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How could a freighter dock without the embargo patrol noticing? That was the biggest question on Duo's mind. Corruption was possible, but a lot of blind eyes would have to be turned to accomplish it. Blind eyes, erased recorders, blanked satellite feeds...
As Duo ate his his meal of stir fried synthetic protein bites and reconstituted vegetable noodles, he had to consider it and the poverty that he had seen so far. If supplies were being smuggled there, it wasn't a great deal. He suspected infrequent shipments, a patchwork of whatever was pirated or smuggled in when the time was right. Finding out when that time was, and why that time was optimal, was the next question. That required slogging through logs, security protocols, and recorded embargo ship 'chatter' with the satellites.
A heavy tile hit the desk and shattered along the edges. On it was written, We protest the presence of Duo Maxwell and demand imediat expulsion. It looked as if someone had burned the letters in with a torch.
"You spelled immediate wrong." Duo said calmly, with only a flick of a glance at the thing.
The young girl in overalls put hands on hips and scowled at him from under messy black bangs. Her hair was so uneven, Duo suspected that she had barbered herself with a knife blade. "Another has been delivered to the Governor," she warned.
"Looks serious," Duo said as he continued to look over immigration logs on the computer. "That must have been part of someone's home."
The knife he had suspected was suddenly at his throat, tickling his juggler.
"Put it down, Tanya," Jim warned and his gun was at her temple as he came around from one side.
She glared sideways at him. "He pay you off?" She asked.
"Not enough money in the universe," Jim assured her. "I have orders, though, and I'm just as keen as immigration, to keep following them."
"What the fuck for?" Tanya demanded.
"It's called civilization, darling," he replied. "I don't intend for us to lose it. We don't kill people in cold blood here. We have a court system."
"We should try him and then kill him?" she wondered with an evil snicker. "That is civilized, I guess. I'll tell the others."
"He hasn't done anything wrong," Jim pointed out.
She scowled again, "I'm sure we can come up with something."
"That would get him the death penalty?" Jim replied, incredulous.
"I thought you were joking," Tanya snarled, "but you're serious, aren't you?"
"I am," Jim insisted. "You can tell everyone else that, too."
"Oh, I will!" she threatened. "You just made a lot of enemies, Jim."
"Part of the job, I suppose," Jim sighed.
She sheathed her knife, spat aside, and stalked out. Jim looked at Duo, who hadn't stopped his research. "She could have killed you. Aren't you the least bit effected?"
"She wouldn't have done it," Duo replied as he made a note on the computer.
"I know her," Jim argued. "I know what she's gone through, the child she lost..."
"When you've seen as many killers as I have," Duo replied with a shrug. "You know the look in their eyes. She didn't have it. She was mad, but she's no killer."
"Other people are," Jim warned him. "Those are the people she'll get to do the job."
"Only if I leave myself open," Duo told him. "They won't get a legal reason to do the deed if I can help it and they won't risk making the embargo longer. I won't rule out the ones desperate for revenge at any cost, but I think they're outnumbered."
"Cocksure," Jim growled as he holstered his gun with a harsh movement.
There was a long silence and then Duo said, "Thank you, by the way. You're risking a lot."
"For the right reasons," Jim replied as he snagged a chair and sat down. "I meant what I said. I won't see us sink into chaos. We need to stay civilized or it will be rat eat rat, here."
"I know how that is," Duo told him. "I grew up in rat eat rat. I don't want that to happen to this place either."
"Then get done and get out of here, as soon as you can," Jim replied. "I don't want to die and neither do you."
"That's the truth," Duo agreed. "I'll try my best to keep us both alive, Jim."
__________________________________
"Run!" Duo hadn't expected the hard calloused hand to grab his and jerk him bodily out of his chair, or for Heero Yuy to be on the other end of that hand. Since he had just cracked the complicated shipping code that Heero had been using, it was surreal that the very man should so suddenly appear.
"I figured it out!" Duo shouted at his back as Heero pulled him down the stairs of the building.
Heero was wearing a thin suit shirt, combat pants, and ship boots with magnetic links that clattered on the marble floors as they ran. It was obvious that he had just docked somewhere, making his sudden appearance that much more bizarre.
"I knew you would!" Heero called back with the breath of a laugh as they hit the bottom landing and headed out of the building at a dead run. Adrenaline, Duo realized. The man was pumped with it. That meant that something bad was about to happen.
"Jim?" Duo exclaimed in concern.
"Gone," Heero assured him as they crossed a broken street and felt the hot venting of an over worked processor as they crossed a metal bridge over it. "He warned me."
"Nice guy," Duo snorted, wondering if the hand that Heero was crushing in his own was ever going to regain feeling.
"No," Heero replied. "He was reporting, not warning. There was nothing he could do to help you and I don't think he really wanted to."
The records building collapsed with a load thunder of explosions perfectly timed to take it down in place. A plume of dust filled the air.
"Slick work," Duo commented as they hit an airlock and the heavy door slid shut. It cycled to even out the pressure and then an opposite door opened out into a ship. "I hope they had back ups."
"Erased," Heero grunted as he finally released Duo, closed the airlock, and threw himself into the pilot's chair of the small ship.
Duo felt the light gravity as he stopped his forward momentum on hand rails. His mind was working on all cylinders as they undocked and spun away from the satellite.
"And why is nobody stopping you?" Duo wondered as he finally found a seat and strapped down.
"Invisible," Heero replied as he worked the controls. "My computer is telling their computers that there is nothing to see."
"That would take..." Duo's head hurt just thinking of the number of calculations that required per second.
"So that's how you've been shipping in cargo, but how have you been hiding it from the inspectors?" Duo wondered.
"You don't get all the secrets, not for free," Heero replied.
Duo watched Heero slide the ship through the blockade, making a mental note of the name of the ship that was obviously turning a blind eye. A computer program wasn't opening every door, just most of them.
"Making an an arrest list?" Heero wondered without turning around.
"Depends," Duo replied with a sigh, as he slumped in his chair and closed his eyes.
"Depends?" Heero echoed and Duo heard the ship go on autopilot.
"If I'm alive to arrest anyone in the near future," Duo replied.
Heero's voice came right in front of him. "I'm not going to kill you."
Duo blinked open his eyes again and narrowed them at Heero's concerned face. "Tie me up? Maroon me on some abandoned Satellite with a chancy oxygen filtration unit?"
"You were already on one like that," Heero replied almost angrily. "Didn't you notice?"
"I noticed," Duo replied. "So, what's next, if I'm not breathing my last?"
"Your choice," Heero replied as he turned away and checked instruments.
"What happened?" Duo asked bluntly. "I thought you were going to stay gone, stay under the radar. I thought that you had enough of fighting."
"Like you?" Heero retorted.
"You're judging me?" Duo was incredulous.
"I'm accomplishing more... much more," Heero replied.
"Illegally," Duo pointed out, refusing to get angry. He was too used to people not understanding his work, to rise to Heero's bait.
"Then you've already made your choice?" Heero sounded disappointed.
"Jim had it right," Duo told him. "You don't toss away laws when it suits you."
"Even when they kill people?" Heero snapped back. He was turning to face Duo again.
"You change them," Duo insisted. "You make the people aware of the problem."
"And when they ignore you?" Heero seemed to stalk towards him like a tiger, every muscle leashed with his anger. He leaned over Duo, then, both hands flat on the wall as he looked down at him fiercely. "Do you follow laws when people refuse to change them? Didn't we have enough of that during the war? You know, better than i do, what happens when people think that someone deserves what happens to them."
Duo unconsciously rubbed ribs that had been cracked by soldiers, and remembered torture by people who had believed that he deserved every bit of it, that he was worth less than they were. That laws and human sympathy didn't apply. It had the opposite affect, though. It firmed his resolve. "If they had followed procedure, I wouldn't have gone through that. It wasn't sanctioned. Heero, you have a just cause, but there are others who don't. If you break the laws, then why should they follow them? Why should anyone when it conflicts with what they think is right?"
Heero slammed a fist on the bulkhead. Duo didn't blink. "I thought this would be easy," Heero told him, "I thought that you would join us."
"I am joining you," Duo told him. "But on the right side of the law."
"Impossible!" Heero snarled and pushed away from the wall to turn his back on Duo.
His shirt was very thin and short sleeved. Duo saw scars bunching with muscle as the man clenched with anger and frustration. He also saw the faint outline of something very large on his back.
"What are you hiding?" Duo wanted to know. "What are you making up for?"
"The war?" Heero sneered.
"Too easy," Duo snorted. "Try again. What did you do while you were gone?"
Heero pulled his shirt up and a large, colorful dragon tattoo snarled fiercely and snorted smoke and fire across his back. "Is this what you wanted to see?"
"Yakuza?" Duo wondered in shock. "Why?"
"Not for free," Heero retorted. "You've declared your side in this. You don't get anything more."
"Then what's going to happen now?" Duo wondered. "How are you going to keep me quiet?"
Heero opened a case and pulled out restraints. He turned and aimed his gun at Duo. "Put these on and no more questions."
Duo made a mock sad face, "I'm hurt that you think I've gotten that soft."
Heero looked surprised. He hadn't expected an argument. He was armed and he was far stronger than Duo. "You're going to resist?"
"Are you really going to shoot?" Duo wondered, holding out his hands and making himself an easy target.
"I don't need to," Heero grunted. He made sure of the safety on the gun and then holstered it. He even took the time to make sure that it was strapped down properly, before he approached Duo determinedly.
Duo kept relaxed, waiting. Heero wasn't a fool. He eyed him suspiciously, not trusting, grip on the restraints tight while his free hand reached out to grab Duo. Duo had counted on it. A soldier didn't allow a potential weapon to get into the hands of the enemy. As Duo grabbed the restraint chain with both hands, Heero braced himself backward to resist what he thought was going to be an attempt by Duo to use it to advantage. That left him off balance and open for Duo to land a solid kick in the man's diaphragm. He went down instantly as Duo jerked the gun out of Heero's holster.
"Never corner a street rat," Duo smirked as Heero curled around his gut and gasped for air. "We fight dirty." Duo cuffed one of Heero's wrists and locked the other cuff around a bulkhead support. If Heero decided to break that he would space them both.
Leaving the gasping Heero still on the deck, Duo slid into the captain's chair and checked their course. He frowned when the instruments told him nothing.
"Encrypted," Duo surmised and checked his visuals, noting the position of the star field. His brain did the calculations easily and he grunted as he said aside to Heero, "Charts say that's empty space, but I bet it's not empty any more. Your toy maker has a lot of credits to put his own drift that far outside shipping traffic."
What to do next? Duo considered plans and pondered regulations. He was supposed to contact authorities. He had been kidnapped and almost killed. Proof of that was nonexistent, though. Vid would show him getting on the transport willingly. He was sure his attempted murder had already been well planned to look like an accident. Finding the drift and the stolen materials, would be the proof that he needed.
"Don't do this, Duo," Heero begged as he finally managed to sit up and speak. His dark blue eyes were full of his passion, his belief in his cause.
"You don't know what my plan is," Duo countered.
"You've already said that you want to arrest us," Heero retorted. "You don't care about our cause, about saving those people."
"The road to ruin is paved with good intentions," Duo replied as ran through a string of passwords trying to unlock the encryption."Zechs told me that, right after they sentenced him to thirty years on Mars Colony."
"Thirty years for trying to destroy half a planet?" Heero scoffed. "How can you support a system like that?"
"Thirty years in a bubble, on a lifeless planet, without seeing a plant outside of hydroponics, is pretty much hell, Heero," Duo replied as he kept trying passwords.
"I don't agree," Heero replied angrily.
"We don't agree about a lot of things, it seems," Duo said sadly.
"Death still wouldn't be enough punishment for what he tried to do," Heero told Duo, anger rising. "All of those people he killed... everyone that he tried to kill..." Heero shook his head sharply and growled, "You won't discover the password. You're wasting time.Go ahead and have me arrested."
"Always the martyr," Duo sighed, "but I've already figured out your password."
Heero scowled in disbelief. "You're lying."
"I don't lie," Duo replied firmly and typed in 'unfair.' Systems unlocked and telemetry and information began lighting up screens. "Life can't be fair one hundred percent of the time, Heero. We can only make a hard attempt at something near it."
"What now?" Heero demanded.
"Gathering information is what I do," Duo explained. "That hasn't changed. I intend to get up close and personal with your boss and the drift, but on my terms."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I have to use the facilities," Heero growled. Sitting up, he had spent the last few hours glaring as Duo tried to work out a plan for approaching the drift undetected.
Duo smiled. "To your right. This is a small ship. I know how it works, Yuy. You don't need to go to the back to take a pee."
That got Duo another growl. He heard Heero operating the collector that was meant for relieving crew when they couldn't be away from controls. There was a flushing noise as air pressure cleared tubes and then Heero replaced the equipment with force.
"Better take care of that," Duo commented, without turning around. "It's a long trip out."
"I'll have to do more than piss eventually," Heero felt the need to point out.
"I'm sure that I can help you manage that without unlocking you as well," Duo replied and was greeted with an embarrassed silence. He chuckled. "Heero, we used to have to do it in our suits during battle. Maybe I'm not the one losing his edge?"
"I didn't say that you had, so don't fucking insult me," Heero snarled.
"No?" Duo grunted. "You imply a hell of a lot when you think I'll go along calmly with whatever you want. I at least expect you to try and kill me."
Another tight silence had Duo looking around at Heero. The man was glowering at the floor, jaw working. Duo had a feeling that he wasn't reacting to his words just now, but to bad memories.
"I told you. I won't kill you," Heero said at last, coming back from memory, but still tense with emotion. "I'm not a killer. You should know that, especially when I had more reason... before."
"Yakuza is going to tell me he doesn't kill?" Duo left the controls and approached Heero, making sure to stay out of reach. "You didn't put on that tattoo to make cupcakes, Yuy."
"I'm good at making bad decisions," Heero retorted, "especially when I don't see any future for myself." He took a steadying breath and then said, more softly. "Haven't you ever wanted so badly to see some sort of future for yourself, that you listened... that you let people talk you into something wrong? They take you in from the cold, Duo. They make you their friends. They give you a home. It's easy to want that so badly that you overlook the wrong."
"How many wrongs did you overlook being a yakuza?" Duo wanted to know angrily. "The men and women forced into prostitution? The drugs? The little old men broken down for protection money? People in other gangs killed?"
"No!" Heero snarled, bristling. He bit down on the anger again "I just...gave them my name. Let them use me as a threat. I just... showed up."
"Big bad Gundam pilot Yuy will take you out if you don't do what we say?" Duo guessed.
Heero nodded. "I swear... I swear that I didn't do anything myself." He looked away, headed bowed. "I came to my senses. They gave me a beautiful Japanese girl. As delicate as fine china. Trained to perfection, they told me. All mine. My reward. Mine to do with as I pleased. She was terrified of me, of my reputation. I... I took her to Wu Fei. He took care of her. It's easy to play the part until you see the cost. I quit. They tried to kill me. I lived up to my reputation, then."
Duo was frowning. "So experienced yet you're so naive, Heero." Heero glared but he ignored it. "Everyone's used you. A weapon. A soldier. A yakuza. They've never let you really live a life. If you had, you wouldn't keep falling into these traps."
"I'm not being used this time!" Heero insisted. "I'm not a weapon, not a soldier. I'm really making a difference."
"Your toy maker needs a body guard," Duo pointed out. "Why is that?"
'They don't understand what he's trying to accomplish," Heero insisted.
"The people who don't want him building or the people he's double crossing?" Duo wondered.
Heero's head jerked up in surprise. "What?"
"How many attacks have you thwarted that had anything to do with protestors?" Duo wanted to know.
"I'm not a detective," Heero replied angrily. "I didn't investigate them."
"How many of them had tattoos?" Duo persisted.
Heero blew up in an instant, "Are you implying that he's yakuza?"
"Not implying, just stating the facts as I've found them," Duo replied calmly. "How many ships have you pirated? How much of those stolen goods have passed the blockade? I have to wonder why I didn't see any sign of improvement there."
"Shipments are getting through!" Heero protested.
"And you personally oversaw every one of them?" Duo wondered.
Heero said nothing to that.
"Just like you personally oversaw every pirate attack?" Duo continued.
"You stopped attacks on your toy maker's person, but then let others handle them after, right?" Duo went on. "You never saw if they kept on breathing after you were done with them, right?" Duo leaned in a close as he dared to drive his last point home. "Your boss can afford his own drift, can afford to let a construction site on L3 rack up bills, fees, penalties, lawsuits, and never get built. If money is going out the front door, Heero, it is generally my experience that it's coming in the back door. Isn't it possible that you're getting suckered yet again?"
"You're fucking wrong!" Heero exploded. The lunge was expected, Heero actually making it to Duo's shirt wasn't. He had spent his time bending the metal of his restraints to get partially free and now he had hold of Duo, jerking him close in the low gravity and sending them both against the bulkhead. He wrapped an arm around Duo's throat then and began to squeeze, eyes not totally rational. A man never took having his dream destroyed very well.
Duo slammed his head back into Heero's face. He heard the grunt and saw blood float past, but Heero wasn't letting go. Duo was surprised when the grip went slack and Heero's forehead came to rest on his shoulder. Heero's other arm came partially around him, as much as the restraint would allow. The sounds of weeping was shocking.
Duo rubbed at his throat and then at the strong arm still holding him. "I could be wrong," he admitted, "but I don't think I am. Heero, when are you going to start living your own life? When are you going to stop letting people use you for their benefit?"
Heero leaned in harder and didn't reply.
"I couldn't find anything wrong with your boss," Duo admitted. "Everything tells me he's a good guy. Having others do the dirt for him, keeps it that way, you see? People like you take the falls for him while he just keeps on smiling and making toys... and money."
"I wanted to help them," Heero choked out.
"You can, just not this way. I'll help you help them, okay?" Duo comforted.
"While I'm in jail?" Heero ground out.
"That would require proof," Duo reminded him. "I don't have that yet."
There was a long quiet and then Heero sniffling and taking in a deep breath. "Stupid."
"No, just...." Duo leaned back into Heero until he was comfortable between Heero's legs, his back pressed against Heero's chest. Heero tensed and then, after a long moment, relaxed. As Duo unlocked Heero's restraints, a part of his mind calling him stupid, he said, "Stop following. That's always been your problem."
"You make it sound easy. It's not. It's all I know," Heero told him, his breath warm against Duo's shoulder. "What am I without a cause to fight, without orders... not someone anyone wants."
"Purpose makes you wanted," Duo filled in and nodded. "Life needs purpose."
"Yes," Heero sighed.
"There are other kinds of purpose, Heero, purpose that doesn't eat your life, that fulfills you instead of uses you up," Duo told him, rubbing Heero's arm again. "Let me handle this. Let me find enough proof to put the bad guy away. You get yourself far away and find yourself without anyone else telling you what to do."
"That would be... lonely," Heero pointed out, sounding anguished.
"If you aren't happy with your own company, then how do you expect anyone else to be?" Duo replied.
Heero's arms slid away. Duo pushed himself off and stood up. He didn't turn. He gave Heero his dignity and went to controls.
"I'll drop you off at the last outpost before the drift," he told Heero. "I'll get in touch with you, after I get back Earthside and make my report."
Heero didn't say anything and, when Duo did finally glance back at him, Heero had his face in his hands.
____________________________________
"I'm not certain that your choice was a legal one, Duo," Quatre sighed as he refilled Duo's mug of coffee himself and then sat with his tea.
"I didn't have any proof that Heero was in on it," Duo replied after a grateful sip. It warmed his belly and took the taste of space off his tongue. He loved to be out among the stars, but being planet side was an instinctive coming home. He supposed Quatre felt the same or he wouldn't have built his main house there.
"You and Chang turned a blind eye to the proof, Duo. That's not the same thing," Quatre protested.
"Doesn't he deserve it, though, after saving millions of people?" Duo argued, hand clenching on his mug.
"You can't be a good cop, thinking that way and you know it," Quatre pointed out.
A large picture window overlook a desert and an oasis. It seemed cheating to have a climate controlled building in the heat of the desert, but it made the view pleasant instead of one gained by an ordeal under the hot sun. Duo stared over Quatre's shoulder at the palms and the sparkling water, trying to come to terms with his decision, trying to find the legality that had allowed him to lie to Heero to save him from jail time.
"Do you want Heero to serve time?" Duo wanted to know. "You could file your own evidence."
Quatre sighed and put down his tea cup. "Duo, I don't have your dedication to the law and you know it. I'm concerned about you, though. You infiltrated a drift, hacked into systems, and hung Patterson out for your Chief to collect and put behind bars. Not doing the same to Heero is going to destroy your career. If you play favorites, the laws you are upholding mean nothing."
"Even when I found out that Patterson was secretly using back door financing to pay for his thefts?" Duo wondered. "He was on the up and up in everything but his methods. Even the judge only gave him eleven months in light security. I was wrong about almost everything."
"You're afraid, aren't you?" Quatre asked, leaning over the small table between them to look Duo in the eye. "You told Heero that he was being used. You told him that his cause was good, but a lie. You're afraid putting him in jail will make him hate you completely."
"He doesn't already?" Duo retorted sourly.
"You haven't been able to find him to ask," Quatre replied. "Perhaps he can see that Patterson's trial and sentence highlighted the plight of the people that he had been trying to help? The people want answers. The people are demanding that the embargo be lifted until there is a review of policies and their consequences. I've been able to send shuttles in with supplies and equipment already."
"You want me to start a manhunt for Heero," Duo growled as he put his mug down and stood up. He paced to the window and leaned against it, staring out over the long drop to the desert sand below. He could see Quatre's loyal guards, as small as ants, at their posts. "If he won't come quietly, and serve his sentence, what then? Do you think I can live with myself if they gun Heero down?"
"You don't know Heero at all if you think he won't serve his time," Quatre told him firmly. "He's willing to sacrifice his life for his ideals, so what is eleven months if he's accomplished his goal?"
Duo closed his eyes tightly and then blinked at the sun, trying to find the resolve to do his job, to not compromise his own ideals. "What will he say to me after eleven months?"
Quatre was suddenly there at his back, squeezing his upper arm in sympathy. "If he has nothing to say, Duo, then there was never anything for him to say before this."
Meaning that, if Heero couldn't accept him for who he was, for the career and the law that he had chosen to follow, then anything between them never had a chance, didn't have a chance now.
Duo fisted hands against the warm glass of the window and then nodded. "I'll turn in my evidence. They'll arrest Heero, if they can find him."
"You're doing the right thing," Quatre assured him.
"You planned all of this, didn't you?" Duo wondered.
"Patterson was going about things all wrong," Quatre replied. "He was bearing the cost, the burden, going it alone for a good cause. He wasn't helping those people, though, because he couldn't smuggle enough to make much difference. His plan to relocate them all to his drift was also foolish. We learned in the war how people will cling to their home, even if it means misery for them. Some might have gone, but many would have stayed. I knew that the power of public opinion was what he really needed. Unfortunately, it took scandal and a trial to put the spotlight on his cause."
"Your cause too," Duo snorted.
"Yes," Quatre agreed unapologetically. He draped an arm over Duo's shoulders and said, "You did your job and you did it well. It's up to you whether your ideals can be compromised for love."
"And if I decide that Heero is more important?" Duo wondered sadly.
"Heero's importance isn't the question, here," Quatre replied. "Or your love for him. It's wondering whether you can live with yourself, discarding what you believe in, to have him. Love mixed with bitterness and regret turns to poison, eventually, Duo."
"He doesn't even know that I love him. I've only told you," Duo protested. "I'm just a detective, the guy putting him and his boss in jail."
"You didn't tell me," Quatre reminded him with a chuckle. "It was obvious how you felt about him, Duo. It's always been obvious. I have a feeling that Heero, if he didn't realize before, certainly realizes it now."
Duo slipped out from under his arm and pulled out his cell phone to call his Chief. "I don't have your faith, Quatre. I can only go by what's in front of me, what's solid."
"The facts," Quatre sighed."That's what makes you a good detective Duo."
Duo had to agree, but it didn't make the pain any less as he explained to his chief why Heero Yuy should be arrested.
______________________________
"If I were you, I'd watch my ass, Maxwell," the chief warned as he chewed on his cigar and tossed a sheet of paper at Duo. Duo caught it awkwardly as his boss waited for his response.
The paper was a print out of release dates. Heero was a free man.
"I'm not afraid of him, chief," Duo replied. "He went in himself when his arrest warrant was posted."
"Serving eleven months isn't much for a man out for revenge, Maxwell," the chief persisted. "He dropped out of sight as soon as he hit the exit door of the prison. No known use of credits or services."
Duo frowned, almost feeling Heero's pain himself. He could imagine the man free and not sure what to do next. Old instincts would have kicked in,' lose pursuit before you figure your next move.' He could see Heero in a bolt hole, under the radar, needing a direction and not finding one.
The chief sighed, "You have a lot of guts, Maxwell, or you're stupid. I'm not sure which. If it were me, maybe being targeted by the most dangerous man on Earth or in Space, I'd find him and keep an eye on him at least."
"Is this an assignment?" Duo wondered sourly.
"I don't see any trikes gone missing or kittens in need of finding," the chief snorted and switched his cigar to the other side of his mouth. "This would be too high level for you and take too much time away from your... what do you call it?... Looking after the common man?"
"You managed to get five years worth of funding out of my last big case," Duo reminded him as he let the paper drop back to his chief's desk. "Hoping for more?"
"Maybe. Couldn't hurt," the chief snickered, but then he was leaning forward and looking serious. "Don't you two have some unfinished business, anyway? I mean, aside from the revenge, and killing, and all that?"
"Meaning?" Duo growled.
The chief looked uncomfortable as he said, "You got a thing for him and you know it, kid. Everyone knows it. You wouldn't have taken the toymaker case if there wasn't. So, maybe you can get your business done while you do mine?"
"I thought this was about protecting myself. It isn't?" Duo wondered angrily.
The chief leaned back in his chair again and laced his pudgy hands together. He looked down at them and said, as if he were holding cards close to his chest. "I'm not the only one who wants an inside into that yakuza gang of his. They must know he's at loose ends too. There's a good chance they'll hook up. I want someone there taking notes when it happens."
"He's done with them," Duo pointed out. "He told me that himself."
"You're never done with them, Detective Maxwell, and you know that," the chief replied. "They'll make him an offer he might not be able to refuse. Wouldn't you want to be there when that happens?"
"You know something," Duo accused. "Spill it."
The chief smiled and slipped a memory stick over his desk towards Duo. "It's all there. A lead, nothing more, but one I think you are good enough to follow. Interested?"
"You're taking care of my bird again!" Duo snarled as he snatched up the stick and stalked away.
"I hate that bird!" His chief shouted after him.
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Duo's lead was a small, fuzzy, security camera vid barely three seconds long. Duo wondered how the chief had managed to get it. Usually channels, higher than they had access to, were required. Duo played the vid, over and over again, on his small palm computer, trying to enlarge it as sharply as possible to see every detail.
Heero, or someone who looked very much like him, slipped through the crowd at a shuttle port. There and gone, the black and white vid wouldn't even let Duo tell what color the man's hair was. The flash of an eye towards the camera, under messy dark hair, just before a shoulder of a taller man blocked that face, told Duo that the slip had been intentional. A man seemingly that wary, and knowledgeable about the security, could have easily kept his anonymity.
It was a 'Come and get me, if you want to.' that was unmistakable. Whether it was a threat or a plea, couldn't be determined yet.
If the Chief had gotten hold of the vid, it was a sure bet that someone else, the Yakuza in particular, had as well. It put the lie to the report that no one had seen where Heero had gone, after leaving the prison. The motivation for that was as clear as the Chief's interest. He wasn't the only one wanting to see whether Heero made old connections. If Preventers was already on the case, then they were the big dog. Duo could yap all he wanted for the scraps, but he wouldn't be getting any.
Duo would have liked to believe that Heero had been speaking to him directly, but being the hero of the day, was certainly still a main driving force in the man's personality. With almost a year to think about the direction his life would take afterward, 'sacrificial lamb' might have come to the fore front as an option.
Duo sighed as he settled his duffle bag more securely on his shoulder and threaded his way through evening crowds. The vid had come from Old New York city, a place that Duo was comfortable with. It had the same upper layer of civility and progress, as L2, and the same corrupt, rotting, larger layer underneath. It peeked out of dark alleys with hungry, abused eyes, and walked among the people begging. It hid underneath the three piece suits of the respectable, like sharks, trolling for the kill, the big score, and the dirty deal. The Yakuza were here, as they were everywhere else, in space and on Earth, running their illegal rackets with business like efficiency.
Everyone was after Heero. The Yakuza weren't going to show their hand in an obvious fashion, knowing that all eyes were on their prize. If they wanted Heero that badly, they were going to have to take him off the street and make him disappear once again.
Duo grimaced at a light snow fall and shivered under his thick coat as he ducked into the doorway of an inexpensive hotel. He needed a room for his base and his Chief had coughed up a pitiful amount of credits for travel expenses. He would be living lean, during the investigation, and it made him think even more of his old home.
Where to look first? That was the question of the hour, and as Duo found his room, tossed his duffle onto the bed, and pulled out his laptop, he had to consider what kind of man he was dealing with. Wu Fei would be pouring over the same vid clip, and using every bit of technology that Preventers possessed, to discover any clue as to Heero's location now. Heero would know that. If there was a clue, it was either obvious enough to be a general calling card, or subtle enough to be aimed at only certain people... or one man.
Duo growled at himself for being a fool, for still hoping for something from the man. Why should Heero trust him, or want him, in any way after his lies? Maybe those lies had been designed to keep Heero from getting an even harsher sentence, but Duo wasn't under any illusion about what Heero's reaction must have been when he had found out. If it had been him, Duo would have found it hard, if not impossible to forgive.
Sitting on the bed, Duo loaded up the vid on the larger screen, ordered the cheapest items on the room service menu, and spent the rest of the evening trying to find some meaning to everything from a lift of Heero's eyebrow, to the way his jacket was buttoned. A man didn't say, 'Come get me.' without telling anyone where that was.
Duo was about to call it a night, and was actually turning away from the screen with his hand on the cover to close it, when his brain kicked into gear and told him that there was something to be noticed.
"Hm..." Duo blinked blearily at the screen, not sure why Heero's luggage strap should call for attention, or the lettering, written in black marker, could be anything other than..."Well he wouldn't do that, would he?" Duo asked himself sarcastically and sat down again to enlarge the strap. Heero Yuy wouldn't write anything on any part of him that would identify him.
Numbers. Duo frowned as he froze the image, seeing Heero's hand on the strap and one finger slightly crooked towards the fifth number. Eight. Only eight or eight was the first in the sequence, instead of the obvious three?
"Three, nine, seven, one, eight, zero," Duo said aloud. "If eight is the first number then...." An address? Duo called up a grid of the city, trying to find it. There was an address, several addresses, on different streets. None of the locations seemed likely, but Duo made notes of them, anyway.
"Too obvious," Duo muttered and enlarged the frozen image, especially around Heero's finger. Something was peeking out, just under Heero's finger tip. A capital G?
Realization hit Duo all at once and he grinned. Gundam? He scanned the number again, putting them in their written order, and understood. Searching the city directory, Duo found what he was looking for. Snatching up his coat and rolling off of the bed in one motion, he hit the door running.
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Duo was careful not to allow anyone to follow him. he slipped through crowds, changed cabs several times, and slipped through dark alleys through the belly of the city until he reached his destination. Grinning at the name of the diner, Afterbuirer, he opened the door and scanned the crowd. He spotted Heero hunched in a corner, nursing a tea, his bag next to him on the bench seat.
Duo's smile dropped as apprehension set in. Heero wasn't glaring, but he wasn't looking welcoming either. He nodded to the bench seat in front of him and Duo slipped into it, settling his own bag down onto the floor.
Heero didn't congratulate Duo on his brilliant deduction, or even mention the cryptic numbers that had been the computer code to ignite Deathscythe's afterburners. Only Heero, who had been inside the machine to steal parts, and had hacked the computer as an aside, Deathscythe's designers, and Duo knew that singular code. Unless someone had manage to follow them, their meeting was a secret.
"I did what I thought was best," Duo began, having practiced his defense for nearly a year. "I didn't want to see you do years of jail time."
"I could have helped you," Heero protested, staring down into his tea and obviously trying to keep control of strong emotions. "You didn't need to make everything that I had believed in to be a lie, including you."
"I had to get you out of the way," Duo replied firmly. "I don't care if you hate me. I don't care if you want to punch me into raw meet over it. You're safe and you only had to do a little jail time. Whatever else happens, that's worth a lot to me."
Heero did look up then, blue eyes intense. "Why?
Duo felt embarrassed, but he wasn't going to lie to Heero again. He needed to chose his words carefully, though.
The waitress came and Duo ordered coffee. When she was gone, he found Heero still staring at him, waiting.
"Sorry if it bothers you, but I do care about you... always have," Duo told him defensively. "That's why I'm here, now. I don't want you falling into the Yakuza's hands again. I want you to have a chance to have your own life, making your own decisions on the right side of the law."
Heero reached to touch where his tattoo was under his jacket and shirt. "This doesn't come off without a lot of work. It's almost not worth it."
"Maybe you don't have to remove it?" Duo suggested, knowing that there was a double meaning to the words. "Maybe you just have to think about it differently?"
"How different?" Heero wondered skeptically.
"Roads not taken?" Duo supplied.
Heero snorted and asked, "Who said that?"
Duo frowned. "I am capable of saying something profound, Yuy." Heero raised an eyebrow and Duo sighed as he sunk in his seat. "Okay, so it was Dr. G. He liked that phrase. Used it particularly when he told me to steal Deathscythe. I was ready to blow him and Scythe away, and maybe myself too, but he told me that there was another way. 'The road not taken makes all the difference.' that's how he put it. Now it's your turn to get the lecture. You don't have to go down this road. There are others."
"One with you on it?" Heero guessed and Duo couldn't tell how he felt about that.
"It's not about me," Duo replied, nervously. "It's not about what I want. I'm not going to give my road as an option at all."
Heero's hands worked on his tea mug as he thought. When the waitress brought Duo's coffee, his hands had something to worry against as well.
"Aren't you wondering why I wanted you here?" Heero asked, meeting his eyes again.
Duo didn't want to hope. He replied with surer knowledge, "I'm the only one who's told you to live your own life. Maybe you needed to hear it again, before you made a wrong decision?"
"You think a lot of yourself," Heero said, sounding almost angry. "I don't need you to repeat yourself. I've had nearly a year to think about things. I wanted you here for another reason."
Duo winced. "Revenge? Payback? A little pound of flesh?"
Heero was very still. Time seemed to crawl by, the dull noise of the diner filling the silence between them."You risked your career for me," he finally said.
Duo shrugged.
"Now you're going to act like your career doesn't matter to you?" Heero snapped.
"No, but it's not as important as you are to me," Duo replied. "Someone said to me, though, that I needed to make sure that I could live with my decisions. I made all the decisions that I could live with, even though some of those decisions cut close."
"For me," Heero affirmed.
"Yes," Duo agreed.
"And you won't ask me for payment, for your own kind of payback?" Heero wondered, looking confused.
"No," Duo assured him. "You can walk out of here and I won't tell a soul that we ever met, not even my chief, who wants to know where your Yakuza friends are very badly."
"Not my friends," Heero growled.
"I was hoping that they weren't," Duo replied.
"They'll always want me," Heero told him bitterly, looking over Duo's shoulder, and through the large front window of the diner, as if he could see them out there, searching for him. "I'll always have to stay one step ahead to stay free. What kind of life is that?"
"What do they say? Freedom isn't free?" Duo replied sadly. "Maybe all that we can hope for is that you feel that freedom in here," he said, pointing at Heero's chest.
"We?" Heero repeated. "Are you offering something?"
Duo smiled, feeling his moment at last, but feeling a sick nervousness in the pit of his stomach, as well. It was time to put his cards on the table.
"I'm not asking you for anything," Duo told him, leaning a little forward and daring to put a hand on Heero's where he held his tea mug tightly. He felt a slight twitch of skin and saw Heero's eyes widen a little. "I'm along for the ride, if you want me. If you don't, like I said, I'll be on my way, and nobody the wiser about you."
Not having a clue what Heero's reaction would be, Duo couldn't help a slight flinch when the man moved his free hand a little too quickly. Heero noticed and slowed his movement to settle that hand gently on top of Duo's.
"I've never..." Heero tried, swallowed, and couldn't meet his eyes. Duo gave him a moment, and then Heero said, "I know that I feel something for you. I thought a lot about you when I was in prison. When you walked through that door... I don't think I want you to walk out of it again, without me. It might take time for me to make sense of that, for me to understand what it is that I..." His hand tightened on Duo's. "It's not going to be easy, Duo, but I do want you along for the ride."
Duo felt a wave of relief and he grinned. "I'll have to call the chief. He'll be pissed, but that's too bad. I'm in it to help the little guy, and he's after the big fish, with me as the bait, so it's time that I moved on, anyway."
Duo used the last of his credit to pay for their drinks and leave a tip. As he and Heero slid out of the booth with their baggage, both of them beginning to smile with a growing excitement, Duo remembered an important complication.
"My bird, Scythe..." At Heero's puzzled look, Duo explained, "He's a raven... kind of temperamental.. a bitter, actually.... and neurotic as hell. Maybe I should find a good home for him?"
Heero snorted and shook his head. "We'll see how well he travels. Maybe he just needs his freedom as well?"
Duo thought about it and then chuckled. "Maybe you're right."
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The mountain shack didn't even have running water or electricity. Off the grid, Heero had called it, and Duo had to agree, the man hadn't even let him keep his cell phone. A few months of dropping out of existence to make all trails cold, and they could rejoin civilization and find their place in it. They even had fake IDs, birth cards, and papers, ready for use. Darren Whitehall and Yuma Taketori would be names hard to get used to.
The braid was questioned once, and then not again. Men had braids. It wasn't that unusual. There was only so much of himself that he was willing to jettison for Heero's sake, Duo knew, and Heero cared enough about him, not to insist.
Duo checked Scythe. The bird squawked irritably on its perch near the fireplace. Once free of a cage, it had decided to stay with them, and was, now, only confined during travel. Heero had been right that a great deal of the bird's bad temper had been in reaction to its captivity. Though it hadn't completely lost its biting nature, it had improved.
Heero was curled up on the couch, blankets piled high and a gas lamp giving him light. He was reading paper brochures, trying to decide on their next destination. Duo sat next to him and teased some of the blankets away for himself. Without electronics, he felt worse than blind. His cell and his computer had been like extensions of himself. Reduced to antiquated information on paper, he couldn't imagine getting nearly enough information to make a decision.
"Anything?" Duo wondered.
"Hm... not yet," Heero replied. He finally tossed the brochures aside on a table and then sank back to stare into the fireplace pensively.
Duo watched his profile, trying to determine Heero's mood. So far, they had traveled as if they were on a mission. In most respects they had been. Disappearing wasn't easy when everything was tracked and anyone could pick up on those electronic tracks. They had to step into someone else's tracks and make sure that no one questioned their new identities. Heero's hacking abilities weren't fool proof, but Duo doubted that anyone ordinary could ever discover that Darren and Yuma had never been born or had lived the lives that Heero had entered into the government's main computer systems.
The mission was over for now, at least that mission, Duo thought. Maybe it was time to relax and to decide about other things? What perfect place than in the middle of nowhere, in a cabin that begged people to huddle for warmth and to do nothing but focus on each other? All he had to do now, was to test the waters and see if they were frozen or warm. Duo couldn't help feeling some trepidation. Heero was like a wall, most times. Even now, relaxed and with nothing to do, he seemed capable of springing into action, mind focused on goals, and not on the man sitting under blankets next to him.
Duo felt the attraction. He was enjoying the line of Heero's strong arm so close to him, even under red flannel, the roll of a shoulder, the line of his neck, and the way his bottom lip had a soft, almost pout. Heero's hands were small, but with strong fingers. Duo could imagine those fingers kneading flesh, touching him with rough calluses, gripping firmly.... The stirring of his body was sweet anticipation, a goad to do what he had been longing to do.
Duo very slowly reached out and put a hand on Heero's arm. He let it rest there for a moment, letting Heero look down at it and decide whether to toss it off or not. When he didn't, Duo felt the strong muscle underneath his shirt sleeve, smoothing his hand firmly until he reached Heero's wrist. He stopped there and looked up at Heero questioningly. Heero turned his hand over and Duo took it.
It was on Duo's tongue, as he pulled Heero slowly to him and rearranged the blankets around them both, to ask whether Heero had ever been with a man, to do some confessing, to think about supplies that would make it easier, to ask if this was really what Heero wanted, but nothing came out. The moment was too intense, too fragile and easily broken. It required feeling, not logic, not thinking things through.
It seemed, at first, as if they would just hold each other and share warmth. Duo tried to wrestle down baser urges, but it was plain enough what he really wanted. Heero's hand smoothed over the bulge under Duo's pants. His palm was warm as any heating pad as he seemed to contemplate what he was feeling.
It was like a damn, breaking all at once, as if Heero had released himself from rigid attention, to wild abandon. His mouth locked on Duo's and his hands were pulling aside the blankets and Duo's clothing as if he thought that Duo was suffocating and needed air. When those warm hands slid along Duo's upper body, he gasped helplessly into Heero's mouth and buried hands into Heero's shirt to pull him even deeper into the kiss.
Heero wrenched away suddenly and yanked off his shirt impatiently, needing contact, needing Duo's hands to grasp at skin.
When Heero's pants followed the thrown clothing, piling on the floor, Duo's eyes widened as the flickering flames of the fireplace picked out a form that was better than he had ever imagined. Tight muscle, washboard stomach, straining need, and legs like iron: Heero was like a rock, all hard planes and angles as he pressed his body against Duo's once more. There would be bruises, finger marks, and sore places, later, but Duo didn't care.
Heero was strong, but Duo knew enough about grabbing sensitive places to make the man pause in his assault, to take more time, to prepare carefully, to let fluids flowing from their excitement ease the way, for lack of anything better. When pain finally turned into pleasure, Duo was shoving Heero onto his back, sinking the man into the couch cushions as he rode him, taking Heero by storm as powerfully as Heero had tried to overwhelm him. When Heero came with a shout and a buck of hips, Duo felt the man's iron hard grip on both his arms leave marks.
It took Heero a few moments to recover, but his body never weakened as Duo continued to ride him, Heero's hands grabbing and kneading each tight globe of his ass. Duo leaned forward to place a hand on Heero's shoulder to brace himself, while his other stroked his erection harshly. When Heero used his strength to drive Duo up and down on him, he felt as hard as an iron rod. The dual punishment had him coming explosively, splattering Heero's chest and face.
Duo laughed breathlessly at the sight and then collapsed on top of Heero. He licked his own come from along Heero's lips and then kissed the man as Heero pulled the blankets up around them both with shaky, exhausted hands.
Resting together in warmth, their breathing slowly calming, Duo whispered ruefully. "My ass is really going to hurt."
Heero thought about that for a long moment, arms tightening around Duo, and then he replied thoughtfully, "I feel...right."
"Hurting me?" Duo wondered with the beginning of temper.
Heero's hand was clumsy, pulling hairs accidentally, as he stroked a hand quickly over Duo's hair. "No, not that... what we just did. I've never... I can't explain it. I just feel that I did something right... for me. I don't think I've ever felt that way before. It's... strange."
Duo smiled and made Heero shiver as he swirled a finger around his brown nipple. "So, gay sex is right for you?"
When Heero grabbed his chin and left another bruise bringing his face up to look him in the eye, Duo vowed to teach the man control of his own strength. "I didn't mean fucking you," Heero said as harshly as his grip. "If that's all you want..."
Duo jerked his chin away. "If you'll remember, I'm the one who chased after you. It wasn't just for your dick, dumbass."
Tension bled out of Heero visibly and his arms came around Duo again. He was awkward, hard muscle making the hug almost a strangle hold. "I want you. Not just for this. For everything. It hurts in my chest when I think about not being with you. I don't really understand, but I think I want to find out what this is... with you."
"I'm not going anywhere," Duo promised him. He made Heero loosen his hold enough to breathe properly. "When you're ready to give your feelings a name, I'll be right hear to hear it."
"Here?" Heero wondered.
"Well, not here, here," Duo corrected. "I meant with you."
Heero smiled and it was soft and genuine. He didn't say anything more, but his need to have Duo stay with him there all night, spoke for him.
TBC
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