"This little boy never felt so happy as when in the street."

--Victor Hugo, Les Miserable

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Solo tore out of the bar and felt the cold night air immediately seep through his sweater and blow against his hot skin. He couldn't care about being cold right now though; he had more important matters to attend to. He saw a flash of Heero running under one of the streetlights and doubled his pace.

Duo was a few blocks ahead, barely keeping two strides between him and the two bouncers chasing him.

"Come on guys! It was an accident!" He panted out and grabbed onto a corner, slinging himself around it and gaining some distance on the gorillas chasing him. Despite his pleas, they continued to follow him.

'Who are these guys?'

Heero could easily see the big burly men that chased his braided boyfriend down the streets of L2. The night was breathtakingly cold but Heero had not lost his soldier trained body. He was gaining slowly but surely on the bouncers. The only trouble he had was trying to not loose them in the pitch darkness of the grungy colony.

"Yo! Wait up man!"

Heero didn't need to turn around and glance behind him. He recognized Solo's voice and had already assumed that he was bound to be following behind him. But he sounded relatively close.

"We have to stop those guys before they catch Duo," Heero shouted back as he rounded another corner that the three had gone down before him.

"We're never gonna catch em this way Heero!"

Less than happy about it, Heero had to agree with the streetrat. Solo had nearly caught up to him by now and Heero lagged a few paces, just long enough that Solo was at his heels.

"What do you suggest?" He growled over to the blond.

"Well, Duo's been running like a wild animal. He doesn't seem to be goin nowhere special. Next time he takes a turn, we'll cut down an alley and cut him off."

"How's that gonna help?" Heero saw that Duo and the bouncers were a mere block away from them at the moment.

"We gotta get Duo outta their sight, or those guys won't stop till they catch him and make him pay for all the damages, probably take it out of his hide."

Heero sped himself up. The colony buzzed quietly at night, people living on the streets turned their heads to watch the strange procession run by.

"There!" Solo grabbed Heero's shirt and yanked him hard to the left. Duo had just veered to make a left at the next block. Heero found himself struggling to see in the darkness of the alleyway Solo had pulled him into but trusted his senses enough to follow Solo's body in the darkness.

Like a tunnel, Solo could see the light of the streets at the end of the alleyway. He sprinted the rest of the way and skidded himself to a stop at the entranceway of the alley. Taking half a step out of the alleyway, he reached around the corner of the building and firmly grabbed Duo's shoulder. The alley was only about fifteen feet from the corner of the building that Duo had just rounded. The bouncers had not yet come into that line of sight.

Hurling the boy behind him Solo saw Duo spin into his boyfriend's waiting arms. Not taking any chances, Solo leapt at them and grabbed Heero by the shoulders, forcing him against an alley wall, behind a few empty crates. The three huddled themselves against the ground behind the crates, hiding most of their body from the alleyway entrance.

Heero felt the prickly brick wall through his shirt, and held his breath. Duo's left cheek was pressed against his chest, his hair tickling Heero's nose. Solo crouched like a baseball catcher, his arms on both sides of Heero's shoulders, his face a few inches away. The three were close enough to smell the alcohol on each other's breath.

All three felt each other's bodies stiffen as the bouncers ran by the entrance. Their footsteps stopped.

Solo pushed farther against the two brunettes. Heero's arms were wrapped around Duo, and pressed against Solo's heaving chest. Duo could feel Solo's soft lips against his ear. But there was not time to even think about enjoying the warmth of each other's close bodies. They could hear the bouncers shouting to each other.

After a few tense minutes, the trio heard retreating footsteps. Then the only sounds were cats in the night, families fighting, and all the other usual things on an L2 night.

"Little too close," Duo said with a nervous laugh. He was still sandwiched uncomfortably between Solo and Heero and he could hear his heart beating in his ears.

"Yeah…" Solo just now noticed that his body was wrapped around Duo and Heero like a car that been wrapped around a tree. He pressed closer, relishing being so close to Duo again. And yet, he didn't mind being close to Heero either. He wanted to be close to both, make each other jealous.

"Duo. Are those your hands?" Heero asked quietly. Duo held up both hands in front of Heero's face. The boy nodded, his mussed hair shadowing his face as he did so. Then he punched Solo in the face.

Duo laughed and stood up, finally having recovered his breath and gotten rid of the stitch in his side. Heero stood as well and dusted off his pants. He glared down at Solo. The blond boy had landed on his ass on the pavement and was trying unsuccessfully to sit up.

"Ow. That hurt," Solo rubbed his nose gingerly before looking up at the two men standing over him, "Can't stay and talk guys, I gotta go slay the dragon!"

His drunken body having finally kicked in, Solo passed out.

"You didn't hit him that hard, did you?" Duo smiled at Heero before going to inspect the body. He prodded it and came to the conclusion that the alcohol had finally caught up with Solo.

'And to think. I was starting to tolerate him.' Heero snorted before walking out of the exceptionally dingy alley.

"Hey Heero! Help me carry him won't ya?"

"Why? Leave him there. He knows his way back."

Duo rolled his eyes at his temperamental lover and picked up his ex. Solo's body was eerily light. 'He really hasn't been eating well. Even for an orphan.' With the blond ponytail hanging upside down over his shoulder, Duo came out of the alleyway and headed towards Solo's apartment.

When they arrived, they dumped the unconscious body on the couch in the lobby. Solo had on a dopey grin in his drunken stupor.

When they finally came back to their own place, Heero and Duo crashed onto their bed next to each other, arms and legs thrown this way and that.

Heero sat up straight in bed. He must have been less tired than he thought, considering how wide awake he felt. He looked around but could not find Duo in the room anywhere. He stretched out a bit before standing up and walking over to the door.

Opening it led into a short corridor that was exactly the same on both sides. Heero didn't really recognize the hallway but just assumed it was what it was supposed to be. Noises from down the hall caught his attention and he made his way down the gray carpet towards the last door on the left.

Everything seemed to be so loud to Heero. As if his ears and eyes were overly sensitive. He could hear movement behind that last door on the left. The sounds of people within. Strange groaning noises.

Heero reached out and touched the doorknob. A shock of fear went through him as he heard another gasp from inside. Followed by a devious chuckle. He recognized the chuckle but couldn't seem to place where. The idea dangled in front of him but for all his attempts he couldn't quite catch it.

Heero opened the door and entered the dark room. He could see nothing with his eyes completely unadjusted. Slowly though, he began to see a figure across the room, standing on a bed. A long chestnut braid hung along the naked back of the person. Duo turned and smiled at Heero.

His face was smothered in blood. His lips were crimson, dripping down his chin, pouring onto his bare chest and trickling across the rest of his body. His eyes were wide and blank, staring at Heero as he gave him a chilling smile.

"Duo?" Heero's voice failed him. It clung to his throat and he couldn't for the life of him form any more words than this one. The creature, Heero didn't dare accept that it could be his Duo, just cocked its head to the side. Those empty eyes looked straight through Heero, and he had to force himself to look away.

Slowly the rest of the room began to come into focus. Heero realized that there was someone behind Duo. Against the wall was a body. The barest bit of light was entering the room from the hall, and Heero reached back and opened it, spilling more into the room and illuminating the figure against the wall.

The body had enormous white wings growing out of it, which were pinned to the wall by two silver blades. Blood was slowly dripping from the wound and across the white feathers. The rest of the boy's body hung from his skewered wings, limp and as motionless as a corpse.

Blood poured from his mouth as well, and was slick and smooth across his bare chest. Heero couldn't see the figure's face through the dim light of the room. Duo walked across the bed, a bounce in his step, until he was leaning against the body on the wall. It hung back and forth limply for a second before Duo steadied it.

His eyes held Heero's and he slowly leaned against the gory body. He moved up it, dragging his hands across its chest and smearing the blood like a child with finger-paints. He wrapped his arms around the corpse's neck and leaned up, barely touching his lips to the bloodstained ones. Then he hung on the body and turned to Heero, grinning at him with his reddened smile.

Everything seemed to become clearer and slowly Heero saw blond hair reaching down the shoulders of the body. His head was hanging slightly to the side, and back. Most of his face was still shadowed, but as time went on and the demon Duo continued to grin viciously at Heero, he caught site of the face.

It was Solo. Or at least, it had been.

In place of his once entrancing gold eyes, Solo's face now bore two empty holes. The gaping eye sockets were blackened in blood and gore, which brimmed up in the holes like bloody tears. Heero felt like he couldn't breathe. All he could stare at was the gouged out eyes that stared off into space, as if they could still see.

In a quick movement, the head turned itself to Heero. The gory holes stared straight at him. Slowly the mouth curved into a wicked smile and Solo tilted his head down, causing another scarlet rivulet to pour out of where his eyes once were.

Heero woke up and froze. He couldn't move. He couldn't breath. He shut his eyes, but all he could see was the image of his dream.

'Was it a dream?' Heero slowly took in a breath and looked around his room. Nothing was out of place, it was his hotel room. Duo lay in bed next to him, unaware of what his lover had just gone though.

Rubbing his eyes, Heero was reminded of the state of Solo's face and quickly jerked his hand away. He willed the image to leave him. If only he could think of anything. Anything other than what he had seen.

His body running low on adrenaline again, Heero felt safe enough to move in his bed. He shifted until he was comfortable again and forcefully closed his eyes.

'Think of something else.' He chanted again and again to himself. He feared going back to sleep, sure that the same horrific images would plague him. But as was so common with dreams, he began to forget about it before he had even fallen asleep again.

All too quickly it was morning. And Heero opened his eyes to find his mouth full of Duo's elbow.

"Get off," He said with a gravelly morning voice, tossing his lover over on his side. As usual, Duo continued with the momentum and ended up a snoring body on the floor. Heero tried to roll over and fall back to sleep, but Duo had decided then to wake up.

"Why am I on the floor?"

"Hn."

The chance of falling back to sleep had passed and so Heero resigned himself to actually getting out of bed and getting dressed for the day. He and Duo still wore their clothes from the night before.

While Duo took his shower, Heero sat on the bed and thought. Something had woken him up the night before. He wanted to say it must have been a nightmare, but he hadn't had a nightmare in a long time. And for the life of him, he couldn't remember anything about it. Just a hallway with gray carpets came to his sleep-deprived mind.

After Duo, Heero took his shower and the two were ready to head out for the day, albeit a bit sleepy. They trudged their way through the midday L2 heat to Solo's apartment. Heero wondered the entire way why they continued to bring Solo with them on this investigation. He wasn't really doing very much work, and his "plans" had yet to reveal much. Although the photograph clue could at least lead to some development.

The apartment was silent as they approached, and Duo felt compelled to be equally quiet as he walked in. The rest of the gang was either out working or had slept somewhere other than the apartment the night before.

The couch that sat in front of the closed back door contained the only other two occupants of the stuffy building. Solo was asleep on his back, his head and feet propped up on the arms of the old couch. Curled up on his chest was the boy Ryan, his arms wrapped loosely around Solo's neck. He had his nose buried against Solo's collarbone, and the older boy's arms were securely wrapped around his frail body.

Duo looked to Heero and shrugged. He didn't want to wake up the boy, who had obviously not had a good night. He had the ragged appearance of someone with a troubled sleep.

But from where he was standing, Duo could not tell which of the two boys had been giving comfort, and which had been receiving it.

"Shh."

At the soft, almost hissing sound, Heero and Duo looked through the dim lighting towards the couch. Solo's eyes had opened a crack and he was silencing them.

Heero opened his mouth to say something but Duo shook his head, telling him not to say anything that could wake the boy.

Solo slowly sat up, shifting the weight of Ryan's body so that he moved as little as possible. Duo noticed that Solo was wearing the same khakis and sweater he had on last night, and his red eyes gave away his hangover. Cradling the redhead in his arms like a baby, Solo walked up the stairs to the third level of the apartment, stopping every time he felt the boy's body stir. But Ryan remained asleep all the way back to his bed in the room next to Solo's.

"Do we really need him?" Heero voiced his concerns quietly to his partner.

"I don't know. He can be helpful because he knows the area better than us. And he does know all the scum on this colony and where they hang out. Plus, he's behaving himself better than usual," Duo muttered the last part to himself.

"Look, I don't have any ideas for something to do today, alright?" A choked voice called down. Solo was surprised by the sound of his voice, despite having just woken up. Normally it didn't sound quite so strained.

"That's fine. Do you know of any places this guy could be developing his pictures? If we find at least one of them, we can track him down."

Duo made himself more comfortable and sat down on the couch. It tilted and Duo took a minute to balance himself on it.

"Well, I don't know of any shady picture places. I know a couple a guys who might know though. They hang out at in a dangerous area downtown though,." Solo stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I had plans of going in there and checkin around anyway. All the skeeviest guys hang out down there."

"Guess that's why you fit in so well," Heero's voice had an unusually sharp edge in it this morning.

Solo met his gaze and grinned. 'If only you knew how right you are Heero.'

"Well, we need to check on the photo places here on L2, just in case any have seen something suspicious," Duo ended the tension as quick as he could.

"I'd help ya guys, but I made a promise to some of the kids to go hang with them today. When the sun sets, meet me on Verse and 20th street."

Heero began to leave, not waiting for whatever Solo still had to say. But Duo paused when he realized that Solo wasn't quite finished.

"And if you guys don't want to stand out like sore thumbs, try and dress sexy. The less clothes, the better. And try and wear dark stuff, a lot of Goths go to this club."

Duo nodded and followed his boyfriend out of the door.

"Feelin anti-social much?" Duo said.

"I want to solve this case already and get off of here. What's so anti-social about that?" Heero snapped back at him. When he saw Duo flinch at the outburst he felt guilty and sighed.

"Sorry."

Duo smiled and nodded, accepting the apology.

"So how are we gonna check every single picture development place on the colony?"

"You can check the nearest half, since you seem to know the area well anyway, while I call up the others on the phone."

Duo agreed and when they returned to their apartment Heero marked on a map all the closest photo places. Duo agreed to meet back at the apartment by at least sunset so they'd have time to get ready and meet up with Solo.

Walking down the streets of his hometown with a map was a weird experience for Duo. He wasn't very good at reading maps, especially when they were as technical as Heero's had a habit of being. After a couple of wrong turns he managed to find his way to the first one-hour photo booth. Talking to the manager led him nowhere as he confirmed that no one had developed any pictures of people with numbers on their back.

Duo went to the second on the list, and the third. After being yelled at in German for a while by one particularly irate manager who believed Duo was there to arrest him, he darted down the street and leaned against a wall to catch his breath.

The damn weather was on the fritz as always and it had to be at least 95 degrees out. Duo tried to stay to the shade, but even that refused to cool him down. He knew where the next photo place was, and trudged towards it. The chance of finding out where this guy got his pictures developed was going to be a really boring and long task.

Duo sighed and hung his head as he walked on. It may have been his birthplace and his childhood home, but he hated this colony as much as Heero did. Almost everything about this place made his skin crawl and seemed to suck the happiness right out of him.

He stopped in the middle of the crowd when he heard children laughing. A lot of them by the sounds of it. He followed his ears and found himself coming up on a "park" of sorts. It was really just a blacktop with a couple pieces of playground equipment with sand poured around the area, but it was all the kids could have. It took up a large lot, nestled between two bustling apartment buildings.

The back area of the playground had one net-less basketball hoop nailed onto a wall. The crowd of children were all shooting baskets there, and running around and laughing. Behind the jungle gym, Duo couldn't make out how many there were. With a quick look at the sun to ensure he had enough time, Duo made a detour and walked around the jungle gym.

The first thing he saw for sure was a flash of blond hair.

At least five children grabbed onto Solo's legs and waist, trying to hold him back. He grimaced and acted as if their small bodies could actually cause him trouble, but still managed to dribble the basketball down the court. Dragging half of the team with him, he eventually got within shooting range and made a perfect basket.

All of the children moaned and whined. Duo realized that all of them were on one team. Meaning Solo was playing against at least 9 other players. Duo couldn't help but wonder what the score was.

"That's not fair! You're too damn tall!" One boy shouted and punched Solo in the side. Solo pretended that it was a mortal wound and held tight to it, falling to his knees. For a second the kids looked worried and one glared at the boy who had punched him.

Then Solo looked up and grinned. Before he knew it, all the kids were on top of him, dog piling on him and forcing him against the black asphalt. For a while all Duo could see were limbs flailing about and hear screaming and laughing from under the pile. Slowly, one child at a time, they were all thrown off of the blond.

Solo lay on the ground, panting and his chest heaving. His dark blue tank top was sticking to his body and was pulled askew by the children's frantic tackling. With sweat on his body, and his eyes glazed from exertion, Duo's mind was assaulted with memories from their past.

He quickly tried to force those images out of his mind as Solo sat up, and noticed him for the first time.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" He sprung up from the ground far quicker than anyone as winded as he was should be able to do. But living on the street gave little recovery time, and Solo's body was used to it.

"Checking out photo places…" Duo's voice was small and slow. He was too busy looking at the flushed face of his ex-lover.

Duo never quite understood why Solo was so hot to him. He was scrawny from being a street rat, his hair was always messy and knotted, and oftentimes unwashed. But there was something in that face. Something so raw and honest to Duo, it almost hurt to see it. Especially on someone whose life was otherwise filled with lies and masks.

"Need any help?" Solo asked loudly. Duo snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head side to side.

"Nah. We're good."

"Well, I get the feeling you'll still be needing some help by tonight. Don't forget, meet me at sunset," Solo reached out and brushed a piece of Duo's bangs to the side, almost playfully, "and dress sexy."

Duo's mouth was dry so he decided he'd just have to settle for nodding. He turned on his heel then, and walked away from the tempting smile.

'Deep breaths Duo. Deep breaths.'

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Hey…lurkers. Yeah, I'm talking to you. I see this fic getting hits on the new hit counter. And yet no reviews. Come on people, I'm not asking for some detailed deconstruction of my writing. If you just say that you read it I'm happy. You all know you love getting reviews, so help out everyone else. Hope ya liked the chapter.

Ashley: Ah, my faithful reviewer. :glomp: I'm totally updating this story for YOU. Hope you like this chapter. Sorry it took so long, I work two jobs now and have very little time for fics.

Pyro: Glad you like the story. Yeah, love triangles rock. The slash is…er…sporadic in this story. I hope you like the little bits I managed to stick into this chapter. Oh, and I love your name. I wrote a whole slash fic about Pyro and Nightcrawler. I think I'm the only one to ever use that pairing.