Author: Calic0cat
Pairings: None yet. Eventual 1x2x1, 3x4x3, Ranma x Ryoga
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Swearing, Angst, Endless Waltz spoilers, Crossover.
Disclaimer: Duo and Heero and the rest of the GW gang aren't mine. This story is. Nuff said.
Notes: Post series & Endless Waltz (only a couple of weeks after EW). Unless otherwise noted, all dialogue is in Japanese - so if there's Japanese words sprinkled within dialogue, it's because the language being spoken at that moment is something else.
'Thinking'
"Speaking"
*** Time passing or scene change
Mission: Nerima Part 1
"Thank you for coming, gentlemen. I'm sorry to have to impose on you again so soon," Preventer Chief Une said calmly. Gesturing graciously, she added, "Please, be seated."
Each of the five ex-Gundam pilots pulled a chair up to the conference table as Sally Po handed out thick file folders to the meeting's participants.
Une wasted no time in launching into the briefing. "Just a quick glance through the documentation should show you the problem - massive amounts of damage occurring to buildings, huge explosion craters in streets... the list goes on and on. On several separate occasions, agents have been dispatched to investigate reports of massive energy discharges in the area; yet, when they arrive, there is no sign of the caliber of weaponry necessary to cause this type of damage.
"You will notice that, according to local police records, this type of damage has been occurring since during the war. Insurance costs in this region are astronomical. When questioned about the situation, local law enforcement officers simply shake their heads and say it's a local problem that has no impact elsewhere and should be left alone.
"As if that wasn't odd enough, the crime rate in the area is virtually nonexistent. Oh, there's an occasional attempted mugging or robbery, a few drug busts and so forth, but no major unsolved crimes and no serious injuries or fatalities in the local law enforcement community."
Duo had rocked his chair back on two legs while flipping through the photographs and insurance claims, but now he dropped it back down on all four legs. He tossed a photograph of a high school with a huge hole in one brick wall onto the table in front of him. "Damage like that... a huge chunk of wall gone but no structural damage anywhere else... man, you'd need high-grade explosives and a real demolitions expert for that. And the insurance claim says it was a faulty science experiment? No way..."
Heero singled out a photo of a streetlight pole, neatly sliced in two. "A cut that clean would almost have to be an energy weapon - beam saber, or something similar - yet the utility company wrote it off as damage in a windstorm?"
"Looks a lot like an impact crater from a mobile suit," Trowa commented, tossing another photo on the table.
"Based on these records, I can't see how any of these businesses are still viable," Quatre added, frowning as he scanned a handful of papers. "A number of them are only carrying liability insurance - nothing to cover damage to the premises, let alone damage on THIS scale," he concluded, tapping the image of a restaurant with the entire first floor front wall missing.
Wufei pulled a sheaf of advertising flyers out of his folder and spread them across the table. "These are just plain absurd - these so-called contests must be a front for something else entirely."
"The entire mess is just plain absurd," Une said, looking decidedly flustered. "The Preventers cannot leave this unexplained any longer; we need to find out what is causing all the damage and neutralize any possible threat to peace. Since a high proportion of the damage occurs at or near the high school..."
"Oh no," Duo groaned, flopping back in his chair.
"...you have all been enrolled. You start Monday. That gives you just under a week to prepare for the mission and move in."
"It won't be THAT bad, Duo," Quatre offered, glancing over the information packet on the school. "There's no dorms, so at least we won't have to live at the school."
"Correct," Une confirmed. "We were unable to rent any living quarters in the school district; however, we were able to purchase a small house. You will all use your own identities for this mission since media coverage following the Mariemeia incident was so extensive. That was too recent to rely on people not recognizing you, and, as the Winner heir, Quatre is much too well known to hope to pass unnoticed. Although you are all emancipated minors, we are using the cover story that, due to the involvement of certain pilots in the Mariemeia incident, you are all being required to stay together on Earth and complete school as a precautionary measure."
Une paused and motioned Sally towards the door. Sally slipped outside, glanced down the corridor, then nodded to Une before pulling the door shut behind her.
"I think it is only fair to warn you that something similar was, in fact, proposed by several high-ranking politicians after the first war," Une warned in a low voice. "Considerable concern was expressed over your youth and your exceptional skills in warfare and terrorism. Unfortunately, the attempted Barton coup has brought those concerns to light once more, in spite of the fact that the Gundams are now gone. Certain political forces would like to see you all considered a threat to peace. Vice Foreign Minister Darlian, Preventers Po and Noin, and myself have repeatedly argued long and hard against the measures proposed. Preventer Merquise has stayed out of the discussions since he is facing similar problems and could easily cause as much harm as good if he were to speak up in your support. One of the few items in our favour - in your favour - is the fact that you are all either reserve or active Preventers."
Une looked around the table, her heart aching at giving such bad news to these young men - mere boys in years, but far older in experience - who had earned first Treize's respect, then her own. They had already experienced betrayal when the colonies rejected them during the war; to hear that once more they were on the verge of being considered a threat rather than defenders had to be extremely painful.
Offering what little solace she could, she assured them, "This mission is real; it hasn't been invented simply to provide a way to monitor you all. However, having you all in one location and working on official Preventers business will hopefully serve to placate some of your most vocal detractors at least temporarily."
Heero's face was set in the icy blank expression of the early war. Duo's cheerful grin was missing entirely, his face very nearly as expressionless as Heero's, fingers white with the pressure they were applying to the pencil they held. Trowa's expression was completely enigmatic, his head tilted so that his bangs shadowed most of his face. Quatre's fingers were steepled in front of his face, hiding his reaction to the news. Wufei showed more expression than the other four put together; his face torn between guilt and anger.
"You are not supposed to be aware of any of this, but Preventer Po and I felt that you deserved to know what was going on. You must be extremely careful. Keep as low a profile as possible at all times," Une warned sternly. "Don't give your detractors any more ammunition to use against you."
A series of silent, grim nods signaled their understanding. Une just hoped that understanding their situation would be enough to allow them to take control of it.
***
Five mouths were set in grim lines as the ex-pilots finished sweeping their hotel suite for bugs.
"01 - clear."
"02 - clear."
"03 - clear."
"04 - clear."
"05 - clear."
The teens congregated in the lounge area. Duo flung himself into an armchair before summing up the situation quite concisely, "Well, shit. So now what?"
"We do the mission," Heero answered flatly.
"Okay, so we do it. Then what?" Duo demanded. "How long are we going to live 'on probation', looking over our shoulders all the time?"
The ex-Wing pilot simply shook his head before turning away and walking over to stand, arms crossed over his chest, staring out the window.
"I don't know," Quatre answered the braided boy, rubbing his chest agitatedly. "I don't want to get Une and Sally in trouble for leaking information, so I won't do anything immediately, but I think I'd better have a couple of my sisters come visit us in a little while. If one of them just happens to be a lawyer, well..."
"That might be wise," Trowa concurred.
Wufei had seated himself at the far end of the couch, knees drawn up to his chest, his back towards the others.
"Hey, Wu?" Duo said, looking towards the Chinese boy. "You okay?"
Only silence answered him.
"Wufei?" Quatre prompted.
Finally, a choked voice said, "I'm sorry, this is my fault. If I hadn't joined Mariemeia's army..."
"'Fei, it's not all your fault, we'd have still gotten involved and ended up back in the limelight. As soon as they grabbed Relena, it was a given that Heero would go after her, and I'd never turn down a request for help from any of you guys, so that meant I was in too." Duo stood and moved to kneel on the couch behind Wufei, resting one hand lightly on his friend's shoulder.
"Duo's right," Heero agreed, moving to stand behind the couch and reaching over the back to rest one of his hands on Wufei's shoulder, brushing Duo's fingers. Duo jerked his hand back as if burnt, moving it to rest against Wufei's back instead. Heero flinched almost undetectably.
Quatre moved to perch on the arm rest that Wufei was facing, resting one hand gently on Wufei's knee. "Anytime peace is threatened, I will feel obligated to defend it, Wufei. I too would have been involved regardless of whether you were in Mariemeia's army or not."
"I also," Trowa added, coming to stand beside his comrade and placing his hand on Wufei's other shoulder.
"Thank you," Wufei said softly.
"Whatever happens from here on out, we're all in it together," Duo stated firmly. "Right, guys?"
"Hn." "Of course." "Yes." "Agreed."
Before the silence and closeness had a chance to become uncomfortable, Duo gave Wufei's back a quick pat, then jumped to his feet. "Oi, Idon't know about you guys, but I want to eat before we go over the mission briefing again - anybody else up for pizza?"
***
Heero looked around the tiny bedroom. Two futons made for a tight fit, but with only three bedrooms in the house, one of which was even smaller, there was no real choice. Not that it was a hardship for him, anyway; the close proximity would in fact be to his advantage. Duo had been avoiding him since the victory party following the Mariemeia incident, but that would be impossible to continue while sharing such a small room.
Heero knew that Duo's avoidance of him was his own fault. He had rebuffed Duo's overtures throughout the war because he'd been unable to reconcile his own very confusing emotions with his role as a Gundam pilot. One particularly harsh bout of retraining thanks to displaying too many warm feelings had been quite enough; he hadn't wanted to go through that again. And even when he'd finally been prepared to risk it, lack of experience with things like friendship and love had held him back, and made it difficult to fight against the deeply-ingrained training that insisted such emotions be controlled. Neutralized.
By the time that the war had ended, he had finally managed to sort his feelings out at least enough to have a vague idea what he wanted. Unfortunately, he'd still had no idea how to go about getting it. Duo had always made all the effort towards developing a friendship and had, just maybe, if Heero had been interpreting him correctly, even been interested in more. But by the time that Heero was not only ready to accept friendship but hoping for far more, Duo had been on L2 with Hilde, while he had been on Earth watching over Relena.
Within the first few weeks of peace, Relena had stopped chasing after him and developed into a surprisingly good friend. It hadn't taken her long to find out that his heart was irretrievably committed to the Deathscythe pilot, nor had it taken her long to deduce what the problem was. She had worked hard at helping Heero learn to express his emotions verbally, though with only limited success. Learning first to tolerate, then to appreciate, and finally to seek out physical contact with another person had been even more difficult for Heero. Years of training had taught him that any form of physical contact equaled pain; he fought a battle with his training and instincts at the lightest of touches.
But finally, hearing from Quatre that Duo was considering entering a business partnership with Hilde, Heero had realized that he might be running out of time. He'd decided that he would have to make the first move regardless of whether he was ready or not.
Then Relena had been kidnapped. He'd been forced to try to become J's perfect weapon again, this time with his training in constant, direct conflict with his newly acknowledged emotions.
And every encounter with Duo since then had turned to disaster.
First had been his failure to correct Duo's assumptions about his relationship with Relena, followed by the harder-than-necessary punch on the colony and his abandonment of Duo in order to go after Relena. And then, when Duo had come looking for him after the battle, Duo had found him cradled in Relena's arms and left too quickly for her to stop him. Finally, there'd been the incident at the victory celebration. Even now, remembering it left him feeling ill...
----- Flashback Begins -----
Half-hidden by shadows, Heero leaned against the balcony railing where it met the wall. His gaze was wistfully locked on the lithe movements of the braided figure below. Duo was chattering animatedly with the other pilots, his usual cheery grin on his face.
"Hello Relena," he said quietly, not needing to glance behind him to know who had just joined him.
"Go to him," she urged gently. "He was asking where you were earlier."
"I don't know if it's any use," the ex-pilot responded despondently. "Why would he want anything to do with me? Just look at him! Lively, charming, gorgeous... He could have anyone he wanted! Why would he want me?"
"Is it really any better to be left wondering? Just GO!" Relena gave Heero a comforting hug - right as Duo finally spotted him. "Heero?" she asked, concerned, as Heero went completely rigid in the midst of returning her hug.
"He saw..."
"Oh no," she moaned, "Heero, I am so sorry. Where did he go?"
Two sets of blue eyes swept over the crowd below, frantically searching for that tell-tale chestnut braid.
Suddenly, a hand landed on Heero's shoulder. "Hey, glad to see..." Before his mind had a chance to recognize the voice that came a split-second after the hand, Heero's instincts had already taken over, slamming an elbow back into the gut of the unknown threat. He completed his spin, a sinking feeling in his own gut telling him what he would see. There, doubled up on the tile floor, lay the very person he was looking for.
"Don't touch me," Duo managed to gasp out, staggering to his feet clutching his ribs as Heero took a faltering step towards him. "Shit, Yuy, all I wanted to do was say I was glad to see you were okay. Guess you aren't so glad to see me. Don't worry, I'll stay out of your way.
"Good evening, Relena," he finished, inclining his head respectfully towards her before turning and walking stiffly away, one arm still wrapped across his ribcage.
Numb with horror, Heero watched him go, pivoting to keep him in sight as he descended the stairs and slipped through the crowd, speaking briefly to Wufei before continuing out of the ballroom towards the guest quarters. A few minutes later, Wufei and Sally followed.
***
At the breakfast table the next morning, Heero anxiously looked for the former Deathscythe pilot, hoping to at least apologize. Finally he asked, "Is Duo not joining us for breakfast?"
Wufei answered, "He caught an early shuttle. He's probably halfway back to L2 by now."
"Against my recommendation," Sally muttered in an annoyed tone. "I wanted him to stay where I could monitor his condition while those ribs healed. It was bad enough that he went to the party last night with fractured ribs; getting elbowed and knocked down while he was there then insisting on travelling like that..." She shook her head in disapproval. "Stubborn fool."
"What do you mean, fractured ribs?" Heero demanded. "I didn't think Deathscythe was knocked around that badly in the battle."
Trowa gave him an odd look before replying, "It wasn't. Those were from that little stunt you pulled back on the colony."
Horrified cobalt eyes met Relena's shocked yet sympathetic gaze for a brief moment before the sick feeling threatened to overwhelm him and Heero fled the room for the privacy of his own bathroom.
----- Flashback Ends -----
Hearing the sound of a motorcycle pulling up to the house, Heero looked out the window and recognized Duo's slim form on the bike. Trowa appeared from the fenced-in yard and took the motorcycle from Duo after a brief argument while Quatre and Wufei confiscated the luggage strapped to the bike.
"You're not supposed to be lifting or carrying anything," Quatre scolded as they entered the house. "Sally called and told us that she's not happy with the way your ribs are healing. Namely that they aren't; you're doing too much and not giving them time to mend."
"Yeah, well, if I don't keep busy, then I spend too much time thinking," Duo muttered, almost too low for even Heero's sensitive hearing to pick up. "So, Quat, did you get my message?"
"Yes, and I set things up as you requested, but I think it's going to be awfully cramped and stuffy up there in the attic."
"Cramped and stuffy I can live with, Heero I can't," Duo replied, following the blond up the second narrow flight of stairs.
One hand on the door, ready to open it and welcome his roommate, Heero froze. It was too late. He had used up all his second chances. He had finally pushed Duo too far.
***
Wufei waited till Duo had closed the attic door before asking, "So have you given up on Yuy then?"
"Yes... No..." Duo stammered uncertainly before throwing up his hands in sheer frustration. "Oh, fuck, I don't know... I'm just so damn tired of always being the one making all the effort, only to get froze out, insulted, or whatever. It's going to be bad enough sharing a house with him, sharing a room would be impossible. Sooner or later I'd talk in my sleep or do or say something that I couldn't cover up for. Considering I got an elbow in the gut just for touching him, I'm almost afraid to imagine what he'd do if I hugged him or kissed him."
"Duo, I really don't think he meant to do that," Quatre protested. "When Sally told him about your ribs at breakfast the next morning, I thought he was going to either throw up or pass out right there at the table. He was very upset and ended up leaving the room very quickly."
"Yeah, so how come he still hasn't apologized?"
"Probably because you ran back to L2 before he got a chance," Wufei told him sternly. "Yuy would find that difficult enough to do in person; I doubt he could manage it over the vid-phone."
"Duo, are you absolutely sure that you want to stay up here? Heero had two futons put in his room so I know he was expecting you to room with him."
"Not just expecting it," Wufei corrected Quatre. "I believe that Yuy was actually looking forward to it. He has inquired at least three times since I arrived this morning as to whether anyone knew when you were arriving."
"Oh really. Then why wasn't he the one to meet me and help bring my things in?" Duo demanded. "It's more likely that he wanted to know when I was arriving so's he could make a point of not being around."
"Oh, Duo..."
Duo cut him off sharply. "Look, Quat, it's pretty clear that any odd little ideas I may have had, any notions that he was attracted to me, maybe even had started to care a little about me, were all a product of my overly-vivid imagination. However much he may deny a relationship with Relena - which, may I remind you, he hasn't since before the whole Barton mess blew up - the fact remains that he doesn't even respond to me most of the time, but I've seen him engaged in actual conversations with her. Me, he won't even tolerate a touch from, but he not only let her hug him, he hugged her back.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's finally started to open up to someone, but it hurts that, after all the effort I put into trying to be that someone, it wasn't me. Much as I'd like to, I can't blame 'Lena because she's been a good friend to all of us; it certainly isn't her fault that I misread Heero so badly.
"I can't keep doing this to myself. I have to figure out how to live with the way things are and stop wasting my time dreaming about the way I wish they were," Duo finished, a certain fatalistic finality in his tone.
TBC...
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