I apologize for my extended absence! But I'm back and I've got new ideas for this story! Please Review! Tell me what you think! I'm going to be updating once a week!

Chapter 2: Jump start

True to Quatre's word Duo was able to meet up with the blonde and Trowa at a restaurant. In the Middle of their dinner a middle aged woman walked up to Quatre. Her brown hair was pinned and her golden eyes were protected by a pair of stylish glasses. She smiled at the blonde.

"Hello, Mr. Winner" she said kindly. Quatre motioned towards the empty chair besides Duo.

"Hi Amanda, Duo this is Amanda. She's the one in charge of the project you will be working on." Quatre said politely. "Amanda, this is Duo, he a good friend of mine ad I believe he could become a great asset to the team."

Amanda and Duo shook hands. "Duo, I called Amanda to join us so that she could run through the basics of this project," He nodded to Amanda and she began.

"The projects Name is Project: Hybrid" she began and handed Duo a average size file. "There are not a lot working on the project it's extremely confidential" Duo nodded as he opened the file. He read the first page.

"SO, you want to make the colonies metal stronger?" Duo asked looking at Quatre. The blonde nodded. "Why?"

"Think Duo, what happens when war breaks out again? Do you know how vulnerable the colonies are? By making a metal it protects the citizens of the colony." Duo nodded, he had seen how the Colonies' shields had failed, he had seen how weak the protective shield of titanium crumbled. "Also, we've been looking at the alloy that is used now, is slowly, very slowly but steadily decaying." Duo immediately understood.

"SO, whose the team?" Duo asked flipping the page. A picture of a middle aged man with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes stared back at him.

"Jonathan Jackson, Technician, he's the one who makes sure our machines are functioning He's experienced in many types of machinery, he was sought after greatly during the war" Duo turned the page. A blonde young woman with bright blue eyes stared back at him "Minako Aino, Receptionist, she doesn't know anything about the project, she just runs a small filing office for us to store the blue prints and profiles, she's just a cover." Duo turned the page a third time. A picture of a woman with dark hair, dark eyes and a lab coat "Dr. Janice Smith, she's been making sure the metals composition is stable, safe and strong." Duo turned the page again. A picture of two people greeted him, one a young man with sandy blonde hair and green eyes, the other a girl black hair and gray eyes. Both were his age, 18. "Aidan and Emily Mcoy, twins, our welders they make sure everything will be sealed tight" Duo turned the page. Another 2 people's pictures greeted him. One was a woman with dark skin and dark hair her eyes were gray, the other a man black hair black eyes and obvious Asian decent. "Kidist and Kadsuki Mei, Husband and wife for 3 years, Engineers, they make sure nothing falls apart in the creation." Duo finished the pages in the file. He closed it and handed it to Amanda.

"That's a good team you've got there, what would I be doing?" Duo asked.

"You'll be the teams counselor, every decision goes through you before me" Amanda said she looked at Quatre "Mr. Winner has put you just bellow me in ranks, I hope you prove yourself." Duo nodded.

"Don't Worry, I will" Duo said and a glint sparked in his eyes that made Quatre and Trowa sigh in relief. This next step was needed, give Duo the chance to prove himself, to prove his worth. They're old Duo was slowly coming back.

"Well, I must leave, I have another job to work on as well, Duo work starts tomorrow at 8 ,pleasure to meet you. Good bye Mr. Winner" with that said Amanda stood up and left.

Once again they parted for a while as Duo claimed he still hadn't checked out the whole city. Quatre and Trowa, agreed to let him do so and that Duo should call them when he's done.

Duo ended up calling Quatre around 8 (2 hours later), after "scoping out" the city. He was to meet them at what seemed like an abandoned warehouse in the city, 2 hours and 250 wrong turns later, Duo found it.

"Got Lost Duo?" Trowa asked raising a humored eyebrow. Duo chuckled.

"Slightly" he said

"Duo" Quatre said excitedly. "Allow me to present to you you're new place" Quatre motioned to the fore-mentioned warehouse and Duo stared at the blonde in true confusion.

"Kit kat, THAT is a warehouse something we used a LONG time ago as a place where our GUNDAMS used to stay, not us" Duo said looking around for something resembling a safe house. Quatre slipped the keys of the door from Trowa's pocket. Trowa looked at him his face half amused as Quatre quickly ran towards the door and Duo. Quatre was still a child at heart, no war or work day has ever been able to take that away from his blonde lover and that was something he knew he would love about Quatre forever. When he reached the door it was already open and Duo was standing in the door way in shock. With the light of the moonlight, which came from the skylight, you could see that the warehouse had been converted into a trendy loft. Upon entering you were immediately greeted with a large space, to the far right was a living room set up with a flat screen TV on the wall, to the far left was a bar that was also part of the kitchen. To his direct left he was greeted by a slab of concrete in the floor, past the slab of concrete was a hallway. Trowa slid past Duo's still shocked form and opened a garage like door.

"You park your bike here." Trowa said lightly. Duo snapped out of his shocked state. Quatre then took the opportunity to flick on the lights.

"The hallway leads to a half bathroom, a bedroom and stairs." Trowa continued as Quatre led Duo to sit down on the couch. "Upstairs there are two more bed rooms and a full bathroom. The hallway for the loft is rather wide so we set up a small office upstairs for you." Duo looked at Quatre then at Trowa.

"How'd you do this? How long did you guys and Hilde have this planned?" Duo asked.

"Well, we had 16 hours in total to get this all set up. The loft here was Wufei's he has relatives in china that used to go to Japan, but now they no longer use it, it has been abandoned for about 3 years now. He gave it to us with out any complaint and I sent a group of designers and helpers to get it done ASAP." Quatre said. "Tomorrow they will be returning"

"What for?" Duo asked. Quatre pointed to a wall that was empty and painted a simple white.

"I made a request for them to draw a life-sized Deathscythe customs" Quatre said sheepishly," I know how hard it was for you when you had to destroy it, so I wanted to give something back to you" Quatre Said. Duo quickly grabbed Quatre and pulled him into a hug.

"Thanks Kit Kat, I really would like that" Duo said letting go of Quatre. He stood up and Gave Trowa a hug as well.

"I promise guys, I wont let you down" Duo said tears of happiness brimming his eyes. Quatre pulled him into another hug.

"Duo, it's not letting us down," Quatre choked a sob. "We just want you to be happy, Heero, he was special to you, and you need to start living without his ghost over your shoulder" Quatre said smoothing Duo's hair. Trowa kneeled to be eye level with Duo.

"Heero, and I weren't very different, and I know that he wouldn't want you living with out aim or life. Live Duo and THAT will make Heero's ghost rest in peace." Duo nodded holding back his tears and nodding his eyes not set with determination.

"Your right Trowa, I…I can't live in the past, it hurts too much, I …I have to let go of Heero," Duo said "and live for him"

"That's it Duo!" Quatre smiled wiping the ear tracks on Duo's cheeks. "Now I have to go, I'll visit you whenever I can and I think Wufei will too, you should've seen how worried he was when we told him how you were"

"Wu-man?" Duo asked. Trowa and Quatre nodded.

"We had to promise him 60 times that you were going to be ok before he finally agreed to stay at his house and take over the earth, dragon clans duties" Quatre chuckled.

"I knew Wu-man cared" Duo chuckled.

"He does, and so do we Duo, so get started with that new life of yours" Trowa said giving Duo a last hug and holding out an envelope "we also had to promise Wufei we'd give you this, its from him" with that Trowa and Quatre hand in hand left the flat allowing Duo to settle down and pull himself together.

Duo opened the envelope inside was 3 things; a note, a check for 800 and a parchment. Duo opened the parchment first. It was a beautiful drawing of all five Gundams the smooth and sure strokes of ink meant only one thing, Wufei had drawn it himself. The note was the next thing he unfolded.

It read: Here's a sketch for you to frame and keep close by, I'm sorry I have not contacted you as much as I wished, but business for the Dragon clan on earth has been hectic. I sincerely hope your new life will make you feel better and expect me to visit soon; Your brother in arms, Chang Wufei…PS: use the money I sent on whatever you want, consider it two years worth of birthday presents' Duo smiled at the letter, pocketed the check and left the drawing and letter on the bar. Duo went off to explore the rest of the house.

This was a new life. And he was determined to make this new life his.

TBC

Awwwww…ain't that cute? Don't forget to review