Title: Amethyst Wing
Author: H'seru
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Gundam, or any of it's chars, much to their relief ^_-
Warnings: Mild citrus warning, more towards the fluff end, nothing serious. Shounen ai, angst, blood, violence, mild language, and probably some OOC-ness (Though I'll try and keep to the original char personality)
Rated: PG13
Decisions made based upon man
A flight into the place nightmares dwell
There on demons to place a ban
Within, do breathe things entirely fell
Laid out on his back, ratchet in one greasy hand, the other carefully holding back a mass of different colored wires, Duo paused to mop his brow, leaving a smear of black oil. Grasping the ratchet, he finished tightening the bolts which held one of the power panels in place. Then he closed the panel, examining his handy work.
Deathscythe was near to being rebuilt.
Thankfully, Quatre had hauled it to his personal complex where he'd had technicians working on it since Duo'd been admitted to the hospital. Since fine tuning it was a job for the pilot however, Duo had began as soon as he'd returned, overjoyed to see his beloved Deathscythe so close to working order again after only eight days.
Now, as he stepped back, he reminded himself to thank Quatre once again for his foresight.
Setting down the ratchet, and wiping his hands free of the oil, Duo walked into the smallish house built into the complex, where the other four were seated, pouring over the next mission instructions via Heero's laptop. They glanced up as he entered, various expressions crossing their faces. Quatre tried to hide a laugh as Trowa gave a small smirk. Wufei rolled his eyes, muttering about the injustices of having to work with an idiot. Heero grunted out a low "baka" before ignoring him completely, as he normally did.
A quizzical look crossed Duo's face as he saw their reactions.
"What's so funny?" He said, a tad irritated.
Quatre laughed out loud before he explained himself.
"Duo…your face" He chuckled. "You've got oil smeared all over it"
"Oi…it's not that funny" He replied, walking to the bathroom to clean his face, which was nearly black. He had to grin at the way he looked though. Covered in oil and grease from head to foot, even his long braid was a few shades darker. In his quest to revive Deathscythe, he'd not even noticed. Foregoing his previous plan, Duo gathered some clean clothes, and stripped himself, hopping into the shower.
Letting the water wash away the dirt, cascading over him in tiny waterfalls, he scrubbed at his hair and body, reveling in the feeling of being clean again.
He sighed into the shower after he'd finished cleaning, and turned the hot water up, just enjoying the feel of it. He stayed that way for some time, back arched slightly into the thrumming pulse of the shower.
Then, suddenly, the hot water ran out, and it turned freezing cold. He yelped, jumping out of the stream of what could pass for melted ice. Quickly turning off the water, he got out, towel drying off.
"Freakin water heater..." He muttered "Can't a guy get a decent shower without becoming a human Popsicle?"
He pulled on the clean clothes, consisting of the usual black garb, and wrapped his hair in a towel before leaving the bathroom for his own room.
"His" room was really just part of a whole suite, but he had to room with Heero, so they'd at least managed to get separate rooms for a change. Now instead of the same room, their rooms connected, as did most of the rooms in the place, separated by a short hallway. Quatre didn't know who'd built the complex, but they had not prepared for the number of people there now.
Not that Duo really cared about the separate rooms. He rather liked rooming with the stoic pilot, even if his life was in danger at every waking (and sleeping) moment.
His thoughts wandered a bit as he began the task of brushing out his hair. Going slowly, picking through the knots so as to not break it, he had the mass of chestnut silk brushed and rebraided in less than twenty minutes.
Patting down the last few wild hairs, he walked back into the main living area again. This time, he didn't get any funny faces from the others as he sat down.
"So, What's the what?" He asked, looking over Heero's shoulder at the e-mail sent mission, fresh braid flopping over his shoulder to thunk wetly against Heero's back.
"Hn." Heero said, throwing a glare at him.
"Oh...ah, sorry 'bout that" Duo said, pulling the braid back.
"From what this says..." Quatre began, all earlier playfulness gone. "Oz is mobilizing in an area to the south west. They're pulling in troops from all over the place, spaced out so as to not attract attention. At least thirteen air carriers have landed, each with a dozen Aries and Taurus suits carried within, and more are on their way. Our objective is to wait for most of the force to arrive, then destroy the troops stationed there. It would be about a week before the desired number arrives at the base however." Quatre stopped, looking around at the others.
"If we allow them to strengthen their forces further," Trowa's calm voice cut into the silence. " we'll have a hard time of handling them. That's already over thirty suits for the each of us, and twice that number is expected to arrive before we are supposed to attack."
Heero's eyes cut into the message again, already memorizing it to perfection as the others mulled over it. He'd already accepted this mission, even if the others didn't. He was, after all, the perfect soldier, and that included following orders. Period.
"Well, it's not like we can't handle it." Duo said, leaning back, hands behind his head. "Shinigami's ready for anything Oz can throw at us." He grinned nonchalantly.
"You didn't seem so ready last time." Trowa said, single eye focused on the braided pilot.
"Hey, that won't happen again." Duo answered back, waving off Trowa's astute words.
"What ever you do, just don't get in my way." Heero said, getting up and walking out of the room, as impassive and closed to the others as he'd always been.
Duo stuck his tongue out at his retreating back.
"Pushy"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deathscythe's reconstruction was completed that same day, after Duo continued his work on it. He took another shower later to once more remove the oil from various parts of his anatomy, making it quick this time.
As the sun slipped below the horizon line, he was now glad for the door separating his and Heero's rooms, because the Cobalt blue eyed pilot insisted on typing up his work late into the night. The infernal clack clacking of the keyboard could drive anyone insane, and it always did a job on Duo's amount of beauty sleep.
Now, as he lay in bed, he suddenly felt a heavy weariness come over him, dragging him down to the peace of sleep, despite the muffled noises around him.
Sleepily, he identified the noises. The noise of the laptop was muffled enough to not be bothersome, but it was still there. Soft voices from the room next to him came lightly through the wall. Quatre and Trowa. He smiled childishly. They'd not quite made their interest in each other public, but they spent as much time together as they could. Duo'd even seen them kissing in the hall. A small peck, true, but both looked happy afterwards. Even Trowa's emotionless eyes seemed to shine with an inner fire, and Quatre had blushed profusely.
He'd slipped away before either could notice though, not wanting to get caught peeking at something that was not meant to be a sideshow, but cherished instead.
Duo sighed. His own love life, not to mention actual life, was in a rut at the moment. The object of his confused affections ignored him. He was tiring of being in danger everyday, always having to hide from people who should of loved him for his efforts, for all of their efforts.
With these troubling thoughts chasing each other about his mind, he drifted to a sleep that was full of contorted dreams.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Duo awoke suddenly to an odd sound that had brought him from an interesting dream, the red haze of a barely risen sun not enough to blind him as it came again.
*Bang Bang Bang!*
"Duo!! You need to see this!" Came the voice of Quatre through the door. He pounded on it again.
"I'm coming!" Duo replied in the pause between knocks. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he got out of bed, and opened the door. A frazzled looking Quatre looked back at him.
"Come on" He said, walking towards the living room.
When they arrived, the others were sprawled around the TV in various states of sleepiness. Quatre went to sit beside a pajama clad Trowa. Wufei, wearing a pair of pants and his loosened shirt sat on the couch, eyes riveted to the Television. Heero was standing behind it, arms crossed across a blank green T-shirt. Duo sat in one of the chairs, now seeing what the others were so intent upon.
"look…" Heero grunted as an emphasis to his action. On the TV, a news reporter was showing pictures of destruction. In space.
"What you are seeing here" The Announcer said "Is the latest picture of the tragedy that took place late last night. Colony E23 was attacked by an unknown source at 11:46 PM. The few survivors are still being picked out of the shrapnel, and an estimated six thousand colony citizens were lost. From what we know, the attacking force was comprised of a single manned vehicle, possibly a mobile suit of unknown origins. The United Earth Sphere Alliance has taken control of the situation, and the rescue operation is well under way. They are manning the search for the culprit and-"
Trowa switched off the TV.
Everyone was silent. Each of the five pilots had his own thoughts, but Wufei was the first to break the silence with his input.
"…so. Oz has taken control of the situation. I would not be surprised if they staged the attack themselves to get the colonies' trust, the cowards." He sneered.
"They might be trying to draw attention away from the mobilization." Quatre added, looking around. A sad expression was on his face, expressing his deep sorrow.
"Maybe…" Duo agreed, the images of what was now so much space debris still in his mind's eye. Who could possibly wipe out an entire colony without a moment's hesitation? He shook his head slightly, still feeling the lingering drowsiness of sleep upon him.
It was something he couldn't comprehend. Even loving the fight as he did, Duo couldn't imagine destroying so many innocents. It was madness.
So, what do you people think? ^_^
This be my first real fic, so I'd really really like it if you (the loyal reader) could give me some input
Please, be gentle though, and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. ^_-
*Does a little dance* yes, my first fic!!
Will: *eyes her* I'd swear that you're daffy in the head.
H'seru: -_-6 shuddup