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"In Sickness and in Health "Written By: Keiran Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or its characters...
Shame about that. Rating: PG Genre: Um… Not romance, not really angst…
General, I guess. Pairings: 1+2+1 implied. Warnings: Shounen-ai, I’m not sure if it’s
counts as violence. ^__^’ Author Notes: This fic stems from me thinking about how one would react to what too much. I came to a conclusion that if anyone would be in a habit of rendering other people useless at the first sign of trouble, it would be Duo. The reasoning is long and twisted, so I’ll spare you having to do all the scrolling down. Anyways, this is a story about a first kiss. Not as good as I would have liked, but good enough. "In Sickness and in Health"
Duo silently opened the door and tiptoed up the stairs. His head hurt like a bitch, along with just about everything else. Quiet as a ghost he entered his room and carefully toed off his boots, the rest of his clothes following soon after. Almost blindly he groped for a T-shirt before falling onto his bed with a soft ‘whoosh’. He didn’t stir for the rest of the night. xxx Quatre furrowed his brow when he didn’t see Duo in the kitchen in the morning. He had checked on him last night and found Duo sleeping peacefully in his room. He didn’t get back *that* late, so there was no reason for him to sleep in, and therefore was a cause for Quatre to worry. But he'd promised to make breakfast this morning. Hm. “Heero!” he hollered up the stairs. “Go check up on Duo!” “Geez, what'cha yellin’ for Quat?” he heard a voice right behind him. The blond jumped. “Duo! You gave me a fright! I didn’t know you were here, sorry.” “’S okay.” Duo walked past him and into the kitchen. Quatre blinked. Good grief! The boy was moving like a shadow! ‘No wonder I didn't heard him come down!’ But his pale brows furrowed immediately after. ‘He still he wasn’t in here this morning.’ “I’ll do the breakfast today, don’t worry, Duo,” he said following the chestnut braid, still marveling at the strange way Duo was moving. He seemed to be gliding through the air effortlessly, as if in some, strange sort of a dance – graceful and purposeful, nothing like his usual, slightly klutzy, demeanor. Duo turned upon hearing the voice. “Okay,” he said grinning, “I’m out. The kitchen’s all yours!” He moved out of the way in the same graceful manner. Quatre blinked a couple of times. Something about Duo seemed to be... off – nothing he could put his finger on, just a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. But he had time for thinking about that later. For now… he’d switch off the *Mother Quatre* and turn on the *Cook Quatre*. Half an hour later Quatre was finishing up laying the table in the dining room, placing the last item – a steaming kettle of tea – in the middle, between the eggs, butter and every kind of cheese they had. Duo seemed to be dozing on the couch, the remaining three had just entered. Quatre nodded in Duo’s direction before he started pouring the tea for everyone. Heero caught on and walked over to the couch, placing a hand on the dozing boy’s shoulder in order to shake him awake. Suddenly, against all expectations, the living room was filled with Heero’s pained scream. The pilots stared in shock at the scene: a wild-eyed Duo was standing at an impossible distance away from the couch, while Heero was crouching between the grey settee and coffee table, clutching his arm which was already beginning to swell. In that moment Duo seemed to compose himself. He blinked a couple of times before finally registering what had happened. “Fuck!” he cursed. “I’m so sorry, Heero! I… I didn’t mean to…” Heero stood up slowly, testing the arm with a look of total disbelief on his face. “You broke my arm,” he intoned nasally, more surprised than mad. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!” Duo exclaimed, clearly panicking before turning around and fleeing from the room. The four pilots looked at each other in stunned silence. Heero hissed again, making Quatre collect his wits. “How bad is it Heero? Do you need to have it set?” “Yes,” the Japanese boy replied dragging his fingers along the bone. “But I’ll deal with that. You just find me something to splint and bind it with.” Quatre got a little green in the face, leaving the room as fast as he could. His mind was swimming. What the hell had they just witnessed? What was wrong with Duo? Returning to the room with some gauze, bandages and a piece of wood, Quatre found the other three as befuddled as he himself was. Setting the supplies on the table he took a good look at Heero. The arm was broken and there was a rapidly darkening bruise on the side of his face, but other than that he seemed to be fine. “I’m going to check up on Maxwell,” Wufei said, abruptly turning to leave the room, but Heero’s hand shot out to stop him. “No, I’ll go,” he said. By that time Trowa had finished splinting and bandaging his arm and was just applying the final knot. “Maybe we should all go,” the silent boy supplied, standing up. “That way we would minimize the chance of him actually hurting someone again.” Fifteen minutes earlier that statement would have resulted in two snorts, one smirk and a soft giggle. Now, no one felt like laughing much. The group moved up the stairs silently, huddling together without trying to look as if they were huddling together. They made their way to the room Duo was occupying and Wufei, being the one who'd volunteered first, pressed the handle. When the door didn’t break anyone’s arm, the four boys moved cautiously inside. Duo was sitting on his bed, arms pressing his knees tightly to his chest. Quatre broke away from the group to walk over to his friend. “Duo?” he asked quietly. “Are you okay?” Taking care to be seen, very slowly he extended his arm and placed his palm on Duo’s forehead, only to snatch it away a moment later. “You’re burning up!” Now there was something he understood and could work with – “Trowa, get something to combat fever, quick! Wufei, get some ice.” The braided boy didn’t move so the blond very gently unfolded his arms and legs, then undressed the feverish boy before wrapping him carefully under the covers. “Hang in there, Duo, Trowa will be back in a moment with some medicine.” Violet eyes followed Quatre’s movements, only a slight glint in their depths suggesting that the boy wasn’t thinking clearly. Wufei returned before Trowa, with a bag filled with ice. Wordlessly he handed the pack to Quatre. “How bad is he?” Heero moved into Duo’s line of sight, picking up one of his wrists and glancing at the clock at the same time. “Around 40 degrees Celsius,” Heero replied. “Serious, but not life-threatening.” Quatre, along with everyone else, let out a breath they’d been holding. Duo’s eyes locked with Heero’s. “I’m sorry…” he whispered again. “So sorry…” What Heero did next nearly caused the rest of his friends to have a heart attack. “It’s okay,…” he answered, equally as quiet, bending and pressing his lips against his best friend’s forehead. “I understand. Go to sleep.” And sleep Duo did, after obediently swallowing the couple of pills that Trowa had brought. Heero watched him with an unreadable _expression, before Quatre’s tugging become too insistent for him to ignore. “What happened before?” the blond asked once the four of them were seated around the table, trying to make the most of their breakfast. Fortunately it hadn't managed to cool too much. Heero picked at his plate for a few seconds before replying. “He… didn’t realize it was me,” the Japanese boy said, not looking up. “He must have put so much conscious effort into not letting the sleepiness overcome him that he didn’t pay as much attention to his surroundings.” “But I’ve seen him move, you hadn't even touched him before he threw you to the floor!” Heero finally raised his head. “That is because he couldn’t focus enough to realize who I was. He only knew that someone was trying to grab him, and reacted accordingly,” Heero explained softly. “But to break your arm?!” Quatre stopped himself before he could say anything further. He didn’t know much about Duo, certainly less than Heero, but from what he knew… “He broke your arm… so that you wouldn’t chase him.” It all made sense now. Even the almost, lightning quick way he seemed to be moving. But if he was moving like that when he *couldn’t* concentrate… “Are you trying to tell me he's been *pretending* to be a klutz all this time?” Heero nodded. Wufei found himself sputtering, against better judgment. And, admittedly, a little jealous too. “And just how did you learn about that?” “Because he managed to break two of my ribs when he went through angina the last time,” the boy deadpanned. His friends stared at him in surprise. “He did what?!” “You heard me.” xxx A few hours later Heero slipped silently into Duo’s room. He didn’t move away from the door until he felt – and saw – the lucid gaze of those violet eyes on him. “You feel better?” Duo nodded, still half-asleep. “That’s good.” Heero walked closer and kneeled next to the bed. The silence reigned for a couple of minutes. “You said once that you'd turned down Hilde’s advances, cause she – and everyone else – would never be able to live with someone who breaks bones when he can’t think clearly.” The violet-eyed boy stared at his friend uncomprehending. “What if… I could?” “Heero?” The Japanese nearly flinched at the raspy sound of the normally, clear voice. But that wasn’t important then. He dug Duo’s hand out from under the covers and brought it to his lips. “You said that if someone still wanted to kiss you after you were sick more than once, you’d marry them on the spot.” At that point it didn’t really matter that the offer had been made in fever and with a sarcastic intent. Nevertheless, the violet eyes widened. “Will you marry me then?” Heero finished and waited a few seconds for the request to register before swooping down without warning and claiming his best friend’s lips in their first kiss. Duo shuddered. He could feel tears in his eyes, and for the first time ever, he considered letting them fall. As soon as his mouth was free he whispered his answer. “I will.” xxxXXXxxx
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