05-Jun-2001
Title: Every You, Every Me (1/?)
Author: Ryan Harbin
Pairings: 1+2, Sorta OC x Sorta OC
Warnings: shounen ai, yaoi, alternate universes
Archive: GWA
Notes: It's raining and storming and lightning-ing... ;_; And that damn window not ten yards from me won't close! Bah.
Scared...
Well, the little extra bit I added onto part one set me up part two. Yay!
Their two guests - well, fine, it was something more forceful than a simple invite that had brought them hear - paused at that. Kyouji used to the short time to gauge his reactions to the pair. As ludicrous as it seemed now, he realized that he, and probably Due as well, had been expecting two individuals exactly like themselves, though that in itself was an oxymoron. They'd taken the time to investigate their pasts, their likes and dislikes, their personalities. Likewise, they'd expected capitulation, attentive ears that would simply discard the fact they'd been basically kidnapped and immediately spring to their cause without any real knowledge of it. For all they knew, these two were their dimension's equivalent to the Gresh! They'd acted rashly, jumping on their exultant revelations of two who might fit the bill, and these were the consequences. Being held at gunpoint in the middle of an unexpectedly early attack by the very people who were exalted as their saviors.
An abrupt sense of failure flooded through him, settling into a cold, roiling mass in the pit of his stomach. They'd failed. Once chance and they'd blown it, simply because they'd been too damn hasty.
He wasn't aware that his fists were clenched clamshell-tight until he felt a brief stroke along the back of one, a light caress that brought about an instinctive loosening of his whitened fingers. Knowing its source, he risked a quick glance at his chestnut-haired lover. Due smiled slightly, offering him something much more meaningful than the practiced plastic grin that went over so well with the public. How had he known? Kyouji knew that when he wanted to, he could quite convincingly hide himself from the rest of the world. Yet Due had almost immediately been able to read him like a book whose cover had been torn off. It mystified him, and had initially scared him. He'd tried his hardest to simply ignore his violet-eyed fellow scientist's intuition, denying it when possible or simply eying Due apathetically when there was no other avenue to avoid his probing. However, even he had found it difficult to remain impervious to Due's cajoling and jokes. After several sleepless nights spent agonizing over trying to apply a scientific explanation to the way he responded - inwardly, bit responded none the less - to Due, he'd snapped irritably, more venomously than usual, at his partner, a move he had immediately regretted and surprised them both by apologizing. Their relationship had simply progressed as a slow but steady pace from that day. Kyouji knew he'd never be an open person, though he'd been shockingly talkative around the boy who looked like Due, and he was sure it was probably because of the most obvious vindication, he also knew he'd never been as dysfunctional as he had been. Before Due.
"What do you mean?" asked the new Due, his expression still suspicious, but nowhere near the accusing cool of his companion.
A sudden tremor threw Due, his look-alike, and Kyouji onto the floor, and Kyouji heard someone hiss in startled pain. The dark-haired boy amazingly kept his balance, using the opportunity to grab Due, his quarry's face pallid in sudden pain, and pressed the gun to Due's head.
"Hero!" protested the other.[1] This 'Hero' ignored him entirely.
Suddenly the situation was much more imperative, as Hero dug the gun into Due's temple and demanded, "Tell me right now what's going on." He didn't need to finish the implied threat, weighting the air between them.
Kyouji eyed him. The resemblance between Due and the other they'd brought was undeniable. They could easily have passed for twins if it wasn't for the slight hints of fear and pain distorting Due's normally smooth features.
However, Kyouji could find little such similarity between himself and... Hero. He knew in part that the superficial disparities in hair and Hero's lack of glasses made them seem different, but the younger man was possessed of a wild, distant beauty, one that Kyouji could not identify with himself.
"I told you already," he said in sharply controlled tones. "We don't have time to explain!"
"Why not?" Hero demanded savagely with an aggressive thrust of the barrel. Due, whose face Kyouji suggested was blanched from more than just the shock of being held at gunpoint, didn't move.
"Hero..." warned the fourth member of their small party.
"Shut up, Duo!" hissed Hero harshly, supplying the name of his companion.
Duo's face snapped, and he seemed about to snap back a response before Kyouji interrupted.
"Because," he continued, breaking forcibly into the loaded silence that fairly seemed to crackle between the two, "the Gresh are attacking and if you don't fight them they will kill us all. Even if you aren't from here," he added.
"Not from here? What do you mean?" There was something urgent, even desperate, that tainted the tail end of the otherwise smoothly insistent question.
"I'll explain later!" he nearly yelled, heart jumping as the floor seemed to lose its bearing for a chilling second, and Due's head was pushed heavily into the unyielding metal as he lost his footing and he and his captor both stumbled.
"You have to do something," he said, letting a tone of pleading seep into his voice, as much as he hated to give the impression of groveling.
"Fight what?" asked Duo, stepping slightly closer to Hero and his prisoner.
"The Gresh. Their MAVs. They've already pushed us back to only a dozen or so cities on the planet, and this last base. We're running out of places to flee."
"Where are our Gundams?" Hero asked.
"In the hangar," Kyouji told him, close to requesting he let Due go until Hero pushed him abruptly stumbling forward, keeping the gun steadily at his back and showing no signs of a willing to let him go. Kyouji hoped that a 'Gundam' was the monstrous machines each of the two had arrived in.
The short trip the hangar seemed an eternity, as Kyouji watched Due's face tighten in pain at every step. Duo walked beside him, face sporting shuttered anger. Whether this was to be sure he didn't attempt to run - the furthest thing from his mind with Due still held by that obvious psycho - or for some sort of moral support he didn't know. He didn't care. He couldn't believe the danger his own bad judgment had gotten his lover into.
Never did they see any of other members of the army, nor hear any signs of their proximity. Kyouji hoped they had fled, out of the building or to the lower, more secure levels that housed medical facilities and most of the technology, and were not all dead.
"Turn here," he directed once they reached the hangar door. His assumption seemed to be correct as Duo's face spread into a broad grin - he looked so much like Due it was astounding - and even seemingly emotionless Hero gave to the impression of minute relaxation.
Outside hangar doors, a MAV flew in close for a heart stopping second, the sonic boom hitting them at the same time as its shock wave. This time all four stayed on their feet, albeit with some difficulty.
"Is that one of the...?" Duo hazarded.
Kyouji nodded. "It must be. We don't have anything like that. Which is why..." He trailed off, letting the 'you're here' hang unsaid.
"Why should we fight them?" Hero asked callously. Duo once again appeared to be about to respond, but after brief deliberation instead turned his blue-violet gaze to Kyouji.
Mentally gathering all his battling arguments why, Kyouji began, choosing the one he thought would be most convincing to the two.
"Even if you don't do it for us, they've destroyed everything else around this building. It will be next, and you won't survive."
He wondered why they'd left this building, the new, temporary, headquarters of their resistance, untouched. As if they were saving the best for last. A small frown crept across his normally placid features as he contemplated the implications.
"Hero?" asked Duo, looking expectantly at the wild-haired pilot. Due still hadn't spoken, an observation that worried Kyouji as much as his drawn face and the slight tremble in his frame.
"Ryoukai," Hero said in a grating whisper, apparently an affirmative by the smile that blossomed over Duo's face.
Casting one last accusing glance at Kyouji, Hero tucked the handgun away, though Kyouji was unable to make out where the weapon disappeared to.
"Thank you," he said.
"We're not doing this for you," Hero corrected sharply, beginning an agile climb up the hulking mecha.
"Yet," Duo amended with a conspiratorial smile before following.
It wasn't until both cumbersome machines had cleared the hangar with a roar of displaces air and Kyouji shut the massive door behind them that Kyouji allowed himself to turn to Due, standing pale and too still.
The auburn haired man jumped at the questioning tough to his shoulder. His face turned quickly to Kyouji and he whimpered, "Oh, god, it hurts," before collapsing entirely into Kyouji's desperate embrace.
Due clung to his shirt, fingers probably stretching his dress uniform, but he couldn't have cared less. Awkwardly fumbling them both to the floor, he settled Due's body to the ground and patted frantic hands over Due's torso.
"Where?" he asked. "What hurts?"
His response came in the package of a sharp gasp and reflexive wince and he pressed lightly right below Due's rib cage.
"Stop that!" came the aggravated protest, accompanied by Due wiggling away from the probing fingers.
The uniforms had been treated to resist all forms of man made wear and tear, so finally a frustrated Kyouji resorted to tearing it open with the small regulation knife they both wore as a formality.
Throughout the years, the uniforms had remained one of the more widely detested things about the army, and, to the chagrin of many and the absolute mystification of Kyouji, they had simply carried over to the fairly well organized resistance movie. At least, it had been well organized. But so many of the leaders had been killed... The uniform consisted of two layers, a form-fitting black jumpsuit shelled in looser, but still not very roomy fatigue green jacket and pants. The everyday uniforms had been waterproofed to protect soldiers in inhospitable environments, and from some bizarre reason Kyouji had also never understood, the tradition had carried over into the dress uniform.
As he peeled away Due's, he cursed this unneeded custom, realizing how long his lover must have been bleeding, while the waterproofed material of his jacket repelled it, making even Due himself unaware of extent of his injury.
He had no idea what the source was, but there was a ragged puncture rending straight through the black of Due's uniform and an unknown length into his body itself.
His first instinct was to spirit Due to the nearest surviving medical facility, though it was doubtful there even was one. Besides, Due seemed all right for the moment, hopefully the wound was just superficial and hadn't penetrated too deep. And he had to remain here to open the hangar doors, when Duo and Hero came back. He refused to replace the 'when' with the 'if' it probably deserved. He'd sent them, unaware of what they were really up against, into a battle in unknown territory against enemies they'd never before fought.
Lip curling upwards in disgust at himself, he settled onto the floor next to his lover. Due still hadn't said anything, but he was obviously fully conscious as he reached one hand to twine with Kyouji's, offering his lover a sympathetic half smile. He knew. He always knew.
Confidence in himself somewhat restored, he relaxed, content to stare watchfully into Due's eyes as he anxiously awaited the return of their two saviors.
End Part 2
Short part. I hand wrote it first, and it was more than six pages... Geh. But I wanted to get it out, so I didn't add much.
Notes:
[1] I misspelled Heero because this part is from Kyouji's pov, and he doesn't know how to spell it. It was hella hard to do it, though... I kept having to go back every few paragraphs and change it. x.x
Ryan Harbin
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