Warnings and Disclaimers: Hmm… okay, I can't think of anything witty to say at the moment, so just go read the bloody chapter.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Duo groaned and rolled over, burying his face in his pillow as he automatically swept an arm past where his alarm clock usually sat. His arm met only air, though, and reluctantly the longhaired teenager opened his eyes to greet the noontime sun.

It was only then that he realized the annoying sound wasn't coming from his alarm clock, since he hadn't set it the night before. Instead, his bleary eyes fell on his laptop, sitting innocuously on the rather plain desk in the corner even as it beeped obnoxiously. Duo cursed the infernal machine under his breath as he sat up.

He was just about to pull back the covers when his barely-awake mind caught up with his body. He froze and glanced around, half-expecting something odd to happen. Every time he'd felt that odd presence, it was in this room, and Duo was starting to regret choosing it as his own. Hell, he almost hadn't been able to go to sleep in it last night!

It didn't seem like the guy, or whatever it was, was going to make an appearance that morning, though, and Duo slowly got up. The laptop stopped beeping as soon as he turned it on. The reason for the noise turned out to be several emails from the other pilots; Trowa and Wufei both said they'd arrive at the safehouse the next day, and a message from Heero stated that he had a mission to complete first, so he couldn't predict when he'd be able to join them.

It was with a profound sense of relief that Duo shut down the computer. He took a few minutes to throw on some clothes over his boxers, then bounced cheerfully down the stairs to share the good news with Quatre.

He again found the little blonde poking around the kitchen, searching through various cupboards for something. "Hey, Q, guess what?" The American leaned against a counter and hoisted himself up.

"What?" Quatre asked absently, closing yet another cupboard door.

"The guys say they'll be here tomorrow!" Duo stopped and reconsidered, as the Arabian looked over at him with a delighted smile. "Okay, Tro and the Wu-man say they'll be here. Hee-chan said he wasn't sure," he corrected.

If anything, Quatre looked even happier. And why not? He'd get to be with his boyfriend again.

"So, what's up?" Duo asked curiously, still perched up on the counter.

Quatre sighed. "I have a mission I have to leave for in about twenty minutes." He closed the cupboard door. "The house isn't as well-stocked as I would have liked. I was going to go to the store and pick up a few things, but now…"

"Want me to go?" his friend offered, sliding down.

The blonde smiled gratefully. "Oh, would you? What we have now would be fine for just the two of us, but with the others coming…"

Duo nodded, understanding what he meant. With five teenage boys in the house, food wouldn't be sticking around long. "Do ya know what I need to get, or should I play it by ear?"

Quatre quickly rattled off a moderately long list of items, one that the former thief committed to memory. "Right," he finally said, sure he'd gotten them all. "I'll go ahead an' go now, then. When're you gonna be back?"

"I shouldn't be gone long," the billionaire replied. "As far as I can tell, it's just a simple reconnaissance mission."

"A fly-by?"

Quatre nodded. "I should be back in an hour or two at the most."

Duo grinned. "All right. I'll let you go get ready, then." He started to leave the kitchen, then paused as a thought occurred to him. "Er, Quat? What are we using to get around?"

The teenager smiled again, amused. "I called one of my sisters last night and asked her to arrange for two cars to be delivered. They arrived this morning."

Duo blinked at him for a moment, then nodded uncertainly. "Right…"

Damn, he reflected as he stepped out the front door and saw the two nondescript cars sitting in the driveway. I must've been really out of it…

Well, that'd teach him to stay up till all hours of the night worrying about the bogeyman.

Upstairs, in his old room, Harry watched in horror as the boy on whom all his hopes rested drove away. "No…" He tried to reach out to him, to call him back, and flinched as the wards on the house violently threw him back with an angry spark.

Squeezing his eyes shut to keep any phantasmal tears from escaping, the former wizard slumped down on the windowsill. Too late… always too late…

With a quiet, strangled moan of despair, he rose into the air and floated over to the bed. There he curled into a tight ball, his incorporeal form shuddering with the force of the sobs he held in.

He stayed like that for a long time, before an incredibly irritating beeping startled him out of his misery and self-pity. The ghost looked over at his old desk and saw the longhaired boy's computer, sitting there making that horrible noise. Harry stared at it, wide-eyed, and eventually started to chuckle, and then laugh outright, even as his ears began to ache from the constant clamor.

"I'm… an… idiot…" he gasped out in between his almost hysterical bursts of laughter. Duo had left his stuff behind. He was coming back!

Slowly the laughter subsided, lessening to from a half-insane cackle to quiet giggles interspersed with the occasional guffaw. Then silence again reigned in the room, as the ghostly boy lay sprawled on the bed, staring up at the ceiling with a ridiculously happy grin on his face.

He was coming back…

Duo grimaced as he juggled the keys in one hand, the other occupied with the first of the half a dozen paper grocery bags that awaited his convenience in the car. Okay, maybe he should have waited to start bringing in the groceries until after he'd unlocked the front door…

He grinned as he finally got the recalcitrant door open, and took the few steps necessary to get to the kitchen and deposit the bag on the counter.

And now for the rest…

It was all Harry could do to keep from waltzing about the room in joy. As it was, if he'd still had a solid body he'd have been worried about wearing a hole through the floor with his constant pacing as he tried to ignore the increasing annoying noise coming from the desk. Duo was back, he hadn't wasted his chance after all…

Yet, anyway. The long-dead teenager paused his unending movement as he realized he still needed to get up the courage to actually talk to the kid. Damn it…

Sighing, Harry floated over to the window and watched as the other boy made another trip out to the car. He had to do it today- he'd sworn, hadn't he? Merlin, where was his famed Gryffindor courage when he needed it?

He frowned and pulled the curtains shut, concentrating on the motion so that his hand didn't simply pass right through the fabric. Turning back to the desk and its bothersome burden, the ghost peered at it thoughtfully. Maybe it would help to distract him if he tried to do something about that monstrosity…?

Outside, Duo paused and glanced towards the house with a puzzled frown. Odd, but he could have sworn he'd seen movement out of the corner of his eye…

The American shrugged, and closed the trunk lid. He was probably just imagining things, he thought as he carried the last of the bags into the house.

Harry thoughtfully reached out to touch the laptop. He didn't have a clue how it worked, so he couldn't just shut it off. He snorted. Hell, with his luck he'd probably give it a virus or something. Who knows how muggle technology would react when used by a decidedly magical ghost?

He was probably right, in that he shouldn't try to change anything without knowing what the heck he was doing, but he made one mistake. It was a good idea not to mess with it…

But not a good idea to be thinking so hard to himself that he forgot he was leaning all his weight against something small and portable. Which he discovered when the laptop fell to the floor with a loud crash.

Below in the kitchen, Duo had just placed the bag of groceries on the counter when a clatter from upstairs jerked his head up and around. "What the hell…?" he muttered, pulling his gun from its holster on his back, beneath his jacket. Carefully he made his way to the base of the stairs, checking each room cautiously before continuing on to the next.

The stairs were a challenge, though. After a minute of staring at them and wondering how he could get up them without exposing himself to fire, Duo concluded that he couldn't. And so, to minimize the amount of time he was in the open, he took the stairs at a nearly silent rush.

To say the least, he was surprised when he reached the second floor without incident. Once there, he frowned as he realized his room was dark, even though it was still day out. Then he realized that the drapes had been pulled over the window, and knew that must have been the movement he'd seen from outside.

Taking a deep breath, Duo got ready. With a quick movement he reached inside and flicked on the lights, while pointing the gun in his other hand into the room. His caution was justified, as he saw a sheepish-looking boy sitting on his bed with his hands raised.

"Er, hello… sorry about the noise, but…"

Duo's jaw dropped. It wasn't the presence of the boy that shocked him- he'd known someone else was in the house, after all.

It was the fact that he could see the wall through the boy's transparent head.

A/N: /blinks/ Wow, I really wasn't expecting to finish this so soon… But then, I had incentive. I've been wanting to write that last scene from the beginning…

Before anyone comments on how… variable Harry is in this chapter, let me confirm it out loud: Harry is parked well on the road to insanity. I have yet to decide if that'll ever change.

And in response to a question, Voldemort is long dead.

Our thanks to: Akua, Bunch-o-Nuts, Cattibrie393, E.A.V., Firehedgehog, Kaaera, keira, Kenny7, LassyD (actually, I seem to be unable to work on the main fics now… /sweatdrops/), Raisha Bregail, and Y401-F4N.

6 January 2005