Disclaimer:We do not own or profit from Gundam Wing. For who could love Dorothy's eyebrows?

Warnings: Some blood and stuff.

Authors:Foxy Mcgee and Cltcmistress

Trowa blinked a few times as the fog cleared from his head and he realized that he'd blacked out at some point. His shoulder and legs were throbbing and he decided he'd kill for a glass of water. He licked his lips tasting the dust from the debris around them. "How long was I out?"

Quatre pushed the knob on his watch so it lit up. "About 5 hours this time." He frowned at the watch face then released the button. It was now 4 o'clock the next day. His throat was dry and scratchy from the dust and his body ached where he'd been unable to stretch out. As it was he'd been forced to relieve himself in the corner of their little cave. He'd spent he night watching Trowa, observing the rise and fall of his chest, afraid that at some point it would stop. "How're you doing?"

"Not well." He turned his face away from the blonde. "I never thought it would happen this way."

"What would happen?" He frowned and moved to check the bandages at Trowa's shoulder. The bleeding hadn't started again, luckily. "We're going to be fine. It's not like this is the worst we've been through." He smirked and shifted the jacket so Trowa's head was propped up better.

"The end." Trowa kept his gaze focused on the dark. "I don't think even I can handle being here much longer, not with this wound. I'm not even sure about my legs any more."

"Don't you start on that now. Please, Trowa. I did not stay up all night watching you for you to just throw in the towel now." He rubbed a hand over his face and took a deep breath. His eyes had enough trouble focusing in this dark, but add sleep deprivation and dehydration and he was likely to start seeing things. "The others know we're here. There was some noise earlier. They're probably just being careful so they don't prevent another collapse while they shift rubble around."

"If it had been a rescue team we'd still be hearing them." Trowa frowned and turned his head towards Quatre. "Why Duo?"

Trowa's question caught him off guard and he looked at the injured pilot. "What?"

He met Quatre's eyes with his own. "Why? Why did you choose Duo?"

"I guess it just happened." He bit his lip and looked away. Why did talking about this bother him so much now? "I didn't exactly choose him, as you say. Why?"

"Curiosity." He looked down at the rebar on his shoulder. "I just always wondered. I figured it was your personalities, similar yet opposite as day and night." His shoulder was starting to itch and pinch from all the dried blood and Trowa found himself uncomfortable. Despite the pain he started to move around a bit.

"Hey, careful! You'll start bleeding again." Quatre pressed his hands gently on the injured shoulder. Carefully he adjusted the bandaging and made sure Trowa hadn't reopened the wound. "I guess that's part of it. I don't really know what it is." He shifted so he was sitting facing the taller pilot, with his knees tucked up under his chin. He rested one hand on Trowa's chest; he needed some sort of physical reassurance that the pilot wasn't going to give up just yet.

"I've been bleeding underneath, I can feel it." Trowa placed a hand on top of the blonde's. "Is it not love?"

He flinched. Hadn't he just told Duo he loved him? But it had taken the pilot more than six months to tell him. Quatre had known long before. But lately he'd had doubts. He shook his head. The dark and lack of water was starting to mess with him. Looking back at his hand on Trowa's chest he smirk. "Well, yes. I think so."

Trowa shifted again and winced. "Think or know? Sorry... it's not my place to pry."

"No, it's ok. You're right." He frowned at the wall of debris behind Trowa's head. "I should know the answer to that more than I do." He couldn't help it, but Quatre knew what Trowa said was right. He should know the answer to that more definitively. Even if he was so tired. He struggled to suppress a yawn. He was just so exhausted, he couldn't keep his thoughts straight.

"Sleep Quatre, I'll be here when you wake up." Trowa pulled the blonde closer to him, gently laying his head on his chest.

Quatre didn't fight as Trowa pulled him down, but he did shift so he took his weight off the pilot. "I'm alright. I need to stay awake so we can listen for the others."

"I can listen. Just rest." Trowa ran a hand through Quatre's hair.

His yes fluttered shut at the relaxing feeling of Trowa's fingers in his hair. "Hmm. Alright." Quatre slipped his watch off and held it up for the other pilot to take. "Wake me up again in an hour or so. Ok?"

Trowa took the watch from the blonde's hands. "Hm." He didn't plan on waking the blonde up, better he sleep through the misery of being trapped.

"I mean it, please?" He sighed and settled down, hoping he wasn't hurting Trowa any more but resting his head on his chest.

"Sleep Quatre." Trowa replied firmly and resumed rubbing the blonde's head.

Wufei frowned. Duo had been digging like a mad man since before the dust had settled from the explosion. He stepped up behind the pilot and put a hand on his shoulder gently. "Duo. Drink this." Concern etched on his face, he knelt in front of him and held out a bottle of water. "You need to rest."

Duo pulled free from Wufei and continued his digging. "I can't, too many what-ifs and what-could-happens running through my head. I can't walk away, Wufei. It's not just because it's Quatre either. It's because you are my family... all of you." He paused to meet the dark eyes. "I wouldn't rest if it was any of you."

"I know. We all know." He looked into Duo's eyes and was slightly surprised at the depth of pain in his eyes. "No one is asking you to stop. We just don't want you go get hurt. You being injured will only slow things down. Even you can't argue with that."

Duo felt the tears forming in his eyes and he fought to contain them, he couldn't... Not here, not now. He took the water from Wufei and drank a bit before handing it back. Duo started to dig again, but as he was lifting a piece of rubble his arms gave out, causing him to fall with it and land on his knees. "Fuck!"

Wufei dropped the water and caught Duo from tumbling forward with his fall. Gently he wrapped one arm around the pilot's shoulders and pulled him close. "Breathe. Take a deep breath."

"No." Duo fought to push away with tired arms, he couldn't stop now. "I have to keep digging. Let go, Wufei!"

"You have to rest before you hurt yourself." The Chinese pilot held tighter. "Stop."

Duo gave one last attempt before falling against Wufei. A sob escaped him, but he refused to let tears fall. He clutched onto Wufei's shirt as his exhausted legs gave out.

"Come on." The pilot scooped Duo's body into his arms and carefully made his way down the remains of the building to where the rescue crew had cots set up. Depositing him on an empty cot he went to retrieve another bottle of water and a blanket. "Drink this." He handed him the bottle and draped the blanket across his lap.

Duo took the water cautiously and studied. "Sorry for being an ass... I just. I'm worried."

"It's fine. Drink." Wufei pulled a cot up next to Duo's and sat down. "We all are. Heero is working now. I'll go relieve him in a bit. But you have to have some faith right now. They're strong. They'll be ok."

"Yeah." Duo laid his head back and studied the other pilot. "It's just frustrating, knowing their trapped and there's not shit I can do about." He closed his eyes and sighed. "Are you going to rest, too?"

"I did a couple hours ago. I planned on helping Heero some more."

Duo nodded. "I'll be ok, go ahead."

He gave the pilot a look over. "Get some sleep. I'll come get you in a bit." Wufei stood and made sure the blanket was tucked up and around Duo. "If anything happens one of us will wake you."

Duo nodded once and laid back, falling asleep.

Quatre stirred, slowly waking up. His back screamed at him to stretch and he caught himself before he fulfilled that desire. Sleepily he looked up at Trowa's face. "You didn't wake me. What time is it?" His voice was hoarse and barely came out from his parched throat.

"Not sure." Trowa held the watch out to the blonde, his hand shaking.

"Trowa?" He pushed himself up off the pilot's chest and took Trowa's shaking hand in both of his. "You should have woken me." His heart ached at the sight of his friend in so much obvious pain. He just wished there was something he could do to make it easier.

"Just bloodloss. You needed sleep." He shifted again, more than he had been. "Talk again. Please."

"Are you alright? Can I shift something for you?" Quatre glanced at his watch and noted that it was now 6 in the morning. They'd been trapped there for almost 40 hours and he couldn't remember the last time he heard sounds from above.

"Unfortunately, no. I'll have to deal with it." He sighed and settled back, flinching and turned his head way. "I heard nothing while you slept."

"Hm." He glanced at his watch again and frowned. Staring at the rubble, he leaned back and let his thoughts wander. "I'd like to see flowers again. They're always so lovely, but delicate and fragile." A wry smirk crossed his face as he mused to himself.

Trowa turned and glanced at him, "Flowers?"

"Yeah." His thoughts continued to wander when it suddenly hit him. "It was you. That daffodil on my pillow." Quatre hadn't thought of it again until the camping trip, when Duo seemed to be unaware of what he was talking about. Then just now the thought crossed his mind again. "You put it there, didn't you?" His eyes searched the Trowa's own green eyes.

"Yes." He looked away using his bangs to cover his eyes. "How'd you know?"

"I figured it out just now. You went with Duo shopping that night after Duo and I had a fight. Right before Christmas. I thought at the time that he was the one who put it there. I never considered that you were the one who bought the flower and put it there." He stopped and watched Trowa's face. "This whole time you've been quiet about it."

"Yes." He kept his eyes hidden from the blonde. "You were upset then. I wanted to cheer you up."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"Because you were happy, that's all I needed."

"Look at me, please Trowa." Quatre stared at him, waiting for green eyes to meet blue.

Trowa turned his head so his eyes met Quatre's, but he remained silent.

"Why did you ask me about Duo?"

"This is a conversation we shouldn't be having."

Quatre closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the cement. "Alright." He had enough to think about. No need to press the matter further right now. That time was better spent listening and waiting.

"Help me up." Trowa struggled again.

His eyes snapped open and he stared at the pilot. "Are you crazy? No. And risk making things worse? You've already lost too much blood. On top of dehydration, no. No."

Trowa gave the blonde a sad look. "If were going to die here, I don't want it to be like this. It's... not the only one." He turned his head away. "It's... painful, or I wouldn't ask you."

"Not the only what?" Confusion crossed his face. Was it the exhaustion making his brain fuzzy or was Trowa just not making sense?

Trowa moved a hand to the rebar touching it gently before his eyes turned back to Quatre. "This."

The blonde shifted so he could put a hand under Trowa's shoulder. "Why didn't you say anything? Trowa!" Cautiously he felt around trying to find the end of the metal.

"I didn't want to upset you." He moved a bit so Quatre could have better access. "Now it doesn't seem to matter if I move or not."

"Careful." Finally he found the end. "Are you sure about this? It'll probably hurt."

"Just do it." Trowa closed his eyes and grabbed Quatre's shoulder with his free hand. "It can't hurt any worse."

"On three. One, Two, Three." Quatre held Trowa's shoulder with one hand, guiding him up as his other hand held on to the end of the rebar. "It's not very long, so if you're careful and can sit still, I can let go." He looked at Trowa's eyes then to his back again. "I see the other piece." His hand slid along Trowa's back gently till he could just touch the smaller piece of metal.

"Pull it out." Trowa gritted his teeth, but stayed perfectly still. "Both pieces."

"That'll only start the bleeding up again." He felt around the injury and checked to see how far it had penetrated flesh.

"I currently couldn't care less." He leaned his head against the blonde's shoulder. "We can just bandage it afterwards, if we are careful it shouldn't do too much damage."

"I think I can get the smaller one, but the larger one stays. I don't want to take any chances with it since it's a through and through." Quatre grit his teeth and took hold of the small piece of metal, pulling slowly. When the piece was out he took the jacket Trowa had been using for a pillow and tore the sleeve off, using it to stop the bleeding.

"Ungh." Trowa slumped against the blonde for a moment, the released a breath. Without waiting for Quatre's approval he grabbed the other bar in his hands and began to pull.

"Trowa, stop!" Using his free hand Quatre took hold of Trowa's wrist and pried his hand away from the metal. "Are you trying to kill yourself faster?"

Trowa gave him a tired look and sighed. "I'm not holding out much hope. I'd rather be comfortable anyway. Help me or scoot back."

"No."

Trowa studied the blonde's face for a moment then dropped his hands. "You're like sunshine." He ran a hand through the cold hair in front of him.

"Trowa, you're delirious. Maybe you should lay back down." He frowned at the pilot and scooted away a fraction.

Trowa shook his head. "No..." His grip tightened on Quatre's head and he forced him backwards, not giving the blonde enough time to think. As soon as Quatre was going backwards Trowa grabbed the bar and started pulling it out of his shoulder.

"Stop it!" Quatre reached out again and took both of his wrists in his hands. "Cut that out. Do you understand me?" He leaned over so he was in front of the pilot, holding Trowa's arms down at his sides. "Stop it."

Trowa flinched as his arm was jerked down, but his eyes never left the blonde's. "You really are sunshine." Trowa's head slumped forward again and he rested against Quatre.

He held Trowa gently, not wishing to disturb the pilot's chance at rest. Besides, at least unconscious he couldn't try to pull the metal from his chest. "Dammit, Trowa. You're an idiot." Quatre sat still and just held him, listening to the faint breathing and feeling the rise and fall of his chest. His breath rasped slightly and was uneven, but at least he was breathing. He looked around them at the rubble and sighed. I hope they find us soon. Checking his watch again he frowned.