"This Beautiful Life"

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or its characters

Rating: R

Warnings: Romance & Friendship

Pairings: 2x5, others will be present but subtle.

Summary: 3 years after cutting ties with everyone from the war, WuFei Chang gets into a car accident in his way home from a company Christmas party and wakes up to another life.

"This Beautiful Life"

Chapter 14

The circus had pitched its tents about a mile away from Maricopa, the town where Kimiko's Café had been. Duo fussed over making sure they wore heavy enough jackets and layers of clothes. He bounced around the circus sideshows like a child, eager to see what hid behind each tent flap. A bearded lady watched as she fanned herself while Duo teased the tiger in its cage. Sally found them there. She'd bought herself a spool of fluffy pink cotton candy.

"Have you been here long?" WuFei asked. He'd been concerned they were running late when they had started out.

"About five minutes," Sally said, seeming to understand the boy's concern. She offered up the cotton candy. WuFei declined, but Duo ripped off a good-sized chunk and swallowed it in one bite.

"Should we head in?" WuFei asked.

"We're still waiting on some people," Sally said, giving Duo a wink.

WuFei shot Duo a questioningly look and he shook his head, obviously just as confused.

"I hope it's alright. I put out an invite. Turns out I'm not the only one who hasn't seen Catherine and Trowa's act in awhile," Sally waved her hand overhead, and the boys turned, spotting Relena waving back, Heero looking inconspicuous beside her with his hands in his pockets, scanning the crowd for possible threats, "I didn't mention the memory loss to them. It's up to you if you want them to know."

Once close enough, Relena thrust her arms around Duo's neck, and he laughed, "Well hello gorgeous," and returned the hug. Heero gave WuFei a once over.

"You still seem to be in one piece."

WuFei nodded, uncertain of how to respond. He and Heero respected one another during the war, and it had been Heero's words that brought WuFei back to the side of his fellow Gundam pilots during the incident with the Barton Foundation. However, the mutual respect never extended into friendship, at least, not so far as WuFei could remember. He startled out of his confusion when Relena embraced him with the same enthusiasm as Duo. She pulled back, grasping her hands in his, and wearing a bright smile.

"Heero couldn't rest until we received word that you'd made it through the night. We were so worried for you, WuFei, for the both of you. Please, be more careful in the future," she said.

"I will," WuFei found his voice. What other answer could he give to a request from a princess?

He and Relena were mere acquaintances during the wars, and he couldn't claim to care much for her rhetoric at the time. He had thought her naïve, if not a bit foolish. By the end of the wars his opinion of her had changed. In the glittering red and yellow lights of the circus, dressed down in a soft wintry colored dress, Mary Jane shoes, her hair pulled up in braids, he saw in her the great leader she'd become. She looped an arm with Heero's, and, still grasping WuFei's hand in hers, she beamed at her friends.

"Shall we, then?"

"Lead the way, Miss Relena," Sally said.

As they waltzed in, Duo slipped an arm around WuFei's shoulders and leaned in to whisper, his words tickling heat across WuFei's ear and neck.

"Do you want to let the princess know you don't remember her friendship?" he asked.

WuFei looked at the couple beside him. Relena was pointing out the animals to Heero, excitement sparkling in her blue eyes. Heero allowed a smile, one that felt reserved only for her, he gave WuFei a short nod of acknowledgement when he noticed the other boy watching. He couldn't rest until he'd heard word of WuFei's condition according to Relena, and WuFei sensed the same was true for her.

"No," WuFei decided, "I'd rather let them enjoy the night."

Duo grinned, pushing back the tent flap. His hand slid to the middle of WuFei's back, guiding the other boy through. WuFei bit his tongue on his embarrassed response to that touch. Relena and Heero followed through with barely a bat of their lash at the intimacy in Duo's actions. Sally only raised a brow at Duo.

Even during the war, when WuFei spent time at the circus with Trowa, he'd never gone to watch the acts. Now, WuFei watched mystified as people cheered and gasped around him. The air reeked of popcorn and sugary treats, performers flipped and twirled through the air in colorful sequined costumes, tigers were tamed, elephants danced, as a menagerie of clowns stumbled and bumbled about. Trowa and Catherine took the spotlight and it became quickly apparent they were the stars of the show: from juggling fire, dodging knives on the tightrope, and dancing through the air on the trapeze.

"He's holding back," WuFei noted, and Duo smirked.

"If they only knew what he could really do. Maybe we should all join the circus. Gundam Circus, wouldn't that be a fun time? Come for the popcorn, stay for the war."

"Instead of fire, we'd juggle grenades. Instead of knives, we'd dodge bullets," Heero said. WuFei couldn't decide if the other boy was joking, but Duo laughed.

"WuFei could swordfight with fifty clowns, and, Heero, you could pop bones in and out of place and jump from a fifty-story ladder into a pool with no water. I'd be the ringmaster, of course," Duo said.

"Of course," WuFei agreed, he could imagine Duo in a black tophat and crushed red velvet coat, managing to turn chaos into sheer anarchy.

"I would come see that show," Relena said.

"Relena, baby, you'd be in that show," Duo declared, giving Heero a light punch on the shoulder, "Taming all the wild animals. Give you fishnet stockings and a bullwhip. Set the tigers and lions on you, if they didn't fall in line, well," Duo grimaced, "Heero would shoot them."

"I don't suppose there's space in this circus for a retired Alliance soldier, too," Sally said, resting a hand on WuFei's shoulder and giving him a reassuring smile.

"What else could you be but our resident daredevil?" Duo said, with a shrug, "In a world of Gundam pilots, death-defying rebel with a cause, Sally Po, out-Gundams them all."

The others laughed, and WuFei couldn't help but stare, mesmerized by Duo as he eased into the center of his friends' attention. Everyone's mirth was toxic, overwhelming, and WuFei didn't realize he was smiling so much until his jaw started to hurt. This wasn't like him, to feel warmed by the company of others. At one point, Duo's arm went naturally around WuFei's waist and he didn't know how to pull away without creating a scene, so he stood there like that with the other boy leaned into him, and the others paying no notice as though this were normal. And for them it was, wasn't it?

After the show, they found Trowa and Catherine waiting outside, changed from their performance costumes into regular clothes. Catherine greeted them in the same way as Relena, with hugs given all around. WuFei, less caught off guard, awkwardly returned the gesture. He shook hands with Trowa.

"There's an Italian restaurant in town we've been hoping to try," Catherine said, "If everyone is in the mood."

Everyone agreed and they headed out. Trowa fell in step with Duo on the way to their vehicles. They exchanged a few words, and split apart again. WuFei and Duo loaded up into Duo's truck.

"Trowa wanted to know how your memory situation was," Duo explained, following their convoy of vehicles away from the circus; they were behind Heero and Relena's modest sedan, something less obvious than the Vice Foreign Minister's usual limo, "I let him know we hadn't explained to the perfect couple yet. Catherine doesn't have too many details either, but she's not nearly as nosy as Relena can be, she won't push if things seem strange between us."

Duo tightened his grasp on the steering wheel momentarily, weighing thoughts in his mind, before giving WuFei a small smile.

"How you doing with everything? You looked like you might be having fun back there."

"This...hasn't been an unpleasant evening," WuFei said. He felt conflicted. He'd always believed himself happiest alone, but standing in that crowd of people, being treated as though he belonged and was one of them, a valued member of their group – he didn't recognize the emotions it stirred up. He could still feel Duo's arm around his waist, the heat it swelled inside of him. He dismissed the thoughts. They accepted him because of Duo, that was the only explanation for these relationships he'd never managed to create in that other life.

The other life. How long had it been now since WuFei had driven home from the Christmas party at Hinkley&Duluth? The details of his job there, the faces of people whose names he never bothered to remember, his apartment with the empty refrigerator, and the cadre of restaurants he got take-out from each night, were all distant in his mind now.

Could this actually be his reality? Could this really be his life? Could this really be where he belonged? Here, with these people? Here, with Duo?

WuFei ordered the spaghetti, but no one stuck to their own plates, exchanging food, laughing and talking loudly, vying to be heard over one another. Duo stole a meatball from WuFei's plate, and at the glare from WuFei, offered up some of his pasta primavera. The grin on Duo's face when WuFei forked up some of the food was the widest WuFei had seen yet. Strange, WuFei thought, to be so happy about sharing food but he caught on quick, touched when Catherine cut off a chunk of her chicken parmigiana for him and he let her spool her fork with noodles off his entre. As a group, they decided Sally's mushroom tagliatelle was the best dish, but Trowa's baked ziti was a close second.

Heero, Trowa, and WuFei got caught up in a conversation about the nature of man, and while Relena offered a few ideas of her own, for the most part the others lost interest until it somehow morphed into a debate over the best tactical defense strategies given number of allies versus enemies on the battlefield which left Relena and Catherine giggling together at the corner of the table as all the former soldiers heatedly argued their own perspectives. WuFei noticed, once again, Duo didn't eat much dinner although he suggested dessert.

They all said their good-byes outside; hugs and kisses were exchanged. He and Duo drove home and got ready for bed in silence. Duo hovered a moment at the bedroom door.

"Good night, 'Fei," he said, and WuFei met his eyes.

"Good night, Maxwell," he replied, watching with an unfamiliar ache in his chest, as Duo disappeared down the hall.

~ * ~

Chapter 15

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