Disclaimer: To my great sorrow I do not own GW.

Dying for a Life Worth Living - A Lady Syndil story

Chapter Summary: Heero wakes up to find that life has taken a very interesting turn. And that True Friends are always there for you.

Main pairing 1X2, Side pairs 3x4 5xS

Warnings: Shonen Ai, Yaoi. Slight angst, Language, current rating is T but later chapters will change to M as the story and life progresses.

Chapter 1 - Awake

"Duo?"

This was THE ONE. The reason 'SHE' had agreed to this. A quick thought flashed thru the stressed and over worked mind. Asshole, forgot to mention I'd end up a 'man'. Though (sigh) she kicked herself mentally for not realizing it, or guessing right away. The figure 'had' been that of a young male. Stupid, stupid, stupid, Fuck. At least the memories the original Heero had left her, told her that this gorgeous young man with the violet eyes, the ONE she had come for was.... gay. At least there was a chance he'd like her, uh him, oh...whatever, in this male body. Huh? So... did this make her gay now? Cause her preferences hadn't seemed to of changed, let's see....Yep she still liked guys alright. The Gorgeous male with the three foot chestnut braid, looking down into her eyes was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She sighed... Wow. The violet eyes flashed with relief.

"Heero, you okay now? Damn you had me worried. You've been out of it for weeks."

"I Died."

"What?" The violet gaze startled and he glanced around the room at the other occupants. Memories gave her names to most of them. Some were unknown, medical personal mostly, of them, only the Honey Blonde Doctor Sally Po was known to the 'new' Heero. A another young delicate looking blonde was off to the side, right behind Duo, being held by a tall autumn haired male. Ah, yes friends, co-workers, brothers in arms and more, brothers of the heart. Quatre and Trowa. They looked on relieved to see their friend awake, the blonde, Quatre smiled softly at the prone Patient.

"This body died, didn't it." Sally grinned wryly and answered.

"Heero, I, well, technically speaking yes, your heart stopped beating. It took us almost 7 minutes to resuscitate you. I won't lie, it was close, very close."

"It wasn't close. Heero did die, he didn't come back.... I did." The hand holding his tightened in worry momentarily. The violet gaze met cobalt and the braided boy slipped on one of his patented cheeky grins.

"Must have bumped our head worse than we thought man,"

"No Duo, look at me. Look deep into my eyes. What do you see?"

"Hee-ro?" But the amethyst eyes searched the cobalt blue eyes, looking for something, or rather, nothing, but what he found was emotion. Something the other male had almost never been able to show.

"W-who are you?" Duo whispered as he realized those eyes were now as expressive as his own. THIS was not the stoic man that had left him, well over a month ago to run a routine mission. One that had ended up going horribly wrong. His partner at work and his Best Friend, but nothing more, because 'that' man wasn't capable of more. But this one,... Duo already felt it as he fell into that deep cobalt gaze, this one,.. was.

"I-I don't know what to say. To tell you truth will make me sound crazy." Duo grinned and shrugged.

"Eh, we're all pretty crazy to begin with, go for it."

"Okay you asked for it but hold on to your Boxers, it's one Hell of a story."

By this point the miscellaneous medical personal had left the room at Sally's direction. Duo, Quatre, Trowa and Sally all listened avidly as the man they knew as Heero Yuy, told them the story of 'her' meeting with that Heero Yuy and what had happened prior to waking up here."

"Whoa, that is some story." Duo his eye's huge blinked at his friend. The braided male was still holding the hand he'd grabbed earlier as 'Heero' had never pulled it away. He had 'almost' forgotten he was holding it, almost. God, he was more drawn than ever to the gorgeous Japanese male lying in the hospital bed. Damn, Damn, Damn, this was So not good. Wasn't it?

"Yeah, told you it would sound crazy." Heero smiled sadly, Duo took a deep breath. The body 'was' Heero, all Heero, but the facial expressions, the tone even the cadence of the deep voice, he knew so well... were not.

"Okay, say I believe you." The others all gasped and looked at Duo. Sally had been quietly preparing a sedative, thinking perhaps Heero just needed more time to recuperate, she was also worried he might even be dangerous in this state. Though the male on the bed had made no threatening moves as of yet, she wanted to be prepared, just in case. She was as startled at Duo's comment as any of them.

"You believe me? I barely believe myself." Heero was surprised by Duo's words, a glimmer of hope shone in the cobalt blue eyes.

"Well, physically you are definitely Heero, there's no doubting that. But you aren't speaking or acting anything like the Heero I knew. And believe me, I know Heero."

"But you have questions right?"

"Hell yeah, like why did you do it? Why did you come here?" The new Heero blushed, and Duo felt his breathing hitch, the Heero he knew had never blushed, but it looked good on him, too damn good. The cobalt eyes looked away somewhat bashfully from the knowing violet gaze.

"I, Well, I…."

"Come on, spit it out." Taking a deep breath Heero decided to go ahead and plunge in feet first, What the Hell, all he could do was reject her. And it's not like that hadn't happened before, the version of Duo in her old world had fought their bond tooth and nail, constantly pushing her away, only to pull her back, unable to resist the pull of the bond. She had often wondered, fantasized even, about what it would have been like if he had never resisted, and had accepted the bond as fully as she had.

"I did it for you Duo, I came here for you." The cobalt eyes flew to the amethyst ones at Duo's sharp intake of breath.

"M-me?" Duo was startled to say the least, but the admission also touched something deep inside the long haired young man. A part he had thought he had put to rest a long, long time ago even before the wars.

"Yes, you, Baka. (sigh) As I told you earlier Heero and I are one and the same. In the world I came from, you were a man named Jeremy. And, (deep breath) and in that world you killed yourself, about 2 weeks ago. In my pain and grief either I mixed medications I shouldn't have or OD'd. I just don't know, all I remember is falling asleep."

"He-hee-ro." Duo whispered stunned, squeezing the hand he was still holding. Quatre who had been unusually quiet during Heero's tale, as well as these latest revelations spoke up, breaking the silence before it could become uncomfortable or everyone thought too hard or too long.

"I believe you too. My Space Heart tells me that you are Heero, but you're not, both at the same time." Trowa lifted the eyebrow that could be seen.

"Little One, you believe this tale?"

"Yes Trowa. There is no mistaking what my Space Heart is telling me." Sally just sat on the chair that was by the bed, the sedative in her hand completely forgotten.

"Oh my,.. what are we going to do if this is true?" The new Heero grinned at the dazed honey blonde Doctor before answering her.

"The original Heero left me with all his memories, knowledge and skills. He expected me to just assume his life. So I guess, once I get out of here, I'll be carrying on as Heero. Shouldn't be too difficult, based on his memories he was an unsociable fuck, ah.. excuse my French. So not that many people were very close to him. People may notice a change in behavior but we can tell them I had a 'Life Altering' experience. Which technically, if you think about it, is the absolute truth." Sally blinked for a moment at the logic behind those words. Hmmm, the New Heero's observation of the Old Heero's social skills was dead on accurate.

"Yes that could work. Duo, Quatre, your both sure about this?" Duo had barely taken his eyes off the reclining Japanese male and was currently somewhat absently rubbing his thumb back and forth across the hand he was still holding. He looked up at Sally and gave her a soft smile.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Those words accepted more than the obvious. But then he grinned one of his huge overly cheerful grins and continued."If this really was the old Heero, he'd a decked me by now for hangin on him for so long." Sally gave the braided boy a half grin and looked to Quatre and Trowa.

"Yes, absolutely." Quatre watched the pair of ex-Gundam pilots, the one sitting on the bed holding the hand of the one lying down. Quatre knew that Duo had once been very attracted to Heero. Of course who wouldn't be, the guy was drop dead gorgeous. But unfortunately Heero had been completely Asexual, uninterested in either males or females. Realizing this, Duo had just worked on establishing a friendship, and doing his best to socialize the emotionally distant Heero. The two had managed over the years to become best friends, work partners and even shared a house together, nothing more. But now, there was a completely different 'Bond' between the two, one that hadn't been there before. Sally nodded and took a breath before continuing.

"Okay then, we'll proceed from here. (it's all we can do) Heero, ah, you will still be going by Heero Right?" The dark haired male nodded. "Good, okay, Heero was hurt pretty bad when he jumped out of that plane, despite the weeks of healing he's had while out, it will still be weeks, maybe even months before he could return to active duty anyway. That will give us all time for the 'New' Heero to adjust, as well as learn to use the knowledge and skills the 'Old" Heero left him. Does that sound good to you Heero?"

"Are you kidding, it's awesome, great idea Sally."

"Good, Duo?" The chestnut haired male blinked before answering.

"Huh? Yeah Sal, sure."

"Alright, I'm going to talk to Une and have you temporarily assigned to watch over Heero. I plan on wording it that he needs someone to keep him from 'Overdoing it' and play up his injuries." Duo nodded, and then grinned at Sally.

"Overdoing it, huh? Yeah, that'd be just like Heero. She'll buy that."

"That's what I'm hoping. I think she will too, especially with his heart stopping along with everything else."

"Cool, sounds good Sal."

"Heero?" The dark haired male had been listening but was distracted by the chestnut haired males close presence.

"Wha? Oh yeah that cool. So um, when do I get out of here anyway?" Sally shook her head and chuckled at the serious look on Heero's face.

"Heero, you just woke up after being practically in a coma for over a month and you want to know when you can go home? (sigh) You heal fast but not 'that' fast, true the bruises and superficial injuries are basically healed. But you sustained some very serious internal injuries, and still have multiple broken bones to deal with. The casts will come off in about 2 weeks. If Une agrees to my proposal regarding Duo, I 'may' let you go home then, with strict instructions regarding your activities." Heero's eye's flashed dismay, something the previous Heero would have never shown. He may have felt the restrictions as oppressive but he would have followed orders without much question, if any at all. In fact the old Heero had only started questioning things after meeting a certain braided teenager with a cocky attitude towards life.

"Two weeks! What the Hell am I going do for two Friggin Weeks?"

"You're still healing Heero, you need rest." But the honey blonde grinned at the disgruntled ex-pilot. The others smirked as well, knowing firsthand how 'boring' a hospital stay could be, especially if it was one Dr. Sally Po riding your ass.

"Fuck, fine whatever." Then Heero had a thought, "Um, so what do I look like exactly anyway?" Four pair of eyes stared at her and blinked for a moment. Duo recovered first.

"Y-you don't know?" Heero rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Well duh. Seeing as I was a woman in my other life, I 'obviously' didn't look like this. Even from the little I can see at the moment, I can tell that Heero's natural skin color is much darker than mine was. The image I 'saw' of Heero was hazy, indistinct, based on his memories it's probably because he gave his looks absolutely no thought whatsoever. So it wasn't projected in that um, place." Duo giggled, oh this was rich, and now that he thought about it, obvious. Heero really had given no thought to his looks, unless he was going undercover and then it was only to make sure he blended in.

"Well let's see,... you have blue eyes." The braided menace chirped. The new Heero glared the old Heero's patented Death Glare.

"Ass, I meant get me a mirror or something." Trowa, who had been quietly watching the byplay between the 01 and 02 pilots the entire time, finally spoke.

"Quatre, why don't you, I and Sally go see if we can find a hand mirror for Heero." Quatre smiled at his tall lover, Sally blinked and Duo grinned like a maniac, which was all normal and good.

"Hey Tro, that'd be great! Sure beats the hell outta trying to explain it to him."

The three named left the room, softly closing the door on the former 01 and 02 pilots. Sally turned to Trowa and Quatre once the door was completely shut.

"What are you two up too?" Quatre as usual spoke for both of them, their deep bond often making verbal communication unnecessary. Which was a good thing, as Trowa was about as verbally expressive as a rock sometimes.

"Just giving them some time to be alone. Sally don't you see it, feel it, it's so obvious."

"Well they've always been somewhat close, even considering how Heero was. But yes, your right there's a definite difference. I don't even need your Space heart to tell me that."

"I felt it instantly, the moment Duo calmed him down and their eye's first met. I think, no I'm sure of it, they have Bonded."

"Bonded, you mean like you and Trowa?" The honey blonde asked.

"Exactly like me and Trowa."

"Oh, Oh My…"

"Sally?"

"Well 'this' is going to be Very Interesting. Our new Heero used to be a female." At the slightly confused look Quatre gave her Sally grinned. "Come on think about it."

Syn: Oh yes very Interesting indeed. And no, it's not an error when I use feminine pronouns whenever Heero thinks of herself. The other see him as well him. But she lived as a woman, the memories the original Heero gave her are different, she has them, but it's doesn't feel as if she actually 'Lived' thru them. That would have defeated the purpose of her being different now, able to handle emotions and life.