Slow and Steady Part 4
Duo was still working at the supposed end of the work day, but he was hardly complaining. This was the fun part, far more fun than the briefing he'd delivered on updated patterns in weapons trafficking across the Union.
The last agent was just leaving with a 'pardon me' to someone outside. Duo looked up, and found Heero looking in. "Hey. I'm not late, am I?"
"No. Just felt like dropping by. Room with a view, hm?"
Duo looked around the unused office-turned-storage-closet. "Not the hottest digs in the building, no, but you're right, best view I could find in an unoccupied room."
"I'm guessing you didn't fly commercial up here."
"Ha." He glanced down to the desk pushed up against the window perpendicularly. The sniper rifle didn't gleam dangerously, but only because it was coated with a black matte finish that was, in some ways, even more intimidating. "Pretty sweet, ain't she? Wanna...?" He paused, looked around the cluttered room, and realized there would be no getting a chair in there. He adapted his response accordingly. "Wanna come in?"
Heero looked skeptically at the room, over to the sleek weapon set up on the desktop, and then less skeptically at Duo's outstretched hand. The decision was made with the quirky smile on Duo's lips. He nodded, waited for Duo to come closer, and then climbed to his feet. Duo used the limited floor space as an excuse to get in close and wrap a supporting arm around Heero's waist as they maneuvered around the clutter. He saw Heero to a seat on the edge of the desk with a satisfied sigh, and then gestured toward the rifle assembly beside them. "Meet the new Rem-50S3."
Heero's fingers ran respectfully over the rifle's grip. "I didn't think this is what you came up here for."
"Yeah, well, I think the P's just wanted more bang for their buck, yanno? I was coming up here anyway, so they figured they'd jam as many hats on my head as possible."
"Bring any more toys with you up on your shuttle?"
"Nah, this is it. Sorry." He started in on the little spiel he'd given to a variety of agents in the last hour, extolling some of the rifle's new features. "...But of course, the best way to get to know her is to give her a shot yourself. Heh, no pun intended. How about it?"
Heero hesitated only a moment in sliding the magazine home and shifting around to lie down on the table. He smiled at Duo for a moment in thanks for the help in getting situated properly before he lowered his eye to the scope. "Hm. Handy."
Duo set a hand lightly upon his shoulder in warning before reaching over to adjust a setting on the scope. "Check that out."
"Hm. Handier. Though it'd be especially nice if this thing would stop auto-targeting civilians."
"A bit unnerving, yeah. Sorry about the view. Best I could do in these parts."
"It is effective, though. In a hostage situation, it's just as important to be clear on the locations of the hostages."
"Yeah. Speaking of..." He put his hand back on Heero's shoulder before invading his personal space, leaning over the weapon to get a look at the other side so he could point to a button. "This will lock in a targeting box. The targeting box of your choice."
Heero removed his eye from the scope for a moment to find the button in question, then ducked back to the display. "Ah. I see. Useful. But how good is it?"
"I'd say, useful, but not reliable. It's decent at tracking a target, but I field-tested it at about sixty-forty, when it comes to recognizing the same target when re-acquiring."
"Difficult problem to solve." He twiddled with one of the scope's settings.
"Yeah, but if your situation's relatively static, it's just one more little detail that could make the difference." Duo backed off a little to give Heero his space as he explored the rifle's options. His hand, still warming Heero's shoulder, slid down in his retreat, and settled on the small of Heero's back.
"The extra hardware's a bit heavy, too. Fine for a stake-out. Not very good on the go, though."
"Yeah..." He stared at his hand, and contemplated all the things going on under that hand. "Why didn't you tell us?"
Raised and trained by the best, Heero was far too good to twitch the gun in his hands, but Duo could feel the response farther south, in the muscles he could no longer exert his iron will over. Heero pulled back from the rifle and looked out the window for several heartbeats. "I needed not to."
Before Duo could formulate a response to that, Heero sat up, and Duo automatically moved to help him regain his seat on the edge of the desk. He waited expectantly for something more, but when it didn't come after a few seconds, he started to disassemble the rifle and put it back in its case. He took his time about it.
Heero sat looking out the door, at the chair parked just outside. Duo was nearly done packing up when he finally offered additional explanation. "I wanted it... I needed it... to not be something that I needed to tell you."
Duo shut the case quietly and reset the electronic lock. He thought of half a dozen responses to that, and discarded them all without wasting his breath. He squeezed Heero's shoulder in understanding before getting into position to help him out the door. "Just let me get the gun squared away, and then we'll see about some dinner, yeah?"
TBC...
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