22-Dec-2000
Title: "Breath of Madness" 6/6
Author: Hinokumo
Archive: Gundam Wing Addiction--arigato, Tyr! Also at Darkflame's--I think--and Deathfics http://www.angelfire.com/sc2/deathfics/menu.html. Anyone else, just ask^__^
Category: Shounen ai, mild angst, OOC?
Pairings: This is gonna be a 1x2 mostly. I've got a 3x4 in mind later, though it is implied in this fic. Sorry, Wufei fans.
Rating: PG-13? I don't know, I'm not good at ratings
Warnings & Disclaimers: If you don't like shounen ai--boy are you in the wrong place--don't read any further. Mild language. These bishounen are not mine, just borrowing them.
Notes: When Heero and Duo return from a mission, they find their friends behaving strangely. And they're stuck right in the middle.
Sorry, this is not a "get-together" fic. They'll "get together" later. This is just stuff leading up to it. Plus a little pilot weirdness^_~
"Kuso," Duo muttered to himself, annoyed. His throat felt funny and a minute shiver wracked his body. He turned from his seated position to glare at the Japanese boy. "Damnit, Heero, would you quit messing with that door? You're giving me a headache." Much to his relief, Heero moved to sit beside him.
Heero put a hand to his forehead. "You're sick."
Duo chuckled. "You've never called me that before." He pulled his arms around his knees.
"Baka," he chided softly. "One of your wounds must have gotten infected."
"Well, there's not much we can do about that, now is there? I mean, we've been in here for hours--there's no telling when or if they'll come back for us, and since you can't open the friggin' door, I guess I'll just have to tough it out."
"There has to be a way." Heero stood resolutely.
"What way? In case you haven't noticed, there's nothing in here that can help us get that door open. We're going to sit in here and either they'll come back for us or we'll die from asphyxiation." Duo frowned, staring across the room at nothing. Sitting on the cold hard floor for hours with a fever had put him in an extremely foul mood. A mood that Heero seemed determined on ignoring as he walked around the room, hands splayed out across the surface, looking like a blind man trying to find his way in the dark. He paused at Duo's last statement. Duo glanced over at him.
"What?"
"Duo, in a room this small, about how many hours of oxygen would you estimate would last two people?"
Duo felt a chill run up his spine, but stopped his rising panic to do the math. After a glance around him, he let out a sigh. "About four hours."
Heero nodded in agreement. "We've been in here much longer than that, which means--"
"Which means, we must be getting air from somewhere!" Duo forced himself to stand.
Heero frowned at the interruption, but said nothing, turning his scrutiny toward the ceiling. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Duo lick one of his fingers and stick it in the air. The ridiculousness of the pose caused the corner of his mouth to twitch.
After several minutes, Heero found what he was looking for. Duo stood next to him, squinting. There, about six feet above them, was the grilled covering of a vent. Duo sighed. "Well, unless we both lose about 50 pounds, there's no way we're getting into that hole."
"Hn," was Heero's reply. He crouched, and with a grunt leaped the distance to grab hold of the vent.
"Heero, what are you doing?"
Heero said nothing, pulling his feet up to brace them against the ceiling, and pulled. With a creak and a cracking noise, the grilled metal gave way. Heero landed in a crouch next to a wide-eyed Duo, then went to sit directly under the light.
"Heero, what are you gonna do with that," Duo asked.
"Try to find another way," he said while beginning to pull apart pieces of the metal.
Duo put his hand to his forehead while sitting next to him. "Have fun. Let me know when we're out."
"Hn."
Several minutes passed, and Duo was just about to doze off when Heero abruptly got to his feet and went to the door. Curious, he went to join his partner. His eyes widened.
"Sugoi--you made a pick from that stuff?" Duo asked, impressed.
After a few more minutes of watching Heero, Duo could not stand it anymore. "Here, lemme see it," earning a glare from the Japanese pilot. Duo raised an eyebrow. "What? We both know I'm better at this kinda stuff."
Reluctantly, Heero handed over the pieces of metal and moved to stand behind Duo. The American could feel the other's heated gaze on the back of his head. "Don't get mad, Heero--I was doing this kinda stuff to survive long before we became pilots." There was no reply and Duo decided to ignore him, sticking his tongue out as he concentrated on the locking mechanism in the door. After what seemed like forever, he heard a faint click and gave a sigh of triumph/relief. He was just about to turn around when he felt Heero's hands on the back of his neck. "Hee--" he began.
Then, there was nothingness.
He came awake with a groan, feeling for all the world like he had been tossed out of a moving vehicle. Duo opened his eyes and lay unmoving on his bed.
Wait! His bed?! Duo sat up, wincing as he did so, and looked around. Yep, definitely his bed. The lights were out, but his night vision was enough to see that he was alone. His pulse quickened when he remembered what had happened in the storage room.
"Stupid bastard knocked me out," he growled. On the inside, though, he was terrified. What had Heero done? Had he gone to take out Quatre and Trowa on his own? Had he been successful? Or had something gone wrong?
All these thoughts ran through Duo's head in a repeat cycle as he crawled stiffly out of bed. His fever was gone and most of the aches he felt were just the normal pains of healing. Strangely, even his leg did not hurt that much. He found his gun sitting next to the lamp, which he flipped on. Looking down at himself, Duo found himself dressed in a clean pair of black boxers and a huge t-shirt. All his wounds were bound with fresh, clean bandages and, Duo suspected, a healthy amount of numbing medication. Someone had taken care of him; he had to find out what had happened.
Making sure his gun was loaded, Duo turned off the light and switched into stealth mode. He cautiously made his way out into the hallway, gun raised at the ready, his feet not making a sound as he slowly made his way to the light that came from the 'den.' He stopped before the entrance, taking a slow deep breath, listening to the light sounds of movement that came from within.
In one swift movement, he spun out into the doorway, gun already lining up it's first target... and froze. Duo stared.
There, in the center of the room, typing away on his laptop, was Heero Yuy. Sitting on the floor in the corner were the other pilots, each wearing their own degree of confusion, pain, and stupor. Trowa sat Indian style, staring at his hands, his hair doing a pitiful job of covering the huge black eye. Quatre was next to him, looking at Duo like he was having a hard time remembering something. His bottom lip was swollen to a grotesque purple and pink. Wufei sported a big bruise on his cheek. All in all, they looked extremely disoriented. Heero's voice broke through to Duo, causing him to jerk slightly.
"Everything's fine now," he said without turning.
Duo stared at him. He went to stand in front of Heero, his back to his friends. "Do they know?" he whispered.
Heero glanced up at him and shook his head slightly. When he spoke, it was also quiet. "I told them that I took them down before much trouble was caused."
Duo raised an eyebrow, looked down at himself, then back at Heero. He grinned wickedly. "You do realize, of course, that that's not going to stop me."
"Hn."
Later that afternoon, the three pilots all received orders for missions. Fortunately, by that time they seemed to have recovered most of their wits. Heero had gone to make sure all his codes had been removed and was standing at the end of the hangar when Duo came up beside him, grinning like a maniac.
"What did you do?" Heero asked over the roar of the other Gundams' engines.
Duo said nothing, but pointed at the departing machines. Heero's eyebrows went up to his hairline. There, on the back of Heavyarms, in big, spray-painted letters, were the words 'Kick Me.' The back of Sandrock was decorated with a huge pink smiley face, while the Shenlong was graffitied with the words 'Shinigami wuz here.'
Suddenly, a loud screeching sound filled the hangar comm. "Maxwell!!! How dare you! I'm going to kill you when I return!"
The rest of Wufei's rant was cut off as the two boys left the hangar, Duo laughing maniacally. Heero frowned at him.
"Aw, come on, Heero," he said while sitting down at the table. "You know they deserved it."
"Hn. They're going to be very angry when they get back," he warned.
"But you'll protect me, right Heero? I mean, it's their fault I'm injured and I just don't see how I'll be able to defend myself against all three of them. You wouldn't want your partner out of commission, now would you?" Duo smiled sweetly.
"Duo no baka," Heero sighed while opening his laptop. He watched as Duo took a sniff of the air.
"Mmm--is that coffee I smell?"
"Aa. I thought you might want some." He smirked. "Especially after all the 'work' you were doing."
Duo was already in the kitchen filling a cup and dumping a pound of sugar in it. "Nothing like a little caffeine to get you going. I need to be awake when they get back." Duo grinned, imagining the looks on their faces. He had yet to make Trowa see red. He put the cup to his lips, took a sniff, and paused. He sneaked a covert glance at Heero. The Wing pilot seemed to be watching him out of the corner of his eye. Duo took another deep smell. A flash of anger flickered in his eyes before being replaced by a wicked gleam.
Pointedly, making sure Heero was watching the movement, he lifted his arm over the sink and slowly turned the cup over, pouring all its contents down the drain. He forced himself not to grin when he saw some of Heero's facial muscles twitch. Yep, you know I got you now, he thought with a laugh.
With a casual grace, Duo sauntered over to where Heero was sitting at the table, pretending that he had not been paying any attention to the American. Duo placed both hands on the table and leaned over slowly, until his face was even with Heero's, forcing the Japanese pilot to forget about his laptop and look Duo in the eyes. Heero's expression was the same one he usually wore, but this time it was guarded. Duo smiled and leaned even closer. Heero's blue eyes widened slightly. He stared at him for a full minute before he spoke.
"Try to drug me again, Yuy, and I'll throw every single pair of spandex you own in the dryer and turn it on high."
With that, Duo straightened, gave Heero a salute, and disappeared down the hall, leaving a very stunned and slightly confused soldier in his wake. How had Duo known? Heero blinked. His research must have been in error. He cracked his knuckles and began a more extensive search for non-detectable sedatives. He would be needing all he could get his hands on once Duo found out what his tampering with the Gundams' pass codes had done to Deathscythe.
~owari~
Merry Christmas! Finally finished it--I take forever to finish fics! Hope you've enjoyed the ride thus far. Sorry no lemons-_- I've got one I'm working on. One reason I got sidetracked was that I just got into DBZ yaoi--Goku & Vegita! Yeah! Seriously, though--Erin K's and B- chan's works over on the saiyanslash ML are awesome! Most drool- worthy^_~ Anyways, thanks for stickin' around this long. Hugs to everyone who sent me C&C and bugged me to keep writing! Especially Leviathan, Tyr, Diane Davis, tiercel, Eos, & s.r.k.
(:./hinokumo/madness6)
