Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Gundam Wing character and I'm not making a profit by writing this. This is purely for pleasure!

Warnings: Language, yaoi, eventual lemon, angst, attempted suicide, silliness

Authors note: Hey, I *FINALLY* finished this! This is my long awaited sequel to Shatterglass. I previously referred to it as the "Xmas Special", but I now consider it a full-blown sequel since it has the significant amount of angst in it. Don't ask me HOW a Christmas fic ended up with attempted suicide in it, b/c I don't know!!! It just happened, okay? It DEFFINITLY wasn't planned. Be warned that this fic goes down hill pretty fast once we get to the angst and some of the things I say about Christmas/religion could be offensive to some people. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

Also, since the review thing with Shatterglass worked so well, I'm doing it again. This fic is COMEPLETLY FINISHED. However, if you want to read chapter two, I require five reviews! Come on people. The secret is out, you really DO have fingers and I know you CAN type reviews giving me praise and/or criticism! All it takes is the proper motivation! ;)

This fic completely disregards Endless Waltz.

Bear Thy Cross

Chapter 1: Meet Shinigami

Heero's POV

It's decided. I. Hate. Christmas. I've never experienced anything so stupid in my life. Masses of people who obviously don't know what to do with their money, running around shopping malls the day after Thanksgiving in an attempt to buy the perfect, on-sale gift for someone in order to honor some guy born thousands of years ago. I always knew religion made people do weird things, but this was ridiculous! I'd never seen such utter madness in my life. Not even when under the influence of the Zero System.

I growled as a little old lady jostled me in the crowd and had to listen to her reprimanding me for bumping into her. I would've done more than that if Duo hadn't latched onto my arm, begging me not to make a scene.

"I still don't see why you had to drag me here," I told him irritably as he pulled me away. "I was content just to stay at home, you know."

Duo grinned. "But it's much more fun for me this way! Besides, we've been a couple for three weeks now and we should start doing things as a couple."

"Hn."

"Not to mention its good for you to get out of the house sometimes. You're never going to be able to interact with us normal people if all you do is coop yourself up inside all the time."

I growled again as a woman in a business suit collided with my shoulder and continued on purposefully without a backwards glance.

"Dooown, Heero. Just forget about her. Come on, we still need to find gifts for Trowa and Wufei." He glanced at me slyly. "And don't even bother asking me what I got for you, because I wont tell you! Not even if you torture it out of me!"

"Tell me again why I would care?" I growled shortly, as I attempted to side step two little kids who were high on drugs-I couldn't imagine anything else that would make two six-year-olds have that much energy.

"Man, Heero, you're just no fun."

I looked at him, genuinely hurt. "I'm lots of fun," I protested. Then I leaned in closer and whispered huskily into his ear, "Lets just skip this Christmas shopping bullshit so we can go home and I can show you just how much fun I really am."

Duo blushed faintly. "Not here, Heero. Besides, there're just two more presents on my list and then we can go, okay?"

I sighed, disappointed. "Whatever."

"Come on, lover boy," Duo cooed happily as he snaked an arm around my waist, pulling me out of the way of a dozen singing elves that were about to run me over. "Lets try this store. It looks like it has some cool magic trick type of stuff that Trowa might like. I mean, they do that kind of stuff at the circus, right?"

Apparently it wasn't a question he required an answer to, because he suddenly thrust his shopping bags into my hands and dashed off into the store in search of the perfect gift.

Left to my own devices, I managed to maneuver my way through the crowed towards an empty space of wall I could lean against. We'd been here since 8 am, when the mall opened, and that was five hours ago. Five hours and we'd only made it to the third floor of the five-story mall. During the first hour, I'd decided that I really didn't like malls. By the second hour I'd decided that I just didn't like the crowds in the malls. In the third hour, I'd changed my opinion to 'I hated malls in general and this mall in particular'. During the fourth hour I'd come to the conclusion that I hated malls and Christmas. There were both stupid concepts and I'm now convinced that they were created by OZ as a torture device to drive people insane. And this was definitely one form of torture Dr.J hadn't trained me for. Now that we were nearing the end of the fifth hour, I was about read to kill the next person who touched me. Obviously Christmas turned people into rude, inconsiderate assholes who had no respect for other people's personal space-

A hand came down on my shoulder.

Furious at myself for not noticing someone's approach, I whirled to my right and in the next second I had the unfortunate person pinned to the floor beneath me.

Violet eyes stared up at me. Oh. Duo . . . Shit.

"Well, that was an interesting greeting," Duo said cheerfully from the floor, then leaning up and giving me a quick kiss. "Can you let me up now?"

I stood and offered him a hand up, which he took graciously.

"You know, Heero," he said seriously, "you can't just go around throwing people to the ground. Your lucky it was me this time-"

"I know. I'm sorry," I told him, and I was. He could invade my personal space anytime he wanted, I thought to myself. It was everyone else I had a problem with.

"You know, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to bring to you to the mall," he said sadly. "You need to get out more, but bringing you to the 'day after Thanksgiving sales' was probably like dropping you in the deep end before you knew how to swim. I just thought it might be fun, seeing as this is your first Christmas and all."

I frowned at him. "I'm trying, Duo," I said, taking his free hand into mine. "Look, I haven't even threatened to kill someone for over half an hour!"

He cracked a smile at that.

"Come on, there only one more gift left right?" I asked hopefully, trying to brighten Duo's mood. Duo's good mood was the only reason why I hadn't killed someone yet. Watching Duo nearly bouncing off the walls was the only thing that made this trip semi-bearable. Knowing that Duo was happy was the only thing that really mattered.

"Yep, only one more left to go!" Duo cheered, and dragged me through the crowd of onlookers that had gathered when I'd thrown Duo to the ground.

Luckily, it didn't take Duo long to find Wufei's gift and I was ecstatic at the prospect of finally leaving the human zoo. That is, until Duo said, "You know, if you wanted to do a little shopping of you own-you know, without me-you could. I can wait for you here, if you want.

"Why the hell would I want to do that?" I snapped, angry that he was even suggesting that we stay here longer.

I immediately regretted it when I saw how hurt Duo looked. I realized that Duo was hinting at something, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what and all I could thing about was the prospect of finally leaving this place.

"Duo, I'm sor-"

"Don't worry about it," Duo said, although his smile looked a little strained. "I know you're ready to leave. Lets go home and get some lunch, okay?"

I sighed gratefully. "Yes."

We were in the parking lot and I was nearly home free-I could even see our car-when Duo got side tracked again.

"Awwwww! How cute!" Duo screeched and after dropping his shopping bags at my feet, took off at warp speed towards a cardboard box marked 'FREE'. I watched at he leaned down and picked up a lively black kitten from the depths of the box. It couldn't have been more than five weeks old.

"Oh, look! Isn't he adorable?" Duo called back to me as he nuzzled the furry thing while it batted playfully at Duo's bangs. "Can I keep him? Please?!"

I was about read to refuse when Duo looked at me with those big, innocent puppy eyes begging me to say yes.

I sighed. I never could seem to deny him anything when he looked at me like that.

"Well, only if Quatre agrees. It's his house, after all."

"Oh, thank you!" Duo squealed in ecstasy, rushing forward and throwing his arms around me, the poor kitten getting squished between us in the process. I put my arms around Duo a little awkwardly, still unused to public displays of affection.

"You're squishing your cat," I told him finally. He reluctantly let go of me, still cradling the struggling kitten in his arms.

"Well come on! Lets go!" Duo called out. I cursed under my breath when I saw he was moving back towards the mall and away from the car.

"Aren't we going home now?" I asked, hating the pleading tone that crept into my voice.

"Nope! Now we have to go get a litter box for Shinigami-that's what I've decided to call him-and kitty food and kitty treats and kitty toys and . . ."

I groaned and wondered whom I was going to kill first: the creator of malls or Duo.