Author: Sparkle Itamashii

Title: Inheritance

Warnings: Respect the rating. Please see my profile for details.

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing AC is NOT MINE.

Prologue

Honestly, when a war ends aren't things supposed to get better?

We spend a year bringing about a revolution, pounding pacifism into people's skulls, making all fighting stop no matter how many people die by our hands along the way… aren't I supposed to be able to call it quits when all is said and done?

I should have been safe from cruel ironies.

I'd thought I was.

Everything in the entire rest of the world had fallen into peace after the incident with Mariemaia. That was four years ago. The colonies and Earth hadn't had a single conflict since then that could not be resolved with a little bit of talk. Beautiful- that worked just as we'd hoped.

The pilots? We were pretty well off, at first. For the most part we'd even managed to keep contact, although even that much was a horrendous ordeal in the beginning.

Wu Fei wasn't hard to find; he stayed with Sally at the Preventers' headquarters. Much to his dismay she'd made sure that we could always reach him.

Quatre was a big name in the world, taking after his father; it was a rare thing to watch the news and not hear his name for one reason or another. However, that did not mean it was easy to get into contact with him. I would manage to find a phone number or address where I could reach him, only to be told he'd moved on for some conference or another. That was resolved when I got into contact with his sisters instead, and made them tell me where he was going to be.

Trowa was never particularly hard to find because he was usually traveling with the circus. Of course, finding the circus often proved difficult enough because there were several of them hopping around the colonies. However, once I'd given him my number we were able to keep contact.

Heero was the only really difficult one… but he was also the only one I wanted.

I just had to find him again.

After he said goodbye to Relena he'd dropped off the face of the planet- quite literally. It took me almost six months to track his ass down and get a phone number. Even then every time I called the answering machine picked up for him. He was entirely the type to let the machine get it even if he was sitting a foot away (a habit I could never, ever have- if a phone rings I have to answer it, regardless of who it's for or where I am). Knowing that, I decided to pay him a visit. After an extensive search I located the building and… well, staked it out. I knew he wouldn't answer the door if he knew who was ringing, so I waited until I could corner him coming out of the building.

Me and my damn fool ideas almost got me shot that morning.

Despite that the war had been finished for over half a year, Heero still had lightning fast reflexes. In a flash he had a .9mm aimed between my eyes but when he realized who I was, it vanished just as quickly. With a dirty look he had turned away from me to continue walking down the street. I took the fact that I was still alive as an open invitation to follow, ginning as I easily matched his stride. He'd always tolerated me, even when he made it crystal clear that he didn't want company.

"What are you doing here?" He growled after only a few paces, probably realizing yet again that I was not going to just go away like most people would.

"You need company." I stated simply, leaving no room for argument.

I've been with him ever since.

Sure, we've lived comfortably enough in the years since the war's end. Heero already had a job and I quickly found myself one. It was even legit and legal! The money we had saved from all the hacking we'd done as soldiers helped out when things looked rough but all in all we were able to take care of ourselves. It took me quite a while but I eventually coaxed Heero into doing things other than stay at the house or go to work.

Don't get me wrong- it's not that Heero doesn't like to do fun things, or that he doesn't feel anything. It's quite the contrary. He loves social gatherings and loves to talk to people. The problem is that he never really had a chance to be genuinely social. From what I could tell, every place he had been as a child growing up had centered around missions and reconnaissance. If he made conversation it was usually carefully directed in an attempt to learn what he needed to know. If he made friends it was only because they had something or access to something that he needed.

There is little time for real life when you're busy playing war.

The passion, though, all of the raw emotion and desire to be a part of something other than a squad or mission group… it was all there, locked inside of him. All I had to do was fashion a key and he began to warm up to the things I brought into his life. It was a long road but he was beginning to act more like a human being again. Well, a little bit anyhow.

So, almost five years after I first met him, we were finally living normal lives. We had normal friends and normal jobs, a normal house and a normal dog we'd named Artemis. Everything was so fucking normal until that one, ruinous phone call.

I distinctly remember walking in the door that Wednesday night to find the phone was ringing from on the cabinet next to the couch. Heero was curled up on the couch, half a foot away and dutifully not answering. I tossed my bag to the floor and bolted across the room to answer it.

"Hello! Hello? Don't hang up, I'm here." I said quickly, sliding into the seat as Heero hastily and grumpily vacated it to make room.

"Heero?" Came a choked, familiar sounding voice. I couldn't place who exactly it was, though…

"Uh… no. Who is this? Can I take a message?" It was hard enough to get Heero on the phone when it was someone we both knew, much less anyone else.

"Can you please tell him that Hilde called?" She asked. It sounded as though she had been crying.

"Hilde! Are you all right? This is Duo. What happened?" Heero sat up from where he had sunk down into the couch and gave me a curious look. Hilde hadn't called in ages, not since she'd finally realized I was permanently staying with him.

"Duo?" Hilde sounded surprised to hear me talking. Maybe she didn't think I would still be here.

"Yeah. What's the matter? You sound like you've been crying." I couldn't shake the feeling that something was seriously wrong.

"It's Relena, Duo." She barely whispered the words, her voice squeaking upward as she cut herself off before she could cry aloud.

"Relena?" I echoed, giving Heero an 'I don't know what the hell she's talking about, do you?' look, to which he only shrugged and raised an eyebrow.

There was a long moment of dead air on the phone but just as I began to think I'd been hung up on, she took a calming breath. "She was shot this morning."

I almost dropped the phone when my body went numb at the words. "Shot…?" I echoed hollowly and Heero gave me a startled, concerned look. We were so far past the war, though… Surely we were safe from attacks like that, right?

"She's dead." Hilde breathed, and I could hear her begin to cry on the other end of the line. I closed my eyes against the ill feeling in my stomach, and handed the phone to Heero when he held out his hand for it.

Numb didn't even begin to describe how I felt. Dead would have been a better word. I had never been as close to Relena as Heero had but that didn't mean she wasn't one of my very good friends. We'd just seen her last week! The feeling of invincibility that had been steadily creeping over me since I had turned thirteen shattered. I know I came close to dying countless times but my death had never come to fruition. I felt the same when it came to the others- like they would never really die, no matter what we were faced with at the time. When Treize had been killed, yeah, it was a shock but he was still the enemy. He wasn't a friend, he wasn't a comrade; he wasn't even someone I would speak civilly to on the streets if we passed each other.

Relena's death, however, hit far too close to home.

I want to say that the knowledge that she was dead was the worst thing that happened. I want to tell you that we were shaken up about it; that we went to her funeral and everyone cried and told stories of the good times we had in the past and the bad things we lived through with her help. I want to be able to make you think that we went to a quiet luncheon afterwards where there were sandwiches and bowls of fruit, fizzy punch and some chocolate cake that only tasted like cardboard because everyone was so numb. I want to say that was the end.

Unfortunately, it was only the beginning.

/End Prologue, Inheritance/