Summary: Three young men with hidden secrets and huge responsibilities. Two more that are equally burdened with the goals they've set for themselves. One headstrong young lady with plans of her own. And two others who find themselves smack in the middle of the action when all these forces come together by chance and luck, and try their new, unexpected alliance against the largest force of all.

Author's Notes: An AU, but set in the Gundam Wing universe, just before the actual series starts. There are Leos, but no Gundams yet. Each scene is put in there for a reason, even if sometimes it seems pointless. And, er, watch out for copious amounts of sap in the last bit. grimaces I left a lot open at the end, so don't expect all the loose ends to be tied up.

Pairings: 1x2, established 3x4, 6x13

Unexpected Alliances

Part Ten

Duo didn't know how to take Heero's quiet admission. He knew he'd gotten through to Heero somewhat, but he hadn't thought it was to this extent. What happened to the grouchy Japanese he'd know? Apparently, back again, he thought dryly as Heero wordlessly pushed him into a lying position, face impassive. But at least I know he treasures our friendship. Poor guy, he must've been so damn lonely all these years… I only hope when something happens to me, Tro and Q will help –

His musings were cut short by a warm presence at his back. While he'd been lost in thought, his mouth chattering on autopilot, Heero had turned him onto his good right side, facing the wall, and – this was the part that had Duo gaping, mouth stopping its ramblings – climbed in behind him.

Since the day he'd told Heero he'd be his friend, Duo had tried to be just that – a friend. He'd decided that Heero didn't need any sexual advances to confuse their newfound friendship. It was hard to remember that decision, though, with warm puffs of breath caressing the back of his neck and knowing that if he moved back just a little he'd be flush against that gorgeous body. "Er – Heero – "

"Quiet."

"Okaaay…" What was Heero trying to do?

He felt Heero take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then that knee-weakening voice began to speak, voice a quiet murmur. "All I remember of my mother is her scream, and her blood. I don't remember my father at all. The only thing I know about them is that they were killed by the closest thing I had to a father. Odin Lowe assassinated them, and for reasons I will never know, took me in as his protégé. He was never affectionate, but he took care of me, and taught me to fight and kill and survive." Heero paused then, as if to gather his wits.

Too much information! Duo's brain screamed. Shut him up! And Shinigami whispered in his mind, If you let him go on, you will become attached, and he will be a distraction, and he will die because you were distracted and couldn't protect him.

But the part of Duo that was Solo and Father Maxwell and Sister Helen sighed, Too late, you're already attached. What does it matter how deep the attachment goes? And, if you stop him now, he'll pull so far back that you'll never be able to find him again.

And that clinched the argument for Duo, even as Heero began speaking again. "We never settled down for long, so I could never form any attachments to anyone or any place, and I learned never to trust easily. He died on L1 when I was six. J found me then, and brought me to Earth. J was a scientist, trying to create the perfect soldier using technology. To him, I was the perfect subject. He didn't need to train me, I was tough and hard to kill, and I took pain and other things in my stride. And back then, even though I had matured far beyond my years, I was still young enough to follow his orders."

They were so close that Duo could feel Heero trembling slightly. He wanted to turn and hold the other boy, but he knew that Heero needed his anonymity for now. So he carefully reached his injured arm back, and found Heero's hand, all thoughts of sensuality gone. The grip was hesitant at first, but then it tightened until the point just before it would have hurt. Shakily, Heero continued, voice dropping to a whisper.

"He implanted nanoscopic robots that sped up my healing rate, altered DNA that let me see better in the dark, improved my physical capabilities and mental capacities…" His breath caught then, and he swallowed before continuing, the words sounding as if he were forcing them out. "And to test it all, he put me though a battery of tests – he pitted me against groups varying in sizes, made me try normally impossible stunts like jump from three stories high, put me in VR simulations that adjusted according to my fears…"

Duo had to exert all his willpower to keep from turning around, hugging Heero, and demanding where this J person was so that he could kill him. Heero had stopped again, and he could hear ragged breaths that let him know Heero was trying to keep tears at bay. The barely audible whisper of "I still have nightmares, every night when I'm alone", made his heart hurt so much that he felt like crying, too.

And Heero still hadn't finished. "I went to a few different schools. I did my work easily; partly due to the increased memory space J gave me. I was good at both sports and academics, and everyone wanted to know me. They thought I was brilliant, and wanted to be my friends. But it was always the same. After they hung around for a while, they would begin to whisper behind my back, and cast envious looks, and then envy would turn into jealousy. Then they would begin to snipe at me, and start spreading rumours, and after a while I would have to transfer schools again because J was afraid I would kill those people who came after me to beat me up, and then his experiments would be revealed.

"He trained me to have total control over my body and get rid of my emotions. The – simulations… they were designed to break me emotionally and mentally." Duo's hand tightened briefly, the only sign of the fury boiling in him – he knew the one most effective way of doing that, and it was something he never wanted to think about, Heero being subjected to that over and over again.

"It was – partly effective. Odin's last piece of advice was to follow my emotions. I remember that, so I learnt control, but my feelings and my wants were still there, only hidden. I managed to escape J just after the original Heero Yuy was killed, and I took his name as Odin had once told me he thought Yuy was an honourable man. From then on, I have been trying to overcome my conditioning, and follow Odin's advice, but after a while it didn't seem worth it and I gave up."

He paused for a long time, and Duo waited patiently for him to finish. Finally Heero muttered, "I learnt not to trust anyone. I never dared to get too close, for everyone wanting something from me. I despised weak people, because I was taught only the strong were fit to live. I detested my 'friends', and learnt to live alone. And then you came along and messed things up.

"You intrigued me from the start. You were beautiful, and different, and you made me trust you little by little. I thought you were weak at first, and despised that, but then you proved to be so strong. And you showed me friendship; you wanted to help without anything in return. You never gave up. I found myself actively trying to break my conditioning again, like I haven't done in years. I found myself enjoying having pointless fun and playing games. And now I don't know what to think. I want us to be friends, but not if you're going to leave. I'm… scared… of what might happen if you leave. And I am never scared."

There was silence, then. Duo lay there, listening to the faintly audible thuds of both their heartbeats, and the laboured breathing of Heero trying to get himself under control, and inwardly cursed himself with every name and insult he knew. I never asked for any of this trust! Duo wanted to scream. I never asked him to become so dependent on me! I never asked for him to look to me for some of his childhood back!

No, that part of him that was still embroiled in childhood corrected him gently. You asked for all that, and more, when you offered to be his friend, and looked into his eyes when he was exposed.

See? Shinigami sneered smugly. I was right. You've fallen hard, and now you have to deal with the consequences.

But the consequences might not be so bad after all, the other voice countered. Can't you tell? His trust is a gift – are you going to betray that trust?

"You think I'm beautiful?" Duo whispered finally, feeling silly, but he couldn't think of anything else to say.

The body behind him stilled, and then let out a relieved breath. "Yes," Heero said quietly, and there was a trace of a smile in the tone.

It made him want to cry. "What do you want me to do?" he asked then, defeated.

"Stay and be my friend," Heero replied simply. "I want to know what it's like."

"Why me?" It came out something like a plaintive whine.

"You offered."

Well, shit.

It was all quite simple, really. If he died, it would be as if he'd left Heero. If he died because he didn't take care of himself, it would be as if he'd left Heero on purpose. And if Heero felt that he'd left him behind on purpose, he would retreat back into his shell. Duo realized then what a neat trap Heero had led him into, but he was too tired, too emotionally drained to care, as if he had been the one pouring out his past.

And besides… it wasn't all a ploy. Duo recognized real pain when he saw – or rather, heard – it. And he felt something in him answering the plea hidden in that pain, something so big he didn't even want to think about it – but he had the nasty suspicion than it had been there, growing, for quite some time. Something that made him care about whether Heero could live on without him.

He squeezed Heero's hand and let go. "Hold me?" he asked softly, and one strong arm slid under his injured left arm and held his waist in a comfortably tight grip, the other arm against his back, fingers curled against his neck.

"Does that mean you'll stay?" came the muffled question.

"Why are you suddenly so talkative?" Duo grumped.

"Will you?"

He sighed. "Yes."

"Promise?"

"You're one hell of a manipulative bastard, Hee-chan," he groused. "Yes, yes, I promise I'll do my best to stay with you. But I'd better get something for my efforts, Yuy. For starters, you could try a little harder to break that conditioning, yeah? I'm not expecting something like what happened just now, but a little more trust, a little more openness, a little more active participation would be good. This was a good start."

"Ninmu ryoukai."

"For the hundredth time – what's that mean?"

"Mission accepted."

"…And you could lose that soldier mindset of yours, too."

"I need it to protect you."

He yawned. "I thought I'm the one doing the protecting?" His eyelids fluttered and slid shut, the gentle stroking motions Heero's fingers were making on his neck soothing him to sleep.

"We'll both do it. You need to rest. Sleep, Duo."

He gave in to the rhythmic motion of Heero's fingers, and slept.

"Done," Trowa said crisply as he strode back onto Quatre's ship. "No problems. There were more guards than usual, though, probably on the lookout for Relena."

Duo sighed in relief. They'd panicked over who would go out to pay for the refuelling and restocking of their three ships on L3 (they'd altered the official records of their ships, so they wouldn't be recognized) – either they were too recognizable, or drew attention with their looks. Finally they decided on Trowa, who had the ability to blend into the crowd.

He stood and stretched, careful of his bandaged arm – which he hid under a long sleeve, since he didn't want Quatre to worry. Heero had agreed to help him keep it a secret. "Okay, let's get back onto the ships," he said. "We've got another two and half days to L5, exactly the same amount of time they have left. We might get there sooner if it's smooth sailing. No time to waste, people!"

He was just boarding his small two-person fighter when Wufei ran over, skidding to a halt in front of Duo and Heero, who stood in the hatchway of the ship. "Relena – the damn onna – she's gone!" he snarled quietly. "I asked someone, and they said they saw guards taking a girl of that description away!"

Duo's eyes narrowed. "I gave her explicit orders to stay in the ship!" he snapped, anger flaring to match Wufei's. "She argued a bit, but I didn't think – god damn it!"

He jerked his head towards Quatre's ship. "Go back and wait until I come back," he ordered Wufei tersely. The Chinese boy looked unhappy, but he glanced at Heero and then nodded, turning and leaving. Duo looked to Heero next. "Stay in our ship," he ordered, then turned and jogged off towards the exit to the hangar, checking to see if his weapons were all there – they were.

He was at the door before he realized he had company. "Heero!" he groaned, annoyed. "What do you think you're doing?"

The Japanese raised an eyebrow, keeping pace with Duo. "I'm not the one with an injured arm," he pointed out.

Duo glared, realized that it had no effect, and gave up, turning his head back forward. "Fine," he muttered ungraciously, but he had to admit it was a rather nice feeling, to have a partner beside him. That feeling threatened to overwhelm his anger, but he regretfully shoved it down again. He had to keep the adrenaline pumping if he wanted to do this.

They arrived at the Alliance army HQ, confirmed via the guards' conversations that Relena was indeed captured and held inside, and quickly decided on a rough plan. Duo would create a distraction in ten minutes' time, enough for Heero to find Relena; Heero would enter through the vents, since Duo couldn't climb well with an injured arm.

Eight minutes later Heero was peering down into a room with thirty guards surrounding Relena, who was tied to a chair, being interrogated by a thin brunette. He watched as Relena was slapped again, the brunette barking questions at her, but the blonde just lifted her chin and stared defiantly back, earning herself another cycle of abuse. Come on, Duo, he thought as he watched the brunette shake Relena hard. It's nine minutes now and counting…

A sudden explosion shook the building, and the lights blinked out, replaced with the dim red of the emergency light. Screams and shouts and orders rang through the compound, and the brunette looked irritated. She said something, and the one of the guards tried to protest, but she yelled at him. He nodded brusquely, then, and barked something at the others, and to Heero's surprise and growing pleasure, twenty of the guards went out, leaving ten.

He kicked the panel in and dropped from the ceiling, taking out three at once. It was a simple matter to deal with the remaining seven, and he knocked the woman out. He had to give her credit – she had almost reached the door before the gun he'd taken off one of the guards and thrown at her head had rendered her unconscious.

Relena was watching him silently, tears in her eyes. When he set about freeing her wrists from the ropes, she bowed her head and said, "I'm sorry. Thank you for coming to rescue me."

"Why the hell didn't you listen to Duo?" he snapped as he went to work on her ankle bonds.

"I… didn't think clearly and reacted in an immature manner. I'm sorry."

"You realize this little escapade might mean the end of L5?" he hissed, pulling her to her feet and dragging her after him. They found a side window in one of the hallways, and he smashed the glass, hauling her bodily out of the opening. They were in a back alley, and Heero forced Relena into a run towards the front of the building. To his surprise, Wufei was waiting there.

"Got tired of sitting around doing nothing," Wufei replied to the question in Heero's eyes.

Heero nodded and shoved Relena towards him. "Here, take her. Have you seen Duo?"

"No."

He froze for a split second, and then glared with all the fury flaring to life within him. "If anything has happened to him," he snarled, not finishing the sentence as he ran back to the window they'd escaped from earlier. It took him a minute to find the detention cells, not far away from the interrogation room Relena had been in.

He heard it before he found them, and his blood ran cold. "Wouldn't let me harm you, no, but no one's here to see now, are they? Pretty little slut… I bet you're even tighter than a girl."

He broke down two doors as the man spoke, found nothing, and tried the next. It revealed Duo chained to a wall, arms above his head and on the balls of his feet, chains pulling his legs apart. His pants had been pulled down to his knees, and a man in an Alliance guard uniform hovered over him, about to thrust in. Heero grabbed the man and yanked him away from Duo, the guard falling heavily down onto the floor.

Furious, he smashed both of the man's kneecaps and hands, leaving the man screaming. "You asshole," he spat, breaking the elbows next. "How dare you touch him!" The shoulders were the next to go. Blood pooled around the man, and Heero shot him once in the middle of his chest, once in his gut. There was no way he would live past the next minute, and he would die in agony.

Grabbing the keys from the man's pocket, he hurried over to Duo and quickly unlocked first the ankle cuffs, then the wrist cuffs, and Duo collapsed into Heero's waiting arms. As he lowered Duo onto the ground, he wondered if it would it be too much to hope Duo had been unconscious. Apparently, yes, it was, as violet eyes fluttered open and Duo grinned weakly at him. "Sorry I got caught." He coughed, and a thin trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth. "Stomach," he said before Heero could ask.

The Japanese boy gently pulled up Duo's shirt and found a knife wound, deep, but not fatal. Relief was a sour, bitter tang on his tongue as he took Duo's outer shirt off and tore it into strips, binding the wound. There were bruises on his skin, but Heero was thankful that the injuries were no heavier.

"Relena?" Duo managed to ask as his stomach was being bandaged.

"Safe and unharmed," he growled. "You can still worry about her?"

"Hey… if I had to get hurt… at least it's for… something," Duo gasped.

Heero shook his head as he tied the cloth off. "Baka," he muttered, reaching for the back of Duo's neck. The braided boy only had time to get out a confused, "Wha…" before he slumped, unconscious, and Heero let go of the nerve he'd pinched.

He pulled Duo's clothes back on, and then stood carefully, cradling the frail boy in his arms. He found a wave of worry threatening to overwhelm him, and he pushed it down with some difficulty. Why did his emotions always have to be so strong and unruly when it came to Duo? He shook his head to clear it of errant thoughts, and made his way out. There were no problems getting out of the detention block, but then –

"Freeze!"

He did, and he and the Alliance patrol stared at each other, the eerie red light lending a surrealistic tinge to the scene. Then guns went off, and he watched with no small measure of surprise as the soldiers all jerked and slumped to the ground, revealing none other than Trowa, guns in hand, and Wufei, holding a bloodied sword.

"Quatre's got Relena," Trowa informed Heero, gesturing for him to follow him. "Duo okay?"

"For now," Heero replied grimly as Wufei fell back to guard their rear, and the group made their way out of the building, into another back alley that led further back. They emerged into a courtyard of sorts, where three cars and ten people were waiting.

"Duo!" the group of people gasped in almost-unison when they caught sight of the four.

Trowa held up a hand. "He's okay," he said simply. Turning to Wufei and Heero, he told them, "These are a few of the L3 Scythes. They'll cover our getaway in one of these cars. The reason why most of the hallways were deserted is because more Scythes are fighting at the front of the building as decoy."

"Well!" Wufei huffed, following Trowa and Heero as they headed towards one of the cars. "Why didn't you get their help on L2?"

"Duo hates asking us to help him in anything too dangerous," one of the men said, hearing Wufei. "He cares, and that's what makes people gravitate to him."

"He'll be pissed to know we got involved in this," another added.

"But if we hadn't, you'd never have gotten out so easily. Thank god Trowa at least isn't as damn stubborn as Duo," a woman laughed.

As Heero settled into the backseat with Duo, Trowa at the wheel and Wufei in the front passenger's seat, another woman leaned down to stare at Heero. "Take good care of him, boy," she instructed, before turning to join her comrades in the other two cars, hoisting an automatic in her hands. I will, Heero thought to himself, looking down at Duo, as the car burned rubber out of the yard. I don't know why, but I want to, and I will. Something inside him had broken when he'd found Duo and the guard, and he didn't know what it was, only that it left a hollow ache in his chest.

Bullets riddled the car frame, and Wufei's window cracked, but otherwise they made it to the ship hangar without any trouble – Trowa knew a shortcut that let them go in through the back. "Full speed to L5," Heero ordered tersely as they split up to their respective ships. Seeing Trowa open his mouth, he added fiercely, "I can take care of Duo as well as Quatre can," and strode the few steps to his ship, shutting the hatch firmly.

Inside, he lay Duo on the bunk, and then settled into the pilot's seat, setting the communication channel to reject all incoming calls. Taking the controls, he let habit take over and brought the ship into space in no time. Once he programmed the autopilot, he retrieved the first aid kit and settled down next to Duo.

Taking off all of Duo's clothes, he took a deep breath and set to work. Over the next hour, he cleaned, stitched and bandaged Duo's stomach wound, and then cleaned and re-bandaged his arm. After that, he cleaned the small cuts all over Duo's body, and when that was done, cleaned the boy up as best as he could. At the end of it, Duo was free of blood (his hair was another matter) and his wounds were as well as could be with the limited supplies Heero had.

He cleaned himself up as well, and then cleared all the supplies he'd used. Finally, Heero let himself sit back cross-legged on the other bunk and relax, leaning against the wall. He watched Duo sleep on the bunk across the ship, covered by a thin blanket, and let himself wonder at the way his heart was still beating faster than normal. He tried to analyze his emotions, but it made his head hurt, and he realized his body was burning out. With a sigh, he lay down, and drifted off to sleep with Duo's sleeping face blurring in his vision.

Sorry this took so long to update – I had a couple of trips abroad for a month or two, and then I was organising donations for the tsunami victims. I'd actually thought of not posting this for a month or so, in light of the tsunami tragedy, but realized that if I didn't post this now the next chance I'd get would be in March. So – here it is!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and rest assured the romance is coming very soon. The first half of the story is 12 chapters, and then there'll be the second half, which is the half with the Gundams (since people have been asking). The docs feature in every G-boy's past, but you'll only read about that in the second half.

If anyone has been personally affected by the tsunamis, I'm sorry for your loss. For others who are lucky enough to have avoided it, please donate – clothes, money, anything, if you haven't already. Every bit counts, as I'm sure you all know.

Zmajgoddess, camillian, otaku12, fieryicicles, karashacket, ChibiNekoSakura, Windy River, Luna/Katie/etc, Nikkler, ahanchan, oracale, ran, Death Phoenix, Patty40, SoulSister, Dark Nuriko, Shingaisha Setsuna, seer-cassandra: All of you, thanks for taking the time to review! Some of your names always appear on my review list, like Nikkler and Shingaisha Setsuna and fieryicicles just to name a few, and you don't know how much that means to me. Thank you again!

Hells-angel8: Oops, missed that typo. 'Lie down', not 'die down'. Urk. Thanks for pointing it out, though I kinda haven't gotten to correcting it yet. Good luck with your fic, and thanks for reviewing mine again!

Merula: again, thanks for worrying! I'll get down to reviewing your fics soon. Well… hopefully soon? And your LJ. So little time, so much good stuff to read…

Precognition74: er, you asked if Quat and Trowa will get together… I thought it was pretty clear they're already together? Oh no… I'll go check. Thanks for reviewing!

inthefire2002: I know you like this Heero better… I think you like all the Heero's better than Joke Heero. But he's good at heart, honest! Quatre trusts Wufei and Heero to some extent here, but he's cautious, to be safe. Thanks for commenting!

Yasei Raiden: Thanks for the quotes! I like the frog/bug one. I'll keep them in mind for next time.

Solo Maxwell-Yamato: glad you think my characters aren't too OOC, and thanks for reviewing!

Silver Cateyes: Thank you so much for thinking so highly of me, and always reviewing! I'll try to be worthy of all that praise. And hey – I love your stories too. Keep writing, inspire others!

Chibi Luci: your reviews are always full of ideas and helpful comments. Thanks so much! I'm keeping all that you've said in mind for my stories; they're very helpful in giving me ideas on how to continue. Really appreciate it!

-Ashen Skies-
"If your attack is going really well, it's an ambush."