Afterwards


It's after, the dogs are resting and so are they. One dog twitches in his dream, and Heero wonders what simplicity and easiness it would be to know nothing. Sometimes, he think, it would be better that way. Just to make everything so much less difficult. He banishes those thoughts when Quatre rests his gaze on him.

"Have you... " and Heero doesn't know why he is asking this. It doesn't have any importance in the overall scheme of things, this won't help him save lives and end the war. "Have you ever owned a dog?"

"As a pet you mean?" Quatre asks, and as Heero nods, he shakes his head. "No, my father," his mouth twists and his face almost crumbles before he gains control over himself, "He didn't believe it would teach me anything. I think he thought that I would kill it."

A puppy, and a girl. "I don't think you would kill a dog. Why would he?"

Quatre's lips tighten and before he continues. "Not like that. It's wouldn't be as simple as that. If my father gave me a dog, any pet, it would be to teach me responsibility. It would be mine to take care of and mine to take the blame. I would be the one who took it for walks and feed it, and if it didn't," Quatre shrugs, "Then the care simply would not happen."

The cricket sounds, swell and fall, for some unknown reason. The last streaks of the sunset's pink and orange fall back into the sky until only the shining points of stars are left.

"Remember, I remember owning a gold fish. I would have been six maybe seven. No six, because Maruea, a sister, still lived with us, she was sent to a colony days before my seventh birthday. I had a gold fish and one day I forgot to feed it, then another and it died. My father then never reconsidered me having pets," Quatre smiles. "I was a bit of brat too. So that wouldn't help."

He shuffles over and rests his head against Heero's shoulder. "That was a long time ago too. I barely remember."

Blood on the puppy's fur, blood falling from the girl's skin, blood on his hands.

"Quatre?"

Lips meet his and Heero chokes down what he was going to say. It's warm and frantic and hot flushed skin presses against his cheeks. Then, the kiss ends and Quatre rests his forehead against Heero's. He's breathing fast, but then, so is Heero.

"I think, when all this ends, I would like my own dog. You'd like that too Heero? It would be nice." Quatre smiles and then leans away and lies back staring at the sky.

"I would," and Heero smiles back at Quatre.


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