Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Half Cocked ❯ Ten ( Chapter 10 )

Ten

"So you know, I'm all shit-faced drunk, pretty sure I'm not really eighteen yet, but fuck it if my I.D. says it, right?" Duo couldn't help but grin. "And we're trying to stumble along quietly to the room...but one of'em was saying we needed to be quiet and the other was insisting we were...and I don't think there was a man sleeping after we passed the quarters...but it was the first time Quatre had gotten drunk, right?" Duo looked up to Rin again with a grin. "So he's all...'guys? I don't feel well...' at us, and we're all 'you're fine, you're fine!' as we're herding him along the hall." Duo wiped at his mouth with the gauze around his wrist as he thought back. "And he just...you could see it," he mimicked the motion of someone about to barf. "So I'm pretty sure me and Heero both yelled for him not to puke—because come on," he gestured a bit, "that's as easy as it is, right?"

Rin started snickering, covering his face with one hand.

"So we're saying for him not to do it, don't do it...stop...just wait...all sorts of helpful instructions—and who knows what's going on in his head...and Trowa was the only one who wasn't too drunk to react. He'd gone while we were telling Quatre not to puke...and barely made it in time...I'm talkin' the skin of his teeth before he gets the can under Quatre."

Timorre started laughing weakly, not bothering to move. He hadn't in a long while—the fight had been delightfully nasty, and they'd both drawn more than enough blood for it.

Duo wasn't horribly startled that he'd gotten in the final series of blows, but he had been startled by Rin interceding and throwing him backwards. The man had been ready to take over the fight, but Duo'd realized he'd ripped the cut on his head open again...and he'd lost his taste for it.

"And Marsh had been...I don't know," Duo shook his head as he thought back. "We'd gone past him, evidently. And he comes up just yelling at us about waking everyone up...yelling," he looked between the two men. "In the middle of the night, lecturing us on waking everyone up!"

Rin groaned, covering his face with his hands.

"And...I mean, really?" Duo wiped at his face with the gauze again. "We're a bunch of fuckin' eighteen year olds...and drunk...hammered. Quatre had finally stopped spitting into the trash and noted 'we may not have done it yet, but you sure as hell have woken everyone up now...but the pope." He started laughing—which was pretty much what they'd done back then. "The pope...we were all like 'what the hell?' and Quatre realized how random that was...started laughing himself, all embarrassed. He used to get embarrassed all the time," he shook his head some more. "Was only after we found Matty that he stopped getting all embarrassed for the shit he says like that."

"Matty," Timorre noted quietly.

"Yeah...uh...Mattox Williams? You kidnapped him, shit..."

"You call him Matty?" Rin asked, blinking a bit.

Duo shrugged, thinking about it. "It's how he introduced himself to Heero, so Heero introduced him like that to us. Quatre and I were trying to start calling him Matt, because...Matty kinda sounds like a kid's name...but he insisted that we call him it. He said that only people who don't know him or aren't close call him Matt."

Timorre started rubbing at his face.

Duo shifted back slightly, looking back to Rin. "I guess one of his superiors bitched him out for waking everyone up...Marsh, I mean. He pointed out that a bunch of drunks pass through the halls and make some noise, but they get to their rooms and pass out. Marsh stopping us in the hall to shout at us was a lot of consistent noise, not to mention the note of authority—I don't think the guy told him that part, though. I just remember when I wasn't doing anything, I'd stop and listen to someone getting bitched out."

"Is he really...that...bothered?" Timorre asked quietly.

"You followed him," Duo protested, blinking at the question.

"Not Rab," Timorre snapped. "I meant Matt."

"Oh," Duo blinked. "Say what, now?"

Timorre moved the ice-mask and towel from over his eyes to consider Duo levelly.

"Oh!" Duo laughed, remembering the words he'd been throwing in the council room, then sobered. "Oh...yeah." He sighed, shrugging slightly. "Yeah. He is."

Timorre dropped the stuff back onto his face.

"When we first got him back," Duo sighed. "I wanted to strangle everyone."

Rin tilted his head.

"First and foremost, of course, the pair of you fuckers for taking him to begin with..."

"If I could take him from under your nose," Timorre noted in a tight voice, "then you know damn well that Ranger could have."

"But if you'd maybe...talked to us," Duo pointed out. "Told us you were worried because Hanager's fucked in the head...asked if you could help us..."

"I already got the lecture from the kid," Timorre snapped.

"Oh yeah," Duo agreed, not able to help his aggravation. "Around when you threw your fucking beer at him."

"Jaden!" Rin was startled.

"I was drunk," Timorre groaned back, rubbing at his temples. "He was acting all scared of me and I was drunk."

"Imagine that," Duo noted lightly. "Nineteen year old kid gets abducted and drug all over hell'n creation...and he's scared of his captors, especially when the level headed one is passed out and the psycho is drunk." Duo thought back a moment to what Matty had said. "And weren't you checkin' him out while you were at it?"

"What?" Rin demanded. "Jaden..."

"I was drunk," Jaden persisted, moving the ice and towel to glower at the other man. "And don't think I won't fuck you up," he threatened, glowering at Duo.

"Get off your high horse before you fall off," Duo suggested. "Because Matty is my friend. He's my fuckin' family. If Gerrange wasn't fuckin' around in Wing gundam or MS through the city streets, you wouldn't have made it even half way to Hong Kong."

"Please, Maxwell," Rin muttered quietly, looking down. "I know it wasn't...good...but we couldn't...Ranger thinks it's his fault that shit went south on 27. He ended up being somewhat vindicated, too. He knew something was wrong with Matt's phone, and the kid wouldn't add him in..."

"Couldn't," Duo corrected acidly, studying the man's face. "Because when I bought the program, I didn't set it up so he could."

Rin stared at him.

Timorre pulled the towel and ice up to look at him.

"I honestly forgot," Duo added, looking between them. "Pax is like breathing to me. I control the ebb and flow of the programs without hesitation. He'd never been able to afford it, and none of his friends could, either. It didn't even occur to me to set the administrative to him, let alone show him where any of the controls were. On top of that, Heero's made a patch that just..." he shook his head with a grin. "Suffice it to say that a phone with Pax and Pan on it has all sorts of neat little...perks. We nearly shit ourselves when Hanager's name and rank showed up, though," Duo shook his head. "It was damn hard to think that Matty was in the hands of a Special...and we couldn't help." He shook his head harder, trying to clear the memories.

"I felt so bad," Timorre muttered quietly, massaging at his temples again. "I was trying to sweet talk him into adding us and letting Ranger try and twist him into it...and I didn't call it when I should have. He was just...his nerves couldn't even be called 'in tatters' when Rab finally came in and chased Ranger off. He'd been handling it well, though...same story, not freaking out...and then just..." Timorre trailed off.

Duo had dropped his head back as the man spoke, forcing himself to remain calm. Timorre had admitted his wrong-doing in the matter and made sure Matty understood it, it would do no one any good for him to freak out about it again.

"When 27 was under attack," Timorre added quietly, "when the sirens were going off and he and I were off together...I kept expecting him to run for it, but he stayed with me. He said he'd listen to me, and he followed every instruction I gave him...and even after I'd spazzed and hit him...he still stood up for me when Yuy would have shot me."

"And then knocked you out," Rin noted happily.

"No...I knew something had to give," Timorre raised the edge to look at Rin a moment. "I couldn't really hurt that pain in the ass—he'd made sure to get on my good side..."

"Bullshit," Duo snapped irritably, forcing himself to calm before going on. "He wasn't trying to get on your fucking good side...shit, act like he's nothing but devious...he's nineteen."

"You saved the world at sixteen!" Timorre half-shouted in response. "You..."

"Oh, give me patience," Duo half appealed to nothing in particular. "Matty was not a part of the military! His family was not part of the military! He was just some kid workin' fuckin' retail when Heero decided he was hot shit! The most exciting thing he'd probably ever did was give Yuy his number! You can't hold him to the standards of a nineteen year old in the fucking military. You know what he was doing, Jaden? He was talking to someone who kept him safe. He was telling you things he thought you might care about because you seemed to care about him...so don't go giving me those bullshit lines about him being some devious manipulative little punk who did everything in his power to keep you from being able to shoot him—fuck! Even jumping in front of Yuy wasn't to win you over. You kept him safe!"

Timorre was blinking at Duo, his expression obviously startled.

Duo took a long slow breath, attempting to pull in a bit of meditation. If he kept this up he was going to attack the man.

"I..." Timorre hesitated, then pushed himself up slowly. "I know...that...but..."

"He is not that utterly innocent, either," Rin noted quietly. "I'm not saying you're lying," he added when Duo focused on him. "I talked to him when...uh...we were...with him," he glanced at Timorre. "He is a devious little shit."

"He did tell them where you were," Duo conceded, frowning slightly.

"Did he?" Rin asked blankly.

"At the border of Western Sahara?" Duo gave him an interested look. "He told them you guys were still at the border crossing...then...what country."

Timorre looked back to Rin almost pointedly.

"He did not," Rin looked offended. "I was right there..."

Duo had to think again for the details of that story. He had to grin as he thought his young friend over...the jackass could lie like a dog. "And those little cupcakes he likes so well are sold at a bakery on West Sahara—pretty close to where he worked," Duo gave Rin an amused look. "When he was working, he'd take lunches and run over there to get them."

Timorre smacked his hands to his face as Rin started laughing, shaking his head.

"Though his, uh, phone sex...was pretty damn funny too," Duo noted, looking between them.

"The little shit told us he'd told Yuy where he was," Timorre noted, laughing weakly. "We asked him what all he'd given away and he said he'd told the man where we were...I just thought it was his exasperation...but..."

Duo grinned at that.

"Oh man, he did a number on my ribs," Timorre noted, looking up to Duo again. "I was gonna strangle him. It was when your cloak fucked up...and he was just being a little dick, pointing out all the little lies he'd told us...all little ones...I hit him," he admitted with a slight frown. "And he kicked me...twice! And used the momentum to break the railing...I'd had him cuffed to a little one. He nearly nailed Qing upside the head," he gestured with his own head at Rin.

Duo smiled very slightly at that, looking away.

"I thought it was killer," Rin noted, smiling slightly at Timorre. "Real ballsy...I almost wished he'd have knocked me out. He deserved it after a move like that."

Timorre smiled back at that.

Duo ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head. "Anyway...after he jumped out of the helicopter..."

"Fell," Timorre corrected.

"Rolled," Duo retorted dryly. "He knew you were still over the helipad and was not going to Brazil."

"He's not in Brazil now, is he?" Timorre perked up slightly.

"No...we're in Borde del Rio."

"You said as much," Rin agreed. "Which is in Peru—so not in Brazil."

Duo conceded that with a shrug. "One of our men who was with them...he called me. By that point we knew it was done...Me, Quatre, and Wufei. We knew the game would be up before we were out of bed. So we were just kinda laying there waiting for the call...and we get this call from a third-class ops man saying he wanted to hear my sexy voice...and Matty took the phone." Duo smiled back at the moment of relief he'd had. "But, you know...Heero'd just gotten him back, and they weren't even off the helipad...Hanager had been tackled to the ground and roughed up by Trowa...so things were still in chaos...so all I'm hearing is multiple people talking, I have no idea what's going on...then my call waiting starts beeping...I just wanted to smack them all."

Rin grinned at that, nodding his head.

"I wonder if he'll accept my apology," Timorre muttered quietly.

"Oh, probably. The annoying thing about him is how fast he can get over things...or at least...anger."

"He really can't be alone?" Timorre looked up.

"Well...that's backed off," Duo admitted. "He'd quit his job not long before you took him, so when he got back he was spending the days with Quatre...Quatre'd quit his job, too. None of us really thought about it, but...Quatre said one day he'd gone to the base, or to run errands or something...and shit, you saw what happened to our apartment. It was being rebuilt, which meant men in and out of it, moving around and building things...talking and stuff. Quatre said when he came home, Matty looked like he'd probably cried, was curled up in a tiny ball in the corner of his bed...covered in blankets and hadn't come out of the room at all."

Timorre hung his head.

Rin looked away, shaking his own head.

"So if you ever start wondering why Yuy'll probably pound your face in...just think about that. Think about this outgoing spark of light suddenly huddled in his room and crying."

Timorre shoved himself irritably from the bed, pacing the small area without looking at Duo.

"It took...about three months, I think, before he came out of it like that," Duo noted, looking to Rin. "He's started college, though, so it's not as bad as it was. He doesn't trust soldiers, though, not unless he can tell they're the ones Quatre's okayed."

"We get it, Maxwell," Rin said quietly, studying the floor.

"You will, in the end," Duo agreed. "From what I got from Quatre, though, he's worried about you both. I don't get why, but I've seen it myself anyway. When we got the call about Illicit showing up, he was all over demanding if you two were okay...and then Quatre was saying he's been talking to Heero quick and fast every time you two come up. I really want Heero to go bloody-mary on your fuckin' ass," he added, looking to Timorre. "I did the stupid thing of putting myself in association with you, so our fighting can't be one-sided...at least, not from my side. I have to wait for you to attack before I can beat you down—no one will think twice about him doing it."

Timorre half-smiled at him, though it looked more like a sneer. "Don't you have some pills to take? I coulda sworn you were leaving my ship today."

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Duo asked brightly, considering him over. "I'm having far too much fun pissing you off for that."

Timorre gave him a dirty look.

Duo laughed happily, then hauled himself up. "So...yeah," he noted. "I am gonna take this and pass out—just be advised that whilst unconscious, my men will guard me—I'm half tempted to get them to pull Hoxha in..."

"Don't fuck with Armend," Timorre snapped, turning back on him irritably. "He's going to leave the ESA, but it's too late to just pull out like the rest of us did."

Duo smirked at that, starting for the door. "I hope you sleep well. Rin," he nodded his head.

"Call me Qingfu," Rin muttered tiredly. "And quit fucking with my man."

Duo snickered at that—he'd gotten an explanation of the game Rin was playing with Hoxha...but part of it was also for Timorre. He nodded his head to the captain, then moved out into the main room of the suite.

He really had not meant to put the pills off so long.

Quatre was going to freak.

- -

Trowa sighed as he raised the cigarette to his mouth, then fished out the lighter. He didn't talk about it all that often, but he'd smoked from like, twelve to thirteen...and a few times after that, too.

His cell started ringing.

Maybe Duo'd pulled his head out of his ass.

Trowa snorted slightly, pinning Blake to the wall and leaning in to his ear. He started whispering to him, shifting his legs wider as he kissed on the other's ear. Blake braced his body with his legs, gasping almost breathlessly. His nails trailed up Trowa's back until he could grab his shoulders, and Trowa focused on grabbing his thighs. He needed to brace him...he preferred the bed, but he didn't want to wait anymore.

The phone started ringing.

Trowa blinked at the dark ceiling.

"Answer it," Heero snapped. "Or turn it off."

Trowa blinked again, pushing himself onto an elbow as Blake made a little upset sound and rolled over.

"Trowa," Wufei snapped.

Trowa hit the silence button as his mind worked out fact from fiction. The bed had been about four feet behind them...but that had been....hours...ago. He blinked at the name on the front of the phone a long moment, then popped it open. "I'm about to get skinned," he explained quickly and quietly as he slid off his bed.

"I get the rug?" Lu asked happily.

Trowa forced himself not to laugh as he moved across their shared room and out the door. "Sorry...though you just interrupted a very nice little dream."

Lu laughed happily at that. "What are you guys doing?"

"Sleeping," Trowa noted dryly, yawning as he leaned against the wall. "We were out all night."

"You were out with the frickin' teams?" Lu demanded, sounding mildly offended. "I disown you. How's Duo? He's not answering his phone."

"He fried his phone before they grabbed him," Trowa retorted.

"So he hasn't bought a new one?" she snapped.

Trowa blinked a few more times, rubbing at his face. "He hasn't come in yet."

"What?" she shrieked at him.

"Why did you call me if you were going to freak out?" Trowa demanded, rubbing at his nose. "You can't blame me for what that idiot does."

"Where is he?" she sounded about to start crying. "I heard he was grabbed...but you guys decimated that base..."

"Do I sound like I'm mourning?" Trowa asked sourly. "Do I sound like I'm worried? No? Well, that must mean there's nothing wrong."

"But..."

"My ops guys took him out to Illicit," Trowa explained, sighing dryly. "I ordered them out of the base, he was in their escape vehicle, and he's..."

"So how are you getting him out of a ship?"

Trowa took a very long and slow breath as he rattled off a list of questions, then blinked as the door opened.

Blake came out, looking around, then smiled and moved into his arms, kissing at his throat. "Who is it?"

"Lu," Trowa whispered back, shifting him in more to his body. "Lu?" he added as she took a long breath herself. "Can you calm down? Has there been any information you got that has him still held? We will call you when the genius gets back here, but until then, you have to bear with the ass just as much as I do."

"I don't...Trowa...Illicit is captained by...by Timorre! He's the one who took Matty!"

"Thank you for the update, I guess my sources forgot to mention that."

"Oh, don't be a fucker," she snapped. "What the hell is going on?"

"Duo is out on Illicit," Trowa repeated. "As soon as he got on it last night they gave him Remalene," he couldn't help the false happiness in his tone. "He passed out and woke up this morning when we were coming back in. He said he was taking another dose of Remalene, and then he'd come home."

"They...gave him...Remalene?"

Trowa blinked as Blake started kissing on his throat, his hands moving down Trowa's abs to his waist-line. He grinned at the guy and shook his head.

Blake's eyes sparkled.

"He...they gave him some..." Trowa tried to catch Blake's hands as they moved into his pants, looking around nervously. If they got caught, his ass was fried. "Uh...Quatre was saying he hadn't took his pills a few hours later, though..."

Holy shit his hands were cold.

Trowa closed his eyes and pursed his lips to keep from making a noise.

"What are you doing?" Lu asked suspiciously.

"Sorry...just...cold," he muttered.

Blake snickered silently and bit at his peck.

Oh, the asshole...

"Uh...listen...can I..."

"I don't understand what's going on," Lu sounded fretful.

She was just as bad as Blake...wow...that was...interesting...

"Is he just...they aren't holding him, right?"

"No," Trowa returned, fighting to keep control of his breathing and voice. He was going to skin Blake...take him to that other room and...

"No?" Lu snapped.

"Can't I just call you back...in a few minutes?" Trowa nearly hissed that time...and Blake's eyes were far too bright.

"Just answer me and you can go back to bed," the woman's voice went hurt as she spoke.

Oh, the pair of them!

"Duo's probably making contacts on Illicit. Yuy told my ops guys with him to call whenever..." ooh... "whenever..." shit... "if Timorre decides to use him. Timorre made it blatantly clear that he doesn't actually want Maxwell on the ship and...Rin interjected saying he needed medical attention. I'm assuming when Maxwell...decides... to come in...fuck."

"What?" Lu asked blankly. "Fuck what?"

Blake snickered.

"I stubbed my toe," Trowa hissed back, looking back to Blake. "Uh...what was I..." he swallowed. Blake's hands were warming up nicely... "Oh...um..." he licked his lips. "Last I heard from Maxwell, he was...going to take his meds and sleep through most of the day, but Quatre..." he bit his lip. "What did he say? He said that Duo was pissed and...that he hadn't taken the pills."

"You've said that a couple times now," Lu sounded confused. "You sure you're okay? Why do you keep calling them by their last names?"

Ooh...that felt good.

Trowa laughed a little, pressing his hips back against the wall before he knocked Blake over. "I'm tired," he muttered, not meeting the younger's eyes. There was far too much amusement in that. "We figure Duo'll call us when he gets what he wants...done."

There was movement in a side hall, and Blake looked that way. He pulled his hands away and leaned against the wall beside Trowa before he could get his mind around the noise...as an MP patrol hesitated at the intersection.

"Name and business," the one leading ordered.

"What?" Lu asked.

"MP," Trowa returned. "Obviously I'm on the phone," he added pointedly.

The man drew himself up.

"Brigadier General Barton," Blake snapped.

"Who is that?" Lu asked blankly. "That sounded like...Blake. That's Matty's friend, right? The one Matty said you were fucking?"

The soldiers gave Blake a skeptical look for responding when they hadn't addressed him.

"Yeah...it is," Trowa agreed, looking up to the ceiling a moment. "Hold on. Move along," he added to the MP.

"Unless you can prove your..."

Trowa grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt and slammed him into the wall, meeting his eyes. "Look closer," he suggested pointedly.

"Sir, please," one of the others muttered. "We're charged with keeping the hall cleared after hours...I...I recognize you, Sir. I vouch for you."

"So kind of you," Trowa muttered dryly, letting the man up and glaring at him as he moved back to his friends and saluted.

"I'm afraid we have to file a complaint," the other man noted. "Physical force is unnecessary."

Trowa leveled him with a dirty look.

"Uh...Sir," the man saluted, as did the third one who'd remained silent. "But this young man..."

"Is my guest," Trowa pointed out, realizing his aggravation was a little high. Granted, he'd been rather enjoying Blake's presence before they'd interrupted.

"I vouch for him," the third hissed, grabbing the second's arm. "Let's go... before you make him mad."

The other two exchanged dark looks.

"We ask that you return to your rooms and don't wander the halls without the appropriate certification," the first noted pointedly. "We'll let it slide this time with..."

"Soldier," Trowa snapped, annoyed enough with them to pull rank.

The men fell into attention, eyes widening...then darted off the way they'd come.

"Don't be mean to them," Blake protested when they'd disappeared. "And you totally deserve that demerit."

"Chances are," Trowa noted, turning to pin him to the wall, "they'll get in trouble for bothering me."

"You're on the phone," Blake whispered, smirking.

Trowa rolled his eyes, then leaned forward and kissed the other. He raised the phone to his ear as Blake licked his lips and grinned. "Lu?"

"Yeah, you chase'em off good?"

"Very good," Trowa agreed, running his own thigh between Blake's. "You content now? Duo'll call us when he gets bored...we'll get him a phone quick-like and make him call you?"

"I guess," she muttered, sounding tired. "Be careful, alright? Duo being grabbed was scary enough. I don't need the rest of you hurt or anything, alright?"

"I'll be careful," Trowa reassured her as Blake tried to move back—he was also trying not to laugh. Trowa, however, wasn't feeling the 'no' or 'stop' vibe from him, so was gonna go with it a little longer. "I'll make sure the others stay careful, too, huh?"

Blake hesitated very briefly, then went back to trying to...climb over his leg or something. It was kinda funny, really.

"You take it easy, alright?" he added. "You need to heal up so you can get back on the field. You're too good for us to be missing long."

She snorted.

Trowa laughed a little.

"Make sure he calls me, right?" she demanded, sounding almost petulant.

"Right," Trowa agreed, kissing at Blake's throat. "Definitely."

"Okay...I'll talk to you later, then...I didn't wake everyone up, did I?"

"Wufei and Heero at least, but they should be sleeping by now."

Blake licked his lips again, glaring up at Trowa...before going back to the 'get away' thing.

"Tell them I'm sorry," Lu ordered. "And call me with updates...I'll let you get back to sleep."

"Yeah," Trowa agreed, pulling the phone from his ear. "Sleep well." He closed it, then met Blake's eyes pointedly.

"You totally thought it was hot," Blake whispered at him, giving up and raising his hands to Trowa's waist. "We really shouldn't be...be doing this in the hall."

"I need to get my badge and we can hit the other room again," Trowa reassured him, pulling away. "Unless you're an utter bastard and are going to tell me no. In which case you should start running now."

Blake snickered, shoving at him. "Hurry up."

"Besides," Trowa hissed as he pulled the door open. "You totally started it."

- -

"Are we gonna let the leg-work get done for us?" Wufei muttered seriously. "I don't think they've got Wing working any better than we've got Demigod. That means they probably took it out on a flat-bed sometime before we got there. Obviously we need to find it, but do we need to do it ourselves?"

"We've got our lines as far as they can go at the moment," Quatre noted quietly, running a hand through his hair. His disposition had gotten ten times better since Duo'd called, but the melancholia was returning since it was early in the morning of September first.

Considering that Quatre'd gone up to L-4 on August twenty-fifth, it'd been about a week since they'd seen each other. That was entirely beside the emotional stress of Duo being grabbed and tortured.

Heero glanced sidelong at Matty, who was half dozing against his side.

"We need to coordinate with Duo," Quatre added thoughtfully. "Whatever we do next, we need to figure out what he's doing. Timorre's guys took the food-stuffs we'd gotten out of the wreckage, which means they have a bit more time before they have to scrounge for food. Chances are, Duo's gonna get them that week's worth the ops man Clint requested—so we won't have to worry about them raiding for two weeks...maybe three. If we're really lucky, a month."

"Three weeks," Heero corrected.

"Jaden wouldn't raid like that," Matty noted sourly.

"He wouldn't use a hostage, either," Quatre retorted. "But what did he tell us? Get rid of Ranger for him and he'd let you go? Sounds hostage-y to me."

"Don't be bitchy because your boyfriend is off fucking around."

Quatre's expression flashed to pained before he looked away, nearly pouting.

"You believe me, don't you?" Matty muttered, frowning up at Heero.

"He cares for his people," Heero explained quietly. "At a certain point you have to do something or give up—giving up in his case would probably mean ten to thirty behind bars."

Matty's expression turned hurt.

Heero looked away, noting that Blake was fully lounging in Trowa's lap—to the point that he doubted Trowa was paying attention.

"Who called?" Wufei asked curiously, following Heero's attention to the pair. "And what the hell was the racket?"

Trowa blinked, looking up to him as Blake looked quite languidly around to him.

"Lu," Trowa explained after a moment. "She was asking why Duo wasn't answering his phone—I managed to explain it to her eventually..." he poked Blake's middle, which made Blake snigger. "And then the MP showed up. I wasn't in the mood for anymore interruptions so I chased them off."

Wufei rolled his eyes.

"She wanted me to apologize for waking you all," he added. "I don't think she'd realized we'd be sleeping."

"It was sort of late," Heero pointed out.

"I know...but she hadn't realized we were out all night either."

Heero nodded.

"So...what did we decide to do?" Trowa asked, looking from face to face.

Heero sniggered, covering his face with his hand.

"If you two keep playing love-birds," Wufei informed Trowa and Blake in a calm voice, "I'm going to pluck and fry you, and serve you to the MP with butter."

Blake giggled.

"You know, I never thought Trowa'd be so...touchy...in love," Wufei noted sidelong to Quatre and Jinli. "I thought he'd be the more steadfast and thoughtful."

Trowa snorted at him as Blake looked around to him with interest.

"Don't bother," Matty suggested to his friend dryly. "Just peel yourself away from him so he can think."

"Hey!" Trowa pouted at him...then at Blake as the guy did push away. He gave the guy a petulant look as he stood, using Trowa's shoulder's to balance himself...and flopped around behind him on the bed with a yawn.

"Did you have fun after the call?" Matty added dryly.

"Quite," Blake agreed, curling up to Trowa's back. "'m tired."

"And you...realize...how disgusted the rest of us are?" Matty persisted.

"We didn't use the bed," Blake reassured him. "You can."

Trowa snickered.

Wufei sighed, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling.

Matty shrugged, looking up to Heero.

Heero couldn't help but grin at him, finding some appeal in the notion, then pursed his lips and looked around to the others. "So what did we decide to do?"

Trowa started laughing.