Chapter Four:

Duo laid out prone on the top of a four story building with his stomach pressed against the cold flat rooftop. He held a small black device in his left hand while he kept his body hidden and an eye on the street below. A figure walked out of an alley along side a red brick building and Duo kept a keen eye on his movements. The dark hair under a faded blue ball cap and the way the man's body moved made Duo sure that it was Wufei. Over the past few weeks Wufei had proved himself an essential asset on many raids Duo conducted in Dublin and in other areas as well.

The Asian man was someone who poured his whole self into his work and had proved to Duo over and over that he would do almost anything for the cause. At first Duo had taken Wufei with him as a quick way to get rid of him while leaving no one behind who could alert the authorities. However, Wufei proved himself loyal countless times in the past weeks and any thoughts of ditching him had now left Duo's mind completely. The braided man couldn't fathom how he'd made it without his help.

Now he watched as Wufei darted around people as he made a path away from the red building. Duo licked his lips and groaned as his body was tingling, falling asleep from a lack of movement. As he shifted his weight he saw that Wufei was still inside the blast zone they set up earlier but was steadily creating distance between himself and the bomb. Duo took the moment to check out Wufei's lithe body while he had the chance.

A few days before this Duo had sat with Wufei talking about the reasons why they did what they did. Wufei had sat and listened attentively to Duo's many reasons. He listened as Duo finally filled him in on the full circumstances of their meeting, why his brother had been arrested and what his future plans were. When Duo asked Wufei why he helped him Wufei had answered swiftly and in a dry voice stated, "I do it because I get to be with you."

Wufei's declaration had ended the conversation because both young men were not ready to express anything more than that. Duo knew he felt an attraction to him but was sure that he was headed for a firing squad or something worse during this conflict. He didn't want to feel anything that he might miss later on and being a soldier made his life not his own.

The detonator in his hand went green and Duo's blood drained from his face. He felt a stab of panic as he realized that the bomb was going off prematurely. He heaved his cold body upwards, giving up his position for anyone to see. His throat burned as he yelled, "Wufei! Get down!"

Duo caught sight of Wufei ducking down, effectively putting a car between himself and the blast. Yellow fire and light and heat lit the air as Duo stood tall on the rooftop, heat hitting his face as he made sure his partner was safe. The previous bombs the two had set went off without a hitch and something, likely a malfunction, screwed this whole mission up. Normally Duo and Wufei waited until the majority of pedestrians were off the streets and out of the zone, taking out only the targeted people or buildings.

From his viewpoint he saw the aftermath of the blast laid out before him, cars were in flames and the one side of the building was crumbling down, crushing anyone inside. He heard sirens and screams as people died and he looked down at the detonator in his hands. He was a killer, a cold blooded killer.

'If Solo could see me now.'

Steady blue eyes watched him from below but Duo was too preoccupied to notice.

Duo eyed the car that Wufei had ducked behind, wondering why he hadn't gotten up yet and making his getaway. The people were milling around wailing and the sirens were getting louder and Wufei was just not getting up.

Duo let out a sob that later he would never admit to, and flung himself down the fire escape closest to his self-proclaimed fire team partner. He barely remembered the tinging of his booted feet on the steel and rusted fire escape. He crossed the busy road, dodging an ambulance and jumped around the side of the car onto the sidewalk. The front of the car's paint was peeling and burnt from the heat of the blast.

There Wufei lay on the sidewalk, unmoving.

Duo gasped in a deep breath of cold air as he moved next to him and pressed two fingers under his chin. A steady pulse beat under his fingers and Duo would've let out a whoop of joy had they been in different circumstances. Wufei's hat had flown off and his pale face was somber and steady. Duo felt down his body trying to see if there were major injuries to his partner. Turning him over slowly Duo realized that Wufei had burns running down his leg from the knee to his ankle, his heavy shoe protecting his foot. The fire from the blast hadn't hit him, but the heat had seared through at least one layer of skin, leaving it red and bloody.

Duo had two options. Taking Wufei to the paramedics for treatment or running away from there as fast as he could. The soldier in him focused on the mission they had completed and the need for a soldier to live to fight another day. The deeply rooted compassion for the young man before him made it impossible to follow through with leaving him there, helpless.

He grasped onto Wufei's torso and hauled him up. Wufei's eyes fluttered open and he looked disoriented for a moment before he tried to steady himself upright. Duo looked him over and said, "Can you walk?"

Wufei nodded and they started off towards the edge of town where they could lose themselves in the blanket of cover the forest offered. He hissed in pain as the material of his pant leg pulled at the open wound.

Duo clutched Wufei to him close, tracking the distance they covered and stayed on the side streets where they were less likely to be seen. This was a pivotal moment in their lives, their evasion tactics needed to work, had to work or they were both dead men.

They made it away uncontested as night started to fall over the city of Dublin. The people there wouldn't sleep well tonight and the cleanup was still ongoing in the blast area. Duo knew that a few people had seen them leave the city but relied on the strong Irish ties in the city to keep them from calling the police.

Duo led his wounded partner along the border of a field just along farmer's fence only kilometres from the edge of the city. He knew that Wufei needed to stop soon and neither could last much longer at the pace they were going. Duo found a small nook in a stone fence some farmer had put up dividing the border of his land from another. He let go of Wufei and crawled over, sitting down with his back against the cold stone, motioning for Wufei to join him. Wufei lay down beside him and Duo cradled his head in his lap, letting Wufei's legs stretch out in the brown grass beside them.

Duo closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the stone, gasping in much needed air.

"I fucked up."

Wufei lifted his head up from where it was pillowed on Duo's thighs and looked at him quizzically.

"Duo, what are you talking about?"

Duo shook his head violently and the breath he let out was frozen by the cold and you could see it in the air as he desperately tried to explain.

"I fucked up. I made the bomb wrong or something. It malfunctioned. I didn't even push the detonator and she went off anyway." His voice was raspy and Wufei rested his head again and sighed.

"You can't blame yourself for a misguided accident. It could happen anytime and was probably bound to happen to us at one time or another. We've set so many bombs already it was a wonder this did not occur earlier." Wufei stared up into deep violet eyes as Duo twirled the end of his braid in his fingers. Duo's expression was pained.

Wufei shook his head tiredly and decided to let it be until they were out of this mess and could properly deal with the trauma they had experienced. The cold was seeping into their skin now that they were unmoving and shortly Wufei began to shiver. He was so fatigued from the events of the day, the blast and then the getaway that he fell into a deep sleep.

Duo stared out across the dark fields and hummed an old song from the orphanage, holding Wufei's head in his lap. The fingers of one hand ran through the silky black hair and the other caressed Wufei's chin. His young partner was in a dead sleep anyway so Duo took the liberty of touching his fellow soldier.

The cold was getting deeper now that the sun was fully down and the stars were twinkling high in the sky leaving Duo to feel like they were the only two people left in the universe.

Unbeknownst to him there was a set of blue eyes watching their every move. The figure watched as Duo's body started to shiver and shake by midnight and watched as he shrugged out of his heavy wool jacket and placed it over the body in front of him.

Wufei stirred and Duo's frozen hands were still tangled in his hair. Duo's lips were starting to turn a light shade of blue as he tucked the jacket tightly around Wufei's body.

Wufei opened his eyes slightly and cleared his throat. He seemed a little delirious from the pain of his wound or the cold and Duo bent in close to hear him say, "Why didn't you run and leave me?"

Duo closed his eyes and whispered, "Because I get to be with you."

Duo was relieved when Wufei nodded, seeming happy with his response. Wufei promptly fell back into a fatigue induced sleep and Duo bent in close, cold blue lips just touching Wufei's pink-tinged warm ones.

He slumped over Wufei, his head resting on his partner's chest as he burrowed his cold face into the wool. If Wufei made it out of this alive then it was worth it for him. It was slowly growing on one in the morning when Duo passed out from the cold and fatigue.

The blue eyes watching saw the event transpire and the body of the soldier was kept warm by the feeling that was blossoming in his chest. It felt as if there was something picking away the ice around his heart and Heero Yuy couldn't let them die like that.

He pulled out his military issued field pack and pulled out a foil from his winter kit. His duties had been upped to recon and direct infantry duties and he had been near the blast site when these IRA soldiers detonated the bomb. He had watched as the braided man stood upright on the rooftop, his face a mask of sheer worry for his partner.

Shortly afterwards Heero had been assigned the task of retrieving the two suspected IRA members and bring them back into town. The British were not officially staging an operation to retrieve the two since the majority of the Dublin population was diehard Irish republicans. That left Heero to seek the enemy quietly. His orders were to retrieve the soldiers but after watching them he felt warmth in his chest he had never felt before. He also knew that he was still a soldier and a soldier first and foremost.

His mission must succeed.

He stretched out the foil blanket and approached the two. He checked them both for weapons and placed them in a large pile away from the two soldiers. He wrapped the blankets around them and then built a fire. Likely the reason they didn't risk a fire was in fear of a team finding them.

They didn't have to worry about that now that he'd already found them.

As the fire built up and time passed pink colour started to slowly return to both their faces. The braided one had given up his own wool coat for his comrade knowing it would lead to his death.

Heero stoked up the fire and waited for it to revitalize the duo, not knowing what to do with them when they