Chapter 5: Duo's Mourning

A few hours later, Duo sat on the couch in the foyer, silent and staring at the ground in shock. He raised his head as the other four came up to him, their faces sad and serious., then looked back at the ground. The two tears that had fallen earlier had left their wet trails on his cheeks, but not another tear had fallen.

"Duo. . . are you okay?" Quatre asked.

Duo looked up at them, but didn't answer. Quatre took a seat on Duo's left side, and Heero sat on his right, with Trowa kneeling in front of him, and Wufei standing a couple feet away, arms folded. His face was straight and serious, but his black eyes shined with a sad pity that had never before shown itself in his form. None of them really knew what to say. Nothing seemed appropriate. As tough as Duo was, and as many people as he had killed and seen dead in battle, this was a whole different story.

After a few minutes, a police officer walked up to them, looking almost too official in his starched uniform. "Is there a. . . Duo Maxwell here?" he asked, reading the name off a clipboard. Duo raised his head from where it rested in his hands. "Yeah?" he said softly.

"Sir, we'd like to talk to you for a moment."

Heero stood up quickly, surprising everyone. "You're not thinking this is his fault, are you?"

The cop stayed silent, glaring at Heero. "Please move, this does not concern you," he said sternly.

"You wanna bet?" Heero asked, crossing his arms and glaring back at the man.

"If you don't move, we will have to do so by force."

"You—" Heero started.

"Heero, it's fine."

He turned to see Duo standing, his fists clenched at his sides, his head raised level.

"But. . ."

"I didn't do it," he said softly. "They can't possibly have anything against me."

The police officer, whose nametag read 'Val Miggs,' was watching Duo curiously. "You don't seem very upset for a guy who just lost his girlfriend, kid."

Duo just scowled and stalked past him.

"You don't know Duo very well," Heero muttered. "He has his own way of mourning. And he can't let anyone see."

"Huh?" The man turned to Heero, but he had already started walking away.

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A/N: I know this one is extremely short, even for me, and this and the next one don't exactly have the best endings, but I'm doing the best I can to keep the chapters as close to the same length as possible. . . That's harder than it seems! Anyway, I promise it'll get better from here. ^_^