"A Life's Time"

Written By: Zazu

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. Any characters outside of those you recognize from Gundam Wing are my own, especially Lily. If you know of anyone or anything that looks like an existing character, event, or idea, it is purely a coincidence.

Archive: Gundam Wing Diaries

Rating: M (Mature) Rated for language and citrus.

Pairings: 1=2, mention of 3+4

Notes: Beta-read by ShenLong Deb...thank you! This was written for Under The Bridge's 2006, the Colour and the Shape, a 1=2 Contest. The ideas within are completely fictional. An unbeta-ed version was submitted for the contest, thus if you read this on the Under The Bridge website, the contents (namely grammar) will be different.

/blah/ denotes thoughts

Warnings: This story involves mature themes, war, and death of a main protagonist.

Summary: After a mysterious disappearance for six and a half years, Heero Yuy finds Duo Maxwell on L2, bringing the news that they are needed at Preventers to stop an impending uprising. At Preventers, Duo finds not only Wufei, but another person, a child named Lily, who must now work with them in attempt to stop the faction from taking over the peace they had fought for over six years ago. Must sacrifices be made for every battle and every war?

Completed: July 1, 2006

"A Life's Time "

Chapter 11

"Favorite color?" Lily's hands played idly with Duo's braid as he toweled her hair dry for her.

"Black."

"Black's not a color, it's a shade," Lily said.

Heero smirked. "She's right you know."

"Yours?" Duo ignored the two.

"I don't know. Purple?" Lily thought for a moment. "Yellow? I have too many for a favorite."

"That's not fair." Duo gave her head one last rub before he placed the towel around her neck and combed out her tresses. "Favorite dessert."

"Apple pie. Did you have to ask?" she yawned. "Yours?"

"Guess not," Duo chuckled. He gave Heero a sly look. "My favorite? Any kind of pie with cream."

Heero almost choked as he took a drink and he shot Duo a dirty look.

"Cream like ice cream?" she asked.

"Ice cream, whipped cream, cream in any form it comes." Again, Duo gave Heero a look and Heero returned it. "Okay, you're all set. Hop to bed Lilykins."

"Thanks Duo." Lily shook her head, letting her dried tresses settle around her. She stood on the bed and wrapped her arms around Duo, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Do you have any idea what Wufei did the first time I did that to him?"

Duo chuckled. "Kodak moment?"

Lily nodded. "He turned really red. It was weird. He got better though." She hopped off the bed. "Goodnight Duo." She smiled at Heero, then impulsively ducked under his hand, which was reaching out to ruffle her hair and kissed his cheek too. Heero looked a little shocked and she giggled. "Goodnight Heero." She picked up her shoes, not bothering to put them on and left the room. Duo watched her until her door closed then stepped back into Heero's room with a chuckle.

"That was cute," he commented, lying down on the bed.

"Was it?" Heero commented dryly as he lay down next to the American.

"You know, Heero, that moment four days ago, when I got all mad about the Dark Room? I was really scared. Not only about Lily, but about you too."

"Me?" Heero turned his head. Duo rolled onto his side and rest his elbow on the bed, his hand cradling his cheek. His other hand draped over Heero's stomach.

"I've been afraid about that something more than once," Duo admitted. "I was afraid that you’d changed." Duo looked into Heero's eyes. "In my mind, up until we had that first kiss, I had feelings for you and I really did. Still do, don't get me wrong. But I was afraid that I was in love with the you from the war and the you that had lived with the faction for six years would be different. Changed."

Heero nodded after a moment. "I admit I was afraid too, but you didn't seem to have changed too much."

"You have," Duo commented. "You told me you became more aware of your feelings since the end of the war. You had six years to cultivate that, or lose that, considering your surroundings. You have changed. Just seeing you with Lily, it shows that you've changed."

"Me and Lily?"

"I don't think your sixteen-year-old, self-destructive self, would have accepted a goodnight kiss from a little girl without pointing your gun at her."

Heero chuckled. "I guess you're right," he admitted. "I had to keep my feelings really close to myself at the faction. I didn't want them to know too much about me for obvious reasons. But somehow, seeing you with Lily, then having her come to me, I also notice the change in myself. Something about her just makes me..." he trailed off, not sure what word to use.

"Makes you worry?" Duo asked.

"Something like that," Heero said after a moment.

"Our protective sides are surfacing," Duo chuckled before lowering his head onto Heero's shoulder. "But I like the change. It's interesting to see the difference. Soldiers would cower before Heero Yuy, Gundam Pilot. Heero would cower before Lilykins, little Preventer genius."

"I do not cower."

"When the girl pouts at you and her chin sorta wavers and she gives you that look, you'd cower."

"Right. I would cower," Heero admitted. Duo chuckled and pressed a kiss to Heero's throat. Heero returned the kiss to Duo's head before he spoke again. "She asked me a strange question today."

"How strange?"

"She asked if I would ever get married."

"What possessed her to do that?"

"I have no idea."

"So what did you say?"

"I said it depends." Heero took a hold of Duo's braid. "And she asked what it depended on. So I told her it would depend on a certain person with a certain braid that she seems to be growing increasingly possessive of; and how things turn out between us."

Duo lifted himself to look at Heero, who returned the look. "You said that?"

Heero nodded. "And I'm asking it now," Heero added softly.

Duo thought for a moment. "You know Heero, it's too fast to say," he admitted. "Things are going well so far I guess, but honestly, I hadn't thought past this crisis. It's not that I'm not one to look to the future, but at the moment, that seems too ideal. You know what I mean?"

"I do," Heero nodded. "But where do you suppose you will go after this? I mean, back to L2, or what?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Duo sighed. "If we're looking ideal, I've actually been considering joining Preventers. I don't think I can take any more routine in an office, in a suit. I don't know how Quatre does it. But like I said, that's too ideal. It doesn't do much too be optimistic like this."

His hand reached up involuntarily and Heero ran his fingers through Duo's bangs, studying the contrast of his bronze skin against Duo's forehead. "Let me follow you, Duo," he whispered. "To the ends of the universe if you want, but let me follow you."

Duo smiled. Any other moment he would have teased Heero about where he had learned to say something like that, but he knew this was not the time to tease. "I'd like that Heero," he whispered. "Let's hope we live well together."

"I'm sure we will be fine," Heero said. "We've been living in this dorm together for a while and other than your not wanting to make the bed, we haven't had any problems."

"Why make the bed when you'll just tumble onto it at night, if not for a nap?" Duo returned.

"You taught that to Lily. Wufei is not going to be happy."

"Give the kid a break." Duo rolled his eyes. "Living in this little dorm is easy. But we haven't had to deal with chores, cooking, and shopping."

"We've lived in safe houses together. You and I can both cook. What do you think could possibly go wrong?"

"Mighty confident, aren't we?" Duo asked.

"If you're willing to stick it out too." Heero cupped Duo's cheek.

"I'm game if you are." Duo leaned down for a kiss. "As long as you don't make me eat celery."

Heero broke the kiss to reply. "As long as you don't make me eat carrots."

"Deal."

*****

Lily sat in front of Lady Une, her uniform immaculate thanks to Heero's ironing skills. The battle was set to commence in two days, but no real solution had been met.

"I've been studying a lot of battle tactics and strategies including past war scenes," she told the woman. "Heero wants to try it out in simulator. He's going to simulate a fight with Duo and I'm supposed to be on Duo's side and try to help him out. He wanted to try that today."

Lady Une crossed her arms in thought. "Is that going to be useful?"

"Heero said that as far as he remembered, Red's battle tactics were mostly reckless. He said that Red believes in going for the kill in using well-calculated but dangerous moves that the opponent wouldn't expect him to pull."

"Very much like Heero himself in the past."

"Maybe." Lily fidgeted. "Lady Une, how's Wufei doing? And Sally?"

"They've been working on the battle plans and formations. Their mind has been studiously kept off you, Duo and Heero, but they're fine otherwise." Lady Une glanced at the time. "In fact, Wufei should be calling up in a moment before he comes to discuss something with me. You should go now to keep a wide berth so you don't run into him."

"Okay." Lily slid off her chair. "But Lady Une, I'm just afraid that I won't be able to manage on my own," she admitted. "Even if we managed to work out a wider scan range and even if I will be able to tell what's going on, I have no confidence in commanding a fleet of trained fighters, let alone the army if it comes to that."

"We're working on it Lily," Lady Une sighed. "The problem is, I'm still considering giving you the battle plans that Wufei has come up with. I hope that if I slip them to you, you can have Heero and Duo's input in coming up with alternatives, but that's rather risky."

Lily nodded. "Heero explained that to me. He said we risk having too many alternatives and not knowing what the enemy had planned. We also risk that we can't tell the agents to wait for my command and if we don't, we risk that they won't listen."

"Precisely."

"We'll keep thinking," Lily promised. "I'm going to leave first, before I run into Wufei."

"Thank you, Lily."

*****

Lily had barely made it to her dorm when red lights filled the halls and the alarm began to ring. Almost immediately, Heero and Duo appeared, looking relieved to see her.

"Rika, akete kudasai!" she commanded.

"Hello Lily." Rika allowed the door to open and Heero rushed in along with Duo.

"What's the alarm for, Rika?" Lily flipped open her laptop. "Send it to my laptop."

"Affirmative." A vertical floor plan of the base showed up on her screen. "Seven unknown persons have entered through the ground-up, second floor." The floor plan indicated with a red circle where the enemy had crashed through the glass. "Enemy currently making their way to elevators."

"Get your gun. Now, Lily!" Duo studied the plans. "Can you slow down the elevators, Rika?"

"She can't," Lily answered. "Rika, open emergency safe."

"Yes, Lily." The safe opened and Lily pulled out the armed weapon along with the spare magazine.

"Give that to Heero." Duo took the firearm and handed it to Heero. "Dark Room," he said. "Hopefully, they won't expect anyone to be in there. Plus, they expect us to run down for safety, up to meet battle."

"I'll lead."

"Take the scanner!" Lily slid the small scanner they had been studying into Heero's hand and he clipped it onto his collar like a pin. It wasn't equipped with the x-ray, but the small scanner would not need one here. That said, Duo picked up the girl and they made for the emergency stairs. It didn't take long for them to make their way to the Dark Room and Heero handed the gun back to Lily.

"Don't use this if you don't have to," he warned. Wufei had warned him that should security be breached, Lily was to be placed in the room. He retrieved three communicators from behind a shelf and clipped one to the girl's ear, tossing the other one to Duo.

"What are you going to do?" Lily asked, eyes wide. "You're supposed to be back up, right?"

"Right." Heero made sure the communicators were working. "But Duo and I are going to find ways to make sure that they can't reach you and can't get too far into our base. You should be fine here, alone. Don't leave this room, okay?"

"But-"

"We don't have time, Lily," Duo cut in. "Use the computer and try to hook up the AI, and Rika. That way, you can keep watch on where the enemy is, right?"

Lily nodded numbly, her mind barely functioning. Duo grabbed the laptop and pointed under the desk. "Under there, Lily. I'll push the chair in front of you and if anyone tries to blow their way through this door you're going to have to shoot them. We'll try our best to keep that from happening. Don't leave this room."

"Okay." She slipped under the desk with the laptop and Duo fixed the chair in front of her. With a glance at Heero, the two were gone. Trying to keep her mind working, Lily opened the laptop after setting the gun on the floor within easy reach. She swallowed, not knowing if she could fire a gun if she needed to. "Rika, connect the AI port to this one."

"Affirmative, Lily," the voice sounded from the laptop's speakers. "Connected." Lily spoke into the communicator hooked to her ear. "Shinigami and friend, let me know if you have scanned an enemy."

"Roger." Heero's voice sounded in her ear.

"Rika, tell me where the enemy is."

"Affirmative." The screen switched over to the floor plan. "Two on dormitory level, two on the security level, one down, two on conference room level."

"Shinigami, two level," she murmured.

"Roger," Duo whispered.

"Rika, tell me where on the conference level." She studied the floor plan.

"Two on the security level are down," Rika responded. "One in Conference One."

"Conference One, Shinigami and friend." Lily informed Duo and Heero.

"Sniped him," Heero's voice was quiet over the speaker. "He didn't see me, but I won't close in just yet, scanning from a distance."

"Rika, the other?" Lily turned to the other screen, reading the data from Heero's scan.

"Closing in to the Dark Room, Lily."

Lily took a deep breath. "Shinigami, location? They're closing in on..." Lily didn't know what to say other than 'me'.

"What?" Duo cursed. "I'm on my way."

"Rika, how?" Lily whispered, her hand taking a hold of her gun. "How is that red dot moving towards me, but Duo and Heero can't see it?"

"Ventilation shaft," Rika answered. "Closing in."

"Shinigami, the vent, it's above my desk."

Duo cursed. "I'm coming baby girl." Lily could hear him panting as he ran. "Leave the room, I repeat, leave the room."

Lily pushed the chair away, pushing two buttons to force the laptop and programs into a shut down before she crawled from her hiding place and ran for the door. She gasped when she heard a crash behind her and a bullet zinged past her ear. She impulsively ducked, her body falling against the wall as she brought her own gun up and fired twice. A gasp and grunt told her she had shot someone and she fumbled and screamed. She was unable to reach the switch to open the door, but the door opened. Duo's aim was true and as soon as the door had opened, he fired at the man who then fell through the vent, leaving Duo sure that if the bullet hadn't killed him, then the headfirst fall would have. Immediately he crouched, turning his back to the dead man and putting himself between the corpse and Lily's line of vision.

"Shh, shhh." He placed his gun on the ground and cupped the girl's face in his hands. "Look at me Lily. Look at me." The girl was shivering in fear and her eyes were round and wide as they focused on him. "You're okay," he said, his own heart racing. A moment later and the girl would have been dead.

"Duo," she gasped, trying not to let her eyes stray.

"I've got you, baby girl." He hugged her, letting her bury her face in his chest as he reached down and pulled her gun from her hand. "You did a good job." She only sobbed harder against his chest and Duo looked up, his hand grabbing his gun when he heard someone running down the hall. Heero appeared and he relaxed. Heero too, looked relieved to see that the girl was fine.

"All clear," he said to Duo.

"The man you scanned, Heero," Lily's voice was muffled. "They were meant to die. They came in to scan as many men as possible and one of them has an auto detonation device that will kill them regardless. Not a large scale explosion, but enough to tear down the rooms they're in. But not the base."

"Take her, Heero," Duo urged. "If they have a scanner, we can't let them know you're here."

Seeing the logic behind Duo's quick thinking, Heero reached for the girl.

"Come here Lily, let Duo go." Lily reluctantly let the man go and Heero immediately turned her gaze to him. She buried her face against his neck and he cradled her close, feeling her racing heart as he rubbed her back. "I've got you Lily, just keep your head down." She nodded against him.

Meanwhile, Duo went to the phone and called up Lady Une. "Lady Une, search the bodies for an auto detonation device, hurry. One more in Conference One. It's enough to tear the rooms down, but not the base." Duo searched the man quickly and turned him over, searching him again. Moments later, Lady Une's order could be heard over the speaker, asking the agents to search for an auto detonation device while others evacuated.

"I got the scanner," Duo muttered. "Heero, move."

"Duo-" Heero didn't want to leave his lover, but he had Lily in his arms.

"I have it." Duo gently extracted the device from the man's breast pocket.

"Can you stop it?"

"Hope so. Shit, two minutes. Get out Yuy." Duo pulled a small lock pick from his hair and tried to pry it open. "How do you open this thing?"

"Duo," Heero pleaded.

"Get Lily out!" Duo didn't even spare a glare at Heero.

"Lily, I want you to run, as fast as you can-"

"Go with her, Heero!" Duo snapped. "Hurry."

Heero knew he had no choice. With a last glance, Heero stood, clutching the girl to him as he ran from the room. He prayed like he had never prayed before that Duo would manage to open the device and stop it. Dimly, as he ran up the stairs to the first level, the back of his mind told him that Duo had thirty seconds left. He remembered that they were still wearing communication devices.

"Duo?" Heero pleaded. There was no answer as Heero slipped into the sealed, detonation-proof security room where he was met with other agents, all waiting anxiously. "Duo, answer me!" Ten seconds. Nine. Eight.

"Got it!"

Heero had never been more relieved in his life. "Duo disabled the device," he informed the others in the room. A wave of relief passed through the room and Heero stepped out again as Lady Une's voice declared throughout the building that it was safe once more and also asked that the agents by the bodies, quickly find and break the scanners on the bodies to prevent further disaster. As he made his way quickly back down to the Dark Room, Heero was beyond relief to see Duo meet him halfway. "Duo."

"Heero." Without another word, Duo wrapped his arms around both Lily and Heero as Heero released one hand from Lily and pulled his lover close.

"I was so scared I was going to lose you," Heero whispered.

"Me too," Duo murmured, pressing a quick kiss to his lips.

"Me three," Lily murmured, her voice still muffled by Heero's shirt.

"Let's just go back to the dorms now," Heero suggested after a moment.

"Good idea." Duo released the two from his embrace and led the way down the stairs, making sure Lily would not see any dead men along the way. Only when they had reached Heero's room did they breathe with relief.

"Lily, you're going to choke Heero." Duo gently pried the girl from his lover's embrace and set her on the bed. He then pulled the weapons from his pockets and put them onto Heero's desk.

"What is that?" Heero reached for a small black box that he noticed Duo had gently placed down on his desk.

"The scanner, but I opened it and disabled it right after I got the detonator and snipped its power source," Duo answered. "Let me use my little tools and open it again. He gestured for Heero to sit with the girl and sat down to study the small device, then opened it. "Aha." He checked that it was still disabled from the small power supply, then pulled out a microchip.

Lily looked up to see what Duo had found, her nerves calming down.

"If we replace their microchip with ours, we'll have one, good, working scanner," Duo said gleefully.

Lily simply buried her head against Heero's chest, content to hide there for a little longer.

"Heero, Lady Une is requesting communication," Rika sounded from the headboard.

"Put her through," Heero commanded. Lady Une flashed onto the small screen.

"Heero, Duo." Lady Une nodded, looking as if nothing had happened in the last fifteen minutes. "Lily," she greeted the girl who had not turned to face her.

"Lady Une," Duo nodded. "What's up?"

"We've just received a message from Red." Lady Une was straight to the point. "Duo, come to my office for the battle plan as soon as the notice is given that the halls are cleared and quarantine are back in effect. I've decided that you will join Wufei in the front line battle and Heero, you will stay behind with Lily. You are to aid Lily in any way possible in giving instructions according to the AI's interpretations. Lily, you're to stay in the dorms for now. Duo, this means you are not to see Heero or Lily until after the battle."

"Did something come up? I wasn't supposed to see the plans or Wufei and the others, until tomorrow." Duo's eyes narrowed.

"Red has just sent us an ultimatum to surrender. In the next 24 hours."

~ * ~

Chapter 12

Back to Zazu's Fics

Back to GW Authors Index.