Chapter 5: "One Year Later"

Heero's POV.

"HHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOO," came a horrible yell that sounded like a banshee's cry. "You know you want to go out with me," came and annoying whine. "That's just it Relena, I don't want to go out with you, and I probably never will"

"Don't say things you don't mean so stop joking and get over your shyness and ask me out already I won't reject you," replied Relena thinking she knew what she was talking about.

My eye started to twitch, straining to hold myself back from attacking the dimwitted girl which stood in front of him. In the corner to my side sat Wufei, who had been watching me and Relena fight now for the past hour and also smirked at me at seeing the situation I was in. Also Trowa and Quatre sat in the corner but Quatre sat in Trowa's lap. They have been going out officially for about 7 months now. I won't deny that I felt jealous because they had each other while the one I loved was still missing even though we looked for him for the past year. Actually I have been looking the hardest now days while the others have seemed to have given up hope. They still help try and look for him, but not like they believed they could find him.

While I was cooling myself off Relena thought she could attach herself to my arm and began to plead again. I was just about to hit her to get her off my arm, when I heard Quatre voice.

"Heero don't even think about doing that." he stated

I just looked at him with pleading eyes but he still shook his head no. I sighed heavily and decided to end this in a nonviolent way, which was very hard. I then picked her up, she gave a squeal of delight taking this the wrong way, opening the door, and throwing her out the door. I then shut the door and was patting myself on the back for not have killing her.

"Do think she will ever give up" Wufei asked, smirk still in place.

"I highly doubt that she will believe that her "knight and shining armor" is never going to go out with her" Trowa replied for me. Bad thing was is he was right.

"So what do you think could convince her that you don't like her and will more or less kill her if she keeps this up, Yuy," asked Wufei

I thought for a moment thinking of what I tried then I said "Maybe if I take a metal pipe and beat her in the head a few times, it might crack that thick head of hers and I coul-"

"HEERO! You know you can't do that" Quatre piped up looking at me with shock.

"It's not like it would work. Her head would probably break the pipe before a crack even came." Wufei snorted

"I might lucky and break it first," I say in return.

"Stop that now both of you. I know Relena is annoying and stupid," we all looked at him, "Ok, extremely stupid, and…uh…and…fine she doesn't have very many good qualities, but we need her because she can help us attain peace."

"And how she does that is beyond me," Trowa put in as a finishing thought, and received a glare from Quatre for it. "Hey you wonder how she does it, I've heard you say it." said Trowa trying to defend himself.

I just smirked at how all of them were fighting telling how dumb Relena was. It was great to have friends like these. After Duo ran away I was pretty devastated, since I just figured out I cared for him and lost him all in a few minutes. The others noticed how I was acting, in frenzy search for Duo, and later they confronted me about it. I really had no reason to lie to them, and if they didn't approve then I could care less. After I told them they just smiled and started to help me in my search as well. After all of that I pretty much opened up with them after that, I will even laugh a little here and there. I still go into what Duo called the 'Perfect Soldier' mode and take my missions the same as always. I know it sounds heartless but we still have a war to win.

"Further more I-" Wufei was cut off at the middle of his ranting when the vid turned on and there was Sally who looked excited. Wufei was first up to the screen smiling at her. Yea he and her now go out as well, they been with each other for about 2 months now. It's really funny to see those two argue though, so much that it is sometimes looked forward to by Trowa, Quatre, and I. We'll even make popcorn sometimes, it's like going to the movies but free.

"Hello Wufei glad to see you" Sally said with a smile.

"And it's good to see you," Wufei replied.

"Sorry but this isn't one of my social calls for you. I need you all to come to the dock right away its important. Oh and it concerns someone who we've all missed dearly." and with that she ended the call.

It took us a little time to absorb what she said. It then dawned on me that she was talking about Duo when she said it concerned someone we missed.

'Have they found him' I thought. And without wasting anymore time I was out of the room at a sprint with the others following close behind me.

We arrived at the dock of the ship in less then 7 minutes, good timing since we were literally on the other side of the ship. To get here as fast as we did we must have knocked down quiet a few people. Hell, I alone knocked down 10 and jumped over about 3 more, hey they needed to get out of the way faster.

Sally turned and looked at as with only a little surprise on look on her face.

"You got here in a hurry now didn't you?" she asked with a smile.

"We would have been here if we weren't hiding from Relena on the other side of the ship," Wufei replied.

"What information do you have on Duo," I ask and even I noticed the pleading sound in my voice.

"I'll get to that soon, but first I need to tell you of an attack on a colony," Sally said moving toward a screen. "This colony is rarely used and is not known by a lot. It's not used for military use no, it just mining colony."

"Point. Now." Trowa said taking the words out of my mouth.

"Impatient are we?" We all glare at her, "Fine, anyway this colony was attacked by a small attack group from OZ. The people there have no military so I guess OZ thought they could take it over easily, but they ended up to be dead wrong. They were destroying buildings and massacring innocent people and a small group ended up able to send a distress single to us. The single came to us, but what got us the most was that after we received the distress single the people began to say a black machine started to protect them. They said that Death himself started to fight the Oz forced back."

'Duo, they must mean Duo' I thought.

"We were confused at what they meant. That is until they manage to send us video feed which shocked all of us on the dock at the time. It was… (A/N: I just had to add the dramatic pause) A video of Death scythe destroying the mobile dolls."

"Where is this colony and how long until we reach it?" I blurt out unable to keep silent after Sally confirmed it was Duo's Gundam fighting.

"We received this information not long ago and we will arrive in about a day. I know it seems like long time but we are going as fast as we can. You all have been patient for a year just wait one more day, all right?"

We all nod and head back to are rooms. To think that we could see Duo in two days nearly made me scream at them all saying they should go faster, but I knew that would not help.

"I can't wait!" Quatre burst out after we exited the room, "The next 24 hours will take forever to pass."

"I bet Yuy is happier than all of us." Wufei said with a knowing smirk on his face. I couldn't help the little pink that fell across my cheeks. I ducked my head so they couldn't see it.

"Don't let it embarrass you. I bet if Quatre or Sally left for more than a year Wufei and I would be just as excited as you are." Trowa said comforting me.

"Thanks Trowa. Well I guess I'll try and sleep to pass time or I'll work out later, see yea" I said and with that I left for my room. I reached my bunk and laid in it. Surprisingly I felt really tired and I closed my eyes feeling sleep catch a hold of me.

'Just wait Duo we are all coming to get you, and then I'll tell you how I really feel.' I thought just before I let sleep claim me.

A day later we were back at the dock just waiting to go to are Gundams and find Duo. We were now able to see the colony and Sally told us to get to are Gundams and prepare to be launched. We didn't need to be told twice. It took us an amazing 5 minutes to get completely ready. A few minutes later we were launched at the colony.

/Sally has given us coordinates as to where Deathscythe is. / Quatre said over the radio.

Everyone including me replied/Roger/

We landed in what was now the remains of a town. There were no longer anymore mobile dolls, we checked and made sure on the ship. We got out of are Gundams to look around, we didn't want to frighten anyone, especially Duo.

"Do you see anyone or anything that might help us?" I asked to the other three.

"Negative" Quatre and Wufei replied.

"There's nothing over here," Trowa said, "lets check over this mountain of junk."

We climbed up the ruble of the buildings taking a while in doing so. This was taller than are Gundams and seemed ready to collapse at times. I was the first to reach the top and when I did a gasped. The others came up behind me and pretty much had the same reaction. Over the mountain of building remains was what looked like a graveyard, but the part that got us the most was the Gundam that was just standing there in the artificial sunset.

"Duo" I breathed out. And after that I was sliding down the hill and running full sprint to the Gundam, the others not far behind.

When I got closer I saw a figure sitting next to the foot of the giant Gundam with his back to us. I started to slow down to a jog then into walking fast, and finally settling just to walking. I slowly approached the figure on the ground praying it wasn't anyone else but the long haired American I loved.

"Is that him," I heard Quatre ask.

When we got closer I looked and saw a long rope on the figures back and realized it was attached to its head. I knew then it had to be Duo. I finally got up to him and was only an arms length away, and I stopped.

"Duo?" I said loud enough for the figure to hear.

The figure turned around and I saw the violet eyes I knew so well. It was him and his eyes were not how they looked the last I have seen them. Now the looked sad and full of pain. He stared at me for awhile and when the others got closer he looked to them.

"Duo its good to see you again." Quatre said in a happy voice.

Duo looked at us again and I noticed his eyes showed confusion with the other emotions as well.

He then opened his mouth and I heard his voice the first time in a year, but I heard the words and I knew then what Doctor G told us back then has come true.

Duo had said "Who are you?"