Across The Galaxy
Vastulja Sata Menton
Chapter One: All the Details
It had been six years since he end of the war. Six long, hard, and lonely years. But Duo had made it. He had done well for himself as well. He had a steady job and a condominium he actually kept clean. He was proud of himself; he had done well. The years had been lonely, thought he stayed in touch with his former teammate Quatre via email and the occasional phone call.
Despite his success, the first few years after the war had been hard for him. More than once he had tried to kill himself. He had made it through though, and things were better now. He missed his comrades, but he had moved on with his life. It was good. One day, however, his world was turned upside down.
It was a normal Saturday, and Duo had just finished feeding his fish. The fish quickly swam to the surface of the water to feed before swimming happily to the bottom. Duo smiled and went to his balcony to open his blinds; he opened the sliding glass door to let the cool summer air flow into the living room. Just then, his phone rang. Casually, he answered.
"Talk to me."
"Mr. Maxwell. This is Jeff from the service desk. It seems that a package that you must sign for has arrived."
Duo couldn't remember ordering anything. Someone could have sent him something though. "Send it up." He hung up and waited fro a knock on his door. Eventually, the knock came. Slowly he made his way to the door and opened it. What he found caused his heart to almost stop. It was defiantly not a deliveryman. In fact, it was none other than Heero Yuy himself.
"H-Heero?" duo stuttered, not believing his eyes. The tall man stood before him, casually dressed in blue jeans and a blue and yellow horizontally stripped polo (AN: trying to give him a preppy look here). He hadn't lost any muscle tone and looked just as good as he had six years ago, if not better. Duo was in complete and utter shock, he wasn't sure what to say or do. They looked at each other for a moment before Duo remembered his manors. "Come in! Come in! Sorry…" Duo shot the door behind Heero before leading the taller man into the tidy condo. Heero looked around as Duo led him to the living room but kept silent as his usual self.
Heero sat in the seat that was offered to him, and watched as Duo looked for something. "Would you like anything to drink?" Heero shock his head no and waited for the disoriented Death Scythe pilot to settle down and sit. Once Duo finally did, silence filled the space between them. That it, until Duo broke said silence as he usually did.
"Well, this is defiantly a surprise," Silence. "So…what brings you all of the way our here to L6?"
"Hmm. Well, it is a developing colony, and I heard that you had come here. So, I decided to visit."
"Oh, wow. Cool. Um, well isn't this just a surprise." Duo was stalling, almost babbling. He didn't know what to say. It had been six years. So, Duo said what came to his mind. "You look good." He almost smacked his forehead for that one.
Heero's eyebrows perked up, and he smiled. Duo almost had a heart attack right then and there. Heero had never smiled before. He even spoke. "As do you." Duo looked at his tight black attire and blushed. He had been training a lot and staying in shape, and it was defiantly showing. Heero was first to break the awkward silence. "So, what have you been doing for the past few years?"
Duo had to think a moment before he replied. "Well, Mostly working my ass off. That's how I got this place." The 02 pilot looked around his condo and smiled. He was proud of the work that he had done. He then looked to his friend and asked, "How about you?"
"Oh, traveling. Learning how to be human, I guess you could say." Heero chuckled before continuing, "I visited Quatre and Trowa just last month. Mostly I have been here and there though."
"Cool! So…do you work?" Duo was even more curious now. Heero – human? He had to hear more.
"Part time for the preventors. Only when they need me really. You?"
"Hmm. I've been working with the local law enforcement most recently. Before that I was pretty much programming and hacking for companies. I like this better though. More of an adrenalin rush, like old times." Duo smiled. He was happy, for the most part.
"So, you live alone I take it?" It was a strange question for Heero to ask, but Duo answered it anyway.
"Yeah. I haven't gotten into any serious relationships. It's hard, ya know. No one else really understands what it was like during the war, accept for you and the other guys. It's hard to…to…" Duo was searching for the word he wanted, but could not find it.
"Connect?" Heero sadly understood.
"Yeah." Duo sighed. He shrugged and smiled weakly. "But, as they say; 'Life's a bitch!'"
"Hmph," Heero agreed with a chuckle.
"So, how are Quatre and Trowa? You said that you talked to them recently." Duo sat back, getting more relaxed with being around Heero again.
"Married. But we all saw that one coming." Heero pointed out as Duo raised an eyebrow. "All in all good though."
"So, Heero. What really brings you here?" Duo clearly had an inkling feeling that there was more to Heero's traveling.
Heero took a deep breath and sighed. "Okay. I didn't just casually go and visit Quatre and Trowa. For the last two months I've been on a 'mission', to say the least. I can't say much, but I'm here to propose a proposition for you." He finally had Duo's complete attention and he nodded for Heero to continue. "For years we've had the ability to travel into deep space. Due to the war, however, this ability has been overshadowed, until now. Now that there is peace between the colonies and earth, representatives have banded together and made a decision. It's an exploration mission, if you will."
"Where to? Like, another galaxy?" Duo questioned.
"Not quite. To the other side of our galaxy," The wing pilot corrected. He was far from finished though, so he continued. "They came to me and asked if I would do it. Naturally, I agreed to the idea. They're short a few people for the mission though."
"How many?"
"Oh…four to five. That's why I've come to you guys. In hope that you will come. But this isn't like a vacation. We can't leave and come back in a month. We'll be gone for years. The trip will take five years alone and that's at twenty thousand times the speed of light. That's equivalent to five years on earth. So, you'll have to give up everything. That's only if you want to go though."
There was silence in the room. Duo was possessing all of the information that the other man had just shared with him. "Wow," Was the only thing that came out of him. He knew what was coming next. Heero was going to ask him what he thought first and then if he wanted to go.
"So, what do you think?" Bingo! But the braided man wasn't sure what to think at all. IT was all so much information. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to think.
"I don't know. That's a lot of stuff there. I'll have to think on it more. How much time is there before the launch?"
"Well, you've got a week to decide," Heero replied sheepishly.
" A WEEK!" Duo exclaimed.
"Yeah, it took me longer to persuade Trowa and Quatre then I thought it would. A whole three weeks actually. So, yeah. Sorry." The apology was genuine enough, so Duo nodded is head in forgiveness.
"Well, I think I can decide in a week. Who else have you contacted?"
"I'm having a difficult time getting a hold of Wufei. I've gone to Zechs," Duo flinched at the name, but Heero did not notice the action, "but his decision is pending. He should be getting back to me soon. He's had a full week himself. So, don't feel bad. You aren't the only one."
"Hmm. I'll think on it. In the mean time, where are you staying?" Duo being his normal self, jumped to another subject completely unrelated.
"In a hotel down the road. Some "Learmont'." Heero shrugged.
"No no! We can't have that. You can stay here for the time. It's the leas that I can do. And don't even think about protesting. You're staying and that is final." Duo smiled and Heero smirked back. The taller man silently agreed with a single nod.
Heero went back to the hotel to get his stuff as Duo went about gathering blankets and a few pillows. He didn't really need to do any cleaning, so while he waited for his friend to return, he put water on the stove to brew some tea.
End Chapter One.
AN: FINALLY! It took forever to type this up. It's the longest chapter (I do believe). And the next one is one of the shortest. I have up to chapter five done, so I'll get the rest up ASAP. I'm working on chapter six…but well it's not going so well. First it was okay, but then it took a totally different direction. I didn't like it. So I started over. But, now I have writers block. xx