Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Bad Timing ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine, never was, never will be...

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When he was finally forced to admit it to himself, what it all came down to was pain. Quite a lot of it actually. Add in some blood (ok, a lot of blood) and some screaming (from the silly bint, not him) and it was really quite a scene to remember.

Getting shot for the first time in his life was a momentous occasion for him and for it to happen twice in less than two minutes made it all the more intriguing. No one had ever gotten past his guard like that, not even during the early days of his training. According to Dr. J he was a prodigy, a natural killing machine. Discovering that another person like himself existed was beyond anything he had expected out of life. It caused his brain to short-circuit for quite a while, which made him react in a hostile manner towards the first person he ever respected. After he’d had time to think about it though, he realized that he would never accept any other as his partner in combat. Since this was as close to a declaration of love as his battle conditioned brain could come to, Heero decided that he needed to act before someone with a bigger gun, or possibly more spandex-space, snatched up the braided pilot of Deathscythe from under his nose.

Once he was able to own up to his feelings, all that was left was for him to act upon them. Unfortunately, since he had never tried to convince someone that they were destined to fight by his side, sharing rations and ammo and administering first aid to one another until they had to mutually self destruct before, he was a bit at a loss as to how to go about it. Dr. J had obviously neglected to show him that particular training vid yet.

He thought of shooting Duo (since it had worked so well on himself), but he decided that it might be too early on in the relationship for such a maneuver since in his mind it was akin to a marriage proposal. Besides, the mission they were on might suffer from the amount of downtime it would take 02 to recover. His only experience with the whole courtship thing was himself - running away from Relena, so he didn’t think that would help. Duo was kind of fast, after all. He tried researching the matter online for a while, but kept coming up with site after stomach turning site. He gave up and decided to just jump in and follow his emotions.

Attempt # 1:

“Duo!” Heero stalked into the hanger where 02 was working on his Gundam with what he believed to be an expression of gentleness on his face.

“Hey, Heero...” Duo threw him an easy smile that quickly transformed into a look of concern. “Erm, are you ok, man? You look kinda like you have severe stomach cramps or something. You haven’t been eating any of Quatre’s cooking again have you? I know none of us like hurting his feelings, but...”

“No!” Heero exclaimed, hastily re-adjusting his expression back to his regular scowl. “It’s not that, I hid my portion of his ‘soup’ in the ficus.”

“So that’s why it died so fast, I put mine there, too.”

Heero spared a brief moment to appreciate how great minds thought alike before pulling himself back together so that he could get back to the point at hand.

He tried to start again, “Duo..”

“You know, Quatre cried when he realized that it was dead. I think it was his favorite plant.” Duo’s eyes went distant for a minute, giving Heero ample opportunity to notice that the other boy had torn his shirt while working on his Gundam. Heero could see tan, supple skin just begging to be touched on the braided boy’s stomach. It was calling to him... “Hmm... Maybe next time we could throw the food in the pond?” Duo suggested hopefully.

“What, and kill all the fish? That’ll really make him cry.” Heero shook his head because he had forgotten something he had meant to say... something important... crap. Wait a minute, that’s right... “Duo...”

“Hey, Duo! Wanna taste this cake I just baked?” Quatre’s voice rang throughout the hanger.

Heero went to give a look of sympathy at 02, but he had already jumped up to the rafters, made his way to a tiny window, and crammed himself through it to freedom - the exact same thing Heero would have done had he not been so preoccupied. Crap. He turned to see Quatre racing towards him at high-velocity, waving an enormous pink concoction that vaguely reminded him of Relena. His pulse started to race from horror as he desperately tried to come up with an escape plan.

Still running, Quatre called out to Heero, “Where did Duo go?”

Heero prayed to the gods that 04 would trip over one of the many spare Gundam parts lying around, but it was to no avail. Quatre wasn’t a Gundam pilot for nothing, so he adeptly maneuvered his way through the maze of machinery and arrived safely with cake in hand to where Heero was standing.

“I haven’t seen him.” Heero lied, still trying to think of a way out of his predicament - though not quite willing to take Duo down with him.

Quatre’s face fell for a moment, then brightened back up as he asked, “Would you like to try my cake?”

“I can’t,” Heero said desperately, “I’m a... a diabetic!”

“Don’t be silly, Dr. J wouldn’t have chosen a diabetic to pilot Wing. And besides, there’s no sugar in this cake. We didn’t have any, so I just added a little extra of everything else to compensate. Clever, huh?

As Heero’s horror mounted, his brain reverted to Battle Mode. It sent him a barrage of suggestions as to the best way to dispatch 04 efficently. And as tempting as as those ideas may have been, they would not, in the long run, be in the best intrests of the mission. He was going to have to think of something less violent to get him out of this situation. Too bad Dr. J forgot to show him those diplomacy training vids as well...

“Come on Heero, everyone likes cake, even perfect soldiers!”

"What kind of cake is it?" Heero asked warily, stalling for time.

"I’m not sure. I put a lot of good stuff in it, so it isn’t any one thing... specifically, but if you went by what ingredient I put in the most, it would probably be salt. It was what I had the most of."

Heero’s hand reached of its own volition to the suicide pills he had stashed in his shorts, just as his communicator went off, indicating that he had a mission. For the first time in his life Heero had the urge to kiss Dr.J.

"Aw, what a shame, You can’t eat before a mission, it’ll give you cramps." Heero quickly invented.

Quatre nodded in understanding. "That makes sense. Well, don't worry, I'll save you a piece for when you get back!"

Heero gunted in assent, privately assuring himself that he would make this mission last as long as possible.

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He was so engrossed with the preparations for his next mission that Heero forgot all about his failed first attempt at courting 02 until many hours later. He wasn't discouraged though, he now had an idea of what he was up against. He was good at making plans.