Duo shut his eyes and tried not to look. It was no use, he could still hear the crows cawing, wings flapping as they squabbled for bits and pieces...Duo put his hands over his face, his hair flowing around his shoulders.

All of them...everybody he'd ever known...all of them gone, just like that...

The wind blew silently by him, and he realized he couldn't hear anything anymore. He lowered his hands and stared at the bodies in front of him, all in varying states of decay. Some of the faces no longer had eyes, long pecked away by the birds. Dogs gnawed on the bones, their own bodies obviously afflicted with the same plague that had killed the people he'd loved.

One of the crows landed on his shoulder, but it didn't peck at him. It had wanted a resting perch from the fighting before him while it swallowed a long strip of flesh in its beak. Duo didn't move. Tears streamed down his face.

"Hey, kid!" someone called.

Duo turned and faced a group of people in white coats and facemasks. Their hands were stretched out towards him as they approached. They looked like ghosts to the child with the raven on his shoulder.

"C'mon, kid, you shouldn't be here, you could--hey!"

Duo suddenly whirled and raced away, the bird complaining as it fell from his shoulder. Duo didn't stop, running faster when he heard them coming after him. All he knew was he had to get away.

"Stop, thief! Stop that kid!"

"Keep running, Duo," he told himself over and over. "Just keep running." The armful of fruit he'd just stolen weight heavily on his small body, slowing him down from his usual speed. As a result, the police behind him were beginning to catch up.

"C'mon, kid, stop!" one of the cops behind him yelled. "You can't go anywhere!"

Hoping he wouldn't trip or stumble, Duo turned for a split-second and hurled a large apple at the first tall body in blue he saw. His aim was impeccable, and the apple slammed into the lead pursuer's nose, breaking it. As the other police stopped to help his fallen partner, Duo smirked and turned down an alley, ducking behind the cracked houses and crumbling walls to the rotted blankets that marked the shadowy corner he called home.

A loud whining sound echoed through the air, followed by dozens more like it. At first he didn't realize what they were, but he knew as soon as he heard the explosions and screams. He ran from under the trapping arms of the men around him, easily drawing on his previous talents, until he finally slowed his pace and halted.

Duo collapsed in the sea of dead children, blood invisibly staining his clothes and hands. The cross from the top of the church lay next to him, along with Sister Helen's body. His side hurt from his running, his eyes stung, his heart was breaking and he could feel his body running cold. Chills racked his body.

"Hurts..." he whispered to the body before him. "Hurts..."

He slipped his hands around hers, unable to keep the cooling skin warm. "Don't go...don't leave me...Helen, I'm so afraid..." The rosary in her fingers slipped into his grip, and he hadn't let go even when he'd been taken away. The crows were already starting to gather.

"Duo, you have to get out of here," the doctor said, his face covered by increasing static. "We can't let that gundam fall into Oz's hands!"

Duo quickly brought Deathscythe online, trying to ignore the rapid firebursts coming from within the hangar. "And who the hell told them there was a powerful weapon on this colony?" he grumbled.

Doctor G shrugged. "Doesn't matter now. You must get out of here before they even see you, or else all of Operation Meteor will be jeopardized."

Duo flashed the doctor the maniacal grin that always accompanied outrageous violence. "Not a problem, Doc! If there's one thing I can do, it's run and hide!" He brought Deathscythe around and slashed through part of the hull, disregarding the sudden decompression as he and his gundam were sucked into the freezing void of space. Duo flipped his braid back and fired Deathscythe's thrusters, launching them towards the earth.

"I just hope your heat shields work right," Duo smiled. A few stray enemy suits wandered into his path, and he sliced them in half before they had even noticed him.

"You'll be fine, get going!" Doctor G urged him. "I'll contact you in a few days on your beta frequency." His image finally broke up as Duo escaped the colony's broadcasting range. With a little sigh, Duo flew towards the earth's atmosphere.

Duo tried to ignore the stares he and Heero got walking through school. Of course, they were new students, but he knew that wasn't the only reason they were glowering at them. Heero had opened up with his usual introductory speech, which hadn't helped much, but then Duo had mentioned that Oz's pacifist diatribes were hypocritical, considering their actions. And he'd forgotten that a lot of people had relatives in the Oz troops.

And they believed all the Oz propaganda.

"Are we the only ones who still have a mind, Heero?" he asked as they sat at their desk.

"Hm?"

"Look at them," Duo sighed. "They're like mindless sheep, just garbage in garbage out. They'd probably believe the earth is flat if Oz told them so. Like little robots."

"Hn."

Duo sighed and leaned back. They'd be leaving that school in the afternoon anyway, so it didn't matter. Much.

Duo cringed whenever he saw her. Relena Peacecraft. Temporary Queen of the World. Permanent idiot who always got herself involved in things that she shouldn't be in. And they had to keep her safe just because she might be important in the future.

He smirked at the screen, hoping no one nearby would notice how bitter his look was. They all might die just so she could preach her little vision of how things should be.

And what did they get? They were just soldiers. Things that really mattered happened outside their influence. She lived in her perfect world and made all the decisions that affected their lives...

Duo turned her image off and twirled his energy scythe. The mobile suits would be coming soon, and no amount of pacifist rhetoric was going to stop them. He could hear them already. Their engines sounded like the wings of birds.

He fingered the cross in his fingers. The cold metal offered a little comfort in the darkness that surrounded him. The only glow came from Deathscythe's monitors and buttons. And right now, he needed a little comfort.

He lingered on one thought in particular, wondering why it wouldn't leave his mind. He'd never had feelings, romantic feelings, for anyone before, so why now? And why for a boy? And of all the boys, why *Heero*? Might as well fall in love with his gundam, for all the response he was likely to get.

Hence his retreat into the void of space. Destroyed mobile suits littered the vacuum around him, dead bodies hanging in and out of the exploded cockpits.

Light reflected off his crucifix, and he wrapped his fingers around it tighter.

Duo stared at the other pilot as he worked on Wing, green tanktop falling obscenely low on his chest. Heero's spandex clung to his body like a second skin, leaving little to Duo's imagination. He ran his hand through his short hair, then noticed the look he was receiving and turned.

Duo quickly gazed back into Deathscythe's open access panel, wondering if Heero had seen. Not knowing if Heero was watching him, and terrified to even look and find out, Duo jumped up and ran headlong over his gundam's extended arm. Once he reached the hand, he climbed up the scythe and worked on the top circuits, ignoring how high up off the floor he was.

"Just think of the next mission," he told himself. "Don't think about him. Don't think about him. Just let your thoughts head somewhere else."

A moment later, disappointed that the job hadn't taken longer, he slid down and landed on his gundam's hand. He turned--

--and found Heero standing in front of him.

"Heero?" Duo gasped. "Um...wha?" With a shudder, he tried to ease around the other boy, but Heero just grabbed his arm.

Familiar "fight or flight" instincts flared up in his mind, and Duo jerked violently away, losing his balance as he did. He fell against the metal siding behind him, and when Heero bent to help him up, he dodged beneath the outstretched arm and raced to the cockpit.

Only once he was inside did he realize his mistake. While the cockpit was the one place he felt truly safe, he'd effectively trapped himself inside the small space. Running was fine, but hiding only worked if your enemy didn't know where you were.

"Duo?" Heero asked, coming closer. "Look at me."

Duo shook his head and refused.

Heero put his hands on Duo's shoulders, trying to make him look up.

Duo curled his fingers around his crucifix. "I'm so afraid..." he whispered to himself.

Sirens suddenly blared in the hangar, telling them they had another mission. Now. Heero sighed angrily and left Duo, heading to his own gundam. Duo sighed in relief and strapped himself into his seat. He followed Heero out into space, wondering if someone was watching him and keeping him safe.

As they fought the incoming waves of mobile suits, he wondered if any of them were the students that had glared at him in that particular school. Not a nice thought, but it was better than the alternative. Did Heero know his feelings? The sounds of birds' wings drove those thoughts out of his head for the time being.

The battle didn't last long enough for Duo, who was having fun working out his aggressions. As he came into the hangar, he noticed that Wing had already been set down and its eyes were dead. Heero must be long gone, then, somewhere working in the ship. Duo opened the cockpit hatch and jumped down, only to find himself face to face with the Japanese pilot.

"Um...hi, Heero?"

Heero looked deep into Duo's eyes and considered, just for a moment. "A wise man once told me that the only way to live a good life is to act on your emotions."

Duo blinked. Okay...

Heero suddenly grabbed Duo, one arm around his waist while the other hand came up behind his neck and tilted Duo's head up. Duo gasped as his heartbeat took off, but a second later he couldn't breathe when Heero pressed his mouth against his.

Duo smiled around the kiss and leaned closer.

Life no longer seemed so empty, and his life didn't revolve around the battles anymore. Duo sat in front of the small mirror and began to put his hair back into the long braid. The ship was silent around him, but he didn't mind the silence much anymore.

"You forgot your tie," Heero whispered from bed.

Duo smiled at him and held his hand out, catching the thrown band. He put it around the end of his hair and stood, letting it trail around his back. "Perfect," he grinned.

Heero smirked. "True."

Duo stood paralyzed in shock, unable to comprehend what he'd heard. "What did you say?" he finally whispered.

"It's over," Heero murmured. "It's over. The war is over."

Duo put his arms around himself, trying to keep warm. If the war was over, that meant...his usefulness was over. Heero's usefulness was over. He felt Heero's arms embrace him, and he lay his head on his shoulder. "G-great..." he mumbled. "Now what? If I don't have to fight...then I have to remember..." He shook his head. "I've been running for so long and I won't stop running. I don't want to remember."

"Have faith in me," Heero said firmly, finding a purpose in protecting the heart of his universe. "I'll make sure you never remember. We don't have to stop running."

Duo smiled and closed his eyes. For the first time, he didn't see black feathers and blood in the darkness. Instead, he saw angel's wings.

The End