Smells Like Teen Spirit
by Link Worshiper

(x) X (x)

Game 45
No Woman, No Cry

(x) X (x)

“Dude, this is really surreal with no one here,” Duo said to Heero as he closed the front door of Nataku’s behind him, the bell overhead jangling quietly as he did so. The little surf shop was dark, and a sign that read ‘Sorry, we’re closed’ hung in the window. If it weren’t for Heero’s ocassional visits to his studio in the basement, the shop probably would have fallen into disarray, as Meilan, her mother and Wufei were never around to take care of it anymore.

“Try not to think about it,” said Heero as he maneuvered through the sunlit room, heading towards the staircase at the back of the store.

“Not thinking about Meilan isn’t going to magicallly heal her, Heero,” Duo said flatly, lacing his hands together beneath his thick braid. Staring at his shoes as he walked, he added softly, “Though it wouldn’t be so bad if that were the case.”

Unable to say something without sounding like a heartless prick, Heero opted for silence as he started down the creaky staircase, Duo not far behind. It was mid-afternoon, and in an effort to get away from the troubles reality seemed to be so fond of throwing their general direction, Heero had asked Duo if he would allow him to begin another painting of him. Unlike the last time Heero had asked this of Duo and practically had to beg for the longhaired mechanic to agree, however, all it took was the simple question for Duo to consent, and with a wholehearted smile no less.

“Wufei’s pretty shook up, isn’t he?” Duo commented as he followed Heero, close enough to be a shadow growing from the Japanese boy’s heels. “Must be rough,” he went on. “He finally realizes how much he loves the girl, and next thing you know, this happens. I swear, the world just ain’t right if that’s what happens to people who fall in love.”

On the second landing, Heero suddenly stopped as Duo said this, causing the braided one to crash into the lacrosse player’s back. Not turning around to see Duo as he rubbed his smarting, elfish nose, Heero said, “Are you trying to suggest that it’s not worth falling in love?”

Realizing what Heero was thinking, Duo coloured bright red with embarrassment and a tinge of shame. With a sigh, he raked one hand through his swept back hair, murmuring, “Sometimes you just can’t afford to fall in love. To risk losing that someone is just such a gamble.” Even softer, he finished, “Sometimes a guy can’t afford to have anything precious to him.”

Heero peered over his shoulder, catching sight of Duo, his head hung miserably, like the very weight of the universe was on his shoulders. In his even, frank tone, he said, “I think it’s worth the world to have something precious.” Head still slightly turned to the side, Heero’s eyes fell downwards in a saddened gaze. “I guess you don’t really understand the value of having someone that important to you until you lose him,” he said. “I had someone precious a long time ago, and it killed me inside every time I thought about never finding him again.”

“You can’t dwell on that kind of stuff,” said Duo with a shrug, though his body language seemed to suggest that he truly felt otherwise. Plastering a grin that both of them knew was a ruse on his face, Duo strode over towards Heero and clamped a hand on each of his shoulders. “So let’s not brood over shit we can’t fix and go on with the things we can,” he said, eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled.

Heero simply nodded in agreement and allowed himself to be steered the rest of the way downstairs by Duo’s guiding hands.

Though the basement of Nataku’s had always been a somewhat gloomy place, lately it seemed completely devoid of any kind of warmth, even with the vibrant touches Meilan had left all over the place to liven the dank space up. Perhaps it was the sight of all those things and thinking about Meilan that dampered their spirits. They could stand around and talk about dwelling on things and moving forward all they wanted to, but that didn’t mean that it was easy for either of them to follow up on it. After all, despite their enhanced mutations and such, at heart, both were only human. At least they had developed the kind of understanding relationship that allowed them both to realize and accept this inevitable fact, something that was often forgotten in the shadows of larger-than-life dreams and ideals.

At least Heero’s little corner of the shop managed to remain as magical as Duo always remembered it. The blue and purple paint still swirled on the rafters overhead, and the hammock still hung lazily over the spread of pillows and CDs by the stereo in the niche with the window. Heero’s artwork was still strewn all about, organized with a system that only the Japanese lacrosse player understood, his art supplies still waiting patiently to be used on the shelf in the corner, the metal easle leaning nearby.

Duo went straight to the CD player and switched it on, surfing the radio stations for something worth listening to. Expecting Heero to be gathering his paints and other supplies, he was completely startled when he felt the Japanese teen lay his hand on his shoulder.

“Jesus crap, Heero!” Duo yelped, almost knocking a tall stack of CDs over as he jumped with fright. Hand resting atop his hammering heart, Duo gasped, “Don’t sneak up on a guy like that, man! You might kill me!”

Laughing, Heero sat down cross-legged beside Duo, one of his mysterious, private smiles adorning his features.

“Ain’tcha gonna get your stuff together? I thought you wanted me to be your model again,” Duo said, arching one eyebrow at Heero. Then, his other brow shot up and he wiggled them suggestively as his purple-tinted gaze deepened and his eyelids lowered slightly. “Or did you have something else in mind, you dirty, little thing?” He made a low, guttural purr in the back of his throat and then teasingly snapped at Heero like a hungry wolf.

His smile shifting into a smirk, a tiny roll of pink tongue darted across Heero’s teeth. “So you caught onto my game,” he said slyly. “We can damn all pretenses, if that’s what you want, Duo,” he whispered huskily, leaning in slightly.

Already feeling that excited, dropping sensation in the pit of his stomach, Duo started leaning forward too, hoping to get at least one hot, wet kiss from Heero no matter what they ended up doing. But suddenly, the moment was sliced as a slim, brown blur zinged through Duo’s field of vision, causing him to leap back in fright. Eyes wide, he blinked at the long, slender paintbrush that had flown across the room and into Heero’s waiting hand. “God, that took ten years off my life!” Duo exclaimed, hand shooting to his rushing heart again.

“I figured since you know about me now, there’s no point in trying to hide it,” Heero said with a chuckle as he nodded off to the side, towards the middle of the area. Duo was amazed to find the easel unfolding itself, a blank canvas flying off the shelf and settling itself on the easel's metal frame. A stool had scooted itself across the room, and a tube of red paint was squeezing itself onto the pallet that lay there as a tube of yellow flew back to its spot on the shelf.

“You damn, lazy psychics,” Duo jested with a roll of his eyes. Crossing his arms, a little disappointed that the mood had changed, he muttered almost inaudibly, “I can’t believe I didn’t even suspect you had a real mutation....”

Heero shrugged. “I try to keep it quiet,” he said. “I really don’t like flaunting my skills, even when I’m by myself.” Twirling the paintbrush idly around his fingers, he went on, “My mutation makes me think of my life with my grandfather, and it’s something I’d rather not do.”

Duo made a low grunting sound. “Well, my mutation has caused loads of shit for me, but I’m still so proud of it,” he said, waving his hand around and allowing it to disparate into its atomic form to demonstrate.

A nostalgic smile crossed Heero’s plush, ever-pouting lips. “I used to love mine too. I’d make things fly all over the place for every reason you could ever think of, especially when I wanted to impress... or frighten someone,” he said. “But that joy I felt as a child was ruined for me. Now I can’t even use my mutation without worrying about going out of control. Yes, so I’m adept at far more than an average person, but what does that matter if I can’t even keep myself in check?”

Flashes of the times Duo had seen Heero lose his mind darted through Duo’s memories: the back alley, the pizza parlour, the gang fight after the race, plus stories and rumours of other incidents in the past. “Why does that happen?” Duo couldn’t help but ask. “Does that explain what happened to Q?”

“Perhaps. I wasn’t there when Quatre had his moment, so I couldn’t even begin to tell you what the cause was. Nor do I know Quatre’s medical history, so I couldn’t tell you if he was reacting to something similar in his system,” said Heero with another small roll of his shoulders. “But as for me, I have come to realize that my mutation blossoms out of control whenever I’m struck with an intense emotion, usually rage.”

“Did that always used to happen?” asked Duo. He was riveted now. Finally he would be able to get some answers, or at lesat some clues, as to what made Heero Yuy work.

“No, never before I was put in the lab. I was as ordinary as the next psychic before that,” said Heero. “I think my problem stems from some reaction or side-effect of the experiments Oji-san used to perform. Maybe I even still have traces of some drug he injected in me.” Heero let out a frustrated sigh and started digging ferociously through his thick, mahogany hair with the end of his paintbrush. “The possibilites are endless as to what could be the cause, and I’ve never met anyone who’d be able to explain or solve any of it. So I just try to avoid my mutation whenever I can.”

“Not using it won’t make it go away,” said Duo, glancing at the middle of the room and noting that Heero had finished using his psychic powers to set up his easel. “Your mutation is a part of you whether you like it or not, and it’s gonna be there to stay until the day you die.”

“I know but... I’m still scared of it,” whispered Heero. “It’s awful, because I still remember how happy I used to be when I’d use it as a child. But now, it almost makes me feel dead, especially with all the mutant-haters out there.”

“Fuck them,” Duo spat, tossing his arms forward in a disdainful manner. “All that matters is what you feel and what you want. Don’t let anyone else dictate your life. You choose your life so you won’t have to regret it later. Isn’t that what you like to say?”

Both of Heero’s hands were twisting across his face and yanking at his hair in agonized dispair. “Yes, but Duo, I’m scared! Don’t you see?” he cried, a pained expression riddling his almond-shaped, blue eyes. “I’m afraid of what I might do if the mutation grows! What if it consumes me and I can’t be me anymore at all! Do you know how terrible it is to know that you can’t control yourself?”

Duo pulled back on his assault when he saw that look in Heero’s eyes and heard the tremour in his usually flat, somewhat nasal voice. After all, he also knew that fear of not being in control. Duo had always been the master of his own life, and the idea that his ability to choose might be taken away from him without even his permission was something that Duo could find quite frightening. “I understand,” he said softly, folding his hands in his lap.

Also settling himself, Heero went on, his voice back to its regular intonation. “It’s the most wreched sensation when it happens,” he explained quietly. “One minute everything is fine, and then some intense emotion will surge through my mind, and before I know it, that’s all I can focus on, all I feel. Everything else around me dies, and I just lose it.”

Duo folded his knees up against his chest and wrapped his long arms around them. “Don’t you forget yourself when the mutation takes control?”

“No. That’s the worst part, not blanking out. I can see it all in front of me as it happens, but there’s nothing I can do. It’s like flying in a jet that’s automatically handling functions itself,” Heero said with a shake of his head that rustled his long, spiky bangs. “It’s not like schizophrenia, but just an error in my mutation’s genetic make-up.”

“Oh,” Duo said with a low whistle. “Like a mutation in your mutation?”

“For lack of a better term, I suppose,” Heero nodded again. “I couldn’t even begin to go into the things that are probably wrong with me and my body... because not even I know myself!”

“That must be scary too,” Duo commented with a small frown. Just listening to Heero speak about his helplessness like this was frightening enough for Duo; he couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was probably like to actually be Heero. “Have you even asked anyone about it?” Duo wondered.

Heero leaned backwards, sprawling himself across some of the cushions strewn upon the floor and speaking up at the intricately designed heavens painted overhead. “It’s sometimes hard enough talking to a doctor about your mutation, especially if he’s not a mutant himself,” said Heero. “But imagine even trying to begin to explain my ordeal to one! I could barely tell you, and I trust you more than anyone in the entire universe.”

A ripple of pride and warmth flew through Duo’s body, feeling honoured to have that title. Heero’s opinion, even back when they used to fight, was probably the only one in the whole world that Duo cared about at all. To know that Heero held him in such high esteem made Duo swell with more emotions than he could name.

“Besides, even if I did tell someone, I doubt I’d ever find anyone who could help me out. My problems aren’t the sort one could look up in a textbook.” Heero let go of the paintbrush to fold his hands behind his head as he continued his train of thought, leaving the slim brush to hover in the air over his chest.

“Well, it’s nice to see you at least playing with your skills now,” said Duo as he watched the paintbrush spin and twirl like an acrobat at Heero’s manipulation.

A low laugh escaped Heero’s lips. “Guess I’m just showing off like I used to.” The paintbrush zoomed across the space between them and tickled Duo’s nose with its smooth bristles, which caused the braided mechanic to shiver with laughter. Heero joined in with more of his melodious chuckling at the sight of Duo’s antics. “I suppose I forgot how fun this was,” he admitted softly.

“Of course it’s fun,” Duo scoffed as he tried to bat the brush away. “Which is why I think that those extremist mutant-haters are just a bunch of jealous bastards.” He succeeded in escaping the attack of Heero’s brush by exercising his own mutation and zipping over to the pillows, reappearing on his back beside Heero.

Rolling on his side, resting his head on a crooked arm, Heero said, “You know what I also enjoy?”

“I don’t know. What?” Duo said with a roll of his eyes. “Lacrosse?” he guessed sarcastically.

Heero rolled his eyes and reached out with one hand, opening it wide and summoning his paintbrush back into his grip. “I think you know what I mean,” he said ambiguously. Repositioning himself so he was leaning on all fours over Duo, he leaned down and whispered something unexpected: “Take off your clothes.”

“What!?” Duo shouted just a bit too loud, suddenly rocketing upright and sending Heero rolling onto his back again. Though not angered by the request, Duo couldn’t help but find it somewhat pretentious. Then again, what else should he have expected from Heero Yuy?

“You heard me, Duo. Take your clothes off,” Heero repeated, jabbing the end of his paintbrush at Duo’s chest. With a sly smirk and a rather sultry gaze, he added, “It’s not like I’ve never seen you naked before, Duo. Don’t make me strip you myself.”

A devious expression twisted Duo’s cherubic features. “Ooh, who’da thought you were so kinky, ‘Ro?” he said, lowering his eyelids slightly and curling one corner of his mouth upwards.

Heero cast a knowing look in Duo’s direction as he tapped his lower lip with the end of the paintbrush, a simple action that Duo suddenly found to be extremely sexy, especially when Heero would chew or lick at it without even realizing what he was doing. After a few moments of waiting, however, Heero sighed and said, “Duo, I thought you said I could begin another painting of you today. Please just do as I asked.”

“Ooh, that’s all you wanted?” Duo asked, an embarrassed laugh shaking his slim body. “Fine, fine, be boring,” he grumbling jokingly as his fingers started for the hem of his black Sex Pistols tee-shirt. He narrowed his eyes, his lips scrunched comically on one side of his face. “And don’t try and write this off as being artistic,” he added with a maniacal glint in his eyes. “You know damn well this is just an excuse to get me naked.”

Heero rolled his eyes and stood up, heading towards his easel. Though he did like his art to concentrate on the human body, he couldn’t deny that most of the reason he wanted to paint Duo in particular was to see him posing naked. At least he had seen him that way before, so hopefully, Duo wouldn’t be as awkward about it as he might have been had they not made love.

He was just setting the one paintbrush he’d been toying with on the easel’s crosspiece, when the obnoxious jangle of the phone echoed throughout the basement. Heero let out an irritated sigh, and, peering out from behind the canvas at the half-dressed Duo, said, “Hey, do you think you could grab that?”

Stripped of his shirt and clad in nothing more than his black jeans and boots, Duo shrugged. “No problem,” he said with a grin as he got to his feet and started to head in the direction of the still-ringing phone.

Heero watched Duo’s bare back as the tall mechanic left the little studio corner, braid swishing back and forth like the tail of a wary cat. Heero loved the way Duo moved, thinking the way he seemed to slink about with feline balance and grace was insanely attractive. As Heero absently went through the remaining motions of setting up his easel and paints, he thought about how grateful he was to finally have won Duo as his own, happy that all his determination and that extra dose of luck had paid off at last.

On the other side of the surfboard racks, Duo was grumbling at the phone as he neared the ringing device. Snatching the phone off its hook, which hung on the side of the stairs that rose up to the main floor, Duo forced as much pleasantry as he could into his tone and greeted the person on the other end of the line. He mentally added a silent threat of physical harm to the caller if what he had to say wasn’t important enough to justify pulling Duo away from a private, potentially intimate moment with Heero.

“Yo, what’s up?” he said into the reciever, cradling the phone between his cheek and his shoulder as he twiddled the cord in one hand and drummed the fingers of his other against the staircase.

“Hello? Is there a Chang Wufei present?” said the professional, female voice on the other end of the line. Duo suddenly had a sinking feeling in his gut.

“No, I don’t think he’s around,” said Duo carefully, wondering what was going on. All his street instincts were going off; there was something amiss, and he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to know what it was. “Can I take a message? I’m sure he’ll be home from the hospital soon.”

“Sir, I’m one of the nurses at the hospital taking care of Ms. Long. Mr. Chang was asked to go home for some real rest. He left about an hour ago,” the woman informed him.

“What, so can you not find him or something?” Duo wondered, suddenly afraid that Wufei had gotten himself hit by a car en route, or something equally horrible. Then something else dawned on the longhaired mechanic. “Dude, something has got to be up. What’s so bad that you have to find him all of the sudden?”

The woman’s voice turned grave. “Ms. Long’s condition has taken a turn for the worse. Her mother felt that Mr. Chang should return in case things....” The nurse faltered slightly, taking in a slow breath before continuing. “....In case things don’t improve....”

“In case things don’t improve!? Turn for the worse? What the hell does that mean?” Duo demanded to know, grabbing the phone in his hand and tugging on the cord hard enough to almost pull it right out of the plastic casing it fed into. “Meilan’s a good friend of mine too! I’m not gonna sit back and just wait for Wufei to come home, knowing that she’s not doing so hot. You tell me what the fuck is wrong with her before I reach through the phone and strangle you!”

“Sir, please calm down,” said the nurse in as careful a tone as she could. Another settling breath could be heard over the line as the woman tried to prepare herself for the message she hated delivering the most. “Sir, Ms. Long is dying.”

A sharp intake of air hissed down Duo’s throat as his fingers suddenly lost their ability to grip the handset. The plastic phone swung downwards on its cord, swaying back and forth from its cradle as Duo stared blankly forward, trying to fathom what the woman had just told him. Her voice could still be heard shouting for him over the phone.

Behind Duo, the scuffling of Heero’s feet dimly registered in the lacrosse manager’s head. Even when the Japanese athlete asked him what was wrong, Duo had trouble getting his brain functioning enough to comprehend the words. It wasn’t until Heero place a cool hand on Duo’s shoulders, his chill fingers causing Duo to jump out of his mindelss daze with a shiver.

“Heero, we might have to put off this painting session for another day,” Duo said, his voice quivering a little. “I think we need to go back to the hospital right away.”

“Duo, what’s happened? Is it something about Meilan?” Heero asked, his features schooled into a mask of blank indifference. Duo had come to learn that whenever Heero made himself look expressionless, he was working hard to cover up some of his most intense emotions. It was a subtle quirk of Heero’s nature that Duo had come to learn and read quite well the more he got to know the Japanese lacrosse star.

“They say it ain’t looking good. They were looking for Wufei ‘cause they wanted him to come back and see her,” said Duo, hoping he didn’t sound like too much of a downer. He dreadfully hoped that the Chinese girl would end up alright, but having lived on the streets, where the world was about as grim and real as you could get, Duo had become accustomed to just accepting things as they happened, both good and bad. He was aware that most people didn’t have that kind of mindset, but he was pretty sure a practical person like Heero would appreciate that approach to life best anyway. There was no need to pretty things up for him, which was another trait of Heero’s that Duo liked very much.

“You mean Wufei finally left the hospital?” Heero asked, his eyes slightly wider with surprise.

“Yeah, and just his luck, as soon as he does, she starts to drop off,” said Duo morosely, crossing his arms over his bare chest and staring down at the tops of his scuffed, black boots. “It’s not fair, ‘Ro,” he murmured softly. “Why’d this have to happen to such a good girl? Why is it that the good people are the ones who always have shit happen to them?”

Heero said nothing to this, and wordlessly stepped forward to enfold Duo in the comfort of his strong arms. They clung to each other, quietly sharing their sadness and knowing that it would be easier to survive together.

After a few moments spent like that, Duo finally spoke up again, his voice subdued and weak. “Do you think we should look for ‘Fei? You know, so he gets the message and all?”

“We can leave him a note if he should happen by here,” said Heero as he slowly let go of Duo. With his psychic powers, he returned the dangling phone to its cradle, cutting off the dial tone that had been humming in the background ever since the nurse hung up. “But somehow, I think that won’t need someone to tell him that he has to go back. Meilan’s need is enough to draw him there.”

Duo smiled sadly in agreement, knowing that what Heero said was the truth.

(x) X (x)

“Since when was this place so creepy?” Duo asked with a shiver as they entered the hospital for the second time that week. As soon as Heero and Duo had finished with that dreadful phone call, they had immediatly clambered into Duo’s car and zoomed off to the hospital at full speed. Now they were standing at the receptionist’s desk, waiting for one of the nurses to give them permission to see Meilan.

Heero said nothing to Duo’s comment as he leaned against the white desk, sweeping his dark glare back and forth between the two nurses sitting there. Both seemed too busy to notice them, one extremely involved in her telephone conversation and the other focused on the crossword puzzle in front of her..

“Fuck it,” Duo swore with an irritated toss of his hand. Jabbing his thumb in the direction of the hallway that led into the belly of the medical establishment, he said, “Let’s just go. At this rate, Meilan’ll be dead before we can get back there.”

The comment was certainly inappropriate, but Duo wasn’t exactly in the best of moods, and neither was his sense of humour. However, Heero seemed annoyed enough to jump right on the idea. Pushing away from the desk with a growl that no one but Duo noticed, he nodded and started heading towards the patients’ quarters.

But just as the pair was about to walk off, the nurse sitting closest to the swinging double doors that opened into that hall suddenly spoke up. “Excuse me, but where do you two think you’re going? You need to sign in before you can visit anyone.”

Heero’s stony face snapped with angered emotion, though he managed to keep his temper contained in his violent stare. He was not happy with the poor service, but he fought the urge to break their necks, knowing that doing so might send him into another uncontrollable fit of rage.

However, Duo’s discontent was launched in a scathing tirade against the poor nurse. “Look, I have a friend who’s on her deathbed in there, and I’ve been waiting to go see her for almost fifteen minutes now. At this point, I don’t care how many fucking codes I break, so long as I get to see Meilan. I won’t regret not seeing her one last time because some fucking bitch was to goddamned flakey to grant me access to my friend’s room. So fuck you, fuck your codes, and have a nice fucking day!” With that, he grabbed Heero’s slim wrist and stomped off towards the hall, dragging the lacrosse player behind him as the two nurses stared after them in pure, utter shock, too stunned to say anything.

Duo’s angry step had enough gusto to calm him down a bit as he marched down the sterile, white hall. He finally freed Heero’s hand of the death grip he’d fastened around it and tried to regulate his raspy breathing. “Goddamn people really get on my nerves sometimes,” Duo grumbled to himself as he walked, his arms swinging at his sides.

“Aa,” agreed Heero with a slight nod. He walked beside Duo, his steps quick and heavy, similar to his state of mind. Remembering the way to Meilan’s room from their last visit, he took the lead and eventually brought them to the door with the ‘05’ emblazoned on it.

“Wait,” Duo said suddenly, his hand shooting out to stop Heero’s as he started to turn the doorknob. Wringing his hands and taking many deep breaths, Duo explained, “Sorry, but I just gotta steel myself up for this one. Don’t know if I can handle just busting in there like this, you know?” He offered as bright a smile as he could to Heero, who nodded in understanding.

After shaking out both hands and feet, and then popping a couple joints, Duo reached out for the doorknob, his hand covering Heero’s. Together, they turned the handle and pushed the door open, prepared to be greeted with the worst.

Inside the room, things didn’t appear to be much different from the first time they had come to visit Meilan. The low beeping of machinery and the tedious drip of the IV still filled the silence around them, and strips of sunlight filtered through the blinds over the window, painting the gray room with lines of yellow, just as before. The only real differennce was that instead of Wufei sitting in the plastic chair in the corner, Meilan’s mother was curled up, asleep. It looked like she had been there for quite some time, the newspaper from the day before drapped across her stomach like a blanket.

“Look, she’s still breathing, Heero!” cried Duo, flying over to the bedside and bending down to put an ear against Meilan’s chest to confirm that the observation was true. “Heero, I can still hear her heart!” Despite the excited tone in Duo’s voice, both of them knew that Duo was just trying to be optimistic. A glance at Meilan’s heart moniter would have easily told that her heartbeat was slow and erratic.

Heero stood by Meilan’s mother, staring at her as if he was trying to decide whether or not to wake her. Choosing to let her sleep, he looked up at the bed, narrowing his eyes as he carefully examined the sight before him. There is something very wrong here, he thought, though he couldn’t even begin to explain what gave him such a feeling of forboding. Without a word, he walked over to the foot of the bed, from which hung Meilan’s charts and stats. A frown creased his lips as he read the data. Something just doesn’t add up. She was hit in the head and knocked into a coma. Her heart shouldn’t be stopping....

“Heero?” Duo glanced over at Heero as he leafed through Meilan’s charts. The curious sparkle in his wide eyes flickered and waned slightly. “What’s wrong? You look like you just swallowed something really gross.”

Heero made a grimmace that seemed to say, ‘Do you even have to ask?’ Casting his eyes down at Meilan, he frowned softly, mentally trying to figure out what piece of the puzzle he was missing. There was something wrong here, and it went further than his friend simply being in the hospital.

The loud smack of shoes on tile resounded outside in the hall, making Heero and Duo both snap their heads upwards. A familiar shout accompanied the footfalls, soon joined by a sound that couldn’t have been anything but a scuffle. Sally’s voice jumped up above the commotion outside, crying, “Wufei, stop running!” just as the door of the room burst open with an aching creak, revealing the panting Chinese youth.

Ignoring Meilan’s cousin and the doctor with her, Wufei streaked across the room, almost brutally shoving Duo away from the bed as he moved towards his fiancee. “Wake up, girl!” he commanded the unconscious Meilan, his hands clamping around her shoulders. He gave her a slight shake, “I said wake up! What the hell is wrong with you?”

Normally Duo would have found this the perfect place to insert some snide comment, but the sarcasm died before it even reached his tongue.

“Wufei, you shouldn’t do that,” said Sally as she stepped into the room, reaching out to gently pry Wufei’s hands off the patient. “Her vital stats are quite weak. A sudden shock is most likely to do her more harm than good.”

Though Wufei did relent to Sally’s request, it didn’t free the blond woman from his owlish stare. Duo caught sight of more emotion swirling in Wufei’s eyes just then than he had ever seen in those black puddles of onyx.

“Wufei, we’ve become aware that a strange condition has taken its toll on Meilan,” said Sally as gently as she could, reaching a long, slim arm around the Chinese teenager’s shoulders. “Her heart has slowed considerably, and her blood cells are infected with some kind of bacteria I’m not familiar with.”

A clatter filled the silence between Wufei and Sally as Heero replaced Meilan’s medical charts. In a frank, curt voice, he asked, “So how does such a condition form in a person who has only suffered minor head trauma? She’s had a concussion, not contracted the plague.”

Collectively, a sharp intake of air was sucked in by the room’s other occupants. Sally looked like she had just been struck with a heavy, blunt object, while Wufei looked like he was going kill something. A frightened expression such that Heero had never seen before riddled Duo’s elfish features. Meanwhile, Heero’s own stomach plummeted somewhere near his shoes as his mind started to wander with the possibility that Meilan had been infected with one of those freak cases of plague still left over from the epidemic.

With a motion that seemed to be naught more than a blur, Wufei’s hand shot out and grabbed Sally’s white lab coat. “You have the vaccine, right?” he demanded, his fist curling so tightly in the cotton garment that the seams were ripping. “You can treat her, can’t you?”

“Well....” Sally seemed hesitant to elaborate with Wufei in such an unstable frame of mind.

“Well what?” It was Duo who spoke this time. His lips were drawn in a straight line across his face, stern and serious. “Can or can’t you help Meilan?”

“Treating her won’t do much good,” murmured Sally almost inaudibly, her pale, blue eyes tracing the tile patterns on the floor. “She was fine one day, and then the next, we came in to check on her, and there was this. I’ve never seen a disease of any kind develop so quickly! It’s unstoppable! Like it just... just mutated inside her blood stream over night!”

Heero’s eyes flashed daggers as his chin shot up. Steely blue irises bolted themselves to Sally, his mind whizzing a mile a minute as he began to push around a few more pieces to this puzzle. No matter who this stench belonged to, it smelled of deceit and ulterior motives at the cost of Meilan’s life.

“Heero?” Duo blinked at his lover, a worried texture riddling his glassy eyes and his normally easy-going features.

A low, tired moan broke into the tense silence. Heero, Duo, Wufei and Sally all turned their heads in the direction of Meilan’s mother as she stirred from her sleep, black eyes fluttering open and darting from face to face with confusion. “Bad feeling,” she said quietly as she looked around, as if to explain why she had suddenly woken up.

Just as she spoke, the steady, slow beeping of Meilan’s heart monitor let out a long, low bleat. Just one, long, unending moan that was crying out in pain. Meilan’s lips rounded into an empty circle, emitting a strange, hiccupping sound as a shuddering spasm rushed down her spine. Her eyes popped open, staring blankly overhead as the hiccupping noise repeated from the back of her throat. It sounded like she might have been trying to talk.

“Meilan!” Wufei cried, shoving his way between Heero and Duo to get at the bed. Grabbing Meilan’s hands tightly in his own, he watched her with desperate, frantic eyes, the pain whirling across his face speaking volumes louder than any words he might have said.

“Hi, ‘Fei,” she gasped, the simple action extremely difficult for her. She reached up with one hand, the IV needle taped into the flesh of her wrist, to let her thinning fingers touch Wufei’s face.

Wufei’s lips twitched into a rare smile, though the tiny, crystal teardrops dotting the corners of his eyes were far more beautiful. “Meilan...” he murmured softly, never tiring of her name.

“It’s okay, Wufei.” Meilan’s fingers were scantly a centimeter from Wufei’s cheek, desperately reaching out to touch the round shape of his face. “Don’t be afraid,” she whispered. Her lips were still moving, but whatever she said was drowned out by the heart monitor as it let out another long, painful bleep, the jagged line that bounced across the machine’s screen suddenly flat. The tips of her fingers just grazed Wufei’s skin as they flexed one last time and fell limply to her side. Her bandage-wrapped head fell to the side, her eyes open, but still.

In that short period of time, Wufei’s ears became deaf. He no longer heard the heart-throbbing beep of the machine, which was still alerting the room of Meilan’s silent heart. The sounds of Meilan’s mother’s uncontrolled sobs never reached him either. Rationality seeped out of Wufei’s brain, the Chinese youth bent over the small bed and shaking Meilan’s unresponsive body. “Meilan, wake up!” he cried again. “Meilan, please don’t leave me alone like this! You’ve got to come back!”

The others watched in pained silence as Wufei began to realize that Meilan would never be waking up again. The final blow was sealed when the proud teenager broke down and wrapped his arms around Meilan’s lifeless body, just holding her as the warmth began to fade from her.

With silent tears streaming down her face, Sally couldn’t bring herself to look at the others in the room as she moved to pick up Meilan’s vital charts, filling out the morbid details and specifics about the final moments of Meilan’s life. Then she went over to the machinery on the other side of the bed, and with a few choked sighs, turned it all off. Once that was done, she leaned over the bedside, laying a hand over Meilan’s frozen, black eyes and pulling her eyelids closed one last time.

Watching Sally do this seemed to confirm to Duo that the worst was becoming a reality. His lips fluxuating into a grief-stricken shape, eyes quivering with wet, un-shed tears, he fung his arms around Heero, nearly knocking the Japanese lacrosse player off his feet. “No, no,” he was whimpering into Heero’s shoulder as he held him close. “I did it again. I killed somebody else with my bloody bad luck!”

“Don’t say that,” said Heero with his usual, serious calm. “You didn’t kill anybody. You didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Meilan.” He stroked Duo’s back and wove his fingers into Duo’s long, brown hair, his mind torn between sadness and anger that someone would dare hurt one of his friends this way. He was almost positive that Meilan’s death was the result of foul play, and he was willing to do almost anything for revenge. Just holding Duo in his arms as he cried and watching the grief of Meilan’s closest family members made Heero wonder if Meilan’s killer knew just how many lives one death could affect. Heero decided that it was probably something he should share with the others.

“What was that, Heero?” asked Sally, her eyes snapping up from Meilan and Wufei when she heard Heero speak. She wasn’t quite sure she had understood him correctly.

“I said, I don’t think that Meilan died naturally,” Heero repeated, still holding Duo close. “I think someone injected her with that virus, which would explain why it appeared in her system so suddenly. I think someone’s toying with us. The question is who... and why.” Heero tied off his little speech with his simple logic, “I’m sure everyone in this room knows enough about anatomy to know that things like this don’t happen unless something went seriously wrong. There is no natural reason for Meilan to be dead.”

It was a hard concept to swallow, and even a little crazy, but the more Sally thought about it, the more she could see where Heero was coming from. “I’ll run a check on all the activity in this room for the past week or so,” she said.

Heero nodded as he slowly let go of Duo, allowing the taller boy to stand on his own. “I’d like to see more on Meilan’s blood tests after you discovered the disease,” said Heero, his eyes tracking Duo as he lethargically slumped over to the foot of the bed and settled down on the floor. “If it’s what I think it is, then I have a pretty good idea as to where we can start on this mystery.” Heero’s mind was working like a steel trap, knowing that calm and thorough thought was the only way that this situation could be handled.

Wufei, who had finally released Meilan’s body, stood stiffly beside the bed, his arms folded across his chest. “Well, well, so we’re a doctor now, as well?” he said, his voice a little disdainful. Wufei was in no state to keep the tension between him and Heero under control.

“For once, I’m beginning to think my childhood in the care of a mad scientist is going to be of use,” Heero snapped, the bluntness of his words enough to shut Wufei up for a moment. “Don’t mock that which you do not know or understand, Wufei. I learned many of the things I know at a personal cost, so--”

“--So back the hell off, is what he means to say!” Duo cut in from his position on the floor. He was folded into a little ball, his entire posture morose and drooping. “Heero knows a thing or two more than ya’d think, okay?” He dropped one hand to the floor and started idly tracing the outlines of the tiles beside him, his eyes tracking the movements of his fingers lazily.

“Alright, Heero. If you think you can glean something from any information we have, then so be it,” said Sally, hoping to distill the heightened emotions pulsing through the room. Her face darkened as she added, “It disturbs me greatly that you think Meilan was... was murdered, but there’s no other--”

“Ow! Fuck me!” Duo’s exclamation severed off the tail end of Sally’s comment. The hand he had been pushing across the floor flew up to Duo’s mouth, where he nursed some unseen wound on his middle finger.

Three pairs of eyes sank down to the floor, all silently bidding Duo to explain what his little outburst was all about. They didn’t have to wait long.

“What the fuck is this?” Duo complained out loud, using his other hand to grab at the sharp object that had pricked him. From under the bed, he pulled out a long, white syringe with a red plunger and a bent needle, which shone with a bead of Duo’s blood at the tip. “Sally, you better run a couple protocol checks while you’re playing private eye, ‘cause I sure as hell know I wouldn’t want my life in the hands of people who leave needles lying under the beds.”

Sally’s eyes narrowed as she swooped around the bed and crouched down beside Duo, taking the syringe from him and examining it closely. “Well, this is odd,” she said after a few moments of quiet inspection. “This needle definitely doesn’t belong to this hospital,” she explained, holding the offending object up for the others to see.

“How do you know?” asked Wufei, a dark frown creasing his stern lips.

“One of my jobs is ordering supplies and such for the hospital,” she told them as she got back to her feet. “I know for a fact that every syringe issued and used in this facility has a clear chamber and a black plunger.” She held up the red and white syringe again, “As you can see, this obviously doesn’t fit that discription.”

“So I guess that proves Heero’s theory, then,” Duo murmured quietly to himself. “Fucking shit,” he muttered, his eyebrows dipping low over his nose. “I wanna strangle whatever asshole did this to Meilan. I wanna beat him to death with my bare, fucking hands!”

Wufei let out a low snarl from behind Duo. “Not before I do, Maxwell!” he said bitterly. He cracked his knuckles and tried to control his erratic breathing.

Though in his heart of hearts, Duo knew that Wufei wasn’t yelling at him, he couldn’t help but feel that ripple of hurt that surged through him whenever he felt attacked. A bubble of tears resurfaced in the corner of one eye and dripped down his cheek. Like a little child, Duo reached out and wrapped his arms around Heero’s lower leg, pressing himself close to his lover. “I want to go home,” he whimpered as he buried his nose against the fabric of Heero’s pants. He suddenly felt very haunted, like Meilan’s ghost had risen from her body and was hovering over his head.

Heero looked down at the pathetic form of his lover wrapped around his leg like a bulky sock, and could actually feel Duo trembling against him! He knew there were thousands of ways that different people dealt with grief, especially when it was fresh, and he was familiar enough with Duo’s various quirks to understand that the truth and the sadness of what was going on had truly overtaken the longhaired teen. Though it was impossible for him to bend down and wrap his arms around Duo with the way he was holding onto him, he did offer his hand down to him, saying simply, “Alright, Duo. We’ll go.”

“I’ll take Meilan’s mother home,” said Sally, moving towards the silently weeping, elderly Chinese. The woman barely put up a fight, allowing her neice to escort her from the sad room that reeked with death.

Duo climbed unsteadily to his feet, keeping as much contact with Heero as he could while he did so. Soon he was standing upright, his arms wound around the shorter youth’s neck like he was clinging to a single, floating buoy in the middle of the vast ocean. Wordlessly, the pair slowly made their way to the door, and no one else in the room had the heart to say anything that would hold them up. All of them knew that each one of them would have to deal with things in his or her own way and that Heero and Duo were best left alone with each other to cope.

It wasn’t until the door had closed behind them that Wufei felt safe enough to collapse to the floor and cry.

(x) X (x)

a.n. Yeah, I know, I know! You all knew it was coming, but even so, it was hard to do it. I wish more people would write about her; she’s a fun and interesting character, especially with Wufei. Anyway, all of this stuff will slowly develop, so don’t worry. (There are so many stories going on at one time, it’s hard to focus on them all!) Thank you for reading!

Oh, and the chappy title is another awesome Bob Marley song. And I got new fanart, which I posted! Go check it out! (Thank you tons to anyone who’s sent me their work!)