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Fire and Ice	By : kracken Category: Gundam Wing/AC > Yaoi - Male/Male > Heero/Duo Views: 1364 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing and I don't make any money off of this.

Chapter List
- 1-Fire and Ice
- 2-2
- 3-3
- 2
- 3
"So, they finally let you see me?"

Heero nodded as he looked around Duo's cell at the sparse bed, the toilet, and the one window with unbreakable plastic. "Quatre wanted your living conditions confirmed. It took several court orders."

Duo hugged himself and felt uncomfortable as they both stood at the center of the room. "This is an improvement from the padded cell and being naked."

Heero scowled angrily. "They did that?"

"Procedure," Duo replied, excusing them and not wanting to. He lowered himself onto the hard bed slowly, wincing as he stuck his leg out in front of him. Patting the bed beside him, he said, "Go ahead and sit down. There aren't any chairs."

Heero didn't move. His eyes were on the cast. "Are they treating that well? I don't think a prison medic has any experience-"

"Quatre took care of that as well," Duo told him, but then, anxiously, "Look, I know you're pissed at me. You have a right. I probably ruined your carpet and any hope of... well..." He didn't want to talk about the death of any budding relationship. It was better to believe that it had never been a possibility.

"I was... I didn't understand...," Heero tried, eyes on the window and creased in something that looked like pain. "We aren't in the war, Duo. That was... extreme. When Quatre suggested that you might be suffering, mentally, it was easy to believe him."

Duo picked at the thin material of his prison jumpsuit. "I really didn't think that there was any other way. I was going on a way way ride back to Milliardo's or to Moon Base prison. I didn't want either."

Heero wiped a hand over his face and then finally faced him. "You weren't trying to kill yourself?"

Had it been in his mind? Duo closed his eyes for a moment and took stock of himself. "No," he replied honestly. "I don't want to die, Heero, I just want... what's right."

"What's right?" Heero finally sat, as if the bed had thorns, stiffly and cautiously. "You said that you didn't want to go to Moonbase prison, but now you think that you deserve to be there. A man might do desperate things to avoid doing something that he fears so much."

"Not that desperate, even if I do end up being a pillow for some guys there," Duo told him earnestly, :"Even if the guards use me as a dummy for charge guns. Even if... I'm trying to say that I still think a hell of a lot is better than dying. I'll make it through. Ten years... I'll be in my thirties, maybe in one piece..."

"Quatre thinks-" Heero began, but Duo cut him off.

"He's trying to shit sunshine, you know that," Duo growled. "His psychologists ran all their tests. They wrote up all their bullshit and submitted it to the court. I'm still waiting to hear back, but they all seemed to think that I didn't have enough measurable psychosis to get me out of a murder rap. I don't think attempted suicide is going to get me many points. maybe I wouldn't do that to get out of a prison sentence on Moon base prison, but I'm sure some of those judges would."

"Which leaves the tape, and Milliardo's implication in a set up, as your only defense," Heero replied.

"Any proof of that?" Duo wondered.

"No, " Heero replied. "I can only bring forth suspicions and try to make witnesses talk in court."

"That would be people at the warehouse and Milliardo's goons," Duo sighed as he leaned back against the wall and tried to ease his aching leg. "I'm sure the people at the warehouse are only interested in seeing me go to prison for life, for killing their buddy, and Milliardo's goons aren't about to be disloyal to a man who could get them killed with a word."

Heero gave a small, imperceptible nod, unable to voice his failure. When his hand crept across the space between them, and took Duo's hand, Duo felt warmth, calluses, and a firmness that spoke of emotional turmoil.

"This is all my fault," Heero said tightly. "If Zechs hadn't-"

"This is all my fault," Duo insisted, looking down at their hands. His chest felt tight. So much possibility lost. "I did this to myself. He just took advantage of the situation."

"You were robbing a warehouse," Heero insisted, blue eyes intense. "You weren't there for murder. I won't stop believing that."

"It doesn't matter," Duo told him despondently.

"It does!" Heero snarled and stood up. He paced a moment and then faced Duo. "I will prove, somehow, that your intentions, while not innocent, didn't include murder. I will get your sentence reduced."

"And you'll be waiting for me while I serve a sentence for armed robbery?" Duo wondered and couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice. "Can you still want anything with me, knowing I'm just fucking street trash that can't keep on the right side of the law? is that who you want screwing up your life? How do you think that'll go over at Preventers. Heero's gay and shacking up with a freakin' felon. That's a career killer if I ever heard one."

Heero regarded him with a faith in his eyes that Duo found hard to accept. "You don't understand Preventers very well, if you think that, or who the agents are. It's all about duty, second chances, and turning our lives into something good and positive. They will understand more than anyone else."

"Quatre shits sunshine and you shit rainbows," Duo snarled. "You want me to believe the world is that good and honest, but I know it's not. I've lived where it's not."

"Not everything is rainbows, but they do exist," Heero insisted. "Quatre taught me that. You weren't the only one to fall into despair, to not be able to see their way through to something better. I want to be that something better, Duo. I've been a coward, letting you live a life that I thought that you wanted. I never imagined that I could be apart of it, that I could challenge someone like Milliardo Peacecraft for your heart."

"He's never beaten you. Never," Duo replied in a choked voice. "Don't let me be the reason that he beats you now. Don't let him win, Heero. Just walk away from me and tell him you could care less."

Heero froze, blinked and then looked uncertain, as he said, "The man is insane. A strategy like that could almost work. Making him believe it, at this point, though, would be impossible."

"Yeah, why's that?" Duo wondered.

Heero leaned in, suddenly and kissed him. It was hard, almost bruising, and quickly over. As Heero backed away, waiting for his response, he said, "Because I can't even begin to pretend not to care, Duo. He would see it, instantly, for the lie that it was."

Duo touched his sore lips, stunned. His reply was anguished. "What the hell, Heero? Why did this happen now? It's everything I've always wanted, but it's all turned bad. It's going to totally destroy me and you."

"I won't let it," Heero insisted as the guards opened the door, letting him know that his time was up. "I'll find a way."

When he was gone, Duo found himself staring at the locked cell door for a long while in total despair, hand still touching the lips that heero had kissed.

_____________________________

The transfer to another prison was a surprise, until Duo understood who had been pulling the strings. The plea, for better conditions, had come from two quarters, from two powerful men. No one said no to Quatre Winner or Milliardo Peacecraft.

The guards presented their orders, shackled Duo, hand and foot, and weren't gentle as they forced him into a transport vehicle. Without windows on the vehicle, and staring down the long barrels of shock rods, the ride seemed to last forever. His guards said nothing to his questions and never stopped watching him, well aware of what a Gundam Pilot was capable of.

Where he was going was of utmost importance to Duo. If Quatre had won out, and he was being transported to a place of Winner's choosing, than his life was about to improve. If Milliardo had made the choice, then it was possible that he was about to meet his end. It was possible that Milliardo was about to 'clean up' an embarrassment to him. There would be an accident, an attempted escape, and a remorseful guard explaining how he had been forced to shoot to kill to stop a killer Gundam pilot.

Duo tried to ease his leg. The bio brace had finally come off to be replaced by another support brace. His leg felt thin and itchy, and it ached at the knee. Duo wouldn't be escaping, on foot, and attempting any defensive moves that involved balance, was out of the question. The brace was heavy.

The transport finally stopped and the doors unlocked and opened. More guards, but not ones in uniforms. Duo felt any hope, that his transfer was on the up and up, go up in smoke, especially when he recognized one with a crooked nose, the one that he had attacked with particular viciousness, during his escape attempt from Milliardo.

The man grinned when he saw Duo's recognition, and leaned in close, as he pulled Duo out of the transport."I intend to get even, fucking whore, and so does the Prince."

"Might not be enough of me to go around, asswipe," Duo snickered.

"I don't need much," the guard retorted and bit his ear with a sudden snap of teeth.

Duo felt blood and pain and his fist lashed out reflexively. He caught the guard in the side of the face and the man went down. The tazer to his midsection wasn't a surprise and Duo went down too, in a spasm, that brought his weight down hard on his bad leg.

The world turned red as Duo sobbed in pain, his heart thundering in his ears and consciousness threatening to leave him. Someone barked orders and the men cleared from around him, giving Duo much needed space and air. When hands pulled him up again, he hung, but they didn't allow his bad leg to drag. Someone had him by the pants leg, pulling upward to keep it clear of the ground.

Cool air kissed Duo's skin and he felt himself taken inside as he fought his way back from the pain. Long hallways, he recognized, as they spun crazily in his blurry eyesight, and a particular room that he was very familiar with. The bed hit him in the face, as they threw him on it, and he smelled himself on comforters. His room. Milliardo's estate.

The door locked as he guards left him alone and Duo continued to lay flat, still shackled, and trying to stay conscious. His 'escape', he was sure, would probably hit the airways at any moment. Whatever chance he might have had in court was now erased. The court came down hard on runners. If you ran, that was as good as an admission of guilt, of a lack of remorse, of not wanting to pay for his crime.

His stomach wound was almost healed, but the position Duo was in was putting harsh pressure on it. He rolled with a clinking of chains and stared up at an ornate ceiling. Obviously murder wasn't in the plan, yet. Torment, Duo was sure, certainly was. He had thoroughly embarrassed Milliardo Peacecraft. There would be payback most certainly. Waiting for it, was a bitch.

"We didn't have a chance, Heero,"

Duo sighed. He would never see them man again. He touched his lips, remembering the kiss. It would give him strength, he thought, enough to spit in Milliardo's face, enough to laugh when the man finally did decide to kill him. He wasn't going to beg, or sell himself, for his safety. He was done with that. Being with Heero had made him determined, even if Heero never knew about it, to die like a man, not trash from L2. For Heero, he would be better than he had ever been before.

"Smiling when you are so close to death?" Milliardo's smooth voice asked.

Duo started and saw where the man had been standing, leaning against a wall, the entire time, watching him. Milliardo's blue eyes were flat, the eyes of an executioner.

"You shouldn't play with your food before you eat it," Duo told him.

Milliardo cocked his head to one side, frowning. "Bravado? It's a little late for that, don't you think?"

"Never too late," Duo replied. "So, what's on the torture menu for today? Ball screws with a side of tazer in the ass?"

"Inventive, but... no," Milliardo replied as he slowly walked towards Duo.

"Beating the crap out of me yourself?" Duo wanted to know. "That's really not your style."

"I'll show you what my 'style' is," Milliardo told him as he slipped on white gloves.

Duo braced himself for pain.

Milliardo held out a needle and checked it for air bubbles.

Duo stared, and then asked, "What's that?"

Milliardo gave him a sideways, blue eyed stare, a smile on the corner of his handsome lips. "This is how a gentleman cleans up a mess and gets his revenge at the same time."

"Yeah?" Duo prompted. "Care to tell me your evil plan?"

"You're about to prove that I have been a perfect saint through our entire marriage," Milliardo replied as he approached the bed. "Why, the way that I endured your complete insanity, is worthy of a biography." He held the needle where Duo could se it clearly. "This is going to severely damage your brain, Duo Maxwell Peacecraft. You won't even remember not to piss yourself, let alone what has transpired between us. I'll make certain that Yuy knows the full details of your more indelicate habits, during our marriage, when I confess to your spiraling madness, and how I had tried to protect you from embarrassment in the news."

"That's pretty evil," Duo replied, trying on a cocky smile. "Too smart for you, though. Someone else must have thought it up."

Milliardo looked annoyed, but confessed, "I do have dedicated underlings. I even have a few who have medical backgrounds in Oz torture methods."

"Nice," Duo chuckled. "Did someone else think up the warehouse gig, as well?"

Milliardo smiled sweetly. "No, that was all my idea. It was simple to tip you off to the shipment, and then to make sure that my planted man alerted the security guard to the presence of a Gundam pilot.Do you want to know two secrets, Maxwell?"

Duo stared, getting a little satisfaction in making the man wait, and then replied, "Sure."

Milliardo stepped closer, blue eyes full of his own self satisfaction. "You didn't kill that guard. You fired wide. You always were ready to die, even during the war, and I suppose some instinct, even then, wouldn't let you kill an innocent to save your own life. My man had to finish him off, for you."

Duo frowned, trying to remember. The shock had kept him from thinking about those few seconds of delay,. after he had fired his gun. The one that had been long enough to prove that the guard, however nervous he had been, hadn't really meant to fire his gun, and the the other, that had seemed odd, just before blood had splattered and the guard had folded with a mortal wound.

Duo swallowed hard, closed his eyes in acute relied, and then opened them, again, as he frowned at Milliardo. "What's the other secret."

"You weren't THAT good in bed," Milliardo replied as he began to approach the bed.

"It was the company I kept," Duo growled back. "Not very motivational."

"Your 'excitement' was a lie, then?" Milliardo wondered maliciously. "I wonder how you managed that?"

"I was thinking of Heero, of course, not you,"Duo retorted.

Milliardo's expression turned to stone, his eyes going flat, as he began to bend over Duo with the needle. "In a moment, you won't be thinking of anyone."

You didn't get the drop on an ex general, but Duo wasn't about to go down easy. When he kicked out, he didn't intend to connect with Milliardo's chin, or even the hand holding the needle, as Milliardo expected. Instead, Duo connected hard, with feet and chain, on the man's other wrist. By the way, Milliardo grunted, staggered back a step, and bowed over in pain, there was at least a fracture there, now.

Duo rolled off of the bed, hit the floor, hard, and tried to gain his feet with a clanking, ungainly scramble. He was prepared for the man to rush him, and expected the kick that took him in the gut. He doubled over and went down again, trying to get air into his lungs, rolled again, and kicked upward.

Useless effort, his mind told him, as darkness licked at the edged of his sight, but he hadn't lived on the streets as a child, been a soldier at fourteen, and survived it all, without learning to fight no matter the odds. Make 'em pay for your last breath, a fellow soldier had once told him, during his Gundam training, and Duo had seen him go down, doing just that, during the war for the colonies. Duo didn't intend to do any less. Milliardo was going to pay for his triumph with a pound of flesh, however Duo could manage it.

The door burst open and a man said, in a panic, "Sir, Preventer agents are breaking into the mansion. What should we do?"
Milliardo's ice blue eyes didn't leave Duo, though he was taking painful breaths, his damaged wrist tucked protectively against his side. "No shooting. Cooperate, but in a way that hampers their efforts. I'll greet them in five minutes. that's all my business, here, should take. When they ask, tell them that Duo Maxwell escaped and came here and that I'm in he process of convincing him to return to custody."

"Sir, you're injured?" the man said worriedly.

"Minor," Milliardo snapped impatiently. "Go! Before someone does something foolish!"

"Yes, sir!" the man snapped a salute and closed the door behind him when he left.

Milliardo stepped towards Duo again. "Interesting," he said, "for them to assume that you would flee, here. I wonder if Yuy is with them? It will be very gratifying to see his expression, personally, when you don't recognize his face."

Duo couldn't get enough breath to reply, but he wondered how Milliardo was going to convince Preventers that he had managed to 'flee', so far, chained hand and foot? He supposed that the insane didn't often think their plans through, completely.

Milliardo had the needle poised, ready for any move from Duo, and no longer selective in his target. He intended to stab any body part that came close enough. With nothing close to hand to defend himself, Duo tensed to launch himself up and at Milliardo. He was going to get injected, but he determined to spend his last moments of sanity trying to take the man down with him.

The door burst open and Preventer agents streamed through like a damn breaking, guns poised and nosing for targets, in a way that told Duo that they hadn't bought the story of his escaping to Milliardo's mansion. Heero was in the lead, pale and anxious, and not stopping with the other agents as he rushed toward Milliardo.
" Heero! No!" Duo choked out as Milliardo turned, with pure malevolence, to aim his needle straight at Heero.

Duo wasn't sure where he found the strength. His feet were under him, as adrenaline hit his system like lightning, and he was launching himself into Milliardo, before conscious thought registered that he was even in motion.

They went down in a tumble of flailing limbs, Milliardo's elbow cracking Duo in the forehead. He saw red, and consciousness made a serious attempt to leave him, as they both hit the floor, with Duo on top. Duo sprawled, trying to pin Milliardo, at least long enough for Heero to realize his danger.

It felt as if the world went into slow motion. Milliardo twisted around, taking Duo with him. Duo's back hit the floor, with Milliardo on top, just before Milliardo's fist, in total disregard for his wrist injury, plowed into Duo's face.

Duo heard Heero shout, "Duo!' just before consciousness left him.His last thought, was hoping that Heero wouldn't let him live as a vegetable.

___________________________________________

"I don't want to wake up," Duo complained as a hand gently shook his shoulder. He kept his eyes tightly shut and his mind on the edge of limbo, unwilling to cross over completely into consciousness.

"Why not?" a voice asked, puzzled.

"Because, Heero's gone," Duo remembered with blinding pain. "No use in waking up, ever again."

"Duo," the voice tried again.

"If I didn't get it, then Heero did," Duo reasoned. "Why would I want to wake up to that? Let me sleep... forever. I'm just a waste of space. That's all I've been since the war ended."

Lips touched him softly on the side of the face and Heero's voice said gently, "I'm all right, Duo, and no, you are not a waste of space."

Duo's eyes flew open and he ignored a pounding headache to quickly turn his head. Heero was inches from his face, smiling at him, as he waited for some sign of coherent thought from Duo. "You're all right?" Duo confirmed. "You didn't get the needle?"

"No, I didn't," Heero assured him. "You saved me."

"Then I got it," Duo said on a wave of rising panic.

"No," Heero reassured him again. "No one did. I took out Milliardo with a stun gun."

Duo blinked at him stupidly, trying to process that they were both all right, that he hadn't failed this time. "How did you find me?"

Heero touched behind Duo's ear. There was a nub, there, that stung a little when Heero touched it with his fingers. "We thought that Milliardo might try and take you, again. I wanted to make sure, if that happened, that we could track you. It's also a listening device."

"You heard what Milliardo said to me?" Duo asked hopefully.

"Every word," Heero replied, but there was pain in his expression. "When he said what he intended to do to you, I thought that I would go mad trying to get to you in time.I was so sure that I would be too late."

"Just in time," Duo said with a weak smile and rubbed at his aching head as he looked around. "Where am I? Prison hospital?"

"Yes," Heero replied apologetically. "Even though we have evidence, now, of your innocence in the murder, you're still facing charges for breaking and entering."

Duo chuckled darkly, "That'll get me, what? Two years?"

"With a weapon, five," Heero corrected. "Quatre still thinks that he can get you a reduced sentence for Post War Syndrome."

Duo sighed. "Whatever happens, it's still going to be jail time. It is what I deserve, Heero, whatever else happened."

Heero didn't want to agree, but the truth of the matter was unavoidable. "I will wait for you."

Duo couldn't find the strength to believe in that. Too many things had gone sour in his life. "I want that, more than anything, Heero, but I know you can't put your life on hold for me. I still can't understand why you would even want to be with me. After what I did with Milliardo, to keep myself out of moon prison... I'm pretty sure what you think of that, because I'm thinking it, too. The truth is, maybe I didn't want to kill that guard, and maybe I was willing to die not to commit murder, but I was still there and i still made that deal with milliardo. I married him, Heero, and I did everything he wanted. I can't forget that, and you aren't the man that I thought you were, if you can."

Heero sighed and sat on the edge of the hospital bed. They could see a guard through the glass of the door. Heero stared at him, and not at Duo, as he admitted, "Yes, it does bother me, that you were with Milliardo, that you did that thinking that you could cover up a crime."

"Thank you for the truth," Duo replied, but it didn't make the pain any less.

Heero was taking Duo's hand, though, and squeezing it tight between his own as he said, "I think that you were punishing yourself. Maybe, you just wanted it on your own terms, not the dictates of Moon prison, but it amounted to the same thing, didn't it? You controlled the situation and the punishment, when you could have very easily taken off to the outer colonies, and hidden."

"Not so easily," Duo protested, but he felt the truth of Heero's words. He had let Milliardo hurt him, use him, and keep him locked up, to escape a like outcome on Moon Base prison. The threat of revealing his crime to the police, really shouldn't have been enough to stop a one time gundam pilot from disappearing into society, never to be seen again.

"I will wait for you," Heero insisted.

"Are you going to tell me, that you won't ever think of me with Milliardo, while we're together?" Duo wanted to know bitterly, and then more brutally, "Are you going to pretend that I didn't spread my legs for him?"

Heero's hands tightened on Duo's painfully tight and then he leaned in closer and kissed Duo on the lips. "I won't lie to you, if that's what you're asking, and tell you that it doesn't matter, but it does make a difference that you're with me, that I can give you a better life, one with love and hope for a better future." He paused and then looked uncertain,"If that's what you want?"

"More than anything," Duo replied, "But I'm not sure I'm going to be allowed to have that."

"I will wait for you, even if it's a hundred years," Heero insisted. "You are the only one that I want in my life."

Duo kept those words in his heart, even when the court found him guilty and sentenced him to three years. His only comfort was that he wasn't being sent to Moon Base prison. Heero had been instrumental in making the case that Duo wasn't a dangerous man, and that a minimum security prison would be enough.

Still, the years were long ones, filled with therapy, job training, and time to find that life after the war held more possibilities than he had imagined. Heero, and the others were constant visitors, but there was always glass between them, and a bad sound system never seemed to convey any warmth or reassurance. It was enough, though, to know that Heero was waiting for him.

On the day of his release, dressed in charity clothing that the prison had dolled out to him, and having no personal effects to claim, or carry, Duo stood in the front of the prison, and soaked up the sun and his freedom.

"Need a ride?"

Duo turned with a smile and found Heero standing beside him, drinking him in with his eyes.

"You're here," Duo said lamely.

Heero took a step closer, uncertainly. "You've grown taller... or did they stretch you?"

Duo chuckled, "You've just forgotten that I'm taller than you."

They stood, staring at each other, tension a barrier between them. Heero broke it first, reaching out and sliding an arm around Duo's waist. He tentatively pulled him closer, waiting for a negative reaction. Duo was the first to bring their lips together, though, leaning in and claiming them fiercely.

Arms went around each other then, and Heero used his strength to lift Duo off the ground, as if he was threatening to swallow him whole, or pull Duo into himself.

When they gave each other breathing space, and Heero put Duo down, again, they still couldn't take their hands off of each other.

Duo admitted, "I don't have a place to go to. I don't have a job. I don't even have clothing, besides what I have on."

Heero caressed Duo's face, smiling warmly. "We'll get you a job. I'll lend you my clothes until we can buy more. Right, now, though, we're going home."

"Home?" Duo didn't dare hope.

"My home. Our home, if you want to live with me?" Heero replied. "If not, I can find you another place. There are halfway houses..."

Duo captured Heero's lips with his own, again, and then replied, "If you don't mind rooming with an ex-con?"
" Only if it's you," Heero replied.

"I want to start my life again, the right way," Duo told him with determination. "I want to be the hero that I used to be, during the war. I don't want to let myself down, or you, ever again."

"Let me help you," Heero urged.

"I do need your help," Duo agreed, "But, more than that, I need your love."

"You've always had that," Heero told him. "Let's go home, now, and I'll show you just how much."

End
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Fire and Ice