"Catch Me When I Fall"
Chapter 4: Business and Comradery
PG-13
Still in Progress
1x2
I do not own Gundam or anything of the characters mentioned.
Note: Okay, everyone: this is the end of the actual story. I've been pretty tempted to go and write an Omake for poor Trowa who couldn't make an appearance, but I need some suggestions. I have an idea in mind, but it's pretty lacklustre and I'm not a big fan of circuses. If anyone has an idea, feel free to pitch it to me. :D I would love to have an excuse to write in this universe again. Ochiba
Duo had never meant to ask, he mused as he gathered up his suit jacket and briefcase, and he was sure Heero hadn't meant to tell. Ever since his awakening and the proposal of his new life, Duo had been almost entirely incapable of keeping the scene from his mind. Heero's sincerity pissed him off—a little bit of him—but the rest of him was entirely doubtful. How could he be so sure of himself? That firm, "Yes. I do love you." Was so convincing that Duo could have sworn that it was fake. It had to be fake.
He grinned at Heero on his way out the door and the Asian man nodded. "Are you sure you're ready for this? It's only been a few days since the fire."
"Well, the news needs something different to talk about, right? There's no point in keeping them waiting." He winked to Heero as he pressed the button for the lift to take them to ground floor. But, Duo mused, If he's lying, I should be able to know. I should be able to see it, right? I'm a master of recognising lies, and how to avoid them. So how is it that I can blindly follow Heero like this?
He saved your life.
But he took my kids from me.
So that they could live a better life. So that you could live a better life.
How is it better if the gang is gone? They were everything.
You are everything.
What?
To Heero.
Duo shook off the thought. He needed to be thinking about his interview, not Heero. That's right, the braided man reminded himself as he tugged on his blazer. (It was pretty cool outside, but Duo would never admit to it.) Heero tossed a scarf to him, though Duo had never seen him take it from the house. "Hey, I'm fine, Ro. What makes you think I need your hospitality?"
"I can see your breath," Heero stated calmly with a smile and Duo obediently wrapped the scarf around his neck.
This interview would double as a news interview as well as his job interview. He knew that the press would be asking questions about the true state of L-2, about the fire at the church, about how the government treated them, about what he wanted to do about it—it was the future planning that the big cheese would be listening to. From what Heero and the Doc said, he wanted a new perspective on the L-2 dilemma. Duo had to defend the misnomer that the vagrants weren't people who simply didn't want to work (sure, some of them were, but the program would need to weed these people out) but were mostly thrown into poverty by the rebellions on L-2 as well as the entire colonial war….
It seemed that he was thinking about it and the next thing he knew, he'd been ushered into a chair and was having his face primped. Heero was nowhere to be seen and that made Duo more nervous than usual. His stomach felt empty, even though he'd been sure to eat and he was beginning to feel the cold. Before long he was looking up for the person working his make-up so that she wouldn't get powder in his eyelashes and being pushed out on stage.
He smiled to the flashing cameras and hid his fear beneath the layers and layers of caked face paint that he felt around the wrinkles of his grin. This was just another act. Not untrue, but an act nonetheless. Duo felt like a politician put on the stand for the first public speech, only there were no lines, there was no ear-bud whispering answers into his brain. Duo was alone on stage and entirely open to the crowd. The Orphan in him was screaming.
Outwardly, he said into the microphone. "Hello, I'm sure most of you know who I am, but for those who missed the memo, my name's Duo Maxwell. I was the only survivor of the Maxwell church massacre and, more recently, of the Church fire on the outskirts of town." He grinned, "I'm sure some of you saw the smoke." There was a little bit of uncomfortable laughter, but then the sounds died down. "That's all I can think of right now, so why don't you start asking some questions?"
News reporter hands flew up while others flipped open palm pilots for notation. Duo whistled and a few people laughed. "Didn't know I was so important! Okay, let's start with you, in the green," The young man didn't hesitate a moment, "Chang Wufei, I was wondering what was it like on the streets? How were you able to find somewhere to stay, especially with all the children you were looking after?"
"Well," Duo began, "I hesitate to say that it was the same as any other kind of work… just a bit more cut-throat in the most sincere sense. Usually to even afford food I had to work—we knew that we wouldn't be able to get by without some form of currency, but the amount of jobs offered to people without houses is pretty limited. Most of us didn't know how to read or write in the beginning. Except for the few years I lived with the Maxwells, I didn't have any sort of schooling whatsoever. So the unschooled jobs available were pretty rough. Sometimes I would do odd jobs, but usually I had to work as a prostitute because there was simply nothing else that would accept me."
There was some murmuring in the crowd. "Though, let me clarify that this kind of work certainly wasn't my top choice, but when you borrow money from people and can't pay them back, they tend to take it out of whatever you've got—and if that means what family you have, they'll threaten them. That's how the church fire began this past week. Next question."
"How do you feel about the new proposal to increase spending to rebuild the slums of L-2?"
Duo gave a feral sort of grin, "You're asking a very biased person," he laughed and fell into a much more personable demeanour. "Honestly, I don't think it'll happen. After so many years of the slums being the way they are, clearing them out would be like taking the reeds away from fish. All the people living there would die out and you should know that there are a lot more of us orphans that you'd be willing to bet on. In fact, I'd like to call your attention to the attempt quite a few years ago to entirely wipe the homeless population from L-2. They would use any means necessary—guns, fire, poison, even new strands of illness. The extreme numbers of the people who died could have caused disease of catastrophic proportions if it hadn't have been for the few of us left over cleaning up the remains. I lost my first street home that way."
"What about the Peacecraft-Winner organization trying to use that same funding to help educate the orphans and provide safe places to stay."
"Now there's a good idea," Duo stated. He could feel the joy in him swell. Heero had proposed this very same idea for him and his orphans. "I am a firm believer in educating the orphans. This will not only increase the workforce and help spur further development in the L-2 colonies – we're quite a way behind most other places after all—but will also help even out this disastrous balance of power. Now I understand that this is a dangerous thing to say, but the weakened middle class on L-2 is increasing the separation between upper class and the destitute. I'm not saying to tax the higher income (although I think that would help a little, at least) but to reinforce and strengthen the middle class."
Chang Wufei paused in typing, "So you would like to see L-2 with the traditional bell-curve class-ratio?"
Bell curve? Duo thought the shape out and moved the idea around in his head before the new idea clicked. "Yeah, I guess that's what I'm trying to say." He looked at his watch and asked the timer in the back of the room, "How's my time looking? Can I get one more?" When he saw the timer give the thumbs-up, he called out one more reporter. "Alright, make this good," he said with a friendly wink to show he was joking.
"What about health care? How did you take care of yourselves when you got sick?"
Duo felt a little colder inside. He could see little Isabelle's face and the coughing much like his own. "We couldn't. If one of us got a scratch or something, we had a few things on hand, but there was never a guarantee that they were functioning products anymore. If we had gauze, it certainly wasn't sterile. Sometimes it would possibly be washed out and reused. As for illnesses, since we were exposed to so many different bacteria we developed a decent immunity to most things we came across, but one of our company came down with, what I'm sure was Tuberculosis and there was nothing we could do. She didn't survive through the fire, but she went for a very long time with this illness and we just had to care for her in every way we knew how. I've been informed that the rest of the children will be given vaccines for Tuberculosis, so the parents who adopt them won't have to worry about the contamination spreading. Health care for anyone on L-2 is pretty hard to come by, but it was devastating for us on the streets." He saw the timer give him the motion that the session was over and nodded. "Alright. We've gotta stop now. I hope you all got enough information. Thanks for your time."
He smiled for the camera as he exited, but by the time he got to the inner hallway Duo felt the adrenaline run from his body. Dizziness swept him up and he had to lean against the wall to catch his breath. He smiled to himself, Well. At least I'm not coughing.
He wasn't coughing, but he could feel his breathing become ragged. Duo closed his eyes and tried to control his nerves. Slowly, he told himself, inhale…. Exhale…. Slow. Just take it easy. It wasn't until he had begin to get control of himself that he even noticed the comforting hand on his back and the slow mantra that echoed his own, "It's alright, you did fine. Just take it slow. Inhale… exhale."
Duo gave the Asian man a smile and gave a duck of his head. "Sorry, Ro. Didn't mean to worry you. Maybe I wasn't ready for all that."
Heero shook his head. "No, it's alright. You did just fine. I was watching from the balcony." He minutely flinched, "I was on security watch."
"Security watch?" Duo asked, then everything seemed to fall together. That was why Heero was able to fight so well in the alleyway weeks before, that's why he knew exactly what to do whenever anything happened. Duo knew that he should have been irritated for not having been told before, but he was too tired to really care. Besides, it felt like a whole new door had been opened. Despite this exhaustion and despite his worry that his new position would require him to work entirely against his nature, he honestly felt that this was the beginning of a new life.
Then, suddenly he was calm and everything in him went quiet. All there was inside of him was that slow, calm breathing and a sense of absolute peace. If this was a new life for him, a voice inside him echoed, at least there's someone waiting. His chest swelled at the memory of Heero's angelic rescue in the fire. He could see the haloed form once again. Then there was Heero, walking the slum at night as though he belonged with them. Duo had felt his soul reach out just then. Maybe this person… this person who had saved him so many times was the one he had never had the chance to look for. Duo pushed himself off the wall and turned startling violet eyes to the Asian man just by his side.
Heero had come to L-2 for business—a job he could have easily turned down for something better. It was as though Heero's soul had come looking when Duo was unable to find him.
Heero's previous assuredness now echoed inside of Duo's chest and before he even thought to talk himself out of it, he raised a hand to Heero's face and brushed some hair aside. "You fought for me since the beginning," Duo mentioned softly, "Everything you've done for me—for us, it's been so perfect. Too perfect." He smiled, "I don't know how you were so sure this whole time and I feel like I'm just now opening my eyes." Heero's lips parted as though to ask a question, but Duo shook his head. "Heero, thank Quatre for me the next time you see him. He'll know what I'm talking about," and then he leaned in, pressing his lips against Heero's. The soft flesh gave against his weight, the pads of it like velvet cushions returning the gesture. Duo closed his eyes and for the first time since the Maxwell fire, he felt safe.
He was finally home.
After all this time he'd been falling, Duo was finally able to see straight ahead to the future that had been so indistinct his whole life. He could feel Heero's hands on his back and he knew that there was no one else he wanted to be with his entire life. Heero had caught him from that eternal fall. He'd saved him from the abyss and flown him up to the world where he belonged—where he could repay the world by making change for those, like him, who couldn't help himself. He had meaning in his life and he owed all of it to this man holding him in his arms.
Duo was home and he would never let it slip away from him again.
Slowly, when he had exhausted most of the breath he'd regained, Duo pulled away and rested his forehead against Heero's and smiled, "I love you, Ro."
Heero smiled and turned his eyes down in the slightest sign of embarrassment. "Let's get home, Duo."
Duo nodded and laughed, but didn't say anything. There was no reason to state what he knew both of them were thinking. It was one of those rare moments when Duo just wanted to be quiet and still. He wrapped the scarf around his neck and inhaled Heero's smell as he took the Asian man's hand. With violet eyes forward, he could feel himself step foot on the path he had ignored his whole life.
Heero was with him, now, and they would walk this new, frightening road together.
Those same violet eyes blinked at the sun that shone so brightly for the first time on his face. The weight of this planet was shocking and his legs wobbled beneath him. Duo felt Heero's arm fly around his waist and he gave a reckless grin. "So this is your home?" He asked, eyeing the plants growing outside the quaint front door. The colours were so much more vibrant than anything he'd seen. The reds and blues bobbed on the natural wind and Duo couldn't help but feel, again, like he'd been blind his whole life.
"It is," Heero admitted, "try not to tease me too much." He made sure Duo was steady on his own two feet again and then left to unlock the front door.
Duo chased after him on unstable legs and draped himself over the back anyone else would have considered cold and uninviting. "I would never, Ro. You know me better than that." He grinned and pushed his finger against Heero's flushed cheek, "Are you sure it's okay for me to stay here with you?" The door swung open to reveal an opening room decorated in warm green and dark wood.
Heero grabbed Duo's hands and gently guided him into the house. "Duo," he said with a low tone, "take a look at this place and tell me that it's anything but a somewhere I used to work and sleep." He sighed and shook his head. "This house may as well have just been another office. I want to turn it into a home, but I was never able to do it on my own."
The braided man fought to suppress the butterflies in his stomach at this, the more he was around Heero, the more he was surprised. After the past few months since his hiring on L-2, Heero had been released to return to Earth and had requested a transfer for Duo. He had said that it would be the best way to see the Orphans, but also would get him away from, what Heero called "bad memories." He had been reluctant at first, but the underlying message to Heero's statement had almost set him quiet. Home won't be home without you, the tone in his voice seemed to say.
Duo gave a wide grin and tightened his grip on the Japanese man's hand. "Then we had better break everything in."
"Break—" Heero began, but when Duo's long fingers began to unbutton the front of his dress shirt, Heero smirked and replied, "We'll unpack later," then with a kick of his foot, closed the front door to create the first memories in their new home.
The only thing he was worried about was waking up for work the next day….
Owari