REWROTE this chapter! So if you read it before, maybe read it again? Really I just changed the viewpoint to be first-person Duo.
Standard disclaimers apply
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I rolled out of my bunk, bare feet barely touching the floor as I pushed off and floated sleepily to the door. I fucking love low gravity. The door opened with a hiss, and I headed to the galley.
A light blinked on the vid screen, I ignored it for the moment, and reached inside the fridge for something caffeinated before hitting the button to open the channel.
I blinked at the blonde.
"Hello Duo. How have you been"
"Hey Princess! I been alright. God, it's been almost a year, how are you?"
"I'm well, thank you." Relena smiled
"What've I done to deserve this honor?" I smirked, sipping on my energy drink, "'m I in trouble for something?"
"Not that I know of." Relena smirked "I have a mission for you, if you choose to accept it."
"Depends on the mission." I grinned,
"There was a raid on an abandoned OZ base. They were after the weapons left there. But, the terrorists were stopped."
"So what's the problem?" I asked taking another hit of my drink
"I'm… I'm sending you the video footage. It's about a week old now but…"
I watched the screen. 6 men slipped into the base, decrepit now, after almost a decade of neglect. I was pretty surprised the security camera even still worked. A seventh shadow slipped onto the frame. My breath caught.
Even if it was only in silhouette, even if it was taller, broader at the shoulders, even if it had been eight years since the Mariemaia incident, I knew that impossibly mussed hair, that stance, that walk. I'd never be able to forget.
No matter how badly I wanted to.
The image fuzzed out and Relena reappeared,
"Duo…" she said, her voice was steady, but her eyes were pleading
"I..." I shook my head, sucking in a deep breath to steady himself, "No, it's not him. Heer…" I couldn't bring himself to say the name, "He's not careless enough to let a security camera catch him like that. It's someone else."
"It IS him Duo! We both know it! You saw the way he moved! Maybe he's showing himself to us, maybe he finally wants to be found!"
"NO! Even if it were him, the only reason he bothered to let that camera catch him was because he knew he'd be long gone without a goddamn trace before anyone found it!" I hadn't meant to shout, and I immediately regretted it as a few sparse tears slide down Relena's cheeks, "Hey Princess, don't cry. Please."
"I'm not… I'm not crying Duo." She said fiercely wiping her eyes, "I'm sending you all the information I have, you can do what you want with it from there."
"I'm not going to go after him. Not this time Lena, I… I can't." I glared down at my hands,
"Duo…" Relana said softly as the file transfer completed, "When you get a chance, why don't you stop by. I haven't seen you in a while. I miss you."
"Pretty lonely being queen of the world, eh?" a fake grin automatically slipped into place
"Stop that, and yes. I am lonely."
I softened
"I'll make time to visit you Lena, promise. I'll be Earthside for a delivery later next week, I'll stop in then. Okay?"
"Sounds wonderful. I look forward to seeing you Duo." Relena's diplomat smile sprang into place
"Yeah, me too." I said softly, "See you then Princess."
"See you, Duo."
And the connection ended.
I downed the rest of my drink before gliding down the cockpit and slamming myself into my chair.
"No." I hissed "Shit. Fuck. Godammit!" My fist crashed down on the console. "Why now?" I chewed on my lower lip, it's a bad habit I picked up from Quatre in the fist years after the war. "I'd almost forgotten"
That's a lie.
"I didn't want to remember."
That's a lie and you know it Duo Maxwell.
"Why? Why'd you show up now?"
The void in my chest I'd spent the last eight years sealing tore open once more.
"Godammit! What do you want from me!" I screamed at nothing, to no one. Just space.
…8 years ago…
We were all staying in the Sanc palace following Relena's pardon of all soldiers involved in the Mariemaia incident. I was sound asleep after a long night of partying with Hilde and the others… and Heero… Had that really happened?
Relena burst into my room, completely ignoring the gun I had trained on her the moment the door opened. The pink-clad blonde threw herself on me, sobs shaking her slender frame,
"What the hell? What happened Princess? What's wrong?" I'd asked, unsure of what to do, hesitantly I wrapped an arm around her trembling form, gun still held loosely in my hand.
"He's gone." She sobbed, "He… he left." She clutched a scrap of paper in her hand,
Don't look for me.
-Heero
PS. Duo, take care of her
I had looked of course. I'd spent almost 3 years searching for a trace of him. But the guy didn't want to be found, it was like he'd vanished into thin air. I had hacked and traced and followed lead after lead, every one of them a dead end, until the morning I'd just given up. As far as the records went, Heero Yuy was a ghost, or perhaps, he'd never even existed at all.
And now all of a sudden he was back.
I started to delete the file Relena had sent me, then stopped.
I'm not gonna look for him this time. Not this time. I'm tired of this. I'm not… But my hand was moving on its own, my eyes scanning through snippets.
-The security footage of the OZ base.
-A newspaper clipping of a protest in Madrid with a man, his face hidden by a scarf, but his hair unmistakable.
-Another picture from Brazil
-L3
-L1
-Japan
-Switzerland
-L3 again
-Italy
-three more shots from L4
And finally, my heart froze in my chest. I'd seen this footage once before, the security camera on the front gate of the Sanc palace 8 years ago. I watched Heero drop to the ground after jumping the gate, then turn and stare at the camera, colbalt eyes steady, blazing beneath the fall of dark bangs. I felt my heart shred itself, and my head fell into my hands.