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"Birds Of A Feather" Written By: Stone Angel
Disclaimer: I WISH I was making money off this.
And I wish I owned the characters. But, sadly, they're just my playthings
and other people who are richer and happier than I can claim otherwise. Rating: R Warnings: TWT, shounen ai, sap, fluff, occaisional silliness, humor, angst, blood, violence, language, kinda super natural. Archive: Steal it or any parts of it and I WILL
kill you. I’m not kidding, I’ve seen me do it Pairings: 1x2 Authors Notes: It's Super Natural in a really wierd way(that isn't even a good way to describe it), *NOT* SCI-FI, *NOT* DARK in the least, and it's something that I'm sure many of us have thought of at one time or another but I've never read anything about it so I'm changing that. Hmph. I hope you like it. ^_^ Spoilers: Yeah, a few. Unfortunately, they are from several episodes from all over the the series(including the Episode Zero manga) so listing them all would be pointless. And they are things that I think everyone knows already. But, to cover my own ass, if you have not seen the show, don't read. Also, why would you be here? 0_o Feedback: I will love you forever if you let me know what you think. Good comments adored, CC welcomed, flames laughed at. THANKS TO... KOHAKU!!! (glomps!), who helped me
work out a few things with the fic. You rock!
"Birds Of A Feather"
CHAPTER 3: That evening, Heero washed the dishes as Duo took a shower. Not one word had been said during dinner. Hardly anything had been said all day. It wasn't that Heero didn't welcome the peace and quiet, but the silence of his fellow pilot was more than slightly unnerving. The entire day, Duo had been quiet, with the exception of their trip to the store. The braided boy was almost distant. As if he had something on his mind. `Whatever it is, I hope it's not serious but that it takes him a few days to figure out. I could get used to this.' Heero thought to himself. Having finished washing the last dish, he headed out of the house and ran at a medium pace over towards the cliffs that lay on the other side of a series of hills. Duo would know that he'd be back not long after dark. * Duo waited in his bathroom until he heard the door open and close and then stepped out in a towel. His hair was wet and it clung to him, but he needed to move quickly. He could brush and braid it later. He crept towards Heero's room and opened the door. Everything was just as it had been the day before. The laptop was on the desk, the bed was made. The only difference was that all the clothes were put away instead of sitting in a pile waiting to be washed. `Who folds their laundry before washing it, that's what I wanna know. He's definitely weird. Even for a Gundam Pilot.' He looked under the bed and found nothing. He then moved quickly to the dresser and opened each drawer. Clothes. Just clothes, and not any more than what Duo had with him. Only what they could fit in their duffels was what they kept with them. He made certain to leave everything just as he had found it. "Fuck." He said to himself. "Nothing. NOTHING. I don't get it." He looked around the room before his eyes landed on the bathroom door in the wall perpendicular to the one with the door that led to the hall. Looking at it from the corners of his eyes, he crept towards it and opened the door slowly. Everything was perfect in that room as well. "Christ. The guy probably ties his dental floss into neat little bows before chucking it." He muttered. Moving towards the trash bin, he stared at the only thing in the new bag. Another perfectly white feather, almost exactly like the one before it, lay there, waiting to be found. He lifted it and examined it. "Looks like a match to me." He headed towards his room and pulled the first feather he had found out of one of his drawers from beneath his socks. He held it and the new one next to each other. The new one was slightly smaller, but they both had identical shape and color. "Okay. Well, I wanted to find something, and I found something, but WHAT did I find?" He pondered the question. He very seriously doubted that Heero was hiding a pet bird. "That's it!" He realized. `A gull must have
flown into Heero's room through the window and he chased it out and
it ended up losing a few feathers. That begs the question of why he
put one in his bed, but it's still the only explanation I can think
of. Jeez. I hope he Duo put both the feathers in a corner of his bottom drawer and closed it. Picking up his brush, he worked through is hair, wondering if his theory was correct. * * * Heero walked towards the house. It was dark out and the stars were shining brilliantly, the way they couldn't in any city. He smiled a little to himself before dropping the _expression and opening the front door. A look in showed Duo sprawled on the couch, a manga splayed on his chest, one hand holding it there while his other arm fell to the floor. He was dressed entirely in black and Heero wondered briefly in he owned any other colors. His head was leaned over the arm of the couch and he was snoring softly. Heero shook his head. "Baka." He whispered to himself. He crept forward and very carefully took the manga and placed it on the small coffee table. He then lifted Duo and carried him up the stairs. "Mm. Huh? Wher'r we goin'?" The braided pilot mumbled. "You're going to bed." Heero said simply before entering Duo's room and placing him on his bed. "Nn. My manga?" "Will be where you left it in the morning." Duo nodded and rolled over to face the other way, his breathing becoming steady. Heero sighed and gazed at his braid for a moment before leaving the room and closing the door softly. "Oyasumi." He went to his room and removed his shirt as soon as
his door was closed, toeing off his shoes and socks, completely ready
to go to bed before he remembered that he had something to do. `Shit!
The feather. I still have to burn it.' He sighed and headed to the
He frowned. `That's strange. Didn't I put it here?' He looked on the floor of the bathroom, but the feather was gone. A little alarm went off in his head. `Duo didn't...'
He pictured Duo finding a feather in his bathroom and shook his head.
`WHY would Duo come in here and take things out of my trash bin? Let's
be realistic, Heero. Please.' He shook his head at himself again before
He yawned. `Well, no feather here now so I can go to bed.' He walked back into the bedroom, opened his window to let in a night breeze, and threw himself onto the mattress on his front. `I'll check the house for it tomorrow. Until then there's nothing I can do.' He yawned again and let the muscles in his back relax completely. * * * Duo awoke early and groaned as he looked at his watch. `Five? FIVE? That's unholy.' He yawned and sat up, shaking his head. Looking down, he frowned at himself. He was wearing the same clothes he had put on after he had taken his shower, a pair of loose, black cargo pants and a tight, black Tee shirt. `Why am I dressed?' He suddenly remembered Heero putting him to bed and blushed. `I fell asleep reading. ...And he carried me to my bed.' He checked himself for injury and found nothing. Heero had apparently been careful. `So he IS a nice guy!' He smiled to himself. `I knew it. What he was saying about speech yesterday was that it's hard for him to talk to others, but he's not trying to be rude. And this shows that he's actually very sweet. There's more to him than being a soldier. I'm glad.' He stretched and stood up. He thought back to the feathers he had found. `Do I ask? No. Maybe I'll just head to the cliffs and see if I can spot a bird with two missing feathers. He's not going to get up for another hour and a half. I have time to kill. And a walk sounds nice.' He changed his clothes and put on his boots. As he stepped into the hall, he glanced at Heero's door. It was closed, as usual. Tiptoeing down the hall, he made certain not to make any noise that would wake the other boy, and carefully crept down the stairs. Now on the bottom floor, he quickly made his way towards the door, noticing his manga lying on the table, but deciding it could be left there for a while longer. He stepped outside and took a breath of the cool morning air and sighed. `Damn. It's such a pretty day.' There was just the slightest breeze, rustling the grass. A few butterflies flew just above the greenery, looking for flowers or water. Overhead, a hawk called out, but, since Heero wasn't around, it simply ignored the fact that a human was present in its turf. Duo smiled and walked towards the hills that blocked the house from sight of the cliffs. To the right of these hills were more hills that blocked the house from the town. Unless one was looking for the house, they would never see it. And within one of the hills, in a man-made hidden cavern, was a hangar. Both their Gundams were resting there. But most of the land around the house was relatively flat. Picking up the pace, Duo jogged over the grass until he came to the top of the hill and could see the ocean past the drop off where the land suddenly ended. Sprinting down the hill as fast as he could, he grinned as his braid whipped in the air behind him. He slowed down as he neared the drop off. There was
only one tree all along the tops of the cliffs and it was a large,
majestic oak tree. Its size was amazing, Duo would have to guess it
to be a minimum of five hundred years old. Its shade looked welcoming,
so he As he neared it, he noticed a feather stuck in the blades of grass at his feet. It was the same as the ones he had found in the house. `So it was a gull.' He nodded and picked it up, twirling it in his fingers as he continued towards the tree. He smiled as he wondered if it was all from the same bird and giggled as he pictured a bald seagull. He stopped in his tracks and his eyes went wide as he saw another, much larger feather just beneath the tree, sitting there in the shade as if waiting for him. He walked towards it slowly and stared at it. It was just like the others, but it was much wider and looked to be a foot and a half in length. A stronger breeze came up and it began to blow away. Duo caught it before it could. He stared at the large plume and looked around for more, but it seemed that he would find only two. `What...? What kind of gull has a feather this big?
And what kind of hawk around here is white? Those are the biggest
birds I've seen in this area. All the others have been robins or jays,
or even finches. ...I don't get it.' He felt the feather's rounded
tip and * * * Heero was busily tearing apart his room, looking for the feather that had mysteriously gotten up and flown away from where he had left it the morning before. `It HAS to be here somewhere. It's not like they can just walk away.' He opened his empty drawers, checked his empty closet, even looked in his damn-near-empty duffel bag. `Nothing. It's NOWHERE. How in the HELL is this possible?' He stormed out of his room and down the hall, checking the floor the whole way. He had left the problem alone for the night so he could get some sleep, but now it had to end. He reached the living room and took all the cushions off the couch, checking behind each one. * Duo stepped into the house and saw Heero doing his best to destroy the place and immediately stepped back out, closing the door softly. He waited a moment and when the door was not opened by the other pilot, he knew Heero didn't know he was there. `He must be looking for his wrench that I kinda borrowed without asking the second day we were here.' He swore and headed quickly to where he had left it on the side of house where he had sat and had a soda after doing a little fine-tuning on Deathscythe. `I hope he's not too mad at me.' He opened the door again, and walked into the house, but, from the sound of it, Heero was too busy looking in all the drawers in the kitchen to notice. When he stepped into the kitchen and saw the other pilot, he gulped. Heero looked REALLY annoyed. He was facing away from Duo, but his actions were hurried and frustrated. "Um..." He hesitated. Heero startled slightly and stood straight, but didn't turn to him, waiting for him to speak. "Are you looking for this?" At that question, it seemed like every muscle in Heero's body tensed and he twisted to his side slowly, to look over his shoulder at Duo with wide eyes. Duo held the wrench up and smiled meekly. "I kinda had to borrow it. I forgot to put it back in the hangar. Eh, gomen." Heero stared at the wrench for a moment with wide eyes before his face became blank. "Ah." He grabbed it out of Duo's hand when Duo held it out to him and then turned and closed one of the two drawers he had opened. When he turned around again, Duo noticed that his eyes were still searching the kitchen for something. Duo was clueless as to what. Heero's eyes then turned to Duo and they fell on the feathers he held in his hand and became wide, but only for a split second. He raised a brow and met Duo's eyes with his own. "Starting a collection, Duo?" He was suddenly annoyed again, it seemed, and he slammed the second drawer closed roughly. Duo looked down to the feathers in his hand and smiled. "Oh, these were out on the cliff." Heero frowned. "So you just picked them up." "Yeah." "Why?" Heero seemed utterly confused. "Um..." Duo mumbled as he stared at them. "Speak up." "Because they're pretty." He glanced up at Heero to see if he thought he was a complete idiot to pick things up off the ground just because they were pretty. But Heero was just gazing at him with no _expression at all. His eyes moved down to the feathers again. "You can't keep them." He said and moved past Duo towards the door. Duo blinked twice before following him. "And why not?" "They'll get ruined in your duffel bag." "I'll take good care of them, though." Duo protested. "I'll put them in something so they don't get damaged." "We are soldiers. We don't need, nor should we be hauling around, delicates. And you know that." Heero said as he stepped out the door and closed it loudly. Duo was pissed now. "He slammed the fucking door in my face? Who does he think he is?!" He opened it and followed Heero who was heading for the hangar. "Hey!" "What?" Heero sounded angry. "Don't slam doors in my face, that really pisses me off." Duo said hotly. "Wouldn't want that." Heero said coldly and walked faster. "Hey! I don't know why you have to act so..." "So... So WHAT?!" "INHUMAN!" Duo yelled and Heero turned to stare at him. "You act like you just don't care about anyone or anything! But you carried me to my bed last night, and since I don't have any bruises today, I'd say you did it carefully. You AREN'T a heartless bastard so why do you insist on ACTING like one?!" Heero didn't say anything, he merely stared at Duo with a scowl on his brow. "WHY?!" Duo demanded. "Why do you act like you hate me when you don't?!" He felt a tear fall from one eye onto his cheek and quickly wiped it away. Heero gazed at him with a stunned _expression for a moment before turning his eyes away as if trying to think up an answer for a few seconds before just staring at the horizon. "Are we done here?" Duo stared at him in shock for a moment before snorting. "Che. Forget we even started. I've had it, Heero." He turned and walked away, clutching the feathers tightly. * Heero watched the other boy go into the house and sighed to himself when he had vanished inside. `Well. I guess I know where yesterday's feather went to.' He thought, trying to keep his mind off the look Duo had had in his eyes. Turning, he headed to the hangar and got in through the small door, placing the wrench in his toolbox. Duo's hurt violet depths flashed again in his mind's eye Something landed on his cheek and he wiped at it to see it was water. "K'so." He swore and wiped all traces of it away. `I hurt him.' He knelt on the floor and then sat back on his heels and let his face fall into his hands. Part of him was glad. It made things easier this way. If Duo didn't like him, he was better off. They both were. But part of him felt guilty. It was cruel to treat people the way he did. And he did not like hurting Duo. "Which one is right?" He asked himself as another tear fell from his other eye. "Which one is right?" * Duo laid all his feathers out next to each other for a moment, comparing all of them. Aside from their various sizes, they were all identical. Same color, or perfect lack thereof, same texture, same rounded tip, same barely curved body. "Poor gull. Or whatever it was." He set them all in the drawer and closed it before heading downstairs and bending down to pick up his manga off the coffee table. Heero walked in just at that moment and Duo stood straight and regarded him. The other pilot gazed at him for a few seconds before walking straight to the stairs and running up them and to his room, not saying a word. The sound of his shower started only seconds after his door had closed. Duo groaned and fell onto the couch. "Fuck." He flipped open his manga and thumbed the pages until he got to where he had left off, but his mind ignored the words and pictures his eyes read and looked at. `So I was cold back to him, big deal. He's had it coming for a while.' He tried to justify that line of thought but couldn't. "He carried me to bed when I fell asleep on the couch. He carried me gently." He mumbled to himself as he turned the page for no reason other than habit. "And I attacked him. Just because he closed a door in my face. Shit." The sound of the water being turned off reached Duo's ears and he sighed and stood, walking up the stairs to apologize. He reached Heero's door as he heard a muted rustling that sounded sort of like clothes being put on before the other door within opened. `Sounds like he got dressed.' He decided that if he asked to come in, he would be denied, if he tried to talk to Heero through the door, he would be ignored, and if he attempted to talk to Heero later, he would be pushed away. So, steeling himself, he opened the door quickly and stepped in, pushing it to close it behind himself and walking a few paces before halting. On his way from the bathroom to the bed, wet and wearing a white towel around his hips, Heero stopped walking in mid-stride. His head whipped to Duo and he stared at him with wide eyes. Duo was certain that his own eyes were wider. `...So that's what it is...' Things seemed to tip to the side for Duo as he stared at the other pilot. Everything was spinning out of control. Heero was standing there, staring at him, deep blue eyes wide, skin and hair wet, his entire body completely still, with great, white, feathered wings that seemed to have emerged from his back folded gracefully behind him. * * *
(listens) (hears "BOOM") (grins) Here's where things pick up... ^_~
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