Petra: I have a new obsession! *laugh*
Kati: This time at least my favorite character gets a part in it!
Petra: Oh shush! I thought you were mad at me for reading those fics anyways!
Kati: Hey! Any naked Trowa is a good naked Trowa... even if he is naked with Duo!
Petra: *laugh* And there you have it people. I have new couple that I'm seriously interested in! I don't know if I'll ever write anything but... well... *shrug* They're so cute!
Kati: *sweatdrop*

DEDICATED: For the gundam pilots; I would set them free of their memories and guilt if I could.
WARNING: Slight angst.
DISCLAIMER: Petra: *finishes dumping gasoline on ground* Okay, Kati! Hit it!
Kati: *lights a match* Burn, baby, burn. *scary smile* *laugh* *drops match*
Petra: *watches as letters blaze up which say: I don't own Gundam Wing* Well, there you have it!

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If You Could: Words on Paper and Stories in Books

"There comes a point in life when all you are is an aggregation of stories and fragmented memories." -Laura Hudson; Things Hoped For (SM)

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When he got back to his own apartment he found a note taped to the door scrawled in hasty English. 'Gone out on mission. I'll be back in time for dinner and will be expecting to taste your cooking. Duo.' He sighed and took the note off the door, gently folding it and placing it in his back pocket. He'd really wanted to give Duo the necklace now but it looked like he would have to wait. On top of the fact that he had lost his patience with his memory, he was also worried about Duo.

"Odin-kun!" the cheerful voice made him look up to see Artemis standing with another one of her friends, this one with brown hair held in a high ponytail.

"HEERO-KUN!!" the other girl cried, launching herself at Heero and scooping the small boy in a tight hug.

"Odin-kun, this is Iris. She's another friend of mine," Artemis said, laughing as Heero tried to take in gasping breaths that never seemed to fill his lungs. At that moment the taller girl seemed to realize exactly what she was doing and she let go of Heero, her face flushing extremely red.

Heero bent over for a minute, taking in huge gulps of air as Artemis simply watched, hidden laughter twinkling in her eyes. When he came up the girl was standing almost behind Artemis, staring at him with wide eyes and a blushing face.

"Um… Hi," Heero said, watching her warily. She smiled at him and, he realized with embarrassment, that it was a rather love-stricken smile... sorta like that of Relena. "Um… what brings you here?" Artemis blinked in surprise.

"What?" she said, pretending to be hurt, "I not allowed to visit my cute friend without a reason?"

Heero felt himself blushing unwillingly against the compliment, but held firm and asked, "Well…?"

She sighed, blowing hair out of her face, before replying, "Actually, Iris-chan and I thought that maybe there was something we could do to help you…" She winked suggestively and Heero felt himself blush again. Hmm… maybe this showing emotion things wasn't that good after all…

"Iie…" he trailed off as he remembered his talk with Quatre just a few moments before. "Actually… could you teach me to play piano?"

There was no surprise, as he had thought there might be, but then again he had never seen Artemis surprised, so he didn't know why he still expected her to be. "Sure, Iris-chan will help. There's already a piano waiting out on your balcony." Heero didn't know why he was shocked, he should have known she would know exactly what he wanted.

They all walked out the balcony, Heero keeping a wary gaze on Iris who looked ready to pounce any moment. He stopped, though, as soon as he saw the beautiful piano that stood before him. It was a dark blue and silver, and so gorgeous that the hand he ran across it almost trembled. Something in his fingers tingled and he pulled away, staring with wide eyes at the hand and then, finally, noticed the floor behind the hand. It was no longer a floor, as the huge balcony had been carpeted in grass that was glowing despite there being no ground and there was even some medium-sized trees to give them shade. How could he not have noticed… then he stared at the piano and, for a moment, he forgot about the beauty around him, yet again.

"It's beautiful…" he said, walking around it to find, to his surprise, a swing between two trees. He turned to say thank you but found that Artemis was walking inside while Iris was moving closer. She sat down on the swing and patted the seat next to her, saying, "Sit. Please."

She didn't appear nearly as love-struck as before, now gazing at the city that lay around them. "You know, the first moment I saw you, I knew you were someone special." The statement startled Heero and he looked up in surprise. "Then, as I watched you grow up, watched as you became so strong despite all the odds…" she trailed off, turning to him. "I made the most awful mistake anyone could make. I fell in love."

Heero felt a slow and steady blush stain his cheeks at this soft declaration. Relena's, the few he remembered, had always been quick and hard, never making him believe it. This woman, on the other hand, was soft and quiet, the love shining in her eyes.

He opened his mouth to say something but she put her finger to his lips, "I know you don't love me. You don't even know me. You would never even find me attractive." Her finger drew away slowly, as she turned thoughtful, "I couldn't even be with you, even if you could have felt the same way… I did that once and it killed something inside me when he died. He was wonderful, his eyes were just like yours… but his hair was a blazing red." She slowly put her hand on one side of his face. "Heero…" she whispered and then, gently, she turned the other cheek toward her and kissed it. "I want you to be happy and, if it's not with me, than so be it. If you ever need help just call." Then she kissed him gently on the forehead, her eyes teary as she pulled away. "Ai shiteru, Heero Yuy," she whispered, her voice so soft he wasn't even sure if he actually heard her. Then she stood and walked out of the small haven Artemis had created.

He sat for a long time, gazing out across the sky, until he felt a cool hand on his shoulder and Artemis sat next to him. "What are you thinking about?" she asked, pulling him against her, like a mother would do.

"I don't know…" A pause. "Actually, I was thinking about Duo and what I would do if he responded to me like I responded to Iris." The mere thought of it made his entire being shake and made his eyes water.

Artemis smiled sadly, placing a kiss atop his head. "Iris-chan would never have told you if she thought for a moment you would return the feeling, so it didn't matter. If you could have felt the same way, she would never have told you." She ran long fingers through his hair, as his eyelids fluttered. "We're not allowed to love anyone like that…" His eyes closed and, before he could ask why, Heero was sleeping.

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Artemis saw a small drop of water fall onto Heero's bent head, blinking in surprise, and brought one hand up to her face, startled to find tears there.

Warm arms wrapped around her from behind and she felt a sob catch in her throat, as more tears fell on top of Heero's hair, glittering there. "You're still upset about Hestia no baka, aren't you?" Hebe asked and, when Artemis nodded, she said, "You can't let it get to you. You always knew she was an asshole." At Artemis's small whimper, Hebe sighed, "I know you thought you saw something there… but in the end she destroyed herself." Hebe could feel the anger boil up within her as she thought about the smaller woman.

The way Hestia had tried as much as possible to try to get Heero away from Duo and Quatre away from Trowa, all the times Heero and Duo could have met beforehand. All those lost days… and now it was getting so close to being almost too late, that Artemis didn't know what to do. She wanted to cry until she couldn't cry anymore, she wanted to scream until her throat went hoarse, or she wanted to hit someone, preferably Hestia, until she couldn't feel this raging pain that seemed to fill every inch of her being.

Hebe sighed, looking down at the two people she held. One a boy whose midnight eyes caused her best friend such pain and joy, a young man who had seen too much in too short a time. The other her best friend, a woman who had almost lost all hope and who had suffered and seen so much Hebe was surprised she hadn't snapped yet.

"Hestia is getting her just rewards now, the Fates will see to that…" Hebe whispered, feeling tears prick her own eyes. They hadn't know each other at all, but it still hurt to know that they had, yet again, lost another one of their group. First all the males… now, slowly but surely, each other.

"What do you think happens to them?" Artemis asked, looking up at Hebe with eyes that tore the smaller girl's heart.

"I think…" Hebe said, a thoughtful look on her face, "I believe… that it matters on what we were like. If we were kind and tried hard to bring justice, like Dionysus, then we will be turned mortal and able to live a life without all these horrors. If we were petty and unkind, like Zeus, we will simply disappear…"

"I'm going to disappear…" Artemis whispered, her eyes unseeing.

"No!" Hebe said, grabbing Artemis's face so that the other girl had to look at her. "You one of the few people I know who try so hard to be… kind and nice to everyone, to understand without judging… you'll get a second chance at life… I know you will…"

Artemis smiled, knowing her friend wouldn't lie to her and she said, "Yes, we'll all be reborn together and get to know each other again… to live a normal life. And these tales will just be words on paper and stories in books." She shifted so that she could look lovingly down at the young man she held cradled in her arms. "And, all our sacrifices, all the things we fought for, they will live on in the ones who unknowingly carry our blood through their veins."

Then they sat and watched the sun rise and fall a million times, the moon wax and wane a thousand times, while the minute hand on the clock simply ticked from the eleven to the twelve. Then, Hebe stood silently and said, "I'd better go and you'd better wake Heero-kun so you can give him his piano 'lessons'!" She smiled a secret smile and Artemis answered her friend back with one of her own before Hebe left, the smell of raspberries the only proof of her being there.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: For those of you that wish it, DUE TO MY SPORADIC postings, I am offering you, the readers, A MAILING LIST to sign up to. When I finally UPDATE, I will SEND OUT AN EMAIL informing those of you that are on the list that I have finally updated. I need you to EMAIL me, telling that you wish to sign up, and whether it's for ORIGINAL FICTION or FANFICTION. I WILL NOT accept those people that ask to be up on it in a review because I can't be sure that email is real. The mailing list will ALSO OFFER the TITLES of those works that I am posting, the COUPLES (if any) that are in it, which FANDOM it is from, and whether it is a SEQUEL to anything.

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Kati: So, did you guys like? Actually, this chapter's kind of crap-ass...
Petra: Which is why I'm posting another one! *laugh*
Kati: I don't mean crap-ass in, you know, that sense, but in the sense that you don't get to see enough Duo or Heero!
Petra: Don't worry, though! We more than make up for it in the next chappy! Lots of emotional Duo-torture awaits!
Kati: So don't forget to tune into...
Petra: Next month's exciting new episode of...
Petra & Kati: *in unison* Days of a Gundams' Lives!
Kati: *hysterical laughter*
Petra: *snort* We are so weird... Anyways, thanks to all you who reviewed:

DREAM KEEPER: Hey, babe! *laugh* I know you've been wanting this chappie for... well... ever, so here it is! I hope you enjoy it! The next one's more fun though!
HIKARU: 3 days...? -_-;;;;; Umm... Sorry! Gomen nasai! *bows deeply* I am soooooo sorry. Life has been so hectic and my internet is so slow... but now I have the school's 'net, so don't worry!

"I dream of a day when I can open my eyes, and my dreams won't disappear."
-Rose Marie Ledam

~Petra Megami Assari~
*The Gentle Tiger Goddess*