---------------------------- Kyuuketsuki Duo Demons -- The Eighth Chapter ---------------------------- Heero looked in wry amusement through the open door of the cottage, noting the gaping hole in the back wall of the building that allowed him to see clear out to the forest on the other side. It had Duo written all over it. The flavor that his power left in the air did nothing to soothe his worries, however, for the blast that had taken out the back wall had been sloppy for someone of Duo's caliber, as if it had been formed hastily, or perhaps under duress. And it had missed whatever it had been aimed at, for it showed no sign of disruption before hitting the innocent wall, unless that was what the guardian had been aiming for to begin with. As delusional as the guardian sometimes was, though, his teacher did not think him so disturbed as to think that a piece of plaster was his enemy. The moment of amusement passed when he entered the home and saw the corpse of an old man in the corner. He had apparently died from the long fishing spear embedded in his chest. *And then I killed him. First human I ever killed. Can't even tell you why I did....* The words sprang unbidden to his mind, words he had not had time to process earlier, when his companion had first returned from his mission, disturbed and upset, but he pondered them now. Evidence indicated that Duo had also been responsible for the death of the old man, when prior to these last few days, he had never killed a human before. Even when he fed, he was always careful not to kill, not just because they were innocent, not just because otherworldly beings would kill without hesitation, but because he already believed himself to be guilty of the deaths of the humans at the orphanage that night, each one of them being one too many. But the fallen warrior looked more closely, and saw the signs that the man had been controlled by a demon, probably the same one that had pursued the boy into the woods, and so perhaps this death was justifiable. If nothing else, it calmed him to believe that Duo hadn't fallen over the edge into a random, homicidal spree. But the first had been killed after the Shinma influence had been banished.... Heero shook his head. He had learnt long ago that fruitless speculation was pointless. Clearly, he would have no solid answers until he spoke to his charge, and he asserted to himself that he would indeed have an opportunity to speak to the wayward youth. His sharp, hunter's eyes picked out shards of broken stone by the fireplace, lying beside an abused frying pan. The rough pieces also showed the residue of hellish powers, although he could not determine what it had been. Likely, it had been a conduit of some sort, allowing the demon to do his work in this realm through his human tool. He exhaled, something like a sigh. He didn't know what he had hoped to find here, but he strongly disliked not knowing, hated the feeling of helplessness, and so he had investigated anyway. There could have been nothing, and indeed was not anything, that could have informed him of the guardian's current status. He was alive; that much he was absolutely certain of, through no evidence that he had discovered in these places of activity, but because of his gut feeling. He just thought that he would know if Duo were dead or dying. He squatted by the smashed stone and stared morosely at it, as if he could glare some answers out of it, for how long he did not know, but suddenly his mind was seized by another. Shinma, he thought, before his consciousness was quite swept away by the massed Shinma, a force beyond his power to resist. He knew nothing for some long moments, and then a painful thrumming that blazed down his nerves and through his being and made it feel as if each of his bones were vibrating separately to that single, inaudible note. Then, a brief moment of stasis, that brief moment of zero gravity after a long rise and just before the breathtaking fall, and there came a distinct wrenching sensation, the feeling of making a dozen dozen jumps between the planes at once, the feeling that some of him had been left behind in several somewheres, and then a snap, like released elastic, and it all came rushing back at him at once, crashing against itself inside his skin and sloshing around. It felt foreign, it had all been drained from him and run through a multitude of distillation processes and alien filters and then poured back into him, not his at all, and yet entirely and purely his. His first thought upon regaining higher mental processes -- Duo. Had something gone wrong? Stopping no further to take stock of his own condition, he instinctively and blindly reached out with his mind towards his young charge, flinching an instant later upon recalling that he could not go where he was, he was barred from that place, but wait... what was this? He knew not why, he didn't care why, but there it was, Duo's signature presence, still within the confines of hell, where he ought not have been able to sense him, but he could, his power could reach into the bowels of hell itself and search him out, and if that was so then, he, too, could pursue. The realization hit him, staggered the mind and drove the breath from his lungs, but he didn't stop to wonder, didn't pause to think, he just went, slipped easily between the planes to where the boy was, before he could be cheated of perhaps his only opportunity to rejoin his student. He stood in a bleak landscape, hot and dry and barren, staring in stunned disbelief at a familiar, long chestnut braid, a dusty, shadowsilk clad back, the ridiculously impractical flowing tails of his top wisping gently in the barely-there, heat-induced air currents, and he thought that he had never been so relieved to be in hell. ::Duo?:: he whispered with his mind, almost afraid to break the spell, afraid to find out that it was all a Shinma deception, or demon illusion. Good sense caught up with him, and his head immediately swiveled, surveying the landscape and evaluating it for possible threats with eyes and mind. He saw nothing but the decapitated remains of a sixth circle demon lying nearby, its fading aura matching the one from the cottage. The figure in black turned slowly, and Heero held his breath, and then he couldn't have breathed if he had wanted to, trapped by the pained, open look in the wide, violet eyes, the ugly bruise on one cheek beginning its slow discoloration, the blood from three parallel cuts staining his other cheek. Silence descended for another long moment, each frozen in indecision, each not believing what they were seeing. Heero's hand reached out, long, graceful fingers outstretched towards the guardian. ::Are you alright...? Duo.:: The guardian shook his head slowly in denial. "No," he whispered. It was a soft, tortured sound. Heero's foot took a step in the other's direction, and Duo took a step back, away from him. "No." His head shook a little more vehemently. "You shouldn't be here." They froze again. Duo looked trapped, as if he would bolt at any moment, although his limbs were as firmly unresponsive as those of a mouse caught in the eyes of a hawk. Heero came no closer. ::Why?:: he asked, as softly as the other had spoken. "You should be... you should be somewhere else... anywhere else..." The guardian's anguished murmurs made little sense. ::Why?:: he spoke once more. "You're..." Duo's voice caught, and he swallowed. "You're free now. You have a place now. Away from here. Away from me." The last was barely more than a breath, but the hunter's keen ears caught the puzzling statement. ::Duo.:: He sought to keep his mindvoice even, unthreatening. ::I don't understand.:: "You... I..." Duo choked again, crossed the distance between them cautiously, reluctantly, Heero thought. He kept himself very still when the youth approached, when all his instincts told him to take the boy into his arms and never let go, but he could not keep himself from trembling as the guardian's hands reached up carefully to his face, and gently removed his mask. He owlishly blinked prussian blue eyes that had not seen the true light of day for many long years. The first sight they saw once they had adjusted was Duo, smiling ever so tremulously at him, unshed tears lending a sparkling shine to his amethyst eyes. ::...?:: Heero thought at him, unable to form anything more articulate. "As beautiful as I remember," the guardian murmured absently, as to himself, lost remembering the first time they had met on a starlit beach, on a night that had changed their lives forever. He recollected himself. "Do you see now? You're free. I... I did this little thing for the Shinma," he gestured vaguely in the general direction of the demon's corpse, "I proved myself to them. I showed them that you'd trained me well. And they gave you a place among them, and they lifted your punishment." He did all this? For me? Heero thought. No one had ever, ever tried so hard for him before. No one had ever been outraged on his behalf before. No one had ever cared so much about who he was inside before. No one had ever touched him before. Not even his own mother, who had died for him. Not until Duo. He could barely comprehend it. "Oh, don't you see?" Duo had backed away from him again, continuing with his pain-filled voice as he wrapped his arms tightly around himself, as if warding off a chill. "You're free. You're free to go where you want. Do what you want. Be who you want." Heero said the first thing that came to mind. ::Why would I want to be anywhere but by your side?:: he asked, bewildered. The thought had never really crossed his mind. The simple question caused Duo to gasp, and one hand came up to loosely cover his mouth. "No," he breathed again. His hand trembled. "You can't. You mustn't. You.... you're meant to be so much more! You... No..." His entire being trembled, and Heero caught him before he could fall to his knees, listening to the mumbled repetitions, "No... No..." All he could do was hold on tightly to his companion until the shaking lessened somewhat, his hands soothingly, hesitantly stroking the silky hair until there was nothing more than incoherent stutters to hear. ::Duo. Tell me what this is all about,:: he pleaded. ::Please.:: Right now, all he wanted was to make things right again. The entire world had narrowed down until they were the only two he was aware of, wishing desperately to know what was wrong so he could somehow fix whatever it was and they could go back to how things were. "Oh, Heero..." he heard. It was barely audible, muffled as it was by his face being buried in his robe. "I just... *sniff* I just want what's best for you. You... you can't possibly stay with me. You couldn't possibly want to...." ::And why would you think that, little one?:: There was no demand in his mindvoice, no accusation, no amusement, just a gentle prompting. "Because... *sniff* because... because humans are selfish and irrational and ... and I'm just holding you back and *choke* ... and it's all my fault you were punished in the first place and oh, you must hate me!" Duo tried to pull away from him, but Heero would have none of it. He let up on the embrace just enough so that he could look into the other's tormented eyes, still glittering with tears not fallen. ::I could never hate you, little one,:: he said earnestly, if uncomprehendingly. He still did not understand. He knew only that Duo was hurting inside, and he ached to soothe the pain away. "No!" He pounded a few times futilely on the warrior's hard chest. "No. I *heard*. She said...!" ::She...?:: An epiphany. ::Dorothy,:: he said, flatly. The words had sounded familiar. "And you didn't deny it. So you must have agreed.... So you see, you can't want to stay, couldn't possibly want to stick with a wretch like me, a --" ::Duo, no.:: Inside, he seethed, and considered the snow demon's slow and painful death, but he put it all aside. Right now, he had more important things to deal with. ::Duo, listen to me. I don't know how you heard --:: "It doesn't matter how I heard!" Duo cried. ::Duo. You didn't hear everything, didn't see everything. It would have been useless for me to try to argue with her. That demon is not one to be reasoned with. I said nothing because I didn't want to waste my breath arguing with a brick wall. It wasn't because I was agreeing with her.:: Another sniff. "But...." ::But nothing. Duo, I...:: Suddenly, he had run out of words. It had always been the other with the words, and he had never before appreciated the responsibility of conversation. How to express what he felt? How to say what needed to be said? How to mend their broken relationship? He stared into the deep violet eyes, trying to will Duo into understanding, but the look returned was expectant, quickly fading into doubt as the silence stretched. The truth, then. That was all there was, all there had ever been between them, and maybe now only the truth would wash away the silken truth-filled lies of a snow demon. ::Duo. When I asked why I'd want to be anywhere else, I meant it. You've freed me. For that I thank you. But... but this is where I want to be. Where I *chose* to be long ago. I didn't teach you out of some sense of duty, or ... or because the western Shinma asked me to, or because they promised me a reward.... To be completely honest, I did it partly because I had nothing better to do at the time --:: Duo flinched. Oops. Guess a little too much honesty could be a bad thing. He hurried to continue. ::--but I could have done other things. I wouldn't have decided to stay with you if I hadn't thought that you were worth it. That you could teach me things. That you could show me what true strength was.:: His hand reached up and carefully tucked a stray hair behind Duo's ear, making sure to avoid the wounds on his face. ::And you have taught me so much, showed me so much, about myself, about yourself... and ... and I think you've shown me where your strength lies. I think it's in your humanity, Duo.:: "I... don't understand." ::Because... because it's the source of your determination, your will. You care because of it, you reason because of it. It drives you, it motivates who you are and what you do, and you do with such admirable, unique passion, for good or for ill, passion that you wouldn't have if you had let go of your humanity.... I couldn't hate you for that,:: he concluded softly. Duo sniffed and looked up with confusion and not-quite-hope in his eyes. "You... you'll stay?" ::Of course, little one.:: A thought occurred to him, a stray doubt crossing his own mind. ::That is, unless you don't need me anymore? Unless you want me to go?:: "No!" was the instant reply. "Oh, no, I want you to stay! I want you to stay so much, but, oh, it isn't about what I want.... What do you want? Just forget about me. Whatever you want, whatever will make you happiest...." He looked entreatingly into his guardian's eyes. "That's all I could ever want. Please." ::Then I want to stay here with you.:: The answer took no thought at all. He had become quite... attached to Duo over the years, the only steady constant in his life besides a mad scientist, and could imagine himself nowhere else but by his side. He would be quite lost himself if Duo didn't want him anymore, and never wanted to go back to being what he had been before meeting the vivacious guardian. ::Even if you don't need me anymore. Even if I've taught you all I can. Even if the Shinma give me their top spot of honor and all the freedom in the world. I'd like to be with you, if you'll have me.:: Duo pondered, wanting so very much to believe, but so very afraid to, but he looked into Heero's eyes, the bottomless blue eyes that reminded him of the ocean that he loved so much. He saw only truth there, earnest and open and caring, and he decided to take the plunge into those depths. Heero had said it. Heero believed it. That made it indisputable fact. Still... "You're sure?" he asked hesitantly. Heero rolled his eyes in a comical display of long-suffering, a pained, bemused, irritated semi-smile coming to rest on his lips, and Duo's breath caught in wonder, so unaccustomed as he was to finally seeing the expressions that he had always thought were there, hiding behind the mask. ::Yes, little one,:: he said, with a slight tinge of impatience. ::I'm sure. In fact, I promise. I promise I'll stay with you for as long as you want me to.:: "But... why? Why don't you hate me?" ::You might recall, long ago you said that I was no more Shinma than you, and therefore I must be no less human than you.:: He waited for the small nod of acknowledgement. ::So surely you don't mean to suggest that I hate myself as well? Or that you would hate me for it?:: Duo gasped. "No! Of course not. That would be ridiculous...." He took in Heero's pointed look. "...Oh." He managed a rather contrite expression. "Okay, so maybe I didn't really think things through carefully...." he mumbled. ::I won't hate you for that, either.:: Duo stuck his tongue out at him, comforted by the light banter. The dark cloud that had hung over him ever since the return of the stray Posai was blown far, far away before the force of Heero's reassurances. He tried to rest his head on Heero's shoulder, but winced as he set his bruised cheek to the soft shadowsilk. He flinched again when he tried with the other cheek. ::You're hurt.:: He grimaced at the statement of the obvious and shrugged. "Nothing that won't pass with time." Heero lifted his hand and passed his fingers over the shallow wounds, working the minor Shinma magic with his fingertips that caused the cuts to mostly heal, a skill usually used when feeding and the feeder didn't want its victim to die from blood loss after the fact. Sometimes Shinma powers had their positive effects. ::Better?:: He tentatively stretched out his cheek muscles into a grin, a small one, but an undeniably happy one. Then he did as he had originally intended, laying his head on Heero's shoulder, and replied, "Much." He made himself comfortable, then asked in a small, wistful voice, "Heero? You think I could...." ::Hmm?:: "You think I could... maybe call you ... my friend?" Heero blinked. He could call him whatever he wanted. Words didn't define relationships. But while it didn't seem important to Heero, it was obviously important to Duo, and that was enough to make Heero consider the matter significant. ::Hn. If it pleases you to do so. I've never had a friend, myself. But I suppose that if I did have one, you'd probably be it.:: Duo chuckled. :: ? :: "Was that supposed to make me feel better?" ::Was I supposed to make you feel better?:: "Yup." ::Hn. Even if I have nothing left to teach you, you obviously still have much to teach me about humanity.:: "Glad to do it. Although I never had too much in the way of friends, either. How's about you consider me your friend, and then you grow into it?" ::Does that work?:: "It does if I say it does." Sometimes Heero had doubts about Duo's logic, but he shrugged and accepted it anyway. ::You may even be my best friend, if you'd like.:: "Well if I'm your first and only friend, then by default that makes me your best friend, now doesn't it!" he retorted in mock outrage. Heero shrugged again. Duo shook his head. His newly-defined friend sure had an odd sense of humor. "Hey, Heero?" ::Yes, little one?:: "Let's go home." ::With pleasure.:: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ well, okay, the whole friend thing was sorta cheesy. but duo was just feeling a little insecure about his relationship with his partner, so he had to make sure, somehow, and reaffirming it verbally helped him greatly, no matter how silly the exchange was. up until now, heero has been only teacher, mentor, companion, guardian, none of which are things that might give heero good reason to stay, and now he is officially more. _________________________________________ This piece of fiction is the intellectual property of the little turnip that could. The basis for this fic, i.e. Gundam Wing, Kyuuketsuki Miyu, et al., is the property of someone else. The author can be con- tacted at jchew@myrealbox.com. This has been an entirely automated message. http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html last modified : 10/28/2002 01:36:10 PST