Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.
(A/N: This takes place after Endless Waltz, but you don't have to have seen it to know what's going on.)
What Will Soon Be Memories
By: Saiya-jin Patricia
Special THX to:
Lynn Yuy: Thank you again!! Don't be sad, he'll get out of trouble... eventually. ;
Narya Silver Fox: I love writing cliffies. I do hate reading them tho 'Specially when it leaves off at a good part. LOL!
Clarinet-Baby02: I'm glad a lot of the people that reviewed it before came back for the later chapters. I guess I must be doing something right ;; THX so much for reviewing again.
Katsuki Sohma: A thank-you to Katsuki, Micheler, and those at the Katsuki Corporation for their review.
Kalorna Enera: Like I say, I love cliffies Thx for reviewing.
starbugkenny: Thanks for reviewing, I'm glad you like my story. Here's "wot happens next"
Katt: You sound like a big Duo fan too. You'll find out who... at some point.
Minna-san... all your reviews were so nice thanks again.
Chapter Five
The golden color stretched out as far as the eye could see. Waves of heat flowed off of the sand toward the sky, as if gravity from an unknown source was pulling them there. Duo sighed, bringing his arm from his side and putting it between the hot sand and his forehead. This was getting very tiresome. After resting for a moment, he sat up, his temples pounding from the small movement.
He hadn't had water, much less food, for days, and his current predicament of being stuck in a desert did not help much.
He looked around himself. There was not a thing in sight. Not even a rock. Duo blinked furiously, trying to regain some moisture to his dried-out eyes. He suddenly froze, noticing something.
Chang WuFei tried hard to refrain from sighing. He just hated dealing with onnas. Most never seemed to take his advice, when he was only trying to warn them. Not only that, but Yuy had let her come. Stupid, weak, injured onna. She should be at home, knitting, or cooking, or... something along those lines, he thought.
Previously mentioned onna was currently taking up space in a seat parallel with his. He refrained from sighing yet again, knowing that she was watching him. Again. It was a good thing they would be landing soon. He heard footsteps he recognized as Yuy's approach, and heard him announce that they would need to buckle in for the landing, and hinting that it could be a rough one.
He thought he could see something, near the horizon. He squinted and blinked furiously, trying to see what it was. It looked like... a cloud... a big, brown cloud....
The plane finally jolted to a stop, and Hilde hurried off it after Heero, the other three pilots following.
They were at the edge of a forest. Where the forest ended there began a seemingly endless expanse of sand.
"We should split up and search the area," Heero said.
Here she was, Hilde thought, in some forest looking for what might as well be a needle in a haystack. That so-called needle had better be alive. (A/N: that makes an interesting mental picture...)
"I think I found something," Trowa, her partner for the search, said into the microphone of his headset.
Hilde headed over to where he was quickly. He was looking at what appeared to be a large hole in the ground. A large, flat piece of wood had been covering the opening. In the area they had been searching around it, the undergrowth had been flattened, showing that someone (or rather many someone's) had been there. Only scorch marks on the earth gave testimony to the fires that had been lit.
It appeared that the people they were after had already left.
When Heero and Quatre arrived at the spot, they came to the same conclusion. They would do a quick search for any sign of life, then they would vacate the area, heading for the Maguanacs base in the desert nearby.
Duo headed toward the rapidly diminishing cloud of dust. He didn't know what it was, but it had to be some kind of help.
He stumbled along, hardly knowing how he could still be moving but knowing that he had been through worse. He just kept on walking, knowing that he had to get there. Hopefully, if for nothing else, a change in the scenery.
He was noticing (not for the first time) how much he was missing Hilde's cooking. What he would do for some food....
He fell again, feeling that he was much closer to his destination but still so far off. He got up again, shakily making his way closer.
Hilde was going to kill him. If he wasn't already dead, that is.
They were back on the plane, about to leave. She was afraid one of the pilots might talk to her. She didn't know if she could refrain from crying if they did.
She felt the tears well up in her eyes and her vision blurred.
She would find him. She would, without fail. They would go back to L2 and the salvage yard, all theirs.
She didn't realize tears were running down her face until the blond pilot sat down beside her and buckled up for the takeoff, throwing her a concerned look when he was finished.
The surprised look on his face when he found she was sobbing in his arms quickly changed to one of compassion. He fastened the seatbelt for her, and comforted her best he could as they took of for the Maguanac base, away from what they had thought was hope.
Duo had nearly reached the plane when it took off. So much for hitching a ride in the cargo hold, for it was now... just a little out of his reach. He stumbled to the edge of the forest, collapsing in the first bit of shade he walked into.
He awoke to the feeling of... burning!? His legs were burning! He pulled them up to his chest and the black cloth was hot to the touch.
Apparently the sun had decided to move while he slept. The line of shade had receded and was almost all the way to the base of the tree he had slept under. He must have been out for a while.
He crawled further into the forest, either not able to or just too lazy to get up. Either one was likely. Every muscle and bone in his body ached though. He really didn't feel like getting up. Soon, thank Shinigami, he came across a spring. Probably more along the lines off fell into it, but hey, he found water, that's what counts.
Note to self: drink the water, don't literally inhale it. It just doesn't work that way.
After finishing coughing up water and then drinking his fill of the stuff, he got out of the water and sat against a tree, drifting off to a rather peaceful sleep for the first time in days.
Hilde tossed and turned, trying to get some sleep. She felt so much like they had missed something there... maybe she would ask Quatre if they could go back there tomorrow... no, they were already using too much of his hospitality, and that of the Maguanacs. She rolled onto her back for at least the fifth time that night and glanced at the clock. It was only about 3:40. In the morning. She had been up later, er, earlier than that before.
She was so tired. She couldn't sleep though.
She thought about Duo. She thought about how he always smiled, even though it may have been a life or death situation, or worse. He wouldn't have cried. Not over something like that. He wouldn't have given up.
So it was with a new resolution, that she would find him tomorrow (er, later that day) and with thoughts of him that she finally fell asleep.
(A/N: YAY!! I'm so proud of myself. I updated! Good author! [pats herself on the back] Soooo sorry I haven't updated in so long. I felt so bad.... 'till I got this chapter done. Now I feel better. Btw, any ideas on how to continue are welcome. Do you believe in happy endings? It doesn't always happen that way, as most people know. Who knows what will happen... and thank you, readers. Thank you even more, reviewers )
-Saiya-jin Patricia