Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Games, Gifts and Interruptions ❯ The Mission Part 2 ( Chapter 18 )

Gifts, Games and Interruptions

(A/N: Okay, I had this chapter almost typed up..I was at about 5000 words and then I had to reformat my computer...well whenever I reformat, I simply upload what I have so far to ff. net (since they have a document manager) and then reformat...well it was late that night when it I did so I figured that I could just get it the next day...well the next day they were fixing the document manager and now, it's all gone !! *sighs* everything *sniffles* every last thing that I wrote is gone *sniffles somemore*

yeah so I had to rewrite this *nods* so that's why it took so long to get out...sorry about that and I'm no longer going to trust and I'm going to go back to the old disk *nods holds the disk high in the air and bows to it* lol

Anyways...sorry about the long wait..but it IS a long chapter (And I had to remember everything that I wanted to do with it when I wrote it the first time) so maybe that will make up for it...somehow

By the way..the song used for scene breaks is called "Take me Under" and it's by Three Days Grace)

Disclaimer: i don't own three days grace...too bad huh? and i don't own the gundam boys sighs in defeat you just can't win I guess...

Chapter Eighteen: The Mission Part Two

Duo saw Wufei walking away from the campus at about the same time he was heading for the main building to see if he could find his Asian housemate.

Duo noticed that Wufei was walking a little bit faster than he would usually which meant that he was either pissed or he was trying to find something. Knowing Wufei, it was probably something to do with the first one rather than the second.

Duo contemplated yelling after him but wasn't sure about how responsive Wufei was to his new name and decided to just run.

Duo caught up with Wufei just as he was about to unlock the door to the car. Duo grabbed Wufei's shoulder and found himself slammed against the car before he even had time to say anything. Wufei saw who it was and regret filled his eyes and he let go of Duo, mumbled an apology and then went back to unlocking the door.

Duo rubbed the back of his head where he had been hit the hardest and looked at Wufei suprisingly. "What's up Tai?" Duo grinned, trying to relax the moment but Wufei didn't seem to want anything to do with it because his frown grew. "Alright, what's wrong Wufei?" Duo reached out a hand and put it on Wufei's shoulder again, quite slowly though, he didn't want a repeat.

"Nothing's wrong!" Wufei growled and climbed in the car.

Duo blinked and looked at Wufei again. He sighed and pushed himself off of the car and made his way around the car to the passenger side. Wufei unlocked the door from the inside and Duo climbed in, pulling on his seat belt.

Wufei pulled out of the parking lot and Duo glanced over, studying him. The lines in his forehead were deeper than Duo had ever remembered them and Duo didn't really know what he should say that wouldn't get him yelled at. Which was ironic since just a week ago, that's all Duo wanted to do.

"Alright Wufei, what's wrong? Don't lie to me and tell me that nothing's wrong, I know better! And if you don't tell me I'm going to have to call up Une and tell her that you're incapable of carrying out this mission to the best of your capability and therefore I need to do this on my own!" Duo snapped.

"You told some chick that I had a girlfriend back home?" Wufei asked, his foot pressing just a little bit more on the speed pedal.

"I didn't know how you wanted to deal with it since you have Heero now so I figured I would give you something to play on. If you don't want to go on a date with her, you just tell her that your girlfriend and you are going to stay true or something dumb like that. And if you're okay with it, you and your girlfriend agreed to see other people while you're apart! I figured you'd be okay with it." Duo defended himself. "I thought that I would get to you and tell you before she could but obviously that didn't work. I didn't think she would be that forward!"

"Well she was!" Wufei snapped. Then he closed his eyes briefly and stared ahead at the road for a minute, silence filling the car. Then he sighed. "Look I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"No, I shouldn't have said anything. I could have told her that I was just unsure about your relationship status and then this whole thing could have been avoided." Duo replied, looking out the side window at the people walking on the sidewalk.

"At least you didn't tell her that I was free." Wufei seemed to be trying to convince himself of this rather than Duo.

Duo let him have that. "Yeah, I could have said something else." There was another moment of silence and then Duo couldn't stand not knowing anymore. "So what did you tell her?"

Wufei growled. "You don't need to know that."

"That bad huh?"

Wufei looked over at Duo and gripped the steering wheel a little bit tighter. "I told her that I didn't know what you were talking about."

"Great move." Duo said with a wince.

"Yeah, she took it as you making up an excuse so that I didn't have to go out with her. She seemed to be very offended, though it only lasted three seconds because then she asked me out." Wufei gritted his teeth.

"Sounds like fun." Duo muttered.

"Would have been-" Wufei agreed sarcastically. "If I hadn't told her that I have a boyfriend."

"And she assumed it was me?" Duo asked.

"Yeap."

"Great."

"Well at least we don't have to worry about guys."

Duo rolled his eyes. "That sounds like something I would say."

"It is something that you would say." Wufei muttered.

"Right." Duo paused. "Didn't you even try to tell her that I wasn't your boyfriend."

"Yes. I stomped off when she didn't listen."

"That made it look like it wasn't true." Duo grumbled.

"Yeah well, it was either that or hit her."

"I see." Duo sighed. "Well then, I guess we're going out."

"No we're not, it's all a misunderstanding." Wufei said as he parked the car in the driveway.

"Sure." Duo said, climbing out and heading to the door where a note was taped to it. Duo stared at it and then turned back, handing the note to Wufei. "I think we're gay, Tai-"

Now it seems I'm fading
All my dreams are not worth saving
I've done my share of waiting
And I've still got no where else to go

"Want to go and play a little bit of basketball?" Wufei asked as he poked his head into the living room. Wufei seemed to have calmed down from when they had first come home. "There's a park about five minutes from here."

Duo looked up and then back down at the pictures in front of him. They had shots of all of the assumed suspects around here from two agents that had been here since the beginning of the investigation. However, they had been assumed to be people that weren't to be trusted around here so no one communicated with them which was great for their part of the investigation but it didn't help Duo and Wufei at all. They couldn't even go and ask them for names, they had to deal with a bunch of pictures.

"I guess we can, it's not like I'm getting anywhere with any of this." Duo said with a sigh, picking up all of the pictures and stuffing them into a folder. "I haven't seen any of these people at all today and I think I've had to come across a couple hundred people today."

"Maybe they just don't take any of the same classes you do." Wufei suggested as he watched Duo place the folder in a vault.

"Well they don't seem to take any of the classes you do either and we picked classes from different aspects for a reason." Duo got up and went to find his shoes. "Maybe they just don't come to class very often. We may never see them if that's the case. Or if we do, it will only be because we take those damn pictures around and ask about them. And that's going to get quite a few weird stares. We might as well join ranks with Parris and Borten." (1)

Wufei shook his head and waited for Duo to put his shoes on and they headed out the door, in the direction for the park.

"You know, it's odd that we haven't seen any of them. None of them look to be that rich so they're probably all here on scholarships or something. Which means that they'd have to get good grades in their classes to stay here." Duo commented as they walked down the road. "I mean, they couldn't afford not getting good grades if they want to stay here."

"Well, a couple of them could be rich and the rest could just luck out. It's happened before, it can probably happen here too." Wufei replied, as he stuffed his hands into his pocket.

"True." Duo replied.

They were silent for the rest of the way to the park and only when they arrived at the basketball court did they actually say anything and only because of who was on the court.

"Shit!" Duo exclaimed. as he immediately recongized everyone that was playing from the pictures. "It's like a damn conference of bad guys up there."

"Well that's the answer to your question of why we haven't seen any of them. They're all right there." Wufei answered. "They all hang out here. They probably do luck out just like I told you they do. They all probably get their class notes from hopefuls and just go to class to take the exams."

Duo shrugged and looked up at the guys again and was surprised to see that they were looking their way. "Hey Wufei, I think we've been noticed."

"Hey! You two, wanna play?" One of the guys asked. "If you join us, we can actually play some five on five."

The rest of the guys nodded but it looked more like they were studying Wufei and Duo for something. Duo found it quite unnerving but before he could tell Wufei what he thought of the whole thing, Wufei had already voiced their agreeal and was heading up to the basketball court.

"Great work Wufei, what ever happened to asking your partner's opinion?" Duo muttered under his breath and made his way up after Wufei.

"Welcome to our court." The guy who had invited them up there in the first place smirked. "So you two can be on your own team and you can choose any three people you want to join you."

Wufei looked around and immediately pointed three of the guys out. They nodded and headed over to Wufei, standing just behind him. Duo stood a couple of feet away from all of them. He did not have a good feeling about this at all. There was something wrong with this. Something told him that these people did not just invite random people onto the basketball court with them. So what was their reasoning for inviting Wufei and Duo up here today?

"I'm Dean." The head guy said. "You picked Shorty, Todd and Ryan." Each of the guys that Wufei had choosen raised their hand in turn. Wufei nodded to all of them and then turned back to the front. "And this is Jake, Chris, Mike and Nel."

Duo took notes of all of the names so that he could write them down later on, next to their pictures. Having some names might prove to be vital later on.

"And you are?" Dean asked when Wufei didn't offer their names.

"I'm Tai, this is Robert." Wufei said simply. "I get first ball."

Dean grinned and nodded. "Alright then, you get first ball." Dean motioned to the guys and they all spread out, ready to ball some bball.

Duo pay no attention to the guys across from him. Sure they were all bigger than he was but he played basketball with Heero and Heero could probably kick his ass eight times before any of these guys could get anywhere close.

Wufei dribbled the ball a couple of times and then passed it over to Shorty. Shorty didn't seem to really know what to do with it and Duo figured quickly that he wasn't one who usually got the ball when he was playing with his friends. However, after a moment of panic, he calmed down, started dribbling and moved forward and around Chris and then passed back to Wufei who was already up at the net and then Wufei scored easily.

Dean nodded in approval and then grabbed the ball and the two teams switched sides. (2)

Duo noticed that he was stuck guarding the biggest guy there, shouldn't be too much of a problem though so he waited for the ball to move.

Dean immediately passed the ball to Mike and the game was on. Shorty again didn't seem to know exactly what he was doing but did pretty good with understanding what to do quite quickly. He had a lot of natural talent or maybe he just practiced by himself a lot since he realized that his friends weren't that good at team playing.

The ball went to Nel, Duo's check and Duo moved in for the kill, he easily grabbed the ball away from Nel's pitiful dribbling and passed it over to Wufei who rushed it over center line, and therefore made it their ball.

Wufei passed the ball back to Duo and Duo gribbled around Jake and headed for the hoop, he shot and found himself flat on the ground. Nel had taken a running tackle to him. Duo growled, got up and ignored Wufei's concern on whether or not he was alright. Instead he retook his position and gave Nel a glare that he had gotten right from Heero. Nel was shaken up by it and Duo had to grin at that. Who would have known that Heero's glare would be as effective here.

Duo didn't take any shit from Nel for the rest of the game. He watched his back at all times and thought Wufei tried to keep the ball away from Duo as much as he could, Shorty and Ryan passed him the ball a couple of times. Duo wasn't going down a second time so he stayed down to the ground and made sure that he could see Nel at all times.

In the end it was 21-14. Dean and his team slumped away from the court, their heads hung low and Todd followed them.

Shorty and Ryan however, stayed behind.

"You guys were great!" Ryan said with a grin. "I've never beaten those guys."

Shorty nodded, grinning just as enthustiastically. Duo knew that he was happy because not only did he beat Dean and his team, but he had actually been able to play. Duo smiled in respsonse to the boy's enthusiasm.

"Anyways." Ryan said. "There's a party tonight. You know, one of those parties that people usually look down on. But it's a lot of fun and I'm sure Dean won't mind if you go." Ryan grinned. "Besides, you beat him, that'll get you in by itself. There's a few guys there that have been looking for someone who could put Dean in his place for a long time."

Again Wufei accepted the invitation without even asking Duo what he thought about it. Ryan grinned, told them where the party was going to be and then ran after Dean and them while Shorty held back for a moment more. He seemed to be thinking about something to say but at the last minute he chickened out, said thanks and followed Ryan's example.

"Well, we're in." Wufei said with a grin. "That was easy."

Duo bit his tongue and didn't make a comment on how it was a little too easy. After all, it didn't seem like Wufei wanted his opinion anyways.

So I wait for you
Take me all the way
Take me all the way

Wufei didn't know how it happened exactly but they were in with the big group that no one had been capable of getting closed to before and it was as simple as beating a couple of guys at a game of basketball, if no one have thought of that before, they were sad.

Wufei got ready, pulling on a pair of cleaner pants that seemed to be in style with the college guys and then tugged on a shirt. He looked at his reflection, figured that he looked pretty decent and left the room. He decided to leave his hair up because he didn't want to deal with any comments about it and plus it was easier to mantain when it was in the ponytail.

Wufei peeped into the living room and was surprised that Duo wasn't there. He had figured that Duo thought that this was too easy but sometimes that was just how it was. Besides, these people were only in college, they were druggies to boot. How on earth were they supposed to figure out that they were undercover cops?

It just wasn't happen

However, Wufei hadn't thought that Duo was disapprove so much that he just wouldn't go with Wufei. He had figured that Duo would come and accompany Wufei to the party, to make sure that he didn't have more paper work than he needed to. That kind of thing.

To make sure that nothing happened to Wufei.

Wufei blinked at that thought. It had been a long time since he thought of Duo as a partner and not a rival and yet, before he had gotten together with Heero he had counted on Duo 90 percent of the time. It was odd that just one little thing could drive people apart. He was going to have to be nicer to Duo when he had the chance to.

But right now there was a party for Wufei to get to and there wasn't anything that was going to keep him from getting there. Not even the missing presence of his partner. Duo would show up eventually after all, that's all that mattered, really.

Wufei grabbed a baseball cap on his way out and fixed it on his head and then headed down the road, towards where Ryan had told them the party was. Wufei heard the yelling and shouting from about a block away and hesitated for the first time since he found out about this party. What if it really wasn't a good idea and he was going to end up doing something stupid by going in there? What if Duo was right and this had been way too busy. What kind of people judged whether or not people should be 'in' by whether or not they can beat them at basketball?

Wufei stalled and looked around him. This didn't even seem like that bad of a neighborhood, so was this all just a set up of some sort? Wufei couldn't believe that this was the neighborhood of constant partying and a gun blackmarket scam. What was going on?

Wufei sighed and continued on his way down the road. It wouldn't be smart to get cold feet right now plus, you never know about people. Maybe one of the kid's dads are just loaded and bought this house for him while he's at college or something.

Plus, blackmarkets tend to be a good place to become a millionaire.

With that in mind, Wufei walked up to the house, knocked on the door and then decided to go around to the back and found a fenced yard, which held a good hundred young adults, flocking around like ants in a colony.

"Hey, you came Tai." Ryan said with a grin when he spotted the Asian walking in the yard. "I'm glad. Dean is still whining about how unfair it was that you won. He's claiming to have something wrong with his knee now."

"There wasn't anything wrong with his knee when I was playing basketball with him." Wufei said with a growl.

Ryan's grin widened and he slapped Wufei on the back. "Exactly! That's just what I want to hear, and I'm sure that Matt will be glad to hear it too."

"Matt?" Wufei questioned.

"Yeah, the guy that owns the house. He's wanted to meet you since he heard that you were going to be here. He's got a beef with Dean so he's happy to meet anyone who can put the loser in his place. I only hang out with them because his dad has a lot of molah and he's more willing to buy me drugs than Matt is sometimes." Ryan grabbed Wufei's arm and started to lead him through the crowd.

Wufei let himself be dragged through the crowd and looked around, noticing that there weren't a lot of girls around. Maybe that was why Parris and Borten hadn't had a lot of luck. They had probably both been assumed to be straight and maybe that was the real trick about getting in here.

He grinned. Duo had been wrong, as usual of late, it hadn't been too easy to get in here. It had been just right. They had just had the right kind of personality. That was all there was to it. Duo just was too suspicious to realize it and now he was just going to have to be the outsider in this for once.

"Come on, he's in here." Ryan said, urging Wufei forward into the house and up the stairs. "Just a little bit more and we'll be there!"

Ryan pushed him in a room and then closed the door behind Wufei, leaving Wufei in a room alone with a guy alone. Wufei noticed quickly that there were no windows in this room and swallowed nervously.

Maybe Duo had been right after all.

Seems you're wanting me to stay
But my dreams would surely waste away
And I still have nowhere else to go

When Duo arrived home the first thing that he noticed was that Wufei was no where in sight. That meant that he had headed to the party without Duo after all. Duo cursed and closed his eyes in defeat. Wufei should know better than that. Wufei had always told him that if he ever went into a dangerous situation without backup, Wufei was going to rip him a new asshole.

And wouldn't you know that Wufei was the first one to break that rule.

Duo grabbed his gun, placed it in his back pocket and grabbed a coat to cover it up. He knew that it wouldn't attract all that much attention because it was a gun black market this Dean guy was running so there was going to be guns all over the place. Which also meant that this was going to be a lot harder than he wanted it to be.

A trained gunsman was predictable, they fired the most efficient way. Therefore they almost always thought alike when it came to bringing a person down. A new gunsman wasn't, they didn't know what efficient was. That made them, in a way, more dangerous.

Duo thought about calling for backup and then just shook his head, they would just spook everyone off and these people might start to act like trapped rats. That was more trouble than Duo was willing to deal with, but he placed his cell phone in his coat pocket just in case and then thought about phoning Heero.

Heero would know what to do. Heero could phone in backup if they got in a tight spot. Heero would come down there if they really needed him to.

Duo dailed his home number on the cellphone as he started to walk rapidly down the street.

When the line was picked up, Duo sighed in relief. "Heero? Is that you?"

"Yes, who is this?" Duo could tell that Heero was definitely confused, caller id would have labelled it as his phone but Heero was sure that Duo wouldn't phone him in the middle of a mission due to their conver possibly being blown.

"It's Duo, listen I need you to do me a favor."

"What is it? Is Wufei in trouble?" Heero asked hurriedly.

"I need you to call backup in for me if I don't call you back within forty minutes." Duo explained. "Wufei went to this party alone and I have to go check it out. I don't know if he's in danger or anything but it's better to be safe than sorry."

Duo could almost hear Heero's mission brain kick in. "Of course, go in and check the perimeter. Tell me the address so that if you don't call in by 20:36 I will phone the cops for back up."

"Don't phone the cops, they don't know what the hell they're doing. They might make this more of a battle scene than it will be without them. Just call in some of the preventor's or something, okay?" Duo asked.

Heero grunted. "I don't like that Duo, but you're right. The local police officers might make a mess of things. I'll phone the preventer's."

"Good." Duo smiled. "And Heero?"

"What?"

"Sorry for being such a jerk." With that Duo hung up the phone and walked into the crowded backyard of the party house.

Duo looked around for someone that he knew, anyone that could help lead him to Wufei. Anyone who might know where in the hell Wufei was, if Wufei was even here.

Duo saw Ryan, who was laughing around with some guy. Duo moved closer, figuring that Ryan would know if Wufei was here, simply because it was Ryan that had invited Wufei to this stupid party in the first place.

"I can't believe that the guy was such an idiot. You would think that they would get smarter the more of them that they send in but I'm starting to think that they're just sending in the ones that they want to get killed." Ryan said with a smirk. "He was so trusting and now he's up there with the boss, probably getting his lights punches out."

"Yeah." The person said in agreement. "Well at least the other one seems to be smart. He didn't show up with Tai. I wonder what he's real name is?"

"Don't worry about it, Matt will get that out of him before Tai ends up six feet under." Ryan said, his grin so big that Duo wanted nothing more than to go over there and wipe it off of his face.

Duo was just about to do that when someone pulled him away from his path. "You're not going to get in that way." A femine voice whispered in his eyes. "You want to get in there, you're going to have to do something besides threaten them. Come with me, I know another way inside."

Duo turned and looked over at the speaker and was surprised to see a girl, about sixteen years old standing in front of him. She has dyed red hair with her black roots showing and bright green eyes staring at him. Duo almost laughed in her face. She didn't look like someone who would be able to get him anywhere in this place. If anything, she looked like someone who would be more likely than Wufei to walk into a trap.

"Can you really get me in?" Duo asked, questioned though. He knew better than to turn down potential assistance. "I mean, seriously."

"Of course I can. I live here, my brother's friends wouldn't ever do anything to touch me. It's a deal we have. They don't touch me, I don't tell on them. My dad would freak if he knew that Matt was running this sort of thing from his house while my dad's gone. Of course no one has been able to prove that anything is going on besides just regular partying and there's nothing wrong with that." She said with a smile. "So you want in, or what?"

Duo nodded. "So what's the plan?"

"You need to kiss me."

"What?" Duo asked, shaking his hand. "Listen, if this is just some dumb plan to get me to kiss you, you can go and screw off."

She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand. "No dumbie, they know what you look like but if you kiss me and hide your braid, they won't even notice. They'll just think I found another guy and I'm taking him upstairs."

Duo sighed, and looked around. "Alright, if you're sure this will work."

"I am."

Duo tucked his braid in his shirt. "So what's your name."

"Cathie." She said with a grin. "Just don't remember that name when you write your reports."

Duo smiled and nodded. "Got'cha." Then he frowned. "How did you know I was a cop?"

"I didn't." Cathie replied and then helped Duo tuck his braid down his shirt. "But you just told me you were. For all I know, you're just a college student that wants to help his friend get out of here. It's happened before, not everyone is stupid enough to like this kind of life. Me included."

"So why do you stay here?" Duo asked simply.

"Because where else do I have to go?" Cathie asked and then grabbed Duo by the neck when she say something behind him. "Come on, we have to go."

"Why? What is it?" Duo asked as his face drifted closer to hers.

"It's just Ryan, but he knows you and if we don't get you in there soon. He's going to recongize you." Cathie replied and then planted her lips on his and Duo found himself being lead into the house.

She had been right. No body paid any attention to the two of them as they walked upstairs kissing. They just thought that they were Matt's little sister and some guy that wanted nothing more than to get it on with Matt's little sister.
This Matt guy had them all on short leashes if they didn't even look at Matt's little sister simply because he had told them not to. Makes you wonder what he did to get this high up in the social food chain.

"We're here." Cathie said as she pushed him into a room. "Upstairs, I mean. There's no guards posted up here because in order to get up here you have to get past about ten of them downstairs. So no one that they need to worrry about ever makes it this far."

"Until now."

"Exactly." With Cathie's wild grin though, Duo wondered what in the hell he had just gotten himself into.

So I wait for you to

Take me all the way

Take me all the way

Wufei wished that Duo was here. If Duo was here Wufei would have someone to rag out for getting them into this situation. If Duo was here Wufei would have someone who could make this situation seem a lot lighter than it actually was.

If Duo was here, Wufei probably wouldn't be in this situation at all.

"So Tai or whatever your name really is? Are you going to tell me what you're doing here or am I just going to have to tell you? Because I've dealt with enough cops already to know exactly why you're here." Matt said with a grin as he looked down at Wufei.

Wufei glared and moved his hand up to touch his bleeding mouth. The guy had kicked him pretty hard and it didn't help that Wufei was on the ground. The guy had an advance of about two seconds before Wufei could get into a good position to do anything. As it was, Wufei hated to admit it, but he was pretty helpless.

Not to mention Matt was smart enough to stay a couple of feet away, out of reach, until he was sure that he could hit Wufei without Wufei being able to hit back.

Matt reached down and pulled Wufei up to a kneeling position by his hair and yanked hard. "You want to know why you're here? You're here because the people they sent before you and the people they sent before that and so on and so forth, couldn't break me. They couldn't prove that anything was going on and by the time they actually could, they were broken. Did you see pictures of the last cops they sent in? They're still in the hospital as far as I know and that was a month ago." Matt smirked. "So do you really think that you have something that they don't?" Matt kicked Wufei in the ribs. "You didn't even have enough sense to bring in a partner. What kind of cop would walk into a situation like this unassisted?"

"I have back-up waiting." Wufei replied and was promptly kicked in the side.

"No you don't. My guys already went around. There's no one here that we don't know. And we also know that you didn't make any phone calls since yesterday and that roommate of yours isn't a cop either. He's just some guy that you decided to shack up with. Not that I fault your interests." Matt kicked Wufei in the ribs again. "So why don't you just tell me something that I don't know and you'll be released before you can say your real name."

"Like what?" Wufei asked, coughing.

"Like how you found out about this place? What your next plan of action is, since obviously individual cops aren't very affective." Matt suggested and then leaned down, pulling Wufei's head back harshly with his hair. "You tell me."

"You'll never get anything out of me." Wufei said and groaned as his hair was yanked back even harder.

"It's funny because that's what everyone says to me but it never lasts very long." Matt reached down on the floor and pulled a pair of handcuffs up. He latched them onto Wufei's arms, keeping them behind him and then kicked Wufei into the corner. "We'll just see how long you can last."

Wufei watched as Matt crossed the room and picked up a match box and what looked to be a bull brander.

"You know what I like the most about this?" Matt asked as he walked over to a fire and lit it. "Is the fact that farmers will tell you that this doesn't really hurt the cow for that long and yet it makes people scream forever." Matt watched the flames dance. "And yet at the same time-" Matt looked over at Wufei with a look that made Wufei want to sink into the floor. "It makes you mine."

Push me under

Pull me farther

Take me all the way

Take me all the way

Duo sighed as he looked outside and noticed that there was indeed a guy walking across the hallway. "What the hell is going on here?"

Cathie shrugged and looked out too. "Probably nothing. I mean Matt is usually pissed off by now and so there isn't any chance that the guy will get away."

"Great. But how are we supposed to get in there with Baldy in the way?" Duo asked as he watched the guy stand in front of the room Cathie had told him they were keeping Wufei in. "I don't think that if we go up to him and ask pretty please, he's going to go away."

"Leave it to me. You just get ready to do whatever you plan on doing." Cathie said and then smiled and exited the room. "Daniel! What are you doing up here? You know that the party's downstairs." Cathie grabbed Daniel's arm and lead him down the stairs. She glanced at Duo on her way down and winked at him.

Looking at his watch he realize he had about fifteen minutes to phone Heero back before he called for back-up. That should be enough time to do this and still have time to spare. After all, how much of a threat could one person be? Someone that Cathie had assured him didn't use guns on his victimes?

Duo walked over to the door and tried the lock. It was locked, something that Duo had kind of expected but hadn't really been too sure about. He fished in his braid and grabbed something to pick the lock with. It, thankfully, didn't rattle too much but Duo could hear someone coming back up the stairs and Duo wished that it could go just a little faster.

The lock clicked and the door opened and Duo slipped inside, closing the door quietly behind him. Duo looked across the room and noticed that there was a huge guy with his back to him, holding what looked to be some sort of branding tool. Duo kept looking and found Wufei on the ground, in the corner, looking like he was tied up. Damn, this was going to be harder than it's supposed to be!

Duo looked around for any sort of weapon that he could use against the giant but there was nothing. Aside from the branding tool, there didn't look to be anything else in the room. Duo guessed that this Matt guy really did rely on the fact that he was bigger than his victims. After all, when you get dragged here and thrown on the floor, you're already at a disadvantage.

Wufei saw Duo in the door and his head dropped before Duo could see what he was feeling. Maybe Wufei was trying to hide it from Matt too. Duo hoped so and he reached in his back pocket to find his gun. It wasn't there!

Duo tried to figure out what had happened to it and he couldn't think of anything. He hadn't taken the gun out at any time and the only person to touch back there was Cassie.

Duo sworn, silently, in every language he had ever learned swear words in. Cassie was a two-timing bitch! She had probably planned this all out a million times before. This was probably how the second agent always got caught. They were sent into this room, unarmed and against someone that could fight better than them.

Well, Duo bet that none of them had ever been taught to fight in a war. And never by one Heero Yuy.

"Hey you, leave him alone!" Duo growled out as he realized that the branding tool was moving uncomfortably close to Wufei's skin. "Why don't you come over here and fight someone you haven't already disarmed."

Duo was frantic to keep this as close to what Matt was used to as possible. After all, if something seemed off, Matt might just call in some arms for back-up and then he would be shit out of luck.

Duo wondered what everyone else would have done at this point and then Duo smirked. They probably would have reached for their guns because they wouldn't have had the brains to check for it earlier on. So Duo did so and pretended to be surprised as his hand hit nothing but jeans.

"Ha! You thought that my sister was going to actually help you?" Matt mocked. "Come on, she's my sister and nobody ever turns on their own flesh and blood."

"You'd be surprised." Duo retorted and then walked forward. The cops probably had some hand to hand combat skills so they most likely hadn't been that worried at this point either. After all, they didn't expect him to be good at anything besides being big. Duo already had a notion of how wrong they had been.

Matt grinned and stepped forward too, tossing the brander into the fire. Duo was sure that he just wanted to keep it hot for later. Duo ignored it though and looked over his shoulder at Wufei. Wufei still wasn't looking up which meant that Wufei wasn't in very good shape. That meant that this might be a lot harder than he thought it was. He couldn't rely on Wufei for back-up.

"Come on and get me." Matt taunted but Duo didn't bite. Rushing into a fight almost always secured your loss. Wufei had taught him that.

"Nah, why don't you come on over here?" Duo replied. He was looking Matt up and down for weak spots, places that he wasn't protecting very well. If he could attack those areas first, it might make it easier to get him down.

"Well if you're not willing to play, I guess I could always go back to your partner. He was rather willing." Matt smiled. "Tell me, do you two sleep together? Is that why you're willing to risk your butt for him?"

"No." Duo said simply. "He has someone else."

"Yeah right. That's what they all say and then you turn to do something to him and they freak out." Matt smirked. "As cops you should know better than to let your emotions get a hold of you."

"He's my friend's boyfriend and my friend always tells me to follow your emotions." Duo retorted and then motioned for Matt to come closer. "Come on, don't tell me that you're too wimpy to go first."

Matt growled and stepped towards Duo, closing the area until he was within kicking range. Duo moved and kicked him high in the head.

Matt had obviously predicted it though because he ducked and moved to strike Duo low but Duo had been ready for that too and simply danced away from the punch.

"Come on, hit me!" Duo mocked as he danced back and forth.

Matt glared and moved in again. This time Duo let Matt go first and he threw a punch at his shoulder which was easily deflected. Duo returned with a punch to the face and Matt stumbled to the side.

"I thought I said hit me!" Duo teased. "I thought that you were the that sent those guys into the hospital. I guess not. Must have been just their stupidity." Duo closed his eyes for a second and wished on everything he had ever believed in that Matt would take the bait.

Matt took the bait alright, he charged right at Duo which gave Duo the time to disarm him and send the giant to the ground. Duo followed him, his knee pressing into his neck and the rest of Duo's weight was pressed into Matt's body.

"Well that was fun." Duo said with a shrug. Then he heard a gun cock and sighed. "Should have known that you would never play fair."

"Put your hands up." A harsh voice said from behind Duo and Duo sighed.

Instead of putting his hands up, he pressed into Matt's neck a little bit more which caused Matt to start to turn purple. "I don't think so. I think that you should hand that gun over here before I decide to knock off this guy's air supply for good."

"Put your hands up." The voice repeated, not sounding like there was any remorse in the guy's voice because of Duo's threat.

Duo shrugged and continued to put his weight into Matt's neck. Matt sputtered and tried to wiggle out but was having no success.

"Put your hands up." The man repeated again. And when Duo still made no move of doing so, the guy shot and Duo winced, falling to one side.

Matt shot up and grabbed the gun out of his aide's hand. He looked down and smiled at Duo. "Well it was fun while it lasted but something tells me that you're not going to be around for much longer."

Suddenly Duo remembered about the gun in his coat pocket. With any luck Cassie hadn't found it and it was still there. Duo groaned. "Come on man. Aren't you going to let me have a word with my boyfriend?"

"I thought you said he wasn't your boyfriend." Matt scoffed.

"I lied." Duo replied simply.

"Sure whatever. You have a minute." Matt laughed. "And don't try to do anything smart because it's not going to happen."

Duo dragged himself over to Wufei. "Hey. You okay?"

"I would have lived." Wufei replied.

"You still will." Duo retorted and smiled. "Lets just hope that Heero did what I wanted him to." Duo reached into his pocket and grasped the cold metal of his gun. He pulled it out and fired twice. Then Duo couldn't escape from the black and passed out.

Push me under

Pull me farther

Take me all the way

Take me all the way

Wufei listened to the steady beat of the heart moniter. He looked down at Duo, who was strapped into the hospital bed to keep himself from moving around and hurting himself. Duo had been coming in and out of consciousness for a few hours now. He and Heero had been watching Duo alternatively all week. It had been hard to see someone as strong as Duo lying in such a big bed.

"Wufei? Are you hungry?" Heero asked as he entered the room with a small bag of food. "I snuck this in. I think the only reason no one checked me was because the guy we're visiting isn't awake to eat it."

"I'm not hungry." Wufei said as he stared down at Duo somemore. "He's such an idiot Heero! That should be me on the bed but no, all I got out with was a couple of bruises. I was the one that rushed into the place without another thought in the world."

Heero nodded in understanding. They had had this conversation many times during the last week and Heero never knew what to say. So Heero just crossed the room and wrapped his arms around Wufei's neck, leaning on his back.

"Come on. You know that's not the way to think. Duo needs us all to be positive. Besides, you know that Duo went in there knowing the risks. It's not like he just rushed in after you. He knows what he's doing. You can't take all the blame."

"Yes I can." Wufei replied, not relaxing into Heero's grip at all. "I should have known better. I'm always telling Duo to never rush into a situation without backup and yet I'm the one that ended up doing so. Duo must have thought I was such an idiot and yet he still came after me. Why?"

"Because you're his partner and friend. He wasn't going to just leave you. Duo's never been like that with his friends and you know it."

"Why? It's not like we were close, especially lately. We were fighting so much and all the time."

"You guys have always fought with each other. Ever since you met each other, actually." Heero pointed out. He let go of Wufei and moved so that he could sit in front of Wufei and look him in the eye. "Don't blame yourself for something like this. It isn't healthy. Besides, Duo's going to pull out of it and then you will wonder why on earth you were ever worried. In fact I'm sure that in about a week you will wonder why you ever cared. Come on, Wufei, smile."

Wufei turned away from Heero though and looked at Duo, sighing. "I can't."

Heero sighed and stood up, brushing off his pants. "I know it's hard Wufei and I'm sorry that you can see that it's not actually your fault. But I think I have to kick you out of the room now."

"What?!?" Wufei exclaimed as he looked up at Heero. "You can't just kick me out of the room. That's not fair!"
"You've been here since early yesterday. You haven't eaten anything. I know because I asked the nurse and she said that you hadn't even left the room yet and as far as she knew, no one brought you anything. So you're going to get your ass home and have a shower, sleep and eat. If I catch you back here before tomorrow morning, I'm going to kick your ass! I can't have both of my best friends stuck in bed just because you're feeling sorry for yourself."

"Heero-" Wufei said softly, looking up at Heero's blue eyes.

"No buts. You're going Wufei and if I have to drag you back home I will." Heero looked at Wufei in a way that just defied him to disobey.

Suddenly there was a soft, cracked voice in the room. "You better listen to him Wufei. He could cut you off."

"Duo?" Wufei asked, as he rushed to Duo's bed and threw his arms around his neck and held hiim as well as he could. "Are you alright? Does your shoulder hurt? Are you thirsty? Do you want me to call the nurse?"

Duo laughed which turned into a cough and then he looked up at Wufei and shook his head. "Nah, I'm okay. You look horrible by the way."

Wufei rolled his eyes. "Thanks a lot Maxwell."

"It's true. You really should go home. I'm fine. Just go."

Wufei sighed and looked over at Heero who nodded. "Alright fine, gang up on me. I'm going!" Wufei squeezed Duo's uninjuried shoulder lightly. "Sorry."

"You're forgiven, just go home." Duo said with a grin.

Wufei left the room after crossing the room and giving Heero a kiss. It had just occured to him that he hadn't done so once since he had gotten back. "Take care of him?"

"Of course." Heero said with a smile and then went to sit down in the chair by the hospital bed and Wufei left the room.

Wufei frowned. He probably had really bad breath.

Now it seems you're leaving

But we've only just begun

And you're still got no where else to go

So I wait for you to

Take me all the way

Take me all the way

1--Parris and Borten are the two other agents at the college...as Duo mentioned, they have been assumed to be those people that you don't really trust because they always seem to be too interested in little things. That's why Wufei and Duo were called in, because they couldn't get anywhere on that case so they thought that Duo and Wufei might be able to

2--There's only one hoop. Well there may be two hoops but they're only going to use one. I know tons of guys who prefer to play this way, it keep the game going faster than if you have to run all the way across the court and then back again. Of course that means that you have to run it over center line when you get the ball from the other team before you can actually shoot it but that tends to be a minor thing most of the time...

(A/N: Yeah! I finally finished it ! *sighs in relief* I can't believe that it took so long. Oh well, besides from the end, I actually think that it went pretty well...*huggles Kico* I'm sorry it took so long *Sighs*

And Yah!! I refixed it too! *shakes her head* This version might be just a litle bit better than the last one *nods*)