Winner Takes All
Song that inspired this fic and how I imagine Heero sings.
Nickelback:Gotta be Somebody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pbnRvAUQiI
Heero's song to Duo:
Nickelback:Never Gonna Be Alone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHj9UzV005k&feature=related
"Come again?" Duo stared over his ham sandwich at his partner. The
commissary seemed to fall silent as he waited, incredulous, for the man to
say something
completely different from what he had thought he heard.
"I'm getting some of that," the man announced again with all the superiority of the deluded.
Duo twitched a look over his shoulder at the 'Some of that' in question and then at his partner again. The big man was still smiling with confidence and a lecherous glint in his brown eyes. Samuel Caskins was a handsome athletic type, with blonde hair that belonged on wind swept models, and a square chin that screamed alpha male, but Duo didn't think those looks were going to get him past, 'Hi," with the man they were talking about.
"And you know he's gay... how?" Duo wondered.
"He watches the dudes walk by, not the women," Caskins replied smugly.
"Still," Duo shot another look over his shoulder and wished he weren't sitting on the wrong side of the table, "he might just kill you and hide the body, if you annoy him with your patented pick up line."
"Nine inches, hard as Gundanium," Caskins said proudly, but then shook his head and said more seriously, "Nope, won't work on a guy like that one. He's deep, intense, and with a self imposed personal space made out of razor wire. Definitely a challenge. I love challenges."
"So," Duo prompted after another bite of sandwich."What's the master plan?"
"He's new," Caskins said, as if Duo were being stupid. "He'll need some guidance. I'm all about helping out a fellow Preventer. " He winked and added, "I'm also a sympathetic ear and a helping hand when a man needs to get over being dumped by Relena Peacecraft."
Duo ignored the innuendo and pointed out sourly, "I thought that you said he was gay?"
Caskins shook his head irritably, "Professionally dumped, I mean. She kicked him off her security detail."
"I heard that, but I didn't hear why."
"The rumor mill says that she found out that he was gay," Caskins replied in disgust. "She wanted some of that, too."
Remembering Relena's emotional instability, especially where Heero was concerned, made Duo wince sympathetically. "I can see her getting upset. I can't see her getting rid of a man as good as Heero Yuy because of it. If he left, it was because he wanted to leave."
"And you know so much... how?" Caskins wanted to know with an arched golden eyebrow.
"We did fight a war together," Duo reminded his partner angrily. "I did get to know the man a little."
"What are you getting your back up about?" Caskins wanted to know. "Sounds like you're either defending Peacecraft or interested in the man, yourself." He leaned forward to study Duo more closely. He grinned. "You are interested in 'Iron Man', aren't you?"
"Don't be stupid!" Duo growled as he dumped his sandwich into his plate and began to get up.
Caskins stopped him with a keen observation, "You've been holding your cards pretty close to your chest these three years we've been partners, Maxwell. Is that guy why? Nobody else measure up?"
"He probably doesn't even remember me," Duo retorted, fists clenched at his sides.
"I'm right," Caskins observed. "You've been carrying a torch. Why haven't you made a move on him?"
"At fifteen?" Duo scoffed. "During a war?"
"After?"
"I didn't know..." Duo felt his face getting red with embarrassment. "He went after Relena. I thought.... I never even considered..." He scowled at Caskins and said, "This is crap! You don't know he's gay!"
"Two years after the war and three years in Preventers. Five years without the handsome Heero Yuy. That's harsh," Caskins said sympathetically, but then warned, "We both want him. I'm not about to step aside for you, partner. You've had your chance to go after him and you didn't. That makes him fair game. I get what I go after. He's going to be saying hello to my nine inches before the week is out, I promise you."
"And he'll be saying goodbye when he finds out it's only three," Duo snarled back.
Caskins grinned. "You can try for him too. All's fair when booty is involved."
"Did you just say 'booty'?" Duo sneered."I'm sure he'll love your outdated-"
"Say what you want, but I have a one hundred percent success rate," Caskins reminded him. "I'm not going to lose, partner."
Duo said determinedly, "Oh, I think this time, you will."
---------------------------------------
Duo had a job to do and it was complicated, dangerous, and took up a great deal of his life. It had been easy to ignore his personal life while trying to infiltrate a terrorist stronghold without getting killed, or staking out a suspected drug smuggler, by hanging in space, in a cockpit hardly bigger than himself, for weeks on end, without losing his mind. Firefights and full frontal missions didn't often leave him scratching his head and wondering when he was going to 'settle down' with a significant other. That significant other had always worn Heero Yuy's face, besides, and, since the odds of that becoming reality had always seemed nil, it hadn't been worth trying to make into a reality. Heero yuy, in his mind, had always been not gay.
Duo wasn't so sure that he was, despite his partner's assurance. The intense man had always seemed to be where Relena Peacecraft was, standing quietly behind her left shoulder, or at least working towards her safety and well being. During the war, the man hadn't been singing her praises, and, in fact, had tried to kill her, but that had been part of the mission, after all. Not carrying out that 'everyone who lays eyes on them, dies.' directive, later, had spoken volumes to Duo about Heero's feelings. At least he had thought.
Yet, here he was, without Relena, working for Preventers, alone, and, if his partner could be trusted, looking at men. The barest hope that he might be right was making Duo want to put his entire career on hold until he found out for sure, so that he could carefully test the Heero Yuy waters and see if any advances from him were welcome. That his partner seemed determined to confront Heero and unzip his proverbial pants, right then and there, was giving Duo something akin to an anxiety attack.
What if the idiot actually made first base? What if Heero was gay and that prone to taking up offers, even from men like Caskins? How would Duo feel about him, then? He had held a torch for Heero for years, but he couldn't even remotely hope that the man had been saving himself for him. That would have been worse than naive. A vid call, a letter, even a passing 'hi', hadn't been offered even when Duo had found himself in units protecting the Peacecrafts and in sight of Heero. The man had been completely focused on his job, Duo conceded, but still even a nod would have been simple professional courtesy.
"You look like you're suffering from hemorrhoids, Maxwell," Wu Fei growled. "What about my debriefing is bothering you?"
Duo blinked and brought himself back to the meeting, while his partner snickered and jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow.
"Sorry. It was a long mission," Duo grunted. "Give me your complaints and I'll read and reject them, later."
Wu Fei sighed and slid a memory stick at Duo across the meeting table. "I don't like these any more than you do, but it's regulations, Maxwell. Try to at least look interested."
"Whatever," Duo replied as he tucked the stick into the breast pocket of his uniform.
"Should I give that response to Une?" Wu Fei wondered sarcastically as he rose with his stack of mission portfolios.
"I suppose not," Duo replied with a wince. "Tell her, I'll work on my mission efficiency, via your recommendations, in the next training session."
"That works," Wu Fei replied, "But you said that the last twenty debriefings. You need new material."
"I'll get on that," Duo chuckled.
Wu Fei only shook his head in disgust and left Duo alone with his partner.
"He's too easy," Caskins laughed.
"Have you 'had' him, too?" Duo wondered acidly.
"I meant, to bait," Caskins corrected and then narrowed eyes at Duo. "You're worried, aren't you? About Yuy? You think I might have a chance and you don't like that."
"Think you know me that well?" Duo retorted.
"Well, I don't know you shaking hands with Mr. Nine inches, well, but I think I know your moods pretty well to pick up on pissed off."
"You don't have a chance, partner," Duo growled. "You're risking your life trying."
"Your concern is heart warming, really it is, but I live dangerously, just like you," Caskins replied. "Like I said before, Yuy is going to be mine unless you figure out how to win him first."
"He's not a contest to win," Duo snapped back.
"I think he is," Caskins chuckled as he rose and started to leave the room. He ducked his head back in at the last moment and said, "By the way, I did have Wu Fei, as a matter of fact. I get what I go after."
"You didn't get me," Duo snarled.
"Maybe I wasn't trying?" Caskins snickered and then was gone.
Duo felt his blood boil as he stood up and kicked his chair across the room.
-----------------------------------------
"I don't see why I can't keep my own gun," Heero was arguing with supply.
"Because it's regulations," the bored man replied. "Everyone has the same equipment, so that we can check them out and keep them in working order every day that you need it to save your life."
"My own gun is very good at saving my life," Heero pointed out, "And I know how to take care of it."
The man grunted as he slid forms towards Heero for him to sign,"Look, I have my own guns, too, but the big guys don't want agents whipping out mega blasters and taking out city blocks, all right? They have this all worked out, so ours is not to question. Bottom line, Agent Yuy, you don't like the rules, go play somewhere else."
Heero signed the papers and the man issued him a box of bullets. Turning with them in one hand he almost ran straight into Duo. When his dark blue eyes looked up, a deeper frown starting, Duo suddenly found his mouth dry and everything that he had planned to say, forgotten.
"Uh, hi!" His voice broke on the last word and Duo turned red with embarrassment.
Heero's frown deepened and then he stepped around Duo to continue on his way.
"Uh, you probably don't remember me," Duo tried again as he walked after Heero.
There was a pause and then Heero replied, "I'm not an idiot."
Duo blushed harder. "Of course not! I just... you know..." Heero was walking faster. Duo found himself talking to the back of the man's shoulders. "Didn't think, maybe, that I was important enough to remember... you know?"
Heero stopped walking and looked over his shoulder. "Now you're being an idiot."
That forced a chuckle out of Duo and he rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I'm not good at starting a conversation, sorry."
Heero turned then, his hands fiddling with his box of bullets. His dark hair was in his eyes, but those eyes were staring out from under it at Duo intensely.
Duo felt the blush stinging his cheeks again. he stammered, "S-so, what sort of gun do you have?"
Heero twitched aside his uniform jacket. Duo saw the service gun on one side. On the other was a large, silver and black gun that looked very deadly.
"Sweet!" Duo said in awe. "No wonder you don't want to give that up."
"You?" Heero wanted to know as he put his jacket back into order.
Duo pulled out his, black, laser scoped, and just as deadly.
"New model," Heero noticed.
"Always up on technology," Duo replied. "The thing can almost shoot around corners."
"You don't follow regulations," Heero pointed out.
Duo grinned and shrugged. "Mostly I do. My gun is my damned gun, though. I'm not using those pee shooters, they issue everyone."
"Then... I don't have to either," Heero replied, looking relieved.
"Just don't let anyone know about it," Duo warned. "Most people don't report that sort of thing, but you might run into an asshole, like Chang, who goes by every regulation to the letter."
Heero nodded and then began walking again. Duo followed, noticing how lean, but strong Heero had become. He wondered if the man still had that insane strength that he had during the war and the same lack of concern for his own skin.
"I don't have a partner yet," Heero said. "Can I request Chang?"
Duo grimaced. "They didn't let me pick and choose. They probably won't let you, either."
Heero grunted. "We'll see." It sounded like a threat.
"Why Chang?" Duo wanted to know.
"He's the best," Heero replied.
That stung Duo, deeply. He said, after a moment, "He did lose his last partner a month ago. I suppose..."
"Speaking of partners!" Caskins was suddenly there and shoving papers into Duo's startled hands. "You forgot to submit these to requisitions. I'm not doing all the work for our next mission, Maxwell. Get on it or we'll be sleeping on the ground and shooting with good intentions."
Duo lost some of the papers as he spluttered angrily. As he bent to pick them up, he protested, "The hell I leave you any work, Caskins! This was your-"
"Yuy!" Caskins moved up close beside Heero and seemed to sweep him along away from Duo by the force of his personality alone. "How's your first week at Preventers going? This place is like a rat maze of regulations and evil switchback hallways. Why don't we have some coffee and you can pick my brain for anything you need? All right? I'll buy."
Duo slapped the papers together into his arms and straightened just in time to see Caskins and Heero round a corner. He saw Heero nod agreement and that kept him from following. He swore under his breath, crumpling the paper work as he turned back to requisitions to deliver them. Caskins, he thought, was not going to get away with this. Hard on that, though, was the angry realization that he just had.
Caskins 1
Maxwell 0
That had to change.
_______________________
What was Heero Yuy interested in? Besides an attachment to his gun, Duo didn't know a damn thing. Putting his Preventer skills to the task of investigating the man, was probably against regulations, somewhere in the manual, but Duo was sure that he could come up with a few reasons to explain his hacking into personnel files. If they found out, of course, and Duo doubted very much that they would. They hadn't put him in charge of infiltration for a lark. He knew his business.
"Rock music?" Duo read the entry that managed to convey the amusement of the agent who had entered it. It seemed that Heero Yuy enjoyed sitting in with a small club band and... singing... rock music. The agent had noted his lack of instrument, but had also noted the enthusiasm of the audience. Heero was good.
Duo stared at the entry incredulously and muttered, "Heero sings... in front of people." Duo, himself, had a terrible voice. Stressing his body in substandard space suits for long periods of time, and breathing in some out venting from his Gundam, accidentally, had taken their toll. He wondered how Heero had escaped the same effects.
Everything else in Heero's records was normal. Normal for a Gundam pilot. He did like guns. A catalog of his known ones was long. He also subscribed to a gun and ammo magazine. He went to tech shows. He showed a zeal for his work. He liked Greek food. He seemed interested in owning a dog, but hadn't acquired one yet. Duo puzzled over that entry until he read into it and discovered that the reporting agent had noticed Heero always looking at neighborhood postings on bulletin boards, about dog sales when ever he went out. His neighbors and co workers had reported Heero to be quiet and introverted.
How did quiet and introverted mesh with rock singer? It seemed the reporting agent had been just as confused. He even theorized on split personalities, or some sort of psychological reflex that made Heero keep his true nature undercover. He had noted that Heero sang under an assumed name and that none of his fellow band members, or the audience, recognized him.
"Odin Lowe Jr.," Duo read with a snicker. "Junior is his assumed name?"
Duo knew that Heero Yuy wasn't Heero's real name anymore than Maxwell was his, but he doubted that Odin, or Junior, was a real name either.
Duo couldn't imagine the boy from the war singing in front of an audience. Heero had been a stickler for remaining 'unnoticed'. It made Heero more human, though, more approachable. The man had an outlet outside of work, like any normal person. Duo had his own. He loved his cars and motorcycles. The garage that he rented with Trowa Barton, held all of his 'toys' in various stages or being rebuilt.
Outlets were off limits, though, as topics of conversation. Outlets were personal. Duo didn't want anyone from work coming to his garage and rubbing out that dividing line between work and relaxation. It was all his. Trowa kept his circus things, there, but he rarely appeared to get them, now that he was mostly staying with Quatre Winner. His outlet was taking a backseat to his interest in his lover. Duo wondered, if he and Heero ever connected, if he wouldn't need his outlet any longer, either. It didn't seem possible. It was something that he loved.
So, no bringing up singing. That left dogs, Greek food, and guns. He could work with that, Duo thought.
"Checking out your new partner?" Wu Fei wondered as he dumped a handful of memory sticks into Duo's in basket.
Duo started and closed windows rapidly. "Don't know what you mean, Chang," he spluttered and then Wu Fei's words sunk in. "I have a partner, already. What do you know?"
Wu Fei glared. "I have a title, Maxwell. I could put you on report for not using it."
Duo scowled, "Cut it! Tell me what you know."
Wu Fei nodded at the computer. "If you would check your email, you would find out. You're not losing Caskins, yet. Yuy requested me, but, since I was promoted, I work in operations with team coordination. I don't need a partner. You, it seems, were the next choice, though I could understand his reluctance. I'm sure he's heard what a wild card you are on missions."
Duo felt loyal to Caskins. They had worked well together. A chance to work with Heero, though, was something that he wasn't about to pass up. It wasn't even about his feelings for the man. Heero was the best there was.
"You're grinning in a fashion, that makes me doubt your sanity, Maxwell," Wu Fei noticed.
"Doubt away, Chang. I have work to do," Duo chuckled as he opened his email and went over the details of his new assignment.
_________________________________________
Heero was frowning as he checked a backpack full of gear. Duo watched him from the corner of the munitions lock up cage, his own backpack hefted over one shoulder. Duo had wanted to gauge his mood, had wanted to confirm that Heero really hadn't wanted him as a partner on this mission. The man looked pissed.
It was possible that he was reading into an expression that Heero habitually wore on a daily basis, Duo thought. It didn't mean that he was pissed any more than it meant that he was battling indigestion or constipation. Duo told himself that he needed to stop being a coward and get on with it. If Heero had issues with him, Duo couldn't see the man holding that fact back.
"Yuy, I have a beef with you," Caskins growled as he came up and draped an arm over Heero's shoulders. "You're stealing my partner."
Heero's blue eyes slid sideways to glare at Caskins and Duo felt the heat of them even from where he was standing. "We aren't permanently assigned together."
Caskins rocked Heero on his feet with a harsh squeeze. "You know that you can get anyone that you want."
"I didn't ask for Maxwell," Heero countered as he made a sharp move and was suddenly out from under the much bigger man's arm.
"Why not?" Caskins wondered. "Any agent would give his left eye to work with him."
Heero's frown deepened as he began checking his gear again. "Personal," he finally replied.
"Personal," Caskins echoed. He cocked his head at Heero and finally smiled., "Okay, keep it to yourself. I just want to keep my prestige as the guy working with Duo Maxwell. Besides, I don't want to be in competition with you when we can do much more pleasant things together." He rubbed at his crotch meaningfully. Heero's eyes tracked that hand and then looked away, not in disgust, but with an impatient irritation.
"I've already told you," Heero said as he picked up a laser rifle and checked the scope, "I'm not looking for personal relationships."
"Not yet," Caskins replied knowingly. "But, once you settle in, and you do go looking, we're available." He rubbed his crotch again.
Duo left his hiding place and strode up, anger burning through him. He glared at Caskins as he slammed his backpack down and began checking his own gear. "Didn't know that you had been assigned to this mission, Caskins?"
Caskins grinned at him. "Not this time, partner. See you stay in once piece, without me to watch your back, okay?"
Duo snorted derisively, "As if I ever needed you to watch over me."
Caskins touched two spots on his body. "I've got the scars that say you do, partner."
Duo froze, his face flaming. He owed this man. The scales weren't going to be balanced by giving him Heero Yuy, though. "Sorry," he mumbled.
Caskins chuckled, "No problem. You're just having mission jitters. I doubt anything can go wrong with you riding shot gun with Heero Yuy, anyway."
"Who says I'm shot gun?" Duo snarled.
"Orders specify that I'm mission captain," Heero said as he checked his rifle and then twisted the catch that allowed it to break down and store on his backpack. A small bit of vinyl tied over it made it appear to be part of his camping gear.
"You're not experienced. I am," Duo argued.
Heero shrugged and walked away as he replied, "Une thought that I was the better choice. It's orders."
"Orders," Duo repeated angrily and then glared at Caskins.
Caskins spread his hands wide and grinned. "I gotta keep trying with him, partner. He's too good to pass to anyone else, even you."
"Shut it!" Duo growled.
Caskins nodded after Heero. "Well, you have a week of pretending to be hikers with the sexilicious Heero Yuy. If you can't make anything out of that by the time you get back, you never had a chance anyway."
"It's a mission!" Duo reminded him.
"Excuses won't get you the win," Caskins warned him.
"Fuck you!" Duo exploded, but he was hefting his gear and weapons and hurrying after Heero, Caskin's laughter following after him.
_______________________________
"Reporting," Duo whispered into his com unit.
"Receiving," Heero whispered back.
"Subject two came out to take a leak. It now smells like pee," Duo reported. "He's going back in. 12:45 a.m. mark."
"Mark," Heero repeated and then, "Noted in log."
Covered in mosquito netting and sitting on his backpack to keep out of the mud, the sounds of a healthy swamp, full of blood sucking creatures, was Duo's music as the boring hours of the night ticked away. He was watching the front of the shack while Heero watched the back. Lights silhouetted their subjects. It was telling that the men inside were not going to bed and seemed to be 'on guard'. They periodically walked the outside perimeter, listening to the night and checking alarms. Avoiding them was easy and Duo had disarmed the alarms in such a way that they gave out their 'all clear' signal despite the fact that two Preventer agents were close by in hiding.
The walk in had taken a day. Heero had been silent for most of it, despite a few lame attempts by Duo to make conversation. They had finally been reduced to bland statements about conditions, the chancy weather system that might dump rain on them, and a few scenarios that might require them to act fast and in tandem if there was trouble. After that, they had both moved off to settle in their respective positions to observe their subjects.
Having slogged through swamp for a day and, now, suffering from exhaustion and a lack of opportunity to do something about it, Duo's mind began to entertain thoughts that he was having trouble containing. He ran a thumb over the com switch several times with his need to talk to Heero, almost pressing it even though he knew that breaking radio silence would only confirm Heero's estimation that he shouldn't have been assigned with him.
"Signal detected," Heero whispered in his ear. "1:00 a.m. Mark. Logged."
"Mark." Duo acknowledged."Orders?"
"Surveillance only," Heero replied irritably. "Those are our orders."
"I could listen in," Duo urged. "I know I can get close. The window is open."
"Orders," Heero growled back.
Duo chewed viciously on his bottom lip in frustration as he watched a silhouette standing by the open window. The faint sound of conversation didn't carry well enough for him to understand. It was only a matter of a few yards. There were bushes. It was pitch dark. A platoon could have walked up without anyone the wiser.
"Orders?" Duo growled back in protest.
There was a pause and then Heero asked,"Likely hood of success?"
Duo grinned. "One hundred percent."
"Your decision and off the record," Heero replied.
"My decision," Duo agreed, meaning he would take the reprimand for it.
There was another tense pause and then an uncertain, embarrassed, "Careful," from Heero.
Duo started at that and then grinned. "My middle name," he replied. "Going in."
Duo dumped the netting, offloaded equipment strapped to him, and then slid through the darkness and ground cover to the window. The shack was off the ground on blocks, a small crawl space tempting enough for Duo to decide to use it as an extra measure to remain undetected. He wasn't prepared when he thrust his leg into rusty barbed wire and leftover construction debris sunk in watery muck.
Duo jammed his hand into his mouth and bit down hard as he breathed harshly through his nose in agony. One part of his mind cataloged the fact that pulling out was going to cause considerable wounds and that he was already sliced and diced severely. Wire cutters, luckily, were part of the kit that never left his person.
With shaking hands, Duo cut by feel, the dutiful soldier part of him compartmentalizing and determined to listen to the conversation going on over his head.
"I don't think that's a good idea," the man was saying. "We've been taking enough chances falsifying those fuel consumption reports. Upping them might make someone ask questions."
There was a long pause while the man listened to the reply. Duo felt sharp, metal edges slicing along his knee cap, once they cleared his thick hiking boot, as he eased his leg out of its nest of debris. He just managed to throttle the instinctive urge to groan, blocking his desperate pants of pain by pulling his sweat soaked shirt over his nose and mouth.
"Kirkpatrick may be hands off," the man continued, "But all of his employees aren't idiots. You don't get that kind of money by ignoring sudden spikes in shuttle fuel consumption. You damned well track who's using it. I say we don't risk it."
Duo's fingers felt a rip in flesh that was deep with a piece of glass jammed in. It had been so sharp that he hadn't felt it cutting him. Pulling his leg off of it, to continue it's careful exit from under the shack, made his heart pound in his ears with an over load of adrenaline. Once clear, he felt an alarming flow of blood. He dumped his canteen in the muck and used its strap to bind the wound.
There was no way that his blood wasn't going to be all over the ground, Duo realized, when he crawled to safety. If they didn't find out that they were compromised that night, it was going to be obvious in the morning light. Heero was right not to want him on the mission. He had managed to blow it spectacularly.
"We've been sitting on these war drones for two years in this crap swamp!" the man argued hotly. "You are not going to blow our chance to get them into space by getting impatient, now. We are doing this by the numbers. I'll get the fuel undetected, you keep that shuttle ready to launch. I paid blood to get that corridor trajectory. Ryker is a sympathizer and he knows what will happen if he's wrong. Vector Alpha Tango Charlie 496 will be clear for us when we launch next month."
The man ended the conversation with requests for food supplies as Duo took off his jacket and shirt and wrapped it around his leg, completely encasing it. Mosquitoes descended on his bare, pale skin, biting him viciously. Duo shivered under their onslaught, but he was determined to get out of there undetected.
It was a long process of making sure that he covered his tracks and left nothing behind as he crawled back to cover. Duo couldn't be one hundred percent sure, but he had to at least make the attempt to salvage the mission. He didn't care what it cost him in blood or pain, he was determined not to disappoint Heero, determined that the man's opinion of him wouldn't be proven out.
"Surveillance complete," Duo murmured into his com.and then added, the words bitter on his tongue, "Agent down but out."
"Duo!" Heero hissed incredulously. "Report!"
"Need extraction," Duo told him. "Bad injuries to one leg. Stabilized for now, maybe, but not for long."
Heero was suddenly there, crouching by him in the darkness. His sudden grip on his arm startled Duo and he almost pulled out his knife. Heero didn't say anything as he added Duo's pack to his own, hefted Duo up onto his good leg, and began the long hobble out of the area.
Duo kept up the pace, using an iron will, but once they reached a safe distance, he folded and hung, listing in Heero's grip. Heero let him down to the ground and dropped their packs. He dared a light and hissed when he saw how Duo had strapped his leg. He didn't bother telling Duo how dangerous cutting off his circulation could be. They both understood that.
As Heero loosened the strap and Duo's knotted clothing, Duo managed through a pounding haze of pain, "Guess you were right about me."
"What?" Heero snapped back, sounding stressed and maybe angry as he began spraying the wounds with bio patch from their med kit. Duo felt sharper pains as Heero pulled out bits of rusted barbed wire.
"You didn't want me partnering with you," Duo clarified. "Not god enough."
"That wasn't the reason," Heero replied tightly.
"Not better than Wu Fei," Duo tried again. "You wanted the best, 'member?" he slurred and felt as if he were being pulled backwards down a spiraling black nothingness.
"That wasn't what I meant," Heero told him. "Shut up and let me work."
"Not what you meant?" Duo tried to keep conscious, tried to understand.
"The best other than you," Heero clarified. "Let me work. I need to stabilize and call for pick up."
"I don't get it," Duo replied, trying to puzzle it out and failing, but then he latched onto what Heero was saying. "No pick up. They'll detect it. Get us to the ranger station. There's one three miles from here. That will explain the ship... maybe... if they detect it."
"Three miles?" Heero sounded skeptical of Duo's ability to get that far.
"You've slogged my wounded ass during the war, you gettin' soft now, Yuy?" Duo slurred, desperate to make his point before he passed out.
"I dragged you most of the way on slick station floors," Heero recalled, "and you were much thinner... and smaller..."
"So were you," Duo chuckled. "You can do it. I know you can."
Heero grunted and that was the last thing that Duo heard before he fell into the darkness.
Song that inspired this fic and how I imagine Heero sings.
Nickelback:Gotta be Somebody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pbnRvAUQiI
Heero's song to Duo:
Nickelback:Never Gonna Be Alone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHj9UzV005k&feature=related