Chapter 61: Relena Part 2

How he ended up here of all places, with her of all people, would be difficult to explain when Wufei and Trowa eventually found them and killed him for making everyone worry. Would Zechs have a soft spot for his sister's savior and protect him from his inevitable death? He could think in circles about that all day, but for the moment, while laying on the concrete floor of an underground tunnel system below a very fancy convention hall, all that mattered was stopping Relena's crying. When she cried she was just pathetic.

"Hey, Lena. Can you be useful for a sec?" He winced at his own lack of tact, knowing the sentiment came out with more antagonism than intended. She let out one more big sob and then pulled herself together, coming to stand near him. When she looked down at him from above he saw the tear tracks on her face, how her hair was a complete mess, and her dress was dirtied. He couldn't help but wonder if anyone ever looked quite so pitiful.

Part of him wanted to reprimand her for her reaction to their situation, but he reminded himself that no one's too old to be afraid.

Pointing to his shoulder he declared "It's a dislocation. I've never had a dislocation before. You wanna help me pop this back in place? I can do it but it's easier with a second set of hands." He hadn't yet tried to reduce his dislocation and he wasn't sure he planned to try on his own. He wasn't Mr I Set My Own Bones Yuy. And why bother when he had a perfectly able person right there with him?

She sniffled. "I did that to you."

As much as he wanted to grind out "no shit!" he refrained.

"It was just a bad fall, Lena."

Not a lie. It was certainly a bad fall. She'd run the wrong direction and went over a ledge in the dark. Relena was exceptionally lucky that Duo caught on and was one step behind her. There was no way to stop her from falling but he managed to jump after her and pull her to his chest, twisting to take the brunt of the fall himself. Her added weight and the rapid descent to the level immediately below them gave little time to adjust. He'd landed hard on his left shoulder and upper back, his head whipping down to hit the floor as well but with much less force.

She may have been lucky he was there, but he was lucky his shoulder and back took most of impact. There was a chance he might have a mild concussion, but at least his brains weren't oozing onto the concrete beneath him. It was one of the Sweepers who taught him how to fall like that. An energetic young man in his mid twenties who took a shining to twelve year old Duo. Under Kel's wing he learned an effective fighting style and how to take a fall while minimizing injury. They had a year to become friends before Kel died while on leave from Howard's team. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time during the war. But Duo never forgot him, and owed him his life a few times over.

Worse than the fall itself was dealing with Relena immediately afterwards.

When he grabbed her he needed two hands and as a result dropped his weapon. It may have been a rookie mistake during the war, but today protecting her was his primary duty and he couldn't do that safely while holding his gun and free-falling into darkness. He acutely knew how lucky he was to land on a flat surface, no matter how hard.

But Relena wasn't used to danger like this, and didn't know how to properly react. He wondered if in all the times Heero was sent to guard her anything of merit actually happened. Because she was not trained to keep quiet in case of nearby enemies. It would figure that when she was with Heero everything was quiet. Her knight in shining armor didn't need to do much of anything for his title. They probably just danced at her stupid parties or something. Duo never asked, and he didn't really want to know. But she was definitely not trained to react well in a true emergency.

After their brutal landing her immediate reaction was to scream.

He felt her take in a deep breath and quickly held a hand over her mouth to shut her up. Foolishly he tried to use his left hand first, and that was how he figured out his shoulder was dislocated. He was fast enough with his right hand to muffle her sound and startle her into silence before anyone heard. At least he hoped so.

Meanwhile he was dealing with immense pain, and wondered why she felt the need to scream. Had she been shot twice? Had she fallen with the weight of a whole other person on top of her, at a bad angle? Was her shoulder fucked up?

No. She'd walk away just fine. And thankfully she was smart enough to understand once his hand came up that he wanted her silent and still.

Eventually Duo assumed the shooter either didn't pursue or went down another passageway. They laid on the concrete, with him on his back and her on top of him, both facing up towards the opening through which they fell. They remained there, unmoving, until he was certain they were alone. He wouldn't admit it to her, but he added time until he knew he could maybe stand again.

He wasn't feeling too hot.

Worse, he had to formulate a plan to get back to civilization, because there was no way Relena could make the climb up, and with a dislocated shoulder he was down for the count and unable to pull or lift her.

Finally he tapped her arm and signaled her to get off him. She struggled, their position a bit awkward, but managed. When she turned to him and he didn't move there was surprise on her face before she suddenly began to cry. He wondered what delusions she may have about the strength of former Gundam pilots that lingered from her youthful certainty that one of them was indestructible. Did she somehow expect him to easily take two shots to the chest and very badly positioned one story fall like it was nothing? He knew he shouldn't keep thinking about it, but the pain he was in kind of kept his injuries on his mind.

She should be impressed he managed to stand so quickly after being shot, let alone catch up to her and grab her to spare direct impact with the floor. But she cried instead, realizing her savior wasn't superhuman after all.

Duo couldn't help but think of how disappointed she must be.

He hated her and pitied her for it.

And that was how he found himself lying on the ground, asking her to be useful. Once she got her crying under control she asked "How can I help?"

To her credit Relena suddenly looked competent as she offered assistance. He wondered if she was letting her political persona kick in. As much as he didn't like her, she definitely could command a room of corrupt politicians and rich donors. He appreciated her effort to show strength even if he wasn't willing to admit she had any.

"I know this is gonna be a strange question but have you done this before?" She shook her head no with an anxious frown. "Okay, counter traction. That's the name of the game. You're gonna want stand over here," he gestured behind his bad shoulder, "then take my arm, probably by the wrist. You'll need to step into my arm pit and PULL up and towards you." She looked even more anxious.

"Lena you can't halfway do this. Either you pull with all your might, stepping down hard and throwing your body into it, or you don't and we move on."

Without a word she gingerly took his left wrist in two hands, hesitating for a moment when he flinched as she brought it up. And then with no warning she stomped into his armpit and PULLED. As his bones ground against one another, shifting into place with pressure, pain, and an awkward release, he was profoundly appreciative that he did not scream and that the sharp heel of her shoe was on the ground and not deep in his flesh. But she was still pulling.

"You can stop!"

She instantly let go of his arm and as it dead-dropped and hit the ground he suppressed the urge to cry out. He was seeing literal stars. Intellectually he knew it was neurons in his visual cortex firing randomly and that his brain was simply interpreting it as a memorizing sparkle of light. He hoped the cause was how tightly he closed his eyes as Relena yanked on his arm and unleashed years of hatred, rage, and jealousy onto his battered limb, because if the cause was a concussion, things were worse than he feared.

How the hell did Heero do this all by himself without a second thought or more than a small grunt to acknowledge the pain? Duo wasn't sure he wanted to know.

It was only when he realized Relena was talking urgently and beginning to panic thinking she'd hurt him that his senses came back, and he slowly sat upright. He cradled his left arm with his right. What he needed next was a sling. Ignoring her words, he scanned the dark tunnel. That was when he noticed Relena turned on her flashlight at some point while he was distracted by pain and left it on the floor as she attended him. He struggled to contain his annoyance, but he couldn't fault her for turning it on after he declared them clear of the shooter. He could, however, fault himself for not even noticing.

He had his own flashlights on his person, but for now he had better things to do than use them. And their phones, by protocol, should remain off. "Lena, grab the light will ya?"

As she made her way to fetch it, he struggled to take off his shirt. There weren't a lot of options for a sling, but his BDU shirt would do just fine. Thankfully he was also wearing an undershirt in addition to his vest. At least his prim and proper charge couldn't complain about him being completely indecent when he also removed the now useless item.

Relena returned quickly only to shine a light directly in his face as his good arm was stuck halfway pulled out of its sleeve. With diminished strength on his left side he struggled with the snap buttons of his shirt and incorrectly assumed he could just slip it over his head. Her giggling did not make him feel any less stupid.

"What are you doing?"

Fixing her with the best glare he could muster, knowing perfectly well he'd still look like a child unable to dress himself, he growled. "I need a sling. And I'm going to make one with my shirt once I get out of it."

With the light still in his face, blinding him, he couldn't make out her expression, but he did hear a sigh of pity. "Let me help."

Relena put the flashlight on the ground and gently took hold of his shirt, carefully undoing the buttons and peeling it off him. A few threads were embedded into his vest and she truly registered for the first time just where bullets impacted with his chest. She froze until he turned to her with a questioning look that clearly made her uncomfortable. Shaking whatever bothered her off, she removed the garment.

"Okay, can you button that up for me?" She did as she was told, trying to ignore the bullet holes. "Just not all the way up, okay? Leave one or two undone."

"Got it."

"And I hate to ask, but can you get my vest off? It's not gonna do anything anymore except annoy me." Duo was willing to swallow some pride. He'd injured his body enough for one day, and his head was throbbing. Getting her help was better than doing things himself and letting on how much pain he was in when he failed simple tasks. The small assignments also appeared to aid in calming her down.

She reached for him and hesitated. "Shoulders and sides" he explained, and she understood him, reaching for the shoulders to undo the straps. He was impressed with how careful she was with his left shoulder, doing her best not to touch him or cause him additional harm. It was oddly considerate coming from her.

When she peeled the vest off his undershirt stuck a little and lifted along with it. She blushed at his exposed abdomen, and he did his best to pretend not to notice as he tugged the garment back down with his good hand. She was a grown woman, and he found her reaction juvenile.

"Toss the vest. I'll take the jacket, please."

"You don't want it?"

"Lena, those things are built to disperse kinetic energy. But they're only fully effective if they're intact enough to work. This one's lightweight, it's not built for combat. It took two to the chest for me, from the look and feel of it large caliber, and the shooter nearly hit the same spot twice. It's compromised. It's done."

He didn't like the look in her eyes, and was stunned by her next words.

"Are you okay?"

Willpower was the only thing that stopped Duo from barking out a laugh. Was he okay? What kind of question was that? His chest was in pain, his arm was fucked from here to Tuesday, his head was killing him, and he was stuck with one of his least favorite people. What part of that was okay?

He wanted to be honest just to make her feel bad, but instead he told her "The vest stops the bullet from piercing through. Doesn't magic away the force of impact."

She accepted that and quietly handed him his jacket. He carefully lead his left hand through the bottom of the garment until it stuck out of one sleeve, trying not to let on how painful it was. He began to reach around and noticed her watching him carefully. "You still wanna help?" She nodded. "Find the other sleeve and adjust the shirt so it's near my elbow. You can do that easier and faster than I can right now." She examined the shirt and found the second sleeve. Making small adjustments to avoid jarring his arm she shifted the fabric until it was almost aligned with his elbow.

"Is that good?"

He had to admit she did try. The effort may be the result of residual guilt but right now he'd milk that feeling for all it was worth to get out of here without further trouble. "It's great, Lena. Thanks."

Gingerly he grabbed the neck hole with his good hand and pulled it up over his head. Once things settled into place he felt relief as the weight of his limb was no longer stressing his injured shoulder. His arm was secure, or secure enough for now. But his braid was stuck. He tried to pull his hair free. It snagged several times.

The dead weight of his arm was pulling the fabric tightly against his neck and giving little wiggle room for his hair. With the final pull he heard his hair tie snap off. Mentally he cursed. He'd dislocate his shoulder all over again if it kept Relena from seeing him with his hair down. And that meant, without too much strenuous activity, he had two or three hours tops before his hair really started to become loose.

He'd never been happier to put it into a braid while still wet. When the strands dried they stayed in place better than if they'd been dry to begin with.

Leaning down to snatch the flashlight he suppressed a groan from pain and checked their location. This was not part of the historical mansion's tunnel system. "A metro?"

"Hm?"

"Lena we're in a metro system. I didn't know this city had one underground."

Fear was in her voice now. "What do we do?"

He shone the light all around them. None of this was in the blueprints Zechs provided, and they obviously couldn't climb back up to use the original tunnels to rendezvous at the designated spot. "Your brother told me to keep moving and not go back, no matter what. So that's what we'll do."

"Should we call for help?"

"No." He was still looking around to get his bearings, his head throbbing as it turned. "Our phones are off for a reason. You're supposed to be off the grid until you're safe and if this is a metro system, which I'm sure it is, we'll find our way out sooner rather than later."

He paced a bit near the spot where they fell, making vague directional gestures with his good hand and the light without saying another word. He then spotted something, tucked the light under his neck, and picked his missing gun off the ground. He holstered. Relena looked unhappy and searched for somewhere to sit but found nothing suitable. She wasn't about to sit on the edge of the train platform. It looked very dirty. In the meantime Duo procured another flashlight from a pocket, turned it on, and tossed it as far as he could. Relena turned sharply at the sound of the light hitting concrete further down the tunnel. He passed her, took the light from under his neck and handed it to her, ordering her to follow him in the opposite direction of the light he tossed.

She felt it all had to be randomly selected. There was just no way he could have any idea where they were, no matter how long he stood there pretending to map their location. Relena knew it had to be pretend. Right?

"Can't we use that light, too?"

Duo didn't turn to her as he replied "That'll buy us a little time if someone comes down here. Misdirection, yanno?"

"Don't we want to be found?"

"No. We want to extract ourselves."

"Shouldn't you have the light? You're in front."

"I have my gun."

While she'd seen him holster his weapon she never noticed him take it back into his hand. It made her more diligent in shining the light ahead of them.

Relena was having a hard time keeping up. Her heels were not designed for the terrain, and it was cool enough for her to be uncomfortable in the tunnels without a coat. They were walking along a narrow, elevated path to a single side of the old tracks. Duo said it would be easier for her than the tracks themselves, which she could trip on, but the concrete was old and worn. He kicked small debris off the platform and onto the tracks as they walked to make it easier on her and it didn't go unnoticed. But she felt afraid to walk single file, and didn't like the exposure at her back. More importantly, it was still completely dark aside from the glow of the single flashlight in her hand. She didn't like that responsibility.

"Can we rest?"

He stopped in his tracks and turned to eye her up. "Lena it's not even been an hour. We've been walking 30 minutes tops."

Her voice was desperate. "How can you even know? It's so dark in here. There are rats, Duo! I can hear them nearby! And my feet! They're killing me!"

Blinking, he looked down to her shoes. Admittedly those heels did not look like they'd be comfortable or even safe for walking in dark tunnels, but he knew she was lying. He was dealing with an... indoor girl with a lot of money. She would absolutely have comfortable heels. They might snag on the debris and catch funny on the uneven platform, but they would be comfortable.

"Fine. Let's sit for a while. I don't think anyone is looking for us here anyway, they'd be in the other system." He jumped down to the tracks and then hopped up to sit on the platform next to where she was standing, wincing as his arm pulled funny with the impact. Part of him regretted his decision to pretend like there was nothing seriously wrong with him physically. When he landed he became very dizzy, the tunnel spinning around him. It was harder to hide than his arm pain, and when he felt nauseated he worried maybe he did have a concussion.

He swallowed that feeling down.

Relena just stared until he pat the platform next to him with his good hand and signaled for her to sit. She gathered her skirt and daintily joined him, trying not to show her disgust with all the grime. She put the flashlight down with the light shining directly up. It did a decent job lighting the immediate vicinity.

The two sat in silence for some time. Duo having nothing he particularly wanted to say, and Relena not knowing how to start a conversation with him given their past. When she could no longer take the silence, and also when she heard rats again, she asked abruptly "So why did you help me back there?"

His answer was immediate. "Your brother said you were in trouble and he asked for my help."

"That's why you took the job." Her voice had the hint of scolding in it he was used to. "Why did you help me? You certainly could've just let me fall."

"You were in trouble."

She swayed her legs as they dangled over the platform's edge, contemplating how easily that answer came to him. "Is that really all it took?"

Leaning his head back he let out an exasperated sigh. "Yep."

"Even after all I did?"

"Yep."

She got quiet again. Duo preferred silence with her, so he rolled his eyes when her voice rang out again with a hint of hope and guilt. "Maybe we just don't know each other well enough."

He scoffed. "I doubt that's our problem, Lena. Some people don't get along and that's who we are. Don't for a second confuse my willingness to help someone in trouble with fondness or a want to get to know you better."

If she was hurt by that comment she didn't let on. "But Heero and my brother vouch for you and rely on you. And I've come to realize that I should trust them more. I've been... abysmal to you."

He laughed, the sound bitter. She was a little less sure of herself when she spoke next.

"Maybe we just need to find common ground."

"I doubt that."

"But surely there is some!"

He shook his head. "Everyone's got something between them that can be common ground. Doesn't mean they're gonna get along. You gotta let this go, Lena."

"What if that's all we need? What if I can make up for how I treated you?"

While he was surprised to hear her admit her bad behavior, her idea was absurd. There was nothing she could ever do to make up for the years she mistreated him. He hoped she'd stop there and let the conversation end. Unfortunately for him she continued, entirely tone deaf to their situation.

"When I was little my father let me attend a party even though I was too young to stay up late. I must have been ten. There were no children my age in attendance, so I was very much left out. But then he noticed how much I wanted to join. He ignored the dignitaries and danced with me. He got the adults to ask my opinions on simple social policies. It was the first time I felt important and accomplished. It's one of my happiest memories." She turned to Duo with a smile he kind of hated. "How about you?"

He just looked at her, mystified. "You want to know one of my happiest childhood memories? When I had a feeling of… importance and accomplishment?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Why?"

Relena's voice took on a slightly annoyed quality. "It's an exercise in getting to know each other. An ice breaker if you will."

"Lena, we broke the ice a long time ago. And we get along so famously well it froze solid and nothing in the universe can thaw it."

"Please?"

Duo could almost see the amused look on Heero's face if he ever discovered what they were talking about and where. But he didn't want to think about Heero, and that meant shutting her down or playing along.

"I assume the war doesn't count."

Relena's smile wavered. "Right. Something before the wars."

He looked down the tunnel towards the darkness where they were headed before she asked to rest. He didn't really want to reveal anything about himself, but this could be an opportunity to dissuade her from ever trying to be friendly again. He could once and for all prove they were too different to become real friends. But they'd rested long enough that he could also ignore her question and force them along. Still, that would only delay the inevitable.

He made a decision he hoped he wouldn't regret.

"You're a well-educated woman with a lot of knowledge of the colonies. You must know about the plague that came through L2 when I was little." She nodded, though the question was rhetorical.

"I was probably eight but who could know? Anyway, most everyone in the neighborhood, died. I had this best friend. A couple years older than me and always lookin out for us kids. He got sick. I stole some medicine for him but it was too late. Stayed with him. Trying to make him comfortable, ya know? Because once ya got sick there wasn't a whole lot to do." Duo swallowed. "And after almost two full weeks of watching him suffer and wishing for his fever to break, I got my wish when he died."

Relena was perfectly still in a way that screamed discomfort.

"It's not that I wanted him to die. He was my whole world and I wanted him with me. But he was so sick. And I was so relieved he wasn't suffering anymore. With him and everyone else dead it was just me and two younger kids left. I had them take shelter while I buried our leader."

He looked to her with a strange smile and in return she had the decency to appear horrified. Maybe honesty really was the best way to deter her from wanting to get to know him. "If you've spent much time on the colonies, Lena, you know that's a big deal. Burying someone is difficult. Frowned upon, even. Especially without permits. But I owed it to him. So I stole a shovel from a construction site. And something like an entire day later, he was buried. Illegally, I might add. But I made sure it was deep enough." He chuckled darkly.

Relena could not contain her disbelief when she nearly yelled "That is the memory you look on fondly?"

Duo almost lost his smile. "Keep it down, Lena. And yeah. It's a big deal to bury someone in a colony. I'm fuckin' proud of that."

She eyed him, looking more than a bit horrified, and brought he voice down to match his level of quiet. "Do you have something else that doesn't involve death?"

Her words felt like a challenge, and Duo couldn't help himself. Backing down from a challenge directed to him by Relena was not something in his wheelhouse. The woman was a thorn in his side for the better part of a decade. He wasn't about to let her think that was all he had, even though it was genuinely a memory he was fiercely proud to have accomplished.

"Sure. Those kids and I holed up in an abandoned building until a crew came in to demolish it a few months later. I argued that we had nowhere else to go, and some construction foreman suggested we head to this church that was taking in orphans. I really looked at the kids, trying to figure out what to do. I was the oldest now, it was my call."

"But you were just eight!"

He ignored her interruption. "So I picked up the littlest, took the hand of the older one, and walked us all down to the church so we'd have adults to care for us. I'd run into the priest before, and I thought I knew what we might be walking into. But it was a betrayal of everything my best friend taught me. Don't trust adults." He sighed and ran his good hand through his bangs. "We ended the day with a simple hot meal, clean clothes, baths, and beds to sleep in." With a hop down to the tracks he stood and examined the height of the platform, considering how best to get back there. When he sat on the platform edge talking to Relena his feet hovered just above the ground, so the drop and subsequent pain was minimal.

"Those two kids got adopted a month or two later as a package deal. I think the couple lost their own kids, and they couldn't cope with that void. Not really lookin for a replacement, just lookin to end the silence and find an outlet for all that love they bottled up."

He backed up, holstered his weapon, and took a running jump towards the platform. To his surprise he managed to leap up without much problem, though once again he felt a firey pain in his bad arm and had to stretch his back and shoulders, which suddenly felt tense again. He was definitely making mistakes with his injury and swallowed back nausea before quickly continuing.

"Burying my friend was an accomplishment and I fuckin' stand by that. Gave him something street kids rarely got. Bringing the little ones to the orphanage felt like I'd provided for them." He took possession of his gun again, and ignored a wave of dizziness. "They got family and a home because of that. It's a pretty happy memory, in retrospect."

He turned the gun over in his hands and gestured for her to get up so they could move onward.

"Did you get a family out of that?"

He didn't expect Relena's voice to sound something akin to afraid. Or was it comforting? He really couldn't tell with her, but it was a new tone for her to direct towards him. Duo wasn't sure how to answer, so he didn't.

She scrambled to stand back up on the platform, forgetting the dirt and grime, and swiped the flashlight. Soon the path ahead of him was lit once more.

"Those are really some of your happiest memories of accomplishment from childhood?"

He didn't turn to her. Instead, he ducked his head and looked down towards his feet. Then he refocused on the path ahead of them. "Yeah."

"But they're so sad! How did you end up being so silly and irreverent when you grew up like that?"

He still didn't look back to her. Duo straightened his posture, still sore, and started to walk forward as he ground out "I value life, Relena. How can I protect it if I don't live it?"

Though he meant those words, as they walked he found them echoing in his mind. Had he really lived his life in the 4 years he disappeared? Not really. He accomplished a lot, but he wasn't living.

It took another 40 minutes, but they finally found an exit point from the tunnels where some homeless individuals were camped. Relena hurried to him and grabbed his arm, and he couldn't contain a slight laugh. He allowed the contact, partially because her body hid his weapon, and he didn't want to spook anyone. With a slight lean towards her he whispered "Lena, they're just people. There's no reason to be afraid."

Several individuals were eying them with confusion, more her than him. Duo was so at ease no one thought twice about him. It probably helped that his clothing wasn't at all fancy like hers. He could've easily blended in with the encampment, with his dirty tactical pants, boots, and undershirt. His shirt being used as a sling for his bad arm was the cherry on top.

Duo smiled at the residents of the abandoned metro as they walked past, and it was so genuine nearly everyone smiled back. Occasionally when he felt the right kins of connection with someone he'd just grin, nod to Relena, and roll his eyes. That earned him a few laughs.

Neither Reena nor Duo spoke to each other again, not even when he declared it safe to phone backup and Zechs came to quickly retrieve them. The man was beyond relieved to get Duo's call, and arrived on the scene with lights flashing, unwilling to abide by traffic laws on his way to get his sister. In the meantime both Duo and Relena's phones blew up with notifications.

Upon his arrival Zechs was shocked by his sister's state of disarray but pleased that she was unharmed. Once he checked her over and turned to Duo nothing could hide his concern.

"Holy shit, what happened to you?"

Duo grunted, and Zechs thought maybe all the time he'd spent with Heero was rubbing off.

"I did my job. Didn't I give my word she wouldn't be harmed so long as I could help it?"

The look Zechs shot him was something between understanding and awe. It made Duo a little uncomfortable.

"You did give your word. Looks like you've roughed it with both Peacecraft siblings and pulled them through just fine. Thank you."

Zechs ushered them into his vehicle, ignoring his sister's questioning look, and drove them back to the convention center. Preventers now had an entire field command tent set up in the street outside the building and Duo could get some immediate medical attention there. The ride was quiet, other than Zechs calling Trowa and Wufei to confirm his cargo was safe. Though Duo and Relena walked over an hour by foot it was only a few minutes by car. She waited until they were parked and Duo was moving to exit the vehicle to speak.

"I'm sorry."

His hand paused and hovered over his door handle.

"I think you just scare me. I think maybe I'm just afraid you'll take Heero away from me and I don't know what to do with that fear, so it becomes hatred."

Duo turned to eye Relena. He wasn't impressed.

"So you want me to do your emotional labor for you, Princess?"

She swallowed hard. "That's not what—"

"Fuck you!" Duo's eyes flashed with anger. "I'm so sick of everyone relying on me to bear the emotional brunt of their issues. If you have a fucking problem with your own insecurities don't misdirect that shit to me in the form of self-righteous rage! When did I ever once prevent you from seeing him? Do you have any idea how many times he ditched me to run and help you?"

"Duo, I didn't—"

"It's shit like this that makes me wish I'd never come back. D'yanno how fucking exhausting it is carrying everyone through messes of their own making? Do you have any idea how fucking tired I am of everyone expecting me to do the right fucking thing and to be gracious and accepting and forgiving and all that bullshit when I am beyond finished with people and just want to be left the fuck alone?"

As he spoke it became clear how desperate and tired he was. All this time she saw him as surrounded by friends, able to charm them and turn any one of them against her on a whim. Now she saw him as undeniably alone and hurt. The words he didn't say may as well be written across his face.

Taking a gamble, she unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned over to give him an awkward hug. Duo's frame tensed as her arms wrapped around him, the pain in his shoulder from the additional pressure making the experience even worse for him than it might be in another circumstance. Relena didn't seem to realize she was physically hurting him. It almost made him want to laugh. Or scream.

She was, per usual, oblivious to him.

Before he could protest the embrace she softly whispered into his ear "thank you for everything, Duo. I think I see why Heero loves you. And I really am sorry for how I've treated you. I don't deserve your help."

He tensed more at the mention of Heero. All day he was trying not to think of him, and she just brought him up like he was the weather. Worse, she had the audacity to speak of Heero's love like it was something certain and not something Duo was struggling to reconcile. How could she, of all people, be so sure of Heero's feelings when he was not?

It hurt. It hurt more than his shoulder. After a moment, he answered automatically in an equally soft whisper.

"Yeah. You don't fucking deserve me at all."