No I am not dead. I didn't have the time to die. I'm sorry I didn't update, this time, my laziness is not my excuse, I have a very good reason involving work that needed to be done. REALLY needed to be done.
Yes, I have a beta reader thingy (don't even know the offical title of that most important job) I sent this chapter but got no response. Sorry, it will be full of errors, it hasn't been checked, but I just HAD to post it before life got hectic again.
The Forsaken
Chapter 4As he slowly came back to the land of the living again, he almost sighed pleasently as he felt a cold wet hand push away his bangs to wipe his face clean. For a short moment the hand was gone and he heard the sound of dripping water, the hand returned again, cooling his heated skin. He groaned and the hand pulled back, much to his dismay.
'Duo? Are you awake?'
With a lot of effort he forced his eyelids open to gaze up at Heero, who was, in his turn, staring down at him. He now realised he was sitting in heero's lap, his head being supported by Heero's left hand while the right one had been the blissful hand to clean and cool him.
'Hey.' He muttered weakly, his voice hoarse, his throat sore. What happened, he wondered. He could remember nothing from before falling asleep and ending up in Heero's arms. Strange.
'You ate poisonous berries.'
Duo chuckled bitterly 'Why doesn't that surprise me? That's SO Duo.' Now that Heero said it he did vaguely remember seeing his own hand picking black berries. But it was nothing more but a distant memory, it could have just as easily been someone else's hand... it could have been a fragment out of a movie he had seen long ago. He really didn't know. All he saw was a pale skinny hands picking those black berries.
'You gave us quite a scare.' He commented as he dipped his hand in the cool water again and used it to clean of Duo's chest, which was apperently exposed.
Duo turned to the side and saw his black shirt hanging on a branch, water dripping off it, falling to the ground. No, don't say, he had puked on himself... God this was embarrassing.
'Where are the others?' He whispered, as he couldn't find the strength to speak up.
Heero took his time before he answered the question. 'WuFei and Quatre are fast asleep.' He looked up and Duo followed his gaze to see the two comrades huddled together against a tree. 'Trowa is looking for food.' Heero softly added.
Duo chuckled 'You didn't kill eachother?'
Heero smiled, yes ladies and gentlemen, Heero smiled a small sweet smile, too bad it disappeared far too soon. 'We did try.' He joked, shocking Duo to his very core.
'He finally agreed on looking for food?'
Heero shrugged, not really giving him much of an answer so Duo reckoned they had a major fight about it before the other pilot agreed.
'How long was i out?' Very subtle change of subject Duo!
'A day.'
Duo's eyes widened, he had been out an entire day? Wow, he didn't expect that.
'You look like shit.' Heero commented softly as he kept cleaning Duo's water. The sound of dripping water was almost hypnotic.
Duo frowned, looking up in mock anger 'well thank you!' He said sarcastically.
'Your skin is pale... your lips are white... you have black rings under your eyes...' Heero touched his face as he described it.
'Well, you don't look all that pretty either.' Heero didn't, he had thought it was impossible for Heero to not look perfect, but it was. His skin was too pale, making the red gash in his cheek stand out even more, his eyes were dull from loss of sleep and sand and mud stuck to his hair. He smiled and he reached up a hand to take out a twig that also got stuck in the messy strands.
Duo didn't really know what was going on but at that moment, as they stared into each others eyes, he felt something spark between them. He had never seen heero this gentle en this concerned. Infact, he had never seen a genuine expression on the boys face, this was a breakthrough. A day to mark red on the calender. Like just about everyday they spent in this forsaken forest. Everyday something shocking would happen. But that was the life of a Gundam pilot.
'How is he?' Was the question that broke Duo's muse.
Both heads turned at hearing Trowa's voice, which was too loud after such a long silence. He came walking up to them, holding the hem of his shirt, in which he craddle probably just about every berry he could find, non-poisonous ones of course as only Duo was capable of making such blunders.
'Oh... he's awake.' Trowa kneeled down next to him, he lay down the few things he found and let Heero inspect them, who threw some of them away. For some reason, it made Duo feel really good to see Heero scrutinize even the fruit Trowa brought. He also suddenly realised he should be glad that he had eaten the pokeberries himself before going back to 'camp' to feed them to the sick and dying Quatre before letting Heero check them.
'You okay Duo?'
He stared at Trowa who towered above them. He nodded weakly and gave him thumbs up and his trademark grin. 'Never been better.'
'Hn. Your teeth have more color than your skin.' He commented, taking all of Duo in with a careful eye.
'That better mean I'm really pale and not that I have yellow teeth!' He joked, but regretted raising his voice as it reminded him of his sore throat which felt like it had been rubbed with sandpaper.
With an obviously not amused sigh Trowa turned his attention to Heero. 'I saw the marks on the trees, not a wise move.' He said accusingly, but his face betrayed nothing as he stared at Heero while Heero stared right back. 'We have to leave, we've been in one place too long already.'
Not surprisingly Heero gently laid down Duo and rose to meet Trowa's glare with one of his own. It was actually quite funny since only now Duo noticed Heero was a good head shorter than Trowa but wasn't the least bit intimidated as he spoke: 'He was poisoned, he needs to rest.'
'Quatre has a hole in his stomach but we didn't stop for that either, now did we? I carried Quatre, you can carry Duo.' Trowa snapped, he left to walk over to said boy, checking his temperature by laying his hand on his forehead and then feeling his pulse. Once done with that he shot another glare towards Heero before continuing to tend the blonde.
Heero stared at him a little longer before looking down at Duo. His expression was one Duo had never seen before, almost afraid. Not afraid as in fear, but afraid of disappointing, afraid of letting people down.
Duo rose to a sitting position, noticing, embarressed that he was only in his durty shorts. 'It's okay Heero, I can walk on my own.' He tried to prove his point by standing up but failed miserably.
'No Duo.' Heero grabbed him and gently lay him down on the ground again. 'I'll carry you.'
Duo snorted 'Heero, you're injured and you're lighter than me. Besides-' his voice falters as he was on the receiving end of Heero's glare.
'we are not going to fight about this.' The Japanese pilot said in a determined tone and grabbed Duo's clothes, wrung them out and hung them up again.
Trowa, who had been monitoring their actions called: 'we'll wait for his clothes to dry, then we'll go.'
'Trowa is under the impression he is the alpha male of this pack.'
Duo turned to find the still blind Wufei sitting about a meter away from him, looking in his general direction.
'Hey... How are you holding up?'
'My vision is improving, I can see bright lights.' He simply answered, not excited. He probably realised very well he shouldn't get his hopes up too high, despite Heero's diagnose.
'Wufei.'
WuFei frowned, probably because Duo used his appropriate name.
'I really admire you. If I were in your position I would have broken down crying long ago.' He silently admitted.
WuFei cast his blind gaze down. 'you don't know what I do in the dark when everyone else in asleep.' He softly retorted and then looked the other way.
Duo stared at him, not at all surprised that WuFei was indeed morning for his loss, but shellshocked that he had just admitted it to him.
Two hours later Heero helped him get dressed and then unceremionically hoisted him over his shoulders and followed Trowa, who was carrying Quatre and guiding WuFei.
Duo felt extremely guilty, lying on Heero's shoulder like this, like he was some weak boy who needed help with everything and once again heero had to come to the rescue. How many times did the pilot save his life over the course of the past few days? How many times since they met? It was a long list that kept him occupied till it turned dark and Trowa suggested they'd stop.
Heero was panting heavily and wheezing again, but he didn't dare to comment on it. He didn't want to make him angry like he had done that morning. He just had to keep peace, if they started to fight their group would fall apart. He knew that even though Heero and apparently WuFei neither agreed to trowa being the 'alpha male' they should not try to change it. First of all it would only cause fights, fights that might lead to them splitting up. That would not be a wise thing to do. Not with OZ on their tails and the person responsible for the body pit, who could be lurking from behind every tree. Second of all, Trowa was the logical choice. He now was the strongest of the group, like the alpha male should be. The only problem with lkeaving trowa in charge was that it was getting to his head. Another disadvantage was that, even though he went through a lot and was not dumb or less then them in any case, he did receive the least amount of training of the five of them as he was only appointed Heavyarms pilot two months before launching operation meteor.
Five heads turned in the same sirection as they heard the frightingly close howl of a wolf. At the same time they turned to look at each other and Heero was quick too say, after glancing upwards 'These trees are strong enough to climb in. Up there we'll be safe.'
'It'll cost energy we don't have.' Trowa snarled.
Duo was afraid that he agreed with both of them. They both had their points. He wasn't sure if the reason why he was leaning towards Heero's suggestion was because he was starting to fall madly in love with him or simply because it was the best choice. Either way, when Heero walked up to the base of one of the trees and tried to climb in, he went after him and helped him the best he could.
Twenty exhausting minutes later they were sitting on the lowest, thick branches of the high tree, the limited amount of space available made Duo very happy, because Heero decided it was best to lean against each other, that way, they will not only stay warm, they will also have less difficulty staying balanced. Or so he said. Half an hour later, at WuFei's call after the howling came closer, Heero went down and helped WuFei up. Positioning him on another branch. Then he came back to huddle against Duo, wheezing.
Duo didn't know how late it was when he awoke, all he could confirm was that it was still dark, though the moon made a good effort of lighting the forest. For a moment he was afraid he was in that dream again, but he smiled as he noticed he wasn't. His smile brightened as he noticed that in the tree across from theirs Trowa and Quatre were also propped up on the branches. Quatre lying safely in trowa's arm, who was, surprisingly, kissing Quatre's forehead over and over and talking to him. Though it was too soft to hear.
He suck in a a breath as he suddenly made long eyecontact with Trowa. He could only estimate how much time had passed till Trowa finally broke the gaze.
Duo fell asleep not long after.
Only to be awoken again by the soft calling of Heero.
Opening his eyes he found a sight he wanted to wake up to every moment from that point on. Heero's face, very, very close to his.
'Heya buddy. Slept well?'
Heero rolled his eyes. 'I slept in a tree, what do you reckon?'
The two of them carefully climbed down. Duo frowned deeply as he saw Trowa sitting at the base of the tree he had been IN that night, Quatre next to him. They both appeared to be sleeping.
'What are they doing?'
'What do you mean?' Heero questioned after helping Duo down. 'They've been there all night of course. Too damn stubborn to accept any advise.'
Duo decided, for some reason, not to mention that Trowa HAD followed Heero's lead that evening. It was obvious Trowa didn't want Heero to know that. So, for the good of peace, it was best that it would remain a secret.