Author's Note: I know you all have been waiting for this update patiently and I hope this will be able to appease you. Over three thousands words at last check so hopefully it will tide you over until the next update. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing

Warning: slight language, angst, violence

The Tyranny of Hatred

Duo was aware of the activity that was happening around him but he didn't acknowledge it visually. Nobody cared what happened to him. He was only worth something when somebody wanted something. He had to admit though, the embrace he found himself in was very comforting.

He internally objected to being carried around like a puppy but he didn't vocalize it since he was tired of trying to please everybody. He just didn't care anymore.

It was all a blur now, the next thing that caught his attention was someone tending to his head wound. The disinfectant stung a bit but he took it without protest. What would be the point anyway? Someone was always messing with his life, trying to make it fit into their own without regard for him. Why resist if that's what everybody wanted?

Why hadn't he realized this sooner?

Solo was more than concerned over Duo's lack of response to everything going on. Despite all the questions and demands to know what had happened and who was responsible, the braided one remained silent, dead to the world around him.

He had no clue what to do about it or how to fix his friend. Huh, a friend? Well, Duo was certainly that if not a buddy. Probably the only one he had here that he talked with on a regular basis. Duo had never asked anything of him (except for yelling at him to not follow him home) or expected anything from. He seemed to care less that he was part of the prestigious Winner Family and treated him like somebody he was just a regular person. He could see why Quatre liked his company. Duo didn't pander, didn't try to suck up, expecting to get something by being nice.

He was just himself and that was something anybody like Quatre and himself hungered for. But now, he was just a shell of himself, a shadow of the once lively Duo Maxwell and he would be damn if he let Duo go without a fight.

That's what friends did for each other, right?

Moving into close proximity with the braided teen and kneeling before him, he asked tentatively, "Duo?"

No reaction.

Frowning, Solo gently turned Duo's head so that he could get eye contact. He had to force himself not to recoil back when those dead eyes captured him.

"C'mon Duo," he pleaded. "Snap out of it, will ya? We're worried about you."

Duo snorted. Even though it was a reaction, it still surprised Solo. Did Duo not believe his sincerity?

"What was that for?" he demanded.

No answer.

Sighing, Solo sat himself beside Duo on the flat nurse bed that the braided one was sitting on, said teen continuing to stare straight ahead. "Can you at least tell me what happened?"

There. If he hadn't been looking for it, he wouldn't have noticed the muscles in Duo's jaw clenching. It was a sign, Solo was confident. Duo was still in there. Now, all he had to do was pick at him some more. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that Quatre was watching intently while Trowa was explaining to some school official or something what the situation was.

"How about you tell me who jumped ya?" he suggested. "I'll find their asses and beat the living shit out of them. Okay?"

Nope, nothing.

Keeping himself from tearing his hair out in frustration, he put his arm around Duo's shoulders and pulled him close. "What are you thinking about?" he muttered. "What's going on inside that head of yours? Don't you see you're freaking everybody out? We want to know what's wrong. Quatre cares about ya, Trowa…not too sure about him but he's here, isn't he?"

Still no response.

"You got me," Solo continued, desperate for something, anything, but not showing it. "Believe it or not, even though we haven't known each other long, you're my friend. My…best friend. The best one I've ever had since…ever."

Glancing down to see if his words were having any kind of effect, his eyebrows raised slightly as he caught something glimmering off of the braided one's face. Was that…a tear? Duo's body was trembling against his even though it wasn't cold in this room.

Then he heard a few words escape Duo lips, words that were, volume-wise, low and nearly silent.

"But then why does everybody hate me? Why do they hate me so much?"

Solo's eyes widened as he wrapped his other arm around Duo and pressed his face into his chest just as the first silent sob began to wrack the small body, tremors erupting from Duo.

He felt rather than saw Quatre approach and sit behind Duo, wrapping his arms around the crying teen, beginning rocking motions to soothe the distraught boy, mindful of the bandage on his head as he began to stroke Duo's hair. "Oh Duo," Quatre sighed.

Solo couldn't help but feel a surge of possessive surge through him. It was unexpected and shocked him enough that he was able to put a lid on it as he fell into the rhythm that Quatre started. And the tears still kept coming as Duo wept, his leakage being absorbed by Solo's clothing. The longed haired blond was beginning to feel the moisture against his skin but he could have cared less for some reason.

It was strange. A week ago, he would have beaten the snot out of anybody who "ruined" his outfit. Yet, here he was letting somebody cry in his shirt and get snot all over it and he didn't care.

What the hell was happening to him?

The appearance of an old man went unnoticed by him until he caught sight of the Godforsaken Hawaiian shirt that suddenly filled up his peripheral vision. He hadn't a chance to say anything about it as the old man was already addressing Duo.

"Are you all right Duo?" the old man inquired worriedly. "Talk to me kiddo, what happened?"

Now Solo was about to tell the guy that Duo wasn't in the mood to talk but much to his shock, Duo seemed to have picked himself back together within seconds of hearing the old man speak.

"What are you doing here Howard?" the braided one asked brokenly as he removed his face from Solo's person, tear-stricken and puffy face frowning at the old man.

"Someone worked you over real good huh?" Howard commented. "Tell me the bastard who did this to you and I'll get them charged with assault and battery on ya, make them wish they had thought twice before jumping ya."

"Hold on a minute," Solo interrupted. "Who the hell are you?"

Lowering the sunglasses that he had kept on, even inside, Howard's dark eyes bored into him, as if looking at his very soul. "And that was just what I was about to ask you," Howard replied.

Quatre, forgotten, remained silent, watching the scene before him avidly and trying to figure out just who this man was and what connection he had with Duo. He had never met or heard of anybody named Howard before nor had Duo ever mentioned him before.

"Can you excuse me, guys?" Duo cut in, looking both at Quatre and Solo. "I need to talk with Howard a bit, okay?"

Not willing to argue, Quatre nodded and proceeded to drag his cousin away as this Howard character remained to talk with Duo. The old man's eyes remained on them until they had reached an appropriate distance before returning to Duo himself.

"Who is that?" Trowa asked from behind them, the unibanged teen eyeing the newcomer.

"Don't know," Quatre answered, "but he seems to know Duo and Duo him. I have no idea what's going on."

Solo, however, watched the old man balefully, having obviously taken a dislike to the guy. He crossed his arms over his chest, mindful of the small mess Duo's crying fit had left behind, ignoring everything else around him as he continued to glare. He wanted so bad to be over there and hearing every word but he was too far away to eavesdrop and the two males were conversing quietly. Frowning, Quatre tapped his shoulder and the long haired blond turned his glare to the other blond.

Trowa took up a protective stance behind the smaller blond as Solo growled, "What?"

"There's no use getting upset about it," Quatre said patiently. "We'll ask Duo about that guy later."

"And what if Duo refuses to say anything?" Solo nearly snarled.

"We'll make him," Quatre stated resolutely. "He can't keep hiding stuff from us, not anymore."

However, before Quatre could get on a roll, Trowa interrupted with a "He's coming over here."

Hushing up quickly and turning to watch the old man, who had put his sunglasses back up, approach them, the guy nodding his head to the door, raising an eyebrow as he did so. Frowning, the three teens followed after the old man, suspicious, or, in Trowa's case curious about what he wanted with them. Closing the door behind them all, Howard leaned beside it and pulled his sunglass down again.

"First off," he began in a low raspy pitch, "I want to know who you are and what your relation to Duo is." Solo showed his objection to this visibly but Howard cut him off before he could say anything. "Just answer the question and I'll tell you what I can."

Since it seemed the other two weren't going to voluntarily do it, Quatre decided to answer for them and himself. "My name's Quat—"

"I already know who you are," Howard rudely interrupted. "God knows Duo has talked about you a lot. I want to know about the other two."

That was quite a bit of info. Duo had spoken of him to this old man?

"Well, this is Trowa Barton," he continued, introducing his boyfriend. Howard raised an eyebrow, as if telling him to elaborate more. Quatre was a bit confused at how to respond since he didn't know what else the old man wanted to know.

Trowa took charge of that though. "I'm Quatre's boyfriend," he stated, moving closer to the blond and wrapping his arm around his waist.

"Good for you," Howard said dryly. "But you didn't answer my question. What is your relation to Duo?"

Emerald eyes widening slightly, Trowa simply answered, "I guess I'm just a friend."

"You guess, huh?" The dark eyes examined him for a minute longer before turning to look at Solo. "And what about you sonny?"

Solo continued to glare at Howard as he answered, "Solo. I'm the new kid in school and Duo's my best friend."

Howard smirked. "Okay, what's your real name?"

Solo's eyes narrowed as his glare intensified, Quatre having to step in and finish his introduction. "He's my cousin, Solomon Winner."

That glare was now focused on Quatre at his audacity in giving out his name like that.

"No wonder you prefer Solo," Howard chuckled.

Exasperated, Solo turned back to Howard. "Okay, we told you who we are. Now spill. Who the hell are you?"

"The name's Howard Sweeps," he answered. "I guess you could say I'm Duo's attorney. I've been looking after his legal affairs since he was three."

"Legal affairs?" Trowa questioned, still trying to fit in pieces of the puzzle.

"Not for me to tell," Howard stated. "If Duo wanted you to know, he would have told you himself."

"But he refuses to tell us anything!" Quatre protested. "Can't you at least tell us something? Duo's my friend and I want to help him but he won't let me."

"I can't tell you much," Howard stated. "In fact, I can't tell you much of anything without Duo's permission. However, something has come up and if you are truly his friends, like you say you are, then I'll expect you to do something to help out."

"Anything!" Quatre exclaimed.

Looking side to side, he leaned closer to the trio. "You know about the situation with his father, right?"

Both Quatre and Solo nodded their heads but Trowa did nothing, not even knowing what Howard was talking about.

"Well, yesterday his father cut the amount of child support he has to pay. Now Duo can't afford to live in the apartment he has and needs to start looking for a new place to stay. I've already offered him to come to my place but he refused. Told me once that he wanted to live on his own and depend on himself since he could count on nobody else. Those were his words, by the way, not mine."

"That son of a bitch," Solo growled, his fists clenching tightly.

"My words exactly," Howard agreed dryly.

"So that's why he was so upset yesterday," Quatre murmured to himself. It explained quite a lot. This must have been the reason why Duo had been called to the office. Howard had told him what had happened and Duo was always in a bad mood whenever the subject of his father came up. The man should rot in Hell for doing this to his friend.

Trowa remained silent, not saying a thing, learning more about the braided teen in the past few minutes than he had in the past couple years. He could see that Quatre was visibly upset with the news and Solo was displaying emotion, mainly anger, at Duo's situation.

"This would be much simpler if Duo wasn't so stubborn about staying out on his own and not with me or any of the others," Howard grumbled. "It's now more important that he have a roof over his head and food in his stomach. However, the last thing I want to do is force him into something he doesn't want."

Despite feeling hatred for the man that had sired Duo, something clicked in Solo's head.

"How about he stays over with us?" he suggested.

Howard raised an eyebrow.

""I mean, he doesn't want to stay with you," Solo continued, "but he might take it better if he stays with one of us."

"Not a bad idea," Howard admitted, "but will any of your folks agree with it? Taking in another kid is a big responsibility."

"He can stay with me and Quatre," Solo stated firmly. "The help there likes Duo. All we got to ask for is my uncle's permission. The place is big and Duo's small; he'll never notice him."

Howard snorted in amusement and turned his eyes to Quatre.

The small blond thought about what Solo had said. He wholeheartedly wanted to go ahead with it but he had to ask his father first. That would be the first obstacle. The second would be Duo himself. Duo could be amazingly stubborn when he wanted to be and wouldn't budge if he didn't feel like it.

Solo seemed to catch on to his thoughts and he smirked down at him. "You leave Duo to me. I can get him there."

While doubting his cousin's claim, still, he was persistent. He had found out where Duo lived all by himself and forced his way inside. If there was anybody who could make Duo do anything, it would most likely be Solo at this point in time.

"I'll have to call Father up and ask him," he replied.

"You can borrow my cell if you want," Howard offered, taking out the small device.

"No thank you, I have my own," Quatre declined. "I'll go and make the call right now."

As Quatre turned away, Solo returned his focus back to Howard. "So now what?" he asked.

"I'm going to be taking Duo back to his apartment," Howard answered. "If you get the okay, I can take you there after you're done here—"

"I know where the apartment is," Solo interrupted. "Once we get the okay, I can take it from there."

"You seem pretty confident in yourself," Howard commented.

"You betcha ass I am."

"Excuse me, please."

The two turned to look at the forgotten Trowa.

"Would you kindly tell me what's going on?" Trowa asked politely. "I don't know much and what I do know, I'm not able to piece together completely."

"Out of the loop huh?" Howard stated. Looking side to side, he put a long, withered arm around the unibanged teen's shoulders and led him away. "I'll tell you a bit but you can't tell Duo I told you," the old man ordered.

Phasing the conversation out, Solo stuck his hands into his pockets and began to sway from side to side, lost in thought. He didn't know how much time had passed when he felt something tap his shoulder and he turned his head around to look.

"I got the go ahead," Quatre said. "However, Father wants to talk with Duo about what's going on. It's only temporary, at least for now it is."

"We'll worry about that stuff later," Solo replied. "As for now, just leave Duo to me."

The shrill ring of the bell caught them by surprise and they looked at each other. Had they just missed all of third period? It seemed like that was the case as the hallways were flooded with students, some heading for the cafeteria while others to their next class. Chuckling, Solo shook his head.

Then something caught both of their eyes. It wasn't something special; no, there was just something out of place. There was both Wufei and Heero walking down the hallway, moving with the flow of students. The first thing the two blonds noticed was the bruise on Heero's cheek.

The second thing was the faint imprint of a shoe on Heero's shirt.

The two blonds' eyes widened and their eyes met, a rush of information pouring between the two. The eyes soon hardened.

Now they knew who had hurt Duo.

Heero Yuy was in big trouble.