Unexpected Conversations

Chapter 1

Duo warily raided the fridge of the current Winner provided safe house smiling a little to himself as he found some of those little smoky sausages he liked so much. He limped slightly to the microwave to pop some of the delicious little sausages in the nuker. While that heated up he also ate some fruit he'd found in the crisper, loving the taste of something fresh and sweet. It brought his mind away from how rough he felt. The safe house was like a palace and fully stocked he was sure.

It was nice to have somewhere nice to stay every once in a while. The last couple safe houses Duo had gotten stuck inhabiting after his missions could hardly be classified as houses. The last one had been a small shed in the woods near a power line. The only foods he ate for seven days were uncooked canned beans and protein bars. He had tried to alternate the meals, but it had been miserable anyway.

He felt super lucky as he pulled his cheese filled, smoky morsels from the microwave. He also grabbed a soda from the fridge and threw himself unceremoniously onto the huge living room sectional. His landing sent shots of pain up his body.

"Damn!" He cursed himself for being stupid. After some of his pain subsided he relaxed against the giant couch. He could feel himself practically purring as he leaned into the plush material and began eating his very unhealthy, but delicious meal.

'I wonder if these sausages have any nutritional value…' Duo briskly toyed with the thought of how the other pilots, especially the perfect soldier, would get onto him about regulating his bodies nutritional needs. That thought brought another smile to his face. He could just picture the reaction of the other pilots if they saw his breakfast choices.

He finished off all of the little sausages and belched a little as he finished his soda. He then found the remote and turned on the television. He flipped to the news and watched, as Oz controlled news stations, reported propaganda about the evils of the Gundams and showed a brief video footage of the Deathscythe destroying a base earlier that morning. The video clip only lasted a couple of seconds before it was freeze framed. The station had tried to make the freeze frame look intentional as if to emphasize they'd captured his Gundam on camera, but he knew the freeze had been from all of their cameras shutting down due to him destroying their network right before he destroyed their base.

Duo was sure to unknowing civilians the freeze frame looked scary with Deathscythe's large, thermal scythe mid-slice through a building he recognized as a radio tower. To him Deathscythe was just an old friend helping him in taking down the baddies. He was glad that the camera couldn't see how messed up he'd been in his cockpit. The camera had only caught the power of the Deathscythe and not the damaged pilot within.

Sighing, he changed through the few other news channels trying to find anything about the other Gundam pilots, but was met with nothing. He hadn't heard anything about any of them for a couple of weeks and had only been doing solo missions. Contact was limited to necessity. He was starting to miss his comrades… even the ever irritated Wufei!

He could use some help right now although he'd hate to admit it. He felt like shit and was becoming more sluggish as his adrenaline was dwindling. He needed to contact them discretely. He tried to get up to reach for his laptop, but found he could hardly sit up right. His chest constricted with pain and he let himself relax back against the couch for just a moment. After a moment some of the pain faded and he just sat there exhausted.

'Oh well.' He thought as he leaned deeper into the cushions smile returning to his sleepy face.

Duo knew he should have cleaned himself up in one of the safe houses perfect bathrooms as soon as he came in. He knew he should have sent a report through to G or at least sent confirmation to the other pilots stating he was ready for their rendezvous. He knew he should have checked the bullet wound in his leg before eating or sitting on the couch or… well before doing anything really. He also knew he shouldn't be letting himself go to sleep when he was pretty damn sure he had a concussion. Too bad.

Duo had exerted all of his energy just getting to the ritzy neighborhood the safe house was located in and doing so completely unnoticed…

And then finding himself some food after not eating for 36 hours had suddenly taken priority when he entered through the cozy kitchen's French doors on the side of the house. His adrenaline was gone. His energy was gone. And his consciousness was slipping away.

Almost into dream land, he mentally found himself fighting sleep with his apprehensiveness, but it wasn't working. He gave up the mental fight and jabbed his finger sharply into the bullet wound in his upper thigh so hard he saw stars. He then shot up with a jolt of pain silently cursing to himself. He knew he had to stay conscious long enough to alert the others to his arrival in the safe house.

The new ripples of pain in his reopened wound were enough to keep him conscious as he reached into one of his concealed pants pockets and pulled out an unused disposable cell phone. He dialed a memorized number he had setup through Deathscythe to redirect him to Sandrock, Quatre's mobile suit. He tried to ignore the fact the ringing felt like a lullaby and stayed focused by pushing his fingers against the bullet hole. It was painful, but effective. After what seemed like eternity for Duo, Quatre finally answered.

"04." He stated in a serious tone.

"Heya Q…" Duo drawled in what he hoped sounded like a happy tone.

"Duo? What's wrong? You sound horrible." Duo could tell from Quatre's worried tone that he must be worst off then he thought… He thought he sounded alright. He just sounded a little muffled to his own ears. Maybe he should speak up? All the fog in his head was making it hard to focus, but he was sure Quatre was still asking him questions. "-Duo? Are you still there?! Location?!" Quatre sounded frantic.

"Hey kitty cat…" Duo mused suddenly groggy again.

As Quatre continued to yell in his ear Duo fought the fog by forcing a finger down hard into his leg wound. He gritted his teeth as he let out a low groan of pain. He could hear Quatre freak out more at the sound, but feeling slightly more alert Duo quickly spoke over him before the fog came back to pull him under.

"Injured. Safe house Herndon. Need aide...P-preferably anyone, but 'Fei…" With that he let go of consciousness and the fog swallowed him.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Gundam Wing characters much to my distress...

Okay, So here is chapter 1 of my new ficcie. What do y'all think? Leave me reviews so I know to continue! I'm excited to get into this one.