Maybe Angels

Author's Notes:

Disclaimers: Soooooooooo *not* mine. Though wish as I might, I think they will never be mine. Don't be mad at me Sunrise, Sotsu Agency and Bandai. I'm just borrowing these gorgeous boys for some fun, and I don't make any money, so suing lil' old me wouldn't do you any good. BTW, Lenny Kravitz, the same goes for you. ^_^

A/N: Last chapter *barely* touched on Wufei and Duo's relationship, but it allowed me to compound on the relationships of the angels. Duo seems to be the life of the group, and yet, he doesn't fit in. ^_^ I know, I'm horrible, but I promise to be nicer later. By the by, if you are wondering about the angel names that Duo used in the last chapter, then Aloniel is Zechs, Gerindial is Noin, and Harimeal is Heero.

Dedication: To Jade-sissy, who, although her incessant 1x2x1/2x1x2 shipping is cute, has stayed with me for this fic, even though I am pairing Duo with Wufei. ~_^ Love you truly, darling. To Derva, for your instant taking to this fic, and begging for more. I adore you so, and you're a total doll. Keep poking me, and you might get more of what you want.

Symbols: *~*~* change in POV, scene, or time
*~~~* minor change of scene or flashback

*~~~~~~~~*
I've been searching for you
I heard a cry within my soul
I never had a yearning quite like this before
Now here you are walking right through my door

All of my life
Where have you been
I wonder if I'll ever see you again
And if that day comes
I know we could win
I wonder if I'll ever see you again

A sacred gift of Heaven
For better, worse, whatever
And I would never let somebody break you down
Or take your crown, never

All of my life
Where have you been
I wonder if I'll ever see you again
And if that day comes
I know we could win
I wonder if I'll ever see you again

~ Again, by Lenny Kravitz

*~~~~~~~*

Again

I was amazed. The child was not supposed to be able to see me. I was in Heaven, and he was on Earth. How in the hell did he know that I was watching him? This was not supposed to be happening to an angel and his *newborn* charge. He was pulling me to him again, his sloe-black eyes shining, calling to me to come see him.

I wanted to reach out to him so much then. Just to touch that soft, pliable skin. To place gentle, feather-light kisses to his forehead. To be near his peaceful aura. I don't know what stopped me this time, but I didn't do any of those things, and eventually, my Wufei fell asleep in his father's strong arms. I watched him for a few moments longer, and then cleared the pool from in front of me until it was nothing but the clouds it had been moments ago.

I could *not* risk another look at the boy again. Not for a while. His eyes had too strong of a hold on me, and I had never had this happen to me before. I needed to find something to do with my time for the thirteen years to pass. I *knew* that if I took another risk where Wufei was concerned, then God would not be quite as patient, or tolerant, as She had been before. It was time to do what I always did while waiting for a charge to grow up.

It was time to hang with the Muses.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The Muses are interesting creatures. Neither male nor female, like the rest of the divine creatures, they lend their inspiration to everyone. Singers, artists, musicians, writers, and even common people benefit from their help. They are infused with a very vicarious atmosphere that always lifted my spirits when I was waiting for my newest charge to mature. My favorites were somewhat of a brother/sister duo. Actually, they had just been created at the same time, so they decided that they were brother and sister from that moment on.

Giselle and Jean-Paul, they called each other, and they insisted that I was 'Deux'. (Yes, that is only French for my familiar name, but I thought it was cute.) They looked alike with dark hair, bright green eyes, no wings, and smiles all the time. They worked with the French authors. For as long as I can remember, they were always talking about which writer had struck their fancy, and which ones were annoying the crap out of them. I loved it.

So, trying to avoid running into my enigmatic charge, I went to see Giselle and Jean-Paul. I had no sooner come close to them when I was hugged violently by the pair.

"Deux, you have been away for far too long," Giselle said, beaming her adorable smile. "Your charges live too long. I keep telling God that She should have made you a Muse. That way, the three of us could work together to make these *idiotic* humans behave. You could be the Muse of Kicking Butt."

"Lord knows we could use it," Jean-Paul muttered. "I swear, these Frenchmen are getting lazier and lazier as the world keeps spinning. Humans take our help for granted, mon ami(1)."

I couldn't help but laugh. They were like this all the time. I sometimes regretted staying away from my friends for so long, but I had a job to do, and humans entertained me like no other.

"Deux, there is something troubling you. What is it?" Giselle asked, leaning her dark head close to my face. "Is it that Heero again? I knew he would do something to piss you off. Those damn Grigori think they are better than the rest of us because they don't have to dirty their wings with the humans." She crossed her slender arms across her chest.

I laughed nervously. She was so vehement about Heero, and had been ever since they shared a charge over a thousand years ago. It had not been pretty. Heero had written in the book of that person's life that 'the Muse calling herself Giselle interferes far too much in my charge's affairs, inspiring every movement that they make and everything they do. Immediate reassignment of Muse is requested.'

Jean-Paul rolled his eyes. "Deux, pay no mind to Giselle. Sour grapes, darling soeur(2). Now, tell us why you are here. Did you get a new charge?"

"Yes," I replied, and I wished I hadn't, because they were dying to know all the details. I sighed, knowing that I had to tell someone about the hold the beautiful child had over me. I waited patiently for an opening, and sat down, beginning my tale.

When I was finished, the smiles on Giselle and Jean-Paul's faces had disappeared. It left my mouth feeling dry, and I was *definitely* worried after that.

"What? You two are starting to scare me." Giselle gave a small smile.

"Deux, this is not a good thing. The last angel that was so tempted by a charge became a human, and when she died, God had to figure out where the pauvrette's(3) soul would go," she said, bringing back the memory. After ten days of discussion, God finally let the former angel's soul into Heaven, seeing as how she had lived a good life with her human husband on Earth.

"I remember, Giselle, but you have to see this boy. He is unlike any other charge I have ever had," I said, my voice gaining in decibels as I continued. "His eyes are that of a seer, or an old man's eyes. They don't belong on a child, let alone a newborn. And, he *knows* when I am looking at him. It's like he has cast a spell on me. Every time those eyes latch onto me, I want to hold him."

"Duo," Jean-Paul said, snapping me out of my daze. "You must remember to keep your cool. He is only one human charge, out of how many? You have had many humans to keep track of since Man was created and cast out of Paradise. Just try and remember that, but you still have thirteen years to deal with the fact that you must be far, far, far away from him, or else." His green eyes lit up again. "Now, let's help this Frenchman write a book worthy of renown, instead of dying with so many other talentless perdants(4)."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After a few weeks with Giselle and Jean-Paul, Wufei was pushed into the far corner of my mind. We were conversing constantly over ideas for *their* charges to use, which usually resulted in me mediating and using 'Jan, ken, ponto'(5) to prevent blood-shed. (My last charge was Japanese, and we used to play this game when we were bored. Go figure.) I was thoroughly loving my time with the two playful muses, until one day, I felt a tug on my being.

I froze in mid-ken and tried to find out where the tug was coming from. Wufei... Something concerning him had happened, but what, I had no idea. I looked up to see my friends staring at me, concern over their pretty faces.

"Deux, is there something wrong?" Giselle asked. I smiled half-heartedly, stood from my sitting position, and flexed my wings.

"Something has happened to Wufei. I should go talk to Trowa about it. I will be back shortly," I said, hoping they wouldn't ask me anything more. They didn't, but they *did* exchange worried glances.

"We hope it is nothing too bad, Deux. Be careful about that child of yours," Jean-Paul warned, smiling faintly.

"Will do," I said, taking off to look for Trowa.

I found the brown-haired Grigori writing furiously in his book, the open pages covered in his tiny, precise handwriting. He was hunched over his lap, his wings flexing constantly. This could mean only one thing: something unforeseen had happened to Wufei, and it wasn't good either. Taking a moment to brace myself for any hostile behaviour from Trowa, I approached him.

"Trowa, what's going on with our charge?" I asked, which earned me a dark glare from my companion.

"Well, Duo, if you had been paying attention, instead of playing with the muses, you would know that Wufei, Meiran, and their mother, Cai-Xia(6), were in a car accident," he replied tensely.

"A... A... Car accident? What?" I looked around, and saw that Sally was writing away furiously as well, her expression just as dark as Trowa's. I was about to ask her if this was true when I felt a call from My Lord.

Acting swiftly, I appeared in front of her to find Hilde there, tears streaming down her face as well.

"Hilde?" I only managed to call her name before I was jumped upon by the weeping angel.

"Oh, Duo, it's horrible. They were driving... and then... Oh, it's ugly," she sobbed into my shoulder. Her whole being was wracking with the power of her sobs. I looked around and saw that God and Metatron were standing not too far from us, the rest of the Seraphim close behind.

"My Lord?"

"Duo. Hilde. I need you to go and visit your charges in the hospital. You two and Quatre and Cathy will have to pour some of your power into the twins, and it will require both the Natal and Personal Angels to accomplish. You must hurry. Now go," God said, Her face devoid of its usual smile.

I didn't need another command. I was drifting towards the Earth, concentrating all my power on finding my Wufei before something else horrible happened to him. A few seconds later, I was standing next to a sobbing Quatre. The blond angel looked utterly distraught. I took him into a strong, but quick embrace, and felt him calm significantly.

"Quatre, what happened?"

"They were just driving along, and the other car came out of nowhere. The mother is dead. I heard the doctors say that it was a miracle that the twins lived, but it's not. Cathy and I have been pouring our energy into their bodies, except we can't heal them fully. The wounds are too grievous. What are we going to do?" Quatre asked, his voice taking on a hysterical note. I placed a placating hand on his shoulder.

"God has sent Hilde and myself down to assist you both. She said that we will all have to pour our energy into them. It will take both of us to do it, Quatre, but you have to calm down and focus on healing," I replied, ignoring the feeling of panic inside of me. I took a deep breath, and placed my hands over the battered body of my still beautiful Wufei.

Quatre took my lead, and nodded. I closed my eyes and concentrated all my will into finding, and healing, all of the injuries on the body of the small five month old under my hands. I opened my eyes again to find that the golden light surrounding the three of us was unnoticed, and Wufei seemed to be sleeping soundly, with no hint of pain.

Finally, when I was sure that there was nothing else that we could do, I cut the connection I had created, and all but fell to the ground. I was exhausted, and had very little power left. A quick glance at the blond next to me told me that he was just as tired as I was, if not a little more.

"Quatre, you need to rest. You look so tired."

"I am, but I have to stay with him for the next few hours. Those are always the worst. Besides, Wufei just lost his mother. I have to soothe his nerves," Quatre whispered. He was too low on reserves.

"Listen, I have more energy than you do at the moment. Let me watch him for a few hours, while you get some rest, and when you are 'recharged', you can come and watch him like the hawk I know you should have been born as," I said, which sounded very logical to me.

Quatre spared me a skeptical look, and then sighed. "Duo, I don't know. I have a bad feeling about this," he whispered, but stopped.

"Something wrong, Quatre?"

"Nothing. I just got a summon to come back. Ok, look, you watch him, but for the love of all that's Holy, don't touch him. You *know* what will happen if you do," he said, managing to sound menacing and tired in the same breath.

"I know, Quat. I get reassigned to another human, and Heaven forbid you have to put up with Dorothy as a companion." I gave him a teasing smile, which caused him to look like I had just smacked him.

"Don't joke about that. It wasn't *your* wings she tried to pull off," he said, seizing up again. "Ack! I have to go. Please, Duo, just listen to me this once."

"Fine, Quatre, do me a favor, though. Before you head to rest, tell Giselle and Jean-Paul what happened so they don't worry."

"Ok. I'll be back as soon as I can. Behave," he said, and with that, was gone. That left Wufei and I in the room with one another, as his sister was in another room. Sighing mentally, I moved over to the far corner of the room, hoping that the farther away from him I was, the less of a hold he would have over me.

That lasted for a little while, because when the nurses and doctors came into to check on the sleeping baby, he woke up. I felt the urge to be near him again, but instead, focused on the other humans around him and what they were saying.

"Doctor, when I last checked in on him two hours ago, his breathing was labored. Now, it's fine," the head nurse said, the confusion in her voice very evident.

"It's the same with the girl. What the hell is going on?" the other nurse said. 'Not hell, dear,' I thought with a wry smile.

"Ladies, I will check on both children. Just allow me some space. There has to be a logical explanation. Now, if you will excuse me," the harassed doctor replied.

"Yes, Doctor," both women muttered, leaving the room. When we were alone, the doctor started testing various things on my Wufei. I moved around behind him to see exactly what he was doing. As he lifted a small, soft foot, Wufei's dazzling black eyes flew up, and looking around, he broke into tears.

The idiotic man stood there, poking and prodding the crying child. Seeing such an amazing display of disregard for my charge's feelings, I moved until Wufei could see me. Automatically, the crying stopped, and to my surprise, he started giggling, his pudgy hands reaching out as if to touch me.

I almost reached my own hand out to touch his, but stopped at the last minute, remembering that I couldn't. If I did, it meant that I would probably spend the rest of eternity with Une and Iria as companions. Not fun. I snatched my hand back just in time it seemed, because at that point, Quatre reappeared, looking as if he had slept for a few days.

"Thank you *so* much, Duo. He was no trouble, was he?" the blond chirped.

"No, but that doctor is a jerk," I spat out, heading back to Heaven to continue my stay with Giselle and Jean-Paul.

TBC...

Notes:
(1) Mon ami - French, "my friend"
(2) Soeur - French, "sister"
(3) Pauvrette - French, "small poor one"
(4) Perdant - French, "loser"
(5) Jan, Ken, Ponto - Japanese game which is much like 'Paper, Rock, Scissors'
(6) Cai-Xia - I want to thank Something Like Human for this name! You rock, Yuki-chan!