Disclaimer:Don't own them, don't make any money off of this.
Warnings: Male/Male sex, graphic, language, violence, attempted NCS
Kracken
Disclaimer:Don't own them, don't make any money off of this
warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, attempted NCS
Soldier Boys
Sequel to The Dragon Returns
Into the Fold
"Shit!" Duo swore and wiped the blood out of his eyes with one hand while he finished the swing of his scythe with the other. He felt the satisfying shudder of contact and his sensors rain bowed as another suit bit the dust. An instrument panel, blown out under the stress of deflecting a barrage of stinger missiles, swung dangerously above his head. The shell of Deathscythe might be Gundanium, but its insides were all too vulnerable, especially the pilot. Duo kept hunched in his seat, unable to do anything about the dangerous, dangling, chunk of metal.
"Completed!" Heero barked over the link. "Targets destroyed. Retreat and rendezvous at six-k-alpha-four-two-four."
"Duh," Duo muttered, but punched his link and simply said, "Roger!" He pounded a vid board with his fist, saw the screen jump, snow, and then steady, and then was able to see the burning remains of the base, the suits, and Heero's Wing taking to the sky. "He sure does like to burn fuel," Duo swore as he swung Deathscythe's boosters into position and made the huge jump across the tarmac and into the forest. Once there, he began a steady walk. When he cleared missile range, he would follow Wing.
Duo swiveled his outside optics and caught sight of Wing taking fire. "Idiot!" Duo swore in amazement. "He knew better, but he didn't care. Nothing can catch his machine once it's up in the air, but there's also nothing to stop a lucky shot from the ground hitting Wing at just the right spot."
Duo wiped at the blood again, letting Deathscythe plow through the forest on it's own, and leaned back to get the med kit. He ended up wrapping his forehead in a white bandage, deciding to leave it until later. That done, he unbuckled from his seat and secured the damaged equipment over his head.
Deathscythe stumbled, its gyros making tortured sounds as it redistributed the weight of the Gundam to keep it from falling, Duo strapped back into his seat and powered up his jets. He couldn't afford to do any more repairs in such rough, dangerous, country and had to trust that Deathscythe would hold together through the flight.
Flying Deathscythe was a tricky operation. Deathscythe had never been made to fly and its jets had been designed for space. Retrofitting the computer to deal with all the variables, ratios, and fluctuations of Earth side, had been a nightmare. It was still an uncertain thing, whether the machine would make it into the air or crash and burn, and Duo couldn't stop the sick tightening in his gut when he flipped on the guidance system, keyed in the destination, and punched on the jets. He had only a second to take hold of his cross, before gravity slammed down on him and pressed him down hard into his seat as Deathscythe hurtled upwards.
Deathscythe made it airborne, its outer gundanium skin groaning and creaking under the stresses, and then leveled off with less than graceful maneuvering. Duo's proximity alarms sounded soon after and he panicked until he saw that it was another Gundam on his tail. Switching on a tight beam link, Duo said with an effort, his voice hoarse and strained with pain and weariness, "Didn't mean to leave you behind, Wu Fei! Battle was kind of hot and heavy."
A grudging voice replied, "You fought well."
Duo grinned. He had a feeling that he had just received a very high compliment. "Thanks. So did you. You weren't kidding when you said that you could show us how to fight. You make that gundanium dance, man!"
"Coordinates," Wu Fei prompted, ignoring the compliment. "We will speak later. Oz will not take long in pursuing us."
Duo switched his link to Heero. "Hey, Heero! Wu Fei wants coordinates! What should we do? You want to let him know where we're holed up?"
Heero thought that over and then replied, "He is a Gundam pilot. We know that only the scientists built the Gundams. We must assume that he is on our side because of that."
"Meaning, 'Your guess is as good as mine?'" Duo chuckled. "Okay, my man! We'll let him into our club, but keep our guns loaded too."
"You don't sound well," Heero said suddenly. "Are you injured?"
There wasn't any static on a direct comlink. Heero could hear the pain and weariness in Duo's voice.
"Just banged a little," Duo assured him and felt a rush of pleasure. Once again he was being shown that there was another side to Heero under his hard exterior. He wasn't wrong trying to make this man his friend, Duo thought. Heero was capable of it, his worrying about him proof of it. "I'll be okay, Heero. I just need a couple of meals and about twenty four hours worth of sleep to cure what ails me. Are you okay?"
There was a very long pause and then Heero replied. "I didn't sustain any injuries."
"Why do I think you're lying?" Duo wondered, becoming concerned. "I bet you're telling me that you didn't get any wounds that keep you from operating, right? Not that you weren't hurt."
"They are inconsequential," Heero returned, almost irritable.
"Well, we'll see when we land," Duo promised him. "One of the benefits of being in a group is that you can patch each other up."
"Agreed," Heero replied and now he sounded almost relieved though Duo wasn't sure why. "I will see to your injuries as well."
"Okay." Duo touched his forehead. The bandage was soaked with blood, but head wounds tended to bleed a lot regardless of severity. He wasn't dizzy, despite a headache, and he didn't feel like throwing up, so he doubted that his wound was a concussion. He thought of Heero, the way the man had taken two bullets, sustained a broken leg, severe bruising, and lacerations and had continued to walk around as if he were perfectly healthy. Duo had to wonder what type of wounds Heero Yuy considered inconsequential.
They had to come in easy, with as little disturbance to the area as possible. Any breaking of trees or underbrush and a satellite or air recon might spot it. Wing landed as light as a feather and stepped carefully into the camouflaged hanger. Wu Fei's Gundam was almost as perfect. Duo had more trouble. An instrument panel blew under the stresses of landing and he received a burning shower of sparks in his face. When Duo reached out to shove aside the wiring that had blown outwards across his command panel, he received a powerful shock. Duo felt his hand go numb just when he needed it the most.
Deathscythe faltered and almost blundered down a sharp ravine as Duo tried to work the delicate controls without being able to feel them. He piloted the gundam and it moved as if it were drunk into its hanger bay. Finally powering down, Duo just sat limply with his eyes closed, waiting for his heart to stop trying to pound its way out of his chest.
"Status?" Heero asked on the com link.
"Down and locked," Duo breathed. "Sorry for the crappy landing guys. Deathscythe's a mess."
"Mobile?" Heero wanted to know.
Duo managed a grin as he began unstrapping. "I can get out myself, yeah, just let me get my breath while I subtract one of my lives."
"I don't understand..." Heero began, puzzled.
Duo chuckled and then stopped when it hurt his head. "Shinigami is like a cat, he has nine lives, I figure. I've lost four of them so far." There was silence on the other end of the link and Duo sighed, "Don't worry about it, man, I'm just coming down from an adrenalin high. Can't expect me to make much sense."
"You make none at all," Wu Fei commented and Duo realized that the link was on wide beam. He felt embarrassed. It was odd to him that it felt all right to talk to Heero that way, but not Wu Fei, since Heero was almost as much a stranger as Wu Fei.
"You'll get used to it," Duo quipped and then cut off the link. It still took him a few moments to get himself together enough to lever himself out of his command chair. Another panel sparked at him when he hit the hatch control and he flinched. Finding the lift line, he clutched at it, instincts telling him to get the hell out of there before something sparked enough to set him on fire or Deathscythe's fire suppression units came online and sprayed him along with everything else. That sticky fluid was hard to get off and it burned and stunk.
The lift dropped him quickly to ground level. Too quickly, Duo's feet hit solid packed earth and his knees buckled. He found himself sitting down in the dirt. "I HATE Earth gravity!" Duo snarled as he stiffly stood up and smacked at the dirt on the back of his black pants. "And I hate dirt!"
Looking up, he froze, embarrassed once again as he discovered that Wu Fei and Heero were standing close by and staring at him. Heero looked either angry or concerned, it was hard to decipher, and Wu Fei lifted an arrogant eyebrow in annoyance. Deathscythe took that moment to blow another panel. Sparks flew from the hatch and drifted down over them all. Wu Fei's dark eyes lifted upwards, his expression managing both disdain and apprehension.
"I know what you're thinking!" Duo growled. "'Scythe's a piece of junk. You know, though, he more than makes up for bad design by having some kickass weaponry and power."
Wu Fei's eyes lowered and he regarded Duo coolly. "I saw that during the battle. It will not help you, though, if your Gundam self destructs on its own."
"I'm working on it, don't you worry!" Duo snapped back. "He's a lot better than he was." There was a series of popping sounds, more sparks, and the whoosh of the hatch closing along with the warning alarm of the suppression unit. "Damn it!" Duo swore as he turned and began walking away with a painful gate. "I hate cleaning that crap up!"
Duo heard Wu Fei and Heero speaking together behind him. Heero was keeping his sentences even shorter than usual and he seemed impatient. When they reached the safehouse and Trowa and Quatre met them, Duo walked past them with a grin and a shrug.
"You're injured," Trowa said in concern. "I'll get the med kit."
"Thanks!" Duo said over his shoulder and continued into the house and up the stairs. Climbing the steps, it felt as if each one was a challenge that his aching body had to meet.
"I don't require accommodations," Wu Fei was saying behind him. "I stay with my Gundam at all times."
"Your dedication is very commendable, but unneccessary," Quatre was assuring him in that tone of voice that probably made the hardest politician putty in his hands. "We have land and sky proximity alarms a mile away in either direction. No one is going to approach us without our knowing about it. This area is secure."
If Wu Fei replied, Duo didn't hear it as he reached the top of the stairs with a relieved sigh and headed into his bedroom. He didn't realize that Heero was at his elbow until he half turned to shrug out of his black coat and throw it over the back of a chair. He started violently and swore.
"Heero! I've told you! Make some damned noise or you're going to end up shot of gutted!" Duo exclaimed in exasperation.
Heero grunted without reply as he limped and sat on the edge of his bed. Duo saw the burn along one leg then and the way he was keeping the heel off the floor.
"Heero!" Duo exclaimed. "Damn you! Why didn't you say something?"
Trowa ducked into the room with the med kit. Duo took it from his unresisting hands. "I got it," Duo told him and almost closed the door in Trowa's face.
Kneeling by Heero, Duo opened the kit and searched for burn cream and antibiotics. He flinched a little when Heero pulled off his head bandage and began examining his head wound. As Duo worked on Heero's burn, Heero bent, retrieved a few items, and began treating Duo's head. They worked silently together.
"Stitches?" Duo asked as he compared the burn to a test strip to gauge its severity.
"No, butterfly bandages," Heero replied as he began applying them to the head wound.
"This isn't too bad either," Duo assured him. "A lot of this is just black flash, not charred skin. Floor control blow?"
"Yes," Heero replied and then, "Overhead communications array?"
"Yeah," Duo replied. "I'm welding the thing in this time. If it needs maintenance I'll cut the damned panel out."
"Finished," Heero announced and sat back.
Duo was almost sorry that there wasn't more for Heero to fix. He had been enjoying having someone fuss over him, though he really couldn't call Heero's firm care 'fussing'. "Thanks. I'm done here too. It's better not to put a bandage on it and let it breathe. Keep the cream in it though and don't rub any dirt in it."
"Roger that," Heero replied.
Duo looked up and saw the barest smile on Heero's face. Duo lost his serious, 'nurse Duo' demeanor and grinned back. "You're all right, you know that Heero?"
Heero looked pleased and Duo saw it even though it was just a ghost of an expression flitting across his features.
Duo wiped his hand on his pants and held it out. "Friends?"
Heero stared at it. Duo could see him thinking and he knew what those thoughts were. They were in the middle of a war where the people fighting in it were highly expendable. Being friends meant only until that friend had to be sacrificed.
"It's okay," Duo assured him. "I know."
Heero's eyes flicked up briefly to meet Duo's and there was a hint of pain that turned to resignation; an acknowledgment of the dangerous lives they led. Heero reached out and shook Duo's hand once, let their grip linger a few seconds longer than necessary, and then released it and turned away to start taking off his weapons and sweat filled shirt.
"Great!" Duo stood, swayed a little, yawned, and then scowled. "Damn! I'm too hungry to sleep. I need food, man! Be back!" he stopped at the door. "Need anything?"
"Not yet," Heero replied and only looked up after Duo had gone. He stared at the empty doorway and flexed the hand that had touched Duo's hand.
"Duo!" Trowa's annoyed voice floated upstairs. "Change your clothes! I am not going to smell your stink another moment. Elephant piss smells more pleasant!"
"Guess you would know!" Duo shot back and then "Ow! Okay, okay, don't shove! Give me my food and I'll go back up and take care of it."
Heero laughed lightly under his breath and then hurried to reach the shower first.