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Never Too Late	By : Ardra Category: Gundam Wing/AC > Yaoi - Male/Male > Heero/Duo Views: 911 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own GW or any characters, names or all that jazz. I so wish that I did, though. No profit is made from this story. Not a penny.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Chapter 2
In the darkness, the front door opened, letting light pour in. Heero glanced around in the darkness before carefully reaching in and flipping the light switch on. He'd been on the receiving end of a burglary a few years ago, and now he was always on edge when he came home. They hadn't taken anything by the time he got there but it was enough to shatter any trust he had of the people around him when it came to his home. Finding the inside to be satisfactory, he stepped inside and toed his shoes off at the door. Once his socked feet touched the ground, he bolt locked the door.
"Maaaarw."
He finished the last lock and looked down to see his orange and white cat reaching up and using his pant leg as a scratching post. Not that the thing didn't have an actual scratching post but this seemed to be how he liked to greet his owner coming home. Bending down, he scooped the animal up and tucked the feline under his arm. A soft purring noise came from the orange tabby cat as he sniffed the jacket Heero hadn't shed yet.
"What're you sniffing at, Ren? It's the same jacket that I always come home in." Heero said to the cat as he set him on the dining room table.
The cat sat back on its hunches then reared up onto his back legs, his fore legs curled up to his chest as he mewled and meowed loudly. His orange eyes on his owner as if the sun rose and set on his command. Heero shook his head at the animal's behavior. Some would see it as a sign of affection from the animal but the Japanese male knew better. He'd had this cat for almost two years now and he knew what he was really after. Food.
Turning back to the highest cabinet, he opened it to reveal a large bag of cat food that sat innocently there. Calloused hands took the bag and gave it a shake, which caused the cat to meow even louder and stand up further on his hind legs, his nose twitching as he sniffed the air. Shaking his head, Heero got a bowl from the sink and cleaned it before he scooped out the appropriate proportion of food.
"Looks like Mrs. Rayson forgot to feed you a couple times. Dare I check your litter box, Ren?" he asked the cat as he slid the dish over the table to the cat, who dived right in and began to eat as if he'd never had a meal in his life.
Blue eyes rolled fondly at the cat before he left the room to check that litter box. Early in his therapy after the war, his therapist thought it would help him to have a companion. An animal that he could take care of and watch grow. His cat was a small one, just barely bigger than a Chuahuah dog and didn't seem to be getting bigger any time soon. He was given the cat as a 'birthday' present from a little girl who had lived a few doors down. She thought he was lonely and would enjoy having something to love, which, oddly enough, coincided with what his therapist wanted him to do. So he accepted the kitten and now had a little ball of fuzz that was as attached to him as he was to it. He would never admit it to anyone besides the other guys but he loved his cat. He was very lucky with the personality, too.
Although the cat was a big pig and constantly wanted to eat, he would curl up under the blankets with Heero at night and just lay close by, purring contently. It was something Heero had done with him as a kitten as he was afraid the small little thing would get stuck behind the couch, entertainment center or the fridge so he kept him with him at all times. Until the day that he felt comfortable enough to let the cat roam the house when he wasn't home to keep an eye on him. Ren was also the only reason Heero kept himself in line while at home and didn't fall into old habits, such as leaving things that would alert him to someone illegally entering his living space. Before Ren and after the burglary, he had booby trapped some parts of his apartment. It was always interesting to see until he got the kitten and it tripped the alarm in the living room for the first time, and then he decided to take everything down in favor of just using conventional methods of house protection.
Heero made his way to bathroom and sighed a bit in annoyance as he found the box hadn't been scooped out for a while. He spent a few minutes scraping the bottom of the pan to get the clumps of urine off the bottom then tossed them in the trash can by the toilet. He sprinkled a little baking soda into the box and then a little more litter. He always made sure that the box was clean and baking soda, while it was hardly anything useful to him otherwise, kept the litter from smelling for a little bit. Long enough for him to clean it out again.
"Merow."
Heero took a step back from the box, groaning softly as the cat stepped into the box and began to sniff around the dig a hole.
"Yes, Ren. I just finished cleaning it so you must defile it." he said then left the bathroom to let the small feline do his business in peace.
The Japanese man made quick work of straightening up the place then sat down at the table to eat a sandwich and down a bottle of pre-made green tea. He usually ate dinner with the others just before a big mission like this but tonight he wasn't feeling like it. It sucked that this day had to fall on a Friday night. He liked spending time with the guys but this night was the one night of the year that he didn't feel like being around anyone. Persian blue eyes turned to the fridge where a picture hung innocently on the surface. In it, he and Duo were standing against a wall of a school they had infiltrated during the war. Both of them wore the uniform, Duo had his long braid of hair hanging over his shoulder as he smirked impishly at the person taking the picture. Heero was in the process of trying to hide his face from the camera but the person who had taken it were just a little faster than he was and was able to snap a shot with his hand only up to his chest. Taking another swig of his bottled tea, he swallowed thickly.
"Hope to see you sometime in this next year, Duo." he muttered softly.
Today would mark the fifth year that the ex-Deathscythe pilot had gone missing from the world. He remembered he had tried everything to find the other but nothing worked. He just disappeared into the void of the world, lost amongst the billions of other people that existed out there. Every year on this day, he would send his hope out that they would meet again, even if it wasn't going to happen, it made him feel a little better about everything. Thought, despite his wishes, he once again took his night medication, turned off all the lights, picked up his cat, got into his boxers and crawled into bed. He set Ren up on his pillow, giving the cat a few seconds of chin scratching before turning over. He stared at the opposite wall for a while until his medication kicked in and allowed him to fall into the bliss of nightmare less sleep and Ren's purring.

Today was the day of the big mission. Heero stepped out of the van he'd been driving and took up a position behind the wall of the building next to their target. All they had to do was get in, arrest some people and shut down the building. It was pretty straight forward enough but with how many people who would be in the building while they were doing this, it required a lot more men than they usually took on a mission such as this one.
"Okay, let's go over the plan one more time." Wormwood demanded of everyone, taking up standing on the back of the flat bed they had brought along.
Just in case there were items that could be confiscated such as Gundanium, plans or even vehicles that could possibly hold information that they needed. Une wanted all the bases covered when they went into this place. The rest of the group was made up of seasoned agents as well as a couple new faces that were seeing a real mission for the first time. It didn't seem to bother them and knowing what the plan was a very important but Wormwood was trying to assume the job of being the leader again. Even though he was told time and time again that he would be the last person getting such a position.
"Inside, we will-."
"Car!" someone hissed behind Heero causing everyone to freeze.
Heero made his way past the groups and kept to the shadows, watching a black Jaguar pull up to the building. This made the Japanese boy confused as the man in the tailored suit made his way out of the car. He pulled a pair of gloves over his hands, and slipped a gleam of metal into his over coat pocket. It was a gun. In all their observations of this man entering and leaving the building, he never had a gun on him. Not once. Now that he had one, it made the Japanese boy a little worried to see it. He wondered if this would put the mission in danger since no one was informed of the extra weapon. The man made his way to the building, a set look on his face that told Heero someone in that building was going to die today. He wanted to smirk as they probably found a double agent or a rat in their little nest. He waited for the man to go into the building, disappearing into the depths before he gave the signal for everyone to get into place.
Crouching down behind a row of cars, Heero trained his eyes on the entrance of the building as the others got into their own places. He glanced around, spotting Wufei leading a small group around a few alleys down so that they wouldn't be seen coming. Persian blue eyes took stock of where other agents were and where it would be best for everyone to get in and out quickly if the need arose. He glanced up, watching a few minutes before Trowa waved his hand over the edge. He'd gotten up there quickly and that meant they were all ahead of schedule. He heard the sound of Wormwood complaining but dismissed it as he gave the signal.
Heero and his group darted across the street, keeping behind cars, as a shadow cast over him from the building. He glanced up to see Trowa walking across a telephone line that connected one building to the other and ran forward.
The men that were manning the front let out startled yells adn went for hidden pistols on their sides but Heero lifted his old glock at the two which signaled the others to also raise their own weapons. Seeing that they were out numbered, the hands went into the air in surrender. Heero kept everyone back while the last man raised his hands over his head, then allowed some of his men to restrain their first captives. Once the four were taken care of, Heero looked up as the sound of gun fire above his head told him that everyone now knew they were here.
"Scatter!" Heero commanded as he ran up into the building.
"Preventers! Freeze!" some yelled as the biggest men that they encountered in the begining of the hall tried to escape down the hall.
Wufei fired off a warning shot which made the man bumble to a stop, hands held high in the air. Quatra quickly took to the stairs, disappearing up into the higher part of the building to assist Trowa. Heero bolted forward, gun raised and at the ready as he reached a group of five large, burly men that were standing with their hands raised over their heads. It was obvious all of them knew that they were caught and there was no point in fighting it. Zechs and Noin made quick work of getting restraints on the men as Heero headed upstairs.
HIs legs powered him up the different leves, some times taking two at once with his gun raised and ready. A shot sounding off madce him duck his head just in time as a bullet ricocheted off the wall where his head would've been a split second before. He got down onto his knees on the stairwell, glancing around the corner of the banister. He had to suppress the urge to laugh as Quatra was tying up the last man with something that looked suspiciously like a shoelace. His face revealed how pissed off he was as Trowa tied his men up with zipstrings. Out of the ten men that were suppose to be up here playing cards, only seven were being arrested. The other three laid on the floor in a pool of their own blood dead.
"You two got it covered here?" Heero asked.
"Of course." Quatra said, giving the other a fake smile then punched the guy he was restraining in the face when he tried to fight laying down.
"Yuy? Come in, Yuy."
Heero smirked a little, picking up his communicator. He waved it at Trowa a little, who rolled his eyes. They weren't suppose to use real names when in the middle of a mission. It was dangerous and it would seem that Wormwood, in all his years as a Preventer and an agent of what ever organization he'd been apart of during the war, didn't seem to get that. Holding the device up to his mouth, he pressed the button so he could respond.
"What is it, Agent Woods?" Heero asked, making sure to put extra emphasation on the call name.
"Do you have that man that we'd seen come in?"
"No. He's down there somewhere." Heero responded, checking the guys that were tied up.
"Find him. He's not down here."
Clenching his jaw, Heero turned a suffering look to Trowa, who was glaring at his own communication device.
"Right." was all that he responded as he headed back down stairs.
Down at the foot of the stairs, Wufei was tying up the last man. An unhappy look resided on the asian's face. That could mean one of two things either he heard how Wormwood had talked to him over the communicator or someone got a cheap shot off on him and his pride was wounded. Heero waited until he was finished and helped him to his feet.
"Back me up as I go down stairs."
Wufei nodded in understanding. Drawing his weapon, the two headed down the hall that lead deeper in to the bowels of the building. At the end there was a harmless looking door that stood between them and what was on the other side. It was quickly opened, both men pressed to the walls of the halls in case someone started shooting at them or something of that fashion. Seeing it was clear, Heero lead the way into the dimly lit stairwell that lead them down into the basement, which wasn't much of anything. THere was an old, faded green lazy boy in the middle of the room facing a empty wall. The whole place was lined in concrete; some of it had scratches in it from the dripping that was coming from the ceiling and now pooled off to one corner of the wall. The only thing to really speak of for it being here was maybe for the Electric box an the Water heater if you didn't count the old chair.
The two looked around cautiously before they each went to one of the walls. They ran their hands over the concrete, looking for anything that would be out of the ordinary. Heero's caloused fingers found an inconsistancy in the concrete and signaled Wufei over. Backing away, the two quietly examined the area until they saw what looked to be a door cut out of the material, a small, golden colored thing that resembled a lock was twisted to the left with a very small black square at the bottom that Heero had mistaken for a stain on the wall. Using his foot, he carefully tested the black thing and found it to be a flap, like the one he had installed in his bathroom door for if he accidently left Ren locked in or out of the bathroom. The two listened closely but nothing seemed to be happening on the other side. Carefully, the Japanese boy stepped forward and touched the door. Wufei made a hissing noise, motioning him to stop by making a slashing movement over his throat but the ex-Wing pilot paid him no attention. He pressed his ear to the material, listening closely.
He heard something faint, it sounded like voices talking. He pressed a hand to the door and gently started to push. He winced as a slight scraping noise could be heard with the bare movements. It was defidently made to keep something or someone inside of it.
BANG!
Heero leapt back from the wall in surprise. Wufei grabbed his arm and pulled him back to his side, his black eyes wide in surprise. Running his hand over different parts of his body, Heero made sure he wasn't shot or clipped by the sudden gunshot. Nothing was wrong with him so he looked at Wufei, who nodded to him. With all his strength, Heero flung the door open and quickly raised his weapon to level with the suited man on the other side.
"Freeze!" Wufei yelled, side stepping into the room carefully.
The man in the suit staied where he was, his slicked back hair shinning off the single light bulb in the room. Wufei glanced around at the little bunker then pulled a face as the smell of the room finally hit him. It was a horrible, rancid oder that reminded him of rotting fecal matter and decaying flesh. He'd once gone into a sewer to escape a bounty hunter. The smell was horrid, but this room made the that place smell like a bouqet of roses on Valentine's Day.
"Put the gun down. Now!" Heero barked, breathing through his mouth to keep from smelling the place.
"I don't have my gun anymore." the man said calmly, flicking out his wrists and showing that he was, indeed, unarmed.
Heero glanced around, "Where is it? I know you were shooting at something. What was it?" he demanded, his gun remaining trained on the man's back.
"My gun is probably against the wall behind the door..." the man said calmly.
Heero glanced to his immediate right and noticed the silver weapon that he'd seen the man come with earlier was laid there as harmless as an empty one. For a split second, Heero wondered how it could've gotten there but he tore his attention away from the gun to look around the room. It was small, obviously built as a holding cell as the only form of comfort in the whole room was a bed on a metal stand and a chamber pot in the opposite corner. There were scrapes and scratches on the wall near the bed, and it looked like, at one point, someone removed one of the legs from the bed as it was precariously balanced on three instead of four. What ever was in the room wasn't there willingly.
"Put your hand sup. Slowly." Wufei instructed, forcing Heero to tear his attention away from the mangled bed to the man in the suit.
Once the man complied with his hands held up to his head, Wufei reached back into his belt and pulled out his last pair of handcuffs. He slipped his gun back into the holster, knowing Heero would keep the man in line, and stepped behind the man. He made quick work of slapping the handcuffs over the small wrists he held and made sure to adjust them to the size. Heero appeared beside the two of them, his gun pressed to the man's head to be sure that he didn't try anything funny.
"What were you shooting at?" Heero demanded, his tone rather low. He was already tired of this mission as it was easier than what they had been made to expect it to be. Almost too easy.
"I missed." the man said, shrugging his shoulders, glancing at Wufei then turned his dark brown eyes onto Heero, his slicked back hair casting a light in Heero's face for a second.
"I didn't ask if you got what it was. I'm asking what you were shooting at? An animal?"
The man snorted through his nose in a supressed laugh, "Sort of. He scampered under the bed after he knocked the gun from my hand."
Confused, Heero looked at the three legged bed. He lowered his weapon a little and made his way to it. Carefully, he got down on to one knee and moved to bend forward and look under it.
"Agent Light." Wufei hissed, making Heero jump and turn his head to him, "Don't. You don't know what's under there. Could be a snake."
The man in the suit snorted and Heero rolled his eyes, "A snake, Fire? Really?" Heero asked sarcastically.
Wufei shrugged, his own gun now trained on the man as Heero continued bending forward. He gave the under side of the bed a quick glance to be sure nothing would attack him from being there. He didn't see anything at all, really that first time. He bit his lower lip and slowly lowered his head down to look under the bed. At first, he didn't think he saw anything until he noticed a large figure huddled in the far corner against the wall. Their body was curled into a fetal position, their thin arms over their face, fingers touching the slight amount of hair there.
"There's someone under here." Heero whispered softly, sitting up to look at Wufei.
"Great. Pull the bed up, arrest their ass and le t's get out of here. This place reeks. Come on." Wufei said, pulling the man towards the door and shoved him out of it.
Heero climbed back to his feet, taking the side of the bed in his hands and lifted it off the floor until what was under the bed was exposed and the actual bed was up on its end. He tossed it aside and turned back to what he had found. He didn't miss the whimpering and almost sobbing noise that was coming from the mass, not to mention the shaking its body did from the emotions and fear. Heero clenched his jaw a little, seeing how emaciated the body was. He could see every bone in their body, bar none. Its spine was the worse of it as if looked like the skin was painfully stretched over the bone.
"Damn." Heero murmured softly, slowly getting to one knee, "A prisoner?"
He carefully reached out and grabbed ahold of one of the arms that were over the head. Even though his touch was gentle, he could still feel the bones, tendons and withered muscles shift under his fingers as if he had a death grip on the person. A new round of whimpering came from the form, telling him they were alive if only just. Wufei returned into the room, no longer concerned with the smell and froze at the sight.
"Kami... Is he alive?" Wufei asked, kneeling beside Heero.
"I think so. It keeps making noises. Help me. Be gentle." Heero said.
The two worked carefully to move the body until it was sitting up, still in the fetal position. Heero winced as he heard the sickening sound of a bone grinding against another and cartilage breaking. The thing let out a cry of pain, finally uncurling to weakly shove at the two. Wufei balked a little.
"Hey, you little twit. We're trying to help you." he snapped.
"Wufei." Heero hissed scoldingly.
The man was in bad shape. His hair, unevenly cut short was matted on his head down to his shoulders. Burn scars littered its arms and legs One side of his face, the right, was completely black, blue and swollen. The eye was sealed shut with a secretion of green, liquidy puss rolling down his cheek. He had his good eye closed tightly, as if that would block out everything horrible that was going on with him. Bruises littered down the sides of his face, blood was caked against his dirty skin. Every where he looked there were different scars in various stages of healing.
As Heero noted earllier, he was horribly thin. The one good side of his face showed an impression of his skull, he could actually see thin wisps of musceals moving with the actual jawbone as the man clenched and unclenched it under the skin. Heero swallowed thickly. He could count every single bone in his ribcage, even see that one of them was broken and was dangerously close to poking out of the skin. There was a dip where the stomach should've been. His skin was horrible blotched in a pale, sickly yellow colour that made Heero wonder what other ailments effected this poor man.
"My God... How long has he been down here?" Wufei asked in amazement.
Heero could only shrug as he reached for his communicator, "Agent Sand."
"Go ahead." Quatra responded on the other side.
"We're going to need a bus. We have a prisoner of theirs and he's... in terrible shape." Heero said.
"That's putting it lightly." Wufei murmured, looking to Heero.
"Alright. Do you know what's wrong?"
"Among other things? Just stell them we're going to need IV fluids, and some sedatives. He's malnurished and probably dying."
"Alright. Sand out."
Heero sighed softly, replacing the com back onto his belt and looked at the person they had found. Their eye was open now, but they were staring at the floor. He watched throat work to swallow what ever saliva he had as slowly, the man raised his vision. Heero frowned a little as the man looked at him with one blood shot eye. The eye color was very hard to make out but it seemed to be almost violet in color. It was an odd eye color to have as he only knew of one person who had such an eye color before. A frown appeared on Heero's face as the man stared at him but didn't seem to be really looking at him, more like through him.
Wufei watched the man as he stared, wondering what he was so fascinated by before he looked to Heero and noticed that he was staring too. He had never seen the usually reserved man do that before. Idly, he wondered what was going on in this man's head until Heero reached out to him.
"Hey. Easy, Yuy." Wufei hissed, almost physically restraining himself from smacking his partner's hand away from their find.
"I'm hallucinating again..."
Wufei blinked at the cracked, hoarse voice that came from the emaciated man. It sounded like it was either damaged from disuse or it was used up, he couldn't tell which. Heero inched closer until the man actually leaned into his hand, resting his dry, yellow skin against the tan, caloused one. His good eye closed, as if content as he just sat there.
"I like this one... It feels real." the man murmured to himself, his voice hitching and breaking every few words, "It's almost like he's here."
"No... It can't." Heero murmured so softly that Wufei almost missed that he spoke at all.
"Can't be what?" Wufei asked.
"Help me move him."
"Are you nuts?! His body structure, moving him too much could break something!"
"I have to see. I have to see!" Heero snapped, taking his hand away from the man and gently taking ahold of his shoulders.
"Yuy, don't!" Wufei hissed too late as Heero forced the man to lean forward away from the wall.
His back was littered with scars from pass abuse but Heero seemed to be looking for something in particular.
"In the war. Captured. They...-" Heero said, sounding almost desperate until he stopped and froze, his hand resting over something, his face turning the color of sour milk.
"They what? Yuy?"
Heero swallowed thickly, "N-no..." he choked as he let the man sit back against his shoulder. Emotions built up so much in Heero that he was terrified of, but mostly it was realization and heart break as he felt the practically dead form in his arms shift.
"What is it, Yuy?" Wufei demanded.
Heero turned the man a little until the Chinese man could see his back. Wufei didn't see anything other than a few scars until Heero moved his hand to show one scar on the right shoulder blade that looked like someone had burned the skin deeply in the shape of a zero and a two.
"OZ branded his call number in his shoulder when they captured him." Heero said thickly as Wufei's heart and stomach plummeted in realization and dread, "They branded him..." he made the man sit back against the wall then reached out, taking the sides of his face into both of his hands so the man had to look up at Heero with his one good bloodshot violet eye, "Duo?"
"This one talks." Duo muttered softly, as if in a daze, his good eye going even more glassy than before as he slipped back into the madness of his mind.
"M-Maxwell? My God... Has he... been here... the whole time?" Wufei asked in shock, tears building in his eyes and trickled down his face.
"Duo? Duo, please." Heero said softly, trying to coax the man out of his stupor, hoping that if he kept repeating the name that the man would tell him what he wanted to hear. That he wasn't Duo and it was just a coincidence that he had the same scar in the same place.
"Hee-chan?" the man asked softly, a sad look appearing in his eye as he stared through the one in front of him.
Heero felt like the world was pulled out from under his feet. He found himself staring at what remained of the boy he loved. The one he never got to tell his feelings to. He pulled back from Duo, letting his hands fall into his own lap, his head lowering to face the ground. He could hear the sounds of people coming down the stairs above their heads from the ground floor. He faintly heard the blip of an ambulance siren that was now parked outside, and his ears picked up the sound of someone shuffling in the next room. The suited man they had captured in the act of trying to kill Duo.
He felt as if something clicked in his head. His gaze lifted from the floor, his eyes glazed with anger and a sudden, set determination. He could feel his legs taking him somewhere but where never registered with him until he suddenly found himself using his glock to punch the face of the suited man that was still handcuffed on the floor. He would've kept going if it wasn't for long, strong arms that grabbed ahold of him and pulled him off of him. Heero glared daggers at the man that was cradling his broken face in his cuffed hands.
"You! You did this to him!" he heard himself snap in a tone of voice that he hadn't heard in a very long time. It was a tone of pure anger and rage, it was the voice of the Perfect Soldier who was out for blood.
"Yuy." he faintly heard someone say.
The man looked at Heero, his eyes cold and calculating until an evil smile spread across his bruising face then rolled his eyes as he sat up from the ground, "I tried to give him a way out. He just had to do what the Lord wanted and he would'vce been released back into the world and left alone. He wasn't going to do it." he explained softly, his smile never leaving his face.
"Why? Why him? Why did you do this to him?" he growled, daring the man to answer him in the wrong way.
The man looked at him again, straight in the eye as his grin spead across his face, "My Lord gave me an order. I fullfulled it."
Heero let out a growl of anger. He let his legs go from under him, allowing him to slip from the man who had him's grasp. Like an animal to its prey, he pounced on the man, snarching him by his shirt and pressed his face to him, kneeling between his legs, "Tell me who this 'Lord' is, and you tell me right now."
"Now why would I do a thing like that? Hee-chan?" the man taunted.
Raising his fist to strike the man again, he was grabbed and hauled off of him by both Trowa and Wufei. Heero struggled against the two of them as the man in the suit laughed and sat up. His eyes were cold, calculating and ready to inflict as much pain as possible. Heero let out a cry of rage at the laughing, struggling harder until both men pinned him down to the ground, holding him there.
"Who did this?!" Heero demanded of the still laughing man.
"You'll never find him. The Lord is everywhere. He'll get what he wants eventually. He is a very, very patient man."
"You bastard!" Heero roared, his voice cracking from the emotion and how much yelling he'd been doing the past couple of minutes. He struggled harder, trying desperately to get away, "Let me go! I'm going to kill him!"
"That's why we're not going to let you go." Trowa said. He grabbed Heero's face, forcing blue eyes to meet green, "01, stand down!"
Heero felt himself relax at the order. The snarl was still set on is face as he glared at the two men holding him down. His body thrummed with the need to punch someone or to kill something. He wanted someone else to hurt as bad as he was right now. He wanted someone to hurt as bad as Duo had been hurting these past five years. At that thought, Heero went limp against the two men, shaking his head with his eyes closed.
"All this time..." he whispered softly, his tone of voice surprising both Trowa and Wufei, "He's been here... all this time... alone... hurting... and we never bothered to look for him... All this time."
Trowa tilted his head in confusion as Wufei hung his own head sadly and swallowed thickly. Heero began to chuckle to himself. It wasn't the maniacle chuckles that he used to use during the war. This one was more primal and more emotional. Sad emotional. The taller boy let go of Heero and sat back, only to realize that Heero wasn't actually chuckling to himself. He was sobbing, biting down on his lip to keep from crying or lashing out. Now intrigued by his reaction, Trowa moved from where he was standing to the door that was cut into the concrete. He looked inside and swallowed thickly as he took in the huddle mass in the corner.
Duo was unconcious on the floor, his knees drawn up to his chest and his thin, bare arms wrapped around them, trying desperately to stay warm. Trowa looked to Wufei, who was looking at him with shame and sadness in his eyes. Indicating to the figure in the corner with his head, Wufei swallowed thickly.
"Maxwell."
Trowa's eyes widdened and his gaze snapped back to the huddled form. Quickly, he made his way to him. He checked the unconcious form, making sure that he was still alive and breathing. He was awarded with a faint thumping against his fingers that told him that his heart was still beating. Weakly but it was still there. He felt a great sadness take ahold of him as he carefully began to remove his jacket from his shoulders.
"Trowa, what's goi-?"
Trowa turned quickly, throwing his hand in the air as if that would halt the world. He desperately wanted to spare the blond from te sight of this for as long as he could but it was too late, "No!" he shouted as Quatra walked into the room.
The blond stood at the entrance, his body tense enough to almost snap in half. His eyes were wide and shocked before they quickly filled with tears and he sank to his knees. His smaller hands moved over his heart as he stared at what was left of Duo. Trowa gently placed his warm jacket over Duo and scrambled to his feet. He knelt before the blond, blocking his view of the horrific scene but that didn't stop the onslaught of pain and anger that coulded the blond's eyes as he started to sob.
"No... It's not... It can't... No... Tro... Is it... Is it him?" he sobbed, his free hand grabbing Trowa's wrist desperately.
"Quatra..." Trowa mumbled softly, his own eyes soft and sad.
"Is it him?!" Quatra screamed, his shoulders sloucking forward, his right hand pressed hard against his heart, his left digging into Trowa's arm as he leaned forward. He pressed his face to the taller's chest.
"Yes..."
Quatra felt like he had been punched in the gut, a horrible heated feeling filling his heart and let out an anguished cry that was muffled by Trowa's chest. He'd been blocking Duo's emotions from his Space Heart all these years as he didn't want to feel the happiness Duo probably was experiencing without them. He wanted to give the other his privacy, let him live as he wanted and with his decision. If he'd just left his connection alone like he was supposed to, he would've felt all of Duo's pain all these years and would've been able to help him. He could've sent for help, anything. The front of Trowa's shirt became soaked as he openly sobbed against him as tender hands gently comforted him.
The four mourned the condition of their long lost friend where they were. Wufei directed the paramedics to Duo once they arrived. Zechs came down the stairs after the medics, looking confused as Heero was now sitting on the floor quietly, legs crossed and face in his hands. He looked in on what the paramedics were doing and now fully understood what was going on. He bowed his own head as the stretcher baring Duo slipped past him and up the stairs.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ardra- Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I have another one coming soon.
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Never Too Late