//Huge// thanks to Diane from GWFF ML for beta-reading and pointing out my stupid mistakes!

Warnings: A smidgen of angst, a dash of humor, and a pinch of sadness. Stir and let simmer. Yum!
Disclaimer: Watashi wa Gundam Wing no arimasen. (The creators are Japanese, so the disclaimer is, too! Please forgive the bad grammar, I'm only in my 5th week. Translation <I think> I have no Gundam Wing)

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Last chapter:

The sheltered girl tried to brush off his confession, but her eyes were shadowed with doubt and fear, just like her parents' had moments before. "Duo, please, you don't know what you mean to us."

The boy's eyes flared violet, "I know exactly what. That's only another good reason for me to go." He coldly brushed past the girl, showing no sign of regret as her eyes also filled with tears.

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His feet carried him through the house with measured step until his ears caught a familiar voice.

"You've barely had him five days," Lady Une's eyebrow was raised on the video phone as Alex Brighton ran a hand through his short chestnut hair.

"I don't know what to do, Miss Une. He's demanding to leave. I thought we were getting through to him, but...he jumps at the slightest sounds, he's so distant at times, and...he's just *not happy* here," the man hung his head. "He's my son, but I've never met a person who can give off such...danger. There's something in his eyes that frightens me in its coldness; like he's seen Hell itself."

Lady Une nodded sadly. "What he's been through would have killed any other person. I can't say much on the matter, but I had hoped that reuniting him with a *real* family would have helped bring him back to normal society. I'm sorry for any pain this has caused you or your family, Mr. Brighton. And you, too, Duo."

Alex's head snapped around to gaped at the silent third party. Father and son stood silent while the man's words fell between them, widening the imaginary crevice that separated them. Finally the blue-violet eyes broke the trance, looking away to give the older a chance to regain his senses.

"Duo, I'm sorry. I still want you to stay here. We could help you forget--"

"No," the boy whispered with a small smile, "I *never* want to forget. My memories, however painful and horrible, are what make me who am I. I'm Duo Maxwell, not Brighton. You may want to help me, but deep down you also want to use me. To forget your own pain."

The older man opened his mouth, shaking his head in disagreement, but the boy cut him off with a swift hand motion. "I'm not David and I can't replace him. Not for you, not for Rebecca and certainly not for Tim. I don't know how it feels, but it must be a terrible thing to lose a son; especially a twin."

~Timothy, he's the son of Alex and Rebecca. Their son...Oh, God...Their older son, David, was killed a year ago.~

~H-how?~

~Drunk driver hit him. He and Timothy were twins.~

His father's eyes shed tears, unashamed, as he stared at his oldest son. "We didn't want to replace him. David was our son and we loved him. When he died a piece of each of us died with him." The man ran his hand through his hair again, pulling in a deep breath to stop his voice from shaking. "When they called me, saying they found my son, I confess--I thought for a moment you would be just like David--like we were given a second chance to have a whole family again...I'm sorry, Duo."

"That's alright, Dad," the boy replied with a shrug. "I almost wish I could be him for you, but I can't and I can't stay here."

"But--" the older man started, but stopped and recognized the look on the young face, so similar to his own, clearly stated the final decision. A familiar twinge of pain danced on his heart as he prepared himself to lose another son. The wince of grief was not unnoticed by the slim boy who stepped forward to clasp his father's warm body in a tight embrace that was quickly picked up by the other. Father and son gripped each other for long moments before a small cough drew them back to the rest of the world.

Lady Une's eyes face was slightly dusted with pink as she attained their attentions once again. Duo smiled as he realized the light brown eyes were also filled with standing water. He'd tease her about it later, but for the moment he cocked his head to one side as a 'go ahead' signal.

"Well, Maxwell, we have a bit of a problem on our hands now, don't we?" Her voice was soft, but her lips twitched downward slightly. Alarm bells went off in the braided pilot's head--more bad news.

"It seems that several colonies, mainly in the L-4 cluster, have been *heavily* protesting the legal age laws--"

Duo's translation--Quatre's people are pissed.

"--a friend of yours slipped past his long-lost sister and his whereabouts are currently unknown--"

--Trowa's gone AWOL.

"--I've had my hands full with a stubborn Agent who is rooming with the most *conceited* man on the planet--"

--Wufei as been ranting about 'weaklings' and 'onnas' even more than usual.

"--and now I have to find a new place for all four of you, seeing as you can't act like normal human beings."

Duo blinked in confusion, but didn't let that stop him from getting the last stab. "Love you too, *Colonel*." Lady Une gave him a death glare a certain suicidal pilot would have been proud of. Thinking of whom..."What about Mr. Personality?"

"Surprisingly," the woman almost rolled her eyes, "he's getting along just fine with his new assignment."

Duo's translation--Heero gets to carry a gun, so he's fine.

"So...now what?" the boy asked hesitantly. His mind, however ran in unerring circles of, 'Oh please, oh please, oh please!'

"Well, considering that you'd probably disappear into God knows where if left to your own devices, I've made some new arrangements. You'll temporarily be placed under Preventer protection. There's this very nice house in London that was abandoned five days ago. It's pretty close to Preventer Headquarters..."

~*~*~*~*~

The spacious living room, forest green with gold trim, was thoroughly *trashed*. In the midst of the overturned furniture, the newly gouged oak desk and the scattered papers were two very happy teenage boys who were totally oblivious to the disaster. The angelic blonde grinned brightly at his companion, the other boy, whose face was half obscured by a long flow of light brown hair and showed only one green eye, gave miniscule smile back, until the front door opened.

"Hey guys! I'm--" the sound of a bag dropping heavily on the marble entryway enunciated the long pause. "WHAT THE HELL?! Trowa! Quatre?! 'FEI?!!"

Suddenly the boys in the living room realized their mess, which actually extended over a good deal of the house, was now sending their friend into a blind panic. Both stood instantly, Trowa accidentally releasing his hold on the large furry tornado that quickly bolted out of the room and rammed full-force into the chest of an unsuspecting boy with long chestnut hair.

Quatre bit back a laugh as the American's limbs flailed helplessly under the weight of the golden mass on his chest. The dog took full advantage of the boy's plight and began a serious tongue bath before Trowa managed to regain a hold on the thing's collar.

The half-disgusted, half-amused look Duo had as he slowly wiped the drool off his face, still sprawled on the marble floor, was too much for the pilots to take. Commander Lady Une walked through the open doorway to see three of the greatest fighters in the history of mankind laughing insanely on the floor. A moment passed before she realized they all had tears standing in their eyes; their laughter was the only thing holding off a flood of pain, relief, and happiness. She sighed, loathed to break up the scene, but luckily another did it for her.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" The three on the floor stopped instantly. Wufei gave them all his own death glare before surveying what damage was visible. "I'm gone for six days and everything goes to Hell," the Chinese boy threw his hands up in mock anger.

A brown blur streaked across Lady Une's path and glomped the sarcastic Justice-Freak, "'Fei! God, I missed your egotistic, boorish comments!"

"Ugh," the Preventer Agent grunted under the assault, "Maxwell, you're heavy!"

An evil glint crossed Trowa's eyes as his hand 'slipped' once again. A split-second later there were *two* piles of laughing boys--Duo, Wufei, and their furry attacker in one, and the Arabic and European pilots on the other end of the room, clutching each other in a mutual effort to stay on their feet and failing miserably. Their plight was swept aside as a sixth figure appeared in the door, surveyed the assembly, grunted, and walked calmly around the tangled limbs. Heero's expressionless face only added to the others' relief and, in the blink of an eye, all five were huddled together. Even the more stoic ones reached out occasionally in a quick touch, tap, thwap or--mainly in the case of Duo's braid--tug, to make sure the others were actually there. Reassuring themselves and their friends that their bad dream was finally over. They were a family again.

Until a discrete cough reminded them that they still had company. Une gave the group a sympathetic look and then a displeased one. "Duo, I arranged for your transportation, Heero and Wufei have been living in this area, but how," her gaze turned to Quatre and Trowa as they studied the floor with sudden interest, "did the two of *you* get back to Earth?"

Trowa coughed, but otherwise kept up his faultless mask, leaving his best friend to explain. Quatre gave him a smoldering aqua glare before he caught Lady Une's unamused look. "Er, well, Trowa picked me up yesterday on his way from L-3." The woman kept her flat eyes on the boy and he sighed. "We used one of Heero's old programs to get new ID's and rent a shuttle." The blonde threw Heero an apologetic glance, but the Japanese boy only shrugged. Only his closest friends could catch the slight twitch of a smile that flickered on his otherwise dead features.

The woman nodded wearily. "I suspected as much." Sighing once again she got down to business, "The new government, in light of some strong arguments from citizens and sympathetic officials--along with the panic from Trowa's disappearing act and other complications--has agreed to *review* your approvals to be legalized as adults." Two of the boys grinned broadly at the news, the others held back various smirks. "The only stipulation is that you attend school, check in with an approved supervisor once a week and keep your noses *out of trouble*." Her last statement was punctuated by sharp looks at Trowa and Duo.

Trowa nodded slightly at the underlying command while Duo quirked an eyebrow. "What'd I do?"

"My office received a call from a Mr. Tompson of Jefferson High School in Oklahoma. He was babbling something about a new student cheating on his tests, speaking rudely to the teachers and assaulting an instructor, all in his first day," Lady Une looked the blushing boy over, barely holding back a smile as he gulped.

"Duo?" Heero fixed icy cobalt eyes on his best friend with a disapproving look.

The braided boy held up his hands in a show of innocence. "It wasn't *my* fault!" Five sets of flat eyes focused on him, clearly not convinced. "Hey, they're the ones who wanted to quiz me on 'current events' 'cause they thought I was too stupid to know history. You should have heard the bullsh--" Une glared dangerously "--uh, stuff that they're teaching kids about Trieze and Oz and everything! It was ridiculous and when I tried to debate it with the teacher, he flipped! That thing about cheating was totally wrong; my computer 'teacher' was pissed when he found out I had half a brain. I only hacked the library system, for God's sake!"

"Duo!" Quatre groaned, giving his friend his own look of disappointment. "You know you weren't supposed to do stuff like that."

The boy shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest. "They thought I was some kind of charity case. An ignorant little street boy--who knows nothing of 'proper' education, 'real' society, or life outside a gutter--to speak down to and help 'adjust to be a normal kid.'" The violet glare told them all what he thought of the instructors' methods.

Lady Une shook her head, "That's no reason to attack your gym teacher, Maxwell."

Duo cringed under the four voices shouting, "What?!"

"I--er--didn't mean to. Really! The guy asked me if I had had any training in self-defense since the class was practicing basic martial arts techniques--I think he was probably the only teacher who hadn't heard about me--so I told him some of my friends taught me a few moves. How was I to know that he wasn't any good?" The braided boy blinked innocently as his friends shook their heads.

Lady Une groaned internally, giving up on all attempts to understand the teenage warriors and silently swearing to never see them broken up again. For humanity's sake as much as their own. "I see. Well, the four of you will have to stay at this--" the brown eyes glanced about "--what is *left* of this house. I will send someone over to check on you periodically, please don't kill them--"

"Four?" Trowa cut in, the efficient vocabulary relaying his question with minimal effort.

"Well, Heero has been--"

"Five," the monotone voice corrected.

The Preventer Commander glared at each of the boys, demanding silence before continuing. "The FIVE of you will be monitored until the government grants you special status as legal adults or you reach your eighteenth birthdays. With this democracy, the *second* is probably most likely."

Silence descended on the room as the pilots stared at their sometimes-commander. She turned to leaving throwing over her shoulder, "I wasn't raised in this 'freedom of the people' stuff, you know."

Surprisingly it was Heero who first spoke after the Commander's sudden departure, bringing reality back to the others as they stood together in their entryway. "So, what's with the dog?"

Trowa and Quatre's eyes widened in horror as they snapped their heads around, frantically looking for the furry menace and sighed in relief as they spotted it. The yellow fur ball grinned at them happily from its place at Heero's feet. It obviously didn't see, or at least it didn't mind, the boy's discomfort at its proximity as it yawned up at the five faces and quietly lay down.

"Quatre?" Heero questioned again.

"We found her at the shuttle bay. I couldn't just leave her!" The blonde looked to his friends in a silent plea.

"A girl? Urgh, like I haven't had enough," Wufei grumbled, picking up his bag and heading for the hall. "She's YOUR dog, Winner, don't let her chew everything up."

"Aww, she's cute," Duo crooned as he, too, picked up his suitcase and headed for his room. "I don't mind, Quat, it'll be fun!"

Heero stared down at the lump at his feet; the mournful brown eyes stared back at him; he looked up only to see the same look in large aquamarine globes. Well, even the Perfect Soldier has a few soft spots. "Why did it have to be a yellow lab?"(1) He shook his head and headed for his room. Scowling slightly as the dog followed, but doing nothing to stop it.

The last two left on the landing sighed in relief. Well, one sighed, the other relaxed...a little. Life was back to normal, or as close to as they could hope. Then they both turned around...

"You think they'd help us clean up?" the blonde asked hopefully, surveying the wreckage.

The stoic clown shook his head, "Not a chance."

Yes, life was definitely back to normal.

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A.N: (1)-Yes, I know I described the dog as being kinda fluffy, but think of it as a mutt 'cause I wanted it to be a yellow lab to go with the dog in Heero's Episode Zero. At least I think that was a lab...^_^;

If you haven't read Episode Zero, I highly recommend it. It gives a lot of insight into the characters and a bit of mystery, too. (Check out GundamWing.org for the translations and manga!)

**Attention Brave Readers** Because I've gotten some great feedback from my ML's I'm seriously considering doing a sequel. Please let me know if you'd like one or have a suggestion. I got the idea for this ending from a reviewer (*Waves at Diane*) so you know I'm open to 'em!