misanagi

Hurt

Rating: PG13
Pairing: 1x2 or 1+2 (depends on the setting of your fan-goggles)
Warnings: Some angst. Duo's POV
Summary: We can hurt the ones we love.

Notes: Written for fic_to_quit, to help hostilecrayon quit smoking.

Thanks to Anne for the quick beta.

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I found Heero at the park, inside the big concrete tube. He was hugging his knees and his head was down, hiding his face. I crawled inside the tube, pressed my forehead against his shoulder and waited, seconds, minutes, until Heero was ready to stop hiding.

"How is he?" Heero asked, in a shaky voice.

Raising my head, I looked at Heero, noticing his eyes were down. "He's fine, man. It's just a bruise."

"I hurt him." Heero refused to meet my eyes.

"He'll live. He's not mad."

This time Heero did look up at me, but he kept his chin down, still hiding. "He isn't?"

"It's Quatre." I let my hand rest on top of Heero's. "He knows what happened. He knows you didn't mean to."

Heero diverted his eyes but he didn't move his hand. "Friends aren't supposed to hit friends, Duo. You taught me that."

I sighed. "Yeah, I did. I also said friends forgive, and understand." I tightened my grip around Heero's fingers. "We're not asking you to be perfect, Heero. We never have. We all have shortcomings, you know? We're a weird bunch of people."

"My shortcomings could kill you."

I laughed, quietly, and Heero looked at me again. "You underestimate us way too much," I explained. "Quatre would have decked you if he thought, even for a second, that you were a threat, but he didn't, did he?"

Heero tried to look away but I put my fingers against his cheek and forced him to keep his eyes on me. "You're not a danger to us, Heero. Yes, you might be physically stronger but we aren't helpless and we can hold our own against you." I brushed my fingers down his cheek and smiled. "Besides, we trust you. We know you would never hurt us."

"But Quatre—"

"Quatre made a mistake," I interrupted. "He did it out of concern, but he should know better than to wake you up like that."

"I shouldn't have—"

"Wufei put a sword at my throat the last time I tried to sneak into his room," I continued, not giving him a chance to keep blaming himself. "Quatre put a gun in a shareholder's face for walking inside his office unannounced. Trowa still opens his door with a gun in his hand and I put a man in the hospital last week for looking at Hilde the wrong way." I took a deep breath. "We all make mistakes, Heero. We… we aren't normal."

We were quiet for a long time. Outside the rain started to fall, the wind cold.

"We should go back," I said when the weather gets colder.

I started to crawl out when Heero asked, "Do you want to be normal?"

I turned my head back to look at him. He was still sitting where I found him, still looking miserable in that stoic way only Heero can pull off. I sat down again, my shoulder brushing his. "Sometimes I do," I confessed. "But then, I wouldn't be me if I was. I wouldn't have met all of you." I shrugged.

"I wish I was," Heero said. "I wouldn't hurt you then."

Those words hurt.

I straddled Heero, keeping my face inches away from his. "You do hurt me." He dropped his eyes and I added, "So do Quatre, and Trowa, and Wufei, and Hilde, and everyone I care about. That's life. We can hurt each other and sometimes we do."

I put my hands on his shoulders. "You also help me whenever I need to. You make me smile, Heero, make me feel important, alive. I value what you give me too much. I care about you. You can never hurt me enough that I would go away."

Heero looked at me for a long moment and then nodded once.

I smiled and rested my forehead against his. "Don't hide from us again." I paused. "Don't hide from me."

He nodded again and then put his arms around my waist. "Don't let me push you away."

I pressed my lips on his, giving him a chaste kiss. "Never."


- The End -