Disclaimer:Don't own them, don't make any money off of this.
Warnings: Male/Male sex, graphic, language, violence, attempted NCS
The Gathering
"I fight alone!" Wu Fei snarled. "I have a purpose that is at odds with yours! I came to find out who you are, but, now that I know, our contact ends here. I will not be a part of your 'team'."
"Mr. Chang-" Quatre began, his tone business like and proper, but then he paused and tried a different tack, his tone suddenly more soothing, "Wu Fei, it's obvious to me that you have experienced a high level of training. You must realize that a united team, working together, is far more effective than a lone individual against large forces. If your goal is to destroy Oz, and to protect and free the colonies, then I don't understand why you think our purposes are at odds."
"I fight for justice," Wu Fei snapped. "You fight for peace. The one who calls himself Heero Yuy, fights because he is a soldier and is nothing without battle. Duo Maxwell fights because he is a fool and enjoys the 'glory'. The silent one, Trowa Barton, his reasons are still a mystery to me. I don't see any desire for justice in any of their actions."
"You're wrong," Quatre replied firmly, sounding insulted, "wrong about all of us. We want justice, we want peace, and we want freedom. We are all willing to sacrifice everything to achieve those goals."
"I have a Gundam, my honor, my skill, and justice on my side," Wu Fei said arrogantly. "I am strong enough without you. I will be leaving, now."
Duo Maxwell, standing outside of the makeshift hanger of camo netting and plywood struts where the two were talking, turned a black piece of machinery over in his hands and grinned. "Don't think so, tough guy. Not without this. Quatre says he needs you, Quatre gets what he wants."
"He'll kill you, when he discovers what you've done," Heero said at his elbow.
Duo started and turned, stumbling a little and almost dropping the part. "Crap! Make some noise, buddy, okay?!" He glared at the dark haired pilot of Wing. "You maybe don't know it, but I'm used to gutting people who try and get the jump on me!"
Heero looked unimpressed. "That is a very important part. What do you intend to do with it?"
Duo tossed the heavy piece a bit into the air and then caught the heavy thing with a smack of metal against the flesh of his hands. He grinned. "Hide it until we can try and talk 'pole up the butt' in there that he's better off doing what Quatre says."
Heero looked skeptical. "I think your chances of success are very slight. He's a loner."
"My guess is that you are too," Duo replied, "but you're here, aren't you?"
"I see the wisdom of it," Heero told him thoughtfully. "Our purposes are the same in that we all want Oz destroyed and the colonies set free. We may have underlying causes as well, but our focus is identical. Chang Wu Fei fights for another reason. He expects honor and justice from his fight. None of us shares that goal."
Duo's smile suddenly dropped and he looked as if something had burned him. He winced and clutched at the part, holding it against his chest tightly and glaring down at it. "That's where you're wrong, Heero-buddy." He looked up again after a moment, grinning darkly at Heero's suspicious frown. "Maybe I'll tell you about me, sometime, and you'll stop making the same mistake that Mr. 'I know-it-all' is making. What you see, isn't necessarily what Duo Maxwell is all about."
Heero made a slight, irritated sound and turned away. "Revenge is not justice," he said over his shoulder and walked away.
Duo started and scowled after him, not understanding how the pilot of Wing
had seen through him so easily when no one else had been able to. He thought
about what Heero had said and then shook his head dismissively. Maybe revenge
wasn't justice, but it was still what he wanted more than anything else. Freeing
the colonies, and defeating Oz, was just a fortuitous means to achieving it.
___________
"You're staring, man!" Duo complained as he tucked his shirt in and peered blearily into the box of provisions they had on the kitchen table. The table was rickety, the collection of chairs had green and yellow flowers on the seat cushions, and the kitchen itself was a peeling, dilapidated room with very old appliances.
Dressed in comfortable shorts and a long sleeved shirt, Heero sat stiffly with a cup of steaming tea in one fist. He glared curiously at Duo as the young man pulled out two protein bars and a container of a vitamin rich drink. Duo was yawning, his hair was coming out of his braid, and he was barefoot. The dark outfit that he was wearing looked wrinkled and not very clean, as if he had slept in it for more than a few days.
"Are you going to mass today?" Heero asked at last.
Duo smirked. "Wrong."
"Wrong?" Heero echoed, confused.
"Your guess," Duo elaborated and then plunked down into a chair as he tore open one of his protein bars with his teeth. Once open, he peered over it at Heero as he peeled down the wrapper. "I'm not a priest."
"You are too young," Heero replied. "That would have been an illogical assumption on my part. I surmised, since you dress in what appears to be a priest habit, that you are probably very devout, or were in training to become a priest, before you were recruited as a pilot."
"Still wrong on all counts, Heero-buddy," Duo snickered. "Keep guessing, it's fun."
Duo bit into a protein bar cautiously and then looked pleased at the taste as he finished it in a few bites. Heero watched him eat as he sipped at his tea.
"You're staring again, man!" Duo complained. "You're not going to figure me out by the way I look."
Heero shifted in his chair and then stood up. Picking up his tea, he left the room without a word.
"Jeez, buddy-boy!" Duo grumbled. "Remind me not to play 'twenty questions' with you!"
Quatre came into the kitchen, then, yawning hugely. He was wearing a bathrobe, open and trailing the ends of the cloth belt on the floor. He wore white boxers, an undershirt, and slippers. His blonde hair was barely combed and he was wearing a half awake expression on his face.
"Good morning, Duo," Quatre mumbled as he too stared into the dubious depths of the provisions box. Sighing gustily, he fished out several bars and a drink of his own and then settled in a chair opposite Duo. He slumped there, staring at nothing.
"Morning," Duo replied and grinned. "You look like shit."
Quatre wasn't amused. His golden brows came down in a frown. "I spent nearly all night trying to beat sense into Mr. Chang."
"And?" Duo wondered.
Quatre shrugged as he began opening his ration bar. "I doubt if he will ever think of himself as part of our team, but he is willing to fight with us when the need arises. He gave me his com code. "Quatre's blue eyes flicked to Duo. "He would be gone already, but something was wrong with his compression unit."
"Imagine that," Duo replied innocently. "You'd think a guy like that would take better care of his Gundam."
"Hm, yes," Quatre said blandly. "It does seem odd, doesn't
it?" His eyes discover the tea kettle on the stove. His mood improved at
once as he wondered hopefully, "Did someone make tea?"
"Heero did," Duo replied as Quatre stood and began looking for a tea
cup. "How you guys can drink that stuff... give me some black coffee any
day!" Duo grunted sourly. "Speaking of which, if we're gonna stay
here for awhile I want some coffee and some decent food."
Quatre took down a battered cup from the cupboard and began pouring tea into it. He frowned. "Well, we can't predict how long we'll be here, but I doubt that it will be long enough to warrant burdening ourselves with supplies other than standard issue."
"Like tea?" Duo said pointedly.
Quatre stiffened and looked back at him, tea kettle poised over his cup. He smiled then and finished pouring. "I see. Yes, I suppose that comforts are important even if we have to leave them behind."
"You got it!" Duo chuckled. "You have to get some good in your life any chance you get, Quatre."
Quatre suddenly looked pensive and he hid his face under the bangs of his golden hair as he sipped his tea. He said after a moment, as if he had waited until he could trust his voice. "Sometimes, finding good is a very hard task, Duo."
"That's why you don't overlook the small stuff," Duo replied, looking serious as well. "It's all part of the big picture, man, you just gotta remember that or you're never going to get any life outta life."
"A Gundam pilot philosopher," Wu Fei said behind Duo as his arm circled Duo's throat like a steel band. "Tell me, philosopher, before I snap your neck, where is the part to my Gundam?"
"Okay, who ratted on me?" Duo wondered with a roll of his eyes at Quatre.
"If you mean, 'who told me that you had my part'?," Wu Fei growled menacingly," The answer is; no one. I deduced that you were the culprit because you were the only one avoiding my presence."
"Ever thought it could be because of B.O? Body odor?" Duo wrinkled his nose. "You need to freshen up those armpits, man!" Wu Fei's arm tightened and Duo's air was suddenly cut off. Duo struggled, his face turning red.
"I am not bluffing," Wu Fei warned. "Tell me now or you will
die."
Wu Fei released his hold just enough to let Duo gasp in air and to reply. Duo
panted and then choked out, "Quatre? A little help here?"
Quatre was frowning, but he didn't look alarmed. He sighed and said. "Give him his part, Duo. We can't force him to stay here."
Duo rubbed at his throat with a scowl. "I think I was doing a pretty good job of that up until now!" He slumped against Wu Fei in defeat. "Okay! Okay! Red toolbox in the hanger. Bottom drawer. I modified it for ya and cleaned it up. It should work at one hindered and ten percent now."
Wu Fei released him completely then and Duo moved quickly out of his chair to turn and confront Wu Fei defensively. He grinned when he saw the reason for Quatre's calm. Trowa, in a pair of shorts and a over large tshirt, was standing close to Wu Fei with his gun drawn on the oriental pilot.
Wu Fei managed to retain an angry, arrogant look as he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Trowa. "If you are going to shoot, then do so," he demanded.
Trowa stared and then a small smile curved one side of his lips. His gun lowered and he moved out of Wu Fei's way. Wu Fei looked distrustful and he didn't take his eyes off of Trowa as he edged past him and then left the kitchen, presumably to retrieve his stolen part.
"Talk about a stick up the butt!" Duo exclaimed with wide eyes. "That guy doesn't have a stick, he has a whole Gundam!"
"We need each other so desperately if we are to win this war," Quatre sighed. "Why can't he see that?"
"Seems he has a whole lot of anger getting in the way of common sense," Duo replied with a shrug. He rubbed at his neck. "Did that asshole leave bruises?"
Trowa looked and then raised an eyebrow at the red marks.
Duo frowned. "You and Heero would make really nice identical bookends," he grumbled. "I guess communication wasn't high on the priority list of the people who recruited you."
"And how would you know what a book end looked like?" Trowa replied quietly as he holstered his gun in a shoulder strap under his shirt.
"Oh, you're loads of laughs, clown man!" Duo snorted. "Keep 'em coming and maybe you'll manage two sentences in a row."
"Enough," Quatre admonished. "Would you like some tea, Trowa?"
"Coffee," Trowa replied. His attention went to Quatre and Duo was left behind and forgotten as he moved to stand near the stove and the blonde Gundam pilot.
"I'm sorry," Quatre apologized. "There isn't any. Duo suggested that we stock some supplies. We should add that to the list."
"Top of the list," Duo interjected and then rolled his eyes when he saw that neither of them were listening to him. They were staring into each other's eyes, Quatre looking decidedly shy and his cheeks turning an interesting shade of pink. "I'll go!" Duo growled. "With you two making bug eyes at each other all the time, there's no telling what you'd come back with!"
Duo turned to go, but Quatre suddenly registered what he was saying and started in alarm. "Duo, you can't! That braid... they'll know it's you right away!"
Duo grinned. "Nice to know you care and all, but I know how to blend in, okay? I didn't survive this long by being stupid. Besides," he winked broadly and said over his shoulder as he went through the door of the kitchen, "I'm willing to risk an awful lot for my morning coffee!"
Duo headed for the back door of the safe house, digging into his pocket and fishing out a card as he walked. He checked the read out that told him his balance... actually, it was the balance of the person that he had stolen the card from. A few moments of hacking through bank files, and it hadn't been hard to make a false identity and change the card's id codes to his own. By the time the bank did its accounting and realized that the deposits were just phantoms, he planned to be long gone from that area.
The hanger was a refurbished barn with a fake roof of tarp painted to look like tin. As Duo trotted down the back steps of the house, and jauntily walked passed it to reach the car that he had stolen, he heard Heero's voice snarl dangerously, "Touch him again and I will kill you!"
Duo stopped, startled. He slipped cautiously to the door of the hanger and put a hand to the gun at his hip. Peering inside, he saw Heero glaring at Wu Fei, hands clenched hard like twin rocks Wu Fei was arrogantly turning his back to Heero as he headed for his Gundam with his reclaimed part in his hands.
"It was my right to kill him for touching my Gundam, " Wu Fei told Heero coldly. "I chose not to exercise that right." He put a foot in the lift and began his upward journey to the cockpit of his Gundam. He looked down at Heero and called down, "If you would not do the same in my place, then being a team has made you an emotional fool! I am glad that I am leaving!"
Heero's expression was very dark. For a moment, he looked as if he would draw his gun and shoot the man, but he turned then and stalked over to his own Gundam to resume the repairs that he had been working on.
Duo scratched his head, perplexed. He thought, as he continued towards his car, Heero's defending me? What the hell...! I know he has a martyr streak bigger than space when it comes to the colonies, but I didn't know he'd fight for any of us too. Heero, my man, you're not all bad! Duo couldn't quite name the flush of warm pleasure it gave him. He'd never experienced it before, but he liked the way it felt.