Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ It's A Wonderful War ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Title: It's A Wonderful War 6/?
Author: Sony_Mouse (Sony_Mouse@hotmail.com)
Pairings: 1+2
Warnings: Language, AU (well OUR Universe really), different look on war (I hope).
Disclaimers: GW not mine, knowledge and info used for this fic came from James Clavell's Shogun (READ IT), Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, David Mak's Kabuki, and Anthology of Japanese Literature. And from great people like Misa and Katu, and other's who've e-mailed me. (Whew what a disclaimer).
Archives: If for any reason you wish to read my other fics or the first 4 chaps of this one go to www.gwaddiction.com
Archives 2: If you, or a friend would like to archive my fics. NOW YOU CAN, only for the low, low price of 50% per fic/chapter. Make checks out to Sony_Mouse, credit cards accepted. Ok, I'm joking, It's free and you have my permission. Just please give me credit for them and at least send me the links so I can see it sometime.
TATTOO: ok completely ot, but I was all sad cause people were showing pics of each other and I couldn't, so here's a link to my tattoo, it's like a pic.,….but not (yes it's real, it's also the ONLY thing of me I have scanned on the WORLD WIDE NET) http://bamfisland.homestead.com/tattoo.html

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From the amazing (or not so amazing, depending who's side you're on) Part 5

Blinking in surprise, it took Heero a few minutes to realize what had just happened. Duo had let bygones be bygones. He had said his piece, let Heero say his, and now they were…equals.
It was a frightening thought that he no longer held anything over Duo, but at the same time refreshing. A small smile played at Heero's lips, not big enough to actually notice, but a smile none the less.
"Good night Duo." He then joined the American pilot by lying down next to him on the blanket, at once knowing that he and Duo had understood each other perfectly, if only for a few moments.
They had opened the door to new possibilities. Heero just hoped that one of those possibilities was getting Duo home. He felt he owed the boy that much.
(whew, that was deep :)
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Sony_Mouse: Ok, extra warning today, I'm in a very sarcastic mood. Anything I say may not be used against me in the court of law, and it's all Duo's fault.
Duo: Hey, what did I do.

Sony_Mouse: Quiet slave, back to the fic *whip, whip*
Duo: Yes master!
Sony_Mouse: MUAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHA...ok I'm scaring myself now, sorry Duo, luv' ya.
Duo: S'ok...

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Part 6

Bright and early the next morning, Heero was already up making preparations for their trip. He had quickly hidden any evidence that they had slept there the previous night, and was more than ready to get a move on things.
Duo on the other hand was sore all over and not willing to get up as quickly as Heero had managed. It had been weeks since he'd really walked around, and was now feeling the effects of it. But after Heero nudged him a few times with his boot, Duo knew he had no other choice but to get up.
"I'm up, I'm up! Enough with the kicking already."

Looking down at the American pilot, Heero nudged him once more for good luck. "I'm not kicking you."
Wincing in pain from the sore muscles, Duo finally managed to stand up on both feet. "Oh, so you're trying not to hurt me anymore, right?"
Heero snorted at the comment. "No, I just wouldn't want to get MY kimono dirty."
"Why you... If you're not careful you'll have to choose between this Kimono, and my good graces."
"As long as my Kimono is in one piece, I'll be more than happy to give up your 'good graces' any day." Without waiting for a reply, Heero turned and walked off, smirking to himself as he heard Duo fall over in an attempt to retrieve his hat.

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Much like the other day, the two walked non stop for many hours, enjoying the country side, but weary of the danger. Duo remained silent for security reasons, and Heero used every opportunity to tease the American pilot about his predicament. What had once been hatred created by different cultures and a war had turned into to something else.
But whatever it was, as the hours wore on, it slowly disappeared from Heero demeanor, and he became once again solemn and contemplative.
It was very hot out that day, the sweat running all over his sore limbs, the kimono was a blessing, making Duo feel at least a bit cooler. But Duo still over heated, and he was hungry, very hungry. Since the journey had begun they had hardly eaten, and this morning was no exception.
So it was in these moments of self-pity that Duo didn't pick up on Heero's withdrawal until much too late. It wasn't until they both met up with a fork in the road, that Duo really noticed the change.
The Japanese soldier stood very rigid, glaring at the offending two roads, not wanting to share with Duo any of his thoughts. He had already explained the trip to Duo, telling him the way and what roads would be used, but he now chose to leave Duo out of his change in plans.
Pointing in the to the left road, Heero made his decision. "We're going this way."

Throwing all caution to the wind, Duo piped up in surprise. "But why? I thought we were going along this road until we met up with that village. I'm starving, and I think I could use a break. I'm a pilot, not a foot soldier you know."
Clenching his fists slowly in frustration, Heero practically ground out his words in a more heavily accented English. He always let his accent slip a bit when he got frustrated. "We are going this way. It's not a choice, and you have no say in the matter."
Defiance rose in Duo's eyes as he blatantly refused the other man's authority.
"No! You said this path was the quickest, I want to get home, and you want you're men back. Who knows how long that other route would take us."
"It would only be a few days extra, less if we can catch a ride."
Duo glared at Heero, deciding not to let Heero win for once, and proceeded to sit down in the middle of the road.
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me why we're changing our plans."
The anger that rose up Heero's face looked to be lethal and uncontrollable, very rare if you knew how controlled Heero always was.
"They are my plans and you are not staying here, we are going this way, this is not a choice. You are *MY* prisoner and will do as I say, or else."
For reasons beyond him, Duo was equally angered by the soldier's harsh words, maybe even a little hurt. So without thinking he screamed out just what he thought about Heero's plans.
"Or what? You'll shoot me, just like I always thought you would? You're not even good enough to be a Jap. You're nothing but a lowlife, stupid, ignorant, FUCKING AINU!"
Before Duo knew what had hit him, he was lying sprawled across the ground feeling a large amount of pain in his left cheek. Looking up through the bandages that were still securely wrapped around his head, Duo could see an angry and seething Heero who was ready to strike again at a moment's notice. He glared down at the unmoving figure and quickly bit out his next words.
"Let's just see how long you survive without you're 'fucking Ainu'." Then without warning, he spun around and made his way down the left road. Duo had to literally bite back the tears that were forming in his eyes. Heero was actually abandoning him, leaving him to die in this crazy foreign country. No one was taking him home, and no one gave a shit about him. Hell, he'd be lucky if he survived until nightfall.
But a little voice in the back of Duo's head wouldn't let that happen. He was going to show Heero up even if it was the last thing he ever did. He was simply going to go down that other road and make his way to the base. If he wasn't shot on sight, he might have a small chance of explaining things, maybe even get Heero into trouble.
Now about the passing villages, Duo felt he could handle that too. He already knew that the people respected him instantly upon meeting him because of his "military past". They just had to look at him to see all that he had 'suffered' during the war.
Getting up and brushing the dirt off of his formally clean kimono, he reached over and grabbed his hat and crutch to start walking. It was time to see if he was really that great of an actor.

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It didn't take that long for Duo to reach the village, but he had to recheck his mental map to be sure if this was a village in the first place. It looked more like the front line. Everything was destroyed.
Looking around the horrible scene in front of him, Duo had to grip his crutch even tighter because he felt so weak in the knees.
The few houses that were still left were long since burned to the ground; ashes seemed to reside over everything, wood, streets, the dead bodies...
The bodies, why hadn't anyone bothered to pick them up yet, they looked like they had been dead for at the very least a few weeks.
Much like in the other villages, the surviving children and adults seemed to be poor beyond belief, cause by the war in general. But these ones had haunted looks in their eyes, like they had seen so much mass destruction and were just waiting for it to happen again.
But what really surprised Duo was that the village looked like it had only held maybe a thousand villagers before, why would anyone want to bomb it? It was just didn't make much sense.
Looking over to the side, a little girl caught his attention. She was missing a few limbs, and the stumps were badly infected, yet she lay there starving, surrounded by a few older bodies, who could only have been her family.
But the little girl was not what had caught his eye; it was the jacket that she wore around her frail body. The jacket was one of the good kind, a leather bomber jacket worn by pilots, although he could not make out the words that were written on it, it was clearly American.
Duo slowly walked over to the lying girl and motioned to her that he wanted to know where she had gotten the jacket. He tried to avoid her gaze, her unblinking wide eyes looked like they should belong to a ghost, not a small child. After a few failed attempts, she finally understood and pointed towards the horizon.
Searching through his Kimono, Duo was able to find some crumbly crackers he'd had with him, and shoved them into the girl's one open hand. He then walked off as briskly as he could with his crutch, before coming to a complete halt in front of a scene that would haunt him the rest of his life.

There, all wrecked and crashed in a big heap, was a plane, an American plane, an American plane that had been in his Squad. The earth seemed to stand still as Duo suddenly became dizzy. He threw off his hat and ripped whatever bandage was wrapped around his head, and made his way to the cockpit, where the rotting body of a pilot he had once known, still hung limply from the bashed seat.
As soon as he was able to identify the exact pilot, just one of the many he hadn't had time really meet, Duo fell to the ground and bent over to throw up whatever it was the remained in his stomach. Unfortunately the guilt would not go away.
A great shudder swept through his whole body as he leant over to empty his stomach some more, wanting to run, wanting to die, wanting to do anything but learn what he had really done.
It was then that he felt a reassuring hand lightly rub his back. He quickly spun around, only to be faced with the concerned face of Heero Yui.
The Japanese soldier did not offer one word of sympathy as he softly wiped Duo's sweaty bangs away from his eyes, nor did he complain as Duo completely broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.
He just brought the trembling pilot into his arms, and held on to him for dear life as the American cried, waiting for the young man to calm down, and knowing that that might never happen.
However, Duo did eventually calm down a bit, but remained in Heero's arms, ready to confess.
"I did this, and you knew it didn't you."
Heero nodded slowly, not wanting to make any quick movements. "News travels fast, but yes, I knew what you would find here."
"I deserve your hate, everything you ever said about me was true. I didn't even know what I was bombing."
"There was a factory in the village, they made some military product or another. But the bombs are just too erratic, and the fire spreads to what wasn't bombed."
"So this is why you changed the route… why not before?"
It was Heero's turn to confess as he held to the now weak pilot tightly, his army green contrasting greatly with the off-white and indigo of the kimono. "Because I wanted you to see what you had done, to stop thinking of your people as saints, and mine as the devil."
"But..."
"But I realized yesterday that you already knew that it wasn't so simple as black and white. And I knew you that were just a young pilot, sent in to do his job, like every other damned soldier in any army. You didn't deserve to see this, you're just as innocent as the people who died here."
Duo tensed up at the words. "That's bullshit, I deserve more than just seeing this, I KILLED these people, children for God's sake, innocent children!"
"Then we all deserve to see what we've done, you're just a child too, you know, but one who got caught up in this bloody war."
"And what does that make you?"
"A stupid soldier who thought he knew you and this war, but is now more confused then ever."
Duo let out a sad chuckle and returned the strong grip Heero had on him. "I guess I can see that. Welcome to the land of confused, I think I discovered the place."
Looking up into Heero's regretful eyes, Duo tried to ask what he really wanted to know. "So why'd you come back? I thought I'd lost you, that you'd given up on me."
"I never left you in the first place." This got a curious look from Duo, who was sure he'd been alone the whole time. "I was mad. I was trying to watch out for you and you were being so damn stubborn. So I stormed off, but I wasn't about to leave you there. I just watched from a distance, like you said, I knew what you would find here. And I was… worried."
They were both afraid to break their locked gazes, afraid the other might really leave them, if given the chance. And so despite the guilt, despite the surroundings, despite everything that had happened, and despite knowing that he shouldn't feel this way, Duo felt safe in Heero's arms. He felt safe when Heero was around, and at that moment, he didn't want it to be any other way than the way it was. "Thank you."
Heero's brow creased as confusion slipped into his features. 'Why."
"Thanks for not giving up on me, for not leaving me."
Duo looked so peaceful for that single moment. His flushed lips were cracked in a small smile, his bright violet eyes shone with… something, his hair, now released from it's confining bandages and hat, was set in a lose braid that had wisps flying all around Duo's face. And his face, although pale, looked lovely, especially only inches away from his own. So before Heero could stop himself, he let the words fall from his mouth, words he hadn't even known he'd been thinking.
"Maybe one day, you could return the favor."
The words didn't even have time to register in Duo's mind, when a Gunshot was fired, much noise could be heard soon after, the military was approaching.
Without even asker permission, Heero grabbed the light bundle that was Duo and rushed him off to the very small area of bushes that lined near the plane. There was no where to run without being seen, and no way of escape. Duo clutched tightly to Heero and tried not to think about being caught.
It didn't take long for the some of the officers to appear near the plane, one look at the uniform's and Duo practically screamed.
"They're Americans!"
Heero smacked his hand over Duo's mouth and dragged him into the bush.
"Are you mad?"
Pushing the Japanese soldier's hand away, he continued talking like he had never stopped. "Heero, they're Americans. They'll take me home…"
"…and they'll shoot me."
Duo was too excited to really listen. "No they won't, I'll explain everything, they might even give you a medal for saving me."
The reality of the situation really hit Heero by this time and he grabbed Duo's shoulders to stare him directly in the eyes. "I have to get out of here. Go back to you're people, leave a long life, and never mention I exist."
Duo started shaking his head dramatically. "I'm not leaving you here, you could talk to my officers and get you're people free, American's love war heroes, and I'll be one for no reason. I can use that status to get them to release your people."
"Fine Duo, but you'll have to do it alone. I can't stay here and you know it. I don't even know if I CAN get out of here as it is. Maybe if you show yourself soon they'll be distracted enough for me to flee."
"But... but"
"Enough, GO!" He then pushed Duo out of the bushes, his bad leg causing him to crumble to the ground, and watched as the American officers stared at him in open surprise. Lying on the ground before them was clearly an American citizen, dressed in a now dirty kimono, looking too shocked to move.
The officer quickly ran over to him, asking if he was ok, and if he had been one of the pilots shot down here.
Duo could only nod as they checked over his body, not once taking his eyes away from the bushes, yet not giving away Heero's position either.
As soon as Heero felt that Duo was taken care of, and that it was safe to move, he jumped up and tried to make a run for it. He didn't get very far as he plowed into a solid figure who'd been behind him for quite some time.
Looking up in frustration, Heero got a quick glance at the Chinese soldier before a rifle butt was slammed down into his head.
Everything went black as Heero's body fell quietly to the ground.

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Field Captain David Smith was more surprised than anyone to see the American boy suddenly jump out of the bushes and fall to the ground with no warning; he'd almost shot him but had noticed the long CHESTNUT braid in time. The colour was not exactly typical among Japanese villagers.
The boy, who was still lying down on the ground, was now trying to tell him his story, saying how he crashed here many weeks ago, and had somehow survived. Smith tried to get the boy to calm down and rest, but he kept talking as if he desperately needed to have his attention.
A noise was heard from the bushes and the Captain noticed the boy's eyes grow with fear.
"Chang? Did you find something?"

The Chinese soldier yelled out a gruff reply as he dragged an unconscious form from the small bushy area.
"I found one of the soldiers sir, he had the that boy there captive and pushed him out to distract us while he made a getaway."
Suddenly the boy's fear made sense. "How do you know that was his plan?"
"He spoke English, maybe a spy, but definitely high up. I only heard the last part of the conversation, where he threatened the kid and pushed him out,"
Duo dragged himself over to the fallen body, not even hearing the words that were passed around him. He checked over Heero's body, noticing the large red pool that was forming on the ground near where he had been hit. Seeing that it was bloody, Duo began to look around frantically.
"Is he... is he dead?"
The Captain quickly walked over to the shaking boy and placed a firm hand on his shoulders. It was obvious that the boy had been through a lot, and Smith couldn't even imagine the forms of torture the military must have used on the young pilot. In the most reassuring tone he could muster, the Captain tried to calm the boy down once again.
"You don't ever have to worry about him hurting you again... " Before he could even finish his sentence, the young pilot seemed to freeze up, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he passed out.
The captain didn't hesitate to pick him up into his arms, and gave the boy a look or pity.
Chang took that moment to add his comments on the situation. "Amazing he survived this long with so few injuries, he must have been on his own to heal a bit before the military got their hands on him. His country should be honored."
"We are Chang! The country will be dying to hear this guy's story first chance they get. I'll take him to the infirmary; he seems sick, smells like he just threw up or something, not surprising, that they must have starved him or fed him their so called food, the bastards."
Chang nodded, agreeing with every word the man spoke.
"And Chang, get this scum out of my site. I want him tied and secured at base camp. He's got some explaining to do. Make sure I'm notified when he wakes up. I almost wish he really was dead like the kid believes."
"Yes sir, I'll get right on it."
The two men took their respective charges with the help of some of the other soldiers littered about, both American and Chinese. Base camp was already buzzing with the news; an American prisoner had been rescued from the evil clutches of the Japanese.
TBC….
Well as promised, Wufei has entered the story. As you may or may not know, the Chinese and the Americans had a very important treaty at this time.
I hope you all liked, COMMENT please sony_Mouse@hotmail.com and that's all