Gundam Wing is copyright...Sotsu, I think it is, and I don't own the GW boys, if I did I'd have my own personal harem and a billion dollars instead of my pathetic 486 CPU and small fansub collection...

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TUESDAY:

Shi-chan: Eeyeah. Well, I didn't say what _time_ I'd be posting it...

Duo: *grumbles* You and your PhotoShop.

Shi-chan: I was in a good mood! You ought to be thanking me. Maybe I won't write any more "Earth Bound Wing Zero," tonight, then you'd be pleased!

Duo: Hmmm...

Shi-chan: *suddenly cries* Waaaaah! No more Gundam!

Heero: Nani?

Shi-chan: Tonight was episode 49! It's overrrrr!

Duo:....

Shi-chan: And to think I had the fansubs all along and still managed to keep enough self-control to wait for the dub! And now the dub's over!

Quatre: Ten bucks says they go back to episode 1 tomorrow, and she stays up to watch...

Duo: You're on...

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Death Becomes Him

~By Shimegami-chan

Part 22

WARNING...SHOUNEN-AI...

Duo frowned. "Damn, you spoiled my fun."

Sally rushed over to him and looked into the indigo eyes. "You really are Duo!? How can this be!?"

"Um...I always said you couldn't kill Death...why doesn't anyone listen to me?" Duo rolled his eyes.

"Masaka! This can't be happening...I was at the funeral...I was here when you...when you...oh God."

Duo gave her the Maxwell grin. "Speechless, eh? I guess it's quite a shock..."

"But, Duo! What's happened to you?" She gingerly touched the swollen side of his face.

Duo grimaced. "Heero and I had an argument. A total accident, Sally, you know I can take care of myself...you don't need to get him arrested or anything..."

Sally stared at a bruise on his knuckle and hand. "For God's sake, Duo! Were you asleep or something when he did this? Take that off!"

Duo obligingly stripped off his turtleneck, eliciting another gasp from the doctor. His shoulders and arms were black and blue.

"No, I didn't even fight back. It was kind of a test." Duo winced at Sally's touch on his broken ribs. "Itaiii!"

The addled-looking Sally began to treat the cuts all over Duo, demanding a complete explanation of everything that had happened since the funeral up until the fight. Duo left almost nothing out.

"All right, I think I've got most of it." Sally finished fixing up the young pilot and took a seat. "So what exactly happened to you and Heero last night?"

"Well..." Duo continued, "After I talked to Trowa I was just killing time downstairs when Heero came in in his creepy omae-o-korosu-personality-mode. He told me he was going to kill me and I said go ahead, and then he punched me, and I tried to phase but for some reason I couldn't. Weird stuff's been happening since yesterday, I don't know what's up."

Quatre suddenly gasped.

Duo looked at the Arab seriously. "Yeah...I noticed too. We need to talk. But anyway, Sally...I just stood there and Heero beat the crap out of me, and I was having a kind of blackout-thing and realized that this wasn't right, and Heero wouldn't want me dead, so I socked him, and he told me that 'Duo would have fought back. He's got real willpower.' And I'm like, 'You think so?' And he says, 'Yes, you do.' And then he kisses me and walks out! That guy. I'll never understand him."

Sally looked confused. "I don't think anyone ever will. And, Trowa's diagnosis was correct, it sounds very much like Heero has divided into split personalities. It's possible that his encounter with you last night might have brought him back to normal, but I'd still like you to bring him in."

"Yuy won't like that." Wufei stated.

"I know." Sally slid over to the computer terminal and brought up Heero's file. "We've barely got any med records on Heero...he stays out of hospitals, apparently..."

Trowa leaned over Sally's shoulder and gaped at the file she was looking at now. "Impressive, Duo...you've got a medical record that must have cost as much as Deathscythe did..."

Duo stood up and made his way over, taking care not to jostle his ribs. "Oh. Yeah."

"Burns, burns, abrasions, deep cuts, oxygen deprivation, stitches. Burns, stitches, hypothermia, cuts, dehydration, dehydration, head injuries, frostbite, starvation, concussion, broken leg, poisoning, burns, broken arm, frostbite, stitches, oxygen deprivation, burns, concussion, poisoning, tumour, cancerous cells...and this is all SINCE the war ended!?"

Duo shook his head. "Not all of it! One of those burn treatments was Heero. He registered in my name."

"I'm surprised you have any skin left." Sally glanced back at Duo, still showing off his bruised but still perfectly sculpted chest. Sally turned back to the monitor. "Oh..."

Under the list of medications and injuries was a red flashing light and the word 'deceased.' Duo shivered.

"Sorry." Sally brought up a financial file instead. "You probably shouldn't have seen that."

"I'm okay with it," Duo said with a sigh. "So...what about Heero?"

The young doctor bit her lip. "I'd like you to bring him in, but I'd like it if he came willingly. I don't want this hospital turned into rubble; but I also don't want a suicidal Heero running around here, so try your best to talk him into it. Maybe you can do that, Duo."

"I guess so." Duo pulled the turtleneck back over his head and replaced the glasses on the bridge of his nose. "That it, Doc?"

"That's all." Sally smiled. "Come back in a few days and I'll check on those ribs, okay? And be careful..."

"Trust me!" said Duo with a little too much glee in his voice.

"Why does that not make me feel better?" the exasperated doctor complained.

Duo shrugged. "Thanks a lot anyway!"

"The pleasure was all mine." Sally smiled at the four pilots. "It was great seeing you guys again, especially seeing you alive and well, Duo. Well, sort of. Best of luck, okay?"

"Thank you, doctor!" cried Quatre.

"Thank you." Trowa said genuinely.

Sally winked at Wufei. "Where've you been? Drop by and visit me, you hear?"

Wufei mumbled out a 'yes,' and followed the other boys out, throwing Sally a tiny smile as he closed the door.

-----------------------------

Quatre and Duo went to the reception desk to pay the hospital bills while Trowa and Wufei went out to the car.

Duo grinned hopefully at Quatre. "When did you notice?"

"When you were talking to Sally just then. Duo...I don't understand what's happening here..."

Duo sighed. "I know the feeling."

"I don't know if this is good or bad," Quatre said worriedly.

"Yeah...maybe later it'll reverse and I won't be able to go solid again, I don't know. But this is getting weirder and weirder. Once I get out by myself I'm going to make sure I can still make my wings come out."

"But I still don't understand how--" Quatre nodded at the redhead behind the desk.

"Me either." Duo slapped his palm lightly against the counter. "But I haven't been able to phase since last night, and I thought I'd test out the theory."

"So you noticed it? We were so used to you being there that that little detail completely slipped my mind..."

Duo cast a nervous glance around the room.

"You guessed it right, Quatre...absolutely right. No one in this hospital should have been able to see me unless I possessed them first...so what's going on here?"

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Shi-chan: SLEEEEEEP

Duo: *snore*

Quatre: Um, yeah. More tomorrow. Ja!