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Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. I do not own Heero (unfortunately). I'm not making any money off this (no matter how much I want it). I'm writing this out of boredom, a wish to express a vague opinion I haven't figured out yet and a desire to write… because… I like to play with my thesaurus.

Notes: Except for Heero all the characters in this so far are mine so if you wish to use them you must ask! I will know if you don't. I have a personal House Gremlin assistant. This is a Non Yaoi fic. I will try to update often but it'll probably be a week or two at least between them. Enjoy.

Tears of life

Chapter One

(Lost)

It was cold. The wind whipped through the gaily-lighted streets, swinging garlands and ringing bells as it pierced through a boy's all to thin denim jacket. He stood on a darkened street corner, where one of the lampposts bulbs had gone out, not even bothering to shiver as the freezing wind blew threw his unkempt hair. He stared blankly at the people rushing to and fro. Swinging packages and calling out to each other, or chasing stray children; and he stood still as stone, watching. Then, slowly he turned and started walking, moving like a wraith he slipped between the crowds unnoticed. With an almost unnatural grace he wove through the shoppers and bystanders, without a sleeve brushing a single one.

He stopped outside a display window showing the wares of the pastry shop, steaming pies, loaves of freshly baked bread and croissants looked back at him. A small cloud of breath escaped his mouth, fogging the window. When had he last eaten? He couldn't remember.

Turning his back on the window he continued on. Couldn't remember when he'd eaten, that couldn't be good, when had he last slept? It was cold, but he wasn't bothered by the cold, he'd been through worse, yes, much worse. Memories, war, death, madness, screams, fire, hunger in the masses. Black bodies burnt to a crisp, hardly recognizable as human; and the smell… oh that horrible smell! He shuddered and clutched himself. It must be the cold, yes that was what had made him quake. It was over now. There were no more missions, no more dying ally's, no more war. Over, it was over!

A whispered sigh escaped his lips, forming a tiny serpent in the air for half a second before fading, fading like him. Another frigid wind flew by, this one carrying snow with it, and bringing ice to the few luke warm parts of his body. He felt old, so old and tired. Tired of life and tired of death.

Snow was falling more quickly now piling up on his shoulders and soaking his head, but he continued walking, dragging his leaden feet through the swiftly mounting drifts, not bothering to brush away what landed on his already soaking back. He felt empty. Never caring, even when he pulled the trigger, just adding another statistic to the constantly mounting numbers of those who came before. He couldn't care, caring was bad… and dangerous. How had he become so old so quickly? He was only…in his teens.

He watched in silence as the last few loafers hurried home for the night, night? He looked up sharply, suddenly aware. When had it become night? It was colder now, the lights were out, those strange multi colored lights that seemed to be hanging every where. He lifted his face to the sky, tilting his head all the way back, trying to see past the tops of buildings that seemed to reach the heavens. Here and there he could glimpse a few patches of stars between the towering walls. Their light was dimmed by the city, but they where still there. He cocked his head to get a different view. Pin holes, from here they looked like pinholes in space. With the towers brushing against them like twisted fingers of metal. Maybe if he climbed on top of a tower he could touch them.

Another gust of wind and ice slammed into his back making him stumble in the building drifts. He lost sight of the stars. Another blow came from the side before he could steady himself, and suddenly he was awake. He swung around reaching to grab the metal pipe before it could strike again. He stared coldly into the eyes of the man attempting to bring it down on his head. A simple twist and the pipe belonged to him. Immediately calculating the presence and distance of his other three attackers, he waited.

The one in front growled, angry at having his toy taken away, and with a yell he charged. Predicted mistake number one. Fifteen seconds later four large dirty men lay dead in the snow. Three with snapped necks and one with a switchblade through his eye. And in the middle he stood staring at his hands. He had only meant to disable, Damn, they were dead with no effort, just, just a reflex… Bending down he wiped his hands in the snow and dispassionately searched the bodies. Stuffing four dollars and thirty-seven cents in his pockets he dragged the bodies into an alley and arranged them just so. A gang fight ending in four unfortunate deaths. Then he set off across the street unconsciously wrapping his useless jacket tighter about himself.

The cold was becoming an impediment to his movement, his limbs were getting heavy, and he was tired, almost dead on his feet… dead, like those men, and thousands before them, he felt like a dried out corpse inside. He glared at his soaked and frozen feet shuffling along through the slush, why wouldn't his body simply cooperate and follow his soul into death!

He tripped on the curb, falling to his knees in a small hill of snow in the street. He slumped, his head hanging limply, his bare fingers slowly forming into fists in the crushed ice. Painstakingly slowly he picked himself up and stumbled on, the wind blowing through the rapidly increasing number of holes in his clothing. He stopped for a moment to lean against a tree growing from a small square of ground in the cement. Squinting through ice encrusted lashes, he spied a bench not far away. He could rest there, just for a bit, tripping and skidding across the frosted ground he made his way to the bench, almost falling on it at the end. Laying his head down slowly, he shut his eyes, so tired; maybe now it would end.

~~~~~

Gerry Michtel sat in the driver's seat of his police car warming his hands at the sad excuse for a heater. He shivered as tiny gust of wind came in along with his partner, invading the almost warm car. He glared at the younger black man as he handed him a steaming cup of coffee. His friend just chuckled

"Gerry, I need to remember my camera on these night outings, you look like a mentally unstable Muppet!" Gerry, humphed and sipped greedily at the hot liquid.

"I feel like one too, and don't you go threatening me with a Polaroid Mr. Deely Boppers and Super Man underwear. I'm sure Sherri would love to see those pictures!" Gerry grumbled as he started the car and pulled out of the gas station. His friend made wounded moans, clutched his chest and eventually started howling like a dog until his partner cracked a smile.

"There see, you're not as much of an old scrooge as you'd like us all to believe. Besides," he said slumping his shoulders "she's already seen them." At that Gerry nearly choked on his coffee, after getting himself under control with many not so helpful pats on the back from his partner, he managed to choke out

"So how is Sherri doing Tony? Not long before the baby comes right?" Tony nodded as they turned a corner.

"We're over half way there, five months pregnant. Deelia's psyched about having a younger sibling to play with. I bet you've never seen a three year old so excited, I think she practically expects it to come out complete with accessories!" Gerry nodded with a grin.

"Well of course why wouldn't it?"

"How's Anna doing? Still working at that orphanage?"

"Oh yeah, she's been going almost nonstop decorating, shopping and cooking for the kids. Sometimes her mother and I worry, but she loves her job, and the kids." Gerry glared through the windshield, trying to look past the on going wipers and see if there was anything besides glaciers outside. "God damnit, why do I always get the bad nights? This is going to be a full out snowstorm in no time. Nobody should be out in this, least of all me. I hate the cold!" Tony just rolled his eyes while the two cruised along the frozen streets looking for any naughties.

"So exactly why did you move up from the tropics?"

"My wife"

"Ah." Tony turned and looked out his window, rubbing his hands against the styrophone cup holding his coffee. He glanced back at his red haired friend, then turned back to squinting out his own window. He shivered as the snow pelted against the windows.

"You know you're right, nobody should be out in this, I'm surprised we haven't been called back yet, maybe… Gerry?" He asked, looking quizzically at his comrade as the car slowed and came to a halt. Gerry held up a hand and pointed ahead, a few feet away was a snow-covered bench with strange bulge in the pile, but Tony couldn't see anything remarkable about it. He turned to ask what they were stopping for, but Gerry was up and out the door. Tony swore and jumped out after his friend. He swore again at the onslaught of freezing ice, and made his way to where Gerry was digging something out of the drift on the bench. He frowned and kneeled next to his friend, sure that he had finally cracked, and then he saw the hand, nearly blue, and hanging limply over the edge of the bench.

"Aaw, SHIT"! Tony cried, and started helping dig whomever it was out.

"Tony, go get some of the emergency blankets in the back NOW." Tony nodded and was off. By the time he got back dragging a thermal blanket from the trunk Gerry was hustling back carrying something in his arms. The two of them wrapped it in the blanket, and Gerry climbed in the back seat with it, while Tony took the wheal.

"What've we got, Gerry?" He called as they drove off.

"A frozen boy!" He snapped, hugging the boy to him for body heat "Hospital Tony now!" Tony nodded and stepped on the gas. He drove with one hand, making his way across bridges and around turns with great dexterity. While with the other hand he turned on the roof lights and tried to call ahead. After a few minutes of fruitless attempts, he yelled and punched the useless vidlink.

"How bad is it?" He asked. Gerry frowned at the limp form in his arms,

"Not good, how far to the hospital?" Tony shook his head and in an almost cheerful voice replied

"Well, the vid's dead for communication purposes, we were probably recalled awhile ago, and most of the roads are closed due to dangerous driving conditions. Can we fix him up at the station? 'Cause that's about the only place I can go."

"Yes, just hurry." Twelve minutes later, they arrived at the station, Tony covered his partner and his burden from the car to the door, then ran ahead for the nurse. Dodging fellow officers right and left he ran through the building full tilt, not even pausing to return a 'hello' or 'welcome back'. Reaching the nurse's door, he burst in without a single knock, grabbed the man by his vest and hauled him out the door and back the way he came.

"Tony stop! What going on? What happened," the man behind him called Tony tried to explain as they ran, never once letting go of the mans vest.

"Street bench, snow, frozen kid, broken vidlink!" They met Gerry half way, and the nurse immediately relieved him of the body in the now thoroughly soaked blanket. He lay him on the floor and began checking his vitals.

"How long was he there?" He asked Gerry who was kneeling beside him. Tony stood with the other officers who had gathered to see what the commotion was about.

"Don't know," Gerry answered, running a hand threw his hair "we found him buried under a pile of snow on a street bench" he looked at the nurse worriedly, "how bad is he?"

"His vitals are strong, so he probably wasn't there too long, but we need to get him dry and warm," he turned around to look at Tony "you've got a spare set of sweats in your locker right? Go get them, they'll be rather baggy but it's the best we've got," then he turned back to the boy on the ground and carefully picked him up. Tony was already away.

"James, get me some big towels, grab the sweats from Tony and meet me at the bathrooms." He called back to Gerry as he strode away. "You two had better get changed too, according to the weather reports we're going to be snowed in tonight, and put some thermal blankets on that couch by your desks."

~~~~~

Later, the older of the two partners sat in comfortable everyday clothes at his desk watching the youth sleeping under a pile of blankets on their couch. Gerry leaned back in his big chair, cracking his back with a sigh; he loved this chair. As soon he sat down the cushioning warmed and moved forward to fit perfectly around his body. He leaned back a little further and grinned, letting the spine of the chair spring back and forth. It had been a gift from his wife last year, one he very much appreciated. It was incredibly comfortable, and he no longer had to worry about tipping his chair over backwards! He had needed something like this for the office. Still contemplating the wonders of his new toy he swiveled around and reached for his cup of coffee. Tony came then and sat down on top of his friend's desk with a groan. He rubbed his hands over his face and snatched his friend's coffee out of his hand, taking a long draught. The soft sounds of keyboards and gentle snores came from the multiple desks around the room.

"So, how'd it go," Gerry whispered, looking up at Tony from his dangerously leaning chair.

"I hate making reports," Gerry just chuckled, then quickly became sober when his eyes fell back on the occupant of the couch. In the rush of getting him here he hadn't had time to really look at him. The kid had been stripped, dried and dressed in Tony's old sweats. Now he lay dreaming on Gerry's favorite couch. He was young, and looked extremely small in Tony's baggy sweats, probably smaller than he really was, with messy brown hair falling in his eyes. His features had an ethnic mix, Asian and maybe European. He had a long bruise forming on the side of his face, and was very thin. He looked like he hadn't eaten in quite awhile; Hmmm. Tony sighed behind him

"Jeez, this kid can't be more then sixteen, how'd he get to be on a park bench in the middle of a snowstorm?" Gerry just shook his head and sipped his coffee that he'd taken back from his partner.

"I got a couple of idea's, but I guess we'll just have to wait until he wakes up to ask him."

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