So, anybody remember the Karma series from a couple of years back? Eyepatch!Duo? (You can find it over here, if you've forgotten... it HAS been awhile...)
Anyway, it always kind of begged for a tiny bit of wrap up, so we're going to get this holiday party rolling with...
Karma V
'This,' Duo said with a smirk of satisfaction, 'is damned sweet.'
I looked out to see what had earned the term, but all I saw in his line of sight was Meadows and his two cronies on the opposite platform of the training room. 'Sweet?' I prompted.
'I can freaking zoom in enough to read their lips,' he grinned.
I snorted, impressed despite myself; the distance was great enough that I could barely tell Meadows from Garrison. 'Is this where you thank me?'
'For what?' he said with a skeptical snort.
'For convincing you to have the surgery.'
That made him look away from our soon to be opponents so that I could get a really good look at the disdainful expression on his face. 'As if. I made my own decision.'
That's not really how I'd heard that had gone, by I refrained from mentioning the blind draw aspect of how Quatre swore he'd finally made up his mind. 'But you were completely blowing that decision until I kicked you in the butt.'
'I'd have gotten there,' he replied, as close as he would likely ever come to admitting I'd been right.
I studied him for a minute while he went back to checking his gear, part of his attention on the crew across the way. Other than the odd quirk the scar had left in his eyebrow, you really couldn't see much sign of the accident anymore. The eye was as warm and alive looking as the real one, the scar mostly cleaned up when they did the ocular surgery. Just a thin white line that you couldn't really see if you were looking at him from more than ten feet away.
'Oh, I don't think so...' he muttered and I realized he was talking to the trio gearing up at the other gate.
'What?' I wanted to know, almost jealous of his newly discovered ability... I hadn't known about the extras.
'The boys are making raccoon jokes,' he growled and spared me a glare.
'Hey,' I said with a shrug. 'It was only fair.'
'Fair would have been making Quatre come with us and wear the damn suit,' he said testily.
'Your face was still all bandaged,' I pointed out reasonably. 'You would have scared the kids anyway.'
'Somehow I don't think my face would have scared them any worse than your talk did,' he replied, tightening the straps on his fingerless gloves. 'You made little Bobby Drake wet himself.'
'But he has a healthy fear of strangers now, doesn't he?' And wasn't that the whole point?
'And Preventer agents,' Duo muttered. 'And probably giant raccoons.'
Little Bobby Drake, in my humble opinion, was a bit of a Momma's boy. Though we owed the kid... the Commander had ended up being flaming pissed, and though we'd had to endure a rather lengthy lecture on the PR headache we'd caused, when it all washed out... we were exempt from lecturing the brats ever again. In this life, I believe was the promise, and the next.
There had been a punishment, of course, because the Commander was completely aware that not being 'allowed' to do PR tours wasn't exactly a crushing blow. So she sent us out to the training field to over-see the graduation exercises for the current year's recruits.
As a punishment, under the circumstances, it had lacked a certain... sting. In fact, it had been a little difficult to stand in the Commander's office and pretend that we weren't laughing hysterically on the inside.
When it was over, Duo wanted to send her a thank you note, but we'd ultimately decided that might just lead to a more inventive punishment. And neither of us was really all that excited to see Commander Une get... creative. But yeah; we got to over-see the final exam for the three slackers who had been a thorn in Duo's side all summer.
Not that there had been much chance that any of them were going to pass no matter who was doing the testing. Well... maybe their mothers, but that wasn't going to happen, now was it? So it's not like we were there to set them up, or otherwise skew the inevitable results. We were just there to make sure that those results were as... indisputable as possible. Or maybe the word I'm looking for is embarrassing?
Either way they were about to find out that Karma's a bitch.
'Side bet?' Duo asked, with a sour twist to his grin that told me the group across the way was engaging in more than just mascot jokes.
'Sure,' I agreed, because it was always good to add a little spice to an afternoon. 'What's the pay out?'
'Loser buys dinner at the winner's restaurant of choice?'
'Not that God awful sports bar you like,' I said and he grinned, that sour look gone.
'Ok, but I'm taking your sushi place off the list too.'
'Done,' I agreed, because it really wasn't all that enjoyable with Duo making gagging noises anytime he heard somebody ordering octopus anyway. 'And the wager?'
'Before this day is done, I will make one of them cry like a baby,' he grinned and the spark of malicious glee in his tone was kind of scary.
'Agreed,' I was quick to take him up on it, because... really... talk about a no lose wager. If I won, I got a free meal. If I lost... well, how could you call that a loss?
'Just about show time,' Duo said, and pulled out a bag I hadn't noticed stashed with his duffle.
'What's that?' I asked, because I couldn't even guess. Duo wouldn't risk those afore mentioned inevitable results by bringing in unauthorized gear. I was not expecting the rather high tech video camera he pulled out and handed to me. And that malicious grin was back.
'I'm going solo on this one,' he said, just daring me to argue. 'And you're going to need this night vision camera for the... uh... documentation.'
I raised an eyebrow. 'Why do I need a night vision camera?'
'Why Heero,' he smiled, and the smugness was just rolling off him in waves. 'Didn't you read the entire mission brief for this little exercise?'
'Nobody ever does,' I said, and we both glanced across at our victims... uh... recruits as they made their way down the ladder to the floor of the obstacle field.
'No they don't, do they?' he agreed, and reached to tuck his braid down the back of his shirt before going over to the main control panel. 'This would be a night mission. Says so right in the briefing, somewhere around page ten. In the fine print. You got the camera figured out?'
I raised it to get a good shot of him standing there, all geared up with his game face on. Hey, I am dating the guy; I'm not immune to the allure. 'Yeah; not complicated.'
Duo threw the switch and the place went dark as a tomb. Out on the field there were cries of dismay. I couldn't help the snicker. On the view finder of the camera, I could see Duo turn to grin at me, and I realized he was looking right at me when he winked. That freaking eye had infrared too? Damn, but I needed to get Sally to show me the full specs.
'Have fun,' I deadpanned, 'but try not to maim any of them... we're already in enough trouble with the Commander.'
'Wouldn't dream of it,' he said and then he was over the edge and gone.
I was a little bit disappointed not to get to play too, but I couldn't really dispute Duo's claim on their asses. Anything they got today, they'd bought with their own actions. Screw them... they deserved anything Duo felt like dishing out, and the Preventers were well rid of a batch of wannabe recruits who would have turned out to be nothing but bully-boys in uniform anyway.
The wager? Oh yeah... Duo won that one easily. And the pictures of Meadows hanging by one leg from a scaffold, fifteen feet off the ground, sobbing hysterically... are some of my favorites.
OWARI
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