Duo was more than glad to leave the medical building and step out onto the busy city streets again, even though he didn't find peace of mind there either. A dark figure, inside and out, moving through a landscape of color, Duo was aware of looks, of people changing course to avoid him, and some few, actually recognizing him and going pale. Gundam pilot. Terrorist. Shinigami. Dealer of death. His braid marked him and his unusual eyes.
Sometimes, Duo wished that he had grown tall and had sprouted a beard, like Trowa, become muscular and rugged, like Quatre, put on glasses, a casual coat, and shaved his head bald like Wu Fei, or, well, he hadn't seen Heero, but wishing that he had shown the same sense and made himself disappear, was an envy Duo carried as well.
It was just another cosmic joke that Duo Maxwell stayed the same, body refusing to grow, beard refusing to show itself, and hair untouchable and forever a marker of who he was. He couldn't escape the public eye, couldn't escape the constant news stories about his mental illness and his rumored bizarre lifestyle; doctored photos showing him in the strangest settings and doing things he had never imagined. He dressed outrageously to mock them, finding some perverse pleasure in looking the part of the bogeyman they had made him out to be, yet kept himself secluded, coming out mostly at night when faces blurred and everyone was dazzled by the city lights, including the reporters.
Heero finds Duo after the war, but all is not well with the former Deathscythe pilot. Heero quickly finds himself embroiled in government intrigue and a life or death struggle to save the self-proclaimed 'Shinigami'.
My notes: Post-war, angsty, maligned and unwilling drug-addict Duo, who has been made a scapegoat in a post-war world that wants someone to blame. PTSD and abusive systems. Abso-fucking-lutely evil Relena.