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"Friends "Written By: Karina
Series: Friends Pairings: 2+6 Ratings: M 15+ [In Australia] Rated in the event of bad language and violence. Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing or the characters. That’s the way it is. Warnings: Not a death fic despite how it starts.
Aussie spelling and unbetaed. Summary: When Milliardo Peacecraft is abducted
and left to die a solitary death Duo Maxwell decides to take a hand
in the proceedings.
Chapter 6 “You tough son of a bitch, I thought for sure you’d cark it.” One pale eyebrow lifted slightly and intense blue eyes studied him from the warm nest of the sleeping bag. Marquise was shivering and Duo determined that was good and checked his pulse, noting the strong regular heartbeat. It seemed Marquise was a hard man to kill and, despite his condition and proximity to death, he seemed alert enough. “I’ll get you some warm soup, that should help bring your temperature up.” Duo sat back and rummaged in his packs for a meal pack. “Where?” The dry and painful sounding rasp of his voice made Duo wince and he busied himself prepping the self heating ration pack. Chicken broth, he noted, just what everyone said mothers proclaimed to be the best medicine for every ailment known to mankind. “I think it best we let this cool down a bit before you have some. Don’t want to cause more problems by giving you something you are not yet ready to handle. Might be a bit of a shock to your system to have something really hot just now.” “Where are we?” His deep voice was harsh with disuse, and he looked at the tent over his head with a faint frown. Duo glanced about him and sighed. “I’ve set up the tent in some run down hunter’s shack to give us protection from the blizzard. At least, I think it is a hunters shack. We are a fair way into the Sanc highlands, the exact coordinates are stored in the chopper. I’m afraid we are stuck here until the weather improves.” Though he thought it he was not about to actually say they were safe until the shack blew down and killed them both. At the moment that seemed an all too real scenario to joke about. Giving the pack a vigorous shake to ensure the heat was evenly distributed he stripped the seal and poured the contents into his mug. “Won’t take long for this to cool down a bit, I don’t think I should get you too warm too quickly, you know?” He felt the need to apologize. “You’ve proven you are hard to kill, so it would be a shame to spoil your record by moving too quickly.” A soft grunt was his response and he glanced up to find Marquise intent on examining the tent. After a moment those blue eyes focused once more on Duo and that expressive eyebrow twitched upwards. “Alone?” Duo swirled the soup in his cup and sighed softly. “Yeah. Just you and me.” “How?” Tough and stubborn, Duo decided. Unwilling to be in the dark and wanting answers, despite his physical condition. He could only admire the man who, it appeared, would thumb his nose at the spectre of Death yet again. “How?” He considered the intent gaze for a moment, uncertain as to exactly what Marquise was enquiring about. “How did I get here?” A barely perceptible nod confirmed his guess. “In a chopper. I flew in before the blizzard closed in fully, and I’ll fly us out when the weather improves.” “How… did you…know?” “An anonymous call was received, claiming you were in trouble. Someone was intending to murder you in an out of the way place. There were coordinates included in the message and I took a chance it was not a hoax.” Duo glanced around the tent at a particularly loud creak from the cabin and moan of the wind. “They picked a bloody lonely place to do it.” “Why… you?” He winced and Duo guessed the faint movement under the sleeping bag was a reflexive and aborted grab toward his throat “Why did I come after you?” Duo scratched his head and shrugged, uncertain exactly what to say. The man had to know he was unpopular and wonder why anyone would place themselves in danger for him. He had nothing against Marquise himself. Duo had tried to put the war behind him and tried not to judge other people. “Well, someone had to see if it was a hoax or not. Given the weather closing in about all we could do was try ringing your home, but no one answered the vidphone. You were not rostered as being on a mission so it was possible you might be in trouble. The guys will head on over and check out your place as soon as the weather clears.” “You came… alone? Here.” “Yeah. If I’d waited to check your place out I’d not have reached the coordinates before the blizzard closed out the mountains and I’d have found a frozen corpse, wouldn’t I? Besides, I’m not exactly renowned for my patience.” “Thanks.” Marquise’s voice was barely above a whisper and there was an odd expression in his eyes Duo could not quite identify before he closed them. Marquise was exhausted and likely to drop off to sleep again, but Duo intended to get some nourishment into him before he slept. Deciding the soup would have to be cool enough he moved alongside Marquise and set the cup to one side. “Hey. No sleeping yet. Drink this first and then you can rest.” Duo assisted him to sit up enough to make drinking possible, propping Marquise against his own lean frame. With one arm curled about broad shoulders to steady him, Duo held the mug in front of his face and watched as one shaking hand tried to rise. “Nah, forget that. Table manners suck in the wild. You just drink and I’ll do the rest. Once you finish this you can sleep. I’m hoping the storm will blow itself out overnight and I can dig the chopper out in the morning. It should take us about two hours to reach New Port City after that, and we can get you to the medics.” Duo was pleasantly surprised he did not have to coax his patient into drinking all the soup. Marquise was pliant in his grasp and obedient. Watching him Duo thought he was listening to the storm more than paying attention to what he was drinking. With the cup emptied Duo set it to one side and gently eased him down, straightening slowly to stare at the side of the tent and watch the shadows play as the lantern rocked gently. “Did you see who it was?” Blue eyes opened slowly, a frown wrinkling his brow. Marquise looked more than half asleep, but he shook his head slowly and his eyes revealed his worry. There was someone out there who had gone to a great deal of trouble to murder him and he was not inclined to think it would be a one off attempt. “No. Wanted… revenge.” “He was intending to murder you for revenge?” Duo ran a finger along the length of his nose, considering Marquise for a long moment. “Revenge for something specific?” The snort was amused and accompanied by a wince of pain. “Take your pick.” The broth had moistened his throat and made talking easier, though he seemed to be tiring fast. “No…shortage… of reasons.” Duo sighed and sat back, listening to the creaks, groans and the howl of the wind. He was becoming worried about the safety of the cabin and if it could hold against the fury of the weather. The last thing he needed was for their shelter to collapse on them. “The storm’s getting worse from the sound of it.” “Mmm.” Not quite asleep then, Duo decided, watching the slowly relaxing face. It would not be long before Marquise drifted off and no doubt the next time he awoke he would have to see to toileting facilities. They were professional agents who had been in hairy situations before that required bodily functions be catered to under duress. It would not be a problem, as it might have been had one of them been a raw recruit. “I was hoping the ridge backing the cabin would give us a bit more protection than it appears to be giving us. I guess the wind direction must have shifted a bit.” Again a tiny furrow appeared on Marquise's brow, and he made a visible effort to stir himself. “Ridge? There is a ridge… behind the cabin?” “Yeah. There is a low cliff behind the cabin. The ridge runs along the back and curves around to the east. It would be a pretty spot I’d say, once the storm lets up. I’d like to enjoy it under different circumstances.” “In Sanc?” Marquise seemed to be trying to stir himself, making an effort to resist the sleep his body was insisting on. Duo frowned, that annoying pressure which had drawn him here was making a comeback. He had the uncomfortable feeling it was a warning about the storm. He had the distinct ‘feeling’ they were in trouble. “Yeah. We are in Sanc.” “Back wall… maybe… Check back wall.” Marquise was panting softly. “Storage cave.” “A storage cave? I came through the main room of the cabin and saw solid timber walls, a bit draughty, but nothing to suggest any more rooms other than the one we are in now. One door into the cabin and one door into this room, nothing more.” “Old cabin… Really old… might be… storage cave. Traditional design… mean no obvious… door. Look for rope… A hanging rope.” Duo considered his patient for a long moment and rubbed at his chin. “Tradition, huh? It was a quaint local traditional to hide the pantry behind a false wall?” “Used to be bears… wolves… in Sanc. Long time ago.” Something outside in the night crashed and Duo could not help the reflexive cringe at the sound. Deciding it could not hurt to look for something a little more solid than the ramshackle old building, he eased himself to his knees. Besides, some activity might warm him up a little and Marquise was going nowhere. He’d be asleep in a few minutes anyway and it would give Duo something to occupy himself with. If there was a storage cave in this ramshackle old building it might be large enough to offer them sturdier shelter. Given the sounds of the blizzard that could only be a good thing. “Okay. You just rest up and I’ll recon the hut.” Marquise seemed to have exhausted his energy and offered no further comment as Duo crawled from the tent. Turning on his torch Duo made his way, stumbling and slipping on the ice coating the floor to the rear wall, feeling his way carefully. Playing the torch around the cabin he sighed as he noted wooden shingles had been torn from one section of the roof. Snow was coming in in increasing quantities and would quickly drop the already chill temperature. //Not good.// Deciding his best option was to hope for a hidden room with nice rock walls, given their existing shelter was falling apart, he turned his attention to the rear wall. There was no rope visible hanging from the wall or ceiling. He knocked his knuckles against its rough surface at evenly spaced intervals but it sounded disgustingly solid to him. Deciding it would make far more sense for a hidden pantry to be in the main room he eased his way over the icy floor and out the door. At least he was not going to need to search the entire cabin. If there was a pantry it had to be on the rear wall, and at least that was away from the most dangerous section of the floor, the heavily iced over snow drifts. “Look for a rope, he said.” Duo glanced about him and shrugged, playing the light over the wall and then up to the ceiling. “Well, there are ropes here but… ah, what are you?” Near a shelf tilted crazily where one sides support had broken away, a length of rope dangled from a rafter overhead. As Duo directed the torch along its length he followed the rope up to the rafter and then along, in the direction of the rear wall. A slow grin began to spread across his face as he found the place where the rope vanished through the wall. “Ah, potential.” He tapped along the walls length, smiling widely at the decidedly hollow sound of one section. Uncertain how the door would work he grasped the rope and pulled carefully, watching as the rope tightened. It was so old he was afraid it would break if too much pressure was a applied. Nothing resulted from his gentle pull and he scowled, deciding there was no help for it. He had to chance breaking the rope. He checked the wall but could find no evidence of hinges, and he suspected some type of pulley system had to have been rigged. Gently at first, and then steadily applying more weight to the rope, he watched the wall, waiting for some sign of a door opening. There was a squeak, barely audible above the roar of the wind, and a section of the wall shuddered. Encouraged he pulled harder, leaning his weight against the rope, and the wall shifted. //Did that go up?// Applying a touch more pressure to the rope he leaned forward, intently watching the wall and yes, the line of nails was out of alignment with the side walls. Grinning now he pulled on the rope and watched as the section of wall rose an inch before it came back down with a thud as the rope broke. “Shit.” For a long moment Duo considered the rope dangling from his hand and then glared at the wall. “No matter. I know where you are now and I can force my way in.” The sound of the wind roaring through the trees and the banging of loose tiles suggested he had best not delay. The activity would help keep him warm. When he had checked out how large the pantry was he might see about transferring the equipment, and Marquise, into what he assumed might be a small cave. “Always assuming, of course, it is large enough to fit more than a sack of potatoes and a deer carcass in.” End
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