Tragic Love

-----part 1-----

The wedding had gone off beautifully. Trowa, Wufei and Quatre had watched 
through silent tears of joy as Duo and Heero exchanged vows. Duo and Heero 
looked handsome in their dress blues. Duo had his hair in its customary braid, 
but there were flowers woven into it. Heero's eyes had a softness in them that 
was rarely seen. Duo's had a tenderness about them that was for Heero and for 
Heero alone.

Duo and Heero waved to Trowa, Wufei, and Quatre as they boarded the plane and 
headed off.

"It was nice of Quatre to get us this honeymoon." Duo remarked.

Heero nodded, then leaned over and kissed Duo. A moment later, he noticed a 
strange silence and looked up to see the other people staring at them.

"Oh don't stop on our account." One passenger said.

"Yeah! You guys are much more interesting than the movie!" another chimed in.

Heero and Duo both blushed a bit, then everyone, including them, started 
laughing.


The plane landed an hour later and Duo and Heero picked up their luggage. After 
an uneventful cab ride, they were at the hotel. After they were shown to one of 
the honeymoon suites, they tossed their suitcases aside. There would be time to 
unpack tomorrow. Tonight was for love.

Taking Heero into his arms, Duo pulled him down onto the bed. He let out little 
sighs of happiness while Heero kissed his way down Duo's body until he was 
licking and sucking Duo's manhood until it was erect. He got a bit of lubricant 
out of the jar he'd placed on the nightstand earlier and carefully prepared Duo. 
Then, he pushed, slowly, gently, into him. thrusting tenderly, stroking Duo's 
erection until they were both coming.

Duo sat up as Heero drifted off to sleep. "Where are you going?"

"Just going to relax in our hot tub." Duo replied. "I'm a tiny bit sore, 
physically speaking."

"Don't take too long." Heero muttered as he drifted off to sleep. 

-----part 2-----

Heero woke the next morning and reached over to kiss Duo. But Duo was not there. 
"Duo?" He called out. No answer. He guessed that Duo might have gone to the 
lobby to buy a newspaper or postcards. He smiled as he decided to enjoy the hot 
tub. Duo could join him when he got back.

He made it to the hot tub, looked down to find the steps to go in, then screamed 
as his entire universe was torn away from him in one horrifying scene.

Duo lay at the bottom of the hot tub, drowned, his braid tangled in the filter. 
Someone had taken the cover off, probably to clean it, but the son of a bitch 
hadn't put it back on and...

"NO!!!!" Heero screamed. "Oh, Kami-sama, no." He began to take the hot tub apart. 
The hotel could go to hell. He wanted to try to save Duo's braid if he could. He 
know how much the braid meant to Duo. He had to give up after a while, however, 
and after profusely apologizing, he severed the braid.

-----part 3-----

Quatre was making breakfast the next morning when Heero shuffled into the 
hideout.

"Heero?" he asked. "What are you doing back? The honeymoon was for two weeks." 
He paused a moment, then looked around. "Where's Duo?" he asked.

Heero said nothing. He just went into his room, slammed the door, and burst into 
tears.

//They had a fight.// Quatre told himself. //Duo said the wrong thing and Heero 
took off in a huff. That's all.// But despite these self-assurances, he had the 
feeling that the truth was something far worse. He went to Heero's room and was 
about to knock when he heard a sound that stunned him. The sound of Heero 
sobbing. It sounded as if someone had torn the Perfect Soldier's very soul apart. 
He opened the door and peeked in. "Heero?" he asked.

Heero looked up at Quatre, his face was a mask of unadulterated heartbreak.

"Duo?" Quatre asked, weakly.

Any remnants of the idea that Duo and Heero had quarreled were quickly 
obliterated as Heero burst into a fresh bout of sobbing at the mention of Duo's 
name.

"Great Allah." Quatre's heart sank, and he put an arm around Heero and held him 
close. He listened as Heero told him, through choked sobs, what happened.

Wufei and Trowa walked by, then doubled back and peered in.

"Heero...?" Wufei began. "What..."

Quatre released Heero for a moment then ushered Wufei and Trowa away from the 
door. "I want to try to get him calmed down." he told them. He looked down, then 
looked up at them, his heart heavy with its burden of grief. "Duo died last 
night."

-----part 4-----

Wufei and Trowa trudged into the kitchen and sat down, wearily, at the table. 
Neither of them bothered to make breakfast. Neither of them spoke.

They could hear Heero's grief stricken wailing coming from his room... the room 
he'd planned to share with Duo... and it made their hearts feel as though they 
were weighed down by Atlas' burden.


Quatre held Heero in his arms and rocked him, soothingly. "Shhh..." he whispered. 
"Shhh... Heero this is a terrible thing. The worst thing that could happen to 
anyone. But you will recover. I promise."

Heero shook his head. He wanted to say he would never recover from losing Duo, 
but the words would not come out. All he could do was cry.

Quatre fell silent, holding Heero for a moment longer, breaking down in tears of 
his own.


"He finally asleep?" Trowa asked, as Quatre dragged himself into the kitchen.

Quatre nodded, the movements seeming burdensome to him, then sank into a chair, 
only to be disturbed by the phone's ring. He picked it up. "Yes? No, I'm Quatre. 
Heero's too upset to... thank you. I will tell him. I'm sure he will appreciate 
it. Yes, the address is correct. We'll be home tomorrow, yes. Thank you. We 
deeply appreciate this. Okay. Bye." he dropped the phone into its cradle, then 
dropped heavily into his chair.

"That was the hotel where..." he choked. "They wanted to confirm our address so 
they could send..." he couldn't say anymore.

He didn't have to. Trowa and Wufei both nodded in understanding. They knew he 
was talking about Duo's body.

"I'm going to have a talk with Heero." Quatre told them. "Tonight, after he's 
rested. I want to prepare him for tomorrow. It's going to be very hard for him."

There was a sudden explosion of noise and they raced to Heero's room, fearing 
the worst.

They were immensely relieved when they found Heero watching an old videotape of 
himself and Duo practicing together at a firing range. He'd saved a copy so he 
could use it to point out Duo's mistakes. Now he was watching them because they 
were all that he had left of Duo.


The body arrived the next day in a beautiful coffin which the hotel had paid for, 
stating how horrible they felt that their mistake had caused so much pain, along 
with a short segment Duo's braid, which the hotel staff had salvaged from the 
hot tub filter after hearing Heero going on about Duo's braid meaning a great 
deal to him as he apologized over and over for, in Heero's words, desecrating 
the body. Heero wept as he kissed the lifeless lips which had once given him 
love. He was about to rest the braid-segment upon Duo's chest, when he had a 
better idea. Reverently, he wrapped it around his wrist.

Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei nodded approvingly at this gesture of devotion and love, 
and watched silently. There were no words they could say now.

-----part 5-----

Heero bent to bestow a final kiss upon Duo's un-breathing lips, then stepped 
back to stand with the others at the edge of the grave. It had taken some doing 
since their group was meant to be top-secret, but in the end, The Powers That Be 
had relented and had agreed to give Duo a military funeral. Each pilot had 
arranged their own particular send off based upon their own traditions, and of 
course the traditional American 21 Gun Salute followed by a mournful "Taps", 
played by Heero concluded the ceremony.

Heero climbed into the car with Quatre and the others and sat in the back seat, 
clutching the braid fragment that was still around his wrist and weeping gently.

Wufei and Trowa held him and soothed him until the tears subsided.


A month went by with no action from either side. It seemed almost as if even the 
enemy were mourning the death of Duo Maxwell, as if neither side dared to 
dishonor the boy's memory with an act of aggression.

Finally, the enemy made their move, a raid upon a small town believed to be an 
underground military installation.

Quatre checked his instruments and confirmed their target. "Target coming up, 
guys." he told them. "Let's win this one for Duo!"

A tear came to Heero's eye and he clutched Duo's braid-fragment reverently as he 
switched to full attack mode. 

-----Owari-----