26-Nov-2000
Category: Action, Adventure, Romance, ANGST
Pairings: 1x2, 3x4x5 (Combinations there of)
Rating: R (Adult Situations)
Disclaimer: Not mine, no money being made or sought here.
WARNINGS: ANGST Warning!!! The following will introduce a subplot that will
involve some serious heartstrings tugging on behalf of a very young ORIGINAL
character. Please be warned if you are sensitive to such situations.
NOTES: Lots of 1+2 sneaky stuff in this part. Bonne
is the wonderful puppeteer of Heero, I'm responsible for Duo and the little
dragon.
As the pair approached a public hanger bay, Heero checked the direction of the signal and then looked at the public readout of flights that had left at the right time to see if any matched the direction indicator.
"Hn," he said to Duo as he did this.
Duo danced in place as he watched Heero check the indicator. Leaning over his shoulder at the soft noise his lover made, Duo nodded.
"Right, gotcha, we'll need to secure the small blue shuttle that just rolled out for takeoff on the far side of the hanger and you'd like pickles and mustard on your hamburger." Duo couldn't help teasing Heero just a little as he winked and began to make his way towards the transport in question.
Heero looked up briefly, his Prussian blue eyes carrying a spark of warmth as he watched his lover and fellow former-terrorist get them some *jets.* He followed as soon as he had a fix.
Duo slipped through the shadows thrown by the powerful lights of the hanger. The old training had never left him, it never even seemed to get *rusty*. He moved with the easy grace of one long used to these actions. Even his runaway braid seemed to behave itself as he flitted from one bit of cover to the next.
Finally he came up along side the transport. He did a quick outward check of the little blue shuttle before slipping along the side to the ramp. Duo moved quickly and quietly, always on the look out for some hapless innocent. He didn't want anyone to be in the wrong place at the wrong time as he appropriated the shuttle.
Newp... all clear. Grinning maniacally, Duo quickly keyed open the door and slipped inside, heading towards the cockpit secure in the knowledge that Heero would be right on his heels.
Heero followed, taking a route around the far side of the shuttle to make sure that was clear and then he slipped inside.
Duo plunked himself right down in the pilot's seat. It was an automatic gesture. He was running all the systems checks and quickly familiarizing himself with the shuttle's features.
"Grab a seat. This take off is likely to be a bit bumpy."
Heero strapped in and concentrated on keeping up with the signal from their diminutive quarry.Long used to his partner's quiet intensity, Duo just kept chattering away as he fired up the engines. All around him, ground crews scattered hollering with surprised outrage.
"Sorry folks... gottah be going, duck!"
Ahead of him, some on the ball terminal employee had started to closed the hanger gates. Duo smiled broadly, looking over at Heero.
"Isn't that sweet... they don't want us to leave them. Aww... I have a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart."
Duo then turned back to the screen and powered up the thrusters. He held onto the brake until the little shuttle was shuddering hard under the strain of thrusters pushing it forward and break system holding it back. Once he had built up the power level he wanted, Duo snapped off the break.
Slower then a Gundam... hell slower then any mobile suit, yet faster then anything these people had seen before, the little shuttle shot towards the closing doors.
"Outtah the way! God of Death rampaging through!!!" Duo howled gleefully as he aimed the shuttle towards the low ceiling, then banked it hard, slipping through the doors in a completely unnecessary gesture.
As they burst out into space, Heero tapped the destination into the shuttle's computer. "Nice takeoff," he said placidly.
Once out into space, Duo waited for the shuttle computer to catch up the coordinates that Heero fed it, then he leaned back with a proud smile. "Yeah... it wasn't too bad for not getting to blow anything up."
Heero glanced at his partner. There was a twinkle of affection in the serious Japanese boy's eyes. "Maybe later," he said simply.
"I'll hold you to that. I'm getting pretty damn tired of tiptoeing around with these assholes, playing pot shots at 200 paces." Though Duo spoke in his light airy tones, there was an undercurrent of real rage to the words. So subtle that probably only Heero could catch it.
Heero knew that Duo was no more interested in the massive destruction they had all known in the war, then any of his other fellow pilots. What the American did still have, deep in his core, was a child's need for a physically violent reaction to situations that frustrated or hurt him.
Heero understood the emotions coming from his lover. "You know why we have to be careful," he murmured soothingly, knowing the words weren't really necessary. "Too many innocents."
Duo's expression became... well it looked like a pout but again, it was that delicate expression of someone who knew no other avenues of release except the extremes. He leaned forward, fiddling with levels and gauges, completely unnecessary but it was something for his hyper active hands to be doing.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. It just, really sucks."
Heero glanced at the braided boy. "The signal is still moving. When it becomes stationary, we'll know where we are going," he said, snagging the end of Duo's braid. He brushed the end of it against his cheek almost absently.
Duo gave a little nod to Heero's words, still fiddling. He blinked a little when his braid got taken up and looked over careful not to pull his own hair, catching the movement of Heero's hands and the braid against his lover's cheek. The American boy couldn't help the little grin that came to his face as he studied the way his chestnut hair rested against Heero's pale skin.
Keeping his braid in hand range, Duo heaved a soft sigh and stopped fidgeting for the moment.
Heero heard the sigh and reached over again, this time catching Duo's hand in his own. He pulled it up to his mouth and kissed the palm, then the wrist, then absently nibbled then ends of a couple of fingers.
Duo tried to keep his cool. Tried to hold onto his upset but in the end he peeked over at Heero and gave his lover a rueful grin.
"You know, you're distracting me from a really nice and I believe well deserved, temper tantrum."
Heero looked up. "Um? Go ahead," he said, sucking one finger into his mouth, then letting it emerge only to repeat the action.
Duo watched the path of the finger and his memory went right to his groin. Whimpering a little he quickly drew his hand back to himself.
"Chasing the evil of the universe with a massive hard-on is a type of agony I do not wish to experience." His expressive violet eyes had lost the slight tint of red that had been burning in them earlier. Reflecting back warmth and love, instead of impotent rage.
Heero looked back, and then with a visible moment of thought, produced his first attempt at an imitation of Duo's pout. "Oh," he said, licking his lips. He then caught the braid back in his hand and held it to his cheek as if seeking solace.
Duo caught the *pout* full force, right in the face. His eyes went wide and his entire body tightened as the need to reach over and gather Heero up in his arms nearly overwhelmed him. The movement of Heero's hand taking his braid up once again and snuggling it, broke the spell but Duo quickly looked away stunned.
"Oh geeze, lover. You start turning that look on poor unsuspecting people and you're going to have them following you around like lost puppies. Then I'll have to beat them off with a stick!" Duo worked on getting his breathing back to normal.
'Gripes...' Duo thought to himself. 'No wonder Dr. J... may he burn for forever in a pit of molten fiery hell... had worked so hard to remove facial expression from Heero.'
"Hn." Heero said, with a faint note of satisfaction. "I did it right? Good. But I only want you following me around. I even have a stick to beat you with..."
Duo quickly turned his head and grinned wickedly at Heero. "And you beat me so well with it. I keep coming back for more and more and more."
Heero nodded, his eyes showing clearly that this state of affairs was one which he intended to preserve at all costs.
Duo held the wicked grin for a moment longer, then it slid into the very young, boyish looking smile that only his lover coaxed out of him. The one devoid of the caustic edges of sarcasm that so often surrounded the American boy.
Heero smiled gently back, still holding the end of Duo's braid like a talisman. Suddenly, he said, "When... all this is over... would you like..." he stopped, unfamiliar hesitation coming to the fore, then he put a bit of firmness into the next part, without making it anything like an order or requirement. "Would you like to... take a vacation? Just the two of us?" The terms were unfamiliar on his lips but he'd heard them often enough from other people.
For the second time that day Duo's eyes widened and he opened his mouth, then shut it. Then a shy little smile worked it's way across his features. Held in place by the pilot harness, he could still hold his hand out towards Heero.
"I... I thought... well... I mean.... I thought vacations made you... unhappy." Duo spoke softly, nothing but concern for his lover in his soft violet eyes.
Heero took Duo's hand, clasping it warmly. "I never had one, Duo," he said simply. "I mean... I never let myself have one. Always... always 'on duty'. But I don't see how it could make me unhappy... being with you alone, with no mission except to... to make you happy. Would it? Make you happy?"
Duo threaded his fingers with Heero's as he listened to the other boy's words. At the end he nodded vigorously. "Oh yes... I'd love to just... sneak off somewhere, just the two of us. Would... would you want to, go somewhere? See sights? Or... well..." Duo... the irrepressible Maxwell... blushed a little and looked down sheepishly. His voice got quiet and hesitant. "Well... there's this... spot I saw, on Earth... back when we were fighting. It was a little valley, in between two big hills, with a river and, well the mountains kept it pretty secluded. I think that's probably why I was hiding in it to begin with..." Duo looked thoughtful for a moment, trying to grasp the memory, then he shook his head and went back to blushing. "But... I remember thinking to myself that I'd like to go back there. It was, really peaceful."
Heero nodded. "If that's where you want to go," he said. He smiled slightly. "I have looked at some of the traditional vacation destinations online. Sally Po suggested Hawaii and Noin suggested a city called Las Vegas. They look very... crowded. Though Hawaii does look beautiful."
Duo tilted his head, trying to remember if he knew anything about Hawaii. He'd heard of Las Vegas. He sort of thought that would be a good place for all five of them to go in and wreak mayhem. Hawaii though... "This, Hawaii does it look like we could, spend some time, just the two of us?"
Heero shrugged. "As far as I can tell. Couples..." it was unlikely that an actual blush was making his cheeks slightly darker, it might have been the shuttle lighting. "Couples from both North America and Asia go there for something called a 'honeymoon'. I am unsure what the reference is to astral objects made of sweets but it seems to involved a lot of privacy."
Duo simply could not help the little laugh that escaped him. His eyes twinkled warmly towards Heero and he took Heero's hand in both of his, lifting it up to kiss the palm. "Umm... Heero, love, a 'honeymoon' is something that couples do right after they get married. " He knew this from his time at the orphanages. Some of Father Maxwell's charges had returned to him to have the priest marry them. The memory of these few ceremonies were among the good memories Duo had from his childhood.
Heero took this data in and simply nodded. He had been watching the signal on the tracker with part of his attention as they were talking, making sure they hadn't lost the object of this exercise.
"We can decide when the time comes. But we will do it," he said firmly, in the same tone he used to verify a crucial mission.
Duo leaned over in the chair, till he could reach Heero's face. He cupped one cheek in his hand and smiled at his lover. "I'd love to go to Hawaii with you." It was spoken with firm conviction, then Duo leaned back. "It looks like he's slowing down. What do you think? What's out here?"
Heero didn't answer. He used the meager scanning equipment the shuttle had to try and detect anything in the nature of a possible destination.
There was nothing obvious, like another colony but as they drew closer they saw a small resource satellite floating in space. It looked to be an exhausted one, discarded and Duo was about to punch in coordinates to dodge around it when something caught his eye.
"Heero... are there lights on that thing?"
"Hn," Heero replied. "Dodge around... then sneak back."
Duo nodded and began to pilot their ill-gotten shuttle around the satellite. Skirting it as if not paying a bit of attention to this thing floating out in space, Duo then brought the shuttle gracefully back around and closed back in on their prey. As he flew closer to it, it became more and more obvious that something, was definitely on the floating rock slab.
"Hmm... think there might be a couple of space suits in this bucket?"
Heero answered by unstrapping and doing a quick examination of the shuttle to see what was there. The space suits he found wouldn't have won any contests but they were basically serviceable for a quick hop from the shuttle to the satellite.
"Hn." Heero said, checking the suits over thoroughly. He pulled two off the rack.
Duo finished keying in subtle adjustments to the autopilot, then he stood and made his way to Heero. "Okay, the shuttle should keep pace beside this floating hunk of rock for 2 hours. Then we might have to find another yellow brick road back home."
"Good work." Heero said, as he finished sealing himself into the first suit.
Duo took the second suit and pulled it on, back to his habit of chattering. "Yeah, this shuttle has some pretty snazzy features on it. Someone is gonna be after our butts for taking it but..." Shrugs. "You know ... these things happen."
Duo grinned impishly and tugged the helmet on his head. Fastening it closed, he tested the radio equipment. "A big bathtub full of cherry jello."
"I'd rather have a bathtub full of Duo." Heero answered on his radio. Making his way to the hatch, he led the way on their excursion.
"How about if I'm under the jello?" Duo sassed back as he followed Heero out of the safety of the shuttle and into the dark void of space. Duo stayed very close to Heero, even though the distance from the shuttle to the rock was minimal. Still, space was a very large place and Duo did not feel any desire to explore it the way Trowa had.
"How about if you're under me instead." Heero returned. He headed for the lights on the exhausted rock.
Duo followed along, tracing their path up along the rock and towards the lights. As they came closer to the lights a couple of rather handy ventilation tubes came visible. Getting in was going to be a lot easier than Duo had anticipated. "Would that be missionary position? Or doggie style?"
"Depends. If you're feeling more like a priest or more like a four legged animal," Heero replied, catching Duo's look and making for the ventilation shafts.
"A priest eh? Heero I didn't know you had these strange fantasies... I'll have to see about fulfilling them." Duo sassed back as he followed Heero to the shafts. It took a little bit of work to remove the covers but it really was disgustingly easy for two ex-sneaky men like Duo Maxwell and Heero Yuy.
"I think it started because of that shirt and collar you used to wear," Heero mentioned, as he inserted himself into the shaft, clicking on a light attached to his suit helmet.
"You know... I don't think I can fit in that shirt anymore? I tried to put it on a couple weeks ago and it was too tight in the shoulders. Weird eh?" Duo waited till Heero got a good head start then followed him into the shaft.
Heero smiled to himself, thinking something other than *weird* about Duo's comment. He opted for silence at the moment though. Working their way through the maze was going to take concentration. He checked the small tracker which he had brought with them.
Used to running the rabbit warrens of the 4th, Duo had a rather... scary ability to keep himself oriented in regard to where he'd been and where he was going. He kept close to Heero as they made their way through the shaft till finally they began to close in on a source of light. The shaft widened a little as it came closer to the heart of the rock, allowing Duo to come up, shoulder to shoulder with Heero.
Heero's tracker had lead them to a large white washed room. As they came closer to the duro-glass covering the shaft high near the ceiling, they caught a glimpse of their small quarry. The young boy was standing in front of an older woman in a long white coat. His little fingers were going a mile a minute, obviously relating his mission to the woman who nodded impassively.
Heero tilted his head to bring his helmet into contact with the transparent covering. With luck it would conduct sound - if the woman were to speak to someone else. He also studied the boy's signs.
Even if he could have *heard* he would have heard nothing for the woman was as silent as the child. At the end of his tale the little dragon seemed to get animated and this earned him a serious frown and a quick cuff on the back of his ear from the woman. The child quickly sobered and slid back into the dutiful neutrality.
The woman nodded and made some motions with her hands back towards the child, obviously an indication that he was dismissed and was to go back to his room. Without staying to see if her instructions were carried out she turned and headed on down the hallway.
The little boy stood at attention till she was gone, then he heaved an obvious sigh, little shoulders drooping. The grand adventure was over. As he turned to head down the hall, his back to Heero and Duo, he stopped and stepped to the side. A moment later, into the older boys' view game a small parade of children. Younger even then the boy whom they had tracked, these little ones nonetheless moved with graceful dignity and impassive features.
The one thing that really jarred the minds eye was the fact that these little ones, male and female, both bore the unmistakable stamp of familia resemblance to Wufei. To the point of it being erie. Also erie was the fact that there was almost no difference from child to child.
Heero's eyes narrowed slightly at the parade of children. He moved back and motioned to Duo that they needed to find a place where they could enter the facility.
Duo nodded, also struck speechless by the little parade. He then began to wriggle back, looking around for another possible path, other then going all the way back out. He mentally calculated a few things, then tugged on Heero's arm, heading determinedly down a side shaft.
It took some twisting and turning, a little bit of wriggling and careful balance work, but Duo lead them back towards the hanger bay of the satellite.
Heero examined the entry point minutely for alarms that might be triggered by their passage. The couple that he found were child's play to disarm... well... if the child happened to be a highly trained terrorist but that was beside the point. As they gained access to the hanger, Duo lowered himself down quietly beside Heero. "We need to double back through those doors, if you want to get back to where we were."
"General recon." Heero said. "Want to know who runs this base."
"We better split up then, it will go faster." Duo pointed out, reaching over Heero's shoulder to indicate the different entry points they had access to.
Heero nodded. "Ten minutes, back here."
Duo nodded and gripped his partner's shoulder tightly for a moment, then he was gone as silent and quick as DeathScythe had ever been.
Heero's path, seemed to lead him into trouble. He kept having to duck and dodge out of the way of swiftly moving scientific types It was when he was ducking from the path of two scientist in deep conversation, that he felt a small tug on his space suit.
Heero looked down, his gun materializing in his hand instantly.
Unfazed by the weapon, the little dragon blinked up at Heero. The child regarded him solemnly for a long time, then a little grin sneaked out and he held up his hand, holding something out to Heero. In fact, holding Heero's own tracking device out to Heero.
End Part 6
Laekin
Please send comments to: seregill@aol.com or bonnejeanne@yahoo.com