Demon's Angel

Chapter 3

AN: the characters and settings of Gundam Wing AC do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them to play with. OOC, AU, future Yaoi, and X-over warnings.

When the new boy hadn't regained consciousness for even a few minutes by the end of second day Father Maxwell had gotten worried enough to start talking about calling a doctor the next morning. However that step was proven unnecessary when the boy suddenly woke up halfway through his third night in the Father's study.

At first the only one who noticed the boy's increasing restlessness was Duo who now spent most of his time either sitting next to or curled up under the cot the black haired boy slept in, watching and waiting for him to wake up. Father Maxwell was engrossed in finishing writing the Sermon for the next day. It wasn't until the boy started groaning and muttering to himself in Japanese, not that he knew that's what it was, that the elderly priest noticed what was occurring.

A moments later nearly everyone noticed the yelps that reverberated through the halls. Only three people heard the groans the followed.

The new kid was awake.

The first thing he'd done was try to get out of bed and while he had succeeded the only reason he hadn't cracked his head when his legs gave out was landing on top of Duo who'd jumped to catch him as he'd started falling. Father Maxwell couldn't help but find it amusing as he watched the boys try to untangle themselves as he walked over to help them. Lifting the older boy off of the younger, he made a note to tell Helen about this little fiasco, he was sure she'd find it entertaining as well.

Heaven only knew that they could use all the amusement they could find, things were tighter than ever at the orphanage since the passing of the new laws meant to get kids like Duo and his gang off the streets. Unfortunately the accompanying increase in their funding didn't match the increased number of children in the orphanage and both he and Helen had had to find ways to keep everyone squeaking by.

Not that he considered the extra children an inconvenience, heavens no, but he did wish that they could afford for the children to have more than one bath a week and maybe even fresh fruit occasionally.

Absorbed in his thoughts, Father Maxwell sat the larger boy back on his cot and told him no stay put for the moment while he sent Duo to get Sister Helen. That said and his demon out of the room, he did his best to get the boy he'd rescued to talk to him. To his surprise, it was relatively easy, he'd expected the boy to be just as unwilling to talk as most street children were when they first arrived.

By the time Duo was back, Sister Helen in tow, the Father had learned that the boy spoke some English but mostly Japanese, was name Ranma, and had no idea where he was, where he was from, or how he had gotten to where Father Maxwell had found him.

She was in the middle of moving wet clothes to the dryer when Duo bounced into the back courtyard grinning like mad. Since he'd barely moved out of the study since the new…child had been carried in by Father Jim, she figure that the occupant of the cot under the window in the study was finally awake.

Leaving the rest of the damp sheets in the basket and asking Amy to finish loading the dryer, she followed an excited Duo back into the church. By the time they'd reached the second floor Duo was pulling her along holding onto her wrist trying to get her to hurry up. She was amazed by the smile on the boy's face, and now that she had seen the real thing she recognized that his normal grin was little more than a mask, something to disguise his feelings and thoughts, both protection and camouflage.

As they came with in sight of the study door Duo ran ahead, braid bouncing against his narrow back, and slipped through the half open door as easily as an alley cat between a pair of trash cans. Her impression of him as a cat was only increased by the sight of him curled up against the older…boy who was currently sitting on the cot talking to Father Jim and stroking the younger child's braid.

Watching the two boys she began to realize that what she had thought was the increasing amount of trust Duo had shown her in the last few months was really only acceptance. For some reason it hurt seeing the boy, who's trust she'd worked so hard to gain, snuggled up against the strange boy-girl that Father Jim had found. She was beginning to actively wonder what the other had that she didn't to so quickly inspire trust when she heard Duo telling Father Jim that he'd known Ranma as long as he could remember.

She chided herself for being silly, of course there was nothing lacking in her ability to deal with children. The reason Duo was so close to the other was that they'd known each other before Duo came to the orphanage. She did wonder where the other boy had been and why they had been separated before Duo was brought into the orphanage though. If the way the seemed to be treating each other was any indication, she would have thought that Ranma would never have left Duo if he'd had any choice. Oh well, she could try to puzzle that out later. Right now she didn't really have the time, she needed to get supper started if anyone was going to eat that night and she had to get both boys settled in the ex-storage closet that was to be their new room.

Naturally they couldn't keep the older one in either the boy's or girl's dorms.

Duo was confused.

Somehow he knew this guy. He knew his name without asking and knew he was younger than he should be. He knew that he was Japanese and that he spoke English, Chinese, and a couple of other languages too. He also knew that he was the heir to the Anything Goes schools of martial arts and that somehow he'd taught Duo just about everything he knew about fighting and stealing. This was the guy that taught him to read and write and do basic math, and hadn't that surprised Sister Helen when she'd found out she didn't need to teach him those… Even the switching from boy to girl and back with cold and hot water was familiar.

He felt like he'd known this guy all his life, and for some reason he trusted him more than anyone he'd ever met. Only problem was he'd never met the guy before Father Maxwell brought him home.

Duo had spent the last several days more or less living in the Father's study, all the time watching or listening for the strange boy still sleeping in the cot above him, dreaming about him, or thinking about dreaming about him in the past. He still hadn't figured out what was going on. Was he going nuts, or had he really dreamed about this guy for most of his life? After the older boy woke up for bit and recognized him a couple of days after he showed up Duo had been even more confused than before.

Duo had been dozing for about an hour when movement from above startled him awake. He listened for a few seconds until he heard muttering that was not coming from the direction of Father Maxwell's desk Excited by the prospect of his best friend finally waking up, Duo scrambled out from under the cot and perched on the chair beside it, eyes focused on the face of the unconscious form in front of him. He sat there listening and watching for almost fifteen minutes before actual words started becoming discernable from the steady stream of almost inaudible ramblings.

This being who it was, he was not in the least surprised by the fact that the words were Japanese. It sounded like his Onii-san was having a bad dream. He sounded upset and was muttering something about it's being cold and dark and not being able to move. Duo glanced nervously at the Father at his desk as Ranma got increasingly louder, his words changing. Now he was talking about a stupid panda and dropping it off the side of a ship chained to a couple of cars and something about girls and cats and uncute tomboys.

Father Maxwell didn't seem to notice what was going on until Ranma had increased his volume to the point where Duo could have heard him clearly across the room. At that point he came over to the cot and actually touched Ranma before Duo could stop him. As soon as the Father's had touched his shoulder the boy on the cot gasped, sat strait up and tried to jump out of the cot on to his feet.

It didn't work.

Duo didn't know who yelped louder him when Ranma started to fall, one foot still tangled in blankets, or Ranma when he hit the floor with Duo under him, finally awake enough to notice that he was face to face with the person he had thought was a sign of his impending insanity while trapped in that strange place he had ended up in when the Naban mirror shattered. He did know that he groaned the loudest afterwards still trapped under the larger form who had one elbow planted in Duo's stomach and the smaller boy solidly trapped beneath him. Duo could tell that Father Maxwell was trying to keep a grin off his face when he finally pulled Ranma off Duo and sat him back on the cot.

As he took off to look for Sister Helen like the Father asked Duo couldn't help but wonder if things were going to change now that the only person he'd ever fully trusted had turned out to be real.

AN: I lost some reviews when I switched this fic from GW to Ranma but still, thanks to everyone who's reviewed this fic here or there. I don't really know how long it'll be till the next chapter comes out.

Please review!