Disclaimers: Don't own any part of Gundam Wing nor it's characters. Merely borrowing them for a little torture.

Warnings: Shounen-ai (because I suck at yaoi) , mildly blasphemous in terms of my depiction of heaven. Not a death fic… ish. Usual 1x2, 3x4, and with 5 hanging in the wind. The poor darling.

Notes: Betaed by Keiran. Thank you.

Chapter 10: Oh Great, Rock or Hard Place?

Duo wanted to dig a hole and crawl in it. Perhaps not coming out was an option. After all, he was dead, what did he need with air, oxygen, breathing and all that crap? Oh wait, he was already in a hole in the ground. He was standing right over his hole in the ground in fact.

Just realising that fact, he felt a wave of nausea rise. His body was down there being devoured by maggots and dung beetles and whatever else, that spent their lives gnawing on dead bodies. He was worm food! That wasn't really how he pictured Shinigami in his later years. Okay, super yuck.

It didn't help that Heero was staring at him, eyes wide with surprise and a healthy dose of suspicion. Solo was on the other side tugging at Duo helplessly, looking at the approaching Archangel, who once again looked like a biker gang reject.

Devil or the deep blue sea? Rock or hard place?

Hmm… he wouldn't mind Heero's 'hard place' at all. He yelped as a strong, firm knuckle rapped his head smartly.

"Hello, problem? We are about to be arrested!" Solo whined. "I don't want to work in mail room again. They have the worst employee benefits. I also don't get a dental plan."

"Solo, shut up!" Duo barked out loud. He gasped, clamping both hands over his mouth.

"Solo…" Heero repeated, his eyes faraway. Duo recognised that look, it was his lover trying to chase after a long forgotten memory. And it was something that had to be nipped in the bud right away. He remembered speaking to Heero once about Solo. It was more of an offhanded mention more than anything and he didn't expect Heero to actually remember it.

"Heero, look," Duo scrambled to save the situation. "Let's just call it quits for now okay? I think you are going to be late for Quatre's… whatever." He babbled a mile a minute while keeping a close eye on the frantic angel and the rapidly approaching biker dude… uh, archangel.

Heero was still studying him like he was some sort of bug that just crawled out of a rock. A rather big radioactive bug, that was.

Duo gave the Japanese man a push. "Go on! I will, uh… catch up with you in a while." He looked down at the grave, surreptitiously shrugging Solo's tugging hands. "I need to… need to…" Make a damn excuse for me, Duo yelled silently at Solo.

"Apologise to yourself for taking your heart or whatever. Hurry!" Solo urged but he already knew there was no escape.

Duo, distracted by Solo repeated the words dutifully. "I want to apologise to myself, erm, I mean you, erm, damn it, Duo, right, yes, Duo. I want to just uhm…" he lowered his eyes artfully, feigning discomfort. Well, there was definite discomfort, when an invisible being was tugging at your sleeve and his other hand was fisting his shirt, his sharp nails digging in your back.

A sneaky peek at Heero's softened expression told Duo that he was a malicious, lying, deceitful bastard, in other words, a successful lawyer. Oops, Duo quickly reigned in that thought. Wouldn't want the big mean archangel flying their way to pick up on his stray thoughts.

Heero nodded. "I will wait for you at the entrance. Better make it quick, Quatre hates people being late."

Yup, that's why he used to rail at me for turning up to his dinner parties a second late. He didn't even think that I was always on time with my beloved Gundam all the time it mattered. The prick is even more anal that Heero on a bad day, Duo groused silently.

He was glad that Heero disappeared the moment the Archangel, let's call him Mr Scary Lawyer Man. Mr Scary Lawyer Man stalked over to them with a disapproving look on his scarred face. Those seemingly placid souls in heaven sure did a huge number on the guy. Duo made a mental note not to piss anyone of them off.

"Duo Maxwell," Mr Scary Lawyer Man rumbled, pulling out his PDA. Then he turned it at him, the display showing Duo's picture. There was a wanted sign stamped at the bottom. "Is that you?"

Duo blinked. Like what? "If I said no?"

Mr Scary Lawyer Man was taken aback and pulled the PDA back to study it carefully. He cleared his throat and pulled out a pair of bifocals, settling them on the bridge of his nose. He then peered through them carefully. "This is you!" He glared accusingly at Duo.

"If you are sure then you shouldn't have asked." Duo rolled his eyes.

Mr Scary Lawyer Man looked like he had swallowed something bitter, probably his tongue when Solo jumped in. "Hey, Archangel, I am sorry. He just left his brain at home when he left the house." The other angel slapped Duo on the head. "Uh… what can I do for you?"

"We have a warrant for your arrest for being absent without consent under Divine Law Section 45 sub-section 3 sub-sub-section 25 sub-sub-…" Mr Scary Lawyer Man sighed. "You are under arrest." He reached out to catch hold of Duo's arm. "You shouldn't have left when your case was under review. The worst thing is God found out of the mix up, is completely pissed with the Gods of Death…" at this, Duo winced. "…wanted to see you to comfort you and find you and your…" He narrowed a look at Solo. "… Babysitter gone." He stared at Duo again. "One more on your record. Illegal possession of a body. You need a license to do that." His voice dropped to a whisper. "I have a friend who teaches classes for body possession. All for a low price of fifty Salvation points. Call me if you are interested."

Whoa… was this even allowed? Duo's forehead wrinkled in a frown.

Solo moaned softly. Demotion… not only demotion, he was a freaking babysitter! The look of the Archangel's face told Solo he was lucky it wasn't the mailroom. At least as a babysitter, the only benefit he was missing was for eyeglasses.

"I am here to take you back," Mr Scary Lawyer Man grabbed Duo's arm tightly, pressing a button and opening a greyish gateway into nothingness. "God has made your business His business and He wants to meet you."

Meet… God wanted to meet Duo? His mind whirled. While the very thought of it scared it, after all he was a runaway child. There was no knowing what God would do to him. After all, He had very odd sense of humour when it came to punishment and justice. But wait, he just met Heero again. Of course, that pained, whipped puppy look was gone from his eyes but still… he just wanted a few more days before… before… eternity in white.

Damn, he wanted black again!

"Three days," he blurted, pulling back against the stronger Archangel.

"What?" The Archangel stared down at Duo, confused.

"Please, give me three days. Three more days and I will follow you back."

"Duo," Solo warned but as usual, he was ignored.

"I promise you, three days, that's all I ask," Duo implored, turning on the puppy eyes in full force. He was told once by a really disgusted Heero who had just been cajoled to put on a hat made out of fruit and a grass skirt for Halloween that those eyes should be registered as a deadly weapon. "I never had a chance to say good bye or anything…"

Mr Scary Lawyer Man didn't look convinced, but Duo could see he was wavering ever so slightly, but not enough for him to let Duo get his way. So, he tried another tact. "Look, think about when you died. Wasn't there anything that you wanted to do? A dream that was unfulfilled? Anything?" God, he was grasping at straws here.

Perhaps it was good luck, fate, or God sleeping on the job because the archangel was actually considering the question rather seriously. "Well, a few of my clients did manage to get out of paying me when that my car mysteriously blew up. And some of them were from the mob as well, I am sure they had plenty cash. It just isn't fair that they got my services for free. I mean I did rat out on them but that is another story altogether." He slammed his fist into his palm. "I did them a service and I deserve compensation."

Duo and Solo stared that the insane Archangel for the longest time before Duo snapped back to attention. "Ye… yeah… That's what I mean. So, you can understand that right? Only a few goodbyes. That's all I am asking for. Three days! I would… erm," Duo contemplated. "I could even bring you back a souvenir! How about… how about…" Just what did dead lawyers like? Roadkill?

"Hmm… chocolate." Mr Scary Lawyer Man had the most intense expression of pure rapture on him. "Not the cheap type mind you. Something Belgian, Swiss maybe."

Duo couldn't nod fast enough while Solo just remained in the background. It was safer that way. "Ri… right. Chocolate. Okay, I can do that!"

The Archangel narrowed his gaze threateningly. "Three days, Maxwell. Three days and I will be coming back for you." He turned to face Solo. "And you, any more slip ups and I will make sure you will be cleaning toilets for eternity."

Since they were talking about Heaven, eternity wasn't an exaggeration.

In a flash, Solo and Duo were alone once more.

"Three days," Solo warned.

"Three days," Duo mourned.

XXxxXX

It was odd, Heero really didn't know how to explain it. One moment he was living in a world insulated by pain. His mind seemed like it had been wrapped in wool for the longest time, living in a bubble. Then suddenly, today, for no reason, he felt that bubble exploding. His mind was finally clear again. But also ripped out of its dream world. He could actually see things clearer now, more objectively and felt pain a little too keenly. He wasn't sure what did it, or who. He had never felt more invigorated, less burdened and God forbid, he was getting back his sense of humour, which he only got after getting together with Duo.

He wasn't sure to send out a warning to the world, or run from himself.

So Duo was gone. He would always feel the guilt of Duo's death, but he was more willing to see beyond his little void of pain and self-pity now. He didn't murder Duo, nor contribute to his death. It was an accident, tragic as it may be, but still an accident. The pain will always be there, but he hoped that it would fade to a controllable level. He knew he had been causing worry to his friends who thought he was suicidal. He probably was, unconsciously, at one point but things changed when Adrian West was introduced into the picture. To nurse his wounded heart, he made Adrian into a mission. Suddenly, everything became about him. It was as if he had replaced Duo with Adrian in his mind, but never his heart and he pampered the boy, as he did Duo. It didn't make the loss any less painful, but at least he occupied his time and his mind.

Then, the worst thing that could happen, happened. Heero Yuy started falling for Adrian. Already feeling like some slug that crawled out of the sewer, this made him even less an organism and more dirt. But he didn't know when that came about. It was almost like it happened within a split second. He had been ever cautious about not letting those two images of Duo and Adrian overlap but in one split second, holding the boy in his arms changed everything.

And to make matters worse, Adrian started to be like Duo more and more, especially in the last week but more prominently in the last two days. Heero leaned against his car, frowning. The more he thought of it, the more he became suspicious of the boy he left at Duo's grave. There were too many things happening at the same time and they were all indirectly related to Duo.

Suddenly, Adrian didn't seem like Duo anymore, it just looked like he was Duo. But that was impossible… right? It didn't help that the boy appeared to have lost his mind and had told him some rather inappropriate things. Thankfully, things seemed to have settled. He was about to actually take up one of Adrian's rather flamboyant offers. They sound eerily like something Duo would say. He had managed a laugh much, much later when he wasn't panicking about how to extricate himself from such a delicate situation. From what he knew, Adrian was still very much a virgin, sexually and relationship wise. He didn't want the boy's first attempt at an invitation to be rebuffed, by raucous laughter at that.

Then, today, Duo's grave…

His frown intensified. Who did it? Who managed to remove a gravestone without disturbing the grave itself? The grass was perfect, the soil undisturbed. Perhaps Adrian was right? Duo had done it? He had fixed the gravestone to get a smile out of Heero? It was very funny.

Heero suppressed a snicker. He had found it humorous right after the urge to tear someone apart ebbed. It had always been that way with Duo. No matter how depressed Heero was, the braided idiot managed to coax a smile from him one way or another. Even when Duo had managed to infect his beloved laptop with a virus, one that had Duo and Deathscythe doing the tango across his screen, because he had been ignoring his lover, Heero had managed a laugh. Alright, so admittedly, that laugh had been maniacal and vengeful, causing Duo to hide in one of Quatre's gazillion rooms for an extended period of time.

Adrian had said something. There was no way in hell Adrian would say that. It was Duo's favourite phrase. Perhaps because he was so ill adjusted to civilian life that there was no way he could understand it put any other way. So many things, so many mannerisms… Could Adrian actually have Duo within him?

It was possible. He had read about cases where a person receiving transplanted organs had shown some characteristic of the person he received it from. Some even effectively channelling the person, if that person was dead. Of course, it didn't occur to him reading such 'documented' experiences from the many tabloids Duo had around the house was less that reliable.

He looked up, straightening when he saw Adrian approaching. The boy was definitely despondent, depressed about something. It was a definitely change from the boy he had left a while ago.

Hmm… quicksilver moods. That was another one of Duo's traits.

Heero studied the boy carefully. It was possible Duo was channelling through the boy and it was also quite possible for Adrian not to notice these… little… messages he was giving Heero. Of course, not for one moment did Heero stop and think perhaps he had been out in the sun too long and was no longer playing with a full deck due to imminent heatstroke. He also hadn't considered his former lover's choice of literature was whimsical to say the least. Okay, someone might call it unreliable, nonsensical and downright idiotic but Duo was Duo and all it implied.

He studied Adrian's body language, the way he carried himself and all he could see was Duo. He was careful not to mention these things to his other friends, or he would be certain that they would definitely get some psychiatric help for him. They had tried in the worse throes of his depression but having a gun stuck in their faces helped them to back off rather quickly.

His friends found out that he was by no means suicidal, and actually they were the ones that were suicidal.

Heero pondered the steps he could take. Should he actually confront Du… Adrian? But would the boy know? He knew he would try anyway.

Adrian walked over slowly, his shoulders slumped and obviously depressed. He saw Heero standing there and a tremulous smile curved his lips.

"Heero," Adrian said, his expression lighting up with joy.

Heero was confused. Why was this boy so happy to see him? What had he done to Adrian to deserve such elation from him? And when had Adrian ever been this happy to see him? Other than seeing him as a meal, which usually meant the boy was hungry.

"You waited for me," Adrian continued.

Aah, that was the reason, Heero was his microwave and his public transport apparently. The Japanese man nibbled on his lower lip, wondering if he should just go ahead and say it. There would be no turning back if Adrian decided not to speak to him ever again. But then, Heero mused, he didn't need Adrian's presence as a crutch anymore. He was fairly certain he would be able to handle things from now on his own.

To hell with it.

"Adrian, are you channelling Duo?" Heero asked.

He never guessed that a person could choke on his own tongue.

Tbc…