27-Jun-2003
Title: Storytime
Author: RurouniTriv
I found this one hiding on my HD and thought I'd share it with y'all. Hope you enjoy. No warnings on this one, just the usual disclaimer. But then, we all know I don't own the boys anyway.
Heero looked at his partner as the other boy finally came out of the bathroom, still toweling his long chestnut hair. "Why do you keep that so long, anyway?" he growled. "It's a liability in combat and a pain outside of it. It takes you forever to clean it, it takes forever to comb and braid once it is clean, and then you have to wait forever for it to dry if you haven't been able to blow-dry it first. Too much effort to waste on something as frivolous as hair."
Duo looked at him levelly, then smiled slightly. "I'll make you a deal. You comb my hair for me, I'll tell you a story."
"You're always telling stories, why should I waste my energy to get you to tell one more?"
"Because this one, less than a dozen people have ever heard. I don't tell any of it often, and I'm the only one who knows it all."
"Does it have anything to do with anything even vaguely practical?" Heero did sarcasm quite well.
"Actually, it does," Duo said with a laugh. But it was a quiet, almost sad laugh. "Or at least, it has something to do with our missions. Sit. Comb my hair for me. And listen."
Duo's Tale
Once upon a time, a little boy was found living on the streets by a gang of street urchins. This little boy was rather pretty, and indeed looked more like a girl than a boy at that age. The leader of that gang was named Solo, and he was about ten years old. No one knew for sure, any more than anyone knew that the little boy was about six when they found him. What was known was that Solo took a liking to the little boy, and let him not only become a part of the gang, but hang around Solo whenever he wanted. They even shared the bed of scrap cardboard and rags that Solo had, as a mark of his rank as leader.
The two boys became inseparable, and the gang started calling him 'Solo's Shadow', or just 'Shadow' for short. He was a clever little boy, and very good at both lifting wallets and picking locks, and he became respected in the gang and out of it for his skill as a thief and for his quickness with a blade, both things that Solo had taught him.
As they grew, Solo hit puberty, and as boys will if someone doesn't stop them, he experimented with his body. He and his best friend played around, and discovered the things that two people can do to keep each other warm and happy when the world around them was cold and hungry.
Then tragedy struck. There was a plague, created by the Feds. No one knew if it was intentionally released and got out of hand or if there was an accident, but what everyone did know was that the rich got vaccines and antidotes, and the poor died by the thousands. Solo was one of them. Before he died, he handed command of the gang over to his young friend, who was at that time about nine.
For almost a year, the little boy managed to keep the gang together and mostly fed, which was the most any gang of street-brats could hope for in those days. And then he ran into a priest who worked at the local church. He and his companion, a nun named Helen, felt that God had called them to serve him by serving those who were the poorest and most neglected of His children, and so they had come to the place where the little boy and his gang lived. When the father met the little boy and heard his story and that of his gang, the father knew what to do. He contacted the Church headquarters on Earth, and managed to get enough money that they could turn the derelict building next to the church into an orphanage. And the first children to live in that orphanage were the little boy and his gang. They knew a good thing when they saw it, after all: a roof over their heads, a warm building to live in, food to eat that they didn't have to steal, and sometimes even a chance to take a bath. For a group of street-brats, that was very close to heaven.
The little boy did have one problem when he first came to the orphanage, though: Sister Helen wanted to cut his hair. It would be easier to keep clean and neat that way. But the boy protested, because Solo had loved his hair. Every time he brushed his hair, every time he felt it falling down his back, it reminded him of the friend that he had loved and lost. He begged, he pleaded, he screamed at the injustice that let the girls keep their long hair but would take his... and they let him keep his hair, on one condition: it must be kept clean and neat at all times, just as the girls' hair must be. He was taught to braid it neatly down his back by Sister Helen, and he kept it that way faithfully.
A couple years later, a group of rebels came into the church, and gave the father and the sister a hard time because they'd been preaching pacifism. While they were there, they talked about how they'd be able to take on the Feds if they just had a mobile suit, and the little boy, who was about twelve by now, told them that he'd go get them one if they'd just leave the church alone. They laughed, but let him go try, thinking that he'd get himself killed in the attempt.
He didn't. In fact, he was even able to pilot the mobile suit transport and get it to the church, but he was far too late. The Feds had attacked the church, despite the fact that the rebels were long gone by the time that they arrived. Every person in the church died. Every last one of the orphans, all of the kids from the little boy's street gang, were gone, and the little boy was alone.
The little boy was little only physically. He knew that his life wasn't worth a clipped credit if the Feds or the rebels got their hands on him, so he ran. Ran straight to the spaceport and kept his ears and eyes open until he heard about a captain and crew with a good reputation and stowed away on board their ship. A week out from the colony, he let the captain know he was there and managed to finagle himself a position on the crew. He worked hard and he was good with anything mechanical, and he eventually told the captain, who had become a friend, the story of his life so far.
A few months later, the captain introduced the boy to a scientist who needed a boy for whom there were no records, and the scientist gave the boy a new job, learning about math and science and all the other things that a person needs to be a terrorist and Gundam pilot.
Because the boy had been taken in by a boy named Solo, he called himself Duo. Because he'd been taken in by a priest and a church which were both called Maxwell, he chose that as his last name. And because Duo Maxwell had lost everyone that he cared for to the Feds, he chose to kill them as they had killed those he loved. The Maxwell Church Massacre had destroyed any faith that he had in the God of Father Maxwell and Sister Helen, and so he chose to give his allegiance to a being he knew existed: Death. He took the name and aspect of Shinigami, and like his namesake he was death incarnate to his enemies. But he never cut his hair, even when it caused him problems, because it was his talisman. It reminded him, whenever he found himself getting lost in the rush of combat, what exactly he was fighting for.
And he still keeps it long and braided to this day.
Heero was silent for a long time after that, simply moving the comb gently through Duo's long, wavy hair, before he spoke. "I won't ask you to cut it again."
The End
(:./rt/story)
