The car ride held peace like Heero had never witnessed nor experienced before. The stronger presence of his foster mother made him feel like fighting again and he realized something.

It had been a month since he had been under custody with his foster parents and now, currently, parent. He realized that he would be free but he didn't want to leave his mother alone and unprotected in the world.

Heero looked out the window, the eyes of Duo-neko looking at him with slight worry. The cat could read his seemingly blank face expressions, something people even had trouble with. He had a growing feeling that there was more to the cat that it looked.

"Heero?" His mother questioned, her eyes not diverting to him from the road.

"Hn?" Heero said, turning as he turned away from the window to look at his mother and Duo-neko who was sitting curled up in the middle of the seats.

"Your mission is over." She commented and Heero could tell she was having an inner battle. The last time, the same thing had happened. She had told him to be careful and try not to die so that she could see him again and not in death.

"Yes, it is." Heero said as he lowered his eyes slightly and pulled up his knees and reclined the seat slightly. He looked at the roof of the car. "I got the information that J needed me to bring him."

His mother snorted and he glanced at her as she managed a slight glance at her son. "I think it's ridiculous that an old man like that forces you around, nearly killing you." She said with slight ferocity. "How could that man let you go into a household like…ours…" She whispered out the last part but Heero heard perfectly.

"He knew." He saw her jerked her head to look at him with wide eyes before looking back quickly at the road, finding an opening and pulling off on the side of the highway with blinkers flashing in warning.

"W-What?"

"He knew about what he did." Heero said quietly before turning to look out the window again, not wanting to meet the eyes of the neko and his mother. "J thought it might toughen me up or something."

"Bull." The woman seethed with refueled anger.

"I want you to be safe during the war," Heero said as she decided to pull off into the highway again and continue their journey. "I want you to stay at Dr. J's hideaway."

"Why?" His mother questioned lightly. "You know that I hate that man." She declared with an aura of defiance in her.

"I care about you." Heero whispered out, not tearing his gaze from the passing scenery for an instant. "I don't want you to get hurt in the crossfire or get captured by the enemy."

"What if you don't win the war?" That was always a question he sometimes questioned himself with; what if they didn't win. Then what would happen?

"Then we'll both die together." He turned away from the window, focusing all his energy on trying to make her stay with the old man. "Besides, with the missions that I get from J you'll know if I'm alive or not and sometimes I report back to the base."

His mother looked out the window, a thoughtful expression on her pleasant features.

"It'd be for your own good." Heero commented as he shifted slightly.

"All right." She said as they continued driving, Heero giving her the coordinates to their new destination on the colony.

"This is it?" His mother questioned with a look of awe on her face after they reached their destination. The elegant house cast a shadow over the two people and the cat.

"Yeah, imagine it like the Mafia." Heero commented as he made his way to the building and lightly knocked on the door in a sort of rhythm.

"Heero." A crackled voice said slightly as the door opened. Mimir, Heero's foster mother blinked at the old man. He was wearing odd looking glasses and didn't have one arm, which was replaced with a mechanical arm. He had a can in the real hand and wore a long lab trench coat.

"Dr. J." Heero said formally in an emotionless type of voice. Duo-neko meowed and then the doctor averted his gaze and let his eyes fall upon the cat looking at him with purple wise eyes.

"Well," The doctor chuckled. "If it isn't 02, Duo Maxwell." The doctor darkly laughed.

"MEOW!" Duo let out in mild surprise. How had the doctor known it was him?

"Duo?" Heero said slowly as he turned his face to look at the cat with hidden surprise in his prussian eyes.

"Yes, it looks to me as though someone used that new product out on line. It's temporary of course." The doctor commented idly as he ushered the two people and one human neko into the house.

Leading them down a hallway, he opened a door, which led to a giant laboratory room where Heero placed a disk involving all information on Dorothy Catolony, a person that might have shown threat to their plans.

"Can you reverse the process?" Mimir questioned softly as she picked up the human-neko and stroked his softly.

"Yes." Dr J said as he glnaced at her before looking at Heero.

"Why is she here?" He questioned the teenager somewhat sharply. "You could easily have made your way here without involoving others."

"I asked her to stay here."

"You WHAT." The doctor said sharply, tone implying severe pain to the teenager for acting outside of orders.

"OZ might find her and she may leak out information." Heero said, sending a glance to Mimir in forgiveness to her for making it sound like she might have betrayed him.

"Then why didn't you silence here?"

Heero didn't respond to this. He should have expected the old man to say something like that.

The doctor turned to look at the woman again and saw how she was somewhat pretty in repose. He sighed heavily. He had to be rough on the boy since the Barton Foundation might pull their funding for him any time if he didn't follow his orders.

"You," He lifted an old and withered finger to point at Mimir who looked at him without fear, which the old man recognized and took into note. "Can you do accounting and other work?" He questioned her.

She looked at him somewhat suspiciously, which brought a grin to the old man inwardly. She was smart, not some simpleton, which was good to know. "Yes, what I don't I can learn."

"Good." He said shortly with a somewhat tender note in his brash tone. "You can stay here than."

"Thank you." She whispered lightly, knowing that even if Heero didn't show it, he was thankful also.

"Now, how about I change that cat back to the real sly teenager he is?" J chortled lightly as he turned to face the cat and beckoning for it to follow him.

In front of a machine that had the engraved words of 'familiar' in them, Dr. J pressed a red button, which opened the door with a slight psht sound. "Hop in." The tone of voice left no room for arguing as Duo hopped lightly and gracefully into the looming machine.

"Be careful Duo." The neko heard from Heero who shocked him slightly with these words. A smile formed in his mind; perhaps Heero did love him. Then he heard Heero speak again, only to the doctor this time saying, "I'll kill you if he dies or gets screwed up over this."

"Yes, I know that very well." The doctor said with a light laugh. "I may be old, but I've been watching you for some time and know what he means to you." Silence met this and hopes rose even more in Duo's heart.

Sure he was cold and didn't respond, but Heero wasn't exactly the type of person to go prancing around declaring his feelings.

Smoke crept into the chamber that Duo was locked in and he took anything that came at him; he wasn't afraid of death.

Owari

Author's note:

Muahhaah! Well, what do y'all think of the last chapter in the story? : ) I'm so evil I laugh! (ha ha). Anyhow, I'm somewhat happy to add this to my short story collection. Perhaps if enough people like this story enough I'll add an epilogue with possibly some romance.