July 15, 2000
Pairings: Established 3+4 but... can't everybody have a little fun...? Sure they can... (now if I can only figure out how...)
Warnings: Yaoi themes. Sappy in some areas (blame it on the romantic). Angst in other areas. Incoherence and random POV switching throughout. Wet G-boys (gotta luv that!). Hmmm... and... and... is that a lemon fresh scent I smell? Hmm... strange... I can't imagine why...::coughs::
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters belong to Bandai, Sunrise and Sotsu Agency and are only being used for non-profit entertainment purposes.
Notes: Hmmm. Well, Part 7 definitely didn't turn out the way I'd planned it to--silly story. I would swear it has a mind of it's own!--so now I'm even less sure of where this is going then I was before! Eep! That can't be good, can it? Meanwhile, we're left with some interesting question to answer, aren't we? Like--who's gun fired? What was on the computer that Duo was looking at? And--most importantly--*when* is somebody gonna hook up already?... err, gomen. Hee hee... hee...
His hands flew from the controls to the keyboards and back again, dancing over the panels with uncanny accuracy. His eyes danced from one screen to another. Searching.
A flashing light to his right.
"Bingo!"
click-click-click-click
The screen was centered before him and enlarged. A blinking cursor and a prompt: PASSWORD? _
He froze. Dammit. It figures. Heero Yuy was too good. He'd backed-up, protected, and hidden his own program. And none had been the wiser.
"Find it?" a quiet voice asked from outside the cockpit.
"Yeah," the braided pilot of Deathscythe replied, not bothering to look at the newcomer. "Clever bastard put an interrupter in--and we were none the wiser."
Silence.
"Duo? Duo!" a second voice called from farther away--still outside the hanger. "Duo?!"
"WHAT?!" He jumped out of the cockpit--a mask of Death curved his features. Quatre pulled up short, a quick intake of breath the only indicator that Duo's black mood affected him. The blond pilot pulled the lap top from under his arm, holding it up to the braided boy.
"I think you might need this to break any code he's put on there," he said, somewhat breathless.
"What makes you think he's pu-- never mind," he shot, jumping down from the cockpit with the ease of a cat. "Here, let me see that." In one movement, Duo had snatched the computer from Quatre's hands and settled cross-legged on the ground, computer propped in his lap.
"What are you looking for?" Quatre asked, noticing the...the...the....*focused* look on Duo's face and hunching over the braided boys shoulder to see.
"Heero has a program that can hack into anything in under a minute--wrote it himself," Duo said, not really paying attention to the blond boy but, rather, staring intently at the computer as lines and lines of data scrolled across the screen.
"But what's that--"
"Using his own program to hack into his own program," Trowa said quietly. The blonde's head snapped up, blue eyes wide. His green-eyed lover stared back at him---those eyes made him shiver.
"Is that right?" Quatre asked quietly.
"Is it RIGHT that he should fuck us over like that?!" Duo shouted, looking up at him, his violet eyes burning violently.
"No..." Quatre began hesitantly. "But I'm sure whatever the cause... I'm sure Heero had his reasons..."
"Yeah, I bet," the braided boy sneered. "He wants to be Mister Perfect Soldier. He wants all the glory to himself!"
Green eyes flared... and suddenly a lean body relaxed, letting go of the tension that had coarse through its veins for the last five minutes. "No," Trowa said softly. "There *is* no glory in war." His look passed from the braided boy--who looked at him with the eyes of one betrayed--to his lover--who looked lost and confused--to the fifth member of their team--who stepped into the hanger beside him. "Yuy knows that."
Duo sniffled. "Then why the hell'd he do it, huh, Trowa? Tell me that?" It was there. In his eyes. *That* look. He swallowed. "Why the hell didn't he *trust* enough...? Did he think we'd screw up or something? Huh? Huh? Tell me *that*!"
He tried to hold onto the anger--but it wasn't easy. No, the anger was melting away fast, leaving that gnawing of his insides. That gut-wrenching pain that made you feel like you were going to throw-up at any minute...but you never did. His eyes were stinging; so he closed them, digging the heels of his palms into the before any telltale moisture could escape.
"I--" Trowa hesitated. "I don't know, Duo. Only he can tell us that."
Duo eyed the other boy for another moment... and then slumped, the air whooshing out of him. "Yea, you're right," he mumbled... and then straightened. "But when he gets back he's going to hear about this!"
Trowa repressed a smile--but couldn't stop his lips from twitching. "I'm sure," he said softly, holding out a hand to the sitting boy. Duo slipped the computer into Trowa's hand and got up without assistance.
"Let's get that program shut down," Duo said, reaching back for the computer. Quatre slipped between Trowa and Duo to get a better view of the computer screen. Wufei quietly turned and walked away.
He didn't know why, but he looked away from the computer screen for a moment--and caught the sight of white. "Hey! Wu-man!" he called from over the computer screen. "Aren't you going to stick around and unbug your gundam?!"
The Chinese boy paused, turned back round half way. "No. There is no need." And then he was gone.
Duo Maxwell slammed the door behind him. Five feet behind him, Quatre Rabara Winner quietly opened the door, waited for Trowa to enter, and then closed the door behind him with a silent click. Duo fumed over the fireplace, hands grasping the mantle as violet eyes stared into the taunting flames.
The blond boy looked from his silent lover, standing at his side, to one of his dearest friends. "Duo..." he said, reaching out a hand.
"DON'T!" the braided boy shouted, pulling away from the unseen touch. "Don't even try that shit with me now, Quatre. I'm not in the mood."
"But I can--"
"I said 'NO!'" Duo turned sharply, his braid whirling with the movement, brushing through the flames before settling. The smell of charred hair turned their stomachs.
"I understand," the blond boy relented, burrowing closer into his love's arms. Together they settled unto a couch. "Well," he said calmly, taking a deep breath. "What should we do now?"
Before anyone could answer the question, Duo was talking again--or, rather, ranting again. "I can't *believe* he wrote a program that can't even hack into one of his own programs! Of all the-- the-- the-- ARGH!!!"
From his place in the corner chair, Wufei closed his book and let it fall to his lap. He had known that when they failed to retrieve the code, they would return to the study. His only decision had been whether or not *he* would be there when they arrived. Taking a deep breath, he reaffirmed his decision.
"That is because," he said, just loud enough to be heard by all in the room, "Heero Yuy did not write the interceptor program."
Four pairs of eyes turned to him--varying degrees of emotion in each.
"I did."
End of Part Eight: Admissions
Andrea Readwolf
Please send comments to: andrea_readwolf@hotmail.com