I forgot to put this in the others sooooo…

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. If I did, I would be fat and rich and bathing in 100 dollar bills, and I would be writing for mangas instead of posting these.

Ok, reviewer thanking time!

Natalie- thanx! I'll try to make Trowa less OOCish. I'll post as soon as I can!

PiNkNoOdLeS- I'm glad I have my own personal pep squad cheerin' for me! Im mad schools starting tho

gundam gurl- wow 2 reviews from you! Thanx! I'll try to work on separating them. I just kinda forget sometimes (sweatdrops) heh heh! I'm glad you like her character, and as a reward for reviewing TWICE I'll give you a cookie! Now would you like peanut butter, chocolate chip, or a snickerdoodle? o.O

/ the beautiful one- yet again, 2 reviews! Have some cookies! For question 1: because it's a flashback. Question 2: I meant Daniel. No Danielle in this story.

I DEDICATE THIS CHAPPY TO ALL MY REVIEWERS! THANK YOU!

Now ON WITH THE FIC!

Don't Mess with Fire

Part 3

The Gundam boys sat inside Panda Café, a Chinese restaurant close to their hotel. Wufei, the one who had wanted the food of his homeland, hungrily dug into his sweet and sour chicken. Trowa quietly ate his dumplings, while Heero and Quatre had split the stir-fried tofu with mushrooms. Duo absently poked at his tigercried (1), the whole Kaida situation weighing heavily on his mind. Quatre had been carefully studying his friend's strange behavior, and was now confident of his conclusion.

"Hey braid-boy. You gonna eat that?" Wufei asked, pointing his chopsticks at the tigercried. His mouth, however, was full of food, so it sounded more like, "Hay bread-boii, youff gonna eet thad?" Duo passed to plate to the eager Chinese boy.

"Knock yourself out, Wu."

Quatre was sincerely worried about his friend. Usually he would dive head-first into a plate of food, sometimes forgetting to let the waitress put it down first. Now he barely picked at his food and Wufei was quickly passing him up on the eating scale.

"Sorry, guys, I'm just not hungry," Duo said standing up. "I'm kinda tired. I'm going for a walk and then back to the hotel. But first," he said waving to a waitress, "I'm gonna box up these egg rolls." A moment later he walked out, Styrofoam box in hand, leaving his bewildered friends behind.

DMLDMLDMLDMLDML

Duo walked towards the poorer side of the colony, stealthily walking through the hall-like alleyways. He passed a huddled form, shaking underneath a blanket. Closer inspection revealed two dirty faces, dull eyes watching the by passer hopefully. The braided pilot stopped and crouched down in front of the two kids.

"Here ya go," he said setting the box next to the two children. One, a little girl, stood up and gave him a dirty little kiss on the cheek, smiling the first smile she has in probably weeks. Duo returned the grin, ruffling the other's, a little boy's, hair. "Don't give up guys. Things'll look up soon." And with that, he left the to children to their dinner.

The boy opened the box, eyes widening to show the whites. There, lying next to the egg rolls was a 50 dollar bill. The girl sat next to her brother, who put an arm around her. She smiled up at him. "See? Not everyone is mean." Her brother just hugged her tighter, not wanting her to see the tear that rolled down his cheek.

DMLDMLDMLDMLDML

Duo trudged on, a voice still ringing in his ears from 11 years ago. "Don't worry! Tell Solo I'll be back tonight!"… she never came back. He waited at the head of the alleyway they lived in, waiting for her return. Solo put a hand on his shoulder. "Duo, she ain't comin' back." The longhaired boy swatted off his friend's hand, "She will, too." "Duo-" Duo rounded on his friend angrily. "She said she'd come back! So she will! She promised!" Solo shook his head. I'll let the kid hope, he thought looking over his shoulder at the brunette who had turned his back and sat down, still eagerly awaiting his friend's return. We can only hope she's still alive. He sat down and laid his head against the wall. Faintly, before he drifted to sleep, he heard a small voice from the head of the alleyway. "She'll come back. I know she will." She never came back. After that, there disease struck and Solo and the others died. Duo stopped in front of an alleyway, between a boarded-up building and a run down Pizza Master. He could almost see the small longhaired boy sitting there; hope burning in his eyes, while everyone behind him was sleeping. The braided pilot blinked; the vision disappeared.

"What are you doing here?"

Duo spun around, ready to fight if needed. A girl his age, 17, stood there, blue eyes shining under brown hair and red bandana. The rest of her facial features were cloaked in shadows. He eased up some. "I'm a walkin' down memory lane."

She raised an eyebrow. "You've been here?"

Duo laughed. "I lived here, babe. Good times, bad times." His face darkened. "But mostly bad." His eyes brightened again. "Anyway, gotta go. See ya." As he turned, the girl caught sight of his braid.

Pretty long hair… for a guy that is… something suddenly clicked. A few months after Kaida joined Duo and Solo, Duo caught her staring at his long hair. "You've got pretty long hair… for a guy at least. Why do you keep it long?" she asked. Duo grinned. "I'm a street rat, so if I ever get memory loss I'll look at it and remember what I am. It helps me remember my roots. Plus," he said, giving her a wink, "it's just… me."

"Hey. You. Why do you keep your hair so long?" she asked. Duo continued to walk on.

"It helps me remember my roots. And it's me." He turned and winked at her. "Don't ya think?"

She stepped out of the shadows, taking her hands out of the pockets of her Pyronics jacket. "Duo?"

"Yup?" he responded automatically. He turned and saw for the first time that night her face.

DMLDMLDMLDMLDML

Heero, Trowa, Quatre and Wufei arrived back at the hotel room to find it devoid of anything to tell that Duo was there. Wufei fell back onto the couch with a groan.

"Has Duo even come back yet?" Quatre asked worriedly.

"Doesn't seem that way." Trowa responded, taking a Sprite from the mini-fridge. Suddenly Heero voiced what they had all been thinking.

"He knows that girl."

DMLDMLDMLDMLDML

Keahi walked into Helen en route to the sleeping quarters. "Hey Helen. You seen Kaida?" Helen chuckled.

In her British accent, "No one's seen the Dragon since she went out to walk and hour ago. She said she was gonna lift a frappicino or something. She had the urge for caffeine. Oh and by the way," she said, whipping some water from the ground and forming it into a finger. She plunged it into Keahi's ear yelling, "WET WILLY!" and ran off.

Keahi shook the water out of her ear, muttering, "Water manipulators. Sheesh." Zach walked by, light grey eyes gleaming. "Hey Zach."

"Hey. If you're looking of Kaida, she just came in with some guy," he said. "Oh, and she wanted me to give you something." He gave her a noogie while yelling, "BRAIN FREEZE!" and ran off laughing.

Keahi shot fire after him, a puny shot at revenge for the horrible headache she now had. She stalked off towards the sleeping quarters, muttering, "Ice manipulators. Sheesh."

A/N: hey! Sorry for the short chappy! Yet again, thank you all for reviewing! If you hadn't noticed yet, I don't exactly have a schedule when it comes to updates. So if I up date 3 times in one week and none in another, sorry. Stuff just pops into my head. I like listening to Linkin Park and Bon Jovi when I'm writing. For some reason, I write to the rhythm almost. Kinda freaky. Anyway, Saruwatari is sick, so I'm riding my friend's camel. Come on, Weisei. Yip, yip! (turns to readers) review please! I just made some pudding! See ya whenever!