Tragic Love
-----part 1-----
The wedding had gone off beautifully. Trowa, Wufei and Quatre had
watched through silent tears of joy as Duo and Heero exchanged vows.
Duo and Heero looked handsome in their dress blues. Duo had his hair
in its customary braid, but there were flowers woven into it. Heero's
eyes had a softness in them that was rarely seen. Duo's had a
tenderness about them that was for Heero and for Heero alone.
Duo and Heero waved to Trowa, Wufei, and Quatre as they boarded the
plane and headed off.
"It was nice of Quatre to get us this honeymoon." Duo remarked.
Heero nodded, then leaned over and kissed Duo. A moment later, he
noticed a strange silence and looked up to see the other people
staring at them.
"Oh don't stop on our account." One passenger said.
"Yeah! You guys are much more interesting than the movie!" another
chimed in.
Heero and Duo both blushed a bit, then everyone, including them,
started laughing.
The plane landed an hour later and Duo and Heero picked up their
luggage. After an uneventful cab ride, they were at the hotel. After
they were shown to one of the honeymoon suites, they tossed their
suitcases aside. There would be time to unpack tomorrow. Tonight was
for love.
Taking Heero into his arms, Duo pulled him down onto the bed. He let
out little sighs of happiness while Heero kissed his way down Duo's
body until he was licking and sucking Duo's manhood until it was
erect. He got a bit of lubricant out of the jar he'd placed on the
nightstand earlier and carefully prepared Duo. Then, he pushed,
slowly, gently, into him. thrusting tenderly, stroking Duo's erection
until they were both coming.
Duo sat up as Heero drifted off to sleep. "Where are you going?"
"Just going to relax in our hot tub." Duo replied. "I'm a tiny bit
sore, physically speaking."
"Don't take too long." Heero muttered as he drifted off to sleep.
-----part 2-----
Heero woke the next morning and reached over to kiss Duo. But Duo was
not there. "Duo?" He called out. No answer. He guessed that Duo might
have gone to the lobby to buy a newspaper or postcards. He smiled as
he decided to enjoy the hot tub. Duo could join him when he got back.
He made it to the hot tub, looked down to find the steps to go in,
then screamed as his entire universe was torn away from him in one
horrifying scene.
Duo lay at the bottom of the hot tub, drowned, his braid tangled in
the filter. Someone had taken the cover off, probably to clean it, but
the son of a bitch hadn't put it back on and...
"NO!!!!" Heero screamed. "Oh, Kami-sama, no." He began to take the hot
tub apart. The hotel could go to hell. He wanted to try to save Duo's
braid if he could. He know how much the braid meant to Duo. He had to
give up after a while, however, and after profusely apologizing, he
severed the braid.
-----part 3-----
Quatre was making breakfast the next morning when Heero shuffled into
the hideout.
"Heero?" he asked. "What are you doing back? The honeymoon was for two
weeks." He paused a moment, then looked around. "Where's Duo?" he
asked.
Heero said nothing. He just went into his room, slammed the door, and
burst into tears.
//They had a fight.// Quatre told himself. //Duo said the wrong thing
and Heero took off in a huff. That's all.// But despite these
self-assurances, he had the feeling that the truth was something far
worse. He went to Heero's room and was about to knock when he heard a
sound that stunned him. The sound of Heero sobbing. It sounded as if
someone had torn the Perfect Soldier's very soul apart. He opened the
door and peeked in. "Heero?" he asked.
Heero looked up at Quatre, his face was a mask of unadulterated
heartbreak.
"Duo?" Quatre asked, weakly.
Any remnants of the idea that Duo and Heero had quarreled were
quickly obliterated as Heero burst into a fresh bout of sobbing at the
mention of Duo's name.
"Great Allah." Quatre's heart sank, and he put an arm around Heero and
held him close. He listened as Heero told him, through choked sobs,
what happened.
Wufei and Trowa walked by, then doubled back and peered in.
"Heero...?" Wufei began. "What..."
Quatre released Heero for a moment then ushered Wufei and Trowa away
from the door. "I want to try to get him calmed down." he told them.
He looked down, then looked up at them, his heart heavy with its
burden of grief. "Duo died last night."
-----part 4-----
Wufei and Trowa trudged into the kitchen and sat down, wearily, at the
table. Neither of them bothered to make breakfast. Neither of them
spoke.
They could hear Heero's grief stricken wailing coming from his room...
the room he'd planned to share with Duo... and it made their hearts
feel as though they were weighed down by Atlas' burden.
Quatre held Heero in his arms and rocked him, soothingly.
"Shhh..." he whispered. "Shhh... Heero this is a terrible thing. The
worst thing that could happen to anyone. But you will recover. I
promise."
Heero shook his head. He wanted to say he would never recover from
losing Duo, but the words would not come out. All he could do was cry.
Quatre fell silent, holding Heero for a moment longer, breaking down
in tears of his own.
"He finally asleep?" Trowa asked, as Quatre dragged himself into the
kitchen.
Quatre nodded, the movements seeming burdensome to him, then sank into
a chair, only to be disturbed by the phone's ring. He picked it up.
"Yes? No, I'm Quatre. Heero's too upset to... thank you. I will tell
him. I'm sure he will appreciate it. Yes, the address is correct.
We'll be home tomorrow, yes. Thank you. We deeply appreciate this.
Okay. Bye." he dropped the phone into its cradle, then dropped heavily
into his chair.
"That was the hotel where..." he choked. "They wanted to confirm our
address so they could send..." he couldn't say anymore.
He didn't have to. Trowa and Wufei both nodded in understanding. They
knew he was talking about Duo's body.
"I'm going to have a talk with Heero." Quatre told them. "Tonight,
after he's rested. I want to prepare him for tomorrow. It's going to be
very hard for him."
There was a sudden explosion of noise and they raced to Heero's room,
fearing the worst.
They were immensely relieved when they found Heero watching an old
videotape of himself and Duo practicing together at a firing range.
He'd saved a copy so he could use it to point out Duo's mistakes. Now
he was watching them because they were all that he had left of Duo.
The body arrived the next day in a beautiful coffin which the hotel
had paid for, stating how horrible they felt that their mistake had
caused so much pain, along with a short segment Duo's braid, which the
hotel staff had salvaged from the hot tub filter after hearing Heero
going on about Duo's braid meaning a great deal to him as he
apologized over and over for, in Heero's words, desecrating the body.
Heero wept as he kissed the lifeless lips which had once given him
love. He was about to rest the braid-segment upon Duo's chest, when he
had a better idea. Reverently, he wrapped it around his wrist.
Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei nodded approvingly at this gesture of
devotion and love, and watched silently. There were no words they
could say now.
-----part 5-----
Heero bent to bestow a final kiss upon Duo's un-breathing lips, then
stepped back to stand with the others at the edge of the grave. It had
taken some doing since their group was meant to be top-secret, but in
the end, The Powers That Be had relented and had agreed to give Duo a
military funeral. Each pilot had arranged their own particular send
off based upon their own traditions, and of course the traditional
American 21 Gun Salute followed by a mournful "Taps", played by Heero
concluded the ceremony.
Heero climbed into the car with Quatre and the others and sat in the
back seat, clutching the braid fragment that was still around his
wrist and weeping gently.
Wufei and Trowa held him and soothed him until the tears subsided.
A month went by with no action from either side. It seemed almost as
if even the enemy were mourning the death of Duo Maxwell, as if
neither side dared to dishonor the boy's memory with an act of aggression.
Finally, the enemy made their move, a raid upon a small town
believed to be an underground military installation.
Quatre checked his instruments and confirmed their target. "Target
coming up, guys." he told them. "Let's win this one for Duo!"
A tear came to Heero's eye and he clutched Duo's braid-fragment
reverently as he switched to full attack mode.
-----Owari-----