A/N: Again, I would like to apologize to everyone who was severely saddened by the ending of the last chapter. It took a lot of courage to write. (Well, a lot of courage and some junk food, too.)

Anyway, this is officially the ending of "Nataku's Tears." I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it. The epilogue was written more as an after-thought than as an actual part of the story, but you may find it interesting all the same. I'd like to extend my gratitude to everyone who has reviewed this story, and especially those who have supported it from beginning to end. I hope you'll be back for the debut of my future GW fics!

EPILOGUE

Seventeen-year-old Duo Maxwell didn't know what to expect as he pulled up in front of the small apartment building and looked up at it. A month had passed since that fateful day when Wufei had destroyed MANTA-6, blowing up the asteroid without detonating the weapon and saving the planet, sacrificing his own life in the process. A short military funeral had been conducted, just the skin and bones of it, nothing special or extraordinary. Chang Wufei should have been honored as an international hero, but instead he had been given the courtesy of any regular soldier. Duo did not mind, however. He knew the Chinese boy would have wanted it that way.

And it was precisely because Wufei had taken absolutely no action in arranging things after his death—or would it be suicide? Duo didn't know, and neither did he care—that here Duo was, walking up the steps to Wufei's apartment, lugging a heavy trash bag full of paper bags and boxes, ready to clean out the man's place. It wasn't exactly a pleasant job, but Duo felt it was the least he could do for his friend.

Because that's what Wufei was. He was and always would be Duo's friend. No matter how many times the Gundam pilots had all tried to deny it, something had existed beneath their hard, cold exteriors, something warmer that pulsed with feeling. Up until a month ago, Duo would never have believed it himself. But when he had awoken, heard the news, and seen the security tape that showed Wufei plainly standing in the hospital room beside him, he knew something had existed between them.

He pulled out the master key card from his pocket and slid it through the reader. The lock gave a click and the door swung wide open. Duo stepped inside, setting the bag on the floor.

It was a relatively small place, as he had expected. He was standing in the living room, and he could see the kitchen nearby, a short hallway, and a couple of rooms beyond that. He set to work immediately, exploring the various rooms and collecting everything into boxes and bags. The living room was relatively normal; aside from a few Asian decorations here and there, it looked like the average family gathering place. The kitchen, Duo discovered, was entirely void of food, although he did find a drawer full of eating utensils, including several sets of chopsticks. As for the two rooms down the hallway: one was a bonus room that had a very sophisticated computer system, and the other was Wufei's own bedroom.

Duo spent approximately half an hour in the computer room, hacking into the system and downloading all the files. After stashing the disks safely away into a box, he moved on to the bedroom.

This room was small also, like the rest of the apartment, and it was obvious that Wufei did not spend much time here. There was a single bunk at one end of the room that looked as if it belonged in a prison cell. There was one chair pulled up to a small oak desk, on top of which Duo found a variety of calligraphy brushes and sheets of paper covered with brush drawings and graceful Chinese characters. Other than a dresser off to one side, the drawers of which Duo discovered were completely empty, there was nothing else in the room save for a single vase of wilting white roses on the windowsill.

After exploring the drawers of the small desk and finding nothing, Duo proceeded to pack all the calligraphy equipment and the papers into a box. Finished with that, he turned to leave—and stopped when something caught his eye.

It was a single silver photo frame, so small that he had missed it the first time going through. His curiosity got the better of him, and so he set the box down, walked over, and picked up the frame, peering carefully at the face that smiled up at him.

It was not Wufei, as Duo had expected. It appeared to be a girl of Oriental descent; Duo had to guess she was Chinese. She looked about fourteen years old, and had long black hair that cascaded over her shoulders in two pigtails. She wasn't very beautiful, but she wasn't hideous either.

"Wonder who this is," Duo said, and dropped the frame into the box.