Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.... Damn... Song by James Taylor, "Fire And Rain" and Two Verses of "Forgiveness" by Don Henley.

Pairings: Eventual 1&2&1, maybe some light 3&4&3.

Warnings: Eventual Shonen Ai, maybe violence, and Rock n' Roll baby.

Notes: I got some good reviews on the last chapter, you guys really like it huh? I'm lucky to have such avid readers. I guess you could say that the fic is taking longer than I expected, for I am my own beta/editor. This fic is more on revalations some affirmations. I want to encourage and ask you guys to read Scraps too. I'm just really proud of that one. So go read it... Do Eeet!

In The Valley Of The Diamond Dogs

By Black Dragon62

Chapter 12: Fire And Rain

They got on the plane about an hour ago, and they were waiting for it to take off impatiently. Somehow, they had gotten Trowa to join them for a short time. He promised Catherine to write and to be back before the birth of her child, which would be a few months yet to come. They were all settled in different seats of the private airplane. Though Wufei, Duo, Quatre and Trowa seemed to share the same space. They all seemed relaxed and awaiting for the plane to take off out of the airport. Then a question came to Duo's attention.

"Hey Hil!" He yelled from across the plane. She turned her head around to look in his direction. "Where we goin' anyway?"

She turned around and looked at the folder in her bag. She flipped through the pages and responded without turning. "Japan."

Duo froze and took a deep breath. His eyes widened just a tad, but it did not go unnoticed by the others.

"Just relax." Quatre said softly.

"Good afternoon ladies and gentleman, we will be taking off shortly. I just wanted to remind you of the positions of the emergency exits in the case of an emergency, and to remind you to keep you seatbelt on until the sign above me has been turned off. Thank you very much and have a nice and safe flight and thank you again for flying with Peacecraft airlines."

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They had been in the air for about an hour, everyone was resting and watching the in flight movie playing at the front of the aircraft. They were watching Interview with the Vampire, and most of the personnel and crew were watching it with interest. Duo was getting restless, he just couldn't seem to sit still.

He stood and reached into the overhead compartment. He took out his acoustic guitar and tuned it for a few seconds, and started to strum a few chords. Quatre, Wufei and Trowa watched their friend in silence and fascination. Since they had been on their adventure, none of them had ever seen Duo play his guitar without being on stage. This was certainly a first. They watched as their friend looked out of the small Plexiglas window, and began singing softly.

"Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Susanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to

I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again

Won't you look down upon me, Jesus
You've got to help me make a stand
You've just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way

woh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again"

They watched as their friend played the guitar in a haunting and simple tune. And heard his words softly, yet strongly sung at the same time. They were fascinated and entranced with the strange melody that their friend was making.


"I've been working my mind to an easy time
My back turned towards the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around
Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line
To talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.

woh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now

Thought I'd see you one more time again
There's just a few things coming my way this time around, now
Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you fire and rain"

The song ended with the last strum of the black and silver trimmed guitar. Duo rested his hands on the guitar for a few seconds before putting it back into it's case, but not closing the lid. He let out a slow breath and looked up. The whole time he had been playing, he had been looking out the window; he hadn't noticed that his friends were looking at him.

"What?" Duo asked uncertainly. "I got something on my nose or something?"

"That was beautiful Duo." Quatre said softly, the tune still playing softly in his ears. "Did you just write that?"

"Hm? Oh that? No, that's 'Fire and Rain' by James Taylor. I just had it on my mind and felt like playing it, I just couldn't sit another minute without doing something."

"We thought you just wrote it." Trowa said truthfully.

"Nope, not mine. It's a song I play from time to time, when I have something on my mind, it always sort of, calms me down in a way, the soft and haunting melody has always been something that I play to, relax." He said with a grin on his face. He leaned back and put the headphones off to the side, while he put his arm on the arm rest.

Wufei looked at him and sighed. He looked across to Trowa who was holding Quatre's hand in lose contact. He smiled, and remembered a face of a young girl with a smile on her face, but it faded just as quickly as it had appeared. He noticed that Duo was looking at him.

"What do you want Maxwell?" Wufei asked.

"Hm? Oh nothing, I was just thinking..." Duo looked shyly towards the carpeted floors of the airplane.

"What?" Wufei asked insistently.

"Well, I have a question, for all of you." He asked in a certain tone of voice that made everyone in the circle of friends look at him. Trowa and Quatre drew their attention to their friend. "Did any of you imagine that we'd be like this after six years? Wufei, did you know or want to manage a Dojo in China? Trowa did you want to own a wine shop? Quatre did you want to run your dad's company? Did I know I wanted to do this? Has anyone asked themselves that question before?"

They all looked at each other.

"I have asked myself the same question everyday for the past six years." Wufei answered truthfully. "I never thought this would be the life that I would lead, but then, fate and destiny do have ways to fuck us over don't they?" They all agreed. "Look Maxwell, none of us actually fore saw what our futures would be like, we just got the hand that life dealt us, and whether we chose to play it or not was up to us. But I can say, that I have been happy with my life thus far, some regrets are inevitable. But my life has been a peaceful one." He sounded sad at the last remark, and no one said anything about it, they knew what his regrets were, but none of the would mention it out of respect for their black haired friend.

"I agree with Wufei." Trowa said quite suddenly. All eyes turned to him. "Yes, I have my regrets as well, but my life has been quiet and peaceful so far. Not exactly the life I planned on, but I don't think any of us expected to live this long. Being Gundam pilots, I guess some of us figured we would be long dead ages ago. But here we are, sitting here, with one another again. I'm happy with my life..." He gave Quatre's hand a gentle squeeze. "And the people in it." He finished with a smile.

"What brought on these questions Duo?" Quatre asked.

Duo shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe I was wondering what my life would have been like if I had not chosen this path ya know? I could have declined the record deal I was given 6 years 123 days ago. Do you guys know how I began this life?" He got three negative head shakes. He inhaled, "Well, I moved back to L2 after the wars ended. I had just gotten my tattoo and Hilde and I were still workin' in that old salvage yard. I was feeling like I wanted to go out and get drunk or something, so Hil and me, we went to Parker's Bar a mile from the salvage yard. And they were having their weekly open mike night, and Hil wanted me to go up there and sing. I told her there would be no way in hell I would go up there and make an ass out of myself. She pulled a quarter out of her pocket and this is what she said, 'Alright, if I win, you have to go up there and sing a song like the melo-dramatic bastard you like to be, but if I lose, I'll buy you that leather jacket you've been whining about for the last two months.' So I agreed, I really wanted that jacket." He said with a wide smile on his face. "So, I called 'heads', and I watched it as it flipped in the air a few times and finally landed in my beer. It was tails. So I went up there and I sang 'Ziggy Stardust' by David Bowie. But what I didn't know was that there was a guy from some record company, having a drink with his buddies, he heard me and offered me a record deal. Not exactly the life I wanted, but I agreed because it would give me the freedom to be expressive through music, also give me free stuff!" He said, grin growing wider. "I've been working on music ever since then, just writing and singing, it's my catharsis in a way. Like, I've been working on this, see what it sounds like to you guys."

He closed the lid to his acoustic guitar, and stowed it away again. This time he pulled out a midnight blue electric guitar, it was beautiful from it's graceful neck to the shiny finish. He plugged it into an amp the size of a shoe box. He smiled then and turned to his friends as he tuned it. "See what you guys think of this, it's like one of those old love songs, but it has a sort of has a Peter Gabriel slash James Taylor kind of feel." He said as he strummed his guitar:

"I'm learning to live without you now,

But I miss you sometimes,

The more I know, the less I understand,

All the things I thought I knew, I'm learning again.

I've been trying to get down to the heart of the matter,

But my will gets weak, and my thoughts seem to scatter,

But I think it's about forgiveness, forgiveness,

Even if, you don't love me anymore."

He strummed the guitar a few more times, and then looked up expectantly. "So, what'd ya think?"

"I liked it, it sounds good, though not what I'm used to hearing from you." Quatre said with a soft smile on his face. "Are you planning on singing that on our next stop?"

"Eh, I don't know." Duo said with a shake of his head.

"Why not? Sounds ok, just got to finish it." Wufei added.

"Nah, you guys don't get it. My music, the stuff I write, sure it sounds ok, but sometimes I just like writing music for myself, not for everyone. Ask Hilde, ever since I got my record deal, I've written hundreds of songs with music to go along with them, but I never meant to put them out there to be criticized and heard by the public. They're for me, like; my own little journal." He said with a soft smile of his own, and his friends understood. "I think I'm gonna take a nap before we land, I know it's hours from now, but I figure I won't be so jet lagged." He said as they agreed.

Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei put on their head phones and watched the rest of the movie while Duo took his nap. Thankfully to his surprise, he dreamt of nothing.

To Be Continued....

Ok, so there's that one for you. I'm kind of pro-longing Heero's entrance into this fic, and I have a surprise for you guys, but it will not be revealed until the next chapter. But expect Heero in the next 2 to three chapters. Please REVIEW!!! And Read and Review Scraps!