Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Friendship: comfort for the hurt ❯ Conversations with Duo ( Chapter 2 )
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
By: Sapphire Angel 
Don't you just love those mornings?
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 02.16.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 5.9K | Visits: 192 | Status: Completed
Don't you just love those mornings?
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 02.16.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 5.9K | Visits: 192 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing
A/N: I really hope people are actually reading this...
***
Duo unlocked the door with his keys and glanced at his watch. The day was far from over, even though it had seemed like it had been forever since he had come home from the not so small junk yard. This troubled him, that the morning would drag by this slowly, but he supposed it was the anticipation of talking to Heero again that had gotten him this way. Besides, he had only gotten half aquainted with Heero last night. Now that he thought about it, there were a LOT of things that remained unanswered from his mysteriously quiet friend. In fact, if he hadn't been so overjoyed at the fact that Heero had even come to see him, he would have probably been pestering him with questions about the breakup. That or he would have at least asked Heero why the hell he hadn't come sooner. God knew he needed someone around here to talk to.
Duo walked towards the living room, and caught sight of Heero staring into space, or seeming to and he walked up to his friend, waving a hand in front of his face. "Yo Heero, you there?" He asked amusedly. It was not a usual occurence when he would spot the teen doing nothing. He was usually on a laptop or doing something 'productive'. The breakup with Relena must have hit him harder than he thought. But then again, he could have also fried his brain cells by doing all that thinking that he seemed to be doing right now.
Duo then posed in front of Heero, as if he were doing a news report. "And here, the almightiest of men have been reduced to a soundless pile of mindless rubble. And that is how a woman can damage the sanity of a once omnipotent soul. In other words, Houston, I think we've lost him." He said in an over dramatic voice. "Oh wait, did his eyebrow twitch? His hand's moving and he's covering his mouth, and yes, he's laughing! Oh my god, that's the greatest miracle since King Kong stepped on Godzilla!"
Heero raised an eyebrow. "King Kong?"
"Hey, give me a break here, I was running outta things to say," grinned Duo. "So...are ya gonna tell me what's wrong with you or do I have to drag it out of ya." Duo knew perfectly well what was wrong, but he wanted to hear Heero say it himself. Heero usually had the nasty habit of avoiding to answer personal questions. It was pretty useful if he were ever faced with an enemy under interrogation. They would have needed to figure out his weakness in his emotions, since everyone knew that pain did nothing for a gundam pilot. Duo grinned to himself. Their first enemy had to find out the hard way when he had been interrogated himself. He was pretty proud of himself for holding out until the very end, but he had seriously thought he wouldn't have survived. Maybe it was 'save the idiot, Duo' day or the Oz pilots were a tiny bit more lenient towards fifteen year old teens. Never mind the fact that the fifteen year old teen had killed hundreds of people...
That had been about three years ago, and sometimes, Duo's back would still ache at the memory of their assault. If they had thought he was hard enough to get information out of though, they would have had an even harder time with Heero. Heck, Duo had had to chip through an iceberg just to get the guy to admit why he had nearly shot Relena when they first met, but that was another story. He sat next to Heero, who was still on the black leather couch and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Heero's eyes darkened and he looked towards the floor. "You can tell me anything buddy, I won't use it against ya," Duo reassured gently. At those words, he felt Heero slouch against the couch, weary, and his mask of indifference dropped. He suddenly looked much older than he really was. Duo felt slightly saddened by the expression on his friend's face.
"I was thinking..." said Heero quietly. He refused to look Duo in the eye, choosing to stare at a particularly interesting looking black shirt on the floor. The shirt had the words, Hellboy written across it in large orange and red letters. It seemed to fit Duo's personality well, and he was vaguely curious as to when Duo had actually worn that shirt, since the braided boy's usual style of clothing consisted of everything black with a white priest collar. "I was thinking about the last time I actually talked to Relena," he finally admitted.
He then started describing her when he had come back after the war. How happy she had looked to see him. How he had finally admitted his feelings to her. That he cared for her and wished to stay by her side. He had described to her why he had stayed away from her for so long. "I was relieved that I didn't have to fight anymore, and everytime I thought back to it. I thought of the very moment when the war ended. I thought of how exhausted I had been, and how a warm pair of arms then enveloped me and held me there, while I drifted off. I remembered feeling loved, and wanted, like someone actually cared for me. I had to leave, because I wanted to see peace." Heero repeated the words he said for Relena, to Duo. Relena had smiled as he said this, and she had walked up and hugged him again, as he had admitted this. The smell of her scent had floated around him. The scent, of home.
They had become a couple the next day, but they had been forced to keep it a secret, knowing that once the press got ahold of the news, there would be many complications in their relationship. For a while, Heero had been content to just be around her, observing the way she interacted with the people of the peace conference. Her pose was always one of intelligence and politeness as she talked with world leaders and won them over with her speeches. Then Heero had, one day, noticed that he didn't know anything about her true personal life, other than what everyone else already knew. As much as he had observed her during the day, and night, her true personality had somehow manage to evade his sharp observations. She had acted like any ordinary leader during the day, and then she was too tired during the night to talk to him. The few times that they actually had privacy, she acted as if everything was completely fine.
Now that he thought about it, while he was too busy watching as just a bodyguard, a rift had grown between them. In his eyes, she had become more and more perfect, and to her, he had become more distant. Of course, he had let his emotions show more around Duo, but it wasn't really that different from his past in his opinion. His humanity had always been there, despite what some other people thought. They just hadn't noticed it until now, and he hadn't had the time to show it during the war. However, he and Relena just simply didn't have the time to interact without being under the public eye. So for some people, it would have made the few moments that they did spend together more memorable, but to Heero and Relena's relationship, it had caused the opposite affect. Instead of causing them to grow closer together. It had simply caused them to grow further apart.
Duo listened to all of Heero's thoughts and stayed silent throughout it. He had been so sure at first of Relena and Heero's relationship. They had seemed like the perfect couple, but now he realized that they had more problems than an average couple would have. Unless one of them took the necessary steps that it was to know the other better, they would remain apart. "Do you love her?" Duo questioned quietly. He didn't try to make the question seem more lighthearted than it really was with jokes. The situation had seemed too serious for it's own good. Even Duo's humor would not have redeemed the depressing mood that had settled over the both of them from it.
Heero nodded. "Yeah, I do."
Those three simple words seemed to mock Duo, with it's honesty. For a second, Duo's head flashed with painful memories, reminding him and accusing him of all the things he never said to the ones he loved. How this one person, who was even more anti-social than him, admitted that he was actually in love with someone, when he could not. He felt a pang of jealousy that the other would be able to admit it, at all, but he also felt a great sense of relief at the same time. For a moment, he had been starting to seriously thinking that Heero and Relena's relationship wouldn't have worked out and now, with those three little words, he felt hope rise up into him. Heero loved Relena. Everything would work out.
"Don't worry Heero, just take it easy," said Duo. He didn't want to push his friend into making any decisions too soon. He knew it would probably have only caused him to leave, or at least leave a bloody pile of Duo mush on the couch. "I'm sure she'll come around." And hopefully, you will too, thought Duo. Although he didn't choose to voice that thought out loud. Their relationship may have saddened him, but that wouldn't stop him from caring for his friend's happiness. "I mean, who knows, one day she might just come walking up to the front door of this house and ask to talk to you. You could stay here as long as ya want to by the way, I mean, I'm not trying to force you to or anything..." Of course Duo had no intention of having Heero stay that long. Although he would have liked that thought, he knew it wasn't his place that needed to be offered to the other right now. Besides, he thought. If Heero wasn't going to do anything, then the same rule certainly didn't apply to Duo.
As Heero's most trusted friend, he would be able to do whatever he wanted. What he wanted was to give Heero and Relena the push in the right direction and to do that, he would have to start taking matters into his own hands. "I'm staying." Said Heero. He had looked slightly surprised that he had been offered to stay here longer. He had thought that he would only need to temporarily stay for a few days, and then he would be recovered from his heart break and well on his way to starting over. Then he had suddenly noticed the lack of companionship. His heart ached for at least someone to be with. Relena, I'm growing soft because of you, sighed Heero to himself. "You've always been there for me, Duo, in your own strange way." he said out loud, turning to meet Duo's eyes.
Duo offered him a grin in return for the surprisingly friendly statement. He had noticed a change in his friend since he had showed up into his life again so suddenly. "I'm not askin' for a promise or anythin', so don't worry on keeping something. There's nothing to keep. Besides, I know you wanna see her again. No one wants to hold you back, buddy." Duo winked at him, like he knew something. Heero just stared at him, slightly confused and then showed his gratitude with a small smile of his own as he realized. Duo thought that Heero would regret the promise he had given, so he had dismissed it, at the same time, trying to make it seem like a joke. Fine, if that was the way he wanted it, he would just play along.
"Are you saying, that I wouldn't have kept the promise?" He made his voice to be as threatening as possible, with only a hint of humor to show that he didn't mean it.
Duo caught on quickly and his grin widened before his lips were pressed together again, and he lifted a hand to his chin in a thinking gesture. "Hmm...well, I dunno. I mean, you'd have ta be some sort of idiot not ta go runnin' after your girlfriend just for your friend. I mean, you'd have to be perfect, and I know that no one is perfect. Not even you." He put emphasis on the you purposely, flashing a teasing smile to Heero. "So I wouldn't go worrying about me over here. You can still stay as long as ya want, but make sure you don't get too attached. Besides, I heard that Relena will be coming to L2 to help fix up the colony from the demands of the people. She's been pretty busy lately...don't ya think?"
Heero frowned, his expression darkening. "Relena's coming?" He questioned. "When?"
"Pretty soon, in fact, she should be arriving here during the night," said Duo smugly. "And guess what? I think she's also searching for a suitor to marry her, or that's what that Catalonia chick's been tellin' everyone."
Heero raised an eyebrow at Duo. "What are you getting at?"
"I'm getting at the fact that she'd have some free time. You know, and you'd have a chance to catch up. How many days has it been since you last saw her?"
The prussian eyed teen immediately replied, as if it was an automatic reaction for him to remember the last time he saw his ex-girlfriend. "Three weeks."
Duo rolled his eyes. "Ookay, then. You should use this time to get in touch with her, you know..." Duo winked again, to make it even more obvious what he was hinting at.
Heero just scowled, as he said this. He now knew what Duo was trying to do, and he was not amused. Relena had broken up with him. He had admitted that he did have feelings for her, but he was not about to go out of his way to win back a failing relationship. He stared at Duo accusingly, as if the other had betrayed him. He knew Duo was trying to help, but he could deal with that by himself. Didn't Duo think that also? He couldn't rationalize with himself just why he was suddenly angry at Duo. He just knew that didn't want any help. He didn't need any help. "She doesn't need me," he said coldly, and then he left the living room and walked into his own room, slamming the door behind him.
Duo sighed and stared after his friend. "Looks like I'm actually gonna have to do this myself," he sighed, bemusedly. He took out a pen and and paper, and then started writing something onto the piece of paper. He knew Heero would not like what he was about to do, but he knew it was for his own good. Heck, he was confused as to why Heero had such a bad reaction to his encouragement. He was his friend, wasn't he? Or maybe the guy still had a sore spot about getting dumped by the only woman he loved. Still, he didn't have to be so cold about it. Duo finished scrawling out his words and admired his handiwork. It wasn't the best of handwritings, but it was his own. It was one of the only other things he had to remind him of his past, as much as he wanted to forget about it. Duo steered his thoughts away from an unwanted direction and left, leaving the note out in the open, posted on the refrigerator.
The note said: Hey man, had a nice sleep? Yeah, I know, ya probably didn't get any sleep at all. Anyway, I'm gonna be out for a little while so don't expect me back until the late evening of tomorrow or midnight, but don't worry, I'll be back...eventually...I'm just gonna go see a friend on L2. Don't follow me though, or you'd probably get a nasty shock. Just joking! No, I haven't been doing anything illegal, unless you call going to a wild party and getting really drunk illegal. Come to think of it, you probably would call that illegal, heh. Don't worry Heero, I didn't do any of that. Anyway, I gotta go now. See ya, and trust me, everything will be okay before ya know it.
***
The next morning, Heero just lay on the bed, staring into the ceiling. He had no idea what he was still doing here. The only thing he would do the next day was avoid Duo and that was exactly what he was trying to do right now. He didn't want to admit it to himself that he now couldn't look Duo in the eye when he was around him, since the other seemed to know him a little too well, or rather, knew of his feelings for Relena. He now regretted telling Duo his problems, so Heero stayed in bed. He didn't want to get up right now, knowing that Duo should be awake and still in the house. He knew that it would probably be hopeless to try and stay in the room until Duo left the house, since they would have to face eachother, eventually. He stayed anyway, biding his time until he could figure out what to say to the other once they did see eachother.
He waited to hear the footsteps of the other leaving the room, cursing, like he did the last morning. However, not a sound was made and Heero began to grow uneasy. He got up from the bed and walked into the kitchen, before spotting the paper on the refrigerator immediately. He had been so caught up in his own problems, but he didn't think he would have made Duo that upset as to have the other leave on him. Heero mentally shook himself from that train of thought. No, Duo would not get mad that easily. Duo had taken much worse in the past, Heero realized, with a pang of guilt. But then again, that was during the war when he had acted that way. He couldn't have showed any weakness. If the enemy had found out about how he couldn't kill Duo, or anyone else that he had cared for, for that matter, the war would have ended much sooner. That wasn't to say that everyone he had let live were someone he cared for.
Heero read the note and his lips curved downwards in a suspicious frown. Just what could Duo be doing anyway that would make him leave on such a short notice? He reread the note again and decided that Duo wasn't doing anything wrong. Although, he and the other would probably have different views of what was wrong and what was not. Duo had told him something about Relena before he wrote this note. He had obviously wanted him to meet with her so that they could make up. From the look Duo had shot him, Heero has a feeling that Duo wanted the two to do more than make up. Heero concluded that Duo must have thought that Heero had been more intimate with her in the past.
Heero knew Duo didn't know this, but although he and Relena have kissed passionately at one point, they had never gotten any farther than that. For some reason, he just couldn't see her giving herself to him. Although she had been willing enough to try, he just couldn't imagine himself touching her in that way. The thought of penetrating such a pure creature sickened him, and he could not do it. During the times that they had spent together, they would start trying something and then Heero would just stop. He never told Relena why he had stopped. They just didn't have time to talk at that time, since most of those so called times were in a closet in between peace meetings (they had realized that going somewhere secret would cause suspicion and that they needed to do it as little as possible). Now that he thought about it, they shouldn't have needed to make out in the closet as a last resort to spend some time together. If anyone had found them, than there would have been a lot of jokes for that to come.
Heero walked into Duo's room, and hacked into his laptop, all uncomfort about the place forgotten. He had to find out where Relena was staying at so that he could stop Duo from making a mistake. He got online and then started doing a search. As soon as he had gotten the information he needed, he logged off and erased any trace of him having been there. After that, he got ready to leave. He looked at the note Duo had written him. Then he reached out and ripped it up into pieces, tossing it into the trashcan. He would not be needing the note when he went to stop Duo.
He hesitated before he walked out the door, wondering if he was doing the right thing.What if Duo had wanted him to chase after him, just so that he would have to face Relena again? After all, he was sure that Duo had gone to talk to Relena. It was not necessarily a bad thought, but it wasn't very welcome either. Heero sighed as that thought was pushed away also. The Duo he knew would never try to trick him like that. But then again, the Duo he knew would have tried to find a way to surprise him.
***
Duo whistled as he walked up to the guard standing in front of the gate of the temporary residence Relena had taken. By now, Heero should have figured out what had happened and would probably be on his way to pursue Duo. Duo himself, had spent the day and night driving over to the place in L2 where Relena was supposed to be staying at, so he could only hope that he still had a good enough head start. Duo looked at the mansion. It was a large place and it looked like any ordinary house, only much larger and with square shaped roofs and balconies. It also had a big courtyard, covered from view with a large wall. The vines on the walls seemed to crawl over the top and loop around each other. Duo had never seen vines like those. He also wondered how a big mansion like this got built in L2 and decided that Relena must have been doing a really good job at rebuilding this part of the colony.
"I.D. please?" Said the guard. Duo handed him his I.D. and the guard looked at it. After the war, the Preventers had created the gundam pilots some I.D.s which stated that they were to do as they wished. It also said that there were to be no questions asked and failure to follow that rule would be severely punished. Okay, maybe not the severely punished part, but that was implied. No one was supposed to manhandle the ex-pilots anyway.
Which was only if they could even get close enough to them without being knocked out, or at least, badly bruised. Duo was proud to say that no one had managed to get that close to him. Not that anyone would want to kill him. They would have needed a really good reason, or had some intense hatred/jealousy of him. So far, anyone who would have looked at Duo would have immediately thought of him as the average guy, Duo Maxwell. He was friendly and charming, and never declining on helping someone out.
The guard's eyes swept over the I.D. and he allowed Duo in. "Miss Dorlian is in a meeting," He warned Duo. "So I wouldn't go disturbing her if I were you. Wait until they come out of that room." Duo thanked the guy and started to walk in as the gates opened. "Oh and kid?" He eyed the kid up and down, admiring the courage of the person for actually wearing his hair in such a unique style, a braid. He could tell the kid was a boy by the name on the I.D. and he knew the boy was eighteen, but the kid looked no older than fifteen. The guard wondered, amazedly, how a young person like that could have been what the I.D. said he was. Acording to the history books, the kid had only been fourteen when he started fighting. His own kids, who were only ten and twelve, had talked of the gundam pilots for months. They had each idolized the pilots. "You were a gundam pilot, right?"
Duo's expression darkened for a moment, before a casual grin spread across his face. "Yeah, I was." When he had first seen what was said on the I.D., he had been amused. The only thing he had wanted to do was forget all about the war and here there was, something written on his I.D. card to remind him of it. To him, it was ironic, and he had taken the card without any complaint, since he knew that memories of the war would come back anyway, no matter what he did. To him, it had almost been like a sign from God telling him to remember. He didn't believe in Jesus and all that Christian stuff. Yet, he wanted to. He wanted to inspire other people to believe, when he could not. The only thing that he could believe though, was the God of Death, Shinigami. I don't believe in God, because I've never seen a miracle, but I do believe in the God of Death, because I've seen a lot of dead people. Duo was snapped out of his thoughts when the guard spoke again.
"I've been doing my homework on the gundams and I decided that I always liked the gundam Deathescythe Hell over Wing Zero, don't you think?" The guard winked at him and Duo's grin widened. The gundams were human like machines made for human soldiers to pilot in. Duo's gundam was Deathescythe, or, Deathescythe Hell, as the newer version was called, but Duo liked to refer to it as 'Scythe. In the gundam, he had always thought of himself as the God of Death, or the Great Destroyer, as he liked to call himself, when he was in his precious mecha. In some ways, he truely had been the Great Destroyer. A great destroyer of lives. The person who took away happiness for a greater good. He used to think, that he would only destroy the lives of the bad guys, but later, nearing the end of the war, he had been disillusioned from that train of thought. That didn't stop him though, since he had had no choice but to fight. It was either that, or death.
"Sure do, and I wouldn't prefer it any other way," he winked back at the guard. "Besides, everyone knows the God of Death could take on Wing Zero anytime." The Zero system was a machine installed in the Wing gundam to enhance the pilot's skills. It would make the person a perfect fighter and would cause the pilot's fear of death to disappear, leaving him without any fear of the inevitable. However, this system wasn't all that good, since it usually drove the pilot to their deaths, or caused them to go crazy. They would forget who their enemies were and they would destroy all of their loved ones. However, this was only if the pilot hadn't mastered it. Duo had tried it once, and the minute he had freed himself from the machine, he had despised it. You see, not only did the Zero system cause the pilot to lose their sanity, but it toyed with their minds. And nothing was worse than a human mind being played with by a machine. His friend, Heero, had been the pilot of Wing Zero. He was also one of the few that had mastered the Zero System.
"Yup, the Zero system doesn't stand a chance against the scythe," agreed the guard.
Duo chuckled. "I dunno about that, the system's not that bad, but 'Scythe's way cooler."
"You said it," laughed the guard. "See ya kid, good luck." The guard nodded at him, in a gesture of friendliness. I don't need luck, sighed Duo to himself. I need a goddamn miracle. He walked up to the door and knocked on it. The butler, Pagan, opened the door. Duo nearly caught his breath as he stared at the mansion. It was a nice place, with velvet curtains and red carpet. It was not the type of place that Duo would have chosen to live in, but it was still magnificent anyway. Then again, Duo wouldn't have minded where he lived in, as long as it had a nice warm bed and a roof over it. If you asked Duo why he was so simple minded in choosing a house, he would have replied with a joking, What can I say? I'm not picky about where I live. But Quatre on the other hand, man, he wouldn't live in a house smaller than a football field!
"Can I help you sir?" A maid wearing a black dress and a white apron seemed to sneak up on Duo as he was gaping at the place. After all, it was the best looking place he had seen in the L2 colony. The maid looked at Duo curiously. Other than Relena's bodyguard, Wu Fei, there weren't much good looking men that had come by the Dorlian residence. At least, not many that had looked Duo's age. Most of Relena's suitors had been older looking men, thirty and sophisticated. All of them had worn some suit or other, but this boy was simply dressed in plain black clothes. In her opinion the clothes seemed to bring out the cobalt blue of Duo's eyes better. Also, the boy seemed to be Relena's age. Relena may have rejected going out with the other suitors, but only heaven knew how she would react to this teenager. His handsome face and lovely eyes made him different from the rest. Something about his aura, that spoke of how his personality must have been like, made him special, just like Miss Relena.
"Huh? Oh uh...yeah, I was wondering where I could wait for Relena to finish the meeting," said Duo, flashing her one of his famous Maxwell grins. "I wouldn't wanna go barging in there right in the middle of somethin' important now, right?"
"Of course, you can wait in the suitor's room," said the maid kindly and she lead him into a room with the painting of Mona Lisa on it.
"I didn't know Relena had paintings done by Leonardo DeVinci," muttered Duo as he stared at the painting. "I wonder if it's authentic."
"Pardon?" The maid had lingered longer in the room, hoping to study the boy more.
"Uh, nothin', I was just wondering if there was anything to eat around here, but it's ok with me if you don't have anything, although, this is a pretty nice place so there's probably something, right?" Duo put on his best pleading look to the maid.
The maid laughed. "I'll see what I can do, but I can't guarantee anything mister...?"
"Maxwell, Duo Maxwell. Don't wear out my name, cause you're gonna need it if you ever come across an ex-Ozzie." Ozzies were Duo's nickname that he came up for the ex-Oz soldiers. The Oz soldiers had been the enemies of the gundam pilots during the first part of the war. Then somehow, things got a little more complicated. The Oz leader, Treize Khushrenada had renounced himself from Oz and chose to resign, leaving the world in a confused state. Then Romefellar, another organization had taken over, calling themselves the "new Oz" while one part of the Oz soldiers split from the "new Oz" and called themselves the Treize faction, in loyalty to their former leader.
That only caused a war between the Treize faction and "new Oz" which eventually led to five separate parties that fought in the war. One of these parties, had been the gundam pilots. The gundam pilots had been a small group of the five, with only a few allies. Their small numbers meant nothing since their piloting skills and gundams made them the most dangerous of all the parties. In the end, the gundam pilots chose not to join forces with any of the other parties, but instead, chose to fight for peace, siding with neither the New Romefellar or the Treize faction.
The maid nodded and left the room while Duo slumped against a chair and yawned. The room was starting to get blurrier by the minute as he sat there and he could barely keep his eyes open. He blinked and little dots of black came into his vision. That isn't good, I must be more worn out than I thought, he thought to himself. "Looks like the twenty four hour car trip finally took it's toll on me," he murmured sleepily. "Damn I'm tired. If only I had some sorta superhuman ability to stay awake for an impossibly long time like Heero, I'd probably make it without falling asleep." Duo yawned again, this time louder. "Looks like I'll...sleep...anyway." Duo slumped against the chair with his eyes closed as he drifted off. After an hour later, the door opened and in walked Relena, looking grim but her eyes widened in surprise as she spotted a figure slumped over a chair, that she vaguely recognized.
"Duo Maxwell?" She wondered. "What are you doing here?"
***
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A/N: I really hope people are actually reading this...
***
Duo unlocked the door with his keys and glanced at his watch. The day was far from over, even though it had seemed like it had been forever since he had come home from the not so small junk yard. This troubled him, that the morning would drag by this slowly, but he supposed it was the anticipation of talking to Heero again that had gotten him this way. Besides, he had only gotten half aquainted with Heero last night. Now that he thought about it, there were a LOT of things that remained unanswered from his mysteriously quiet friend. In fact, if he hadn't been so overjoyed at the fact that Heero had even come to see him, he would have probably been pestering him with questions about the breakup. That or he would have at least asked Heero why the hell he hadn't come sooner. God knew he needed someone around here to talk to.
Duo walked towards the living room, and caught sight of Heero staring into space, or seeming to and he walked up to his friend, waving a hand in front of his face. "Yo Heero, you there?" He asked amusedly. It was not a usual occurence when he would spot the teen doing nothing. He was usually on a laptop or doing something 'productive'. The breakup with Relena must have hit him harder than he thought. But then again, he could have also fried his brain cells by doing all that thinking that he seemed to be doing right now.
Duo then posed in front of Heero, as if he were doing a news report. "And here, the almightiest of men have been reduced to a soundless pile of mindless rubble. And that is how a woman can damage the sanity of a once omnipotent soul. In other words, Houston, I think we've lost him." He said in an over dramatic voice. "Oh wait, did his eyebrow twitch? His hand's moving and he's covering his mouth, and yes, he's laughing! Oh my god, that's the greatest miracle since King Kong stepped on Godzilla!"
Heero raised an eyebrow. "King Kong?"
"Hey, give me a break here, I was running outta things to say," grinned Duo. "So...are ya gonna tell me what's wrong with you or do I have to drag it out of ya." Duo knew perfectly well what was wrong, but he wanted to hear Heero say it himself. Heero usually had the nasty habit of avoiding to answer personal questions. It was pretty useful if he were ever faced with an enemy under interrogation. They would have needed to figure out his weakness in his emotions, since everyone knew that pain did nothing for a gundam pilot. Duo grinned to himself. Their first enemy had to find out the hard way when he had been interrogated himself. He was pretty proud of himself for holding out until the very end, but he had seriously thought he wouldn't have survived. Maybe it was 'save the idiot, Duo' day or the Oz pilots were a tiny bit more lenient towards fifteen year old teens. Never mind the fact that the fifteen year old teen had killed hundreds of people...
That had been about three years ago, and sometimes, Duo's back would still ache at the memory of their assault. If they had thought he was hard enough to get information out of though, they would have had an even harder time with Heero. Heck, Duo had had to chip through an iceberg just to get the guy to admit why he had nearly shot Relena when they first met, but that was another story. He sat next to Heero, who was still on the black leather couch and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Heero's eyes darkened and he looked towards the floor. "You can tell me anything buddy, I won't use it against ya," Duo reassured gently. At those words, he felt Heero slouch against the couch, weary, and his mask of indifference dropped. He suddenly looked much older than he really was. Duo felt slightly saddened by the expression on his friend's face.
"I was thinking..." said Heero quietly. He refused to look Duo in the eye, choosing to stare at a particularly interesting looking black shirt on the floor. The shirt had the words, Hellboy written across it in large orange and red letters. It seemed to fit Duo's personality well, and he was vaguely curious as to when Duo had actually worn that shirt, since the braided boy's usual style of clothing consisted of everything black with a white priest collar. "I was thinking about the last time I actually talked to Relena," he finally admitted.
He then started describing her when he had come back after the war. How happy she had looked to see him. How he had finally admitted his feelings to her. That he cared for her and wished to stay by her side. He had described to her why he had stayed away from her for so long. "I was relieved that I didn't have to fight anymore, and everytime I thought back to it. I thought of the very moment when the war ended. I thought of how exhausted I had been, and how a warm pair of arms then enveloped me and held me there, while I drifted off. I remembered feeling loved, and wanted, like someone actually cared for me. I had to leave, because I wanted to see peace." Heero repeated the words he said for Relena, to Duo. Relena had smiled as he said this, and she had walked up and hugged him again, as he had admitted this. The smell of her scent had floated around him. The scent, of home.
They had become a couple the next day, but they had been forced to keep it a secret, knowing that once the press got ahold of the news, there would be many complications in their relationship. For a while, Heero had been content to just be around her, observing the way she interacted with the people of the peace conference. Her pose was always one of intelligence and politeness as she talked with world leaders and won them over with her speeches. Then Heero had, one day, noticed that he didn't know anything about her true personal life, other than what everyone else already knew. As much as he had observed her during the day, and night, her true personality had somehow manage to evade his sharp observations. She had acted like any ordinary leader during the day, and then she was too tired during the night to talk to him. The few times that they actually had privacy, she acted as if everything was completely fine.
Now that he thought about it, while he was too busy watching as just a bodyguard, a rift had grown between them. In his eyes, she had become more and more perfect, and to her, he had become more distant. Of course, he had let his emotions show more around Duo, but it wasn't really that different from his past in his opinion. His humanity had always been there, despite what some other people thought. They just hadn't noticed it until now, and he hadn't had the time to show it during the war. However, he and Relena just simply didn't have the time to interact without being under the public eye. So for some people, it would have made the few moments that they did spend together more memorable, but to Heero and Relena's relationship, it had caused the opposite affect. Instead of causing them to grow closer together. It had simply caused them to grow further apart.
Duo listened to all of Heero's thoughts and stayed silent throughout it. He had been so sure at first of Relena and Heero's relationship. They had seemed like the perfect couple, but now he realized that they had more problems than an average couple would have. Unless one of them took the necessary steps that it was to know the other better, they would remain apart. "Do you love her?" Duo questioned quietly. He didn't try to make the question seem more lighthearted than it really was with jokes. The situation had seemed too serious for it's own good. Even Duo's humor would not have redeemed the depressing mood that had settled over the both of them from it.
Heero nodded. "Yeah, I do."
Those three simple words seemed to mock Duo, with it's honesty. For a second, Duo's head flashed with painful memories, reminding him and accusing him of all the things he never said to the ones he loved. How this one person, who was even more anti-social than him, admitted that he was actually in love with someone, when he could not. He felt a pang of jealousy that the other would be able to admit it, at all, but he also felt a great sense of relief at the same time. For a moment, he had been starting to seriously thinking that Heero and Relena's relationship wouldn't have worked out and now, with those three little words, he felt hope rise up into him. Heero loved Relena. Everything would work out.
"Don't worry Heero, just take it easy," said Duo. He didn't want to push his friend into making any decisions too soon. He knew it would probably have only caused him to leave, or at least leave a bloody pile of Duo mush on the couch. "I'm sure she'll come around." And hopefully, you will too, thought Duo. Although he didn't choose to voice that thought out loud. Their relationship may have saddened him, but that wouldn't stop him from caring for his friend's happiness. "I mean, who knows, one day she might just come walking up to the front door of this house and ask to talk to you. You could stay here as long as ya want to by the way, I mean, I'm not trying to force you to or anything..." Of course Duo had no intention of having Heero stay that long. Although he would have liked that thought, he knew it wasn't his place that needed to be offered to the other right now. Besides, he thought. If Heero wasn't going to do anything, then the same rule certainly didn't apply to Duo.
As Heero's most trusted friend, he would be able to do whatever he wanted. What he wanted was to give Heero and Relena the push in the right direction and to do that, he would have to start taking matters into his own hands. "I'm staying." Said Heero. He had looked slightly surprised that he had been offered to stay here longer. He had thought that he would only need to temporarily stay for a few days, and then he would be recovered from his heart break and well on his way to starting over. Then he had suddenly noticed the lack of companionship. His heart ached for at least someone to be with. Relena, I'm growing soft because of you, sighed Heero to himself. "You've always been there for me, Duo, in your own strange way." he said out loud, turning to meet Duo's eyes.
Duo offered him a grin in return for the surprisingly friendly statement. He had noticed a change in his friend since he had showed up into his life again so suddenly. "I'm not askin' for a promise or anythin', so don't worry on keeping something. There's nothing to keep. Besides, I know you wanna see her again. No one wants to hold you back, buddy." Duo winked at him, like he knew something. Heero just stared at him, slightly confused and then showed his gratitude with a small smile of his own as he realized. Duo thought that Heero would regret the promise he had given, so he had dismissed it, at the same time, trying to make it seem like a joke. Fine, if that was the way he wanted it, he would just play along.
"Are you saying, that I wouldn't have kept the promise?" He made his voice to be as threatening as possible, with only a hint of humor to show that he didn't mean it.
Duo caught on quickly and his grin widened before his lips were pressed together again, and he lifted a hand to his chin in a thinking gesture. "Hmm...well, I dunno. I mean, you'd have ta be some sort of idiot not ta go runnin' after your girlfriend just for your friend. I mean, you'd have to be perfect, and I know that no one is perfect. Not even you." He put emphasis on the you purposely, flashing a teasing smile to Heero. "So I wouldn't go worrying about me over here. You can still stay as long as ya want, but make sure you don't get too attached. Besides, I heard that Relena will be coming to L2 to help fix up the colony from the demands of the people. She's been pretty busy lately...don't ya think?"
Heero frowned, his expression darkening. "Relena's coming?" He questioned. "When?"
"Pretty soon, in fact, she should be arriving here during the night," said Duo smugly. "And guess what? I think she's also searching for a suitor to marry her, or that's what that Catalonia chick's been tellin' everyone."
Heero raised an eyebrow at Duo. "What are you getting at?"
"I'm getting at the fact that she'd have some free time. You know, and you'd have a chance to catch up. How many days has it been since you last saw her?"
The prussian eyed teen immediately replied, as if it was an automatic reaction for him to remember the last time he saw his ex-girlfriend. "Three weeks."
Duo rolled his eyes. "Ookay, then. You should use this time to get in touch with her, you know..." Duo winked again, to make it even more obvious what he was hinting at.
Heero just scowled, as he said this. He now knew what Duo was trying to do, and he was not amused. Relena had broken up with him. He had admitted that he did have feelings for her, but he was not about to go out of his way to win back a failing relationship. He stared at Duo accusingly, as if the other had betrayed him. He knew Duo was trying to help, but he could deal with that by himself. Didn't Duo think that also? He couldn't rationalize with himself just why he was suddenly angry at Duo. He just knew that didn't want any help. He didn't need any help. "She doesn't need me," he said coldly, and then he left the living room and walked into his own room, slamming the door behind him.
Duo sighed and stared after his friend. "Looks like I'm actually gonna have to do this myself," he sighed, bemusedly. He took out a pen and and paper, and then started writing something onto the piece of paper. He knew Heero would not like what he was about to do, but he knew it was for his own good. Heck, he was confused as to why Heero had such a bad reaction to his encouragement. He was his friend, wasn't he? Or maybe the guy still had a sore spot about getting dumped by the only woman he loved. Still, he didn't have to be so cold about it. Duo finished scrawling out his words and admired his handiwork. It wasn't the best of handwritings, but it was his own. It was one of the only other things he had to remind him of his past, as much as he wanted to forget about it. Duo steered his thoughts away from an unwanted direction and left, leaving the note out in the open, posted on the refrigerator.
The note said: Hey man, had a nice sleep? Yeah, I know, ya probably didn't get any sleep at all. Anyway, I'm gonna be out for a little while so don't expect me back until the late evening of tomorrow or midnight, but don't worry, I'll be back...eventually...I'm just gonna go see a friend on L2. Don't follow me though, or you'd probably get a nasty shock. Just joking! No, I haven't been doing anything illegal, unless you call going to a wild party and getting really drunk illegal. Come to think of it, you probably would call that illegal, heh. Don't worry Heero, I didn't do any of that. Anyway, I gotta go now. See ya, and trust me, everything will be okay before ya know it.
***
The next morning, Heero just lay on the bed, staring into the ceiling. He had no idea what he was still doing here. The only thing he would do the next day was avoid Duo and that was exactly what he was trying to do right now. He didn't want to admit it to himself that he now couldn't look Duo in the eye when he was around him, since the other seemed to know him a little too well, or rather, knew of his feelings for Relena. He now regretted telling Duo his problems, so Heero stayed in bed. He didn't want to get up right now, knowing that Duo should be awake and still in the house. He knew that it would probably be hopeless to try and stay in the room until Duo left the house, since they would have to face eachother, eventually. He stayed anyway, biding his time until he could figure out what to say to the other once they did see eachother.
He waited to hear the footsteps of the other leaving the room, cursing, like he did the last morning. However, not a sound was made and Heero began to grow uneasy. He got up from the bed and walked into the kitchen, before spotting the paper on the refrigerator immediately. He had been so caught up in his own problems, but he didn't think he would have made Duo that upset as to have the other leave on him. Heero mentally shook himself from that train of thought. No, Duo would not get mad that easily. Duo had taken much worse in the past, Heero realized, with a pang of guilt. But then again, that was during the war when he had acted that way. He couldn't have showed any weakness. If the enemy had found out about how he couldn't kill Duo, or anyone else that he had cared for, for that matter, the war would have ended much sooner. That wasn't to say that everyone he had let live were someone he cared for.
Heero read the note and his lips curved downwards in a suspicious frown. Just what could Duo be doing anyway that would make him leave on such a short notice? He reread the note again and decided that Duo wasn't doing anything wrong. Although, he and the other would probably have different views of what was wrong and what was not. Duo had told him something about Relena before he wrote this note. He had obviously wanted him to meet with her so that they could make up. From the look Duo had shot him, Heero has a feeling that Duo wanted the two to do more than make up. Heero concluded that Duo must have thought that Heero had been more intimate with her in the past.
Heero knew Duo didn't know this, but although he and Relena have kissed passionately at one point, they had never gotten any farther than that. For some reason, he just couldn't see her giving herself to him. Although she had been willing enough to try, he just couldn't imagine himself touching her in that way. The thought of penetrating such a pure creature sickened him, and he could not do it. During the times that they had spent together, they would start trying something and then Heero would just stop. He never told Relena why he had stopped. They just didn't have time to talk at that time, since most of those so called times were in a closet in between peace meetings (they had realized that going somewhere secret would cause suspicion and that they needed to do it as little as possible). Now that he thought about it, they shouldn't have needed to make out in the closet as a last resort to spend some time together. If anyone had found them, than there would have been a lot of jokes for that to come.
Heero walked into Duo's room, and hacked into his laptop, all uncomfort about the place forgotten. He had to find out where Relena was staying at so that he could stop Duo from making a mistake. He got online and then started doing a search. As soon as he had gotten the information he needed, he logged off and erased any trace of him having been there. After that, he got ready to leave. He looked at the note Duo had written him. Then he reached out and ripped it up into pieces, tossing it into the trashcan. He would not be needing the note when he went to stop Duo.
He hesitated before he walked out the door, wondering if he was doing the right thing.What if Duo had wanted him to chase after him, just so that he would have to face Relena again? After all, he was sure that Duo had gone to talk to Relena. It was not necessarily a bad thought, but it wasn't very welcome either. Heero sighed as that thought was pushed away also. The Duo he knew would never try to trick him like that. But then again, the Duo he knew would have tried to find a way to surprise him.
***
Duo whistled as he walked up to the guard standing in front of the gate of the temporary residence Relena had taken. By now, Heero should have figured out what had happened and would probably be on his way to pursue Duo. Duo himself, had spent the day and night driving over to the place in L2 where Relena was supposed to be staying at, so he could only hope that he still had a good enough head start. Duo looked at the mansion. It was a large place and it looked like any ordinary house, only much larger and with square shaped roofs and balconies. It also had a big courtyard, covered from view with a large wall. The vines on the walls seemed to crawl over the top and loop around each other. Duo had never seen vines like those. He also wondered how a big mansion like this got built in L2 and decided that Relena must have been doing a really good job at rebuilding this part of the colony.
"I.D. please?" Said the guard. Duo handed him his I.D. and the guard looked at it. After the war, the Preventers had created the gundam pilots some I.D.s which stated that they were to do as they wished. It also said that there were to be no questions asked and failure to follow that rule would be severely punished. Okay, maybe not the severely punished part, but that was implied. No one was supposed to manhandle the ex-pilots anyway.
Which was only if they could even get close enough to them without being knocked out, or at least, badly bruised. Duo was proud to say that no one had managed to get that close to him. Not that anyone would want to kill him. They would have needed a really good reason, or had some intense hatred/jealousy of him. So far, anyone who would have looked at Duo would have immediately thought of him as the average guy, Duo Maxwell. He was friendly and charming, and never declining on helping someone out.
The guard's eyes swept over the I.D. and he allowed Duo in. "Miss Dorlian is in a meeting," He warned Duo. "So I wouldn't go disturbing her if I were you. Wait until they come out of that room." Duo thanked the guy and started to walk in as the gates opened. "Oh and kid?" He eyed the kid up and down, admiring the courage of the person for actually wearing his hair in such a unique style, a braid. He could tell the kid was a boy by the name on the I.D. and he knew the boy was eighteen, but the kid looked no older than fifteen. The guard wondered, amazedly, how a young person like that could have been what the I.D. said he was. Acording to the history books, the kid had only been fourteen when he started fighting. His own kids, who were only ten and twelve, had talked of the gundam pilots for months. They had each idolized the pilots. "You were a gundam pilot, right?"
Duo's expression darkened for a moment, before a casual grin spread across his face. "Yeah, I was." When he had first seen what was said on the I.D., he had been amused. The only thing he had wanted to do was forget all about the war and here there was, something written on his I.D. card to remind him of it. To him, it was ironic, and he had taken the card without any complaint, since he knew that memories of the war would come back anyway, no matter what he did. To him, it had almost been like a sign from God telling him to remember. He didn't believe in Jesus and all that Christian stuff. Yet, he wanted to. He wanted to inspire other people to believe, when he could not. The only thing that he could believe though, was the God of Death, Shinigami. I don't believe in God, because I've never seen a miracle, but I do believe in the God of Death, because I've seen a lot of dead people. Duo was snapped out of his thoughts when the guard spoke again.
"I've been doing my homework on the gundams and I decided that I always liked the gundam Deathescythe Hell over Wing Zero, don't you think?" The guard winked at him and Duo's grin widened. The gundams were human like machines made for human soldiers to pilot in. Duo's gundam was Deathescythe, or, Deathescythe Hell, as the newer version was called, but Duo liked to refer to it as 'Scythe. In the gundam, he had always thought of himself as the God of Death, or the Great Destroyer, as he liked to call himself, when he was in his precious mecha. In some ways, he truely had been the Great Destroyer. A great destroyer of lives. The person who took away happiness for a greater good. He used to think, that he would only destroy the lives of the bad guys, but later, nearing the end of the war, he had been disillusioned from that train of thought. That didn't stop him though, since he had had no choice but to fight. It was either that, or death.
"Sure do, and I wouldn't prefer it any other way," he winked back at the guard. "Besides, everyone knows the God of Death could take on Wing Zero anytime." The Zero system was a machine installed in the Wing gundam to enhance the pilot's skills. It would make the person a perfect fighter and would cause the pilot's fear of death to disappear, leaving him without any fear of the inevitable. However, this system wasn't all that good, since it usually drove the pilot to their deaths, or caused them to go crazy. They would forget who their enemies were and they would destroy all of their loved ones. However, this was only if the pilot hadn't mastered it. Duo had tried it once, and the minute he had freed himself from the machine, he had despised it. You see, not only did the Zero system cause the pilot to lose their sanity, but it toyed with their minds. And nothing was worse than a human mind being played with by a machine. His friend, Heero, had been the pilot of Wing Zero. He was also one of the few that had mastered the Zero System.
"Yup, the Zero system doesn't stand a chance against the scythe," agreed the guard.
Duo chuckled. "I dunno about that, the system's not that bad, but 'Scythe's way cooler."
"You said it," laughed the guard. "See ya kid, good luck." The guard nodded at him, in a gesture of friendliness. I don't need luck, sighed Duo to himself. I need a goddamn miracle. He walked up to the door and knocked on it. The butler, Pagan, opened the door. Duo nearly caught his breath as he stared at the mansion. It was a nice place, with velvet curtains and red carpet. It was not the type of place that Duo would have chosen to live in, but it was still magnificent anyway. Then again, Duo wouldn't have minded where he lived in, as long as it had a nice warm bed and a roof over it. If you asked Duo why he was so simple minded in choosing a house, he would have replied with a joking, What can I say? I'm not picky about where I live. But Quatre on the other hand, man, he wouldn't live in a house smaller than a football field!
"Can I help you sir?" A maid wearing a black dress and a white apron seemed to sneak up on Duo as he was gaping at the place. After all, it was the best looking place he had seen in the L2 colony. The maid looked at Duo curiously. Other than Relena's bodyguard, Wu Fei, there weren't much good looking men that had come by the Dorlian residence. At least, not many that had looked Duo's age. Most of Relena's suitors had been older looking men, thirty and sophisticated. All of them had worn some suit or other, but this boy was simply dressed in plain black clothes. In her opinion the clothes seemed to bring out the cobalt blue of Duo's eyes better. Also, the boy seemed to be Relena's age. Relena may have rejected going out with the other suitors, but only heaven knew how she would react to this teenager. His handsome face and lovely eyes made him different from the rest. Something about his aura, that spoke of how his personality must have been like, made him special, just like Miss Relena.
"Huh? Oh uh...yeah, I was wondering where I could wait for Relena to finish the meeting," said Duo, flashing her one of his famous Maxwell grins. "I wouldn't wanna go barging in there right in the middle of somethin' important now, right?"
"Of course, you can wait in the suitor's room," said the maid kindly and she lead him into a room with the painting of Mona Lisa on it.
"I didn't know Relena had paintings done by Leonardo DeVinci," muttered Duo as he stared at the painting. "I wonder if it's authentic."
"Pardon?" The maid had lingered longer in the room, hoping to study the boy more.
"Uh, nothin', I was just wondering if there was anything to eat around here, but it's ok with me if you don't have anything, although, this is a pretty nice place so there's probably something, right?" Duo put on his best pleading look to the maid.
The maid laughed. "I'll see what I can do, but I can't guarantee anything mister...?"
"Maxwell, Duo Maxwell. Don't wear out my name, cause you're gonna need it if you ever come across an ex-Ozzie." Ozzies were Duo's nickname that he came up for the ex-Oz soldiers. The Oz soldiers had been the enemies of the gundam pilots during the first part of the war. Then somehow, things got a little more complicated. The Oz leader, Treize Khushrenada had renounced himself from Oz and chose to resign, leaving the world in a confused state. Then Romefellar, another organization had taken over, calling themselves the "new Oz" while one part of the Oz soldiers split from the "new Oz" and called themselves the Treize faction, in loyalty to their former leader.
That only caused a war between the Treize faction and "new Oz" which eventually led to five separate parties that fought in the war. One of these parties, had been the gundam pilots. The gundam pilots had been a small group of the five, with only a few allies. Their small numbers meant nothing since their piloting skills and gundams made them the most dangerous of all the parties. In the end, the gundam pilots chose not to join forces with any of the other parties, but instead, chose to fight for peace, siding with neither the New Romefellar or the Treize faction.
The maid nodded and left the room while Duo slumped against a chair and yawned. The room was starting to get blurrier by the minute as he sat there and he could barely keep his eyes open. He blinked and little dots of black came into his vision. That isn't good, I must be more worn out than I thought, he thought to himself. "Looks like the twenty four hour car trip finally took it's toll on me," he murmured sleepily. "Damn I'm tired. If only I had some sorta superhuman ability to stay awake for an impossibly long time like Heero, I'd probably make it without falling asleep." Duo yawned again, this time louder. "Looks like I'll...sleep...anyway." Duo slumped against the chair with his eyes closed as he drifted off. After an hour later, the door opened and in walked Relena, looking grim but her eyes widened in surprise as she spotted a figure slumped over a chair, that she vaguely recognized.
"Duo Maxwell?" She wondered. "What are you doing here?"
***
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