Notes: The arc begins between one and two years after Endless Waltz. Heero POV in this story.
Life With Heero Arc Part 7
Assassins and Chibis
Heero sat and stared unseeingly at his laptop's screen. Yet another rejection email had come back today. A whole month of job searching and not so much as a nibble to show for it. Duo had done a good job of covering for him with the other guys, but the reality of the situation remained. He was unemployed and it was beginning to look as if he was unemployable. At least in his preferred occupation. There simply weren't any jobs out there that required his computer skills and would overlook his lack of a university degree, his lack of formal experience (hacking Oz and Romefeller bank accounts and databases apparently didn't count), and, most telling of all, his complete lack of references. He supposed that, if he could bring himself to ask, Relena would probably give him a reference, but it wouldn't help anyway since bodyguarding was a far cry from computer programming.
There was one other occupation out there that would use certain of his skills. He would never have to worry about dealing directly with his employer. And he could pick and choose exactly which jobs he took. But... oh hell, what difference did it make anyway? His life was already severely fucked up, he might as well be wealthy with a fucked up life as poor and sponging off his best friend. About to start typing, he paused. Duo wouldn't like this choice. Maybe he wouldn't ever find out. Heero certainly didn't intend to tell him. Ignoring the small voice that was asking incredulously when he had ever been able to keep anything secret from the master of stealth, Heero started to connect to a website that he had hoped never to use. An instant later, his screen was filled with little chibi-Deathscythes and a message. In disbelief, Heero read, "If you're planning on checking for outstanding contracts on 'Lena, don't bother, I've got a watchdog program that looks after that. If you're planning on making a different use of this site, THINK AGAIN, BUSTER!!! I'd rather still be supporting you at 100 than see you go this route. Odin didn't even want you in the business, remember? If you've got any other 'bright' ideas, buddy, try this before following any of them through - would you want me to take the job? If not, I sure as hell don't want you taking it!!! D.M."
Blinking, Heero re-read the message. Several times. How the hell had Duo known that he was considering this? Not to mention, how the hell had Duo managed to hack his own net connection in such a way as to do this without Heero ever noticing anything odd about the connection?
Much to his surprise, Heero realized that rather than being upset about the intrusion on his privacy, let alone the tiny Gundams line-dancing across his screen, he was relieved. Intensely, immensely, relieved to have an excuse not to visit the site. Not to take the first step towards following in Odin's footsteps. Not to become a professional assassin. Suddenly, he was extremely glad that Duo was so good at figuring out what was going on inside his head even when he wasn't willing to talk about it. Okay, so assassin was out. What did that leave?
Don't take any jobs he wouldn't want Duo to take? Shit, that eliminated practically everything on his "desperation" list. Except maybe garbage collector. And that was debatable. As the chibi-Deathscythes on his screen started doing the can-can, Heero turned off his laptop. He would probably need Duo's assistance to get rid of the little buggers. That had certainly been the case the one time he'd tried to hack into Deathscythe back during the war.
TBC...
Back to Calic0cat's Fanfictions Page