Gundam Wing: The Never Ending Waltz Between

War and Peace

Fandom: This is a Gundam Wing fan fiction

Disclaimer: I do not own this great show, Gundam Wing!

Ratings/Warnings: This is a NONYAOI fan fiction rated 'T' for teen. It will have some violence, slight sexual contents, and very mild profanity. Action/Adventure/Humor/Romance

Beta read by Chibi Rose Angel

Chapter 8

That day came quicker than they thought. A cab was blowing outside, early in the morning impatiently waiting for its passengers to leave their house. Both Duo and Hilde were running across the house trying to fix last minute details as Heero calmly waited by the front door.

"Ok." Hilde began, "The suitcases are by the door. But where are the traveling bags?"

"Right next to the suitcases." Heero said calmly.

"Oh, thanks Heero!" Hilde said and ran into her bedroom to get some more items.

"Aww man." Duo said, "I can't find my laptop! I thought I left it under my bed."

"It's on the living room sofa." Heero said calmly.

"Oh, thanks man." Duo said and ran into the kitchen to get some snacks.

As Heero waited for them to finish, he thought about their own little reunion they had yesterday. When Heero came to the house, Hilde had fixed corn dogs and her famous Apple Crumb Pie. He was touched by such acts of kindness. They actually remembered that he really liked those dishes. That night at the dinner table, Hilde and Duo talked as if time hadn't passed since he left. They treated him with the same hospitality as they did the first time. And he felt so welcomed.

His thoughts were interrupted as the cab driver blew his horn again. Heero looked down at his watch to see the time. It was 8:47 am. They were supposed to leave at 8:30 am. Over fifteen minutes ago. Duo ran out of the kitchen with a huge lunch box slung over his shoulder. Heero raised an eyebrow and asked, "Duo, why are you packing lunch?"

"Because." Duo began panting because he was out of breath from running across the house. "They don't give you much food anymore. Just those packets of peanuts and something to drink. And well those flights are usually long, and I need something to hold me over." He placed his lunch box on the sofa next to his laptop and said, "Besides, I need a hearty lunch to tide me over to the flight to Earth. And then I need another lunch to last me over from our destination on Earth to Saudi Arabia. Remember Heero, we have two different plane rides we are going on."

"I see." Was all Heero said.

"Don't let him fool you Heero! He would have packed just as much food if it was a single flight!" Hilde shouted from her bedroom.

"Hey babe! I packed some food for you too, so watch you say. Or I might eat it all!" Duo yelled defensively towards her direction.

"Ok ok." She yelled from her room. She closed her bedroom door and made her way into the living room. "Ok, we got the suitcases, the traveling packs, and lunch thanks to the courtesy of Duo. And Duo, you have your laptop and Heero, you have…..you have whatever it is you're bringing. So, are we missing anything?"

"The tickets and invitations." Heero said calmly.

"SHIT!" Hilde yelled, "If we had forgotten that, we would have been in a real fix." She ran back into her bedroom, grabbed the tickets and invitations and put them in her purse.

When she came back, she said, "Ok. Now we are officially ready to go."

As soon as they opened the door, they were greeted to the sound of a loud screech. The cab driver, tired of waiting, began speeding down the street. Duo, in a mad rush and flying braid shouted, "HEY! COME BACK HEREEEEE!"

Heero just shook his head at all the madness.

The driver ended up coming back. They hurried up and shoved all the stuff in the cab and then they were off to the airport.

Once at the airport, they gave the driver a big tip for waiting so long and for coming back when he really didn't have too.

The three of them calmly walked inside the airport until Duo shouted, "DAMN! THE SHUTTLE LEAVES IN TWENTY MINUTES! IF WE DON'T HURRY WE'LL MISS THE FLIGHT!"

"SHIT!" Hilde shouted and began to run.

Heero didn't say a word. He just broke out in a full run and headed for the baggage check in area. The line, as usual, was long. "Aww man." Duo said, "I hope we make it!"

There were about six people in front of them. And the workers were taking so long to check out the baggage. Heero, Duo and Hilde kept checking their watches, hoping that this wouldn't take the whole twenty minutes thus resulting in them missing the flight. Finally, after about ten minutes, they were waited on and their baggage was ready to go on the shuttle.

Then they ran to their next destination. They had to be checked and made sure they weren't carrying any weapons.

After all the baggage check ins and the metal detectors, they made it to their flight gate in the nick of time. The flight announcer said, "Last call for flight G-6. Last call for flight G-6. Now is the time to board flight G-6."

"WAIT!" Duo yelled with Hilde and Heero running along side him. "We're here! Don't leave without us!"

Once they boarded the plane Heero was on the end, Duo was in the middle, and Hilde had the window seat. Both Hilde and Duo were excited and couldn't stop talking, while Heero just calmly relaxed in his seat.

Finally, the shuttle went off the ramp and took off to space. As it did, Duo and Hilde stared out the window in a trance. They were silent for a long time.

When they finally reached outer space, Hilde said, "Wow. We've come a long way haven't we?"

"Yeah." Duo said, staring off into space. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it saying, "We sure have."

Heero turned his head and looked at the two of them. Then he closed his eyes and decided to take a nap.

"Ok! It's almost noon, they should be here soon. Everything looks ok. Right?" Quatre asked his head male servant Edward. He was making sure that everything was just right, for the one hundredth time.

"Yes Master Quatre." Edward said while trying to reconcile Quatre and tell him everything was just fine.

"Oh ok, if you say so." They were in one of the living rooms. Then they made there way to the mid-section of the mansion and right in front of the staircase. Quatre stared up towards the upper section where all the guest rooms were. Frowning he asked, "Did you look over the guest rooms one more time?"

Edward, trying not to reveal his true emotions said, "Yes Master Quatre. We have checked four times this morning. Would you like another?"

"Well, yes." He said, "But this time, I'll do it myself. I just want to make sure everything is perfect." Quatre ran to the main entrance to begin his final checkup. Edward, while he had a chance, quietly exited the room and began planning to hide from Master Quatre. He and all the other servants loved Quatre dearly, but he was driving them crazy. The past week, they have all been working long hours to make sure everything was to perfection for Quatre's guests. He couldn't wait for them to arrive so this non stop preparing would be over.

Finally, Quatre checked the last room. He was out of breath because he pretty much checked his whole mansion. He could tell that his servants were tired. He didn't want to wear them out, so he decided that he would do the last check. Besides, if he didn't see it for himself, he would have gone mad.

"Ok…" He said out of breath, "I think I'm going to rest for a while."

As soon as he made his way into his room, he crashed on the bed and fell asleep.

A knock on the door awakened Quatre from his sleep. "Yes." He mumbled sleepily, although the servant barely heard him.

"Master Quatre, your first guest made it here safely and will be arriving in twenty minutes. I just wanted to…."

"OH NO!" Quatre shouted. "I fell asleep, this wasn't supposed to happen." He jumped out of bed and flung open the door. It was Edward. He almost fell in the room from the abrupt way Quatre swung open the door. Quatre, put his hands on Edward's shoulder and said, "OH NO! We have to look over the house one last time! We have to make sure the flowers are nice. The rooms are clean. The bathrooms are fresh. What if the pillows aren't fluffed? Ah! What can one do without fluffed pillows!"

And Quatre went on and on until Edward finally shouted, "Master Quatre!"

Everything was silent for a moment. Quatre was shocked as well as Edward. He had never raised his voice at a master before.

"Ahem, Master Quatre" The servant began, "I assure you, everything will be alright. The house is beautiful. Everything is perfect. Just relax."

"Relax." Quatre said, almost in a trance.

"Yes, relax. Why don't I fix you a cup of tea before your guests arrive?"

"Yes, I would like that. Thank you." Quatre said, sitting down on the bed, relaxing for the first time in weeks.

"You are welcome sir." And with that, Edward left the room. Once the door was closed, he relaxed against it and sighed. "Poor Master Quatre. He's so worried about the littlest things. I hope his wife will be prepared for this and able to calm him down. Until then, I pray that Allah will give us the strength to deal with his temperaments."

Finally, Edward and everyone else in the house had peace, at least so they thought.

Sure enough, twenty minutes later, a limousine arrived. Quatre, too excited to wait inside, ran outside and stood by the main doors. He had been waiting for this moment for so long. The butler arrived and opened the door to the limousine, and to Quatre's surprise, Catherine came out. She was wide eyed and couldn't keep her mouth closed as she stared at the grand beauty of the house. In her yellow sundress, she could almost pass for a child with the way she was gaping at everything.

"Well I guess she decided to come after all." Quatre thought to himself.

Finally, Trowa came out, holding both his and Catherine's suitcase. When a servant came to grab them, he wasn't expecting it. It was funny to see his reaction, because he almost told the servant he could do it himself. But he didn't and gave up the suitcases. He watched the servant with the suitcases as he walked to the main doors and passed Quatre. That's when he noticed Quatre.

At first the two of them just stared at one another. It was like time never passed and it was just yesterday that they were standing together with Duo watching their Gundams get destroyed. Finally, the silence was broken as Quatre smiled and said, "Trowa."

Trowa slightly smirked as he said, "Quatre."

They walked towards each other and met halfway. Quatre, knowing that Trowa isn't too affectionate, held out his hand to shake it. Trowa held out his hand and they shook hands. The hand shake was firm, but full of warmth symbolizing their friendship.

Afterwards, Catherine walked up to them smiling. For the first time, she understood their relationship and respected it. No longer would she hold grudges against Quatre or any of the other Gundam Pilots.

"So." Quatre began breaking the silence, "Did you two have a nice flight?"

"Yeah, it was pretty good." Catherine said, "Trowa was asleep for most of the flight so I was pretty bored though." She grinned at Trowa and said, "Oh well, it's not like he's that much of a talker anyway. I would have done all the talking and probably annoyed him."

"So true." Trowa said.

Catherine gasped and playfully plucked Trowa on the arm, "Hey! You didn't have to be so honest!"

Trowa barely suppressed another smirk and said, "When the truth comes out, so do her claws."

"Well, you're just on a role today!" Catherine shouted, "I'm going to remember this."

Trowa chuckled at Catherine, who was pretending to be annoyed.

Quatre stared in amazement. "A playful, chuckling Trowa? My, how he has changed." He then stared at Catherine and watched as she was still giggling at Trowa's comments, "Well, I'm glad someone is melting that icy heart of his. I thought he was going to have a dead soul forever."

Everything was silent for a moment. Catherine began to feel out of place. Trowa and Quatre hadn't seen each other in years and probably wanted to catch up on old times and talk about things she didn't even know about. While she was thinking of an excuse to leave the room, Quatre interrupted as if he was reading her mind and said, "You know since you are the first lady here, you can pick out any room you want in the east wing."

"Really?" Catherine asked happily.

"Yes, really." Quatre said while smiling at her.

"Oh wow, thanks!" She beamed and almost ran out the room.

Quatre and Trowa watched as Catherine began wandering around the house like a child dreaming that she was a princess in her own castle.

"She's a handful."

"Yes, I agree." Quatre said smiling.

"How is everything?"

"Well…" Quatre began. And before you knew it, those two were back to they used to be. Quatre, happily chatting away about everything in life as Trowa listened, adding a little feedback here and there.

About an hour later, Trowa and Quatre had made themselves comfortable in one of the living rooms. Quatre was drinking tea while Trowa drank java. They had talked about everything they could think of. Well, Quatre did most of the talking.

Catherine had finally come down to join them. After she was comfortable, Quatre asked, "Catherine, would you like something? A drink or a snack?"

"Why yes, thank you." She watched as the maid began to prepare her tea, those tiny thin crust sandwiches and cake squares. It was all placed on delicate white and blue china plates and teacups. Catherine thought back to when she had "tea parties" as a child. She never would have thought she would be apart of a real one. She was in such a trance that she didn't even realize the maid was asking her a question.

"Miss, how many sugar cubes would you like in your tea cup?"

"Oh!" Catherine gasped, while blushing from embarrassment. "Um, three should be fine."

"Wow Catherine. You're better than me." Quatre began, "I have to have at least five for my cup of tea."

"Really, that's funny." She said, "Somehow I couldn't imagine that." She thought to herself.

"So, did you find a room to your liking?" Quatre asked while drinking his tea.

"Oh yes! I found this beautiful room where I could see the gardens outside my window. Your home is so beautiful Quatre. Trowa told me about it, but when I saw it in person it was like a totally different experience. I was blown away. Thank you so much for having me here!" She finished all in one breath.

Quatre blushed from Catherine's kind words and said "You're welcome. I'm glad you're enjoying everything so far." And I'm glad that all the over checking paid off. He thought to himself.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in." Quatre said.

"Master Quatre, another guest will be arriving in twenty minutes." A servant bowed and exited the room.

Quatre smiled and couldn't wait for his next guest to arrive. Catherine wanted to know who it was, but didn't want to appear nosey. Trowa was just enjoying the moment and taking everything in. He didn't realize how pleasant it was to be in the same room with the two people he cared about most in this world.

Twenty minutes later, you could hear some sort of commotion in the main section of the mansion.

"But sir, it is my duty to take your bags."

"No thank you, I can carry them myself." Said a firm and crisp voice.

"But sir, I would be more than honored. It is your time to rest from all tasks, even minor ones including this. I can take care of it sir."

"Again, thank you but I can handle it. It is an injustice for you to do something that I can do on my own."

Quatre smiled and began walking towards the voice. "I know who that is."

Trowa got up and followed behind him, "So do I."

Catherine stood up and said, "Well, I can't say who it is, but the voice does sound familiar."

Once outside the room, as expected, was Chang Wufei. The servant was almost pleading with him to take his bags, but Wufei would have nothing of it. A hand was placed on Wufei's shoulder followed by a voice saying, "It's ok Ubaid, let him carry his bags."

"Yes Master Quatre." Ubaid said and left the room.

Wufei turned around with a smirk on his face saying, "Hello Quatre."

"Hello Wufei." They smiled at each other for a moment and then Trowa entered the room.

"Trowa."

"Wufei."

It had been four years since they last saw each other. That fateful day when there was finally peace on Earth. They had never contacted each other since then, but always heard that one another were ok from Quatre. They didn't really know what to say to one another, but you could tell they were both happy to see each other.

"OH MYGOD! Wufei is that you!" Catherine shouted, forgetting all her manners.

"Catherine?"

"The last time I saw you, you were a few inches shorter. Wow, you've grown." She walked over to him and looked up at Wufei for the first time. She smiled and said, "You're even more good looking since the last time I saw you."

Embarrassed by her outburst, Wufei looked away and mumbled, "Well, ahem….."

Catherine giggled as she gave him a hug. Out of all of Trowa's friends, Wufei was her favorite. He seemed the most mature out of them. Wufei, not expecting the warm hug, gladly accepted it. He wasn't used to such affections, but he didn't seem to mind it coming from Catherine.

After the embrace, Quatre led Wufei to the west wing. He knew that Wufei liked to set everything up before he settled down. Trowa followed so that he could find his room. He just gave the servant the suitcases, but didn't know what room he put them in. Once in the west wing, Wufei just walked into the first available room. He never made a huge fuss over the best rooms and such. Trowa found his room and began to unpack everything. Quatre and Catherine entertained themselves. They had a lot to talk about since they were both chatters.

Thirty minutes later, they were all downstairs in the same living room and just talking. Wufei, once he found the right topic, could surprisingly hold a conversation. He updated them on how the Preventers were doing and how well his trainees were.

Thirty minutes turned to an hour, an hour into two hours. The other guests had not arrived. The four of them were enjoying themselves so much, that they didn't even realize how the time flew by. Quatre looked at the time and said, "Duo and Hilde should have made it here by now. It's almost 7:00. I was hoping that they would be here by dinner so no one would be left out."

Quatre began biting his lower lip. Trowa noticed his discomfort and calmly said, "Don't worry Quatre. I'm sure that they will make it on time."

Wufei grunted and said, "Knowing that braided fool, they might be in an Arabian prison right now."

"You do have a point." Trowa said.

"Oh no." Quatre said, getting more worried.

Catherine frowned and said, "Hey you two! You don't have to make him worry even more." She walked over to Quatre and patted him on the hand saying, "Hey. Everything's gonna be alright. Don't worry so much."

Quatre blushed from Catherine's affection and calmed down a bit. "Thank you Catherine."

"No problem." She said smiling.

Another hour passed, it was 8:00 and everyone was getting hungry. Quatre was getting worried again. "I'm sorry everyone, I can serve you all dinner now. I was trying to wait for everyone, but my schedule is not going as planned and…."

"It's ok Quatre. We can wait." Catherine said, although her stomach was singing a different tune. "We will be alright."

"Mmhm." Trowa murmured.

"Yes, we are fine." Wufei said.

At 8:47 Quatre had just about given up. "Well," he began standing up, "I'm sorry everyone. If you want, you can ask someone to bring you a meal upstairs and…"

SCREECH! BOOM!

That noise combined with yelling and screaming could be heard outside. A huge smile appeared on Quatre's face as he shouted, "DUO!" and ran outside. The others followed behind.

Once outside, everyone saw that a smoking van had crashed into the side gate of the mansion. You could hear an Arabic man swearing and shouting while Duo kept bowing and apologizing.

"DUO!" Quatre shouted and ran towards him.

"DUO! DUO!" The Arabic man shouted, "I CURSE THAT NAME!"

"QUATRE!" Duo shouted and ran towards Quatre. They hugged and Duo patted Quatre on the back saying, "Hey man! Long time no see! How ya doing?"

"Well, I'm doing great! Everyone's here and…!"

"WU WU!" Duo interrupted and ran towards Wufei.

"GET BACK! GET BACK YOU DEMON!" Wufei shouted while backing away. "You haven't even been here 5 minutes and already you are spreading your curses around here! GET BACK!"

"Aww Wu Wu! I missed you too!" Duo said teasingly while clinging onto Wufei's arm.

"GET OFF ME YOU FOUL MONSTER!" Wufei continued to shout as he tried to shake Duo off of his arm.

Quatre giggled at all the commotion and Catherine just shook her head and smiled. Every time Duo was around, so was trouble.

"GET OUT THE WAY!" A voice shouted from the smoke. The Arabic man and Hilde ran away from the smoking vehicle and towards the others.

A figure ran out of the van just before it exploded. When the smoke dissipated, you could see someone walking with all of the suitcases in his hands. As the fog finally cleared, you could see him.

"Heero Yuy." Wufei said. "I never thought I would see him again."

Heero came out of the fog and appeared in front of them. He had smears of oil, dirt and sand all over him. But his face was completely black.

Duo said, "Our savior. If it wasn't for him we would have ended up in an Arabic jail cell. Ain't that right Heero."

Heero's black face suddenly had two angry eyes pop out on his face and glare in Duo's direction. Before he could react on his anger, there was a burst of laughter.

Everyone looked in that direction. It was coming from Trowa. He was laughing so hard that he was hunched over and grabbing his stomach. No one had ever seen Trowa laugh like this before. It was then that they all realized the humor in the situation and they all began laughing, even Heero.

As they laughed, there was an exhilarating sense of freedom. There was no need to worry about wars because there was actually true peace. They were all together and it had nothing to do with war, murder or conspiracies but with friendships.

Author's Notes: Yeah, it's been a really looong time since I updated. I've been having some problems in the real world that affected my online writings and such.

Anyways, to the point. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this story. I need feedback. Am I doing ok? Is the story going well? Are my characters in character? (Keep in mind that the Gundam Pilots are going through changes since they are not involved in wars anymore.) I guess depending on the feedback will determine whether or not I finish this story.

Thanks Chao