'Wandering'

By: Moonkitty Liafle

Disclaimer: Help! Help! I'm sinking in a sea of obviousness!

Rating: R

A/N: This is the third and final story in my 'Masquerade' Trilogy. You have to at least read 'Rehabilitation' (the second book) for this to make any sense at all. Oh, and gomen for the shocking ending of 'Rehab'…You asked for a third book and I needed a plot device. Actually, it was written near the beginning of the fic so it's a relief you wanted a third installment…ANYWAY…on with the show…

Prologue- Missing Your Touch

On the wall were paintings, sketches, and other assorted medias. Each one was vivid in their colors and some were in proportion, others were distorted.

They conveyed a large variety of emotions, pain, torment, death, hatred, and fear. Fighting on a battlefield, dying children, wounded angels, all very dramatic and captivating to the audience, judging by the rates they were selling.

The artist did not mind how much money he made, it was only a hobby.

Perhaps the only thing that kept him sane.

And Tyrone.

Tyrone was featured in many of these pieces. He was a small, bony boy with reddish hair and dark liquid eyes. He was in only the happy pictures, where he could be seen playing or laughing. There was one painting, however, where the boy was leaning over a counter, brooding.

That was perhaps the only accurate picture of the young child.

"I never imagined the great Heero Yuy would become the abstract of the group."

Our main character's eyes narrowed, "Duo Maxwell."

A man with a long braid pulled up a chair and sat next to his fellow former soldier.

"The one and only!"

'What the hell are you doing here?"

"Sightseeing!" he said joyously.

Heero scowled, "Without Hilde?"

Duo gave him an 'I'll tell you later' look, "Man, Spandex Boy, who taught you all this stuff?" he let out a low appreciative whistle and leaned back to survey the work.

"A man."

"Obviously."

"We had a disagreement. I work on my own now as a hobby."

"I hear you adopted a kid. I didn't think you'd have kids before me, Heero, especially when…" Duo trailed off. His friend's face had closed into something cold and alien, "Oh dude, I'm sorry, man."

"It's alright." He said quickly, and then moved on, "Tyrone was manipulated by Doctor J as well. I took him in as my responsibility. And…the…first lady pulled a few strings to get the social services to accept him under my care."

Duo looked around, "Where's the kid now?"

"At my neighbor's."

The fellow preventer leaned forward, "Heero, I need to talk to you alone."

Heero stood up, "Meet me at the Shinto temple two blocks from here at three."

"As in the morning?" Duo squeaked.

Heero paused at the door, "Yes. I don't get much sleep anymore."

"Relena, what are you writing?"

With quick fingers, Relena Darlian Wayridge quit her email program and booted up a game of solitaire.

Her husband, the aged Darrell Wayridge, president of the ESUN, placed on hand n her cshoulder, cradling a cup of brandy in another.

She did not like the familiar gleam in his eyes.

The man was not drunk. In fact, Relena didn't think he ever could have been. Darrell Wayridge was a man untouched by greed or corruption. He was practically forced into running for the presidency.

And he was too honorable to marry a woman that wasn't in love with him.

So, Relena had been forced to pretend to get him the popularity votes he needed to win the election. She had been forced to give up the one man she loved for the sake of the new government, and the emotional pain that she went through marked her deeply. She looked mature beyond her years, but not in wrinkles or graying hair, but from the sad look in her eyes and the way she carried herself with unconscious grace.

She had just passed her nineteenth birthday.

She forced a smile on her face as she looked up at her husband, "Just some notes for my next lecture. I think I'll be up all night."

She saw the disappointed look on his face and ignored it.

"Oh well, I have a meeting with the Secretary of Defense early tomorrow morning…"

He wandered off to the bedroom, leaving Relena in sole possession of her study.

She brought up her email program and continued the letter to her brother, another secret her husband didn't know about.

She sighed, remembering Heero's hands on her body, his soft moan as they tumbled over the edge together-

Relena didn't sleep much anymore either.