Hi!

Sorry!!! I'm pretty sure most of you have given up on me, including my poor beta, moonpixi, but I've had a horrible case of writers block. But don't worry, I WILL FINISH THIS STORY IF IT KILLS ME!!!!! I PROMISE!!!!!

So just try to stick in there…

Since I have not been writing the names of my reviewers, here they all are:

summersarebright, Jjinks, Serenity Maxwell, tyleet88, deppforever07, Indi-Scarga, Kracken L.W., "us", Arabian, Calli Maxwell, ewitsmoni, and kylynn. Thank you all so much for reviewing!

A special thanks to moonpixi, who is a faithful reviewer and my beta for this fic. Even if she told me she had given up on me.

Disclaimer: if anything is wrong medically, get over it. I don't care; I'm not an expert. And alas! I do not have the rights to Gundam Wing. Amazing, isn't it?

Enjoy!

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Guardian

Duo woke up.

He was still in the room he remembered from before, but he no longer had the feeling of being cold. That was good. Mentally he reached out to touch Heero's mind, but found him sleeping.

Interesting.

Slowly Duo sat up, shutting his eyes to fight off a brief wave of dizziness. When it passed, he opened his eyes and looked around. What he had previously assumed to be a very large window was actually an open doorway to a small balcony, with two smaller windows on either side. Red plants were, indeed, everywhere. There was no variation in the color – they were all the same vibrant hue of red, though based on the shapes and sizes of the leaves there were quite a few different species.

Returning his gaze to the room itself, his first impression hadn't been that far off. It was a plain white room, with a few monitors above the bed. There were a few more plants than he had originally thought, though, and there was another door on the opposite wall of the balcony.

As he reached out and touched a red vine that had creeped in through one of the windows, he found himself wondering why none of the plants were green.

"Pretty, isn't it?"

Duo's head whipped around to the now open door, and then immediately regretted it as his head suddenly started pounding. He shut his eyes in pain as he fell back onto the bed, burying his face in the pillow while waiting for the pain to subside.

"I apologize for startling you, though I would suggest against any sudden movements for the next day or so." The female voice continued. "Actually, I suggest against any movement for the next few moments or so until your head stops pounding."

"Where am I?" Duo ground out. "And who are you?"

"My name is Fey. You are in the Icchi Settlement. Feeling any better?"

Duo winced and opened his eyes to find that the room had stopped spinning. He sat up again, this time very slowly. "Depends. How did I get here?"

The woman standing next to him had short bluish-black hair and sapphire blue eyes that seemed to be streaked with silver. She looked from him up to the monitor above him. "Kel and I found you and your friend four days ago in a rock grove not too far from here. You were frozen half to death and your friend was covered in cuts from a night out in Wind and Cold. Actually, it's amazing that you both survived at all. What does 'depends' mean?"

"'Depends' means just that – it depends. Where is Heero?" He asked.

"Sleeping. Like I said, he was pretty cut up. You were both in need of some rather severe medical attention. What were you two doing out there?" She asked, looking at him again. "Are you both suicidal?

Duo burst into hysterical laughter.

Fey looked at him, confused. "What did I say?"

"Lady, if you had any idea how many times we've been asked that question…" Duo laughed, shaking his head.

She cocked her head to the side. "Perhaps you are just insane…?"

"Nah, we're not that either." He managed to get out. "However, if you were to ask my sister, she'd probably say that I was, and I do have a reputation for being a bit off the wall, so maybe I am. Heero, however, is perfectly sane. Well, as sane as the rest of us, anyway."

"'Us'?" She asked.

"Yeah, we're a group of nine who–"

/Don't. The inhabitants of worlds are NOT supposed to know who or what you are, or what you're supposed to do. /

" –… get together a lot." Duo finished, immediately using his mind to scan for the presence of another immortal.

"Oh, that's nice." A gong suddenly sounded from somewhere nearby. Fey looked up. "Well, that's my cue to go. But if you need anything, just press that button, and someone will come. Try and get some sleep."

And with that, she was gone.

Duo barely even murmured a good bye, focusing completely on finding the other immortal; the other male immortal. He stretched out his awareness as far as it could go…

And found nothing.

Interesting…

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"The immortal was right, you know." Heero pointed out. "We are not supposed to tell these people who we really are."

They were both talking about the strange immortal several days after Duo's "encounter" with him. They had both recovered from their night experience very quickly, much to the surprise of the locals. After a short debate over the probability of Heero and Duo's story that they had gotten caught in between settlements at night, their hosts gave them a set of rooms and an offer to stay as long as they liked.

Actually, what confused them the most was the color of Duo's hair, since the people of Milish all had black or dark brown hair with hints of other colors, but they accepted it when Duo said he dyed it.

But they still didn't know who the other had been…

Duo sighed in response. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's beyond the point. I don't really care about what he had to say, what I want to know is who was he, and why won't he answer us when we call?"

Heero shrugged. "It is possible that, whoever he was, he has left this world. Almost all immortals have the power to go from world to world, and he may have simply moved on."

Duo nearly growled in frustration. "But that doesn't explain who he was!"

"Umm… did we come at a bad time?"

Both Heero and Duo turned. Two teenage girls stood in the doorway.

"Not at all. How can I help you?" Duo asked, joker mask firmly in place and grinning like an idiot.

The girls looked passed him to Heero, looking very confused.

Heero just shook his head. "Ignore him, if you can. He's insane. What do you need?"

Duo realized – a bit too late – that he had spoken in the same language he and Heero had been speaking in to thwart any eavesdroppers – Japanese. And while it was good for that, the two girls had absolutely no idea what he had said.

Of course, Heero could have found a better way to step in…

But one of them was already speaking. "Well, my name is Tlea, and her name is Tela. Fey thought that you two would both like to have a tour of Icchi, so she sent us to give you a tour. What do you say?"

Tlea, the girl who had spoken, had short, white, straight hair held back by a white headband. Her eyes had a diamond-esque quality and were streaked with platinum lines. She was very lively and energetic, and seemed unable to really stand still.

The other girl, Tela, barely moved at all. She was, in all ways, the opposite of Tlea. Her hair was long, pitch black, and wavy, and was pulled back into a low ponytail. Her eyes were like pieces of onyx streaked with a brass color. She had yet to say a word, and had it not been for the lighter gray of her clothing she would have almost seemed a shadow.

Heero looked at Duo. / What do you think/

/ I'm a go. / "Damn, you're an oddity on this planet. Not a dark color on you." Duo said to Tlea.

She simply grinned and shrugged.

"I think we'll take you up on the offer of a tour." Heero said. "When will you both be available?"

"Oh, now is fine if you're not busy, or whenever. We have very little going on." Tlea replied.

"Well then, let's go!" Duo said cheerfully, grabbing Heero's arm and pulling him out of his chair. "Though it's going to suck trying to get your names right, they're ridiculously similar. Are you two related at all?" He asked.

"We're twins, actually." Tlea answered, grinning.

"Twins?!?" Duo yelped.

"Yeah, but don't feel bad – no one ever guesses that when they first meet us. Not that we blame them, we neither look nor act the same." She said.

"Indeed." Heero noted dryly, glancing at the still silent Tela.

Tlea looked from Duo to Heero before leading the group out of the room and into the hallway. "Well, let's go! Welcome to Tlea and Tela's Totally Terrifically Timeless Tour. This is the hallway. You'll probably find that there's not much here but white walls and red plants. Moving on…"

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"Well 'Ro, what did you think of the girls?" Duo asked, draping himself across a chair after Tlea and Tela had brought them back to their rooms.

"Tlea is very loud and energetic." Heero paused. "Tela is… her sister's exact opposite. She did not speak once during the entire tour of the whole settlement. Do you think she's mute?"

"That's… not what I meant. Do you have a favorite, one you like more? I like Tela; you know I go for the dark and silent types." Duo said, winking at him.

Heero blinked. That was… forward. "Duo, if that's supposed to be a –" He was cut off by a knock at the door.

Well, at least this time there was a knock.

"Duo? Heero?" Fey's voice drifted through the door.

"We're here, Fey." Duo called.

"Kel and I would like to invite you both to dinner with us, if you have no other plans."

/ "If we have no other plans"? What do these people think we're doing?Duo sent to Heero. "Sure! Give us a sec." He called, jumping up from his chair. He looked at Heero, who had yet to move. "Well, come on, let's go! We really don't want to miss free food."

"Is that all you ever think about?" Heero asked dryly as he found himself being dragged out of his chair for the second time that day. He was starting to miss solo work. "Food?"

"Nope." Duo replied, heading towards the door. "I only think about good food."

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How was it?

Sorry, I think this is a bit short, but I wanted to get something out. I AM NOT DEAD. Actually, you can thank my SAT Prep course on Sundays for this chapter, as I was able to write while waiting for the others to finish their tests.

Umm, does anyone have any suggestions as to what they may like to happen in the story? I have a basic idea of where it is going, but I'm open to any ideas that may fit into the plot.

I am also working on a oneshot based around Kitten (Death's Daughter), if anyone is even remotely interested. That should be coming out sometime in the future.

I'll try to update as soon as possible, but my writing is coming very, very slowly as of right now. Sorry!

DarkLady