::I do not Own Gundam Wing::

The Year as After Colony 201 – 6 years after the Eve Wars.

Chapter 4:

Duo and Trowa stood in the door way, a shocked expression on their faces.

"Hey guys, long time," the blond said.

"Quatre?" Duo got out first. The former pilot nodded his head. Ryan sat back in his chair watching the exchange with a small smile.

"Mister Winner and his fiancée Elsa are here because Winner Corp is the main supporter for my company," Ryan said. "You three know each other from the last couple of wars if I am not mistaken. Elsa is Linda's older sister's daughter."

Quatre stood up and walked over and hugged Duo; that seemed to snap Duo back to the here and now. His arms came around Quatre in a hug. Quatre pulled away and looked at Trowa. "Duo seems to be treating you well, congratulations on your wedding; I guess my invitation got lost somewhere."

"You mean you didn't get it Q?" Duo asked. Quatre shook his head. "I wondered why you didn't show up."

"You could have told me, we talked often enough," Quatre narrowed his eyes at Duo.

"I wanted it to be a surprise," Duo grinned at him.

"I am happy for you Duo," there was a secret message in that statement Trowa could tell.

"Well gentlemen, why don't we all sit down together," Ryan said. Quatre smiled at him and walked back to the table. A coal grill sat some thirty steps away, fire and smoke drifted in the air. "Duo will be the master engineer of the company, I am glad you approve Quatre."

Trowa and Duo sat down at the table, Duo closer to Ryan and Trowa beside Quatre. "The company is here to serve Quatre in making a better colony living. Colony maintenance and systems controls as well as developing many other things, we specialize in function." He took a drink of his tea. "With your skills at computers and the colonies from what Quatre was telling me I believe you will make a wonderful leader for our team."

"Quatre was tellin ya about me huh?" Duo asked as the man butler from before appeared with iced tea for both he and Trowa.

"Yes about you, your husband, and the other two as well," he closed his eyes half way.

"You make it sound bad," Linda said to him. "Quatre told us a bit about the war and how he met all of you, nothing else."

Duo and Trowa both relaxed some at hearing that not noticing that they had tensed up. They sat there for a moment before Trowa turned and looked at Quatre. "The war?"

"Yes, it's been six years, the Preventers have been doing a wonderful job at keeping the peace, and Relena is just a wonderful diplomat. I heard that Heero is going to be running next year for the L1 section of the colonies, is that true?" Quatre asked.

"He hasn't told me anything," Trowa answered.

"He was going to," Duo interjected Trowa as the former performer looked at him. "But he's going to let the current one run again because Relena likes arguing with him and it keeps her from taking out rages on him."

"I would think there would be conflicts," Elsa said to the rim of her glass. "Mister Yuy and Miss Peacecraft are in a long standing relationship are they not?" Duo, Trowa and Quatre nodded to this. "Then would he just give her whatever she wanted because of this?"

"Heero's not like that," Duo said. "He fought like we did for the colonies; he would just bow them out without first thinking about it."

"But then the relationship of Earth would suffer because of their relationship suffering," Elsa combatted. "It's tragic but true. If you have to diplomats for different factions in a relationship one of two things happen," she sat her glass down.

"They either break up the personal relationship, or the political relationship," Quatre finished, Elsa nodded her head.

Duo glared at the woman as she looked back at him. "Mister Yuy use to be your partner," she concluded. Duo shook his head.

"We worked together yeah, but we weren't partners, it would be like Tro and Q being partners," Duo said and looked at Trowa.

"You hold much fire for Heero," Linda said.

"Yeah he's my friend," Duo replied. Trowa crossed his arms and relaxed in his chair.

"Why Trowa?" Ryan asked. Duo sat there for a minute or two.

"Because…" Duo bowed his head a slight tint of pink rising to his cheeks.

Trowa leaned back and placed his arm on the back of Duo's chair. "Because he loves me," Trowa replied for Duo. "We didn't really work together in the war, but when we did we got along well enough. When the war ended we kept in contact with each other."

"Really?" Quatre questioned looking at Duo. "You never told me that you talked to him."

"Well ya know, it was just little things, never got really full conversations out of him the way you did Q, all I ever managed after the fighten was hey or something ya know?" Duo gave a lop sided smile. Linda and Elsa gave small smiles towards Trowa.

"He has such a way with words doesn't he?" Linda asked Trowa.

"He's always been like that, I guess even EU couldn't change that about him," Trowa explained. Quatre sat there and rested his chin in his hand and tapped a finger on the table.

"Well I don't know about you lot, but I am started to get hungry how about we start cooking hum?" Ryan asked and stood up.

"Sounds wonderful," Linda said and she too stood up. "Ladies, with me, gents with Ryan, Trowa you are considered a lady here."

Trowa looked at Linda as she and Elsa walked towards the house. He gave Duo a glare to match Heero's during the war and then went to follow the two women into the house.

Duo watched after him.

"Calm down Romeo, he'll be back they are just going to get the food to cook," Ryan chuckled at Duo's worried expression.

"I afraid of that," Duo admittedly joked. Quatre and Ryan laughed at him. Duo watched Quatre as he turned to Ryan and started talking about a new design for a star base or something. Duo's brain was in over drive of why Quatre could be here, surely he knew of the dangers… He knew that Trowa as a Preventer agent, he also knew so much more than what he was letting on, even to he and Trowa.

Duo couldn't place it.

Trowa bumped Duo's elbow and looked at him as blue eyes turned up to look at green, Trowa then looked towards the grill. Quatre and Ryan were talking in hushed tones, Duo stood up as Trowa sat the salad down on the table and walked over to Quatre, and he wrapped an arm around the blonde's shoulder and gave his trademark smile.

"Whatcha talkin about over here all hushed hushed?" he whispered to them. Ryan smiled at Duo and turned a stake over.

"Medium right? Trowa said you liked it that way," Ryan said, Duo nodded his head.

"We were talking about old systems," Quatre said and gave Duo a once over. "We are going to hold a little meeting after dinner; I would like it if you'd join us."

"Can't say no to ya Q," Duo answered and looked over the grill and the wonderful smells from it.

"Good, I look forward to using that weakness later," he said, Duo lifted a brow in question but Quatre didn't give an explanation.

Ryan placed a plate of grilled vegetables in his hand, Duo walked over to the wives at the table as they were chattering about some kind of fundraiser for the colony schools. Duo sat the plate down, Linda handed him a stack of plates and he walked back over. He and Quatre helped serve everyone their stakes, thus landed them back around the table again.

Linda and Elsa brought up their ideas of the fundraisers for the schools to Quatre and Ryan who listened as they ate.

"Trowa had a wonderful idea of inviting the circus to the colony and to see if they would be willing to make some sort of charity performance based on donations instead of admission fees," Elsa said catching Duo's attention. Quatre looked at Trowa.

"Are you sure? Catherin got married didn't she?" Quatre asked.

"She did, she still performs in the circus," Trowa said. "I can give her a call so she can bring it up with the manager."

"Will you be performing?" Quatre asked.

"I don't know," he answered.

"You were a circus performer?" Elsa inquired.

"It was more of a cover for the war than an actual profession," Trowa replied. Elsa and Linda got devious smiles on their faces as they looked to Duo.

"So what did you do?" Linda asked.

"I did a couple of things, acrobatics, lion taming, had knives thrown at me," Trowa answered honestly.

"So Duo," Linda pointed her fork at him. "You tested his flexibility?"

Duo stopped moving the slice of squash to his mouth and looked at Linda. The table started to laugh then. The look of shock and embarrassment had met her question. Trowa looked at him, but answered as easily as Linda had asked. "Many times."

Duo was about ready to die due to an extra amount of blood rushing to his head, how could he not they were talking about a sex life that he has never had. He had to thank Trowa for his ability to bleed into a role like he does. He took this bull by the horns so to speak and he was doing a fine job with it. He wasn't expecting this from him. Ever.

It was awkward.

"Well, while the wonderful wives deal with the cleanup, Quatre, Duo could I see you in my office?" Ryan asked and stood up.

Quatre followed him as Duo nodded and stood placing a hand on Trowa's shoulder. Trowa caught the gesture for what it was, a thanks.

Ryan closed the door after Duo and walked to his desk as the two former gundam pilots sat down on the other side of it.

"I am sure you have guessed by now why Quatre is here," he said. "He is a benefactor of Zopedum Enterprises. We make security systems, computer systems and mobile suits and dolls, we have four new models. Quatre recommended you to me because of your abilities."

"I didn't expect you'd marry Trowa though, isn't he part of Preventers?" Quatre asked.

"He was; he quit when we got married."

"You cannot tell him anything unless you can completely trust him," Ryan said earning a glare from both Duo and Quatre.

"Trowa is trustworthy," Quatre said.

Ryan nodded and handed Duo an usb drive and looked at him. "We need a system that won't kill our soldier's brains when they get into the cockpit of the suits. We have a copy of the zero system but that is far too dangerous to use, if you think you can change the system."

"I'll look into it," Duo replied looking at the drive. Duo looked over to Quatre. "Why Quatre?"

"We were young and didn't fully understand what was happening or going on, Relena's words sounded nice and the idea of Peace was a wonderful thing. But that's not what humanity is. Humanity is being able to govern our own countries, our own colonies, not to conform to one person's dreams and ideas. That doesn't make us who we are. People should have the right to defend themselves and not have to rely solely on the Preventers." Quatre said and looked at Duo for a long time before he smiled. "I know this is throwing away all we have worked for, but Duo the colonies aren't getting better, Earth is still in major control and they pick and choose which colonies get the attention first. L1 before the wars was funded by the Japanese nation and alliance force, L2 was American, L3 was Europe, L4 was Russian and Arabian, L5 was China and Asia. The Lunar base was Australian but they lost it and it because L1 territory. Believe it or not the Alliance was better than what Relena is doing. She is taking the people's will, and their right to defend what is theirs."

Duo sat in the chair holding the flash drive in his hands, his head bowed down and he was chewing on the inside of his cheek. Ryan sat across his desk looking at Duo.

"We don't want to control the Earth and Colonies under one rule and law. We want people to be able to choose what they want once more. We want to revive the Alliance," Ryan said and slid a folder closer to him. "We want your help with that. Here is a list of people that Quatre and I have put together for the new Alliance head. You will find two people from each nation, as well as Relena. Relena destroyed many traditions that have been in nations for hundreds of years."

Duo took the folder and nodded his head.

"Will you help us Duo?" Quatre asked. Duo turned and looked over at the former Sandrock pilot.

"Yeah," Duo nodded. "I'll help ya."