01-Ju1-2000
Title: Breaking Predestination 14/14 (there will be an
epilogue tho)
Author: TB
Archive: yes please GW Addiction
Catagory: AU, some yaoi
Pairing(s): Various, mainly 1x2/2x1
Rating: R
Warnings: language, angst
Spoilers: yes
Notes: Thanks as ever to Marsh, thanks to everyone who
has replied to the fic, I love you, can I keep you?,
thanks to all the help that I have gotten from many
places, you all know who you are ^_^ This fic is set
in AC 202, considering the series and EW as cannon. I
borrowed spaceshippy stuff from Star Trek.
Feedback: please and thanks
Disclaimers: nope. not mine. nope. no profit from this
either.
It was very hot on L2.
Every time Heero had come to the colony cluster, he had been struck by the almost overwhelming heat that pervaded each metallic civilisation. Weather controls that had gone unmaintenanced for decades, maybe even a century, steadily poured searing heat onto a group of people who were as culturally and racially diverse as the average Earth city--L2 was different from all the other colonies. Like most persons from L2, Duo was a true product of his environment--canny, street-smart, a little like the old proletariat class of AD Earth, a strong worker who was self-sufficient but united to his own kind by a common goal--the will to survive.
Every time Heero had come to L2, he had seen a thousand poignant reminders of the reasons he loved his partner. Beggars lying in doorways scant yards from the well-groomed yards of the old Federation-stock wealthy; churches and meeting halls destroyed by troops and left to rot in reminder of the punishment for daring to fight; and everywhere, the heat, numbing the senses and cooling only slightly at dusk. This, all of this, was Duo--suffering, surviving, and ultimately rising above all odds, still unimpressed by the notion of giving up.
It gave him a little hope, seeing this place again.
They'd been happy here for a while, living in this old condominium that Heero had gradually become fond of, with its peeling paint and raised floors. It must not have sold, after they'd moved to L1. The door still opened with his key. Heero let it swing shut, and found the light switch just inside the hallway. Someone was here, he could tell--there was clothing left lying on chairs and dirty dishes in the sink. A light on in the bedroom.
Heero went toward the light, and laid his palm against the control. The door opened. But the room was empty, the bed untouched.
A soft voice spoke behind him. "You just missed him."
Heero turned. It was Hirde--young Hirde, skinny as a whip and wearing an old floppy beret, looking at him with unreadable eyes.
"Tell me where he is," Heero replied. "Please."
Hirde frowned a little, and stepped back. Then she turned and began walking back toward the kitchen.
"Hirde! Tell me, please."
"Why? So you drag him back to prison?"
He caught up to her in a few quick strides, and grabbed her arm. She backhanded him swiftly, but it didn't faze him; he only stared her down, and waited.
It took much longer than he'd expected. But finally she wilted under his dark gaze, guilt and tears in her eyes, and pulled weakly at his grasp until he let her go.
"The church down the street," she mumbled. "He's miserable. Don't you dare make it worse."
"I won't. It's a promise."
The church was small, very Catholic, very dim. The honeyed glints of a chestnut-coloured braid seemed to collect all the light. Heero hovered in the front archway, stopped at the threshold by the sheer desolation of that waif-like figure, a white hand reaching out with a slender burning taper to touch the wick of a red candle among the shelves of a hundred tiny flames. It was a sight he had seen before. But it had never touched him to the quick like this, seeing that hand tremble, seeing those familiar straight shoulders slumped and hear that throaty voice that had used to sing and laugh stumble and falter in the middle of a prayer. He had never seen Duo look so alone.
He began to walk forward. There was no noise in the hushed church except Duo's murmurs. "I think I must be going mad. There's no other explanation. Seeing myself and Hirde, but they weren't me and her. The guilt alone is killing me. Forget Heero. Forget about him."
Heero hesitated. *Too late* thundered through his mind.
Duo swore softly. "I can't! Didn't he realise that I can't just forget him! If I could I wouldn't be feeling this, and damnit... "
A small sigh of relief escaped him. *Just do this,* he thought, and he closed the rest of the distance. Duo was so absorbed that he never noticed, until Heero reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Go away, Hirde," he said tiredly.
It didn't faze him. He slowly slid his arms around Duo, crushing him tightly against his chest. Duo's spine stiffened, and his head came up.
Shakily he demanded, "--Who?"
He could feel the insane thump of his heartbeat against the warmth of Duo's back, and the matching rhythm of Duo's pulse fluttered beneath his lips as he pressed his mouth against the vein in Duo's neck. "Duo no baka," he whispered, closing his eyes and holding him even tighter. Oh, God, why had he ever thought that he could live without this feeling, without this man in his arms? Where had they gone wrong, why had it taken so much for them to figure out the mystery, that this was the place where fate had meant for them to be? "Duo no baka. Who else would it be?"
Suddenly Duo was shaking like a leaf in a storm. A wordless plea became a sob, a horrible gut-wrenching sob. Heero turned him and tried to speak, and failed; Duo put his arms around Heero's neck and wept into his shoulder, his body pressed tightly to Heero's, the bare molecules that separated them too much distance to be borne.
He thought he said, "It took too long to come back to you," but maybe it was only the strong desire to calm Duo, or keep the moment forever by giving it a tag for his memory. But it wasn't necessary. The mouth that opened under his and the eyes, blazing pure amethyst and red-rimmed and puffy from crying too much and utterly beautiful, were enough; the hand that clenched in his hair and the chest that heaved with those sobs were enough. The raw whisper of "I love you" that he had heard before and would hear again was almost too much. All that was left to do was hold him and kiss him and swear to never drift so far from home again.
End Part 14
(:./erin/break14)
