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"All Through The Night "Written By: Honor Disclaimer: They aren’t mine. The boys are
actually quite grateful for this. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: Shonen-ai, language, wacky humor, emotional
angst, romance, yaoi, and I’m acting like the war lasts two years
and Eternal Waltz didn’t happen Spoilers: Er…yeah, maybe. It would help if
you watch the series first. Pairings: 2x5, 3x4 established Summary: Sequel to Persistence ~dream/ thought~ /thought/ *emphasized* " All Through The Night " Chapter Seven You may only be one person to the world But you may
also be the world to one person. Sally, being concerned with only a brief update from Quatre the night before, decided it wouldn’t hurt anything to call the next morning. To her great surprise and delight, it was Wufei that answered. <Wufei! You look fine, how do you feel?> Wufei nodded to her, smiling slightly. “Fine, Sally. Didn’t someone update you last night?” <Quatre did,> Sally replied slowly. The person in front of her was very different from the Chang Wufei she knew. He wasn’t rude, he wasn’t calling her ‘woman’, he wasn’t acting as if nothing serious happened…maybe those drugs had a side effect she didn’t know of. “His report might have been a bit…brief,” Wufei offered dryly. “This morning’s conversation over breakfast dealt with the most expedient method of killing Relena and the best locations to hide the body. I can only imagine what they were like last night.” <Tense,> Sally informed him. <And not very informative. He basically said ‘he’s alright, Duo’s spending the night with him just to make sure’. It’s why I called this morning.> “Hm. Sorry, I should have realized that.” ‘Sorry’? Chang Wufei had actually said *sorry*?! Sally’s eyes bugged out of her head. <Who are you and what have you done with Chang Wufei?> Wufei glowered at her. “Woman, will you be serious?” <Okay, that sounded like Wufei, and you look like Wufei, but…> From the doorway Duo started snickering. “It’s the latest and greatest model, Sally, manners and proper etiquette already installed. This week, on sale for one million credits.” Wufei rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath about how he was surrounded by idiots with twisted humors. Sally didn’t miss the commentary, and was frankly delighted to the see the changes in her friend. <Do you do installments?> “Naturally!” Duo assured her, in true salesmen fashion. “Duo, shut up. Sally, is there anything else you need to know because if you continue like this I will cut you off.” <Just checking up on you,> Sally answered brightly. <What did you do to Relena?> Wufei blinked. Actually, what had been done to Relena? “Tro kicked her out of the house with death threats ringing in her ears. I still say we should have shother and left her in the middle of the desert, but…” <I understand how you feel, but we really can’t afford to lose her despite how stupid she acts at times.> Sally shrugged. <Still… I wish I could talk longer, but we’re moving out in a few minutes. Take care, guys. And Duo, I’m completely sincere about the new Wufei model. Send me one ASAP.> Wufei growled at her impish smile and ended the call. “Irritating woman.” “Yup, but you like her anyway. Now, can I interest you in a round or two of Halo? I managed to get it online, so now we can beat the pants off anybody.” Heero poked his head in at that moment. “Duo, I need you for a moment.” Duo blew out a breath. “Figures.” “I can’t anyway,” Wufei told him with a shrug. “If we’re to do the mission tomorrow afternoon, I need to make sure that everything is packed before we go.” “Okay, that’s cool.” Duo followed Heero out, but Heero gestured up to the stairs. Confused, he followed his friend up and into his bedroom. Heero seemed strangely…pensive. Usually he did what he had to, said what he had to, without hesitation. So why was he nearly fidgeting? Heero sat him down on the bed after ensuring that the door was locked, then frowned at his best friend darkly. “Considering how good you are at reading people, I can’t believe this is necessary, but it apparently is.” Duo was staring at him blankly. “What is?” Heero opened his mouth to respond, and realized he had no idea how. Dammit, he should have made Quatre do this. Or even Trowa. It just wasn’t in his personality to blurt out intimate-relationship kind of things. “Duo, can I be you for a second?” He blinked, but despite the body’s tendency of blinking when one is confused, it does *not* clear up said confusion. “Huh?” “Can I be you? I can’t say anything, but I know how you would say this so can I be you?” That made absolutely no sense, but Duo decided that having Heero explain it again probably wouldn’t really clear anything up. It was easier to just agree. “Uh…sure, I guess.” Nodding, Heero closed his eyes for a second and tried to put himself in the same mindset that he often imagined Duo was in. Then his eyes snapped open, and a quirky grin stretched his mouth. “Okay, D, this is how it went down.” Duo choked, staring at him incredulously. Facial _expression, mannerisms, everything had been just like himself. Even the *voice* had been his! Without meaning to he started laughing helplessly, clutching his stomach and falling sideways. “He-Heero, man don’t do that! Ohmigod, ohmigod—” tears seeped out of the corners of his eyes and he rocked a little as he tried to let all of his mirth out before it strangled him. Heero sighed in exasperation. “I wasn’t that funny.” “Y-yes you were! Ohmigod, promise to wait and let me grab a video camera, I have *got* to capture that on film!” “Duo! It’s serious!” “You need to be an actor,” Duo told him, stamping his urge to laugh down flat. “I had no idea you were so good at impersonating like that!” “I did it for a reason,” Heero snapped. “I can’t say these kinds of things like you do.” “Well, whatever it is, isn’t it about time you learned how?” Duo canted his head, eyes still sparkling as he sat back up. “Com’n and just spit it out. I won’t take it wrong.” Heero felt it was a bad idea, but Duo might have a point. Taking in a deep breath he just spit it out. “Wufei loves you.” Duo’s mouth worked for several moments but no sound emerged. His eyes nearly consumed his face and if it weren’t for Heero’s hands on his shoulders, holding him up, he would have fallen over. “…what?” he eventually croaked. “Wufei loves you.” Duo’s mind shut down, running around in mad circles. There was no way in hell— “You’re wrong.” “No I’m not.” “Did he tell you that?” “No,” Heero was forced to admit. “Then you’re wrong.” Duo wasn’t sure why he felt so vehement on this, but he did. Heero had to be wrong—he simply couldn’t deal with the consequences if he were right. “No,” Heero repeated patiently, somewhat gently. “I’m not.” Duo backed off the bed, fists clenching and unclenching without his notice. “You can’t be right. We’re friends. He doesn’t…he doesn’t look at me as anything more.” “Yes he does. Why do you think I was so jealous in the beginning, Duo? I couldn’t retaliate like he could—couldn’t think of you as more than a friend. But he could and did. I saw the look in his eyes and was afraid of what might happen when you finally noticed how he felt for you.” Heero rose and slowly advanced as Duo’s back hit the door. “Do you know what he said to me, that day we fought in the mountains?” /No/ Duo’s mind screamed. He couldn’t force the word past his throat. “He said that he wasn’t a threat to me. That he was only a friend. But I saw in his eyes what he really meant. He wanted more.” Heero finally stopped, inches from Duo’s face. “Why are you scared?” “You’re wrong.” The words were more than a whisper, but fell short of the shout that he meant them to be. “Wrong.” “No. And you know it. Why else would you succeed in three days where Quatre had tried and failed for *months*? He loves you, Duo—he would do anything for you, even end his self imposed isolation and throw aside the traditions he had been raised with. For you, he dropped his mask of arrogance and cold indifference, revealing the person he truly is. For you, he was willing to walk away and put himself back into isolation so you wouldn’t lose your best friend.” Duo didn’t think his eyes could go any wider—he was wrong. “What?” “I didn’t think he had told you—Quatre told me. If being your friend meant losing me, he would have stepped aside and become the old Wufei all over again.” It still disturbed Heero how close he’d been to forcing Wufei into that, too. He’d learned a great deal about what friendships and ‘family’ meant since then and hated to think he’d nearly forced his friend into such a position because of his jealousy. Oddly enough, it was Wufei that had the easiest time of explaining it to him, since how they were raised was so remarkably similar in certain aspects. Duo shook his head in useless denial. “He can’t be…he can’t be…” Hesitantly Heero reached out, gathering the shaking frame into his arms. He’d never really comforted someone before, but running a hand over Duo’s back in a soothing circle seemed to work after a few minutes so he continued. “Why does this scare you?” Duo flinched at the whisper. “The last time I tried to make a friend into a lover—I almost lost two friends. I can’t…I can’t do it, Heero. I can’t take that kind of risk again.” “Baka,” Heero growled into his hair, hugging him tight enough to get a squeak. “The fact that I’m standing here telling you all of this should be reassurance enough that *I* don’t mind!” “And Wufei?” Duo tore himself free to glare at his best friend. “Can you make the same guarantees for him?!” “No,” Heero admitted. “Duo, you once told me that‘safe’ doesn’t always mean ‘happy’. Do you want to be ‘safe’, just being Wufei’s friend even though you know how he feels? Or do you want to be ‘happy’, and have it all?” + Duo honestly did try to think about it, but found that his thoughts just went in mad circles, without giving him any answers. In the end, he ignored it and focusedon the mission instead. He needed to focus on the mission anyway—everything could be settled after that. Assuming Heero was right. It disturbed Duo to acknowledge that Heero was probably right. Duo did what he normally did when he had to focus and something was weighing on his mind. He buried it and put a timer on it. When the mission was done, and everything was normal (well, ‘normal’ for their lifestyle at least) *then* he’d think about it. Until that point, it was vital for him to be focused and to treat Wufei just how he always treated him. And so he did. + It was Quatre and Trowa’s task to steal inside the base, download the necessary data from the computers, and then get back out. It was Heero’s, Duo’s and Wufei’s task to give them the necessary distraction. They came in high, way above most radar, then landed
straight down and settled near the edge of the base. Alarms started
blaring, but the activity coming *from* the base was curiously…slow.
The three Gundams settled just outside Edwards Air Force Base and
waited for the base to actually scramble some kind of resistance.
While they were waiting, it was only natural for Duo “Man, they’re slow.” <Duo, are you complaining when your enemy is making a mistake?> Wufei inquired dryly. “Naw, I’m just saying they’re going to get wiped out if they’re always this slow.” A funny thought struck and Duo started chuckling. “Hey, I wonder if this is how the rebel troops felt in Star Wars, breathing down the Empire’s neck just waiting to attack.” Heero snorted. <You don’t look like a rebel,> Wufei informed him with an expansive roll of the eyes. <In Deathscythe Hell, you look like Darth Vader.> Duo started making heavy breathing noises into his microphone. “The force is strong with you, young one.” The opportunity was too good to pass up. Heero rotated around and drew out his thermal blade—or in this case, his beam saber—and flicked it on. <You killed my father!> Delighted to have Heero actually playing with him, Duo put more effort into his impression and tried to make his voice match Vader’s. “No, Luke. I am your father.” From Nataku the soundtrack started playing. Duo paused, face lighting up in a grin. “Wufei, you Wascally Wabbit! You have the soundtrack to Star Wars?” <No. *You* have the soundtrack to Star Wars. I simply borrowed it.> “So *that’s* where it went off to!” <Heads up ladies,> Heero interrupted briskly. <They finally gave us someone to play with.> “It took them three whole minutes too. We have got to send out a memo.” There was no reply. They were too busy actually fighting to really carry on a conversation anyway. ~*~*~*~
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