MS: Hey again, readers! I'm back with another episode of Rainmaker! I hope you've been enjoying the story so far—I know I am! Right now I'm thinking it will be about as long as Miss You… was; 10 chapters or so. But who knows, it could go on double or half that length. I guess we'll just have to see!

Peach: Enjoi!

Duo groggily opened his eyes halfway, confused. What's going on here? Where am I? He sat up and thick, warm blankets fell to his waist. Looking around, he saw he was in his bed, and according to the clock at his bedside, it was 3:31pm. I must have fallen asleep when Heero was with me earlier… It seems so long ago…

He lifted his hand to rub the sleep from his eyes, and felt a warmth leave it. He looked down and saw Heero sitting beside the bed, head lying on top of his folded arms, asleep. He must have been waiting here for me… Duo thought.

Perking his hearing to the house, Duo heard nothing. Huh? The silence has never left, but the small noises the others usually make are gone, too… You can usually hear them a little over this nothing… What is going on here?

Deciding to wake the sleeping beauty, Duo began to shake the other boy gently. "Heero…Heero… Wake up, Heero…" He cooed, softly.

The other boy began to stir slowly. He blinked his bright blue eyes once, then twice, and looked at the braided pilot. "Huh…? Oh, Duo, everything okay?" Using his palm, he wiped at his eyes and stretched.

"Yeah, everything's fine. It's just…where are the others? It's too quiet around here…. I can't feel their presence."

Heero yawned one last time and hunched forward. "Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei went to the school for registration. I told them you and I were busy, and would come down to the school later." He looked at the clock on the bedside table. "They only left less than an hour ago."

Standing up, Heero extended a calloused hand to Duo. Duo took it graciously, and helped pull himself out of the bed with it. "Thank you, Heero." He said. "Thanks for your help." Thanks for your help this morning… I needed you, and you were there for me. Heero nodded, understanding.

"Well? Are we going to go after them?" Duo asked, stretching his back until it gave a series of pops. "The lines will be horrendous, so we'd better leave soon. That school should have more days to sign up."

Heero gave no verbal response, but went to his dresser and opened the top drawer. Duo listened to the old house. I wish it would creak once in awhile. I wish it would moan with the wind. I wish it would come alive again. Living here makes me tired…

"Duo!" Heero called. "Catch!" He tossed an object through the air, and Duo grabbed it by instinct.

Duo held out the object. It was a pair of goggles, lens shaded slightly with a silver frame. "What am I going to do with these?"

Heero pulled out a pair for himself, with a shiny blue frame, and smirked. "We have a company motorcycle, I guess you could say."

"What..!? No kidding!! You really got them to buy you a bike!?" Duo asked excitedly. "Wouldn't they think it's too big of a risk, in case you fell and killed yourself!?"

Heero laughed, and it echoed through the room. "I'm the perfect soldier to them, remember? You've told me that at least a hundred times already. Perfect soldiers do not crash."

This house...it's responding to our active conversation…it's glowing from the inside, I can feel it. It likes our actions, wishes to see more yelling, more shouting, more laughing. I like it, too, this way. "Let's go, then!" Duo turned toward the door, but Heero called him to stop.

"It's still raining outside, lightly. We'll need jackets so we don't get soaking, like you were before." He left into the bathroom and into the closet attached, still talking. "It makes me wonder, though. I mean, just earlier, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the temperatures were pretty nice, in like, the eighties. But the storm just showed up out of nowhere. Blew us all away where it came from. Thunder rolling, rain pouring. The weathermen were dumbfounded, and I think in some parts of the city, they called out a storm warning." He continued speaking, but so deep into the closet, it became hard to understand his words.

Heero…Heero, you're defeating your own spell of silence… You're talking like the wind and the leaves and everything! I didn't know you could talk so avidly. But why don't you talk like this normally? Why don't you break the silence at its peak, when the house is bathed in it? Was there a secret you were keeping from me that ate your words before you could speak them? What are you hiding?

Heero returned with two jackets, brushing the dust off them. "Remember these? Quatre gave them to us awhile ago for Christmas… I never bothered wearing it, and it looks the same for you, as well." He held up a leather jacket, and tossed it to Duo. "I wondered where we would ever wear something like this, except that one time we had to act like high class stealing punks to find out information on an Oz base. I mean, who would ever think we'd be riding a motorcycle with these things, just to sign up for school?"

As Heero finally ended his conversation enough to allow Duo some words, the site of him talking so much could only make Duo laugh. Smiling and laughing, Duo felt his heart soar as it hadn't for ages, like a burden he could never dispose of lifted off like a feather. He kept laughing, and it rang throughout the empty halls, echoing through the rooms, filling them with joy. When his chortling finally subsided, Duo smiled genuinely, like he hadn't for ages.

Heero looked dumbfounded and concerned for his companion. Raising his eyebrows, he asked, "…What's so funny, Duo? You're laughing like a maniac for no reason." Duo began to laugh again at Heero's somber statement, as if his concern was funny. "Seriously, maybe you should get back to bed. You might have a head cold that's doing funny things to your brain…"

Duo tried to stifle his giggles by smiling a lot. "No, Heero, it's you. I'm laughing because of you." As Heero's eyes widened with self-conscious apprehension, Duo had to hold back even more snickers. "Not like that, Heero, I didn't mean it like that! There's nothing wrong with you, but it's just…you never talk like that. The perfect soldier never talks with so much emotion. The perfect soldier never gets excited about little things like leather jackets and motorcycles. The perfect soldier never talks about anything more than the mission and its outcomes. But here, you're talking up a storm, about goggles and rain, weathermen and Christmas presents."

Heero looked at him, unable to discern his own emotions. A halfhearted expression crossed his face, and he looked to the floor. "Duo…"

Duo continued on. "I feel like you really are alive right now. I can see your emotions on your face, I can hear your excitement. I can feel you, like you aren't a dream anymore. It's like you're an ordinary boy right now, not a pilot and a machine. It's amazing! Can't you feel it? The walls, they're breathing! The room heaves, it squeaks, it sighs. It's because of our noise, it's because of our movement. We are slicing the heavy, thick silence that sits in here. We're showing it the door, we're showing it we don't want it here anymore. It's amazing, Heero, it's so amazing!" He laughed some more.

Heero looked up at the other boy, more serious than he. "…Is that what you see from me? A perfect soldier who doesn't live his own life, but lives the orders of his superiors? That's not me, Duo. I used to be that, but I'm not anymore. I breathe, I think, I live. Doesn't that set me apart from the perfect soldier you used to know? Or is that how you still see me?"

Duo paused, then closed the gap that stood between them as he walked over to where the chocolate haired boy stayed, glance downcast. He narrowed his eyes at him, and the other looked up into them. The sudden joy that had set into the rooms faded slowly away. Duo touched three soft fingers gently to Heero's cheekbone, falling down them slowly, feeling the imperfect skin. "No…" He said, looking into the blue eyes. "No, I don't. Not anymore. You…you're somebody different than the boy I met that one fateful night." Searching into his eyes, Duo's mouth opened slightly. "You're someone new, someone different…someone better…"

Heero reached up slowly and grasped his companion's hand. Lowering both of them slowly, he gave a small smile, a true burden taken off his chest kind of smile.

Duo couldn't take it anymore, and swung his arms around the other, smiling and smelling his scent. Heero hugged back tightly, leaning his eyes onto Duo's neck, then raising his head to smell the other pilot's unique scent.

This silence…this silence is breaking…. I can hear a little more, I can feel a little more. Slowly, we're winning this battle against the empty nothingness, slowly, but surely.

"Come on, Heero, we need to go…" Duo called softly. He pulled away and wiped his nose quickly. "We're going to be late if we don't hurry."

Heero smiled, and pulled on his leather jacket. "Got your goggles?" He asked, and Duo held his up in his leather jacket. "We're going to be fashionably late, in style."

Duo let out a snort. "Isn't that repetitive?" He questioned, and Heero just shrugged. Duo smiled, and they left the room in a rush to the motorcycle sitting in the shed by the house.

Duo whistled in awe when Heero pulled out the glossy midnight blue bike. "How long have you had this baby?" He asked quietly, checking out the features.

"Just a few days, actually. I was going to ride it this morning, but the weather was too bad." Heero replied, handing Duo a helmet that matched the blue of the bike. Inside was a pair of midnight blue riding gloves.

Duo looked up guiltily to the softly raining skies. The clouds were a light grey, and the delicate pitter patter of raindrops on the cement was relaxing. He slipped on the helmet and gloves, and checked out his seat on the bike.

"Come on, we don't have all day." Heero said from the front seat, turning on and revving the engine. Duo climbed about on the back, pulling down his goggles. Seating himself comfortably and making sure his feet were in the correct position, Duo grinned. Looking back to see if everything was check, Heero revved the engine once more and stepped on the gas.

A feeling of ecstasy filled Duo, as if the air around his was filled with it. The wind rushed through his hair, whipping at his face, cool, crisp, clean air that filled his lungs. The speed of the bike caught up to them, and Duo felt another rush as he eyed the objects they flashed by. The rain fell onto them, harder as they went against it, soon, soaking into his skin. He could feel the power blast through his system, as if he was at the handlebars, instead of holding on tightly onto his crush. Emotions soared through his system, rooting through blood veins, pumping his heart, creating wings for his spirit to soar. He felt free as he sliced through the air, hearing the wind charge through his ears, echoing into his brain. There was no silence here, he thought. No silence at all.

They sped through the town, slowing down at the lights and speeding up again as they turned green once more. Heero could feel Duo's gloved hands squeezing him tightly, his head rubbing his back, and he felt that he too, could fly. Warm waves splashed over him, and he smiled appreciatively.

Slowly, the bike began to decelerate as they neared the school's large entrance driveway. The bike finally came to a stop, and both riders hopped off, locking the bike and their helmets up.

Duo turned and smiled at Heero. "That was sweet, man. I need a pair of wheels like that." He said, and grinned.

Heero grinned back. "I'm glad they let me have them. Custom made and everything."

Duo's mouth dropped. "No way! They actually custom made it for you!? I thought those bastards would just stop by the closest shop and pick one up for you."

"No way, I wouldn't have it any other way. If they did, I'd send it back." Duo clapped him on the back, and the two headed inside, attempting to shake off all the water on them.

As they stepped in the crowded hall, they searched for their companions. The room was packed with people trying to get out of the rain and finish their business at the school.

Duo raised his goggles to the top of his head, Heero following suit. "Aha!" He called, pointed to a blonde boy filling out a form at a table. "There's Quatre, and Trowa, too, but I don't see Wufei anywhere...!"

Heero shrugged, and began to walk to the two companion pilots. "'Sup, dog?" Duo asked the blonde.

Quatre turned around and smiled. "Nothin' much, homie. Whuz shaking a' your frat house?" The two laughed at their lingo. "No, really, did you finish up what you were doing?"

Duo rolled his eyes, searching for an answer. "Well…kind of... We were in this major argument. I was pissed at hell at him, and Heero didn't want to go anywhere until we settled it."

"You weren't too nice yourself, you know!!" He answered defensively, trying to support Duo's case. He held up with scratched and bruised arm. "I didn't get this from falling out of bed."

Quatre smiled. "So, you guys okay now?"

Duo chuckled. "Well, pretty much." He leaned in, whispering to Quatre. "Heero finally blew it, and so did I, and after that, things just went downhill."

Heero, who had started a conversation with Trowa about classes, didn't notice. "I fell asleep when we weren't speaking to each other. I didn't get much last night, so I was really tired." He continued.

"Well, it didn't help that you brought this huge storm on, either." Quatre whispered. "I bet that worsened your condition."

Duo gave a faraway 'yeah', and thought of the rain outside, occasionally followed by lightening and thunder. "It's still going, but not as roughly." He commented.

Quatre gave him a small rub on the back and picked up a form from the table. "This has been taking so long. I've been filling out sheets for you and Heero, as well, in case you guys didn't make it on time. I didn't want you to have to go tomorrow because these classes fill up pretty quickly, and first come first served." He handed more sheets to Duo, and some to Heero. "Fill these out, you two. We'll be done soon."

***

"Fresh air! Finally!" Duo called as the five boys stepped outside the busy building. He took a giant breath, breathing in the rainy air with its clean scent.

Quatre sighed and rubbed his eyes. "That took a lot longer than I thought it would." He commented.

"Maxwell, Yuy, how did you two arrive here? We took the bus, but it doesn't arrive back at our house for awhile." Wufei questioned.

Heero headed over to their motorcycle parked on the grass. "Wheels. How else?" He unlocked the bike and grabbed their helmets, giving one to Duo. "We aren't going to walk on a day like this."

The three other pilot's jaw dropped at the sight of the motorcycle. "When did you…" Wufei asked, stunned.

"This week. I asked the doctors for one, to get around if I need to dig up information on our enemies."

Trowa walked slowly to the bike, gingerly touching the paint job. "No kidding…" He checked out the bike, moving around it and staring at the parts. "Custom job, you can tell… Either that, or you've stolen some rejected satellite bike … This thing is fast, but not fast enough for racing."

Heero shrugged. "I asked, but they don't give, sometimes. I think that's the only things they put restrictions on." He put on his helmet and climbed onto the bike next to Duo.

I can hear it…I can hear it…! My friends, the rain…I can hear it here! Duo smiled and adjusted his goggles over his face, putting on the helmet afterwards. "Hey, sitting in the rain is nice and all, but seriously, I think we'll see you all later. I'm starting to get cold here."

Quatre snapped to attention. "Yes, yes, Duo's right. We shouldn't be standing here! Come on, come on, let's go wait for the bus, or else we'll miss it." Trowa looked at his watch, about to say something, but Quatre pushed him on. "Come, come. Now, you guys go home right now, no wasting! We're all getting soaked here, but we brought umbrellas, unlike you. So get a move on, come on!" He attempted to get Duo and Heero going, hoping Duo would be okay in his fairly weakened condition. He had already stayed in drenched clothes once, they needn't repeat it.

Heero shrugged, turned the engine, and turned to Duo as Quatre backed away, pulling out an umbrella. "Are you ready?" He asked, and felt warm arms wrapped around his stomach hug him. He turned away, smiling widely, gunning the engine and blasting off.

As the wind raced through Duo's hair once again, he felt his spirit soar. They were excited about the bike, they were talking! You could see them smile, you could hear their amazed voices. I could hear it! I could feel them! I could really feel them, their spirit, their core come to life over this bike. There's hope, I can get them to smile at home, I can get them to uncover the darkness that hides in the corners of that house. I can get them to break the silence in their rooms, their souls. There's hope yet!

MS: Soooo?? How did you like it? Can Duo break the silence? You'll have to wait and see!

Peach: Did you people enjoy the chapter? Please review if you did or didn't, just to let us know what we can fix and what we should add. Thank you!