Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Starting Over ❯ Where the Lines Overlap ( Chapter 1 )

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: Ugh, me and my big mouth… I reread ACL, and then Angel gave me the link to a good trilogy by Calic0cat, who is well worth the read btw (Bound by Honour trilogy), and the damn 1x2 bug bit me again. Rainy and Enna told me that I was *not* to write another one, but… It won't go away and it's affecting my 2x5 writing! HELP! Anyhow, Angel *also* gave me a plot bunny for her favorite pairing, so here I am. *glares at Neko and Usagi, who are fighting over how much they get to do to the G-boys this time around* Oh, and just so you know, yes, yes, I am insane. =P

Starting Over, Chapter 1 - Where the Lines Overlap

`372 days since the end of the Eve's War', Duo thought, getting up with a yawn and groaning as things that shouldn't have been out of place popped back in. `God, I'm only eighteen. I'm not supposed to feel like this yet.' He stretched a bit more and looked at his reflection in the mirror across from his bed. `I need more sleep. Those kids are running me ragged.'

`Coffee, I need coffee… Even Q's sludge would be welcome this morning.' With a groan, Duo dragged his body into the small kitchen that his living quarters allowed, happy to see that the coffee pot was already full and waiting for him, and Trowa was sitting at the table. “Yo.”

“Same back at you,” Trowa said, smiling at the spectacle Duo made that early in the morning with only a pair of boxers and his hair slipping out of its perpetual braid. “I figured after that fight between the older boys last night, you'd need caffeine when you woke up.”

“Where's Q? I thought he was stopping by with some of his sisters who aren't mommies yet to help out for the day?” Duo asked as he poured an extra-large cup for himself and a normal sized one for Trowa, adding tons of cream and sugar to his and nothing to the other.

“They'll be here in a little bit. Hilde and Cathy are on breakfast duty today.”

“Thank God for small miracles,” the Deathscythe pilot muttered. “Tro, I gotta do something about those older kids. They're fighting way too much lately.”

“And it's not like you can really step in between them because you might hurt them?”

“Yeah, I mean, I have awesome control, but when Brian pulled my braid last night, I thought I was going to break his neck before Quatre pulled me back.”

“It's a shame that you can't have Wufei or Heero here to do something like teach self-defense or martial arts to them. It would be beneficial.”

“Yeah, I know. I asked `Fei, but he's so busy at the Preventers for Une and Sally, that he can't do it. And I still haven't been able to track down Heero.”

“I know. I did another check for any financials, but there was nothing.”

“This is getting ridiculous. He just disappears after we save Relena and we can't find him?” Duo sighed and tugged on his braid absently. “I mean, he's not dead, or Q would know, right? Right?”

Trowa got up and put a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder. “Remember what happened the first time he self-destructed? What did Quatre tell you then?”

“That he was okay.”

“And what does he tell you when you ask now?”

“That he's alive.”

“So, do you think he's lying?”

“No, Quatre does a lot of omissions with other people, but not us.” Duo rubbed at his eyes to make sure that the tears that had threatened to spill out didn't. “Thanks, Tro.”

“No problem, Duo. Now, I suggest a shower and getting dressed. The kids will be up in a little bit and then we have the problem of transportation to school.”

“What happened to the bus?”

“Engine's missing.”

“Dammit! I'm going to kill those gang bangers if they do that one more time!”

“Another day, I'll help, but right now, we have to hurry.”

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

Heero blinked as the weak sun shone through the window of his room. `How long have I been here?' He carefully shifted long, lean limbs and tried to gather his thoughts. `I checked in a week after I saved Relena from Mariemaea's Army. Told them that if they didn't do something, I was going to hurt *someone*.' He smiled grimly as he thought about that day. `They didn't believe me until I broke that orderly's arm after he came up behind me. I thought that doctor was going to run screaming from the room when I told him that I was the pilot of Wing.'

He sat up straight at the thought of his Gundam. `I wonder what Quatre did with all of the Gundams? I mean, I heard Wufei went to the Preventers, so I can only assume that he took Altron with him as well. But the others, what are they doing?' The sad smile he'd been wearing as he thought was wiped completely as the door to his room opened.

“Mr. Gregor, the doctor said it's time for your appointment,” a woman in a nurse's uniform said timidly before running to hide behind three bulky orderlies.

“Great,” Heero said, his voice croaking from disuse.

-*-*-*-*-*-

“So, Mr. Gregor, you've been here for nearly twelve months,” Heero's doctor started, looking up from a notebook at his desk. “Do you feel that therapy has helped you come to grips with why you checked yourself into this facility?”

“I haven't had a nightmare in three months, Dr. Shaw,” Heero answered after careful consideration. “I'd forgotten what it was like to actually sleep through the night without screaming myself awake.”

“That certainly is progress, but I'm more interested in the rage you held onto so tightly.”

“If you're asking do I want to break people's heads open anymore, the answer is no.”

“That is a great improvement. Do you think you'll be going back to using your name from the war or will you make a clean break once you're released?”

“I hadn't really thought about it,” the teenager answered. “No, I've avoided thinking about it. There's a lot of baggage that goes along with that name.”

“But you're worried about your friends and comrades?”

“Yes and no,” Heero said, frowning at the truth of the statement. “They were soldiers, all but her, but they were strong. Chang… Wufei… He was conflicted after the first war, but I know he's with the Preventers now, which is where he'll do the most good. As for the others, I haven't heard much from them, but I'm sure they're doing alright.” `Especially Duo, he's so strong, but sometimes, even I worried about his stability. How ironic is it that I should be the one to end up in a psychiatric ward for a year?'

“And her, do you still worry about her?”

Heero's head snapped up and he glared at the doctor before trying to form the words. “Very few times have I ever really worried about her, and only when she was in real danger. It's strange. She practically stalked me, but she's the best person I know.”

“So, Mr. Gregor - or should I call you Mr. Yuy now? - what will you do once I sign these release forms?”

“I think I'll find out what the other Gundam pilots are doing, and try having a real life for a change.”

“Well, I'd say you're ready for it.” The doctor stood and held out his hand to Heero. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Heero said as he shook the man's hand.

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

Duo sighed as he and Trowa managed to put a new engine in the dilapidated bus they used to shuttle the orphans around the colony. “You know, Tro, maybe we should call the police about this. This is the third time this month that gang of hoodlums has done something to the bus, not to mention all the rocks and firebombs they'd launched through the windows.”

“We could, Duo,” Trowa said as he pushed the mechanic's trolley he was lying on out from under the yellow monstrosity, “or, you could go and put the fear of Shinigami in them.”

“It'd be a waste, man. They're too dumb to fear Death, even when he's facing them.” Trowa laughed as he wiped his hands on grease-stained jeans.

“You're probably right, Duo. Now, let's see if this thing works so we can go pick up the kids from school.”

“Hell yes!” Duo jumped up the stairs and threw himself behind the wheel. Cranking the key and praying, he let out a whoop of joy as it roared to life. “God, it sounds better than before. But I gotta get those back brakes replaced too.” He looked at his watch. “Ugh, it's time. Go tell Hilde and Cathy that we got it to work, and then we can head out.”

A few minutes later, Duo and Trowa pulled up in front of the elementary school where most of their charges attended and waited. “You know, I've been wondering why you decided to open up an orphanage of all things once the wars were over, Duo. And on L2 of all places.”

“Well, it's not a surprise. I grew up on these streets, and I know how many orphans were made because of all the stupid fighting. These kids get the short stick because L2 has always been kinda the cesspool of the Earth Sphere. Where else could I go when I knew I was needed here?” Duo grinned, a shadow of his old manic grin from the wars. “What I want to know is why didn't you go and work for Q at WEI? I mean, you didn't have to help me do this. Between Une, Relena and Q, I had enough backers to do it, and Hilde and Cathy were more than happy to help me out on a day-to-day basis.”

“I was an orphan too, so I suppose I understand your sentiment. Besides, Quatre has his place, and I wanted my own.”

“Yeah, but he coulda made a place for you. Anyone can see that the two of you are close.”

Trowa, uncharacteristically, blushed. “I didn't want to have my place `made' for me, as you so eloquently put it. Besides, I knew you needed the help.”

“Yeah, well, we're still short-handed, even with Q and his sisters helping out. If I had maybe one or two more people, we'd be about great.” Duo sighed. `Too bad Heero's not here. I wouldn't have any problems from those kids. One death glare and they'd be perfect little angels.'

“I agree. It would be nice if Heero or Wufei could help out.”

“Stop reading my mind, Tro. That's creepy!” Before either of them could say anything else, the bell rang and they were swarmed with tiny bodies demanding their attention.

-*-*-*-*-*-

After getting the kids home, the five adults still there (Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Hilde and Cathy) separated the twenty children into small groups for help with homework and projects for school. When that was done, Duo and Trowa went and started dinner. Quatre, wisely, stayed as far from the kitchens as he could get when cooking time came around, because after his first time helping cook resulted in blowing out an oven, he'd been banned by Cathy. They'd all settled down for dinner and Duo had said grace when there was a knock on the outside door.

Jimmy, one of the older boys, jumped up from his place and ran to answer it, Trowa right behind him, hand reaching for the gun he no longer carried. The door opened and there was some talking going on with a voice that Duo thought he recognized but was reluctant to find out if his assumption was correct. He looked over at Quatre, who'd gone pale and quiet in the middle of a sentence, and felt his heart begin to race.

“Duo!” Jimmy yelled, green eyes sparkling with excitement as he ran back into the dining room. “There's this guy at the door asking for you! He seems to know Trowa too!”

Slowly, Duo rose from his chair and walked mechanically to the door to see his visitor, his steps moving in time to his heartbeat. His eyes grew large and his mouth dry as he stared at the man in the doorway. “Heero?”

TBC