11-Dec-2003
Title: Seasonal Drift Part 9
Author: Ebonydove
Archived: aenai.steelsong.com
Warnings: sap, slight OOC and struggling plot bunnies
Spoilers: none
Author's notes: nuthin' but feedback cravings.
I don't know what ever possessed me to think that it would work, but with his complete and steadfast trust, Heero followed me to the door as I prepared to clear our escape route. I knew that Heero disappearing off the third floor wasn't going to go unnoticed for long. And I also knew that there wasn't a person in the place who would believe for one second that I hadn't helped him get out. If I gave myself the chance to really think about it, I may have even been a little offended if they assumed otherwise.
Everyone always saw Heero as the driving force, take charge, snapping orders member of our partnership. I even suppose to many it looked as if he called all the shots and I followed along like a devoted sidekick, but they really didn't know the simplest of truths. Which was that we just worked well together. He could read my moods even when I wasn't giving off any hints, and I knew his intentions by the tiniest quirks in his facial expressions. We spent long years of watching eachother's backs and there was an unspoken magnetic draw that we had to one another. An unconscious connection if you will. He was everything I had ever wanted in a brother, comrade, friend, and yes, even lover. Not that it was the right time to broach that little topic, as I scanned the hallway before quickly ducking back into the room to assess said partner. Who by his current facial expression, as schooled as it may be, looked to be in pain.
As I tried to gage the level of discomfort he was in the thought crossed my mind that he wasn't going to make it out of there under his own power even with my help. But I didn't voice my concern as I watched him gently massage his left temple and decided instead that I'd just have to worry about that later; once we had a safe distance from the hospital and a good head start on Wufei.
I wasn't going to pretend that Une would send anyone other than her best to retrieve us, even though I had secretly hoped for some half-ass trained rookie to get assigned the task. It was really only wishful thinking on my part though. Wufei would be the one. And possibly Trowa too if he agreed to. But although Heero and Wufei shared professional friendship and comradery, but Trowa and Heero were much closer. Something had passed between them during the war, in those very bad, very dark days, and I've never pushed to know just how the two bonded. Or care to. I respect them both too much to pry into it.
Trowa would scoff at the lack of security in the place. I had almost made mention of the severe lack of real security the hospital was supposed to offer it's patients and staff to Wufei when I first realized it, but thought better of it as I decided it could only help me later on. And Wufei and I both knew that it really wouldn't have mattered anyway. There's simply no stopping me when I put my mind to something. He knew that all to well.
Still, I couldn't help thinking about the last conversation I had with him. His unspoken warning wasn't exactly... subtle. And after that rousing little chat he gave me about committing career suicide, I didn't need a day glo sign to point out there was more going on than I knew. But to my defense, Wufei didn't need me to spell out my intentions on helping Heero escape from his little forced sabbatical either. He knew my mind. I'm quite sure of that. I just hoped our friendship would survive all of this.
I slipped into the hallway pushing aside my anger at Wufei over the content of that terse little conversation. Someone was out for Heero, and he was concerned that I was putting myself in the path of an internal inquiry by aiding him in any way. So I did what everyone expected me to; I rolled up my sleeves and put myself in the path of that oncoming train. Because come Hell or high water, I wasn't going to let Heero do this one on his own.
"Heero, are you sure you're up for this?" I gently placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a steady look, which he returned with his usual stoicness.
"We don't have much of a choice. They'll figure out I'm here soon. We need to go." He answered me quietly. I couldn't help noticing how he refrained from making eye contact with me.
He had stopped rubbing his temple, but could tell he was wearing his game face for my benefit. He probably knew that seeing him like this had me frazzled. I might not be his sidekick, but he was most definitely my rock. And right then I needed to know if I was going to have to do this on my own or had him to help me. "Heero, I need to know your status before we do this thing. And I mean all the details." He finally gave me a half-hearted glare, which eased my tension a bit, but not enough. "Heero... " I pressed as I took a step closer to him.
"I have a headache."
"Well, I suspect that's pretty normal after sustaining that blow to your noggin like that. I'm talkin' about anything else that might slow us down."
He suddenly looked uncomfortable, and if I hadn't been paying extreme attention to his face, I would have missed the slight blush. It gave me pause. "Well... ?" He dropped his gaze down to his feet, which were clad in the fuzzy green hospital slippers they had given us both to wear, but I knew what he was getting at. He didn't have any shoes. "Ah, well... we'll find something, k? These aren't exactly made for going long distances." I tapped my slipper-clad foot and got another tight nod from him.
I knew there was more he wasn't telling me, it was practically written all over him, but what ever it was he didn't think it would place us in any jeopardy and I trusted him to make that assessment. So with that settled, I made my way slowly to the door and took a few deep breaths. I was hoping that the big guy at the end of the hall monitoring the security doors was as dumb as he looked, but as I stepped out of Heero's room and into the hall, I realized it wasn't so. His cool gaze immediately connected with mine; prompting the sudden smile I plastered on. He might be big, but he certainly wasn't stupid. He had himself positioned in between the doors and the main hallway in such a way that if someone was going to try to rush him, they'd wind up hitting him or the cement wall on either side of the doors. Either way it would stop a person flat. I knew with my weight, even with the help of momentum and dexterity, I'd run the risk of getting nabbed with one good grab of his huge paws. It was going to take finesse to lift the door key off him, and not brute force. Lucky for me, it just so happened a task like that just happened to be one of my specialties. I walked closer to him; taking note of the fact that I was still wearing my fuzzy green slippers, and tried to feign disinterest in my surroundings. "Hey buddy, how's it going?"
He didn't even smile as he crossed his arms over his chest and nodded a polite, but gruff acknowledgement of my chipper greeting. I stopped a mere foot away from him and leaned casually against the wall, putting myself in the perfect spot to accidentally knock over his coffee. "I was just wondering what time lunch was going to be brought up for my partner, and well... " I flung my hand out in just such a way to knock the cup and send it splattering to the floor. "Oh shit! Man I'm sorry, let me help you clean that up... " I quickly bent to grab the sytrofoam cup and stepped closer to the spill, faking a slight slip which ended me right up in the big guy's arms. I quickly lifted the passkey from his inside pocket and palmed it while he helped to put me on my feet. "Sorry, I don't know why I'm being such a clutz... it's not in my nature to be so careless... lack of sleep I guess... I'm sorry... here let me... " I continued to huff out my well-performed embarrassment and concern over the slip and spill as he took careful stock of the situation.
"No harm done really. It was like sludge anyway." He groused back. "I need to get this cleaned up. And I don't know what they're serving in the cafeteria. You can ask one of the nurse's downstairs."
It was the brush off I was waiting for. I quickly backed off trying to help him and waited to see if he'd go for the supply closet on the other side of Heero's room, or the security doors. If he went for the doors, he'd need the passkey and would most likely figure out that I had it. I huffed again to myself that he just wasn't that dumb despite my hopes that he was. But my little bit of Maxwell luck was holding out as he moved around his desk to go for the broom closet, leaving his two-way on the desk. I followed slightly behind him and continued to chatter away with my offers of helping, which he pointedly ignored in favor of just getting the hell away from me. I glanced to Heero's door, which was still tightly closed and waited for the big guy to grab a bunch of keys from his beltloop and unlock the supply closet door.
I happily rattled on with my helpful dialogue as I watched him fish around looking for what I assumed was a mop and bucket. It was stashed in the back corner of the closet and I almost grinned at just how much my luck was with me so far today. But just as I prepared myself to lunge, he paused in his search for the mophead and turned back to look at me, cutting my chattering off.
"That door is spring loaded, so I'll need you to hold it open while I get the bucket out. I don't what to get locked in and I need two hands to roll this damn thing out. That would actually be helpful." He grumbled at me with a frown.
I gave him my most innocent and perplexed look when I asked my next question, all the while trying not to bust a nut holding in my mirth at the ridiculousness of the fact that the broom closet only could be locked or unlocked from the outside. "You can't unlock the door from the inside? Have you ever gotten stuck in there before?"
"Nope. And no, I haven't."
"Ah. Okay, I'll hold it. Guess it's a lucky thing I'm here, huh?" I smiled hugely, really trying not to let my nervous giggle escape.
"Yeah, sure."
Needless to say the minute he ducked back inside that little room to pull the bucket around, I slammed the door shut and made sure it was locked securely before racing back down the hall and barreling into Heero's room, laughing out loud despite myself. The big guy recovered from his surprise quickly and started pounding on the door and bellowing at me, with no little bit of cussing, but I was already making a mad dash to get back to Heero.
"All right, let's get outta here!" I huffed out and grabbed his hand, pulling him out the door and running towards the security doors and skidding to halt in our fuzzy slippers. I swiped the card through the mechanism and then took the tip of my steel-toed boot to smash the controls in. I didn't have time to put my shoes on, but ditched the slippers and made our way through the outer doors and into the attached corridor in my stocking feet. I took a few brief moments to catch my breath and looked around for the stairwell. It couldn't be that easy. But just as I was about to put on my boots, I caught the nurse coming around the corner in her slow, deliberate shuffle. I heard Heero's slight intake of breath behind me and I grabbed his hand again, pulling us behind a laundry cart. That's when it dawned on me how we could get off the third floor. "Heero, get in this."
He flashed me a most irritated look before finally nodding his silent agreement to climb in the damn thing. I quickly covered him with some towels and waited for the nurse to move on down the corridor and go into one of the other rooms as I crouched low behind the bulky thing. The portly nurse made her way past us and entered one of the other hospital rooms, giving me the chance to quickly wheel the cart down the end of the hall to where the third floor laundry chute was. I threw on a blue shirt over my t-shirt and heard Heero grunt as I shoved the cart the last few feet to the wall beside the little square metal door of the chute. It was going to be a tight fit, but I didn't think we would be able to simply walk out the front doors and we needed to get off this floor before the big guy bulled his way out of the supply closet.
I could feel the press of time against me now, ticking in the back of my mind. It had only been mere minutes since we dashed out of the security wing, but seemed like it took us hours to get these few yards. I was staring to sweat a little and could feel my heart rate quicken as I waited for an orderly who had entered from the stairwell to walk by me as I made like I was preparing to toss the towels in the chute. He didn't so much as look in my direction, too intent on finishing the chocolate chip muffin he was currently stuffing into his face. I almost winked above me at the angel who must be watching my back, 'cuz I didn't think my luck could possibly be that powerful. It had to be one of the divine running interference for us.
Once it was clear, I opened the chute and bent low over the lump of towels. "You ready, man?"
"Duo, is going to work? You haven't planned for any unforeseen obstacles once we've landed in the basement."
Any chuckling on my part of the ridiculousness of our current situation was stifled by the slight trepidation in his muffled voice from under those towels. "It's gunna be all right, partner. Trust me, k?" I knew what the slight pang in my chest was all about, but tried to ignore that for now. He made no further protest as I helped him out of the cart and feet first into the metal chute. "Try to think of it like a slide when you where a kid. I'll be right behind you."
"Duo, I should tell you... " He paused and looked away from me, frowning fiercely and gripping my arm a little tighter from where I was supporting his weight as he prepared to slide down into the blackness below.
"Yeah...? " I coaxed, but he just gave me a slight shake of his head, like he was going to blow it off.
"It's just... my head hurts and I'm... slightly dizzy. I don't think I'll be much help to you if someone's down there."
"Heero, I'll be right behind you, so if there's someone down there they won't know what hit them, k?"
He gave me a tight little nod and let go of my arm, instantly disappearing into the blackness of that metal chute. I thought my heart was going to beat right out of my chest; not able to get my scrawny ass down that chute fast enough. It was a crazy thing, and I slid so fast I thought the blue shirt was going to get pulled right off over my head on the way down. I hadn't thought of the landing and flew out of the bottom of the chute and found myself sprawled on top of Heero who was lying on his back in a pile of towels and sheets.
The basement was empty and pitch black except for one small window in the corner of the room and the soft red glow of the exit sign over the door at the top of the wooden stairs. All I could hear was Heero's soft pants of breath as he lay underneath me, and the hum of the dryer running on the far side of the room. I froze. He was looking up at me with this intense look on his face, his eyes wide and staring and all the while panting these soft puffs of breath in my face. I wet my lips with the tip of my tongue as I stared down at him and eased myself forward the last few inches our faces had been apart and kissed him gently where he lay against the white expanse of sheets underneath him. I felt his warm lips tighten for an instant against mine, before his eyes slid shut and he gave in to my questing mouth. Our breathing had both become heavy as I brought my hands up to tangle in his hair, feeling more than hearing his sharp intake of breath as I slowly slid my tongue against his. He lay there completely still until I had finished the kiss and eased myself up off him, kneeling in front of him.
We just stared at each other like that for the longest time, breathing heavily and listening to the furnace kick on with a hiss and rumble from somewhere behind us. It was like everything had melted away and it was just he and I in the warm, dark stillness of that basement. I was too afraid to speak; anxious that I'd break that spell with words when he rolled over onto his stomach and pushed himself up off the floor. He held a hand out to me, which I took and he pulled me up. And not letting go of my hand, he frowned and gave me a flustered look.
"W-why did you do that?"
He asked his question so softly that it made me smile at the sheer coyness of it. "For luck." I answered him quietly and gave his hand a little squeeze in mine.
He let go of my hand then and straightened himself up, his face slipping back into his normal calm. "Do we need it?"
I felt my own smile falter a little at the caution laced there. "Can't hurt." I shrugged as I stepped out of the nest of linens and took quick stock of our new surroundings. Getting out would be easy, except that I wasn't sure if we would be crawling out a basement window that opened to the street or the side yard like I had hoped. It was too grungy to tell from where I was, so I made my way over to the window, with Heero right behind me, to pull myself up for a better look.
"It opens into the back alley, behind the hospital's ambulance bay. I'm gunna go out first and then pull you up. Once we've gotten outside, I'll need you to stay low while I fetch us a car. Got it?"
"I'm not an invalid Duo. You don't need to be worried about whether I can handle myself without your presence for two seconds."
I wanted to hug him I was so relieved to hear his snippy little remark and see the bright determination in those sparkling peepers of his. "Yeah, well you're the one who got us into this mess, remember?" I immediately regretted saying that when I saw his face fall and his frown deepen. He didn't remember. Not all of it anyway, just the most gruesome of parts. I reached out and took his hand again and gave it another squeeze. "It's gonna be okay partner, promise."
He gave me a nod and then that same odd look crossed his face. I was about to crack some smart-assed comment when he squeezed my hand back and tugged me closer to him. My stomach dropped as he leaned in and kissed me. It was a soft, chaste kiss, without the flush of passion our earlier one had been like, but just as earth shaking for me. "For luck." He said quietly before backing away and releasing my hand from his. All I could do was smile like some kind of idiot as I scrambled my way up and out the window.
End Part 9
(:./ebony/drift9)
