Travelling in Circles: Chapter 6
by Blue Roses
Warnings and Disclaimers in Chapter 1
I think this is going to be the final chapter of this story. I've really enjoyed writing it, and having all your reviews has made the work worthwhile.
***
The journey to find Wufei was harder than they had expected. Firstly, the address Duo had found for him was several months out of date, and Wufei had moved, although Duo was sure that he was still somewhere in the city. The electronic records didn't help him, though, Wufei had obviously used a different name from the one had used earlier, or his landlord just wasn't interested in filling in forms.
Whatever it was, it meant that they had to go and ask at his last address, and work forward from there. Luckily, his previous landlord was quite a pleasant man, who didn't mind telling the boys about his former tenant, and where he thought he had gone. His wife, who was sitting in the room that the landlord had invited them in to, expressed the opinion that Wufei should have more friends.
Quatre thanked the couple for their advice, and their help, and the three of them got on the subway and then boarded a bus to get to the place where they had been told they were most likely to find Wufei.
***
They found Wufei in the rundown apartment building that they had been directed to. He looked at them all in shock when he opened the door.
"How did you find me? What do you want?"
"Nice to see you too, Wufei! We saw you were in the area, so we thought we'd say hi. Aren't you going to invite us in or anything? We are your friends."
Quatre butted in on Duo, trying to be more polite. "Duo was searching for Heero, and your name came up on the city's database. We wanted to see you, it's been so long since we've all got in touch, and we thought it might be nice." Wufei looked unimpressed at this explanation, but he grabbed his keys from behind him.
"Well, I suppose now that you are here, we should talk. We keep up to date about events in each others lives. We could go and have a meal or something. There is a good restaurant not too far from here, we can talk there."
They followed Wufei, as he lead them to a small sushi restaurant. Quatre could see Duo was about to disagree, he had as much trouble with raw fish as he did with snails, but realising that this was Heero's cultural heritage he was thinking about, he decided that it couldn't be that bad.
Over the food, which Duo decided was not bad after all, Quatre and Duo explained to Wufei about their search, although Duo left out his real reasons for wanting to see Heero. He couldn't see Wufei agreeing with them, or understanding them. He didn't understand them himself, so he couldn't expect anyone else to.
Wufei listened, mainly in silence, and when the story was finished, he frowned. "Have you all forgotten all of your training?" he said.
The other pilots looked at him with surprise. The had no idea what he was talking about.
"The place you start looking for someone is the place that they were last confirmed to have been seen. The world is slightly too large to just go off at random on a search for someone."
The other pilots looked at each other. What Wufei was saying made a lot of sense. They'd been letting emotions cloud their judgement, none of them had been thinking clearly in the past few days. Duo had been worrying about Heero, and Quatre and Trowa had only been thinking about each other.
"I guess you're right, Wufei, we have been doing this in an odd way, Guess we should start again." said Duo "So, Quatre, I guess we're going to London, then, right?"
"Yes Duo, London it is."
"We could all go! Wufei, you want to come?"
"No, Duo, I think I'll stay here. I've managed to build up some sort of a life, I don't need you ruining it"
"Ok, ok. Well, we can't go without seeing some of the sites. Why don't you take us to see the statue of Liberty, Wufei?"
Wufei refused, and Duo finally got out of him that he hadn't been to see any of the sites of New York although he'd been living there for quite a while. Duo pretended to be shocked, and made them all pile into the subway to see some of the major tourist attractions.
They went up the Empire State Building, saw Times Square, visited an art museum, went shopping and took a walk in Central Park. By the time they had finished, it was dark, the streets were lit only by the artificial lights, giving everything an orange glow. Quatre had to persuade Duo to go back to the hotel and get some sleep, since they had an early flight.
"New York will be here another time. You can always come back, Duo"
"I guess so, I just want to do it all and see it all now. I want to see Heero, though, I suppose I have to go." he sighed, still unsure of what he was going to do. "Let's go"
***
The airport at London was very similar to all the others Duo had been in for the past few days of his travels. It was all getting rather routine; get on a plane at one place, and arrive at somewhere almost identical, yet thousands of miles away, after a few hours. It was routine to many people, although the war and the breakdown of country barriers actually made travel more difficult for a while because of all the confusion.
Still, Duo enjoyed travelling. This was not half as good as space travel of course, even the most wonderful view didn't give you the thrill that looking into the blackness of space did, it was like staring into infinity, and nothing could beat that. Being flown by someone else had nothing on piloting a Gundam either, but it was relaxing to put life on hold for a while, put your feet up, and let someone else make the decisions. After all, you weren't even in a proper time zone, why should you think about the rules?
Once the plane touched down, however, Duo's life was his own again, and he slipped back into it with ease. He managed to call them a taxi, a black cab this time, rather than the yellow ones they had ridden in in New York, and they journeyed again to their hotel, picked out by Quatre, the one he had stayed in before. It wasn't too close to the centre of the city, but it was near an underground station, which Quatre promised would take them all over the city.
Once they started looking for Heero, Duo realised that this would be a harder task than all the other times. For one thing, Quatre was more interested in Trowa than thinking of the task at hand, and Duo couldn't blame him. The two spent all their time together. Duo joked that people would think they were stuck together if they spent any longer at each others sides.
The other problem was Heero's hacking skills. They knew he had been in London, but they couldn't find any records indicating that he had been there at all, or where he had gone, if he wasn't there any more. He didn't appear on any passenger manifests of planes, he didn't seem to have any credit card records, or anything else. He must have been under another name, which wasn't surprising, after all, he wasn't really called Heero either, but they couldn't find or think of what he might be calling himself. Duo even tried his own name, since Heero had used it before, but nothing came out. There was only one Duo Maxwell in the British Isles.
After a day of searching records and pacing up and down his hotel room, Duo had had enough. Heero might as well be invisible for the amount of attention he got from the authorities. That was fine in war time, but when you were looking for someone, it really didn't help. Obviously he'd never got over the wartime paranoia that infected them all at one time or another.
Duo thought some fresh air would help him think. Well, it wouldn't hurt at the least. As he walked and walked, though, he kept seeing couples hugging, kissing, or just being together, and the sight burnt into his heart. 'I'm never going to have that' he thought. I don't even know why I'm searching, there's no point. I might as well give up now, I'll never find him, and even if I do, he couldn't love me.
It was at that moment, when he'd convinced himself that he'd never see Heero again that Duo saw him. It was pure chance. If either of them had walked past a few minutes later they would not have met, and Duo would have gone on worrying, and probably not found Heero at all. Still, fate has a sense of humour, and it suited it that Duo should catch sight of the other pilot he had spent so long looking for, just as he was coming out of shop on the other side of the street.
Heero was looking the other way, but Duo immediately recognised him. At first he thought it was a trick his mind was playing on him, he had been thinking of Heero so much, but as he turned his head he realised that this was no daydream but the real thing. Scarcely pausing for a moment, in case doubt got in and Heero got away, Duo ran across the road as quickly as he could, allowing for traffic, shouting "Heero!"
Heero spun around the first time Duo called his name, and stopped when he saw Duo coming towards him, the focussed, impassive look Duo was so used to replaced for the moment by a brief look of shock.
Duo finally reached the other side of the road, and swerving around two rather startled pedestrians, he came to stand in front of Heero. They looked at each other for a long moment, neither speaking, both content just to observe for the moment the changes the time they had been apart had wrought.
In the end, seeing Heero almost knocked out by a passing pensioner, Duo suggested that they take their reunion somewhere more private. Heero agreed, then turned around, and led Duo away from the bookshop that he had come out of, and up the road.
They entered a park, Regents Park, Duo thought it was called, but Heero was walking too fast for him to read the signs. He followed Heero into the park, noticing the roller-bladers who had obviously decided to claim the pathways for their own.
The two walked side by side for a while, then came to rest on a bench. Duo looked at Heero. "I was looking for you, you know. I suppose I should tell you all about it." Heero looked as if he was about to say something, but Duo waved him away.
"You have to let me say this Heero, because if I don't say it now, I don't think I'm ever going to say it. I came here to talk to you about this, and now I don't know if I can"
He sneaked a look at Heero, who was still standing before him, looking mainly impassive, but Duo could see the confusion in his eyes, and the hint of compassion. He knew Heero felt... he just didn't show it as much as other people did. He could feel something for Duo, he might not, but it wasn't impossible.
Duo took a deep breath. "Heero" he said, his voice cracking "I'm in love with you"
He stopped. There was nothing else he could say. He had done it. Now it was up to Heero. He had just put his heart in the hands of someone even he had described as cold, but still he hoped. Perhaps it would be all right. Perhaps, this once, things would go well.
The air was silent. Duo started to worry.
Heero was staring at Duo, as if trying to judge a very serious problem. Duo had seen him look that way at a Gundam whose repairs wouldn't be done in time, or someone who he wanted to co-operate with him. He didn't look as if he had just been told that someone was in love with him, but then his reactions were always unexpected.
"Well?" Duo couldn't take the tension, he needed to know what Heero felt, after all he had been waiting for a long time to say this.
Heero was still silent. That was why people thought of him as antisocial, he was able to hold out silences for longer than anyone else Duo knew, even Trowa. He managed not to speak even when others felt obligated to. Society's rules of politeness had no value for Heero, he would wait until he had decided what to say, and then he would speak.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Duo, Heero had sorted out his feelings enough to speak. "When you stopped me, I was going to say that I wanted to see you too. We didn't get to know each other very well in the war, and I wanted to know you. What you just said surprised me, Duo. How can you love me?"
"I do know you, Heero. I know you're the sort of person who will self-destruct for his mission at the least reason, and who will always complete his duty, whatever he needs to do. If you don't think you know me, then I'm sorry, but I tried to be your friend."
"I know you did, Duo, it's my fault. I didn't want to be near people during the war, I thought I could do it all on my own.
I'm not sure of what I feel about you Duo, but I know I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since I last saw you. I don't want you to leave again. Take a chance on me Duo, just once more. I think I might love you, but I don't know."
Duo looked at him. "What do you mean, you're not sure?"
"I don't know what love is, Duo. I want to be near you, I want to touch you. I want to hear your voice. I don't want to have to live without you. I don't know if that's love, though" he stared into Duo's eyes, as if looking for the truth there "is it?"
Duo considered the desperate look in Heero's eyes. "Sounds like the way I feel" he said, then slid along the bench towards Heero, and kissed him.
***
A/N: Well, that's it. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you to all of those who reviewed, and everyone who liked it. If you want to moan about the ending not being good enough, or say whether you liked it, then review, or email me at blue_roses42@hotmail.com