Happily Ever After

Disclaimer: Don\'t own, don\'t sue.
Pairings: 1x2, 3x4
Warnings: angst, violence, language, possible OOC, post-war
Feedback: Appreciated


We all went our separate ways after the Eve War. We really didn\'t know what else to do. We didn\'t want to stay together, or so we thought anyway, and we had no lives of our own. Lady Une did offer each of us a job, but I think it was out of stubborness that all of us except Wufei declined. We still had the idea that we were better off by ourselves.

Obviously, Wufei became a Preventer. Before we broke up as a team, we often teased him about his boss being a \'weak onna\'. Of couse, Lady Une is anything but weak, just a little on the skitzo side. Granted not so much now that the wars are over. But, oh boy, don\'t ever get her mad at you! I really don\'t think Wufei minded one bit though, since he got to work along side Sally. That kid has a crush on her a mile long and everyone knows it, even her.

Quatre went back home to his main estate in the L4 Colony cluster. I think he was glad to be a part of the family again. Eventually he began to help his sister Arina with the family business. Something tells me that his father would have been proud had he lived to see what his only son helped to bring forth both in the wars and out.

Trowa of course returned to the circus. He felt it was the only place where he could belong. I\'d beg to differ, but hey, I wouldn\'t try arguing with a mercenary if I were you. After the ordeal with the real Barton family, Trowa opted to drop the name ansistsisted on being called Nanashi again, which isn\'t really a name at all. As you would imagine, Catherine wasn\'t too thrilled with that declaration and, after much hounding on her part (and she can really hound let me tell you), she convinced our nameless comrad to have a blood test done (yech, needles).

Well guess what? Trowa Barton wasn\'t that far from his real name after all. Same initials and everything. Isn\'t that a coincidink? What is his real name you ask? Well, it is Triton. Triton Bloom! Heh, I probably had the same look on my face as you have now when Quatre told me. That\'s right, our lovable clown assassin is really Catherine\'s long lost little brother. Lucky bastard. Wish there were people in my family that were still alive. I\'d even settle for a second cousin twice removed. So anyway, now, Catherine has her little bro back and Tro...I mean Triton has a name all his own. And they all lived happily ever... oh wait, sorry, wrong story. Heh, oops.

Okay, moving on to Heero. Talk about taking all your secrets to the grave with you. Huh? Oh, no no NO! I didn\'t mean it that way. Ol\' soldier-boy is still up and kicking, no matter how much he tried to self-destruct himself during the wars. I just meant that when he doesn\'t want someone to know something he damn well knows how to keep it hidden. In this case, it was his location. The guy just up and disappeared one day and no one heard from him in over a year. Not even me, his best friend, compadre, amigo, and any other word you know that means pal. We got a couple of sightings of him by aquantances in secluded towns, but follow-ups by both Quatre\'s and Relena\'s people proved those sightings unhelpful. Can\'t say I don\'t blame him though by not letting Relena in on his plans. I wouldn\'t want her stalking after me either. You wouldn\'t get me to admit this to anyone else, but I sure did miss the guy. Guess it must have been \'Death Glare Withdrawl\' kicking in.

And now we come to me, the hero of this story. Okay, yes, that was a very bad pun. Get used to them. Well, obviously I\'m not Heero. If I were, I\'d have some serious personal issues talking about myself in third person. Nope, I\'m just little ol\' me, Duo Maxwell. Talking with Q-man, I\'ve been informed that I did the most unpredictable thing out of all 5 of us. I went back to L2. Yes, I know Quatre and Triton went back to their respective colonies as well, but there is a big difference. They had friends and family waiting for them, I had no one. Sure Hilde was there for me, but after the war, she started to become more of a nuicense then a friend. Yeah, I know she has a crush on me, but I just can\'t for the life of me figure out how to tell her I\'m not interested. Well, I am interested, just not in her.

So, why did I go back? Simple, it\'s home. Granted one filled with bad memories, but home just the same. I decided to open a repair shop since tinkering with things had become one of my favorite past times, among other things. Hilde so gratiously offered her services (more like shoved them down my throat), and soon my business was up and running like a finely tuned bike. Oh, speaking of which, I bought one. No surprise there, huh?! True, I\'ll be paying back the loan for the rest of my life, but she\'s all mine.

Lets get things back on track now, ok? We all went our separate ways. Now normally, you\'d end it right there, but for us, we weren\'t so lucky. Or then again maybe we were. That\'s something I haven\'t really decided yet. As you might have already deduced, our \'separation\' didn\'t last as long as we all expected. Heck, we even went as far as making a toast to never having to work together again. Apparently toasts don\'t hold the same power as they once did. This one certainly didn\'t do us any bit of help. Our lives of solitude just were never meant to be.

Bummer.

The first of us to deviate from our desired path was surprisingly Triton. Now, don\'t get me wrong, Triton felt at home at the circus what with his newly discovered sister and all, but things were never really truely the same for him after the wars. He became tired with the daily circus routine. He said he had no desire to perform his best any longer because there was no underlying thought that it could be his last. He missed the adrenaline rush and coulcould blame him? I couldn\'t. With that, he left a note to Catherine explaining that he wanted to do something good as Triton instead of Trowa and took off towards Earth.

The next to drop his things and run so to speak was not so surprisingly Quatre. After hearing what Triton had done by way of Catherine, Quatre decided that he wouldn\'t mind returning to Earth either. Therefore, he handed the family business completely back to Arina and set out on his way. If you ask him why, he\'d tell you that it was because he just wasn\'t suited for the corporate business atmosphere, but we all know why he really did it don\'t we? Wink wink. They always were the closest out of all of us.

That brings us to me. Basically, my reasoning was similar to Triton\'s, but I\'m more comfortable with just flat out saying it. I got bored. For someone who went from being a street rat, taking things as they came, to being a Gundam pilot, who expected every day to be his last, civilian life just didn\'t have flare. True I got the chance to experience things that I was denied before for whatever reason, but there really wasn\'t much I wanted to do anyway. As a result, and much to the dismay of Hilde, I chose to go back as well. Reluctanly, Hilde agreed to let me sign all the papers involving the shop over to her name. After that, I hopped the first shuttle I could to Earth, making sure my bike came with me of course, and here I am.

Wufei, obviously, was already on Earth, so that only left Heero. Unfortunately, the same circumstances for his departure apply for his return. I just don\'t know. He showed up out of the blue. For all I know, he could have never even left here to begin with.

But no matter the reasons or excuses, they all led us to the exact same place at the exact same time; standing silently in Lady Une\'s office waiting on her and Wufei to arrive and hand us our Preventer\'s badges and uniforms. I think we\'re all a little embarrassed that we broke our promise to never work together again, and didn\'t want to be the first to bring it up.

As I said before, good or bad, only time can tell. However, I can tell you one thing. The trip to that conclusion is going to be one Hell of a ride.