Immortality

By Arra Jade

Chapter 2: Friends; Old and New

"No!" I shouted. I charge at Heero, knocking him over, but I was too late. The laser cannon went off before I was able to tackle him to the ground. I heard glass sizzle and shatter behind me and couldn't bring myself to move.

"Duo, What the hell are you doing?!" Heero yelled, only inches from my ear. I didn't even flinch; my ears were already ringing from the sound of the blast. Heero pushed me off of him roughly.

I sat up, looking over my shoulder at the remains of the growth chamber and blinked. The entire top of the tube had been blown off, shattering the glass all the way to the base in the process… But it had missed the continence entirely.

I jumped up and ran, heedless of the glass that crunched beneath my feet. Coming to a stop with the small figure at my feet. I knelt down next to him and removed the breath-mask from the now unconscious body. Paying no attention to the glass that littered the ground I reached down and pulled him into my arm.

"Hiei…" I couldn't seem to get my mind to work properly, all I could do was stare down at him. Taking in all of the features that I still saw every night in my dreams even though they had begun to fade into little more than blurred memories.

"Duo!" Heero yelled, I could hear the glass scrape concrete behind me as he approached. He was probably pointing his gun at me but I didn't care. "What are you doing?" calm and cold, like always. cold and…

"Hiei, wake up…please," I said, ignoring Heero. More worried about the body within my arms.

"You know him?" I snapped my head up to see Heero kneeling in front of me. He looked almost…concerned.

"Yes. He's…" I stopped. What did I tell him, what could I tell him. Many convenient lies ran through my head, but I don't lie, not any more. "An old friend," but just because I don't lie doesn't mean I tell the whole truth. Silence stretched between us as Heero continued to stare at me.

"I managed to get all the information the doctors wanted before those guards attacked." He stood, still staring at me. "Let's plant the explosives and get out of here." I hugged Hiei protectively to my chest; I wasn't going to leave him here, no matter what Heero said. Something flickered across the wing pilots face, too quick to identify before he turned, staring off into the warehouse.

"You knew him before, right?" he asked rhetorically, voice emotionless. "So he couldn't be one of Romerfeller's constructs. Our orders don't apply to him." I looked at him in shock. Heero, altering the mission? I didn't question, just smiled up at him gratefully. "Go put him in the car so we can blow this place up."

"Hai!" I ran quickly out of the building. I needed to help Heero with the explosive. He didn't know what those creatures really were, probably wouldn't believe me if I told him. So I would have to make sure that they were all destroyed.

I laid Hiei down in the backseat. For some reason I couldn't take my eyes off him. I reached out and ruffled his hair, then impulsively bend down and kissed him on the cheek, before running back to help Heero with the explosives.

Trying to sneak into a safehouse is never a good idea. It's an even worse idea if the person coming in behind you is making no such effort to be inconspicuous. I glared at Heero over my shoulder as he turned on another light.

"Would you quit that man? You'll wake the others," I hissed. He just looked at me and raised and eyebrow, completely unrepentant.

Hiei started to shift in my arms and I nearly dropped him in surprise. He muttered something, too vague for me to make out, and curled up tighter in my arms.

"Kawaii…" the whisper left my mouth before I could stop it. And I blushed as Heero turned to stare at me.

"Put him on the couch, we'll deal with him in the morning." Heero said as he headed down the hallway that led to our rooms.

"Um…"I really didn't want to leave him alone. But where else could I put him? In my bed? Not with Heero standing right there and definitely not before I could explain things to Hiei. I'd probably end up in pieces if he wake up next to me and didn't know who I was. And as I was now, I doubted he would recognize me.

So I laid him down on the couch and pulled a blanket over him. Preying that I'd be the first one up in the morning.