Author: DeityOfDeath AKA Kat Series: Gundam Wing Pairings: 1x2x5, 3x4 Song: Outside - Staind Warnings: I do not own Gundam Wing or the lyrics to Outside. I am merely a fan of both who has decided to pay humble homage to both.
Ugly, The Real You

Duo had been in the large library of Quatre's mansion, where they had been staying for the last month or so and it seemed that he had once again managed to have nothing to do. So he had gone in search of something to do and his search had brought him to many places in the mansion, including the last place he thought he would find himself in.

It was a beautiful room with polished wooden floors and plain white walls but it was a room that differed from the others. It was roomy and had space enough to dance or do somersaults should one choose to do so. There was something about this room that impressed Duo and that was the beautiful way it echoed and allowed your voice to seem clear and beautiful. He smiled and looked around the room fully enjoying what he saw.

A piano sat in a corner and in a beautiful cabinet that stood against the far wall were a flute, violin, and a clarinet. Although they were all beautiful instruments, none of them appealed to Duo. He then saw something that caused his smile to grow even wider if it were possible.

In the far corner sat an old guitar with a brown leather strap attatched to it. He pulled an old brown chair into the middle of the room and then went over and picked up the old guitar, gently lifting it and slinging the strap over his head so that it rested on his right shoulder and he plucked at the strings caressingly. He saw now place where a guitar pick sat so he looked around til he finally thought "To hell with it" and sat down in the chair in a stooping position as he began to tune the guitar plucking at its strings and turning the little knobs until he finally was pleased with the sound they all created. He then sat up a little and remembered a song that he had loved durring the days he sat in his small hideout and listened to the radio;which had been tuned to the oldies station, and he smiled as he began to play the tune from memory.

He plucked at the strings and a beautiful and haunting melody came flowing like magic from his fingers and that old guitar. When he seemed pleased with his playing he stopped and then cleared his throat and started playing again.

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Quatre had wondered what happened to Duo as he sat in the library with Heero and Trowa. Duo had been bouncy and couldn't seem to find a book at the moment that could occupy his need for something to do. So after a glare from Heero because of Duo's mundane chattering while he was working on his laptop, Duo had simply frowned and skipped out of the room in search of something to do. It seemed like hours had passed since then but in truth it had only been a half an hour.

Quatre looked back down at his book trying to concentrate on what he was reading when suddenly a beautiful sound filled the halls. It was faint but it seemed sorrowful and yet it was as if the sorrow was ebbing.

Trowa lifted his head and looked at his arabian lover with inquisitive emerald eyes and as if on cue Heero's hands stilled on the laptop and his head stood still as he strained to hear the sound that seemed to be like magic as it made its way through the house. Heero closed his laptop and then stood up looking at Quatre and Trowa.

Quatre smiled and stood up.

"Shall we go find it's source?" he asked smiling.

Both Heero and Trowa nodded and Quatre lead the way out of the Library as the others followed behind, like the mice to the piper.
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Wufei sat still in his room in quiet meditation as he turned many things over in his mind. His lover had came bounding in earlier in search of something to do and had found nothing except for a target to annoy and with as little anger as possible, he had asked Duo to leave him be for a few minutes of quiet meditation. And so he had. And now without him it seemed to quiet.

Wufei shifted and stood up cursing himself for having sent Duo away. He starteed mumbling and grumbling to himself and then a haunting tune had made it's way tohis ears stopping his mumbling and grumbling. He stood there quietly listening and he had decided that he had to know where that sound was coming from.

So without hesitation Wufei stepped out of his room and walked down the stairs as if on a mission to find the origins of the song.

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Duo sat playing that old oak guitar with it's shalaqed coating as he sang outloud the words to that song that had always reminded him of ruffer and ominious days. He sang with all his emotions and put into it what he had put into the war.

"When You Bring me to my knee. All this time that I can beg you please. All the times that I've felt insecure. And I leave my burdens at the door. "
It was then that Quatre, Trowa and Heero had found themselves outside the room where the music eminated from and to their surprise they saw a serious looking Duo sitting in an old wooden chair playing the guitar while singing.

"Duo has a beautiful voice." said Quatre awed.

Heero and Trowa nodded in agreement as the listened not only to Duo's playing but to his voice which seemed to match the song he sang so well. They listened to the lyrics and they could relate to them just like Duo could.

They found themselves quietly opening the door and sneaking inside as they took places against the fall facing Duo and watching him play.

"I'm on the outside, I'm looking in I can see through you, see your true colors. Inside you're ugly. Your ugly like me. I can see through you, see you the real you. "
Wufei heard the enchanting voice and tune get louder and he followed it til he came uopn what was known as the music room and he wondered if it was Quatre or Trowa who were singing such a sorrowful tune. And then he heard the lyrics.

"Quatre and Trowa would never sing such things." he said aloud to himself. He lookeed through the window on the door to the music room and there he saw Duo sitting in the old wooden chair and his hands holding and playing the old polished guitar that sat upon his lap.

Duo's braid had fallen over his shoulder and layed idily along his chest and behind the guitar itself. Duo's deep violet eyes were closed in concentration and deep thought as he continued to belt out the lyrics to the haunting song.

And as he started singing again Wufei quietly opened the door and walked inside and saw to his amazement Quatre, Trowa and Heero already standing against the wall listening and watching with amazement and awe etched upon their features.

He stood next to his chocolate haired lover as together they watched the third in their love triangle play with earnest and true feeling.

"All this time that i felt like this won't end, was for you. And I taste, but I could never have, its from you. All those times that i tried, my intention, Full of pride And I waste more time than anyone."

Wufei watched as Duo swayed while he played with smooth jerking motions and he seemed to put himself into each cord struck and each note sang, and this caused some strange emotion in Wufei to awaken as he could feel every word that the braided youth sang. Heero wrapped his arm around Wufei's shoulder and Wufei leaned into the embrace. As Duo started singing again.

"I'm on the outside, I'm looking in I can see through you, see your true colors. 'cause inside you're ugly. Your ugly like me. I can see through you, see you the real you. "

As he sang the haunting melody caused tears to form in Quatre's eyes and he sniffled softly. Trowa looked down at him and hugged him close, gently caressing his small lovers back in soothingly.

Quatre looked up at Trowa and mouthed "thank you" as he leaned against Trowa and wrapped both arms around Trowa's waist. Trowa looked over at Wufei and Duo and he was surprised to see the stoic Heero with his arms wrapped around Wufei's shoulder and his eyes on the now singing Duo.

Wufei looked up at Heero and Heero nodded in some hidden message between them and them alone and then Heero removed his arm from around Wufei and the asian youth quietly on padded feet walked towards Duo. He looked as though he were lost in a trance and the only things in this universe were Duo and the guitar.

"He looks like a sailor being tempted by a Siren." said Trowa as he observed from beside Heero.

Heero watched Duo and he could almost say that Duo was a Siren. The violet eyes and long chestnut masses only adding the illusion. And then there was that voice. The voice that Duo had never shown them. Not that they had asked to hear it or demand that he sing to them. No. It seemed as if they had intruded on a private moment that Duo had very few of. Who thought of Duo as thinking such things and that this song could hold all this emotion and meaning for him. It seemed as though what he felt was in a way the basic emotion that all people had.

The emotions to hide yourself like a chamelon with a smile or a cool deameanor or like others with ideals or debts to others. But in the end all people are alike, thought Heero.

Little did he know that the others even Duo had been thinking the same thing. They were all ugly inside. They all had secrets and pasts and things that they regretted. That they regretted hiding. All of it showed now. All the emotions and pasts visable to others now.
"All the times that I've cried, all this wasted it's all inside and I feel all this pain Stuffed it down it's back again And I lie here in bed All alone, i can't mend And I feel tomorrow will be okay, but I know"

Wufei knelt gracefully, almost bonelessly to the floor infront of Duo starring up at him. He pulled his knee's to his chest and stared at Duo as he seemed to pause once again durring an instrumental only part. He watched mesmerized by the emotions; true emotions, that raced across Duo's usually happy and serene face.

The others watched Wufei wondering what would happen when Duo stopped playing. Would he be mad about their discovery? Would he hide it? Even though like the lyrics he sang had said that "I could see through you"? They could now. He had let that mask slip and now a solitary tear had seeped through the closed lids where it had ecscaped from lavander pools full of emotion and turmoil. As the tear made it's way down those high cheek bones Wufei watched it with utter fascination.

Heero watched from a small distance away and when he saw that glistening tear a small saying came to his mind. "Motherc said big boys dont cry." But as Heero watched from his spot near the wall he could tell that even though he said it and believed it, even he was a prisoner of emotions and the tears that now began to stream a little more. But still Duo sang on without a hint of the tears in his voice. He still sang with the pure emotion of the song. Never letting the tears soak the words. The words that he sang outloud in his clear dry voice.

Then Duo started singing again with such conviction that he seemed to pour himself into those words and their meaning. The meaning that held him fast to that oak guitar and that old chair.

"That I'm on the outside, I'm looking in I can see through you, see your true colors. 'cause inside you're ugly. Your ugly like me. I can see through you, see you the real you. "

As the last lyrics left his mouth the instrument he had played so well had slowed its tune only to stop with a sounding echo and then silence and that was when Wufei sat up on his haunches and gently laid a finger against Duo's cheek. He used that finger to caress the last tear from Duo's now serene looking face. With that sudden and unexpected touch Duo's eyes opened and surprise or shock written in those violet orbs seemed to fade when they saw Wufei's expression.

"Fei?" said Duo softly questioning.

Wufei brought the tear to his lips and licked it away.

"Your sorrow is our sorrow." said Wufei in manner that almost sounded disapproving.

Duo jumped and looked behind him as two arms wrapped around his neck as Heero leaned against Duo.

"Ditto......" was all he said.

Quatre and Trowa stood wrapped in eachothers arms as they saw the small group together.

"Can you sing it again ?" asked Quatre wiping away his own tears.

"Duo smiled meekly and then blushed as he nodded.

With Heero's arms wrapped around him and Wufei's head and the guitar on his lap, he began to play again. Only this time 4 other haunting voices seemed to join in.

The End

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