July 19, 2000
I don't know where this came from...TGP writer's block, I guess. Warning: Written completely without any help from any muse! Gack...
I do not own these puppets.
It all happened in slow motion, the stainless steel of the mobile suit blurring into the dark gray sky. Heero felt a scream tear from his throat as it fell onto the crumbling red stone of a church, one of the few remaining in the world. Religion had no place in a war of senseless violence. And if Duo had been around, he was sure the boy, with his Catholic upbringing, would have agreed.
His fingers moved numbly on their own, guiding Wing down to the earth, planting its dusty boots into the thick mud, caking the metal. The church lay beneath the Taurus, slowly giving out beneath its weight. "Shit..." With one lightning fast movement, the Gundam's arm shot out and tossed the Taurus easily onto the ground, and off the cathedral.
Heero climbed out of the cockpit, gulping as the ground beneath him swayed. He'd never been great with heights, but fear of displacing his reputation as a fearless fighter and his own pride had never let him admit it to anyone but himself. Dust and smoke rose in a soft mushroom cloud, settling onto the ground, marking the grave.
He stepped into the crushed arch, wincing as he heard a soft cry of pain echo out into the open. As if propelled by Duo's own indomitable spirit of Samaritan, Heero wove his way around the cracked, jagged sections of broken floor and entered what used to be the main religious section, as his analytical mind put it. The other part of him, the part that had divided neatly from the soldier during his training, noted the lack of ornate artifacts and décor. Definitely not a Catholic Church.
"Help..." The voice was weak, but it still carried to his sensitive ears, ringing deep within him. Heero at last found the source of the cry, a nun, her habit torn and bloody, scratches marring her face and hands. She had tried to shield herself from the rubble with her arms; as a result, he noted coldly, kneeling beside her, she had a fractured wrist. He should try to set it...
"Who are you?" she asked, coughing up blood. Internal bleeding. Shit. He looked into her eyes and saw Duo. Those wide, innocent if not naïve, orbs glowed with religious fervor, paralleling the fever with which Duo destroyed his opponent's mobile suits. He was tempted to give the woman his code-name, or even a number. But even if she wasn't a kind woman, if she was merely a religious figurehead going through the motions, she represented the past. They were trying to save the past, weren't they?
"Odin." She nodded, and attempted a cheerful smile. It was nearly impossible to tell how old she was; when she smiled, she became years younger. It was a transformation from old to young, sorrowful to something that, while not gorgeous, was beautiful in its own right.
"We've got to get you out of here," he said with feeling that he didn't understand. She merely nodded and tried to sit up, only to collapse back against a slab of stone.
"It feels like something inside is torn," she admitted. "I've been through some shit in my life, but I've never come so close to meeting my Maker." Heero blinked twice at her. "I'm a nun, yes, but even nuns swear, Odin."
"Well, I'm going to--" Before he could speak another word, the ceiling caved in. Without a moment's hesitation, Heero leapt over her, shielding her prone form with his beaten body. He winced as a rib snapped beneath the heavy weight. With a soft grunt, he threw the stone off his back and surveyed the damage. Trapped. They were trapped.
"I'm sorry," said Heero, afraid to look the nun in the eye. She laughed sweetly.
"Don't be afraid, Heero." She drew a deep breath, her blue eyes sliding shut and for a terrible moment, the Japanese boy thought she'd died. "My name is Sister Katherine. It's a pleasure, Odin." She cried out in alarm as he began to tug at the marble walling them inside the ruins of the church. "Don't! Look..." Sister Katherine pointed at the bottom of the stone, where a crack was beginning to grow from the stress Heero was putting on it. "It's the only thing keeping the ceiling up. Help will come."
"You're sure." She smiled again, and a strange warmth spread through his body. Only Duo smiled at him like that, like he was something special. Heero wasn't sure if he liked someone besides his lover having that kind of power over him.
They sat in silence for a few moments before Sister Katherine broke the silence again. "So who are you, Odin?" The question struck Heero as almost profound as he considered. "A soldier. Why?"
"You don't look like you could enjoy killing people for a living." For a living. Was that what he did to survive in the world? He supposed it was. The woman? girl? yawned. Annoyed that someone he'd known for only five minutes could get under his skin like that, he fired back his own question.
"How old are you?"
She chuckled, then had to stop as a rib cracked painfully. "Never ask a lady her age, Odin. I'm sixteen. I know I look forty." Katherine showed him a curious expression. "Do you think I'm pretty?" The off-handed inquiry caught him completely off guard; he felt his face heating up as she tried not to jostle her ribs laughing. "Don't be surprised. The only ones here were the priests, and they weren't too keen on flattering a girl's ego. Since I'm going to die anyway--"
"You're not going to die," Heero said automatically.
"I'm not going to die," she amended, "I just wanted to know. I don't think God will be angry with me over this little bit of vanity. So?" Katherine prompted, folding her hands neatly over her black skirt.
"Yeah," he said uncomfortably. "You are." It was true. No need to lie.
"Thank you, Odin." Her eyes slid shut again as her breathing began to even out into sleep's soft rhythm.
Heero watched her face as she slept, felt his own smile stretch over his face as she smiled at something in her dreams. Something peaceful, probably. His own dreams were filled with blood.
When she woke again, he was sitting beside her, his lean body curled up into a strange Z-shape on the rocks, eyes unfocused. "You're thinking about the war," she breathed. He didn't deny it, but instead inclined his head slightly. "Do you have a lover?"
He nodded.
Katherine smiled, the skin around her eyes crinkling just so; he knew it was a real smile. "That's good. Do you love her?" He swallowed once before nodding, visions of chestnut braids and goofy smiles wavering in his mind.
Her smile grew bigger. "That's wonderful. I'm very happy for you. I wanted to find someone that I loved, but they never came. I waited a long time for them. When I saw you, I thought you might be him." Heero tried a smile and was somewhat pleased to discover that it felt right.
"Would you kiss me?" Heero nearly shot off the ground with alarm, eyes narrowing slightly. The nun sighed and waved her arms. "Sorry; I know you tell me that I'm not going to die...but I don't want to go to Heaven without understanding it on Earth." Her eyes shone with unshed tears. "Do you understand, Odin? I suffer."
"Everyone suffers."
She shook her head. "You don't understand, then." That smile again, lighting up her entire countenance. "That's all right." Then she slipped into sleep's hold again, one arm draped dramatically over her face.
Heero thought about Duo and wondered what he would say if he told him about Katherine asking for a kiss. Her breathing was growing shallower, her pupils dilating. If help didn't arrive in time, she would most certainly die. The thought was more than a bit disturbing, although he wasn't sure if it was because of the ease with which the idea had surfaced or the idea itself.
The last time she woke up, Heero's face was above hers, his bright blue eyes watching her through small slits, his eyelids lowered demurely. Before she could move or protest, before his own nerves could convince him of his own foolishness, he pressed a chaste kiss to her lips.
It was a moment before she could speak.
"Thank you," said Sister Katherine. Heero wanted to say something, but there were no words to explain how he felt. Men wiser than he had seen fit to leave them out of the language of humans.
She died the next day, feverish and weak with hunger and infection. Heero buried her body, scooping the earth with his bare fingers. Duo, searching for him for almost a week, found him sitting on a pile of freshly turned dirt, his fingers to his lips.
"Koi," he sighed, and moved to embrace his lover. A flash of hurt streaked across his face, but he said nothing. They left the church shortly after.
A few days later, Duo confronted the Japanese boy.
"What's wrong with you?" he demanded, pressing him against the wall with the length of his wiry body. "You act like I've got some kind of disease."
Heero just looked at him blankly; Duo heaved a great sigh and moved to release him, when he suddenly spoke. "I kissed her," he intoned softly, his hands moving again to his lips, chapped and wind- cracked.
Jealousy seeped into his heart, colder than ice water. "Did she love you?"
"Maybe."
"Did you love her?" His voice cracked as a minute went by and Heero still hadn't answered. What was he to tell him? That Sister Katherine had been just another victim, another face, when all he could see when he looked at Duo was her eyes, and those lips, moving, declaring, 'I suffer'? Or maybe that he had kissed her, some part of his heart wanting it to be Duo, wanting it to be her.
"I might have." Not a no; his American lover's face crumpled, but he never shed a tear.
"Why?"
"She was beatific. A revelation." The longing in Yuy's voice was not well-disguised. There was nothing Duo could say to that.
Bianca
Please send comments to: weirdsisters@hotmail.com