Disclaimer - just in case anyone's unclear on this point, I don't own Gundam Wing.

Note - Many, many thanks to all my wonderful ALGroupies for all your lovely messages during the past month, especially to KS and Snow, for keeping me in the writing loop and sharing their stories with me.

Thanks to KS for working on this one with me...even on a Sunday in the heat!

This one is back to Duo's POV.

Running Away:

I made it to the shuttle port without throwing Heero out of the car, but only just.

The drive took just under thirty minutes, confirming my suspicions that Heero's inconspicuous, wholly unremarkable car housed a far more impressive engine than you might think.

I did give him a couple more zaps on the way, if he so much as twitched, but decided that someone would probably notice a body being thrown out of a vehicle.

Bastard.

Controlling, conniving, manipulative, two-faced, scheming, evil, officious, overbearing, controlling bastard.

And I'd fallen for it.

Brilliant, Duo.

Nothing ever fucking changes, does it? He could just swan into my life, pay me a few compliments and I'd be ready to fall at his feet. It had all been some stupid power trip for him, nothing more; a nice little boost to the Yuy ego.

Damn, I'd wanted so badly to believe it. I mean, I'd known all along it was too good to be true; the gods are never that kind to me.

Never again.

Never, never, never.

There wasn't too much activity going on at the shuttle port; not late on a Sunday afternoon. Florence isn't exactly a major transport hub anyway; most of the major commercial shuttles fly out of Rome, just a couple of hours away, and the gates were actually closed.

I pulled up at the security hut, and a bored-looking security guard ambled out, scratching his head and mumbling in Italian about something that sounded vaguely like 'identity', with a few extra vowel sounds thrown in.

I flashed Heero's Preventer ID, keeping one finger partway over the photo. Probably not even necessary; most people don't look any further than the shield itself. It worked this time; he looked impressed, threw me a sloppy salute and waved me straight through before hurrying back into his little hut and picking up the 'phone.

Brilliant security.

I felt a teeny bit bad at going through Heero's wallet, even in the circumstances, but I didn't really want to leave any trace that Duo Maxwell had left Earth, and I'd rifled through his pockets when we were stuck in traffic.

Finding Tro's shuttle was a piece of cake; it was the only one docked. As I pulled up, a red-haired girl in a jumpsuit came running down the gangplank.

'Hey. I'm supposed to be meeting Trowa here.'

'You're Duo? I'm Steph; this is my ship. You're early. Trowa said you'd be another half-hour.' I nodded, gave up on getting a word in edgeways, and slid Heero out of the passenger door, draping one arm around his waist to support him.

Her eyes widened. 'Shit! Is he dead? The security guard just called to say there's a Preventer agent on his way in. You'd better stash the body somewhere.'

'Oh, that was just me. And nope, he's not dead.' I half-dragged, half-carried Heero up the gangplank. 'Not yet, anyway.'

Steph, who seemed less perturbed by the idea of murder being carried out on her ship than she had at a corpse being carried abroad, merely nodded.

'We don't really have passenger accommodation; you can use the galley if you want. Just through there.' She gestured, and I hauled Heero into what was obviously the crew quarters. 'Beer and soda in the fridge; help yourself. I have start up the engines. Take off in fifteen, OK? Trowa's down in the cargo bay if you want to see him.'

She vanished before I could thank her; before I could say anything, really. I buckled Heero into one of the chairs, deciding he'd be safe enough there for a few minutes.

Trowa, as promised, was in the cargo bay, driving a forklift and shifting wooden crates.

'Hey, Tro,' I hopped up on the forklift seat beside him. 'How come you got this job?'

'Steph's boyfriend had to do some last minute paperwork before we were got official clearance.' I nodded, translating this as last minute bribes to some official or other. 'Steph had to check something in the engine room so I offered to help out. You're early; I didn't think you'd get here this fast.' He threw me a quick grin. 'How'd you manage to slip Heero's leash.'

'Um, I didn't. Not exactly. I brought him with me. He's upstairs in the galley; I thought I'd just run down and see you before take off.'

He nodded, not looking particularly surprised. 'I guessed he wouldn't let you go running off by yourself. It's not like he's ever been able to refuse you anything, is it? I take it the date went well then?'

'Pretty much.'

Yeah, right up to the time when I knocked him out and kidnapped him.

Trowa swung the forklift around, hoisting another crate. It was weird; we were sitting on a double seat, plenty of room for two, but it still seemed uncomfortably close.

'You got past the security OK? I was going to go out and wait for you; I wasn't sure if you had any ID with you.'

'I've got my new Sanque passport.' God, it was only a few hours since I'd picked it up from Zechs' table, and put it in my pocket without even thinking about it. 'But I flashed Heero's Preventers ID at the security guy.'

'What? Duo, Heero doesn't have any Preventers ID; he hasn't worked for them in years.'

'Yes, he has,' I argued. 'I'll show you the badge later; I put it back in his wallet.'

'He does some consulting work, I think,' Trowa frowned. 'Nothing that would mean he'd have an ID.'

I shrugged at that. 'It's no big deal, is it? They let us in anyway. What's in all these boxes?' Each of the crates was embellished with scarlet 'Fragile' stickers. Had to wonder if they contained some sort of explosives; had to wonder if I could borrow any of the goodies.

I mean, the ship was taking off from an all-but-deserted port, at the quietest time of the week, and the pilot hadn't been any too keen at the thought of a Preventers agent wandering in. Pretty safe to assume she wasn't just carrying bottled water.

Tro grinned at me. 'Take a look,' He manoeuvred the last crate neatly into place, and pried the lid open, reaching in to hand me something. 'This might come in useful, now that you and Heero are getting on better.'

'What is it? Oh!'

Nothing as innocuous as explosives, actually.

'Life as lived on L4. Strict censorship laws, strict morality.' The grin broadened. 'Young population with too much money, too much curiosity.'

'I can't believe this,' I groaned. 'I'm on a ship smuggling porn magazines.'

'Plus books, DVDS, some exotic little toys that would make your hair stand on hand.'

I flicked open the magazine to try to hide my embarrassment, and feeling a sudden surge of relief that we weren't together anymore.

'This isn't even physically possible, is it?' Trowa leaned over my shoulder to see what I was looking at.

'Sure it is, for some people, ' he said, the slight smirk on his face leaving me in no doubt that he was one of the people who could. No wonder poor Quat had had to take yoga classes.

'You need to get out more, Duo; you know that?' He rolled up the magazine and reached over to slide it into my pocket. Fortunately, whatever else he was saying was drowned out by the sound of the engines, revving up.

'Time to move.'

Things got pretty hectic after that; I helped Tro latch down the crates, stow the forklift in its cage, lock the cargo bay doors, and buckled ourselves into a couple of seats by the hatch for take-off.

'So, what did Quat's email say?'

'Here, I'll show you.' He fished a carefully-folded piece of paper out of his jacket pocket.

I couldn't help grinning at Trowa's address - liontamer at ; well; ten guesses who'd picked that out for him. The rest was gibberish. 'What does all this mean?'

'Oh, it's a code we developed, back in the war. Basically, he says he's somewhere safe but he thinks his position may be compromised. He needs extraction but he says to exercise extreme caution.'

'But he's OK?' I couldn't stop the smile of pure relief spreading over my face and Trowa's expression mirrored mine. 'And he's still on L4?'

'As of an hour ago, anyway. I've got the coordinates from where the email was sent.'

'I take it we won't be docking through the official channels.' Trowa shook his head. 'That's impressive. How the hell did you set up all this so fast?'

'I've known Steph for years; her sister works at the circus. We were planning to go late tonight; then I got Quatre's message and we rushed everything forward. You do know I'm not supposed to leave Florence, don't you?'

'Yeah.' I twisted the loose end of my seat belt around one finger, pulling it tight. 'I'm not supposed to either.'

Trowa grinned at that; his attitude towards all these peacetime regulations tends to be a little bit on the blasé side, just like mine. 'I didn't think that would stop you! How did you convince Heero to let you come, anyway? '

'Um. I kissed him.'

Trowa smiled. 'I bet he thought all his dreams had come true!'

Oh, God. I flinched, remembering the look in Heero's eyes as I'd reached for him. That sudden, shining joy.

'The thing is, Tro, I didn't exactly ask him to come. I knew he'd try to find some way to stop me, so after I'd kissed him, I sort of knocked him out and kidnapped him.'

'You did what?' One hand flicked his hair back from his face so I got the benefit of two furious green eyes glaring at me. 'You punched him?'

'Not exactly.' I pulled out my handy little stun gun and showed it to him. 'I used this.'

'For fuck's sake, Duo,' he exploded. 'Have you any idea how illegal those things are? I don't even want to know where you got it. You could do serious damage to his nervous system.'

'I only used it a couple of times,' I muttered defensively, pocketing it. I suppose I didn't really want to kill Heero, not straight out anyway. Wouldn't mind giving him a permanent nervous twitch or something, though….serve the bastard right.

'You're insane. What are you planning to do with him? Keep him unconscious until we find Quatre?'

'What was I supposed to do? Just dump him by the side of the road? He would have tried to stop me. He never even told me you called earlier. Wufei said you called looking for me, and he told you to ring Heero's 'phone. He never mentioned you'd called.'

'That's because I didn't talk to him. I tried his cellphone a couple of times and it was turned off.'

Oh. Shit. I tried to remember borrowing Hero's 'phone back in the café, when I' d called Wufei; whether I'd had to switch it on.

'We can't just take him to L4 with us! He'll be furious and I wouldn't blame him, after what you did.'

'I know. Look, it was stupid, I do realise that. I'll talk to him when we wakes up; I'll tell him you heard from Quat and that I'm really sorry but I had to go. I've got the whole flight to convince him.'

'Whatever. I'm going to find Quat and I don't want you and Heero messing that up with your stupid little lovers' spat.' He unbuckled himself and stood over me. 'You'd better get up there and grovel your ass off.'

'I'm not the only one who needs to apologise.' I glared up at him. 'He dragged me off on some sort of pretend date and tried to make me believe he still cares about me, just so I wouldn't be able to go with you.'

'Fuck, Maxwell. Sometimes, I think you truly are certifiable. Heero didn't know anything about this; sure, he knew I was planning something but not today. I hadn't planned to leave today until I got Quatre's message. You have no freaking clue how excited he was about getting to take you out today. I couldn't sleep last night because he kept waking me up to talk about it. Did I think you'd like to go on a picnic or would you expect something more formal? Did you still like sun dried tomatoes, for Christ's sake?'

'He couldn't wait for me to get back from the Sanque Embassy this morning so he'd find out if you liked the stuff he sent you. He adores you, and if you didn't have your head buried in the sand you'd be able to see that.'

'Really?' The thought of it was terrifying and exhilarating and fucking amazing all at once.

'Really.' Trowa muttered something not-quite-under-his-breath about my intelligence levels, or lack thereof. 'He really does like you, you moron, for some unfathomable reason,' he added, a bit more gently.

I swallowed, twirling the end of my braid around. 'It's been years, Tro. He never said anything. How the hell was I supposed to know?'

'Maybe that's something you should ask him?' he suggested. 'Look, Duo. Why don't you try looking at it from his point of view? He thought you were better off without him. You nearly died because of something he'd done. Since you two broke up, you've gone to university, you've won awards for most of your designs; every guy you've been out since with has been a total knockout.'

'That isn't true!' I muttered, feeling my face flame.

'Oh, really? I met some of your boyfriends in Florida, remember? And I met Mikhail; we all thought that was actually going somewhere until you ditched him.'

Mikhail. He'd been the first person to commission one of my original shuttle designs, nearly two years ago. In the process of getting it just right, we'd had a couple of late night meetings that somehow turned into dinner. Ithad takenweeks to get everything just how he wanted and he'd confessed later that he'd had to keep coming up with extra refinements and added features. At the time, I hadn't had a clue; Mikhail owned huge tracts of the Northern Hemisphere as well as being a really hot guy with a cool personality.

No way would he be interested in someone like me.

We'd gone out for nearly a year; my longest relationship since Heero and the only one that was remotely serious. He was the perfect boyfriend. My friends all loved him, even Wufei, and I'd ….. really liked him.

'It's none of Heero's business who I've been going out with!'

'That's not what I meant. What I'm trying to say, is that for months you were plastered all over the media with one of the richest guys on Earth, and he was crazy about you.'

'And we'd broken up! Over a year ago; he could have called me then.'

'He remembers that when you two were together…' he paused, delicately.

'Yeah, I know. I was a total mess,' I supplied.

'He blames himself for all that, you know,' Trowa said quietly. 'He didn't think he had any right to be in your life after everything that happened. He thought you were better off without him, and you certainly looked happier in all the photos I saw.'

'But it wasn't his fault!' I sighed, feeling like I'd tumbled head-over-heels down the rabbit hole. None of this was making any sense. If Heero had known I'd been with Mikhail, and I suppose we had received a fair amount of media coverage, how did he think I was in a threesome with the guys? Did he honestly think I was that much of a slut? 'Why did he decide to say all this now, anyway?

'Here's a radical idea; maybe you could ask him instead of me?' Trowa pulled me to my feet and gave me a swat on the butt. 'Go talk to him. And be nice, OK?'

OK.

Go and be nice to Heero.

Right.

He was still asleep actually, and looking fairly peaceful, with an odd little smile on his lips. Where I'd given him that damn kiss.

Maybe I could pretend he'd just - passed out or something? Heatstroke? Stress? That he'd had some weird reaction to my tongue in his mouth? Was there any way he'd fall for that?

God, but I'd missed kissing him.

Thinking of something Trowa had said, I had a quick look through his wallet to find the Preventer's badge. It looked authentic enough, right down to the little hologram of the dove with its outstretched wings, but that didn't mean a whole lot, not to Mr. Master Hacker. Great. Another mystery. If he was going about with the badge on his person, it presumably wasn't exactly a secret, which begged the question of why he hadn't just told Trowa. After all, even I'd known that he still did some freelance work for Preventers.

Wondering why he'd want to pretend to be agent, I flicked through the rest of the wallet's contents. A few business cards. Membership cards for a gym and the ESUN law library. A photograph of Honey at the back.

Shit.

I'd managed to forget all about his dog. Even if Heero got straight on the next shuttle heading for Earth, Honey woud still be alone in the house for far too long. Well, Heero had said Lucca sometimes dog-minded for him. It was worth a try anyway. Otherwise, I'd have to call the guys and get them to break in and rescue her.

I fished Heeo's 'phone out of his other pocket and scrolled down to find Lucca's number, promising myself that I'd stop playing fast and loose with his possessions.

'Hey, Lucca. It's Duo. How's it going?'

'Duo?' He sounded a bit confused for a second; probably wasn't expecting me to call out of the blue. 'It's so nice to hear from you! Nice to hear from anyone, actually,' he added, lowering his voice. 'I'm at my parents' house for dinner and my mother keeps asking me if I've met a nice girl yet. She still thinks I'm just going through a phase. Honestly! How are you? And Heero?'

'Well, that's the thing,' I absently teased a few strands of hair free of my braid and twisted them 'round one finger. 'I was thinking we might try to get away from Florence for a few days.'

'Oh, that's just so romantic,' he sighed. 'I'm so glad you two are getting on.'

'Mmm, the thing is, it's all a bit sudden and spontaneous and we haven't really made any arrangements, so would you mind looking after Honey? Just for a day or two, probably.'

'Of course I will. Where are you going? I can't believe you've persuaded Heero to just take off like this. You're such a good influence on him!'

'Well, it's going to be a bit of a surprise for him, actually,' I said, with perfect truth, easing Honey's picture out and stroking her head with one fingertip. 'The only other thing, well, would you maybe be able to reschedule his work appointments for the next couple of days? I'm not exactly sure how long we'll be gone for. Tonight for sure, but after that…'

'Oh, I'm sure you'll be able to persuade him to stay as long as you like! I'm so happy you two have got together; he hasn't said anything, but I know he's been so nervous about having you to stay. Anyway, you don' t have to worry about his job. He does have one meeting on Tuesday but I can postpone it.'

'That's it?'

'Well, he cancelled most of his clients before he went to India to find you. He wanted to be there if you needed him,' he said cheerfully. 'You probably shouldn't tell him I said that, though.'

'I won't.' What was all that about? 'Did he, um, say anything to you about me?'

'Oh, no. He's been very discreet. But he's been so distracted for the past week; he worked on one of our files from home and it's full of mistakes. Anyway, I'd better go. I can tell my parents I need to do an errand for my boss and leave straightaway. You enjoy yourself and tell Heero not to worry about anything! And I'll see you when you get back.'

'That would be really nice,' I said honestly, wondering it would ever happen.

I have such a talent for screwing things up.

I still had to call Wufei as well, something I was trying very hard not to think about. Wu was going to go totally ballistic. He'd been on edge since he'd arrived in Italy, what with Quatre going AWOL, me going out with Heero, the whole pre-wedding jitters thing, and the wood sculpture thingy.

Not that Zechs was going to care about that, of course; Wufei could probably burn down the palace at Sanque if he wanted to, and Zechs wouldn't turn a perfect hair, but it would kill 'Fei to have to admit to having done something so stupid.

Replacing Honey's photo turned out to be trickier than I'd imagined, because the wallet compartment was already full with a little sheaf of photos.

They were all of me.

He'd always refused to carry my photo during the war, in case he was captured. Somehow, it had carried over to him being a Preventer; he'd claimed it would be unprofessional for him to have my picture on his desk, and I'd always wondered if that was the only reason, or if he hadn't been secretly ashamed of me.

There was an faded, dog-eared shot of me, leaning against Scythe, all those years ago, that had been carefully tucked into a little plastic sleeve, and one that looked fairly recent, like it had been cut out of a magazine and laminated. I was all spruced up in a tux, probably at some official shindig Zechs had dragged me to; holding a glass of champagne and laughing at something. The weird thing was that I looked all - sophisticated or something. God knows I never actually feel like that.

The others were all of the year after the war; the year we'd officially been together.

He'd gone through a phase, for the first few months, of taking photos of me. I'd always thought that photographs had to be all posed and formal, but he'd insisted on snapping me doing all sorts of stupid little everyday things. There was a picture of me sleeping on the couch with the hand-woven throw he'd brought me from Ireland tucked around my shoulders; reading in the hammock I'd rigged up on the back porch, with my hair loose; sitting on a tree trunk the one time we'd gone hiking together, and a silly one of me eating spaghetti with sauce all over my face.

There were two of us together. In the first, we're standing outside my house; Heero has one arm firmly around my waist and I'm leaning against him. On the back, using a pencil so it wouldn't show on the photograph, Heero had written 'home, March 196'.

I think Wufei had taken that, on one of the few times he'd visited. We hadn't really got on back then; the two of us. We'd only just been starting to connect when the War ended; I think he was even beginning to like me a little bit. Then he went off to be a Preventer with Heero and it was like he and I were straight back to when we'd first met, with me being the annoying idiot who distracted poor Heero when he had more important things to do.

I'd tried, I really had. I was always asking him over, even when Heero wasn't home, and he usually had some excuse. The few times we had actually met up, he was obviously uncomfortable; I'd never known whether he had a problem with our relationship or whether it was just me.

In the end, I'd decided he just didn't want to be bothered by me, and stopped pushing him. Heero still met up with him every now and then, and they both seemed happier with that arrangement. I suppose it was only fair that he had a friend of his own.

The second picture we'd taken on our holiday in Vietnam. Summer that same year. The pair of us in a deck chair outside our little resort bungalow. Heero is wearing cut-off denim shorts, with a hibiscus flower tucked behind one ear, a bright splash of scarlet against his dark hair. I'm sprawled all over his lap, wearing a dark blue sarong knotted low around my waist, hair cascading over my shoulders because he'd just pulled the tie off.

We'd wanted a picture, but hadn't really felt comfortable enough to ask anyone to take it. Instead, I'd set up the camera on remote, balanced on a stack of books, and dived on top of Heero, just before it clicked.

Such a happy photograph.

It was so weird, suddenly seeing all those pictures; all those memories. That lost year. I'd never bothered getting my own copies; he'd had some of his favourites framed for us to keep in the house and he'd carefully put the rest away in an album.

It was simpler, sometimes, to try to forget that we hadn't always fought; to forget all of the good times when just being together had been the only thing that mattered in the world. So much easier for me to lock all those shining memories away.

But Heero was carrying all those reminders of me around with him.