Unexpected
by Ranma Inverse
dedicated to: David/D-san. This is you're christmas present, friend.









Author's notes: Well, y'know, this story actually has a kind of meaning to it. Let's give it to stories with lessons! *claps..and blinks as noone else claps* ....what?! You think it's gonna be THAT bad?! Anyway, i'm not gonna say what the lesson in the story is, 'cause I think you can guess that on your own! ^_^ If you can't figure it out, then let it remain just a sweet story. ^_^

Oh, another note...those who don't know what the boy's thinking about, think on pilot #2's past...and I messed with it a little. =D

Want a second chapter? Maybe...if you want one, D-san.
. . .

A young boy hugged his dirty knees with equally dirty arms, crying in an alley. Why had it happened? What could have done something so horrible..? Why should he keep living if everything he cared about was going to leave..? He sniffled and whiped his nose on one of his ruined sleeves.

An equally young girl peaked into the alley, hearing the crying. Noone else seemed to be bothered with it, noone else cared that someone was in pain. She stared at the unclean boy with innocent blue eyes, walking over to him slowly and carefully so as not to trip on the trash on the ground. When she reached him, she wrapped her tiny arms around him in a comforting hug.

The boy jumped and pushed her away, then blinked as he registered what the thing that had touched him was. The young girl stared up at him from the ground in now muddy white clothes. Her sandy blonde hair fell everywhere around her. The boy blinked his colbalt eyes and blushed as a child would. "S-sorry..." The girl that he had pushed away resembled an angel, even with the dirt on her. He reached out a hand and helped her up.

"Thanks.." The blonde smiled up at him, then turned serious. Her eyes went from joyous to concerned. The boy blinked as she leaned closer to him. "Are you okay? Daddy said that when people cry they aren't okay. They're sad and being sad is bad."

"I wasn't crying!" The colbalt-eyed boy protested, his eyes still shiny and his cheeks still wet.

Blue eyes blinked and she leaned in close to touch his tear-streaked cheeks. "Yes you were. What's your name?"

"Duo..."

"Duo? That's a nice name! I'm Relena," The girl looked to his long chesnut hair, "You're pretty." At this, Duo felt a small smile tug at his lips.

"You're pretty."

Relena blushed and smiled sheepishly. "Thanks...what made you cry?"

Hearing her question, colbalt eyes sombered and lips curved down. "...It's...nothing, really." At this, Relena tilted her head to the side for a moment, as if considering something before giving him a wide smile and taking his hand, dragging him out of the alley.

The boy's eyes widened. "Wha-what're you doing?"

"I'm bringing you home with me! Noone deserves to be alone..." The girl spoke with unacknowledged wisdom, "And once you cry, the bad memories are cleansed from you unless you try to hang onto them. Let go of the bad memories and hug the good ones close!"

Duo let the words sink in as he was led somewhere with the little girl that resembled a muddy angel. Slowly, a smile began to form again.

. . .

The male child blinked when the girl stopped in front of an important-looking home. "Wha...?" His amazement went further as she dragged him in without a second thought. When she shut the door she turned around and began removing her shoes.

"You should take them off too. Mommy doesn't like the carpet getting too dirty." She looked to him. He did as asked before they continued there journey, stopping when Relena stopped suddenly and ran in the direction of a black-clothed leg. "Daddy!"

The man looked too old to be the girl's father, but he let it pass with his child-like innocence. "Are you Relena's Dad?"

Relena's father nodded and bent down, looking at the two. "What have I told you about bringing strangers into the ho--oh, he's just a child...heavens! You two are extremely dirty!" He smiled gently and shook Duo's tiny hand. "A pleasure to meet you, boy. A friend of my daughter is a friend of mine."

"Mr. Dorlain!" Unkown voices called, and the middle-aged man stood up.

"You two children have fun...but get cleaned up first. I have to go," Relena's father spoke before leaving the room and heading towards the voices.

Relena smiled at Duo. "Daddy likes you!" She walked out of the room, though staying in view and pointed in a different direction. "Follow me!"

The chesnut haired boy followed her into a bathroom, where she got him to stand up on a stool to reach the sink and wash his arms, hands and face, then to wipe them with a towel. She did the same when he was done and then looked to his hair, which suprisingly wasn't as dirty as his clothes were. She took the now wet towel, wiped the mud off her legs 'till they were clean, washed the towel in the sink and then gave it to Duo. He was wearing shorts, so he did the same as Relena had done before following her into yet another room, which was white and black. Colors that clashed and were symbolic of opposites. Innocence and Corruption, Order and Disorder, Love and Hate, Joy and Despair, Good and Bad, the Divine and the Devils....

His eyes went to the girl in the muddy white dress. Innocence...order...love...joy...good...divine. Those words crossed his mind once more and he blinked as she walked behind him and began to brush his hair. He closed his eyes and let himself indulge in the action few had ever done for him.

"Relena...do you believe in God?" He suddnely asked after she was through doing most of his hair, curious.

Relena looked uncertain for a moment, then shook her head and smiled. "I think I do."

"I don't."

The blonde girl blinked at him, forgetting to brush his hair. "Why not?" She started back up once again on brushing her friend's hair.

"Because if God existed he wouldn't have let them...let them die..." His voice broke and tears began to fall from his eyes once more.

Relena, finished with brushing his hair, walked to the front of him and looked only a moment at his face before hugging him tightly, ruining her dress even further against his dirtier clothes. "God, let Duo feel better soon..." She prayed aloud. Duo laughed, but it was with no humor in it.

"Apparently he doesn't like me."

Blue eyes looked into colbalt ones. "I like you. Feel better soon for me."

Duo blinked, then smiled sadly. "I'll try..."

He lived with his female friend with a few weeks, finally beginning to become happy again, when they were forced to move away and Relena's parents didn't want another child. They said it would be for Duo's own good to be sent to an orphanage, and so he had gone there only to be found by an old man who "adopted" him and took away even his child innocence, being raised to pilot a gundam...

. . .

Duo stood in front of Relena's door a few years after the war, taking a deep breath and praying that she would be there, alone. When he had met her that second time, she hadn't seemed to remember him, and he hadn't wanted to bring her deeper into the war than she already was. But now...

Now the war was over, now she had taken a few weeks of vacation from her work, and now he was going to make her remember her childhood friend that wanted to be friends with her again. He rang the doorbell and stood there for a few minutes, beginning to feel foolish when the door finally opened and the still beautiful as an angel blonde girl--now a woman, he corrected himself. She was still the beautiful blonde angel he had first pictured her as.

Abruptly, the symbolism of her first bedroom filled his mind. Order and disorder...love and hate...joy and despair. He was the black, and she was the white. He stood for those while she stood against him, standing out, an angel of peace.

Had it been wrong to come here?

Relena spoke up first, her eyes slightly wide, "Duo...? What are you doing here?"

He stuck his hands in his pockets and forced his playful trademark grin. "I was in town and figured you must be bored spending a vacation with noone to talk to, so..."

"I missed you! I missed you and Quatre and Heero and..." she drifted off, shook her head and smiled at him sweetly, "I missed you more than the others though." Her smile was friendly, and the honest, sweet expression that went with her words obviously meant only friendship. Duo smiled back at her.

"We need to talk." He stepped inside the house, and she shut the door. "It's been a long time..."