put in. He was forced to be Heero's protector and his friend, when both were so hard, all at once. Duo didn't know how to protect someone who had always seemed to protect him in the past, and Duo didn't know how to be someone's friend when he knew that it had become so much more to him.
Sally felt pity for the braided boy, and she knew he wouldn't like others feeling sorry for either him, or Heero for that matter, but it was hard not to sympathize when everything was such a mess.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Duo found himself waking up the next morning in an upright position on the chair he had spent all of yesterday watching Heero in. It was even weirder, though, to find that Heero had been watching him sleep.
"Hello Duo. Sleep well?" Heero inquired as Duo got up to stretch his arms. Duo yawned lazily.
"Yes, Hee-chan, I slept quite well. How about you? You're the one who slept all day yesterday." Duo accused and chuckled slightly.
"I'm better." Heero finally decided. It was about 1:00 in the afternoon. He had woken up at around 7:30, and Sally brought him breakfast at around nine. When she saw Duo sleeping, his head cocked to one side of the chair, she laughed, and Heero begged for her not to wake him. He had been watching Duo as he slept, and although Heero could no longer see Duo's lovely violet eyes. Heero had finally decided, although it wasn't hard to figure, that Duo was just as beautiful as he slept. However, when Duo awoke, he knew that his affection for the braided boy went deeper than that. The energy and life Duo brought to the room was almost addictive. Yes, it had been a wonderful morning.
"Good," Duo glanced at the clock, "Hmm, only 1:00? I thought for sure I'd sleep later than that." He grinned and winked at Heero, "NOW do you see what a big thing it was for me to wake up at 6:00 yesterday?"
Heero slightly smiled back and watched as Duo blushed when his stomach made a noise.
"Looks like it's time to get something to eat," Duo glanced at Heero as he was walking out the door, "Want anything Hee-chan?"
"No thanks. Sally already brought me something to eat."
"Okay then. I'll be right back," Duo slid through the door and out to get lunch, or breakfast. It didn't matter as long as he got something to eat.
The rest of the day went pretty much the same way, with the exception of one thing. Duo had gone back to his apartment for a little while that day, of course after explaining to Heero the importance of personal hygiene and the fact that he seriously needed a change of clothes and a shower. Heero understood, of course, although the time Duo was away seemed twice as long as it actually was, for both of them.
Duo got back a little late in the afternoon. Heero was reading a book Sally had given him, but he wasn't really concentrating very hard. It was so quiet around the hospital, and it was hard to concentrate when it was so quiet.
All of the sudden, Heero heard the now familiar sound of Duo's shoes against the tile of the hallway, and he looked up from his book in anticipation as the braided pilot walked in the door carrying a cardboard box that made a muffled clunking sound when it landed on the night table next to Heero's bed.
The chestnut-haired teenager smiled and greeted the confused cobalt eyes of the one he loved.
"Hey Hee-chan! You miss me?"
"Hn." He wasn't feeling very talkative, "What's in the box?"
"Memories, Heero," Duo smiled meekly.
"Memories? Duo, I can't," Heero bit his lip, "I can't remember anything. It would only be too painful...." Heero stopped to look up at Duo who was trying to maintain a fake smile.
"You can't loose anything by trying to remember, Hee-chan." Duo reached for a photo album from inside the box. "Look here."
He opened up to the first page where Heero saw himself in the middle of some kind of party, posing with a bunch of people he didn't recognize, with the exception of Duo, that is, who had one arm slung around his shoulder and was waving at the camera.
"This is a picture from a party Quatre invited us all to, there," he said pointing to a young man with blond hair and smile on his face, "that's Quatre."
I looked at the young blond's face. It was so happy, like Duo's....well, maybe not quite so happy, but Heero noticed his own face. It was so cold, like stone. It stood out from all the others. Was he the only one who wasn't having fun?
"Quatre's one of my best friends?" I asked.
"Yours and mine, pal. He's filthy rich, and we all envy him to death, but he was a Gundam pilot, too. So were Trowa and Wufei." He pointed to two other boys who were perhaps the coldest faces at the party besides his own. "I called all of them yesterday. They're coming to see you, too, Heero. They should be here at some point tomorrow."
Heero knew he didn't deserve such good friends, but it was a nice thing to know that he had friends. And Duo, he hoped was more than a friend, although Heero knew he wasn't deserving of the braided beauty any more than he was deserving of friends that were willing to drop everything to come and see him.
"Could you tell me about my friends, Duo?" Heero asked, at first startled by his own words, because everyone should know their own friends, but he saw Duo summon a smile and was at ease in his loving gaze.
"Sure, Hee-chan." Duo said as he began to tell Heero about every person that he had ever known to the best of his knowledge, and Heero was soothed by his soft words. He was looking forward to seeing his best friends, but they didn't matter so much as long as Duo was there. Heero just wanted Duo to stay there forever.
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Hello *smiles*
Hope you liked the second chapter!
Please Review!
Thanks so much!!!!!