Warnings and Disclaimers: Erm, I'm rather glad I don't own "Why Can't We Be Friends", though I wouldn't mind owning the rights to "Happy Birthday to You". Can you imagine how much dough whoever owns the royalties to that thing gets?
In my head there's only you now,
And this world falls on me.
In this world there's real and there's make believe
And this seems real to me.
And you love me,
But you don't know who I am...
- 3 Doors Down, "Let Me Go"
It was a surprise, later on, to find that several hours had passed as he listened to the ever-flowing conversation over everything from magic to mayhem that flashed between the two yamis. One of his legs had quickly gone numb under the weight of Duo's head, who had fallen asleep again at some point in the proceedings. For some reason, though, Heero couldn't make himself feel annoyed about it.
The sudden sound of the front door surprised all of them, as well. Every eye in the room went to the doorway as a cheerful Quatre bounced in, with Trowa and Wufei following close behind. He didn't seem to find anything odd about the sight of Heero with his partner's head in his lap, though Trowa raised an expressive eyebrow, and the Chinese teenager had to hide a smirk. "Oh, hello!" the blonde said with a hint of surprise as he saw Shiraga sitting in the chair. "I didn't realize you were there."
Heero had to suppress a snort at that patently ridiculous statement. The day any of them did something so green as to not notice someone was in the room was the day he walked into an OZ base in nothing but his boxers, singing "Why Can't We Be Friends".
He grimaced at that frankly disturbing thought. He'd been hanging around Duo too much. Or around Shinigami, at least.
The albino blinked up at him. "School's out already?"
Quatre nodded. "For about half an hour."
"Oh." Shiraga shook his head, snow-white spikes waving dangerously. "I'd better call Isis so she can pick me up, then. Mind if I use your phone?"
"Go right ahead," the little Arabian replied with a pleasant smile, gesturing towards the kitchen. Behind him, Trowa and Wufei had both vanished up the stairs to their rooms. "But... if you're five thousand years old, why don't you drive yourself?"
The albino snorted, getting up and stretching. "You know it and I know it, but traffic cops don't. For some reason it always pisses Ryou off when I send the law to the Shadow Realm after getting pulled over, so since Isis is the only one of us that looks old enough to drive, she gets to play chauffeur." He grinned a toothy grin at the puzzled glance the blonde threw him, and slipped through the doorway towards the kitchen.
"Shadow Realm?" the billionaire asked the teenagers left in the room.
"Mystical universe we pull our energy from," Shin answered, sprawling bonelessly on the couch he was monopolizing. "Though this is the first I've heard 'bout sendin' people there."
"...Ah." Shaking his head in bemusement, Quatre left the room. "Shouldn't have asked..."
-
The silence in the car lasted for almost half the long ride back to the Kaiba mansion. Then, finally, Isis asked the question so obviously preying on her mind. "Is he another Malik?" she asked bluntly.
Bakura stared out the window at the passing scenery as he considered how to answer. "I... don't think so," he finally said. "The hikari, Duo... I can imagine the pharaoh laughing his ass off at hearing me say this, but... he's a good kid."
Isis nodded. "And the yami? Is he another you?"
The albino laughed. "Oh, hell no! Shit, I think Shinigami's even more protective of his hikari than the pharaoh is!" The seer shoot him a bemused glance at his continued chuckling. "If anything, it's more like the priest was towards his brother."
Isis blinked at the comparison. She had never known Seto Kaiba very well, beyond some very infuriating conversations, but even she knew there had been nothing in the world that even came near the man's protective instincts towards little Mokuba Kaiba. "That bad?" she couldn't help murmuring out loud.
Bakura nodded, for once missing even a hint of a smirk. "You saw the coroner's reports on that bunch in the alley," he said quietly, turning his face back to the window. "Apparently, they were would-be muggers who went after the hikari. They managed to leave a few bruises on his face before the yami split himself off and... went after them in a really bad mood. And we all felt that."
"Did we ever..." Isis shuddered to remember that feeling of power and, now that she recognized it, rage. And speaking of power... "And what happened today?" she asked, slowing down to turn a corner. Whatever it was couldn't have been too bad, considering the tombrobber was in one piece...
Bakura winced. "Oh, that? Er, I made a mistake... Tried to teach Duo how to contact the Shadow Realm, but I really should've taught him how to shield first."
The woman frowned. "Wait. You're telling me that came from someone who was just... touching the Shadow Realm! That's..."
Bakura grinned toothily. "Unbelievable? Trust me, if you'd had the Shadow Realm about to be summoned down on your head by accident, you'd believe it, too." He let out a deep chuckle as the car swerved just the tiniest bit before the seer got the wheel back under control.
"He actually summoned the Shadow Realm? Outside of a shadow game?" she gasped, paling.
The thief frowned. "Yeah, so? The pharaoh and I have both done it before."
Isis gave him a look, one that clearly stated he was being an idiot. "Of course you have! It's one of the powers of both of your Items. But it isn't one of the Rod's!"
Bakura stared at her. "Are... are you sure?"
She nodded. "Malik tried often enough. The Rod is one of the more... physical Items. It was meant to relate more to this world than to the Shadows, like the Tauk, and the Eye. That's why they all have distinct powers that concern actual reality, while the powers of the others are more abstract."
"So... You're saying he couldn't have used the Rod to summon the Shadow Realm? He did it himself?" Bakura looked distinctly uneasy at the thought.
Isis stared out at the road ahead for a long minute. "I can't see any other possibility," she finally answered, her voice quietly grim. "Either he has another of the Items in his possession- doubtful, given Shadi has the only other one capable of summoning the Realm itself- or he's somehow a, a natural conduit for the Shadows."
Bakura twisted in his seat so he could see her face more clearly. Could she be... yes, she was serious. "That..." He swallowed. "In the hands of the wrong person..." He was all too aware of what he would have done with that kind of power just centuries ago.
Isis smiled wryly. "Indeed. Which is why I truly hope you're right in saying this Duo is a 'good kid'. Because if you're wrong..."
It didn't require any imagination at all on his part to finish her sentence for her. "...we're screwed."
-
And that was the general consensus among the other Itemholders, once they'd all arrived back at the mansion. A skeptical Yami no Yugi questioned Bakura for nearly an hour, pulling out quite a few important details that had faded from the thief's conscious memory, such as the physically solid form of the Shadows that had nearly engulfed Duo Maxwell.
In the end, though, the pharaoh decided the only way he could know for sure was by seeing for himself. Isis agreed to call him in sick the next morning so he could accompany Bakura during the tutoring session (over the thief's vehement protests, of course).
After several hours of discussion, the immortals began to turn in, until finally only Kon, Yami, and a yawning Yugi were left among the waking inhabitants of the household. The young man slouched comfortably in front of his computer as Yami leaned over his shoulder. "You're sure you can find out?"
Kon rolled his eyes. "Yes, I can find out, already! Getting into someone's records isn't that hard, especially since I've already hacked the school records. That'll give me a step up."
"And you've got all the names, right?" the pharaoh pursued, frowning. "Duo Maxwell, Chang Wufei-"
"-Heero Yuy, Quatre Winner and Trowa Barton," Kon finished with another roll of the eyes. "Yes, I've got them. It'll take some time."
Yami started to open his mouth again, but was stalled as his hikari wrapped his arms around his waist. "Yami, leave him alone. He knows what he's doing," Yugi murmured into the crook of his neck. "Now, come on. I've got school tomorrow, even if you don't, and Konjaku needs to get some sleep too."
The former spirit wavered for a long moment, then sighed, and nodded, though he sent the Kaiba scion a long look before he let his hikari lead him away to bed.
-
They managed to wake Duo once dinnertime came around, giving a grateful Heero a chance to stretch and restore feeling to his legs, though at the same time he couldn't help feeling a vague discontentment as Shin helped his hikari into the kitchen.
The American seemed to have fully recovered mentally, judging by his complaints once they'd woken him up ("Why'd you let me sleep so long? Now I'm going to be up all night!"), but physically he had only a little more strength than a limp noodle. Shinigami made teasing noises over whether or not he needed someone to feed him, which prompted the hikari to attempt a full-on assault against his shins.
There wasn't a lot of conversation during the meal, considering the person... er, persons generally responsible for small talk were either too lethargic (beyond the occasional kick whenever a certain yami smirked), or too busy wincing every so often to hold onto any thread of conversation. Afterwards, a limping Shin assisted Trowa in clearing away the dishes, as Heero helped Duo back into the living room while Quatre hovered nearby, ready to help if it was needed.
Duo curled up on a corner of the couch, resting his head on his folded arms. "Well, honey, did anything happen at school today?" he joked, lips curving into a familiar grin. Heero had to hide a smile of his own at the sight. The real Duo was so different from the picture of the "braided baka" that he'd built up in his mind over the last few months that it was a relief to know that the braided boy wasn't a complete stranger.
"Nothing really interesting," Quatre replied as Heero settled down at the opposite of the couch from Duo. "It was mostly catching up for us. Although, at lunch there were quite a few work crews picking through the ruins of that lab you blew up..."
And now that he thought about it, Duo wasn't such a stranger. There were times that Heero could remember when the American had seemed strangely subdued, or so he'd thought at the time. Rare occasions when the constant babbling had slowed, and then stopped, and there had been blessed peace in the room Heero had once considered himself cursed to have to share with the annoying teenager.
Now he knew those quiet times to be when Duo took over his and Shinigami's shared body, and once he had set his mind to remembering them, more and more instances were appearing in his memory. And he could hardly believe he'd never noticed it before.
Heero tilted his head so that chocolate bangs covered his eyes. Through them he watched Duo unnoticed as the American bantered cheerfully with Quatre. Duo was so different from Shinigami, not just in that he quieter, but in his posture and those few movements he made. The yami reminded the pilot of nothing so much as harnessed lightning, always moving, always tense, as though at a moment's notice he would burst into motion.
But Duo was more self-contained, more centered than his darker half. Sitting there, the longhaired boy seemed somehow... realer than anything else in the room, as though he would always be there. Where Shinigami was charismatic, vivacious, larger than life, Duo was life. He was the calm in the eye of Shin's living hurricane, and it was obvious that everything the yami was revolved around him. He was the gentle breeze on a warm day, a quiet evening among friends, the feeling you get when you've just woken up and you don't want to get out of bed.
He was... peace.
Heero's eyes widened, as he stared at the oblivious boy. Something hovered at the edge of his mind, something that told him he was on the brink of understanding, though understanding what, he could not have said. And then Duo glanced over at him, violet eyes wide and... not innocent, never innocent again, but so very alive... and he did understand.
His mind reeled, even as he nodded and answered whatever question it was the American had asked him. Once the teenager's attention was off him again, he leaned back and let his thoughts run.
Ever since the first they had met, Heero had felt an odd pulling towards the braided boy. That first time it had surprised him- leading to, among other things, two bullets from Duo's gun while he was distracted. Afterwards, he had expected it, but the strange magnetism had still confused him. He let the American get away with things he would have gleefully shot others for even thinking of attempting. The pilot from L2 was loud, abrasive, the most irritating person he'd ever come across... and yet, there was still that pull to just be near him, to know that he existed.
And now Heero understood how such a contradiction could exist, and that "and yet"... was Duo. Was the peace he brought, and broke, and put together again so that it was better than before. He was everything the Perfect Soldier had ever fought for, in his heart of hearts...
And he'd only just noticed.
A/N: -stares- Christ, that was a roller coaster ride... I have no clue what the hell I was thinking for most of this chapter (though I blame that second bit of Heero POV on sitting through poetry in English). It's been so long since I wrote anything for this story that I know my writing style's changed a hell of a lot, so the chapter feels kind of disjointed... and might I mention how hard it was to get back into the Yu-Gi-Oh! mindset!
stops and takes a deep breath- Alright... I realize this chapter is probably the worst yet, but I don't know if I can do better, so... please, be kind. It's just... been a while since I wrote the kind of Pythonesque humor/supernatural teenage angst that characterizes this story.
Oh, and apparently this is YYxY. That wasn't a conscious decision on my part, just the way it came out.
Our sincere, if belated gratitude to AlterEthereal (-chuckles at the mental picture- Damn, but one of these days I actually need to watch the anime…), Black Angel of Destruction, cheerful-pinkstar, Crysania Fay (-shrugs- If the pairings vote had turned out differently, that might have been the way it went), Delphine Pryde, gatogirl1 (Interesting costume –grins-), HANDHELD Uber Rei Model 05, Kaaera (Some, but none of them turned out very well), Kaori, Mithros (-sweatdrops- Well, I hadn't forgotten about it last time, but…), SelenaWolfe, Shino Ryu, silverkitkat, Silvermane1, Skeren Dreamera (-blinks- You know, I'd forgotten about that idea of yours… And Ryou and Quatre? I don't think I would have come up with it on my own, but it does sound like a really good pairing.), Triste Nanashi (Life, hectic? Who would have thought? –grimaces- Sorry, I'm just a little annoyed with myself for how long this took. Hectic lives might be interesting, but they're hell on the writing… -chuckles- Wonder how that rumor got around…), Ultra Rodimus (I suppose I could bring myself to tolerate her if she was a necessary plot device for a story or something, but it would take an extreme measure like that. And I'm guessing you're talking about Magic the Gathering? That one's kind of the progenitor of all these various card games, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc. It's been around for… I want to say at least a decade.), and Windy River for reviewing.
29 March 2005