Disclaimers: Don't own GW.
Warnings: Yaoi, Dream sequence in italics.
Duo?
Chapter 10: The Second Piece of the Puzzle
Duo held Heero's head to his chest in an embrace and smiled as Heero wrapped his arms around his waist. Heero sighed contentedly and closed his eyes, listening to Duo's steady breathing. They opened again when he didn't hear a heartbeat.
"Duo?" he murmured.
Duo smiled again. "Yes, love?"
Heero looked up with sadness showing plainly in his eyes. "Why don't you have a heartbeat?" he asked. He thought that hearing a heartbeat when in a relationship was important for some reason.
Duo's gentle smile turned to one of sympathy. "I'm not real," he said. Heero's eyes widened much like a child's do when a favourite pet dies. "I'm a ghost, I've no need for a heartbeat," he explained.
Heero nodded. "That makes sense. But then why do you breathe?"
Duo shrugged. "Just a habit, I guess," he replied and chuckled. He kissed the top of Heero's head and sighed.
"Duo, I'm afraid," Heero whispered and squeezed him.
"Of what, Heero?"
"Of loving a ghost."
Duo squeezed him back in a comforting gesture. "Don't be afraid of love, even if the one you love is a ghost."
"But you're -"
"Dead, yes, but know this: Death cannot stop true love," (1) Duo said and Heero buried his face into his shirt...
Heero's eyelids lifted. He immediately saw Duo's face, eyes closed peacefully. He smiled at Duo's beautiful heart shaped face and realized that they were still in bed, both on their sides facing one another. His eyes flicked around the room and he saw by the amount of light in the room that the sun was barely above the horizon.
He looked back to Duo and thought about his dream. He hadn't gotten to tell Duo that he loved him, even though he already knew, he'd still wanted to tell him. He glanced at where Duo's heart would be or was, for all he knew. He wondered if he did have a heartbeat.
The dream ran over again through his mind and he wondered why this dream was so realistic just as the other one with Duo in it had been. He timidly reached out to touch Duo's cheek when his eyelids fluttered. He pulled back quickly and pretended to be asleep, doing the best he could to make his breathing shallow and even.
Duo opened his eyes and blinked. 'Why is Heero pretending to be asleep?' he asked himself. 'Maybe he's just trying to get back to sleep.' He nodded inwardly and got out of bed. There wasn't really much point in trying to get back to sleep when he had a rose presentation to plan and morning was only about half an hour away.
Heero opened his eyes when he felt that Duo wasn't in the room anymore. He rolled onto his back and rubbed his eyes. He looked up at the rose on the desk. It hadn't changed since last night, but it wouldn't have changed noticeably in such a short time anyway.
He gazed at the ceiling and wondered what he was going to do today; it's so boring without school, and he didn't know where everything was yet.
He thought about the second part of the note "trilogy" and where he would leave it. The dream had given him much more confidence and he wasn't going to let Duo's death stop him from loving him. He suddenly felt a wave of the cool, pulsing sensation flow through his body and closed his eyes.
xxx
Heero had fallen into a doze state whilst thinking about the note and Duo. He awoke again when the sunlight got too bright. He sighed and swung his feet out from under the covers. He went to the desk and grabbed a blue pen and a piece of printer paper and wrote:
3 words...
He rubbed his eye with one hand and folded the paper with the other. He looked around and leaned the note against the vase with the purple rose in it.
After getting dressed, Heero left his room and went to find Duo; he had a few questions for him. He didn't have to look far, as Duo was standing at the front door, bent over and looking out one of the side windows. Heero went down the stairs and said, "Hi, Duo."
"Hello, Heero," Duo replied, although his mind was obviously elsewhere; he hadn't turned around or even called Heero by his nickname.
"What're you looking for?" Heero asked and came to stand behind Duo.
Duo straightened up, but kept his eyes on the window. "Oh, nothing," he said slowly. He turned to Heero and smiled brightly, who was looking at the window with a raised eyebrow. He shrugged. "Can I ask you a few things? About death?" he asked, looking into Duo's eyes.
Duo blinked and nodded. He followed Heero as he turned and went into the living room. Heero sat in the chair that Relena had been in the previous day. Duo sat on the couch with his legs crossed and his elbows resting on his knees.
Heero watched his eyes as he asked the first question, "Weren't you supposed to go to "heaven" or something after you died?"
Duo looked up thoughtfully. "I don't know... I suppose. I never really thought about it before, but I think I stayed back on earth for a good reason. I don't know that reason, but I'm sure it's good," he smiled.
Heero chuckled. "Do you have a heartbeat? I know you wouldn't really need one, but..." He shrugged.
Duo put a hand over his chest where his heart should be and tilted his head. He took his hand off and shook his head. "Nope, I don't feel one." He put two fingers on his neck and shook his head again. "You're right, I wouldn't really have any use for it," he said.
"What happened when you died? Like did your life "flash before your eyes" or anything like that?"
Duo thought for a moment. "Not really, it was more like I was reliving it backwards." (2)
Heero arched an eyebrow. "Backwards?"
Duo nodded. "Yeah, it was really strange..." He shook his head.
"Can you float? You've always walked since I've met you, and I always thought that ghosts would float, not walk."
Duo shook his head again. "Nope, I can't. Or if it's possible, I don't know how to." He shrugged.
Heero nodded and continued, "Can you travel anywhere outside of this house?"
Duo shook his head. "Huh-uh, I can't even go into the backyard," he said and scowled.
"Is it like that with everyone? They can't leave the place where they died?"
"I think it's more like they can't leave where they lived, if they stay back here on earth, that is," he explained. He started playing with the end of his braid.
Heero nodded. "Ok, what happens if you try to go outside?"
Duo grinned. "When I try to leave the house, I end up back in my room where I died."
Heero had no idea why he thought that was funny, but he went on anyway, "Are those the clothes you died in? Or can you change clothes?"
"Naw, I died in bed, I was in my PJs." He chuckled. "I can change into whatever I want, as long as it was mine," he informed him.
"Um, do you dream?" he asked a little hesitantly.
Duo nodded. "Yep, still dream," he said happily. "Anything else?"
Heero thought for a while, then nodded. "Do you feel things? Like pain or cold or heat?"
Duo's eyes widened for a split second when he thought about the results that happened when he thought intimately about Heero. He swallowed hard. "Yes, I do... feel," he said slowly as though picking his words carefully.
Heero blinked at Duo's strange reaction. "Um, I think that's all I wanted to know, thanks Duo, that was really helpful," he said. Duo smiled and left.
Heero sat there for a while longer and thought about the first dream he had with Duo in it. He looked toward the hallway he'd gone through and wondered if the room he was in with Duo at the end really existed.
He rose slowly and walked toward the closed door. He went through it and saw a long hallway with three doors on the left side and four on the right. 'Woah, huge house,' Heero thought as he went through the third door on the right side, the one that had flung open for him.
He came to a large room that would make a good ballroom and looked around. He flipped a switch on his left and little lights all around the walls came on, illuminating the room. He saw two doors, one in the wall across from him, the other on the left wall.
He walked slowly across the room to the door across from him, half expecting it to swing open for him like it did in the dream. He went into the room and flipped on another switch to his left. The single lightbulb in the center of the ceiling lit up the small room and he realized immediately that this was a very dusty, unused bathroom.
He didn't remember any of the actual rooms, but he remembered the door that led out of the bathroom. So he went through it. This next room was already illuminated by a large window with no curtains or shades. 'What were they thinking when they built this house?' he wondered. 'What would they do with so many rooms?' He shook his head and continued to the door in the right wall, the only other door out of the room.
He reached for the handle and stopped. He swallowed hard. This was the last one, he realized that the dream had been exaggerated and there weren't really that many doors to go through, but this was the last one.
He was so preoccupied that he didn't notice Duo's presence following him. Duo peeked into the room and spied Heero to his right, hesitating at the door in front of him. Heero drew in a shaky breath, turned the handle, and pushed the door. The room was pitch black and Heero felt for a light switch on the left side of the door.
Finding none, he wondered what to do now. Running from the room, right past Duo's unnoticed presence, he left all the doors open as he raced through the rooms.
Duo shot a confused look after Heero and looked down at the rose in his hand. The red one. He'd been carrying it while following Heero, just in case he found a good time to give it to him. He looked at the room and entered it. He groped the opposite wall for a switch and found one. Heero just hadn't looked on the other side of the door.
It was a small room. Probably used for storage or something, but it was empty at the moment. He heard Heero coming back and assumed he'd gone to get a flashlight. His face lit up. This was the perfect place to leave the rose for him to find! He quickly placed it in the middle of the floor and flipped off the light.
He ran out of the room just as Heero came running through the door with a flashlight in hand. 'Ha! I'm so good,' Duo thought with a smile. He watched Heero go into the room and flip on the flashlight. He searched the walls for a light switch and found it.
He turned on the light and his eyes were immediately drawn to the large, red rose in the center of the floor. He turned the flashlight off and walked slowly towards it. He looked around and bent to pick it up. He gripped one petal gently between his fingers and whispered, "Duo..."
Duo smiled and left Heero to his thoughts. He emerged into the living room and sighed. He went upstairs and wandered down the hall and into their room. He tilted his head to one side when he realized that he really didn't know what he was doing here.
He looked around and spotted the piece of paper that leaned against the vase that the rose was in. He went to it and opened it.
'3 words...'
XXXXX
1: A line lovingly borrowed from "Princess Bride".
2: This was actually from the book What Dreams May Come, he said that's what happened when people die.