Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Attempted Bystanding ❯ 08 ( Chapter 9 )

Eight

...It had started to rain.

Far be it for Duo to judge the local timing, but he couldn't help but think someone had been just waiting for an officer to exit the building to hit the rain button.

He didn't like the situation at all. On the one hand, Heero'd been ordering people around like a pro, coordinating the search groups and the forensic teams and all that—the ones on L-2, but on the other, Wufei hadn't been meant for the nitty-gritty detailed work. Quatre'd been strung-out with talking to the man who'd surrendered, but now that he'd given up on that he got the fun job of going through the personnel. He was starting with the most important ones to see if any of them were lying.

Wufei was going to have the rest of the day off, and hopefully with Matty's help, he'd get the balls to call his old friends. Trowa was running around tracking Ranger as far as he could manage.

Duo himself was the lucky one who got to run to Une to pick up the remnants of Marquise's cell phone, and pick up Lu on the way. She wasn't dealing very well with the minimal duties she'd been given. She wanted to dive right into the midst of it all and get herself killed or something.

Relena had called the vid in their room crying her eyes out a few days before, raising a lock of shorn hair to the camera without speaking. Zechs' hair had been well down his back, but now it mostly seemed un-attached to his body.

Duo ran a hand through his own shortened hair, fluffing it slightly. He was mostly used to the length. It was strange to deal with the slight difference in his balance. He hadn't thought the braid would have given him that much of an issue...but a lot of his moves had added momentum behind them to make the thing fly around properly. He'd had to figure out how to do it without the excess of movement.

At least the change wouldn't be that drastic for Zechs.

Duo slid into the car he was using on base and started the engine as the rain poured along the windshield.

This had gone on too long already. When he got back, he was going to stop playing and jumping through the bureaucratic hoops. If he got court marshaled again, so be it. There wasn't a thing in heaven or hell that could keep him penned in when he wanted to be away.

It was time to stop playing.

- -

"You want to know why she's not making any headway?" Zechs purred sweetly to Ranger. The man had entered the room to see him watching the news station again. Relena was talking with her passion about their colony.

"Not your opinions, no," Ranger retorted. He'd started pacing after entering.

"Mm," Zechs muttered, looking to the ceiling. "The thing about it is that no one cares what she's saying. She randomly started on about you lot, as far as the public is concerned. She'll get some people in her corner after a while, but by your mood, I can tell this isn't going nearly fast enough."

Ranger grumbled incoherently at him.

"It's not sensational enough," Zechs added thoughtfully. "The real story is background tabloid fodder..."

"I thought she'd run and tell everyone," Ranger snapped at him. "I thought that as soon as she knew we had you she'd go run her mouth."

"You did, really?" Zechs gave him a bemused sort of look. "What good would that do her? She'd have twenty governments begging to let them help and it would be offensive for her to refuse. On top of that she'd have the Preventer's breathing down her neck because if you can't tell, they're keeping your bullshit quiet in the background. They want as much done before they have to come out as possible."

Ranger glowered at him.

"You can't tell me she's not fighting the fight," Zechs added, indicating the television and his sister, who was listening to someone asking a question. "She's doing everything she can."

"We should come out ourselves and tell everyone she's working for us," Ranger grumbled, starting to pace again.

"But that's where the tabloid fodder comes in," Zechs returned with a grin. "The people of the colonies and earth trust my sister. She does everything she can to get them what they need. She does her damnedest to do right by them, and in the end they'd do right by her."

The man glared more at him.

Zechs sighed, looking back to the screen. He could see that she was about to cry, but she wasn't that obvious, especially in public. No one else would get it. She really was putting out her all for him, and he was really starting to get annoyed with the five former Gundam pilots.

Why hadn't they found him, and if they had, why hadn't they let him know? They knew he wasn't stupid. They knew that if they gave him the heads-up he'd be ready the moment they were there for him—and he wouldn't let the people holding him know. So why had so much time passed?

Were they not coming after him?

The idea made him go cold. If they hadn't connected that he'd left Zia because of Une's words, then they might still believe he was pulling the stupid stunts he had before. If they believed that, then his being stupid and getting caught would be his own problem, wouldn't it?

"What's the matter?" Ranger muttered, moving to sit next to him on the couch.

"I just had an unsettling thought," Zechs returned.

"Oh?"

"Why would I tell you something that bothers me?" the prince met his eyes curiously.

Ranger rolled his own, dropping back to stare at the screen as the princess continued talking. "You get any messages?"

"Huh?" Zechs asked blankly, taken aback.

"Messages," Ranger repeated. "After we reviewed the interview tape we'd done with Pan and the hostages, we realized that the stupid Williams boy was mouthing to someone. I thought he was doing something, with the way he wasn't texting back to whoever was messaging him—but at that point, Rab hadn't realized how fickle the boy was."

"Oh, you mean him telling us it was Rab?" Zechs grinned slightly. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Ranger indicated the television screen. "It's purely my good graces that gives you this access you know."

"Do you want another go at Yuy?" Zechs asked sweetly. "Could you possibly be hoping that he comes in on his stallion and saves me?" he snickered slightly. "How funny. My darling sister and Yuy aren't nearly so cordial as they once were...and personally, Maxwell drives me to irritation. I don't mind Winner, Chang, or Barton...or Yuy, really."

"Your sister got a call from Yuy before we contacted her."

"Chances are they knew you grabbed me as soon as you took my phone," Zechs noted, raising an eyebrow. "They all hack, and they love the AS model phones...I think they'd marry pax if it were an option. Last time I'd talked to Yuy, he had a good thirty patches worked up. Some of them he can install remotely."

"And then there's the Chronus patch," Ranger agreed. "Which he paid for to put on that boy's phone."

"I doubt that," Zechs argued. "Chronus is buggy. Yuy put something on my phone once that gave it remote activation—but that's not all. When he turned it on, he had full control of the system. He could mute it and dim the backlight. There's some other shit it can do, too, but..."

"Like accessing the military index of past and present soldiers?" Ranger asked quietly.

"Oh, probably," Zechs agreed with amusement, meeting the man's eyes. "It could also probably tell if you were horny or hungry. Hell, I wouldn't be too amazed if he'd figured out how to activate the acupuncture spots that could make you horny or hungry."

"Fucking gods," Ranger spat, looking away irritably.

"They'd like to think so, but if you don't have an AS model phone, they've got nothing on you."

Ranger sighed, pulling his own phone out.

He wasn't really that stupid was he? He didn't really carry his own phone with him? Or was it, maybe, an extra he'd picked up somewhere? A non-contract that didn't even need an activation name.

"I'm bored out of my fucking mind," Zechs noted, moving to pull his legs on the couch with him. "Can you get me a puzzle book or something?"

"A puzzle book?" Ranger snapped.

"Or do you have to be careful so I don't paper-cut-slit your wrists with it?"

"I wouldn't put it past you to pull it off," Ranger retorted. "Or gauge my eye out with the pen or pencil we give."

Zechs sniggered at that. "Good one."

"I'll see what we can get," the man added, tucking the phone away. "I do trust you won't try to kill me with it. You still can't get out of this building with just me down—and I doubt you'd be able to leave the colony, even if you managed."

"We on 27, then?" Zechs retorted. "I doubt you could run the blockade."

Ranger smirked at him, rising to his feet. "Don't you wish? You don't know how long you were knocked out for, so how do you know we aren't back on earth?"

"Not many earth buildings have rooms with no windows, let alone sectors," Zechs reassured him. "Though in all honesty, we could be there. I think, though, that the damage being knocked out enough to stay out that long would be telling. I had a mild to severe concussion, but in order to keep me out that long..."

"Maybe we sedated you," Ranger noted with a slight smirk. "Mild concussion, a bit of sedative...a long flight..."

"My body is immune to many, many, things, Mr. Hanager. I've also been exposed to many more. I'd have recognized the after effects of a sedative."

"Ooh, smart man, huh?" Ranger smirked as he hung in the door. "Then tell me, if you're so damn smart—why are you here?"

"Maybe," Zechs purred, "I just wanted to let my comrades know about a weak-spot in their defenses."

Ranger's eyes narrowed sharply.

"Maybe you kidnapped yourself a mole," Zechs flashed him a sweet smile. "I doubt you scanned me—who's to say there isn't a tracking device below my skin somewhere?"

"Maybe we should look into that," Ranger purred darkly at him, moving out the door. "Maybe there are some other probing things we should do while we're at it." He closed the door.

Zechs made a face, realizing that the jibe had gone too far.

He was in for a very unpleasant evening.

- -

Did she have to cry so much?

Duo sighed, studying the ceiling. Lu had been eager enough to help decipher the license plate, but by the time he'd brought her back, Heero had been so entrenched in the job that he hadn't budged. They'd taken a turn to find Trowa, but the man was in a high-ops room that Lu didn't have clearance to be in, and it would take another hour for Duo to get her cleared to enter. They'd gone back to the rooms he and the others were sharing to find that Heero had disappeared, as well as Wufei and Matty.

She'd folded into his arms, and she felt far too weak. She was so utterly terrified and horrified that she was far from her old self. He appreciated, on some levels, that she was comfortable enough to let down all her guards with him. On several levels, however, he really did not appreciate it. He knew it fell somewhere in the area of unrequited love, but he was okay with that. He just wished that she'd cry in someone else's arms once in a while.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, pushing away from him finally. "I'm an absolute mess..."

"Don't worry about it," he reassured her, wiping at her tears.

"I got tears all over your uniform!" she protested with a slight laugh that ended in more of a sob.

"As long as it's not boogers," he reassured her, looking down and wiping at the wet spots.

She laughed at that, wiping at her face.

"Go clean yourself up," he suggested, indicating the bathroom. "Then we can figure out where Heero's run off to."

She nodded her head and disappeared. He stayed where he was a long moment, then pushed away from the wall and moved toward the couch. She appeared a moment later, wiping her nose with some toilet paper. She had her phone to her ear.

"What's up?" he asked curiously.

"Sally needs me," she returned, stopping to hug him briefly, then kiss his forehead. "I'll come back over later."

He nodded his agreement, then watched as she scampered away.

Well, that was one way of dealing with it, wasn't it?

Duo ran his hands through his hair as he sat there a long moment, then rose to his feet. He moved quietly down the hall, thinking that laying down sounded like a plan, then hesitated as he heard something. The door to Quatre's room was cracked very slightly, and the sound was from in there.

He shoved the door open.

"Duo!"

Quatre had jumped backwards and was messing with the fly of his pants.

"Oh, I thought someone snuck in," Duo explained. "I thought you were off running...what are you doing?"

Quatre's cheeks were red as he looked away, sitting down on the bed.

"Were you..." the American almost asked, but Quatre had never been comfortable talking about anything personal. The idea he'd been caught either about to, or actually masturbating would horrify him to no end. "Uh...sorry," Duo started to back away.

"It's not your fault," Quatre reassured him, looking pointedly to the floor. He had his arms crossed and was leaning forward where he sat. He raised his eyes to look at the far wall. "I hate going out and reading people."

"Uh..." Duo wasn't sure he wanted to have the full conversation when Quatre hadn't actually gotten his pants buttoned.

"It was even a guy he was lusting after!" Quatre added in something like irritability, covering his face with his hands.

Duo hesitated. He understood the want of ranting, but not why it couldn't be done in say...five minutes. Unless...

"You want me to listen to you rant or give you a helping hand?"

Quatre's cheeks flared again and he re-covered his eyes.

Duo grinned slightly, realizing that if Quatre was in the mode to...read...people, he'd probably feel the amusement.

"You're an asshole," the blond noted.

"Come on, you know everyone's busy," Duo noted, moving through the door and closing it behind himself. "It'd take...five, maybe ten minutes, tops."

"I love how you assume I'll have no problems with your notion and go along with you."

"I intend to do it," Duo shrugged, sitting on the bed next to him. "You'll let me in the end—and then we can both get on with our day. Win-win."

"I fail to see any benefit to you in this proposition," Quatre noted, lowering his hands and crossing his arms back over his legs. He wasn't looking at Duo.

"The joy of helping a friend?" Duo offered sweetly.

"Not even I am that naïve, Duo," Quatre retorted, meeting his eyes briefly.

"A moment of...shall we say weakness?" Duo returned sweetly. "A show of trust and faith—a bond, if you will."

"And cutting through all the crap," Quatre cut him off, meeting his eyes a few moments longer than before. "You're basically saying it'll butter me up for more fun later."

"Basically," Duo agreed easily. "In like...six months or a year. In time," he added when he got the blue glance again. "With plenty of time to opt out."

"Why am I actually listening to you?" Quatre grumped, rubbing at his face, then moving to shove Duo away. "Get out of here..."

Duo sniggered, leaning in quickly and meeting Quatre's eyes for the briefest of moments before biting very gently at his jaw-line.

Quatre hesitated.

"Plenty of time to opt out," Duo reassured him in amusement, wondering what was going through the guy's head.

"You're evil and wicked and..." Quatre swallowed when Duo sucked very lightly at the soft skin of his throat. "And...do that again."

Duo smirked and leaned forward. He hadn't thought Quatre an easy mark—but then again, if the blond hadn't been exposed to whatever lust he'd been exposed to, he wouldn't have been an easy mark. Duo got the impression that reading people the way Quatre did increased the potency of any given emotion.

The American had a rather simple mental list that was made of things he could do, should do, shouldn't do—or shouldn't even consider. He'd long ago tossed his four friends and Lu into that category. Heero'd jumped out of that pen all on his own a very long time ago. Half-seducing Quatre should probably have been at the top of that list, but Duo had a problem.

He'd never been very good at resisting temptation.

He couldn't wait for Quatre to come back to his senses and beat the shit out of him—that would line this all neatly up.

Until then, he was going to have a little fun.

- -

"So you're telling me they left the colony?" Heero demanded of Trowa as they moved into the apartment. "How the hell did they leave the colony?"

"You were wrong?" Duo asked curiously, sitting up.

"I was wrong," Trowa agreed, glancing briefly at Quatre. The blond was sitting a little way away from Duo on the couch and looked half-asleep. "What were you two doing?"

"He's been sitting here half-dozing for a half hour," Duo returned with a shrug. "I just thought I'd try my luck."

Heero laughed wickedly as Quatre punched Duo's arm.

"You interrupted, though," the American noted, warding off the blows and watching Quatre warily. "Your news is more interesting."

"More interesting than getting laid?" Trowa asked sweetly, glancing at Quatre.

"Excuse me?" Quatre retorted, sitting up.

"Ooh, rich-boy offended!" Duo sniggered and darted down the couch as he was smacked at again. "Come on, let's go check your sources."

"Check my sources!" Heero chirped happily, bouncing.

The American smirked at Heero appreciatively, then turned his head. "Get your coat?" he asked Quatre, who hadn't moved. "Let's pretend we care about Zechs?"

Quatre snorted and pulled himself from where he was sitting, disappearing down the hall.

Trowa and Heero gave Duo curious looks.

"He was out talking to people," Duo shrugged. "He was here when I got back and...a little disturbed."

"Huh," Trowa shook it off.

"Where...is...Matty?" Heero muttered, actually looking around. "He's not in here, and Wufei."

"I'm not sure what they got up to," Duo returned. "After you took over the license plate thing, I left."

"Oh yeah, they went to lunch," Heero remembered, pulling out his phone. "Come on," he added, glancing up at Quatre when he re-emerged into the living room.

It didn't take them long to be headed to the same restricted area Duo had been trying to bring Lu into. Heero—who had called his lover and been chatting briefly—lowered his phone, looking around to the others.

"What?" Duo asked, reading the almost-alarm in the guy's eyes.

"Wufei is about to call one of his friends," Heero explained. "And they want to meet up with him."

"So what was that look?" Duo asked, gesturing at his friend.

"Matty said he'd started crying when he was dialing."

Oh.

"Where are they?" Duo muttered, turning away.

"They were at a little café on thirty-fourth," Heero returned as Duo started off. "They're at a park now."

"Right," Quatre muttered, turning to follow Duo. "We'll be back."

"You're going?" Trowa asked blankly.

"We'll be back," Quatre persisted, and followed the other down the hall.

- -

Wufei had pulled the little sheet of numbers out, and was starting to dial the first set when Matty's phone rang. The guy answered promptly, and all the fear and exasperation he'd been feeling to that point compounded when he heard Heero asking what they were doing.

It was scary.

Wufei ended his call, feeling a sob tearing at him. He was terrified that Jinli might explode at him. If not for the end of the colony itself, then for how many years had passed since the tragedy had occurred.

"Hey," Matty muttered, moving to hold him instantly. "Hey, now..."

"Get off," Wufei muttered, rubbing irritably at his eyes as he sat back.

"You don't have to be an ass," Matty retorted, mildly offended.

"I'm not someone who needs held," Wufei retorted, glad they were in the park instead of the café.

"Spare me that," Matty retorted.

They bickered again, casually. Wufei made comments about how needy gay men were and Matty happily argued that he didn't know if he was just gay, because woman were damn pretty. That leg of conversation didn't get them far, though—even if it did give Wufei time to re-gather himself.

"Ahoy there."

Wufei turned at Duo's voice, blinking between he and Quatre.

"What's up?" Matty asked blankly.

"You guys okay?" Quatre asked, moving around Duo to look nervously at the Chinese man.

"You're a little tattle tale," Wufei informed Matty pointedly.

"I just said what was going on," Matty retorted, giving him something of an offended look.

"I'm okay," Wufei noted, focusing specifically on Quatre.

"Then call him," Matty ordered, indicating the top-most number. "Call whoever it was that just made you cry."

Wufei focused on him in alarm, grateful at Duo's reassuring hand on his shoulder. He raised the phone again, then closed his eyes.

"Look at it this way," Duo suggested quietly in French. "You can't talk long. We've found that they left 44."

"How did they leave it?" Wufei demanded, starting to straighten. "Where did they go?"

"Trowa's working on that now," Duo returned. "Call."

Wufei came up short, looking back to the paper. He wanted to say that his business could wait, but he could tell that his friends weren't having it. He managed to dial the full number then, but Duo shifted out of his personal space and his resolve broke.

He closed the phone.

"Wufei," Duo admonished.

"It'll be okay," Matty said quietly. "You'll see...just call again, tell him you dropped the phone or something."

Wufei fidgeted uncomfortably, but Duo's hand moved back to his shoulder in that silent reassurance. He hit redial.

It rang a whole of four times before Wufei panicked and all but tossed the phone as he closed it.

Matty started rubbing his forehead. "I could have gotten him to do it if you hadn't shown up."

"He's dialed," Duo retorted. "That's something."

"Right," Matty agreed sarcastically.

Wufei's phone started ringing.

They all stared at it in disbelief a long moment before Duo grabbed it and thrust it at Wufei.

"I can't!" Wufei protested, moving away from him backwards with wild eyes.

"Answer your phone!" Duo persisted.

"I can't!" Wufei squeaked.

Duo gave him an irritated sort of look and opened it. "Hello?"

"Hey, I just got a couple calls from this number," a male returned curiously.

"Oh, yeah, hold on just a second." He offered the phone to Wufei.

Wufei gave him a pleading look, but he could tell Duo wouldn't give over.

He took the phone carefully and placed it against his ear. "Hello?"

"I just got some calls from this number?" the male voice asked curiously.

Wufei swallowed, closing his eyes. "Is this Wong Jinli?"

"Yes, it is, but I haven't used that name in...years..." he trailed off into silence before. "Wufei? Chang Wufei?"

Wufei swallowed, starting to nod. "Yeah."

There was a long silence.

"I...uh...I'm on L-5. I'm...over on 25...A02225."

"You are?" the guy asked quietly. "I thought you lived on earth."

"I'm...we're doing some stuff right now," Wufei explained quietly. "We'll be moving around the colonies for a few weeks."

The silence came again.

Wufei closed his eyes. He shouldn't have called, he should have just gone on with his work like he'd been trying.

"I'm on...25," Jinli noted hesitantly. "I...I live here."

"I thought you did," Wufei agreed, swallowing.

"Are you busy right now?" the guy was obviously unsure if he was wanted—just like Wufei was unsure if he was.

"I have some free time," Wufei said in a rush. "At least an hour. I'm at the park off of thirty-fourth."

"Really?" the guy perked up. "I'm like...five minutes away. You want me to come?"

"I was hoping you would," Wufei agreed quietly.

"Uh...okay, hold on, let me get my shoes on."

"I'll see you in a few then," Wufei said, swallowing slightly.

"Yeah, in a few," the guy agreed.

Wufei closed the phone and leaned forward, pressing his face into his legs.

"I told you," Matty noted pointedly to him, rising. "Come on, Quatre, Duo. Let's go."

"But," Quatre started to protest.

"We can go in the car you two took to come," Matty noted pointedly to him. "He can bring that car back."

"Just know that within the next few hours you should come back," Duo muttered, shoving at Quatre. "We'll text you if we get anymore information before then."

Wufei nodded, sitting up to watch them go.

Really, he wasn't entirely sure he appreciated all of them leaving him like that—but at the same time, he didn't want to see his old friend with the new ones watching. Especially Quatre. He loved Quatre to death, relied on him completely—but he didn't need to experience Wufei's fear.

He'd have to thank Matty later.