June 2000
Category: Adventure, Angst, Romance
Time: 2 years after the events in AC 195.
Pairings: 3+4/4+3, 1+2, Wufei shows up as well.
Disclaimers: Don't own, don't seek to make money, just having a good time
roaming in the sandbox.
Archive: Well, it's finished but not polished. If you would like to archive
it and make me a happy little person, :D just let me know and I'll get the
polished copy to you.
Once they had gotten past the shaft, getting down one level had been surprisingly easy. Obviously the radicals had figured the shaft was a natural barrier. The mercenary in Trowa had rolled his eyes. One of the first things you learned was that any way was accessible. That the phrase "difficult, not impossible" had to be applied to anything you dealt with. However, since it had made things easy and given he and Quatre clear running to make up time, Trowa wasn't complaining. Unlike Wufei, he occasionally appreciated an easy time of it.
As they closed in on the control center, Quatre split from behind Trowa to come up against the other wall. The two boys approached the open doorway cautiously. Guns appearing in their hands almost simultaneously. Looking over to see if Quatre was in position, Trowa felt a twinge of sorrow seeing the heavy pistol in Quatre's well formed hand. The blonde's slender fingers barely made it around the grip, yet Quatre held the weapon with the easy grace that came with familiarity. Catching Trowa glancing his way Quatre nodded then stepped out.
"Alright. If those alarms I'm hearing mean what I think they mean, we've got control of the engineering section and the storage facilities. There is no point in anyone dying needlessly. Surrender."
Trowa stepped out behind his lover. It was a natural position that they habitual took when working together. After all, it was a lot easier for Trowa to aim over Quatre's shoulder then for Quatre to try to aim around the taller boy.
Quatre watched the four men in the room as they exchanged glances. Though outwardly he was perfectly calm, inwardly his heart felt tight. He could tell that these men were not ready to believe him, that they were ready to put up resistance.
~Please... don't. Don't make me kill you.~
Quatre desperately wanted to say the words, they burned through his mind and made his heart hammer against his ribs. Behind him he felt Trowa's solid presence. He knew that if he faltered, Trowa would be there to back him up but he could not let Trowa down, no matter how desperately he was sick of senseless killings: the meaningless deaths.
Reports were coming in across the static filled speakers. Most of the reports confirmed what Quatre had said. Heero, Duo and Wufei were in firm control of the majority of the satellite. As he watched Quatre could see three of the men slump against the walls, shoulders dropped, defeated. The last man, however, had an unnatural gleam in his eyes that came from the madness of pure devotion to a cause.
Time seemed to slow as Quatre watched the muscles along the man's jaw clench. He didn't even have to see the muscles in the radical's fingers twitch, it was as if Quatre could follow the nerve impulse from the brain down along the man's arm to his hand. Without taking his eyes away from the radical's burning gaze, Quatre could "see" the man reach for a weapon on a console behind him.
Quatre felt the kick of the gun in his own hand but he never heard the shot nor did he take his eyes away from the radical's features, even as he drilled a precise hole right between the man's eyebrows.
"Fool." Quatre whispered the word compassionately towards the dropping body.
Behind him Trowa snapped his aim on one of the men who was moving towards the fallen body. The man stepped hastily back. Quatre shook himself out of his stupor and stepped towards the console, knowing that Trowa would take care of tying up the remaining radicals.
Making a few quick checks on the controls Quatre reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a small communication device. Toggling it on he looked around himself, then spoke clearly into the small mic.
"04 reporting. Mission Accomplished."
Trowa finished cleaning the dish, then handed it over the Quatre who took it and worked on getting it dry.
"Dinner was excellent, as always Trowa. I love that stroganoff. From the look of it I think Duo was impressed as well."
Making a show of checking the dish water thoroughly Trowa quietly intoned. "I think Duo ate his plate."
Quatre laughed, a light musical sound and snapped the damp towel at Trowa's shoulder. "He was enthusiastic."
"He was a human vacuum."
Quatre blinked, then ducked his head, the tips of his ears going pink as his shoulder's shook with obviously suppressed laughter. Trowa eyed Quatre warily. It was never a good thing with Quatre both blushed and contained laughter.
"What?"
"Just... lucky Heero." Quatre peeped sassily up from under his bangs at Trowa.
Trowa stood there at the sink and blinked at his well bred, delicate mannered, diplomatic, crude lover.
"I don't believe your mind bent that way."
Quatre grinned and ran the towel through his fingers a moment, rolling it a little then quickly snapped it out wrapping it around Trowa's neck and pulling the taller boy close.
"What to see where else I might bend?" The blonde asked archly.
Heero made a couple of adjustments to the controls of the shuttle. After debriefing with Sally and Lady Une and having a rather pleasant enough dinner with the other pilots he and Duo were headed home. Duo was stretched out in the copilot's chair with his hands curled over his stomach fighting down a case of the hiccups.
"Oh man, who knew Trowa
"I'm surprised you could taste anything, the way you bolted your dinner."
"Hey, I was
"Duo, I feared you were going to eat your own fork by mistake."
"Bah...
Heero just shook his head and tweaked one last control before he reached over and flicked a switch to engage the auto pilot. After checking to make sure the automatic controls were correctly engaged he reached up and unhooked himself from his seat. Floating, he rolled out of the chair and toggled off the little shuttle's internal lights.
"Heero.. what are you..
"Helping you get rid of your hiccups."
"Huh? How are you.... oh..... OOOHHHHH!!!"
End Part 8
Well, this ends Preventer Business. I know that a couple people have asked me to continue with Pretty Hate Machine which once I get it firmed up in my head how I want to present that I will work on. In the meantime I've been bitten by another large fic along the lines of Preventer Business. I hope to have the first part of it out tonight and you all can let me know if I should keep typing away. Thank you for reading and enjoying Preventer Business. As always I live on a healthy diet of feedback. :D
Laekin
Please send comments to: Seregill@aol.com