Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing, save for maybe the plot and a few OCs, but not the G-boys, any names that you may recognize in this fiction.

"See, I told you that it was still there." Quatra said, pointing over Duo's shoulder at a map of the Moon.

J was the only one with a functioning, internet accessible computer, so all of the original boys snuck into his room to use it. It wasn't a hard thing to do, it was just tedious because the traps and locked he had on his door required the same thing to open. It was a dismal thing and actually made Heero flinch to see. The man that taught him about random passwords for everything wasn't applied to himself, wasn't even considered a good security measure with that man/robot/thing.

They all came to an agreement a few hours ago that they would move from the arctic base as soon as the parts for the Gundams arrived. They didn't want to be doing to massive training inside a base that was mostly a museum. Quatra offered one of the training bases that his family had been starting before he went under for the Preventers to use. Wufei had said the building wouldn't have been finished and kept around after he was gone, since the mass majority of his family were pacifists and wouldn't allow something like that be made with their money.

"How is that possible?" Wufei grumbled as he looked at the slight picture of the building, only just happening to be in the picture because of the satellite that took its picture.

"I left the process, construction and all the finances with Rashid... He had everything when I went under. I hope he used it to live well..." Quatra said, eyes softening into sadness, his voice taking on a more wistful quality.

"Don't worry yourself with those kinds of thoughts, Q-man... Knowing Rashid and the other Maguanacs, they put your money somewhere it could accumulate interest and made it so that only you would be able to get at it when you needed it." Duo said as he studied the picture.

"That's what worries me." Quatra murmured, stepping back into the pull Trowa was administering to his shirt and into his arms.

"Okay, so these coordinates, all we'd have to do is get a plane, get off this desolate waste land, steal a shuttle and head up there... Doesn't sound hard." Duo said, his head resting on his hand, thinking hard.

"Now is not the time for jokes, Maxwell."

"If now is not the time, when is?"

"Maxwell." Wufei growled, making violet eyes roll before he got up from the computer and walked off.

He really wasn't surprised when no one asked where he was going, what he was going to do or anything. It seems, with the start of a new war comes new ways to ignore Maxwell. He moved into the kitchen, frowning at his train of thought. He didn't want to think that the others would ignore him or anything but he wouldn't put it past them at this point. He poured himself some coffee, poured a small drop of creamer and only one packet of sugar into it before he stirred it, sipping at it to test the flavor, grimacing at the horrible, strong taste. He hated black coffee, he hated half assed coffee just as much, but Heero told him the first coffee/caffeine/sugar rush he caught him on, he would be banned from the liquid forever. He truly missed how he used to be able to joke around the others, how he could be the smiling idiot everyone needed.

Now, they knew that he wasn't always like that. They'd saw the small glimpses of the real Duo Maxwell, so there wouldn't be a reason to hide behind his joker mask anymore.

'You know that's not true... We can still pull it off. They won't care, and by the time they realize something is up, we'll be too far gone. Everyone else is taking up their old war personas, why not us?'

Duo scowled at that voice in his head, he hated it but it was the only one he'd never been able to get rid of. It always reminded him that he would always be the one that craved the contact that Heero gave him, craved the family setting all of them had given him before. It reminded him that no matter what he did, they would always think of him as the smiling, annoying, boisterous American that annoyed the shit out of them during the war.

'When was the last time we went to sleep with Heero beside us? How many times have we woken up to find him already up and working with the kids?'

Duo sighed softly as he set his coffee cup aside, using his finger to trace the pattern in the table. It couldn't hurt to become the joker again. He could do it. Keep him at a distance as he used to.

"Going to be difficult with Heero…" Duo murmured softly, to himself.

'Not if you just put out when he wants it.'

"Che… No." Duo grumbled before his gaze training on what he traced with his finger, his gaze kept him spaced for a few minutes then a soft sigh escaped his lips and he sat up.

He stretched his arms forward, the joints popping back into place before he straightened straight up, his spine realigning with a barrage of pops that only he could hear, and a wave of absolute pleasure springing up his back. He sighed softly, he opened his eyes and a large grin broke across his face.

"No problem." He said softly before he got up and sauntered down the hall.

Shinigami was back in town, no one was safe now.

"The parts have to be formatted for your Gundams. It'll take a while and in that time, I'll get started on the new projects." G said before he started down the way he came in the hall.

"Whoa, wait, Pesty, what project?" Duo asked, head tilted as he played with a wire from the large pile of mechas parts.

"You think that you are going to be training these kids and they aren't going to have their own Gundams?" G asked.

"How did you get all the Gundanium?"

"The same way I got it the first time. It might be old, but the Sweepers are still useful." G said, pausing when the sound of metal hitting the floor assaulted the silence.

"The Sweepers are still around?" Duo asked.

"Of course, boy."

"Who…?"

"Howard. You think I would let my best connection just disappear in time?"

Duo smirked at him before he flicked his braid over his shoulder, "I guess not, but I never figured Howie would go through with something like that."

"He didn't have a choice at the time." G snickered.

"Hey… Bird-man… you think Howie would do me a favor? For old time's sake?"

"Depends on what you want." G said, turning his attention to the long haired male.

"I want to take Deathscythe, and disappear." He said, fingering the weapon's components.

"I thought you and 01 had a thing." G said, frowning at him.

"We do but… he's not interested right now, and I don't want to be around while they're training those kids in ways that I don't agree with."

"You are going to take your kid, train him with you?" G asked, frowning.

"I was planning on it. I was kind of hoping I could get the old CD from our training methods."

"The computer modules?" G asked.

Duo nodded as he leaned against the pile, resting his chin on cold metal that sent shivers down his spine.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt. Just make sure that you don't blow yourself up while making those bombs." G growled.

Duo chuckled before he flicked G the bird, "You know I haven't done so yet."

"First time for everything, 02." G said as he slipped off.

"So I've heard." Duo muttered before he looked down at the stuff again, considering his options.

With a soft sigh, he pushed himself from the materials and into the main part of the building.

"What?!"

"I'm… leaving, Heero. I'm not going to stand around and have my training style dictated for me. This kid was supposed to be mine to train, and I'm not going to just sit here and take it just because you're one of the people stuffing this shit down my throat." Duo said an offhand smile on his face, his back to Heero so he couldn't see his face.

"You're… just leaving? Like that?" Heero asked his voice low.

"Tomorrow. I've got someone coming to pick me up, and once I've been dropped off with Tim and Deathscythe, they're going to come and take you guys to the moon…"

"You're just going to leave?! Leave us? Leave the others? … Leave me? After you promised?" Heero asked, the glare he had on his face was now predominant in his voice.

"I see it as, you haven't kept up with your promises, and then why should I?" Duo asked, rolling his eyes a little as he finished packing his duffle bag.

"Promises? I've kept all of my promises." Heero growled at him.

"Oh, really? Where were you last night, Heero? I went to eat dinner, I ate alone. I went to bed, I fell asleep alone. I felt you come to bed much later than I did, and when I woke up, you were already gone." Duo growled back at him.

Heero blushed slightly before he shook his head, "That was one nigh-"

"We haven't had sex since the shuttle ride to L2… one hundred years ago, Heero. Even then, it was just you giving me a blow job. You don't want to be around me, I know you don't, Heero. You don't like that I won't train Tim the way you want to. You want me to just basically hand him to you and be done with it."

Heero shook his head, hard, "That's not it at all. You are the best in a lot of things, Duo, but your personal issues are keeping you from doing what you need to do for this kid to be the best pilot that he can be."

"You make it sound like this is something that anyone can do, Heero. It's not. I know what I'm doing and the fact that you think that I wouldn't do what I could, within my own personal reasoning, to make sure this kid will survive this war shows me that you don't fucking trust me!"

"What are you yelling about now, Maxwell?" came Wufei's voice as he entered the kitchen, frowning as he saw Heero's frustrated features and Duo's own angry ones, "What's going on?"

"He's leaving. He's going to disappear with Deathscythe, the parts for it, and Tim." Heero snarled, his glare intensifying as Duo rolled his eyes.

"Maxwell?"

"Oh, shove it, Wuffers. I don't want to hear it. You and he are one of my biggest problems around here." Duo snarled as he went back to packing ration bars for himself and Tim.

"Problems?"

"Yes, problems, Wu-bear. Neither of you trust me, after everything we've been through together, you still don't think that I'm cut out to do what I know how to do."

"So you're going to just leave? Where are you going to go?"

"I haven't decided yet, and even if I had, I wouldn't tell you guys. That would kind of defeat the purpose of getting away from you guys."

"Getting away from us?"

Duo turned to see the other three standing there. Trowa frowning at him, Zechs looking perplexed and Quatra looking absolutely stricken.

"Duo… why?" he asked softly.

"Because… you guys either don't trust me, or you don't want to. Either way, I'm not wanted here." Duo said as he tied off his bag and slung it over his shoulder.

"What?! How could you think that? You're apart of us, Duo." Quatra cried, tears welling into his eyes.

"Hm… let's see. Two reasons. One, you guys won't let me train as I want to, as I've mentioned to these two bakas, and two… it's something between Heero and myself."

"He thinks that I'm neglecting him." Heero growled softly.

"Well, when you put it that way, after I said it was between you and me, let's just randomly have make up sex right in the kitchen!" Duo snarled.

Heero glared at his choice of words before he threw up his hands and got to his feet, "What do you want from me, Duo? You want me to smother you or something?"

"I want you to be like how you used to be! Before all this shit! I worked for almost a full year, non-stop to get you to be normal, like you wanted to be and you revert back to how you used to be the second you learn there's a war out there! This is the same thing I was talking about back at the hanger, Heero! You're working yourself up so much over this war that you're reverting back to that Perfect Soldier persona that you promised me you wouldn't revert to if we went into this shit! You knelt down and told me that you would try not to be that way anymore, and instead of doing that you did exactly what you said you wouldn't."

"That has nothing to do with any of this!" Heero growled.

"Yes it does! You're going to kill yourself the first opportunity that you get! You're going to do anything you can to leave me, so I'm going to do it for you. Move, Barton." Duo snarled, stomping towards Trowa, only to gasp as hands grabbed a hold of him and forced him to the ground.

Heero straddled his hips, Wufei grabbed on hand and held it above his head, Quatra grabbed the other on, holding it off the ground and away from his braid, and Zechs knelt a little on one of his legs while Trowa held down the other one.

"Get off! What the hell?!" Duo snarled, struggling against the five of them.

"Not until you listen to us." Heero growled, placing his hands at Duo's sides, glaring down at him, refusing to let his body twist like it wanted to, if this was a different situation, this would be turning him on.

"Why?" Duo growled softly.

"Because we're worried about you, Duo, and this isn't like you." Quatra said softly.

"Oh, and what's more like me?" Duo asked, glaring at him.

"For one, you're glaring at us. You've never done that." Trowa muttered.

"Two, you're jumping to conclusions without talking about things first." Heero said, frowning at him.

Duo blinked at him before he growled, "And? Everyone else can change but I can't?"

"You're changing into something that you weren't even before the first war, Duo. You've never been like this." Wufei said, looking at him as he pressed his knee gently onto his wrist, "You haven't argued with me since we've woken up, you haven't pulled any pranks, you haven't gone to mess around with the kids like we all were sure that you were going to do. There's something going on with you, Duo."

Duo stopped struggling, blinking at him. He called him by his first name… twice…

"I don't get it… I don't feel like there's something wrong, besides the way you guys are treating me." Duo muttered.

"And since when has that ever been something to hold you back? You would've just flipped us off and did what you wanted without leaving." Trowa said softly.

"You've been spacing out since the unfreeze, Duo. There's something going on and we have to find out what because if you space during a mission or something, it could be the end of you…" Quatra said softly, sounding truly afraid.

Duo shook his head, denying what they were saying.

"Promise us, Shinigami promise us, that you won't leave until we've got everything figured out. Please, Duo?" Heero asked, looking down at him.

Violet eyes studied him before he seemed to deflate a little, his eyes looked away, narrowing as all they could only see one of the others. He wanted to run, he wanted to hide, anything to get away from these guys. He didn't want to be trapped like this.

"Will you get off me now?" Duo grumbled, almost sighing as the four on his appendages', leaving only Heero on his stomach.

"We care about you, Duo. We know there's something going on with you and we want to help." Quatra said softly.

Duo rolled his eyes before he sat up, shoving Heero down his legs and pulled them out from under the Japanese male, scowling softly, "What ever. If I'm staying, then you guys better start letting me do things the way I want to do them, I swear I'll leave the first chance I get."

Stunned faces stared at him, surprised on all their faces. It would seem that now, in the midst of everything, Duo was becoming fed up with them, with everything that they used to do. He wasn't going to take them treating him like they had been. Duo got to his feet, dropped the bag of food on the table and left the room. He made certain to close the door behind him.

"He's really going to leave…" Quatra murmured softly, sounding hurt.

"No, he's not." Heero growled softly, fists clenched.

"I hate to be the one to tell you this, Yuy, but it might be possible that he will. We'll have to do anything that we can to make sure that he doesn't leave." Wufei muttered softly.

"Like what?"

"Maybe actually treating him the way he's suppose to be treated." Zechs muttered, not even flinching at the glare from Heero, the scorn from Wufei, the shocked expression from Quatra and the emotionless one from Trowa.

"What does that mean? What does he wanted to be treated like?" Wufei asked.

"It's not what he wants to be treated as, its how he's supposed to be treated. This isn't the same war as before. You've all had the time and the opportunity to be normal kids again, and it looks like Duo was the leading on to go that route while you all stayed back a little."

"So he wants us to treat him like a civilian?" Heero asked.

"No, he wants you to treat him like the human that he is, and not the soldier he used to be. You've all been treating him the way you think that he should be treated. Whatever progress you made with him during the war, you've probably lost it all if he's willing to run." Zechs explained, arms folded over his chest.

"What are we going to do? Go out to the movies with him? Party like hell, get plastered then live with hang over for days after?" Wufei all but snarled out.

"You are always raving about the injustice that people suffer because of war, how they aren't being stood up for or treated the way they should be. Maybe you should try practicing what you preach, Chang.

The long haired blond left the four stunned pilots where they stood, contemplating his words in their heads.

--

"Have I been unfair to Maxwell?" Wufei asked after a few minutes.

"We all have been." Trowa muttered softly.

"I've ignored him in favor of this war…" Heero muttered softly, having moved from where he had been standing to where he was now sitting in a chair, his body bent as he laid his elbows on his knees, "Even after he told me that he wasn't happy with how I've been acting towards him. It wasn't even a week ago he told me that he was unhappy with things, especially how I've been reverting back to my old ways. Told me it hurt him to see me like this… and I continued."

"I've been avoiding him…" Trowa muttered softly from where he was leaning against the wall, "I've made myself scarce when I knew where he was, or somewhere that he might've been. When I do happen to run into him, I walk faster, hoping to get by before he notices that I'm there. I think that he knew I did that."

"Why?" Wufei asked.

"I was afraid he would try to talk to me about how things used to be. I didn't want to talk about it. I was trying to forget how everything was, and this new war was bringing up some bad memories that I had tried to forget about… He never tried to talk about it."

Quatra nodded solemnly before he sighed and pressed his hand to his chest, "I've been blocking him out. His emotions have always been so extreme. He was always incredibly happy, or extremely depressed. I started blocking his emotions from myself more than I do with all of you all. Now, as I'm looking for his emotions, it's like he has none anymore. He's blocking me now. I can't sense him, I can't find him… He knew what I was doing, and decided to do it for me now… Oh, Allah, how could we let it get this far?"

"Because we were selfish." Heero said, running his fingers through his ruffled hair, "We've been so consumed with our own demons, ghosts and dead that were coming back to the surface, that we've refused to see the other's pain, and completely blocking out someone who needed our help more than anything than ever."

"Do you think that it's too late?" Wufei asked, sounding almost scared.

"The only way we'll know is if we go to him…" Heero said before he got to his feet and left the room with the others following after him.

"Be very careful. It's very delicate at this point, but past this you can make it into anything. Timed, instant, fire stick, anything." Duo explained softly as he showed Tim how to construct a homemade bomb.

"What will happen if we do something wrong?" Tim asked, watching as trained fingers created separators for the liquids.

"This whole base will be up in smoke." Duo muttered softly before he sealed off the paper over the liquids and stuffed it into a wax molding of a candle, "There we are."

"Cool." Tim hissed as he took the candle and began to examine it.

"Careful. Like I said, it's very delicate at this point and could blow up by accident." Duo muttered softly, moving and sitting down in a chair that was in the room.

"Can we set it off?" Tim asked excitedly, setting it down carefully.

Duo chuckled before he shook his head, "No. There's nowhere to do so. I'll show you some more, we'll get some more practice in, and we'll set some off once we leave this place. It's too small for this."

Tim nodded before a noise at the door caught his attention. The other four pilots were filing into the room the two were in. Tim grew tense, as did Duo, as the others gathered around a little. A small gasp came from Quatra, his eyes widened slightly and his hand moved from where it had been hanging to clutch at his chest.

"We're done, Tim. You can go." Duo said, smiling ruefully as the boy wasted no time in scampering out of the room. It would seem that all of the kids were still somewhat afraid of all of them when they were in the group.

"Duo." Heero started, looking down a little, as if unsure of where to start.

"We're sorry." Trowa started for him, watching Duo's reaction to the apology.

"For what?" Duo asked, no reaction seeming to be coming from him.

"For treating you like we had been." Wufei explained, moving his hands over his chest, the most defensive position that he had.

Duo looked at them before he sighed softly, "You're forgiven…" he said softly.

"No, we aren't. We'll do better from now on, Duo." Quatra said, stepping forward to the other male.

Duo lifted his head to them before he smiled a small bit, "Really?"

"We'll only treat you like a bumbling idiot when you act like one." Wufei said, blinking as Duo laughed loudly at him.

"Promise, Wuffers?" Duo asked, sniggering softly.

The others snickered as well before nodding; the only one who wasn't laughing was Heero. He looked a little solemn and impatient, waiting for something. The rest of the pilots talked to Duo for a few minutes before they all left, leaving Heero to be with Duo alone. Duo looked up at him before he shifted a little.

"What's up, 'Ro?" he asked, gasping when Heero was suddenly beside him.

"I don't know. I promised that I would do better and I didn't. I didn't mean to make you mad…"

"I know you didn't, but you have to understand that I wasn't going to stick around while you tried to figure it out."

Heero looked down, taking a seat beside the other, "I know you weren't going to now… I was being selfish, thinking that you would always be there for me and didn't need anything yourself… I was wrong, dead wrong. I shouldn't have done that to you. You deserve far better…"

Duo looked at him, violet eyes clouded over a little before he leaned forward and pressed his lips to his forehead, placing a feathered kiss to his temple then pulling away only inches from him, "I wasn't going to leave you, Heero, just your presence. I needed you to either burn yourself out and find me, or figure it out yourself. Looks like you figured it out yourself."

Heero looked down before he shook his head, "No… Zechs yelled at us… I would've hunted you down, though."

Duo smiled a little before he shook his head, "Not until after I was too far gone for even you to find, Heero."

Heero smiled a little. He knew the truth better than anyone, really. If Duo didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be found. He could make himself disappear so well, that it would be like he just dropped off the face of the Earth and Colonies. Heero remembered once, many, many years ago, he'd gotten into a small row with Duo.

The thinner male had disappeared for a week and no matter how hard Heero searched for that whole entire week, he hadn't found him until Duo knocked on the apartment door. Heero, not only amazed, but relieved gathered him up and pulled him into the house, holding onto him like he would disappear again. Duo had only chuckled at him and told him he'd gone to the hotel next door.

Talk about rubbing salt in the wound. Not only had Heero checked there, but he even stood outside the hotel entrance for seven hours, waiting to see if Duo had gone in there and he hadn't seen him. Since then, Heero knew that Duo surviving the war with only being captured once wasn't a fluke at all. Duo wasn't a liar, but he was so good a deceiving people with just a smile and a few jokes. He could take a spoon, a coil from the stove, the bleach from the washing room, and the agitator from the washing machine and use them to make a powerful explosive; he was the master of explosives.

He could take simple things… like the wires from an ancient decommissioned airplane and completely rebuild the scythe for his beloved Deathscythe, and it would even work. Most of all, he could worm his way into anyone's heart with just a few smiles and a few brotherly jesters. He was the best friend anyone could ever ask for. He'll joke and laugh with you one minute, then shoot down anyone who dared tried to shoot you from behind. He was fiercely loyal to everyone he considered a friend, and gentle to those that he didn't know.

In a small sentence. Duo Maxwell was an amazing person. Heero wondered what would make him neglect this wonderful creature and scowled at his own reasoning. He couldn't hide behind the soldier anymore. Duo worked so hard with him to get him out of that state of mind, and he wasn't going to let the other's hard work just fade away because something like this had happened to them. No, he was going to hang on for just a little while longer.

Heero moved his arm, slinging it around Duo's shoulders before he tightened his grip on him, bringing him closer and kissing his head, "Never again… I swear it, Duo. I'll do anything I can to make sure that you are as happy as you should be."

"Why does that sound like it would be more against me than for me?" Duo asked, frowning softly as he nuzzled into Heero's shoulder.

Heero chuckled as he pet his hair softly, making a soft noise as he nuzzled his head, "I promise. It'll be the best thing you could've ever gotten."

"Better than those chocolates on Valentine's Day?" Duo asked.

"Better." Heero muttered softly.

"Better than our first kiss? Better than the first time we made love? Better than the first time you told me that you loved me?"

"… No." Heero grunted after a few seconds, smiling as Duo laughed into his shoulder.

"Am I pushing my luck?" Duo purred softly.

"You have no idea." Heero grunted before he messaged the other's shoulders gently.

Duo smiled as he purred under the touches, leaning into them, slowly starting to relax before he tensed, a small cough racking his body before he pressed his mouth to the sleeve of his ugly grey shirt and dismissed it as a patch of inhaled dust in the air. Even Heero dismissed it as nothing since it didn't sound wet or harmful.

"Don't you get sick." Heero warned.

"Che… I don't get sick, you know that." Duo said, sounding offended that Heero would even suggest it.

"Good…" Heero muttered.

What's everyone thinking now? Probably of many ways to kill me. XDDD Anyways. Enjoy.