As soon as they walked in the door, Wufei
felt Duo flinch as he saw Heero. I knew this was a bad idea, he thought
despairingly, keeping his face blank with an effort as he nodded 'hello' to the
various people in the room. Duo's not ready to see him. I couldn't
leave him behind, though, and if I'd stayed home with him he'd know why, and...
Gods, he's going to go silent again, I know it.
Duo sat down in the
first seat he came to, at the very end of one side of the table; Wufei took the
next seat along, placing himself between Duo and the rest of the room. Maybe
if people have enough sense to realise they shouldn't push him, this won't be
too bad...
"Wufei, Duo, it's good to see you again," Relena
said softly, aiming her words equally at both of them, so Wufei could handle the
conversation if Duo chose not to respond. "How are you both feeling? You look
better than the last time I saw you."
"We're fine," Duo muttered, looking
down at his lap. One hand pulled his braid forward over his shoulder and started
to pick at the tufted end.
"Considering that Major Po was hammering on my
shoulderblade the last time you saw me, 'you look better' is very faint
praise," Wufei said dryly, flicking her a grateful look.
She chuckled.
"It's better than 'my god, you look dissipated', or 'you've been partying hard,
I see'. Both of which I've heard at diplomatic functions."
"Don't you
mean 'undiplomatic functions'?" Sally asked, reaching over the table to
check Duo's temperature. "Hm. Not bad."
"You'd blend into the crowd,
woman," Wufei said crossly, picking her hand off Duo's forehead and shoving it
back at her. "Save the invasion of personal space for when you have us trapped
in your office. We're both fine."
"Yeah," Duo muttered, leaning
closer to Wufei.
Quatre got a similar one-word response when he offered
tea or coffee. Wufei was relieved to see that Duo's shoulders were slowly
relaxing from their tense, hunched posture; then they tightened again, and he
looked up to see Heero standing on the other side of the
table.
----------
"Damn it, I know Heero doesn't have the
sense God gave a gerbil at times, but does he have to demonstrate that fact
now?!" Sally hissed under her breath.
Standing next to her, Une
nearly choked on her first careful sip of hot coffee. "What -- ?! Oh," she
muttered, voice dropping as she saw where Sally was looking. "No, don't
go over there!" she hissed, putting her free hand on Sally's elbow and holding
her back. "It won't do any good, you'll just embarrass them all worse."
----------
Duo tensed, hands clenching on the end of his braid
and twisting viciously. He'd glanced up just far enough to see who was standing
there, then dropped his gaze to his lap and kept it there.
Go away. Go
away. Go away. Go away. Go away!
Heero cleared
his throat. "Hello, Duo," he said hesitantly.
Duo jerked, fingernails
digging into his palms as he ducked his head lower. GO AWAY, he thought
desperately, starting to panic. GO AWAY!
A warm, golden-bronze
hand curled gently around his own. "Hello, Yui," Wufei said, voice low and
even.
"...Wufei," Heero replied stiffly, after an awkward pause. "You're
looking better." Then he turned and walked away.
----------
Carefully, Wufei disentangled Duo's right hand from the tight knot of
fingers and hair in his lap, and clasped it. He could feel Duo trembling.
Heero's mask cracked, for just a second there, he thought grimly,
stroking his thumb gently over the back of Duo's hand. He might even be
hurting as badly as Duo is.
I would like to find some sort of
satisfaction in that, dishonourable or not... but somehow I can't. It's not as
if his pain can somehow lighten Duo's.
Perhaps I shouldn't have
glared at him.
----------
"I told you so," Une whispered
behind her cup, flicking a sideways glance at Sally. "Yui would be mortified if
any of us had been right there watching when Chang used his Death Glare on
him."
"You think he isn't mortified now?"
"Of course not.
He's miserable."
They pricked up their ears as, a few feet away, Trowa
placed a steadying hand on Quatre's elbow. "You okay?" he murmured.
The
blond nodded, rubbing at his chest and swallowing. "I am now. For a few seconds,
I thought Duo was going to run for it. He's still feeling panicked..."
----------
I want to go home. I don't want to be here. They
don't need me here, they only need Wufei... But I don't want to go without
him! Duo swallowed hard, unconsciously tightening his grip on the Chinese
teen's hand. I wanted to run away but I don't want to leave Wufei. Why run?
Heero wouldn't hurt me... but he did, he cut me off and I couldn't... I
shouldn't be afraid of him. I'm not, really, I just really don't want to talk to
him!
I want to go home...
Thoughts chased each other
around Duo's head, never getting anywhere.
----------
"Oh, here
they are," Karl said, breaking into the quiet conversations going on behind him.
"There's Janne and Joost... and Erik... and -- " He 'eep'ed, eyes going wide,
and ducked behind his taller brothers. "Oh, boy. Oma's here!"
"So she
is," Nicklaus said, sounding faintly surprised. He turned to Wufei. "Sir? If you
remember, I said I was sure you'd get to meet my Grandmother Matilde some day?
Well, today seems to be the day."
"I take it that it's an important
event?" Wufei asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Very much so," Ninke said
fervently, looking rather nervous. Karl took one more quick glance out the
window, then sidled around so that his brothers were between him and the
door.
Trowa watched his manoeuver with interest. "Is your grandmother
that bad?"
"Oh, no," Karl assured him. "We love our
grandmother."
"Deeply," Nicklaus added. "But she's going to be very
disappointed in Ninke."
"Hopefully, only Ninke," Karl muttered.
"She might take the view that we should have restrained him."
"Thank you
so much, Nicklaus, Karl," Ninke grumbled. "I'll remember
this..."
There was a polite knock at the door, and Arif opened it.
"Master Quatre, your other visitors have arrived," he announced, stepping to one
side and bowing them in. "Madame Assink, Mister Assink, Mister Assink and Mister
Assink."
Matilde Assink was a tall silver-haired woman, dressed elegantly
and walking with an elaborately carved cane that she didn't seem to need;
everyone hastily revised their previous estimates of her age down to about
fifty, then back up again. After all, Quatre thought, standing to greet
her, I know Ninke is thirty-four, and he isn't her oldest
grandson...
Two more Assink grandsons followed her in, cast in the
same tall, slender, white-blond mould as the others, one with ice-blue eyes, and
the other with hazel. The third was a definite surprise; he was Assink-tall, but
otherwise didn't resemble his brothers in any way. He had red-brown hair and a
short, bristling beard, dark brown eyes and a nose that had been broken at least
once in the past, and his shoulders were so broad that he automatically turned a
little sideways as he walked through the doorway, though it was wide enough that
he didn't need to.
Glancing up from his lap, Duo blinked and made a tiny
surprised noise as he saw the third man; the dark Assink looked around to see
who'd made the squeak, spotted the braided boy, grinned and
winked.
"Madame Assink, welcome to my house," Quatre said, coming around
the table to shake her hand.
"Matilde, please," she replied in a rich,
melodic voice. "You have no need to introduce your friends and companions. I
know them all, even though we have never met -- No, no, there is no need to get
up!" she added, waving Wufei back into his seat as he started to rise. Seeing
Ninke, she sighed slightly. "Ninke, such awful timing you have! This could
easily have waited until both Mr. Chang and Mr. Maxwell were fully
recovered."
"Bejammeren[1], Oma," he muttered, looking
embarrassed.
"It's not me you should apologise to," Matilde said
reproachfully, tapping her cane on the floor for emphasis. "Your timing was
excellent during the war. Enemies are supposed to be taken by surprise. Friends
and allies, however, deserve a little more consideration, especially in
peacetime!"
"I could like this woman," Sally whispered to Une as they
stood up. "Perhaps she'll be a good influence on certain other
people...?"
Une smothered a chuckle and stepped forward, hand
outstretched. "Madam Assink, a pleasure to meet you, I'm sure." Even if I
don't yet know what this meeting's about! In the last ten minutes, Quatre Winner
has managed to dance around the subject without ever coming out and saying
anything definite."And there's at least one of your grandsons I don't
need an introduction to," she added, releasing Matilde's hand and nodding
towards the man with the ice-blue eyes. "Captain Assink, good to see you
again."
Eric Assink had the good grace to blush as he shook hands. "I
hope you still think so after this meeting, ma'am... Lady Une, I'd like to
introduce my brothers, Janne," the hazel-eyed blond nodded, "and
Joost."
The huge Viking throwback grinned, carefully taking her hand in
one of his own huge paws as if he was afraid he might accidentally crush it. "I
served with OZ, too, ma'am," he rumbled in an astonishingly deep voice, "Though
not under the name Joost Assink."
Her eyebrows shot up towards her
hairline, and she paused for a moment before withdrawing her hand. "Ah," she
said slowly, obviously putting that together with what his brother had just
said, and adding a meeting with the ex-Gundam pilots to the mix... "I think I'm
beginning to get the idea."
"Yes, I imagine you are," Matilde said
approvingly. "Such a bright woman, it was a pleasure working against you. You
kept us on our toes. I believe Mr. Maxwell might remember my Joost, as
Lieutenant Huginn."
"It's good to see you again, Maxwell," Joost rumbled,
walking up to Duo and holding out his hand, smiling. "You look much better than
the last time I saw you. At least you're fully conscious and not covered in
blood!"
~*~*~*~
Lying on the cold floor
of the cell, Duo watched a thin trickle of his own blood stop flowing and begin
to clot.
I don't think I broke anything, when they shot the bike out
from under me, he thought, dispassionately cataloguing his various pains and
cuts. They were certainly careful not to damage me any further when they put
me in here... but they haven't bothered to check me over or bandage anything,
either. Doesn't look good. And it's cold enough in here that if they just leave
me alone for another hour or so, I'll be in no shape to put up a
fight.
Not that I'm in any shape to fight
now...
The electronic lock beeped softly and the door slid
open.
"What, room service at last?" Duo asked, as sarcastically as
possible considering that his lip was split and sore. "Took you long enough. The
OZ Hilton this is not. I'd like to check out now, if you don't mind, and
I want my money back." One eye was nearly swollen shut, but he had a clear view
of the door, and tensed as he saw only one man had come in. Not an official
visit, then, he thought. Either he wants a little private fun, or a
little private revenge. Damn, he's big...
His 'visitor' hadn't
turned up the lights; he was dimly visible as a large, looming bulk as he
crouched down beside Duo and dropped a wadded bundle on the floor. "Well,
there's a coincidence," he said softly, voice rumbling deep in his chest.
"Helping you check out is exactly what I'm here for! Think of me as your
travel agent."
Duo raised one eyebrow, wincing as the large man carefully
patted him over, checking for broken bones. "Oh? I'm afraid I seem to have lost
my wallet..."
"No need to worry about that," the man assured him with a
chuckle. "Someone else is footing the bill." Picking up the bundle, he shook it
out flat, and started wrapping it around Duo. The braided pilot clutched at the
fuzzy blanket and suppressed a yelp of mingled pain and surprise as his rescuer
scooped him up as if he weighed less than a feather.
"Oh, mah he~ro," Duo
falsettoed in a fake southern accent as he was carried to the door. He
considered fluttering his eyelashes, but decided that the black eye made that a
bad idea. "You're so strong, an' kind, an' all round generally the sorta
man a gal wants to see whenever she needs to scream 'hay-yelp!'"
The man
snorted, shifting Duo's weight slightly so he could open the door. "Shhh," he
rumbled, checking up and down the corridor. "The guards are all napping right
now, and I shut the cameras off, but that's no guarantee of safety. I can't drop
gas grenades on the whole base, after all."
"Okay," Duo whispered,
blinking as his vision blurred. "I don't mind being quiet; I think I might pass
out soon, anyway."
"That's fine," the man whispered back, grinning down
at his dazed passenger; Duo finally got a decent look at his face, in the
brighter lights of the corridor. "This package tour comes with a sleepover
option..."
~*~*~*~
"It was you!" Duo said softly, letting
go of Wufei's hand to take Joost's. "I never got a name, but I saw your face...
and I woke up in a safehouse, with Quatre and H-Hee..." His voice trailed off
and he swallowed, looking away, then he looked at Joost again. "How'd you get me
out?"
Joost laughed. "I put you in the back of the base commandant's
car," he said, "left the keys in it, and went back inside to be seen working.
Then Janne here came in, with forged ID and a stolen uniform, and drove the car
out. It had tinted windows, so the guards never saw who was inside, and they
just stood back and saluted as it drove out."
"I delivered you to a
vacant safehouse in town, patched you up, and sent a message to the Doctors
telling them where you were," Janne added, smiling at Duo. "They sent the other
pilots to get you. Pleased to meet you again, awake this time!"
"I
remember you, too," Trowa said, stepping forwards to take Joost's hand. "I was
all set to break Duo out when you stopped me."
"It seemed a shame to let
you go to all that trouble when I knew he was already gone," Joost
grinned.
"I never heard that part of it," Quatre said,
surprised.
Trowa shrugged. "It didn't seem important. I told you there
was a lieutenant at that base on our side, I just didn't go into detail about
how I found out."
"How did you find out?" Wufei asked, spirits
lifting slightly as Duo's hand found his again. I think the argument over
whether or not to trust them is over before it can begin!
"I was at
that base as a cadet," Trowa stated.
"As usual," Une said sourly, rolling
her eyes. "You'd think, with all the security alerts I sent to different bases
with all of your descriptions, and photos after we got them, somebody
would have recognised you boys once in a while. But did they? No! As far as my
OZ intelligence personnel were concerned, anyone on a base, in uniform, was
beyond question until they blew something up. And now I find out that several of
my more intelligent staff were actually double agents. No wonder we lost!
Between the Assinks and the Gundam pilots, we had a snowball's chance in
hell!"
Trowa coughed. "Well... I had worked out a plan to get Duo out. It
would have required breaking my cover, since I didn't have an accomplice
to get him away. I was actually getting up from my duty station when Lieutenant
Huginn -- Joost -- walked past, looked over my shoulder at my screen, and
whispered 'Don't bother. He's already gone'. Two minutes later, the alarms went
off when the next shift found their colleagues unconscious and Duo
gone."
"So, your cover wasn't blown," Une sighed. "As I recall, a week
later that base was. I suppose that was you?"
Trowa bowed
silently.
"Ah, well. Perhaps I shouldn't have demoted that commandant
when Maxwell escaped. He did say there must have been inside help..."
----------
A lot of the meeting went past in a blur, for Duo. He
was still easily tired, after all, and being around the other pilots was very
stressful... so he dealt with it by shutting most of his surroundings out.
Leaning on Wufei's good shoulder and holding his hand, the braided teen ducked
his head and watched Matilde from under his eyelashes.
She's not what
I was expecting, he thought drowsily, listening with only half of his
attention as she skilfully took control of the meeting and laid out exactly what
the Assinks were offering, answering most of the possible questions and doubts
before anyone could bring them up. After what she sent me for Christmas, I
think I was expecting a plump little granny with glasses and a knitting bag. I
guess she knits, all right, but she's six feet tall and still has a great
figure...
Lulled by Matilde's voice, Duo let his eyes slide closed
and drifted off into a confused dream, where Joost carried him through endless
corridors while Matilde Assink criticised her grandson's rescue
technique.
----------
During a pause in the discussions, Matilde
looked across at Duo and smiled. "Still much too thin," she said softly, "and he
has fallen asleep. He is doing better, though, yes?"
"Yes," Wufei
said, a little defensively. "He insisted on coming."
"That is no
surprise," she told him, chuckling. "Only my Joost actually met him during the
war, but Garrison is quite fond and proud of young Maxwell, so he told me many
stories. He almost gloated over his exploits! About all of your exploits,
actually, but his were the most memorable, and notable for stubbornness. Among
other things."
Wufei couldn't help a faint, fond smile as he looked down
at Duo's face, nestled against his shoulder. "We're all stubborn," he replied
quietly. "It's the 'other things' that make him special." He frowned in thought
and looked up at Matilde again. "Garrison?" he asked. "I don't believe I know --
"
"We seem to be agreed, then" Une said from the other end of the table,
where she'd been alternately doodling on a notepad and whispering to Sally.
"Nobody can think of any real reason not to accept the Assinks' offer, but we
can all think of plenty of reasons why we should. I want to do some more
checking before I arrange clearances with the Preventers -- "
"Of
course," Matilde nodded.
" -- but for now, at least, we're accepting the
offer?" Une glanced around the table, counting nods. Nobody
disagreed.
"Then I have here our first reports," Matilde said cheerfully,
taking two disks out of her handbag and handing them to Eric; he stood and
walked down the length of the table to give them to Quatre and Une. "In the
future, we will report only to the Gundam pilots and Miss Peacecraft," she
continued, pulling out a third disk and handing it to Relena, "and it will be up
to them whether or not to pass our information on to the Preventers, the civil
police, or whoever... but under the circumstances, it seemed polite to hand it
over directly, this once."
Une and Quatre slid their disks into their
laptops right away; Relena tucked her into her purse. "I should point out that
the disks do not contain the same information," Matilde added. "There is some
overlap, of course, but also many differences. Miss Peacecraft's disk contains
data of interest to the world government. Lady Une's has data on organisations
we believe to be dealing in or accumulating weapons, the Preventers' main
concern, and Mr. Winner's covers both data on companies that seem to be using
'dirty tricks' and industrial espionage, and data of interest to you all as
Gundam pilots."
Relena looked up sharply as she closed the clasp on her
purse. "I have a question. Yesterday, Ninke told us that your main aim was an
equitable peace between Earth and the colonies. To that end, are you also
reporting to representatives of the colonies?"
"No," Matilde replied
firmly, shaking her head. "We have aligned ourselves with you because we believe
you are the best people to maintain the current peace, and we will not alter
this arrangement unless and until you wilfully endanger that peace." She smiled,
eyes sparkling. "I do not expect that to happen any time soon. If you wish us to
pass information to the colonies, of course we shall... ah, perhaps I should
point out that we have maintained links to the Doctors, although they are not
now in use."
"You know where the Doctors are?" Wufei asked, surprise
driving all thought of 'Garrison' from his mind for the moment.
"But of
course," she said placidly. "We took care not to lose sight of them when they
went underground after the war. If we wanted them, we did not want to have to go
looking for them. We can pass messages to them, if you wish to establish
contact."
"We already know about this one," Une muttered, concentrating
on her laptop's screen as she quickly opened and scanned files. "And this one --
"
"But we didn't know they had that," Sally said, leaning over
Une's shoulder to point.
"No," Une said grimly. "I think we need to move
up the timetable for taking care of that group... hm. We didn't know about
them... or this group..."
"At least they're small fry."
"So
far. ... Ye gods!"
"They're not small fry!"
"I noticed! And
look at this list of suspected personnel! He gave us the tipoff that led
to the uncovering of the 'Third Dawn' group!" Une sputtered indignantly,
stabbing an accusing finger at the screen.
"So he did," Sally mused.
"Taking out the competition and distracting us at the same time,
maybe?"
"Remind me to ask him after we arrest him," Une said dryly,
closing the remaining files and shutting her laptop down. The disk went safely
into an inside pocket. "I think this partnership will be very
satisfactory, Madame Assink, even if you won't let me recruit the lot of
you."
"We are much more effective behind the scenes, Lady Une,"
Matilde replied sweetly. "Besides, you have already my Nicklaus and my Nils, and
their cousin Hjordis is joining as a cadet. Three Assinks in the Preventers is
plenty for now. We do not want to take over, after all." Sally narrowed her eyes
slightly. "Why do I hear 'yet' on the end of that sentence?"
Matilde's
smile widened. "You have nothing to worry about. We do not need to take
over. You are doing a fine job."
"If we've established that the Yggdrasil
Ring is still doing an excellent job," Wufei cut in, "I need to get Duo home.
Quatre, can we borrow a Mangaunac or two to drive us back?"
"Certainly,"
Quatre said, dragging his eyes away from his own laptop. "I think I need to pass
some of this along to my security people... uh, I'll ask Abdul to send a couple
of the men around. Will you need help getting Duo into your car?"
"No, I
don't think so." Wufei disentangled his hand from Duo's loose grip and gently
patted the sleeping teen's face. "Duo? Wake up, Duo, it's time to go
home..."
"Mmmh... 'Fei?" Duo mumbled, screwing his face up and scrubbing
at his eyes with the back of a hand. "Meeting over already?"
"What do you
mean 'already'?" Wufei teased gently. "It's almost five- thirty. You've been
asleep for at least the last three hours."
"Can't be," Duo insisted
muzzily. "I just closed my eyes. I was listening, too... Why was Mrs. Assink
criticising Joost's technique?"
"Technique?"
"Rescue technique,"
Duo explained. "While he was carrying me... oh. That was a dream, wasn't
it?"
"Most likely," Wufei said gently.
"I have never found fault
with my Joost's rescue techniques, actually," Matilde said quietly, half to
herself, half to Duo. "It is only the occasional lack of subtlety that I have
had to mention, lieverd[2], and when he rescued you, I do not think anyone could
have found fault."
"I certainly didn't -- " Coming fully awake,
Duo blinked his eyes open and abruptly realised/remembered that he had a fairly
large audience, including several people he was still very uncomfortable with;
he turned red, then white, and scrunched down in his chair, looking at his hands
again.
Oh well, Wufei thought ruefully, suppressing a sigh. For
a moment there he sounded almost like his old self... even if it didn't
last.
* * * * *
After Wufei and Duo left, followed by the
Assinks, Une and Sally stayed; Quatre had invited them for dinner. He invited
Heero and Relena, as well, but after a quick glance at her fiance, Relena
politely declined.
"Did you notice?" Sally asked Une quietly, watching
out of the corner of her eye as Quatre and Trowa saw their other guests to the
door. "After he tried to talk to Duo, Heero didn't say a single word during the
whole meeting."
"Mm," Une agreed. "Perhaps you should be teasing
him about his 'relationships' to make him think, instead of
Chang."
"Not in a million years. For one thing, he's not my patient. For
another, I'm not suicidal. If I push Wufei, the worst things I'm likely to get
aimed at me are glares and swearwords. If I push Heero too far, I could get
shot!"
"Good point," Une said dryly. "Yui has a much shorter fuse
than -- oh, bloody hell!"
Sally nearly spilled her coffee. Une
swore? "What? What's the matter?"
"I forgot to talk to Chang
about pressing charges against Anders,
again!"
----------
NOTES:
[1] Bejammeren: sorry (Dutch)
[2] lieverd: my dear, dear one... expression of affection. Used here as 'my
dear boy' (Dutch).
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