14 Feb 2000



From: linainverse@earthlink.net

Disclaimer: I don’t own GW. I’m poor. This story is for entertainment
only. There is yaoi, mention of NCS, and other stuff. If you can’t
deal, don’t read. Questions and comments are always welcome. Flames
will be laughed at and used to cover the bottom of the
birdcage. As my grandmother used to say: If you can’t say anything
nice, shut up! Other than that, please enjoy the fic.

 

Gundam Wing Forever by Phoenix

Part 2

It was dark. That was the first thing Duo noticed. The second thing was
the warm body behind him and the strong arms wrapped
around him. For a moment Duo felt panic run through his veins. His mind
tried to remember where he was and how he had gotten into
bed with someone. 

"Relax, Duo, it’s just me," a voice husky with sleep told him. It was
easily recognizable as Aria’s. Duo relaxed until he felt her trying to
move away. He grasped her arms and held onto them; a silent plea for
her not to leave him. Right now, the young pilot needed that
contact, warmth, and feeling of being protected. Once more the young
woman snuggled up against Duo, cradling him. So much had
happened. Would things ever feel normal again?

Duo looked at the clock. 3:23 a.m. Way too early to be awake. Behind
him, Aria’s steady, even breathing told him she was asleep again.
Apparently he made a really great teddy bear. It could also have been
the long day she’d gone through.

Duo had awoken in the car. A blanket had been placed over him to hide
the blood on his clothes. He had looked out the window to
find buildings everywhere. Aria told him they had been driving for six
hours. Then she pulled into the parking lot of a very large mall. 

"Time to get you some new clothes," she announced. It only took a few
seconds for her to memorize all of Duo’s measurements. "Stay
under the blanket." She ordered. "Pretend to sleep if you have to. I
don’t think anyone would understand if they saw all that blood."
Grabbing a wallet, Aria headed for the mall. Duo had never met a woman
who didn’t carry a purse before. 

For over thirty minutes, Duo sat in the car. The events of the past day
played over and over in his mind. How could he be trusting this
woman so much? Where was his wound? What did she mean when she called
him immortal? His thoughts were interrupted a couple of
times. Twice people looked in to check on him. He pretended to be
asleep and since it wasn’t too warm outside, no one tried to see if
he was alright. The blanket didn’t seem that strange. However, when
mall security began to tap on his window, Duo was at a loss for
what to do. He had very few options. If they saw his clothes... Aria
chose that moment to show up.

She was loaded down with packages. It only took a few seconds to draw
the officer’s attention from Duo. The young Watcher then
began an explanation. Duo listened to the conversation. Aria was a
talented liar. She told the officer that Duo was her little brother
fresh off a flight from America. Their parents had been killed by a
thief. Because Duo had been the only witness, he had to testify and
it had torn the poor guy apart. After it was all over, poor little Duo
had no place to go but to his sister. The airport lost his luggage, the
flight was terrible, and to top things off, the young man hardly slept
due to nightmares. Aria was here to buy him new clothes until the
airport found his bags. During the conversation, the Watcher kept eye
contact and was very animated. It was the most stunning act
Duo had ever seen. He struggled not to laugh. 

‘It’s a good thing she’s not with the enemy," The young pilot thought.
‘She would make one hell of a spy.’ The last thought startled
Duo. What if this whole thing was some sort of trick? What if they were
trying to get him to lead the way to the other pilots? After all,
she had asked twice if he had any friends or a place to go. No, that
didn’t make any sense. How could OZ know about him? Maybe the
mission had been a trap. They had been waiting for whoever showed up.
That made sense. 

‘But what about the wound,’ his treacherous mind countered. Duo almost
groaned out loud. Damn it. He had just about worked things
out so they could be normal again and his loud mouth mind had to go and
ruin it. Still, Duo had felt the blade tear through him and
now there was no wound. He remembered the pain, bleeding, and even
dying. Yet here he was. Why can’t things go back to being
normal?

Aria took care of the parking cop and loaded up the car. Duo seemed to
be lost in thought. Maybe it would be a good idea not to push
him right now. She had bought all the necessities for the trip. Time
was running out however. The card she normally used for
purchases had been canceled. Fortunately, there were several other
cards tied into the Watcher’s account that no one knew about.
Unfortunately, the bad card meant the Watchers knew. Aria had found a
wall of cash machines and withdrawn an obscene amount of
money. One more reason for the Watchers to want her dead. Oh well.

The motel they chose to stay at was on the outskirts of the city. The
farther from the mall, the better. Aria had checked them in while
Duo waited. If the two were lucky, their room would be away from the
others and no one would notice the state of the young man’s
clothes when he left the car. Luck was with them. The room was in the
back corner. 

Once inside, Aria had suggested that Duo might like a bath. She was
busy unpacking all the stuff purchased at the mall. After a quick
search, she threw Duo some pajamas. They had little dinosaurs on them.
Duo threw her a look.

"It’s all they had in your size," she claimed. 

Duo shrugged and accepted them. What else was he going to do? Prance
around naked? Maybe if she had been Heero. Duo cut off
that line of thought. Heero might not even be alive. An ache started in
his chest. Better to just avoid that entire subject for now.

He was happy to see the bathroom came with three bottles of shampoo.
His braid had dried blood in it and needed serious washing.
Turning the water on as high and hot as it would go, Duo lost himself
in thought again. He was traveling with a woman he didn’t
know. Had messed up a simple mission. Though he was convinced that part
wasn’t his fault. He’d shot the guy. Mission
accomplished; the target had just gotten back up. Nothing in the
mission specs said he had to kill the guy twice. 

Duo groaned and leaned against the wall. Kill twice? No one would ever
believe him. Hell, he wasn’t sure he believed him. Aria seemed
to know what was going on; problem was she didn’t say much and he knew
she was a talented liar. How could he be sure she would
tell him the truth? The whole immortality story was hard to swallow. So
what to do? 

Should he go along with her and see what happened? Kill her now and
make his way back to Quatre’s? Truthfully, he didn’t want to
kill her. What ever else was going on, she had saved him from that
bastard. Duo shuddered. No one was allowed to touch him like that
except Heero. And his body had...had...Duo tried to turn the knob for
hotter water, but it was turned as far as it could go. So why did
he feel so cold? So dirty?

The young pilot began to scrub himself so hard he made scratches in
places. A knock at the door distracted him from trying to remove
the filth he couldn’t see. 

"Hey don’t use up all the hot water." 

Duo looked at the bathroom. It was full of steam. He couldn’t even see
the door. With a sigh, Duo turned down the heat.

"Be out in a minute," he called. This time he began to really bathe. It
took forever to wash out his hair, but the process gave Duo
something comforting and normal to focus on. Quickly drying off, he
tried on the pajamas. They fit. Still, dinosaurs? Duo just shook
his head. Who was this girl?

When he opened the bathroom door, he expected to see shopping bags and
items scattered about, instead Aria had organized
everything and even packed several bags and one suitcase. The shopping
bags were gone. The room looked like regular travelers were
staying there. 

"Your clothes are in the suitcase. I don’t care if my stuff gets
wrinkled." She proclaimed as she stepped past him into the bathroom.
"Wow. Hello England" Duo grinned. The bathroom was still full of steam.
"If you used all the hot water..." The threat was cut off by
the closing door. Somehow, Duo wasn’t worried in the least.

While Aria took her shower, Duo explored her purchases. All the
necessities were there. Deodorant, a brush, a comb, underwear,
socks, shampoo, and even shoes. The clothes tended to be jeans and
regular shirts. Not too bad, he decided. Nothing unusual here.
Her bags were next.

A small twinge of guilt went through Duo as he began his search. Aria
hadn’t offered anything but help. Duo’s training, however,
insisted he find out as much as possible about his new companion. Maybe
she was trustworthy, maybe not. 

There were three bags, only two of which had anything in them. All were
conveniently located on the bed. Duo stared. He hadn’t
noticed before, but the room only had one bed. A big one. Was that why
she was being so helpful? Did she expect something in
return? More than likely. That’s just the way people were. No need to
worry about it now. Duo resumed his search and this time there
was no guilt.

For the most part, the bags contained only clothes. At the bottom of
the second, however, there was a small laptop computer. Taking a
gamble, the youth plugged in the Internet connection and turned the
computer on. During the load time, Duo found a set of throwing
knives, the gun she had used before, and a wallet. Not many weapons. 

While the computer loaded, Duo moved with lightning speed. The wallet
told him little more than what he already knew. Somehow,
she’d gotten her hands on alot of cash, she was nineteen, and she had
three different library cards. Not all that useful. He would have
to play along until he could get her somewhere they could talk without
interruptions. Hopefully, Aria would cooperate. The idea of
torturing someone he owed disturbed him. 

He bought tickets for himself and Aria with the computer. The eight
a.m. flight was the least crowded. They would pay for the tickets
when picking them up. Fortunately, no one wanted to travel to Quatre’s
homeland since OZ had taken an interest in it. The flights were
almost empty. Fewer people would be at the airport. Then Duo sent
Quatre a message. 

"Hi. Two here. Things got interesting. Picked up a stray. Bringing her
with me. Pick me up at 11 a.m. Bring some friends. We can have a
party. Gotta fly."

The message wouldn’t make sense to anyone but Quatre. He had just put
the computer back when the bathroom door opened. Aria
was wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top instead of pajamas. Alarms
went off in Duo’s head. They got even louder when she
climbed onto the bed and patted in front of her. He moved reluctantly
to the bed. As he sat in front of her, she told him to turn around. 

Duo was excepting the worse. Still, this would clear the debt between
them and she wasn’t that bad looking. However, Aria merely
took a brush out of her bag and began to brush his hair. It was a great
feeling. As much as Duo loved his hair, it was a pain to brush.
Finally, the girl behind him sighed.

"What?" He asked. Now he would find out what was going to happen.

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"All this hair and not a single split end. Mine gets shoulder length
and I get split ends on every strand."

Duo couldn’t help but laugh. Here he was, expecting something
suggestive, and she wanted to talk about hair care. 

"What’s so funny?" Aria grumbled. "I’m jealous." 

The conversation stayed along those lines for a long while. Once she
began to braid his hair, Duo told her about making reservations
on a flight. Of course, he didn’t tell her how he made them. No sense
in letting her know what he’d done. Aria took it all in stride.

"Sounds good. I’ll set the alarm." Once that was done, Aria tucked Duo
into bed and settled into a chair.

"The bed’s big enough for two," Duo pointed out. 

"I’ve slept in worse places." The woman said, ending the conversation
by closing her eyes. 

Several hours later, Duo had a nightmare. Not that unusual for him,
considering his life, the young man was surprised he didn’t have
them more often. This one was different though. Duo was again trapped
by Kelos, but this time he willingly gave the other man what
he wanted. The young pilot’s mind shrieked in horror as his body
reveled in the other’s touch. With a shout, Duo scrambled out of
bed.

Instincts learned on the street drove Duo to find the nearest corner
and from there he surveyed the room. Aria was still in her chair.
With exaggerated carefulness, the woman uncovered herself and stood up.

"You there, Duo, or am I talking to your subconscious?"

"Yeah, it’s me." Duo whispered and then laughed. Why whisper? Aria
smiled.

"You OK?"

"Fine. Just a nightmare." The pilot got back into bed. For a few
seconds, he was fine, then the shaking started. The dream really had
gotten to him. The bed dipped slightly as Aria slipped under the covers
and behind him. Duo stiffened. Now was not the time for this. 

"Easy, kid," Aria said softly. She gently wrapped her arms around the
young man making sure not to be confining. Pulling Duo into
the curves of her body, Aria began to slowly rock him. "Everything’s
gonna be fine. Just get some sleep." Her voice dropped into a
soothing, low hum. The tune was almost familiar to Deathscythe’s pilot
and he found himself slipping away when nothing more than
warmth and comfort were offered.

For the rest of the night, Aria had comforted Duo when the nightmares
returned and never once demanded anything. Now at three,
almost four, in the morning, Duo’s doubts came swarming back. How could
he turn this young woman over to Quatre for questioning? 

‘Questioning? Hah!’ his conscience mocked him. ‘It’s plain old torture
and you know it. They’ll torture her until they’re sure they have
the truth and then probably kill her. All because she helped you.’

Duo tried to deny the charge, but it was the truth. Aria wasn’t acting
like an OZ spy. She was acting like a big sister. Still, he had to be
sure. As much as he liked her, there was still a possibility she knew
more than she was telling. A rock and a hard place. No matter what
Duo did, someone had to lose. 

Finally, Duo made his decision. In the morning, they would board the
plane and head for Quatre’s. Once there, he would hand Aria
over to the blond pilot. With a little convincing from Duo, she might
not need the stronger forms of persuasion. Maybe he could even
convince Quatre to go easy on her. And when it turned out she was
nothing more than an innocent bystander, Quatre’s people could
look after her. Sure, she’d be a prisoner for as long as the war went
on, but it was better than being dead. 

The solution wasn’t perfect. Hell, it had more holes than a strainer.
What else could he do? For the rest of the morning Duo watched
the time pass. Sleep avoided him and guilt danced a jig on his soul.
With a sigh, Duo wondered if he was cursed to lose everyone he
cared about and who returned the feeling.