| I am in pain. It is difficult to type. As a result, this will be short. I managed to pull *several* neck and shoulder muscles cleaning my dad�s new apartment and consequently this was a pain in the ass to put out. I�m expecting a lot of C&C to make up for the codeine I had to take to do this, got me? Good. Read on and I�m going back to my hot compress�� And before Lady T says anything, the mirror bit I mention in this? I admit it; I do that almost every day. Weirds my whole family out. Don�t know why�� Title: Soft Beginnings 2/? (Book Three in the Stumbling Steps Arc) Author: Lady DarkAngel [email protected] Archive: Lady DarkAngel's Gundam Wing Fanfiction Library http://ladydarkangel_1.homestead.com/Main.html , Darkflame�s (if she�ll take it�.) and anywhere else is fine, just ask me first Category: Yaoi, angst, sap Pairing(s): 3x4, 1+2 (Finally!) Disclaimers: Gundam Wing or Shinkidousenki Gundam Wing is copyrighted and trademarked by Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency and associated parties with all rights and privileges. The characters were used without permission for the purposes of entertainment only. This is not meant for sale of profit. Any characters not created by those listed above are mine and hereby considered the sole property and copyright of the author. Anyway, I�m just a poor college student. So can I play with them? I promise I won�t break them�... much. Rating: PG-13 (to be safe) Warnings: Not much, just some swearing and Duo being his usual bouncy self Feedback: Kami-sama, YES!!! [email protected] ; any and all comments are welcome like the sweet ego-sustainers they are. Morning is truly a glorious time of the day. The beautiful, just risen sun reflects its beneficial streams of light off unto a grateful world and its inhabitants basked lovingly in the warm glow while they worked and lived. Morning is a time to start again as fresh as possible; to repair the damage caused by yesterday and build a better foundation for tomorrow using the knowledge gained from before. It was a gift from the gods to let humanity know it was truly alive and worthy of the life bestowed upon them. Or, so he had heard. He wouldn�t know since Heero Yuy was *not* a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. Oh, he was wide-awake and fully functional no matter what time he woke up. He�d be a failure of a soldier if he didn�t. And he didn�t hate them, per se. He just didn�t appreciate the�� cheeriness and energy that seemed to be inherent in mornings. He vastly preferred the calm relaxation that afternoons brought or the dark stillness of the night. Fewer people were around to cause problems for him or as Duo so quaintly puts it, �Spoil the view *and* the damn mood!� Duo. Mornings reminded him of Duo. Both were mercurial, circumstantial and inevitable. Unpredictable, unchangeable forces of nature that mere mortals didn�t stand a chance against. There was no escape from them. Like clockwork, they came into your life whether you wanted them there or not. All you really could do was plan around them and pray you survived whatever they brought in their wake. And you couldn�t hate them, no matter how hard you tried. It�s not their fault that their very nature is the cause of your distress. You just have to grit your teeth and adapt. They�re infinitely stronger then you are because they are pure and true to themselves. To put it bluntly, you aren�t gonna win this battle, soldier. Picking a fight with them is a losing proposition. Heero growled to himself. No matter how annoying or seemingly impossible, he had yet to win a confrontation with the braided baka to his satisfaction. True, he�d �won� their occasional arguments more often then not, but it was never a straight win. Nearly every single incident resulted in a compromise or some sort of coming to terms that were beneficial to the American. Not once had he won straight out on his terms without compromising in some way. That�... bothered him. How did Duo manage to do that to him? He wasn�t supposed to lose a battle, even if it was only one of words or wills. Only a superior warrior could defeat him since he was theoretically the Perfect Soldier and therefore undefeatable. For Duo to be able to at the very least secure a partial victory time and time again indicated a high probability that he was an equal. He wasn�t supposed to have an equal. No one was supposed to be able to match him in anything; he was peerless. It disturbed him that he could be countered, that there was someone who could balance him out. It created strange, unexpected situations and feelings that he was untrained and unprepared for. He didn�t know what to do�� And he wasn�t supposed to think about things like this. <Enough. Where is that baka? We have work to do.> He left his station at his bedroom�s window and went in search of his partner. It was 9:47 AM. Duo�s deadline was fast approaching and Heero meant what he said last night. Not one single second after 10 o�clock. The Deathscythe pilot had better be awake and ready to go�� or else. There will be no more pointless wasting of time. The search began at the baka�s room. Heero fully expected him to be in there, still snoring away without a care in the world, wrapped up in the down comforters he had dragged up to insure the injured boy�s warmth. But to his great surprise, the bed was empty and the sheets weren�t even vaguely warm. Angry, he stalked the halls but saw neither pale hide nor long hair of the American. He didn�t understand. What was the point of making Heero delay the start time of the project if he wasn�t using it to sleep in? The faint sound of cheerful whistling caught his attention. Scowling, Heero followed the sound to the bathroom�s closed door. As he pressed his ears against the solid oak frame, he determined that it was indeed Duo behind there; the few snatches of lyrics he was able to hear were definitely in the American�s strangely musical voice. The Japanese pilot rapped on the door, intent on getting his partner and getting down to business. �Duo? Duo! Are you done in there? You need to hurry up!� <Moron. Kitto he�d be taking a bath now. Mostly likely a steamer; I should be prepared. K�so, why can�t he be ready for once? I swear he�s doing this on purpose; he�s trying to provoke me! Well, it�s not going to work. We are going to get down to business right now, even if he�s still sopping wet!> A cheerful �Come in!� rang out loud and clear. Confused about that for a second, Heero debated that offer. Finally deciding if Duo wanted to be an exhibitionist, it wasn�t anything he couldn�t handle. Ignoring an odd fluttering in his chest at that line of thought, he pushed open the door, expecting to be faced with a veritable wall of steam clouds and moisture-heavy air. What he found, however, he wasn�t expecting. Duo was sitting on the counter of the small sink, perched precariously on the soft pink marble. It wasn�t big enough for him to sit normally since the sink was set in the corner against two of the walls. The violet-eyed boy was sitting with his knees lightly drawn up to his chest and looked unusually comfortable. And he was staring. Staring right into the triple mirror vanity on the medicine cabinet. The doors were open and spread apart slightly, looking for all the world like the kind department stores have so you can see all sides. And Duo was looking into them. Just looking with the strangest expression on his face�� Without taking his eyes off the mirror, he lightly inquired. �Hello Heero. How are you this morning?� �What the hell are you doing?� �Direct as always. I�m fine, thanks for asking. And what I�m doing is looking.� �Looking. Looking at what? What can you see in a bathroom mirror?� �Me, dumbass.� �Other then you.� �Other then me is unimportant. I�m watching myself: how I look, how I move, the way my face changes in response to certain things. It�s one of my favorite things to do and it�s how I learned to perfect my mask. I do this all the time; I�m surprised you haven�t noticed yet.� He laid a gentle hand on the reflective surface. �I sit, I watch and I learn. You should try it sometime. You�ll find out a lot about yourself you didn�t know was there. A mirror never lies; it just reflects back whatever truth you show it.� ��� so you�re just sitting here, looking into the mirror.� �Not quite. I�m watching myself. There�s a difference.� Heero tried to comprehend this strange concept for a minute or so before he got fed up. �Ok, that�s it. Stop it with your foolishness. We don�t have time for this. We have work to do, baka.� So saying that, he pulled said baka of the counter by his braid and hauled him back towards his room. He pointedly ignored the curses and loud �Itai!� that followed. Once inside, he shut the door tightly and directed his partner towards the desk where his computer and a rather large stack of papers were sitting. Powering up his laptop, he glanced over at Duo. �All of the data you will need for this is either in the files J sent me or in the individual ones I compiled on the Gundams. Should you need any additional information�� you most likely won�t so don�t worry about it. Any math involved should be able to be done by Deathscythe�s computer alone or you can break out an old-fashioned calculator and do it by hand. All formulas, measurements and constants related to this project are listed on the first page and any derivations needed you can do on your own with basic trig and algebra skills. I expect you to read and fully understand the material by noon and have a hypothesis by tonight, no matter how tentative. Any questions?� �Yes. One, aren�t we brusque this morning? Two, did we have enough coffee this morning, �cause I think a cranky someone needs either a nap or some caffeine right about now.� �We are already behind, thanks to your pointless delay. You caused this, you deal with the consequences.� Duo bit back the sarcastic comment he had in mind and looked at the printouts Heero handed him. �Holy shit! I don�t think so! Heero, this is over 90 pages of�� of *PHYSICS* and *MATH*! You expect me to read this by NOON?!� �Hai. Read and understood. And you are wasting valuable time you�re going to need.� With that, he promptly pushed Duo to the door. Before shoving him out, he stopped and looked the braided boy square in the eye. �I�m counting on you. Don�t let me down.� Duo offered a cocky grin. �Kitto you can! I�m Duo Maxwell, the Shinigami himself! No enemy escapes me alive, not even math! I can do this!� Cobalt ice softened, his face gained an almost-gentle appearance and Heero murmured. �I know you can. That�s why I choose you.� Stunned, Duo stared right into his friend/tormenter�s face as he tried to reconcile this new look with the image of the boy he�d known for so long. �Heero�� that�s so��� The Japanese boy watched Duo for a moment before his face shuttered closed once again. The Deathscythe pilot suddenly found himself longing for that look again and blindly reached out to retrieve it. Heero grunted and slammed the door in his face, missing his hand by inches. A muffled �Get to work, baka� could be heard. The resounding outraged cry of �JERK!!!!!!� echoed throughout the countryside. (TBC��) That enough for now? *wanders off to find more pain meds* Lady DarkAngel ---------- Chibi Duo's Babysitter Moderator of Duo's Sugar Intake Keeper of Duo's Nice Rear-end Co-Keeper of Shinigami's Wings (with Meela) Keeper of Heero's Homicidal Intentions Keeper of Quatre's Teacup Keeper of Trowa's Mask Keeper of Wufei's Sense of Honor Co-Keeper of Duo's Chatter (with Tomanaiya) Co-Keeper of Heero's "Hn" (with Tomanaiya) Co-Writer of Wufei's Rants (with Tomanaiya) Leader of the Inspirationally-challenged Muses: Alisande, Rynvi, and Kiagara Co-Keeper of real-life hamsters named Heero Yuy (Hee-chan) and Shinigami Eagle Vision (Shini Eagle)(with Tomanaiya) Keeper of the Hit List Proud Owner of two sets of chibis: Chibi Angel Duo and Heero in leather (twins of Tomanaiya's) and Chibi Angel Duo and Heero in black flight gear with stripes from the final GW episodes Acting GOD in Charge of The Anime Muse Adoption Center and WSCT of the AMAC Proud member of SDDI, the Society of Defending Duo's Intelligence Member of the Society Against the Complete Bastardization of Heero Yuy Occupant of the Happy Hentai House Master Hacker of the Shinigami Organization Assistant Mob Psychologist for the Shinigami Organization Founding Member of Saa-EEP!!! Happy to be a member of the DuoML Member of 1x2, 2x1 Fan Club and ML Many more MLs but you don't want to know... Lady DarkAngel's Gundam Wing Fanfiction Library http://ladydarkangel_1.homestead.com/Main.html |