Title: Forever
Author: Tanith
Pairing: 1+2+1
Feedback? Yes please!
Archive? Ask first and I'll say yes.
Warnings: Weird, supernatural, angst
Notes: Yes, I know everyone's waiting for more Memories Arc...but a little oneshot never hurt anything, right? Right? *chibi eyes* I needed to get this idea out... I'm not even sure I *like* it, so most likely I'll only be posting it here. Enjoy..?

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Sunbeams trickled drearily through the thick overhang of moss-covered trees, the thin streams of light becoming fewer and fewer the deeper Duo Maxwell moved into the cemetery. He gripped his camera tightly in his hands, holding it at ready away from his chest as his violet eyes swept hawk like over his surroundings. Snap; sunbeams on a crumbling stone gravestone just so, casting shadow upon shadow over the surface. The shadows made the weeds sticking up through the unkempt soil seem like gnarled hands reaching up to drag the unsuspecting down to keep the grave's occupant company. Snap; a huge old oak tree stood bent under the weight of age. Its twisted limbs seemed to reach toward the steadily disappearing sky as if seeking salvation, but the center of each branch sloped hopelessly downward, pulled to the depths of the condemned.

The cemetery was an ancient thing; too old to count the years people had been bringing their dead there to rest. Gravestones scattered the sprawling yard like weary fossils. Most were chipped and crumbling, faded and bleak, waiting for the time when they could join their buried companions in eternal sleep. Duo let the camera fall from his hands, barely flinching at the familiar strike of the metal casing against his chest. It would be hopeless, trying to take a picture now, when the lighting was all but nonexistent. He had enough, more than enough really, but he could not bring himself to turn around and leave the place. He was nearing the edge, where a line of decrepit crypts met the forest the cemetery had grown around.

Duo stepped past the unmarked boundary and stopped. A chill swept through him, causing goose bumps the raise along his arms. The air seemed to have suddenly come to life. The cemetery had been still, as if the place were as dead as the people in it. No leaves had rustled with the flow of air, no animals scurried around and between the thick stone slabs. But the forest...the forest had an eerie sort of life. A presence all its own, haunting and frigid as if it would swallow him whole should he go any further.

He shook him head at his thoughts, a small, reproachful smile curving his lips. Ghosts are not real and forests can't eat you, Duo. He took a step forward, squaring his shoulders. It was more stubborn curiosity that dragged him onward, deeper and deeper into the dense fold of trees. And suddenly he stopped, a sharp spike of ice piercing his in the stomach, causing him to double over in almost physical pain. He gasped, his hand reaching for something to grasp onto, his breaths coming in pants as he sank to his knees.

"You!" a voice growled somewhere by his ear, near yet so far away. "What are you doing here?" the tone was menacing in its demand and as the pain subsided Duo's head rose, his short, chestnut brown hair falling into his eyes. He squinted, trying to see the source of the voice through the fog that had fallen over his senses.

"I..." he croaked, but stopped, trying to swallow past the burning thickness in his throat and failing miserably.

A low rumble akin to a growl sounded from where he supposed the owner of the voice to be and then a strangely gentle, "Here." A cold mist fell over him, causing his teeth to chatter against each other mercilessly, but his vision cleared and his throat was no longer parched.

A man was hovering over him, his dark blue eyes narrowed and glinting dangerously in the dim light. He took a step away from Duo, his arms coming up to cross over his chest. The man's head tilted the to side, his strong jaw rigid as his eyes swept over Duo, taking in his lithe form with an obviously condescending air. His dark brown hair was long, probably chin length, and pulled back in a thick queue, tied at the end with a leather thong that matched doublet and breeches he was wearing. His entire appearance, from his head to where his breeches disappeared into high boots, was befitting a different era.

"Well?" he barked.

"Pictures, I was taking pictures," Duo replied, unable to resist the command, his voice still hoarse and a little desperate. What in the world is happening?

The man stepped closer, blue eyes softening as his hand lifted as if to cup the curve of his cheek, but stopped before actually touching Duo's flesh, cold radiating from his palm. "You cut your hair...your beautiful hair," he murmured, almost to himself. Duo resisted the urge to finger the short strands where they curled against his cheekbones.

"Who...are you?"

His face went blank until his blue eyes looked like gems peering out of a stone setting. "I," he started, dipping a mocking bow, "am Rowan. Just Rowan," he bit the name out scornfully as if it was the foulest thing his tongue had tasted and turned around. "And you are Matthew Bastian, a man who was obviously much too good for the fatherless man who loved him."

"That's not my name," he whispered almost fearfully at Rowan's stiff back. He wanted nothing more than to stand and run back the way he had come, but he found himself rooted in place, unable to move. It was as if something had nailed his legs to the packed dirt beneath them. "I'm Duo...Duo Maxwell."

The man whirled around, his blue eyes blazing. "Don't lie! Do not dare," he stalked toward him, his arm rising as if to strike him. His palm flew toward his face, but instead of hitting flesh it passed right through him, leaving a trail of what felt like glass shards. Duo's eyes widened and he stared at him in open disbelief, his hand rising to touch at his wholly unmarred cheek. "Don't you think I would know the man I fell asleep with and woke up by? Don't you think I would know the face that forgot me?"

Duo struggled to stand and Rowan backed hurriedly away from him, growling ferally. "Stop! Stay where you are, like that," his voice was almost panicked. Duo realized just what the glitter in the back of his eyes was, then. Insanity.

"I don't understand..." He did not know why he was trying to talk to Rowan. In some strange way he felt drawn to him, as if the man was familiar to him. Almost like he had known him for years, but he knew he had never met him in his life.

"Of course not, of course," he shouted, pacing back toward him rapidly. "You wouldn't understand. How could you? How could you know what it's like? What it's like to lay there, awake, knowing...knowing that you are helpless. How could you know what it's like for your hands to be open wounds, fingers cut and bleeding where you clawed at the wood closing you in, closing the air out. How could you know what it's like to know that death is coming, it's coming but never, never quick enough. Not when your lungs are burning...burning... Screaming... How could you know what it's like when you're screaming, for help, for solace, for death and it shatters. Everything falls apart with a loud...loud crack because you know...you know that the man you love put you there! But death, it still doesn't come...it still..." he trailed off, sinking to his knees in front of Duo so that their eyes were nearly level. "How could you?" Rowan whispered pathetically, deep blue eyes staring into Duo's violet ones.

The urge to reach out and hold him warred with the need to jump up and run away. Instead he just kneeled there, looking back at him. "I can't," he said simply. "I'm not that man."

"You are."

"I'm not," he repeated firmly. "I'm Duo Maxwell, I've been Duo Maxwell for twenty-three years and I will probably die Duo Maxwell."

"You look...so much...exactly like...my Matthew. Only your...his hair was long and beautiful and smelled wonderfully of spices," his gaze went unfocused and his hand raised to cup the side of Duo's face again, stopping just before actually touching him. Duo shivered, if Rowan did touch him, would his hand pass through him again? What was he?

"If he...did that to you, how can you still love him?"

"He didn't, not really, but lying there, I couldn't help but think, wonder. You see, his family held title and I was half foreign blooded with no father to speak of, but we met, loved and eloped. Then they came and dragged me out of our bed and Matthew did nothing but...watch as they took me away and buried me alive," Rowan's tone was soft, dazed. He blinked, his gaze focusing back on Duo's. "And I couldn't help but think...I thought..."

"That he had betrayed you," Duo finished for him, but everything inside him screamed that it was untrue. As if he actually knew what Matthew had been thinking.

"Yes."

"He didn't," Duo believed those words with all of him being, not quite understanding why he was so convinced. There was something, deep within him, that just made them feel true.

"I think...I think I know that, I've always known that." Rowan looked away and Duo couldn't help but notice that even after all of his raving, his dark brown hair was still held perfectly in place by that leather thong. "I..." He faced him again, leaning toward him and Duo's eyes slid shut. Rowan's lips moved over his in a gentle caress before a cool mist replaced the strange, hollow warmth. He was gone.

Duo slumped forward, his hands digging themselves into the cold, damp dirt. Tears moved in burning trails down his cheeks to spatter silently onto the ground beneath him. How long he sat like that, he did not know but eventually he stood on shaky legs. His gaze swept the area, trying to find any sign that Rowan had, indeed, existed, but found none. Duo turned and walked back toward the cemetery and as he left the unmarked boundary between graves and trees, the still wind whispered.

I love you… Forever.

Duo walked out of the cemetery in a daze, for once not paying the least bit of attention to his surroundings. Had that just happened? Or was he going insane? He was so deep in thought that he did not notice the tall form that stepped out in front of him, only realizing the man was there when he walked into him.

Hands gripped him shoulders and steadied him then let go. “Are you alright?” The voice was familiar, deep, one Duo did not think he would ever be able to forget. Only it was different, smoothim and calmer. His head snapped up and he found himself staring into a pair for deep blue eyes. They glanced over him. “Wait…Duo Maxwell?” Duo nodded dumbly up at him, unable to form words, only taking in the way the man's dark brown hair fell in wild hanks around his face. The other man grinned and held out a hand. “I’m Heero Yuy, your tour guide. I…“ but he trailed off when Duo suddenly laughed quietly.

“I think I know who you are.” Heero gave him an odd look then shook it off.

“Right...where to first? Tower of London?” Duo shrugged and nodded, following the other man as he walked away from the cemetery and its forest, one word following their steps.

Forever…
_________________
shadows of the final hours
whisper out in halting breath
my life, yours, forever ours
eternally fear the coming death
of twilight's darkest song