Warnings: angst, SPOILERS, slight AU (see first part for warnings covering the whole story)

Feedback: MUCH appreciated. Comments, constructive criticism, confusion, questions, all welcome!

Part 1

He was the first person to threaten the control I had over my emotions, my caring. Yes, him, the one so many believed to be heartless. Maybe he was pretty darn close to it, but as an expert in suppressing emotions myself, I could tell he was doing the exact same thing. Thing was, he was never able to fake emotions like I can, so he came off as emotionless, unfeeling. Those emotions were there, though. You could see them if you watched carefully. Besides, he was the one who always talked about following your emotions. He tried to, too, it was just hard given that whoever trained him did their damnedest to get rid of them, and certainly almost succeeded.

It was pretty soon after I'd come to Earth, spirits high with the prospect of revenge and justice, as another pilot might say. I'd found another gundam, remarkably similar to my own, and was in the process of removing it from the Alliance's reach when I came across him. He wasn't alone, though. There he was, Heero Yuy, the Perfect Soldier and fellow gundam pilot—though of course I didn't know that yet—eyes staring down the barrel of a gun that was pointed straight at some helpless girl. Of course I had to do something to help her out, so I shot him in the leg, to stop him without killing. I wanted to be sure he deserved to die before I gave him that honor. That's when things got as confusing as hell, though, since the girl I was attempting to rescue ran over to him to see if he was ok, telling me not to shoot. Ah, Relena. I never did pretend to understand her.

In any case, I soon discovered that he was the pilot of the gundam I'd found, and had come to Earth with the same purpose I had. This little fact was a tremendous shock. I had never known that other gundams existed those years I'd helped work on Deathscythe. When I came to Earth, it was alone, to fight a one-man mission of retribution. Sure, Howard and the Sweepers were there to help me maintain good ol' Deathscythe, but I was the only fighter. Upon learning that Heero had essentially the same mission and an almost identical suit, I was determined to find out as much about him as I possibly could. So I did.

"Alright fine, if that Gundam's yours, I guess I won't use it for back-up. Darn."

The other pilot snorted, then went back to operating the machine he was using to retrieve Wing Gundam from the bottom of the bay. I could tell he knew what he was doing, and determined that he was sufficiently skilled to be able to keep doing his work and discuss the situation at the same time.

"Anyway, I noticed when I found your suit that it's pretty darn beat up. I've got a repair crew close by, and I bet your suit uses parts pretty similar to mine. How about you bring it by to get fixed up?"

He looked at me briefly, and despite his blank face, I could see that he was considering it... considering me. His non-expression changed, somehow, and he turned back to his work. "Alright," was his only response. I had the unsettling feeling that he'd come to some sort of conclusion about me, but I had no idea what it was. Hopefully a good one, given that he'd agreed with my idea.

All this silence wasn't good, though. Silence leads to thinking, and when I think, I remember, which isn't actually good for staying in a calm and reasonable state of mind. Despite all the years, I've never learned to really cope with the pain and the anger. Well, that's not true. I could cope just fine... by distracting myself constantly so I didn't have time to think, to remember, to hurt. They say time heals all wounds, but I say that's bullshit. Some wounds never heal, you just have to learn to ignore them. That's where talking comes in.

"Umm... You sure you don't need any more info than that? Like, who am I exactly, is this repair crew trustworthy, do they have a medic who can take care of that bullet wound I gave you... Anything?"

This time when he looked at me, his face wasn't entirely blank. Or blank at all, really. It was annoyed.

"I know as much about you as you do about me. You're trusting me enough to take me to an obviously sensitive location, so I'll trust you enough to assume that your crew is trustworthy. I've already dealt with my leg and am capable of continuing to deal with it without help. All I need right now is to retrieve my gundam before somebody finds us." Back he turned to his work. Clearly, while he was capable of working and discussing at the same time, he was entirely uninterested in doing so. He'd also made some damn good points... Right. I knew better than to aggravate him further, so I was going to have to find some other method of occupying myself.

"Well, in that case, I'll just go secure a truck to transport your suit away from this base and onward to the aforementioned sensitive location. See ya in a few!" And off I went.

tbc