If you recognise it… I don't own it.

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"Gundam Wing" – Start

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Wufei's POV

We should have realised sooner… I should have realised sooner. But there was so much to do. So much to see. So much… Of everything!

But that is no excuse. At least not from me.

He told me what he was doing. But I didn't listen.

It was about two years after the rebellion. I had found my corner of the world. With the Preventers and to protect the Peace and fight Injustice, while still preserving my Honour.

Heero had also chosen to join the Warriors of Justice. Trowa and Quatre agreeing to aid us as and when needed.

Only Duo had chosen to ignore the needs of the Sphere. Instead preferring to work in a capacity far below his skill and intelligence level, as a mere salvager of junk… Scrap merchant… A simple mechanic.

Despite my mocking and degradation of Duo's intelligence, I have nearly always been slightly in awe of him. At least since I learnt that his education had been far less supported than the rest of us.

That was part of why I mocked him. Before I became a warrior I had been a scholar. I considered myself to be one of the more intelligent people in the sphere… Duo… Duo with none of the advantages I had had… With none of the breeding… The lineage I had… He could match my intelligence…

No. He surpassed it. Able to pick up concepts in moments…

And yes, the concepts were things I already knew. But that didn't matter… He was catching up, at an alarming rate.

It scared me. It scared me that a no name, ancestor-less, street rat could match me.

It made me feel better to mock him.

I think that if he'd gone to school… University… Gotten a formal education, after the War… My ego wouldn't have needed to needle him.

But he hadn't. And so I did.

However there was a mission at the Preventers. A mission that even Heero, Trowa, Quatre and I couldn't complete on our own.

It involved Gun-Smugglers. Those Barbarians who are more than willing to provoke a war so that there are buyers for their merchandise. Those Dishonourable Dogs, who do not care who dies, so long as wealth makes its way into their pockets.

Trowa had tried to infiltrate them both as a buyer and as a supplier. But they were wise to these ploys.

Heero had tried to join their ranks. But they had summarily rejected his application.

We had tried hacking them. We had tried robbing them.

We knew they were guilty, but we had no clear way of proving it, beyond a shadow of a doubt, in a Court of Law.

We could not even obtain a search warrant to locate the weapons we knew they held. There was insufficient grounds.

Getting the evidence would probably be a suicide mission.

I cannot recall who suggested it. I do not even know if it was in jest or as a serious suggestion.

No matter who or why, we soon were all agreed, the only solution we could see was to persuade Duo to obtain the evidence we required.

The trouble was that Duo had repeatedly turned down job offers, and requests for his specialist aid before.

The only thing he had ever been willing to do to aid us, was in relation to his job.

We sent Heero to try again.

To this day, I do not know what Heero said to Duo. But two days later, both of them turned up at the office.

I'm not entirely sure how Duo got us the information either. Someone that distinctive shouldn't be able to waltz to pass security as if it was never there.

There are times when I wonder if Duo is a ghost.

We all went to make the arrest, when we had everything we needed.

They didn't want to go quietly. The true fanatics never do. The two types that I hate the most are the Intellectual Supremacists, who believe they are too smart for the dumb Preventers to figure out, and the Religious Fanatics, who believe that their God wouldn't allow them to be caught.

And yes, Nataku! I am aware of my hypocrisy in the former of the two cases.

We ended up with a shootout.

However Justice and Honour prevailed over Greed and Pride. With few casualties and no mortalities on our side.

On their side, well… The Leader died. Killed when he went to launch a grenade at a bunch of idiot Greenies taking cover behind a collection of crates of grenades.

It was Duo who fired the fatal shot.

I believe I was the only person who saw his face immediately afterwards. By Nataku! There was so much grief and pain in his expression for a fraction of an instant. It went against everything I had ever believed about him.

Then just as quickly as it had come, it was gone.

I almost believed I had imagined it. I knew I hadn't. But I did ignore it.

After it was all over, while doing the paperwork, Heero, Trowa, Quatre and I let our mouths run loose. As we always did. We all knew that we needed some way to let off steam. And it was a harmless method of doing so. All four of us in Heero's and my office complaining and arguing about anything and everything.

We all knew that the moment we stepped out of the office all would be forgiven and forgotten.

Duo chose to write his report somewhere else. I believe he chose the roof. He always did prefer to be high up, and in the open air.

I didn't see him hand in his report. It was simply there when I turned in our four, plus all the related paperwork.

I didn't actually see Duo again, until three days later, when I went to see Sally.

He was just emerging from her office.

"Maxwell." I nodded at him.

"Oh, hey!" Duo chirped at me.

"What are you doing here?"

"Just saying goodbye to Sally." Duo shrugged, "I guess as you're here… Goodbye Chang."

And then he was gone. I remember being surprised. He'd never called me by my family name before. Always some bastardisation of my personal name.

I remember being grateful… Glad that he had outgrown the habit.

Apart from that, I didn't think anything of it. Duo left. Gone back to his junkyard I presumed.

If I had realised then what I realised over six months later, I would have grabbed him and never let him go.

I should've realised. Nataku! I should have noticed!

Duo had never said goodbye before. He always said that goodbye is forever.

As it was I didn't.

I should have noticed that I didn't hear from Duo again. I didn't. I was negligent. I was Dishonourable. I didn't try to contact him. Nataku! I barely thought of him.

But neither did the others. Little salve for my soul that is.

I didn't realise anything was wrong, until Quatre contacted me. Nataku! It took someone else pointing it out before I noticed.

"Wufei?" Quatre called out as he entered the office, "Heero?"

"Yes?" We almost chorused.

"Have you heard from Duo? I tried to contact him. And he's not answering." The blond asked.

"That's not like Duo." Heero frowned.

"The number is not in use." Trowa added, following Quatre, "It no longer exists."

"Then what happened to Duo?" Heero breathed.

"All e-mails are bouncing." I declared, after a moment's pause.

"When was the last time anyone heard from him?" Quatre pressed.

There was a long pause as we all thought about it.

"The mission we all did together." Heero eventually stated.

"That was seven months ago!" Quatre exclaimed in shock and horror.

"I saw him three days after that." I confessed, as I rose from my seat.

"Where are you going?" Heero almost growled.

"To see Sally." I replied, "He was just coming out of her office. He may have told her something."

I was out of the room, before anyone could say anything else. It wasn't my speed that aided me. Rather their shock.

Shock for the thing I had missed those months ago… Duo never visited a Doctor's office willingly. We had to drag him. If Duo had wanted to talk to Sally, he would have invited her out for a drink, not gone to see her in her office.

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"Wufei," Sally looked up, as I entered her office, "What's the matter?"

"When did you last hear from Maxwell?" I asked.

"You're looking for him?" Sally countered, "Why now?"

"Barton and Winner wish to talk to him." I replied, "But none of us can remember hearing from him in six months."

"Nearer seven." Sally sighed rising to her feet.

"Do you know where he is?"

"No," Sally retrieved a box from a cupboard, "When I last saw him, he gave me this. He made me promise not to give it to you until you started looking for him. I thought it would only be a couple of days… Not nearly seven months."

She handed over the box. I glanced at the label stuck over the strain.

"To 01, 03, 04 and 05"

"You should have told us sooner." I muttered.

"You should have started looking sooner." Sally argued, "I kept my promise. I haven't seen or heard from him since."

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I took the package up to the office.

"Well?" Quatre asked, the moment he saw me.

"She hasn't seen or heard from him." I shook my head, "But he left this with her for us."

I placed the package down on the table.

For a moment none of us moved to touch it. I was staring at the box. A physical memento of Duo's absence. He knew we would look for him.

He had prepared for it.

This wasn't a temporary separation. This wasn't an accident. He had chosen to leave. He had chosen not to communicate with us.

This didn't match the profile I had of him.

I cut the strings and opened the box. Lying on top of a pile of Styrofoam peanuts lay a folded sheet of paper.

Heero reached for it, before I could. He unfolded it and started to read it aloud.

"So, you're looking for me, huh? Got another suicide mission that no one else will take? Or do you just need a sneak thief? I'm not coming. And you won't find me.

"I told you I never wanted to fight again. But you put me in a position where I felt I couldn't say no.

"I guess I've always been a disappointment. The one who didn't belong. The Jester among the Knights. I always knew it, deep down. And so did you it seems. There's no room in an army of Knights for a Court Jester.

"I was never a proper Gundam Pilot. I was never chosen for the role. Never trained for it. I just did the best I could with what I had. I never thought I did too badly… But I was never good enough, was I?

"I was always the embarrassment. Then again, I'm used to that. It's nothing new.

"I'm only ever welcome when you need me. The rest of the time, you don't want me around.

"So I'm not coming. And you won't find me. I finally figured it out… I'm addicted to you. So I'm going cold turkey, and not getting addicted again. And the only way to do that is to never see or hear from you again.

"This is my goodbye.

"Chang, I won't embarrass you any more. I will no longer besmirch your Honour.

"Winner, there's nothing to be ashamed of now. You won't have to look at me.

"Barton, I will no longer annoy you. I will not play another prank on you.

"Yuy, you can work and live in peace. I will never disturb your life again, with my childish antics.

"I want to hate all of you. You did the cruellest thing you ever could to me. You gave me a taste of Heaven and then destroyed all hope of me ever obtaining it again. For that I can never forgive you.

"But I can't hate you either.

"There is a gift to each of you in the bottom of the box… And yes, I understand their significance.

"Don't look for me any more. I will not come back to you. I will die, before I put myself back in that situation again.

"Duo Maxwell"

For a moment we were both still and silent.

Quatre got to the box first. He lifted handfuls of the packing peanuts out of the box, scattering them haphazardly on the table. Where they fell to the floor.

I normally like to keep the office tidy. Everything has a place, and everything in its place. Rubbish belongs in the bin.

Heero is just the same.

But for once, I couldn't bring myself to care.

And neither could Heero.

It only took a few seconds, but they felt like hours, before Quatre reached four slim boxes. Each wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. And each with the small brown tangled names on. One box for each of us. All identical in size, and presumably wait.

I reached for mine. It was the work of a moment to unwrap. Inside was a wooden box. A presentation box, I realised as I opened it.

A slim dagger and sheath lay inside the box. Each cocooned separately in the soft velvet.

However there was something missing from the case. I could see the indentation where it should have been. It was no larger than my thumbnail, but perfectly round.

I lifted the elegant knife out of the case, marvelling at his balance and beauty.

But I couldn't understand why these were significant to Duo. I could see matching knives in the other's packages.

Quatre obviously did, by his gasp of surprise and horror. His hands leapt to cover his mouth.

"No." Trowa murmured. He, too, understood, that much was clear.

"I don't understand." Heero voiced my confusion.

"It's a tradition… Superstition," Quatre explained, "You never give a knife to a friend. There always has to be some sort of payment. Even if it's only the smallest of coins."

"Why?" I pressed.

"Giving a knife will cut the bonds of friendship between two people." Trowa carried on for Quatre, "Most knives come in presentation cases, with a small coin included for just that reason."

"Duo is saying he's not our friend any more." Quatre announced, "And taken away the coins, so that we can't invalidate his action."

"But why?" I looked around at the others in complete confusion, "What did we do? What did we do?"

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Please Review.

I know two in two days. They've been floating on my hard-drive for a while now. So I decided to post.

Who wants to adopt them?