"Don't forget, you're designing shadows as much as you're designing light."

Theater Professor

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"Blech!" Solo stuck his tongue out and put the cup of coffee on a nearby table, scooting away from it as if it were poison. "How can you guys drink that stuff?"

Heero sipped at the thick black coffee before putting his mug down and continuing to explore the information on the disk. Duo chugged some of his own mug before slamming it down on the table and smacking his lips together.

"Hopeless."

Solo was sitting on one of the bed's in the apartment. Next to him was a small table with a lamp on it, which Heero was leaning against while looking at the laptop on his knees. Duo had made them coffee, which explained why it was more like glue than coffee, and was trying to find the perfect place to sit so he could see what was happening too.

"Find anything good yet?"

Heero didn't respond to Duo right away, typing a few more commands onto his computer. It made a pleasant beeping sound and a long list showed up on the screen. Along one side were numbers, starting at 1 and going off the screen at around 30. There were also columns of names and dates.

"What's that?" Solo leaned over, his blond hair falling over his shoulders and brushing against Heero's face. He leaned sideways and glared at Solo's offending locks.

"A list."

Solo opened his mouth to make one of his usual smart ass comments but Duo beat him to the punch.

"Is it of the victims?"

"Yes. The first victim was in AC 179. A woman named Valeri Johnson," Heero moved the mouse to the name next to the number one and clicked on it. A profile of the victim popped up in a separate window, giving the vital information on the woman. "She was 22 when she was attacked and raped. The number 1 was carved into her back, but it was not enough to kill her." A few more clicks and a small picture of the woman came up. She had long blond hair and a smile on her face. She couldn't have been much older than Duo or Heero in the picture.

Duo reached over and tapped on the computer screen. "It says here that she died AC 180 during childbirth."

"Guess we won't be interviewing that one, huh?" Solo snorted.

Over the next few hours, and many pots of coffee, the three boys sat in the apartment and went over every single report. Duo had a notebook and jotted down the names and addresses of any victims still alive. Solo made sure to take a good look at every name and picture, but sadly it seemed that he didn't know any of the victims.

"There are 14 out of the 47 victims who were never found or never reported. Most of them are the most recent ones," Heero used the mouse to point out the numbers that were listed without a name next to it. 34, 35, 37, 39, 44, 45, 47.

"So what specifics do we have on this guy?" Solo said, lying on the bed with his head hanging over the side. He found Heero's hair incredibly funny upside down, and wasn't really paying attention to what was going on now that they had seen every profile available.

"He doesn't seem to have much of an M.O. Each attack was in a different place, and the people don't share much in common. Most of the women seem to be blond, and a few of the men, but we're missing so many that that may just be a coincidence."

"That isn't a lot to go on. Didn't any of the victims describe what he looked like?" Solo rolled over on the bed, his chin resting on the fluffy comforter.

"Some," Heero brought up a few of the windows with those reports. "All the victims agree that the man was incredibly strong, and snuck up on them. A few said he was tall and muscular, with brown hair."

"Yeah, that helps," He spat out sarcastically. "I'll just round up every big brunette man on L2."

"Shut up," Duo yawned, and leaned against Heero's right shoulder. He heard an angry sigh from the bed but didn't bother to acknowledge it. "Look Solo, if you know of any places we could go that people might know about this guy, that'd help."

"I know plenty of places where scum like to hang out. And I go to some of them enough that the people know me. They'd be able to help out. But I can't just ask them about a big guy with brown hair, I need more specifics."

"We'll get the specifics tomorrow."

Heero looked over at Solo as he shut down his laptop.

"Meet us down in the lobby here at 10. We'll interview some of the suspects who are still alive. Hopefully they'll be willing to help us and know something useful."

"Righteo then. See you in the morning," Solo grabbed the edge of the comforter and rolled over, making a burrito out of himself.

"Oh hell no. You go back to your own place," Duo rolled the body off the bed and heard a familiar thump as Solo's body hit the floor of the apartment.

"You people have no compassion."

Gathering himself together, Solo stood up and casually made his way to the door. He opened the door and timed his exit so that he was standing in the doorway, with his head poking in as he left.

"Don't forget we're doing interviews tomorrow. You better not work your throat too much tonight, Duo."

With a click the door closed and Solo heard something heavy thrown against it. He grinned the whole way home.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"Hey Heero, have you seen my black hair band?"

"Duo. All of your hair bands are black."

"True. But have you seen the really black one?"

Duo was sitting on his bed, trying to separate his long hair into three even sections. Heero was already finished getting ready and had the list of victims in his hand.

"Did you leave it on your hairbrush?" He muttered as he circled a few of the victims who looked like they would be most helpful.

"No. Actually, I'm pretty sure you were the last one to have it. But it wasn't in my pile of clothes like usual…" Duo leaned over and started looking under their bed, his hair piling up on the floor by his feet.

Heero took a moment to look away from his list and watch the boy on his quest. 'We've only been together for two years, but so much has changed.' Heero remembered the first time he had pulled the band out of Duo's long braid and undid the plait. It had become a kind of habit of his to throw the discarded hair band in a pile with the rest of Duo's clothes. 'Had he said something like that two years ago, I'd probably have threatened to kill him.' Had Duo looked up, he would have seen Heero smiling the slightest bit at him, standing contently with his arms crossed.

"Here hair band…here boy."

"It's a boy?"

"And it's gay. You think I should bring its boyfriend out and get it off its lazy ass so it can help?" Duo flipped his hair back and it trailed along the bed behind him as he blinked up at Heero who sighed. The taller boy put down his list and started to look around for the mysterious homosexual hair band.

"Oh," Duo shouted. "I found it." His voice abruptly shifted to a sheepish sound.

Heero was on his knees by their dresser, looking up at Duo on the bed.

"Where was it?"

"On my hairbrush."

'Tick. Tick. Tick. Wow, three eyebrow twitches. Not bad.' Duo grinned as Heero stood up and approached him. The threat of being killed had long ago faded from Duo's immediate worries, and so this game of cat and mouse was merely for show. Not that either of the boys minded playing games.

Stepping directly up onto the bed, Heero was soon standing next to Duo. He crossed his legs and sat down next to Duo. For a moment he just stared at the beauty of his lover. The long shimmering brown hair was piled over Duo's shoulders and fell over one of his eyes as he tilted his head. Reaching out his hand, Heero brought Duo to him and kissed him.

"Turn around."

Duo accepted the minimal amount of conversation that having a relationship with Heero brought with it rather well. He shifted himself around, trying not to sit on his hair. The tips of it were long enough now that he could sit on it when it was loose and still move his head around. 'Maybe it's getting a little too long.' Before Duo even thought about cutting his hair, Heero was bringing him back to the present.

The hands ran through his hair, the fingers sliding along the long silky strands, only getting tangled in the beginning. Soon it was as if Heero's hands were going through water, and not hair. Duo kept leaning back, making it harder for Heero to brush out the hair, and soon the hair was completely pressed between Duo's back and Heero's chest.

"We have to still braid your hair you know," He said monotonously.

In response, Duo nuzzled up against Heero. He gathered up his mane of hair and pulled it to his side, now that it was nice and untangled. 'If I didn't know better, I'd say he was only with me for my hair.' Raising his violet eyes, Duo saw the look on Heero's face. 'Okay, well maybe for more than just the hair…'

Duo's fingers began to separate his hair and fold the pieces over and under each other. As he did this, he felt the bed move as Heero came to sit in front of him. He continued to braid his hair as Heero leaned in and kissed him again. Feeling foolish, Duo tried to force down the fluttering of his stomach that still came when Heero kissed him like that.

Gentle lips playing with his tongue, Heero continued to dip gently into the warm mouth beneath his. Duo felt himself pulled into a hug as his hands were pressed between two strong bodies. But his fingers kept braiding, out of habit, his body continuing its task without its mind.

'So hot.' Heero pressed harder into Duo's mouth, feeling the life in the other boy. He also felt the quick fingers that were tracing against his stomach as they came closer and closer to the end of Duo's braid.

Pulling away Heero reached across the bed to pull the black hair band off of Duo's wooden brush. Then he turned around. 'We're going to be late.' His mouth hung open slightly when he looked back at Duo.

Duo was leaning back on his elbows, his legs spread to the sides and flat on the bed. His long braid snaked down his chest and further over his crotch and between his legs. The end was twisted together, but the band hadn't tied it down to keep it from unraveling. Duo smiled devilishly and his plan worked as Heero took the hair band on his fingers and leaned over him.

"Good thing the hair band is gay."

Duo smiled and leaned up to kiss the man above him. Heero was more intent though on his hands. They reached out and gently took Duo's braid in his hand. He made it seem like it was an accident where his knuckles happened to press down. Duo just let out a small gasp.

Having his kiss taken from him anyway, Duo watched as both of Heero's hands brushed the inside of his thigh. They were painfully slow as he tied the band around the end of his hair, pressing against every part of Duo's body that was nearby. When the braid was finished, Heero tossed it back over Duo's shoulder. His hands returned to Duo's inner thigh and massaged them as he leaned over and kissed Duo furiously.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Heero snarled but pulled Duo onto his lap, kissing him harder and forcing himself to ignore the knocking.

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Go away!" Duo pulled his mouth away from Heero's just long enough to yell at the door. Missing the soft warmth, he quickly returned to Heero's needful tongue and lips.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

"Get the fuck away!" Heero roared at the door. The anger and need to be quick spurred him on. He and Duo began to press against each other, hips pulled against hips, bringing themselves closer and closer to each other.

Click. Creak.

Heero felt Duo snort in surprise. The two jumped apart and looked guiltily at the door. Standing there with a piece of a coat hangar in his hand was Solo.

"It's 10:10," He said, somewhere between angry and playful. His eyes kept shifting over to Heero, then to Duo, then to the bed.

"We were coming," Duo bit his lip as soon as he said it.

"Oh I'm sure you were," he shot back. "Now come on. You people make me wake up at the asscrack o' dawn to get here, I wanna go do some work."

As they got up and Heero gathered their things, Duo finally took the time to look at Solo.

"What happened to you? You get mugged by Ralph Lauren?" His eyes ran up and down Solo, not quite believing what he was seeing.

The street rat was dressed nice. That's right. Khaki pants that had the bottoms a little worn, but other than that the pants looked like they were clean and new. A huge baggy green sweater with brown stripes hung on Solo's body and made him appear shorter and thinner than he really was. The arms of the sweater were folded up into cuffs so that the end was right along Solo's thumb. But what made Solo look so different was his hair. He had his long blond hair pulled back into a neat and tidy ponytail. All the shoulder length hair had been brushed back and pulled tight. The ponytail hung low on his head, and the soft hair curved over the nape of Solo's neck and past the top of the sweater.

"The name is Jack thank you," Solo crossed his arms and leaned against the door. 'Déjà vu.' Duo blinked his eyes a few times. In that position, and with the way he was dressed, Duo could swear that Solo had just gone back to being 15.

"Now you really are an idiot," Heero muttered.

"Hey buddy. Let's keep this friendly, huh? I'm being nice, you guys should be thankful."

Solo stood up and lost the appearance of being younger. The clothes still had the same effect, but Solo's true height was easier to see now.

"You cleaned yourself up," Heero said as he tilted his head up. Duo looked between the two of them before his mind finally caught up to the conversation.

"Who's Jack?"

"I'm Jack," Solo replied grinning.

"No, you're Solo," Duo looked closely. Honey colored eyes. Sun bleached blond hair. Slightly brown shades toward the top. Cocky smirk. 'No, that's definitely a Solo.'

"This is a persona of mine," Solo grinned and put his arms out, twirling around and showing off his wardrobe. "Whaddya think?"

"So you're going undercover?" Duo was hoping that he was getting closer to understanding what was going on.

"I always do when I'm conning. Trust me, that is not the kinda job where you want people to know where you live."

"Solo," Duo's voice strained, "You do realize that we are trying to catch a psycho today, right? You can go play around some other time."

"Hey, just cause I'm helping you guys out doesn't mean I can't make some quick cash at the same time."

Duo and Heero groaned in tandem.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"You are an idiot." Duo said to Solo as he swung open the door to the hospital. Heero had found a young girl, 13 years old, who had been attacked when she was 8. She was homeless and an orphan, so the hospital kept her in their pediatric ward as a pity case.

"Personally, I think it's a great plan," Solo snorted and looked around the sterile white lobby. A shudder ran through him. He hated hospitals. He always had.

Heero was having a quiet conversation with the nurse at the desk, showing his badge and explaining their purpose. Solo couldn't help but shift his feet back and forth from left to right. Duo watched him, but soon was too dizzy to follow his motions.

"Calm down."

Out of habit Duo reached over and grabbed Solo's elbow to keep him from continuing his annoying habit. Solo flinched away and his eyes focused quickly on the person touching him. It took a few more seconds before the eyes focused on Duo.

"Man. You need some decaf," Duo pulled his hand away but stared at his companion. 'He's never been that easily frightened. What's wrong with him?' A strange sense of foreboding had come over Duo since they arrived on L2. This just caused it to rear back up.

"Room 307," Heero stepped between the two men, both with obvious tension about them.

After having to deal with Solo recounting one of his many strange adventures on the streets of L2, Duo and Heero were ready to tear open the slow elevator's door. The small ring that sounded their freedom caused two relieved sighs.

As the trio approached door 307, Heero and Duo took the lead. Heero knocked on the door and a small gentle voice replied.

"Come in."

When the door was opened, Duo could see only a bright light. The girl's drapes had been pulled back, and she had a room with a view of the whole diseased colony. The only good thing about the window was that it flooded her room with sunlight.

The girl had short black hair, pulled into two ponytails on the side of her head. She sat in her hospital bed, looking perfectly at home. Small trinkets and stuff animals were thrown about the room, and piled at the end of her bed.

"My name is Melissa. Who are you?" The girl's bright blue eyes were curious but not afraid.

"My name is Heero. This is Duo. We are Preventers here to investigate a case."

The girl nodded to the two before drifting over to Solo. She tilted her head to the side and studied him for a minute.

"Who's your other friend?"

"A friend. His name is Ja—"

"Solo."

Solo looked to the interrupted Duo who was confused and shrugged.

"Okay. So if you're investigating something why have you come to see me? I haven't done anything wrong."

The girl was completely sure in what she said. She even seemed to be bold about it, challenging them to blame her.

"We're here to talk to you about something that happened to you when you were 8," Duo tried to be comforting and sat down on a nearby chair. The girl's sweet eyes turned downcast, and Duo had no doubt that she would react that way.

"The man. The guy with numbers right," she said bitterly.

"Yes. I'm sorry Melissa, but we're trying to catch him. Make him pay for what he's done--" Duo stopped when he saw a crystalline tear drop from the girl's eyes.

"I thought someone had come to see me," She sniffled and used the blanket to wipe away her tears. "But all anyone ever wants to talk about is what he did to me."

"What did he do to you?" Heero's voice was as monotone as ever. The child's tears did nothing to him.

"If you found me, you already know," she snapped.

"Why don't you try telling us in your own words? Maybe there's something in your story that can help us find the man," He tried not to imagine what this girl must have gone through, trapped here forever. In the victim's descriptions, they had found this girl Melissa. Her case was different than the others. Rape, mutilation, but the man made a mistake this one time and cut too far down with his knife. Her spine had been severed. She was paralyzed.

Chained down to a bed.

"Get out," She fisted her weak hands in the sheets.

"Please—"

"Get out!" She screamed and threw her head into her hands, her body shaking in grief and embarrassment.

Duo's mouth hung open from being interrupted, but he closed it and stood silently. The three walked into the hallway and Solo closed the door behind them.

"Well, that didn't exactly go that way, did it?" he said.

"Solo, is there anything useful you can do?"

"Jack. And yeah. Maybe. I'm gonna go talk to her alone. You guys wait out here."

He turned and slipped into the room again before Heero and Duo could protest.

The hospital clock ticked impatiently as Solo remained in the girl's room. At the point when Duo had finally settled himself comfortably into the hard plastic chair, the door opened again.

Solo walked out, closed the door, and sat down next to Duo. He looked melancholy.

"It didn't work?" Duo cocked his head to the side to stare into the faraway golden eyes.

"Huh?" Finally returning to the land of the living, Solo blinked and seemed to comprehend the question. "Uh, no. Actually the girl told me some pretty good info."

Heero looked at Solo incredulously. But the normally temperamental boy just stared back, no challenge in his expression.

"Melissa says that she saw the man who attacked her. It's the same general description we have for everyone else, except for one thing."

Duo and Heero unconsciously leaned forward towards the blond.

"She says that he was dressed nice."

"That's it?" Duo sighed. He stood up and cracked his back.

"It's important info Duo. This means we only have about a sixth of the population of L2 to deal with. She says he was dressed like he was really well off. Definitely from uptown."

Solo stood up, as did Heero, and the three left. It may have been a scrap, but they would take anything they could get.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Ashley: I'm glad you like Solo. Since he's a semi-original character there are lots of different ways to portray him. Glad you like my version.

Katt: Thanks for the vote of confidence. Here's a chapter to feed your addiction.

Duo's Power Pole: You'll just have to wait on the wing thing. The first fic was meant to introduce the three and set up their relationships with each other, including how Solo can still be alive. This one focuses on a few new things, so the wings won't be as prominent.