Unconditional Gifts
Part 15
Alone once more, Duo turned to Heero and wrapped both arms around the
Japanese teen's neck, pulling him in for a deep yet gentle kiss.
"Hmm," Heero murmured as the kiss ended, "That was unusual, koi, care to
explain?"
A tiny shrug and a smile were the initial answers and then Duo finally said
with a sigh, "It's been a weird day, Heero, not even someone as hentai as me
is interested in sex after all that."
Heero smiled sadly and nodded, "I'd tend to agree with you on that one, Duo.
It'll probably be some time before either of us are much in the mood for
that, I'm afraid."
"Hey now," Duo remarked with mock-anger, "Don't go using this as an excuse to
leave me lonely, buckaroo!"
"Never," Heero answered in all seriousness. He had thought long and hard
throughout the day's difficult events and he was wondering many things not
the least of which was how best to express his feelings for the beautiful
youth in his arms.
Carefully removing the arms from his neck, Heero guided Duo towards the large
window that overlooked the deck and out to the pounding surf beyond the
dunes. Moving to stand behind the boy he loved, he wrapped both arms around
the American's waist and held him close, resting his chin on Duo's shoulder,
turning his head slightly to place a tender kiss on his neck.
Duo groaned as he felt himself respond to the seeming tease, but then Heero
spoke quietly, "No matter how bad today was, Duo, it helped me come to
realize that what you and I have is sacred. I'll never risk losing you and I
sure as hell have no intention of ever leaving you 'lonely' as you said."
"Oh, Heero," Duo sighed happily, leaning back into the embrace fully. A
shiver went through the braided teen's body as he heard these words.
It was rare that Heero spoke of his feelings for him outside the privacy of
their bedroom, but even there he refrained from such overt promises and
statements about their possible future together. Despite the happiness that
he felt from this, though, Duo began to think about the two tortured youths
they were all so worried about and whether or not they had as much to hope
for as he did with his own soulmate.
"What about Trowa and Wufei, love? Think they'll figure that out?" Duo asked
softly, "That what they share may be sacred, too? And that no matter what
happened in the past, the future is not automatically ruined because of it?"
"I hope so," Heero answered before placing another gentle kiss onto the
graceful neck near his lips. "I believe that what they share truly *is*
sacred, Duo. I think they're destined for one another the same way we are."
"How do you know that, Heero?" Duo asked quizzically, "What makes you so
sure?"
The cobalt-eyed teen snorted softly, he tended to assume that if he noticed
something then Duo had probably noted it way ahead of him and he thought
perhaps the other boy was teasing him for this atypical discussion in the
first place.
"I'm serious," Duo said quietly, turning his head to catch Heero's eye. "I
want to hear what you think, please?"
"All right," Heero nodded, then gathered his thoughts as he spoke. "It's
little things, really, from the last two weeks and even before that, but it's
so much more obvious now. The looks they give each other when they think no
one is watching. The way they seem incomplete when they're separated. Trowa
seemed to be at loose ends while we were at the OZ base and only settled back
down yesterday when he got back to the apartment."
"Shit," Duo exclaimed softly, shaking his head in astonishment. "Was that
only yesterday? Seems like forever now, but you're right, we just got here
last night."
"I know," Heero sounded unhappy with this observation, too. "A lot can change
in twenty-four hours, can't it?"
"Yeah," Duo's voice was tired and saddened once more. "And to think we might
have been able to help Tro and Wu avoid some of the pain and suffering they
went through today if we'd spoken up about our concerns sooner. Damn it, I
wish we could go back in time and change that. They don't deserve all this
shit."
Heero nodded against his lover's shoulder then answered, "No one deserves
anything like this, but stop wishing for the impossible. If we could travel
back through time and change our mistakes, wouldn't it be even better to
protect Wufei in the first place and stop the person who did this to him?"
"Of course it would, silly," Duo remarked, catching his lover's intentions to
force him to realize that such wishes were not useful, but it did trigger one
thought that he had kept in the back of his mind for some time. "You know
something, Heero? I've been wondering who coulda done this to someone as
strong as Wu is to begin with. He's got that bad-ass katana of his and all
those martial arts tricks, I mean, who could possibly take him down hard
enough to rape him?"
"That's something I hope to find out," Heero growled softly, but said nothing
more.
Duo, however, wasn't finished with his own analysis of the crime. "Come to
think of it, Wu was trained as a solo operative by Master O, right? And
wouldn't he have seen to it that Wu could get himself out of almost anything
same as you were trained by Doctor J?"
Heero nodded mutely, his own thoughts racing ahead of Duo's words.
Still trying to work it out for himself, though, the Deathscythe pilot
continued. "I mean, I could see this as more possible if there was some
extended period of recovery time when Wu was missing from the battlefield. I
figure anyone that assaulted him woulda tried to kill him on top of it. Not
that I *want* that, of course! Just, that's what strikes me as the most
logical way to explain all this."
"There's no 'logic' in sex crimes, Duo," Heero warned darkly. "Rape is
usually a 'power' crime. It's usually about one person wanting to dominate
another, controlling them for whatever reason. And as for his being
'missing', how would we know? As long as he was being kept isolated from us
by O, we had no way of knowing. Remember there was that stretch of time about
five months ago when we didn't hear from him for seven or eight weeks, maybe
that was when it happened?"
"Hmm," Duo frowned and thought for a moment before asking, "You mean after
that long assignment you and Tro had in Berlin? The one where you two almost
got nailed by that Russian creep Khushrenada?"
"Yes, that's the one." Several things merged in Heero's mind suddenly and his
countenance became dark as he analyzed several scenarios that presented
themselves. Strategic planning sessions of the past with Doctor J rushed to
memory and he realized that it had been after the mission in question that
Master O had kept Wufei away from the other pilots more deliberately.
Silently, Heero made plans of his own to check out his theories instead of
adding fuel to the guesswork that his partner seemed so intent on continuing.
For his part, Duo was lost in thought as well. He didn't know quite as much
as Heero did about the other pilots' backgrounds, but he did know one thing
that now concerned him. "Say, Heero? Speaking of Wu's sword, have you seen it
lately?"
"Nani?" Heero startled slightly as he was pulled from his thoughts. "His
katana? I thought he usually kept it with him wherever he went. Why?"
Frowning, Duo commented, "I just realized I haven't seen it during the last
two weeks. We've had to relocate twice and if he had it with him, I woulda
seen the scabbard for it at least. I'm dead sure he hasn't been doing any
katas with his ribs still healing and all, but that sheath or whatever it's
called is too big to go unnoticed through two moves. He'd never go anywhere
without it, it's too important to him."
The worried teen turned to glance back at the staircase as if considering
going up and asking his Chinese friend about the missing blade.
Luckily, the boy who had kept his arms around him tightened them even as
Heero commented quietly, "Don't even think about it, baka. If it's not here,
then we can find out what's the deal with it in the morning." He sighed, then
added, "Look at it this way, if he hasn't got it, that's one less danger to
worry over if his suicidal tendencies switch over to 'active'."
"Oh god!" Duo gasped quietly and then turned to face Heero, remaining
securely in the circle of his arms and looking deeply into the cobalt-blue
eyes that stared back dark with his own inner thoughts. "You're serious,
aren't you, Heero? That wasn't just a random comment to distract me, was it?"
"I'm very serious, Duo," The Wing pilot found himself wondering if it was
wise to go into detail and decided to simply add, "I meant it when I said we
need to watch him."
"I was afraid of that," Violet eyes tracked back towards the now empty living
room, and Duo sighed sadly, "This is gonna be a shitty vacation, koi, but I'd
rather spend our free time keeping Wu in one piece than arranging his
funeral."
"Agreed," Heero nodded, and made a mental note to find out what Trowa had
done with the dagger he usually carried with him. There was, after all, more
than one potentially suicidal person in the house, but just as quickly, the
Japanese boy erased the thought partially. These were fully trained soldiers
who could kill with their bare hands.
The presence or absence of specific weapons was almost irrelevant under the
circumstances beyond the fact that each of the five Gundam pilots had their
own personal tastes when it came to bloodshed.
For himself, Heero preferred the service revolver that amazed the others by
always being available without their knowing where he kept it, a mystery he
intended on maintaining. The handgun was more powerful than its compact size
implied, but that, too, was a secret he kept to himself.
Duo, however, was more versatile. He kept a switchblade hidden in one of the
deep pockets of his jodhpurs as well as a small revolver, yet given the
opportunity, the clever teen could use almost anything for assassinations,
his ingenuity having impressed all of the other Gundam pilots time and again.
Trowa kept a vicious dagger with him that he'd used while a member of the
first group of mercenaries he'd lived with as a child. He remembered them
with fondness and he'd once mentioned cryptically that the blade had saved
his life more times than he could count before he turned twelve.
Quatre had been hesitant about selecting a personal weapon, but his faithful
friend Rasid, leader of the Maganacs, had given him an elegant leather
shoulder holster along with a Browning that the blond Arabian boy become
quite proficient with even if he preferred not to use it.
The smallest Gundam pilot was most likely the most lethal, however.
Wufei had not only the heirloom katana that Duo was concerned about, but also
an assortment of shuriken and a few other oriental weapons that defied
explanation. Years of training as a martial artist allowed him to use his
entire body as a weapon. Equally gifted with a gun, the ShenLong pilot was
more than capable with either the Magnum 357 or the assault rifle he kept
stowed inside his mobile suit.
Thinking through all of the possibilities of deadly force from himself and
his friends, though, actually made Heero even more aware of how inexplicable
the very idea that one of them might have been taken against their will
sexually, especially Wufei, truly was. To his own mind, Quatre was far more
likely to have been open to that fate while the Chinese teen was least
likely, yet in the end there was not much room left for doubt of their
current situation.
With a tired sigh, Heero brought his thoughts back to the present and said
simply, "I'm tired, Duo, let's go to bed."
Shaken out of his own thoughts, Duo nodded. "Might as well, Heero. Tomorrow's
going to be here before we know it and we're going to need to be sharp to
stay on top of things. C'mon, let's hit the rack."
"Roger that," Heero remarked with a modicum of humor, and his lover
appreciated it.
Laughing as they walked upstairs together, Duo commented off-handedly, "Only
you could see sleep as a mission objective, Heero."
"Hn," Heero snorted comically as he pulled the door shut behind them both.
The night was spent in quiet companionship, sleep being hard to come by as
the darkness allowed too much time for further thoughts on the issues that
were on all of their minds.
Full Author's Notes to Run at Conclusion.
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