"Light on the Stage"
Written By: Impish
Rating: R
Pairings: 1x2x1
Category: AU, Drama/Romance (but not in a "hearts
and flowers" way)
Warnings: AU, some angst, things teenagers do
that they're not supposed to (smoking and drinking), general reckless
behavior. Additional warnings will be doled out chapter to chapter.
Summary: Two messed up kids in a small country
town are drawn to each other, and together, form a brand of music
from the old.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the songs
used to inspire this piece. I will give a shout out to any inspirations
found within.
Archives: http://www.gundam-wing-diaries.150m.com/gw/Impish/gwImpish.htm
http://www.freewebs.com/soft-sugar/impishinklingsfiction.htm
Anyone else, all you have to do is ask.
Notes: I forgot to mention last time- I have an
LJ now! So, if you care to drop by, the link is: http://impish21.livejournal.com/
"Light on the Stage"
CHAPTER 2: Tin Stars, Smoke and Scars
The end of the cigarette lit up with a dull blaze, and Duo tossed
the lighter back to Heero, who caught it without looking. Both boys
were flat on their backs in the bed of Heero's pick-up, gazing at
the night sky above. Clear of any heavy swirls of clouds, its dark
face was thickly freckled with stars, and every once and a while,
a shooting star would slash through in a bright flash.
The day had been spent with minimal time in the classroom that morning
and a greater amount of time that afternoon driving over back roads,
testing the truck's off-roading capabilities. Now generously decorated
with mud, the black pick-up sat quietly in the middle of an open field.
"What was that speaker we missed today?" Duo asked absently,
taking a deep drag, and then watching the seductive curl of smoke
disappear into the night as he exhaled.
"Anti-smoking lecture." Heero responded as he pocketed the
lighter, the cigarette in his mouth dancing with the words.
Duo took the cigarette out of his mouth and studied it briefly with
an almost quizzical look. "Huh," he grunted with a shrug,
and put it back to his lips for another pull.
"Ironic."
"Just a bit."
There was a light shifting of air. The stirring sound of crickets,
locusts, and other, larger animals of the night blended with the dry
rustle of tall grass. In the next few weeks, the number of nighttime
insects, especially those that sucked blood, would multiply annoyingly,
but for now, the air was a cool contrast to the scorching heat of
day and a simple relief.
"I hate to say it, but I think I actually have to go to class
tomorrow." Duo said, flicking the end of his cigarette idly.
"I have a test, and if I actually want to graduate next year
and get out of this town, I have to pass."
"Test? What period?" Heero asked with suspicion.
"Sixth—wait… don't tell me you have Miss Davis for
English, too." Duo said, giving him a sideways glance. Heero
gave a snort in response, and Duo shook his head with a laugh. "Hell,
that can't be good. We were in the same class all year, and neither
of us went enough to realize the other was in it. Makes me wonder
about our educational system."
"It's an easy class to miss." Heero pointed out.
"True. She never gives pop quizzes or anything. I think I might
actually be pulling a B… which says something." Duo said
with an irreverent smirk. "What do you have?"
"A."
"Clever boy. Guess you go to class more than I do."
Heero chuckled shortly. "I doubt it. I'd just already read all
the books we've done."
"You'd already read all that?" Duo asked dubiously, rolling
over and pillowing his head on his arms, the cigarette still burning
slowly between two fingers.
Heero shrugged, unconcerned, and took a long pull, then saying through
a cloud of smoke, "They're classics."
"I don't think I would've pegged you as the literary type."
Duo chuckled, and took a short puff. "Classics, huh? My idea
of a classic is 'High Noon.'"
"With Gary Cooper?" Heero said with interest. "I liked
the song."
"Yeah… that was a great song…" Duo murmured and
then was quiet for a long moment as he tried to remember the lyrics.
"Did you know it was *the* original theme song?"
Heero grunted negatively.
"I mean, all the other movies had a score, sure… but there
wasn't anything out there like 'Do not Forsake Me.' It was the first
song from a non-musical film to win an Oscar." Duo took a quick
drag. "It totally revived Tex Ritter's career, too. All the other
westerns and dramas after it started rolling theme songs over the
opening credits… it started a huge trend. Some people even think
it was the end of the Singing Cowboy genre."
"How the hell do you know all that?" Heero couldn't help
but ask.
Duo shrugged carelessly, sat up and leaned against the back of the
cab, fiddling with the cigarette between his fingers. "I dunno.
I just pick stuff up like that. It's more interesting than the shit
we're supposed to learn at school, right?"
Heero nodded offhandedly. "True."
"I heard somewhere that the director liked the song so much that
he overused it in the film, and at the first showing, people actually
started laughing 'cause it was used so much. They had to go back and
take a lot of it out."
Heero blew a smoke ring. "Wasn't 'High Noon' considered a commentary
on the McCarthy era?"
Duo grinned. "Yeah, about how no one was standing up against
the blacklisting."
"I haven't seen the movie in years… I don't really remember
most of it."
"What do you remember?"
"That Grace Kelly was a Quaker."
"That's it?"
"Yeah. I don't even really remember why it was called 'High Noon.'"
"Well, yeah… that was definitely important." Duo laughed.
"See, the villain, Frank Miller, is coming back to town on the
noon train to kill the guy that put him in prison—that would
be Gary Cooper's character, Will Kane. Kane has just turned in his
badge to marry the Quaker girl when he hears this. So, he decides
he has to go back and face up to his enemy, even though his new bride
doesn't believe in violence and has made it clear she'll leave without
him. The good citizens of the town all abandon Kane, too scared to
stand up against Miller and his gang. Kane ends up taking the lot
of 'em by himself at the end, his wife goes back to him and helps
out, and then he throws his tin star into the dirt and they ride off
into the sunset."
"So, the townspeople not backing Kane up is supposed to be like
people not standing up to McCarthyism." Heero said, sitting up
and leaning into the corner of the bed of the truck.
"In a nutshell. The guy who wrote the script was blacklisted.
He had to leave the country before the film was even finished. John
Wayne hated the movie because he thought it was un-American, and made
'Rio Bravo' almost as a comeback." Duo said, and laughed balefully.
"God, I hate John Wayne. You'd think a guy that made his money
with movies about war and fighting wouldn't have finagled his way
out of actually fighting in a war."
Heero shot him a look that, even in the trifling light the sliver
of moon provided, clearly said, "Bitter, much?"
Duo scowled. "Hey, he got a dispensation because he was a family
man with a wife and kids." Duo said, his punctuating hand gestures
followed by the glowing end of his cigarette. "Which would have
been fine, if he hadn't then dumped his wife to marry another woman."
Heero raised an eyebrow.
Duo shrugged. "I'm not a fan of the hypocrite cowboy. Any ethics
I got came from westerns." He paused shortly. "When I think
about it, that doesn't say too much for me, considering how many times
I've watched 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.'"
Duo laughed shortly and put out his cigarette. "Now *that* had
some great music. Those Italian westerns had the best."
Rising abruptly to his feet, Duo jumped out of the truck. Heero sat
up and crushed his own cigarette out. "Where are we going now?"
He asked.
"To go do something." Duo replied, looking up at the sky.
"Do what?" Heero asked reluctantly.
"I dunno. We'll see when we get there."
"Where?"
Another shooting star streaked across the night sky, and Duo followed
its passage with his finger. "I think… that way."
"Where the hell are we?" Duo wondered. The darkness around
them was total and the road ahead seemed to disappear past the headlights.
The spare shard of moon didn't provide much light to see by, even
though the land on either side of the road looked to be nothing but
empty fields.
"I think somewhere near Cedar Cross." Heero said, unsure.
"Nah, we can't be that far from Current—wait, what is that?"
Duo asked suddenly, and abruptly leaned over Heero to get a better
look. "Hey, slow down."
As he slowed the truck, Heero was very aware of Duo's shoulder brushed
up against his, almost able to feel the hot pulse beneath Duo's skin.
His eyes flicked from the road to the lean curve of Duo's neck and
followed the strong line of it to his face.
A spark of mischief was ignited in Duo's eyes as they fixated on a
large, random shape that stood out faintly from the flatness around
it. "Let's check it out."
Heero glanced where Duo was looking, ahead and to the left, and studied
the outline of the structure. "Is that Sweetstone?"
"It looks abandoned…" Duo shrugged, never having heard
of anything called "Sweetstone."
"It's not." Heero said and turned off the main road. As
they drove closer, the vague outline of the building became clearer,
its pale walls doing their best to catch the light.
"It looks like a Spanish Mission or something." Duo said
when they got out of the truck.
It did, Heero thought. There were colonial archways and columns, terra
cotta tiles on the roof… even a small bell tower. Heero had parked
the truck closer to the back, and so the pair made their way up a
slope to a high stucco wall behind the building. Heero went over first,
pulling himself up easily, then reaching down to give Duo a hand.
On the other side, they found a small courtyard, covered in fallen
leaves, and in the center was a dry fountain. In the back, peeking
out from under an arched overhang was a sturdy, wooden door.
"It looks locked up pretty tight." Heero said as they approached.
Duo didn't seem to be listening. "Hey, you were right."
He nodded to a small plaque off to the side. "This is Sweetstone…
whatever that is." He began to study the lock on the door.
Heero sighed. "You do know that there's a security camera pointed
at you, don't you?"
Duo didn't look up. "It's a dummy."
"Are you sure?" Heero asked, pointing above. "It looks
like it's recording."
Duo straightened up and looked at the camera, tucked high in a corner
and pointed at the door. A red light indicating it was on gleamed
back at him. With a quick jump, he braced his feet on pillars and
smoothly pulled himself up. Hanging there for just a moment, Duo snatched
the camera and ripped it out of its place, then dropped back down
next to Heero.
"Take a look." Duo tossed the camera to Heero.
Heero turned it over in his hands. "It's a fake."
"Yup. The light's on a battery, but the rest is just empty plastic."
"Do you think you can get in?" Heero asked, watching as
Duo took back the fake camera, and clambered up the pillar a second
time to put it back.
"Sure. The lock looks hardcore, but it isn't anything special.
Just give me a second… I'm even gonna guess…" Duo looked
around, and spotting some ornamental clay pots, knelt down and began
sticking his hand in each of them. "Yep!" He said triumphantly,
pulling out a key. "I love it when they're lazy."
Heero considered that there might be an alarm, but figured if someone
was going to put up a fake camera and a spare key in a pot, they probably
weren't going to bother with a real alarm.
Sure enough, when Duo opened the door, there was nothing—no sound,
and no light. Groping the wall by the door for a moment, Heero flicked
on a switch, which illuminated the back half of the room, and immediately
received a glare from Duo for it.
"We're out in the middle of nowhere." Heero pointed out.
"You probably can't even see the lights on from the front."
"Yeah, fine." Duo said, waving it off in favor of exploring.
It was a very large room—large and long. There were stairs tucked
away off to the left, just past what looked like a small, low stage
in the corner. Archways further down might have led to other rooms,
but they couldn't quite make out what those rooms were from their
end of the hall. The walls were covered in all sorts of things- cowboy
hats and sombreros, horseshoes, paintings of cowboys and rodeo posters.
But these were all hung carefully, as if the decorating had been done
by a trained eye. The hats were brand new, the horseshoes painted
black, and the paintings and posters all expensively framed.
"What do you think this place is for?" Duo wondered. "A
bar, dance floor and stage? It's out in the fucking middle of nowhere…"
"It's for receptions and business parties, mostly. Some businessman
put it up for his daughter's wedding reception a few years ago. They
rent it out every once and a while, I think." Heero saw Duo's
inquisitive look, and shrugged. "My dad helped build it. He's
in construction."
"It's like a rich person's idea of a honky-tonk." Duo muttered,
and Heero agreed.
"It cost a lot of money to put up. The floors are all imported
tile…" He pointed at the ceiling. "Those beams came
from a ranch in Mexico."
Duo snickered. "They had to import crap to achieve an authentic
Texan look?"
Heero shrugged. "Technically, it's Spanish."
A painting on the wall caught his eye, and he wandered over to study
it. It was a cowboy and his horse, making a breakneck run down an
incline so steep it was nearly vertical. The scene was strangely familiar.
He wasn't sure that if he were the one on the horse almost falling
off a cliff, he'd have that particular expression on his face, though.
That cowboy looked a little too excited about his predicament. When
he turned around again, Duo had disappeared.
"Duo?" He called out.
"Jackpot!" A disembodied voice answered.
Heero looked over to where Duo's voice had come from, behind the bar.
A hand, clutching at a bottle of Crown Royal appeared over the countertop,
and Duo popped up after it, a huge grin on his face.
"Diamonds may be a girl's best friend," Duo said, quickly
removing the cap, "But whiskey is definitely a boy's. Cheers."
Saluting Heero with a wink, Duo sank the bottle back and drank deeply.
With a sound of satisfaction, he offered the bottle to Heero, who
reached over and took it with a slight smile.
"This was a good idea." Heero said, and took another small
swig before he began to pass it back. The light caught Duo's forearm
as he reached for the bottle, and Heero noticed for the first time
multiple shiny, parallel scars. "Where'd you get those?"
he asked.
"Oh, these?" Duo turned over his hands and cocked his wrists
out. "The oven. When I was little I constantly burned myself
trying to make cookies." He said with a crooked grin. "When
I was in middle school, my teacher thought I was cutting myself. Child
services came out…" He shook his head ruefully. "You
wouldn't believe the mess it made."
He took the whiskey back from Heero and took a quick sip before something
on the wall caught his eye.
"Hey," Duo said, drawn to a decorative guitar that hung
near the stage in the corner. "I wonder if…" He passed
the bottle to Heero and walked over. Taking the instrument down from
the wall, he studied the strings. "Damn, these look new…"
He strummed the guitar once, and winced at the sour chord it produced.
Sinking down to sit on the edge of the stage, Duo began twisting the
pegs to tune it.
"I almost don't believe it…" Duo muttered excitedly.
"This is a really nice guitar."
He tuned it up some more, and Heero sat next to him to watch, setting
the crown-shaped bottle of whiskey down between them.
"Do you play at all?" Duo asked him.
"No." Heero answered, watching Duo's fingers carefully.
"I can show you." Duo said, his mouth twitching into a smile.
"It's not hard. Learn three chords and you can play almost anything,
anyway."
"Play something?" Heero requested.
"All right," Duo said compliantly. "But give me another
swig of that whiskey." Heero handed it over, and Duo took a large
swallow and passed it back.
"Let's see…" Duo said thoughtfully, and his fingers
began to strum at the strings, plucking out a simple, rolling backdrop.
When he began to sing, the notes were sudden and soft, almost as if
they had come straight out of the night and not from Duo at all. "…
Do not forsake me, oh my darling…"
A small smile formed on Heero's lips when he recognized the song as
the ballad from "High Noon."
"On this, our wedding day… do not forsake me, oh my darling…
wait… wait along…
"I do not know what fate awaits me… I only know I must be
brave, and I must face a man who hates me…" Duo's voice
was both rough and rich, the pitch honest, and the determination of
the words never wavered. "Or lie a coward, a craven coward…
or lie a coward… in my grave…"
There was a regretful, longing quality to the way he wrung out the
tune that created an almost wounded effect, and Heero found himself
lost to it in a way he hadn't expected.
"Oh, to be torn 'twixt love and duty, s'posin' I lose my fair-haired
beauty… look at that big hand move along… nearin' high noon…"
It was like listening to that old country that he loved, with the
same potent sense of nostalgia, he thought, watching as Duo's hands
shifted over the guitar.
"He made a vow while in state prison… vowed it would be
my life or his'n… I'm not afraid of death but oh… what will
I do if you leave me?"
Only, where that music they had listened to before seemed dusty and
dry, Duo's singing was alive and breathing around him.
"Do not forsake me, oh my darling… you made that promise
as a bride… do not forsake me, oh my darling…"
It was like watching a black and white movie and suddenly becoming
the character the movie was based on and *living* it in color.
"Although you're grieving, don't think of leaving… now that
I need you by my side…"
It was so much more than music, he realized. It was like his soul
had been returned to him, and he hadn't even known it was gone.
"Wait along, wait along… wait along, wait along…"
The last notes faded and disappeared like wisps of smoke into the
rafters, and Duo sighed with a sliver of a smile. "Well, that's
one of the Tex Ritter versions, anyway."
"Show me?" Heero asked softly.
Duo's smile grew, and he handed the guitar to Heero. "Here."
he said and leaned over, fixing Heero's hands. "There… bow
your wrist out, yeah… like that. Okay… now put those three
fingers… line them up. That's A."
Heero drew his right hand down and his thumb stroked down the strings
like a caress. It sounded perfect. It felt… perfect.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nod to the inspiring songs:
"High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)" words by Ned Washington,
music by Dmitri Tiomkin
Chapter 3
Back to Impish's Fics
Back to GW Authors Index.
