Finished! Yay! I hope you enjoyed!

Epilogue

Quatre walked slowly into his bedroom and curled up in Trowa's arms. "I don't know what to do anymore Trowa. I honestly don't think he's going to make it much longer."

It had been three months since Wufei had had to leave. The loss of one Gundam pilot turned out not to be a problem. The Day Without Death as it was being called had scared the populace of Earth and the colonies so badly that an immediate cease-fire was called. Within a week there was a treaty that was as close to being equitable as it was possible to be. The Gundams had been hidden and not used since that day.

For the first month, Duo had been his normal self. Once he awoke from his crying fit, he had started bouncing around with his normal flair. After a month and a half, he started getting quieter. Quatre had promised that Wufei would always have a home with him, and expanded that to all of the pilots. Every house he owned had five bedrooms; one set up for each of the pilots and Duo had stayed with him the whole time.

It was about two months after the end of the war that the pilots realized there was something seriously wrong with the violet-eyed teen. He stopped eating regularly and sometimes he'd come downstairs with his braid half undone. They'd tried to get him to talk, but he'd become almost totally silent.

"I don't understand, Trowa. I know he loved Wufei, but they were only together for a week or so before he had to leave. He should not be this... this... devastated." Quatre sounded confused and frustrated. "And he won't *talk* to me!"

"Could he be trying to go to Wufei without breaking his word? I mean, he's not actually *trying* to kill himself," was Trowa's suggestion.

"He's giving up. That's not like him. And I have had *enough*. Come on." With a very determined look on his face, Quatre shot to his feet.

Trowa shrugged and followed as his lover strode purposefully out the door. He expected him to go to Wufei's room, which is where the braided boy was usually found these days, and was surprised when Quatre headed for Heero's instead.

BAM! BAM! BAM! Heero pulled open the door with annoyance clearly written on his face. "Mission," was all Quatre said, and headed back towards Duo's room, fully confidant that he would be followed.

BAM! BAM! BAM! "Open the door Duo!" Quatre shouted. He rattled the knob but it was locked and there was no sound from inside the room. He turned to his companions. "Open it."

Heero and Trowa looked at each other for a moment before deciding that now was probably not the time to remind the blond dictator that he had keys to all the doors in his house. With a shrug at each other they kicked open the door.

Quatre swept into the room as if he owned it, which he did. He strode confidently over to the bed and glared down at its occupant. Duo blinked up at him in a mixture of confusion and anger. The Arabian sat down on the bed next to him and just stared. And stared. And stared.

"What do you want?" Duo finally exploded. He tore his gaze away from the exasperating blond in front of him, only to have it caught in the stoic stare of Heero Yuy. On the other side of him a green eye in a banged face watched just as intently. "What the hell is your problem?"

Quatre got right up in his face and yelled back. "What the hell is *your* problem?"

"You know what my problem is!" Duo screamed at him.

"No, actually I don't. OK, Wufei's gone, and I know you miss him, but you only knew him for a year! He was only your boyfriend for a week! And there's no telling when, or if, he's going to come back! But that is no damn reason for you to try killing yourself by neglect yourself like this!"

"You know nothing," Duo spit out. He surged up into a sitting position and pushed Quatre off onto the floor. Or he would have, if Trowa hadn't gotten there first to catch him.

Heero moved just as fast, grabbing Duo by the braid and forcing him to look at him. "Then tell us," he bit out.

"Don't touch my hair, Yuy," Duo growled, grabbing his braid back. "You really want to know? Fine, whatever. Sit down."

He waited until everyone was sitting down before starting. "Quat man, how did you feel when you found out Fei-chan was Shinigami-sama?"

Quatre looked at the others in confusion, not understanding what the question had to do with anything. However, Duo was talking so he wasn't going to ignore the question. "Shocked, of course, especially since I could feel the power he was using. I had a major fit after he left though."

"That's the truth," Trowa murmured.

"What about you, Trowa? Heero? How did you feel?" Duo's voice was intent.

"Disbelief, denial," was Heero's contribution. "I don't know that I truly believed what he said until we went to Thanatos' dimension after you... riding a dragon."

"Pretty much the same, shock, disbelief, some betrayal that he hadn't told us before." Trowa answered.

"How did I react?" was Duo's next question.

Again the shared glance. "You... you didn't really," Quatre slowly answered. "You just made some quip. It was like it was... no big deal or something. I thought it was just because you were hurting so bad."

"I've had a lot of time to think over the past couple of months, and you're right, there was no shock, no surprise, nothing. I already knew." The others' eyes all flew wide. "Not consciously of course, I never looked at Wufei and wondered if he was the God of Death, or anything like that, but still... I knew.

"You've got to understand, I've prayed to Shinigami since Solo first told me about him when I was six years old. And he has always listened. I could feel that, this little tingle just on the edge of my awareness whenever I prayed or called out his name. I never blamed him when the people around me died, people died when they're fated to die, he just collects them. I blamed the fates, and I blamed me, because obviously the people I cared about were fated to die because I cared about them... but I never blamed Shinigami-sama. Over the years, he's been my constant, I'd pray to him every week or so, just to let him know how I was doing, ask him to look after Solo, Father Maxwell and Sister Helen, whatever. Always, always I'd feel that little tingle to tell me he was listening."

Duo twisted between the bodies on the bed until his feet reached the floor and he had room to pace. He continued. "He was always there, and the best thing was, he wasn't going to leave me. Unlike the other people I cared about, he wasn't going to die and leave me alone. After all, Shinigami was Death, and *Death* *can't* *die*! Sometimes knowing that is the only thing that has kept me going, from living on the streets to being a Gundam pilot. I knew that he was there, that he was listening and that he wouldn't leave. It didn't matter that he didn't *do* anything, all I needed was someone I could trust to always be there. I wanted to meet him enough that I was never scared of dying, but I knew he would still be there when I did die, so I didn't go rushing into it either.

"Then I came to Earth. I met Heero, met Quatre, thought 'cool there are other pilots and they're weird, but not so bad'. Then I met Wufei. From the very beginning there was a kind of connection with him, though I didn't know what it was. I wanted to be around him, even though his rants sometimes drove me insane. I thought it was just because he was so incredibly cute, and yes, I did think that from the first time I saw him, but there was something else there. Looking back, I've noticed something interesting. From the first time I spent any length of time with Wufei, I stopped praying to Shinigami... unless, I was separated from Fei-chan for more than a week. Interesting don't you think, considering I hadn't missed a week since I was six.

"Here's something else. I told you that I had felt someone watching me for months, right?" The others nodded agreement, still in too much shock to truly talk. "Well that must have been when Thanatos started watching me, because Shinigami had been watching me the whole time. I just didn't think anything of it, until I started noticing something was different with the feeling I got. That was when I really started paying attention to everyone that was watching me, not just the unusual feeling one."

Quatre finally got his wits together. This monologue had been nothing like what he had been expecting, and it explained a lot about his friend, but it still didn't answer the question. "But if you've gone without seeing him for nine years before even meeting him, why are you acting like this after only three months?"

Duo settled down on the bed. Not that he didn't want to still pace, but his body was protesting a lack of nutrients and exercise and had shut down his legs for the time being. "Because he's not listening." Sadness, loneliness and worry could all be heard in Duo's voice as he answered. "I've been praying to him everyday like I promised, but he's not listened to a single one since he left. I thought I could handle it. I was *sure* that he would come to me for my sixteenth birthday, after all it was the day we'd actually be able to be together without breaking Kami-sama's law, but he didn't come."

"I thought you didn't know when your birthday is," Trowa spoke up quietly.

"I don't, exactly," Duo answered, "but Wufei said it was more than a month away when he was explaining why we couldn't, remember? You know Wufei, if it had been more than a month and a half away, he would have said that, but he didn't, he said more than a month, that means between a month and a day, and a month and a half."

"Can't argue with that," Heero agreed.

"See? He's left me," Duo said sadly.

"Not by his choice," Quatre reminded him.

"So? Solo didn't leave me by his choice, Father Maxwell and Sister Helen didn't leave me by their choice. It doesn't change the fact that he's left me alone. All alone," his voice trailed off despairingly.

SLAP! Duo's hand flew to his cheek as he stared at Quatre in complete and utter shock.

"Did you feel that?" Quatre almost growled.

"Well, duh, Quatre! You slapped me! Of course I felt that!"

"Then you're not alone are you? I have to be here, right here in front of you in order to have slapped you so hard you felt it, right? Trowa and Heero are here too, you want them to prove it to you?"

"Um... no, that's okay," Duo gulped, looking at the other two, stronger pilots.

"You are not alone. You will never be alone, because you've got friends that care about you. Wufei's on a long mission with no radio contact. When he finishes it, he'll come home. We don't know how long the mission is going to be, and you'll stay with us until the mission is over, but you're not going to give up on him, because Wufei Chang, Shinigami, does not fail! Isn't that right?"

"Right, sir, Quatre, sir!" Duo threw a salute.

"Now," Quatre continued, grabbing Duo's hand. "You are going to come downstairs and get something to eat, then come back up here and get some sleep. I expect to see you downstairs for breakfast tomorrow having slept, showered and done your hair, and you'd better bet you're going to be eating breakfast too. If Wufei were here there's no way he'd put up with this pouting from you and I'm not going to either..." Quatre's voice faded as he dragged Duo out the door and down the hall.

Trowa and Heero were left alone in the bedroom. "Why exactly were we part of this?" Heero asked in confusion.

Trowa shrugged. "Moral support?" he suggested.

Heero shook his head. "I'm going back to bed."

The next couple of months showed a marked improvement in the physical, mental and emotional health of the violet-eyed teen. Now that the war was over, the four pilots were trying hard to act like normal teens, including going to school. Duo was very popular with both guys and girls and could usually be found surrounded by a group of friends whereever he was. Only Heero, Trowa and Quatre realized he wasn't quite as boisterous as he used to be, and sometimes he would have times when he didn't want to talk to anyone, especially after praying to Shinigami and once again not getting a response. However, this time the others knew better than to let him brood about it, and would only let it go on so long before someone came to drag him out of his room.

Until one day...

"Master Quatre, Master Duo, you have a visitor." For Duo, the butler's presence faded into the background as his eyes caught on the one face he'd almost convinced himself he'd never see again.

"FEI-CHAN!" Duo's scream was heard throughout the house, and Heero and Trowa came rushing in to see the violet-eyed boy locked deep into a kiss with a Chinese teen.

Heero, Trowa and Quatre gave the two boys a minute alone before descending en masse.

Wufei smiled brighter than any of them had ever seen him smile before even though he didn't remove his hands from the boy trying to crush him into himself. "I'm sorry it took so long, but I had to personally clear up the entire mess I had made before I was even punished."

"What was your punishment?" Quatre asked worriedly.

Wufei smiled even wider. "After reviewing everything, Kami-sama agreed with you. He said the worse punishment he could think of would be a lifetime of living with Duo. So he temporarily took away my godhood and stuck me down here on Earth for the duration of Duo's natural life. After that, our status will be reviewed."

"Enough questions, he can talk later, right now we have some making up for lost time to do," Duo ordered. He grabbed his love's hand and started pulling him upstairs towards his bedroom. Wufei just laughed and waved as he was pulled to exactly where he wanted to be.

The End