DISCLAIMER: GUNDAM WING IS NOT MINE. THE CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY ARE NOT MINE. THEY BELONG TO SOTSU AGENCY. -Piper Cub

ONE MORE BATTLE

This story takes place shortly after the destruction of Libra. Heero and Duo are walking side by side along a deserted beach. It's evening.

"Would you believe, peacetime!" chortled Duo, lacing his hands behind his head as he walked. He took a deep breath and exhaled. "Oh, wow. You smell that, Heero? That's freedom calling us. Now that we have time to spare, I'm definitely going to use it. I'm going to have a life apart from war, like I always dreamed I could."

Heero said nothing, not even "Hn." Duo cast a sideways glance at his former comrade-in-arms. Ever since they had helped save Earth from impending destruction, the colonies hadn't felt like home anymore. He wondered if they ever would again. He also wondered if Heero was feeling as displaced as he was.

"What's the matter, Heero? I thought you'd appreciate having peace for a change."

"Peace, as they call it, is provisional," responded Heero (Duo rolled his eyes at his obstinate pragmatism, although he knew who Heero meant by "they"). "As long as the conditions of peace are met, peace will remain, but if these conditions are violated, war will happen. The things which hold us together will tear us apart, eventually."

"Yeah, but if peace is what everybody wants, where could the threat of war come from?" Duo didn't want Heero to rain on his happy little parade. Sometimes he wondered why he enjoyed his company at all. The guy could be a real mood-breaker. And he especially hated the way he used the word "provisional".

"I don't know." Heero sounded tired. "Even a Gundam pilot can't pretend to understand the roots of evil, though I'm sure we've all tried. . . " Here he faltered, as if the task of thinking about it was too much for his tired spirit. "We can't really predict from where and when it will come. I'm afraid it's inevitable though, and all we can do is brace for the next assault."

"So you're saying this isn't true peace."

"Yes."

"And you'll be closed-mouthed and broody the whole time, I suppose."

"Well, what are you going to do?"

"Don't you believe this new peace is right here, right now? If everyone felt the same way, there wouldn't be any need for war."

"There's never a need for war," Heero retorted. "You believe that--" Duo started to contradict him but was overridden. "And you know as well as I do how many enemies us Gundam pilots have made," Heero finished.

"Yeah, I know." Duo wished desperately he could do something to help Heero get his mind out of the rat-maze it seemed to be stuck in. He wanted desperately to help his friend (though he knew Heero would never acknowledge something as sentimental as a friendship), but as much as he tried, he always ended up throwing craps. If something didn't happen soon, he was afraid Heero would try to end his own life again.

Duo stared down at his feet, and at Heero's, making trails on the beach as they walked. They were both wearing sneakers for a change, black ones, and for the first time, Duo noticed that they had exactly the same shoe size. More than just that, their feet could have been quadruplets. Chuckling, he turned his attention outward, and after a moment something caught and held his attention. "Stop, Heero."

"What's the matter?"

"Have you ever noticed how your mind never seems to be perfectly still, except maybe in the first moment when you turn your attention somewhere else? It's almost like the way a theater audience gets quiet when the stage curtain rises."

Heero lowered his eyebrows suspiciously. "Are you trying to 'tell me something', Duo?"

"Sure am. I want you to try taking a look around you."

"At what?" Heero wondered. "The beach?"

"Sure," Duo replied. "Most of us know what it takes to be real, but we hardly ever take the time to do it. You're still looking through the smoke of all those battles, and prob'ly smelling all the guts and goo, and you haven't listened to that voice that says, 'Stop fighting awhile. Be human. Be real. Get out of your head for a while, and listen to those waves.' "

Heero snorted. "Human. Hn, I wish I could."

Duo kept speaking as though he hadn't heard. "That's a lot better than machine gun fire, isn't it?" The waves could be heard softly in the background, caressing the sand with a lover's touch. "And that awesome blue sky. . . where on a colony can you find a ceiling like that? Look at the horizon, it goes on forever!" He was starting to get excited. "You've got to listen to that voice, Heero!"

"I don't believe in 'voices'," Heero declared, quite flatly.

Yeah, I'll just bet, Duo thought sardonically. "Well, if you don't at least give it a try, you'll only miss out."

Heero clearly believed that Duo had flown somewhere over the horizon himself, but he shrugged his shoulders and did as he was told, as both of them turned their eyes westward:

The beach.

The water, and the waves, playfully murmuring in their shoals.

The sky's blue dome, with its gorgeous color, huge, towering mountains of cloud, and many-hued sunset hanging in the distance.

The far off horizon, with its promise of freedom.

"Hey Heero," said Duo, grinning out of the corners of his eyes. "Bet you didn't know you could do that."

"Hn," said Heero, his face remaining stolid.

Duo shrugged and looked to the horizon again. "Maybe you should do it more often, dont'cha think?"

TBC