Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Nightingale ❯ One-Shot

A nightingale sang into the night, his mournful song echoing within
the confines of the garden, hiding the actual location of the bird.
Duo sat staring out into the darkness, listening. This was a night
for thinking. There were so many issues, so many complications. Life
was never easy; it was just that some people never woke up to that
fact. But Duo couldn't remember a time when he hadn't been aware of
it. He'd always been awakened. A slightly bitter laugh escaped him.
He didn't know if he should envy the sleepers or hate them.

{We sing the nightingale song alive
Streets never border further than my sight}

L2, the stage of his fundamental childhood years. What childhood?
There were only the streets and the struggle to keep yourself alive,
safe and fed. The childhood of a street rat spent trying to insure
that other street rats could have a childhood. There were good parts.
Duo fingered the golden cross. Father Maxwell, Sister Helen. His
eyes involuntarily went to the bright stars in the dark sky above
him. //Yes, I remember what you taught me, and I thank you for the
gift. I love you.//

{We sing the nightingale song alive
We might be different but our hearts won't lie}

Father Maxwell and Sister Helen had believed, believed wholeheartedly
and without doubt. Duo wished that he could believe in something, in
anything, that way. //God might be dead, but I wish He were able to
wash away the taint from life.// Shinigami was easier to believe in,
but Shinigami was an integral part of the very world and life that
Duo wished to be free of. But this was a familiar cycle of thought.
God was dead, Shinigami was only for the present. Duo had only
himself to depend upon.

{And little ever changes if anything at all
But the song rings loudly through these halls}

Still, Duo longed, his heart and soul longed. He longed for
something to change, to change for the better. The recurring voice,
the pathetic song of mankind, recurring from generation to
generation, came from his lips too. "There has to be something more
to life than this." Duo realized he'd whispered aloud when the song
of the nightingale paused for a heartbeat, then continued.

{We sing the nightingale song alive
We might be different but our hearts won't lie}

The future, that was where the potential lay. He just had to tap
into it. There had to be something to depend on, to believe in.
Maybe, just maybe, he already had it. Staring at the stars, wrapped
in the nightingale's song, Duo fathomed for the briefest moment the
vast depth of the time and the universe. The pilots, the soldiers,
the civilians, the war, the hoped for peace, even space, were minute
in the scale of forever. The cycle of life and death, of war and
peace, continued eternally. Duo shivered. By changing, things were
insured to never change at all.

{And little ever changes when you view it from the sky
And the damage we encounter the earth just passes by
And little ever changes if anything at all
We just remind ourselves how small we are}

~~Owari~~

C&C always appreciated.