Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Finding and Returning ❯ The Note ( Chapter 1 )

Finding and Returning

By DemonicaESO

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing, nor any products I may include in this fic. Stop poking me.

Author's notes: Sorry about the crappy title for the story, I couldn't think of anything else at 3 AM. Apologies to anyone else who might have a fic of the same name.

Things in Italic is journal entries. If it is Bold Italic it is Heero's journal. If it is regular, it's Duo's. However, italic with the dot things on either end is thoughts, example being:

::It's got chicken legs!::

Same as with the journal entries, Duo's thoughts are in Regular Italics, Heero's in Bold Italics. Emails are the same way.

Figure out who's point of view the fic is told from yourself, it will change periodically.

Don't ask about some of the titles for the chapters, usually it's just random shit to fill in space.

Chapter 1

"Heero, Heero, wherefore art thou, Heero?"

Three years, 6 months and 22 days. That's the time since I last saw him. With the war over, and no reason to fight anymore, he just disappeared. He promised that I would see him alive again, so I know he didn't go and just off himself since he was no longer required to be a soldier. He doesn't know that I saw that email that Dr. J sent him. The last order he got...to terminate himself. Just like that, to shut down as if like a computer. I was so flaming mad, but Heero just deleted it. I'm glad he didn't go through with it, since I would have to pull his ass out of it and bitch at him until he realized that he has some other purpose other than killing.

I don't know what he's doing now. I wish I did. It's like he's disappeared of the face of Earth or Colony. Leave it to Heero Yuy to leave no trace, nothing for anyone to figure out where he's hiding. Even Shinigami himself. I'll find him eventually though. I know I will.

The others are worried. Sure, Wufei wouldn't openly admit it, just like he wouldn't admit to anyone, even himself, that he likes Sally Po. Lol. Whether he admits it or not, it's still fun watching him deal with the woman. That's a good match. Speaking of matches, Quatre and Trowa finally got past their shyness and are now together. It was bound to happen, even I could see they were for each other even during the War. Sometimes I wish...Heh. I just remembered what Sister Helen used to say to the children when one of them would say that.

"If wishes were fishes..."

I can also remember that I managed to get Father Maxwell to spit water out his nose once when I replied, "Tha'sa whole lotta fish guts..."

I was young, okay?

Anyways, I'm going to see if I've got anymore leads on the missing Perfect Ex-Soldier.

~DM

Duo sighed, putting down his pen and placed his journal in it's secret drawer in his desk. He turned on the monitor of his computer and went to work. During his entire search, Duo had only found a few things here and there to reassure him about Heero's existence. Leads that one even as skilled as Heero could not erase without trouble. People.

It seemed now that Heero had decided to go into hiding away from those sorts of people and therefor ended the scraps of info Duo had been receiving.

::Heero::

Duo stared down at his keyboard, thinking about the Cobalt-eyed man that haunted his dreams along with his nightmares. He was startled out of his thoughts by the Vidphone's incessant noise. He turned his rolling desk chair to face the part of his desk that supported his phone and punched at the button to turn it on. The screen flickered on, a flashing identification name blinked in the middle of it, telling him who it was. Another button and Quatre's face immediately appeared on the screen. He was looking at something beyond his own Vidphone, which Duo figured to be Trowa since one wasn't very far away from the other.

"Hey Q, what's up?" Duo smiled faintly at his blond friend. Quatre's attention snapped back to the phone and he beamed at Duo.

"Hi Duo! Nothing much. I was just calling to see how you were doing." Quatre replied. Something in his voice alerted Duo that there was more to it that Quatre was telling him.

"I'm alright. Work has been pretty busy. I'm also almost done with that one big statue I've been working on." Duo said easily, watching the screen closely, trying to read his friend on the other end. "No new leads on Heero." Duo added. There! There was the smallest of flickers across Quatre's face that wasn't just the electronics. Quatre tilted his head to one side slightly like he always did when Duo reported no new news on their missing comrade. "Quatre," Duo sighed. "We both know that you didn't just call to find out what's been going on in my dull life," Quatre snorted at that. "So out with it already." Duo finished. Quatre shrugged at the correct accusation and mearly looked annoyed that he was so readable to his braided friend instead of embarrassed that he had been found out.

"I'm having a little get-together and was wondering if you would like to come. I have a surprise for you here." Quatre started. Duo thought about it for a moment and shrugged. "Sure. I've been meaning to take a little time off anyways. They're starting to threaten me at work with talking Relena into forcing me to take a vacation. Knowing her, she'll probably find some legal way of arresting me if I don't." Duo chuckled lightly. Relena had grown up during Heero's disappearance and had become close friends with them all. To everyone's surprise, she had also hooked up with Dorothy and the two were now heavily involved.

"Great! I'll send you the information and tell the flight crew that you're coming." Quatre beamed. Trowa came up behind him and smiled at Duo.

"Sure, see ya' then! Hi Tro!" Duo gave a little wave at Trowa who nodded back. Trowa then whispered something to Quatre which made Quatre bade goodbye and leave. Trowa sat down in the chair that he had evacuated and regarded Duo.

"Nice to see you again Duo. Thank you for coming, Quatre was afraid that you wouldn't since it would cut into your time looking for Heero." Trowa said quietly. Duo nodded slightly, "I haven't seen you guys in a while though, so what better time? I haven't found out anything new about Heero for a while now anyways..." Trowa was a bit harder to read than Quatre, but Duo could tell that he was waiting for the right time to say something and apparently he had found it.

"Maybe this will help then." Trowa typed something and a little window popped up on Duo's screen. It was a copy of an email addressed to Trowa with no email telling who it was.

To: Trowa Barton

Send this to Duo.

File Attached

Another window opened to show the attached file.

Duo.

The promise is on it's way.

-Heero

Duo stared at it for a moment before grinning. Trowa took this as a very good sign since none of them had seen Duo smile as close to his old smiles as that one. Since Heero had disappeared, Duo's Jester smile had disappeared as well and all that was left was ghosts of smiles and smirks.

"Heero sent this to me last night. What does it mean?" Trowa asked. Duo finally tore his eyes away from the message to look at Trowa. A hint of his old self was back and it showed.

"He's alive, and finally has gained a sense of humor." Duo saved the little message and closed the windows. "It'll probably take another couple years, but eventually we'll see Heero again. I'll see you guys when I get there. Later, Trowa." Duo said goodbye and hung up after Trowa said his own goodbyes. Duo sat back in his chair for a bit and pondered the little message Heero had sent. Perhaps Heero was planning on finding him at this party of Quatre's? It was at all possible, but on the other hand, Heero had only promised that he would see him again. That could always be a phone call, a tape, or even security footage. Duo smiled at that last one. He didn't take much time to wonder why Heero had sent the message to Trowa rather directly to him. Duo was almost as skilled a hacker as Heero and would have been able to trace it. Obviously, Heero didn't want to found just quite yet, but still felt the need to send the very short, and puzzling to all others, message.

He sighed and glanced at the clock before turning back to his computer to check his mail. He quickly found the information that Quatre had said he would send and scrolled through it, memorizing it and storing it in his memory files to pull out later. Apparently, this party would require him to be over there for two weeks at the least. It was Wensday and his flight was Saturday, so that left him only two days to finish any immediate paper work he had, tell Hilde that he was going on vacation and then pack. He sent a short message to Hilde, telling her why he wasn't going to be at he shop during that time. He then shut down his computer and rolled over to another part of his large desk and bent to finish some forms he needed to sign. It was going to be a long two days.

He was wrong. Thursday and Friday sped by faster than he would have thought possible. Friday night he was still running around the garage like a headless chicken that wouldn't quit, doing things here and there. It was well after closing when Hilde marched up to him and cleared her throat. Duo paused in what he was doing to look over at her, his bangs trapped under the slightly worn leather cap he was wearing and his hands full of tools and a piece of equipment he was holding in place while he tried to screw it in, it's place being in very cramped quarters.

"Mmhp?" Questioned Duo, his mouth also occupied with holding a tool who's purpose hadn't come into play yet, as Duo was still scraping his knuckles with screwing that last bit in. Hilde sighed and held out her hand to Duo's mouth as if asking the toy back from a dog. Duo complied, having been in this position before and knowing what was going to come next.

"Duo, you're done." Hilde said firmly, holding out her hand again for the screwdriver he was still holding. Duo glanced at what he was working on, only two screws in and four more to go. Hilde didn't care though and stood there glaring at him until he reluctantly handed her the screwdriver, but not before poking it at the piece of equipment to the point where he knew it would stay there until someone finished it in the morning.

"Go home, eat, pack and sleep. Ralph can take care of this tomorrow. YOU need to be ready for your flight tomorrow and I don't want to explain to Quatre why you look half-dead when you get there. And you will, if you don't go home now and get a good night's rest. It's almost midnight, Duo." Hilde scolded. She set the tools down in the toolbox beside Duo's stool while Duo draped a red cloth over what he had been working on, to tell others that it wasn't done.

"Alright already. Yeesh. I'm going." Duo slipped off the stool and wiped his hands on a rag. "Shoo then!" Hilde waved at him with her hands and when that didn't get him to move fast enough to her liking, she turned him and started pushing against his back towards his office.

"Get your coat and things and go home already! The shop will be fine with you away. Just go and have a good time at Quatre's!" Hilde let him walk under his own power into his office to get his things while she waited outside the door. She was already wearing her jacket which made a contrast to Duo's much longer leather trenchcoat as they left the building and headed for the parkinglot after locking up.

"You be careful on the road tonight, Duo! They said there was a chance of hail tonight." Hilde cautioned as Duo strapped on his helment. He nodded and waved back at her as she walked to her car. "Later, Hil!"

"Say hi to everyone for me!" He nodded again and a few moments later he was riding to his apartment on his motorcycle. Halfway through his ride it indeed began to hail and he slowed down considerably. The last thing he needed was to crash. Something on the sidewalk on the left caught his attention and he turned his head slightly to see what it was. Not too far ahead, between a tall shrub and an outcropping of a building he saw a young woman he recognized trapped by two large middle-aged men. One of which was currently trying to feel up her skirt and judging by the angry look on her face, it was not welcomed at all. The street was devoid of cars at the moment so it was easy to dive up on the sidewalk and act as though he was going to run the two men down. They took off running and he stopped his bike right before the girl. He lifted his visor so she could see who her rescuer was. He recognized her as one of his neighbors that lived a few doors down and around the corner from him. Alice, the girl who's cat liked to lounge on her shoulders and would stare at him when it saw him and seemed to grin in a cat-like manner.[1]

"Duo?" The question was tinted with relief as she recognized him. He nodded and handed her the spare helment that was usually used by Hilde whenever she needed to borrow his bike.

"Here, I'll give you a ride home." He said, smiling slightly at the thin dark-haired young woman. She nodded in gratitude and slipped the helment on. She hopped onto the back of the motorcycle with an ease that surprised Duo and put her arms around his middle to signal that she was ready. He started off again, going a bit faster than before since the hail had decided to clear up a bit and the way became more clear as well.

"There ya' go, Alice." Duo said, stopping his bike in his usual parking spot right next to the garage door to the apartment building. Alice got off and he shut off the bike and swung off himself. Alice handed him back the helment she had borrowed so he could hang it on the bike next to his own.

"Thank you for helping me back there, Duo." Alice said in her quiet voice. He waved it off and shook his head. "No thanks necessary. Just have some Mace or a Tazer with you next time." They rode the elevator to the forth floor where both of their apartments resided. Alice smiled in a peculiar way at him and stepped out of the elevator once the doors opened. "I would, but as for the reason I was out in the first place was to buy a new battery for my Tazer!" She watched as the expressions on Duo's face went from listening to realizing and then amusement as he laughed at proceeded past where she had stopped at her door to his own further down.

"Well, be more careful at any rate!" He chuckled and waved to her before rounding the corner to his own place. He shook his head as he fished out his keys that seemed to be under every other item in his pocket just to spite him. He heard Alice's apartment door open and shut and the faint haunting 'miow' of her demented cat.

He finally located his keys and proceeded inside, gently shutting the door behind him. Old Mrs. Nightingale would come over and 'speak' to him again if he slammed it even the slightest. She was actually a sweet old woman with a hearing that amazed Duo to no ends, but was a fanatic about manners and etiquette and the such, and would tolerate nothing other.

He hung his coat up on the hook he had made for it. The previous one that had been there when he moved in had snapped under the weight of the coat. The landlord was not mad since the building was old and the hangers cheap and did not charge him for the damage as long as he replaced it. She even went as far as to ask if he could make her some as well. He liked his Landlady, who, surprisingly enough was a short lanky girl a couple years younger than him who bought the place at the age of 19 and slowly transformed it from a run-down place to a pretty respectable apartment building. Anyways, enough about other people.

Duo slipped his shoes off by the door and padded in his socks further into the comfortably decorated apartment. He dropped his stuff off in his study and ventured to the bathroom to take a shower. Though one would think someone with hair past their butt would take a long time in the shower, this was not the case with Duo. Growing up in a place where water was scarce and then moving onto a life of a soldier in the middle of war where you had to be ready for anything at any point in time will do that to someone. He was in and out of the shower under 15 minutes, clean from top to bottom and dripping. He toweled off and wandered into his room to get dressed in some night clothes which for him consisted of dark gray sweats and a black tank top. Duo considered his options for a moment and then finally dragged out his large black duffle bag from the closet, one of the only things he had left over from his Soldier days, which he liked for some reason. He then proceeded to pack for two weeks at Quatre's house and a little more. Clothes, bathroom things, gifts, a thick book of untranslated Roman and Celtic Mythology that he had been reading, extra ammo in case he was called to an urgent mission with Preventers during his stay there and a few other odds and ends. During the War none of his comrades could quite figure out how he could manage to pack so much stuff in one duffle and yet not have it look overstuffed and apparently he still had the knack for it. With that done, he pulled a small leather backpack out of the closet as well and proceeded to fill that with more personal things, like his sketch pads, pencils, erasers, journal, and his laptop. His gun he kept with him at all times. He stored them in the living room so he wouldn't have to drag it out there in the morning, and then contemplated what to wear the next day. He settled for his favorite pair of black pants which had pockets all over along with it's matching vest, his leather steel-toed boots, and a blood red long sleeved turtle neck and his black leather cap. Pleased with his planning, he heated up some soup, ate and then went to bed.

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[1] 50 kitty treats to whomever figures out just what character I was thinking about when I added this character in here. Any guesses?

Please review and I'll post the next chapter. ^_^