Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Above You ❯ Chapter 6

Six

Duo was glad that Matty had come and helped them all out of the slump that L-2 had sunk him into. The idea of not going to L-5 had some major appeal to it, but that would keep Heero from seeing the little shit again.

It made things complicated.

The idea of making Wufei go to L-5 had some merit, helping him deal with his inner demons, helping him cope with the losses he'd been ignoring...but there seemed to a ton more demerits for it...

Matty, though, wasn't that strong in the self-confidence vein. If he thought Heero might be trying to lose him, he'd disappear on them all to make it easier for them.

He couldn't fully do that with pax on his phone, but he'd definitely try.

So they sort of had to go.

Maybe Wufei would be okay with that? Maybe Wufei would let the boy stand more important?

Duo snorted slightly, staring out the window.

"You about ready to go?" Wufei muttered, moving into their room.

"Huh?" Duo looked back to him blankly.

"The show?" Wufei gestured over his shoulder as he studied Duo with interest. "You ready?"

"Oh...yeah, right," Duo shook himself from his stupor and moved across the room, grabbing his wallet from on top of his bed and tucking it away.

They had the night, then more than half the next day. Quatre's older sister was already starting to call to make sure everything was ready. They'd be leaving from a medium priced hotel room to a multi-level mansion. That usually ended up being amusing, but there was also the whole thing where the Winner heir was escorted from the port in a fleet of bulletproof SUVs that had anti-tank armor and such things.

It made it a little more complicated for Jason Wire to head home, but they never planned what they were doing ahead of time, so it was pretty simple for them to randomly dart out of the mansion without the family's precautions. It drove Adala nuts, and she'd strove to keep them in at first...but hopefully this time she'd get that it wasn't happening.

The show went about the same as the first night. Trowa awed the crowd with his perfect skills. His blunders of the first performance weren't even hinted at in the second night's show, and for the ones who'd seen the first night, they were impressed. It lasted just as long with the woman managing to get them into a spin for the cloth thing...and then it was over again.

"I don't want to sleep alone," Heero noted, moving up behind Duo.

Duo turned to raise an eyebrow at him. He understood the comment, and Heero knew he did. That hadn't been a random note. That had been an offer.

"I do," Wufei noted happily, bouncing a little as Trowa said his good night to the Angeline girl. "Unless she's coming back with us."

"Careful, Chang," Quatre muttered sidelong. "I'm pretty sure she's jailbait for another six months."

"Count the time in-womb and she's not," Wufei retorted, smirking slightly. The girl was in her show top, but had thrown on a pair of lounge-pants.

"Ah, but the legal system of L-3, which I'd call," Quatre went on smoothly, "probably wouldn't consider that grounds for statutory rape."

Wufei turned to focus on Quatre with a pout.

"You can try to let the argument fly, but Heero's got the single room and I don't think Duo's game for a threesome with a minor."

Duo grinned wickedly back at the blond.

"Why do you have it out for me?" Wufei protested. "The last few days..."

Heero blinked at the pair in confusion.

"You've been missing all the fun," Duo informed Heero happily as Cathy followed Trowa toward the group. "Quatre's getting in digs left and right."

"You okay?" Heero asked Quatre, studying his face. "You've seemed a little out of it lately."

"It's just stress," Quatre admitted, deflating and gesturing apologetically to Wufei. "Going to L-4 will be all right...but all the details involved...Adala is insane. She can't trust that the five of us can keep me alive. The notion that we saved the world seems to fly over her head. Sure...we spent however many months running around Earth alone, in pairs, or all together when it was a war zone and I didn't get wounded...much...but making it from the port to the mansion is too far..."

"You gonna be all right?" Heero pressed, studying him. "You need to get laid or something?"

That got Heero the levelest of looks.

Heero grinned at him.

"It does help with the stress, better than the one-hand workout," Duo spoke up helpfully. "Could do you wonders."

"If I'm going to get laid," Quatre noted very pointedly, looking at the three of them pointedly, "I'm sure as hell not letting you three set up the circumstance...Trowa, maybe, if he's being sober...but you three'd get me in over my head."

"I didn't say anything!" Wufei protested, and though his broad grin would have put off a passer-by, the group of them knew better. Wufei may possibly have been hurt by the repeated attacks, but it was more likely that he didn't know how to react. He wasn't sure why Quatre was ribbing him...and he wasn't sure if it was cause to be upset or not.

"Sorry," Quatre muttered, meeting his eyes. "You just usually take digs at me, so when I see them coming I...I'm sorry."

"What's up?" Trowa asked, moving to drape his arm around Cathy as they joined the group. "Anyone against having a lady join us?"

"All five of us?" Quatre asked skeptically.

There was a mass amount of amazement in the group of friends as they stared at Quatre...though Duo's silence only lasted a third of a second before he died laughing. Wufei had smacked a hand to his face...and Heero stared at the blond in stunned amazement. For her part, Catherine took it like a champ. She was staring at Quatre in amused disbelief while Trowa was giving him a look like he'd grown a second head.

Quatre sniggered, covering his mouth with his hands. "I'm so sorry, Cathy! I totally didn't mean to say that!"

She started giggling hard, covering her face.

"You really have lost your mind, haven't you?" Trowa asked Quatre in blank disbelief. "You really...you've lost it."

Quatre's snickers turned into wicked laughter.

"Let's...get going back to the hotel," Heero suggested tactfully. "I have a feeling some of us are going to need a drink."

- -

With a much lighter mood and a bit better sleep, the group had boarded the shuttle bound for L-4. Going to the mansion was always the highlight of their trips, and the idea of going on to L-5 was usually the one that brought them all down. At the very least it brought Wufei down.

Wufei was glad he was sitting point for the group. His musings had waxed depressive. Generally, the day before they left to L-5, the others would all agree that they didn't really need to go. They'd arrange with Adala, who was the family spokesperson, for them to stay the remainder of their trip in the mansion. It was bad enough to Wufei that you could see the L-5 cluster on your way to Earth—or was that his imagination?

Hard to tell.

He glared out at the stars twinkling in the distance.

There were two reasons he wasn't going to get out of going to L-5 this trip. One of them that figured fairly prominently was a raven-haired nineteen-year-old. Snaking out of that end of the trip now would deprive Heero of seeing the kid again, and no matter how he tried to explain it to the...uh...napping male, he checked his phone to make sure...the kid would probably assume it was some form of mutual avoidance. The second reason was that Trowa had decided he needed to go back. Trowa'd thought the same for a long time. Wufei wasn't ever able to figure out why, but Trowa was sincere...and very good at redirecting Wufei.

So they would go back to L-5 for the first time since the second war. ...the war where he'd been so stupid. He'd clung to his logic at the time, insisting that they had to check the peace they'd made...and desperately trying to ignore the empty feeling that had sunk into him after the end of the first war.

How long had he even tried to live? One month? Two?

There was a reason he'd stopped thinking about all of that. There was a reason he'd redirected his own focus. It made him squirm internally and...it was a dark place. It was so much easier to laugh than think about the stupid mistakes he'd made.

He focused on Heero, who was sleeping beside him, and spread out how he was sitting slightly. Heero'd been giving them both equal room, and at the feeling, pulled his leg back slightly. Wufei adjusted himself out a little more...and a little more...until Heero finally woke up.

He snickered and straightened.

"I'm going to beat you," Heero muttered tiredly, relaxing his leg so it rested against Wufei's.

Wufei shifted himself back into his own space, looking beyond Heero at Quatre, who had the dazed expression of someone who wasn't quite awake and wasn't sure why. Beyond him, Duo and Trowa were curled up in their seats, sleeping fairly soundly.

The Chinese man tried to control his sigh, but not nearly hard enough, considering the amount of air that did escape his nose.

"What?" Heero asked tiredly.

"I didn't say anything," Wufei retorted, knowing how childish it was and not caring.

"Uh-huh...tell me anyway."

"Want me to make something up?"

"Why did you wake me up?" Heero returned.

"I was just..."

"Wufei."

Wufei sighed, feeling that heavy pull again and shaking his head, looking out the window. He wasn't sure what to say, but one thing he liked about Heero was that he could wait to hear it.

"I don't...want...to go to L-5," he decided finally.

"You never do...but I'd like to go."

"I know...and Trowa feels the need for me to go."

"You should see the memorial," Heero noted. "Convince yourself it'd be a dishonor not to, and it'll be easier."

"You only want to go so we can meet up with Matty," Wufei retorted.

"And you'd have said we weren't going by now if you didn't want to meet up with him, too," Heero yawned. It was a longer one, but when Wufei glanced at him, he had his eyes open. "Listen...I know it's not easy. I know I probably don't understand more than half of it, but I also know...you can do this."

"It's a want," Wufei retorted. "As in me not wanting to."

"Don't be bitchy," Heero retorted easily. "Come on, Wufei...if we don't meet up with him, his dad will probably spout something off about it figuring...and who knows how it'll make him feel. We've been talking to him constantly this whole trip...and you just want to drop to Earth without going to the place he is?"

Wufei sighed, looking back out the window. "It's hard, Heero."

Heero rested a reassuring hand on Wufei's thigh, and after the moment where Wufei almost threw him off, he sighed again and relaxed.

"What's the matter?" Quatre asked tiredly.

"He's getting anxious about L-5," Heero returned.

"Oh...you okay, Fei?"

"I'll be all right," Wufei reassured him. "I just had to distract myself."

"Oh...here..." Quatre shifted out of the ball he'd been curled in and dug into his carry-on. After a moment, he came out with a puzzle book and pen. "Will that help?"

"Maybe," Wufei returned dubiously, opening it to the page the pen was clipped to and looking at the blank. It was like a crossword box, but instead of questions...it was words. Wufei blinked at it, then noted the label was 'fill-it-in.'

Quatre zipped up his bag and curled back up, yawning. "I'm not looking forward to dealing with Adala's security."

"It's all good, Jase," Heero half-purred at him.

Quatre made an amused noise and settled back down.

Heero waited a moment longer, making sure Wufei was actually focusing on the book—he didn't want to get woken up again—then settled back down himself.

Wufei considered the one word that had been filled into the puzzle, noting that it'd been marked off in the list, too...then took in the rest of the board.

So you were supposed to make all the words fit.

That could be...entertaining.

He clicked the pen out...and started trying to figure out the details.

- -

"Ten cars," Wufei noted, considering the fleet of SUVs. "That's a fifty-fifty chance of getting one of us."

"You're so reassuring," Quatre retorted, not appreciating the protective stance his friends had taken around him. He knew deep down that if they didn't do it, the security team would, but that didn't make him like it any more.

"I appreciate those odds," Wufei muttered on, grinning wickedly.

"Kinda like you appreciated my fill-it-in?" Quatre demanded.

"I didn't realize you were using them sparingly," Wufei protested, looking around to him. "You gave them to me to distract me...it worked."

"I just don't have anymore puzzles," Quatre agreed dryly.

Wufei grinned at him. "I'll try to find you another one."

"They sell them at the grocery store," Quatre retorted. "That was supposed to be the hardest type, by the way."

"Were they hard for you?"

"No, they were puzzles to pass time with," Quatre snapped.

"Wow," Trowa muttered, looking over to Heero. "Psycho boys be upset."

"Your grammar in that sentence pains me, and your choice of descriptive really needs re-thought," Quatre noted pointedly to him.

"Leave him alone, guys," Duo spoke up. "Look at this shit," he gestured at the cars. Their luggage was being loaded for them, but they weren't being allowed to get into the vehicles...even though there were privacy screens up around the full set of cars. "Don't pick at him when this is how his sister makes him come home."

Trowa hushed.

"Ready, Mr...Wire?" the lead driver asked curiously, moving back over to them.

"Yeah, but just to shake it up," Heero spoke up, bouncing slightly, "we're all going in one car."

The man blinked at him a moment, then started to negate.

"Let's go, now," Quatre cut that off before he could. "Adala should know by now that I can take care of my own, and this silliness," he gestured at the fleet, "is a waste of money that could be put to use elsewhere."

The guy hesitated a moment, then met Quatre's eyes. "Would it help you to know that only one vehicle is owned by the Winner family? That the rest were rented?"

"Not particularly," Quatre returned. "If we happen to come under attack," he moved forward, "my friends and I wouldn't have a problem defending ourselves."

They exchanged a minor glance. If they had weapons they'd be able to defend themselves, but they didn't really carry that stuff openly through checkpoints or in their checked bags. Actually, the weapons Heero'd brought were in his bag. He never had gotten the impression that L-4 was all that dangerous, though, despite Adala's paranoia.

"Get in," Quatre added to the group.

Duo knew better than to argue, and Trowa thought it was funny enough not to. Wufei hesitated a moment, but Heero wasn't even going to get into it as the lead-man spluttered. The guy's first instinct was to get the Winner heir tucked safe away in a dark little corner with a snuggly blanket and the reassurance that nothing would happen...Quatre's first instinct was to piss everyone else off and go into the house swinging.

The two didn't precisely coincide.

"Let's go," Quatre noted, moving into the van as well and sliding the door closed.

Really...he felt a bit better for that minor display of petulance...but only a bit.

- -

"You drive me mad," Adala informed Quatre as they moved into the foyer. She moved forward without hesitance, though, and hugged him. She also kissed his forehead. "Peter called and told me your nonsense."

"Tattle-tale," Quatre reprimanded passingly to the man as he moved up behind. The guy looked like he expected more to come, but Quatre wasn't feeling particularly snippy now that he was faced with his golden-haired sisters. Belour, Fasiha, and Iraida. He kissed them all in turn as Adala moved on to greet the rest of the company.

"Thank you, Peter," Adala added, moving to shake his hand. "I think we'll be fine until Quatre decides to randomly run off...and if you could manage it..."

"If you tell him to follow me, he'll never see me again this trip," Quatre noted pointedly.

Adala gave him an irritated look as Belour giggled. She was barely a year older than the group of them.

"What are you giggling at?" Quatre demanded of her, though it was affectionate.

"You're such an ass," she retorted. "Poor Addy's been worrying herself sick about you getting from the port to here without anyone seeing you and now you're..."

"If my cover is blown, my cover is blown," Quatre noted pointedly—though there was something in that note that made him feel massively better. With the way Adala had been ranting and raving about security, his first thoughts had been militant.

...but then again, his family was supposed to be pacifistic.

Kinda made him an ass, didn't it?

He grinned at his sisters.

"We can take our bags up to our own room, before you get some porter on it," Quatre noted as Peter started turning around.

"I'll just get them to bring..." the man started.

"Its fine," Heero reassured him with Wufei on his heels. "We can get them."

"I'll just..." Peter was quickly following after them out the doors. "The car..."

Heero knew the man didn't think they could tell one black vehicle from the other, but Heero had languidly made an attack plan, which required the machine his weapons were in. He tapped the side of the thing as Peter stopped and looked around blankly...and the trunk was popped.

"If you're here, you may as well take this one in," Wufei added, passing the man a bag. "We can get the rest."

"Uh...all...right," Peter returned blankly. "If you're sure..."

Wufei gestured him away, then smirked slightly at Heero as the driver of that particular machine grinned back at them.

Evidently, he was a man after their own heart.

- -

'So where are you?'

'L-4,' Heero repeated. 'Ask again and see if the answer changes.'

'WHICH L-4?' Matty demanded.

'The one you're not at! Haha!' Heero grinned slightly.

'I'm not IN the cluster...you're an ass.'

'I luv u?' Heero offered, grinning more.

'Not if you can't even type it out right,' Matty retorted.

'Oh...sorry, my bad.'

'My bad?' the guy echoed. 'You ARE an ass.'

Heero snickered.

'Tell me...which L-4 are you on?'

'You can't come visit here,' Heero noted. 'It'd be an imposition on our host.'

'Why does it matter? How is it an imposition?'

Heero definitely read some sullenness in the question.

'We're at a house,' he explained. 'And it's not a set-up where I can just have someone come over.'

"What?" Duo muttered. They were in the sitting room of Quatre's suite. They had small bedrooms across the hall, but that sitting room would serve as their living room for the time they'd be there.

"He wants to come," Heero explained, frowning as he waited for more word.

"You told him there's no way he could?" Duo returned. He was reading a newspaper.

"I did, and tried not to be an ass...but he's insisting I'm an ass."

"Huh," Duo lowered the paper a moment. "I'll talk to him after a bit and see if I can smooth it over."

"Thank you," Heero muttered gratefully. He wasn't sure how to move around the sullenness. He focused back on his phone. 'Don't be upset with me...'

'I'm just not liking the sudden stabs of lies you throw at me.'

'Lies?' Heero protested.

'Yeah,' he agreed. 'You know...YOUR NAME.'

'I was GOING to tell you!'

A minute passed, then two. Heero shifted slightly, trying to work out how the emotions would play out. He had a feeling this was all his bad, and he...he was going to have to ask Duo.

He sighed...and tossed his phone at the guy. "Help."

Duo, who'd jumped as the phone hit his paper, lowered it to look at Heero a moment, then picked up the phone. He clicked into the memory and read back through the messages. He read them again, considerately, then looked up at Heero.

"Well?" Heero asked, shifting forward with his elbows on his knees. "Where'd I fuck up?"

"It's the situation, not you," Duo retorted, looking back down. "Here, he's admitted it," he tossed it back.

'Sorry...this is just a new situation for me. I don't know if I should be offended about you not telling me or not...I'm not trying to be pissy at you. I know you were going to say.'

'I won't say it over the phone, either,' Heero added. 'And especially not from where we are. There's too much unrest out here. I don't have the programs I need to ensure the phones are protected.'

'We BOTH have pax! War paid for it for me! Or does it not work now?'

'No, it's a one pay,' Heero reassured him. 'That's not...pax can be hacked.'

'Who would HACK it?'

'My enemies?' Heero sighed slightly. 'That group of psychos on 27? The damn military for all I know.'

'Why do you have enemies? Why would any of them care? Who ARE you?'

'I said...not here,' Heero returned. He was relatively sure they weren't being hacked, but he didn't want to fully jeopardize the information that way.

'Then when?'

'We're here all tomorrow,' Heero returned. 'Then until three the next day. We have to settle into our hotel, but I'll let you know which one it is so we can meet...have dinner? Just me and you?'

'At that place you said?'

'Yeah...it's a good place...but we can go better if you want. Look around, find something interesting. Anything you want, huh?'

"You look dreamy," Duo noted, glancing up at him again. "You make it right?"

"Better," Heero returned with a nod. "He's stopped being upset now."

"Good job."

Heero flashed him a return grin.

'But...what do we do now? I really wanted to come over tonight.'

'I really want you over tonight,' Heero retorted. 'Unfortunately, life doesn't always cooperate with the stirrings of lust.'

'You said you loved me.'

Heero considered that a moment in mild alarm...then realized it was probably a tease. He bit his lip slightly. 'I said I luved you,' he retorted.

'You just can't type English, can you? How about Japanese? You said you're Japanese, right?'

Heero snickered at that and switched the language over. 'I can misspell it here, too.'

'*giggles*'

'You GIGGLE?' Heero protested, switching it back to English. 'I want to hear you giggle...'

Duo, who'd been watching the mild play of emotions across Heero's face, rolled his eyes and focused back on the paper. He'd been having a conversation with the nineteen year old, but the guy had slowed down in his messaging enough to note a distraction. With Heero going through so many emotions in such a short period of time, it explained that distraction.

Duo kinda wished the others would hurry up and come back. It'd be better in the group for Heero to ignore his companions. It'd be a lot less boring.

Heero smirked at the screen.

Duo raised his paper back up, wishing it could be a pointed gesture. He knew what he'd say if Heero asked him 'what?', too: All the better to ignore you with, my dear.

- -

The L-4 visit went how things usually went. It started with Quatre being some form of pissy about the security measures, then bled into him feeling caged in. That, in turn, led the pilots to sneaking out of the house to go find somewhere to play. Once that urge had been satisfied, usually at a pub, they'd sneak back into the house and Adala would throw a fit at Quatre. Quatre would bicker with the woman happily for a while before their supper was announced, and the group of them would make their way down to eat it.

That was the first night.

The second day would have them waking up at various times, and if it was around noon, they'd immediately go for food. It was ten, though, and they were all quite happy to shower and meet in the great room off of Quatre's bedroom.

"He really wants to come," Heero noted in summation to Duo. "He keeps trying to get me to tell him which L-4 this is...I think so he can show up and impose on our host and have it not be our fault."

"That'd actually work, and kill a couple birds with one stone," Quatre noted, grinning at him.

"We're not at war," Heero retorted almost tartly. "If I'm killing a bird, it's to eat...and it'd be chicken...and I don't really like chicken."

Quatre sniggered.

"Permission denied," Trowa quipped happily.

"Actually, I just told him to do it," Quatre retorted, meeting his eyes.

"No! I'm denying it!" Trowa grinned wickedly.

"You can't deny it if no one else is," Quatre protested. "That'd be pointless. As soon as he realizes who one of us are, he should reason out the rest."

"Question being, how will he figure that one out? It's not like we're poster heroes for the wars."

"Ah, but they made a foot-note about us in history," Quatre measured a half an inch in front of him. "Our names are there, and most reasonable people have heard them."

"Considering the addition of Barton to my name," Trowa retorted, "and the whole Barton revolution...I'd rather not have it bandied about by some piece of ass."

"Literally," Wufei noted to Duo, snickering slightly.

"He's not just a piece of ass," Heero protested, frowning at the other.

"So what?" Trowa snapped. "You're gonna keep him? Bring him around and love him? Let him be your little boyfriend, cute and cuddly in your bed? There are a few problems with that, I'm sure you've gathered."

"Like what?" Duo demanded darkly.

"When does he ever keep anyone?" Trowa's ire flared as he focused on Duo. "He uses them and tosses them aside when he's bored with them...and shit, Do...the kid is nineteen...nineteen!"

"It's not like he's illegal," Heero protested, obviously thinking about that one.

"He may as well be," Trowa snapped back, glaring between the two before looking around to see that Quatre's face was impassive. He was glaring at Trowa with hard eyes.

"But...he's been legal for a year," Heero muttered blankly.

"Obviously he doesn't get your point," Duo said, tone still dark. "Honestly, I don't either. What's your problem, Trowa?"

Trowa bristled. "He doesn't even know how to be in a relationship!"

"Then why is Matty still coming around?" Duo's voice may as well have been a yell. He didn't look it, but they could tell he was severely pissed.

Quatre shifted back slightly as Heero blinked between Duo and Trowa. Wufei sat back himself, deciding that though he could announce homophobia with the intent of getting a good laugh, the likelihood of it panning out was nearly null.

"Tell me, Barton," Duo added, glowering at the man. "You've had a problem with Matty ever since he showed up...but you still texted with him like the rest of us. He told me all sorts of shit on the others," he gestured to the group with his head, "and his notes on you weren't any different than on them...and you were showing off for him at the circus...so why is it an issue for Heero to keep him? You want him instead?"

Trowa'd been getting more and more irritated with the speech, but that final question made him shift back slightly and blink. He started to shake his head, then looked around to see what the others thought.

"Ooh, you can't tell me the boy's not cute," Wufei noted, bouncing slightly where he sat.

"That's not it," Trowa snapped, looking away. "That's not even..."

"You're straight?" Duo asked sweetly. "That's the problem, isn't it? He brings out the flirt in you and you know he's not a chick...kinda messes with your head, doesn't it? Easier for him not to be around at all."

Trowa was staring at him with disbelief on his face.

Duo smirked and flicked his head so the braid swayed like a snake. He met Heero's eyes. "I'm not quite ready for him to know me yet...maybe just go get a motel room for the night and come back after you drop him off in the morning."

Heero perked up at that, then smiled at them all. "I'll be back."