"See, Duo, I told you we wouldn’t miss your speech," Relena whispered, smiling, as she slid into the seat next to Heero, followed by Zechs, Noin, and finally Quatre, who’d rather thoughtfully given up his seat for Relena.

"Well, you’re cutting it pretty close, aren’t you?" he replied, winking.

Relena shrugged. "Traffic," she explained innocently.

"This guy is bound to be finished soon," Wufei predicted. "And if he doesn’t run out of things to say, his vocal chords will eventually give out."

"You’re exaggerating," Noin scoffed.

"He isn’t," Trowa interjected.

Despite Wufei’s dire implications, the speaker soon wrapped up his presentation, and left the stage.

Hildie squeezed Duo’s hand just before he stood – the last of the five boys scheduled to speak that day– and made his way up to the podium.

The most he’d conceded to dress up for the occasion was his usual black clothes with the white collar – he just hadn’t rolled his sleeves up and was wearing a pair of Quatre’s highly polished dress shoes. The microphone squeaked a little as he adjusted it.

"I… didn’t actually spend too much time on this speech," Duo confided to the auditorium full of strangers with one row of friends in the front. "If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s talking. And besides, I was too busy beating my buddy at video games," he continued, grinning at Heero, whose intense expression lifted for a moment to be replaced by what might have been a smile. "But… isn’t that how it ought to be? I’m 16 years old, you see. I should be wasting time with my friends, shouldn’t I? I haven’t had much time to waste before now," Duo told them, looking down. "War has pretty much screwed up my childhood. I’m trying to make up for that. We all are." He looked at each of the former Gundam pilots.

"Heero’s gonna be an engineer. I hope he doesn’t swipe parts like he used to." Heero snorted at that – it might have been a laugh, but Duo seriously doubted it. Relena, smiling encouragingly at him, put her hand at Heero’s elbow. "Trowa’s studying to be a veteranarian, Quatre’s got the family business to take care of, and Wufei works for the Preventers. So I guess that leaves me."

Duo took a deep breath and unconsciously began pushing his sleeves up to his elbows, making Hildie smile. "How do people decide what they’re gonna do with their lives, anyway? Most people, I guess, figure out what they’re good at – what they like doing, and see if they can make a career of it. Well, I know what I’m good at," he said darkly, then grinning suddenly, he added, "other than talking or video games, I mean." A ripple of laughter ran through the audience. "But what I’m good at… and what a lot of people have had a lot of practice with up until a little while ago… is something none of us want to ever have to face again."

The audience had fallen silent, their laughter of moments before forgotten.

"War has made some kind of ugly wound on each of our lives. And there are things that are always going to make us go through those painful memories. But another thing I learned as a Gundam pilot, was that if you just ignore an injury, it isn’t going to go away. It’s gonna get uglier. All of us need to deal with our emotional wounds just like we would physical ones. We can’t pretend they’re not there and hope they’ll go away once we’ve forgotten about them, because it’s not going to happen." Duo broke his eye contact with the audience, and dropped his voice. "I know… I know the memories hurt. And I know that they’ll hurt worse if we have to look at things like Mobile Suits again. But… it’s technology we need, and it doesn’t have to be a weapon. Once we’ve cleaned out the wound, and given it time to heal, we have to learn to use that limb again."

Duo spent a moment looking intently at his silent listeners, and then quietly left the podium. After a stunned moment, applause rang out as he made his way back to his seat. Hildie was standing, as were the rest of the people in that row. (Duo kind of got the impression that the only reason Wufei stood up was because he’d look like an idiot if he was the only one sitting down, but, wisely, didn’t comment.)

"Duo, I’m so proud of you," Hildie told him, hugging him quickly and making him blush.

"So you um… couldn’t tell I was making it up as I went along?" he wanted to know, sounding self-conscious.

"No, no, it was…powerful. It was," she assured him.

Heero gave Duo an extremely pointed look as Hildie hugged him again, then took Relena’s hand. He either failed to notice or chose to ignore Zechs’ raised eyebrow and rather stern expression.

Zechs was really beginning to wish Quatre had just stayed put and not messed with the seating arrangements. It was unsettling enough to have to sit beside your little sister while she held hands with some boy, but it didn’t help when that boy was a stone-faced soldier-from-birth like Heero. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Relena, it was more as if… he didn’t trust Heero. It just made him uncomfortable. He had to laugh at himself, being so parental, but… he remembered rocking her to sleep and drying her tears. He’d been looking out for Relena from a distance for years, and now that he could do so in person…

"This is probably not the best thing after being on a shuttle for twenty-two hours," Noin commented.

"Don’t think I can stay awake?" Zechs asked, amused.

"With these speakers… I don’t think I can stay awake sometimes, and I don’t have anything like your excuse. I give you about twenty minutes," she stated, crossing her arms.

He smiled, and settled back into his seat. After a failed attempt to listen to the new speaker, he found his thoughts wandering. Much against his will, he seemed to be dwelling on the dream he’d had on the shuttle. How long had it been since he’d dreamt about his parents?

"Fortune will always smile on you, my little Milliardo."

He remembered his mother’s affectionate smile, and her beautiful delicate hands rufflling through his touseled silver-blonde hair.

In some bizzare, twisted way, it had. His entire family, save Relena, had been massacred, but he’d survived. As a soldier, how many times should he have been killed in battle? How many of his friends… Even when he wanted to die, he somehow couldn’t manage it. When Treize decided on his death and set the remnants of the Alliance on him, he’d pressed and surpassed his own limits and the limits of his Tallgeese. He’d collapsed – to die, perhaps – and woken up on Howard’s ship, not dead in the least. To save an enemy’s life, he’d driven Epyon’s beam sabre to it’s hilt into Libra’s [reactor?]. But Gundanium alloy always seemed to surprise him with its tenacity. Epyon’s cockpit refused to yield its pilot. Floating amid the wreckage, Zechs, or Milliardo, or whomever he was, realized that as much as the Zero system had tormented his soul, Treize had saved his life with his Gundam design…

But for how long? That little piece of the Epyon that had cradled and shielded him from the blast might now become his coffin. But he had been meant to die before.

The same luck that’d preserved him from death countless times – that same, fixed "smile of fortune" had brought the salvage ships to what might have been his grave. He was one of innumberable pilots of derelict Mobile suits pulled from the wreckage in the aftermath of that "final battle" as Dorothy called it. No one asked his name or examined his features too closely – the medics merely tended injuries and told the pilots how lucky they were to be alive.

Luck, was it? Indeed, was it luck that prevented an honorable, perhaps even noble end after all the atrocites he’d commited? Destiny perhaps, had made a pet project of Milliardo Peacecraft, although he did not suppose she smiled on him.

His life had been a hard one – a warrior’s life. It was not the life his parents would have chosen for him, nor was it even the life he’d have chosen for himself. But it had made him the person he was. And that person was the brother Relena adored, the opponent a young man named Heero Yuy respected, and…

Zechs started from his half-conscious musings to the sound of surrounding applause in the darkened auditorium. A weight lifted abruptly from his right shoulder and he glanced over to see Relena rubbing at her eyes. Seconds later, Noin jerked awake, blinking rapidly.

"You know, I don’t think I heard a word that speaker said," Relena murmured, yawning.

"You didn’t miss much," Heero told her, his arms crossed as he tried to resist the urge to yawn himself.

"What time is it?" Relena asked quietly.

Zechs glanced at his watch, then grimaced. "Sorry, I’m still in colony time."

"I have 7:43," Quatre interjected.

"And we haven’t had a break for dinner yet?" Duo moaned quietly, careful not to wake Hildie, who was still asleep on his shoulder. "This is torture!"

"Well, I’m fairly hungry myself," Relena admitted.

"Miss Relena, you do realize you can call a recess when ever you feel it’s necessary," Quatre suggested tactfully.

"You’re right, of course. I think we could all use a break." Relena stood decisively and made her way out of the row of seats, careful not to wake Hildie or Trowa as she passed.

"It probably wasn’t wise to keep them all this long," Wufei pointed out as she started into the aisle. Relena sighed. She’d meant to call a recess at seven o’clock, she just… been more or less asleep for the past forty-five minutes or so…

"Duo, hold still!" Hildie scolded.

"Look, Hildie, I can…" here he paused to wince, "braid my own hair!"

"I know," she told him, happily sinking the stiff bristled brush into Duo’s thick sheet of now wet chestnut hair. "I like doing it."

"Ow! Do you have to pull like that?"

"You’re such a baby. I’m not hurting you, so keep still!"

"Hildie, I’d really rather do this myself," he told her, grimacing as she deftly seperated his wealth of dark hair into three thick strands.

"It’ll go faster if I do it. Just deal, Duo."

Duo dejectedly settled himself more comfortably on the living room floor of Relena’s apartment as Hildie continued to amuse herself with his hair. There was just no talking her out of these things. Because of the conference, all the hotels in the area of the capital were booked solid, so Hildie and Noin were staying with Relena, while Duo, Trowa, and Quatre had all piled into Heero’s place. Zechs had been lucky enough to squeeze into a hotel under a cancellation, since he wouldn’t have been very comfortable staying with his sister while she had other guests. Quatre’s last name would probably have been enough to get him a room, but he was just too nice to override someone else’s previous reservations. They spent most of each day at the conference, and any free time at Relena’s place, so they basically crashed at night in Heero’s living room – Duo had claimed the couch, Trowa the recliner, and Quatre had gotten the floor. But with so many people in one apartment with limited hot water, Duo had come over to use Relena’s shower that morning… and ended up at the mercy of Hildie’s brush and braiding skills.

He didn’t mind so much. Hildie would do a nice, neat, tight job of it, but there was something kind of embarrasing about being unceremoniously sat down while someone did your hair.

"What a charming picture," Heero commented dryly, coming through the door followed shortly by the entire entourage.

"One wonders how he manages when she isn’t around," Wufei added.

"Watch it, buddy," Duo warned, eyes narrowing.

"No, Duo usually takes care of it himself," Hildie explained, hands not pausing in their rhythmic motion. "I just like to play with his hair every once in a while. It’s so long and pretty…"

"So she braids your hair and defends your honor. Do you always hide behind women?" Wufei asked Duo scathingly.

Hildie’s hands stopped.

"Just ignore him," Duo advised. "If you respond, it just encourages him."

"Be quiet," Hildie told Wufei from between clenched teeth, glaring.

"Take your own advice, woman," he retorted, sounding bored.

"Don’t talk to her like that!" Duo was on his feet in an instant.

"Come on guys, just settle down," Quatre said nervously, stepping between them.

Duo ignored this suggestion and continued to glare past Quatre, while Wufei, still disinterested, didn’t seem to actually need to settle down.

Relena and Noin had wandered into the room. "Good morning, everyone," Relena said cheerfully, blinking at the peculiar scene that met her eyes.

"What’s going on?" Noin wanted to know.

"Wufei was just apologizing," Duo said darkly.

"Don’t make me laugh," Wufei commented, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, I don’t think you’ll laugh," Duo muttered, hands clenching into fists.

"Please… cut it out," Relena ventured.

"Stay out of it," Wufei sighed in exasperation.

"Watch your mouth," Heero said quickly, bristling.

"I don’t care for your tone," Zechs told Wufei flatly.

"Quit while you’re ahead," Trowa offered quietly.

"Forget it," Wufei muttered, irritated, as he jostled his way past Trowa and Zechs to leave again.

"That was unpleasant," Relena observed.

"He is unpleasant," Hildie corrected, still fuming.

Noin felt compelled to defend the boy, even though he had probably brought this on himself.

"I don’t think he means it, entirely. It’s just become a speech pattern to a certain extent. Under all his crap, he’s not a bad kid," she offered.

"Right…" Duo replied, crossing his arms.

"Well, we should probably be on our way, shouldn’t we?" Relena said uncomfortably.

"Yes," Zechs responded, stifling a yawn.

"Milliardo," Relena began, sounding maternal, "why don’t you skip for today, until you’ve gotten used to the time difference?" Zechs laughed a little. Both of them seemed determined to be a parent as well as a sibling.

"That sounds like a good idea," he answered, yawning again. "I’ll go back to the hotel…" and either put myself through trying to sleep, or choke down a couple of pots of coffee, he added silently.

"No, stay here," Relena said quickly. "There’s plenty of food in the fridge, and you can just make yourself at home."

"All right," he replied, "and thank you, Relena." She grinned. "Noin," he continued casually, "I’ve been meaning to discuss something with you. Would you mind staying for a while?"

Noin blinked. "No, I guess not. I should be preparing to give my presentation again tomorrow anyway. I’ll probably show up after lunch, so Zechs can get some sleep," she told Relena.

"Okay then. Goodbye Milliardo, bye Noin," Relena called, waving as she followed Heero out the door.

"Finally ready to go?" Wufei asked coldly, leaning against the wall outside the door.

No one bothered to answer that rhetorical question.

"Doesn’t it make you feel a little odd?" Quatre asked Relena, gesturing back at the house as they made their way to the car. "I mean, I’m never quite comfortable around my sisters and their romantic interests, so…"

Relena shrugged. "I got to know Noin pretty well before I even found my brother again. And," she continued, smiling, "I like the idea of her being my sister someday."