Disclaimer: The characters belong to Sotsu, Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment, I neither claim them nor certainly make any money off them!
Pairing: 6x2
Rating: Lemony in places
Time Setting: Post-series, three years later (minus events in Ground Zero, Blind Target, Endless Waltz as when I started this, I hadn't seen or read about these yet)
Summary: A chance meeting leads to the recovery of a wounded heart.
Duo woke the next morning to feel a hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes to see Zechs looking earnestly into his face, sitting on the edge of the bed beside him. Evidently Zechs had been up for some time, as he smelled fresh from a shower, his hair still slightly damp, and he was dressed for the day. Duo blinked, trying to gauge his expression and not succeeding very well.
"Good morning," Zechs murmured, giving Duo's shoulder a little squeeze before releasing it. "There's fresh coffee and fruit..." He stood, straightening his clothes unnecessarily. Now he seemed unable to meet the other's eyes. He gestured toward the living room. "If you should see something you need, please feel free to take it. I can spare anything..."
Duo felt the beginnings of panic stir within him, but Zechs's behavior was so odd and screaming with pain that Duo was struck speechless. [It's over, isn't it? It really is over... it *was* just one night... oh, fuck... but that's not what he wants, I know it... then?]
"I must be going," Zechs muttered, then made himself turn back to Duo. When their eyes met again, a kind of ravenous electricity raced between them, setting both their hearts pounding. Almost feeling sick, Zechs placed a piece of paper in Duo's hand, then tore his gaze away. "Good-bye."
Duo stared, thunderstruck, as Zechs Merquise turned on a heel and strode resolutely out the front door of the house. When the door closed with an all too final click, Duo hugged his knees to himself, fighting to calm down. [He's really gone... and clearly does not expect me back. Oh, shit...] Uneasily he looked within, and knew he was more than in serious trouble - he'd fallen in love with Zechs Merquise, and hard. Moreover, he knew that he'd shaken Zechs up just as much, but... [It's what I am,] he thought, trying to figure out how his world had shattered so completely in one night. [Just a street rat. He won't let himself get involved with the likes of me. It's like he said, he wanted to forget for one night. But how can he forget the one night! How can I? Never... if it's all I have of him, I'll treasure it forever...]
Moaning with his inner pain, Duo rolled back over on his side, clutching a pillow to himself, and cried as he hadn't since he was a small boy.
About a half hour later, he roused enough to look at the piece of paper in his hand. It was a name - "Peacegarden" - and an address.
The orphanage!
Blinking back tears of his own, Zechs had called for a taxi, then rode in the painful silence of his heart to the orphanage. By the time he got out, his composure was more or less restored.
"Mr. Peacecraft!" the orphanage's chief "mother" called out cheerfully. "Good morning, sir!"
Zechs forced a little smile for the grinning, rotund woman. "Good morning, Miss Cherry," he murmured, entering the low, white building decorated with brightly colored murals. He and the children had painted them last month. He touched a simplistic rendition of an apple tree. "We... may have a visitor later this morning, I'm not sure," he added, turning to walk with her down the hallway to the main room. Down another long corridor could be heard children's voices. "A young man. He himself is an orphan. I'm sure he'll find some kindred souls here."
Cherry had been working with the enigmatic Mr. Peacecraft long enough - four months - to read when he was hiding something. To her dismay, there was a sadness to his voice... but then he often seemed melancholy about something. Not around the children, however. To them he was a valuable father figure, "Papa Peace", a loving caretaker who had smiles aplenty for the twenty-odd orphans presently at Peacegarden. "I look forward to meeting him, sir," she replied carefully. "Is he from around here? Perhaps he could help out with the kids some time."
"Perhaps," was all Zechs replied. He glanced toward his office, wondering if he should take the time to check his messages, then decided against it. [Time for the cure that is the only one I dare allow myself right now...] "Just finished breakfast, have they?"
"Yes, sir," Cherry beamed. She fought down her usual impulse to give the poor man a hug, then gestured down the hallway. "They're having playtime in the garden before classes."
This next smile was a little more genuine. "That's fine," he murmured, and strode off down the hallway.
The Peacegarden for which the orphanage was named, was Zechs's own creation, planted in the large, circular, open central area of the facility, and tended now by the children, who had "adopted" certain patches of flowers, the fruit trees, as their own to care for. The staff, most of whom had worked for other, less successful or less innovative facilities before, were astounded at the impact on the children, who took to caregiving so naturally. As their own families had been ripped from them in the war, having something to care for turned their own need around so that, in the loving environment Zechs and the staff provided, they could truly flourish as the garden flourished.
"PAPA PEACE!" the nearest group of children cried in glee before they mobbed him. Laughing, Zechs went to one knee so they could swarm all over him. And indeed, for a brief moment, he could forget what he'd left behind in his house.
[Hmm, young indeed,] Cherry thought when the young man that Mr. Peacecraft had mentioned showed up a couple hours later. [Something of a stray cat, perhaps...] "Can I help you?" she asked pleasantly of the slim, long-haired youth peering cautiously around.
"Yeah, um, I was gonna meet someone here for... a tour, I guess." [Oh, why did I come?] Duo asked himself, scowling at himself and his predicament. [I want to see him, stupid. And if he never wanted to see me again, he wouldn't have given me the address.]
"Mr. Peacecraft, our director and founder, has stepped out on some business errands, but I would be happy to show you around, Mister..."
"Eh, Duo, just Duo," he muttered, shoving his hands into the pockets of his black jacket, uncomfortable. The orphanage was just as he'd hoped, bright, cheery, and full of hope. He thought of Maxwell Church, and winced at the twinge in his heart. The memory still had that power over him, then.
"Are you all right, Mr. Duo?" Cherry asked, alarmed. Clearly this young man did not want to be here... and if he had been an orphan, he obviously had unpleasant memories of his own childhood.
Duo opened his mouth to excuse himself; all he wanted to do was get out of there, seeing as how Zechs wasn't even here. But abruptly a small figure appeared in the hallway, darting past him to block his exit.
"You!" a young girl of about nine years old snapped at him, pointing directly at Duo. "Do you know how to play Crazy Eights?" She had long dark brown hair in a ponytail, and a sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks, cute except for her currently severe demeanor.
Duo shrugged dismissively. "Eh, child's play. Ask me about something more interesting."
Cherry was about to reprimand the young man for his rudeness, but the girl just lit up with interest. "Blackjack?" the girl asked hopefully.
Duo examined his fingernails, sighing. "Marginal."
"Poker?" the girl squealed excitedly.
He gave her a wide grin. "Now we're talking! What, you looking for a partner or something?"
She grinned back just as widely. "Yep! I'm Deener. What's your name?" She latched onto his hand and began to drag him down the hallway.
"The Grim Reaper," Duo smirked, letting himself be led away. "But you can call me Duo." He waved back at Cherry, who just stared, bewildered.
Deener laughed with delight. "I don't know how to play poker, will you teach me, Duo?"
"Sure thing..."
It was five minutes later, deep in an explanation of the intricacies of the fine art of poker playing, that Duo Maxwell realized that he'd been about to leave the orphanage. [Karma,] he sighed to himself.
Zechs came back from his errand, and from the moment Cherry saw his face, she saw the shadow that lay over him. "Is he here?" Zechs asked quietly, glancing in his office.
"Oh, yes," Cherry replied, wondering what was bothering her boss today. Something about the young man? "Deener claimed him. I think he's teaching the children how to play poker! I hope that's all right..."
[Deener,] Zechs thought, his heart lifting. [It was inevitable...] "Yes, of course," he murmured. "It's not like they have much to gamble away... and if they were on the streets they'd be learning far worse pastimes." He put his coat away. "I'll find them... thank you, Miss Cherry."
"You're welcome, sir," Cherry sighed, hoping the young man could help lift Mr. Peacecraft's spirits any.
Zechs found a little huddle of children in the playroom, in the middle of which was an unmistakable head bearing a long brown braid. At his approach, the children called out to him cheerily, waving. "Papa Peace, Papa Peace!"
Deener beamed, holding up a fan of cards. "Look, Papa Peace, Papa Duo is teaching us how to play poker!"
Duo's head came up abruptly. "Huh? What'd you call me?" He hadn't dared to look at Zechs yet, afraid his feelings would be all too evident on his face. [Papa Peace, they call him! Why, they love him... he's not just building orphanages to salve his conscience, then?]
Deener gave him a disdainful look. "You are an adult, aren't you?"
"Well, yeah..."
She ticked it off on her fingers. "You're an adult, you're a guy... oops, I guess that means you qualify! Get over it, huh?"
The children giggled and Duo drew his baseball cap down further over his bangs. "Urk, okay, whatever..."
"Are you children treating Duo properly?" Zechs asked, patting one boy on the head and touching another gently on the shoulder. "He is our special guest today."
"Eh, he's one of us," Deener said with supreme confidence, going back to fiddling with her hand of cards.
Duo looked at the young girl in amazement. She seemed to have an intuitive insight remarkable in one her age. [Reminds me of Quatre. Gotta watch my step around this one...] "What's *that* supposed to mean?"
Big blue eyes nailed him dead on. "You were an orphan, too... weren't you?"
[What, is it stamped on my forehead?] he thought, giving her a mock scowl. "Eh, something like that."
"Alliance?" Deener asked softly, her voice lowered in respect.
"Amazing, they teach real history here, not the fudged pap that OZ rewrote," he muttered as much to Zechs as to himself. He was aware, no, hyperaware of the man watching him as if his very skin could sense his presence. Avoiding the ice-blue gaze was helping his composure. "Yeah, the Alliance Forces orphaned me twice, actually - the church where I was staying was blown up as well, later." [And enough about *that*...] "Say, do you know who Heero Yuy is?"
Duo suddenly had seven hands waving in his face. Astonished, he pointed to one of the boys, who eagerly responded, "Heero Yuy was the colonial leader who proposed that the colonies practice pacifism! But he was assassinated by the Alliance who wanted to control the colonies."
[Alliance, OZ... it was all the same back then,] Duo mused. He smiled at the boy, nodding. "Very good - I'm glad to see you're getting a good education here."
"You wanna see the rest of the place?" Deener spoke up, regarding him curiously. She'd wondered if Duo was friends with their benefactor, but so far Duo hadn't looked at him once. [Something is going on here, I can smell it,] she thought, her intuition tingling.
For the first time, Duo looked over to where Zechs was patiently listening behind the group, crouched down to their level. Zechs met his glance, the ice-blue eyes cool, his composure perfectly in place. "You couldn't ask for a better tour guide," Zechs murmured with a faint smile. "Why don't you go ahead? I've got some work to do. Duo, if you wouldn't mind, could you please stop in my office later?"
Duo nodded, then gulped as he remembered the searing look Zechs had given him just this morning. [I don't even want to be here,] he thought, unnerved. [To be near him, around him, but not be able to touch him or even to feel the warmth of his gaze. Shit, I don't think I want to put myself through that! But there's something about this place..." He noted then that the children were putting the cards away, preparing to return to class, and Deener was standing beside him, her hand held out for him to take.
He took it. Deener gave him a wink and then began chatting animatedly about her home, Duo listening for the most part. But another little part yearned to stay beside Zechs, just to be near him.
Zechs, unable to watch anymore, excused himself to the children and headed for his office. Within, he closed the door and sat down at the desk where he put his head in his shaking hands. [What has happened to me?] he wondered in dismay. [Can one night change so much? But I can't... Duo deserves so much more than a broken soldier like me. I would be too much of a reminder to him of the war. I forgot he witnessed the destruction of Barge. That's what he remembers of me! I'll never be able to leave the war behind; it is my curse and my burden now, the sins I have committed. I am too stained with evil, while he is too pure. Just like Heero... like any of them. No... the likes of me is not meant to find happiness. I survive and I atone. That is my life now...]
A short distance away, Deener and Duo came to the center court, the Peacegarden. "Wow, this is really amazing," Duo exclaimed, impressed with the riot of colorful flowers. "You kids did all this?"
Deener grinned up at him. "Not by ourselves, of course. Papa Peace did a lot of it." She laughed, a charming sound like a high-toned bell. "He was so funny! You should have seen him covered in dirt!"
[Um, what to call him? They don't know who Zechs was...oh, right...] "Mr. Peacecraft was covered in dirt? I can't picture that!"
"I know, I know! He likes to look nice all the time," Deener laughed again. "That's one way to tell he wasn't originally a colonist, you know."
"Um..." Duo looked at the girl curiously.
Deener looked up at him, sobering. "What do you know about Mr. Peacecraft, Papa Duo?"
Duo swallowed with difficulty. "I know he was a soldier."
Her eyes grew bright, and she tugged on his arm to get him to come down to her level. Obligingly Duo sat on a nearby bench. Deener perched next to him, looking around the garden. "I know who he was, Papa Duo. I was just a little girl, six years old, but I never forgot the name - Milliardo Peacecraft. He was a prince, I think, at least I've always thought he could be. But I know he led rebels who tried to hurt the Earth. Why did he do that, Duo?"
[Oh, my...] "I don't know, Deener. Except that I think he was very sad." He thought again of Quatre, who also had succumbed to sorrow when his father died. "Sometimes sorrow makes people do things they never would otherwise."
"That's what I think, too," Deener replied seriously. "And I think he's still a sad person. But I'm glad he has us." She smiled a little.
"Why is that, Deener?" Duo asked, wondering. The girl seemed ageless, wise before her years.
"Us kids make him laugh sometime. I don't think he laughs anywhere else."
Duo looked down at his hands. "You could be right," he murmured. [I've never heard Zechs Merquise laugh... except last night in bed. He wanted to forget. I hope it helped...]
"Were you a soldier?" Deener asked him suddenly.
He looked at her with widened eyes. [What happened to her parents, I wonder? I'll have to ask Zechs...] "Ah, yeah, sure."
"Were you with the White Fang or with OZ?" she asked earnestly, his eyes huge.
Duo tried to joke about it. "Hey, what's this with all the questions, eh?" he chuckled. "I'm just a guy visiting your orphanage. Who cares about my past?"
Deener nodded, understanding, still serious. "You fought with Mr. Peacecraft - that's how you know him, isn't it?"
"Don't you have to be in class or something?" Duo asked nervously.
"I'm ahead of my class," she replied gravely. "Did you kill people?"
Duo bounced up off the bench suddenly, his braid flying up. [Man, she's persistent!] "Only the ones that needed killing," he retorted, taking a couple steps away before he stopped himself. [She's just a little girl. A girl with her eyes wide open. That's not a bad thing, right? Why do kids even have to know about wars, though?]
"Good," Deener replied, startling him. "But what if you knew your enemy had a good heart? Would you still kill them?"
Duo thought of Hilde. "Nah, not if I know better. But in war you usually don't know those things. That's just how it is. You have orders... or else you're trying to stop people from doing bad things." As soon as it came out of his mouth, he knew he should have kept his mouth shut.
"You tried to kill Mr. Peacecraft," Deener said, her voice soft and haunting.
He shrugged expansively, blowing it off. "Didn't know him, then! Heh, I know he's a good person now. He tried to kill me, too. It was war, Deener."
"Yeah," she said, slipping her hand into his again. "War."