Disclaimers: Gundam Wing and all its characters do not belong to me. I am merely writing this for entertainment purposes, and seek no monetary profit from this venture.
Warnings: None really, for a change.
- Recorded -
I would be the first to admit that I do not hear what Duo is saying most of the time.
In true form, he babbles incessantly, especially during moments when he knows I needed quiet and concentration the most. He talks about the most inane topics he could possibly dwell on, and I silently suspect that he only does such things to annoy me.
And so, I am forced to ignore his speech in favor of doing more important work. Namely, work for the greater good of the mission.
I would ignore him to complete my mission debriefing, to further research the target I had been recently assigned to destroy, and to outline several brief scenarios that could come up and counteract each and every one of them to insure the completion of said mission.
I would ignore him in favor of hacking delicate information from the OZ computer network, to gather more data for future use, to delegate some minor missions that I deem significant enough to act on even without the supervision of the Doctors, or to merely skim off suitable funds from separate OZ accounts that could have been used for the ill benefit of more weapons.
I would ignore him in favor of completing the fairly simplistic problems and homeworks the professors have recently been giving their students. Afterall, keeping my identity as a student comes first and is important to the overall integrity of the mission.
And on the rare times when I had the down time to simply relax, I would ignore him still. Keeping appearances are important afterall, not only for the enemy but for one's comrades as well. You never can fully tell when one of them betrays you and inavertedly spills your weakness to the opposition.
And still, he keeps up that cheerful chatter, and I, resigned to the fate of being the recipient of his stubborn ways, allow his voice to become a melodious background noise, filling out the intense quiet that creeps unaware below my subconscious.
And as we keep our respective masks intact, I have to wonder to myself where he gets all his words from.
Surely he cannot be as talkative as he is when he is around me all the time?
"- And you should have seen Rick's face when I unexpectedly dunked the ball from right under his nose! Ha! That prick had that one coming a mile away! He was so arrogant that it was bound to happen someday that someone he had been belittling would knock him off his proverbial pedestal. Of course, being the benevolent person that I am, I could not resist the temptation of being the self-sacrificing person who came up to the gruesome task of opening his eyes to the ways of the world- "
This, at least I could relate to.
He is currently talking about that basketball jock everyone seems to have a little healthy fear of. Something Duo should have recognized and avoided, if we were to avoid standing out in this place.
Unfortunately for me, he has a knack for attracting trouble.
And while I could neither show my approval nor disapproval in his actions in any outward way, I had to silently agree with the action that Duo had chosen to undertake. That idiot always had a soft spot for the underdogs, and no orders to remain in the background of this school's political arena could stop him from doing what he deems is right.
As I said, he always had a stubborn streak in him.
It was another down time for both of us, and as per our normal routine, were both staying under the guise of students in another of those inconsequential schools that would remain indistinct for us as time and war forced us to leave this place.
And as part and parcel of our routine, Duo was once again going off about some topic, jumping to another should he run out of insights and thoughts on the first one, and continuing in this pattern until he got tired of my non-response and left for the better reception he could get from the other adoring students out there.
I could not afford to hear him today, with many thoughts crowding my mind for attention, and so I ignored him.
Ignored him until only the melodious pitch and tones of his voice became the background for my thoughts.
Ignored him until he finally resigned himself to the attentions of those civilian students, who no matter where we went or how he acted, somehow still idolized him.
For today, his chatter did not matter.
They were irrelevant in the greater scheme of things.
I slip to the precision-made bed I had done earlier that day with nary a sigh, despite my weary state of mind. It had been a tiresome day today, regardless of the fact that no missions had occurred in the last week, and none were scheduled to happen until three days from now.
The quiet of the room sounded both divine and odd in my ears.
It echoed hollowly in the dreary confines of my soul, with no confident chatter to drown out my thoughts.
Duo had a mission two days ago and had still not returned.
It was of no lasting consequence to me however. I had long accepted the fact that we are both soldiers, and our time and lives were not ours alone to command. The mission came first and foremost, and no amount of hesitance or emotions could overrule that fact.
Besides, I was not as alone as most people thought I would be when left to my own devises.
An efficient soldier always plans for the inevitabilities of life, and I am no exception.
With a tendril of concentration, I focus my thoughts on the happenings eight days ago, starting off on the last thought I had left off last night – it had been around the 1300 hour conversation.
"Basketball today had been fun, don't you think?"
Ah, yes. Basketball was about the only thing both Duo and I enjoyed, in terms of extra-curricular activities any of the schools offered. And I had to admit that he was quite good at it as well, having not only the speed to steal the ball, but agility and precision to virtually shoot it in any position within the two-point line. It is with some pride that I remember the two of us winning against this school's varsity players.
We always had been better at what we do when we were paired with each other.
"Especially when we played against those jocks! Thinking that they owned the world just because they were better at a sport that most of the other students were. They seriously needed a crash course on humility."I had to agree with him on that one. Bullies are an unavoidable fact of life in any school setting, but this particular group had been one of the worse ones we had ever encountered.
"And that Rick! Whew! That was a damn exhilarating one-on-one you know!"Rick was the so-called leader of their little group. Not only was he the team-captain, he was also one of the roughest players present. That, and the fact that he actually had credible basketball skills had me concerned for a moment when he pinned Duo with a suggested duel on the court.
Not that I had any doubts Duo could easily win, but I was – apprehensive – about him incorporating some minor wounds along the game.
His overall health was still a priority for the mission, and not being in top shape was akin to suicide when we do the things that we normally do.
"And you should have seen Rick's face when I unexpectedly dunked the ball from right under his nose!"
I did see it, and admittedly, it had been fun to watch. His expression of shock had been priceless, and would have served to further Duo's amusement than is normally healthy. Though of course, I will never tell him that.
"Ha! That prick had that one coming a mile away! He was so arrogant that it was bound to happen someday that someone he had been belittling would knock him off his proverbial pedestal."
And of course, it had to be you.
Duo –
I fell asleep to the sound of his voice, creating a beautiful backdrop to the thoughts I had that night.
Tomorrow, if he still did not arrive, I would start with my memory of the 1400 hour conversation.
I would be the first to admit that I do not hear what Duo is saying most times.
Instead –
I listen. And remember.