Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Starting Over ❯ Endlessly ( Chapter 7 )

Title: Starting Over

Author: Makoto Sagara
Series: Gundam Wing
Archive: the usual suspects (ffnet, affnet, Foreverfandom, my site, mediaminer, my update LJ, and the gw-fanML on yahoo); anywhere else, please ask first.
Category: Angst, Action

Pairings: 1+2+1, others unknown
Rating: T
Warnings: Shonen ai, language, angst, sap, Post-EW, Episode Zero story spoilers
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: Oh, Jokes, how I love you. You put up with the fact that I dragged the last chapter out and even learned to love 2x5. What can I say, other than, YAY!

Starting Over, Chapter 7 - Endlessly

Heero waited until Wufei put Quatre on the speaker function of his cellphone before speaking. “Quatre, something's happened and Chang and I need your assistance.”

“What happened to Duo and Trowa, Heero?” the blond asked in an obviously worried voice. “I felt some weird emotions from you guys today, but I figured if it was bad, someone would have called me.”

“The local gang attacked the orphanage while the children were out,” Heero answered. “No one was seriously injured.”

“But?” Heero had forgotten the blond's scary intuition in the year he'd been away. “There's something more, especially if you and Wufei are asking for my help.”

“Winner,” Wufei cut in. “We need you to come to L2. Can you take a vacation from WEI?”

“Hm, actually, I can. Iria's available to cover for a while. How long do you think you'd need me?”

“A week, at most,” Wufei answered. “That's all I have from the Preventers… Even though Une and Sally were more than happy to kick me out of the office, we're still short on personnel.”

“Well, I have something to tell Lady Une regarding that particular problem next time we speak,” Quatre said distractedly. “Alright, I'll need some time to get things around here ready. I can be there in…” They heard papers shuffling, something hard hitting the floor, and muttered cursing. “…ten hours?”

Wufei looked at his watch and sighed. “That will get you here at seven in the morning. And you'll need sleep after that.”

“Wufei, you've been on WEI's private shuttle. I'll get a good night's rest there,” Quatre said with a snicker. “Are the two of you able to be up that early?”

“You obviously have forgotten how early everyone wakes up here, Winner,” Wufei shot back, his right eye twitching in annoyance.

`I never thought that anyone but Duo or Sally could drag that level of annoyance out of Chang,' Heero thought, biting back on a laugh at his former comrade. `It's nice to know that he's sharing that with everyone else now. The only person he hasn't gotten angry with now is Trowa, who wouldn't care if he did or not.'

“Alright,” Quatre said, cutting through Heero's thoughts. “I'll see you in the morning. Tell Duo and Trowa that I'm on my way.”

“Acknowledged,” Wufei said, sneering at Heero over the cellphone. “Good night, Winner.”

“Good night, Quatre,” Heero added before the Chinese man stabbed the end call button on the phone and put it back in his pocket. “If there's nothing else, I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning, Chang.”

“Certainly,” Wufei said confidently. “Oh, but you need to tell Duo that Winner will be here in the morning. I'll tell Barton, since his room is next to mine.”

“Fine,” Heero replied, letting the shorter man go before him up to the third floor where their rooms were located. He watched as Wufei walked all the way down the hall and stopped at Trowa's door before turning to face the wood that served as a barrier between him and Duo. He lifted his hand and was surprised when it opened before he could knock. “Duo…”

“Yes, Heero?” Duo asked coolly.

“We spoke to Quatre.” Heero closed his eyes, trying to block out the chill he was getting from the unfamiliar glare on the American's face.

“And?” Heero could almost hear Duo crossing his arms over his chest, but he swallowed a sigh so he could finish this task.

“He'll be here early in the morning. Do you have a room where we could plan without disturbing the children?”

“Yes, Tro and I have offices down on the first floor, near the old reception area,” Duo said slowly before letting out a huge yawn.

“Aa.”

“Heero, do you need anything else? Because, if you don't, I'm damn tired and have a long day tomorrow.”

“Duo…” He opened his eyes and was face-to-face with the cold mask that his friend had used during the wars. Not Shinigami. Not that, but something much, much worse. This was the seriously pissed Duo. Which meant the other man was perhaps a few steps away before taking the plunge into Shinigami. “I… just want to say that I'm sorry.”

“You're sorry? Well, that's nice to know, Yuy.” Duo's warm, bright voice was so cold that Heero had to suppress the urge to flinch. “How about you save it for someone who gives a damn. Good night.” And then, the door was slammed in Heero's face, leaving him standing there, alone and stunned, while he gathered his thoughts. After a few minutes, he turned to go grab some sleep in his own room. `When all this is over, I think I'll leave. It was such a bad idea to come back here first.'

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

Duo waited until he heard the door to Heero's room close before he slunk to the floor, a shaking, cold mess. He didn't want to be Shinigami anymore. He hadn't had to play that part since the first war. He'd managed to avoid pulling that mask out, somehow, during the Eve War.

He guessed it was just something about Heero that made it difficult for him to regulate his emotions.

He was so tired. He just wanted peace, for things to be normal.

He was starting to think that he'd never get anything remotely like that.

His sins weighed heavily on him right then, making him relive his time as a child on L2, and keeping him from a restful night's sleep in his comfortable bed. Somewhere, along the way, he fell into a light doze as he rocked from a foetal position on the floor, tears and screams making sure he was never too deeply lost in oblivion.

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

Heero sat up carefully as his laptop's alarm went off at five a.m. exactly, signaling to the former Wing pilot that he needed to get up so he could meet with Quatre and Chang. Quickly, he dressed into a pair of worn jeans, a black t-shirt, and a pair of trainers that he'd purchased while he was still at St. Sebastian's during one of their day trips.

He remembered that trip reluctantly. Dr. Shaw had been very pointed about Heero learning to adjust and interact with other people without the use of lies or weapons. When another of the residents, a man who'd been classified as mostly harmless, made the suggestion of a day trip shopping, the mental health professional about wet himself in excitement. It had taken Heero an hour to realize that the man was staring at him specifically to gauge his reaction. Heero had responded with an uninterested shrug and waited for the others of the group, two other men and two women, all much older than he was, to make up their minds. One of the women - she was probably old enough to be Heero's mother, but had decided that the former Gundam pilot was going to be her new boyfriend - had attached herself to his side for the entire day. She'd outdone even Relena's persistence. At least the Queen of the World knew to back off when Heero's fingers began twitching. Lucky for her, Dr. Shaw rescued her before Heero managed to get both of his hands around her neck.

Shaking his head, Heero finished tying his laces and gathered all of his belongings into the duffle bag he brought before placing it by the door of the room. That would save him unnecessary packing time when he left after doing this one last thing for Duo and Trowa.

Lightly, Heero opened the door to his room and made his way down the hall to the kitchen area he remembered from the morning before. He wasn't surprised to find the other adults awake and nursing steaming mugs of coffee.

“Good morning, Heero,” Hilde said happily as he entered. He nodded and made his way over to the coffee pot to make his own cup, feeling a very familiar and still very angry pair of eyes following his every movement.

`I suppose that answers my question as to whether or not he's still angry with me,' he thought morosely, turning around to find both women staring at him questioningly. “Yes, ladies?”

“Oh, it's nothing, really,” Cathy said offhandedly. “We were just wondering what made you think it was okay to turn up after a year of no communication like nothing happened.”

“Yes, it's rather inconsiderate of you to think that was normal behaviour for friends,” the dark-haired woman added.

“Ancestors, it's too early for you women to act so subtly,” Wufei grumbled, rubbing his temples slowly. “Just tell him he's a fuck up, like the rest of us did last night, and be done with it.” The women exchanged glances before laughing at the Chinese man's mini-rant.

“Oh, Wufei, you're always so amusing when you're here,” Cathy said, patting his hand.

“I know. It's almost a shame that we'll have to send you back to Une and Sally,” Hilde said with a devious smirk that she must have learned from Duo as she and Cathy wrapped themselves around his arms.

“Barton, call off these women! They're referring to my tormentors with glee,” Wufei said, trying to pull away from the two females without actually hurting them.

“'Fei, you'd think you don't go through this every time you visit,” Duo croaked. The strange note in the American's voice had Heero taking a long look at his friend. Dark circles and a haunted look in his eyes let Heero know that the other man hadn't slept very well, if at all. “They'll just keep teasing you until you lighten up.” He turned to the two women with a small smile. “But, you two should know that not even I could make him crack during the war, so you've got your work cut out for you.”

Cathy smiled at her boss, giving him a wink as she and Hilde released the spluttering Chinese man. “Well, Duo, what did you have planned for today for all of us?”

“After we take the older kids to school, I was thinking that the younger kids could use a trip to the park for a nature lesson.”

“Oh! That sounds like a great idea,” Hilde chirped. “But with six adults, there'll only be seven kids. Seems a little bit of overkill, if you ask me.”

“Yuy and I have other plans for the day, Hilde, so it will only be you four regulars,” Wufei snarled before downing the rest of his coffee. “Winner should be here soon so we can get started with our plans.”

“What plans?” Cathy asked, but Trowa shook his head solemnly before moving towards the hallway.

“Duo, why don't we start waking up the kids while the girls start breakfast,” the banged man suggested.

“Great idea, Tro,” Duo said with no animation. “We'll see you ladies downstairs in about forty-five minutes, if we can convince the monsters to wake up on time for once.”

“Don't bet on it,” Hilde responded, eyeing Duo carefully before kissing his cheek. She leaned in close and whispered in his ear, making a small smile grace the American's lips. “See ya, gents.” With that, she and Cathy disappeared, shortly followed by Duo and Trowa.

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

Duo perked up as he walked around the rooms on the second floor, waking up the older children and helping the smaller ones get dressed. He'd had worse days than this with the kids, and it seemed that they understood that today wasn't really a good day to push him. Or maybe it was just that they were too tired from all the excitement they'd been going through lately to give him problems before breakfast. Whichever it was, Duo was grateful. Doing the menial but necessary acts of everyday life in the orphanage helped settle the anger in his mind. Once everything with the gang had died down, Duo promised himself that he was going to pin Heero down for a very long talk about things.

`Maybe by then I will have gathered the courage to tell him how I feel,' he thought, scoffing at his own stupid sentimentality. `What am I talking about? I'll be lucky if he doesn't try to run away again. I know that I had every right to be pissed at him and lash out, both verbally and physically, but it wasn't very mature or helpful. I'm just too tired to deal with this crap right now.'

“Aw! Duo said a bad word,” Nelia squealed, tugging on the end of her brown pigtails and smiling at the braided pilot.

“Did I?” he asked, moving in to tickle the little girl, who quickly ran away, bumping into Jimmy in the process.

“Come along, you little demons,” he said to the seven children who had yet to head down to breakfast. “I'm sure that Cathy and Hilde have finished making breakfast, and since I know for a fact that most of you have tests today, you'd better eat lots.”

When he and his group trudged down into the dining room, they found out that they had an extra guest. “Q! What are you doing here?”

“Oh, did Heero and Wufei not tell you that I'm here to help with your pest problem?” the blond asked innocently, batting his blue eyes in a way that made Duo snicker. “You know that WEI has experience in exterminations.”

“Hm, yeah, you do, don't you?” Duo muttered. “Well, let's eat and get the monsters of to school.” Suddenly, the room came to life as twenty children and seven adults all attempted to have conversations over their simple meal before starting their different tasks.

None of them noticed how quiet Duo was as he nibbled on a few pieces of toast. However, the feeling of someone staring at him forced Duo to look up and meet with Heero's heavy blue eyes. He looked so contrite that Duo nearly caved in and accepted his apology from the night before, but something held him back. `It's gonna take a helluva lot more than just the words “I'm sorry” to get me to actually forgive you, Heero.' He turned his head and leaned over to answer a question Becky asked him, not noticing the pained look on the Japanese man's face before it shut down completely.

TBC