Category: Urm…Gundam Wing fic, centralized around Heero and Duo (glomps Heero) 1x2! There may be some 3x4 and others later, but that will be decided in due time.
Rating: At present, PG-13 will do, although it may be upped later since I'm planning to put some violence and tragedy and all that other good stuff into it. Oh yea, and this is a slash, so don't read if you don't like
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is owned by…somebody…I believe it is Bandai and Sunrise. Oh well, whoever, just not me. I don't even own a Heero plushie! So if you want to please me, buy me one, but then again, I'm scared it will come out all distorted as plushies tend to be…
Spoilers: This is an AU, do you think there will be spoilers? Apart from the fact that now everybody knows that Duo Maxwell has a braid and Heero has an emotion (or lack there of) complex, and if you don't…well, sorry, but I just spoiled the characters' appearance for you.
Progress: 1 of Something. I'm not quite sure how long this will go for, but I promise you it won't go beyond two digits (I am not nearly that dedicated to any one story, nor do I have the abilities to write something that will have people coming back and reading beyond a few chapters)
General Notes: Okay, this story is dedicated to Bob (refer to dedications). She wanted a story with a cute Heero inside, so I wrote her a story with a cute Heero inside. Although I don't think the Heero came out quite cute enough, which has been the source of my displeasure all day while at school, pondering about this fledging story of mine that was previously sitting on my table in the form of a stack of jumbled notes, since my laptop had been confiscated the previous day and was supposed to remain confiscated for three months (I got it back the following day, i.e. today). In any case, this story was supposed to just be one of those feel good stories with a cute (and possibly nerdy) Heero and a nice Duo and a fluffy storyline. Unfortunately, I got a little carried away with my random planning and decided to add vampires into this fic, hence resulting in the production of eventual angst and tragedy. So, new goal is to write a story with a adorable (and possibly nerdy) Heero and a nice (and very vampiric) Duo and incorporate all possible genres into it, or at least, as many as I possibly can before this story takes a plunge for the worst (supposing it doesn't suck already)
Random Other Notes: Um…first and foremost, Heero is adorable, and I will shoot you if you say otherwise. Even if he is trigger happy and trying to kill everybody, Heero is still adorable. Um…yea...I have nothing else to say…oh yea! Assassin likes coffee, and I'll kiss you if you can find a way to cure my allergy to the stuff.
More Random Notes: This is my first Gundam Wing fan fic, and also my first attempt at slash. I do hope you will all enjoy it, and please review when you're done. I would appreciate any comments of flames or criticism or greetings or whatever else you may want to put in your review, just don't try to cyber-pinch my cheeks.
Thanks to: Bob, for the request and encouragement and random squealing during free sessions in the cafeteria; Mi-chan, for her beta-ing, if that is a word, and her encouragement; Kitty, for her would-be encouragement (reminder to you all, Assassin's cheeks are off limits, OFF LIMITS I SAY! Nobody pinches them!); Overlord for her question about how I could write a fanfic on Gundam Wing without actually watching the series (Because I'm talented damnit!)
Music: In comes my massive list: My Heart Will Go On – perform by none other than my eight year old brother; American Idiot – Green Day, Scarborough Fair – Sung by some random lady; the Sacred Moon – Tsukihime OST; Salva Nos – Noir OST; Wind – Naruto second ending (nice song, horrible lyrics); Life is like a boat – Rie Fu; Life Goes On – Gundam Seed Destiny second ending theme; Lilium – Elfen Lied OST; Bomb a Head – Tenjou Tenge opening
Dedications: Bob AKA Wan Wingu no Tenshi AKA MH the short! You are cute and glompable!
Genre: Romance, drama, supernatural, angst, tragedy, action/adventure
Summary: AU, OOC-ness. Duo Maxwell is a vampire, Heero Yuy isn't, but that's hardly important. This is the story about the two childhood friends and the things that happen to them during their final years of high school.

Aeternitas

Written by Wandering Assassin (AKA Fishie)

Chapter One

There are four main groups on the planet Earth: the demons known as Vampires, who are well known for their habit of drinking blood, but nothing else; the faction that tries hard to destroy them, known as Sacreds, who are under the impression that all vampires are evil; the large majority of people who remain completely oblivious to the presence of both vampires and Sacreds, and finally the small group of people who know about the said creatures and their hunters and spends their life being wary and going around carrying holy water with them in small bottles attached to their belts, just in case some random vampire decided to take a sip of their blood.

Unfortunately, Heero Yuy made the non-existent (or at least, previously non-existent) fifth category: the person who knew about vampires and Sacreds and took it as easily as one would the notion that it may rain during spring. Perhaps that was an exaggeration, for the teenage boy did react when his friend Duo informed him about the whole creatures-who-drank-blood-and-did-not-reside-in-swamps thing, but it had been such a mild "really?" that the violet-eyed American became convinced that his companion had not heard him correctly.

'Heero.' Duo tried again, staring pointedly at the Japanese boy with a small frown on his face. 'Vampires are real.'

'You told me.' Heero responded, his eyes fixed on the small slab of green jelly that was sitting on a small plate in the corner of his lunch tray. He frowned slightly when he jabbed it with his fork and set the blob in motion for a short while before it settled down again. Clearly, he was uncertain about the edibility the mixture of food coloring, flavoring and gelatin was. He prodded it again, blue eyes narrowing as he watched it jiggled yet again, scowled, then pushed the plate off his tray. 'Refrain from eating the jelly Duo, it is far too artificial and the bounce is off.'

'The bounce…?' Duo spluttered weakly, a hopeless look overtaking his face as he stared at his friend sitting across the unhygienic cafeteria table. 'Heero, are you paying attention at all? What I'm telling you is important.'

'I understand Duo, and I have been listening.' Heero looked up from the abandoned jelly and fixed Duo with a firm stare. 'You said there are vampires and people who chase and kill vampires. You also said that there are many different types of vampires, some of which do not require blood as a staple diet. You also insisted that vampires are just like normal people, except that they require fresh blood once in a while. I do not think I am missing anything.'

'Um…' Duo faltered slightly, unsure what to say. He was sure that even somebody as Heero Yuy, the boy with a chronic unable-to-properly-display-emotions complex would react more to being told something like this. But he had listened to every word, accepted them, and went on examining the rest of his cafeteria lunch as if nothing was wrong. 'So you were listening?' Duo finished lamely, a hesitant smile crawling across his face.

'Hn.' Heero went back to examining his lunch, this time focusing his scrutiny on an apple. With a small (and previously washed and sterilized) pocketknife, he sliced the apple in half, stared at the pale fruit inside, sniffed it, then offered a half to Duo. The braided boy accepted the apple and Heero took to examining yet another item on his lunch tray. Duo sighed.

Heero Yuy had been Duo Maxwell's friend since they were both old enough to play in a sand box and not purposefully eat the sand. Even when he was young, Heero had been the serious kid of few words with an emotional problem. Duo could still remember (albeit the memory had become more and more vague over the years) the first time they met. Heero's father had brought him to the local park, and told him to play with the other children. The little Heero had nodded and walked over to the playground and put himself in a swing. Duo, who had been building a castle in the sandbox, had rushed over when he saw a vacant swing, but paused when he saw Heero clamber into it. The Japanese boy had given him a look that was definitely too serious for anybody under sixteen years of age, let alone a four-year-old boy. Duo had pouted and said he wanted to play with the swing. Heero had jumped off immediately and let Duo play with it, and when the violet-eyed boy had muttered his inability to swing by himself, Heero had pushed him. The Japanese boy had continued pushing Duo until the braided boy got off and let Heero play with the swing. Heero had then shown Duo how to swing by himself, and the violet-eyed boy was ecstatic. The two quickly became friends, although Heero remained the person who pushed Duo even after the amethyst-eyed boy had learnt how to swing solo.

Duo's parents died when he was eight. A truck driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and collided with his parents' car, throwing them off the road and into a nearby tree. His father had died upon impact, and his mother went into a coma for a week before being declared dead. Duo had cried and went into a temperamental rage, and would not speak to anybody properly for a week while his uncle Howard resumed the position as Duo's guardian. Heero held him the entire time, and took the week off school to comfort Duo and keep him company. Duo moved away with Howard shortly after that. Heero had chased after their car while Duo cried and stuck his head out the window, waving at his best friend until they rounded a corner and Heero had fallen behind. It was the first and last time Duo had seen Heero cry.

Recently however, Howard had been promoted to a spot in a different city, and Duo had found himself moving again. The local school was a place called Laconia (1) High, where the teachers were Spartans and enforced rules like the military. The food was also exceptionally fitting of the role, and the fact that uniform was compulsory drove Duo up the wall. But surprisingly, Heero turned out to be a fellow student as Duo was overjoyed to discover. He had been stunned when he first ran into Heero at the General Office. He was rendered completely speechless when he saw the other boy, and was uncertain for the longest time whether to call out his name or not. Heero Yuy at sixteen years of age, was the very definition of the word handsome, and Duo meant that in the most literal sense, because he was not attracted to males, although the back of his brain had been very desperately insisting that it would make an exception from straightness for this one person. Six foot tall one, intense cobalt-blue eyes, messy chocolate brown hair and a sinewy build, Heero's appearance simply radiated perfection in the flesh. Unfortunately, Perfection had not yet noticed him as he had fixed the receptionist with a glare and was demanding for a Student I.D. form so he could submit for a new I.D. card. Duo, in his cowardice, had remained behind Heero (or who he assumed was Heero) in line, and waited for the boy to finish his business with the receptionist. The lady handed Heero a form and the boy moved slightly to the left of the window, allowing the next person in line to proceed with their own inquires.

Duo had then handed in his form of transfer and declared his name. The boy on his left paused in his writing, and slowly met his gaze. The strange creatures that had been feeding on his innards suddenly disappeared, and Duo wondered how he could have ever doubted that it was Heero Yuy. The receptionist cleared her throat and gave Duo his locker number and a stern reminder to wear his uniform in future. The violet-eyed boy nodded distractedly, accepted the slip of paper and sidled away from the window. Heero tore his gaze away momentarily to hurriedly finish filling out the form, shoved it onto the receptionist's desk with a lot more force than was necessary, and rushed after Duo.

Duo, who had been dawdling in the main lobby of the school turned and greeted Heero when he approached. The Prussian-blue eyes stared, all emotions kept carefully at bay. Heero gave a nod of acknowledgement, and spoke Duo's name in that deep, nasal voice of his. They both stared at each other, each sizing the other up and comparing them to the younger version of eight years prior. Duo was ecstatic, thought he did not show it save the growing smile on his face. Heero remained blank for a moment longer, his blue eyes calculating as they swept over Duo's person.

Then he smiled.

Even though Duo had been best friends with Heero in the past, the braided boy could still count the number of times he had seen his friend smile on his left hand alone and still have fingers to spare. In Heero terms, a smile was close to the ultimate display of emotion without contact. Duo could remember him laughing once, and of course, crying that once. And here he was, Heero Yuy, Japanese, sixteen years of age, smiling wider than Duo had ever seen him and accounting for the fourth time Duo had ever seen him smile. I genuine Heero smile was about as rare as a leap year, though not nearly as predictable. So Duo could not help himself when he smothered the Japanese boy in a hug.

Hugging Heero as a teen was a very different experience from hugging Heero as a child. The Japanese boy had never been particularly fond of hugs in the past, though he gradually made an exception for Duo. The first time Duo had hugged Heero, the other boy had gone stiff in his arms. The second time had not been any better, and it was not until about the twentieth time did he start reacting to it. By about the fortieth time, he was hugging Duo back. Duo could remember that one particularly well. His pet cat had just died after suffering from some terrible disease or another, and the vet had to put the poor thing down. When he returned home to find Heero sitting on his front porch, waiting for him, he had lunged at the other boy and clung onto him while he cried into the other boy's shirt. Heero hugged him back, although rather hesitantly, as if unsure if that was the action he was supposed to assume. Duo cried and only clung onto him tighter, and Heero held him tightly, more to keep him from shaking too badly than anything else. Afterwards, Heero had taken Duo to the park, and let the distraught boy sit on the swing while he pushed. When Duo finally got tired of swinging and told Heero to stop, the boy had stilled the swing and hugged him from behind, whispering comforting words into his hair all the while.

In any case, having hugged Heero at least a good few hundred or so times as a child, Duo could tell the difference in the gesture immediately this time. Back when they were younger, Duo had been the shorter of the two, and Heero had been a lot thinner. Heero was still thin, even now, but it was a healthy kind of thin. Duo could tell instantly that Heero was very fit, and exercised frequently. They were both of similar height, although Heero was much broader around the shoulders, and the arms that wrapped around him were as strong as he remembered.

They both let go at length after realizing just how many students were starting to stare at them. Heero took the slip of paper off Duo, announced that their lockers were very close to each other and took to showing the braided boy where they were. During the entire time while Heero led him around the school, Duo talked and talked, informing Heero of the key events which have occurred during the last eight years they spent apart from each other. When he had finished explaining a few of the main events, Heero took to explaining just why he was so far from their original home. Apparently, his mother who was a renowned brain surgeon, had been transferred over to the hospital nearby here, which was far larger than back in their home town. His father, who was a lawyer, had only been happy to follow his wife to a larger city and landed himself at a large law firm before they moved. Heero himself had had no qualms about moving, save that his chances of ever meeting Duo again seemed to grow more remote with the relocation. Never did it occur to him that Duo would end up transferring to the same school as he.

And now they sat together in the cafeteria, a good two weeks after Duo had transferred, having school lunch (or in Heero's case, inspecting it) while Duo attempted to tell Heero about the vampires. The blue-eyed boy had just passed the pasta, albeit very reluctantly, and was now reading the nutritional information on the back of his milk bottle. Duo wondered dully whether he should cushion the words he was about to say, but Heero was hardly affected by anything, so maybe he should just say it. Besides, it might be worth it if he got some reaction out of the other boy. Heero was just in the process of draining his bottle of milk when Duo spoke again, his voice hushed and nervous.

'Heero…I am a vampire.'

Footnotes:

(1) Laconia was a region in ancient Greece that was dominated by Sparta, hence the reason why I decided to make the teachers Spartan. I know, lame pun, but hey, at least give me the credit for finding the word.

The title Aeternitas is Latin for eternity/immortality. There really isn't any deep meaning to the word or why I used it, save that I was listening to Lilium and decided that I'll go for a Latin title, since anything Latin looks better than any lousy English sentence/phrase that I can ever come up with for use as a title.

In any case, I hope you all enjoyed that, and please review!

Assassin