Disclaimer: Still don't own any of the character that belong to GundamW, that's why I'm writting a fanfic.

Chapter 3:
Field Worker

Trowa Barton had been walking down the dirt road for nearly three days. He had been forced to "borrow" clothing seeing as his made him stand out way too much in this place. It had taken him a long time to figure out how to wrap the single length of dark green fabric around himself and he was sure he had botched the process. But it was close enough looking to what others were wearing. The more pressing matter in his mind was trying to figure out where he was.

"Ancient Japan..?" he thought out loud as he pulled an apple from the sack on his back. "Impossible," he murmured, mentally slapping himself for thinking of something so ridiculous. "There's just no way."

He sighed as he stopped for a moment. The field before him was busy with laborers working in the immense rice fields. The beautiful afternoon sun was beaming down as a slight breeze swept through. Trowa found a cozy tree to sit under a fair distance from the road. He glanced down the side of the hill at the town that lay before him. That would be the third he'd come upon since arriving in this strange place. He fished another apple from his bag and looked up at the clear blue sky as he began to eat his meal. How the hell did I get here? he wondered.

"Yo! Long time!" came a cheerful voice to Trowa's left. The brunette's head snapped around only to be greeted by the familiar, always happy face of Duo Maxwell. The young man swung his braided hair back as he crouched down, leaning up against a primitive looking plow. "So what brings you around here?"

Trowa raised an eyebrow. "Why are you dressed like that?" he asked looking Duo over once more. The sleeves of the dark kimono he was wearing were tied back with a white sash, exposing his bare forearms which were bandaged, bruised, and covered in mud. The bottom half of his kimono was being held up in the back by the waist band, revealing his spindly legs which were also coated in mud and bruises.

"No reason really..." Duo replied looking down at the ground.

"Really?"

Duo looked up at the silent young man almost annoyed. "You can say that I kinnda owe the land lord of this primitive place my life. Psst!" he hissed. "Damn idiot... I don't owe him squat!"

"What did you do?"

"That's the thing! I didn't do anything!"

"You never do," Trowa smirked.

Duo glared back at him. "Ha ha... you're funny." Again he glanced down. With the tip of the plow he began to draw in the moist earth. They both fell silent as the wind rustled through the trees.

"Well?" Trowa inquired.

"Well what?"

Trowa remained silent for a moment, studding his comrade. "Right then," he began, "where do you think we should go to find the others?"

Duo moaned as he made a face. "I really can't leave right now..."

Do I really want to know? Trowa questioned himself. Of course he wanted to know why, but did he really want to know the story that lead up to this predicament? "So why-"

Trowa was cut short as a man on horse back rode up to the two, hand on the hilt of his sword. In a demanding, booming voice the man yelled something down at the two, unsheathing the sword and pointing it down at the braided youth.

Duo fell to his side, with one hand stretched out before him yelling something in response before he scrambled to his feet. Without uttering another word, Duo raced quickly down the hill side and into one of the many rice fields. He began almost immediately to labor along side the others. Trowa sat bewildered at the sight. It wasn't easy to get Duo to do anything, even less when it meant hard manual labor.

The man on the horse turned slightly to look down at Trowa and muttered something. Trowa stared back blankly. Whatever he said didn't seem to concern him too much because the rider immediately turned his horse around and left.

Trowa sat the rest of the afternoon on the hill side and watched the field workers labor for the rest of the day.

###

"I swear I'll burn this place down!" Duo muttered under his breath.

"Why do you have to work like a slave here?" Trowa questioned again.

"Like a slave?" Duo exclaimed brining his hand up to his chest, "I AM A SLAVE HERE!" He covered his mouth with his hands almost immediately looking around franticly to make sure that no one had heard him. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he realized that no one had paid him any attention. "These stupid people say I owe them my life."

"Because...?" Trowa continued to try and fish out information.

"After I smacked Mariemaia and we all went through that weird whirly-thingy-meggiler, I fell into the river. I almost downed. Supposedly, the fishermen of this place dragged me out the river and took care of me while I was unconscious. When I woke up I was dressed like this and they forced me to work."

"I'm sorry," Trowa sat back, "the idea of you working just because someone tells you too still hasn't sunk in."

"Did you see that guy this afternoon? He's one of the reasons I'm still here!"

"And, you've already tried to run away?"

"Ya," Duo sighed, "I tried to get out of this place about a few days ago, but those jerks are everywhere! They take turns watching us. I still haven't figured out when they switch on and off or how many of them there are." Duo fell back on the hay the two were sitting on. "I was that close to making it out too," he continued, making a pinching motion with his right hand. He sighed as he lay on the hoarse hay, letting his arm fall to the side with a soft crunching sound.

The two sat quietly for a while, watching as the rest of the laborers return from the fields. They all stared at the two young men as they passed. The sun had gone down almost half an hour ago and the stars were beginning to shine brilliantly. The scenery reminded Trowa of the many times he had traveled with his circus troop in the country sides. It was always much more beautiful to gaze at stares in the country then it was in large cities, and much quieter as well.

"I'll help you out." Trowa said, still gazing up at the night sky.

"Hump... try..."

###

The night was cold and just as Duo had said, three men wandered around the farmer's sleeping quarters. Each was equipped with a sword, clad lightly in armor, and looked to be heavily built. And just as it had been agreed earlier, Duo snuck out of his cramped room as soon as the rest of the laborers had fallen asleep. Again, he walked down the darkest of paths and again he was confronted by one of the guards whom glared menacingly down at him.

"Ummm... Nature calling..." Duo began to sweat looking up at what one might consider a body builder. He didn't want to get another beating by this freak again. The guard continued to glare at him. Duo smiled as innocently as he could in the dim moonlight, his palms beginning to sweat uncontrollably. His smile soon began to fade as he watched the guard reach for his sword.

"Epp!" Duo took off running at full speed. "I'll kill you Trowa!" he swore out loud as he turned a corner sharply. The guard trailed close at his heels and nearly caught hold of the end of his braid as he turned the corner of yet another small sleeping quarters.

Another guard soon appeared before Duo as he continued to run down the narrow pathways of the servant's quarters like a headless chicken, all the while cursing loudly. He easily dogged the strong arms that reached out for him and continued running at top speeds. He couldn't stop now. Not with two fully, well build men right behind him ready to beat him senseless again. Sure, last time it was a beating for trying to escape, but who knows what they might do to him this time. Break his legs maybe?

The young braided man picked up more speed at the thought of his legs being broken by people he didn't even know. There was no way in hell was he going let that happen to him! Duo gasped almost out of breath as he looked ahead. He had run into a dead end. The wall before him rose almost ten feet, if not more. He mentally cursed himself. Again, he began to pick up more speed. He ignored the pain in his legs as he continued on his course. Besides, he thought to himself, the pain would be nothing compared to what they might do to him if they caught him.

He was less then ten feet from the wall, it was now or never. He had to climb it and get over in order to escape to safety. If he failed his mission, he was doomed. Two more strides and he will have to literally run up the wall. One more stride... now he prayed that his legs were still strong enough to get him over the wall. Finally, his right foot connected to the wall, his body leaned forward as his hands reached out before him to grab hold of the top of the wall. A wide smile crossed his face as he heaved himself up the wall. HA! Who the hell needed Trowa's lending hand to escape? Pfff! Trowa hadn't helped him at all to escape, he was no where to be seen!

Duo quickly glanced over his shoulder to get a good look at the guards' faces as he made his get-away, but was confronted by something completely unexpected.

Nothing.

Duo's hand slipped on the edge of the wall from shock. Gravity quickly pulled him back down to earth on the other side of the wall. His head hit the cold earth with a loud thudding sound. He cursed loudly as he sat up rubbing his forehead.

Had he imagined not seeing anyone behind? That couldn't be. He had heard the clattering of the amour on the men as they chased him. He could have sworn he had heard the crisp sound of a sword being unsheathed.

"You're faster then I thought," came a familiar melancholy voice, "at least you're still as loud. You'd think that you would be quieter when making a get-way. I'm surprised that no else got here before me with all that cursing your doing."

"Shut up!" Duo hissed as he rubbed his head. "Do you have any idea what those guys would do to me if they caught me!" he hissed.

"What guys?"

"The guards!"

"There are no guards."

"WHAT? Are you blind or something!" Duo got up glaring Trowa in the eye. Before he could utter another word, Trowa pointed to a ladder conveniently located a few feet from them. After taking a moment to realize what it was that his companion was meaning by pointing to the object, Duo angrily climbed the few steps of the ladder, slowly and carefully peering over to the other side. Again he saw nothing. "What the hell...?" he muttered to himself, confused as ever.

"While you were running aimlessly I took the liberty to attack them from behind," Trowa responded. "And I must admit," he added in a taunting tone, "when you put yourself to do something you really do achieve it."

Duo jumped off the ladder and took a good swing at the slender man. Trowa easily side-stepped the attack and watched as Duo stumbled upon his own two feet and fell to the floor again. Duo moaned once more as he rubbed his chin, a single tear rolled down his cheek as he looked up at Trowa with menacing eyes.

Trowa stood there silently for a moment and sighed. "Get up," he finally said, "you're embarrassing yourself again."

A/N: No, I haven't wanted to neglect this at all. Life just happens and you gotta put down what you're doing and do something else. Anyways, life has been a bit tough with me these last few months. But it's ok because I bounced back and am now doing much better then I was before. So ya, continue reading and enjoy my mumble jumble. Hopefully I can get the next chapter out before the end of October.