A/N

Yeah, I know, I still haven't finished LLB and I haven't updated anything else in the longest time. Well, life has been busy and not showing any signs of slowing down. Not to mention I just can't for the life of me write fight scenes! That's what's holding up LLB, I can't get the big fight to come out without sounding incredibly idiotic.

Anyway, this story popped in my head when I was reading the Anita Blake series not to long ago and just wouldn't leave me alone.

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

Chapter 1

Duo Maxwell, former pilot of the Gundam Deathscythe, sighed as he reached the top of the flight of stairs. Looking around at the crowd of people cluttering the entrance to the collage dorm, he felt a shot of pain shoot through his heart. Determinedly looking away from the happy people chatting with friends or helping each other move their things inside, he entered the wide front doors and pushed his way through to the stairs.

The stairs were just as crowded as the entrance hall and he ducked around people as he went to the fifth floor and exited out into the hall way. If anything, the hall was worse. There was barely any room to maneuver around the crowds loaded down with boxes, suitcases and even furniture. Ducking around a group of jocks that were throwing a football over the heads of the others, he stopped at room 513 and pulled out his key.

Opening the door, he practically fell through as two guys running past shoved him from behind. Righting his balance, he slammed the door shut before looking around. There was one bed on the left wall with an end table next to it, another end table in the corner across from it. Two dressers in the corners near the entrance door and a door on each side right next to the dressers. Both doors were cracked open and he could see that one was a small closet and one was a tiny bathroom. There were also two desks in the spaces next to the two doors.

With another sigh he threw his duffel on the floor and flopped down next to it. Staring up at the ceiling, he let his thoughts wonder back to his comrades from the wars. He couldn't even call them friends really.

Heero Yui had followed after Relena Peacecraft for a short time as a bodyguard before one day he just disappeared. No amount of searching had turned up anything on the ex-Wing Zero pilot, not that it was unexpected. If Heero didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be. Apparently, he didn't.

Chang Wufei had joined the Preventors immediately after the fighting had ended and had cut all contacts with the braided pilot. All phone calls and letters were ignored and the one time that had run into each other on the streets, the Chinese pilot had brushed off the friendly arm thrown over his shoulders and stalked off without saying a word to the shocked Duo.

Trowa Barton had rejoined Cathy at the circus and was a hit as a high wire acrobat as well as being in Cathy's knife throwing act. Duo had shown up at one of the performances but when he had tried to see the tall ex-pilot, Cathy had told him bluntly that Trowa wanted nothing to do with anyone from his past as he was trying to put it behind him. Duo had walked off despondent after he had seen Trowa watching them through a gap in the tent.

Quatre Winner, the former pilot of Sandrock, though had hurt him the most. Duo had gone all the way to the headquarters of Winner Inc. on L4 to see the blond. He had fought with the secretary for a while as she was refusing to even call Quatre to tell him that he was there to see him. Finally after over twenty minutes of arguing, Quatre had come out to see what the problem was. With a sigh at seeing the longhaired man, he had pulled him into the office and closed the door.

Flashback

"What are you doing here?" Quatre asked bluntly as he walked around and sat behind the huge desk.

"What, I can't visit my old friend, Q?" Duo laughed as he sat on the edge of the desk.

"I'm kind busy now." Quatre said as he looked at him for a long moment, as if studying him before turning to the side and opening a drawer. Pulling out a large checkbook, he wrote one out and handed it to a confused Duo.

Duo looked down at the check for one million dollars in shock for a moment before he looked back up at his friend. "What is this for?"

"I want you to take that and leave. Go to school, do something with your life, but don't come back and ask for more. That's all you're getting." Quatre said as he put his checkbook away. He looked back up just in time to get the ripped up check thrown in his face.

"I never asked for money." Duo growled, hurt and anger battling for dominance in his expressive eyes. "I have more than enough from the war and you know that. All I came to do was see my friend, but I can see it was just a friendship of convenience for you, wasn't it? I don't know what I did to loose all four of you guys but I guess none of you were my friends in the first place. I should have known better than to think otherwise."

Quatre was sitting there, blinking in shock as Duo spun on his heel and stalked towards the door.

"I hope you have a happy life with your money and your company." Duo said without looking back before he opened the door and left the office. Rashid was standing next to the secretary's desk waiting for him.

"Don't even bother, Rashid, I know when I'm not needed anymore." He snarled as he past him and the smirking lady.

End Flashback

After leaving L4, he had briefly visited the ruins of the Maxwell Church on L2 before heading back to earth. He enrolled in high school and had graduated the top of his class in less than two years before applying to a large collage in St. Luis.

Duo sat up and shook his head firmly, sending his four and a half foot long braid flying as he pushed those thoughts away firmly. This was his home for the next four years and he was going to make the best of it that he could. With determination he turned to his duffle and began unpacking. The rest of his things would be arriving in about an hour and he wanted everything put away by then.

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

Duo had just finished putting his things away when there was a pounding on the door. Looking at the knife that had appeared in his hand, he chuckled darkly even as he slipped it up his sleeve and headed for the door.

Opening it, he blinked in shock at the sight of the stack of boxes with legs.

"It's about time Nate! You should have waited for me, it's not like you're the only one starting here today. There has to be about eighty people in this hall alone right now!" A male voice said cheerfully even as the boxes with legs easily walked forward and plopped down on the desk revealing a guy maybe a little older than Duo.

"Hey, you're not Nate! Sure do look like him though. Did I get the right room?"

"What room where you looking for?" Duo asked bemusedly.

"513."

"Well, you got the right room." Duo said as he leaned up against the wall as he studied the man in front of him. Skintight black leather pants with a cropped long sleeved fishnet shirt showed off a fit and handsome body that just screamed 'fuck me'. There also seemed to be a kind of energy that sent prickles up and down his spine.

"Awesome. My name's Jason. You haven't seen a guy around here with a braid to his ankles and lavender eyes have you?"

Duo arched an eyebrow at the description. "Are you kidding me? There's someone else with long hair like mine?"

"Well, his is more auburn than brown, but yeah." Jason said with a smirk. "What are you doing later, gorgeous?"

"Leave my new room mate alone Jason. There will be plenty of time to hit on him later." A smooth voice said from the doorway, snagging Duo's attention. Turning, he hid his surprise as he took in the slender toned body that was poured into skintight black jeans and a tight red shirt. 'Nate' did indeed have an auburn braid that reached his ankles and lavender eyes that revealed nothing though there was a smile on his elfin face. He also had a type of presence that sent shivers up and down his spine.

"It's all good." Duo said simply as the guy walked into the room and over to the desk with it's burden.

"Nathaniel." The other braided man said simply.

"Duo."

Laughing, Jason bounded across the room and wrapped himself around Duo before saying again, "What are you doing later, gorgeous?"

Duo joined in the laughter as he firmly unwound the firm body from around him and said, "Waiting for the rest of my things to get here."

"I can help you pass the time." Jason purred as he wrapped himself around the amused Nathaniel.

"I'm sure you could." Duo chuckled even as there was a knock on the doorframe of the open door.

"I'm looking for a Duo Maxwell?" a man in a delivery uniform said as he balanced an over stacked dolly as he looked at the three men in the room.

"That's me." Duo said as he moved forward to grab the clipboard that the man held out to him. Signing quickly, he gestured the man to drop the stack of boxes and bags next to his bed. "Thanks man." he said as he passed him a twenty as a tip.

After then man had left, Duo closed the door and turned towards his boxes. "So what's in the boxes?" Jason asked as he came over and started looking at the stack curiously.

"Stuff." Duo said as he ripped open the first box revealing nothing but black material. Taking the box, he upended it on the floor revealing that it was bedding along with a huge hammock. With quick motions, the hammock was hung on two hooks anchored in the walls and he was tossing a large black sheet over it and clipping it into place before throwing a giant black comforter over that. Withdrawing two huge fluffy pillows from one of the bags he tossed those on as well.

As he turned away to grab the next box, a figure flew past him to land sprawled out on the hammock. Laughing, he turned back to see Jason flat on his back on the swinging bed, his legs slightly bent and spread with one hanging off the side, while one hand was over his head buried in the pillows and the other was running up and down his chest.

"I take it you like my bed?"

"Want to join me?"

With a sigh, Nathaniel shook his head before going over to the blonde and pulling him out of the swinging bed. "Why don't you go tell Anita that I got here alright and that everything is fine." He suggested and Jason nodded even as whirled around for a moment before latching onto the laughing Duo and planting a huge kiss on his mouth.

"I'll come see you sometime, sweetheart." He said as he drew back and then repeating his actions again on a bemused Nathaniel. "Bye, I'll see you at work tonight!" With that, he was out the door.

"Is he always like that?" Duo chuckled as he turned back to the other braided man.

"Pretty much, but he is a great friend to have."

"I'm sure he is. He seems really nice."

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

Nathaniel watched his roommate from the corner of his eye as he began putting his things away. Duo seemed like a nice, laid back kind of guy that took everything in stride. But appearances could be deceiving and he could see that the guy was ready to spring into whatever kind of action that was needed. It was like watching a big cat prowl around the room, playful looking but hiding a deadly force.

Turning back to his own boxes, he quickly made his bed and began loading the clothes into his dresser. He knew all about how a big cat acted, both at play and in a fight, being a ware-leopard himself. Duo was very dangerous. But the question remaining was how dangerous was he to Nathaniel. May people weren't comfortable around wares of any kind and he didn't want to end up killed because of what he was.

"So, Nate, tell me about yourself." Duo said out of the blue, startling Nathaniel badly.

"Oh, I'm 19 years old and I live with a friend. She wanted me to go to collage."

"I'm 19 too. I just wanted to make something of myself." That came out with more than a tinge of bitterness and Nathaniel looked over at the other longhaired man with concern.

"Sorry, I had a friend for a while and we were pretty close. But after some shit, he turned around and handed me a check and told me to leave him alone and make something out of myself." Duo said briskly as he turned back to unpacking.

"Sorry. So what happened?"

"I ripped up the check and threw it in his face before walking out." Duo said was a dark grin.

"Good for you. He was never a friend if he was acting like that."

Duo looked over at the other and watched in surprise as Nathaniel paled dramatically and hurriedly went back to unpacking. "I though the same thing." He said reassuringly.

Nathaniel looked over at him quickly before looking back at the box in front of him.

"So this girl you're living with. Is she cute? Is she your girlfriend?"

Nathaniel laughed quietly as he relaxed marginally.

"She's gorgeous. But we're not together like that. She… helps me."

Duo studied the other man, noting how he tensed up as he spoke about his friend. Not wanting him to feel uncomfortable, he said, "Hey, your lucky there is someone to help you. I grew up on the streets of L2."

"Really?" Nathaniel asked in surprise.

"Yeah. I'm just a colony street rat."

"I was on the street s for a long time." Nathaniel said quietly into the silence that fell over the room. "I'm… not to proud of what I did to survive. But Anita saved me. She's helping me be a better person."

"Awesome man." Duo said warmly with a grin. Changing the subject as he could see that he was uncomfortable, he asked, "So where do you work? Your friend works with you, right?"

"I work down at Guilty Pleasures."

"Really? Doing what?"

Nathaniel hesitated a moment before say flatly, "I'm a stripper."

"Any good?" Duo shot back, surprising a laugh out of him.

"Yeah, I'm not to bad."

"Good, I'll have to come see you at work one of these days then. There is nothing worse that a bad stripper and that's all I've seen for way to long of a time."

Nathaniel blinked in surprise as he turned to look at Duo.

Duo grinned and jumped forward to grab Nathaniel by the hand, ignoring the slight flinch he felt, but storing that reaction away in the back of his mind to think about later. "Come on, I don't know about you, but I'm starved!! I heard about this great place down the road call the Lunatic Café. I hear they make the best burgers around."

"You do know that they cater to wares, right?" Nathaniel asked quietly, looking at Duo intently to see what his reaction was to the news.

"Who cares? They're people too. Do you have a problem with wares?" Duos asked just as quietly as he realized that his new roomy might just have a problem with them.

"No. I have a couple friends that are."

"Cool, then there is no problem." Duo said and began dragging him out of the room, grabbing his key and his wallet on the way out.

Bemusedly, Nathaniel shook his head as he was towed down the over crowded hall, double looks and surprised glances following them as people caught sight of just how long their hair really was. They looked almost like twins with only a few differences between them.

Bursting out of the front door of the dorm, Duo dragged him to the parking lot and up to a big black bike. "Ever been on a motorcycle?"

"No." Nathaniel shook his head briefly as he looked at the massive bike. It was obvious that it was custom made; being it was easily almost as long as a car and had many compartments on it. (Think of Cloud's bike in FF7 Advent Children.)

"You are going to love Deathscythe." Duo said was he handed a black full-face helmet with bat wings on the back to him. He put on a pair of black, wrap around shades and pulled his hair over his shoulder as he straddled the bike. Cautiously, Nathaniel copied him and adjusted the helmet slightly before wrapping his arms gently around the other guy's waist.

Duo grinned as he kick started the engine and startled at least a dozen people with the deep-throated powerful roar. "Are you ready?" he called back over his shoulder and felt the quick nod. With a quick laugh, he took off out of the parking lot, tires squealing as they tried to get a grip on the pavement.

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

Richard looked up as the sound of a powerful engine caught his attention. "What is that?" he said quietly to the other two at the table. Jamel and Shang Da both just shrugged as they, too, turned towards the window they were next to, to see if they could spot the disturbance.

After a long minute, the sight of a massive motorcycle whipping around the corner with two figures on it made Richard's mouth drop in shock. Even from where he was sitting, the long braid was visible to them.

"That can't be Nathaniel?! He doesn't have a bike." He said as he turned to his companions.

Neither of the other man said anything as they watched the bake come to a stop in a space in front of the café.

They stared in shock as the two figures climbed off and the one that had been sitting behind the driver took off the black helmet. "Well, I guess it was Nathaniel." Jamel said quietly. "Just not the one we thought." Shang Da added, just as quietly.

They watched as the other figure with the long braid turn towards the were-leopard and said something, causing him to shake his head with a small smile.

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

"Well, how did you like the ride?" Duo asked with a sly grin.

Nathaniel smiled as he shook his head, "I can't believe that you did that. I think you gave that one old lady a heart attack when you came around the corner back there as she was crossing the road."

"Aw come on, her heart could use the exercise! Besides, we were at least four feet away!!" Duo exclaimed with a bright smile even as he took the helmet from Nathaniel and locked it up in one of the compartments.

Turning, he threw an arm across the other guy's shoulders and started for the door to the restaurant.

"So, ever been here before?" he asked and at the hesitant nod, he said brightly, "Great! You can tell me what's the best thing to get!"

Entering the building, they let their eyes adjust for a moment. As they blinked in the dimness, a waitress walked up to them.

"Hey kitty, who's you're friend?"

"Silvia, this is Duo. We're dorm-mates." Nathaniel said as he grinned ruefully at the were-wolf.

"You look like you could be brothers." She said as she led them deeper into the restaurant.

"I wish." Duo said with a faint grin. "I'm a street rat from L2. I don't have family." Suddenly his grin got bigger and a lot more wicked. "But I bet we could bring in a lot of money as twin strippers!"

The two weres laughed at the cheerful new comer. "Now that I would pay to see. 'Brandon' here is pretty hot by himself. The two of you together might be enough to turn even my head." She laughed.

"Awe…. You wound me, right here." Duo said dramatically as he clutched his heart. "My boyish good looks… not enough to get a second look from a hot woman." Turning huge teary eyes to the chuckling man next to him, he glomped him and said in a quivering voice, "You'll have hot steamy man sex with me and cheer me up, right?"

Silvia blinked at the two in bemusement for a moment before shaking her head and gesturing to a booth next to them. "Sit down. If I can't have hot steamy female sex with my sweety right now, why should you get any?"

"Ah, that's why." Duo said with a sage nod even as he plopped down in the booth. "My sexiness is assured once more. But if you ever want to have a stud sandwich with your honey, look me up. What red blooded male wouldn't want to be in between two hot women?"

"And how do you know if she's hot?" Nathaniel asked.

"All women are beautiful."

That one line had most of the surrounding people listening in nodding happily. Almost everyone in the restaurant knew Nathaniel and Silvia. Duo seemed like a decent guy, if a little weird.

"So, what's good here?" Duo asked as he grabbed the menu and started looking though it.

"The burgers are the best." Nathaniel said, not even bothering to look at the menu in front of him.

"Hm, then in that case, I'll have the Ultimate cheese burger, rare, with a large Cheerwine." (I don't know if they have Cheerwine in St. Louis. Probably not, but here in NC, its my favorite soda.)

"Are you sure you want rare? It's really rare and bloody." Nathaniel asked cautiously.

"The bloodier the better. That's where all the flavor is!" Duo exclaimed with a laugh.

Silvia laughed and she took the menus from the two at the table. "Ok, your order will be out in a bit."

As she turned away, Duo snagged her hand, shocking her. "Hey." He said with a frown. "You didn't take Nate's order."

"Duo…" Nathaniel said softly. "It's ok."

"And why is it ok?"

"Because I already know what he wants. It's the same thing he gets every time he's in." Silvia laughed as she smiled approvingly at Duo.

"Oh, sorry. I just don't like it when people are rude to my friends."

"I'm glade Nathaniel has a friend like you then. He doesn't have enough." She said and left.

Duo looked over at Nathaniel who blushed slightly at having Duo defend him, even though they had just met. "Are we friends?" he asked in a whisper, but Duo heard him and smiled gently at him.

"Yes. You're now stuck with me forever. I never leave a friend, though sometimes they leave me." Duo said with a faintly bitter tone on the last part.

"I'm glad."

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

"Looks like the new kid will be good for Nathaniel." Shang Da said quietly before turning back to his food.

"But did I hear right? They're dorm-mates? As in collage?" Richard asked as she studied the twosome in the booth.

"That's what I heard."

Standing up, Richard walked over to the booth and stared down at the two longhaired men for a moment before turning to Nathaniel.

"So you're going to collage?" he asked the leopard, who nodded warily as he stared up at the massive man.

"How did you get into collage?"

Duo stood up, anger tightening his body, when he heard how much speculation was behind the question.

"And what business is it to you?" Duo asked coldly and suddenly there was silence in the room as all eyes turned to the confrontation.

Richard blinked for a moment at the figure that was suddenly in front of him before saying, "Well, it's not like he could have passed the entrance exam on his own. He didn't even go to high school."

"Duo, don't." Nathaniel said quietly.

Duo, though, ignored it as he suddenly slammed his fist into the taller man's face with all his strength, sending him flying backwards a few feet. Before he could blink, he was suddenly pinned to the wall a foot about the ground with a hand around his throat.

Lashing out with both hands and feet, he drove a thumb into one eye even as he drove his steel toe boot into a kneecap. As the man dropped him roughly, another man, who looked Chinese dove in, only to miss as Duo spun away and slammed his fist into the back of the man's neck, knocking him out.

Nathaniel watched in horror as Duo took on the three wolves single handedly.

No one had ever stood up for him like that against what Richard was implying. Sure people got pissed occasionally, but nothing like this. And what was amazing was the teenager was holding his own and even getting the better of the two enforcers. Richard was just standing there, rubbing his jaw as he watched the others in surprise.

Duo stood there for a second as he looked at the two men on the ground before looking back up with rage in his eyes at Richard, but before he could take more than a single step forward, a dark blur was suddenly in front of him and grabbing him by the throat and lifting him off the ground with one hand.

Blinking in shock, his violet orbs locked with deep blue and suddenly the world spun away.

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

A/N….. again…

Well, I don't know if I'm going to continue this. I have ideas but not a lot of time for writing, so if no one reviews, then I won't continue this. If no one reads the story, I might as well not write the story.

So if you like the story and want to keep reading it, REVIEW!!!!