Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Starting Over ❯ Hurt ( Chapter 2 )

Title: Starting Over

Author: Makoto Sagara
Series: Gundam Wing
Archive: fanfiction.net, afallenangel.net/makotosagara/, mediaminer.org, Foreverfandom.net, makochanupdates.livejournal.com; anywhere else, please ask
Category: Angst, Action

Pairings: 1+2+1, others unknown
Rating: T
Warnings: Shonen ai, language, angst, sap, Post-EW
Disclaimers: I make no money, so suing is pointless. If you think I own GW, then you need to see someone. I have the number to a nice doctor... Oh, SALLY!

Author's Notes: The first chapter was so fun that I had to continue! But, I *am* making an effort to not let this interfere with my other stuff. Enjoy! (Oh, the chapter names *are* the names of songs. Guess which bands!)

Starting Over, Chapter 2 - Hurt

Heero looked up as he heard the smooth baritone that he'd nearly forgotten because he'd spent the last year with the screaming dead. Duo stood with the light behind him, making his features blurry, but his familiar braid was longer than he remembered and those expressive eyes that had made the former Wing pilot question his life were wide with surprise. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “Duo, you look good.”

With no warning, his arms were full of the braided man, who was hugging him as if his life depended on it. “Heero, oh my god, where have you been? We searched everywhere for you. I bribed people I don't even want to think about for information about you, and still got nothing. Quatre hired private detectives. Trowa looked himself! Wufei even hacked into hospital records all over the Earth Sphere. We were so worried!”

“Duo,” Trowa said, his voice finally recovered from his initial shock, “let Heero inside and sit down. Then, you can question him all you want.” The tall European looked up and saw they had more company. “Besides, I'm sure that Quatre has some questions for our friend here.”

Duo let go of Heero as if burned and turned, smacking his friend with his braid, to see twenty-three pairs of expectant eyes taking in the spectacle. “Oh, yeah, um, well, everybody, this is our friend, Heero. I told you about him. He's back from a really long trip.” Duo's face flushed as he babbled - a trait that Heero had nearly forgotten as well. “How about we eat dinner and as a treat we'll have ice cream for dessert?”

That set the children off in a bout of cheering and the smaller ones wrapped their arms around his legs, all chattering about their favorite kinds. He led the children back into the dining room, with Cathy and Hilde exchanging glances before following them as well. Quatre and Trowa remained, sharing a look before the blond nodded.

“Why don't you actually come inside, Heero? It's a little nippy at night, even here on L2,” Trowa said, closing the door as the Japanese man silently obeyed.

“It's nice to see you again, Heero. You look…” Quatre looked his friend over carefully and faltered, his diplomatic background failing him miserably.

“I'm tired, Quatre, but otherwise fine,” Heero replied, setting the duffle bag with his things down on the floor next to his feet. “I found out that Trowa and Duo started this orphanage and thought I'd see how you all were doing?”

The blond's aqua eyes narrowed in skepticism, but he stayed quiet. “I'm visiting, again, to help out. Occasionally, my sisters `that aren't mommies', as Duo says, come and help out. I think a few are thinking of adopting, but mostly it's just to help Duo and Trowa with things.”

“Aa,” Heero replied. “The outside looks pretty bad, but it's nice in here.”

“Yes, well, we try to have one of the chores the children have on the weekends be cleaning the yard and planting a vegetable garden, but the neighborhood's been taken over by a gang recently,” Trowa said, his green eyes sweeping over their no longer missing friend, obviously taking inventory of his condition. “If you're hungry, there's plenty for you as well, and we didn't let Quatre cook.”

“You're never going to let me live that one down, are you, Trowa?” the blond whined playfully. “I replaced the oven and had the meals around here catered for a week to pay you back!”

“I don't think I want to know,” Heero said. “But I'll take you up on your offer, Trowa. It's been a while since I had a home-cooked meal.” He followed the two men through a large sitting room that was littered with toys and books and other things and into a large dining room. He nearly walked out when he saw the twenty excited children and the three adults sitting there, talking, joking, laughing, and eating in a sort of chaos that made his ears ring.

“It takes a while, but you get used to it,” Trowa said before going back to his deserted place.

“Duo and the others work really hard to make this run smoothly,” Quatre said, looking around the room with a warm smile. “WEI and a few other friends, like Relena and Howard, donate money to help with finances, but most of the money is put up by Duo and Trowa from the funds we all lifted from OZ accounts.” The blond leaned in close. “Wufei even sends money monthly and visits in his Preventers uniform when he's in the area.”

“Hn,” Heero answered, making his way to the table and staggering when Duo grabbed his arm and pulled him onto the bench between the braided man and Trowa. From seemingly nowhere, a plate, silverware and a glass were passed down the table to Heero's place and he was soon enjoying the food with the rest of them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Duo was cleaning up the mess from dinner with the Cathy and Hilde when the two women began to drill him. “I thought you guys couldn't find him,” Cathy said as she wiped down the stove.

“We couldn't,” Duo answered as he handed a clean plate to Hilde for her to rinse and dry. “We looked everywhere.”

“Well, I'm glad that he's here,” Hilde said. “Maybe he can help around here for a while. Lord knows we need it.”

“Yeah, Brian, Jimmy, Gus and Craig need something to do while the rest of us are dealing with the smaller kids. Besides, Samantha and Christina are going to need female help soon, and we can't do that if we're dealing with Sonny and Mark teasing Fatima and Rachael,” Cathy added.

“Yeah,” Duo replied, his mind a million miles away. `Where could he have been? I mean, we *looked*. Everywhere. Multiple times.' “Look, I'll ask him if he wants to say, but we can't start building expectations now that he's turned up.”

“Oh, I think he'll say yes if you ask, Duo,” Hilde teased, causing her friend to turn to her in a state. “Don't look at me like that, Duo Maxwell! I saw the way he was staring at you throughout dinner. I'd say there's a reason he came here.”

“Whatever,” the man muttered, handing her the last plate and draining his side of the sink. “I gotta go check on the guys in the living room. Besides, I do believe it's bath time for the smaller kids.” The girls groaned and finished up what they were doing.

“When did you get so responsible, Duo?” Cathy asked as she hung up her dishrag. “Trowa used to tell me such interesting stories about your antics during the war. Now, you're kinda boring!”

“Gotta grow up sometime, Cathy.” He nearly skipped out of the kitchen and was brought to a halt at the sight of Heero playing with some of the younger children at building a Lego castle. The Japanese man was smiling in a way that made his heart ache and a few times, when Mark or Sonny knocked over a part they were supposed to be constructing, he laughed as hard as they did.

Quatre looked up from the book he was reading to a few of the girls and cut his eyes over to where the Wing pilot was before smiling and returning to his own duty of the evening. Trowa also stole a few glances from the couch where he was playing video games with the older kids at Heero, bemused amazement written all over his face. Duo smiled before a thought came to him.

“Shit!” Suddenly he had twenty four pairs of eyes on him.

“Aw, Duo said a bad word,” one of the girls, a little black haired girl with mix-matched eyes, said. “You gotta put a cred in the swear jar now!”

“Sheesh, sorry, Becky!” He pulled out his wallet, and dropped a bill into a large jar, nearly full, labeled “DUO'S SWEAR JAR”. “Q, Tro, come here a sec,” he said after doing so. The two men got up from their respective places and followed the braided man out into the hallway.

“What is it, Duo?” Quatre asked. “Something wrong?”

“'Fei! He's supposed to be going out, during his vacation that Une is forcing him to take, to search the hospitals on L1,” Duo said in a rush. “Do either of you have his personal com number?”

“I do,” Trowa said, pulling out his cellphone and dialing. “Wufei, we found him.”

“What?” Duo and Quatre could hear the Chinese man even without the speaker function on, but Trowa turned it on anyway. “Where?”

“He just turned up tonight before dinner, `Fei,” Duo answered, tugging nervously on his braid.

“Has he said where he's been the last year while the rest of us were growing ulcers looking for him?”

“We haven't had a chance to ask him yet, Wufei,” Quatre replied.

“Humph, well, when he tells you, let him know that I'm coming there for a rematch, and I won't lose this time.” Duo snickered.

“Why don't you just come to L2 and stay here for your vacation instead of staying at home and getting angrier?” Trowa offered. “We can have your regular room ready for you.”

“I suppose that works. I'll be there in the afternoon,” their friend said begrudgingly. “I'm guessing you want me to tell Une and Sally that Yuy finally turned up?”

“If you would, that would be wonderful,” Quatre said. “We still need to tell Relena as well.”

“Oh, joy. Please tell me that the Peacecraft woman will not be visiting at the same time that I am.”

“Hey, the last time she wasn't so bad,” Duo reminded him. “She even refrained from telling you that you are uptight, which I still agree with.”

“I'd shoot her if it wasn't illegal now…”

“It's always been illegal, `Fei. We just care about that kind of stuff now.”

“Whatever, Maxwell; I will be there tomorrow afternoon. I'll see you then.”

“Night, `Fei.” “Good night, Wufei.” “Later, Chang.” Trowa hung up the phone and the three pilots exchanged looks. “Paper, Rock, Scissors?” Duo suggested. The other two nodded and Quatre swore when he lost to two papers against his rock.

“Fine! I'll call her,” he snapped. “Isn't it bath time?”

“Yeah, and I expect you to put your cred in the jar, like a good boy,” Duo teased as he and Trowa entered the large den area. They were surprised that only the children over the age of ten were still in the room, playing at their own activities in a well behaved manner. “What in the world happened and who are these kids?”

“Cathy and Hilde took the smaller children up to take baths before bed, and I was asked to keep an eye on the rest of them,” Heero said quietly. “Where did Quatre go?”

“He has to make a call,” Trowa said. “Boys, clean up your mess and go take your showers.”

“You too, Sammy. Just because Trowa said `boys' doesn't mean you're exempt,” Duo added.

“But, Duo! You promised you'd braid my hair like yours tonight,” the girl whined.

“Shower first, then I'll do your hair,” he conceded. The girl whooped in joy and then ran out of the room, leaving the three men alone.

“Heero, do you have someplace to stay?” Duo asked, fidgeting with his braid as he sat down in a chair.

“I hadn't really thought about that, to be honest. I just wanted to see how you were.” The Japanese man's voice sounded uncomfortable.

“Well, Duo and I would like for you to stay here. I think the room next to yours is free, right, Duo?” Trowa asked casually.

`What are you up to, Barton?' “Uh, yeah, even with `Fei and Q staying, that room is pretty much always unoccupied…”

“Wufei's coming here?” Heero looked at Duo, his blue eyes shining with what could only be described as excitement.

“Yeah, tomorrow,” the American answered, starting to fidget with his braid more under Heero's stare. “Do you, uh, want me to show you to your room now then?” He waited by the door as Heero retrieved his forgotten duffle bag and then headed for a door at the end of the hall. `I want to ask him where the hell he's been this last year, but he just feels so different… And around those kids... God, I've never seen him smile and laugh like that. He was a different person… Okay, theory number one, the real Heero was abducted by aliens and they left this pod person. Theory number two, J secretly implanted a personality into Heero while he was missing and then was… Wait, no, that can't be it. J is just too damn creepy for something like that. Okay, I'm out of ideas then.'

“This place is pretty large for an orphanage,” Heero said, looking around as they went up two flights of stairs.

“Yeah, Q found us an abandoned hotel that had held out pretty well, despite the neighborhood. Tro and I spent a few months fixing the place up. Then, we had to go through about a zillion inspections to get approval. To be honest, we've only been operational for the last four months.”

“It's so like you to want to run an orphanage.”

Duo spun around on the stair he was on to face the other man, who stopped and grabbed the bannister so he didn't fall. “Where have you been the last year? Do you have any idea how worried we were? How worried I was? Do you care?” He could feel his fists clenching and unclenching as they stood there, looking at one another.

Heero's blue eyes seemed as if they were searching for something as he looked at Duo, and it took everything the braided man had not to begin shivering under that familiar and strange stare. “No, Duo, I didn't think any of you would worry. I'm sorry,” Heero finally said quietly.

Duo blinked rapidly as he tried to process what just happened. `Heero just… apologized. Okay, yeah, definitely a pod person.' Sighing, he unclenched his fists and turned back around. “Your room is going to be next to mine. There's a bathroom on the other side of your room. There's a kitchen area across the hall. Trowa and Quatre are a few doors down, and Cathy and Hilde are on the other side of my room and a bathroom.” He stopped in front of a door and opened it. “I'll see you in the morning.”

Heero looked in the room and then back at his friend, his face a mix of questioning wonder and tight control. “Duo… I…”

“Hm?” The American was trying so hard not to begin asking questions again, but he was holding onto his control so well that his forearms were bunching and unbunching without him noticing.

“Good night.”

“Yeah, night, `Ro.” Duo turned on his feet and went to his room, shutting the door and sliding down it as he breathed deeply. `Father, I think this is one of those be careful what you ask for situations.' He bit his lip nervously as he relaxed his body. `Please, help me…'

TBCe Hw3