12-Jul-2002
Title: Lesser of Two Evils
Author: Draco
Disclaimer: Unforunately these characters still don't belong to me despite of the long relationship I have had with them...
Notes: I'm back! Well, I was never really gone, just kinda lurking around. I got the idea for this story while riding on a cable car and I started to talk to myself and people looked at me funny...
Warnings: None
Pairings: None
Howard knocked over the toolbox. Everything fell out, each tool making its own clinking sound as it hit the ground. Howard swore loudly, but he did not bent down to get the tools.
Instead, Howard found his stool nearby. He pulled it closer and sat down, "It's all falling apart." Howard put his hand over his eyes and inhaled deeply.
There were knocks at his door. Howard wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his bright red Hawaii shirt. He looked for his sunglasses, but he could not find them. The room was buried in spare parts and tools and the knocks at the door grown more insistent.
Slowly, Howard navigated his floor until he finally reached the door. By the time he was at the door, a smile was already on his face.
"G!"
"Hello, Howard," G said with out returning the smile. When Howard stepped back to let G in the door he realized that a very young girl dressed in rags held on to G's hand.
"Hello," Howard bent down to the girl. The girl stared at him. Or rather, she was staring at Howard's loud shirt.
"Find yourself an apprentice have you, G?" Howard asked while he was still bent at the girl's level.
"Something like that," G replied as he stepped into Howard's small mechanics shop.
"She's too pretty for you," Howard closed the door behind them.
"He," G corrected, "Duo Maxwell, Howard. Howard, Duo Maxwell."
Howard looked at the boy's long braid and said nothing. The boy did not make any movements either.
"So much manners we all have," Howard said finally.
"The boy's been through a lot. What's your excuse?" G haphazardly lifted the boy up from the debris on the ground and placed him on a stool.
"I have no excuse," Howard's face was expressionless. His smile had long faded.
"Do you have anything to eat? Duo hasn't eaten since yesterday," G glanced around at all the random pieces of parts of machines and bits of metal in the room.
"Only canned beans," Howard walked toward a pile of junk and started to removed several large pieces of mechanical components that did not look they belonged to any machine, the pile of junk turned out to be a cabinet. From the cabinet, Howard retrieved two cans of beans and a can opener.
"You have to eat from the can with your hands, I lost my dishes and silverware under here sometime last Tuesday." Balancing both cans, Howard somehow managed to open them both and handed one can to G and the other to Duo.
Duo started to drink the beans, while G stared at him.
"Does the boy talk at all?" Howard put his junk back on top of the cabinet.
"He hasn't talked since we left L2," G replied, "He hasn't slept either, for that matter. Do you have a bed buried here somewhere?"
"I'm not sleepy," Duo said. His face stained with beans.
G did not answer. Duo looked down into his can of beans.
After a moment two lines of tears slid down his eyes.
Howard saw the tears, but did not comment. He walked to the other side of the room, and opened another door. Then he walked back to Duo (carefully to avoid stepping on something) put the can of beans on the ground, picked the boy up and carried him into the other room.
This room only held a bed. The bed sheets were not made and there was a pillow on the ground. Howard put Duo on the bed, retrieved the pillow on the ground. He then took off Duo's rags and cleaned his bean stained face with it.
Duo tried to grab on to the rag before Howard could wipe his face with it, but Howard somehow maneuvered the rags away from him, "I have some clean cloth you can wear after you sleep."
"I'm not sleepy," Duo said, his hand clinging on to a golden cross hung from his neck.
"You need to sleep," G had followed them into the room and he was now standing on the other side of bed.
Howard crouched down to see under his bed, "I know I have some comics here somewhere. They put me right to sleep."
While he searched under his bed, he heard the boy yelp sharply. Howard quickly stood up again, G held a syringe in his hand, and the boy was passed out on the bed in a weird position with one arm folded underneath his body.
"You sedated him?!" Howard said in disbelief as he turned the boy over on his back.
"It was the only way he was going to get any sleep at all," G answered as he pulled the blanket over the boy with his free hand.
"Was that really necessary?" Howard demanded as he grabbed G's hand that still held the syringe.
"Yes. Duo saw his entire church slaughtered before him two days ago. The last time he tried to sleep, he woke up screaming and shaking," G said as he yanked his arm free. He placed a cap on the syringe, put it back in his pocket and walked out of the bedroom.
"What the hell do you think you are doing with him?" Howard followed G out and closed the door to the bedroom.
"Duo wants revenge, I need a pilot," G sat on the stool where Duo had sat before.
"G..."
"Heero is dead," G said softly.
"I know," Howard's head lowered.
"What are we going to do now?" G's voice cracked slightly.
"Sounded like you had that figured out already. You have started on Deathscythe already, haven't you?" Howard looked at G.
"I didn't want this," G was staring at his hands.
"I'm sorry Gary," Howard placed one of his hands on G's shoulder, "How is J?"
"Mad."
"I thought he might be angry as hell... "
"No, I mean he's lost it," G looked up at Howard, "He's completely lost it. I tried talking to him after I heard about Heero, and he stared at me and told me he was fine. Two days later he adopts a kid and names him Heero Yuy."
Howard sat himself down on the ground, "Shit."
"That's what I said." G and Howard both stared at the ground.
"Do you think he's going to work on Wing?" Howard said after a long moment.
"I saw the boy three days ago. The one he named after Heero. He was popping his own joint back into place. He had dislocated his arm when he fell out a car after he killed an OZ officer," G answered, "So yes, J preparing for war. J is training a soldier. Looks like he's training the perfect soldier... J's out for revenge... J and Heero parted on bad terms."
"I remember. He couldn't take J anymore," Howard said stroking his chin. His eyes were staring at the ground, "J never loved anybody except Heero, but he loved Heero fiercely."
"I remember when Heero was seven, he disassembled one J's transmitters. He was so mad at himself when he couldn't put it back that he cried," G supported his head with his hand.
"He couldn't have been happy living with J. A mad scientists, and a little boy who couldn't learn engineering to save his life," Howard wiped his face with his sleeve, "I always thought it was better that he left when he was thirteen. He found something that he was good at. . .He was so good that they shot him... Crazy scientists shouldn't raise kids," Howard paused and looked at G, "What are you doing with Duo?"
"Heero was our one chance for bloodless peace, Howard," G looked up at Howard, "It's war now."
"And Duo? And that boy that J's got, the one that he's calling Heero, you are using them as weapons of the war?" Howard asked, "J has lost his son, what's your excuse?"
"You are the one who help design the gundam in the first place Howard. And you know what as sick as it is, I like designing war machines and I know you do too. Nothing tests your mechanics and engineering like war. Hell, if I were living in the Middle Ages, I'd probably be designing lances rather being a stupid miller. What did you design the gundams for if not for war?" G demanded.
"I never said I objected to war. Oppression has rarely been overturn by anything but war. Dragging kids in is something else all together," Howard stood up. He turned away from G, and started to pick up the tools that had fallen earlier.
"I didn't drag Duo in to this war, OZ dragged him in by destroying his church. This is the only way," G stared at Howard's backside. When Howard didn't answer G spoke again. "Only kids trained from a early age can have reflexes fast enough to pilot a gundam.
"The end justifies the means, eh?"
"What the hell do you want me to do Howard?!" G stood up and grabbed Howard, and turned Howard around to face him.
"Why are you here G?" Howard asked quietly.
"I don't know... " G answered after a moment.
Howard waited.
"I don't want to fuck Duo up the way that J is fucking up that poor kid he calls Heero," G said finally.
"How do you think I can help you with that?" Howard asked.
"You helped J with raising Heero" and Heero didn't turn out too messed up... " G answered.
Howard started to bend down to pick up his tools again as he said, "Heero turned up dead."
"Howard... "
Howard opened the bedroom door. Duo hadn't moved on the bed. Howard walked in, bent down and retrieved a stack of comics and walked out again.
He handed the comics to G.
"What's this?"
"Give him something to live for," Howard answered.
"Comics?"
"Anything," Howard said softly, "A sense of humor. He will need it for the coming storm."
"I am sorry for what I'm going to do him. One thing is for sure, I know I'm going straight to hell for this."
"Don't worry about hell, G. It's Duo's forgiveness you will have to seek in the future, not God's," Howard picked up the last tool from the floor and put it back in the box.
~Owari
(:./draco/lesser)
