Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Crow: Shinigami ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

A distant figure is seen staggering toward you. As it comes closer it resolves itself into a feedback-starved ficwriter with longish brown hair and hazil eyes.

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Chapter 2

It had been nearly a week since Duo's return when the group met up with WuFei again.

They had moved to another safehouse and Trowa had gone on a mission that had lasted a couple of days, so Duo and Quatre were waiting for his return.

"Did you contact Professor G yet?" Quatre asked.

"Yeah, he suggested that I rest up for another week or so before I go on any missions; just to be sure." Duo grinned. "If ya ask me, I think the old geezer missed me."

At the sound of a truck engine Quatre jumped up from his seat and went to the window.

Duo laughed. "Could you be any more eager, Q-chan?" Quatre blushed.

"Trowa's back." Quatre said, smiling brightly. "He brought WuFei with him!" Duo joined him at the window, watching the other two Gundam pilots grab their things from the truck and start toward the house.

"I wonder if Trowa told him I'm back?" Duo said, with a grin; as he walked back from the window. The door opened and WuFei followed Trowa into the safehouse, where he caught sight of the grinning Deathscythe pilot. WuFei's jaw dropped.

"D-Duo!?!"

"I guess that answers my question." Duo commented, still grinning. "Hey, Wu-man, what's-Oof!" Duo found himself the surprised recipient of an unexpected, bone-crushing hug [1]. "Uh, Wuffie, do you mind? I sort of need those ribs." WuFei promptly let go and backed off.

"Sorry, Duo." WuFei said. "I guess I missed your constant jabbering more than I thought."

"Well, you know what they say, Wu-chan; too much quiet can be a bad thing."

"Do NOT call me Wu-chan." WuFei growled, before heading to his room to unpack.

"Does anyone else but me think that was weird?" Duo asked.

~*~

"So, are we gonna blow it up or tear it apart?" Duo asked. "Or both? Please say both; I _like_ both!"

"Both." Quatre said, with an amused smile. "We need to take out the underground mobile suit hanger as well, it would be difficult do that with just the Gundams."

"Yippee!"

"Can we be serious here?" WuFei asked, with an annoyed glare at Duo.

"I am serious! I've been out of action for a year! I'm going stir-crazy!"

"That's obvious." WuFei muttered. "Can you still pilot?"

"Hell yeah!" Duo said, looking offended. "It's like riding a bike!"

"A bike?" WuFei asked, with a raised eyebrow. "You're comparing piloting a Gundam, the most powerful mobile suit in existence, with riding a bike!?!"

"Excuse me," Quatre said, pointedly. "Can we please get back to the mission? Remember? Mission? Weapons depot?"

The two pilots looked at Quatre sheepishly.

"Sorry." Duo said.

"Okay. Trowa and I will act as a distraction while the two of you sneak in and set the explosives; afterwards you two come and back us up and we take off as soon as the base goes up. There shouldn't be too much trouble with the mobile suits, since this is the halfway-point between the manufacturer and the bases, there shouldn't be too many pilots."

"Sounds like a party!" Duo said.

~*~

"I'm done, " Duo said. "You?"

"Finished." WuFei replied. "And not a moment too soon." He added, hearing shouting outside the hanger, just before the door slammed open and eight men in pilot's gear rushed in.

"Looks like we'll have to fight our way out!" Duo exclaimed, with a manic grin. They dove behind the nearest mobile suit, as the MS pilots took notice of them and opened fire. "Cover me!" Duo ran out from behind their cover.

"Maxwell! What the hell are you doing!?!" WuFei shouted after Duo. "Fucking psycho." He picked off one of the pilots and aimed for another.

WuFei had never seen Duo move so fast; the Deathscythe pilot took down two of his enemies with his pistol, then he staggered and dropped his gun; however, Duo recovered almost immediately and took down three more in quick succession, hand-to-hand, using moves straight out of martial arts movies. WuFei came out from behind the MS and took out the other two.

"You alright, Maxwell?"

"Yeah, fine." Duo took a deep breath and let it out, feeling his skin return to its natural color.

"Don't give me that, I know you took a bullet."

"It's only a flesh wound!" Duo protested, in a totally asinine British accent [2]. He picked up his pistol from where it had fallen.

"Don't joke."

"Really, it's fine," Duo said. "It only grazed my thigh." To prove his point, Duo walked, with only a slight limp, to the door. "You coming?"

The two boys snuck out of the base with no further encounters; Duo pretending to limp, on a perfectly healed leg, the entire way.

~*~

"HEEEEEERRROOO!!! Wait for MEEE!!!"

Heero continued to walk away from the blonde girl as quickly as possible. He knew it had been a mistake to let Dr. J talk him into taking her into `Protective Custody'; that is to say, he had kidnapped her, not that she was complaining. This was the one instance in which Dr. J had had to do more than simply order Heero to do something.

Heero hadn't realized he'd stopped walking, until his thoughts were interrupted by a certain blonde girl latching on to him.

"Let go." He snapped.

"But I missed you!" She pouted, tightening her grip. "You just disappeared, and I haven't seen you for a whole YEAR!"

Heero rolled his eyes in exasperation; this girl was really wearing on his patience. She was like an obnoxious little sister.

She giggled.

"This is soooo romantic, Heero," Relena said, lost in her own little fantasy world. "My white knight [3], carrying me off into the sunset."

Okay…maybe not a little sister…[4]

"I'm only following my orders," he said, disengaging her arms from around him and continuing in the direction of his Gundam.

"Where are we going now?"

He glared at her. "To meet up with the other three pilots."

"Three? Then…it wasn't just a rumor…"

Heero helped Relena into Wing's cockpit, and strapped himself into his seat.

"Sit down and don't touch anything."

"Sit down where?"

"…"

Relena managed to wedge herself into the space between Heero's seat and one of the control panels. She held tightly onto Heero's leg as the Gundam lifted off; unfortunately, Heero was too busy piloting to do anything about it this time.

~*~

The sudden opening of the front door received the exact same response from the two Gundam pilots in the living room; firearms drawn and pointed at whoever was coming in.

Relena yelped when she found herself being held at gunpoint by Trowa and WuFei.

"ONNA!!! Don't you know how to knock!?!" WuFei shouted, holstering his pistol. Trowa followed suit, as Heero came in as well.

"Heero, Relena, what a pleasant surprise!" Quatre said, coming in from the kitchen.

"Well, well, the gang's all here!" Duo said, from behind Quatre. Heero's mouth dropped open in shock. "Hmm, I seem to be getting that a lot lately; maybe I should work on my entrance."

"Duo." Heero whispered, meeting those amethyst eyes. Something flashed in Duo's eyes and Duo paled momentarily, before a mask slipped into place to cover whatever it was he was feeling. "No," Heero said. "There's no way you could have survived."

Duo's eyes narrowed. "You should know," He replied softly. Suddenly he plastered his usual grin on his face. "I guess everything's back to normal, ne? That's great, `cause I think we don't stand a chance if we don't all stick together.

"Anyway, what's Relena doing here?" Duo gestured at the girl.

"Dr. J suggested that we take her into protective custody, after this last attempt on her life."

"So, basically, you shanghaied her." Duo put in.

"I came along willingly." Relena said.

"Well there was never any question of that." Duo rolled his eyes.

"Excuse me." Heero said, taking his duffel bag and heading for the stairs.

"First door on the right." Quatre volunteered.

"Hn."

~*~

Heero heard the door slam shut behind him and didn't even have a chance to turn around before he was grabbed and flung against the nearest wall, which just happened to have a bed pushed up against it. He hit his head against the wall and landed on the bed.

"I trusted you." Duo stalked toward him, his eyes and lips lightly shadowed, as he barely held the Crow Aspect at bay. "You betrayed me."

NOTES:

Well this is interesting, ne?

1. Okay, some people might think that this was just _slightly_ OOC, but not in my opinion; Wu lost his whole damn colony, for crying out loud, having a friend just suddenly come back from the dead is definitely a hug-worthy thing. No I have no plans for getting Duo and Wu together. 2x5/5x2 fans, please put down your implements of destruction.

2. Three guesses what my dad has on DVD, and the first two don't count.

3. I think Relena is past her Star Prince stage (who comes up with that $#!%?), but not out of the melodramatic fantasies just yet. I think that Heero and the other pilots resemble knights much more than princes; and _my_ version of Relena has realized that too. (Damn, I love being a fic-writer!)

4. Unless, of course, we're talking about Nanami; can you just see Relena running after Zechs? "Oniisama!!!" >shudder< I think I've been watching a little too much Revolutionary Girl Utena. Then again, if you consider where the "Star Prince" thing came from…