L2's Child

Chapter 16

give or take

by Nix Winter

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing nor do I own Naruto.

Duo spun in the doorway, sunlight beyond him. The pure golden light lay over his braid, sparkled in violet eyes. They'd lived in Konoha for five months. Duo's belly had swollen and a kind of peace had settled around him that Heero didn't want to interrupt. It wasn't really the same experience for Heero. He hadn't slept since they had crossed from reality into this other world. Sitting cross legged on their bed, he let himself come up out of the meditation as Duo padded into their shared space.

"I got some fresh vegetables. All kinds. There's some little tiny tomatoes! They're so delicious!" Duo shifted out of the pack pack, setting it on the counter, and he turned, hands on his hips, head cocked to the side and grinned. "'Ro, you okay?"

Heero leaned back and closed his eyes. "We have to talk."

Duo fidgeted, turned back to his vegetables. "I got noodles too. I can't let my baby live in that world, Heero. You know that."

Duo reached for a pan and smacked it down on the stove.

"I know. I am willing to stay here with you," Heero said, emotionless. "It's our baby."

"Yeah," Duo said, worry in his voice. "It's better here."

"Someone hurt you in the other world. A lot of people hurt you."

"They fucking hurt you too. You think I don't know that you've been shot three times since the war ended? I wanted L2 to be a good place, but it's not. There's nothing I can do to make it a good place."

"Please listen to me. It's very important to me that you, just listen to me for a moment. Come here," Heero said, voice a monotone.

Duo padded closer, arms wrapped around his baby, tears and a headache already etching across his face. "Heero."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"I would die for you, if you needed me to."

"I don't want you to die," Duo said with meaning. "There's nothing here that will hurt you. Aren't you taking lessons with Kakashi-sensei?"

"I lost all that was human until I fell in love with you. I guess love... it's older in a human than what they tried to make me. Will you trust me? Trust me with all that you are?"

Duo's jaw went tight, violet eyes suddenly behind a shield.

"I know that I wasn't there to save you. I know you don't really need saving, but after the war, I kind of went my own way. I wasn't there when shit happened and I'm so sorry, Duo."

"It doesn't matter here," Duo said firmly.

"If I don't return to the other world, I'm going to die. It's been two days there. We're running out of air."

Duo pressed his fingers to his temples, gaze dropping to his bent knees. "No. It's not real. That's not happening."

"It's not going to hurt, you know. Dying. We can just stay here and we'll never feel it." Real tears touched Heero's eyes and he reached a shaking hand out to Duo. "I'll never leave you again, no matter what happens."

Duo lifted his head, hot tears running down his face. "I want to see my baby grow up. If I can't do that here, then I can't do it anywhere."

"If you will trust me," Heero said, fingers brushing down the line of tears on Duo's face. "Trust me, and I'll make Konoha in the real world. I'll go back and when you wake up, we'll make a new Konoha together."

"I tried that, Heero. I tried to make L2 good. You can't do it."

"Then we stay here?"

Duo covered his face with both hands and sobbed. Heero scooted closer, wrapped his arms around Duo, drawing him closer, kissing the top of his head. "Shhhh," Heero comforted. "I am here with you. I'll stay with you forever."

"No," Duo hissed. "You live!" He shoved Heero hard.

To Heero the cold swallowed him like ice water, like space with no suit. He grabbed for Duo. His heart felt like it tore from him, staying in the sweet world of Duo's dream. Sharp jabbed into his chest and for just a moment he was sure time had stopped all together, all over again, and he wasn't with Duo.

"No!" He screamed, a fist cocking back until a familiar strong hand grabbed his wrist.

"Heero! It's Trowa!" Trowa's voice said, and even though Heero's mind said he was yelling, Trowa's voice sounded so far away. "Give it a minute! Adrenaline, to restart your heart."

"DUO!"

"He's fine! The force field has contracted. He and the baby are fine, both breathing."

"What...." Heero gasped, relaxing, letting his body rush towards whatever medical help they were giving him. He trusted Trowa, and Quatre, more or less, but Trowa he trusted.

"Alien tech," Trowa said, "Implanted during the war. He probably doesn't even know he has it. No way to disable it. How did you get free?"

Heero took a slow breath, and painfully pushed himself up into a sitting position. "He let me go. The baby?"

Duo's body hadn't changed at all from the moment Heero had gone into the dream with Duo. Having lived months with Duo in a domestic world, a world far from the war, far from the poverty of L2, Heero missed him, longed for him, missed rosy cheeks and a snake like braid, missed Duo's thoughts and plans. This world was bruised in comparison. Duo lay in the hospital bed, so much thinner and battered than the Duo in their home in Konoha. Pain, so intense, nearly tore Heero in parts. His love, his brave and generous love, was trapped in a better world and he wished he'd just stayed, just lived how ever many more days Duo's dream could have given them. Even if all he got was to watch Duo live his dream and it had never felt real to Heero, he wished he could just run back to their simple little home.

"I'm going to find the people who hurt him, and I'm going to kill them. Then we're going to make this world some place that Duo will come back to." Heero whispered, blue eyes searching Trowa's face for companionship, agreement.

Trowa just nodded.

The nurse in the door held a sterile package of bandages in her arms, tears running down her face. "He saved my mother."

Quatre moved just a bit away from her, a hand on his chest. "Duo has always done his best."

"But he did it," she said, "This hospital won't be here without him. He made there be law. It just didn't save him."

"He'll be alright," Trowa insisted.

"What kind of world does he want," the nurse asked.

"Konoha," Heero said softly. "Clean air, vegetables, noodles."

"Konoha," the nurse asked, eyebrows drawing down.

Heero shrugged very slightly. "It was on the vid that he was watching before he collapsed. A pre-colony classic show from Japan."

"Um," she said, nodding, the slightest edge of determination in her eyes.

Their doctor rose up from where he'd been squatting by Heero. "We have real criminals, not fox demons. This place will never be decent to live on."

Heero grabbed Trowa's arm, letting the other man help him up. Blue eyes bore into the doctor. Heero was taller now than when they were in the war and he was just as tall as the doctor, but twice as convincing. "Yes, it will. This place is going to be Konoha."

The doctor snorted. "You and the new air filtration system just go on and do that."

"I will," Heero said, mission accepted, but all grown up now.