Letters from Moscow

Author notes: I got this idea out of nowhere and I'm going with it to see where it leads me.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's.

Part 1,

With a grin Duo read the latest piece of mail. In his hand a cat collar with a bell on it. Wufei watched him and sighed quietly. He just couldn't understand why he didn't just give up. Since he left without a word Heero had not been in touch with them except for Duo. Only Duo received letters, postcards and small gifts at random intervals and the braided haired boy treasured each gift and read each letter despite his difficulty with reading.

Duo had taken to asking Wufei to help him whenever a letter arrived at his house. Wufei of course couldn't possibly refuse Duo who seemed to brighten up the whole neighborhood whenever news from Heero arrived. Even he hadn't the heart to tell Duo to give up on Heero ever coming back.

Quatre had been quite firm about telling Duo this last Wufei visited the blond. Waiting for Heero to come back and see them was an exercise in futility. The Former Wing Zero pilot had cut all ties with everyone, but Duo though and Wufei knew this meant the world to the boy. He told Quatre then and stood by it too that he wasn't about to ruin a good friendship and that Duo had to for himself find out just how futile it was.

Heero's letters and postcards were a sign that Heero was doing well and enjoying himself even. Duo was happy to receive them and kept them all. As the years had gone by though Wufei also had come to find it harder and harder to believe that Heero would someday turn up at Duo's doorstep with a worn-out travel bag and clothes worn to the threads.

"Duo? Anything new?" Wufei asked when the other boy's eyes glazed over.

"He's in Europe right now. The letter came from Prague. He writes that he's learned a lot of new languages. He's headed for France now if all goes well." Duo said smiling. He opened a drawer of his desk and put the letter in there with the rest of the mail he got from Heero. He put the cat collar in the drawer also.

"That's nice. Why a cat collar though?" Wufei said gesturing to the item as Duo put it away.

"He wrote I'd know in a few months." Duo said looking at Wufei hopeful. Wufei smiled.

"I hope he keeps that promise Duo." Wufei said quietly.

"He will! I know you and Quat and the others probably think I'm being stupid for not giving up on it, but I know he's coming back! He just needed time is all." Duo said defiantly before disappearing up the stairs of his home.

Wufei winced and calmly got up. He took his time to make some tea before heading upstairs and searching for Duo. It gave him time to figure out how he would defend his point to Duo and prove that he wasn't meaning to hurt his friend. He found the boy in his bedroom. Duo was sitting on his bed and staring at the map on the wall. A map of the world with a hand drawn map of the colonies and even a small red circle in the corner with Mars written on it in broken writing. Wufei realized Duo had added the colonies and mars himself and was surprised by the perfect detail of the hand drawn colony clusters and their locations above the world map with a small annotation at what location they were precisely. He noticed that the map of the earth had been decorated with small Japanese flag stickers.

"To keep track." Duo said gesturing to the map when he realized Wufei was looking at it and not him.

"Huh?" Wufei said flushing a little as he realized he'd just been caught staring at something personal.

"The flags. One for every place where Heero send me something." Duo said quietly. Wufei nodded noticing that while several were quite a bit darker there was one bright one right over Prague now a brand new flag for yet another location in this world where Heero thought of Duo and send him something to let him know just that.

"Duo, about earlier…I don't think you're stupid. Quatre told me that I should have you throw away the letters and give up on it already, but I told him I wasn't going to do that. Quatre is worried that in the long run if Heero doesn't come back you'll get hurt badly and he's only trying to protect his gundam brother. I myself think it's wonderful that Heero trusts you and cares about you enough to keep in touch and send you things and that's why I said that I hope he'll keep that promise. Not because I think he won't, but because I want him to realize quickly that he's an idiot and to not waste anymore time coming home to you; to all of us." Wufei said sitting down on the bed beside Duo.

"I know…it's just…Quatre gets so upset whenever I try and talk about Heero with him and well I don't know Trowa well enough to really talk with him about it, but he seems to side with Quatre on the matter. Hilde, Relena…even Howard's tried telling me to give up already…" Duo said quietly staring at the tiny plush dragon Heero had sent from China and which the braided haired boy was currently strangling just a little.

"Quatre and the others are just…well I suppose they're upset over things…Relena is mostly angry that you get letters almost monthly and sometimes weekly and she got a teddy bear with a goodbye not she tore up the day he left and nothing after that. Quatre well like me I suppose he feels…a bit jealous. We were gundam pilots and allies; brothers in arms and I'd like to think of him as a friend. I think that each in our own way we're just a little annoyed that Heero favors you above us, but that doesn't mean we don't care or that we are going to hate him when he comes back. We just would've liked to have gotten at the very least a note once in a while saying hi. You know just to show he is alive and hasn't forgotten us." Wufei said choosing his words carefully. The braided boy nodded to this and looked at the map.

Wufei waited patiently for the boy to gather his thoughts again and say something. He suddenly felt very tired and decided that once he got home he was going to make an appointment with doctor Harvram for another talk session. All four of them when they applied for temporary for full time positions with preventors were made to see the man for counseling and as the years went by Wufei found for himself that it helped to talk to the man and have someone who wasn't actively involved with the matter offer a different perspective on things. Harvram had helped him greatly in coming to terms with his life such as it went before and during the war. The man had even dropped everything when Duo had called him that day when Wufei had his breakdown and the man didn't leave until Wufei had calmed down and come to terms with the earth shattering cry session he'd had over some idiot's comment on the self sacrifice L5 made during the war. Of course it had helped a lot that Duo and Quatre had hunted down the idiot and under the watchful eye of Trowa showed the man just why he should've kept his big mouth shut about it. Harvram had recently though become more of a confidante on the matter with Heero.

"Y' know I get where you guys are coming from…I won't give up hope thought…still…still it woulda been nice if I coulda written him back y' know? To let him know how we're doing?" Duo said smiling.

"You did didn't you? I thought I heard Quatre mention it once that you write back." Wufei said smiling back.

"Yeah, but I can't exactly send em if I dunno his address right?" Duo said smiling sadly.

"True, but you can keep them for when he gets home and he'll be able to read them then. I'm sure he'll like that." Wufei said nodding to this.

"Hmm, like the one I wrote bout that time with that idiot at Preventors?" Duo said grinning.

"Oh yes I'm sure he'll love to read all about my cry session and how you beat up the poor guy for his ignorance." Wufei said shaking his head unable to keep from smirking himself.

"Or that time at Relena's party when you knocked the cake over her good Gucci dress." Duo said snickering.

"Ah yes, I stand by my defense that her dress looked much better after the cake spill." Wufei said chuckling also as he recalled the incident.

Duo smiled as Wufei headed home. The Chinese man had spent the evening with him and even cooked for Duo as they talked about anything and everything and especially the memories brought up by the letters. Duo felt much better knowing at least one of his friends believed that Heero might one day return. He'd chosen to ask Wufei for reading help which Quatre had been most unhappy about of course for this exact reason. Wufei didn't tell him what to do or think, but he also didn't try to make things sound nicer than they were. He didn't pretend to know better and he was painfully honest, but those where things Duo appreciated greatly about the Chinese youth.

"Ya gotta come home Heero. We miss you." Duo murmured staring at the stars.

OEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOE OEO

"Look! From London!" Duo said excitedly. Nearly seven months had passed since Heero's letter from Prague and while he'd send tiny gifts every month or a postcard from wherever he happened to be this was the first letter since Prague. Wufei laughed.

"Well open it and see what he's got to say." the Chinese boy said as he prepared drinks for them. Duo had come to him this day with the letter.

"Right….I…uhm…huh?" Duo murmured staring at the letter. Wufei joined him with the drinks and watched as the braided haired boy's face darkened in concentration.

"Bad news?" Wufei asked.

"I…I can't…I don't understand half of it…something about a police car?" Duo said handing the letter over. Wufei quickly browsed the texted and smiled. Heero had used a few difficult terms to word it.

"It says he was sitting in a tree enjoying the sunrise early morning when suddenly this cop guy popped up and startled him into falling out of the tree. The ambulance that had come because Heero hurt his back from falling on a rock had 2 rookies in it who stupidly enough tried to force Heero onto a transport board and ended up in a heap of trouble. It says here that the cop who startled him knew him from back during the war Daven who worked guard shifts in an OZ base and was once nearly killed by Heero before helping him escape. Daven's current partner Frank Sanchez sends you his regards. Heero says the man was insistent that you'd know who he meant. " Wufei said smiling.

"Oh yeah I know him. Got caught this one time n he kept a bunch of idiots from doing something they'd regret real bad. Good people Frank. He told me he had a kid my age and wasn't about to let this happen. What else does he write?" Duo said grinning at the mention of the man's name.

"He writes that he misses you and that he was a fool and he's coming home right now and he'll-" Wufei said grinning before Duo punched him on the arm laughingly.

"No seriously what's it say?" Duo said grinning at Wufei.

"All in all it was quite the experience. I'm writing you from the medical room Sally brought me to in London city. I asked her to go buy me a souvenir you'll like because she wouldn't let me out of bed. Hope you like it. Until we meet; Yours sincerely Heero." a voice said behind the two boys.

Wufei stared at Duo who stared back at him in shock the moment they heard the voice. Duo slowly turned to the door behind the two and stared at the young man standing there. He looked just like Duo remembered him; a little taller though and he lost his baby fat. His Prussian eyes alight with a never before seen warmth. The hair though was exactly as it always had been a mess of chocolate locks that was forever stuck in coupe bed hair. He had on some worn blue jeans and a faded green hoodie that did little to hide the bandages with all the holes in the shirt. An overly worn and obviously well loved dark blue jeans jacket hung from the strap of a faded brown backpack.

Heero smiled as his two friends took him in and laughed as Duo very nearly jumped out of his skin when a small black cat weaved its way between the braided haired boy's legs. Wufei blinked at it and realized why Heero had sent the cat bell collar now.

"Told you it'd make sense in time." Heero said warmly as he waited to be welcomed or sent away by the Chinese youth.

"He's beautiful." Duo said entranced by the cat.

"You look well Heero. Though next time you decide to leave on a soul searching journey maybe leave the rest of us a few lines as well?" Wufei said smiling He then headed to the kitchen for some more tea and a coffee for Heero while Duo gave his long time friend a proper welcome. He knew they had much to discuss and Duo would be dying to drag Heero to his place and show him the letters he'd written in response. Heero would read each one regardless of the bad handwriting. Wufei knew Duo had written them himself and worked hard on it despite having admitted that he had never received much education in that respect and during the war had purposely procrastinated on his school work the one time he actually hid in a school with Heero. Wufei also knew that because Duo had written them himself Heero would read them all.

"Welcome home my brother." Wufei murmured quietly as he put down the hot drinks and went to call Quatre with the news so he could let Duo and Heero have their privacy as they made out on his couch.

Hope you enjoyed it!