Title: Promise
Summary: Heero is very sick and he tries to hide it from Duo. Duo has vowed never to lose anyone again like Solo, and when he finds out, he will do everything he can to save his friend. But it may be too late, and he may be forced to do the unthinkable.
Author: wild horse
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing; I'm making NO money out of this.
Acknowledgments: Jesus, Padawan Nik-ka, and Nat
a/n: I suppose the plot may be overused, I have no idea, because, like I said, I'm new to this fandom and I haven't really read much into it yet. But don't worry, I did twist it pretty badly at the end… for you to find out when I finish :) yup.
Chapter 3:
"Heero!" Duo didn't care anymore, it was almost 1000 already, and he was going to barge in, whether Heero liked it or not. He pushed the door open.
The smell of blood hit him first. He flicked on the lights. His sharp eyesight picked out his partner, lying on his bunk, and the blood-stained cloth on the floor. Heero was still wearing his jeans, but he'd put on a long-sleeved T-shirt.
"Hee-chan?" Duo ran to his friend and shook him roughly. He was grabbed roughly by the neck and nearly choked to death.
Heero glared at Duo as he recognised the other boy, "You're not supposed to come in without knocking – and waiting – first."
"Then you tell me what's going on!" Duo demanded.
"Nothing," he replied curtly, still glaring.
"You expect me to believe you," Duo snorted incredulously.
"Hn."
"Come on Heero Yuy, damn you, you're not invincible, you know." Duo was trying, unsuccessfully, not to curse. He was worried by the large amount of blood he'd seen on the cloth.
Heero shrugged, as though giving up. "Okay, I got hurt last night, a little. But it's not bad."
Duo was skeptical, "Show me."
He turned around, and Duo lifted up Heero's shirt, exposing three long scratches. They were already healing.
"You're lying," Duo stated flatly.
"Hn. If that's what you think, baka."
"Right. Then where did that come from," Duo pointed accusingly at the blood-stained cloth.
Heero was as expressionless as ever, "I told you, I got hurt last night."
Duo knew it was pointless to argue with Heero. "Fine. All I need to know is, whether you're okay or not."
Heero shot his partner another glare, "I'm okay."
Duo rolled his eyes in exasperation, "If you were dead, you'd still insist you were okay. Tell the truth."
"I already said it. I'll be alright," he stared unflinchingly into Duo's blue eyes.
"Okay, whatever," Duo gave up. "I thought you might be hungry."
"I am," Heero conceded, allowing Duo the victory this once.
2300. They were back in the OZ base.
Duo was planting explosive charges. He set the explosives to go off at 2340. The plan was to meet Heero by 2335 latest, so they could leave the base before the charges blew. Heero had got the unenviable task of making sure that the Target was assassinated before the base exploded.
Heero slunk from shadow to shadow, watching out for any soldiers on patrol. He waited a while, making sure that no one was around, before sprinting for the main building. It was brightly lit, and he knew he'd have to be careful, because he would be very easily seen.
A footstep startled him, and he sank back into a shadow, watching as two sentries walked by, talking softly to each other.
Good. They were distracted, paying no attention to their surroundings.
When they were out of sight, he ran along the lighted corridor, counting mentally as he did so.
Ninth door from the right. He found it; it was locked. No surprise. He worked quickly at picking the lock, then padded softly into the room, closing the door behind him.
A dark figure was sleeping on the single bed inside the room.
Heero strode forward and grabbed the person by his shirt collar with his left hand. He brought his right hand up above the head before bringing it down hard, watching as the person crumpled and went limp. He reached for his flashlight, flicking it on and focusing the thin beam of light onto the person's face.
Good. It was the same face as the one in the photographs he and Duo had gone through earlier on. He dropped the man back onto the bed, pulled out his gun, fitted on the silencer, and shot him twice. A few moments later, he checked to make sure the Target was really dead, then turned to head for the door. 2324. He was on time. Barely.
It opened before he reached it, and an OZ soldier jumped him.
Heero sidestepped instinctively, before turning and reaching out to punch the soldier in the stomach. He got hit on the head first, but he carried through with his blow, then brought his other hand around and shot the soldier in the chest.
That was close.
He pushed himself up off the ground and into a standing position. Then, forcing his ragged breathing under control, he kicked the soldier out of the way with his foot, re-opened the door and stepped outside.
"Hi Hee-chan, how'd it go?" Duo greeted his partner softly, but the cheer in his voice was evident.
"Hn, the Target is dead."
"Let's go home then," Duo nodded, not expecting any other answer.
2335 exactly.
He broke into a run. He could hear Heero's faint footsteps behind him for awhile, then they stopped, and Duo turned around, startled.
Shit. Heero was lying face down on the ground, next to one of the buildings, a few metres away.
Duo sprinted to his partner's side, kneeling down beside him. He shook Heero's shoulders roughly. The pilot was unconscious.
"Dammit, Heero, wake up!" Duo was aware of the closeness of the building, and of the explosive charge he'd planted earlier. He glanced at his watch. 2337.
"Come on…" Duo pleaded. He half-dragged, half-carried his partner the next twenty metres or so to the fencing, then rummaged in Heero's bag for the wire cutters. The building was still dangerously close.
2338. Duo forced himself to keep his hands steady as he cut through the fence, link by link, not caring if he was setting off the base alarms. Quick…why is it taking so long…
2339. His timer started counting down the last minute. Forget it! He had only cut through half the links in the fence. Duo dragged Heero further away from the building. 15 seconds more. Oh shit. Don't die, I don't want to die like this either. He crouched down, placing himself between his partner and the nearest building, then covered his ears.
2340. The explosion tore through the still night, flinging shrapnel in all directions. Duo felt some of it tear into his back, but he gritted his teeth against the pain, then straightened up.
Convenient. The fence he'd been trying to cut earlier had been blown away by the impact of the explosion. He dragged Heero up onto his shoulders, then stumbled awkwardly towards the huge hole in the fence.
"Stop!"
Duo pulled Heero's pistol from his belt, and fired it off at the OZ soldier. He crumpled to the ground, dead.
Come on…have to run. He tried breaking into a run, stumbling and falling as he carried Heero. Almost there…he fell to his knees, but staggered to his feet and continued his crooked half-run. He had run for nearly 10 minutes already, and, by now, he was practically dragging the unconscious pilot. Duo knew he had to get away quickly, before the OZ troops came after them.
"Duo, stop dragging me, baka."
He let go and stopped, beside a tree. "Heero?"
Heero didn't answer, he was kneeling over, coughing violently.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "I got a bad fright when you blacked out."
Heero managed to suppress his coughing, and frowned, "Hn." He could see blood on the hand he'd used to cover his mouth, blood on the grass. He wiped his hand off on his jeans. "Are you hurt?"
"Only a little," Duo was kneeling beside his friend now, looking at him in concern. He noticed the blood on the grass as Heero started coughing uncontrollably again. "Shit," he couldn't stop himself, "You're damn sick, Hee-chan!"
"I'm okay," he was trying to convince himself as well. He forced himself to stand up, but he had to lean against the tree for support.
"You're not," Duo pulled Heero's left arm over his own shoulder, supporting his partner. "Come, we got to get back to the safe house."
Heero was in bad shape. Duo knew it, even though his partner seemed well enough right now. He forced the brown-haired boy to sit down against one of the walls inside the hut, then retrieved the first aid kit.
"We should leave for the next safe house soon," Heero said matter-of-factly, not letting the pain he was feeling show in his voice. "They will be looking for us."
"We still have some time," Duo answered. "We can't leave with you like this."
"Hn," Heero was glaring at his partner. "We've been through this so many times. I'm okay."
"Well, yeah?" Duo retorted. "I don't trust your judgement about yourself." He turned around and rummaged through the kit.
Heero noticed that Duo's back was bleeding. "You're hurt too."
"Not as bad as you are," Duo shot back.
"Hn. I'll do you first."
"No," he found what he'd been looking for – a needle and a syringe for drawing blood.
Heero grabbed the kit from Duo. "You let me patch you up first, and then you can get your turn."
Duo glared, but he let Heero win. "Ok." He took off his shirt, turned around and sat down. Heero examined the wounds carefully, using tweezers to pull out the small pieces of shrapnel, then he cleaned them out.
"You want the local?" He asked, although he already knew the answer.
"No. Don't bother," Duo balled his hands up into fists and clenched his teeth, ready to brace against the pain.
"Hn," He stitched up two of the deepest wounds, then poured antiseptic over them. "You should put on a clean shirt."
Duo obeyed and went to his room to retrieve another T-shirt. He took one of Heero's T-shirts too and brought it back with him to the main room. "Okay, Perfect Soldier, now it's my turn," he picked up the needle, tore the protective packet around it, and pushed it into the syringe.
Seeing that Duo wouldn't relent, Heero stuck out his right arm for the other boy.
Duo frowned, "We'll use the other arm. But first, change out into the T-shirt." He tossed the shirt his partner.
He knows, or he suspects, Heero knew he couldn't trick his best friend for long. He pulled off his long-sleeved shirt and put on the one Duo had brought.
Duo saw the bandaged arm and snorted incredulously. "What did I say? I don't trust you. What happened?"
"Hn," Heero just glared harder at his partner, despite his painful headache.
"Damn you," Duo muttered, as it dawned upon him. "Is it deep?"
"Not very," Heero made a fist with his right hand, and Duo plunged the needle into the vein, pulling the plunger back slowly. When he was done, he took the blood and placed it in two vials, then used the blood test kit to test one of the samples. A few minutes later, the result was a Negative.
Duo turned to see if his partner would say 'I told you so', but Heero just kept silent, and Duo knew that things weren't turning out well. "It's something else, isn't it?" he asked quietly.
"Hn. It will go away," Heero started coughing again.
"I don't think it will," Duo closed his eyes momentarily. Don't. Don't let it happen again. I won't sit by the side and let him go, like what happened to Solo. Violet eyes opened, filled with determination. "I'm going to the hospital," he picked up the other vial and got to his feet.
"No." Heero stood up so fast, he nearly blacked out. "They'll figure out. " His words made a lot of sense, even to Duo.
But Duo didn't care for them. He tucked his long braid under a cap, then turned to his partner, the fire in his eyes unmistakable, "Try and stop me."
Heero lunged forward in one swift motion. Duo dodged, but Heero had expected that, and he gripped the other boy's shoulders, flipping him over and forcing him down to the ground. Duo struggled, then gave it up, scowling and staring fiercely into his partner's eyes.
"Don't you ever think about anything but the mission?" Duo was exasperated.
"Sometimes," Heero surprised his partner by saying that. "Us living to the end of this war. And that's not going to happen if you go off."
"But you're sick."
"I'll be okay."
"Dammit Heero, stop saying that. You know you won't. Get off me!"
Heero relented and stood away. "Are you ever going to give it up?"
"No," violet eyes locked with dark-blue ones. "I could at least see if there's a cure. Don't deny it. Even if you're not sick, you're not well either."
"It's unnecessary risk," Heero said flatly. "And we're late. We have to leave now; get your stuff."
It was Duo's turn to glare. "You know you can't stop me. Just let me go."
"Hn," Heero knew his partner well enough to pick up on the edge in his voice – the other boy meant to run away, if need be. And that would jeopardise the mission even more.
Duo stood there for a few more moments, his stare never fading in intensity. Then, he headed for his room to pick up his duffel bag. Heero did the same.
TBC.