Warnings: None really, maybe a tiny bit of angst if you wanna call it that and a tiny bit of shounen ai. I don't own GW, nor do I own the G-boys :::sighs::: No matter how much I wish I did, oh well. :::snaps fingers::::
Please send c&c to sheira_kagema@yahoo.com
Duo wiped some sweat from his brow as he trudged through the spaceport. Why did this colony have to be so blasted /hot/!?! Duo growled in frustration as he waited in line to get out of the terminal. He fingered the credit chip Heero had used to rent a shuttle at L1 one.
It was connected to a slush fund in some Oz department so Duo knew he wouldn't have to worry about not having enough money to rent another shuttle. And hey, if said shuttle never got returned, it was no money out of his pocket. Duo smirked as he turned his attention to his surroundings. The intercom blared into life and Duo listened to it idly as he waited for the next person to move forward.
"Attention please, attention please. This is a messaged from the health department of L2 colony cluster. All incoming visitors should report to the health department annex to receive vaccinations against the latest bout of Langrane Plague.." Duo's froze and his hands tightened into fists. The people around him twittered nervously.
"Langrane Plague?" One person whispered softly. "Isn't that the plague that ran rampant about ten years ago?" "Yeah." Someone answered her. "It killed a lot of the indigents 'cause they couldn't get the vaccinations in time."
'That's bull, the health department didn't give them it in time. They were just faceless trash to them!" A young man snarled. "They'll probably do the same thing this time."
"Don't say that." Someone hushed the man. "If security hears you talking like that, you could be in a lot of trouble." Duo closed his eyes and tuned out the people around him. Langrane.the plague that had killed Solo..Duo's face contorted with pain and he pushed himself out of the crowd. Solo! Duo bit his bottom lip as his cruel mind conjured up pictures of his childhod friend.
Memories he'd tried to forget... He and Solo racing to escape the authorities. Their small gang huddling together against the cold and finally..the peaceful look on Solo's face as he lay dead from Langrane. Duo hadn't been able to steal the vaccination in time for him; he'd been too late.
Duo landed against a wall breathing heavily. Why was he always too late!?!? First Solo, then the Maxwell church, he was always too damned late! The voice over the incom droned on about the symptoms of Langrane but Duo didn't really listen to it.
"...high fever, disorientation and dizziness. I repeat, common signs of Langrane Plague include, hallucination, dilated pupils, excessive sweating, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, high fever, disorientation and dizziness. If you haven't been vaccinated in the last ten years and have shown any of these symptoms, please report to the health annex in the shuttleport. More information is available at the nurse's desk as well as vaccinations. That is all, thank you."
Duo swallowed as something nibbled at the edge of his mind. Fatigue..sweating...
"Oh my God! Heero!!" Duo's eyes widened as realization came to him. He abruptly pushed himself away from the wall and raced through the shuttle port to the healt annex. "Excuse me!" Duo shouted as he ran into the door. "Where's the information on Langrane Plague?" Duo asked hurriedly.
"Why, have you been explosed to it?"
"When I was a child but I got vaccinated." The nurse nodded and led Duo to a seat. "Can I see some information on it.so I can know if I've contracted it again?" Duo asked not /quite/ lying. He doubted he'd contracted it, but he was /very/ afraid that Heero had. Coming from L1, the Japanese boy would not have been vaccinated against such an obscure and local thing as Langrane. The nurse clucked over Duo as she handed the American pilot a pamphlet. "What do you do if a person has Langrane?"
"Well that's the problem, there isn't much you /can/ do for a person with Langrane. Do you want me to vaccinate you just in case?"
"H..Hai." Duo said hoping he could convince to nurse to leave so /he/ could swipe some of the vaccine for Heero. "But what can you do?"
"You have to treat the symptoms pretty much. Back on earth, they had a sickness called hydrophobia. If you contracted it, you were pretty much dead, because the person ran such a high fever. But one doctor, didn't know his patient had contracted it and he simply treated the symptoms and that patient survived."
"So these are the symptoms?" Duo asked pointing at a list in the pamplet. "But..Langrane it's not as deadly as this hydrophobia is it?"
"Oh no! Albeit it /is/ serious, with proper medical treatment, a patient has a very good chance of surviving. Actually this vaccine right here, it's better then the one you were probably vaccinated with when you were a child." The nurse pulled out a bottle from her scrub pocket. "It helps patients who have already contracted Langrane. But mostly, it mainly depends on how healthy the patient was before contracting Langrane."
"Oh." Duo murmured as the nurse pushed a cart with the vaccine and a needle over to him. She opened the needle and set it down to scrub Duo's arm with an alcoholic sponge. Duo sharply kicked the cart and the needle fell to the ground. "Gomen! I got a cramp in my leg." Duo made a pitiful look and the nurse sighed.
"Nuts, that was my last one too..." Duo tried not to grin as she searched under the cart for the needles he'd stolen when she wasn't looking. "I'll go get some from the back, don't you move okay?" Duo smiled his most charming smile at the frazzled nurse and she smiled back. "I'll be right back." The nurse turned away and and walked into the back. "I could have /sworn/ I had more hypodermics then that." She muttered.
The moment she was out of sight, Duo grabbed the vaccine and ran for the door. The nurse heard the door open and close and she grabbed a few hypodermics.
"Can I help..." The nurse froze when she found herself faced with an empty room. "Now where dig he go.?" The nruse frowned as she looked at the seat she'd left Duo in. She noted the lack of the vaccine and bit her lip. "A thief.." She whispered. "Probably one of those street kids. I hope he knows how much to give to his friends." The nurse murmured not at all upset that she'd been stolen from. It was the way life went on the colony. Maybe this way a few people wouldn't have to die because of the administators lack of regard for the destitute. "I'm gonna get in trouble." The nurse said with a cheeky grin as she went and filed a theft report.
Of course, if that report got shoved to the bottom of her 'to do' list, maybe that would give the kid the time he needed to get away. Smiling mischievously, the nurse sat back down at her desk and awaited the next person to walk through the door.
Duo quickly picked up some food and finished with the Gundams before he rushed back to the safehouse. "Heero!" Duo called as he ran through the door of the main room. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Heero lying unconsious on the ground, lying in a puddle of water.
The bag containing the food and vaccine dropped nervelessly from Duo's hands and he shuddered. "Heero!?" Duo cried as he ran over to the Japanese boy's prone body. Duo was surprised he was trembling as he carried Heero over to the bed and laid him down. The Japanese pilot was burning with fever and sweating profusely. "Oh God, oh God, oh God." Duo chanted over and over again as he laid a hand against Heero's burning forehead.
He ran over to Heero's bag and dug through it till he pulled out the first aid kit the Japanese boy always kept with him. Duo pulled out the thermometer and placed it between Heero's lips. The Japanese boy recoiled and slowly became conscious.
"Duo?" Heero croaked out.
"Shhh. Don't talk, I'm taking your temp." Duo whispered as he stroked Heero's bangs back from his sweaty forehead. Heero opened his eyes and Duo noticed that the pupils were dilated so much, not much of the intense cobalt colored iris could be seen. Heero tiredly closed his eyes and Duo waited impatiently as he took Heero's temp. He swallowed when it read 106. "Oh Christ, he's burning up." Duo whispered.
He ran into the bathroom and turned on the tub. He was thankful that this safehouse tapped directly into the colony's water supply, this way they didn't have to worry about water rationing. He waited till the tub was full and he carried Heero into the bathroom. He sat the delirious pilot on the floor and pulled his clothes off, leaving only his underwear in place.
"This is gonna be a bit cold." Duo warned Heero as he sat the Japanese pilot in the tub. Heero whimpered as the ice cold water covered his feverish body and he weakly struggled against Duo. "Shhhh, hold on love, don't fight me okay." Heero shivered and grasped Duo's hand when he stood to leave. "I'll be right back." Duo assured Heero as he walked back into the main room. He grabbed the medical kit, the hypodermics and the bottle of vaccine.
He opened an alcohol rub as he carried the items back into the bathroom. "Hand me your arm." Duo instructed and Heero held out his right arm. "I'm going to give you an injection that'll help you get better, okay?" Heero looked at him, a slightly puzzled look on his face but he nodded slightly; his eyes drifting shut. Duo pulled a rubber string around Heero's arm and waited for the veins to appear in relief against his skin. Duo sighed as he prepared the hypodermic and he read off the dosage from the label.
"Gomen." Duo muttered as he pulled the rubber string from Heero's arm and inserted the needle into Heero's arm. The Japanese boy tensed up and Duo cooed softly too him. "It's okay, Heero. Relax, love." Duo pulled the needle from Heero's arm and brushed the Japanese pilot's bangs back from sweating forehead. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?" Duo asked with forced cheer as he bandaged the small wound on Heero's inner arm.
Duo repeated the procedure on himself just to be certain that he too wouldn't catch the Langrane Plague. After that, he held onto Heero's arm and monitored his condition; taking his temperature. After Heero's fever had dropped a few degrees, Duo pulled the Japanese pilot from the tub and toweled him off.
He changed Heero out of his wet underwear and replaced them with fresh dry ones, all the while blushing brightly. Once that was done, Duo carried Heero into the main room and bundled him up in covers. Soon the Japanese pilot started to shiver and he tossed restlessly in his sleep.
Duo continued to watch him anxiously even as he continuously kept thinking about how Solo had deteriorated and finally died. It had been so quick, Duo hadn't expected Langrane to work so quickly, but Solo had gotten sick and had been dead less then 48 hours later. "I won't let you die." Duo whispered fiercely as he held onto Heero's hand tightly. "I won't."
Heero was dreaming, he had to be. There was no other way to describe the strange and surreal world he found himself in. A world where everything was darker than the deepest regions of space and the only light seemed to be emitted from his own body.
"What is a dream?" A husky voice asked softly and Heero whirled around only to find himself faced with Duo. Or at least a creature that /looked/ like Duo.
Last time Heero had checked, Duo didn't come equipped with startlingly glossy black-violet feathered wings. They truly were magnificent wings, seemingly glossy and black as obsidian until the light shone upon them, then they shimmered with violet highlights. Surely no mortal bird had ever sported such exotic plumage? So where had Duo gotten the feathers!?
"I should think that's obvious." The Duo-Angel said smiling pleasantly. "I'm not Duo. But I do thank you for the compliments on my wings." The Duo look-a-like idly grabbed a pinion and stroked it lovingly. "They are my pride and joy, aside from my hair perhaps."
Heero noted that this Duo left his impossibly long chestnut hair free and it billowed in a breeze that seemed to come from no where. This creature seemed to emit light as well, but it was a softer white-violet light rather then the pure white that surrounded Heero.
"Where am I?" Heero asked shortly.
"This place has many names, the Astral Plane, the Void, the Barrier, Plane between Planes, take you pick."
"Am I dead?" Heero asked softly, appearing to not be too upset about such a concept. The Duo-Angel laughed heartily.
"Not quite yet, my friend." Heero's eyes narrowed at the mention of the word 'friend'.
"Who are you?" The Duo-Angel cocked his head to the side and an all too familiar manic grin settled onto his sweet face. Something akin to lightning flashed and Heero could have sworn he saw bat-like wings superimposed over the midnight colored angel-like wings.
"I am Death."
Sheira
Please send comments to: sheira_kagema@yahoo.com
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