lavandarlizard2 | *tappity-tappity-tappity-tap-tap-tap*

^___^ That would be me; doing a happy dragon dance. Mind the tail; it sort of does its own thing at these moments... ^.O I am a happy reptile! I am so happy, I'm not even going to disembowel the rotten neighbor whose clock radio went off at 0630 this morning with mariachi music.

My hamsters woke up pissed and did what they always do when they're pissed - they gave me lines! Yay!!! ^__^ So, the currently IP RFO is very nearly finished! Again, yay!

Therefore, I can slap up another section of the dubious thing without my stomach clenching. Soooo.... See below. ^__^

Landing was... difficult. His touch on the pedals was less than feather-light; sweat poured off him, making the handgrips slippery and interfering with his vision. Deathscythe stumbled, staggered, righted itself and listed the opposite direction; all the while Duo struggled to keep the giant mecha under control as his knee burned its way into a whole new dimension of agony. He managed finally to come to a stop, Deathscythe clinging embarrassingly to a massive redwood tree. At least they were upright; that was the important thing. Someone else – god, how he hated to even think that! – would have to secure the big black Gundam.

He slumped in his chair for several minutes, just catching his breath and trying to remember what to do next. Shut down all systems. Check. Unbuckle, suggested his internal autopilot. Yeah, that would probably be good....

And get her out of here, it murmured further.

Her? Oh. Yeah. Relena.... Yeah.

His hands fumbled with the buckles as his mouth asked, “Relena? You still with me?” Almost, he wished the answer would be ‘no’.

No such luck...

“Are-are we... done...?” she whimpered faintly.

Well, *I’m* done. But he couldn’t really say that....

“We’re on the ground,” he sighed instead, “Near the next safe location.”

“Is Heero here?”

He dropped his head into shaking hands. Motherf..... Nope, nope; remember what you’re dealing with here, he told himself fiercely.

“Don’t know yet... Let’s go see, shall we?” he said with false brightness.

“Okay!” she answered with genuine brightness.

Except that it wasn’t going to be that easy.

He levered himself out of the chair and found that as bad as the pain was, it could always get worse. Much worse. He fell back into the seat with a gasp.

“Um... Relena, you’re gonna have to do this by yourself.” Oh, that rankled. The other guys would be sure to point and laugh at him; laid out by a damn twisted knee. Still, why not? He was still alive; Murphy had plenty of time to twist the knife even more.

...goddammit...

“But... What do I do?” she asked faintly. “I don’t feel very well... and I’m stuck here...”

He lifted his head and whacked it against the headrest a couple of times. Hmm. Seemed to have jolted something back into place...

“Unzip the jacket, slide out of it,” he muttered and whacked his head once more for good measure. Please, please don’t let her throw up in my cockpit... “Climb around to the front; I’ll show you where the zip line is. You put your foot in the stirrup, hold onto the cable and it’ll take you down.”

He didn’t expect unquestioned obedience and he didn’t get it. He got whining and complaining, and a sudden sharp screech that made him flinch and knock his knee against the chair, which started him cursing in ways that Relena would never in her life hear again. Duo was panting against tears by the time the haze cleared from his eyes. Relena was strangely quiet.

“Relena?”

“...sorry...” she whispered. “But it’s... it’s sticky... my face... and-and there’s blood all over my blouse...”

It’s a damn pink blouse; who the fuck cares? he wondered, but kept that thought to himself. “Nosebleed,” he said wearily. “It happens with the high g’s sometimes.” He pulled himself together. Get it *over* with. Get this high-maintenance mini-diva out of here... Then he could just lay here and sob for a while. Or check the first aid kit for any left-over morphine.

He just hoped to hell someone else was here; someone else who could deal with this clingy, oblivious, spoiled, whiny –

He cut that off before he could get revved up again.

“Climb out of there and grab the zip line,” he growled, keying the remote for the line.

She didn’t look at him as she edged around the chair. He popped the hatch and pointed to the line. Huh. Pretty damn good nosebleed, all right. How the hell did she not notice that? No, offered his conscience fairly, she’s still pretty stunned by the whole mess. Cut her some slack on this one. She was lucky it wasn’t a bullet wound.

“I... I just...” She swallowed with difficulty; probably just noticing the nasty taste and feel of the nosebleed.

“Put your foot into the stirrup,” he repeated slowly, and she shot him an irritated look.

“I’ve never done this before!” she snapped.

“And hopefully you never will again!” he shot back angrily. “Just get on it!”

“Heero would never be so rude,” she sniffed and turned her back on him.

Duo slapped a hand over his mouth to stop the words from boiling out, and just hit the button to send her down. He even sent her down slowly. Then he curled up as much as possible and hugged himself.

Heero...

And then her dulcet screech floated back up to him.

“Where *are* we?! There’s no house here! What am I supposed to do now?!”

“There’s a path! Start walking!” he yelled back. And maybe *something* will smell the blood and have you for dinner, he thought spitefully. He laid his head back down and closed his eyes.

Heero...