Healing Duo

“ What? Hilde I can’t! No please, I can’t see any of them! Tell them I’m sick; tell them I’m on vacation! Tell them I’m terrorizing little kids and setting old ladies’ houses on fire, anything!” Duo, the great Shinigami, one of the famed five Gundam Pilots, a terrorist and assassin at fifteen, savor of the world several times over before his 18th birthday; is now sitting in his bed, leaning against the headboard, sheets pulled up to his waist at two o’clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday. Hilde sits perched next to the prone figure that used to bounce with life who, only a year before, had the faint hope of ever walking without aid again.
“ Duo honey, I’ve tried! I told them you were on a much-needed vacation, but Quatre insisted. Actually he didn’t take no for an answer the last time we had a chat. Boy, who knew that guy could be so forceful?“ Duo remembers all too well how persistent the little blond could be, one reason he admired the boy. Shutting his eyes he takes another deep breath. True he really wanted to see Quatre again, even after what happened…no he won’t think about that! Especially since it got him thinking of a certain cobalt eyed boy…no!
‘That’s exactly what I don’t want to think about!’ He slopes his shoulders with a mix of fatigue and depression, one due to the other.
It had been almost four years since the last time he had seen any of the fellow pilots. Back then…‘oh god am I really referring to it like that?’ But there seemed no other way to see it. Back then he was still Shinigami, back then he was the life that kept the other pilots smiling on the inside, that much he was sure of. But now…now he was a broken man.
Hilde watches the emotions seeping through the cracks in Duo’s normally happy façade. Her heart breaks once more for her best friend. How could something like this happen to someone who only wanted others to feel that life was worth living, that it was ok to smile? Why? Suddenly those big, pain-filled eyes catch hers and she has to fight to keep the tears away once more. There is so much sadness to see in Duo now, well beyond what one person of any age should suffer. Mixed in with her own sorrow for her friend she feels anger. Anger for those people that had forced this delicate creature to be this way. And anger at the one whom continued to give him the most pain of all, because he would not return the violet eyes boy’s love. Through Hilde’s musings Duo finally makes a decision.
“ Alright, I guess it won’t hurt to just talk to him, but Hilde he can’t know the truth! None of them can, please? At least not now, not yet. I’m not ready for them to know.” The girl, his best friend in the world nods her head obediently. How could she say ‘no’ when there is so much desperation and helplessness in those expressive eyes? It makes her want to weep again.
“ But Duo, how? You never lie remember? And I’m not much better at it.” Duo bites his bottom lip in thought. Carefully, without much effort, Duo slips the mask back on and seals the lines that had cut through; turning to her with a mischievous grin she couldn’t help but return.
“ Well, Hilde babe, we’ll just have to warp the truth a little. You know, play with the facts. Got a lot of ‘em to work with.” Hilde sighs; she would do anything Duo asked of her, but still…it felt wrong to lie to the boy’s friends; they seemed to care so much. Then she steels herself. No, they hadn’t contacted him all these years, how could they still consider Duo their friend? They hadn’t been there for him when he needed then the most. But Duo had never contacted them either, and they had been together through the Wars in a more personal way then Hilde ever could. Finally she nods her head; there was nothing else she could do in the face of so many contradicting facts.