Warnings: Yaoi. Song is "Runaway" by Linkin' Park
Shinigami Chapter 10: Arachnophobia
"Duo..." Heero squeaked. He looked back down and Duo followed his gaze to the giant tarantula crawling slowly across Heero's bare foot. As it stepped off to the platform and made its way towards Duo, Heero fainted. Duo bit his lip to keep from grinning or laughing and he stretched out his arm and moved his fingers uncertainly at Heero as he fell as if he were tapping on an unseen surface. Heero thudded to the floor and Duo cringed, still keeping back a grin.
He knelt and held out his hand to the spider. As soon as it was on his hand, he lifted it slowly and cupped his other hand under it. He turned his hands over and over, watching the fuzzy creature's slow, cautious step and waited for Heero to come around.
He did - Fairly quickly. He groaned and propped himself up on his elbow, rubbing his head with his other hand. He looked up and scrambled to his feet. "Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty," Duo snickered, still inspecting the spider. He quirked an eyebrow at Heero. "It's just a spider, this one's bigger than the ones on earth, though. But it's harmless."
"Isn't it poisonous?" Heero asked, staring at it warily.
Duo shrugged. "Dunno, it might be. But tarantulas don't bite unless they're provoked or something. But they might not be, 'cause they let kids under 10 hold them in museums and stuff like that." Duo watched happily as it attempted to crawl up his arm, stopped by his free hand.
Heero blinked. Something lit in the back of his mind as he watched Duo with the spider. He couldn't bring it forward so he just focused on it. Closing his eyes, he saw several things flashing by in a split second.
First he saw himself and Duo. They were kissing. Duo had his hair down and Heero's eyes were wide open. Heero closed his eyes in the vision and it changed. Heero was running. Everything was dark except the doors that were flying past. One door opened in front of him, allowing him through to pitch blackness. Then it changed again. He was racing through another door and into another dark room. This one had a big window and one door that swung open for Heero, revealing darkness again. Then it changed yet again. Heero was standing in a black room. He couldn't feel the pain, but he felt his body being hurled into the wall behind him. And suddenly, Duo was standing before him, glowing.
Heero could see Duo's mouth moving for a little bit until he looked suddenly angry and it changed to Heero looking over Duo's back as he launched his fist into Heero's gut. He fell to his knees. He watched Duo's satisfied grin as he started convulsing in pain that he couldn't feel. Duo talked for a while as Heero continued convulsing.
He watched a black widow crawl out of Duo's sleeve and onto his hand and he continued to talk to Heero with a smug look. Heero couldn't understand it - What was all of this? Before he could figure it out, the scene changed again. Duo was leaning over him like in the first scene, but Heero shoved him. Following the moment when Heero's palms touched Duo, Heero was running down a sidewalk in the dark of night. He saw a park ahead of him and the scene changed again to a vision of the sky, sparkling with stars and a white crescent moon.
The visions ended there. Heero opened his eyes again to see Duo with the spider still, hardly taking notice of his presence. Heero recalled each picture he saw and pondered over them. During the one with Duo standing in front of him with the spider as he was lurching, he decided that it was this picture that had been the cause of this whole thing. Duo's standing there with the tarantula reminded him of that time.
"Duo," Heero said, gaining the boy's attention. Duo put the tarantula back on the floor, facing the opposite direction of him and Heero. "I just... saw something."
Duo tilted his head. "Like what?"
Heero shook his head. "I don't know. Like a vision or..." He paused and looked up with a hopeful expression. "A memory."
Duo's eyes narrowed. "What did you remember? Did it happen here?"
Heero shook his head again. "Huh-uh, it was somewhere else. At one point, I was looking up at the sky. It wasn't like here. It had... I don't know what they were. They looked like some kind of glitter or something. And a silvery crescent that I couldn't identify." He looked at Duo hopefully. "Do you know what I saw?"
Duo smiled sadly and nodded. "Yeah... I do. You saw stars and the moon, Heero. You remembered." Duo looked like he was about to cry. "What else did you see?"
Heero hesitated. "You..." he cleared his throat quietly. "and me. In the first scene, um... we were kissing and it changed to a scene where I was running through hallways and doors. I ended up in a dark room and you were standing in front of me, glowing," he said quickly. "And then you were trying to kill me."
As Heero said this, Duo remembered a time when he'd said something similar:
Duo sat in Heero's chair, crying because of Heero's reaction to him earlier. Heero had come in and was sitting on the bed. Duo sniffed. "I woke you up because you looked like you were having a nightmare," he said quietly.
"I'm sorry," Heero whispered. "It was an awful dream and since that's how it began, I panicked."
Duo blinked and nodded. "Do you want to tell me about it?" he asked.
Heero hesitated. "Y-you were trying to kill me, that's all," he said uneasily. He shuddered...
"So, um... What else did you remember?" Duo asked.
"Well, the next scene was like the first, but we weren't kissing. You were leaning over me and I pushed you away. It switched to me running at night down some sort of road. And then the last one was a picture of the sky with the stars and the moon," Heero concluded.
Duo nodded. He remembered that night.
Heero rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Did I remember something from earth, then?" he asked.
Duo nodded again. "Yeah, I remember when that happened."
Heero's eyes widened. "You mean you really did try to kill me?" he cried.
Duo shook his head quickly. "Oh, no! No, I didn't - I would never! That first part was a dream you had... I remember waking up and you looked like you were having a nightmare, and you wouldn't wake up so I leaned over you and woke you up. When you did, you freaked out and pushed me and ran outside." He shrugged. "I don't know where you went, but that's what happened, I guess." Heero watched Duo as he stared into the darkness of the library with a far-away look in his eyes. He blinked and he looked back up at Heero. "When you came back that night," he started, his voice soft, "I was crying... You came into our room and explained to me that you'd just had a dream where we were in that same position as when I woke you up. You told me that I'd tried to kill you in that nightmare and you just panicked when you woke up like that."
Heero wrapped his arms around himself and looked down. "Why am I remembering this?" he whispered.
Duo sighed and answered the best way he knew how, "I don't know."
After a short spell of silence, Duo asked, "Do you believe me now?"
Heero swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, I do."
"Believe what?" a cool, Scottish voice said from behind Heero.
Both boys jumped and Heero spun around, stumbling backwards toward Duo in surprise. Jemima chuckled. "Tell me, Heero-kun... What was it that Duo got you to believe?" Her gold eyes gleamed menacingly in the darkness. Her shadowy form stalked slowly towards them.
Heero glanced at Duo, the green in his eyes flaring suddenly and dying back down to a faint glow. Duo shivered. Someone was behind him... Watching him... He could feel their eyes on his back. He watched Jemima's eyes as they flicked to look behind him at whoever was there and back to Heero.
Duo took in a shaky breath. "You could probably make yourself less noticable if you wanted, couldn't you, Shinigami?"
A strange, low cackle emitted from the throat of the Death God and he grinned. "I was starting to think you'd never figure out that I was here," he said coolly.
Heero averted his eyes from Shinigami.
Graffiti decorations / Under a sky of dust / A constant wave of tension / On top of broken trust
"What's the matter, Heero?" he asked, not taking notice of the dimming color in his eyes.
"Tell me, Heero-kun... What did Duo get you to believe?" Jemima repeated, stalking a bit closer.
The lessons that you taught me / I learned were never true / Now I find myself in question / They point the finger at me again / Guilty by association / You point the finger at me again
Shinigami nodded. "Yes, Heero, please... Do tell. We're very interested to hear it." He looked sideways at Duo as he strode past to stand before Heero. He wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Feeling how tense and stiff he was, he began to worry and looked at his eyes carefully. His own eyes widened in shock at the significant decline in the glowing green. Heero shut his eyes and turned his head toward the floor away from Shinigami.
I wanna run away / Never say good-bye / I wanna know the truth / Instead of wondering why / I wanna know the answers / No more lies / I wanna shut the door / And open up my mind
Shinigami scowled. "Heero..." he warned in a low voice. "What has he told you?"
Heero shut his eyes tighter and wrapped his arms tighter around himself as though he were trying to shut out Shinigami's words. He remained silent.
Paper bags and angry voices / Under a sky of dust / Another wave of tension / Has more than filled me up / All my talk of taking action / These words were never true / Now I find myself in question / They point the finger at me again / Guilty by association / You point the finger at me again
Shinigami glared at Duo. "Heero, tell me," he demanded. Duo watched Heero with concern, hoping he'd tell Shinigami what he had said, fearing that Shinigami might force him. Shinigami growled when Heero still didn't answer.
I wanna run away / Never say good-bye / I wanna know the truth / Instead of wondering why / I wanna know the answers / No more lies / I wanna shut the door / And open up my mind
"Heero!" Shinigami bellowed, spinning him around to face him. Heero blinked up at him and swallowed, staring him in the eye. Shinigami waited, holding Heero's shoulders.
Heero shook his head. "I don't want you to erase my memories."
I'm gonna run away / And never say good-bye / I'm gonna run away / And never wonder why / I'm gonna run away / And open up my mind
Shinigami stared back at him. "What?" he yelled. "What are you talking about? I asked you to tell me what he told you!"
Duo stepped forward angrily. "Leave him alone, Shinigami! He knows now, ok? So get over it!" Shinigami growled again and swerved around towards Duo. In one swift motion, the side of his fist collided with Duo's head right above his ear, slamming him into the bookshelves.
Heero just barely kept down his yelp at seeing Duo hit like that.
I wanna run away / Never say good-bye / I wanna know the truth / Instead of wondering why / I wanna know the answers / No more lies / I wanna shut the door / And open up my mind
Duo crashed to the floor after his head hit the bookshelf and he groaned. Shinigami bent hastily over him and hauled him back up by his shirt. He slapped him not-so-gently to get him to open his eyes. Clouded amethyst orbs finally opened to see two or three swaying pairs of angry, violet ones.
Shinigami's lip curled. "He knows that none of that nonsense you told him is true... He knows better than that!"
"Stop it, Shinigami!" Heero cried, unable to keep the demand down his throat.
I wanna run away / And open up my mind / I wanna run away / And open up my mind / I wanna run away / And open up my mind / I wanna run away / And open up my mind
Shinigami stopped and looked back at Heero out of the corner of his eye. He pushed Duo away and let go of his shirt, sending him stumbling backwards until he caught himself on the rail beside him. He slid down to the floor, holding his pounding head in his hands.
"Heero..." Shinigami warned, "You of all people should not be defending Duo."
"Why not? He's telling me the truth, and I know it! I saw through your spell and remembered a time when Duo and I were back on earth!" he said.
Shinigami howled in anger when the green in Heero's eyes flickered again and came back, barely visible. Heero backed up a step. "Don't erase my memories again, Shinigami!"
The god looked at him. His eyes narrowed. "And who's going to stop me? All you'll know is what I put in your head... You won't even know this happened. Like you should."
"No!" Heero shouted. "I should know! I have a right to know what's happened to me and I have the right to make my own choices!" The green in his eyes flared brightly and flickered continuously. "And I choose to remember Duo and what you have done to me," he screamed "and I choose to be with Duo!" At that, the flickering stopped and the green disappeared from Heero's eyes.