Braids of a Feather

Braids of a Feather

By AlantisB

Chapter 3

Disclamer: I do not own Gundam Wing or Ranma1/2, I'm just a poor little girl who has an over active imagination! ^.~

A/N: Wow! I got more reviews! ::beams:: I'm so happy! It's nice to know some people read my little stories. Well as you all know this is Chapter 3! ^.^ I'll try my hardest to make it better then the one before and maybe longer too. If I don't, don't be mad! I'm trying to write off the top of my head and it's hard. After I finish this story I'm thinking of doing another one I have no name for yet. It won't be a crossover. I also have another idea but it's a crossover with Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles since vampire stories seem to be so popular. If you think that's a good idea, please e-mail me and tell me!

"....." talking

'.....' thinking

OoOoOo Change of scene

Well, on with the story!

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Ranma glanced behind him every now and then to make sure Ryoga was still behind him. It wouldn't do if he got lost at the worst possible time. He knew Ryoga, like himself, missed Duo a lot and would hate himself if he missed one of the rare visits of Duo Maxwell.

He whistled a tune as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. It was a wonder really, why Duo would visit them now after all this time. Didn't soldiers get vacations? Or was that only when there was no war to be fought? He shrugged to him self as he knew no answer for his own questions.

'Poor Nerima,' he thought. 'I almost pity the district, with Duo here everything will get more crazy!' Last time the three of them got together at the middle school, Duo got kicked out, Ryoga got suspended, and he was picked up by his Pop and they headed out to China.

It wasn't his fault really; Duo didn't tell him cherry bombs would blow up the plumbing for the toilets.

The fact that Duo made them himself didn't really go unnoticed; the doctor was real angry at him. He remembered Duo was an orphan but was being taken care of by this old man named Doctor G. He didn't look too friendly and it was a wonder Duo got to do anything or be so happy. The one time he went to Duo's place, the Doctor was away and Duo was sick in bed. He was real pale and sickly looking. That was the first time he saw just how skinny he was.

Duo looked so small in his bed, it engulfed him in covers. His shirt was off and some of his ribs were showing. He had scars over his wrists that crossed paths with each other, he recalled. He sat on the bed next to Duo and the first tears in years, tears fell from his eyes. Duo had opened his eyes then and flashed him a weak smile.

"We all have our secrets ne, Ran-chan?" That was all he said before he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

He remembered walking out of the shabby apartment and going to Ryoga's house and telling him what he saw. Ryoga was angry, and wanted to go kill Doctor G for letting Duo get like that, but he convinced him it wouldn't do any good. That was a week before they had set the Cherry bombs off; Duo and the doctor disappeared and he left for China before getting to fight Ryoga one last time.

He blinked when he noticed they had reached the gates of the Tendo dojo. He looked behind him and he saw Ryoga was still with him.

"Come on Ryoga, you can stay in my room with me and Pops."

Ryoga looked up at him and nodded before walking up into the Tendo yard with him as he headed into the house.

OoOoOoOoOo

Akane started to frown when she saw Ranma with Ryoga-both not fighting like normal-walk into the house without any jokes, name calling, or fighting. It was unnatural. Didn't Ranma usually pick on Ryoga all the time and not be civil to him? She glanced in their direction again before walking out to the dojo to smash some bricks.

She remembered all the times Ranma would pick on poor Ryoga, make fun of his directional curse. Or calling him funny names like "Pig-Boy" and things like that. How can Ranma do that to such a sweet, innocent boy who doesn't do anything to Ranma at all! She started to get angry as she set up the bricks.

She backed up and started to smash them with a vengence repeating a simple phrase in her mind as she tried to make herself stronger. 'Its Ranma's fault, it's Ranma's fault.' Akane kept hearing the teases Ranma would say to her, the jokes, the flirting he would do with his other fiancees. 'Macho-tomboy! Uncute chick! Built as a brick!'

'SMASH' "..jerk.."

'Uncute tomboy!'

'SMASH' "..pervert.."

'B-but Akane!'

'SMASH' "RANMA NO BAKA!"

'CRASH'

The dummy that had a pigtail attached to it; flew into the wall, broken and splitted in two. She breathed heavy for a moment before grabbing the towel she left at the side and dabbed her forehead with the cloth. She smiled to herself when she saw the damage she caused. Today was a good workout.

OoOoOoOoOo

Quatre sighed as he watched his beloved, who was dressed up in a clown costume and had a mask on, have knives thrown at him. How could Trowa not flinch when the knives hit by his face? That was a question he supposed he would never get answered.

The act finished and the crowd cheered as Trowa and Katherine bowed to the audience and walk out the center ring to the back of the tent. Quatre got up out of his seat and politely excused himself when he bumped into peoples' knees as he climbed out of his row. He walked around to the back of the tent and poked his head in smiling brightly at his lover.

"You did good today Trowa! There's a big crowd out today." He chirped in a happy mood since Trowa was not having knives thrown at him anymore today.

Trowa offered him a small smile as he took of his mask and started to change out of his costume. "I noticed." He said quietly as he pulled his dark green turtleneck over his head.

"Did you enjoy the show?" Trowa asked as he pulled his jeans on and looked over at Quatre.

Quatre gave him a nervous smile as he sat down on one of the crates. "Yes, it was a good show. It just makes me nervous when your having knives thrown at you." He offered him a small apologetic smile.

Trowa nodded once before walking over to Quatre and sat down beside him. Quatre turned to him and looked at him questionably. "Did you hear from the others yet?" asked Trowa.

"Duo is here, on Earth, visiting some old friends. Heero is staying with Wufei at one of the old safe houses on L2. I gave Duo a cell phone so if we needed to reach him, he would get it. I don't know if he took his laptop with him."

"Duo has old friends? He was never on Earth before the operation meteor, was he?" Trowa glanced at Quatre, knowing he wasn't saying something. It confused him; his little one never hid anything from him.

Quatre looked at the ground and started to speak quietly. "He was on Earth for a short while when he was twelve; after he first met Doctor G and started his training. That was all he said he could tell me."

Trowa respected Duo's privacy and decided not to ask Quatre any more questions. He didn't want the violet-eyed pilot come back and yell at him for not trusting him.

OoOoOoOoOo

Nabiki turned off the red light as she hung up the pictures she just developed to dry. She cleaned up then flipped on the normal light switch and the room filled with white light. She walked over to the pictures that were drip drying and looked closely.

She looked at Ranma pictures first. She noticed the slight depressed expression on his face and his body language suggested it was a recent depression. She frowned. 'Ranma is never depressed. What happened to Saotome to make him like this?' she thought to herself.

She gazed at the Ryoga pictures now. Of course the obvious emotion was depressed, but his body language suggested hesitation. She moved her face closer and looked at his eyes. All she saw was worry. What would that pig be worried about? None of this made any sense. Ranma was depressed and pig boy was worried! They weren't fighting and Ranma actually stayed on the ground for once.

Nabiki took out her notebook and looked over the notes she wrote.

'Ryoga tailing Ranma 3 feet away.'

'Ranma moving slowly.'

'Both look lost in thought.'

She wrote more but decided that she had enough of reading today. Nabiki glanced at the clock. 9:45. Time for bed, she smirked as she collected the pictures after they were all dry and walked out the room. The door shut behind her and she walked back home.

OoOoOoOoOo

Duo stepped off the bus. It was dark now; the wind blew howling in the fresh fall air, whipping his braid along side of him. He grinned and walked down the street shifting his pack on his back every now and then. It was cold enough that he could see his breath when he breathed, but not enough coldness to be uncomfortable.

It was only 4 more days until he could see his friends again. He hoped Ryoga got his letter, he was taking a wild chance by actually mailing it to his house. The forever "lost boy" never actually made it to his house for long, without getting lost. 'I hope Checkers is okay. Ryoga is never home to take care of her.' He glanced around him and shifted the weight of his pack against his shoulders. He was being followed. He stopped walking and slid off his pack, dropping it to the ground.

"Come out, I know your there!" he called out into the darkness.

A group of six thugs walked out the shadows. Some carried bats, others carried knuckles and one carried a gun that could be seen in the belt of his pants but was covered by his shirt. The leader or at least who Duo thought to be the leader since he had the gun; which he thought Duo couldn't see-that was real pathetic, smirked. "You stepped into the wrong part of down, kid. Give us all your money!" His arrogance was not lost on Duo.

"And if I don't?"

The leader smirked and motioned his cronies to step forward with a flexing of his fingers on one hand. "We'll just have to take it by force!"

Duo tried not to roll his eyes at the cliche gang lines as he slid into a non-threatening stance. His arms folded behind his back, standing and rolling on the balls of his feet as he glanced at the thugs; his muscles seemingly relaxed but tense at the same time. It was one of the many stances of Anything Goes. 'Glad Ran-chan taught me some of his art, might have had a problem if he didn't.' He thought. He wasn't as good as Ryoga or maybe even Ranma about six years ago, but he knew enough to protect himself.

"You can't steal from Shinigami." Duo smirked slightly, noting that they were amateurs. Oh sure, they could probably pickpocket and rob a house, but could they steal a moble suit at the age of twelve from an Oz base without getting caught?

He doubted it very highly.

"Shinigami? Ha! He thinks himself to be the God of Death! Guess we'll have to change that huh?" said one of the thugs. The others nodded in agreement and attacked Duo.

Duo rolled into action; when the first thug with a bat reached him he ducked under the swing and punched the guy in the stomach while grabbing the wrist that held the bat and snapped the bones creating a sickening cracking noise. He grabbed the bat with his hands before preforming a back handspring with one hand, just as one of the thugs with knuckles punched the thug with the knuckles that just tried to hit him with the bat knocking the guy out cold.

He landed into a crouching position as he then twisted around to look behind him and smacked the bat hard into the two other thugs with bats, on the shins. They cried out as they fell to the ground since their legs were broken and couldn't support them anymore. He jumped up and out the way of the last thug with knuckles who knocked out the other guy, tried to punch him. He grinned and used the bat to trip the guy before crescent kicking the knuckle guy into a brick wall.

Duo was feeling very proud of himself for having kicked their asses without a lot of martial art practice. But then he heard a 'click' sound as the safety of a gun was turned off.

Duo turned around slowly to the leader who held a gun to him. The guy was grinning evilly at him. 'Oh shit..' was the only thought that came to Duo's mind as the gun went off.

OoOoOoOoOo

Well? Did you like it? Hate it? I know I'm evil to put a nice cliffhanger there. Call it the influence of all other authors who put evil cliffhangers that I hate so very much! ^.~

Please e-mail me or write a review to tell me what you think! Pleeeeease! Thankyou!

Any comments? Questions?

Think I need to improve my writing more?

Slrmoon2oo@aol.com

E-mail me there.

-AlantisB