Author's Note: I am soo sorry about how long it took to get out. I have not forgotten about it. I just started college this year and it's kept me extremely busy. I'm on break at the moment which is how I got this out. So don't worry. I have not forgotten, just haven't had time. So be patient and I will get more out.

I even made this longer than usual to try to make up for it. It's a little less than twice the length of my usual chapters. Enjoy!!

Disclaimer: Kouma's mine. Yami is definitely mine. And Avery is mine. Maiyumi is mine. All else belongs to the people who own Gundam wing. Unfortunately I am not one of them.

CHAPTER 5

"Wow," Quatre breathed almost reverently as the band disappeared from the stage. He sighed dreamily crossing his arms on the edge of the stage and resting this chin atop of them as the rest of the stadium filed out. "Too bad Duo had to miss it. He would have loved it," he murmured, his hand running across the stage lightly. He suddenly jerked up, spinning to face the others. "We forgot to take pictures! Oh no! I wanted to take some for Duo!"

Trowa wrapped an arm around the small blonde's waist, hoping that it would help calm him down. "I am sure others took pictures. There will be some up on the internet tomorrow and Heero can always hack into the security tapes if it is that important to you," he offered quietly, glancing at Heero to assure Quatre that Heero would indeed do so if asked.

"Hn," Heero rolled his eyes, wondering slightly is Quatre was really that dense or simply too star struck to have noticed anything odd about the band, particularly about the drummer and lead singer.

Having finally come out of his zone like trance after his near disgrace, WuFei merely scoffed, watching the blonde. There was such a thing as being too open with one's feelings. Quatre was always displaying too much emotion. It would most likely get him into trouble one day. It was surprising that he had even survived the war, much less without becoming jaded like the rest of them.

Even Duo was jaded, perhaps the most of all. He never really showed it, but you could tell all the jokes were an act. Everyone knew that Duo was a totally different person inside than the one he showed to them in the safe houses during the war. The real Duo was starting to show up more often now that the war had ended. WuFei was particularly pleased by that fact since it meant Duo was obnoxious on a less frequent basis. Usually he was out with Marquise or working on his cars, which was fine with him.

*-*-*

Duo grinned tiredly to himself. He was pleased with how the concert had turned out. The meet and greet after had gone better than he had expected it would. Thankfully, Quatre hadn't heard of it. Only the relatives of the Label's employees had been invited, but word tends to get around. Luckily it hadn't gotten around fast enough for Quatre to weasel his way into it. It had ultimately been agreed to in hopes that the other ex-Gundam pilots would be asleep by the time that he and Zechs got home. He didn't care that it would sap what little energy he had left as long as it kept his secret safe.

"You alright, Du'?" Zechs asked softly, slipping an arm around the shorter boy's shoulders as he led him to the car. He opened the door, helping to ease him into the driver's seat and having him scoot over to make room for him. The drive home was rather short, but just long enough for the Shinigami pilot to drift off to sleep.

*-*-*

The next morning Duo woke up expecting Zechs to already be up and about, but he was surprised to find the blonde still sound asleep next to him. He carefully shifted onto his side, propping himself up on his elbow as he stared down at the man. "What's going on?" Duo whispered quietly to himself. "Heero should have done something by now, and he hasn't... Why does that not bother me as much as I thought would? Zechs what are you doing to me?" he groaned softly, leaning over the blonde to place a light kiss on his cheek before settling back into his previous position.

"I thought I loved Heero... When did I forget the goal? Damnit! I don't even know," he muttered burying his face in a pillow. "This wasn't supposed to happen... I can't do this anymore. I can't do this to Zechs. To me. I'm sorry, Zechs," he murmured to his sleeping partner as he eased himself out from underneath his arm. He padded over to the desk and scribbled out a note, scrubbing at his eyes as tears threatened to fall. "Duo Maxwell doesn't cry," he snapped bitterly to himself. He laid the note on the pillow he had been occupying earlier. He was gone by the time Zechs woke up and read it.

"What the..." he threw the covers off, getting out of bed to search the closet. "DAMNIT!" Duo was really gone, duffel bag, clothes and all. It was as if Duo had never lived in the room. Marquise yanked on a pair of jean, storming out of the room to find Heero, believing Duo's disappearance to have something to do with the cold pilot. "Heero! Were are you!?"

Quatre quickly scurried out of the man's way, not wanting to have the rage he felt pouring off of him to be temporarily directed at him. He watched him stalk off down the hall, picking up the crumpled piece of paper that had been dropped. Aqua eyes quickly scanned over it, widening when he realized that the entire relationship between the two had been faked. "Impossible," he murmured, looking up at where Zechs had disappeared around a corner. "It was real... everyone knew it... everyone but them," his head shook in amazement. "How could they have not known?"

Heero looked up from his laptop as Zechs burst threw the door, nearly ripping it off its hinges with the force he used to slam it open. He quietly shut down his computer and turned to face him, deciding that an irate Zechs was not someone he could ignore. He waited patiently to hear what was wanted of him.

"What have you said to Duo? He's gone and you have to be the reason! He's been waiting for you," he glared at the stoic ex-pilot, towering over the boy.

Heero blinked, rather surprised. Duo was gone? "I have no idea what you are talking about, Marquise."

Ice blue eyes narrowed suspiciously for a moment, a ragged sigh expelling once he realized it was the truth. "Turn the computer back on and find Duo," he finally ordered. "If you do not, I will hold you responsible if he does not turn up. You will report to me with whatever you find," and with that he turned and strode from the room, off to do his own searching for his little koi. He would not give up that easily. He hadn't meant to, but he had fallen in love with the boy. He never would have been able to let Heero take him away. He realized that now. If Heero hadn't said anything to him, than why had he left? And where had he gone? Back to L2?

*-*-*

"Yami! Open up!" Duo banged on the door, praying she was home.

The girl in question groaned, wondering what on earth was going on. If the person woke up her little sister, she'd maim them. It had taken over an hour to console the girl and finally get her to take a much needed nap. She yanked open the door about to yell at whomever it was, but immediately the words died in her throat as she saw a haggard looking Duo. "Duo?" she breathed, stepping aside to let him in, reaching down to take the bag from him. She was burning to ask questions, but knew that unless Duo wanted to talk, he wouldn't. She'd just have to wait for any explanations for his sudden appearance.

Duo followed silently as Yami led him to an empty bedroom. He assumed that it belonged to her brother for the rare occasions that he was home. He didn't know what the man did since Yami rarely talked about him. He took in the closed door across the room from the one he had been given and realized that Maiyumi must be asleep. "I didn't wake her up, did I?" he asked softly.

"No, I don't think so, but I'll check to make sure while you get comfortable in here. I'll put some hot chocolate on for you too. Looks like you could need it, love," she rested her hand on his shoulder briefly before moving across the hall to check on Mai. She sighed in relief when the little girl mumbled something in her sleep and curled up around the large stuffed bunny in her arms. She closed the door again and continued on to the kitchen to prepare the water.

"Still asleep?" he asked hopefully, sitting down at the small breakfast table.

Yami smiled at him over her shoulder as she reached up into a cupboard for two mugs, "you lucked out." She set the mugs on the countertop, taking a seat across from him. "Enjoy the concert yesterday?" she asked, deciding to steer clear of the topic of Zechs. She couldn't think of any other reason why the boy had run away. It had to have something to do with him or else, he would have gone to his lover.

A groan was her only answer for long seconds as Duo rested his head on his arms. "Yami... Zechs and I weren't really going out. Well, we were, but we weren't if that makes any sense," he hadn't bothered answering her question, knowing that she didn't really care about the answer. He knew she just wanted to figure out what was wrong, and he just wanted to talk to someone about it and she had seemed the perfect candidate. She was a girl after all. Girls understood complex emotional things. Quatre might have understood, but Quat would have told Trowa and then he'd just be too embarrassed to face the two ever again.

"Not quite, love. How were you not going out?" that was the part she needed clarified the most. Maybe once she understood that part, the rest would make more sense.

Duo sighed, his shoulders slumping. He didn't even flinch when the kettle blew, merely waiting for his friend to take it off the burner and pour the water. He lifted his head up and smiled gratefully when she placed his down in front of him. He inched forward in the chair, wrapping his hands around the hot mug loosely so that he wouldn't burn himself, but would still be able to keep his hands warm. "It wasn't real. Y'see, I really did meet him in my kitchen. He just showed up behind me while I was singing and making a sandwich," he took a small sip of the hot chocolate, watching Yami intently for any kind of response.

She simply nodded, holding her own mug just below her face, leaning her elbows on the table as she listened. She forced herself not to interrupt unless she deemed it necessary.

"Well, he was trying to hide out from his sister, Relena. Yes, the howler monkey," he gave a slight grin, catching sight of hers as she remembered the description he had used in their interview. "He chose it because he knew she wouldn't look for him there and yadda, yadda, yadda. I was staying there with four other guys, but I was the only one there at the time and would be for the next few days. He talked me into trusting him enough to let him stay, then he started hitting on me for some reason," he ignored her roll of the eyes and continued on. "I told him there was someone else, one of the other guys I lived with. So we were talking about that and how the guy pretended I didn't exist unless he had to acknowledge me. So, Zechs came up with the idea of posing as my boyfriend to make the guy jealous."

Yami nodded, finally understanding. Duo and Zechs had been pretending to have a relationship to get the guy that Duo was really interested in to notice him. She snorted softly, covering it up by taking a sip of her hot chocolate. For actors, they were either really good, or they really cared about each other. She was betting the it leant more towards the latter. "Did it work?"

His nose scrunched up distastefully as he thought about the reaction Heero had had towards it. "He tried to shoot Zechs while we were sleeping. Then he tried to keep us apart and wear Zechs out and kept making sure he was put into dangerous positions. So, I guess it did work, now that I think about it. It was the first time Heero lied to me. Usually, he just ignored me if he didn't want to answer."

"So, if it worked, why didn't you end things with Zechs and go with Heero? I'm assuming that's the guy's name," she asked although, she thought that she already knew the answer even if Duo didn't.

He shook his head, completely dumbfounded. "I don't know," he answered honestly, violet eyes turning up to meet black across the table. "I told Heero to leave him alone, to leave us alone. It didn't even hit me that I should have been jumping for joy that he was jealous, instead of getting mad at him for it."

She snorted lightly again, not even bothering to hide it this time. "You loved Zechs even then, didn't you?" she grinned when his mouth dropped open in shock. "Well, it was obvious between the two of you. You might be good at acting, but the way you two interacted couldn't have been faked," she explained, offering a comforting smile.

He chewed on his lip thinking about what she had said. He mentally kicked himself for not noticing it earlier. "I guess I did. I just... I wasn't expecting it. I kept thinking I still wanted Heero, so I must have just ignored everything else."

"You going to tell him?" she asked, eyebrow raised in question.

"NO! I can't! I can't put him in that kind of position. He's a gentleman. He'll say he returns the same feelings when deep down inside, he'll resent me for trapping him or something!" he wailed softly, still mindful of the sleeping child just a few doors down.

Yami once again rolled her eyes at the boy. Well, at least he was making some progress. He realized that he loved Zechs, now all he had to do was realize that Zechs loved him back. "Well, love. I won't make you tell him or go home tonight. You can stay for a few days until you get the courage to go home again because you do have to go home again," she stood up rinsing her mug out in the sink and placing it in the dishwasher, doing the same with Duo's half finished mug. It was obvious that he wasn't going to finish it.

Both jumped slightly as the phone rang, and Yami gestured for Duo to go check on Mai again while she got it. "Nice timing," she murmured quietly to herself after she realized who it was on the phone. Zechs Marquise.

--Do you think you can stop by?--

She smiled to herself, feeling sorry for the man. He sounded so tired and upset. She had no idea how long Duo had been gone for before he had turned up on her doorstep, but it sounded like it had been a while. "Sure, love. I'll be there soon. Everyone else coming?"

--Yes, I've already talked to the others.--

"Alright then, see you in a few," she hung up, smiling as Duo walked back into the room, letting her know that Maiyumi was still sound asleep. "I've gotta go bail out Mal before another World War breaks out. He had a crazy notion to visit the rest of his family and of course, his Grandfather is ready to kill him, not to mention his brother in-law. Do you think you could keep checking on Mai for me? And keep her entertained when she wakes up?" she asked, hating to lie to him about leaving and using her half brother as an excuse.

He nodded, "sure thing. It's the least I can do since you're putting me up for a li'l while."

"Thanks a bunch, love," she kissed his cheek before she left to go see Zechs.

*-*-*

"I got the pictures from the concert!" Quatre chirped later that evening, grateful that Zechs had gone out for a while.

Heero blinked, looking up from a book to stare at Quatre. "I thought you hadn't taken any," he muttered, watching him suspiciously.

"I didn't. I went to the copy shop and talked the manager into making copies of other people pictures from the concert," he grinned triumphantly, now possessing the largest collection of Descending Angel pictures. "Come look, Heero," he cajoled, beginning to spread them out on the table.

Heero snorted, looking back down at his book. "Why would I want to look at pictures of Maxwell?"

Quatre paused, looking down at the pictures and back towards Heero. "Huh? They aren't pictures of Duo, they're of the concert. Duo wasn't with us, remember?"

"He wasn't with us, no. He was up on stage with Marquise," he answered, tuning Quatre out to go back to reading his book.

"Heero, you've lost it. Duo was out with Zechs for his birthday," his mind refused to piece together the information. It just didn't seem possible that the American that tortured his ears whenever he tried to sing, could possibly be in a real band as the lead singer. He glanced over at the doorway nervously when he heard the front door slam open angrily. Zechs was home... He quickly tried to gather the photos back up, not wanting to remind the man about Duo's birthday, or relay that he hadn't been helping to find Duo. He had done all he could earlier, but it hadn't been enough. Even Heero couldn't turn much of anything up, other than that Duo had been in town earlier that day at the post office looking at a phone book.

At least he had been able to find out that he hadn't boarded a shuttle, but Earth was still such a big place to have to search. It almost would have been easier if Duo would have taken a shuttle. The colonies were much smaller. If Duo had taken anything, it had to be a taxi. Duo hadn't shown up on the security tapes of airports, shuttle ports, bus depots, or train stations.

"Marquise, tell Winner that the pictures are indeed pictures of Duo," Heero smirked as Quatre squawked, the pages of the book hiding it from view.

Quatre took a few steps back from Zechs as he stalked closer, jerking the pictures out of his hands. "You knew?" his voice was cold as he glanced at Heero

"Hn."

Ice blue eyes narrowed, the pictures dropped back onto the table, a few spilling over the edge to scatter across the floor. "Yes Quatre, they are. Now if you excuse me, I am expecting a few people," he continued on through the room, going to check the den to make sure it was an appropriate meeting place.

Quatre knelt down, picking up each of the pictures and looking them over, one by one. Heero and Zechs both said they were of Duo... That meant that some of them were Zechs as well. He stared dumfounded at a few of them, trying to picture them without the added colour to their hair and without the makeup. He nearly gasped in surprise. That was why Duo had acted so strange when he tried to talk him into going to the concert! He covered his face in embarrassment.

"Get the door," Heero's voice broke through his thoughts, jerking him back into motion. He got to his feet, replacing the spilt pictures on the table before going to open the door. "Hel-lo," he blinked staring up at the girl. If he had doubted Zechs and Heero earlier, he didn't know. There was no denying that this was Yami with the candy apple red and black hair.

She grinned down at him, holding out her hand and shaking his when he finally managed to offer it. "Hiya, Doll. Zechsy around somewhere? Kouma pulled up just behind me, so I'll wait for him before you show me where Zechs is," she had to chuckle at the boy as she stepped just inside the doorway. "Careful, you'll trap bugs in there. They might be high in protein, but there are much tastier ways to get it than eating bugs," she reached out, shutting his mouth with a finger under his jaw. She recognized him from the concert, deciding that the two empty seats that had been next to him must have been the two that he had bought for Zechs and Duo.

"Sorry, I dropped my keys when I took 'em out and then ended up hitting my head on the steering wheel when I was trying to find them," the boy laughed, clearly amused by his misfortune. "You must be Quatre. Duo told us a lot about you guys. Nice to finally meet you," he gave him a hug before moving on to do the same with Yami. "Ave, here yet?"

"Nope!" Yami crowed, pleased that she had something else to hold over his head.

Kouma shook his head, nudging Quatre with his hip. "They have this ongoing competition thing about who's better. I think Yam was winning last I knew, but maybe he's letting her since he likes her, but what do I know?" he shrugged, clapping the blonde lightly on his back. "So where's Zechs? It sounded pretty important on the phone."

"It is important," Yami murmured softly, her eyes softening in sympathy for the absent blonde.

"You know what this is about?" Kouma's face jerked up to look at the taller girl.

She nodded gravely, lowering her voice a bit. "I do. He didn't tell me, so don't get your panties in a twist-"

"I do not wear panties!" he nearly shrieked indignantly, tugging up his shirt just enough to show off a pair of green boxers. "See?"

"Yah, yah. Figure of speech, love. Now, no more cutting me off. I've only got an idea of what this is about, but I'll remind you that it's only an idea. At least I've got good news for Zechs," she muttered, rather relieved herself that the man wouldn't have to worry anymore about where Duo was.

The three jumped guiltily as a throat was cleared behind them. "Good news, Yami?" Zechs asked, voice low.

She nodded vigorously, her curls bouncing wildly around her face. "Duo showed up at my house about an hour ago. He's safe and is currently watching my little sister for me."

"Why didn't you bring him with you?" he growled at her, ice blue eyes hardening.

"We should bring this conversation somewhere other than the front door, Zechs," Yami stated, quite unafraid of the man's temper. Duo was right, he was a gentleman and as such he would never manhandle a woman. She always ended up being the one to deliver any unpleasant news to him.

He nodded curtly, turning his back on them and leading them to a small den towards the back of the house. He instructed Quatre to show Avery back to it when he decided to arrive. Then, he turned back to Yami, waiting for her to make herself comfortable before once again addressing her coldly, "Why did he not accompany you?"

She looked up at him, not bothered by the fact that he was towering over her. "I didn't ask him to,' she answered simply.

Zechs had to take a deep breath to keep himself relatively calm. "And why not? You knew the others were going to be here, so why did you not ask him?" his voice steely as his eyes bored into hers.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Zechs, he's upset. If he wanted to come home, he would. I told him he had to come back home before a week was over. As much as I love having him there to help with Mai, he belongs here with you. Now, I am going to assume that you called us all here to tell us that Duo was missing and that we might need to cancel a few concerts and appearances and such until he shows up again, right?" seeing him nod, she continued on. "Well, he's alright. We won't need to do that, so why don't you call Ave and tell him to turn around and go home again?"

Grudgingly, Zechs did as she was asked, not surprised to find that the boy had only left his house recently. He was always running late due to his vanity. He apologized to Kouma for making him drive all the way over and offered him a room for the night. The boy eagerly accepted, excited about the prospect of spending the night in a mansion. Since he didn't need to be present any longer, he darted out of the room, intent on finding someone else to talk to. He grinned seeing a messy haired brunette lounging on a couch, a book in his hand.

Yami took a deep breath, preparing herself for the coming conversation with her friend. "He ran because he got spooked. Your relationship with him was supposed to be fake. But it turned out to be far more real than he thought. He's afraid you don't feel the same and that if he tells you how he feels, you'll lie to make him happy, while silently resenting him."

"Are you trying to tell me that he loves me?" he asked cautiously, too afraid of the answer to speak above a mere whisper.

She looked at him incredulously, moaning in disbelief. "I can't believe how dense you two are. You've been dating for over a year and didn't even realize that you were both in love. And you two were supposed to be intelligent," she scoffed, shaking her head ruefully. "Heero tried to shoot you and keep you away from Duo. Obviously he was jealous. Even Duo noticed it. Shouldn't that have been enough for the fake relationship to end? But it didn't. Duo chose you quite a long time ago. This Heero doesn't stand a chance. He's all yours," she grinned as Zechs suddenly collapsed into a chair.

It was silent for a long few seconds as Zechs went over the past year and half with Duo. Finally he looked up at her, "will he come back?"

"Yes. It may only be to officially break up with you, but I'm sure that you can talk him into something more permanent," she winked, standing up to give the man a hug. "I'll try to shoo him home as soon as I can."

TBC...