Title: Midnight at the Lost and Found
Arc: Lost Boys and Golden Girls
Rating: ages 13 and up
Author: Something Like Human

Notes: Seven years since I updated this storyline? Wow. Also, this is a fic in a series. Please read the "Storms" arc and then "Lost Boys and Golden Girls" arc.

Timeline: This arc takes place after the first war and (obviously) shortly before the Eve's War- round-about the fall of AC196. This one picks up directly after "Lost Boys and Golden Girls" takes place.

Warnings: AU (I really mess with the story from here on out), shounen ai.

Disclaimers: I don't own GW nor do I own the song "Midnight at the Lost and Found" by Meatloaf.

I was putting laundry away in Duo's bedroom around mid-afternoon the doorbell rang. I was perplexed and at first did not know what the sound was. Duo did not have a lot of visitors and right now, he was not even home. He was at work and Mariemaia was at the elementary school down the street. We registered her under the name "May Maxwell" with the explanation that she was Duo's younger sister. She had told the teacher that she had been living with an elderly relative who recently passed away. I thought it was a plausible lie considering both of them seemed to possess an eye color that tended more towards violet than blue. We had debated on dying her hair brown to match his and to disguise her very noticeable red hair but opted to leave it alone. I was still afraid that Dekim's forces would be looking for her or me.

I was the only one home since I had not yet gotten a job so I made my way over to the intercom by the apartment door.

"Hello?" I asked without identifying myself. I was hoping that whoever it was had buzzed the wrong apartment.

"WuFei!" came a very cheerful response. "I wasn't expecting you to answer the com!"

It was Quatre. If I said that I was shocked by his sudden appearance that would have been an understatement.

"Winner, please come up. I'll unlock the door."

It took him several minutes to climb all of the stairs up to Duo's apartment. I opened the door for him and realized that I had to look up to him slightly. It seemed in the months since the war, he had grown several inches. I bowed slightly to him in greeting, which he ignored and instead hugged me.

"I can't believe how long it's been since I saw you!" He exclaimed releasing me from the hug. "When I got word that Duo had found you, or really you had found him, I had to come here to see you for myself. We were all very worried about you after the war. You were impossible to track down."

"Please come in and sit down," I offered trying to be a gracious host. I was thankful that I had just finished cleaning up the living room before starting the laundry. "I didn't want to be found for a while. I had a lot of things to think about."

We ended up sitting on the battered couch and chair in the living room. They still functioned well despite being ugly and well worn. I offered Quatre a drink which he accepted stating that he had just gotten to L2 on a shuttle that morning.

"I wanted to get here first to see you," he explained after sipping some of his ice water. "Lady Une is on her way here from Earth. I was hoping to beat her here."

"What could she want?" I asked. I suspected that she wanted something involving Mariemaia. Une had been very close to Treize and I could see that she would have an interest in his daughter.

"We're having a hard time locating Dekim Barton," he explained but seeing the confusion on my face, he continued. "Lady Une is leading the Preventers, a peacekeeping force that Duo probably told you about. She is hoping that either you or Mariemaia can help by providing some more information about his group and their whereabouts."

"She could have just asked over the phone," I scoffed.

He laughed. "Yeah, but I think that is her excuse to come here to talk to you and to see Treize's daughter. By the way, I don't see her or Duo. Did they leave you home alone today?"

"Funny, Winner," I just shook my head. "Duo is at work and May should be at school for another hour or so."

"You enrolled her in school?"

"Yes, she wanted to go and we thought some normal childhood experiences would do her some good. Although, she tends to be more annoyed by the kids in her class acting like children since she is used to being around adults most of her life."

"Ah, normalcy," Quatre sighed. "I wouldn't know what that was any more."

I chuckled at that comment. "What have you been up to and really, why did you feel the need to sneak in here before Lady Une?"

"I kind of just wanted to warn you about what was going on with the Preventers since, I work for them now, too. I don't actual get to run my father's business until I turn 25. It was getting boring tagging along with my sisters are they ran everything. I was bored and thought my skills were needed more for keeping peace than making money right now. Trowa joined as well. He's Earthside working on finding Dekim. I just finished an assignment and decided to stop off here to see you and Duo."

He talked about his life over the last few months. He seemed to really like working for the Preventers. He also recounted the time that he had spent working with Trowa and how everyone had attempted to find me after the war. I felt guilty for disappearing on everyone.

"Did you know that Heero is in college?"

"Yuy enrolled in school?" I asked in disbelief. "Is he using it as cover or something?"

"No, he actually wanted to go. I don't know what his major is but the last time that I spoke with him, he was enjoying the academics. Oh, I forgot to tell you!"

"Tell me what?"

"The other reason Lady Une is coming to see you and Duo." He sat back in the chair with a smile. "She has trust funds set up in both of your names. It seems that Treize had set up five of them – one for each of the pilots, during the war. It was weirdly parental of him but upon his death, all of his were divided up between the five funds and several other charities."

"I don't get it but alright," I said thinking about the man who had impaled himself on my weapon at the end of the war. "Did he not leave anything for his daughter?"

"Lady Une can find no record of him even knowing that she existed. She would like to have the child's DNA tested to confirm whether she is his daughter or not. She is definitely a Barton though because Trowa remembers seeing pictures of her that her uncle carried. You did know that Trowa stole the name of the original pilot of Heavyarms, right?"

I shook my head. "I was not aware. I can't say that we spoke very much about trivial things."

"Trowa doesn't have a name," Quatre's voice took on a twinge of sadness. "From his earliest memories, people only called him No-name. He just assumed the real Trowa Barton's identity when he died."

"He's in good company then with Duo," I replied. "He named himself."

"It seems that you and I were the only two to use our real names during the war."

"I always figured Yuy sharing the same name as the assassinated Yuy was a little too coincidental."

"He enrolled in college with his given name," Quatre explained. "I honestly didn't think he even knew his name, much like Trowa or Duo. He's going by Odin Lowe Jr now."

I laugh remembering reading about Yuy's assassination years ago. "So he actually has the same name as the person who killed the original Yuy. That is strangely ironic."

"Tell me about it!" Quatre laughed. "Relena is probably struggling the most with remembering to use his name. They're actually dating now, all official like."

"Sounds like Yuy… I mean Odin only had a flip a switch to become a normal teenager," I mused. He was nothing, if not adaptable.

"Speaking of teenagers and relationships," Quatre interjected. "How are you and Duo?"

"Duo and I?" I queried. I was definitely confused by his question insinuating that we had some sort of relationship.

"Oh, sorry, I just thought…" he trailed off looking around the room. "I mean, you two were always close and knowing Duo's preference and how much he missed you while you were gone, I just assumed. I well, considering he was the first person you ran to during your escape from Dekim's army that, well, I had assumed, you two were closer."

I realized then what he was getting at. He had thought that Duo and I were in a relationship. I was not sure how to answer that question. It was true that out of everyone in the Earthsphere, that I was closest to and cared about Duo the most. I looked over to the other end of the couch where the well worn, hideously green teddy bear sat. I smiled at the memory of passing that bear back and forth with the other pilot as a shared comfort object. Duo had kept it after the war. He had recently given it to May. The child loved it and carried it around the apartment with her almost constantly.

"I'm not really even sure how to classify Duo and I," I finally said in all honesty. "It is true that I consider him my closest friend. I take great comfort being around him and truthfully, my only thought when leaving with Mariemaia was to find him. I think that Duo is attracted to me or at least once was."

"Oh," Quatre said raising an eyebrow. "Is he? And how do you know that?"

"He kissed me, once," I explained. "Right after that mission where I had to wear that damn dress."

"You did make a rather attractive girl," Quatre teased. "If I were into girls, you might have gotten another kiss that day."

I just glared at him. I really did not want to have to remember that dreadful mission. I had to masquerade as Merian, my deceased wife, to gather information. I don't know what was worse about that mission, having to pretend to be Merian or having a bunch of lecherous old dignitaries flirt with me all night. If it was not for the comlink that I had with Duo, I probably would have killed someone that night.

I was saved from further contemplation when we heard the front door open.

"Yo, Fei, you need to remember to lock the door even if you are home!"

"Sorry," I replied turning to watch him enter the room. "I got distracted with our guest."

Duo looked at me with confusion and then turned to look at Winner. His face broke into a huge grin. "Hey, Quat! It's been a while! You stop by to try to steal Fei-fei from me to join the Preventers with you and Tro?"

"Hardly – although the offer still stands for both of you to join. We could use the help."

"Meh," was all Duo said as he kicked off his work boots. "We're parents now so we can't go chasing around bad guys and getting ourselves killed."

"That's right," Quatre replied. "I was so busy catching up with WuFei that I forgot to ask how the little girl is doing."

"I told you that she was in school," I responded. "She's been doing well but I still worry about her and what she went through with her grandfather."

"Any word on the old man yet, Quatre?" Duo asked plopping down on the couch next to me. He chose to sit in the center cushion putting me on his left and the ugly teddy bear on his right. I did not miss the glance that Quatre gave me when he sat down. I was not quite sure what the glance meant since Duo commonly chose to sit next to me on the couch.

"That's part of the reason why I'm here and that Une is on her way," he explained to Duo what the Preventers were looking for.

"I'm not surprised that she is coming. My understanding is that Lady Une was extremely close to Treize. That and I'm sure she's going to try to recruit you, Wu."

"I'm not sure if I want to be a Preventer at this time," I chuckle to myself with the train of thought I was having. "I'm just don't know what I want to be when I grow up."

Duo howled with laughter and patted my knee. Quatre laughed as well and said, "You've been hanging around Duo too long if you are cracking jokes at your own expense."

"Maybe I'll go back to school, as well," I mused. "Because, let's be honest I'm only good at two things – kill people and learning."

"That's not true! You're good at a lot of things!" Duo argued looking at me. "What did you want to do when you were a little kid before climbing in those big machines of ours?"

"I wanted to build those big machines," I admitted. "My parents wanted me to be the scholar in the family and I was okay with that. I wanted to learn everything but was particularly attracted to engineering and all of the sciences."

"That's really cool," Duo admitted. "I bet I could bring you in with the Sweepers to work on the tinkering end of things. It's not great pay but you'd get to build things."

"Acutally," Quatre interrupted. "He could use the trust fund that Lady Une is going to offer him to go to college like Odin is doing."

"I'm still amused by that name for Heero," Duo joked. "But seriously, there has to be a catch to those funds. I don't trust Lady Une and I really don't trust Treize."

"I swear to you, there is no catch," he explained to us. "All that happened with Odin is that Lady Une helped him set up an identity that did not tie him to the Gundams, gave him high school credentials, and helped sign him up for his university. WuFei wouldn't need as much set up since he actually did attend schools Earthside as himself and his name isn't as tied to the Gundams as the name "Heero Yuy" was."

I sat there thinking about this for a long while. Quatre and Duo continued to discuss what was going on with the other pilots. I was trying to wrap my head around the possibility of actually doing what I wanted to do when I was a child. Even since coming to L2 with May, I had not given my future much of a thought other than it was going to be with Duo and May. I never figured that I would even want to make life plans like I had had as a child. I felt that I had changed so much from that naïve little boy with the glasses and his nose in a text book. I wondered if I could even go back to school and be that person again.

Quatre eventually excused himself to go check into his hotel room. He said that he would be back later with dinner so he could meet Mariemaia. He said that Lady Une would probably be arriving tomorrow so not to run off. We laughed at that.

I sat on the couch for a long while just thinking after he left. May would be home soon and I would not get much of a chance to think with her home and with Quatre returning with dinner.

"You're thinking of the future aren't you?" Duo asked passing the teddy bear to me. I held it him lap but did look at it. I was looking at him. My little talk with Quatre had made me think of many things that I had been avoiding over the last few weeks.

"Yeah," I replied. "I never thought that I'd have a future – after the war that is. I expected to die. I was not nearly as strong as Merian was and she still died."

Duo put his hand on my knee again and squeezed. "You were plenty strong enough to survive. I guess I never really had the luxury of having childhood dreams. When I was a kid, all I wanted to be was a grown up so that I could work and not have to steal food. I didn't care where I worked as long as it would buy me food."

I laid my hand on his to comfort him. His childhood had been truly horrific compared to mine. Where I had boarding schools and strict decorum, he had violence, poverty, and prostitution.

"Do you want to work with the Sweepers or go back to school like Odin? I mean, if you really wanted to, you could join the Preventers with Quat and Tro," he offered. "You and May can go wherever you like if that is what you want to do."

"I don't know what I want to do yet," I replied honestly.

"Well, you have plenty of time to think about it."

"I do know, that whatever I chose to do with my life, that it has to include you," I replied with some nervousness in my voice. I was trying to be honest with myself now. I cared very deeply about the other former pilot. I can't really say if I was attracted to him physically since I had never really thought about anyone that way. Not since my wife and we were so young and only doing what was expected of us. I had never really explored my attraction to her. I knew, for certainty, that my life was better when I was with Duo than when I was away from him.

"Fei?" He said my name like a question as he searchingly looked into my eyes.

"I know that you are, uh, attracted to me," I stammered feeling my face heat up with a blush. "I don't know how these things work considering I had been betrothed since early childhood and married at puberty so the whole attraction thing is a little beyond me still. I know that you are the most important person in my life, besides May, and I don't want to lose you."

I probably would have continued to try to explain the confusion that I was feeling but I was stopped when Duo leaned in and kissed me on the lips. It wasn't the quickly peck he had given me up in that tree so many months before. It was a real, passionate kiss. My brain tried to analyze if the kiss changed my attraction to him or to understand what was going on but I was finding it hard to even think. I finally just gave up and started kissing him back. He snaked a hand around to cup the back of my neck and deepened the kiss. I was fully lost in the sensation until we both jumped up, out of breath, when the apartment door opened.

"I'm home!" May yelled as only an exuberant seven year old could.

I looked over at Duo who was as breathless as I was and whose cheeks were flaming with a blush that looked as red as mine felt.

He muttered under his breath, "I guess this is what it feels like to be caught kissing by your parents."

I laughed and got up from the couch just in time to receive a hug from May who had run into the living room in search of us.

I still was not sure what I what I wanted to do with my life but I knew one thing for certain – it would have to involve both Duo and May.