Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of them.
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, attempted NCS.
Kracken has a new yaoi book, The Angel Within, at amazon.com. For a direct link to it, please go to http://www.bonpublishing.com. Thank you and hugs to everyone who already bought it. ^_^
Soldier Boys
Sequel to Healing
Mission Status
"We have to go, now!" Quatre said breathlessly as he came into the small, run down apartment.
There was only one bed in that place, a table and chair, and leftover food and equipment strewn everywhere. Trowa was in the one chair, staring at a laptop screen full of information on the nearby base. Duo was in the bed, still recovering, but able to contribute. He had a nest of wires and bombs in his lap that he was preparing for their mission. Heero had been pacing the floor, waiting Quatre's return from his reconnaissance mission, and Wu Fei had been outside, making sure that no one surprised them. He was behind Quatre now, following the blonde pilot into the apartment and looking severe.
"They are intending to make a sweep of the area, for security reasons, before the shipment is delivered," Quatre informed them. "We have to get out of here before they reach this section of town."
"They will be expecting that," Trowa replied. "The military uses a hunting technique; make lots of noise and scare the quarry into giving themselves away. If we leave in a group, they will pick us out of the crowd easily."
"Separate," Heero suggested, the only possible solution.
Wu Fei looked over at Duo and Duo was wide eyed, knowing that he was a liability. "I'll stay as a decoy," Duo told them promptly. "I'll tell them some sob story about my mom working on the streets to support her son, injured in a tragic factory accident, and beg them to leave me a few credits for food and medicine." He made a suitably innocent and needy expression.
Wu Fei grunted, "Her needy and injured son," he repeated, "sitting in a pile of bomb residue. They will use detectors, you realize?"
Duo's expression turned irritable in a heartbeat. "Of course, I do."
"Then why suggest a plan that you know will fail?" Wu Fei's dark eyes were confused.
"Better they get one pilot, who can't pilot, than a bunch that can," Duo replied simply. "It's called 'reasonable sacrifice.' "
"Honorable, but foolish," Wu Fei replied and he crossed his arms over his chest, regarding Duo with respect that was thinly veiled over with disdain. "We are not in any danger yet to warrant such a sacrifice."
"No?" Duo looked at Quatre. "Do you have time to get me out of here, in broad daylight, without anyone noticing? I think it would be a memorable scene. " He changed his voice slightly and mocked, "Yes, Oz soldier, sir, I did notice something strange, a bunch of guys carrying equipment and an injured guy to a transport and heading out of town."
"We could stick you in a duffel bag," Trowa jokingly suggested.
Duo shivered. "I've already had that happen recently, Tro, so I'll skip that plan, thanks."
Quatre raised eyebrows at the nickname. "All right, let's not panic and make rash decisions," he said. "We need to split up, each of us carrying equipment, at different times. Duo, will you be able to drive the car?"
"Yes," Duo replied without hesitation.
Quatre continued, "The rest of us will split up, take buses or cabs, to a rendezvous where Duo will pick us up. We will then continue from there to our Gundams. "
"I am staying with Duo," Heero said "He may not be able to make the trip alone."
Duo glared. "Thanks for the confidence, buddy!" he growled.
"The car is very important to our escape," Heero told him, letting Duo know that it wasn't just his feelings for the pilot of Deathscythe that was dictating his decision. "We can't chance that you will have problems."
"I can drive," Duo grumbled, "Just not get in and out of the car all that good by myself...." He sighed, hearing himself, and admitted reluctantly, "I guess you're right. If there is trouble..."
"You'll throw yourself out of the car and slow them down with your body while Heero escapes ?" Wu Fei suggested with a smirk of amusement.
Duo blinked at him and then grinned sourly, "So, you can make jokes? I was about to nickname you, Pole Up The Ass, Wu Fei, my man."
Wu Fei glared and then he half turned away, giving Duo an arrogant look that said volumes. He was beneath replying in kind, was part of it.
"No one is sacrificing themselves today," Quatre broke in, impatiently, "That is, if we start leaving now."
"Let's roll, then!" Duo said as he began carefully putting his bombs in a sack. "Grab my teddy bear, Heero, time to find new digs."
"What?" Heero said, confused.
"My bag," Duo amended with a small chuckle.
Heero nodded, picked it up from the side of the bed, and tossed it over his shoulder easily with a bag of his own things. Duo kept in his bag a music player, a few small books, a few magazine vids, and the clothes that Heero had lent him. What Heero kept in his, Duo had a sudden itch to know. What did a man like Heero keep? What would he sacrifice speed and an easier escape to carry with him?
"Let me tell the story, okay?" Duo asked as he slowly put on his shoes and then tried to stand. "I'll need to make a cover story about why two underage guys are driving a car all of a sudden with their worldly possessions."
"And why one of them looks like he's drunk," Trowa interjected worriedly as Duo swayed and Heero put a hand under his elbow to steady him. "I think that would be stretching things. You will have to try and act more normally, Duo. Can you do that?"
"Do I get an example of what 'normal' is like?" Duo wondered and then, more seriously. "Don't worry, Tro, I'm sure as hell going to give it my best try, and, if I find I can't do it, I'll go with Wu Fei's plan and become a human roadblock."
He should have been in a hospital, Duo knew, but, failing that, he should never have ditched his doctor. The risk had seemed too great, though, having the doctor and his aids coming and going when secrecy was the key to their operation. Once Duo had felt as if he were back among the land of the living, it had seemed like the logical next step, getting rid of that danger. He hadn't improved since sending them away, though, and he would never admit to the others that his continued pain and weakness was starting to frighten him. He needed to get better. He needed to pilot his Gundam. He needed to fight in the war. People were counting on him and he needed his revenge.
Not healing when his ability to heal had always been phenomenal, being stuck mostly in bed, chewing on the fear that his injuries might be permanent enough to sideline him, Duo couldn't help trying to prove to himself and the others that he could still pull off a mission despite his health. He needed that success right then, needed it badly.
Duo drew himself up, ignoring the shock of pain in his side and a sudden wave of dizziness. Quatre helped him put on his long coat and buttoned it, hiding his bandages and the fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt. That done, Duo nodded to Heero that he was ready and he proceeded towards the door. His sight went red with pain long before he reached it. Walking through it and getting to the car turned his vision from pounding pain red to near unconscious white, but he stayed upright, refused to hunch over the wounds, refused to limp. Opening the car door and sliding into the passenger seat, Duo faded away. When he came back into the world again, he was still sitting up and Heero was driving the car along a busy street.
Heero glanced at him with worry when he stirred and Duo gave him a reassuring grunt to let him know that he was awake again.
"No one noticed us," Heero offered and Duo relaxed.
"Mission accomplished," Duo murmured and refused to lean his head against the window. Sleeping in the car could be noticed by someone.
"Not yet," Heero told him with a frown.
Duo looked at him again and saw Heero glancing into the rear view mirror.
"Someone notice that a couple of teenagers are driving a car?" Duo wondered.
"Maybe," Heero replied.
A military cruiser was very much like a lion looking for the weak in a herd. It moved from lane to lane, testing, looking, seeing who would panic or trying to spot telltale signs that all was not right with the car or the driver. Duo didn't look around. That was a sign that the Oz soldier was looking for. Instead, he watched Heero's reaction as Heero tried not to look into his mirror too many times, another give away to the soldier that all was not right.
"We have to leave the car," Heero announced grimly. He scowled ahead of them and then picked up his com unit. "Change of plans," Heero said simply. "Rendezvous when possible."
That meant that they would have to find the others, somehow, later. Quatre, Trowa, and Wu Fei would change their rendezvous point and not tell them so, if they were captured, they couldn't give them away.
"Bus up ahead," Heero announced and Duo saw it coming up to a traffic jam, gouting black smoke and slowing to a halt. Heero sped up to slide their car between a van and another car ahead. Duo winced, expecting to hear metal screech, it was that close, but Heero managed to get the car in unscathed.
"Out!" Heero ordered and grabbed their bags.
Duo wanted to laugh at him, but he didn't. Whether he could or couldn't, it didn't matter. Trying was the only option. Duo opened his car door and slid out, keeping low to the asphalt and ducking from a brisk, chill wind whipping between the cars. They were hidden from the OZ soldier, but it was possible that he would either get out of his cruiser to walk up and confront them, or put himself on their tails again once traffic cleared. Neither was a good scenario.
"Mall," Duo said as he moved around to the front of the car and pointed up ahead to the front doors of a mall. Many people were huddled there, waiting for the bus to pull up.
Heero shook his head. "Bus," he said shortly and moved to the door of the vehicle, leaving their car in traffic. He tapped on it. The door opened and a harried looking driver glared at them.
"It's cold man!" Duo wailed. "Come on and be a good guy and let us on. I gotta bad cold and this wind 's gonna kill me!"
The driver looked sympathetic then and his expression smoothed out. "Okay, get on! Put your money in. This ain't no charity!"
Duo dug in his duffel for change and then fed it to the meter.
The man snorted. "Wasting your money. Why don't you get some government bus cards?"
Duo said with a shrug. "Change is more fun."
The driver made a face, knowing that he was being told to mind his own business. "Go sit down!"
"Sure thing!" Duo grinned and led Heero to the middle of the bus. When he sat down, he wanted to curl up and die, but he took firm control of his body and kept himself loose and smiling as Heero slid into the seat beside him.
"Duo?" Heero asked under his breath.
"I'm going to pretend to nod off in a minute or two," Duo told him, still smiling. "Watch my back, Heero, k?"
Heero reached over under the cover of their duffel bags and took Duo's hand. He gave it a small caress with his thumb that startled Duo and then withdrew it. His blue eyes began a seemingly bored inspection of the other passengers.
"Duo?" Duo heard Heero's voice in his ear and he opened his eyes, not sure how much time had passed. The pain had kept him from really sleeping and the short ride had not been enough to help him recover. "We have to get off."
Duo couldn't question that, especially not with the other passengers listening. Not wanting to get off at his supposed stop would make people remember them, make people start questioning things in their heads. That was what they had to avoid at all costs. It didn't keep him from wanting to curse Heero for all he was worth. Duo couldn't see any reason for getting off so far from their destination.
They were still deeply in town. They had left the poorer neighborhood behind, but were among several blocks of warehouses and manufacturing plants that could afford them some convenient bolt holes.
"Come on or we'll be late for work," Heero growled.
"Yeah, yeah!" Duo grumbled sourly, following Heero's lead as he levered himself up from his seat and began making his way towards the front of the bus. He was brought up short by a hard tug on his braid.
"Wow!" A childish voice exclaimed. "Why's your hair so long?"
Duo looked down and back a seat to see a wide eyed little girl peering up at him and holding on tightly to his braid. "Family tradition," he replied seriously, kicking himself mentally for not hiding the braid under his coat. It was the one thing that marked him and, if no one had thought twice about it before, the girl had brought their attention to it now.
"It's pretty," the girl crooned over it.
"Thanks," Duo replied and slowly pried his hair from the girls's hands. "It's sensitive though, so you don't want to pull on it, okay?"
"Oh, sorry," The girl replied contritely and then smiled at him hugely. "I saw a guy with hair that long on the vid news. He was a crmnenal, though. A bad guy." She stumbled over the word 'criminal'. The girl's mother started and narrowed eyes at Duo. He knew he was pale and hollow eyed. He knew he was breathing hard, trying to stay upright and not let the pain overwhelm him. The mother's eyes said, 'Get away from my daughter, or else.' Whether she recognized him as that criminal on the vid news, or not, she could see that he wasn't acting or looking normal.
"Duo!" Heero shouted from the front of the bus, "If you make me late for work...!"
"Coming!" Duo shouted back, making his voice angry and sullen. "I don't know why you're in such a hurry to work at the freakin' packing plant! You trying to brown nose the boss, or something?"
"I'm leaving you, asshole!" Heero called back and the doors opened and he did just that.
"You're the asshole," Duo growled for effect and left the girl and mother behind, both of them, and most of the bus, staring after him. He managed to get down the steps. He just managed to walk to the outbuilding that Heero had gone into. Once inside, hidden by the shadows of an interior that was only lit by light coming through cracked windows, he went sprawling on the concrete floor. He was saved from banging his body hard though, by Heero, who grabbed at him in quickly and cushioned his fall as best he could.
"I'm dying!" Duo groaned as Heero pulled him into his arms and lifted him up as if he were a child.
"You are not dying," Heero countered as he walked around the abandoned building, scowled, and then left through a broken back door, rejecting it as a likely resting place. "You need a place to rest safely while I arrange other transportation."
"I think I know whether I'm dying or not!" Duo retorted hoarsely and then just wrapped his arms around his middle and tried to ride through the searing pain of his side without whimpering.
"Sorry," Duo said after a long minute, after the pain eased. "I hate this."
"I know," Heero replied, eyes searching as he walked through a maze of wood and aluminum sided buildings.
"You should just leave me," Duo told him, resigned. "I can't pilot. Hell, I don't think I can even walk! Something... something's wrong, Heero. You can't deny it either."
"No, I can't, " Heero replied. "We should have kept the doctor."
"No, I made the right decision." Duo said stubbornly.
Duo frowned in disapproval as Heero found a small recess covered by fallen boards. He inched their way in and then sat on the cold floor with Duo in his lap. It was freezing. Duo couldn't help burrowing against Heero's warm body even though he embarrassed himself by doing it. "They are going to find us damned quick if we stay here," Duo told him.
"They won't expect us to stay," Heero replied confidently as he leaned his back against the wall and wrapped the flaps of his coat and his arms around Duo. "They will expect us to try and leave the city."
"That IS what we are supposed to be doing," Duo reminded him sharply.
"And we will do that... just not right now, "Heero told him.
"I thought you were a smart person, Heero," Duo murmured as he gave up trying to be strong and became limp in Heero's arms. "Staying here is really stupid. Not leaving me is worse. I don't know what reasoning you're using to justify risking yourself for a half dead pilot. Maybe I should self destruct and make you come to your senses?"
Heero's arms tensed and Duo hissed in pain. Heero loosened his grip instantly and leaned over Duo, almost putting his face against Duo's. "Don't ever say that again!"
Duo stared at Heero, wide eyed, though he couldn't really see Heero's expression in the gloom even that close. "Look," he said, "I know what we said to each other, but.... You know that doesn't count for shit when it stacks up against our mission here."
"Did you mean it?" Heero asked. "I did."
Duo made an exasperated sound. "How can you know? We're too young! We're messed up terrorists who are probably going to die before we see the end of this war! Why should we even be thinking about this stuff! I don't want to, Heero. I wanna go back to just being best buds and 'hold this timer for me while I make this bomb' kind of thing. I don't want to have to wonder if you're sitting here, risking your damned life and our mission, because you think you feel something for me."
"Did you mean it?" Heero persisted and he sounded... Duo didn't want to analyze it. He wanted to stay stubborn, stay in denial, and make Heero step back and make the tough decision, the one where he got left behind to either die or be picked up by Oz.
A hand caressed Duo's cheek. "I know I shouldn't, "Heero told him and his voice lost that stiff, formal, soldier quality to it. It became boyish, uncertain, ready for emotional pain. "I tried to not feel this way. It IS a bad idea. It is something that shouldn't happen between us. We know where our duty is. We know we have to give our lives to it.... I-I can't pretend anymore though. I can't go on ignoring you and I've found that I can't stop what I feel for you."
"Heero," Duo asked warningly. "Tell me, and I want the honest truth, tell me that you are doing these things, risking yourself and our mission, for another reason other than because you love me."
Heero was silent and the dim light coming through the planks played hide and seek with his face, flickering and moving as clouds scudded over head and blocked the light intermittently. At last, Heero said, "I plan to take you to a hospital after first laying down a cover story. The cover story will be designed so that the staff at the hospital will not ask questions. After they find out what is wrong with you, and treat you, I will then find a transport and make our escape. We are an elite group, five people who are unparalleled in our skills on Earth and in space. Losing even one of us will severely harm the cause. The risk I am going to take is acceptable. It is necessary. You are not expendable. If you die, Deathscythe dies with you. There is not another pilot to take over in your place." Heero paused again and then said tensely, "and... I love you. I can't let you die."
Duo felt lips gently ghost across his face, find his lips, and then press firmly. Duo let those soft lips gently explore and that touch warmed him more than any fire could have. When Heero stopped, hesitant again, waiting for Duo's response, once again, Duo found that he couldn't deny Heero. He couldn't say the lie that was on his tongue.
"When you touch me... I get all stupid," Duo said.
Heero laughed, barely above a whisper of sound, but he was tense, wanting more than a joke.
"This is wrong," Duo said, trying to find the words, "but.... I don't know how to say it, Heero. I feel weird, not like anything I've ever felt before. I don't know what to make of it. It's kind of scary... Maybe if we both agree to forget about it, to ignore it-" The lips found his again and a hand traced with a thumb along his jaw. Duo forgot words for a full minute and then said, when Heero backed off again, "Fuck doing the right thing!" and he reached out with one hand and hooked it behind Heero's neck. He pulled Heero towards him to get another kiss.
Heero's forehead banged against Duo's.
"Ow!" Duo exclaimed as Heero grunted at the impact. "You okay?"
That soft laugh came again, so unlike the Heero that Duo knew. The darkness made it easy to drop their guards, made it too simple to forget everything but touch and closeness and...
"Okay that was as good as a cold shower," Duo said and couldn't help feeling a pang of regret, especially below his belt. "Now that I'm thinking again," he said doggedly, "I think your plan is a good one, dangerous, but okay. Any plan where I end up being alive at the end of it makes me happy. You gotta promise me though, Heero, that, if they find out who I am and try and take us prisoner, that you will get the hell out of there. We love each other, and we're taking a big risk because I'm useful to the cause, but we still have a damned war to fight and a lot of people depending on us. One pilot is better than no pilot. Have you got that in your head?"
"Yes," Heero replied and there was a smile in his voice. "You do love me. You said it."
"Jeez! Okay, so I said it!" Duo grumbled, feeling embarrassed. "Don't go all girly on me! I need tough, perfect soldier Heero, not some ... well, you know. So get over it and get me the hell out of here, already!"
Again, Duo was given that laugh and he liked it. He found himself grinning despite himself and that warmth inside of him intensified as Heero lifted him up and took him out of that place.