Just a Shadow

Chapter 1: What you were, and what you are now

Disclaimer:- I don't own Gundam Wing or any of its characters!

Hello people, well, this is my first try at a Gundam Wing fanfic so I would really appreciate any reviews to tell me how I'm doing, also I'm not sure what genre I should have used for this fic, so if anyone can tell me I'll be grateful – enjoy!

Duo yawned as the early morning sun shone down on him. He definitely didn't like being a morning person, but for now this was just how it was. He stretched lazily and rolled off of the bed. It had been like this for over two years now, but he owed it to his comrade to stay by his side.

The braided man yawned again and blinked sleepily as he poured hot water into his cup of coffee and Heero's cup of tea. He smiled as he realised how much he had really found out about the stoic pilot over the last two years, one being that he preferred tea to coffee.

Duo had learnt that the hard way, resulting in boiling coffee down his favourite shirt. He knew Heero didn't really mean it though, things like that happened when he threw his temper tantrums.

Once the drinks were made, Duo got a head start on breakfast before waking Heero. He wasn't the best cook in the world, but at least he could cook. He smiled again as he remembered a time when Heero had tried to make him a breakfast – he was sick for days! The perfect soldier could fight, but when it came to cooking he should stick with the ration bars! Even they tasted better!

Duo flipped the omelette, stirred the beans and made sure that the bacon wasn't burning. His smile faded as he remembered not so fond memories of his comrade asleep in the bed upstairs.

"DUO! QUATRE! GUYS! GET OUT OF THERE DAMN IT!" Heero yelled as he chased the man heading towards the plane.

"HEERO!" Duo yelled back as he saw his fellow pilot tackle the man to the ground "BE CAREFUL!"

"YUY!" Wufei added as he ran frantically from one window to another, trying to get a better view of their situation "DON'T BE A FOOL! WAIT FOR BACKUP!"

But Heero couldn't hear their cries through the reinforced windows of the plane. He dragged the cloaked figure as far away from the plane as he could.

Duo barely had time to scream to his best friend before-

BEEP – BEEP – BEEP – BEEP – BEEP – BEEP –

The braided pilot jumped as the alarm on the toaster went off and the toast leapt up from its hold. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and lightly chuckled at his idiocy.

"Don't you do that again!" he scolded the toaster with a smile on his face as he cut the omelette in half and separated the bacon, beans and toast between two plates. He set the plates and cups down on a tray and started his journey up the three storey house.

None of them had expected Heero to have such a big house; after all, they lost contact after the wars and hardly spoke during them. The only time they really got to know him was when they were reunited again.

The house had 6 bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a lounge, a small library, a TV room and a training area.

The six bedrooms were all located on the 1st floor. They were nowhere near small, but not overly big either. They were all located next to each other, or opposite and as the house was old, it was made of sturdy tick materials, so the walls gave no breach of privacy.

The kitchen, dining room, and lounge were located on the ground floor. They were all very large rooms that were immaculately tidy and extremely spacious.

The kitchen was painted with a neutral yellow, which was quite dull in brightness. Heero had said that he liked it that way, because it made him feel warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

The dining room was a warm 'orangey, reddish, pinky mix' as Duo had dubbed it upon view. It was furnished with a large dark wood table, which could easily fit twelve or more people.

The lounge, when the pilots had first arrived at Heero's house, had not been decorated or furnished, other than one lonely armchair that sat against the wall. Now it was completely different – it had a bit of everyone in there, but we'll get back to that later.

The small library took up just over half of the second floor, and the other half had been converted into a TV room.

The library had white walls and a glass roof. Nobody had expected the ever-so-suspicious perfect soldier to have a glass roof, but had calmed when they had found out that he had a remote which closed a proper metal roof over the glass at night. Most suspected that the metal was in fact Gundanium, but none had ever bothered to check.

The TV room, was stocked with a big screen TV, every games console to date and hundreds of DVDs. None of the pilots could understand how Heero could afford all of the things he had, let alone the house but the stoic man had explained that should he survive the wars, J had left him every ounce of money left over from the perfect soldier plan, as well as all of his own money. He had said that the crazy doctor figured that since Heero was in fact the result of the project, the money would belong to him but we'll go into that more later.

The training area was below the house itself and in the basement. It had been decorated in the style of a Chinese/Japanese dojo blend. It had stone walls and floors, but the walls had been covered in fabric with Chinese and Japanese symbols, and the floor had been covered with polished wooden planks to give the appearance of a wooden floor.

Wufei had cursed several times when the wooden floor was first used as he had ended up slipping, due to that fact that the wood was polished. Heero had simply told him that the wood would not be so slippery if continued to walk there and so the hot headed ex-Netaku pilot had calmed down.

All in all, the house was perfect, just like the man that owned it.

Duo sighed as he creaked the door to Heero's bedroom open. He slowly and silently walked towards the bed, setting the tray down on the bedside cabinet. He sat on the edge of the bed, to the side of his comrade and sighed, remembering the days when Heero would wake at a feather dropping, but now he could sleep through the entire day if he was not woken.

Duo sighed again and gently shook the man lying on his back next to him, receiving a grunt as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Hey buddy" Duo smirked as bright violet met dull Prussian eyes "Though you were back to normal for a second there"

Duo received no response – he never did … not since that day at the airport.

"I made you some breakfast" he continued as he held Heero up to adjust the pillows so he could sit "Omelette, bacon, beans and toast – one of your favourites right?"

Still no response came from his messy-haired friend, but Duo continued to talk, if not for Heero, then for himself. He would go crazy, if the house was always silent!

The braided man cut the food and fed it to his friend, who seemed more occupied by a spot on the wall.

"What'ya lookin' at bud?" he asked, following Heero's gaze "Nuthin' again? Maybe you can see somethin' I can't eh?"

Heero smiled, but Duo knew the man hadn't understood him. His logical mind had been, to put it bluntly, put in a blender and left for mush. He had lost his ability to speak, walk, think sensibly and on bad days he couldn't even eat, whether Duo fed him or not.

"It's sad ya know pal" Duo frowned "You were great, and now look what you are – you can't even go to the toilet by yourself!"

Heero grunted again and Duo perked up.

"But don't worry man! I'm keepin' you right here with me!" he reassured "You're not goin' to no home! After all … it's our fault you're like this"

Heero looked at Duo and his blurry eyes focused on his friend for a split-second.

"D-duuuuuuu" he slurred and Duo's eyes widened. Heero's eyes adopted their unfocused look again and Duo smiled.

"I know buddy" he whispered rubbing his friends back as he lifted him off the bed and into his wheelchair "I know you're still there … somewhere …"

The rest of the morning passed as usual. Duo washed and prepared Heero for their trip that day.

"Hey! Guess what pal!" Duo asked excitedly "We're goin' to see the guys!"

Heero made no reaction, but duo continued.

"They're in town for a while – they came to see you!" he smiled "Let's get goin' eh?"

"Mmm"

Duo took the noise as confirmation and wheeled his friend to their car. Lately Heero had been showing more awareness than ever. It was very little, but it was still progress.

"That machine will be ready soon an' then we can all get back to normal right?" he asked as he reversed out of the driveway and started the journey to the airport.

The Preventers had gathered all of the top scientists they could for around the world to help construction of a machine that doctors had been working on for years. It was to help with brain damaged patients.

It could only work on patients with a specific type of brain damage in a specific area of the brain, and when they had found out Heero had this type, they had started organising research right away.

Though most of their focus was still on the prevention of war, Lady Une could still find time to help the boy, now man, who saved the Earth. The machine used microscopic machines to take the place of areas of the brain that were damaged. Heero's mind was still there, but he just couldn't access it. With this technology, it cold be restored, but they would need a little more time and a lot of luck.

They pulled up at the airport and Duo once again lifted Heero into his wheelchair.

"There ya go bud" he grinned "Let's go meet the guys!"

So how did I do? Should I continue?

BTW: I'm sorry if I get any descriptions wrong on being brain damaged, but I really haven't got a clue what I'm talking about! I don't want to offend anyone, so please take no offence to anything mentioned in the fic. Thanks.

Clarobell