Notes: #...# indicates thoughts/thinking.
Interlude VII
Duo watched the children play at the swing set. There were less children here then during the summer, but there were still some that were willing to brave the cold. Boston hadn't really been touched by the war. There were no big bases any where on the Eastern Seaboard, just a bunch of small independent labs that subcontracted most of their research to OZ. Usually an easy in, easy out job. He had done a couple while waiting for T-chan to show up last summer. The info had been transmitted to the Docs after he had gotten it, so he didn't have anything to worry about when Une searched his stuff when he was out with T-chan, if she found out where his safe spot was while he was in Boston. He didn't have much, so it shouldn't have taken her more then a few minutes. She would have found it and Boston would have been his downfall, instead of the most wonderful week of his life. ‘Neesan would have been really peeved that he was using his vacation with Treize to also nab some secret research.
The mothers had looked at him oddly when he started hanging around here a couple of weeks ago. He didn't blame them. He had looked like one of the creeps that he warned the kids in his gang about. A few days of rest had gotten the circles out from under his eyes. After a few weeks he could sleep through the night, mostly, and look at himself in the mirror without wincing. And he was starting to fill out. He was looking less like a refugee from Bedlam and more like a normal human being.
He wondered how long it would last. The waiting game was driving him insane, since he had caught up on his sleep. This was the part that was going to kill him, what was going to happen to him. Did the Mad Five contact anyone else or was this all just another mind game that they had been playing with him? And who was the next winner in the ‘Jump Treize Khushrendra Contest.' Was he gonna wake up one night with Trowa or Heero pointing a gun at him, blowing his brains out because they thought he had lied to them? Or would it be arranged so that it looked like he had jumped in front of a bus or train? Aside from a few things that he had to take care of, Duo stayed off the nets and avoided using anything that might be traced back to him.
It had taken a few days for one of the kids to get up the courage to ask what he was doing there and gradually he had charmed them. That he looked harmless helped a lot. And he was willing to play with them under the watchful eyes of assorted mothers, baby sitters and older brothers and sisters. They all had accepted the story of small vacation before going back to school. It was true, because even if they other pilots let him back to work with them, he didn't think that they were going to let him stay near them, so he was expecting another round of boarding schools or worse. But he didn't think that he'd be staying with them. Or seeing T-chan again. Not without a chaperon and he didn't think that anyone in the group, including himself was up to a threesome. T-chan's eyes would light up he bet, just to try it once. He really was greedy at times.
He avoided all the places that he and T-chan had been last summer. He had gone a museum one day and almost burst out in tears. All the places they had been to he avoided, just so that he wouldn't be bothered by the memories. So he rented a small room in a tiny neighborhood near the island and hung out there and a few other places, like the library, while waiting to see if Trowa came to kill him or if he got to pilot again. And got see to see T-chan again.
He hoped that T-chan would forgive him someday and take him back. He felt like a real idiot walking out on him, but he couldn't tell him where he was. And he definitely couldn't visit him because then the Docs would know and the cat would be out of the bag. So they both got to be thousands of kilometers apart and brooding over the fact that they missed each other.
He wondered if they had gotten around to pushing someone else into his bed before it had all broken loose, with the announcement of his ‘illness'. Romafellers had taken him out of the game for some reason, he was wondering if it was going to be permanent. T-chan had been walking a tightrope since his coup and destruction of the Federation Doves, he just might have finally slipped, even with all of ‘Neesan's support. Une had been off on her calculations a bit, she'd thought that there'd been more time. Duo was certain that she hadn't taken into consideration Mirialdo Peacecraft. He had managed to spoil things with his alliance with White Fang. Duo wondered how T-chan was handling this. He almost decided to ignore his plan and rushed back to him, just to hold his hand and tell him everything would be alright. The comforting lies that one wants to tell. He knew he would never have been able to tell him that, but he wanted to.
"Yeah Treize you sure know how to pick ‘em. One former lover trying to kill you and your dream and your current whatever hiding out, so his allies can decide whether or not to kill him." Duo muttered to himself.
Duo was about to start his daily walk about the causeway, when he spotted Quatre waving at him. It wasn't like Duo was hard to miss, it was windy and his braid was bobbing around for all it was worth. He smiled. They must want him back if they sent Quatre to pick him up, any of the others and he would be debating if it they were going to kill him. He bounced up to Quatre, happy to see him. He had missed all of them while he was gone. He hadn't been around much, but they were the closest thing that he had to family in the Universe and he didn't want to see them sad. Duo enveloped Quatre in a bear hug and couldn't say anything for a moment.
"You okay Quatre?" he asked, seeing the worry in the other's eyes. #May be they did send Quatre to shoot me. Though I don't think the Trowa would do that to him. He tries to protect him as much as possible, whether he needs it or not.#
"Bad news, Duo." He said, "can we go someplace where we won't be overheard?"
"Yeah, we can walk around while we talk, people aren't too plentiful around here in the winter, no one to overhear us." #May be I'm jumping to conclusions. Too many people around. Even Heero isn't this ballsy. I'm really bad when I can't trust Quatre for God's sake.# Duo nervously thought.
"You look better," Quatre started as they went towards the ocean. #Anything would look better then the last time that I saw you. You looked dead, just your body hadn't realized it yet.#
"Well I couldn't have looked any worse then I did that night." Duo said echoing his thoughts," Trowa didn't get into too much trouble from the other two about letting me wander off, did he?"
"They were angry, but they got over it." #Heero's still brooding over it. And they both got out of there as soon as possible. They didn't trust any assurances that Treize probably knew where we were all along.#
"He's a nice guy, but you knew that already or else you wouldn't be smoochin' him." Duo teased.
Quatre blushed, Duo laughed and hugged him again. #Sorry to be all over you Quatre, but I need to touch someone. I've been lonely, and you're not going to come out and tell anything unless I ask...# "So what brings you here?"
"Duo, there's been trouble. The night that I met with Treize..."
"What!?" Duo exclaimed stopping suddenly, then moaned "Oh shit, they didn't, not you, damn it have they no conscience left?"
"Duo," Quatre, looked at him seriously . "It shouldn't have been you either, but they did it."
"But...Hell I was used to it, Quatre I've been on the street, most of my life, except for the short time I was in an orphanage. I was used to get treated like a party favor. You aren't. You're a nice guy that got sucked into this mess." Duo said, staring off into the distance. "How'd you get the honor?"
Quatre laughed. That he didn't have to go through with it, made the situation seem funny now. May be it was hysterics because everything was coming out right for once. "Outside me and you can you see any of the others trying to pulled it off? Heero would have shot him, Wufie would have ranted at him and Trowa would have just looked at him."
"That still don't make it right. Shit, if those people would think or do research, they'd figure out that T-chan doesn't think with his dick. And if he did, it would be some weird Byzantine plot that they would be clueless about, cause that's how he thinks. Waving a pretty bauble in front of his face doesn't distract him as much as they want it to. I'm still trying to figure out why he was letting me crawl in and out of his bed at first."
"He liked you?" Quatre asked, "You were nice to him? You weren't really trying to get anything out of him. He was trying to figure out why you were doing it? Ask him when you see him again." #Duo why don't you believe that someone can love you, for yourself. What had been done to you and Trowa that you can't believe it? What did they break in you?#
"If he lets me see him again." Duo sighed. "I walked out on him, just like his last paramour, for my own selfish reasons. He might get sick of his lovers taking off on him." #I miss you so much, T-chan. I dream about you. I want to see you again. This seems different from the other times that I left you because I don't know if I'd see you again, if you let me talk to you again. I want to tease you and cook for you and see you smile as I make faces at 'Neesan.#
"He wants to see you." Quatre reassured Duo, wanting to get that look out of his eyes. He looked lost and scared. "And they weren't selfish, you just can 't commit to him the way that the rest of us can with our lover. I think that he understands why you left. He wasn't happy about it, but then he wasn't really happy about me showing up either. In fact I think his words were ‘Do those bastards think I'm a pedophile?' He's in Luxembourg at the Romafeller estate there, under house arrest. I barely got out of there before his arrest. The only reason I did was because Lady Une escorted me out through some weird secret passage." Quatre paused for a second, "She says ‘Hello' and she misses you. You weren't...?"
"He's under arrest? Why? The news briefs said he was sick, but I didn't think so. I know how truthful they usually are, I thought it might be something else." Duo caught up with the last part of the sentence. "Oh no, she just was happy that I was sleepin' with Treize and not a Romafeller toady. Or his last lover, they did not get along at all. And she knew that I wasn't going to back stab T-chan, so she put up with the arrangement. I sorta treated her like an older sister half the time. I think that amused her. "
"Who was his last lover?" Quatre asked curiously. #You treated Lady Une like she was an older sister? And she let you? What did you do to make these people like you? And why doesn't it work on the scientists?#
"Mh?" Duo looked at Quatre, his mind on how fast he could get to the estate in Luxembourg. "Oh? It was Mirialdo Peacecraft, Relena's older brother, otherwise known as Zechs Merquisa."
"Oh, I was wondering how they knew that he liked boys. They must have found out about it and when he left...they sent you in there." Quatre said, "It would have been embarrassing to find out he wasn't interested."
"Yeah he was pretty broken up about his leaving him, then he does the Ambassador thing. That OZ is bitchin' about the Mobile Dolls to him at the same time didn't help. I must have the last straw and he just went with the flow. Besides anyone with half a brain in the Specials figured out his interests a long time ago. He wasn't bothering to be subtle about that part of his life. They didn't care, he got that much charisma goin' for himself. Which is why there's trouble with the Romafeller Foundation. They are just sooo traditional and hetro." Duo drawled, wanting to get Quatre to laugh. He hadn't heard it in a while.
Quatre obliged him with a chuckle, thinking that most of the Foundation would point out that they had to control the colonies, look at the degenerates that it was sending to fight them. It was just weird that they all had been interested in boys more then girls. Or was it the fact that after a while, you needed someone to love and if there were only guys available that you trusted.... He wouldn't have thought that Wufei was homosexual or Heero.
But thinking of those two and Trowa under the slang term of gay just was too bizarre. Gay did not cover their personalities. He didn't know about Duo, but he never been interested in girls, too many sisters he guessed.
Duo stared at the water, feeling Quatre look at him and wondered how he was going to break the comfortable silence that had fallen over them. Duo enjoyed being with a friend, if Quatre could be called that, but they had business to cover and questions to answer. Much as he liked standing here watching the gulls smash clams, they both had things to do. Duo sighed and spoke, "Quatre, the rest sent you out here for two reasons. One you're not going to kill me out of hand, none of the rest of them would have that attitude. Two, you have the most tact of any of us. You'd explain things a lot better then anyone else. So what do you want me to do? I really want to make up with Treize, but..." Duo trailed off, blushing. "If you guys aren't happy about that I will go with your decision."
"Go make up." Quatre beamed at him, starting to perk up again. He adored playing Cupid, while this was not the couple that he would have chosen, but you work with what you have. And Duo had been lonely because of their selfishness. "He hasn't interfered with us before this, he won't now. The big problem is trying to get Shinigami back. Howard's got it, and I don't think he's going to give it back to you. He's in Space on the PeaceMillion. Mirialdo /Zechs has been spotted with them a lot."
"I'll talk to Howard about that. We can work something out. I don't think he 's been clued in on all the facts. Zechs might be a problem though. How'd you guys get him into space?"
" Howard picked him up a week after you left. Heero still couldn't get him to do anything. Which is good, because we haven't heard from anyone after they told me to go visit Treize. I think that they went over to the White Fang, either willingly or were captured. The colonies have rejected us. There's a price on all of our heads. We've got no orders, but we've agreed to still fight on, so after things get settled, I'll tell you the plan, because we have to think of one. It should take you a day to get to Luxembourg. Meet me in five days in the Sank kingdom at Relena's."
Duo hugged Quatre again. "Thanks for understanding. You don't have to worry about me showing up with Treize because for him bolting would be bad. He's waiting for something to happen, but I don't know what though."
"Duo, I wish that you would have told us what was going on." he started. When Duo opened his mouth to say something Quarte shook his head. "Not that you were sleeping with Treize. Or why you started it. But I wish that you would have let us known that the Docs were using you for so many assassinations. You shouldn't have had to suffer by yourself."
"It was getting to me Quatre," Duo admitted, " that's why I wasn't eating towards the end, but what kept me going was the fact that they wouldn't hand them off to Trowa or Heero, but you or Wufei. That wouldn't have been good. Wufei's stressed out enough over a lot of things and you shouldn't have to do that. You are trying to fight a clean war, stupid as that sounds and you were heading towards a breakdown yourself, until the Mobile Dolls."
"I know, Trowa was what kept me sane," Quatre said softly. "I wish that you could have had that comfort, instead of stolen visits."
"T-chan tried to stop time when I was with him and for the most part it worked." Duo smiled back at Quatre, "but there were mornings that I could have cheerfully killed you all because you all fell asleep and woke up with your lover for more then one night at a time. That's what hurt. Now that I think of it, I can see why T-chan cuddles more then anything, it's...you know?" Duo finished with a sappy smile on his face.
"I know, get going and you'll have more time with him." Quatre smiled back at him. Cuddling did make up for a number of things.
"Thanks Quatre," Duo said as he enveloped the other boy in a bone crushing hug before dashing off. "See you in the Sank Kingdom."
Quatre smiled sadly, For a second, Duo seemed like his old self. Twice as bouncy as a sack full of kittens and as cute. He hoped that it worked out for Duo. He did deserve it.
End Part 10
Christine
Please send comments to: Devilkitty@speakeasy.net