RATING: R
PAIRING: 2X5, 3x2
WARNINGS: Definite angst factor in this one. Trowa's age is changed from that of a fifteen-year-old to that of a twenty-five-year-old, but Duo's the same age. He's a bit... um... unstable though... O.O
DISCLAIMERS: I don't own them, none of them.
"Hey there, you're going to fine, just come over to me and take my hand," the soothing voice of the negotiator reached the boy's ears, attempting to calm the panicked child as he reached out a hand slowly to grasp the trembling arm.
"Get the hell away from me!" the boy shot back at him, moving away, the western wind whipping his torn black flannel sleeping pants. He closed his wild eyes as he gazed down at the blinking and flashing lights far below him at the base of the water tower. The lights blurred in his eyes and made him dizzy, his legs trembling more, his hands reaching back to the cold metal of the white landmark to grasp something solid, something worth it. "Get the fuck away from me damn it!"
The negotiator backed off, his hand dropping to his side. He watched carefully the posture of the suicidal boy, the braid whipping in the wind, the hair shredded from the thick shaft of hair plaited along his back. He was topless, his bare chest covered in goosebumps, and his legs shaking as if he couldn't stop them. "What's so bad that you have to kill yourself over it?" The same smooth nice voice. The pose of the man soothing and appeasing.
"What the fuck would you know if it?" the boy whispered, the only reason the man heard his words was because of the wind carrying them.
"I don't know anything of it right now," came the response. "But if you told me, then perhaps I could be of some help?"
"No way..." The boy swallowed, opening tearing eyes.
Without the boy seeing it, the negotiator inched closer. "My name's Trowa Bloom. What's yours?"
The boy scoffed, a harsh dark laugh. "Surely they gave you a file on me."
"Yes," Trowa answered, nodding and looking out over the scenery. "But it helps both of us if you tell it to me."
"I don't want any help!" came the sharp response. The boy's chin began to chatter. It was warm outside, no matter the punishing wind. He was starting to panic more. "Just get away from me! I don't want any help!"
"Obviously, you do," Trowa said, "Or you wouldn't have waited three hours till someone called the police to jump."
The boy's eyes shot over to those of the negotiator. "Is that a challenge?! You don't believe I can do it, do you? You're just like all of them! You're just like those people! You don't think I'm capable of doing it! Of going through with it!"
"Shh," Trowa tried to calm him. "I'm not saying anything. I was just merely making an observation. Please tell me your name."
The boy looked over the inky countryside and breathed harshly, heaving in gulps of air. "Duo. Duo Maxwell," he mumbled.
Trowa smiled. "Thank you, Duo Maxwell, for telling me your name." He inched closer, again, unnoticed. A spot light shot up to them and Trowa cursed inwardly those damn police officers, always doing things by the book. Why didn't they heed his warning?! Why didn't they just stay back until he had calmed the boy enough to comply with him and come down off that tower!
Duo stiffened and stepped towards the edge of the narrow walkway circling the entire circumference of the tower. He licked his dry lips as he peered over the edge, the drop off frightening to behold. And yet, he looked at it as if it were something precious, something that could only grant him release. Release from the taunts, from the constant jabs and teasing.
"I'm homosexual, you know," he explained unexpectedly, his words impassive but threaded with pain and fear. "They don't like it. They say it's not natural to lust after men..."
"I wouldn't care either way," Trowa replied. "Please step back from the edge. That way, we can talk better."
"Can't they turn off that fucking light?!" The boy suddenly became hostile, angry. "It's hurting my eyes... Turn that goddamned thing off!" he screamed down at the officials. "Turn it off or I'll jump!"
Trowa's eyes widened and he cursed the officers again. He had no doubt they heard the demands, and had no doubt that they wouldn't follow them. "If I go down there and make them turn off those search lights, will you talk to me?"
"What makes you think I'll talk to you anyway?" Duo scoffed, turning to face him, his back to the ground looming under him.
"Because you already have talked to me," Trowa answered. A smile, inviting and warm came to the man's lips. "Please stay here."
Duo searched his gaze for some sort of a farce but came up with only gentle sureness. "Yeah, whatever. I'll be here."
"You promise, now?" Trowa asked, starting for the latter.
"I never lie," Duo replied.
Trowa smiled at him again and began his descent into the darkness.
The light cut off suddenly, Duo left to blink in the dark. Yes, this was better. He liked the dark, liked it to engulf his body just like it had engulfed his mind and soul.
Trowa appeared again, standing closer to the boy. "Can we sit and talk now?"
"They anger you, don't they, negotiator?" Duo asked offhandedly, as if not hearing the request. "They anger me, too. They anger me because they don't understand just how exquisite it feels to be in the arms of a man... none of them do. And you want to know the irony of it all?"
"Tell me," Trowa accepted, sitting down hopping Duo would follow him.
"When all people are young, little kids, they experiment whether they wish to admit it to themselves or not," Duo said, looking down still upon the shadowed officers. "They probe others and they touch others and they are touched and probed by others. But I liked it when I was touched and probed. It felt right. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
"Please sit," Trowa said, patting the platform to his side.
"Do you?" Duo asked again. "No..." he laughed again, that same haunting dark laugh. "You don't. You probably see me like the rest of them do... a freak..."
"I see you as nothing but someone who needs help in sorting things out," Trowa answered, carefully selecting the words of his reply. "Please sit."
"Why? Why should I sit?" Duo asked.
"Because that way, I can talk to you easier," Trowa said. "Looking up at you is hurting my neck."
Duo sat, but not beside the negotiator. He sat with his right leg dangling off the platform. "Is this better?"
"I suppose it is," Trowa answered. "Why did you want the light off?"
"Because that light drew attention to me," Duo whispered, looking into his lap. "I don't like it when people look at me because they ridicule me. You're no different, I can tell."
"I see you as doing nothing wrong by loving men," Trowa said. His inner voice warned him of his training. Don't tell a case about yourself other than your first name and a false last name. Never tell them your number and never get too personal with them.
Duo looked at him for the first time since he made his second ascent, and he looked almost startled. "What?"
It's sad it's such a shock to him... "I see nothing wrong with it. The sexual preferences of people are as individual as their finger prints. One should not be judged by their variance."
"You... Wow..." Duo seemed to lapse into himself. He scooted a bit closer to Trowa, only his foot hanging off the edge now, lowering his eyes. "They never let me play... Basketball, I mean. They didn't want me in the locker room, they said."
"They shouldn't have done that," Trowa sympathized.
"They said I was crazy, sick," Duo kept on talking, not really hearing the responses. "They took me to a doctor and made me stay there. They said it was a mental institution, but it was only a brainwashing camp."
"Who's they?"
Duo continued, not hearing Trowa's question again. "They made the people there drones, zombies because they couldn't think for themselves because of the drugs they shoved into them. I didn't take them, though. I hid them under my tongue and then stuffed them in my hiding place. It was a really keen place to hide things small like that. It was the bedpost."
"Duo, who's they?" Trowa tried again, becoming more worried at the babble and the pain-filled creased face.
"But they found them," Duo continued. "The doctors found my pills and put me in the infirmary. Instead of pills, they used IV's to drug me. I couldn't stop them from drugging me."
"Duo, who's they?" Trowa insisted more stern this time.
Duo chewed on his lip, starting to rock slightly. "But I got away. I made like I was getting better and then I ran. I ran home."
"Duo-"
"I ran here, to Mommy and Papa. They rejected me, though, and threw me out. That was last night. They called the police on me. Said that I was really sick and needed help to cure my madness, that those doctors were only trying to help me," Duo whispered now. "But they weren't helping me..."
"Duo, look at me, please," Trowa tried a different route.
Duo jumped to his feet and turned to face the world, screaming at the top of his lungs. "BUT IT DIDN'T WORK, MOMMY! I'M STILL MAD! DON'T YOU SEE, PAPA! I'M STILL GAY AND I'M STILL CRAZY!"
Trowa rose behind him and went against his best resolve in such a situation and wrapped his arms tightly around the shivering, crying boy, locking his hands together, twining his fingers, and tugged him backwards, landing hard on the steel platform, Duo sitting, thrashing atop his lap as he tried with all his might to quell the relatively dangerous tantrum.
Duo screamed and gnashed his teeth, flailing his legs, jamming his bare heels as hard as he could into the shins of the negotiator, his fingers clenching together and tears streaming down his cheeks.
"Shh! Don't cry... Don't cry, little one," Trowa whispered in his ear, rocking him back and forth with fast smooth movements. So this boy was a mental hospital patient... This would make things both easier and harder on him. Easier because of his time as a nurse at such an establishment, which meant he knew how to deal with such incidents, and harder because Duo was made mad by that place; he didn't enter into it truly ill. "Shh... Hush, little baby... Shh... Don't cry... Don't cry..."
Duo collapsed in a heap upon Trowa's chest, weeping still, but nonetheless exhausted. His body shivered from the pain and rage he felt, something that would have to be dealt with sooner rather then later, but not here. Here, it might only cause him to truly jump.
"Hush, little baby... Don't cry..." Trowa still soothed the boy as if he were some frightened wild animal. In all actuality, though, that was what he was, something exiled from life because of his preferences. Damn this society to hell.
"I don't want to..." Duo began to murmur. "I don't want to go back there... not to that place... that place is bad... it's bad... IT'S BAD! Don't send be back there, please... don't send me back... I don't want to go back there..."
"You're not going back there, I'll make sure of it," Trowa soothed. "You believe me, right?"
Duo nodded. "Don't let them take me away... Not to that place... Please, Trowa... Please..."
~OWARI~
For now...
PAIRING: 2X5, 3x2
WARNINGS: Definite angst factor in this one. Trowa's age is changed from that of a fifteen-year-old to that of a twenty-five-year-old, but Duo's the same age. He's a bit... um... unstable though... O.O
DISCLAIMERS: I don't own them, none of them.
"Hey there, you're going to fine, just come over to me and take my hand," the soothing voice of the negotiator reached the boy's ears, attempting to calm the panicked child as he reached out a hand slowly to grasp the trembling arm.
"Get the hell away from me!" the boy shot back at him, moving away, the western wind whipping his torn black flannel sleeping pants. He closed his wild eyes as he gazed down at the blinking and flashing lights far below him at the base of the water tower. The lights blurred in his eyes and made him dizzy, his legs trembling more, his hands reaching back to the cold metal of the white landmark to grasp something solid, something worth it. "Get the fuck away from me damn it!"
The negotiator backed off, his hand dropping to his side. He watched carefully the posture of the suicidal boy, the braid whipping in the wind, the hair shredded from the thick shaft of hair plaited along his back. He was topless, his bare chest covered in goosebumps, and his legs shaking as if he couldn't stop them. "What's so bad that you have to kill yourself over it?" The same smooth nice voice. The pose of the man soothing and appeasing.
"What the fuck would you know if it?" the boy whispered, the only reason the man heard his words was because of the wind carrying them.
"I don't know anything of it right now," came the response. "But if you told me, then perhaps I could be of some help?"
"No way..." The boy swallowed, opening tearing eyes.
Without the boy seeing it, the negotiator inched closer. "My name's Trowa Bloom. What's yours?"
The boy scoffed, a harsh dark laugh. "Surely they gave you a file on me."
"Yes," Trowa answered, nodding and looking out over the scenery. "But it helps both of us if you tell it to me."
"I don't want any help!" came the sharp response. The boy's chin began to chatter. It was warm outside, no matter the punishing wind. He was starting to panic more. "Just get away from me! I don't want any help!"
"Obviously, you do," Trowa said, "Or you wouldn't have waited three hours till someone called the police to jump."
The boy's eyes shot over to those of the negotiator. "Is that a challenge?! You don't believe I can do it, do you? You're just like all of them! You're just like those people! You don't think I'm capable of doing it! Of going through with it!"
"Shh," Trowa tried to calm him. "I'm not saying anything. I was just merely making an observation. Please tell me your name."
The boy looked over the inky countryside and breathed harshly, heaving in gulps of air. "Duo. Duo Maxwell," he mumbled.
Trowa smiled. "Thank you, Duo Maxwell, for telling me your name." He inched closer, again, unnoticed. A spot light shot up to them and Trowa cursed inwardly those damn police officers, always doing things by the book. Why didn't they heed his warning?! Why didn't they just stay back until he had calmed the boy enough to comply with him and come down off that tower!
Duo stiffened and stepped towards the edge of the narrow walkway circling the entire circumference of the tower. He licked his dry lips as he peered over the edge, the drop off frightening to behold. And yet, he looked at it as if it were something precious, something that could only grant him release. Release from the taunts, from the constant jabs and teasing.
"I'm homosexual, you know," he explained unexpectedly, his words impassive but threaded with pain and fear. "They don't like it. They say it's not natural to lust after men..."
"I wouldn't care either way," Trowa replied. "Please step back from the edge. That way, we can talk better."
"Can't they turn off that fucking light?!" The boy suddenly became hostile, angry. "It's hurting my eyes... Turn that goddamned thing off!" he screamed down at the officials. "Turn it off or I'll jump!"
Trowa's eyes widened and he cursed the officers again. He had no doubt they heard the demands, and had no doubt that they wouldn't follow them. "If I go down there and make them turn off those search lights, will you talk to me?"
"What makes you think I'll talk to you anyway?" Duo scoffed, turning to face him, his back to the ground looming under him.
"Because you already have talked to me," Trowa answered. A smile, inviting and warm came to the man's lips. "Please stay here."
Duo searched his gaze for some sort of a farce but came up with only gentle sureness. "Yeah, whatever. I'll be here."
"You promise, now?" Trowa asked, starting for the latter.
"I never lie," Duo replied.
Trowa smiled at him again and began his descent into the darkness.
The light cut off suddenly, Duo left to blink in the dark. Yes, this was better. He liked the dark, liked it to engulf his body just like it had engulfed his mind and soul.
Trowa appeared again, standing closer to the boy. "Can we sit and talk now?"
"They anger you, don't they, negotiator?" Duo asked offhandedly, as if not hearing the request. "They anger me, too. They anger me because they don't understand just how exquisite it feels to be in the arms of a man... none of them do. And you want to know the irony of it all?"
"Tell me," Trowa accepted, sitting down hopping Duo would follow him.
"When all people are young, little kids, they experiment whether they wish to admit it to themselves or not," Duo said, looking down still upon the shadowed officers. "They probe others and they touch others and they are touched and probed by others. But I liked it when I was touched and probed. It felt right. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
"Please sit," Trowa said, patting the platform to his side.
"Do you?" Duo asked again. "No..." he laughed again, that same haunting dark laugh. "You don't. You probably see me like the rest of them do... a freak..."
"I see you as nothing but someone who needs help in sorting things out," Trowa answered, carefully selecting the words of his reply. "Please sit."
"Why? Why should I sit?" Duo asked.
"Because that way, I can talk to you easier," Trowa said. "Looking up at you is hurting my neck."
Duo sat, but not beside the negotiator. He sat with his right leg dangling off the platform. "Is this better?"
"I suppose it is," Trowa answered. "Why did you want the light off?"
"Because that light drew attention to me," Duo whispered, looking into his lap. "I don't like it when people look at me because they ridicule me. You're no different, I can tell."
"I see you as doing nothing wrong by loving men," Trowa said. His inner voice warned him of his training. Don't tell a case about yourself other than your first name and a false last name. Never tell them your number and never get too personal with them.
Duo looked at him for the first time since he made his second ascent, and he looked almost startled. "What?"
It's sad it's such a shock to him... "I see nothing wrong with it. The sexual preferences of people are as individual as their finger prints. One should not be judged by their variance."
"You... Wow..." Duo seemed to lapse into himself. He scooted a bit closer to Trowa, only his foot hanging off the edge now, lowering his eyes. "They never let me play... Basketball, I mean. They didn't want me in the locker room, they said."
"They shouldn't have done that," Trowa sympathized.
"They said I was crazy, sick," Duo kept on talking, not really hearing the responses. "They took me to a doctor and made me stay there. They said it was a mental institution, but it was only a brainwashing camp."
"Who's they?"
Duo continued, not hearing Trowa's question again. "They made the people there drones, zombies because they couldn't think for themselves because of the drugs they shoved into them. I didn't take them, though. I hid them under my tongue and then stuffed them in my hiding place. It was a really keen place to hide things small like that. It was the bedpost."
"Duo, who's they?" Trowa tried again, becoming more worried at the babble and the pain-filled creased face.
"But they found them," Duo continued. "The doctors found my pills and put me in the infirmary. Instead of pills, they used IV's to drug me. I couldn't stop them from drugging me."
"Duo, who's they?" Trowa insisted more stern this time.
Duo chewed on his lip, starting to rock slightly. "But I got away. I made like I was getting better and then I ran. I ran home."
"Duo-"
"I ran here, to Mommy and Papa. They rejected me, though, and threw me out. That was last night. They called the police on me. Said that I was really sick and needed help to cure my madness, that those doctors were only trying to help me," Duo whispered now. "But they weren't helping me..."
"Duo, look at me, please," Trowa tried a different route.
Duo jumped to his feet and turned to face the world, screaming at the top of his lungs. "BUT IT DIDN'T WORK, MOMMY! I'M STILL MAD! DON'T YOU SEE, PAPA! I'M STILL GAY AND I'M STILL CRAZY!"
Trowa rose behind him and went against his best resolve in such a situation and wrapped his arms tightly around the shivering, crying boy, locking his hands together, twining his fingers, and tugged him backwards, landing hard on the steel platform, Duo sitting, thrashing atop his lap as he tried with all his might to quell the relatively dangerous tantrum.
Duo screamed and gnashed his teeth, flailing his legs, jamming his bare heels as hard as he could into the shins of the negotiator, his fingers clenching together and tears streaming down his cheeks.
"Shh! Don't cry... Don't cry, little one," Trowa whispered in his ear, rocking him back and forth with fast smooth movements. So this boy was a mental hospital patient... This would make things both easier and harder on him. Easier because of his time as a nurse at such an establishment, which meant he knew how to deal with such incidents, and harder because Duo was made mad by that place; he didn't enter into it truly ill. "Shh... Hush, little baby... Shh... Don't cry... Don't cry..."
Duo collapsed in a heap upon Trowa's chest, weeping still, but nonetheless exhausted. His body shivered from the pain and rage he felt, something that would have to be dealt with sooner rather then later, but not here. Here, it might only cause him to truly jump.
"Hush, little baby... Don't cry..." Trowa still soothed the boy as if he were some frightened wild animal. In all actuality, though, that was what he was, something exiled from life because of his preferences. Damn this society to hell.
"I don't want to..." Duo began to murmur. "I don't want to go back there... not to that place... that place is bad... it's bad... IT'S BAD! Don't send be back there, please... don't send me back... I don't want to go back there..."
"You're not going back there, I'll make sure of it," Trowa soothed. "You believe me, right?"
Duo nodded. "Don't let them take me away... Not to that place... Please, Trowa... Please..."
~OWARI~
For now...