Chapter 1

Duo sighed as he leaned against the doorframe watching Heero type furiously on the keyboard. It had been two months since Relena's funeral and Heero had taken it upon himself to track down her killer. He knew that Heero was going over the same information again, probably for the thousandth time since they ran out of leads two weeks ago. 

Anyone that wasn't there the day of the shooting would have thought Heero had taken everything pretty well, regardless of the situation, but Duo knew better having been there. He knew what effect Relena's death had on the stoic Japanese boy, having seen him break down. He never had spoken a word of Heero's actions that day to anyone, and never would.

What had him worried was Heero was so determined to find Relena's killer that he had been neglecting himself. He had pushed himself into his old routine of being the perfect soldier. He looked exhausted and slightly malnourished, but continued to push himself to the brink of death just to get revenge. And it was time that someone did something before Heero collapsed.

Crossing the room, Duo took a seat by across from Heero's desk. Once getting closer he got a better look at Heero, the guy looked horrible.

"Any luck finding something new?"

Heero knew of Duo's presence since he first stopped in the doorway, he had hopped the American would pick up off gloomy attitude and leave him alone. He had to complete his work; he had to keep his promise to Relena. The former Zero pilot chose not to answer Duo's question and continued with his search. 

Duo shook his head. "It looks like you could use a break and a bite to eat. What do you say Heero, will you have lunch with me?" When he still didn't get a response, Duo decided to try something more drastic. "Look Heero, I don't think that Relena would have wanted you to do this to yourself."

Heero stopped typing and glared harshly at Duo. "What in the hell would you know what she would want?"

"Heero, running yourself into the ground to find this guy is going to kill you. What if you happen to find out who it was? You're in no shape to go after the person."

Heero looked away from the young man sitting across from him, he had no idea what to say as the Americans words hit him. Duo was right; he shouldn't let himself get out of top physical shape. A beep from his computer sounded pulling his attention back to the screen. He glanced briefly at Duo when he took notice that his comrade threw his hands up in disgust and headed toward the door. The information that had been retrieved was nothing that he hadn't seen before so, despite the fact that he hated to pull his attention away from his work, Heero turned off his monitor and stood up.

"I wouldn't mind lunch."

Duo turned and smiled. He instantly started to chat about anything and everything that came to mind as they walked down the hallway. Heero walked quietly beside Duo taking notice of people looking at him some in shock that he had left his office. Once they stepped foot outside the Preventers building Heero squinted his eyes. He rarely ever saw daylight. He would head home late at night, if he left his office at all. 

After reaching a small diner that Preventer workers visited regularly they took a seat. Duo started to strike up a conversation with one of the waitresses. After a few moments of the waitress laughing, Heero got bored of Duo's flirtatious attitude and glanced out the diner window, that when the feeling that he was being watched hit him. He pretended that he was paying attention to Duo's conversation and let his eyes wander around hoping to catch a glimpse of who was watching him.

"Hey, Heero."

"Hn," 

Duo pointed at the menu. "What do you want?"

Heero shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever."

Duo sighed. "I'll take that as a, 'I can order for you reply'." There was no response from Heero, in fact his attention seemed to be elsewhere. Duo smiled at the pretty girl once again and ordered for the both of them. After she left with a wink, Duo turned his attention back to Heero. "I hope you can deal with some really greasy fries, you need to put on some weight."

"What?" Heero looked over at Duo to see the huge grin on his face disappear.

"What's going on Heero? You're totally not paying attention to me."

"Nothing." 

Duo stared at him for a few minutes before shrugging it off then started to talk about a young blond haired lady that he was currently seeing. 

Heero listened for a few moments, Duo was always talking about blond young girls, he couldn't help but wonder what happened between the former Deathscythe pilot and that girl from the war. He knew the girl had a crush on Duo, it was obvious with what she did for them. All Duo did lately was talk about some other girl besides that dark haired, blue eyed German girl. In fact he never mentioned Hilde's name at all.

The waitress dropped off their plates and walked off.  Heero eyed the hamburger and greasy fires that was on his plateas Duo instantly dug into his food.

"What ever happened to you and Hilde?"

Duo about choked on his hamburger as Heero asked that question. He coughed and pounded on his chest while grabbing his drink. After taking a huge gulp and a few breaths of air, he looked at Heero to see the serious look on his face, waiting for his question to be answered. 

"Me and Hilde?" Heero continued to stare. "There really wasn't anything between us. Besides I haven't seen her in quite sometime."

Heero looked down at his plate and poked at his food. "Have you even talked to her?"

"Heero, that's really none of you business."

"But you made it your business when it came to things between Relena and I."

Duo leaned back in his seat; he was shocked that Heero was talking about this. But he was right about him being nosy about his relationship with Relena. But Heero had to understand that he did it only because he knew that the both of them had feelings for each other, he was only trying to give them a push in the right direction. 

"Ok if you really need to know then I'll tell you. I don't want a good girl like Hilde to get involved with someone like me."

Heero snorted lightly and decided to try his food.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Duo watched Heero continue to eat his fries. "Well, are you going to tell me what's going on in that mind of yours?"

"You're acting the same way that I did toward Relena." Duo remained silent waiting for Heero to continue. "I never felt that I was good enough for her. And the person that I was, with the past that I had, would end up hurting her."

"My relationship with Hilde is by far different from what you didn't have with Relena." Duo snapped, and received a glare from the Japanese man. "Besides, I know how I feel for Hilde. You were in denial there for a while buddy. And now that she's dead you're willing to announce to the world what you felt for her. So don't sit here and try to give me a lecture on love when you really know nothing about it." Duo's eyes went slightly wide with the look that Heero was giving him; the sound of his voice sent a chill up his spine.

"She would be alive today if you would have taken her home, without opening your big mouth." Heero growled at Duo just as he sprang to his feet and reached out for Duo. The force of Heero grabbing him pulled him out of his seat slightly.

Duo could hear the other people in the small diner turn their attention toward them as Heero grab his shirt. The former Zero pilot eye's flashed with anger as he pull back his fist getting ready to strike him. Duo closed his eyes tightly, getting ready for the impact, but soon felt Heero let go of his shirt. He slowly opened his eyes to see that Heero was gone. Duo collapsed back into his seat and let out the breath that he had been holding. Wondering where Heero was, Duo turned around to see the Japanese man heading out the diner in a hurry. When he caught a glimpse of someone outside take off running as Heero stormed out of the diner he sprang to his feet.

"Shit!" 

As he ran past the waitress he had flirted with earlier, Duo yelled at her. "Save my lunch Sharon, I'll be back.”  He became amazed that it was so hard to keep up the former Wing pilot; he had thought for sure the other man was worn down. After running a couple of blocks he spotted Heero standing just outside of an alleyway with his gun drawn, Duo pulled out his gun once he got close enough.

"What's going on Heero?"

"Back me up."

Duo nodded and they slowly made their way down the dead-end alley. He had never seen Heero this focused since the Eve Wars. After searching the alley slowly and carefully they found no signs that someone had been there.

"Damnit!" Heero growled.

"Are you sure he went this way?"

"What in the hell do you think!"

Duo cautiously took a step back when Heero kicked a large dumpster nearby. After Heero stopped and seemed to be calming himself down, Duo finally decided to ask what was going on.

"So who was that guy you were chasing?"

Heero eyes were filled with anger. "That was him."

"Him?"

"The guy that killed Relena."

"And just how do you know that? No one ever saw the guy. Not even me, and I gave him a good chase."

"I know." Heero started to walk away from Duo.

"Where are you going now?" Duo yelled at him.

"Back to the office. You're going to stay here to look for clues."

Duo shook his head as he watched Heero's retreating form, then he remembered something. "But what about lunch?" 

* * *

After returning, Heero sat down behind his computer. He was still angry that he had been unsuccessful in catching the guy, but he had got a good glimpse of him and decided to do a search on the computer. Turning on the monitor, Heero froze. There was a flashing file on his computer. Heero opened it up to see that he had received a message from someone claiming they had the information he was searching for, and they would be in further contact with him to set up a meeting. 

Heero slammed his fist down. "Damnit." He knew it had to be that man from earlier today. He quickly set to work to trace the e-mail. But after an hour of searching he gave up. "This person is very good. He bounced the message to get to me. There's no chance I can trace it."  All he could do now is wait, and Heero hated waiting games.