"Please enter access code for intergalactic voice transmiss-"

"M-A-X-0-2-0-9-1-4-6... "

"Access granted. Please wait as your call his being sent."

"About fucking time too…"

Thoughts flew in and out of my mind but one remained. Richard was dying. Nothing can mess with stage three cancers… when it's at the very last stage, when the patient starts hallucinating and becomes sort of demented …and as far as I was concerned, I was the only one talking to flowerpots in this house, and preferred to keep it that way.

There is a chance. There always is…

He is not fucking dying on me, that little bitch!

Shut up.

After all I went through! No one is fucking dying on me again!

Stop it!

You like this? You like pain? Is that why you always end up in the same… fucking… situation…Nghaha!

Shit! I cradled my head, trying to cope with the pangs of pain shooting through my cranium.

"Hello…static… yawn … Hello? Who is this?"

My head shot up as I heard a voice I had not heard in nine years. I hadn't actually expected my call to go through, and even if I did, it was still a little …challenging to mouth the next words.

"Hello?"

"Hi Quatre…"


It took me a while to recover from the shock…I mean he was there, he really was! But he looked so different! I had not even recognized him with that white thing…oh dear…Is that his hair?

"What have you done to your hair?"

He chuckled and drawled in a deep voice that I remembered all too well. "What, you don't like it, babe? Well, it was bound to happen, sooner or later. I decided sooner was easier for me to handle. How are you doing? Hope I didn't wake you up."

"Wait…" I lifted the Vid-Phone from the night stand, pulled myself out of my comforter, careful not to wake Trowa.

Too late.

His hand shot out and grabbed my wrists.



"Whoever it is, tell them we haven't had any decent sleep in the past two days and hang up." He said, not even bothering to turn around.

"Why don't you tell that to my face, Barton? That has got to be the longest sentence I have ever head from your mouth!"

Trowa's blood chilled as he heard the last voice he would have thought to hear at 0200 hours in the morning.

He carefully turned toward the phone Quatre was know holding, a pleading look to his face.

He did not want to talk to Duo Maxwell. Didn't think he should ever have to. But for a while now, Quatre had been stressing about their friend and ex-lover, often mentioning his name during meal and suggesting get-togethers.

As if he had forgotten what had transpired the last time he saw Duo. So he sighed, looked at the scream, and did what he thought would make his love happy.

"What the fuck do you want?"


Mnn...

Closed question.

Bloodshot eye.

Murderous frown...

Yep, I would say, he's still mad at me…

Well, time to patch things up and put the old Maxwell charm at work!

"Ok. I know this is like, almost a decade late but, hey, better late than never right?"

Not waiting for an answer I recited a speech I have made, and added on, as the years went past…

"I was blinded by hate, betrayal, I was so hurt that I had to lash out and hurt any one that was associated to the bitch. I was wrong…but I really didn't even think, wasn't thinking…I mean… I have not stopped loving you, Quatre…"

Trowa tensed…Not good.

"…And I am sorry for ever causing you pain…over such a trivial matter …Trowa, I'm so sorry man, I never meant to beat you that bad, but no one was siding with me, so I just lost it. So… there… I have regretted my actions and missed you guys, and wanted you to be close when I was going through…though times… but I wasn't sure if I was ready to forgive. Tonight I am…because…I sorta…need your… erm…help and possible support right now?"

Silence.

Trowa just stared at me.

Silence…not good. They didn't buy that?

"Come on, guys, it's been like a decade, already." I shrugged and grinned, probably looking pathetic as hell. Quatre's face came into view after the phone shook for a while. Then I was starring at both him and Trowa.

"What happened with Wufei?"

"Ah…I thought he would have told you a million times already. I heard he still hates my guts."

"We would just like to hear it from you."

Jeez, Quatre, what's with the royal 'We'?

I sighed. I really didn't wanna talk about this so I remained silent. A minute passed, then two. We just looked at each other…then…I don't know why but I just said:

"Today is the anniversary of my family's death."

I didn't expect him to understand. I waited for the puzzled look, that came on Trowa's face but all I heard was a sharp intake of air by Q.

I frowned, and then it dawned on me.

"You know?"

"…Five years ago, I started searching for you. I sent people on L2, and I heard you had gotten married, and had moved to L1. I was totally psyched to know that you were alive and possibly happy so I thought it safe to leave it to that, for the moment…Then a couple of years after that, I heard that you had been institutionalized…again, this time after your…wife …murdered your children and attempted to hurt you as well…"

He knows.

"I killed her. Shot her right between the eyes. Then I called for my …babies…but they never came…"

Why did I say that?

"Duo…"

"She stabbed me right below the heart, like I felt the blade beneath it…and she kept on pushing, so I killed her. And I dragged myself out of the bed…I just …Soleil was lying outside the room…Her neck was nearly severed. And…and Andrea was in the bathtub. Then you know what I did? You know? I pulled the knife out of my ribs, and I tore Bellah to pieces."

That old anger rose to my throat and I started shaking.

"I wished that bitch had been awake, to scream, just like my daughters did …"

I didn't feel right. I didn't care. They were gone. But why did my chest hurt whenever I thought of them?

Breathe, breathe Duo.

"And now, my fiancé is dying of cancer… A brain tumor. He doesn't have much time left."

I rubbed my eye. Trying to ignore the buzzing in my head.

Breathe, Breathe, breathe DUO!

"I don't know how much more I can take, Quatre. I - can't - do this anymore. I don't think I can attend another funeral…I am hearing voices, I am seeing things…And I've sort of dropped the music thing because it's just becoming too dangerous for me to be in public. I'm tired. I'm fucking loosing it."

I shook my head, covered my eyes and coughed, trying to cover the sob coming to my throat. Why was I crying? I didn't want to. I was tired of crying. This always happens. I should be used to it. Why am I in front of these assholes?

I am used to it.

Shinigami and I are used to it.

I tried to compose myself, looking at the ceiling…thinking.

"You know, I was thinking today…all of this would not have happened if Heero had stayed with me… And the pills, all the pills, I CAN'T take the goddamned pills anymore…they - don't - work! " I banged my head against the back of the sofa, and covered my face.

"Duo, do you need us to come visit you?"

Yes.

No.

"I have a better plan." I paused. "I was thinking that we could get married on Earth and we would have this giant reception…and invite a lot of people…Richard would like that. He loves big parties. In like a month. Like I said, he may not have much longer."

Yeah…he would like that…glitz, extravagance.

"I am willing to do whatever you want, at one condition."

"Oh! There is a price? Ok Quatre. But you can only have my ass for one night. I'm gonna be a married man soon, remember?"

He gasped.

"WHAT? No! That's not what I…You sicko…" I laughed for the first time that evening.

"That's ok. Seeing the look Clowny's been throwing me all evening, if I so much lay a finger on you I'm as good as dead."