The Legend of the 576
Yes, I'm aware Heero is kinda OOC. But keep in mind this is an AU fic. I could turn them all into... hypochondriac hamster-mastadon mutants driven by cheese if I wanted to. But let's not go to that extreme, ne? Lol.. ^_^
~~~*~~~
Duo cringed silently as the bus loomed dangerously near the edge of the bridge; he realized this was the exact spot he had come to meet his death so many years ago. The bad feeling he was getting in the very core of his heart didn't help him relax, either. The bus creeked and clanged as it rode along the mammoth-sized bridge, increasing the amount of adrenaline coursing through Duo's veins. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head slightly on to Heero's shoulder as he felt the bus approaching the deadly turn in the bridge where the bus had gone over half a century ago.
'Please don't fall please don't fall please don't fall...!' The braided boy repeated to himself over and over in his head as the automobile started turning over on its side.
.
"Duo... The bus is falling." Heero said softly, unimaginably calm for someone about to die. Out of the corner of his eye, the Japanese saw the driver unconcious at the steering wheel, his arm leaning the steering wheel to the right.
With a loud crashing sound, Duo suddenly found himself fallen on top of Heero as the bus started falling sideways off the edge of the bridge. He latched on to the seat infront of him and tried to pull himself off of Heero; he knew what he had to do but was very reluctant. The time wasn't right...
Suddenly the two found themselves outside of the bus. Neither of them had any idea what happened, but Duo suspected it was the work of Shinigami trying to seek revenge upon Heero for befriending Duo; trying to ruin their relationship so that he could take Duo into the underworld, leaving Heero alone. Or dead, for that matter.
Duo panicked when he remembered Heero hadn't the power to 'float' in midair. Well, this was it. Reveal what he was to Heero, or let Heero die. And he wasn't about to let that happen.
"SCREW IT!" Duo shouted before he dived underneath Heero and caught him under the arms. Heero grunted as his fall was suddenly stopped. Both Duo and Heero's attention was drawn from eachother at this point as they watched the bus plummet towards the valley below. Duo snapped out of it and quickly 'flew' over to the nearest secure peice of land, right before the cliffs started and the bridge began. Once steady on the ground, Duo released his deathgrip on Heero and flopped down on his back on the slightly moistened grass.
.
"Thank you." Heero said after a long pause. "You saved my life."
Duo frowned and shook his head. "Only doin' what's right..."
Heero turned in his sitting position so he was facing Duo. "I wonder what caused that..."
"I don't think we really... wanna know..." Duo muttered under his breath as he shrugged.
"Nn." Heero mumbled. There was an extended bout of silence. "Hey, wait a minute... how in hell did you do that?"
Duo's smile dissapeared as he sat up straight and looked at Heero. "You sure you wanna know?"
Heero paused before nodding once. "Yes. That's why I asked."
"Well... the answer is not something you'd expect." Duo said, standing and dusting himself off as he and Heero started walking away from the valley, and away from the point where Heero almost met his death.
"How do you mean?"
"Well, Heero. Let's put it this way. I was the one who put that note on your desk."
Heero stopped walking momentarily and stared at Duo. "How? You don't have keys to my place, and nothing was touched at all."
"I'm... not what I seem to be, Heero." Duo sighed and started walking slower. "I have powers you've only dreamed of... but perhaps they are only your nightmares."
Neither of the boys noticed they had taken the shortcut to a park; the shortcut went past the school. Heero blinked at Duo. "What kind of powers do you mean? And how did you get those powers?"
"Well... it all started fifty years ago tonight--" Duo began.
Heero cut him off. "Fifty years? What are you talking about, fifty years? You're fifteen years old, Duo."
"I told you, Heero. The answer is not what you would expect at all."
"So tell me already. Explain." Heero stated.
Duo sighed as he folded his arms behind his head as they walked among the shadows of the trees. "Wait until I finish telling you my story before you ask me any more questions."
Heero nodded, the darkness of the post-sunset atmosphere illuminating his cobalt eyes.
"Well, like I said, it all began fifty years ago tonight. See, when I was going through school, I was your typical nerd. The kind who can be described as a 'straight `A` loner'. People hated me passionately because I was smarter than them; they were jealous of my intellect. So I pretty much kept to myself when I would ride the 576 home every day, across the bridge and back into my neck of the woods, or town in this case.
Anyways, I was riding the bus on March 21st, I think it was the first day of spring, or somewhere near there. So I was just sittin' there, trying to remember if I had accidentaly left any homework at school in my hurry to catch the bus home, since it only ran once an hour. But see, I should have caught the four-o'-clock bus instead of the three-o'-clock bus. Because the one I took was the one that went over the edge of the cliff. That's how I know so much about what really happened when no one else does.
Once the bus had crashed in the valley, I opened my eyes and saw everyone else who had been sitting in the bus was either dead outside, or thrown to heavens knows where from the bus. The driver and I were the only ones who had remained inside the bus as it was falling. Anyways, I thought I was the only survivor. But there *were* no survivors." Duo saw Heero's eyes widen at this point. "Not a single person survived the crash.
But see, I didn't know I was dead at that point. So I, being the sensitive and caring person I was, decided to be mister nice guy and run back to the school to tell them what had happened. And believe me, I tried to get their attention so bad I almost drove myself insane. I yelled, shouted, heck, I even attempted throwing things at the administration, but they didn't even notice me at all. Eventually I gave up, figuring they were just ignoring me as they always had. Then I remembered I had left my homework in my gym locker, so I went to the lockers." Duo started kicking a pebble as he kept his eyes glued to the sidewalk in the park, not daring to glance up at Heero until his story was completed.
"And I noticed something really wierd coming from the team's banner on the wall. It was pulsating. There was a light coming from behind it that I hadn't seen before at all. At this point I still thought I was alive. So I reached out and touched the part where the light was coming from. Then before I even knew what was happening, I was on the other side of the wall. I had walked through the wall. And so I was walking down this really long and dark tunnel. I had no idea what had happened or what was going on at all.
I was thinking about whether or not to turn back when a mist started appearing infront of me. That mist was Shinigami himself. He called himself the god of death. He tried to take me into his kingdom of the underworld, but I escaped him. To this day I still don't know what gave me the energy I needed to high-tail it out of that tunnel, out of the locker room, and back into the main building where a majority of people were still present. It's quite the run when you're dead, lemme tell ya.
It was then I realized I was dead. And ever since then I've been wandering around this area, and near the bus site and school grounds, just trying to find the answers to what went wrong that day, to find out why I had to die at fifteen. I've never found those answers, and I don't think I ever will, even if I remain a ghost forever.
And that's when I met you, Heero. I wanted to be your friend; I sensed something different about you. I really, really wanted to get to know you better, so I left that note on your desk in hopes you would think it was me." Duo sighed for what seemed like the millionth time during the conversation. "And that's what I've been trying to get you to figure out all this time, Heero. I had tried to make friends with people for the past fifty years, but I always ended up screwing my chances by revealing what I am too soon in getting to know them. So I was very cautious with you. Instead of telling you, I dropped a lot of hints which I think you picked up on. But these powers I have are my curse. I'm not like you, Heero. I wanna be alive and go to school like a normal kid, but I can't. I can't live normally. Heck, I can't even live in death normally. And this, my friend, is my story."
Heero stood in awe of the ethereal being walking right beside him. He had befriended a ghost and he hadn't even known. "But Duo... why didn't you tell me this in the first place?"
"Because, Heero. I had done that before, and I really screwed myself over. People wanted to be my friend... until they found out what I am. And then they looked at me like I was gonna go psycho and start killing everthing. I didn't want you to hate me. I wanted you to like me. I wanted you to be my friend. I wanted to be your friend." Duo said despondently, glancing into Heero's eyes for the briefest moment. Eyes he had fallen in love with.
"You... you wanted to be my friend? Why would someone like you want to befriend someone like me?"
Duo smiled slightly. "I sensed you were someone different that the others, Heero. I got the feeling you were someone special."
Heero smirked and shook his head. "I'm no one special... I've wanted powers like yours, for a very long time, Duo. Maybe that way I could gain some recognition."
"You don't want these kinds of powers, Heero."
"Why not?"
Duo sighed in frustration. "Do you really wanna have to die?! You don't need special powers or abilities in order to be someone special!"
"I already told you. It wouldn't change anything if I were dead." Heero said blatantly. "I'm not someone special, Duo."
"That's not true, Heero! That's not true at all!"
Heero growled. "I am not lying."
"Yeah you are, because you know what, Heero? You're special to me! You, Heero Yuy, are special to me!" Before he knew what he was doing, Duo had pressed his lips against Heero's. He pulled back a moment later, staring deep into Heero's eyes. "You're special to me, Heero."
Wordlessly, Heero gathered the braided boy into his arms as they sat down on a bench they found at the park. He clutched on to Duo as if he were his lifeline, and letting him go would bring about the end of the world. In the cool and mysterious gaze of the almost-midnight moon, a single tear glistened its way down Heero's cheek and onto Duo's shoulder.
~~~*~~~
^_^ WAI! I've been itching to get to this part since the beginning of the story. *is happy* I really really hope you guys didn't mind the wait until this scene, but it's all worth it if ya get 1x2-yumminess in the end, right? *chews gum* Oh. If anyone finds a beam cannon... please email it to me in a zip file so I can thwap my gym teacher with it _ *growls* I really don't like him...
...
Berrful Hunter
email: ilovetchan@yahoo.com / bringmetolife02@yahoo.com (either works... I check 'em both)
OR
IM: Tsuiraku Hoshi
Yes, I'm aware Heero is kinda OOC. But keep in mind this is an AU fic. I could turn them all into... hypochondriac hamster-mastadon mutants driven by cheese if I wanted to. But let's not go to that extreme, ne? Lol.. ^_^
~~~*~~~
Duo cringed silently as the bus loomed dangerously near the edge of the bridge; he realized this was the exact spot he had come to meet his death so many years ago. The bad feeling he was getting in the very core of his heart didn't help him relax, either. The bus creeked and clanged as it rode along the mammoth-sized bridge, increasing the amount of adrenaline coursing through Duo's veins. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head slightly on to Heero's shoulder as he felt the bus approaching the deadly turn in the bridge where the bus had gone over half a century ago.
'Please don't fall please don't fall please don't fall...!' The braided boy repeated to himself over and over in his head as the automobile started turning over on its side.
.
"Duo... The bus is falling." Heero said softly, unimaginably calm for someone about to die. Out of the corner of his eye, the Japanese saw the driver unconcious at the steering wheel, his arm leaning the steering wheel to the right.
With a loud crashing sound, Duo suddenly found himself fallen on top of Heero as the bus started falling sideways off the edge of the bridge. He latched on to the seat infront of him and tried to pull himself off of Heero; he knew what he had to do but was very reluctant. The time wasn't right...
Suddenly the two found themselves outside of the bus. Neither of them had any idea what happened, but Duo suspected it was the work of Shinigami trying to seek revenge upon Heero for befriending Duo; trying to ruin their relationship so that he could take Duo into the underworld, leaving Heero alone. Or dead, for that matter.
Duo panicked when he remembered Heero hadn't the power to 'float' in midair. Well, this was it. Reveal what he was to Heero, or let Heero die. And he wasn't about to let that happen.
"SCREW IT!" Duo shouted before he dived underneath Heero and caught him under the arms. Heero grunted as his fall was suddenly stopped. Both Duo and Heero's attention was drawn from eachother at this point as they watched the bus plummet towards the valley below. Duo snapped out of it and quickly 'flew' over to the nearest secure peice of land, right before the cliffs started and the bridge began. Once steady on the ground, Duo released his deathgrip on Heero and flopped down on his back on the slightly moistened grass.
.
"Thank you." Heero said after a long pause. "You saved my life."
Duo frowned and shook his head. "Only doin' what's right..."
Heero turned in his sitting position so he was facing Duo. "I wonder what caused that..."
"I don't think we really... wanna know..." Duo muttered under his breath as he shrugged.
"Nn." Heero mumbled. There was an extended bout of silence. "Hey, wait a minute... how in hell did you do that?"
Duo's smile dissapeared as he sat up straight and looked at Heero. "You sure you wanna know?"
Heero paused before nodding once. "Yes. That's why I asked."
"Well... the answer is not something you'd expect." Duo said, standing and dusting himself off as he and Heero started walking away from the valley, and away from the point where Heero almost met his death.
"How do you mean?"
"Well, Heero. Let's put it this way. I was the one who put that note on your desk."
Heero stopped walking momentarily and stared at Duo. "How? You don't have keys to my place, and nothing was touched at all."
"I'm... not what I seem to be, Heero." Duo sighed and started walking slower. "I have powers you've only dreamed of... but perhaps they are only your nightmares."
Neither of the boys noticed they had taken the shortcut to a park; the shortcut went past the school. Heero blinked at Duo. "What kind of powers do you mean? And how did you get those powers?"
"Well... it all started fifty years ago tonight--" Duo began.
Heero cut him off. "Fifty years? What are you talking about, fifty years? You're fifteen years old, Duo."
"I told you, Heero. The answer is not what you would expect at all."
"So tell me already. Explain." Heero stated.
Duo sighed as he folded his arms behind his head as they walked among the shadows of the trees. "Wait until I finish telling you my story before you ask me any more questions."
Heero nodded, the darkness of the post-sunset atmosphere illuminating his cobalt eyes.
"Well, like I said, it all began fifty years ago tonight. See, when I was going through school, I was your typical nerd. The kind who can be described as a 'straight `A` loner'. People hated me passionately because I was smarter than them; they were jealous of my intellect. So I pretty much kept to myself when I would ride the 576 home every day, across the bridge and back into my neck of the woods, or town in this case.
Anyways, I was riding the bus on March 21st, I think it was the first day of spring, or somewhere near there. So I was just sittin' there, trying to remember if I had accidentaly left any homework at school in my hurry to catch the bus home, since it only ran once an hour. But see, I should have caught the four-o'-clock bus instead of the three-o'-clock bus. Because the one I took was the one that went over the edge of the cliff. That's how I know so much about what really happened when no one else does.
Once the bus had crashed in the valley, I opened my eyes and saw everyone else who had been sitting in the bus was either dead outside, or thrown to heavens knows where from the bus. The driver and I were the only ones who had remained inside the bus as it was falling. Anyways, I thought I was the only survivor. But there *were* no survivors." Duo saw Heero's eyes widen at this point. "Not a single person survived the crash.
But see, I didn't know I was dead at that point. So I, being the sensitive and caring person I was, decided to be mister nice guy and run back to the school to tell them what had happened. And believe me, I tried to get their attention so bad I almost drove myself insane. I yelled, shouted, heck, I even attempted throwing things at the administration, but they didn't even notice me at all. Eventually I gave up, figuring they were just ignoring me as they always had. Then I remembered I had left my homework in my gym locker, so I went to the lockers." Duo started kicking a pebble as he kept his eyes glued to the sidewalk in the park, not daring to glance up at Heero until his story was completed.
"And I noticed something really wierd coming from the team's banner on the wall. It was pulsating. There was a light coming from behind it that I hadn't seen before at all. At this point I still thought I was alive. So I reached out and touched the part where the light was coming from. Then before I even knew what was happening, I was on the other side of the wall. I had walked through the wall. And so I was walking down this really long and dark tunnel. I had no idea what had happened or what was going on at all.
I was thinking about whether or not to turn back when a mist started appearing infront of me. That mist was Shinigami himself. He called himself the god of death. He tried to take me into his kingdom of the underworld, but I escaped him. To this day I still don't know what gave me the energy I needed to high-tail it out of that tunnel, out of the locker room, and back into the main building where a majority of people were still present. It's quite the run when you're dead, lemme tell ya.
It was then I realized I was dead. And ever since then I've been wandering around this area, and near the bus site and school grounds, just trying to find the answers to what went wrong that day, to find out why I had to die at fifteen. I've never found those answers, and I don't think I ever will, even if I remain a ghost forever.
And that's when I met you, Heero. I wanted to be your friend; I sensed something different about you. I really, really wanted to get to know you better, so I left that note on your desk in hopes you would think it was me." Duo sighed for what seemed like the millionth time during the conversation. "And that's what I've been trying to get you to figure out all this time, Heero. I had tried to make friends with people for the past fifty years, but I always ended up screwing my chances by revealing what I am too soon in getting to know them. So I was very cautious with you. Instead of telling you, I dropped a lot of hints which I think you picked up on. But these powers I have are my curse. I'm not like you, Heero. I wanna be alive and go to school like a normal kid, but I can't. I can't live normally. Heck, I can't even live in death normally. And this, my friend, is my story."
Heero stood in awe of the ethereal being walking right beside him. He had befriended a ghost and he hadn't even known. "But Duo... why didn't you tell me this in the first place?"
"Because, Heero. I had done that before, and I really screwed myself over. People wanted to be my friend... until they found out what I am. And then they looked at me like I was gonna go psycho and start killing everthing. I didn't want you to hate me. I wanted you to like me. I wanted you to be my friend. I wanted to be your friend." Duo said despondently, glancing into Heero's eyes for the briefest moment. Eyes he had fallen in love with.
"You... you wanted to be my friend? Why would someone like you want to befriend someone like me?"
Duo smiled slightly. "I sensed you were someone different that the others, Heero. I got the feeling you were someone special."
Heero smirked and shook his head. "I'm no one special... I've wanted powers like yours, for a very long time, Duo. Maybe that way I could gain some recognition."
"You don't want these kinds of powers, Heero."
"Why not?"
Duo sighed in frustration. "Do you really wanna have to die?! You don't need special powers or abilities in order to be someone special!"
"I already told you. It wouldn't change anything if I were dead." Heero said blatantly. "I'm not someone special, Duo."
"That's not true, Heero! That's not true at all!"
Heero growled. "I am not lying."
"Yeah you are, because you know what, Heero? You're special to me! You, Heero Yuy, are special to me!" Before he knew what he was doing, Duo had pressed his lips against Heero's. He pulled back a moment later, staring deep into Heero's eyes. "You're special to me, Heero."
Wordlessly, Heero gathered the braided boy into his arms as they sat down on a bench they found at the park. He clutched on to Duo as if he were his lifeline, and letting him go would bring about the end of the world. In the cool and mysterious gaze of the almost-midnight moon, a single tear glistened its way down Heero's cheek and onto Duo's shoulder.
~~~*~~~
^_^ WAI! I've been itching to get to this part since the beginning of the story. *is happy* I really really hope you guys didn't mind the wait until this scene, but it's all worth it if ya get 1x2-yumminess in the end, right? *chews gum* Oh. If anyone finds a beam cannon... please email it to me in a zip file so I can thwap my gym teacher with it _ *growls* I really don't like him...
...
Berrful Hunter
email: ilovetchan@yahoo.com / bringmetolife02@yahoo.com (either works... I check 'em both)
OR
IM: Tsuiraku Hoshi