Hey!! Sorry it's been a long time coming but things suddenly got really hectic around here. Two essays due the same day and mass amounts of tests! Argh! Plus I got my permit so I've been doing some drive time at the local park-and-ride! Hehe^_^ So anyway, I don't own any of the Gundam characters, "Somewhere Out There" by Our Lady Peace, "One More Minute" by Authority Zero, "Faithless" by Injected, the name "Stainger" is taken from a DJ off my favorite local radio station The End and
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/~_*_~\
~All we are is all so far.
You're falling back to me, the star that I can't see.
I know you're out there, somewhere out there.~
By the next weekend, Heero had completed his "Duo's music collection" and started listening to the radio station he had found regularly. Unfortunately though there was nothing else from "Shinigami." Evenings were spent working on his essay. The topic seemed shallow on the surface, but after going through what he had, Heero had tome full of people who he wished he could have saved: the little girl and her dog, Noventa, the hundreds upon thousands of casualties caused by the war. This one was not going to be an easy essay to write.
Heero sat down at his laptop and opened a Word Document along with the radio broadcast. DJ Stainger was on again, the same DJ who had been on the first time he listened.
"Hello again! On the phone we have a very special guest, the omnipotent Shinigami!!" Heero's breathe caught in his throat. He knew he couldn't get his hopes up, it could be millions of people. After the Marimea, the gundam pilots were thought of as heroes and people everywhere took up nicknames in honor of the gundams. He had seen junior high students with names like Wing, and Sandrock on the back of their sports' sweatshirts. Duo had become a favorite of many, and it wouldn't be at all surprising if this "Shinigami" turned out to be some pothead junior high kid.
"So Shin my man how's it goin' dude?"
"Not bad, just callin' in since I'm getting ready for tonight's gig and all," Heero almost fell out of his chair. It was Duo; it had to be Duo. The voice was deeper than he remembered, but it was his all right. And the speech pattern hadn't changed a bit. Heero had been given his extra chance, now he just had to figure out a way to make the best of it. Heero listened intently to the rest of the conversation,
"Ahh, so any news ya wanna give us on your next single's release date?" Duo chuckled and Heero's heart skipped a beat; he had missed that chuckle,
"Well the next single off our new album should be released within the next few weeks, I can't remember the official date but I'm sure it on the website. If you want you can all head over to www.wzeromusic.com for tour dates and our cool new merchandise!"
"Well we'll be plugging your band all day, Shin. Thanks for the call man and I'll be seeing ya tonight!"
"Always a pleasure Stainger! Come down and see my band Befound tonight everyone!" Duo was in a band? Heero could hardly believe it. But then again it made sense, since Duo had always had a great passion for music.
Heero typed in the web link into his browser and looked around. The site was black with white lettering and nicely done graphics. Links for lyrics, biography, tour dates and merchandise were on red guitar picks on the top of the page. Heero was disappointed that there wasn't a link for a picture gallery but decided he'd deal with what he did have. He clicked on biography.
The page header read "Befound Biography and History" Then under that was the list of the four members and their respective instruments, Duo Maxwell: Bass and lead vocals. Duo on vocals? Heero hadn't ever heard him sing so he could really begin to imagine Duo being lead vocals but who knows.
Heero looked over the page and realized that the band had started little over a month from the date of Duo's disappearance. Nowhere in the biography did it mention that Duo had been a former gundam pilot.
Heero then looked over the rest of the page; he read every lyric and ordered three shirts, he was beginning to become a little obsessive with the whole thing but he didn't care. The last page he went to was the tour dates page. He found out that the band was ending a three month long tour over the US and that one of their last shows was that night in San Diego. Just when Heero had thought he had found him, Duo had to go off and leave again.
~You're falling out of reach, defying gravity,
I know you're out there, somewhere out there.~
Then a thought struck Heero. It would almost be easier to find Duo if he was on tour. Heero could just choose a show and he would be guaranteed to see Duo. It was perfect.
He knew he'd have to tie up loose ends at home though. He'd have to talk to his teacher and see if he could get his assignments in advance, let everyone know he'd be gone on vacation, and above all he'd have to figure out which of the last five shows he wanted to go to.
Heero looked at each date and it's respective city. He spent a half an hour doing calculations and decided that his best bet would be to catch the show in Seattle and some place called the Showbox. The show was a little over three weeks away and was the fifth and final stop on the tour. Heero started making phone calls.
/~_*_~\
Two weeks passed by at an agonizingly slow pace. Heero had been so pumped up that he had made all the arrangements that night. He had even called Quatre, which was an oddity in itself since Quatre was the one who always called him.
The first week passed quickly since he decided to go clothes shopping for the trip and made arrangements with the post office concerning his mail. He had booked the plane tickets and made hotel arrangements that night, so he decided to develop a detailed itinerary of his stay. He scoped out the Seattle restaurant scene and made a list of places he wanted to make sure to visit.
The second week passed by at the pace of a snail. He had done everything needed and all that was left to do was go through his normal everyday routine. He noticed more than once that he had begun to tap his fingers or shift in his seat while working or during class. Heero was more flustered than he had ever been in his life. He had piloted a mobile suit with complete calm, carried out assassinations, infiltrated a base crawling with Oz personnel, but he didn't even have the patience to wait one week.
He had waited a year and a half to see Duo and he couldn't wait any longer.
~Hope you remember me, when you're homesick and need a
change.
I miss your purple eyes, I miss the way you taste.~[1]
The morning of his flight approached and Heero climbed out of bed having not slept at all the night before. He gathered his suitcase and duffle bag, locked his apartment and left out the glass doors in the lobby. He took a taxi to the airport and waited at the terminal for his flight. While sitting there watching the planes take off, Heero began to have doubts.
~I know you'll come back someday, on a bed of nails awake.
I'm praying that you don't burn out, or fade away.
All we are is all so far ~
What if Duo didn't feel the same as he had that June day all those months ago? What if he the reason he hadn't contacted Heero was that he was trying to start a new life? What if the Duo Heero met the next day wasn't the same Duo who had been so special to him? What if Heero was making a huge mistake? His foot began to tap unconsciously.
'No,' he rebuffed his previous thoughts, 'Duo left it up to me. He left the ball in my court for me to figure out how to make the shot.'
The announcement was made that his flight was beginning boarding. He picked up his duffle bag and headed over to the gate. He found his seat a few rows from the back of the plane and put his duffle bag in the overhead compartment before sitting down. The person sitting next to him was a young kid obviously on his way to visit family in the States over the holidays. The kid munched happily on a snack that had been passed out to all of the passengers.
Heero smiled as he watched the look of awe on his companion's face from looking out the window at the tarmac below. Heero absently wondered where this kid's parents were and why he was on such a long flight by himself. Heero studied the child's face and estimated the boy to be about 10 years old. He began to remember the things he had done at that kid's age and realized that he shouldn't worry about a kid flying across the Pacific Ocean in a plane full of adults.
Heero nodded off a few hours into the flight. After making up for the sleep he had missed the night before he awoke feeling thirsty and noticing that the flight attendants were passing around drinks, hailed one over and asked for a bottle of water. The neatly made up woman smiled at him and handed him a water. He smiled and thanked her.
Just as he was about to take a large swig of the bottle, the kid next to him spoke up,
"Um, excuse me sir for asking, but you wouldn't happen to be Mr. Heero Yuy would you?" Heero smiled around the mouth of the bottle and pulled it from his lips and turned to the boy,
"Well, yes I am actually," the kid's eyes widened and a look of shock overtook his face. Heero's brain began to analyze this look. Maybe the reason the kid was alone was that he was a war orphan, maybe Heero had killed his parents. He tried to think up an excuse he could use to get himself out of this mess.
"Wow!" the little boy finally spoke but his shock had been replaced with great joy,
"I can't believe it's you! My teacher's been teaching us about the gundams since it's the anniversary of the war this month! All my friends'll be real jealous when I tell um all that I met you on my way to Seattle!!" Heero smiled. It wasn't often that he met kids who looked up to him. During the war he had been unwanted, hunted, but now he and his former comrades were heroes to kids. He almost felt unworthy of the worship of this kid.
"Well, I don't think the gundam pilots can take all the credit. Many people helped me out during the war there are many people who are still fighting to maintain the peace," the little boy scowled a bit,
"Yah, my teacher says that the person who won the war was Relena Peacecraft, but I don't believe her. How could a girl that just stood around and talked win a war? And all she does now is give big long speeches and pose for pictures with her husband."
Heero chuckled and ruffled the kid's hair,
"Yes, that is true, but Relena did help some to win the war," the little boy looked up at Heero from underneath his ruffled bangs.
"I think you won the war Mr.Yuy. I think that you and Mr. Maxwell were the ones to win the war for all of us." Heero felt better than he had in a long time knowing that this little boy thought so highly of him. He removed his hand from the little boy's head and leaned back in his seat.
"It's funny you should mention Mr. Maxwell. I'm actually going on my way to visit him," the little boy's eyes grew wide again and a smile lit up his face,
"Really? Could you get me his autograph? He's my second favorite gundam pilot!" Heero laughed.
"I'm sure I can manage it for you. But wait, if he's your second favorite then who's your first?" the little boy laughed,
"Don't be silly! My favorite pilot is you Mr. Yuy!!" Heero felt like he might cry. He was someone's favorite pilot. He realized at that moment that he didn't know this little boy's name even.
"Well then, who should I have Mr. Maxwell make the autograph out to then?" the little boy bounced up and down in his seat. A personalized autograph was more than he had asked for!
"It would be super awesome if you could have him make it out to Thomas Woods! That's me by the way,"
"I kind of figured that one out. Well here, if you give me your address then I can mail it to you and send you a letter every so often." Heero pulled out a pen and paper from his duffle bag.
"You would write me letters?!??!" the little boy almost yelled with his excitement,
"Of course I would! I couldn't sleep at night knowing that I had no idea how my number one fan was doing!"
Heero took down the excited child's address and spent the rest of the flight learning about the kid. Turned out that Thomas was on his way home to Seattle after visiting his relatives in Tokyo. His grandfather owned a dojo on the outskirts of the city and Thomas had gone to watch his cousin perform in a large and prestigious martial arts tournament.
The kid finally nodded off to sleep a few hours before their expected arrival in Seattle. Heero had gotten a blanket out from the overhead compartment and covered the kid up. He then pulled out his Discman from his duffle bag and put his new Injected CD in. He needed to get ready for seeing Duo the next day by listening to some good mood music.
The next thing Heero knew he was being shaken awake by someone.
"Hey Mr. Yuy!! We're here now and they're letting us get off the plane now! Mr. Yuy come on you gotsta wake up so you can go meet up with Mr. Maxwell!"
Heero's cloudy mind registered two things: we're here, and Mr. Maxwell. He instantly shot awake and smiled at his number one fan. He gathered up his stuff and walked with Thomas off the plane and through the gates. After they had made it into the interior of SeaTac airport, Heero lifted Thomas up and carried him on his shoulders. The little kid began waving his hands and shouting at a group of people who were most likely his family,
"Guess who I met on the plane!!!!" he began waving even harder.
Heero let the kid down, and the boy then grabbed his hand and pulled him over to his family.
"Hey Mom and Dad!! This is Mr. Yuy and he sat next to me on the plane ride! He's gonna write letters to me and get me Mr. Maxwell's autograph!!" Thomas jumped up and down excitedly. Heero put his hand out to Thomas father,
"It's a pleasure to meet the man who raised such a great kid." Thomas's father shook his hand heartily,
"You wouldn't know what an honor it is to be meeting my son's hero, let alone the man who saved the Earth and its colonies!" Heero blushed, it was one thing for a child to look up to him, but it was entirely different when a man twice his age did the same.
Thomas's mother spoke up from her place next to her husband,
"You have no idea how much it means to Thomas to have met you! I was just wondering if it would be okay if I got picture of the two of you?" Heero smiled at her,
"On one condition: that you'll send me a copy." The woman smiled and nodded the affirmative as Heero picked Thomas back up and the two of them posed for a picture.
After promising to try and come visit him, Heero waved goodbye to his young fan and headed down to baggage claim. He waited as bags and parcels went along the metal carousel until his finally came down the chute. He gathered his suitcase and left to catch a shuttle to his hotel.
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Well?? Did I do okay? The next few parts are written so I have some writing time before I'm pushing a deadline! Oh and I went to go see Spirited Away!! That was a totally awesome movie!!! Everyone needs to go see it!! Well lots 'o' love to ya all out there reading this!!
~Kaitou Rinna-chan