ATE: Personally, I never thought I would write a story for Gundam Wing, but after reading a ton of stories in that category I couldn't resist it so I had to write this. This is my first time writing a story for Gundam Wing and it's been awhile since I've watched it (the last time being when it aired on Toonami, which was years ago), but I've managed to get myself a copy of the movie Endless Waltz to watch and a place to watch the anime online, but that's all I'll say when it comes to the anime. I hope everyone enjoys this story that I wrote.

Declaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or anything related to it. I only own Estelle and any other people you don't recognize being from the anime or manga.

Below is the info on my OC Estelle since I didn't feel like mentioning what she looks like in the first chap.

Estelle Lumina Brooks
Age: 16
Height: 5'3
Eye color: olive green
Hair color/length: light ash brown/comes down to her shoulder blades

(*) IMPORTANT UPDATE: After much thought and discussion with my friend and I Chrys I, I have decided to change Estelle's name to Rhea. This is a far warning to those new to this story and/or have been read it so far.


Glowing Star

Chapter 1

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me to the park, my face stained with tears that had started to dry up not too long ago. By the time I made it to the park I was hunched over as I was out of breath from running so hard, causing some strands of my hair to get in my face. I stayed like that for awhile before I lifted my head to look for somewhere to rest and spotted a wooden park bench nearby. I slowly made my way over to it and slumped down on it tiredly, immediately feeling a tiny bit of relief to my sore legs. Scratch that! Every part of me felt sore, but that was the consequence for running like I did. But despite feeling so sore I reached my right hand into the right pocket of my jacket and pulled out what I had inside it. I looked down at the four pieces of what used to be a single sheet of notebook paper in my hand. It had been a drawing I made of the five pilots Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, and Wufei Chang from 'Gundam Wing' before it ended up in the condition it was currently in. I felt fresh tears fall from my eyes as I remembered what happened earlier.

(~*~Earlier~*~)

I was so glad that today was the last day of school with summer vacation starting tomorrow. As soon as the bell went off I went directly to my locker, opening it before putting all my stuff inside my backpack (we had already returned our text books to our teachers at the beginning of each class so we didn't have to worry about those). My friend Stacy was right next to me doing the same thing to the stuff in her locker as I was.

"Are you excited about this summer?" She asked me, giving me a bright smile.

"You bet!" I told her. "I so glad I'll be able to sleep in for once instead of doing so on weekends."

This caused Stacy to laugh humorously.

"Oh, Rhea! Why am I not surprised about that? You're not really a morning person."

"What can I say? I like my sleep."

We both laughed.

"Anyways, how's that drawing you've been working on coming along?"

"I've just finished it last period." I said, pulling out the drawing we were talking about. "Take a look."

I handed the drawing to Stacy and I watched as her gaze moved across the paper.

"This is really good. This has got to be your best drawing so far." She said as she handed it back to me.

"Really?"

"Yup!"

Before I had a chance to fold the drawing was snatched out of my hand and I turned to the person who did it, only to narrow my eyes when I saw my drawing in the hands of Claire (the school Prep), who was surrounded by her preppy followers. She gave me her devious smirk and making herself appear so 'high and mighty'.

"Well, well, well! If it isn't Loser 1 and Loser 2!" She said before taking a look at my drawing. "Another one of your drawings, Loser 1?"

"Give it back!" I growled.

"Why? It's obvious that you like these silly little cartoons. Aren't you a little old to be watching cartoons?"

"It's called anime, and no I'm not! Now give me my drawing back!"

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" She said sarcastically. "Here, you can have your drawing back."

Claire held my drawing out to me and I reached my hand out to get it, but at the last second it was jerked away from me and Claire and her followers laughed at me, causing me to get angry. My anger was short lived and my eyes widened in shock when she ripped my drawing into four pieces before throwing them into the air. I felt tears well up in my eyes and the preps laughed at me like hyenas as I picked up the four pieces of my drawing. Without thinking I bolted out of the school with the pieces of my torn up drawing as I continued to cry, leaving my backpack behind with Stacy.

'I worked so hard on it, too…' I thought sadly as the tears continued to fall. I hung my head. 'It took me days just to get it to look like this…'

"Are you okay?"

I lifted my head before turning my head in the direction the voice came from and spotted a boy who appeared to be the same age as me sitting next to me on the bench with a concern look on his face, which his cobalt blue eyes reflected as well. The outfit he wore was that of the appearance of a priest's black outfit with the sleeves of both the black shirt and white turtle neck rolled all the way up to above his elbows. But what took me by surprise was the thick three foot long braid he wore his brown hair in that caused my eyes to widen slightly. Overall, he looked like he was trying to cosplay as Duo Maxwell, or at least that's what I assumed, but he managed to pull it off as if it was natural for him.

"Wha…?" Was my intelligent answer.

"I asked if you where okay." He told me. "You looked pretty upset when I saw you so I was curious."

"Well, you know what they say. Curiosity killed the cat."

"But satisfaction brought it back." He grinned as he said this and I found myself doing the same, albeit a smaller one than his. "So are you going to tell me?"

At this my smile was wiped off my face as I turned away from him and let my head hang. He made a noise that sounded as if he realized his mistake and what he said next was more evidence to that fact.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to!"

"Maybe I should tell you." I said. "I might feel better if I did."

"That's completely up to you. Start anytime you want to."

I went over what happened today in my head as I thought of how to tell him what happened before speaking.

"Today was the last day of school for us and both me and my friend Stacy were really excited about summer vacation. It was while we were packing our backpacks that she asked about the drawing I had been working on and I showed it to her. But then Claire, being prep and total bitch that she is, decided to snatch it away and rip it to pieces. I left the school and here I am having a conversation with a stranger."

"So those pieces of paper are your drawing?" He asked.

"At least what remains of it." I stated, looking down at the pieces in my hand.

"Can I see it?"

"Yeah."

I looked up as I handed him the four pieces of paper that had been my drawing and watched as he placed them together on his lap like it were a puzzle. As he stared at my drawing I thought I saw something flash in his blue eyes, but as quickly as it came it disappeared, leaving me confused and curious. Maybe it was my imagination. After he was done looking at my drawing he piled the pieces together before handing it back to me with a smile.

"It's really good. I'm guessing you're a fan of anime?"

"I sure am." I said. "I'm assuming you are as well since you're cosplaying as this guy here." I pointed to the drawing of Duo I made that was on one of the pieces of paper.

"I guess you could say that…" I almost missed the nervousness in his voice since it was barely noticeable.

"You do realize that the last anime convention was three months ago."

"I knew that!" He said, giving me a grin as he scratched the back of his head with his hand before chuckling. "Guess I'm a little behind on the times."

'A little?' I thought.

"So it would seem." I smiled again, feeling better that I told him what happened. "I'm Rhea Brooks. What's yours?"

"Who me?"

"No, the person behind you." I said sarcastically. "Of course I mean you."

"Well, if you really wanna know, the name's Duo Maxwell."

I stared at him like he was crazy. He must've seen the look on my face since he had a confused expression on his face.

"What?"

"Are you kidding me?" I asked. "Were you're parents cruel when they were naming you? Or is it a nickname that you gave yourself?"

"No, no, and sorta." He said.

"Huh?" Now it was my turn to be confused.

"I answered your questions. Is there a problem?"

"No. But what did you mean by 'sorta'?"

"Now that's a secret." He smirked.

I giggled a bit and I watched as Duo's smirked turned into a grin.

"AHA! I finally made you laugh! Mission accomplished!"

"I can see why you call yourself Duo Maxwell. You really do act like him." I told him.

"What can I say? That I'm a natural or that I'm just being me?"

"How about both?" I looked at my watch and saw that the time was 5:30. "I gotta go now. Mom's probably wondering where I am."

I pocketed the pieces of my drawing in my jacket before standing up from the wooden park bench I had been sitting on since I got here, but I was surprised when Duo got up as well. Standing up to his full height I noticed that he must've been taller than me by an inch or two. He looked at me and grinned.

"May I have the honor of escorting the fair maiden to her home?" He asked

I couldn't help but feel my face heat up when he referred to me as the 'fair maiden'. I knew I felt somewhat embarrassed by being called that, but for some reason I found myself liking the fact that he called me that.

"You may." I said with a smile.

"Great! Lead the way…" He came to stand right next to me. "…fair maiden."

My face heated up again as I started walking back home with Duo. Apparently, he must like making me blush since he called me 'fair maiden' again. Despite having just met him I found myself enjoying his company as we walked together, talking and laughing as if we've been friends for years instead of just two hours. After some time I saw that we just walked into the neighborhood that I lived in and knew that we were almost to my home, but for some reason I started to feel a little…disappointed. Did I really like being around my new friend that I didn't want him to leave yet?

"You know that drawing you showed me earlier, right?" Duo asked.

"Yeah, what about it?" I looked at him.

"I was wondering…which character in it is your favorite?"

"Well…" I looked down at the sidewalk we were walking on as my face heated up. I eventually had the courage to look back up to his face. "…out of those five characters my favorite happens to be Duo. I find him to be easy to relate to, personality wise. Even if his happy, charming, relaxed, and laid-back personality is a mask he wears, I still think that he's an overall good person."

I thought I saw something flash in his eyes again from what I said, but like before it was gone as soon as it came. That must've been the second time I've seen it, but maybe I was imagining it for some reason. Strange…

"So that's your favorite character and what you think of him?"

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Duo said, placing his hands behind his head.

After a few minutes I spotted my home and my disappointment return since I knew what came next.

"Well, this is my home." I said. "Thanks for walking back with me."

"No problem! It's the least I could do." He told me.

"I'm really glad I met you today. I really enjoyed talking to you." I felt like I was saying goodbye to a close friend for the last time. "Will I…see you again?"

"Depends. Maybe you will, maybe you won't. You never know." He said this with a grin the whole time. "One more thing I need to do before I go."

At first I was didn't know what he meant when he said that but then he pecked my cheek, leaving me confused and speechless as he pulled away with a grin still on his face. I felt my face heat up and Duo's grin widened when he saw this.

"See ya!"

I stood where I was as I watched his retreating form running in the direction we came from earlier. I lifted my hand up to touch the place he kissed me with my fingertips and my face got warmer as my mind registered what happened. He. Kissed. Me. I was dazed from that thought that I was barely aware of walking into my home until I heard Mom talking to me.

"How was your day, Rhea?" She asked me.

"It was okay." I told her, coming to sit in one of the chair at the table.

"Stacy came by earlier and dropped off your backpack. She told me what happened today and how you ran off without it." I could hear the concern in Mom's voice. I loved my Mom since she could be so understanding. She was quite the sympathizer. "Are you feeling okay after what happened?"

"At first I wasn't, but then I talked about it to someone and it made me feel better."

"What happened after you left the school?" Mom sat in a nearby chair at the table with me.

"I ran off to the park and cried, but then I met a boy around my age who asked me what was wrong. He's the same person I mention and I told him what happen at school. We talked the whole time we were there and he was able to cheer me up. When I had to leave he offered to walk me back here."

"I'm glad you were able to make a new friend. Would you like me to get you some dinner?"

"Yes, please." I answered.

After dinner I had gone up to my room and got myself ready for bed. I was currently sitting on my bed wearing my Pjs my mind continued to repeat what had happened before Duo left. I touched my cheek again and blushed. I was still surprised from when he kissed me, even if it was quick. I found myself hoping that I would see him again, but then I felt the doubt about that happening.

"I hope I see him again." I said to myself.


ATE: That's it for chap. 1. I hope everyone like this so far. I don't think anyone will have to guess as to the boy Rhea met is, but I'm not saying anything. As for what Stacy, Claire, and Rhea's Mom look like I decided to leave that up to the readers to imagine. Please remember to review so I can know what you all think of this. :)