< < What the fuck have you done to
your hair? > >
"Ah... Duo did it," Relena said meekly,
resisting the urge to lean away from the huge, out-of-focus image of Howard's
face on her vidphone screen. "The reasons behind it are, ah, long-standing and
complicated."
He snorted and, to her great relief, sat back a bit. <
< I shoulda guessed. What did he do, glue the bows in so you can't undo it
all without cutting them off? > >
"He wouldn't do that!" Relena
protested, then reconsidered. "Well... not unless I really deserved it. Which I
don't. I like this hairstyle, so I decided to keep it in for a day, that's
all."
< < He's had more of an effect on you than I thought, >
> Howard muttered. < < Right; getting back to me being pissed at you.
If he's messing with your head, in more ways than one, obviously the kid turned
up. Why the hell didn't you call me?! 'Hey, Howard, I just wanted to let you
know that you can stop growing that new ulcer of yours', > > he added in a
squeaky falsetto. < < 'Duo isn't dead or anything'. Would it have been so
damned hard to pick up a fucking phone?! I know you've got my number here in
Santa Monica, since I was here when you called me the first time, damn it! But,
no! I had to find out through my contacts, six weeks after he
turns up, and all I get is 'The kid's back'. No details about where he's been or
what he's been doing, just that he's back-- oh, and there's a rumour that he
don't look too good and Sally Po is on his case medically, but that can't
be right since YOU'D TELL ME SOMETHING THAT IMPORTANT, WOULDN'T YOU?! You
wouldn't leave me hanging for six weeks if there was something wrong with
my kid! RIGHT?! > >
This time, Relena did scrunch back in
her chair, retreating as far as possible from the roaring gargoyle on screen.
"Howard-- I didn't mean to-- I-- It's been a tough six weeks, I
forgot--"
< < Well. > > Voice suddenly cold and composed,
Howard slowly settled back, coming properly into focus for the first time. <
< For the sake of my sanity and your continued good health, you are going to
tell me all the little details I seem to have missed out on. I want to know
where my kid's been, what he's been doing, what happened to him, how he is, and
where the hell he is now! > >
* * * * *
Back in his new
office after lunch, Duo settled cautiously into his chair, took a deep breath,
and lifted the top folder off the stack of files sitting in his intray, checking
the cover to make sure it was the one he wanted-- the initial course proposal
and lesson plans that had been written up when the Preventers' training system
had been set up. He opened it and started to read.
Five minutes and three
pages later, he closed it, got up, and walked out.
"Um... it's Amanda,
right?"
Lady Une's secretary looked up with a smile. "Yes, that's right,
Mr. Maxwell."
"Oh, good. I was a little spacey when we got introduced,
sorry. Um... I need a red pen. I've only got blue ones."
"Not a problem,
sir," she said cheerfully, opening a desk drawer and handing him one.
"Here."
"Thanks." About to turn away, Duo hesitated. "Ah, it is
okay for me to scribble notes in those files, isn't it? Or should I make
copies?"
"All of those documents are archived in other places, sir," she
answered him. "Scribble all you want. We do have some files that weren't
duplicated anywhere, but they're all highly classified and clearly marked; if
you need to access any of those, I'll make sure you know that's what you've
got."
"Good," Duo said. "'Cause I think I'm going to be scribbling a
lot."
----------
Wufei had-- barely-- managed to restrain
himself from checking on Duo every five minutes. He'd sat at his desk, staring
at his computer screen, and told himself over and over that Duo didn't need him
interrupting. Duo was perfectly capable of doing that sort of analysis without
being checked up on. Duo especially didn't need his fragile self-esteem
shattered by Wufei acting as though he couldn't be trusted alone...
It
became obvious how much attention Wufei wasn't devoting to his work when
his screensaver came on.
This is
ridiculous, he scolded himself, half-standing and
peering over the top of one of the bookshelves walling his desk off from the
rest of the room, craning his neck to see through the doorway of Duo's office.
Duo's closer to me now than when he was staying at home, so logically I
should be happier with this arrangement, but I'm still acting like a nervous
mother on her child's first day at preschool--
Une walked out of her
office, handed Amanda a couple of sheets of paper, and shot an oh-so-casual look
towards Duo's open door before turning to go back to her desk.
Ah.
This child also has a nervous godparent, I see, Wufei thought, beginning to
smile. I'm glad to see that Lady Une isn't quite as blase about this as she
was acting earlier.
About to sit down, he glanced up again as another
movement caught his eye. Sally came out of the corridor carrying a file, walked
over to the file room-- a trip that coincidentally took her past Duo's office,
and there wasn't anything odd about her glancing in as she passed, was there?--
went inside and came out a minute later, still carrying a single file. Actually,
it looked like the same file.
My mistake, Wufei sighed to himself
as he watched her walk back, glancing in at Duo again as she passed.
Godparents, plural.
----------
Acting on the principle that
it also wouldn't do Duo's self-esteem any good if it looked like Wufei was
avoiding him, the Chinese Preventer made sure that they took a coffee break
together mid- afternoon.
"It's probably a bit early to tell, I know," he
said tentatively, bringing coffee and doughnuts back to their table in the
cafeteria, "but how's the analysis going so far?"
Duo shrugged, looking
down at his cup with a slight frown. " I think I've got a pretty good idea what
the basic problem is, but I want to talk to some of the students... work out all
the details before I give Une her report. I know she'd like a simple answer as
fast as possible, but telling her 'the teacher isn't' after half a day might be
pushing it a bit."
Wufei couldn't help chuckling. "The teacher isn't
what?" he asked, propping his chin on one fist and watching as Duo
started to eat with some of his old enthusiasm. This is going to be good for
him, I think... it seems like he forgets all his insecurities when he's absorbed
in a problem.
"He isn't a teacher," Duo explained, swallowing a large
bite of jam doughnut and washing it down with coffee. "As far as I can tell,
Gilmore's a great solo stealth agent... but his idea of how to teach people is
to show them what he does, then expect them to be able to duplicate it. And
since what he's doing is way above basic level, his students might learn
how to handle the specific problems he uses as examples by copying him, but
there's no way they can apply what they've learned to other situations. They
might know what to do to disarm a particular trap, but not why, and if
you change that trap in any way, they wouldn't know what they had to do
differently."
"But because they can eventually do his example problems,
they end up with a good mark in class, and it looks like the lessons are
working...?" Duo nodded, mouth full again, and Wufei sighed. "So nobody realised
it wasn't working until they were sent on missions."
"Which
Gilmore planned," Duo told him, eyes glittering dangerously. "I'm going to start
going over his mission plans tomorrow; I've got enough lesson plans left to last
me the rest of the afternoon. They look just fine until you get past the
explanations of what he intends to teach in that lesson, and start reading about
how he plans to do it. Even then, if you aren't a 'dirty tricks'
specialist, the problems aren't all that obvious."
"Oh?"
"In the
plan for the third day of classes," Duo said dryly, pointing a bit of his
doughnut at Wufei for emphasis, "he planned to teach bypassing electronic locks.
However, past the general overview, he wrote something about teaching
'strategies to defeat Bohrman-code electronic locks, using a Takuma 25-G series
3 as the demonstration model'. 'Fei... if you had to go through a door with that
kind of lock, how would you do it?"
"My training with locks concentrated
on those most commonly used-- incidentally, also the easiest to rewire," Wufei
replied, equally dryly. "Since I don't recognise the name, I assume it isn't one
of them... so, if you or Heero weren't around to open it for me, I would either
steal a keycard or shoot it. Nice and simple."
"Heero can't open that
type of lock," Duo said flatly. "They take me half an hour, minimum.
If I have the proper tools. He used one as an demonstration tool for the
third day of what's meant to be a basic class."
And you
just said Heero's name without stuttering... and without even really realising
you said it, too. "Not good," Wufei replied, hiding mixed
feelings.
"No," Duo snorted, returning to his doughnut. "Not good at
all."
----------
Later that afternoon, at the end of Wufei's
shift, they went home. Duo was quieter during the trip home than he had been on
and off during the day, but still animated; Wufei did his best to assess his
condition, without being obvious about it, but couldn't see any signs that he
was overtired or badly stressed.
He is tired, a little, he
thought, walking up the stairs to their floor and watching the other teen out of
the corner of his eye as Duo stifled a yawn, but that's not surprising; this
is his first full day out of the apartment, after all, and I've come home tired
often enough to know that sitting in an office, shuffling paper and thinking can
be work.
Duo stiffened suddenly, eyes widening, and clutched
at Wufei's sleeve. Automatically, the Chinese teen took a half-step sideways,
putting himself between Duo and whatever had startled him, head turning to
identify the threat as his hand reached for the pistol he wasn't
carrying--
"Howard?" Duo whispered.
"Hey, kid," the old man said,
pushing away from the wall he'd been leaning on. "Long time no see. Gonna invite
me in?"
Duo swallowed, trapped in the old man's gaze, and began to twist
the end of his braid in his hands.
"...Good afternoon, Howard," Wufei
said after an awkward pause. "Would you care to stay to dinner? It wouldn't be
any trouble."
"Thanks, but I just came to see how you were doing," Howard
muttered, eyes still fixed on Duo's nervous, downturned face. "Got a few of the
kid's books, too; he left almost a ton and a half of stuff in my bases, and I
figured he might be wanting these."
"Thank you." Wufei opened the door,
keeping an eye on Duo as Howard bent to pick up the box at his feet. "It's good
of you to take the trouble."
"No trouble," Howard grunted, following them
in.
Once they were inside, Howard set the box on the coffee table, his
coat on the back of the couch, then just stood there, wiping his palms nervously
up and down his Hawaiian shirt and staring at Duo, who was staring at the floor,
twisting his braid and shooting occasional skittish glances at Howard's feet.
Standing between them, Wufei opened his mouth to offer Howard a seat, but then
changed his mind.
That would just move the nervous glances and fidgets
to a sitting position, he decided, looking back and forth between the two
silent figures. They need to get to the point of actually talking, and I
don't think that's going to happen with me here in the middle. All I can do is
get myself out of the way for a moment and hope they take the first step in the
right direction before I have to come back...
"I'll go make some
coffee," he announced and walked out of the room.
Silence.
"You're
looking better than I expected," Howard muttered eventually. "The way I heard
it, you were in pretty bad shape... Damn it, kid," he burst out, "if you were in
trouble, why didn't you just come home to us?! You're a Sweeper, damn it,
you're one of us and always will be and you know we always look after our
own!"
Duo looked up at him, wide-eyed, as a tear began to trickle down
his cheek, and Howard swore under his breath. "Oh, hell," he sighed, holding out
his arms. "C'mere, kid."
In the kitchen, Wufei sighed with relief and
switched the coffeemaker on.
----------
Howard didn't think Duo had realised it yet, but he'd
certainly noticed that Chang was taking a suspiciously long time to make three
cups of coffee. Looks like he's finally developed a bit of sense, he
decided, rubbing Duo's back as the braided teen clung to him, an occasional
sniff the only sign that he was still crying. He was even more useless at
interpersonal relationships than Yui, but this is a pretty good
sign...
"I missed ya, kid," he said softly, shaking Duo gently back
and forth by his shoulders as he finally pulled away, scrubbing at the tears on
his face. "Why'd you drop out of sight like that? I mean, Relena explained why
you got out of touch with them," he added, making a vague gesture that
managed to indicate the other ex-Gundam pilots and the Minister, "but I never
changed any of my numbers."
Duo shrugged weakly, tugging at his
braid and looking down at his feet. "I dunno... I, just, well, I'd been trying
to get in touch with the guys for a while, and Relena's secretary kept blowing
me off, and Q and Tro's secretaries were giving me the runaround, and H-Heero
just wasn't there... I was getting kind of down," he went on quietly,
eyes sliding away from meeting Howard's, "and then I tried calling you, but you
weren't there. 'He's out of town, and no, sorry, he isn't really reachable at
the moment, but I'll tell him you called'... I got that for a couple of weeks,
and it was so much like what I was getting from everyone at WEI, I just... I
figured nobody else wanted anything to do with me, why should you be any
different?"
"'Cause I'm not them," Howard growled, shoving his sunglasses
up onto the top of his head and leaning in close, poking Duo in the chest to
make him look at him. "I'm me, Howard, the old fart who doesn't take crap
from anybody, and I don't give that sort of crap to anyone, either. If I want
somebody out of my life, I tell them so, right to their face; I don't go off on
a business trip and tell my guys to freeze them out. Hell, they wouldn't
do that either! No, kid, I would have told you to get your ass home, then I
would've worked your butt off, but we both know that's never been a
problem for you. I like having you around, okay? And I wouldn't if you were a
slacker or a parasite, so don't you get any ideas about telling me you didn't
want charity, 'cause that's the last thing it would've been!" he added,
interrupting Duo as he began to open his mouth. "Get it?"
"...Got it,"
Duo whispered, smiling faintly, then looking away. "But why didn't you get back
to me?"
Howard sighed. "Well, kid, I never got the messages. As far as I
can figure, shortly after your last call, we had a minor fire in the office. We
lost most of the paperwork, equipment, and Roger spent a week in the hospital
for smoke inhalation, minor burns and slight complications-- idiot tried to put
it out by himself. My guess is the messages went the way of the rest of the
paperwork, and Roger didn't remember to tell me. By the time I got back and
things settled down--"
"It's okay Howard, I understand. At least
everything's turned out okay--" Duo started, softly, twisting his braid in his
hands.
"Never think we don't want you, kid," Howard said, reaching out
and gently taking Duo's hands away from his braid. "Don't even worry about
asking... just come home if you need to. Understand?"
Duo nodded, wiping
his eyes one last time.
"Good! Now where's that freakin'
coffee?"
----------
Howard didn't stay long-- just long enough to
drink two cups of coffee and give Duo a high speed precis of recent events in
the Sweepers' lives, including numerous goodwill messages from various people--
but by the time he was ready to leave, Duo was no longer avoiding his
eyes.
"And this time, keep in touch, okay?" was his parting shot.
"I've got your number now, so I'll be calling you and you'd damn well better
return my calls if you don't want me turning up on your doorstep
again!"
"Well, we know how to get you to visit," Wufei said dryly,
standing up to show Howard out.
At the front door, Howard took Wufei's
arm, holding him back for a moment. "I love that kid, you know," he said
quietly, looking out the open door at nothing. "Ever since he first waltzed onto
one of my ships, I've thought of him as the son I never had... You care about
him?"
"...Yes," Wufei replied.
"Good. He's been in love with you
for the past two years, and the only reason I didn't beat the shit out of you
for ignoring him was 'cause it would've given him a heart attack. Make him happy
or I'll rip your nuts off."
Wufei nearly choked, but managed to give an
appropriately serious reply. "You'd have to wait in line. There are a lot
of people taking a personal interest in Duo's happiness... starting with
me."
"Just so we understand each other," Howard growled, and stamped off
without a backwards look.
Shaking his head, Wufei closed the door and
turned around to find himself looking at Duo's pale, shocked face. "Duo! You,
ah..."
"Did he... just... I heard..." Duo began dazedly, then blinked and
swallowed. "Did Howard just, ah, threaten to castrate you?"
"I believe
that was the gist of it, yes," Wufei admitted, watching him a little nervously.
I certainly hope you heard the rest of it, too, but I am not going to
ask...
"Ah. That's... that's okay, then. I just wanted to be sure I
heard him right." Still blinking repeatedly, he turned away and wandered towards
the bathroom.
"Duo, are you--"
"Gonna take a
shower."
"...Okay."
Ten minutes later, Wufei peeked in the open
door of the bathroom and discovered Duo sitting on the edge of the tub, stripped
down to t- shirt and briefs, staring into space with a sock dangling from one
hand. Doing his best not to look either worried or amused, he walked in, turned
the water on in the shower, patted Duo on the shoulder and pointed him in the
right direction.
I guess he did hear
all of it, he decided, walking out to start cooking
dinner.
* * * * *
The next day, Duo didn't mention that part of
Howard's brief visit, and Wufei respected his silence, keeping his end of the
breakfast conversation to subjects Duo brought up first. He had a nagging
feeling, though, that there was something else he should have noticed, something
important...
He didn't work out what it was until after they'd arrived at
Preventers' HQ and reached their respective desks to start the day's work. I
slept through the night without waking up, he realised. That means Duo slept through the night without having any
nightmares, not even the really mild ones he has almost every night... I may not
wake completely when he has those, but I do wake up enough to soothe him when he
gets restless and I remember that something disturbed me. Last night, nothing
did.
He's... more secure now, I suppose, he thought slowly, frowning
at his computer screen without really seeing it. He's
got a job, so he doesn't feel as if he's a 'useless bum' any more-- that reminds
me, I must check with Relena and find out what's happening with that idiot
woman's court case. Duo's probably going to give me some of his consultant's
fees to pay for household expenses, and while I don't think that's necessary, I
certainly won't insult him by refusing. Howard made it clear that he has another
family in the Sweepers, and that he thinks of Duo as a son... I don't know
exactly what Une said when she asked him to take the job, but knowing that he's
needed has to be good for him--
"'Fei?"
"Hm?" Looking up with
a jerk, Wufei blinked at Duo's face timidly peering around a
bookshelf.
"Uh... could you do me a favour?"
"Name it," the
Chinese Preventer said promptly, smiling; an answering smile lit Duo's face, and
he snaked an arm around the barrier to drop a document on the desk.
"I
need a few extra opinions, just to make sure I'm not overreacting or anything.
Thanks, 'Fei!" And he disappeared.
Half-standing and craning his neck to
see around the bookshelves, Wufei watched with interest as Duo walked off,
bundle of documents under his arm, presumably in search of a few more second and
third opinions. I really must move these shelves, he thought, dropping
back into his seat and reaching for his copy. I don't
use them for anything, and having to get up whenever I want to see the rest of
the room is getting annoying...
Hm. Maybe this is going to be good for
me, too.
One eyebrow lifted as he considered the idea, but he
shook it off quickly and dropped his gaze to the thin sheaf of papers in front
of him. I need to take care of this for Duo, not start staring vaguely into
space again!
The top sheet didn't have much on it; just a few neatly
printed sentences, widely separated on the page.
WOULD YOU GO ON THIS
MISSION, YES OR NO?
IF NOT, WHY NOT?
HOW WOULD YOU FIX
IT?
Wufei's eyebrows went up again, and he turned the
page.
----------
Duo dropped another copy of Gilmore's first
mission plan on Sally's desk, and handed two more-- a little nervously-- to
Zechs and Noin. Much to his relief, they didn't react as if there was anything
unusual about getting work requests from him, and they didn't ask questions. It
didn't occur to him that under the circumstances, their lack of reaction to his
presence was an odd reaction...
He paused outside Noin's office,
frowning down at the copies left in his hands. The report would be better if he
got more opinions, but he didn't really know anyone else in the HQ except Une,
and he knew she didn't have the right background to evaluate a mission plan.
She can evaluate the results of a mission just fine, he mused,
looking around the main room and trying to pick up the courage to approach
someone, but it doesn't take specialist knowledge to look at what you gained
from a run, and look at what you lost doing it, and weigh them up against each
other--
"Duo, good morning!"
Duo flinched away from the
unexpected voice to his left, stumbled and ended up dropping his papers at
Quatre's feet. "Jeez!"
The blond teen seemed just as startled as him, and
a lot more upset. "I'm sorry! Duo, I didn't mean--"
"It's okay," he said
quickly, crouching to scrabble after the scattered documents. "I just didn't
hear you coming, that's... that's all," he added, trailing off into an
embarrassed mumble. Trowa stepped around Quatre and scooped the last copy off
the floor as he reached for it, holding it out for him to take, and Duo could
feel a blush heating up his face as he shuffled it into the stack. "Are you here
about the budget appropriations talks, or something?" he asked, trying to sound
casual as he stood up and dusted off the knees of his pants.
"Yes,
actually," Quatre said, surprised-- and successfully distracted from his
apology. "Well, I am; Trowa just got back from that satellite, so he's coming in
to deliver his report."
"We may live in an electronic age, but it hasn't
stopped us having to come in to deliver our detailed reports face-to-face,"
Trowa said dryly, holding up a disk and a sheaf of paper. "It hasn't delivered
the promised 'paperless office', either," he added, gesturing at Duo's
pile.
"No," Duo agreed ruefully, glancing down at it. "If anything, it--
um. Actually, you guys can help me get rid of some of this, if you don't
mind..."
"You need us to review a mission plan?" Quatre asked a minute
later, looking down at the document in his hands. "Didn't it get reviewed when
it was first written?" Beside him, Trowa folded back the cover sheet and began
reading.
"No," Duo told him. "Mission plans generated by somebody in a
Preventers' sub-section get reviewed by the section head, and Gilmore's been in
charge of setting up the 'stealth and dirty tricks' area, so at the moment he
effectively is the section head."
"Good grief," Quatre muttered.
"That could have been done better."
Trowa nodded silently, pulled out a
pen and began writing.
"It looks like everybody else was busy with half a
dozen other things at once, and either assumed that somebody else had oversight
of this section or just didn't think to check," Duo shrugged.
"If they
did check, maybe it just seemed as if he was the right person to act in
that capacity," Quatre suggested. "After all, the only people in the section
were the ones going through the introductory course, and he was the
person teaching it."
"He shouldn't have been," Duo muttered, glancing at
Trowa.
Quatre looked in that direction too, watching as Trowa turned
another page and kept scribbling notes. "Trowa... what are you
doing?"
"Duo wants an evaluation," Trowa shrugged, mouth curling up in a
faint smirk. "So, I'm writing a Duo evaluation."
"A 'Duo
evaluation'?
"Yes. Written in Duo-ese," the taller teen said calmly,
underlining something he'd just written several times. "You know, the sort of
thing he used to send us during the war."
"'I came, I saw, I kicked
butt'?" Quatre asked incredulously. "Give me that!"
Duo watched bemusedly
as Quatre snatched the papers out of his lover's hand and turned back to the
first page, frowning. "'Would you go on this mission-- Not a snowball's chance
in hell'," he read out, eyes widening. "'If not, why not-- See detailed notes'.
What detailed notes?"
Helpfully, Trowa reached over his shoulder to turn
the page and point. "This is not a mission plan, this is a mission statement
from a very confused company'," Quatre began, skimming down the page. "'Don't
give up your day job, Gilmore'. 'This section could be nicely condensed into a
few words: OPEN THE DOOR AND THEN WING IT!'"
A faint snicker escaped Duo,
and Trowa grinned at him.
"Trowa, Duo needs an evaluation, not a comedy
sketch!" Quatre exclaimed, turning the page and continuing. "'Repeat after me:
They Don't Pay Me Enough To Try This'. What's that supposed to
mean?!"
"I thought it was fairly clear," Trowa said innocently. Duo was
grinning back at him now.
"'What drugs is he taking and how can I get
some?' TROWA!"
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