This is AU, and probably either going to turn into a monster story, or a series (Damn it). And, thanks for comet for giving it a once over. Any grammar mistakes left are mine.

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing belongs to Sunrise, Bandai, et al. No money is made from this.

WARNING!: This is unfinished! And, I only have a general idea on where to go next. Even though, I have comet prodding me on this (And others).

If you don't have previous permission to archive my stories, please ask before putting this on your page.

Pairings: Implied 3+4/4+3 1+2/2+1 brewing (Yes, I knew this would happen! I know The Mind way too well.)

Umm... I should warn you, Duo started using bad words this part. He just can't stay away from being a potty mouth!

Key:
/thoughts/
[sign language]
{written}

Duo stared at the Gundam pilots' current safehouse, and couldn't convince his feet to take the steps needed to get from the car to the front door. /What the hell am I thinking?/

"So, the reject decided to take our charity offering," Derek sneered as he swaggered around the corner of the house and up to Duo.

/You should be castrated so you can't pollute the gene pool,/ Duo mentally replied, his glare enough to shatter glass.

"You do know that if it wasn't for your messing up of Deathscythe, you wouldn't even be here. I wouldn't be too surprised if you're walking into your death," Derek replied, his sneer turning into a wide grin at the thought. "It was your fooling around with the mobile suit that caused our defeat."

"Maxwell! Stop gawking and move it!" Wufei shouted from the doorway.

Shaking himself from his building rage, Duo bent over, picked up his bags with his left hand and entered the house. He had to squeeze past Wufei to get in, and almost missed the other man's muttering.

"You do know, if you kill him, it's statistically likely that the next one will be even worse."

Duo gave the Chinese pilot a look to say 'There can be no worse.'

"Come on, I'll show you your room," Wufei said, holding a hand out to take one of Duo's bags. Duo gave the other man his duffel bag and followed him through the house and upstairs. "You'll have to share with Heero."

Duo just nodded in reply when Wufei looked over his shoulder to see the braided pilot's reaction.

"We only have four bedrooms. Mine is barely large enough for one, Trowa and Quatre are sharing."

/Of course they would,/ Duo thought.

"So, it was either Heero or Derek."

Duo shuddered at the thought of sharing with The Prick. The two stopped in front of the middle door on the left side of the second floor hall and Wufei knocked.

A few moments later, Heero peered out. Seeing Wufei and Duo, he stepped back and held the door.

The two men entered and Wufei put Duo's duffel on one of the room's two beds. "Here you go."

"I'll take it from here," Heero said, waving Wufei out of the room.

Wufei nodded in reply and left, shutting the door behind him.

"Sit," Heero commanded, pointing to the bed Duo's duffel was on.

Duo slung his armor case onto the bed and sat between the two bags.

Heero stood there and glared at him for a few moments, then nodded. "Do you want your suit here, or hidden someplace else?"

Duo cocked his head to one side, pondering Heero's words. Finally, pulling out his notebook, he wrote one word, {Here.}

"Then, stash your gear, and I'll show you the mobile suits," Heero replied with a nod.

Duo bounced up, pushed his duffel bag and armor case under the bed, and gave a big grin. /Ready!/

Shaking his head, the Japanese pilot led Duo through the house, pausing at the doorways of different rooms along the way to say what each was. Finally, the two reached the hanger.

Duo's blinding grin disappeared as if switched off when he caught sight of the Gundams. [Oh, my god,] he signed to himself, taking in the damage of Heavyarms, Wing, and Deathscythe. Scribbling on his paper, he wrote, {What the hell happened?!}

"It was a trap," Heero replied. "We escaped it."

Knowing that was the best answer he would get, Duo nodded before taking a closer look at Deathscythe. Walking over to the mobile suit, he placed the palm of his hand against the giant foot. /Poor Shi! Don't worry, I'll get you back together!/

Duo spent the next few days working on the black mecha. He would only stop to eat or grab a few hours of sleep, sometimes not even leaving the hanger for that. He avoided the pilots as much as possible during that time, not wanting to deal with anything but the mobile suit he was rebuilding.

"That's it," Heero said after watching Duo realign a length of tubing for the third time.

Duo looked up with raised eyebrows. His look of detached curiosity was shattered when Heero threw him over one shoulder and stalked out of the hanger.

/Hey!/ Duo yelled soundlessly before he started to pound against Heero's back.

Heero didn't stop until he was in their shared room, and dumped the braided man onto his bed.

Duo glared up at Heero as he bounced up and down on the mattress.

"You're exhausting yourself, and you're no good if you can't think straight," Heero said, arms crossed over his chest.

[Oh, and here, I thought you cared!] Duo rapidly signed.

Heero didn't even blink. "You are going to go to sleep, and sleep until you wake up naturally."

Duo glared up at him and started to get off the bed.

"You don't, and I'll lock you out of the hanger until you do rest. You try and work on Deathscythe now, and you'll just make mistakes."

After glaring a bit longer, Duo blew his bangs off his face and nodded. Kicking his boots off, he started ranting to himself through signing, confident that no one knew the language.

"Even mute he's still talks incessantly," Heero muttered, watching Duo's hands intently. "And, I don't think that's physically possible, Duo."

Duo's hands stopped in mid-sign and he stared at Heero in shock.

"Could be interesting to try though," the Japanese pilot added with a small smirk. "Now, sleep," he ordered before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

/I'm only here to fix Deathscythe,/ Duo thought to himself after his long nap. He was currently sitting against the headboard of his bed with his arms around his drawn up knees. /After that, I'm not needed, and I'll be moving on. So, I shouldn't try to reestablish relations with the others./

Snorting, the braided man stretched his legs under the bed covers. /'reestablish relations.' Why am I using big words? No one but me can hear me anymore./

Continuing his slide down the bed, Duo was now lying with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. /Face it, Maxwell. If it weren't for Shi being almost destroyed, you'd still be hopping around the world, creating havoc./ Grinning maniacally at the thought, Duo turned on his side and propped his head up with one hand. /And what did Heero mean, 'could be interesting to try'?/

Duo's further musings were interrupted by the bedroom door slowly opening. Quatre poked his head in and peered through the half-light of the setting sun, then smiled when he saw Duo was awake and opened the door further before entering the room.

"You're awake," Quatre said. After Duo's nod, which almost knocked his hand from under his head, the blonde continued, "You look better."

Duo snorted and sat up.

"I have something for you, but didn't want to give it to you in front of the others."

Duo looked curious.

Quatre pulled his hand from behind his back and held out a small, plain box.

Carefully pulling the lid off, Duo stared down at the contents.

"I just thought that using a notepad all the time would be too tiring. This way, you can store responses like yes, no, stuff like that and 'say' them by pressing a button. And, it also has a keyboard for longer conversations and a stylus for when you can't use the keyboard."

Duo continued to stare down at the mini-computer, still in the box, resting on his lap.

"The voice on it isn't too bad, either," Quatre continued. "I mean, it is a computerized voice, but the computer does have tone recognition."

Duo finally looked up at Quatre and shook his head.

"Sorry, Duo. The place I bought it from has a no-return policy. You're the only one who could use it, so it's yours." Turning to leave, Quatre paused and added, "I've already programmed in some things to start you off."

Duo stared at the computer again after Quatre left the room, shutting the door behind him. Finally picking the computer up, the braided man flipped it open and pressed the power button. Barely large enough to cover his two palms, it had a small keyboard that covered the basic punctuation, numbers, and the alphabet, a backlit screen, small 'writing area', and a place to slid the stylus into when not in use.

After a short warm up, the screen showed a row of buttons along the bottom, 'say', 'save', 'delete', 'common' and 'help'. Duo started to fiddle with the buttons, putting the instruction manual to one side to look at later.

Fifteen minutes later, he had the computer layout memorized and was adding phrases he had been writing every day. Then, he got fancy. Figuring he could string a bunch of words from the 'common' menu together, he added in words he often used, then strung them together to form sentences.

"Heero, don't kill Derek."

"Why are you running, Quatre?"

"No, Trowa, you can't paint Wufei."

Grinning to himself, he decided to add one more word to the library.

"Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

/Need to figure out some way to repay Quatre for this,/ Duo thought as he got out of bed, his new computer in one hand. After trying, unsuccessfully, to put his boots on one-handed, he reverently placed the computer on his bed and quickly laced up his shoes.

Queuing up a list of things to say depending on who he saw, Duo went off to talk to his friends.

A few minutes later, he came across Wufei reading in the study. After tapping him on his knee to get his attention, Duo grinned at the Chinese man, who was looking at him with raised eyebrows.

"You wanted something, Duo?"

"Just wanted to say hi, Wu-kun!" the computer said for Duo after he quickly pressed a few buttons.

"Maxwell! It's Wufei, damn..." Wufei trailed off, stunned. "Wait a minute."

Dancing a little jig, Duo turned and ran to find someone else to surprise.

"There you are!" Derek exclaimed as he came across Duo in the hall. "I want to talk to you." Grabbing the American's arm, the current pilot of Deathscythe pulled the former pilot into the hanger. "Look at this! You should be done by now, the way the others talk about you."

Duo shut his computer and put it into his pants pocket [Do tell, Prick] Duo signed, knowing Derek couldn't understand a word he said.

"That's another thing! I order you to write what you want to say down. No more signing."

[I don't think so, you whore-mongering son of a cock-tease.]

Derek, livid, was about to start yelling when he heard a snort behind him. Turning, he saw Heero standing behind the two.

Duo gave a little wave as Derek took a deep breath. "You understand sign language?"

"Hn," Heero replied.

[That means yes in Heero speak, by the way,] Duo added with a wide grin, enjoying himself immensely.

"What's he saying?" Derek asked, glaring at Duo.

Heero shrugged, his lips twitching. "He refuses."

[Go on, tell him what I really said,] Duo signed at Heero.

Derek clenched his hands into fists. "As your superior, I order you to write, not sign."

[As your evolutionary superior, I order you to walk on all fours like you were meant to,] Duo retorted.

"You're not going to win," Heero stated.

[Yeah, Prick, you don't have what it takes to give me orders.]

Derek turned and stalked off with a growled, "We'll see about that."

[You should have translated word for word,] Duo admonished the Japanese man. [You're no fun!]

Heero gave a small smirk. "If you say so."

[Reminds me, when did you learn sign language?]

"I knew the basics from training," Heero replied with a small roll of his shoulders that equaled his shrug. "After learning of your condition, I brushed up on it."

[What? Really? Why?] Duo asked, shocked.

"You reminded me that I had lapsed in an area of my training," Heero replied.

[Oh.] Duo looked slightly dejected. After a moment, he shook it off. [Look what I got!] he rapidly signed before pulling out his computer and flicking it open. A few seconds later, the computer said in it's monotone. "Isn't this cool, Heero?"

Walking to where he could see the computer from over Duo's shoulder, Heero raised his eyebrows. "So, this can talk for you?"

Duo pressed a few keys. "Yes, great, right?"

Both sides of Heero's mouth upturned, giving Duo the widest smile the braided man had ever seen.

Further discussion was cut off by Trowa jogging into the hanger. "We have a mission."

End of part notes:

The computer Quatre gave Duo is based on different hand-held computers I've looked at in the last year (Going to buy one, sooner or later. Long story involving my almost dead CD player, walking a mile to work each day, and mp3s). Those things are cool!

And the insults to Derek, AKA The Prick (man, this is the first time I've hated from the start a character I've created!) I didn't know Duo (or me) could be that... eloquent. Yeah, that's the word I'm looking for.

Also, on Derek: He is a good pilot, just not on the other Gundam pilots standards. He's college football level, but not quite good enough to make pro (to use a sports analogy <bleh>). I'm currently debating killing him off in later chapters, by the way. There are pros and cons to both sides.

Oh god... I'm getting flashes of lemon scenes with a Duo who can't talk. <bangs head against keyboard> Make <bang> it <bang> stop! <bang> <rubs key imprint from head> Owww!

If you think these notes are long and strange, you should see the ones I put on these parts to entertain comet! <eg>

comet's note to the above: her comments are indeed entertaining, and I vote for axing The Prick!