Title: Unsolicited Advice

Author: Buzzlette

Date: 11 February 2011

Pairings: None yet

Warnings: Canon divergence/AU, crossover

Summary: It's three years after the war and Heero is plagued by headaches. One rainy day he meets a man named Adam Pierson in a cafe.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story. I do how over own the story itself.

Notes: This is what happens when I want to read a Highlander/GW and there's no nearly enough out there :C Come on, people! There's so many ways this crossing could work: Immortals can live forever so timeline matchups are not a problem, three out of five of the boys don't know about either of their parents and Immortals are always foundlings, even just an innocent run in between characters from the two shows would have been fine! More people need to write this x-over.

This was intended to be a one-shot, but I get the feeling it should be continued, or at least have a follow up or epilogue or something. However it will be marked as complete unless/until inspiration strikes.

Edited and revised 8 May 2012

Unsolicited Advice

The skies outside were a steely gray, an indication of the rain that had been falling on and off since early that morning. His class had gotten out at eleven and he was left with nothing to do except make his way back to his apartment. The rain had started falling again and the café had offered a warm respite from the dreary streets. Heero sipped at his tea and picked at his coffee cake, trying to put off the inevitable return to the rain outside.

After the war he'd set out on his own, moving from place to place before choosing to go to college, more for the social interaction skills he could acquire than any knowledge the professors would teach. He'd kept tabs on the others. He knew they considered him a friend and he'd resolved to return when he was capable of being a good friend in return. It had been three years since he'd started his mission – no, not mission, journey was a more apt word – his journey to find himself. In the beginning he'd researched and executed what he deemed to be a "normal" life, the life of a functioning member of society, hoping that if he acted the part then eventually he would become it. After that rather disastrous attempt he'd reviewed the original goal of his mission – for he still considered it a mission then – and came to the conclusion that some things were too inherent in his personality, his self, to be changed. So he changed the parameters of his mission and set out to find out who he was as an individual instead of the means to an end. This seemed an impossible task until he realized that planning and parameters and itineraries were not going to work. He had to play it by ear, an entirely foreign concept. But he'd persisted. After three years of personal struggle he'd succeeded.

Succeeded more than failed at any rate, given that he was now purposely dallying for an entirely selfish reason, entirely at ease with his present decision of comfort over efficiency; hot tea in a warm café over going straight back to his apartment in the rain. But the only one who could tell him if he'd truly succeeded was nowhere to be found. Nine months after he had left, Duo had dropped off the grid. Despite his best and continued efforts, Heero could not find his trail.

He sighed. Duo, despite his nickname, was so full of life as well as darkness and had found a balance between the two. He was the only one Heero trusted to tell him if he was truly living yet.

It was while he was staring blankly in to his tea that his head began to buzz and then throb. He put a hand up to rub his forehead in a vain attempt to ease the pain. These headaches had been happening for a couple years now. They were sporadic and random, with no triggers or reasons he could identify.

"May I sit here?"

Heero looked up. Dark hair, thin face, wiry body, his mind automatically cataloged. A quick scan of the room beyond the man showed the café was busy; the other tables were all occupied. He looked back at the man in front of him who was waiting patiently for an answer.

"Sure." He absently noticed his headache had receded.

"Thanks," the man said as he sat down, placing his own cup on the table. "My name's Adam."

"Heero." The man nodded politely and took a sip of his drink.

"I won't be bothering you, will I?" At Heero's questioning look Adam elaborated, "You were rubbing your forehead, looked like you had a headache."

"I did have a headache."

"Did? Meaning you don't now?"

"It's gone now. They come and go." Small talk had been one of the more important skills he'd learned on his journey of self-discovery, though he'd first realized the usefulness of it during the war thanks to Duo. Most people didn't realize just how much information they gave away during a conversation.

"Have these headaches been troubling you long?" Adam asked.

"A few years now," Heero said, looking suspiciously at Adam. The man seemed more interested than the average stranger had a right to be. Adam caught his look and attempted to reassure him.

"Sorry, I don't mean to be nosy. I'm a doctor, among other things." The last bit was said quietly and quickly. A person with hearing less superb than Heero's probably wouldn't have caught it with all the background noise. "Are they just an ache or is it more like a throbbing or a buzzing? Any blurriness? Dizziness? Ringing in the ears?"

Heero was still somewhat suspicious but decided to play along and answered, "Buzzing and throbbing."

"Have you found a cause?"

"No, they're sporadic and don't seem to have a trigger."

"Hmm." Adam looked thoughtful and sat back in his chair. After a few moments he looked back at Heero, almost like he was sizing him up. He seemed to come to a decision and sat forward in his seat again. "I know someone who might be able to help you, if you'd like. If you have a pen handy I'll give you his name."

Heero gave Adam a pen from his bag and Adam turned the conversation to other topics as he wrote on a slip of paper he'd pulled from his pocket. Heero briefly glanced at the paper when Adam handed it and the pen back to him then put both in his jacket pocket. The conversation continued for a few more minutes before Adam declared he had somewhere to be and had stayed too long already. Adam thanked Heero for the company saying it was nice talking with him and then left. Heero stayed a few more minutes before leaving as well.

Methos sighed to himself and turned up his collar as he started out in to the rain. What had possessed him to give that name to the new Immortal in the café? It was MacLeod's influence, he was sure, the bloody boy scout. Even after all these years he still wasn't sure if MacLeod's influence was a good thing or a bad thing.

Back at his apartment, Heero toed off his shoes by the front door, set his school bag by the couch and put his keys on the counter dividing the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. While fishing his wallet out from his jacket pocket his fingers snagged on the pen and paper and he pulled those out as well. Wallet and pen went by the keys and the paper was examined for any and all information it could give.

It was a receipt from the café he'd just been at, folded in half, receipt side showing. It had been paid for with cash, which was noteworthy as few people used cash any more going instead for the convenience of credit or debit. The receipt itself had little else to tell apart from Adam's order of Earl Grey and pumpkin bread. The writing on the back however…

He hesitated in unfolding it. He didn't know the man, didn't know if Adam even was really a doctor. Whoever's name was written on there could be a total hack. But then again, the headaches were annoying, not to mention unpredictable and inconvenient at the best of times. Sometimes they were just a light buzz but sometimes they were painful enough to distract his focus. Sometimes they would go away almost immediately, like today, other times they would linger. If this person could help him get rid of them… What could it hurt just to see who Adam had recommended?

Unfolding the paper revealed the name Duncan MacLeod and an address on the other side of the city, but no other contact information, not even a phone number. The only other thing was a short message written at the bottom.

Tell him the Old Man sent you.

END

Review if you have a) comments or constructive criticism on the story, b) ideas for what comes next, c) a better suggestion for the title, d) recs for GW/Highlander stories, e) recs for other x-over stories featuring either of these two fandoms, f) know a good (or any) GW crossover archive a la Twisting the Hellmouth or others, g) some of the above, or h) all of the above.