babygray

An Alphabetized Noisefic: Gundam Wing entry.

Title: Joker at Rest
Author: babygray
Pairing: 1+2, 2+unnamed OC
Warnings: Typos. No beta.
Disclaimer: This is just fanfiction, non-profit and just for fun.
Notes: This is total pepperjack. This is also one of the more popular noisefics of the series. So popular, in fact, that I wrote three more parts continuing from this one, Light on the Dream, November Rain, and Wishing for a Dream. That's right, a mini-series within a series. (And not a good mini-series at that, since the ending is clichéd as fuck-all...)
Word Count: 430
Summary: A photograph survived.

Duo Maxwell had the strange ability of looking terrible in photographs. He was a handsome guy, there’s no denying that, yet he was not very photogenic. In Duo’s opinion, the photos would always come out badly, and there are few who would want to disagree. Fortunately for him, fighting a war left little time for picture-taking. The few times one of his friends tried to capture his image on film, the only results were damaged film and/or Duo’s backside.

There was just one picture from the war, however, that did not suffer the same fate as all the other attempts. It was taken in the early morning as Duo slept, or so the photo suggests. He laid on his side, wrapped snuggly inside the embrace of another young man. His hands laid on the bed, relaxed and still. His hair, in a sleep-mussed braid, was mostly above his head, coating the part of the pillow his head did not occupy. Some strands had become loose sometime during the night and trailed down the side of his face.

Though one would immediately assume that he was nude, that was not the case the morning this picture was taken. Duo wore what appeared to be, for the lack of a better word, a tank top and pajama pants. The top was of some indefinite color, somewhere along the lines of grey and green. The pants were striped, gold and navy blue, sharp colors against the cream skin of his exposed stomach and the chocolate brown tone of his bedside companion.

The smile on Duo’s face was, by far, the most prized sliver of light captured on the 3x5. It was not icy, nor pained, nor forced, nor false. It was simple, content, a child’s smile dipped in rosewater and honey…

The owner of the photograph, one Heero Yuy, considers this early-morning portrait of Duo Maxwell as one of his more treasured possessions. Although he wouldn’t refer to how exactly he was given the picture (as well as the negative), he stated more than once that he did not take the photograph.

As to who was the young man in bed holding the clothed Duo, Yuy could not say. Later on, he does admit that he had wanted to hold Duo in such an intimate way soon after the two met, but hasn’t been given the chance yet. There’s little hope for such things, he continued, because they have grown apart, but the picture will always be a reminder of a dream.

~~~~end