Not dead.
That was all that mattered. Never mind that he didn't have a reason for why Quatre was down here in the dark with that dead-rat smell. Nor why he looked the way he did, like a child's forgotten doll laying there on that dirty mattress. He was alive. All else could wait.
"Quatre…" Soft, it escaped him without thought as he sat back on his rear and dangled his legs down to seek purchase on the top rung of the ladder, "I'm coming. We're going to get you some help."
"He doesn't need any help, you treacherous fuck." The voice behind him spoke up with such calm friendliness in spite of the content of the words, a sort of 'hey, fancy meeting you here, ol'pal'-tone, that Trowa turned towards it expectantly, and thus caught the swing of cast iron skillet fully on his jaw. "He's got me."
CRUNCH. Trowa was stunned at the clarity of that noise. Louder than the pain, it seemed, which blossomed roses of red in his vision, was that near comic book written sound as his jaw shattered in multiple places. He saw the floor rushing up to greet him, but that seemed silly, as did the hard weight of something laying on his tongue. Right before Trowa hit the wood, he spit that out, and his eyes widened at the bloody stump of a tooth. Darkness was what leapt up to claim Trowa, and down below if he'd had the sense to, Quatre would have told him it was a good friend.
Duo stood above Trowa's slumped form, his makeshift weapon raised like a batter on the plate and his lip pulled back from his teeth in a silent snarl. There was no argument from the Latin's body though. Trowa was out, out, out of the park and Duo had nailed an unquestionable homerun.
It wavered, then drooped, and Duo let out a warbly breath. His steps to the hole were jittery, his eyes cold as they appeared and blocked out the light overhead once again for the blonde who looked up from below.
Still there. Of course he was. The redhead's lips gained a smile that was more like a rabid fox then anything else. The dull vacant stare of his lover was on him, and though it held no recognition, Duo swore he saw a glimmer of adoration in them. A my-hero moment if he'd ever saw it. Quatre knew their time was going to be interrupted, but Duo has protected them again.
"Don't worry, Kitten, he's gone. Bastard won't play the interloper this go around." Savage again, that flare of teeth as Duo pulled his lips back. "This is you and me time."
He nodded to the unmoving Quatre, then stepped away and knelt beside Trowa. A fine line of bloody drool hung from his slack lips, puddling on the floor. "Damn it, Trowa, just like a little kid in bed. Another fucking mess for me to clean up. Some house guest you are."
Snorting back a laugh, he crooked his hand under Trowa's cheek and turned the face towards him, amused at the lumpy feel of the flesh under his thumb where a bone-earthquake had taken place. White under the eyelids flickered, but it didn't worry Duo. This pup was most definitely out. "Looks like ya lost a tooth or two, too. Oh well. No dentist trip for you, I think."
No most certainly not. He looked down at the face with it's blood shined lips and raspy through the mouth breathing for a few minutes, then lost interest. He dropped it and it thumped back to the floor.
Duo would have liked to have waited until Trowa woke up, to talk to him real nice like about the punishment of being a nosy boyfriend stealing whore, maybe talk with him until Trowa was crying like a baby, but there just wasn't the time and this wasn't the place. He didn't bother mourning that as he turned, still crouched on his heels, and started looking at the cleaning chemicals around him. To whap the bastard again would be too messy, or might make too much noise, and things were hard enough to tend to now.
His pale fingers wrapped around a can of carpet spray on the floor beneath the shelves and hoisted it up before his face so his eyes could flicker over the labels before rejecting it and putting it back. Not a huge selection, but at last he settled on a large bottle of laundry bleach. The trick would be to get enough down Trowa's throat before the damned stuff kicked in, and to make sure he stayed silent.
He twisted the lidoff and wrinkled his nose at the wafting bitter sterile scent that rose from the bottle, then turned to Trowa.
"… What are you doing, Duo?"
Duo jumped, and clear liquid sloshed out. Slowly the redhead turned to the figure standing in the kitchen a few feet away, door still open behind him, and his lip curled back from his teeth in a silent growl. Incredibly, it became a welcoming grin just a split second later.
"Well, hey there buddy."
Wufei stared. His inner soldier training still took control as he measured the situation with a critical eye. Ally on the floor. Out. Blood. Lots of it, so possibly dead. Hostile figure -- It's Duo! What wrong with him! -- blocking any chance of checking that. Holding bleach by the smell of it. One exit behind him, another through the arch of the living room.
Cautiously, Wufei nodded to Duo, his tone even. "What's going on here?"
Duo blinked at him, and that grin widened. He glanced down at the bottle in his hands, then to Trowa's face, then up again to the Chinese man. He was still smiling, and something about the expression brought goosebumps down Wufei's arms. "Trowa tripped. I'm just cleaning up the mess before it can stain the floor. You know how Quatre gets."
"Tripped…?" Wufei repeated, looking at the spreading explosion of color on Trowa's mutated jaw. Still alive, he thought. "Duo. Put down the bottle and step out here, okay?"
"Oh no. Can't do that, sorry, Fei fei." The redhead shook his head slowly, looking truly regrettable before the shark like smile returned. "Quatre'd kill me, ya know? For leaving a mess like this. And he'll be home any time."
Winner's dead. The thought came to him in cold certainty. Dead, and had been for a while. Maybe even died naturally, but whatever happened, it'd snapped Duo's mind, and now this. "Quatre's not coming home, is he, Duo? So step out of the closet, and we'll talk."
Another blink, lizard like.
"Not coming home? Sure he is." He sounded so honestly perplexed and amused, reaching up to touch his temple a few times. "He's been a little sick. Up here. But he's getting better."
"… I don't think he is, Duo. I think we need to talk, and to get Trowa help."
He ignored mention of the pilot at his feet. "He is. Quatre's gonna be fine. We had some problems, but we're working it out. We were always meant to be… Even you saw that, huh? Best of pals."
Wufei nodded, though in truth, he was really beyond putting thought into the words coming from Duo. He was sliding a hand slowly behind him, to the back of his shirt where the gun he'd never really been able to give up still lay. Dangerous, and he knew it… But these were dangerous times, as the world had proven once again. "Of course you were."
He brightened, and then sat back on his heels a little more. "See? I knew you'd get it! People like Trowa, they just couldn't see it. Always wanting what was already planned, but you get it."
"Yes, I get it, Duo." He slipped his fingers around the cool metal grip.
"They just keep getting in the way. Always trying to get with him, and then never treating him right when they go him. Hurting him, or yelling at him, or never telling him that they needed him."
He's not talking about Trowa any more… Wufei eased the gun out of it's holster, so silent.
"I always tell him that. Every damn day. I tell him 'Quatre, I love ya, and I need ya too. You know that, baby?'. And he just smiles at me and laughs, and tells me he loves me too. Loves -ME-." Duo hit his chest lightly with the last word in punctuation. "Not fucking Trowa. And not Heero either. He loves me."
Heero? Wufei paused, the gun free and dangling from his hand behind his back. "Heero?"
"Yeah… Bastard. He didn't deserve Quatre. I don't either. I mean, the guy's an angel… But I at least make an effort. I try to fix things."
"How?"
"How?" He glanced up, seeming to realize again that the person there was actually listening and intelligent. "How'd I fix them? I… I make em better?"
Wufei shook his head, slowly. The questioning tone in Duo's own voice only confirmed Duo's mental state in his mind. "You can't make all things better."
"Nah, not everything. But I make our stuff, Quatre's and mine, better. Our being together. I make it work."
"Make it work how, Duo?"
Childish, the way he lifted a finger to his lips, a mockery of the old spirited Duo shining in his clever eyes as he shook his head and sang - "I'll never tell."
"… Where's Quatre?"
Duo closed his mouth, looking suspiciously at Wufei. "Why?"
Dangerous ground. Wufei kept the same calm voice. "I just want to know."
"… No, you want him too, don'tcha?" Dawning realization in the violet eyes even as they narrowed. Surity sweeping in like an ocean storm rushing on hapless sailors. "Maybe you weren't obvious, but I saw ya looking too."
"I never looked at him that way. You're… Not healthy, Duo."
"I'm fine. Never been better! I got my baby, and this house, and that just pisses you off, doesn't it? But oh yeah… I saw ya looking. When he'd cook and you'd bat your eyes and tell him how good it was. It wasn't his fucking cooking you were thinking about, you dick." The clunk as the bleach was set down drew Wufei's gaze, then right back to the redhead as Duo stumbled to his feet near the hole in the floor. Was he going to push Trowa down there before I came? Is that where Quatre's body is? What have you done, Duo?
"Doesn't matter though. You looked then, but he's with me now. With ME. And we're working things out." Duo cracked his knuckles in front of him, sharp get-to-business noises like small firecrackers in Wufei's ears. "There's a lot of sacrifices that need to be made for love, Fei my friend. I'm willing to go all the way. How 'bout you?"
As he strode forward quickly, Wufei took a small step backwards and pulled out his gun.
In the hellish second before he pulled the trigger, he saw the widening of the purple eyes that dropped down to the barrel of the gun, the utter surprise and mortal understanding that filled them. Insane or not, some terrors were built in. Crystal clear, he heard the name that came from Duo's mouth, and it wasn't his own, but rather the name of the one in their group who was already long in his grave.
"Heero! I-" Duo raised his hands.
Wufei closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.