Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam. Too bad. ;)

The Lost Girl

Part 3

Voices. I heard voices as I approached consciousness, climbing out of the blackness and thoughtlessness and into sound.

"Hey, what's this? How come she never lets me take care of her like this?" I could hear someone saying

Duo. It was Duo.

There was a soft laugh. "Don't worry, I'm not trying to steal your girl."

That was Quatre.

"You'd better not be, Winner. I know where you live," I could hear Duo say, but it was jokingly and he was laughing a bit as he finished.

More laughter, then shuffling.

"I'll get going then," Quatre said. "She's been sleeping most of the day - she almost collapsed in the bay when we took her down. But I think it might have jogged her memory a little. She remembered the Wing Zero."

"Really? Good.," he said, but I could hear the concern behind his words. "I'll talk to her some more when she wakes up, see if I can't dredge anything else up. Thanks, Quatre."

"Any time. She's my best friend, you know. You're both my friends. I'm glad you guys made it back safe. See you tomorrow."

I heard a door shut somewhere far away, and more shuffling, like someone was sitting down beside me.

I blinked my eyes open, now coherent enough to think about actually waking up. I saw Duo leaning over me; his braid fell beside my face, tickling my cheek,.

"Hey," he said softly. "How're you feeling?"

"Eh. Okay, but I thought that this morning too," I replied. I struggled up, propping myself up on my elbows as he leaned back to let me sit up.

"You started to remember, though?" he asked, hope coloring his voice.

"A little, I think."

"Like what?"

I paused. Then something hit me, and I smiled tentatively.

"Like this," I said, giving him a small smile as I reached over and gave his braid a light tug. "I remember I like pulling on this."

His eyebrows rose as he eyed me, a grin beginning to form on his mouth. "Do you, now? Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "It was one of the first things that I think I remembered," I said, pulling it over and into my lap, playing with the end. "You've got some impressive hair, Maxwell."

"Maxwell? You - you remember"

I blinked. I had remembered that. My smile grew. "I guess so... Some things are just kind of coming back -"

Suddenly he'd leaned over and enveloped me in a tight hug that I found myself returning.

"Please come back to me, okay?" I heard him whisper, softly.

I was struck silent for a moment by the tone of his voice - it had been pleading, almost.

"I'll try," I whispered back finally. "I am trying."

He pulled back. "I know. So be a good girl and keep at it, y'hear?"

I nodded slowly. He stood suddenly, and turned. "I'm gonna go take a shower, all right? Just call if you need me."

"Sure." He was gone before I could blink. That was weird.

I heard the shower running, and I just sat there, thinking about not much in particular. My head still hurt but this whole Duo thing was weird. Actually, this whole thing in general was weird. I was a mechanic, Quatre had said. But I couldn't really remember anything about being a mechanic. Or about the Gundams, really, other than the random things that popped up in my mind. Or about meeting any of them, or about my life

The water in the bathroom ceased, followed by shuffling. I continued to sit there, lost in thought but not really thinking at all.

It was only when I heard a loud explosion outside that I was hurled back into reality. I blinked - that had sounded close. Very close.

Duo ran into the room, eyes wide, hair messily-braided and dripping, wearing a blue tank top and black shorts.

"Alison, are you all right? That didn't sound like it came from over here but - "

"I'm fine. What was that?" I asked, throwing the covers off and standing up shakily. At least I could manage on my own, although Duo was eyeing me dubiously.

" I don't know," he said shortly, turning and jogging out of the room and down the hall. I followed to find him staring out the window in the living room, bathed by a red, flickering glow.

"Shit. Someone's trying to blast their way in. Come on!" He turned and grabbed my wrist, heading for the door. First, however, he hit a button on the wall and a panel slid open, revealing two handguns. He took one and handed the other to me without a second thought.

I stared at it for a second but was suddenly yanked behind Duo, who wasn't even looking at me, as he ran out the door and into the hall. It was dim in here; emergency lights lit the way every ten feet or so but they weren't very strong. I saw other people out here - Wufei and Heero.

"Did they find us?" Duo asked loudly.

"OZ," Heero said gravely.

"They must have found us," Wufei added.

Duo nodded. "Thought so. We've got to get outta here, now. What about Quatre and Trowa?"

"Already down in the bay," Heero answered, indicating the direction of the elevator, and we all headed for it.

As we approached it another explosion rocked the complex, this time knocking Wufei, Duo, and me to the floor. Heero looked shaken but didn't lose his balance.

Duo scrambled up, reaching down to help me up as well. "You okay?" he asked quickly.

"Yeah," I replied, using his hand to pull myself up. That had hurt, but it was nothing major.

Wufei was already back on his feet and Heero had reached the elevator. He hit the button and the car arrived as the rest of us approached; we practically threw ourselves in and then we were going down, heading for the bay.

"You guys are going to get your Gundams out of here, right?" I asked.

Wufei nodded. "That's the most important thing."

"You're coming with me," Duo said quickly. "You can fit in the compartment behind the cockpit, okay? It'll be cramped but you're small."

"Okay," I said, looking down at the gun still in my hand.

The doors opened then and we ran out, Duo yanking me to the right as Heero ran straight and Wufei left. I looked up to see that there were now three more suits in the bay - I was amazed it was large enough to hold all of them. I could just see Quatre climbing up Sandrock, and Trowa was off in the distance heading for another suit.

"Get out of here! Meet at Base 5 in two days!" Wufei called behind his shoulder as he ran.

"Right!" Duo called back, dragging me on towards a huge grey and black Gundam outfitted with a very impressive-looking energy scythe.

"Come on, this way!" he yelled, shoving me before him up the ladder that lay against Deathscythe's side.

Wait - Deathscythe. This was Deathscythe.

No time for that - I scrambled up the ladder and into the cockpit, Duo right behind me. He slammed a button on one of the sides and a panel slid open behind the pilot's seat.

"In there," he said, pointing. I nodded and scrambled in; the panel slid shut and I was plunged into darkness. I sat against one of the walls - he had been right, this really wasn't a very big space, but I fit all right if I didn't stretch out too much. I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them as I heard Duo buckle himself in and begin flipping switches. The machine beneath me began to hum just as yet another explosion rocked us, and now I thought I could hear gunfire.

"Hang on!" Duo called, and then the suit was up and I could hear its weapons powering up.

"Wohoo! Take that!" I heard Duo yell almost gleefully from the cockpit, as the suit itself now was rocked with intermittent explosions. "Here comes the god of death!"

I was rocked violently as we were hit with something, and there was more gunfire and a loud explosion off in the distance. The suit hummed and whirred all around me as Duo fought his way out of the fray that I couldn't see, but could definitely hear.

There was a loose servo down here somewhere. I could hear that too.

Wait.

I blinked. I listened, and the sound was obvious. Loose servo the motion joint behind the left leg. That had been giving me some trouble last time I tried to fix it.

I could feel the grin spread across my face, along with a strange kind of shock that was slowly numbing my brain. I knew what was wrong - I could hear the loose servo, I could tell where it was and remember that I had been trying to fix it. This was so weird - I had no clue I knew these things, but suddenly things were popping up in my mind as if I'd always known them, as if they were so obvious and I had never forgotten.

The suit lunged forward and I was slammed into the opposite side of the small compartment. Ow, that hurt - a lot.

"Hey! Watch yer driving up there!" I called, rubbing my cheek, smiling just a bit.

"Yeah, yeah, don't bother the god of death when he's working!" I heard Duo call back down. The playfulness of his voice came partly from his love of battle, I knew.

I knew?

I knew.

This was so weird. I shook my head, wondering what else was floating around in there, what else was just beneath the surface, ready to emerge, pretending that it had never been gone. Despite the fact that I was extremely happy to be remembering things, something was also scary about the whole situation. There was something about suddenly knowing things that made me uneasy, and I couldn't push the feeling totally out of my mind.

But at least I was remembering.

That was my last thought before an explosion bigger than any of the others before it rocked the suit, and I was slammed to the ground and suddenly the world was gone -

* * *

I was lying in a very uncomfortable position, I noticed, as I came to. The world was a bit unstable, but it wasn't too bad. And it was dark in here. And cramped.

What was going on?

I was in Deathscythe. Behind the cockpit. There was an explosion - I must have been knocked out. But

We weren't moving, I noticed. It was silent - completely silent.

I shuddered, and sat up, rubbing my right temple. Man, that was probably going to bruise. But that wasn't my main concern at the moment.

What was my main concern, however, was why we weren't moving, and whether or not Duo was all right.

I sat there a moment, thinking. How was I supposed to get out of here? He'd opened the compartment from the cockpit, and I couldn't see much in here

Wait. The service panel. It was right back here - I knew that. I crawled over to the side, feeling along the wall for the edges of the panel.

There it was. I smiled a bit, not even thinking about how I knew where this panel was, not even thinking about how I knew what I was now doing, which was re-crossing the circuits so that I could open this door from back here -

WHOOSH

Bingo.

"Duo?" I called softly, climbing gingerly into the cockpit. It was a bit difficult, considering the Gundam seemed to be lying somewhat on its stomach, so I was climbing downwards in the dark. Well, I thought, it wasn't completely dark - a few emergency panels were lit up, telling me things like Deathscythe's power was very low, and the motion servos in both legs and the left arm weren't working, and the right arm was stalled -

"Duo?" I called again, looking at the pilot's seat - where else would he be?

There was a groan. "Ohhh can we go home now?"

"Duo, you're all right!" I smiled, finding a way of sitting on the right arm of the seat, searching for his face in the darkness.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," he said weakly. "I think my left arm's broken. Took a bad hit on that side. I can't move it, but it hurts like hell."

"Okay, just stay still. Let me get you out of there. What happened?" I asked as I began fumbling in the dark for the buckles that held him strapped him into the seat.

"Never saw them coming," he said, his voice filled with self-resentment, as if he should have known better. I was pretty sure that was how he felt, but I also knew that it most likely hadn't been his fault. "Hit me with a shock missile, and hit the wall too. I think we're buried. They must have left us for dead, thought we were toasted. Stupid move, underestimating my Deathscythe," he said a bit smugly, patting the arm of his chair with his right arm.

"Stop moving so I can get you out," I said, and a moment later the right buckle came loose, and he swung partway out of the chair.

"Ow!" he muttered as his bad arm hit the strap still holding that side in.

"Sorry! I'll get you out, hold on. Gotta get over there," I said, climbing down from the arm of the chair and crawling along the front panels of the cockpit, beneath his half-suspended body, to get to the other side.

His braid, swinging freely, hit me in the face as I passed.

"Hey, watch that thing," I laughed, pushing it out of the way.

"It's not like I can control my hair. Despite popular belief, I'm not *that* talented, you know," he said, a bit of amusement coloring his words.

"Yeah, well, it's still your property, so if you want it attached to your head at the end of the day you'll keep it out of my way," I said, smiling.

"Oh, big threats from the little girl," he said mockingly.

I stopped and turned, suddenly aware that now my nose was just inches away from his. In the dim emergency light I thought I could see what could only be classified as an evil grin plastered on his pain-strained face.

"Look, I could just leave you here."

"You wouldn't do that."

"Oh really? You sound so sure of yourself. What makes you think I wouldn't?"

"Because you love me too much to do that."

I blinked, and suddenly silence slammed down between us.

"Look, just hold still, okay," I said, a bit more weakly than I meant to, and shuffled as quickly as possible to the other side of the chair, away from his face, and began frantically working on the buckle there.

I thought I heard a soft whisper in the darkness. "Damn."

I worked on the buckle for another few minutes in continued silence.

"Alison?"

"Yeah?" I asked, reaching up to push a stray curl out of my face - this buckle had somehow gotten twisted, and was proving more stubborn than the other one.

"I'm sorry, okay?"

"Yeah I'm sorry, too," I said, a bit sheepishly. He had only been joking before, I knew.

Right?

That was the problem - somehow I just didn't know what was what anymore. Things were popping up, true, and that was scary enough, but it was what wasn't coming back to me that was scarier at the moment.

Suddenly the buckle came loose and he crashed to the ground.

"Sorry!"

"It's okay," he said through clenched teeth. "We've got to get out of here."

"Obviously. But how?"

"Well, there's got to be a way we can climb out the back. There are really tight service shafts that run all through the suit."

I knew that too, didn't I... "Yeah."

After much squirming around and quite a few "ouch!"es from Duo, we managed to get out the main shaft that ran from the cockpit down the right leg, and out behind the knee.

Well, that had been the plan, anyway. The access panel that led out, however, was completely blocked by stone, which neither of us could move.

"Damn. And we climbed all the way down here for nothing? There's got to be rubble all over the place, then. We'll never get out," Duo said a bit tiredly.

"Well, we should at least get back to the cockpit then," I suggested. "It's a little less cramped."

"Yeah," Duo sighed, then began the not very easy task of turning around in the tight space and crawling back up towards the center of the suit. We finally made it, both feeling cramped and stiff.

"Well guess we're stuck in here, then," Duo said, sitting down on the main viewscreen, which was now beneath us in this position.

"Yeah," I agreed, sitting down on one of the auxiliary panels. "Um you want me to look at your arm? Maybe I could splint it for you."

He sighed, and I could tell it was hurting him a lot. "Sure, why not? It's not like I'm Heero Yuy and can just pop broken bones back into place No parts my -"

"Duo," I warned, but I could feel the grin creeping back across my face. I'd heard about Heero and his amazing methods of fixing his own injuries.

I *had* heard about that

No time for that, again. I crawled over until I was in front of him, and he stiffly offered his left arm as best he could. Even in the dim light I could see how contorted his face was with pain from even moving it that much, and I felt terrible, knowing how he was masking the pain from his voice, trying to keep it from me.

"All right, I'll try not to hurt you too much," I said softly, gently picking it up and feeling along it, seeing if I could tell where the break was. If it was a big enough break I should be able to feel it

He winced, but said nothing.

"There!" I said, stopping at his mid-forearm. I could feel where the bone had cracked and shifted - this shouldn't be too hard to splint, once I got it into place

"Okay I'm gonna have to put it back into place first. This is gonna hurt - a lot, probably," I said, a bit haltingly.

"Okay," he said after a moment, and I could hear the determination in his voice.

"All right now!" I held both parts of the bone, and quickly shoved them back together.

"OW!" he yelled.

"Sorry. But that's done now," I said softly. I scanned the cockpit for something I could use as a splint I spotted a piece of the flight stick lying, broken off, on the floor, and quickly grabbed that. Now I just needed something to tie with

Well my shirt was as good as anything. I reached down and tore a strip from the bottom, not letting the tear go too high I still had my dignity, after all.

I noticed Duo's eyes widen just a bit as I finished tearing off the strip.

"Can't wait to get your clothes off when you're around me, huh?" he asked softly, voice slightly halted and strained with pain.

"Hush, you. You want your arm splinted or not?"

He hushed.

I quickly made a makeshift splint from the stick and cloth, and finished bandaging him up with a pat on the head.

"There, that wasn't so bad, huh?"

"No," he said softly. "Thanks."

"Anytime. And just remember, I let that remark slip because I know you're in pain and obviously it's clouding your judgement."

"Right," he said, voice still soft.

I sat back down on the panel, and we sat there in silence for nearly five minutes,

"So this is fun," I remarked.

"Yeah," he agreed.

More silence.

I had to ask him. It was driving me crazy - something at the back of my mind, still whispering at me, still tugging at me

"Duo?"

"Hmm?"

"Um wellQuatre said he told me how we were um together, I guess." Well, that had been lame.

"He did, did he? What did he say?" he asked, not after at least a minute of silence, during which I was quite sure I wanted to die.

"Well just that we were together, or something like that," I offered. "And that we were too proud, or something, to admit it."

"Oh."

More silence.

"Duo?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"That that I can't remember. That well that if you I dunno. Nevermind," I said, looking down at my lap, despite the fact that he probably couldn't see me in the dim light anyway.

"It's not your fault," he said softly.

"I know. But I still feel like it is," I answered.

"Well, it's not," he affirmed.

"Yeah. I guess."

"Look, what does it take to convince you? It's not your fault, Alison, okay?" He sounded strained, slightly on edge. I hoped it was just the pain.

"How did we meet? You know that and all the other stuff" I asked slowly. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I added quickly.

"No it's okay," he said. "We met well, it was about six months ago, I guess. Right after Operation: Meteor started, a few months after I first arrived on Earth. All of us pilots had finally met and figured that it would be better if we worked together, and we'd just gotten the place down by the docks

"You just kind of showed up one day - you'd followed Heero back here from school, and caught sight of the Wing Zero. He was gonna kill you, but Quatre stopped him."

"I'll bet that wasn't easy," I laughed.

He chuckled a bit too. "No, it wasn't. But he did, and you wanted a poke at the suit, and so Quatre let you look over his, and you told him that his power relays were configured wrong Man, I'd walked in right before that, and none of us could believe you knew that just by listening to it run, we were so amazed So you just kind of stayed on as our resident mechanic, since we'd established the complex as a semi-permanent base. Funny thing is, you wouldn't tell us how you learned all those mechanics. And a mobile suit - a Gundam, especially - ain't no simple little circuit"

He paused a moment after that, and I wasn't sure if he was going to go on.

He did. "And then one day you were working on Deathscythe, trying to fix another power relay there, and I was in the cockpit"

*

"How's the power reading up there?" Alison called towards the torso, where Duo and the cockpit lay.

"It's reading at 75%!" he called back, and she frowned. It should be better than that, even though the power supply hadn't been fully restored yet. She played with some wires, rechecking circuits and reconfiguring one of the relays.

"It went up to 99%!"his voice called, and she smiled satisfactorily. Yes, that would do. She climbed up the rest of the way and hopped out onto the leg, then walked up towards the cockpit.

As she approached she could see him, lying on his back in the pilot's chair, looking at the readouts before him as they lit up his face in red and blue. She was too busy watching his hands dance across the panel before him, calling up more power readouts, to notice when she hit the edge -

And fell right on top of him.

"Hey, being a little forward today, huh?" he asked, grinning as she pushed herself up with her arms, off of his chest.

"Well, you're just so damn irresistible, Maxwell" she said, cracking a bit of a smile, trying to ignore the heat creeping into her face.

"You know it," he smiled, laughing a bit as she struggled into a sitting position.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's a big problem you have," she joked, looking down at him, seeing the evil grin positively plastered across his face.

"Ohhh yeah," he drawled, "you know the girls just can't help flinging themselves at me."

She looked left, then right, then back down at him. "And just where, Duo Maxwell, are all these alleged girls? Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I see absolutely none of them."

He blinked, and she could've sworn she saw that smile waver for just an instant.

"Really?" he asked. "'Cause I see one right in front of me. And she's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."

She froze, the heat already creeping into her face quickening its pace as she could feel herself flush even more red.

Actually, she thought she saw a tinge of red coloring his own cheeks, but she could just be imagining that...

"Duo, you silly -"

"Shh," he said, grin diminishing to just a smile, but a very happy smile nonetheless. "I meant it."

"Oh... well then, thank you." She smiled.

"Welcome." And he just smiled back up at her.

There was a silence, but it didn't seem to be an uncomfortable one.

"Duo, look -" she began, but he cut her off.

"Hey, I'm no good at this," he said. "But, well"

She smiled. "So... are you just gonna sit there and grin at me, or are you gonna kiss me?"

It was a genuine Duo grin now. "Well, I can't disappoint my fans, now can I?"

*

"You know, for a long time I was really afraid... that you and Quatre... were... you know," he said softly into the darkness, after another minute-long pause, during which I could feel my face getting a bit hot.

"Oh?" was all I could ask.

"Yeah," he replied. "You know, I never asked you about it. Before. And I know you don't remember now. But you were - are - pretty close. I was always kinda jealous of that..."

"Listen, Duo..." I began. What could I tell him? I didn't remember much before - things were coming back, but they all seemed unimportant in the light of this conversation - of this situation. Being here, with Duo... what good was I if I couldn't remember a thing that had transpired between us?

"It's okay," he said, and he partly sounded like he believed that, even thought I didn't. "I'm just glad you're not dead, or anything like that."

"Yeah, that would cramp a relationship, I guess," I said, and he chuckled a bit. "But still... I'm as good as dead to you like this. And I am sorry."

"Really, Aly, it's okay. I know it's not your fault, like I said before. And besides," he said softly, "even if you never remember, I just get the chance to win you over all over again."

I smiled at that, even though he probably couldn't see me. That really meant something, and especially in this state. That he would be so willing to start over from scratch, convince me - again, I guessed - that he...

"Did you... Wait, nevermind," I cut myself off, afraid of what I had actually been about to say. That was silly. We weren't even out of our teens yet.

"Did I what?"

"Nothing." I sighed. "Honestly, this is getting too mushy for me, Maxwell," I said, and he laughed again.

"Yeah, yeah, you're so touchy about that, ya know? Eh, not like I'm not either, I suppose. We need to time these things better."

"Sure. How's your arm?"

"Still hurts. But not as much, thanks. Although I am really hungry."

"Boys," I sighed, eliciting a small, mocking gasp from Duo's direction in the dim cockpit.

"What?"

"Nothing," I smiled. "Don't you have any provisions or anything?"

"You know... as a matter of fact... I do!" he exclaimed happily, and hopped out of his spot to shuffle over to the left panel, just behind the pilot's seat.

As he did so, I thought I heard something - another shuffling, softer and farther away, but still there

"Duo, wait! Do you hear that?" I asked, and he stopped moving, looking at me in the darkness, the light catching his eyes and making him look a bit eerie, actually.

"What?" he asked. "I don't hear anything."

"I thought I heard something. Shuffling. But nah, nevermind. It was too close anyway."

"Huh? Do you think someone's trying to get in from the outside? Maybe they're moving some of the rubble," he said hopefully.

"Maybe," I said, but I didn't really think it was that. I wasn't sure what I had heard, but it wasn't someone trying to get in. It had sounded strange, like whoever was making it was only half-here, half-real. But that was silly

"Hey!" he called. "Anybody out there?! Get us out!"

Nothing.

"Hey!" he tried again, but again was met with only silence.

"Sorry," I apologized. "I must have been imagining it. Wishful thinking.

"It's okay. I'd rather shout at nothing than not say anything when someone was actually out there," he said. "Here's the food, anyway." He handed me a foil packet with his good arm, having come back over to the middle of the cramped cockpit. "And besides, if it was someone trying to dig us out, we're just going to have to wait."

"Yeah," I said. "Hey - is the radio in any state of possible salvation? Maybe we could rig it -"

"Nah," he said, taking a moment to rip his foil packet open with his teeth, being unable to use his left arm. "It's totally dead," he finished, spitting out a piece of packaging.

"You know, I could've opened that for you."

"No. Me big strong man. Cannot let little woman open food for me," was the reply.

"Duo!" I smacked him lightly, on the side of his head. "One of these days, I'm going to cut that braid off and hang you by it."

"Never heard that one before," he said through a mouthful of food.

"Yeah, well" I shook my head, then concentrated on opening my own food packet, pulling out the granola-like substance within and taking a bite. It actually didn't taste all that bad, I mused.

We ate in silence, save the sound of each other munching granola. When the food was gone, Duo let out a long yawn.

"Well, I don't think anyone's going to rescue us right now," he said. "I haven't heard anything. You?"

"No," I said, although that sound still made me a little uneasy. I shivered a bit - had it just gotten cold in here, or had it been cold?

"You cold?" he asked, and I could see his concerned expression in the reddish light.

"Kinda," I admitted.

He shook his head slightly. "That's 'cause you were all excited to get your shirt off earlier."

"Hey! Listen you - "

"Kidding! Just kidding!" he cried quickly, trying to redeem himself and failing miserably.

"Yeah, right whatever" I muttered, not so quick to forgive but smiling nonetheless.

"Well, I'd give you my shirt but I can't - you tied it to my arm when you splinted it."

"Thoughtless me. next time I'm not going to even splint your arm, ungrateful" I muttered, laughing a bit.

"Yeah, well Still, if you're cold we could I dunno. Huddle or something."

"Huddle or something?" I looked at him with raised eyebrows, although somehow the idea was not all that unappealing and that kind of scared me.

Okay, it scared me. A lot. And I couldn't really say why. But it did.

"Yeah. Huddle," he insisted.

"Yeah. Physics works and all that. Conserve body heat, huh?" I asked, trying to keep my voice even.

"Right," he said. "Come on, look, you can punch me in the bad arm if I try anything."

"Well"

He gave me the big, sad manga eyes - which, I noticed, he was extremely good at, even here in the dimness, - and I sighed.

"Fine. You don't know how disturbed I am that this isn't all that unappealing to me, you know," I finally gave in.

"Wow. I think that was a compliment from the lady. Thank you." He grinned up at me. "Would you like to choose the spot?"

"Here's fine. On the floor, where it's least sloped. That way I can't roll over and crush that arm of yours that I worked so hard to fix," I said, pointing to a spot on the floor where the main viewscreen ended, that had now become "down" due to the Gundam's unusual position.

"Fine by me," he said, and I sighed and curled up on the ground.

And then he was there, beside me, facing my back and lying on his right side so his bad arm was draped over me.

And it felt kind of nice.

Like I'd done this before. It was strange, and unnerving,. Then again, I wondered, what part of my life hadn't been strange and unnerving lately? Not much, I had to admit.

I could feel him breathing shallowly on the back of my neck, and it tickled a bit.

"Here, lift your head up a sec," he said, and I did so, confused. He slid his right arm out beside my neck so that I could rest my head on it, like a pillow.

"Thanks," I whispered.

His left hand ruffled my already unkempt curly hair briefly, stiffly. Probably painfully.

That felt so familiar - was I going to go crazy like this?! With some boy who I didn't know liked me, had liked me

Loved me?

And there was something in the pit of my stomach, something afraid but still telling me this was how it had been, this was something that I was used to, something good for me

"G'night, Aly," he whispered.

"Night, Duo."

AN: All right, I know these parts have been coming out pretty quickly, and that's because I've been writing like crazy. What else is astronomy camp for, eh? ;) It's going a bit slower at the moment, though, and pretty soon I'm gonna catch up to my end point and it'll be a bit longer between posts. Just so you know. But not yet ;)

Also, as always many thanks to any reviewers, past, present, and future! I really, really appreciate it and if you genuinely like it, I'm a very happy little writer and it means a lot to me! J