Email: Asukalangley2nd@yahoo.com
Website: www.oocities.org/asukalangley2nd/
Warnings: Yaoi, Slight violence, New
character, Death, Angst
Pairing: 1x2, 3x4
It had been the day of the funeral, a private service. No one other than the Gundam pilots had showed up, not even her family from the Sanq kingdom. It rained outside, as if God himself wept over the loss of her, or over the broken heart of her self-declared brother. The clouds cast a hazy glow across the cemetery, eerie and haunting in the noonday sun. The headstone was sleek and polished, a black marble that gleamed even in the fog. Her name was etched in it, with a picture of her smiling face below it. Below that was inscribed: “I will meet you in outer space, my sister~ Dou Maxwell”.
Duo retired to his room, wordlessly, as soon as they walked through the door of the small safehouse. He opened the top draw in his dresser and pulled out an envelope that bore his name. He quickly removed a folded piece of paper and read the poem she had left for him one more time.
“Fervent Demon
Death
Whose cry is heard across the earth,
Can you hear my plea now?
Forget the crimson that stains your palms
Hide not under the familiar mask
And discover the peace within.
Distant angel located forever at his side
Battle Heaven and Hell
Stoic and smiling
Weeping and laughing
Tainted and innocent..
Guard each other in the dark,
Love one another in the dawn.”
He smiled, clutching the creased paper against his chest. Heero silently prowled up behind him, reading the sentimental words before they were held against the other boy’s heart. With uncertain arms, he embraced the Deathscythe pilot from behind, burying his face in the chestnut tresses that hung free that night. Duo turned in his tender grip, looking up at the Wing pilot. Faded tear-streaks like dried riverbeds lay across the soft flesh of his face, but he wore them proudly, like battle scars.
“I am sorry for your loss, Duo,” Heero murmured.
“Thank you,” he whispered, eyes falling. “I think she knew all along this was going to happen.”
Heero shuffled slightly within his hold of Duo. The Deathscythe pilot sensed his discomfort and smiled.
“Love is all a family needs, Heero. I promised her I’d be back with her someday, but in the meantime, you have to watch out for me. Says so right here in this poem.”
Heero nodded, dark hair bouncing slightly. “I will, Duo. Don’t worry about that.” He was silent for a moment, then said, “You knew the entire time, didn’t you? You knew she wasn’t your real sister and that’s why you didn’t want the blood test, isn’t it?”
Duo slowly nodded. “It was nice to indulge in a fantasy, I guess. I never had a family until she came along and I didn’t want to lose it. I’m sorry.”
“She was your sister, Duo,” he replied, staring into the amethyst orbs of his lover. “It’s all right. I told you I trusted you, anyway.”
The pilot stopped for a moment, not believing the words of strange warmth that had poured from his normally cold lover. Tears began anew, filling his eyes then spilling over. He buried his face into Heero’s chest while warm arms tightened around the weeping pilot, comforting and reassuring.
And outside, under the cloak of night, a star streaked across the sky, intense and vivid, its incandescence hanging brightly even in the purest blackness.
The End