Written by: Diamond Sakura Li

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing although I do own all original characters and I give full credit of the plot to my English teacher and her tough assignments.

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Duo Maxwell's Touch

A long time ago…no that's not right. In a land far, far away… that doesn't sound right either. Ah! I got it! Once upon a time, yeah once upon a time there lived a young boy by the name of Duo. Now Duo was a funny, seventeen year old who loved hanging out at the mall with his friends. They would go there after school and play video games t the local arcade. One day…

"Hey Wufei! Catch!"

A Chinese boy turned around at the sound of his name only to be caught right in the face by a basketball. The boy who threw the ball grimaced and began to turn away, when all of a sudden he heard loud footsteps coming up behind him.

"Duo Maxwell! You are a dead man!"

Duo screamed and ran for dear life with Wufei hot on his heels. They passed three other young men who were on their way to see them. Duo ran up behind one of the boys, the tall one with the long front bang.

"Dude, Trowa. You gotta help me!"

Trowa sighed and stepped out of the way. Duo cursed under his breath and decided to as his other friend for help. Running up to the cold faced boy, he got on his hands and knees and begged.

"Please Heero, you have to stop Wufei!"

"Leave me alone or I will be the one chasing you." Replied Heero in a monotonous voice.

Duo laughed nervously as he crawled over to the last teen. This one didn't look as cold and indifferent as the other two.

"Quatre, my-man! How's about helpin' out an old buddy huh?"

Quatre laughed uneasily as he glanced nervously between Wufei, who had come up behind Duo, and the perpetrator. Not wanting to start an unnecessary brawl between the two of them, Quatre moved so that he was in front of the fuming and red-faced Wufei. Turning to face Duo, Quatre sighed in defeat.

"Duo, one of these days I swear somebody, somewhere is going to kill you and we won't be able to help you."

Opening up his arms, Duo enveloped Quatre in a mighty bear hug that left the poor Arabian boy gasping for breath.

"Thank you! Oh, thank you for saving me from the terrible Wufei monster!"

Quatre gasped and tried to pry Duo off of him as he struggled to breathe. Wufei came up behind the overjoyed teenager and yanked on the boy's long brown, waist length braid. Yelping in pain Duo quickly let go of Quatre and began to struggle with the Asian as he tried to rescue his precious braid from the clutches of evil. Quatre, Heero and Trowa sighed in unison and pried the two wrestlers off of each other. To try and ease the tension between Wufei and Duo, Quatre suggested that they head to the mall for a day of video game madness. The rest of them agreed that it was indeed a good idea.

When they got to the arcade, there seemed to be a lot of commotion going on near one of the games at the back of the room. Heero, Wufei and Trowa didn't pay too much attention to it seeing as they really weren't the social types and headed for their own favorite games. Duo managed to drag Quatre along to see what was happening that had gotten everyone so excited. There was a new pinball game that had just been set up, flashing lights and all. Apparently the prize for getting the top score was so grand that everybody was lined up to try and get a shot at it. Quatre was trying to pull Duo away from the game knowing that his friend was likely to get obsessed with winning the prize. He shook his head at the memory of when they were all five years old. Duo had seen a gopher bopping game where the prize was a season-long pass to Ricky's Rocket World. To make a long story short, Duo had become obsessed with the game. He didn't stop playing it until the owner of the old arcade got so fed up with this small kid yelling at the gophers that he wrecked the game himself just to show Duo that it was just a piece of machinery.

Managing to pry Quatre off of his arm Duo proceeded to push and shove his way to the front of the line. He smugly used the sentence "Handsome ones go first." Upon reaching the front of the line he saw that the young man who was playing right now was on his third and final ball. Scrunching up his eyes and chanting a mantra in his head Duo prayed that the boy would lose.

'Miss the shot, miss the shot, miss the shot…'

A loud groan came from the crowd as the boy missed his shot and stopped short from winning the prize. Throwing his arm over the boy's shoulders in mock sympathy Duo said "Ooh that has to be painful, but don't worry I'll win that prize for you." Rushing to the game, he popped in fifty cents and launched his first ball. The crowd oohed and ahhed as Duo furiously pounded the ball with the plastic paddles whenever it came his way. After a few minutes he was also on his last ball, but only sixty points away from beating the high score. With one final 'ping' the automated voice immediately came on.

"Congratulations, congratulations! Top score, top score!"

Duo did a ridiculous victory dance as everybody around him who had been hoping to get a shot at the prize dispersed and left only Quatre to stare at his silly friend. A young girl with dark black hair and red highlights walked over to them. Her dark brown eyes were very mysterious and Quatre felt a shiver run down his spine when she looked at him. She motioned towards the pinball machine and the dancing Duo he nodded. The girl walked up to Duo and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. He turned around and grinned stupidly, "Are you my prize?" She rolled her eyes and slapped him lightly on the back of the head.

"No, I am only delivering your prize Duo Maxwell."

"Aww darn."

Quatre blushed in embarrassment at his friend's blatant flirting. All of the girls here already knew his name due to the fact that he had asked every single one of them out on a date, and ninety-nine percent of the time he was turned down. This girl was no exception. Everyone knew her as Angel but her real name was Hikari, her cousin Sam's father was the owner of the arcade. She and Sam worked at the arcade on the weekends. Not much was known about Hikari a.k.a. Angel or Sam for that matter other than they were family.

Their other friends had finished with the games that they were playing and had come over when they saw the crowd disperse and Angel walk over as Duo did his stupid dance. She handed Duo an envelope with the mall authority's seal on it.

"Congratulations Duo Maxwell on winning the mall authority's prize, I hope that you use it wisely."

With that Angel walked casually away leaving the five boys to stare after her. That was it? No extravagant streamers or balloons falling from a secret hatch in the ceiling? Duo was slightly disappointed to say the least, but he got over it really quickly when he remembered the envelope that he was holding. Opening it up he found a letter, after quickly scanning it's contents Duo's eyes went impossibly wide and his jaw hung open. Dropping the letter on the floor Duo started to yell and dance again much to the annoyance of the other patrons at the arcade even though the noises coming from the games were enough to barely drown him out. Trowa bent down to pick up the letter Duo had dropped and began to read out loud:

Dear whomever;

Congratulations on winning this magnificent prize, we are truly happy for you. In partnership with the retail stores in this establishment we have come to an agreement on a prize for you to receive. Thus we the mall authority hereby grant you the power where whatever you touch in this mall will become yours to own forever. However we do warn you, this goes for everything in the mall. Use your prize wisely. Congratulations again.

Mall Authority

The boys stared at each other in shock. What kind of place would allow such a prize of power to be granted upon a crazy person like Duo Maxwell? They turned their attention onto Duo who had run all over the arcade touching every game in the place. As soon as his finger had made contact, a small golden plate appeared with the words: Property of Duo Maxwell appeared. Maxwell whooped with joy and all of a sudden caught sight of Hikari helping one of the younger kids out with a game. He grinned mischievously and snuk up behind her. He was about to touch her when out of nowhere a broom came crashing down on his head and immediately a gold plate with Duo's name appeared on the broomstick. The person holding the broom let go quickly and turned around to glare at him. The boy was the same age as Duo and his friends; he had short black hair and brown eyes. Pointing a warning finger at Duo he spoke quietly "I know I don't seem very aggressive Duo, but you try to touch my cousin while that prize is in play I will hit you harder I promise." Duo smiled sheepishly at Sam, his questions answered. When the mall authority had said 'everything in the mall', they were serious. If he had touched Hikari, she would have become his 'property'.

Sam saw Duo and his friends out of the arcade; he ushered them quickly wanting Duo to use his magic touch on somewhere else other than his father's arcade. Duo led his friends nearer to the center of the mall, his friends were trying to steer clear of him lest he accidentally touch them. Hikari walked up behind Sam as he watched the group of them fade into the crowd occasionally hearing a cry of shock from an unlucky person who had unfortunately come in contact with Duo. Seeing a girl run by them with a gold plate on her back was proof enough that Duo was using his prize to the fullest.

"Do you think that this was a good idea cousin?" Sam asked Hikari, she shrugged.

"It's about time he learned a lesson, besides, he'll find the unfortunate side to paradise soon enough." She replied. Hikari smirked and put her arm around Sam's shoulder and the two walked back slowly towards the arcade and suddenly vanishing as they passed through the front doors.

Duo was having the time of his life. Already he had been to the food court, the electronics store, the sports store and a clothing store. Suddenly stopping, several people who had been walking behind him crashed into his back. He turned around to apologize only to find them staring at these golden plates that had suddenly appeared on their clothing. He turned around again and rushed off before they could question him. His friends had left saying they had something to do, but Duo knew that they did not want to become part of his odd collection. After a while, the triple berry smoothie that he had drunk began to take effect. Walking into the bathroom Duo accidentally brushed up against a faucet and the sink. Grimacing at yet another useless item that he owned Duo continued with his business. By the time he was finished in the bathroom he had owned at least three sinks and a toilet, which was to say the least, embarrassing.

It was getting late and Duo decided to head home. As he approached the front door however an entire crowd began to follow him out the door, and many of them were carrying the things that he had touched, including the toilet. Laughing nervously he turned around to face the crowd.

"He, he. You guys don't really belong to me you know. You can just go home."

His protests fell on deaf ears as they continued to crowd around him. Then he spotted a pair of people staring at him and not making any move at all. It was Hikari and Sam. Those two were the only ones left in the entire mall that he hadn't touched yet. Shoving his way through the crowd he managed to get to them, only to find that the crowd had turned and followed. A thought came to mind.

"As your new owner I command you to stop and not to move forward!"

Immediately all activity stopped and Duo sighed in relief. He faced the two cousins in hopelessness. Sam looked at him in pity while Hikari looked on with an amused glint in her eye. It was then that Duo realized that these two were a lot weirder than everybody had said. Sam had known that if he touched a person in the mall they would become his property, which is why he didn't let Duo touch Hikari. Duo knew that in the back of his head somewhere he had known about the people rule.

"Sam, Angel, what do you know about this prize?" Duo asked. Sam looked down sheepishly and fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. Hikari sighed and stretched her arms up over her head.

"We created the prize." She said simply

Duo's eyes nearly popped right out of their sockets.

"WHAT? YOU CREATED THE PRIZE?"

Sam and Hikari covered their ears at his disbelieving outburst. Sam nodded gravely to affirm what Hikari had said. Hikari walked up to Duo and looked him straight in the eye.

"We did this so that you could be taught a lesson Duo Maxwell."

"What kind of lesson?"

"Me and Sam felt that you were getting a little bit out of hand what with the flirting and the getting on Wufei's nerves, so we proceeded to give you an experience that we were sure you would never forget."

Duo stood stock-still. They were right, the two weird cousins were right. He understood now what they were trying to show him. He was a little over the top sometimes and he did drive his friends crazy by acting immature. However one question still plagued him.

"How did you do it?"

"Do what?" answered Sam in a confused tone.

"Create the prize?"

"Oh that, well that was easy. I'm a psychic."

"And I am a priestess with slight psychic powers." Added Hikari. Sam nodded.

"So we just combined our powers of manipulation and voila!"

Duo just stared open mouthed at them. No wonder they seemed so close, and weird, a psychic and a Shinto priestess. He shook his head trying to clear his thoughts when one suddenly popped up. If they created the prize then maybe they could take it away!

"Um, can I ask you a question?"

"You don't have to, you want to know whether or not me and Hikari can take your prize away." Sam replied with a glazed look. Duo nodded energetically. The two cousins looked at each other and shrugged.

"I guess you've learned your lesson now Duo Maxwell," Hikari admitted, "alright we'll do it."

Duo was so happy he could've hugged them then and there, but remembering his 'gift' he managed to restrain himself. Sam stepped back and allowed his cousin to go to work. Placing her hands together as if in prayer, Hikari began to chant slowly as a silver light surrounded her body. Duo seemed only to hear her chanting, over and over in his head and he began to feel dizzy…

Duo woke up with a start. He looked over at his clock, nine in the morning. Groaning he got out of bed and got dressed. Walking downstairs he saw that his friends were already awake and eating breakfast. They all looked up when he walked in.

"Good morning Duo!" Quatre said enthusiastically. The boys really did not know how anyone could be that cheerful in the morning.

"Hey Q-man." Duo replied quietly, which surprised his friends. Wufei nearly choked on his orange juice when Duo didn't make any cracks about his name and they had already been sitting at the same table for over ten minutes. Duo cleared his throat. They all looked at him quizzically.

"Guys you wouldn't believe the weird dream I had…"

Duo proceeded to tell them everything that had happened to him in his dream. The prize, the gift of the touch, Sam, Hikari, the toilet. By the time he had finished his story Quatre, Wufei and Trowa were laughing their heads off. Even the usual emotionless Heero was smirking. Duo began to laugh as well as the idiocy of his dream finally caught up with him.

It was late afternoon and the boys decided to go out to the beach. Grabbing his stuff Duo thought he saw a figure in his window. Running down the stairs in alarm he breathlessly told the others what he saw. They all rushed out onto the front lawn where an incredible sight greeted them. There in the center of the lawn was a boy and a girl. The girl had long black hair with red highlights and the boy had short black hair. Duo's eyes widened as he recognized them.

"Hikari, Sam…but I thought I made you up!" Duo stammered

"You did in a way." Hikari replied.

"What do you mean?"

"We really did want to teach you a lesson so we entered your mind. We are real."

With that the two of them disappeared into thin air. Quatre was the first to recover. He managed to snap everyone out of their dazed expressions and they proceeded to the beach while two figures watched them from far away, smiling and laughing.

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A.N: Whee! This story was written for my English teacher. We had to do our version of King Midas's Touch with instead of a golden touch, it was a mall touch! Hee hee! I chose Duo because I thought it would be hilarious. I got perfect on this assignment and thought that I'd get it graded by all of you! Please review and no flames! Just constructive criticism! Oh and by the way, if any of you read my upcoming fic An Ocean Away and see the name Hikari and Angel again, it's not the same person (well sorta, I'll be using Hikari and Angel again just in a different way. You might say that this fic was the birth of Hikari a.k.a. Angel, I liked the character although she will be portrayed with an entirely different personality and purpose in An Ocean Away). And Sam is based on my friend, but I wish that he were as nice as this Sam is. We often pretend that we're cousins. So once again…REVIEW!!

Diamond Sakura Li