Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Gone Round ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

A/N: Okay, so welcome to the fifth story of Chance or Circumstance. Let's start out with the notice, I do not own gundam wing, etc etc, standard disclaimer application. Secondly...I should probably note that stuff does happen at the end of this story, but a lot of it is the 'in between' time, as it were. So, welcome aboard, I hope you enjoy the ride. Oh yeah, this story is rated for adult language and situations.

Prologue      Jaden stared down at the passport cards they'd used across the planet, then looked out the window at the miles and miles of ocean he could see around them. He'd become desensitized to the thrumming of the helicopter blades, and Qingfu had stopped talking long before.

"What are you looking at those for?" Qingfu muttered, glancing sidelong at him again. He had been for a while, but hadn't spoken before.

"I just..." Jaden sighed, shifting down where he sat. "It seems like that was all for nothing."

"If Ranger had gotten ahold of him," Qingfu noted, "which he would have if you hadn't grabbed him, where would he be now? Ten days? Eleven? Ranger would still have him."

Jade nodded, staring out the windows, then looked back down to the cards. When the boy had pointed out that he could have worked with Yuy, it hadn't meant much...but over the flight, he'd had a lot of time to think.

If he'd have just gone to Yuy, he'd have had protection. He'd have had to give up information, though, and he did still have friends in the psychotic rebels group.

It didn't matter, though, really. He'd said if they caught Ranger, he'd give them the boy—and he'd seen Barton all over Ranger. That meant they had him, and probably the guys who worked for Rab, too. They wouldn't let Ranger escape a second time.

He looked down to the cards, then moved from his seat.

"What are you doing?" Qingfu demanded as he slid the door open. "Jaden...if you fall you'll die."

Jaden tossed the cards, watching as they hung almost suspended for a half second, then were torn brutally away.

"Are you okay?" Qingfu snapped. "I'm not in a god damn helicopter with a mad man am I?"

Jaden pulled the door closed and gave the guy a level look. "The less they find on us the better. Have you figured out how we're going to manage this? As soon as we come in to land, the military is gonna be all over our ass—and you heard that man. We don't have enough fuel to fly all the way into base."

"And that would be stupid anyway," Qing agreed, rolling his eyes. "If you take the helm, I'll go check out what this machine has."

"You have been flying a few hours," Jaden noted, looking around. "You're aware that I only know the basics of this, right?"

"See this?" he tapped the compass. "Keep going this way. You don't have to go up or down or anything...just keep going this way."

"You're a real peach," Jaden informed him, pulling out a sharpee from his pocket. He drew the dash on the compass, then looked to Qingfu.

Qingfu gave him a wry look, then switched the controls over. That done, he shifted back a moment, giving the other an amused look as the man actually gained control. He never understood why people had trouble with steering things. Planes, helicopters, cars...even mobile suits. None of them were hard to do. The only thing was knowing how the machine worked.

He rubbed his eyes, shaking his head, then moved out of the seat. "I think my brain died," he muttered. "This long with the rotors drives me nuts."

"Am I in a damn helicopter with a mad man?" Jaden demanded, though that only had part of his attention.

"Yes?" Qingfu made an amused noise. "You can't honestly tell me you only just realized it."

Jaden chuckled.

Qingfu rolled his eyes and moved toward the back of the machine. They really did need to find a way to land without being swarmed-under...and they were running out of time.

- -

"Hey...hey, you."

Lifon turned to give Trowa a perplexed look....and squeaked.

Matty turned to look at her...then the box Trowa was offering his sister. The design on the cover was one of the sun shining around the earth...but instead of the planet, it was a lavender-purple phone. He considered the lavender thing as she started to demand if he was serious, not taking the thing from his hand. He explained that he'd agreed to get it for her for a smile, and that made her beam.

Matty looked levelly to Taofa.

The man quirked his eyebrows, then rolled his eyes when the girl looked to him uncertainly—asking his permission, asking if that was serious. The response was less than explanatory, but Trowa offered it again.

She squeaked and yanked it from his hand before throwing herself up to hug him.

Trowa laughed and reassured her that it was nothing—he told her that he'd done it because he wanted to help her forget the stress of what had been going on.

"If you want to strangle him," Heero muttered quietly in his ear, "you might wait for her to be gone."

Matty snickered at that, leaning over to kiss him quickly.

"What happened to laying in your room for a few hours?" Taofa muttered as the girl's concentration fell to the box and Trowa sat beside her on the arm of the couch.

"Well, I seem to have this little sister who never shuts up," he noted.

"You were the one who kept talking," she retorted, looking up long enough to make a face at him.

Granted, she still hadn't gotten the box open.

Matty sighed and gestured to Trowa.

Trowa actually laughed, then composed himself and looked down to Li, offering a hand. She was glaring up at him suspiciously as he took the thing from her...and pulled a knife out of somewhere behind him.

"Where did that come from?" Li demanded, using his legs to pull herself up so she could look around behind him.

"Don't crawl on him," Matty ordered her irritably. "You're underage."

"I am not crawling on him!" Li retorted, dropping back to glower at him. "He pulled a knife out his ass!"

"Li," Taofa snapped.

"Butt," she corrected quickly. "He pulled a knife out his butt, and..."

"It was in my pocket," Trowa retorted, sliding the blade through the tape and giving her a look.

"Thank you," she muttered, doing a cute thing at him.

Matty eyed Trowa, watching for any signs that the man was looking at his sister.

"Your concern for your sister is sweet," Taofa noted, "but I talked to Barton and he made his intentions clear."

"And what did I tell you?" Trowa asked the man, indicating Matty. "I told you if looks could kill you'd be planning my funeral or explaining things to the cops."

Taofa laughed genuinely at that.

"I'm going to put Pax on that," Trowa noted, yawning as he looked around. "And Heero can drop Pan on it."

She looked excitedly to Heero, who smiled back at her, then looked to Trowa with interest.

He'd made his intentions clear? He was putting Pax and Pan on it? Matty studied Trowa, considering that information instead of the fact that the man had noted that females his age were interesting to him. Honestly, his only trouble with the notion of Li getting with him was that she was sixteen. If they actually became a couple, he'd treat her right, but he said so many lewd things that Matty couldn't be comfortable with that. He didn't want his sister used, let alone before she was even legal...but those were musings for another time.

"I told you," Taofa noted, "we talked. He was trying to make me get an AS model phone..."

"No, I was trying to buy you one," Trowa retorted. "But you pulled the same crap with me that you were trying to on Heero."

"I don't want handouts," Taofa snapped at him.

Li stopped...she had the phone turning on in her hands, and looked up to the man with such a look of uncertainty in her eyes that Matty felt bad for her.

"Trowa's just a lecher," Matty muttered to distract her. "For a few smiles he'll buy you things, and for a kiss..."

She guffawed, blushing and throwing one of the cards from the box at him.

"I don't appreciate that," Trowa said in a serious voice. "I don't appreciate you assuming that I'm lusting after your sister."

Matty blinked, looking back to him—the seriousness of his tone lent the words weight.

Heero started muttering quietly to him in Spanish.

"Sorry," Matty apologized to them both. "I didn't mean to actually be rude."

Li frowned, looking up to their father a moment as she raised a thumb to her mouth. She focused back on the phone a moment, then looked back up to Trowa. "I shouldn't take this..." she muttered quietly. "Dad's right. I don't really need a new phone, and it's..."

"To be completely and utterly honest," Trowa noted, looking back down to her, "I'd be twenty times more at ease if you did have it. The program Pax will secure your phone...and Heero adding Pan to it will make it so no one...no one, can hack into it. With Pan on it, we'll be able to know if you still have it, your heart rate, your location...and anyone who touches it. We can turn it back on when it's been turned off, too. I don't think you're in danger, neither you or your father...but it would honestly put my mind to rest."

Li stared at him a long moment, then looked around to Taofa.

"He told me what the basics are to run Pax and Pan," Taofa noted. "I figure in the next month or so, I'll get that same model," he indicated hers. "Only not purple...and then you can show me how to use it."

She smiled slightly at that, then looked around to Matty.

"I'm getting one later," Matty noted. "And unlike you, I might need the safety features."

"I hope you don't think that's something to be proud of," she retorted.

"I've been to Paris."

"And you didn't see it," she gave him a disbelieving look. "It doesn't count if you didn't see it!"

"I was drugged," Matty protested, looking around for commiseration...then saw the expression on his father's face. He and his sister both fell quiet as the man moved to drop into the remaining armchair, resting his elbows on his knees and rubbing at his mouth with one hand as he looked across the room.

"I'm sorry," Heero said quietly, studying his face. "I know...you have to think..."

"Heero," Taofa muttered, looking around to Heero pointedly, "whether or not you'd been in space when we went out there, he still would have gone to 27 that day on that shuttle. You can't change that. They'd have grabbed him anyway."

"But if it wasn't for us, Hanager wouldn't have focused on him..."

"Are you so sure about that?" Taofa asked quietly. "A young earth-boy playing in outer space? No. I think...Hanager...would have focused on him anyway," he looked to Matty a moment. "And I think things would have played out a little less to our liking. I suppose, if that was the case, he wouldn't have gotten kidnapped," he gestured toward the old apartment. "But...what would have happened instead? If it hadn't been for you five, there would have been no rescue attempt. Instead of one night it could have been months...so don't apologize to me for saving my son."

Heero receded, studying his face.

"My wife would be having kittens," he noted in amusement, not looking at any of them and running his hands across his face and into his hair. "She'd be absolutely beside herself...she probably would have went with you after him," he added, looking up to Heero. He studied the other's face a long time, then looked around to Li.

"What?" she demanded, lowering the phone to pout at him. "Shouldn't I have wanted to go?"

"What?" Matty asked, looking around to his father again.

"Li threw an absolute fit," the man explained, smiling slightly. "She demanded to go with Max...Heero. She demanded to go with Heero when he started chasing after you."

"What did you think you'd do?" Matty asked, looking around to his sister.

"I was going to gauge his eyes out!" she raised her right hand—which had very long painted nails—and made a claw. "I was going to tear out his hair and kick him in the balls so he could never breed!"

Trowa, who'd been companionably sitting beside her, shifted his legs slightly closed as he studied that hand, then looked up to exchange a look with Heero.

"Feisty," Duo noted in amusement, leaning forward to study her eyes. "Are those nails sharp enough to gauge?"

She thought about that a moment, turning her hand to study the nails herself...then reached over and dug them into Trowa's arm.

"Shit!" Trowa snapped, sliding backwards off the couch as she pulled her hand away quickly.

Matty started snickering, looking around to his dad briefly, then to Heero.

"So...it's a family trait," Heero muttered, blinking at the sixteen year old.

Matty started laughing.

"What?" Li asked, looking around to them in confusion. "What do you mean? Why is he laughing like that?"

"Uh...never mind," Heero muttered, rising to his feet and not looking to Taofa.

"Their mother had claws," Taofa noted to Trowa who was picking himself up and eying the girl warily. "She kept them nice and strong—I'm sure Li's are plenty able to gauge."

Li grinned at that, pressing the nails against her own skin.

"I'll get us drinks," Heero said brightly. "Anyone else want drinks?"

Matty laughed harder, giving his father an innocent look when Taofa focused on him.

"Is this a good color?" Lifon asked Trowa, her entire manner sweetness and light as she showed him her fingernails.

"Li," Taofa chided. "The man obviously doesn't want to think about your nails, and why would you ask a straight man about colors?"

"Straight?" Duo asked wickedly, bouncing happily to his feet as they all turned to look at him. "I'm going to...help Heero with the drinks," he decided...and bounced across the room.

Quatre laughed quietly, shaking his head. "Personally, I like the more...earthy tones," he noted to the girl. "The blue is a bit much, especially with that nonsense," he indicated the blue mark one of his soldiers had made on Matty's temple.

She grinned happily at him, then raised the phone charger, studying it like she was utterly perplexed before looking around.

Trowa took it from her, smiling slightly before moving to plug it in.

Matty snickered.

Li flashed him a brief warning glance, then smiled winningly at the man. "Thank you."

Trowa nodded, eyeing her skeptically as he glanced to Matty. Heero and Duo moved back into the room with cans and juice-boxes, of all things. They passed them around easily, setting the leftovers on the table as Heero opened a juice-box...and gave it to Matty.

Matty blinked at Heero as he sat again.

"So, Matty," Taofa noted happily as his daughter went back to playing on her phone—he wasn't going to point out that she was manipulating Trowa. The man needed to figure that out on his own. "What are you going to do now?"

Matty yawned, covering his mouth with his hand. "Sorry...I hurt," he added, looking to Heero uncertainly.

"You have your pain meds," Heero noted, looking at his watch. "It's about time."

"They...make me tired," Matty admitted, frowning at him.

Heero pursed his lips, then nodded, rising to his feet.

"But...I don't know," Matty added, looking back to his father. "I guess...since Ranger isn't out there anymore I could go back to work."

"Or, you know, school," Lifon gave him a brief look.

Matty blinked at that, thinking about it.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Trowa muttered, glancing down at the girl.

"Me or her?" Matty retorted.

Trowa's eyes held a statement that Matty knew would piss his father off—but evidently Trowa did, too. He shrugged slightly. "Whichever of you answered first."

"I'm going to be a doctor," Li said without even looking up. "He'll never grow up, so why bother asking?"

Matty snorted at her.

"See?" she looked up to stick her tongue out at him, then looked back to the phone.

"She has a while before we can call her Dr. Williams," Taofa noted.

She started giggling, looking up to her father.

"I don't know what I want to do," Matty admitted, thinking about it. "And lately I haven't really had the...time...to think it through."

Quatre's phone stared ringing.

Quatre blinked, pulling it out and studying the number a moment. "Hello?" He listened, and a slight smirk crossed his face. "Oh, shit...we didn't get back in touch with you, did we?" he grinned more, looking around to Matty. "Well...here...I'll let him talk to you." He moved across the intervening space and passed the phone to Matty.

"Hello?" Matty asked blankly.

"Matt?" Blake asked. "Hey. I've been calling your phone but it's going directly to voicemail."

Matty's jaw dropped.

"Who is it?" Taofa asked blankly, looking around.

"I'm so sorry!" Matty muttered, looking to Heero, who was giving him a concerned look as he moved from their room. "Oh man...Blake..." he started laughing weakly, then groaned. "Listen, my dad and sister are here right now...can I call you back after a bit? It'll be from...this phone," he looked around to Quatre.

Quatre shrugged indifferently.

"Why? What's wrong with your phone? Wait..." the guy hesitated. "Those MS attacked a building...that wasn't..."

"Yeah, it was," Matty agreed. "My phone ended up under a fifteen or thirty foot brick wall."

"Holy shit...are you okay? I mean...that sounded like you hurt."

"I'm gonna have to call you back," Matty noted, smiling slightly. "I need to call my other friends and...and we're supposed to go out to dinner...and...I have to get a new phone. So..."

"Right," Blake muttered. "I get it...sorry to bother you. Call me? When you get a phone?"

"Even if I don't, it should be later tonight that I get back to you," Matty reassured him. "Talk to you later?"

"All right," the man sounded happy at that. "Later."

- -

Heero wondered if Matty was getting bothered by how often he grabbed him, but he couldn't help it. Feeling Matty in his arms, even if it was just one around his waist, was like a burst of pleasure...like the moment when they'd been standing at the edge of the helipad looking down at Trowa...the realization that he had him.

He loosed his hold again, shoving his hands into his pockets. Lifon and he were chattering about the phones in the case.

"Here you go," Trowa muttered, setting a fountain drink beside the girl.

"Thank you!" she beamed up at him, and he moved to join Heero, drinking from his own cup.

"The day I tell her no," Trowa noted quietly, falling in beside Heero, "will probably give her a heart attack."

Heero grinned at that, studying his friend. "What are you doing?"

Trowa shrugged. "She's cute, she's sweet...she's here. Not much more to it than that—aside from how much it annoys your boy."

"You aren't going to lead her on, are you?" Heero protested, looking around to meet his eyes.

"No," Trowa retorted. "At this point she's leading me on."

Heero gave him a look.

Trowa chuckled, then looked around. "I'm gonna go find Fei and Jin," he noted. "They were talking about looking at clothes."

Heero nodded, watching him walk off. Their whole group was scattered through the mall. Taofa had been waiting with Heero, but Matty wasn't in any particular rush, so the man had wandered off as well.

"This one?" Matty turned to Heero with a phone in his hand. "Will this do?"

Heero moved forward, sliding in beside his lover and taking the machine. He started flicking through options, then into the system information.

"This phone is on sale for the next three days," the clerk noted happily. "I have this model and..."

"It'll annoy you," Heero noted, realizing belatedly that he'd cut the clerk off. "Once Pax is on it..."

"Uh..."

"He's a guru," Lifon noted reassuringly to the woman. "We might think the phone is cute, but he'll say if it's worth it or not."

"Honestly," Heero noted, setting the phone down and nodding at Li, "the one like she has will probably be the best bet."

Lifon gave Matty a look, then bounced and turned to the case, tapping it with one of her nails. "They have green," she pointed out.

Matty shrugged at that, then noted the blue one. "I like that..."

"It'll match his car?" she asked, smirking slightly as she looked up to Heero.

"If a girl can get lipstick to match," Heero noted, "why can't a guy get a phone?"

She giggled, looking to her blue nails. "It's too bad I don't have the dark sparkly kind...I have the light sparkly," she displayed her nails for him. "If I got the dark sparkly it'd match."

"You don't need to match his car," Matty retorted.

"You haven't stole one of his boyfriends before, have you?" Heero demanded.

The pair exchanged a glance, and Matty dipped down to study the phones better.

"I didn't mean to?" she asked.

Heero smacked a hand to his face.

She laughed. "Just kidding, I didn't. I guess he had one who was all keen on the idea of us both in bed, though."

"Nice," Heero muttered dryly.

"There is a reason I didn't stay with him," Matty retorted, rising again and indicating the thing to the woman. "I'm gonna just go with the command decision thing and get that."

She grinned, turning to another shelf.

"I didn't realize he was a pervert," she added, "so I kept trying to hang out and couldn't figure out why Matt was so pissy about it."

Heero grinned at that.

"If you even hint," Matty noted, "I will kick you in the balls and walk away."

"I'm not that perverted," Heero retorted.

"Say what now?" Taofa asked, coming back to them with a skeptical expression.

Li grinned at him sweetly. "I suggested a picture for Matty to put on his phone and Max didn't appreciate it."

"Li," Taofa reprimanded, then shook his head to Heero. "And you know why she suggested it? He'd probably give it to her."

Li and Matty burst into laughter, and focused totally on the woman explaining her phone.

Heero looked between them, then back to Taofa.

"He talked one of his...friends into, uh, posing," Taofa noted. "After they split up, he ended up showing it to her and they laughed for like...an hour. I came in and snatched the thing from him...and I really just want to warn you not to pose for him."

Heero snickered—it'd been suggested a time or two, but he knew the sort of shit Duo did with his little pictures and videos, and was smart enough not to agree.

"I suppose you're old enough to know better anyway," the man added. "Or at the very least, conceited enough not to care."

Heero smirked at that.

"So that phone is good, huh?" he added, indicating the thing. "Rigel was in here earlier forever, looking through options. He kept going back to that one, then when the woman tried to say she didn't have any purples, he noted that he'd just take his business elsewhere...I don't know what all, but he got her to dig for Li's."

"It's probably the best one out right now in that price range."

"It sucks that I lost all my info," Matty muttered, turning to look at Heero.

Heero moved up to hold him again, feeling that same jolt of pleasure and leaning in for a quick kiss. The notion of the guy's family going away had some serious appeal, but he wasn't going to press that. He dug into his pocket, pulling out his wallet and flicking it open.

"I'm buying it myself," Matty said quietly. "I don't want you buying me everything."

"I'm not trying to," Heero retorted. "Here," he pulled out a slim case. The things normally held SD card, but the only part left of Matty's phone had been the sim card.

"Ooh!" Matty leaned up to kiss him excitedly, turning back to start opening the package.

Heero grinned slightly, then realized that Li was looking at him. He shifted back and met her eyes with interest.

"He a good kisser?" she demanded, kicking her brother's leg.

"Lifon," Taofa reprimanded.

"Damn good," Matty reassured her as he slid the card into its spot under the battery. "You have no idea how good...we'll have to talk it through some time when Dad's not around."

Taofa kicked Matty much the same way Li had.

Matty started laughing.

"So that's why he's so abusive," Heero noted, studying the man.

The guy laughed as Matty turned to grin at him. He leaned down to Matty's ear, looking up to make sure Li couldn't hear. "I think tonight," he whispered, "if you're up to it...I'll give you something to talk about."

Matty laughed wickedly, pulling back to meet his eyes.

Taofa sighed. "Just remember he's got fractured ribs," the man suggested, moving to lean against the counter. "Ma'am?" he added before the woman could move further away. "I think I'll get the green model."