A Meeting With A Friendly Hitchhiker

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(note: this particular concept is not unique. In fact it has been used at least two times, once with positive results and once with negative results. I am using it here because it is one of my favorite types of stories.)
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"Damn you, Quatre!" Duo sobbed as he sped down the rainslicked road in Heero's car. He didn't care where he went or when he got there. He didn't even care that he didn't have his license yet. All that mattered to him was the pain inside him from the rape he'd been subjected to. He hated Quatre now, hated himself, too. Quatre had always been gentle, a good friend, and now this had happened. "I'll never ever forgive you!" he vowed. "I'll hate you for the rest of my life!"

He skidded to a halt, barely avoiding running over the bedraggled and soaked hitchhiker. He'd been taught to avoid such people, but he figured he'd already been raped and nothing worse could possibly happen to him, so he pulled the car over to the curb and let me man in.

"Thank you." The man told him. He was in his late sixties, thin but healthy-looking. His eye however, told a different story. He was a man haunted, Duo could tell, but painful memories and the feeling of great loss. "Are you okay?"

"No." The man replied. "But that's not important. What's important is how are you doing?"

"I'm fine." Duo snapped. "My best friend just raped me, how am I supposed to feel?" he had blurted it out before he could stop himself.

"Are you sure it was rape?"

"Of course it was." Duo snarled. "I guess you're going to say I was asking for it because of my braid? Well, look, mister, my hair has..."

"I was going to say that he may have perceived your relationship with him differently than you did." The man smiled, warmly, at Duo. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Duo fell silent for a moment, then he spoke.

"It hurt so badly." he wept, brushing the tears from his face. "I left as soon as he got off of me."

"Tell me more." the man said.

"Why, so you can jerk off while you fantasize about me getting raped? No thank you."

"I'm not into that." the man told Duo. "I just want to help. You helped me and now I want to help you."

"I guess I can understand that." Duo nodded. "I feel the same way about favors. So, okay, I'll tell you. I was sound asleep and when I woke up, he was on top of me fucking the hell out of me. I screamed and he jumped up. I guess he didn't want to be caught in the act. Anyhow, as soon as he jumped up, I threw on my clothes and got the hell out of there. I can't go back now. I'm sure everyone knows by now and I can't face them."

"Are you sure he jumped up because he didn't want to get caught?"

"What other reason could there be?" Duo asked, oddly calmed by the older man's question.

"Is it possible," the older man asked, "that his intention was to make love with you so you'd wake up just as you were having a pleasant orgasm?"

Duo slammed on the brakes. He turned to the man, about to give him what-for, then stopped.

Quatre had never hurt him before in all the time the two had known each other. At least not on purpose. And the more Duo thought about it, the more he realized that this was far more likely than Quatre suddenly snapping and taking it out on Duo.

"It is possible, right?"

Duo sat there and considered. "Very possible." He agreed. "Look, there's a diner just around the corner. I'm afraid I'll have to drop you off there. I've got to get home."

"I understand." the old man smiled. 

Duo started the car, again, and rounded the next corner. There was an accident scene there. It was a bad one. The paramedics were covering up a mangled body. But Duo managed to catch a glimpse of the corpse before the sheet was over it entirely.

He stared in horror at the long, bloodsoaked, braid and knew that somehow he was looking at himself. He backed away, then turned and started to run.

Strong arms caught him and he found himself looking up at the hitchhiker. "Duo," the man said. "It's okay. Go ahead, look again."

Duo turned, slowly, fearfully. There was nothing there but a clear road.

"But it was there, I saw it..."

"That was the future, Duo." the man told him. "You changed it when you decided to go home."

"What happens when I get home?"

"Your friendship with Quatre has been wounded, but it's not dead." the hitchhiker replied. "It will heal. Although, Heero will probably give you KP duty for stealing his car."

"How do you know about Heero?" Duo asked. "I never mentioned him."

"You'll know in about fifty years." the man laughed, warmly as he got out of the car. "Thanks for saving life." he added.

Duo blinked at the hitchhiker as he walked off down the road. He'd missed it when the man got gotten into the car, because of the pain he was feeling. But now that he was calm and feeling better, he could see the old man's ground-length braid very clearly. He fingered his own braid for a moment, then turned the car back toward the safe house and drove slowly home.

*****epilogue******

Quatre was waiting on his knees for Duo with a bouquet of flower when Shinigami's Pilot arrived back at the safe house.

"Duo..." He said, "Duo, I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."

"I know." Duo told him as he pulled him up to his feet. "While I was off driving, I told myself that you weren't the type of person who would do something like that."

"I used to see movies," Quatre explained, "when I was younger. In some of them, a person would make love to another in order to wake them up. When you screamed, I realized that I was hurting you, but by then it was too late and now our friendship is dead."

"No, it isn't." Duo told him.

Quatre blinked.

"It's been wounded," Duo explained echoing the hitchhiker's words, "but it hasn't died. In time, it will heal."

-----Owari-----