A New Found Love (sequel to Warning Dream)

-----part 1-----

"Mr. Winner... I must protest." the butler told the young man. "Your grandmother would pitch a fit if she knew you were planning on becoming a Gundam pilot."

"My parents were pilots." the chestnut-haired youth replied as he toyed with his braid. "So why shouldn't I be? And its Maxwell-Winner, remember? Shinigami Maxwell-Winner."

"Very well, Mr. Maxwell-Winner."

"Besides, what's Granny Winner gonna do anyhow? Wave her finger at me?"

"She might cut you off."

"No big loss." Shinigami shrugged. "I'm hardly getting anything now. If she cuts me off, she cuts me off. I'd rather earn my own way than leech off the family anyhow."

"Your father would be proud." the butler nodded.

"How do I look?" Shinigami asked, once he'd finished dressing up in Duo's uniform, which Quatre'd had preserved, despite his mother's wishes that all gundam-related items be disposed of when the Winner family had used their influence to have Quatre removed from the group following their discovery of their grandchild.

"Go kick OZ's ass, sir." the butler said in a very dignified tone.

Shinigami hugged the butler. "With pleasure." he laughed as he ran to the door.

"SHINIGAMI!"

Shinigami kept running.

"Shinigami Winner," Granny Winner called.

"Shinigami Maxwell-Winner." Shinigami called back.

"Shinigami Winner, if you leave here, you will be banished from my family and my home."

"Suit yourself." Shinigami shrugged and he ran out the door... He opened it a little later and looked at Granny Winner. "And it's Shinigami *Maxwell*-Winner." he concluded as he closed the door again.


"So, this is the Gundam Project." Shinigami asked, sometime later, when his credentials and identity had been proven. "When do I meet the pilots?"

"Right now." the current head of the Gundam Project, Dr. Miles Farr, led Shinigami into a cryogenic storage room. "After the death of Duo Maxwell and the sudden removal from the team of Quatre Raberba Winner, we had the other three pilots frozen and the Gundams were relegated to AI-Sentinel Mode."

"AI-Sentinel Mode?"

"The military is paranoid about giving AIs the ability to attack, so in AI mode the gundams can only defend against aggressors."

Shinigami nodded. 

"Now that you're here, we can unfreeze the other three pilots. We'll be short one, but four pilots can still function as an attack group. That's the lowest number we can use for extended combat." Dr. Farr showed Shinigami each pod and introduced its inhabitant. "This is Chang Wufei, Trowa Barton, and Heero Yuy."

Shinigami gazed, transfixed, at Heero.

"Why don't you familiarize yourself with these schematics while I thaw out the other pilots?" Dr. Farr suggested.


Heero Yuy stepped out of his cryopod and stretched a bit. Across the way he saw the braided youth who was seated at one of the terminals.

"Duo?!" he asked, in bewilderment, before he remembered that Duo had died. The boy turned and Heero saw his eyes, so much like Quatre's. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Fifteen and a half years." Shinigami replied.

"Heero Yuy," the doctor told him, "I'm Dr. Miles Farr. This is Shinigami Maxwell-Winner."

"Duo's child." Heero remembered. He and Shinigami stood there, gazing silently at each other.

"Duo?!" Trowa asked, then he realized his mistake. "Sorry, Shinigami." he apologized.

"It's okay." Shinigami smiled. "Duo sounds like someone I'd be proud to be mistaken for."

"He was your... um..."

"My mother." Shinigami nodded. "My dad told me all about him. Granny Winner didn't approve, though. She didn't believe that Mommy Duo was impregnated in a lab. She believed that he'd corrupted Daddy Quatre and she wouldn't ever use the Maxwell part of my name."

"I take it your grandmother didn't approve of same-sex relationships."

Shinigami shook his head. "No." he confirmed. "She's afraid I'll have those tendencies, too. And she wants to send me to a correctional school."

"Do you?" Heero asked, trying not to sound overly hopeful.

Shinigami nodded. "Mm hm." 

"Good." Heero replied, before he could catch himself. "I mean..."

"It's okay, Heero." Shinigami smiled. "I don't blame you for being attracted to me. You were in love with my mother. But you'll need to prove to me that I'm not just a stand in for Duo before I'll let you make love to me."

-----part 2-----

Heero felt his muscle toning up as he ran on the treadmill alongside the other two recently thawed pilots and their new teammate.

"Shin'," he said, "what made you decide to become a Gundam pilot?"

"Daddy Quatre's bedtime stories about Mommy Duo and how he and Daddy Quatre and the others all used to fight against OZ." Shinigami replied, simply. "I was always so proud of Mommy Duo and..." he frowned. "Why are you laughing?"

"I just never heard a boy called 'mommy' before." Heero replied, mirthfully.

"Daddy Quatre says he calls Duo my 'mommy' because Duo carried me and gave birth to me."

Heero closed his eyes and nodded, solemnly. "That's how he died." he whispered, choking back a sob. "The doctors forced him to give birth rather than do a c-section."

"I thought doctors weren't supposed to hurt people." Shinigami sounded confused.

"They aren't." Heero replied. "But some doctors are evil an they do hurt people. Have you ever seen your Mommy Duo?"

"No." Shinigami admitted. "Daddy Quatre tells me I look like him, except my eyes. But I've never seen Mommy Duo."

Heero reached into his pocket and pulled out an old photo of the five pilots posing. "The one with the braid is your 'mommy'." he told the boy.

"How come he's dressed like a priest?" Shinigami asked.

"Didn't Quatre tell you?" Heero asked.

"We never discussed how people were dressed, just battles and stuff."

Heero smiled and climbed off the treadmill. He grabbed an energy drink from the vending machine and tossed a second one to Shinigami Maxwell-Winner.

"Thanks." Duo's son told him, opening the drink and taking a swig. "Not half bad. So, you were saying?"

Heero nodded taking a gulp and setting down the can. "Condensed version. Duo Maxwell was a war orphan who was raised by a priest who was killed in a fire. Duo wore a priests' outfit to honor the man who had once saved his life. He took the priest's last name as his own. Nobody knows if Duo ever had a real name or what it was. He was always just Duo Maxwell to us. Death, pain, joy, love and life all rolled into one beautiful and angelic form."

"Sounds like I'm right to be proud of him." Shinigami told Heero.

"That you are." Heero replied.

-----TBC-----