Because he's Bored
by Sprinkles
5/25/A.C. 195
White.
Really white. And lots of lights, and blurry things circling his vision. And pain too, as if he had just gotten his tonsils out.
"Look, guys, he's waking up!"
Shuffling.
Duo blinked furiously trying to get the blurry things to come into focus. He realized he was in the hospital after a few seconds; unfortunately he’d been here many times on missions and what not.
Shaking his head a bit to clear it, Duo noticed the bandages on his arms but the most noticeable one, almost as thick and bulky as a cast was firmly placed around his throat. //What the hell?//
"Duo, we’re so glad your back. You’ve been unconscious for 2 weeks. When Heero brought you in, we didn’t know if you were going to make it." Well, Quatre was his usually perky self anyway.
Duo let out a breathy half whisper. What he had meant to say was 'Thanks, Heero, man, I owe you one.' //What’s wrong with me?//
Sally was the next to enter. "Duo, please don’t try to speak. You’re injuries were very severe, considering there was only one bullet wound." Sally broke off as Heero resumed the story.
"The last bullet they shot hit you in the throat. It went through your jugular vein and your voice box. You lost a dangerous amount of blood. We realized when you were back at the safe house, that we had to get you to the hospital. Finally, the bleeding stopped, but you were still unconscious."
Silence. At last, Duo tried to speak again, to no avail.
"Here, you can use this." Sally had brought a pad and pencil for Duo.
"And my voice? When do I get it back?" Wrote Duo in his messy scrawl.
Another silence.
Finally it was Sally who broke it. "I'm afraid, Duo, that your voice has been damaged beyond repair and there is very little chance of it replairing itself. There is nothing anyone can do. Don't look so sad" --Duo had paled and looked as if he was going to pass out again – "this will not hinder your ability in missions, not too much anyway. And there are other ways of communicating."
Duo was looking as if someone had slugged him in the face with a brick. He fell back onto the pillows and stared at the ceiling as the other pilots and Sally decided that he should probably use his time to rest.
In the few moments before Duo fell asleep, his only wild thought was that he'd have to think of a new way to get to know Heero, if he couldn't talk to him.
5/26/A.C. 195
Duo was discharged from the hospital the following morning and was driven to a nearby safe house. Unable to speak, he simply contemplated the tense silence in the car. Heero was silent, probably contemplating how recent events would effect future missions. Wufei was silent, probably because nobody wanted to listen to him natter on about justice. Quatre started silent, then started talking, about nothing at all. He just kept babbling and every face in the car slowly turned to him in uncomfortable shock.
"And then she said to me, ‘that’s not my rosebush’!" And Quatre broke into insane laughter at his punchline.
Oookaayyy.
Trowa was silent. Big surprise there. But he was looking at Duo with a look that closely mirrored pity. Duo quickly averted his eyes, thinking that there was little else in the world more humiliating than being pitied by a suicidal clown.
They were back at the safehouse, at last. Heero seated himself behind his ubiquitous laptop. Trowa went back to his room to read. Wufei went outside to practice his katas and Quatre, who attempted to remain in the room while babbling to himself to rid the room of silence, took Heero’s glare as the cue to leave.
Duo, momentarily overjoyed at having the TV all to himself, surfed the channels like a madman before settling on what used to be his favorite show—
JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!
"Jerry, my wife left me for our dog."
Duo threw his head back, opened his mouth and –
Nothing. No laughter, no chuckle. Just a breathy whisper. Heero turned slightly to see of Duo was okay. Duo couldn’t bear the pity in Heero’s eyes either.
After five minutes of watching, he realized the show was not funny at all when you can’t laugh out loud and comment on every stupid thing. He flipped the channel.
Heero shut his laptop, and stood to go repair Wing. He glanced at Duo, who was looking bored. //…and lonely// the softer spot of his mind supplied. He went over and sat beside Duo. //When Duo’s bored, disaster strikes.// He assured himself. //I should keep him from getting bored. That’s the only reason why I’m sitting here. To protect the mission.//
That was it.
Right.
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