The sacred twins. They are entreated second in a typical Voodou rite. They represent balance, completion, or two halves to one whole. This can be physical twins born of the same mother, the spiritual twins of soul mates, or simply symbolic of balance.
When I finally wandered back to the land of the waking world, two things became immediately apparent. One, my headache had subsided to a dull twinge hiding behind my eyes, and two, Dr. J's ugly ol' mug was about two inches from the tip of my nose.
Given the circumstances, I think my terrified scream of "RAPE!! HENTAI!!" was rather justified.
Dr. J staggered back, somewhat startled and somewhat bemused. I took the opportunity to sit up, calm my frantic heart rate and wonder how the hell I managed to get here.
"Baka." Heero snorted, briskly entering the bland white room where I was. The return of my taciturn acquaintance brought everything back into focus. The nasty headache and passing out... and who else would Heero bring me to but one of the five psychos that started the war three years back.
I just slumped back onto the slab that Dr. J pretended was an examination table, and firmly resolved to check myself for any replaced or "improved" parts later on. Dr. G "improved" me enough thank you very much. My only consolation in that department was G and the rest of the scientists were dead.
The doctor hobbled back over to me, leaning heavily on his cane. "You've been unconscious most of the day. Heero says you had a seizure. Do you remember anything before that?"
I blinked at that. I knew I had passed out, but he was talking on a whole new level of serious. "Erm... just a headache." I looked over at Heero. "Really? A seizure? I mean you guys aren't exaggerating or playing a joke or something. If you are it's really not funny. Then I'd have to wonder who knocked a sense of humor into you unless this was Doc's idea, then I'd have to wonder about the sheer planning involved, unless you talked to How..."
"Urusai." Heero finished adjusting the equipment he brought in and gave me an exasperated look. "Hai. You did."
The doctor interrupted my glaring session with Yuy by flashing a pen light in my eyes. I winced a bit and he made mmhmmm noises. More questions followed: Did I have a history of this? Nope. How did I feel now? Hungry. What kind of a headache was it?
That gave me a pause, I hadn't really thought about it. "I dunno a migraine probably. It wasn't much to start with, but it's been one thing after another today." I shrugged, idly trying to jerk my arm free of Dr. J's metallic grip.
"Is it gone?" He checked my pulse briefly before releasing his grip on my arm. I was just preoccupied in rubbing the circulation back into my hands now.
"What gone?" I honestly drew a blank at what he was asking. He look at me with clear annoyance.
"The. Head. Ache." I blew a razzberry at him.
"Yeah yeah, I can hardly feel it. I've gotta go. Howard will be wondering...." It struck me. They said I'd been out most of the day, that meant... "Oh shit! How late is it?"
"Mm? Around nine I'd say. Why?" I pretty much leapt off the table, and set about quickly gathering everything that I could identify as mine (and I few things I couldn't.. I have no love for the doctors,) as fast as I could force myself to.
"Saa! Well, thanks for taking care of me, if you have a bill just bring it to Howard and we'll work out something and if ... Heero out of my way, we're late!"
"You're sick." I glanced up at him, warily. Was that concern? No, his face was just as blank as ever.
I just grinned at him. "You know, you're not the first person to tell me that."
"That's not what I meant." His eyes narrowed slightly. I tensed, but didn't back down. I had to get back, but even I couldn't predict Heero's moves sometimes. Fortunately I was saved from whatever response Heero was building up to by the doctor scuttling up to the two of us.
"Let him go my boy. It's probably just an after effect of what my colleague did to him. It's probably breaking down by now I'd imagine. G always was sloppy in the long-term respect." I stared at the strange old man in sheer disbelief. "Yes, yes, I do know what he did to you. G's work was the foundation for my own with Heero."
Out of the corner of my eye, I spared a glance towards Heero. Until then I hadn't even given much of a thought to his reaction. He was staring at me with a slightly different expression, which on stone-face meant worlds of shock. In any other circumstances, I would have enjoyed the crack in Heero's mask, and the compliment that even through the war, Heero hadn't noticed what I'd tried to keep hidden.
"Erm, well, he said we could go ne?" I ducked under Heero's arm and started to drag him through the door before he could get up the coherency to protest my treatment. I, on the other hand, didn't care; I just wanted to be as far from this situation as I possibly could be. Preferably another colony all together.
"By the way," The Doctor called after the two of us. I froze. Damn I didn't get far enough, fast enough. "You should stop by when you aren't busy. Especially if this gets worse. I'd hate to see such a fine experiment go to waste because of lack of maintenance." Sure rub it in why didn't he.
I was too biting nails mad to navigate, and besides which I didn't know the building. It turned out to be bigger than I expected, almost a maze of identical slate gray corridors, randomly punctuated with the occasional door. Still I was stubborn enough to get myself to get myself horribly lost three or four times before I let Heero lead.
I took to following in his steps, as walking side by side with him only got more of that curious stare. Well, I guess him knowing isn't as bad as it could be. It's not like he's going to tell anyone. Now if I can figure out how to pre-empt any questions.
It turned out to be an unnecessary concern as Heero took me all the way outside without a word. The last door was at the end of a ladder, which made sense. If you were going to have a secret sort of place, the underside is where to do it. Most people think the underside is too radioactive to step foot in. Besides I didn't think I knew of any building on the central ring that could be anywhere near large enough to handle that twisted maze of hallways.
I lead the way as soon as we hit the fading light of the sinking "sun." The area that we came up upon was rather familiar to me. We ambled a few blocks before Heero broke the silence between us.
"Isn't Howard's place to the east?" I could barely make out one raised eyebrow underneath that mop of hair.
"Yup, but we have to make a really quick stop first."
"Where?"
"Hilde's. Howard wanted me to give her a message, and he'll be pissed if I come back without having done just that. I'm already in for the chewing out of my young life. Now I appreciate the need for beauty sleep as much as the next guy, but couldn't you two have woken me up a bit earlier?"
"We tried." I couldn't read his face anymore in the dimming light. As much as I enjoyed working out the puzzle that was Heero, for once, I wasn't keen on the idea.
"That serious huh?" I finally asked.
"Hn."
"Huh." I lead us down a ramshackle alley, intent on my usual shortcut. I didn't have much to worry about from the local thugs, and I knew from experience that Heero could handle fence jumping with the best of the street rats. I hardly had to think about it, but that was alright. My mind was more set on turning over today's events, against my will and better judgment.
"What was it like?" So I have a morbid fascination. I really couldn't help but ask.
"You don't remember?" Heero asked, hopping down from the top of a chain link fence with hardly a whisper of sound. I pretended the crates were more of an obstacle than they really were, to keep myself from looking at him. I seemed to keep getting myself into these situations today.
"Nah, I wasn't exactly awake, remember." I was kind of miffed at myself about that. I've had a fascination with the darker aspects of medicine after reading a few of Dr. G's books on the subject. Now here, I'd had first hand experience and not a scrap of memory to show for it.
"Aa." He paused for a second. "You jerked sharply for a while. You talked a bit. But you didn't act much like yourself."
"Talked?" Now, my curiosity had fully overwhelmed my embarrassment over the situation. This I hadn't heard of. "Ne, what did I say."
"Don't know. It was in another language. French and something else."
"Eh? I don't know French, how the hell could I have been talking in it?" Heero just shrugged. I let the subject drop as I saw Hilde's apartment building come into view. It was only about three floors tall, but it spoke of a decently good life.
She worked as a fortune teller. It wasn't my cup of sake, but so many people believed in that mumbojumbo these days that someone as good at guessing as Hilde was, was very well paid indeed. It also made her the second biggest target for most of my teasing.
That in itself cheered me up immensely, and I welcomed the distraction. It was her fault she adopted me as a "little brother." I considered it my duty to act like one. This thought firmly in mind, I depressed the intercom to Hilde's room (another of my little inventive gems) and happily screamed into it, loud enough for her to hear me through the window on the third floor, much less the intercom.
"Hiiiiillllllldddddeeeeeee! Howard says your trike's done! Come get it tommmoorrrooowww!"
Heero rolled his eyes at me. Okay, it was childish, even I'll admit, but satisfying. "Now what?"
I grinned and grabbed him, already pulling him up the road. "Now we run!"
There was the rattle and bang of her living room window being angrily torn open. "DUO! YOU BRAT!" Hilde's outraged voice called after us. "I have a client right now, you moron!"
"Go go go!" I pushed Heero into a full run as several breakables suddenly littered the street around us at high velocity. Not for the first, and not for the last, I thanked the gods that Hilde has such terrible aim.
A few high speed blocks later, "Was there a point to that?" Heero wasn't the slightest bit out of breath, and neither of us were inclined to slow down from our breakneck pace through the back alley's to the Sweepers complex. I figured it was faster this way, and who knew what Yuy was thinking.
"Nope, not a bit." I grinned at him, wiping my sweat drenched bangs out of my face. "But it was fun wasn't it?"
I sped up a bit, taking the lead and another short cut, but before I pulled ahead I would have almost swore I saw the old stick in the mud grin. I didn't have time to question him though, as a second later, he shot past me at full speed and the race was on.
TBC
Nixers
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