Archivist's note: This story is a side story to Impetuous Arrivals. The theme for this story is move.

Thirty Kisses: Snagged
by Ralphiere

He started flailing, wrenching his shirt out of my grip and slumped forward. "Just go on without me." Duo turned towards me with an empty grin, trying to hide the obvious pain he was in. "I got a little caught up on the fence, I'll meet you at the bike in a few. Try not to leave without me, okay?"

I moved closer, taking a good look at Duo's situation. At first glance I'd thought Duo had only caught his clothing in the razor wire, making me act out of exasperation, but now I realized that Duo had managed to get his hand caught. How could I have missed the blood running down his arm and staining the front of his t-shirt in dark splatters? I was trained to notice everything, yet I'd missed what was right in front of my face.

"What have you done to yourself now?" I squatted down next to him, ignoring his insistent pleas that I leave, and examined where the razor wire had embedded itself in the heel of his hand. The sharp blades had twisted deep into his flesh, and I was trying to figure out how to keep damage as minimal as possible in removing it. The blood was thick across the wound, but he hadn't managed to nick too major a blood vessel as far as I could tell. At this point I was more worried about nerve damage than Duo bleeding out.

"This is going to hurt." I knew it was obvious, but I felt I should warn him before I started the excruciatingly slow process of extracting each sharp point one at a time. In seconds my fingers were slicked with Duo's blood, making it that much more difficult to untangle his hand from the section of fencing. Looking at him, I felt a surge of pride at the determined expression on his face as he braved the ordeal.

It took five painful minutes to free Duo from the fence, and by the time I was done, Duo's blood was flowing freely and covering the ground in large droplets. Without asking first, I reached for Duo's already tattered t-shirt and tore off a long strip of material.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? That was my favorite shirt!" Duo tried to push me away with his good hand, but I managed to hold him firmly in place as I wrapped his hand tightly with the strip of cloth.

"Was. You'll have to pick a new favorite." I muttered, making sure the bandage was snug before tugging Duo by his good arm and propelling him along with me into the woods. Duo was stumbling and at I glance I could see he'd lost a fair amount of blood fighting a losing battle with the fence. We'd used up all our luck escaping the base, and the sooner we reached the safe house, the sooner I could patch him up and let myself relax. Duo was trying to act as though nothing was wrong, but I could tell that he was hurting and feeling the blood loss.

By the time we reached the stashed dirt bike, Duo was panting for breath and sweating profusely. I waited for Duo to swing his leg over the seat before I slid on in front of him and started it up. Duo had wrapped his good arm around my waist, but his grip was far from strong as he pressed his face between my shoulder blades and tried to catch his breath.

"Hang on," I warned and set the bike in motion heading towards the safe house. I was still irritated with Duo for getting into such a predicament in the first place, but my irritation was quickly being overshadowed by concern as I felt blood seeping into the back of my shirt where his hand was pressed between us. I hadn't thought he'd nicked a major blood vessel, but now I wasn't so sure.

It took almost an hour for us to reach the safe house, and by the time we did, Duo was barely hanging on. Trying to keep him from falling off, I dismounted and slung my arm around his waist. He smiled at me goofily as I helped him off the bike but I could only frown when I saw the pallor in his face and the glassiness in his eyes. Fuck.

I could feel the blood sodden material on the back of my shirt sticking to my skin as I rushed to bring him inside. The makeshift bandage was bright red, as was the front of his jeans. "Sit down at the table, Duo, I need to get the first aid kit."

I knew he was bad off when he did it without arguing with me. By the time I returned with the first aid kit he had his cheek pressed against the surface of the table and his arm stretched out before him. He smiled weakly when he saw me, not bothering to move. "What a fucking waste of space I am, huh?"

"Shut up, Duo." My voice lacked emotion, but my mind was surging with it. Leave it to Duo to fuck himself up like this and joke about it. I unwound the makeshift bandage and winced when I saw the wound. I was pleased to see the bleeding had slowed considerably, but I'd wager that Duo lost a bit too much for comfort already. "You've made a mess of yourself."

"No surprise there," Duo answered, straightening up in his chair and watching me work. I doused the wound with peroxide and Duo watched the foam turn pink with an expression of awe. It wasn't until I started threading the curved needle that Duo started to wake from his fugue. "Now wait a minute Heero, do I really need stitches?"

"I can see the bones and tendons in your hand and you're asking if you really need stitches?" I grabbed his hand and pressed it to the table. "Now stop being a baby and sit still."

"If I do will you kiss it better?" Hearing him joke lifted a weight off my heart that I hadn't realized was there. I only shook my head in response, not being able to stop the corners of my mouth quirking upwards.

I had expected to fight him, but I was impressed when Duo sat there without making a sound as I sewed him back together. Every now and again his hand gave an involuntary twitch, but he didn't try to pull away once I set to work. It took fifteen stitches to sew up his hand, and by the time I was done Duo was as white as a sheet. He just sat and watched me as I put away the first aid supplies, and didn't argue when I helped him off with his bloody shirt and guided him to the sink to clean off the bulk of the mess.

"Thank you," Duo whispered as I helped him wrap in a blanket and guided him down to the mat on the floor.

"Thank me when the war's over," I replied, brushing his bangs out of his eyes without thinking. "I'm sure I'll be saving your ass a few more times before it's done."

"I can only hope."