Oh, Gear came back after that one.
He simply never came back on the next one. Their missions were supposed to end in the same week, allowing the two to meet up at the border for a day, if generous enough, a few days. But when Duo waited at the bar, it was six hours past their meeting date. Six hours had been enough time to cross the area at a millimeter per second pace. Damn that Gear. Always late.
This time, infinitely so.
----
In the records of the hunter academy, Duo had ceased to exist. Instead, his name was now Gear. Duo had never been of too much importance but Gear had been. It didn't matter that Gear was now a runic hunter instead of fear and at a much lesser level of combat and ability .. Gear had once told him that he always wanted to live on, like one of the samurai figures in history. Date Masamune .. Ieyasu Tokugawa. (Nevermind he learned history through video games based on them.) Kissing his fedora hat, pressing his lips against the upper curve, Duo bid what had once been his name goodbye. What's in a name anyways? He was Gear for this mission. Suiting up! This mission, where he would be taking down a monster from an abandoned building.
----
He was on top of some building. This building looked a lot like his first mission as Gear .. All buildings looked pretty mundane though, Gear was forced to admit.
Except in Egypt. Those pyramids.
Speaking of Egypt.. Had Profe and Titania left this world yet? They must have .. Did they leave seperately? Did Death even give them a chance to party along the long road to wherever they were going? Gear hoped that Titania was holding the door open for him in heaven .. Him and Profe were red-blooded males that sinned far too much for God to let them in freely .. Well, Gear had always thought of Profe was flowing with something other than red blood. He betted on neon green. Gear imagined himself as a ghost, disconected from his real body, looking on it. But unlike his imagination, it fell rather short of reality.
He wasn't floating on top of his own dead body. When did that idea sound cool anyways?
You know with sounded really cool? Drinks with everyone. With their newest members. Andy and Caelius, they could have done some truth or dare .. Maybe have them drink some straight shots .. Share their most embarrassing stories. Have Titania teach him the ways of make-up. Put Caelius in a dress .. Make Andy wear a frog hat. Have Profe call some aliens and go onto an alien spaceship. He would have doubled over in laughter, if his ribs weren't broken and his throat crushed.
Somewhere, along these thoughts, Gear stepped forward into a hazy scenery. His limbs were working again, as if the attack had never happened. He turned around, alerted with the presence of someone else.. He saw Gear. The real Gear. Not absolutely guaranteed that it was the actual existence of Gear as much as it was the appearance--
"Stop thinking."
The deep voice he had nearly forgotten spoke, with a cheerful finality that this Gear had always hated because it always seemed like a last time sort of tone, rather than a I'll see you later sort of tone.
"Ok."
"You need to talk to Duo."
What was he talking about? Gear was Duo. Gear v.2 eyed Gear v.1 suspiciously.
"I am Duo."
"I thought you were Gear remastered."
"Oh, I am. My bad. So I gotta talk to my past self sort of thing, with the whole enlightenment--"
---
Suddenly, he was at the New Year's party he wanted to be at. The one that should have happened after this mission. Gear could hear himself chuckling, picking up a drink, his fingers curled around the smooth glass. The bang from the shot he took straight to the throat had him coughing and laughing and choking all at once. He excused himself from Titania and Andy's lovely company, walking by Profe and Caelius's surly one. They were arguing.
Gear slipped into a couch, with Duo on the other side. He threw his legs over the edge, leaning his head back into the soft cushion, tipping his fedora hat forward. They lapsed into a comforting silence, tipping their fedora hats idly as they contemplated what to say. Duo was Gear and Gear was Duo, they knew exactly what was on their minds. Himself with himself. Cooler than floating over his dead body.
Duo spoke first though.
"Gear until the very end, huh?"
"Yep. That's what I wanted." Gear felt the drink settling uncomfortably in his stomach as he answered, Duo's eyes staring at him. Through him. Into him.
"Do you mind? I'm getting molested by your eyes here. Male on male action-- Never quite my thing."
"You did a good job of it though." Duo remarked casually. A little too casually.
"Waitwaitwait, are we switching topics?!"
"You wanted to be called Duo. On those first dates you planned .. No. On new years, you planned to tell them. You broke at the end." The tone was so bland, it almost sounded accusing. When had Duo ever been able to do that sort of voice?
Gear forced himself to take a breath--
----
He was back in reality, for god knew how long. His ribs needed air but there wasn't enough getting in. His heart was pausing, jerking back to life and fading back to a near-empty drumming. He couldn't see. He couldn't see the party anymore. He couldn't hear reality either. What was happening? A city didn't break into silence, just like that. He couldn't hear what had been Titania's heart-wrenching voice, which sounded like it was an infinity ago. He had just asked Andy on the date today, right? He had just met Caelius .. partnered with Profe and Titania. Heck, he even had a real date lined up in Egypt. Why did that feel so long ago? He would have accomplished his dream dates and more.
"I-I .. I did want to be called Duo. One last time. Just .." Regret tore at his very being, more than being crushed by the horsemen. It clawed, ebbed, throbbed-- as it had been for the last year, when he had been Gear. He did plan to tell them on New Years. He really had wanted to.
---
"Duo. They partied, drank and went on missions with you. It didn't matter if you were Gear or Duo, right? After all, like we said, what's in a name?"
Gear sobbed, in the couch, the remainder of the party fading around him. Fading into black, a simple color, erasing the scenery around him. It was going to erase him. But he might have been okay with that. He was starting to be. Sure there was regrets but he couldn't fix those now. Duo seemed to hesitate, as if contemplating whether to tell Gear .. He nodded and then spoke, rapping his knuckle against Gear's shoulder, in a comforting goodbye. He handed Gear the bloody fedora hat, pushing it gently into his hands.
The bloody fedora hat was the least of his problems that were up next.
"If it makes you feel any better, you once blabbered it to your drinking buddies. You also sang "Reflection" from Mulan and changed all the lyrics to a boy in make-up."
"Damn, that's a good song. Did they know it was about me?"
"No, they thought you were talking about a transvestite."
"GODDAMNIT-- LET ME GET BACK IN THERE AND---"
Gear Version Two .. or more accurately, Duo, did and did not head to death with complete feelings of satisfaction. He was kicking and shouting all the way there.
Duo-Gear had been known as a hunter with a ridiculously silly fedora hat
and a tendancy to shout "Yahoo!" all the time. But in the midst of the
numbers dying today, he would only be lost in the folds of history.
Everything would have been solved if he combined his names.
and a tendancy to shout "Yahoo!" all the time. But in the midst of the
numbers dying today, he would only be lost in the folds of history.
Everything would have been solved if he combined his names.
