***

   Target acquired.

    Lahan village on the outskirts of Aveh…

    Mission: Destroy village.

    Objective: Set into motion the catalyst to awaken Shinigami.

Ninmu kanryo.

***

    The day felt uneasy to Duo, even as he left the house, greeting Father Maxwell on his way out to start his chores. The small country orphanage had few children from the village inhabiting it, but still required maintenance in order to function and a small livelihood for the Father and Duo to subsist on.

    Feeling responsible for Father Maxwell’s well being, and some measure of guilt at being such a burden to the kind clergyman, Duo took care of almost all the chores to be done, usually rising before even Father Maxwell. He let Hilde in as he headed up to the small garden plot that the orphanage kept in the hills nearby, stopping only to grab what gardening tools they kept in the small shed in the back lawn.

    He spent most of his morning working in the field until Solo brought him up his lunch from the Father.

    “Hey, Duo!” Solo calls to his friend with a wave as he rounds the last bend towards the small plot. “I brought your lunch! Father Maxwell said you’d be up here by now.”

    Dropping his rake to the ground Duo lifted his hand in greeting to his friend before waving it vigorously. The blond haired young man flopped down in the shade of the nearest tree at the edge of the clearing as Duo made his way over, braid trailing behind him as he pulled his shirt back on.

        It seems so long ago now since I’ve seen his face.

    The two friends embraced briefly in greeting before Duo sat down, stretching his back against the tree and reaching into the sack his lunch had been carried to him in. Solo leaned on one elbow drawing pictures in the dirt with a small stick.

    “You get everything planted that you wanted to get done?” he asked in a mischievous voice. Duo shook his head. “Ah hell, Duo, do you have to work so hard all the time?”

    Duo chuckled around his apple in response. “The Father puts up with me and has a lot more on his plate than he would if I simply weren’t around, Solo, you know that. I owe Father Maxwell a great deal, so I’ve got to help him out with the chores… otherwise, I don’t know… I’d feel guilty or something.”

    There was a long pause and he took another bite of his apple.

    “What were you planning?”

    “Well you remember how my younger sister Alice is getting married, right?”

    Duo nodded.

        If only he hadn’t come to meet me that day, he might have made it out of this horrible fate that was chosen for him.

    “Well I was thinking maybe you could go and talk her out of it.”

    Duo choked on the bite of apple he had been about to swallow. “You want me to what?”

    Solo, who had glanced up upon asking the question, ducked his head back down to the drawings he was making in the dirt. “I just don’t know if Timothy’s the right guy for her… I’d feel a lot better if you’d go and try to talk her out of it.”

    “What, Solo, do you propose that I do?”

    “Just that!” he snapped his fingers. “Propose!”

    “Wait a minute, Solo… Timothy and Alice have known each other since they were small… they love each other.”

    “Timothy’s an idiot. He’ll never amount to anything at all, Duo, I’m telling you. You could make her way happier than he ever could, and then… then I wouldn’t be so worried about her.”

    “But Solo, isn’t that wrong?” he asked his best friend. “I mean, no offense to Alice and all, but… I just don’t feel anything for her.”

    Flopping onto his back with his head positioned close to Duo’s knee, Solo sighed and nodded. “That would be the one glitch in the entire plan.”

    “Yeah.”

    “Well, thanks for considering it and not laughing at me like anyone else would, at least.”

    “Hey, no problem.”

        I shouldn’t have left the garden plot. I should have stayed until the work was finished. If I hadn’t…

    “Look, could you maybe talk to her anyway? I mean, just to make sure she’s ok with all of this. Marriage’s a big step, ya know?”

    “Solo?”

    “What?” Innocent ice blue eyes turned to regard Duo carefully.

    “Shouldn’t you be doing that?”

    “What?” Blond brows furrow questioningly, not quite as earnestly as possible.

    “Giving her the ‘birds and the bees’ talk, of course!” Duo chuckled, tossing the sack at Solo. “You are her brother, after all.”

    “Come on Duo, if I were the one to go talk to her… it’d be like all these years I’ve spent tormenting her were for nothing! Besides, you know she listens to you more anyway. She looks up to you or somethin’.”

    Folding his arms across his chest, Duo glanced out from under his bangs at his friend, “Will it really mean that much to you?”

    “As much as the world,” Solo replied with a smile.

    “Fine, then help me put the fence up and I’ll go talk to her.”

        No amount of apologizing can make up for what happened because of me. If I had only stayed and worked the rest of the morning, it all could have been avoided…