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Kyuuketsuki Duo
Episode 9
Bad Religion
Chapter 3
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	"Nice night out, don't you think?" Duo remarked innocently, 
looking out the back door of their home at the late-night sky.  The 
lights from the city didn't interfere too badly with the pinpricks of 
starlight that salted the black heavens, and cloud cover was scarce.

	Heero glanced suspiciously at the partner standing beside him, 
but responded nevertheless.  "Yes.  Nice night."

	"Feel like a walk?"  Duo blinked wide, violet eyes at him, over 
a small, warmly hopeful smile.

	The sharp blue eyes narrowed.  "What sort of walk?"

	"Well, how many walks are there?" Duo returned with a little 
shrug.  "I was sort of thinking a stroll through town or something."

	"With me," Heero stated, somewhat flatly.  "Through town."

	"Yup," Duo replied cheerily, refusing to be deterred.  "Whaddya 
say?"

	Heero gave him a long, steady look.  "Why?"

	"What do you mean, why?"

	"Why...."  Heero trailed off, not really certain how to 
rephrase.  "You have something larger in mind."

	"I do," he admitted calmly.  "So, want to take a walk?"

	His partner closed his eyes for a few seconds, and accompanied 
it with a long breath.  "Duo.  Why do you ... have this need to get me 
... out *there* with you?" he asked, waving widely towards the world at 
large.

	"Well, why not?"  Duo latched himself to his partner's arm and 
leaned against him, watching their reflection in the clear glass of the 
door.  "I mean, it's not like you're my dirty little secret or anything, 
Heero.  Is there some reason why you shouldn't be out there with me?"  
He sighed, and snuggled a little closer.  "There are just some times 
when ... when I'm out there, and I just want you with me."

	"Is this like that time after you freed me, when you didn't need 
me anymore, but still wanted me with you?" Heero inquired, searching for 
a reference frame for this newest situation.

	"I will *always* need you, Heero," his partner replied, as if it 
were the most obvious thing in the world.  "But yes.  Sometimes, I'm 
just walking down the street, and I see something, and it's something I 
want to share with you, and I want to turn to you and say, 'look there!'  
...But you aren't there."

	Heero started to say something, but Duo forestalled him with a 
gentle finger to his lips.  "I know.  You're always with me.  But being 
in my head and being by my side just aren't the same.  I just ... like 
having you with me.  I want to share so much with you, and you not being 
with me out there, which just happens to be during the day, when there 
are people around, it feels like you're completely missing out on a 
really big chunk of my life, and I don't like that.  It feels like I'm 
leading two separate lives here.  Okay, never mind, I *am* living two 
separate lives here, duh, secret identity and everything, but I want you 
with me, in all aspects of my life, that's all."

	Duo looked up at him when Heero's silence began to stretch 
uneasily.  "Heero?" he ventured.

	The hunter blinked, and prussian eyes met violet.  Heero looked 
as if he wanted to say something, but the words weren't coming to him.  
His eyes shifted away again, a curious combination of nerves, and slight 
shame over his inability to express himself.

	Duo's hand on his cheek brought him back to face the guardian.  
"What is it, Heero?" he asked softly.

	Heero's own hand lifted to his face and gently removed the hand 
of his lover, bringing it to his lips to plant a small, chaste kiss on 
the inside of the wrist before threading their fingers together, and 
dropping their entwined hands to rest at their sides.  They stood face 
to face, now, the conversation at a point where seeing each other's 
empty reflection in the cold glass seemed inappropriate.  "No one --"  
He paused, pursing his lips in thought while Duo waited him out 
patiently.  "Without my mask...," he started tentatively again, choosing 
his words slowly.  "I'm yours.  No one else ... has that from me.  No 
one else ... *sees* me."

	The way he emphasized his words implied more than just physical 
sight.  Duo tried employing some of that second sight, peering 
critically when Heero opened his mind to him and welcomed him in, but it 
was complicated, almost too complicated for him to figure it out 
completely at a single glance.  "You're not ... shy," Duo evaluated 
himself, trying verbally to work his way through the morass of whatever 
it was his partner was feeling.  "This ... is about me?"

	"It's not about me," Heero practically whispered, a very slight 
amusement gracing his features.  "If ... if it's what you want, I'll do 
it."

	"No!" Duo protested vehemently, if softly.  "Don't.  Don't do it 
because I want you to.  Your ...."  He shook his head in frustration.  
"Your opinions, your desires, they matter, Heero.  They matter to me. 
... You matter to me."

	It almost looked as if Heero were looking for something to say 
once more, but once more, he fell silent.

	"Are you ...?"  Comprehension seemed to be just at the edge of 
his consciousness.  "I don't know.  Being possessive on my behalf?" he 
asked incredulously, quite certain he was far off base.  When Heero 
seemed to truly be contemplating the correctness of the assessment, 
however, Duo considered the angle a bit more carefully.  "It's like... 
you feel it won't be ... special anymore?  If I don't have, um, 
exclusive rights?"

	Heero started to nod his head, but changed course halfway and 
began very slowly shaking his head instead.  "There's nothing inherently 
wrong with showing myself to others, except maybe no one really knows 
that I've been freed from my punishment, and that gives us something of 
an edge.  But... you're the only one who matters to me, Duo.  If you 
don't mind..."

	"Mind what?"  He gave their fingers a squeeze.  "Mind sharing 
the view?  Heero, the people out there can look all they want at your 
outside, and I won't love you any less.  You walked around unmasked for 
years before meeting me.  What makes you special to me are your insides.  
Now, I'm not asking you to stand up on a stage in front of a multitude 
of people and introduce yourself to them.  Not even to anyone.  We would 
just blend in, two of many, maybe even do that little 'see us but don't 
notice us' trick with them...."

	"Just to have me by your side?"  He breathed the question out 
wondrously.  So many years he had spent with the guardian, and he still 
found every new facet of him exciting and fascinating to explore.

	"Just to have you by my side," Duo confirmed with an echo.  "I 
got first dibs on you for quite a while.  And it was special, having you 
all to myself.  But it's also kinda selfish, I think.  Unfair to you, 
maybe.  I don't want you to feel as if you have to lock yourself away 
during the day.  And I think it would be even specialer to have you out 
there with me."

	"If that's what you want...."

	"No," he interrupted, with an indulgent roll of his eyes.  "It's 
*your* choice."

	Heero pondered deeply for a few moments.  "Maybe," was all he 
would concede.  "Not now, though."

	Duo smiled at him, and nodded his understanding.  "Take all the 
time you need."

                              ************

	No, it couldn't be.  Yet there it was, Duo's image crudely 
rendered onto the innocuous sheet of paper.  There was no mistaking it.  
The cult's demon had the same outlandishly violet eyes, the same 
heart-shaped face, the same terribly long braid.  Although the face in 
the drawing was cold and blank, not at all like the usual animation that 
the youth showed, it was him.  Duo Maxwell.  His classmate, his friend's 
friend, and, dare he even say it, his own friend.

	Wufei received a little more information from Darcy, then left 
him with vague assurances that he would keep an eye out for their demon, 
and thereafter left the meetingplace in a haze.  On his way home, things 
starting clicking inside Wufei's head, against his will.  Little clues 
and hints surfaced from his memories.  From the day that he had met Duo 
Maxwell, he had thought that there was something odd about the boy, 
something strange and otherworldly and mysterious.  Was this the secret 
that he was hiding?

	There were the small instances, the tiny things that just seemed 
off with the boy.  The way he sometimes seemed to respond to things no 
one else noticed.  The times his attention strayed from the conversation 
at hand.  The cryptic remarks he sometimes made.  The way he appeared 
and disappeared on his own, irregular schedule.  The random bits of 
knowledge that no normal boy should have.  The fact that no one seemed 
to know anything concrete about him, his past or his current situation.

	All of that meant nothing.  Anything could have been the cause.  
But then there was the time he had had his own run-in with a demon in 
this city, the one that had tried to steal his memories.  It had clearly 
hinted that he might know of its kind, already in the city, that indeed, 
he might even be friends with one.  Duo had shown up that previous 
night, when Wufei had found himself wandering through the northern 
district.  Had it been a coincidence?

	But Duo had woken him from that peculiar half-dream state.  It 
could have been a chance encounter.  Or it could have been something 
more significant, more sinister.  Could Duo have been in league with the 
hellish parasite that had attempted to feed on his mind?  Or had he been 
in competition?  He knew, from personal experience, that the demons 
sometimes fought amongst themselves, he had seen it in the park himself, 
when the shrouded stranger had done battle with the demon with the mask.  
If what Darcy had said was true, then that shadowy figure was in Duo's 
service, perhaps protecting its master's territory.

	And the evil memory leech had fixated on Duo, after his midnight 
wandering had been interrupted.  His thoughts had been consumed by 
another's anger, another's rage, and another's frustration.  He had 
thought, at the time, that the demon had been considering making Duo its 
next victim.  Maybe it had only been gathering information about its 
enemy.

	Duo may have loosened its hold on him temporarily by meeting him 
in that street that night, but shortly thereafter, the fey boy had 
disappeared down an alley.  Wufei considered that he could have just 
wandered down a shortcut, but he hadn't seen any such path in the small 
alleyway when he had looked for the braided teen.  Had he melted into 
the shadows?  Did his dark companion sweep him away?

	He had also commented that night that he did love the dark, the 
night and its peace.  It was possible.  Anything was possible.

	Wufei was angry, angry and confused and disillusioned, but he 
still wasn't sure.  He couldn't believe it, both wanted to believe and 
wanted to deny, and he didn't want to act until he was sure, one way or 
another.  He would observe until then, and try to confirm or repudiate 
his suspicions.

	If Duo was innocent, then he would inform Darcy that he was 
incorrect.

	If Duo was a demon... then he would do as he had sworn, and see 
the demon destroyed.

_________________________________________
This piece of fiction is the intellectual 
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The basis for this fic, i.e. Gundam Wing, 
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been an entirely automated message.
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html

last modified : 7/11/2001 19:05:00 PST