+ Title: The Eye of Horus - Part 16
(Full Title: Heero Yuy and the Eye of Horus)
+ Author: Vinyl Koneko (Emily)
+ See Prologue for warnings, pairings...

The Eye of Horus + Part 16

*~**~*
Cairo, Egypt
*~**~*

Heero couldn't think of anything appropriate to say, so he just held Duo, crouched to the ground and letting his koi release all his anger, frustration, and sorrow out on his shoulder. "I thought you were dead," Duo murmured after some time had passed, trembling slightly from the sudden catharsis.

"It'd take more than an OZ bullet to kill me," the young doctor replied, leaning back slightly. Heero reached up, brushing chestnut bangs out of blue-violet eyes. "Are you all right?"

Duo nodded slightly. "I am now," he replied frankly. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly. "You wouldn't have anything warmer I could wear would you?"

Heero's eyes narrowed dangerously. "He didn't touch you, did he?"

The longhaired man shuddered involuntarily recalling what he had to put up with from the general. "I don't really want to talk about it right now." Duo pressed his lips firmly into a line. "I just want to forget about it."

The other man stood up suddenly, hands clenched into fists at his side. "Duo, tell me! He deserves to pay for his crimes!"

Duo winced, trying his hardest to avoid eye contact with Heero, but the worry in the Prussian blue depths kept pulling him back, forcing him to hold a steady gaze. "H-he'd kiss me, calling me his pet; he'd touch my hair and my face. I...I don't want to think about it."

The injured expression on the other man's face was making Heero even more enraged at OZ's general. 'Duo's such a strong person... Why the hell did he have to try to break his spirit like that? What kind of sick person takes pleasure in the agony of others?'

A cool breeze swept over them, promising a break from the intense heat of the day. Heero noticed Duo shiver and berated himself for not acting sooner. "Come on. There's blankets in my tent and there should be something warmer you could wear lying around." He helped Duo up and didn't say anything when the American didn't release his hand, instead gripping it tighter and huddling to his side. Heero shrugged off his jacket, placing it across Duo's shoulders until they got to the tent which was a little warmer since it trapped the heat of the day and kept out the chilled nighttime wind.

"The Eye's in that cavern somewhere." Duo was twirling a loose strand of hair around his finger. "With all the Maganacs, handling the soldiers should be a breeze. I don't know what Khushrenada and Marquise would do, but no one really knows the exact location of the Eye, anyway, so our odds are pretty evenly matched."

"It's not that important right now. We're at a stalemate until one side comes up with the Eye, and we have the advantage of contacts in the area and elsewhere who possibly have access to the information we need." Heero pushed open the canvas door to one of the tents and motioned for Duo to go inside. Heero smiled at seeing the amazement on his koi's features.

"Shit, this is a tent? I think this is bigger than my hotel room! Cots, trunks, and even a full-length mirror... The Maganacs really know how to do it up when they go camping!" He titled his head, watching Heero dig through one of the trunks. "Why'd you bring so many clothes?"

"I didn't," Heero managed to find an extra shirt and pair of pants for Duo, hoping they'd fit. "It's mostly equipment that was on the plane. Some of it is food rations."

"Thank God, I'm starving!" Duo graciously accepted the canteen of water Heero offered him, but wrinkled his nose at what was supposed to be food. "Are you sure that's edible?"

"They're roasting lamb and squab around one of the campfires if you'd prefer that instead." Heero pulled out more ration bars, knowing that Duo wouldn't go for the meat. He knew it was negative on the squab because it's essentially a pigeon which, according to Duo, is the avian form of a rat. Duo wouldn't go for the lamb, either, because Heero recalled from Greece that the longhaired man could never bring himself to eat a lamb because they were "just too damn cute".

["You see, some things are cute so you don't want to eat them. Other things," Duo said with a wink, "make you want to stick their meat in your mouth."]

Heero felt his face grow warm in memory of what had transpired after that particular dinner.

"Earth to Heero..." Duo called, and only then did the other man notice that he had stopped paying attention to whatever Duo had been rambling about for a moment. "You spaced. What's going on upstairs?"

"Just thinking about Greece," Heero closed the trunk carefully, making sure it was locked. "The time you told me why you didn't eat lamb...and what happened afterwards..."

"Yeah," indigo eyes turned nostalgic and Duo looked like he was mentally going back in time. "It really has been a while, hasn't it?"

"Duo, I'm sorry, I would have gone back, but-"

The American put a slender forefinger across Heero's lips. "I know you're sorry; I'm sorry, too. But we won't get anywhere if we don't move passed it." It was then did Heero notice that Duo was wearing the white shirt he had lent him, his chestnut hair free from its confining braid and cascading down his back. Besides that, though, Duo wasn't wearing much else. "I want to forget right now, love. I want to forget about Treize and Zechs and the Eye. Tasukette kudasai."

"Ryoukai."[1] Heero pressed forward into the other man, aggressively taking Duo's mouth with his own, claiming it as his and his only. Something about that seemed right to Heero - something that made the dull ache in his heart make him feel so much more alive than he had in the last five years. It had been there all this time, but only now, after what had occurred, was Heero able to see it for himself. He broke the kiss for a moment, letting both of them catch their breath. "Duo," he breathed, inhaling the presence of his koi, his Duo. "Ai shiteru."[2]

Duo smiled contentedly, momentarily taken aback by the volume behind Heero's words. "My feelings for you never changed," he whispered. "They just got suppressed and hidden for a little while, but they never changed." Duo's smile turned seductive as he lowered himself onto the cot, pulling Heero down after him and moaning in pleasure as their mouths met again.

*~**~*

Heero woke gradually the next morning at the sound of light bickering outside his tent. He could make out the silhouettes of two Maganacs exaggeratedly pointing at the tent and then at each other. Heero sighed, kissing the top of Duo's head before carefully easing out of his lover's embrace. He saw Duo frown slightly in his sleep, curling into the blankets a little tighter to make up for the lost heat. Heero pulled on the clothing that had been discarded the previous evening, glancing at his watch to check the time. 'A little before seven...what would they want?' Heero pulled open the tent, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed as the two men still argued between each other.

They didn't notice Heero until he cleared his throat. "What is it?"

"Rashiid wanted us to notify you that we found an alternative entrance to the cavern," the heavier of the two, Ahmad, said.

The other, Auda, nodded in agreement. "But since you and Mister Maxwell were still asleep we couldn't decide who would wake you up."

"Didn't want to make you angry, Doctor Yuy," Ahmad amended.

Heero smiled slightly at the two men, the knowledge that another entrance had been discovered making him feel a little better about having to leave Duo sleeping alone. "Show me."

Auda and Ahmad started eagerly off in the direction of a land bridge about a mile down that lead them to the ledge on the opposite side of the canyon. From his viewpoint Heero could make out the OZ tents below. He knew they had to be making less progress. If OZ had its hands on the Eye, the Maganacs on watch would have notified him about it.

"Heero," Quatre met them at the other side, "you won't believe it when you see it... It's more elaborate than all of the pyramids combined!"

There was a five-by-five hole marked off with rope, Trowa throwing rappel lines down while Rashiid made sure they were firmly secured at the top. The ground had to be a good forty feet below, and from Heero's vantage point, he could see that the walls appeared to be plated with sheets of gold, decorated with hieroglyphs and scenes of the gods. The archaeologist could also tell that the same scenes and hieroglyphs were repeating themselves over and over again.

Heero pulled on a pair of gloves, tugging on one of the ropes. "Is this line secure?"

"It should be," aquamarine eyes narrowed questioningly, "why do you ask?"

Heero braced the soles of his boots against the inner rim of the hole, jumping off and bouncing off one of the paneled walls to the ground below. Each time his feet hit the wall, it resounded with an echoing thud that let Heero know that there were either more corridors running parallel to this one or something was hidden behind that particular wall. With his knowledge of ancient Egyptian architecture, Heero knew that if it were another room, it was a trap, so he opted to start down the corridor and see where he would end up. He could hear Quatre shouting at him from above.

"Wouldn't want to get lost down here," came a familiar voice. Heero wasn't surprised that Trowa had followed him down. "Duo wouldn't be happy if you did."

The Japanese man pointed at the walls. "The gold is reflecting the sunlight down here. The light is bright enough to see by but not so bright that it will damage the walls."

"Why wouldn't they want the walls damaged?" Trowa asked, running his fingers over the hieroglyphs as they went along.

"They tell the story of the Eye and where we can find it." Heero pointed at a particular scene. "These corridors all point in the same direction, towards the middle of the cavern, but there are smaller corridors that are set up to confuse your sense of direction and to make you doubt yourself. Just following the same corridor in a straight line should lead you to the Eye of Horus."

"Doesn't that seem too easy?"

"That's what the architects wanted you to think. They wanted you to get yourself lost."

They kept walking further, Heero glancing around to make sure if anything didn't seem right. The pyramids were loaded with traps. He didn't see why this cavern wouldn't be similar. Suddenly the corridor opened up into a large room with a circular pedestal in the middle. Heero looked around, confused. 'This has to be it, so where's the Eye?'

Heero quickly drew out the gun at his side. He could hear footsteps coming down one of the adjacent corridors. Their company stepped into the light, and upon seeing Trowa and Heero drew out their own weapons. Zechs Marquise's eyes widened in disbelief as Treize donned an amused smirk. "Doctor Yuy, Mister Barton, we meet at last."

"You won't get the Eye, Treize. I'll see to that," Heero growled out.

Zechs sneered. "Still need to find it first, Yuy."

A crack of thunder erupted above the pedestal, creating a cloud swirling with electricity. Out of it stepped a figure, and Heero blinked, not believing what he saw. The figure was relatively human, but he had a head that looked more like that of a falcon with a sun disk upon his head.

"What the hell is that?" Heero heard Trowa gasp beside him.

"It's Ra," the archaeologist still didn't believe what he was saying, "the sun god."

*~**~*

[1]"Help me, please." "Roger/accepted/etc." You know, like "mission accepted" is "ninmu ryoukai". ^_^ It's a Heero-ism. Can't have a Gundam Wing fic without it, even if it is an AU fusion with Indiana Jones.
[2]"I love you" in case you didn't know. Although this is *rarely* said *at all* because it has such a strong meaning. Normally it's "suki desu" or "dai suki desu" ("I like you" and "I like you best" respectively), so "ai shiteru" is a frigging big deal, especially back around 1940! *~**~*

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