Afterimages

By Mieren

Author's note:  (I don't usually put these here, but this time I think it's necessary.)

Warning!  This is very dark and disturbed, even by my standards.  Contains graphic violence, rape and death.  This is YAOI (if you don't know, don't ask, just run now).  If you're not comfortable with it, don't read!  I'm not responsible for any nightmares or bouts of nausea related to reading this.  Suing me will only get you a headache.  (I'm a student.  I own nothing.)  Any and all flames will be laughed at, printed and used to wipe my butt.  So there.

*     *     *

The war was finally over.  Years passed and found the pilots living on Earth.  Quatre was busy running the Winner family business, which kept him constantly busy and with little to no spare time.  He quickly lost track of most of the other pilots with the exception of Trowa, who had moved in with him as his lover.  The other three pilots worked as Preventers with Zechs, Sally and Noin.

The moment the clock hit five, Duo was out the door and heading to his car, blatantly ignoring the stack of paperwork waiting for him tomorrow.  Every day, the stack got a little deeper and a lot scarier, but he wasn't particularly fond of paperwork and didn't intend to spend his free time after work shuffling through mind numbing reports.  Most of the office was accustomed to his early departure and ignored him, accepting the fact that an eighteen-year-old didn't need to spend every free moment in the office.  Even Zechs, workaholic that he was, openly admitted that it wasn't healthy for someone that energetic to spend every waking moment indoors slaving over a stack of paperwork.

Hard onyx eyes watched him leave, disapproving of his negligent attitude towards work.  Pushing up his reading glasses and irately pushing a loose lock of hair out of his face, Wufei stalked back to his office, just knowing that the American's early departure would somehow result in more work for him.  He passed Heero in the hall and was pleased to note the irritation on the perfect soldier's face.  When the Japanese boy returned to his apartment, he was certain to tell off his roommate for being lazy.  Wufei barely dared to hope that if Heero continued to lecture the American, he just might think about taking work seriously.

Three hours later, Wufei left the office along with a few other stragglers.  Heero stayed in his office, clearing out the excess paperwork and finishing the work on a few of the harder cases that no one else was willing to tackle alone.  He didn't even seem fazed by the complications with legal issues that came up with a few, finding a way around each before allowing himself to retire for the night.  He didn't vacate the office until a little after ten, setting the alarms around the offices and grunting hostilely at the new security guards that tried to talk to him on the way out.  The older ones carefully avoided him, fully aware of his volatile temper.

The following day, Duo was actually an hour early for work, pushing through the doors between the janitors at seven in the morning.  During the workday, no one commented on his messily braided hair or black eye.  Duo caught some of the looks thrown in his direction and mumbled something about staying out drinking and getting into a fight.  No one challenged his explanation or questioned how a trained terrorist would lose a fight, drunk or not.  After all, he came in looking like he had taken a beating at least once a week.  Following every fight, he came into work early, sometimes by up to two hours before he actually had to clock in.

He stayed late, too.

*     *     *

It was the weekend.

Knowing that Heero would be in the apartment working on his laptop, completing a few cases that he hadn't gotten around to during the week, Duo decided to stay out, not really wanting to spend too much time around the Japanese teen.  During the war, distracting the dark-haired boy had been something of a pastime.  Now, it was just taunting death.  During the war, Heero had been driven towards a single goal.  And now it was gone.  Without a focal point for his explosive nature, Heero lashed out at anyone who got in his way.  Duo was still waiting patiently, convinced that his friend would calm down in time.

A flash of red caught his eye and Duo looked up, abandoning his musings about his best friend.  From where he was lounging idly in the mall, he was attracting the attention of several young women in tight clothes.  His eyes flickered to a platinum blond in a short red dress and a grin slowly spread across his cherubic face that time had done little to mature.  Dressed in black, he looked thinner than he actually was, almost anorexic.  His only saving grace was that he had grown in the last few years, finally achieving the height that he had feared would always evade his slight frame.  Though considerably lanky for his age, he was just shy of six foot, which was taller than even Trowa was rumored to have grown.

Movement snapped him out of his thoughts a second time and he nearly kicked himself.  Thinking of his past acquaintances when several girls were openly flirting with him.  He put on a winning smile and winked at the girl in red, carefully watching her emerald eyes widen at being singled out of her friends.  Nearly bouncing on her toes, she swayed up to him quickly before he could change his mind and latched onto his arm.  He quickly introduced himself and offered to take her to a nice restaurant.  When she agreed enthusiastically, he escorted her to his car, falling back into his thoughts.

At least now he had something to do for the weekend that would keep him away from the apartment.

*     *     *

Duo nearly stumbled face first into the doorframe, barely catching himself.  In his drunken stupor, he had barely made it back to the apartment before passing out and he now wanted nothing more than to collapse on his bed.  He had been out the entire weekend with the platinum blond woman, spending most of their time at various parties and a rave.  Now, it was four o'clock Monday morning.

Finally able to get into the apartment, having had a difficult time getting his plastered mind remember how to work the key in the lock, he promptly collapsed on the floor, mindless of the fact that he had to get up in a few hours to go to work.  He glanced down the hall blearily before deciding that he couldn't make it as far as his room.  With one foot, he clumsily pushed the door shut, unable to get up to relock it.  The world rolled violently and he passed out.

*     *     *

The first thing Duo noticed while fighting out of his drunken stupor was an unaccountable headache and a distinct difficulty breathing.  After a few seconds, the pain in his head doubled, sending flashes of white light across his blurry vision.  Groaning, he forced his eyes open, immediately snapping them shut again when his dazed mind registered a fist approaching his face.  He tried to brace himself for the blow, gasping when it landed across his cheekbone.  He would have collapsed had Heero not been holding him up by his shirt.

Realizing that the quivering form in his hands was awake, Heero doubled his assault, throwing Duo up against the wall and holding him there with a series of punches to his stomach and ribs.  Knowing exactly what he had done to tick Heero off this time, Duo didn't bother to do or say anything to defend himself.  It would only make things worse.  Heero would calm down a lot faster if he just held still and remained quiet.

Several minutes passed and Heero showed no signs of slowing down.  Exhausted from lack of sleep, an impending hangover and withstanding a severe beating, Duo allowed himself to slide back into blissful unconsciousness.  Eventually Heero would stop.  There was no need for him to be awake for it.  He knew that by passing out and missing work, it would probably irritate Heero further, but he wasn't awake enough to care.  The last thing that registered in Duo's mind before blackness claimed him was the sharp echo of his skull hitting the hardwood floor.

*     *     *

The glare of the evening sun roused Duo from his stupor.  He closed his eyes tightly when his first vision was of the apartment spinning around his prone form.  For several minutes, he concentrated only on breathing around the pain in his lungs.  Slowly, his head cleared, allowing his other senses to return sluggishly.

Duo swallowed weakly around a leathery tongue, ignoring the flavor of blood in his mouth.  A quick swipe of his tongue around his mouth identified the source of the blood.  Several of his teeth were loose and there was a deep gash on the inside of his cheek where he his teeth had cut into the flesh where he was hit.  He was just thankful that Heero hadn't knocked out any of his teeth this time.  At least half of his teeth were replacements for the ones Heero had shattered.

Knowing he had to get up before Heero got home, Duo began shifting gingerly to make sure nothing was broken too badly.  He knew immediately that at least half of his ribs were broken.  One of his lungs didn't expand properly and he wondered briefly if it had collapsed again.  A few of his ribs had punctured through his skin, the blood from the wounds gluing his shirt to his chest.  His eyes flickered downward as he slowly realized that his left hand didn't move.  Frowning, Duo shifted his right hand to close over his left, jerking outwards with a sharp snap of his arm to reset his wrist.  He'd put it in a splint as soon as he got up.

Sighing weakly, Duo rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself shakily to his knees with his right hand.  He had to bandage himself up and clean the blood off of the floor before Heero got back.  Heero hated having to clean up the messes Duo created.  He really didn't want to upset him again needlessly.

As soon as Duo moved to stand, he regretted it.  The movement caused his vision to black out, the pain in his head becoming unbearable.  When the throbbing in his head lessened enough for his vision to clear, Duo was on the floor again.  He squinted in vain before deciding that his vision wouldn't clear.  He knew how to recognize a concussion.  Deciding it was unwise to stand up again and that he was probably unable to crawl one-handed, he began to drag himself to the bathroom.  There was a medical kit under the sink.

He barely made it to the bathroom in time to throw up where he wouldn't make a mess.  Spitting to clear the taste from his mouth, he flushed the toilet, trying to ignore the sheer amount of blood that had been in his stomach.  Even knowing that he didn't have too much time before Heero got back from work, Duo had to take a moment to rest.  The crawl across the small apartment had taken most of his energy.

A glance at the small clock in the bathroom revealed how late it was getting.  The breaks he had taken to rest used up more time than he had thought they would.  Knowing that it was in the best interest of his health, he decided to clean up the living area before tending to himself.  As long as the apartment was clean and he was out of the way, Heero would probably leave him alone.

Duo dragged himself to the sink and pulled out the medical kit, setting it on the counter to get it out of the way of the cleaning supplies.  It took him several minutes to gather what he needed and even longer to get back across the apartment to clean his blood off of the floor and walls.  By the time he had gotten all traces of red from the room, he was exhausted.  Only the knowledge that Heero would be home at any time gave him the strength to move himself back to the bathroom.

He had to reset his wrist a second time before splinting it.  Moving around to clean had thrown the bones out of alignment again.  Rather than splint it, which would be too difficult to do with only one working hand, he placed it in a brace intended for sprains.  He frowned at the stillness of his fingers, knowing he wouldn't regain use of that hand until the swelling in his wrist went down enough to alleviate the pinching of the nerves.  With his left arm lying motionless across his lap, he began trying to set his ribs with his right hand.  After a few minutes, he decided that his lung wasn't collapsed, just badly bruised.

An inspection of his left side showed him that only two ribs had pierced the skin.  Knowing that he couldn't place any proper stitches with only one hand functional, he settled for dabbing the area clean of blood and placing a few butterfly band-aids across the holes.  It wasn't as good as stitches, but it would have to work.

The front door opened and closed almost silently, but Duo, having been waiting for the nearly inaudible noise, flinched slightly.  Putting on a cheerful mask, he continued dabbing disinfectant on the last of his wounds before covering them.  He was nearly done when the door to the bathroom was opened.  A strong hand wrapped around his throat and lifted him into the air.  Duo hung limply, trying his best to grin.

"Hi, Heero!" he rasped, barely able to form words past his abused throat.  Heero didn't set him down, so he continued.  "You just caught me.  I was about to go to bed and all.  Have to get to bed early so I can get to work a bit earlier than usual.  I need to get some overtime in this week to catch up on everything.  Maybe if I get far enough ahead, Wu-chan will have a heart attack.  The look on his face would be priceless, don't you think?"

Even though his carefree chatter caused him extreme pain, he continued until he achieved the desired result.  Heero grunted in reply and dropped him.  He had gotten his point across to the silent pilot.  He planned on covering the work he had missed by lying unconscious on the floor all day and was going to behave for at least the remainder of the week.

Duo fought back the urge to groan, knowing Heero would hear him.  It wasn't safe to sleep with a concussion and he was well aware of the fact, but now that he had told Heero he was going to bed, he didn't have a choice.  He would have liked something to eat, but he really didn't want to face Heero again just yet.  He quickly drank a few glasses of water to ease the pain in his stomach and swore to himself that he would eat a large breakfast.

Still unsteady, Duo managed to push himself to his feet, leaning heavily against the bathroom wall.  The world spun wildly around him, but he refused to relinquish his tentative stance simply because his equilibrium demanded he do so.  He didn't want to be seen crawling.

Sighing silently, he began to work his way to his room, sagging pathetically against the wall with every unsteady step he took.  After what seemed like an eternity, he was in his room.  He barely remembered to set his alarm clock before collapsing on his bed, exhausted by his short walk.  Sleep claimed him immediately.

*     *     *

Work was pure hell.  Still stiff from his injuries and dizzy from a concussion, possibly a severe one for all he knew, Duo was having trouble focusing on what he was doing.  Words blurred and twisted on the pages in front of him, evading his slightly glazed eyes and making it almost impossible to get anything done.  Despite his best efforts, he was getting nowhere.

Even worse, his injuries were attracting a lot of unwanted attention.  The bruising on his face and neck were worse this time than anyone at work had witnessed before and several of his coworkers were staring.  He might have been able to deter them if he hadn't been moving so gingerly in a desperate effort not to jar his ribs again.  The bones ground on each other, making it difficult to keep the pain from his eyes and voice.

He hadn't been at work for more than a few hours before Zechs managed to corner him in his office, closing the door behind them.  For several seconds, the blond remained silent before his lips pulled downward in a small frown.

"Why are you here?" he asked simply.

"I work here," Duo smirked, eyes glinting with a forced air of mischief.  "Or at least that's what I've told the payroll monkeys."

"You know what I mean," Zechs sighed.  "You're hurt."

"Hey!" Duo protested, plastering on a wide grin.  "What kind of a weakling do you take me for anyways?  The great Shinigami can't be crippled by a little scuffle!  Besides, I missed yesterday already and I'm not some sort of deadbeat refusing to pull my own weight, you know!  If I fall any further behind, the little vein that throbs in Wufei's forehead when he gets ticked, which is just all the time, might just explode.  Think of the mess that would make.  The pressure behind that thing would blow out all of the windows on this floor, if not the entire building.  I'm not cleaning that up!"

As always, Zechs simply waited out Duo's rambling.  When the braided pilot finally finished, probably having run out of breath, he arched one eyebrow, seemingly unimpressed by the inane chatter.

"Go home, Maxwell," he ordered.  "And stay there.  I don't want you back at work today, or tomorrow for that matter.  Either go home or go to a doctor."  Seeing the defiance in the violet eyes, he continued, oblivious to the stark fear that was so carefully hidden behind the indignant glare.  "That's an order, Maxwell.  Do it or I'll fire you."

Duo visibly flinched at the threat before nodding and rapidly gathering his things and scrambling out of the building.  He didn't even want to think about what Heero would do if he lost his job.  The mere fact that he had been sent home instead in lieu working overtime worried him.  He hadn't been careful enough.  Tears stung the corners of his eyes as he scrambled into his car.  He hadn't recovered from his last encounter yet and any additional injuries would likely be serious ones.

Not even thinking of the consequences of what would happen if something didn't go right, Duo sprinted into the apartment.  His fingers flew over numbers on the phone, tapping out a number that he had looked up long ago but had never had the nerve to call.  The video screen on the wall flickered to life and Trowa's stoic image appeared.  Having expected Quatre, Duo faltered slightly before he started talking rapidly.

"I'm glad you're there," he said quickly.  Before he could say anything else, Trowa cut him off.

"What is this about, Duo?  I've told you years ago never to call us."

"But…"

"No.  Whatever it is you want, bother someone else.  Quatre's been hurt too many times by your behavior in the past and I'm not going to let you upset him again."

"You should know me better than that!" Duo protested.  "I may have teased you two about being together, but that's all it was.  Teasing!  I like to do that.  You remember all the pranks I pulled on Wufei and Heero.  It's just my nature to joke around.  I don't mean anything by it.  I swear I don't have a problem with the two of you being gay!  Hell, you two could go at it with me in the room and I wouldn't even care.  You could even use me for a pillow!  Well, maybe not that, but you know what I mean.  How immature do you think I am?"

Trowa paused, emerald eyes glinting angrily as he considered the rapid explanation and veiled apology within Duo's rambling.  When he remained silent for nearly a minute, Duo decided to continue with his desperate plea.

"I just need a place to stay for a few days."

Emerald eyes flashed with suspicion.  "Stay in your apartment."

"I can't!  Heero's ticked.  He's going to hurt me, Trowa.  Please.  I just need somewhere to hide until he calms down a little."

Seconds ticked by as Trowa's expression grew darker.  Finally, the silent brunette spoke into the deadly silence.

"You've only confirmed that you haven't matured enough to be trustworthy.  If you've done something bad enough to rile Heero, you're on your own.  I won't have you upsetting Quatre again.  Goodbye."

The image on the screen went blank as Trowa abruptly severed the connection.  Tears slipped from Duo's eyes.  He couldn't ask anyone at work for fear that Heero would be able to find him immediately and he didn't have anyone else to turn to.  Trembling slightly, he decided to gather a few changes of clothes so he could leave.  He'd hide in his car for a few days out in the middle of nowhere.  Heero would be able to find him at a hotel.

The moment he turned around, he found himself staring into cold Prussian blue eyes.  Duo's blood ran cold.  Heero had heard.

Duo held perfectly still, waiting for the inevitable.  With everything that he had done wrong recently, he knew that he was going to be beaten unconscious again.  Not only had he missed work yesterday, but he had been sent home today, missing both today's work and overtime.  He wasn't sure how it had happened, but Heero wasn't at work either.  He suspected that Zechs had sent Heero home as well in order to watch over him.  Either that or Heero had followed him to make sure he didn't try what he had just been caught doing.  No matter how he looked at it, Heero was missing work because of him.  Duo didn't have to be told to know that talking to anyone about how he was constantly injured would endanger Heero's job as a Preventer.  That alone was inexcusable.

The first blow landed in Duo's ribs, knocking him to the floor and stealing his breath.  He gasped weakly, trying futilely to draw air into his tortured lungs.  A foot connected with his side, the force behind it enough to lift him off of the ground as he flew five feet before landing on the hardwood floor, skidding another three feet before hitting a wall.

The blood both on the floor and flooding his mouth informed Duo that he was hurt seriously.  His broken ribs had been thrown out of alignment and several were through his left lung.  Blood ran freely from his mouth with every labored breath.

Trying to save his ribs from another kick, Duo swung his arm back to protect his already mangled side.  Bones snapped in the impact, misaligning his already broken wrist and breaking his forearm.  Even knowing that his arm would be broken beyond use if he continued to hold it in the way, he stubbornly kept his arm folded over his ribs.

He wasn't kicked again.  Heero pulled him to his feet by his braid and pushed him into the blood-splattered wall.  Punches rained across his stomach and chest for several minutes before a single blow to the side of Duo's jaw sent him spiraling into darkness.

To Be Continued…

Originally, this was going to be posted as one story.  But I decided to post it in sections so I could get it out now.  More than this is done.  The number of reviews I get will determine how soon I post the next section.  Aren't I evil?  R&R!