Title: Wise Advice

Author: Karina

Rating: PG

Pairing: Duo + OC

Notes: Challenge 215. Baby Series 4 #102. Takes place at approximately the same time as A Place to Call Home.

Spoilers: None

Warnings:

Many thanks to ShenLong Deb for her work betaing this set of fics.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the Characters from the series but the baby is mine.

Title: Wise Advice

"What are you doing?"

"Measuring."

"Why?"

Duo glanced over his shoulder and then down, when he failed to see the speaker. She was cute as a button, in his opinion, wild hair somewhere between red and chestnut and the greenest eyes he had ever seen watched him with quiet curiosity. A rudely knitted cap sat at a jaunty angle, the edges fraying and the knitting showing a hole or three. Her coat, whilst warm was also showing wear and tear and her feet sported mismatched Wellingtons, one bright pink and the other all the colours of the rainbow.

"Hello there. Where did you come from?" He turned from the laser unit and squatted to put them on a more level line of sight.

"Silly. Home, of course."

"Of course, pardon me. So... Where is home?"

She could have been no older than six he decided; grubby faced, her pants knees heavily patched and her mittened hands clasped tightly in front of her. There were no homes in the immediate vicinity, he knew, no buildings at all this far up the cliff side.

"Down there but I'm not supposed to tell anyone."

Down there? No gesture of head or hand to show where 'down there' might lie, but she did not look as though she had been out in the chill air for long.

"Does your mummy know where you are?"

"Don't have one. She left. Jamie looks after me."

"So... does Jamie know you are outside, alone? It's dangerous up here, you know?"

The green eyes blinked at him and cupids bow lips pouted. "You sound like him, always telling me it's dangerous, but it's boring and he hasn't found me any more books to read and the fire has gone out and I'm cold. And he hasn't come with breakfast either."

Duo settled his backside on a convenient, if freezing, boulder and patted the rock beside him. "I was about to have some lunch. I could share a sandwich with you if you are hungry?"

She looked small and cold and cute... And she brought back memories of an earlier time when he had wandered the streets with a rag tag collection of kids dressed in the cast offs of those better off and mismatched was no fashion statement but a matter of necessity.

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers or take anything from strangers. Strangers are dangerous."

"That's wise advice. Did Jamie tell you that?"

"Yes."

"Well, my name is Duo. Now we are not quite strangers, are we? Where do you live exactly? I used to live in a falling down building in a cave I made from cardboard boxes. It was cosy, you know? But it was home and it was okay."

End

Karina Robertson 2013