DISCLAIMERS: CAN'T AND DON'T OWN THEM

AN: For my teacher in english who recently got
terminated: Miss, you're the greatest english teacher
I had ever met, and one of the best. You taught me
more than any other teacher ever could, both
academically and about life. I wouldn't be in the
writing business if it weren't for you. For "blue",28,
Midori Juschichi, aijin, and hershey

A SECOND TIME FOR LOVE

by:sereace

"...so there--" Duo Maxwell raised his head to look at the faces of his most trusted comrades, and flinched.
He tried the usual Duo Maxwell approach to break the hanging silence. "Ummm...guys...craving for feedback
here..." Still nothing. His gaze traveled to his right to look at Wufei's face, and got the surprise of
his life. /On the bright side, good ol' me managed to shock even justice-boy here.../ Farther to his right
and Wufei's left was the very, very taken Quatre Raberba Winner.../Nothing new there...but the rubbing
of hands together? Geeez...when in the hell did he learn to do that?!!?/ To his left and directly in
front of Wufei was "The Man Devoid Of Emotions II", Heero being "The Man Devoid Of Emotions I", since he
first met him. As Duo looked at him, he WANTED to go to hell, butt-naked and all, go back to earth, face
Hilde's wrath, and then drag her to some unknown colony that has the Perfect Soldier on the Most Wanted
List. /And since that is impossible, with Heero being the Hero of the Universe and all...Damn, just my
luck./ The God of Death grunted as he took in his colleagues expressions.

"You know Trowa, if we were in an entirely different situation, I would've asked for
the whole universe to come hither and party till dawn because I managed to get some sort of emotion out of
you. But right now, could you please put on that mask or whatever it's called to soothe my obviously
over-nervous heart?" Still no response. So he turned to Wufei. /Ha! You're going to be a man so easy to
irk, Justice-boy./

"And you, Wufei--" from dominating, he changed his tone to being sweet and pleading,
"please hit me!!! Hit me now and tell me I'm stupid!! Call me a Braided Missy or something,
JUST OPEN YOU'RE GODDAMN MOUTH, in the name of The Perfect Soldier!!!"
He was now standing, hovering over the Chinese pilot, and took in a deep breath when the latter did open his
mouth. He heard his heart plummet to the ground when Wufei closed it again. Utterly frustrated and out of
his mind, he turned to Quatre.

"Quatre, talk to me. Say something. I will shut up for the rest of my life, just talk to me..."
Suddenly he saw all three looking at him. He raised his hands up in surrender. "Ok, ok,
so maybe not forever, but hey, I can stay quiet!!"

Whatever attention he had perked form the three it had been lost. He knelt in front of the heart of the
group, and looked at him in the eye. "Quatre, I swear, if you talk to me right at this instant, I will have
my hair cut---" Now, he felt three pairs of eyes look at him, with their own big and questioning ones--"HA!!
I knew it!! Gotcha, there, didn't I?" After shaking their heads, they returned to their musings. Duo stood
up, throwing his hands in the air. "Damn, I GIVE up!!!"

He looked sideways to see if one of them was starting to break, but, alas!, his effort was in vain.
hey still were staring at their hands as if by doing so, it would help them wake up from a very realistic
dream--only, they know that the reality they were willing to be a fantasy IS the reality. So Duo stood
there, watching his most trusted friends under hooded eyes. During the course of telling the story, Duo had
noticed that his fellow pilots were developing a silence syndrome.

From the occasional grumbling from Wufei, it came to a point where he had to stop to
strain to hear what the irksome pilot commented, when he realized he had not said anything at all, to the
shaking of the head of Trowa until he was as stationary as the Statue of Liberty, to the smiles of
encouragement from Quatre until all was left was the frozen statement. Duo slumped onto the chair,
disappointed that his friends could not offer at least one word of assurance that he is still reedemable from
the wrath of the Perfect Soldier and The Lightning Count. A knock caused the pilots to bring themselves
back to reality, and Duo nearly jumped off to the farthest colony known. Silence. Knock, knock again.
Quatre let his gaze travel round their little group and sighed. "Come in." He called out. The door opened
slowly. A head with a mop of brown hair peeped out.

"Ummmm....Commander Maxwell?"

Duo looked up from whatever he was doing with his fingers and met the gaze of the messenger.
He lifted his brows in inquiry. The guy stepped in the room. "The message has been
delivered to Commander Heero Yuy--" Duo's brows raised even higher.

"What message?" The messenger backed a step towards the door. "The message for the Commander
that says something about the dove..."

Duo leapt up from the couch so forcefully that it tumbled backwards. "What?!!?"
Duo looked around frantically as if expecting something--or someone for the matter--is
going to jump out from nowhere and snap his neck. "Is that all?" The guy was now opening the door. "The
Perfect Soldier and the Lightning Count are now expecting you to be in the warehouse in five hours."

"Five hours?!!" The brown-head ran out and slammed the door behind him. Duo Maxwell, the pilot of Gundam
Deathscythe, fainted.