Chapter Seven
God, how large did God made this forest? They all wondered as they walked into the ninth day with heavy feet and growling stomachs. To top it off they could see threatening clouds nearing as they could once a while peek through the roof above their heads. Currently WuFei was holding Trowa's hand, which was all the support the tall pilot allowed him to give. WuFei had offered to carry Quatre, but in a fit, Trowa had refused.
Duo had joined Heero up front, enjoying the comfortable silence between them as he slowly walked closer and closer to the object of his affection. He couldn't take his eyes off him, even when Heero looked terrible, he somehow still looked beautiful. That reassured Duo in a way, because it told him he wasn't just attracted to Heero's face but also the beauty that came from inside the silent and stoic boy. Also, he couldn't help but notice the changes Heero had went through, while still the perfect soldier, he was granting Duo more and more glimpses behind his mask.
Duo came closer once again, their arms, which were swinging by their sides, occasionally brushing.
'Duo?'
He immediately enlarged the distance between them, looking at his comrade, partner, friend, whatever he was, with uncertain eyes. Had he pushed the line too far? 'Yeah?'
'I never thanked you.' Heero commented, without seeking eyecontact. His gaze was fixed far ahead of them.
Duo frowned but he was relieved so he dared to step in closer again and the warmth of Heero's brushing hand made him at ease. 'What for?'
'For what you did, on the branch.' Heero awkwardly explained.
'Heh, no sweat buddy, I like to think you would have done the same for me.'
'Well, I would, but I also would have expected you to thank me, had it been the other way around.'
Duo smiled and rufled Heero's already impossibly messy hair. 'You're welcome.'
With a scowl Heero swatted his hands away from his head. After a while he commented: 'That was a fine display of soldier reflexes.'
Duo looked at him seriously.
Feeling the serious gaze burning on his cheek Heero finally turned his head to look at Duo, frowning at the expression on his face.
'That weren't my soldier reflexes rushing to save another soldier.' Duo admitted. 'That were my friend reflexes trying to save my best friend. I wouldn't have responded as quickly had it been someone else, ya know?'
'Best friend?' Heero asked, looking as dazzled as one could expect the perfect soldier allowed himself to look.
Duo grinned 'Yeah, because like I said, that's what friends do, looking out for each other.'
Heero nodded 'Yes, that IS what friends do... and like I said, I would have done the same.'
Duo smiled goofily and dared to wrap and arm around Heero's shoulders 'Are you, mister perfect soldier Heero Yuy, trying to tell me that you think of me as a friend too?'
Heero removed the arm, though not in a hurting manner, it was just obvious that he didn't appreciate that much body contact, just yet. 'I never thought of you anything other than a friend.' He admitted, again avoiding eyecontact.
Duo laughed. 'Now that's a blunt lie! You hated me. I shot you-'
'Twice.' Heero cut in.
Duo sighed but it was rather out of amusement than irritation, 'You're gonna hold that against me forever, aren't ya? I'd say sorry had you not STOLEN from me.' He punched Heero playfully.
'Borrowed.' Heero corrected.
A loud snort 'Yeah right, borrowing without giving back. Borrowing without even having the INTENTION of giving it back.' He teased and felt pretty pleased with himself as he saw the corners of Heero's mouth curl upwards. 'What more do we have. Oh, the time you wanted to kill me, in that Oz cell.'
'But I didn't. And believe me when I say that wasn't the only time I thought about killing you.'
Duo only stared with eyes as large as saucers. 'I must check for the four horsemen as this must be the end of the world.' Duo turned and yelled to the others: 'Heero Yuy just cracked a joke!' he extracted a smile out of WuFei, Trowa merely rolled his eyes. Glad to see everything was back to normal, or as close as one could be to normal when hunted by some phycho, Oz soldiers and wolves and God knows what more tracked their footsteps.
'Let's not forget all the times you abandoned me to go save that chick.'
'Her name is Relena.'
Yes and boy did he hate her, like he didn't see through the hole 'Heero-I'm-Right-Here-So-Come-And-Kill-Me' act. Yeah, she digged him. 'Whatever. Oh and there was that time you punched me in the guts.'
'You punched me first.' Heero pointed out.
'You asked for it!' he paused 'Literally!'
'It was for your own safety.'
'Safety my ass. What's that's supposed to mean, huh? You think I can't play dead or something? Watch this.' After making a dramatic scene of dying he fell to the ground with a loud crash and lay dead still. He felt three sets of eyes on him, but two of them soon lost interest and he could feel them walk past them as they kept heading North. Heero waited however. He knew it was Heero, for now other glare could burn as intense as his. One always knew when he was on the receiving end of Heero's glare.
After a while Duo cracked one eye open and looked up at Heero, who was towering over him with a questioning look. 'Now if that's not Oscar worthy...'
'It's not.' Heero dryly cut in.
Duo fell back on the ground again, dead. 'No! Not another joke! Do you have no mercy!' he reached his hands towards the sky but was surprised to find Heero grabbing one of them and hoisting him up.
'Seriously though, you can't honsetly say you thought I couldn't play dead for a few seconds. And you also didn't come back to save me or anything so... in what way exactly did you think you were helping me?' Duo asked teasingly as he dusted off his pants.
Heero kept his mouth firmly shut and conitnued to walk, following the rest again who were quite far ahead by now as he had to wait to witness Duo's little act.
After a long while Heero spoke up, with a tone so unlike his usual monotone voice that Duo felt almost shocked and made him wonder if that was what Heero sounded like if he dropped the soldier act. If so, he wished he would do it more often and would grace them with more of that pleasant, normal voice but yet deep with wisdom he had gained in his short life.
'Duo, may I ask you something?'
Sensing that this was serious, it must be for Heero for once did not sound like a barking commander, he asnwered: 'Sure.' Instead of the usual teasing: 'You? Always.'
'Why are you so different now?'
'I don't understand...'
Heero stuffed his hands in the pockets of his ragged jeans and looked at the ground as they walked, not making an effort on catching up with the others. 'Before, you were so silent, you hardly ever joked and now you do it all the time, just like you used to do... before the crash.'
Duo smiled sadly 'Well, Heero, that because that's my part in this team.'
'Your part?'
'Yeah, we all have totally different characters and we all bring totally different things to the battle. Every single one of us has his own little tasks. You do the leading, making sure everything is clear. Trowa does a double check in case you missed something. Quatre is the kind force that binds us. WuFei is the one to make sure no one is left behind and I... I chatter. I chatter and joke so you guys don't have to worry, you don't have to think about... stuff, ya know. Not to forget I am a mean fighting machine!' He jokingly added.
Heero frowned and looked deep in thought. 'That's a pretty good theory.' He admitted.
Duo smiled, you know you've done something good when mister perfect soldier compliments you. 'Yeah, not bad for someone with my brain capacity, huh?' It was meant as a joke as he was not someone to hold grudges. But as Heero stopped dead in his tracks he soon figured that was not how Heero took it. He halted and looked back at his dumbstruck and hurted looking friend. It was almost scary to see that amount of emotion on his face. Before he could explain it was just a joke Heero spoke, his voice barely more than a whisper.
'Duo, none of us thinks you're stupid.'
He wasn't entirely sure if he agreed with that.
Heero caught onto his hesitation. 'You think we think of you like that?'
'Well... Come on, it's pretty obvious! You all had schooling and training... I... I was just a streetrat, ya know, G's second choice. If not his third or fourth.' He shrugged, most of the time it didn't really bother him, as long as they didn't make hurtful comments about it he was always able to repress his fear of being less, being useless, being inadequate. Talking about it was hard so he tried to cover it with a joke but he failed miserably.
'I don't think you're stupid.' Heero stated.
Duo smiled as he could see the honesty. 'Thanks Heero, really, I have to admit that I don't mind hearing that once in a while.' Feeling uncomfortable the joker mask slid into place. As soon as his emotions were covered up he could see Heero's face also turning into stone once again. 'Come on, the others are waiting for us.'
He didn't really know what just happened between them but the silence was no longer comfortable. Maybe they had gotten too personal, all Duo knew was that he no longer sneaked in closer as they walked side by side, catching up with the other who had stopped to wait for them. Even though he always thought of Heero as a friend, he never saw their relationship as friendship. It was hard to explain. His friendship always seemed unanswered. He thought heero was incapable of fixing his attention on anything other than the missions so it felt strange to have him reach out to him all of a sudden.
To top of the wonderful day he was having... it started to rain.
No, Rain, didn't adequately describe the ocean that fell down from the clouds. At first they only heard the drops falling on the leaves above them and for a few seconds they remained dry, but then the drops came through, falling from leaf onto leaf down to their heads. Normally, one would run to seek shelter from the rain, but they didn't bother. Not only did they not have the strength to run, they had no destination to run towards other than hundreds of miles North. As there was no shelter they resigned to their fate and let God soak their shredded clothing.
'This is just down right wonderful!' Duo commented as he noticed the silence was stretching too long again. He got no response, but he didn't talk to coax responses out of them. Taking his place in the group he started blabbering about how God had cursed them in so many ways he favoured the devil above them. And from one thing came to another and soon he was discussing, with himself only, why Heaven was so much better than Hell.
'...at least in hell it's nice and warm...' he commented, rubbing his arms in order to produce some heat.
'In heaven you have to be good ALL the time...'
'And if we are on earth nothing more than ants to god who is just a big bully with a magnifying glass, how do you think he'll treat us once we're in Heaven?'
'In Heaven is Everything white... I hate white...'
'Duo.' Came Trowa's warning tone through the roar of the rain.
'Yeah yeah, I know.' He imitated Trowa the best he could as he lamely called: 'Shut up Duo!'
'No...'
Duo noticed they had come to a halt... why? Looking to the side he saw Heero squinting his eyes trying to see in the relative dark that was created by the dark clouds above them. He followed his gaze and though it was hard to see through the rain in the shimmering dark he could definitely spot a square shadow about a hundred meters ahead of them. 'A cabin.' He concluded.
The others nodded.
After staring at it for a while Trowa turned, ready to walk around the wooden cabin with a large bow. 'It could be an OZ hideout. Or the forest shelter of the psycho who's hobby we witnessed earlier.' As he was about to walk away he was stopped by Heero, who carefully lay his hand on his upper arm, trying not to enrage him as he spoke softly:
'We can't let an opportunity like this slide.'
Trowa frowned.
'A forest cabin, a good chance it will stock food, clothes and maybe even antibiotics.'
Trowa contemplated on that for a while, looking back at the dark shadow between the trees. 'We can't take the risk.' He shot a glance at Quatre, whom he still carried on his back.
'We'd be doing Quatre a favor, he stands a better chance if get him medicine and some clothes... for all of us.'
03 looked back again at the cabin, looking deep in thought. After biting his lower lip for a while he turned to Heero and consented, though he didn't seem really comfortable with approaching this cabin.
Though the lights were out, which would suggest there was no one home, there was the risk he, whoever 'he' was, was sleeping. Or that the owner would come back while they were ransacking his house. Still, Heero was right, it was a risk they'd have to take.
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C.W.