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SongBird
by Snow Tigra
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Duo's eyes widened at the sight, his whole body shaking. He
couldn't move; all he could do was watch the sight before him in slow
motion.
He didn't realize what he'd done until he saw the box flying
through the air. He'd thrown the box! No! It would open when it landed and then...
and then...
But he couldn't move to stop it, and even if he could have
stopped it from happening he doubted his body would have responded. Instead he
just crouched there, watching the box fly through the air and slam into the side
of Zechs' head. The blond man responded by dropping Heero and stumbling back a
step as the box clattered to the ground.
As Duo had feared the box
snapped open to reveal something wrapped delicately in white cloth.
Duo
closed his eyes and braced himself for the pain, waiting for it to hit him like
before...
But none came.
Nothing.
Nothing?
Blinking he
opened his eyes and nearly jumped backward as he heard a scream rip through the
room. At first he thought it was his own, from the pain, but he soon realized it
wasn't.
Instead it was coming from Zechs.
The tall blond man stood
there, his mouth wide and screaming. His entire body was shaking in what looked
like pain and Duo watched as he wrapped his arms around his body and crumbled to
the ground in a shivering heap of torture.
What in the world was going
on?!
Beside Duo Heero watched with wide eyes, looking nearly as
confused.
Neither understood what was going on, but both knew better then
to help the man. They just watched in terrified silence as the man's body shook
on the floor and screamed.
Soon the screams stopped, cut off suddenly as
Zechs' eyes gained a cold look. Silence filled the room and no one dared to
move. Was he faking it? What had just happened?
Heero was the first to
move. Ever so slowly and cautiously he stood up and took a few steps closer to
the still man. Using his foot he gently kicked the body once, but received no
response. Kneeling down he looked closer at Zechs' face and touched his hand.
Carefully he turned the hand over and felt around the wrist... searching for a
pulse.
There wasn't one.
"He's... dead."
Duo blinked.
"Dead?"
Heero turned back to him. "Duo, what was in that
box?"
Both boys glanced to the box as it seemed to move in answer to
Heero's question. The white cloth moved, showing that there was something under
it. Then it was thrown back to reveal a beautiful bird the color of a bright
sunset. Beautiful blues, pinks and violets speckled its wings and long tail.
Both boys stared in amazement as the bird flapped its wings a few times and took
off in flight, flying straight at Heero.
Heero did the first thing he
could think of and jumped to his feet, shielding his eyes from the angry beak
and claws. Racing to the door he threw it open and batted at the bird. The bird
ignored his hand at first, seemingly intent on pecking his eyes out, then it
received a hard hit to the head and relented.
Giving one last loud squawk
it flew out the door and out of sight into the sky.
Duo and Heero just
watched after it in amazement.
What in the world...?
**
After
that strange occurrence things moved rather swiftly. With a quick call to the
hospital an ambulance arrived for Zechs, only to pronounce him dead of a heart
attack. No matter how many times the medics tried they weren't able to revive
him and they finally gave up, taking his body away in a black bag.
It
had seemed like a stupid idea to call the police at first, but Heero had done it
for their own sakes. After all, if the ambulance people had managed to revive
him all Heero had to do was tell them and the police about how Zechs had
attacked them, and he had the red marks around his neck to prove it. As it was
though, the questioning by the police hadn't been much and both he and Duo were
soon left alone in the club once again.
Not two days later, as Duo was
staying in Heero's room and they were trying to find out what to do, they
received a call from an insurance company. It seemed that Zechs, being the smart
business person he was, had registered the entire club and his bank accounts
under Duo's name to make the bank think they were owned by a minor and thus
would charge less for taxes. Which meant that Duo now had full access to the
club and all the money it had made over his years of singing, which turned out
to be quite a huge amount.
Certainly enough to put both him and Heero
through college classes for the next decade, with spending money on the
side!
Both boys ended up using the money to fix up the club, and even
hired Heero's roommate as a bar tender for the place, after Duo expressed his
wish to keep singing. It seemed odd at first that Duo would want to keep singing
but, as he explained to Heero, he always loved it and so did many other people,
so why shouldn't he? And now that Zechs wasn't forcing him to it was even more
enjoyable.
So the club was reopened with a significantly cheaper door fee
and Duo and Heero had themselves their own little business, not to mention an
apartment in the back where they could live happily together.
They had,
of course, gotten rid of the huge birdcage as soon as they were able to tear it
apart and toss the pieces in the garbage.
**
"What are you
reading?"
Heero glanced up from his book as Duo crawled into the bed next
to him. They had replaced Zechs' bed with a new one, simply because they didn't
want any traces of the man left behind in the place. Nearly all the furniture
had been replaced with new pieces of their choosing and now the place really
looked like a comfy home.
Heero rolled over and wrapped his arms around
Duo, smiling softly. "Just a small story."
"Hmm, about what?" Duo asked
with a soft smile, moving closer into Heero's arms.
"It was the book
Zechs was looking for when he came down to the library reference room... a book on
mythology."
Duo lifted an eyebrow and glanced at the book. "A
myth?"
Heero nodded. Sitting up in the bed he picked up the book and
turned back a page. Duo sat up and curled up next to him, leaning his head on
Heero's shoulder to listen to him read.
"A long time ago there was a
beautiful maiden with an amazing voice. She would spend hours upon hours every
day at her window singing to the world around her. She sang to the trees. She
sang to the fields. She sang to the clouds and she sang to the
stars.
"She always sang and her voice was so lovely that even the birds
would stop and listen to her.
"One bird in particular fell in love with
the girl. He would fly to her window every time he heard her voice and would sit
on the ledge, listening to her sing. She always noticed him there too, and soon
she began singing to him, and they would even sing together, their beautiful
voices filling the night and day air.
"But things were not to stay happy,
for soon the girl came down with a harsh illness. For many days she did not sing
at her window and the bird became worried. On the third day he ventured to fly
into her room and down the hallways of her castle.
"He found her lying
in her bed, not moving. She wasn't even breathing. The girl was
dead.
"The bird was so saddened by this that he landed by her side and
sang one last final song. He poured his entire being into that song and made it
the most beautiful thing he'd ever sung in his life. He poured his soul into
that song and with his final notes prayed that the girl would sing
again...
"The next morning the girl awoke as if from a deep sleep. Only to
find she didn't remember anything of what had happened or who she was. But as
she looked down and her eyes fell on the quiet form of the bird she knew what
had happened. This beautiful bird had brought back her life... at the sacrifice of
his own."
Heero stopped reading as the myth came to an end and glanced at
the page in question. He blinked in confusion as he felt Duo give a small
shiver.
"I remember..." the longhaired beauty murmured
softly.
"Remember?"
Duo nodded but didn't open his eyes.
"Scattered images, but I think they make sense now. I remember a boy with bright
violet eyes who would sit at his window. In a white house... He would sit at the
window and hum. I think..."
Duo paused and opened his eyes.
"I think
he died."
Heero nodded. "The day that Zechs came into the library I was
looking for your family members. I found a picture of a boy with violet eyes,
one who looked like a younger version of you. The boy was listed as murdered. I
didn't think it was you... but he looked so much like you..."
Duo frowned.
"Do you think then that the story was right?"
"Maybe. I can't think of
any other explanation for you. Or for that bird that... sucked the life out of
Zechs."
"That's why he named me Duo..." Duo said softly. "Because I'm two
beings in one body. I'm the dead boy... and the bird."
Heero merely hugged
Duo close and gave him a soft kiss on the forehead.
Duo leaned against
Heero and wrapped his arms around him. "So it doesn't bother you that I used to
be a bird?"
Heero shook his head. "Of course not." Reaching down he
tilted Duo's chin so they were facing each other. "All I care about is you, Duo.
You: the boy that I love. And I'd love you even if you sprouted cat ears and a
tail."
Duo blinked at that remark, smirking softly. "Me? A cat?" He
laughed.
But that laugh was cut off as their lips met and Duo made no
protest. Instead he let Heero's arms wrap around him and pull them close
together as they kissed. The book was soon forgotten, pushed to land hard on the
floor next to the bed, as both boys pulled closer to the other and kept
kissing.
Myths didn't matter. Pasts didn't matter.
All that
mattered was that Zechs was gone and would never be able to bother them
again.
Duo would never be hurt again; Heero would make sure of
that.
And Duo had never felt safer or more loved then in Heero's
arms.
Owari
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