Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Idle Hands ❯ Seven ( Chapter 7 )

Seven

"Well, look at this one," Colonel Tisler muttered, indicating a yellow frog clinging to the side of a tree. "I found him earlier and nearly shit my pants. He can kill elephants."

Blake stepped back, but Matty leaned closer—that was a tiny frog...

Tisler made an amused noise and pulled Matty back by the collar of his shirt. "Don't do that."

Matty grinned at him, raising his phone to take a few pictures. Blake followed suit a few moments later, and Tisler stayed that step back to watch them and recite some text book at them about poison dart frogs—well, he wasn't reciting. He knew the information on his own—but he sounded like a text book...only interesting. The stuff they ate made the poison that could kill elephants.

"These are the ones they used to use to make poison arrows, right?" Matty asked, lowering the phone to look at the creature—it was watching them with interest, but seemed happy enough since they weren't close.

"Yes," Tisler agreed. "I'm not liking it so close to camp—most of the men here know how to make this little beauty seep."

Blake shuddered, glancing toward the people around. "I'm glad we've been doing this for a long time, then," he noted. "That way they don't think twice about what we're looking at."

The man shrugged his agreement, then grinned. "Want me to make it do it?"

Both boys jumped back from him.

He laughed delightedly at that, looking back to the frog and shaking his head. "I think we should move on. There are other insects about that are...just as interesting."

"I like animals more than insects," Matty noted, moving around the frog to see it from a different angle. "Insects are...gross."

"Gay boy," Blake accused.

Matty stuck his tongue out at him as Tisler's eyes went wide. "Straight boy."

"I am not straight," Blake argued instantly.

"You are so, and so is Trowa," Matty retorted. "You both just sleep in the same bed and make lots of noise to make us all think you're fucking. I don't believe Tro could have made you swoon."

Blake started giggling wickedly, giving his friend an abashed look. "He really did...really."

"...Trowa?" Tisler asked, half trying to remind them of his presence. "As in...the Brigadier General Barton?"

"You know I'm with him," Blake protested, focusing on him.

"I'm sorry, your little conversation...I don't need to hear that about my superior."

Matty started laughing wickedly. "Yuy can make me cum in two minutes flat."

Blake smacked a hand to his face, laughing weakly.

"After foreplay, of course," Matty added thoughtfully.

Tisler stepped back, raising his eyebrows.

"What are you guys doing now?" Heero demanded happily, moving up next them.

Tisler stiffened...which made Matty start giggling.

Heero considered the colonel a moment, then looked skeptically back to Blake. "Matty doesn't lie that much, does he?"

Blake was reduced to giggles himself.

Heero's eyes started to go back to the shocked officer at his side...before they fell on the frog. He stared at it in disbelief a moment before looking to the man. "Is that a poison dart frog?"

"Yes, sir," the guy returned, lowering his head slightly.

"You're all calf-eyed over a poison frog," Heero noted to Matty.

"No worse than you over that gun in the armory," Matty retorted.

Heero raised his eyebrows.

"If you'd rather I don't show them..." Tisler started.

"Nonsense, I appreciate you taking the time to amuse them," Heero grinned wickedly at Matty.

"I will throw you down," Matty informed him dangerously.

Heero laughed, then leaned over to kiss him. "Don't touch the frog," he instructed, then winked at Blake.

He was basically gone as fast as he'd shown up.

Blake tilted his head, watching Heero walk away. "I do like those pants on him."

Matty elbowed him.

Blake laughed delightedly, looking back to the colonel.

"Right..." the man muttered, then blinked. "I didn't salute him."

"He'll get over it," Matty noted happily, turning back to the frog. "I don't think he even noticed it...what else is there?"

"It's not whether or not he'll like it or anything," Tisler retorted, "it's respect."

"And you respect him," Matty agreed, starting to move up the edge of the camp. "Don't go borrowing trouble."

"That's right," the man agreed dryly, looking to the ruins of the former base. "We have enough without that." He sighed slightly, then shrugged and gestured them both after him. "We'll find more by water—let's go find some."

- -

Watching Matty and Blake bounce around after Tisler proved ten times more distracting than Trowa would have thought. It struck him even more when he realized he wasn't watching them for the sexual appeal, but because he could tell they were having fun.

Trowa frowned, looking around to Duo, who was standing at a table. None of them were properly in uniform, and for some un-known reason, Duo was wearing the regs that fit him. There was something in the way he was standing that Trowa found...interesting.

He pulled his eyes away, grinning slightly to himself.

Now he was checking out his friends.

Wufei, who wasn't far away, had seen Trowa's attention and considered Duo himself, skeptical. It was obvious that Duo worked out, but that wasn't the pants—the shirt and his arms displayed that effortlessly. He was confident—but then again they all were. He had a self-possession that most men had to work a lifetime to achieve—but again, they all did.

...Wufei sort of missed the braid. Duo didn't even seem to smell like Duo anymore without it. Whatever shampoo he'd used before had mingled with his scent, and with less than half the hair, that smell was cut almost entirely away.

He needed a better holster.

Quatre, who'd been moving around, stopped beside Wufei, though didn't say anything. He considered his lover with interest a moment, then gave Wufei an interested look. Whatever world Fei was in, though, didn't make him stop his own perusal.

That was...sort of funny.

Heero, meanwhile, had moved back into the tent. Seeing both Quatre and Wufei standing there, he moved to join them. He also focused on his one-time lover, grinning slightly as he wondered if Duo realized what pants he had on.

Duo...felt the attention. He had been going through satellite scans, half bent over the table and using his hands to brace himself. He turned his head to look at Heero, starting to smirk at him...then noticed both Quatre and Wufei.

He froze.

Quatre tilted his head, looking Duo over in the same way Heero was, then met his eyes.

"What?" Duo demanded sharply, turning quickly and not sure what to do with his hands. He grabbed one of the scans as he looked the three...four. Trowa was looking at him too. "What?" he insisted, feeling a little embarrassed. "Why are you all looking at me?"

"Nice pants," Heero noted in an amused and knowing tone. His eyes passed over the picture in Duo's hands as he smirked...and turned to wander off again.

Quatre grinned at him.

Duo looked nervously between Wufei and Trowa, trying to figure out the game.

"Grow your hair back out," Wufei instructed, starting to turn away again as well. "You don't smell right." He disappeared out of the tent.

Duo and Trowa blinked after him in confusion, and Trowa went back to whatever he'd been doing on his laptop.

Quatre moved across the tent in amusement, looking coyly up at Duo.

"What were you guys doing?" Duo demanded in a hushed tone, making sure Trowa had refocused as he turned back to the table.

"I walked up and saw Wufei checking you out—and it was an interesting sight. I imagine Heero had much the same reasoning."

Duo blinked at that, then looked down at his pants and closed his eyes.

Right. They were his size.

"Wufei was...different, though," Quatre added thoughtfully. "I couldn't get a firm read on him...but it wasn't lust or anything. He was just...looking?" he considered it a moment and shrugged. "I have no idea—you should stand like that all the time, you're hot."

"We're at work," Duo retorted dryly, sliding a picture over for Quatre's inspection.

"Uh..." Quatre blinked at it. "Your ass looks better?"

Duo snorted at him.

- -

Obsidian was quiet as Rab stood on the observation deck, waiting as the first of his transports returned with a load of eight MS. The council that had enjoyed a brief stay of power were standing with him, their leader was sulking. Rab didn't care, if they hadn't been as smart as they were, he wouldn't have tolerated them any longer, but they had sound logic and without J and Ranger around, he needed that.

"Rab?"

Rab turned to look at the young man who'd been hacking into the freight sites.

"I found a ship with food on it—it's far enough away not to be watching us...but close enough that we could take it."

Rab nodded, running his hand down his face. "Keep dibs on it—we can send the MS out."

The man nodded, passing him a sheaf of paper. He nodded respectfully to the council-men, then turned and walked away.

Rab considered the ships listed, smirking slightly to himself.

One thing he did have to be grateful for—there was no way J would have been okay with him just taking what they needed.

...and that would be far less bitter if J hadn't started helping the ESA.

Rab's good mood evaporated, and he closed his fist around the paper.

After everything...J was utterly against him. It hadn't been enough that he'd taken half the men and left a blood-bath in his wake...it hadn't been enough that he hadn't even discussed his problems with Rab...no. He'd gone over to the enemy, and his betrayal had taken Ranger away from Rab too.

"Sir?" one of the men asked.

"There's a chance," Rab noted, rounding on them all, "that we'll come across J...Timorre...when the fighting starts." He met all of their eyes. "He's mine."

The men lowered their eyes, not speaking.

Rab considered them a long moment, then moved away from the group toward one of the windows.

The ship needed to hurry up and get back to Obsidian.

He was ready for things to start happening again—when things were happening, it was easier to forget that one of his best friends had fucked him over...when things were happening, he didn't feel so alone.

- -

"Hey, where are you going?" Qingfu grabbed Jaden's waist before he could move away from the bed, pulling himself up so he could rest his face against the man. "Don't go again."

"I need to go again," Jaden retorted, though he wasn't trying to pull away. "I suppose you did forget, but we have this ship to run...and before you decided to seduce me, I had stuff I was doing."

Qingfu sniggered...and bit Jaden's hip.

Jaden yelped at that, trying to pull away. All he managed to do was get turned around to face the Asian man, though. Qingfu was still laughing as he launched himself to stand on the mattress, then used his weight to bear Jaden back onto the thing again.

"Oops," Qingfu noted insincerely, straddling the man. "Captain, I have a complaint about the supreme ruler."

Jaden started laughing weakly. "All complaints are supposed to be submitted in triplicate."

"Mm," Qingfu returned, leaning down so they were face to face. "Then you'll be here a while."

- -

"Hey, I thought you were gonna call an hour ago," Duo muttered, glancing up at Jaden on his laptop, then stopping to look at the man again. His throat was covered in little hickeys or bruises...some of those were bruises.

Jaden rubbed at his throat, grinning a bit. "I'm sorry, I got...I lost track of time."

Duo considered that with interest, looking back to the man's throat. "Who?"

"Qing," Jaden admitted, looking down.

Duo laughed, looking around to make sure no one was close. "You have fun then? I was wondering how long he'd take to get to you—what'd he do? Lose all patience and throw you against the wall?"

"What?" Jaden demanded in disbelief. "What do you mean, how long?"

"Oh, he was all for playing that little game with Hoxha," Duo reassured him happily. "But he was half teasing you for a reason."

Jaden mouthed at him.

"I'm glad for him," Duo added, going back to the satellite maps. "How is he?"

"Sleeping," Jaden noted with a smirk. "I had to knock him out before I could get away."

Duo snickered, marking a spot. "We've got a council discussing your payment—will you argue if it's part food?"

"We have to do some maintenance on the ship," Jaden returned. "I guess our water intake is all field-patched, and that may not last long."

"The water intake?" Duo looked up at him in disbelief. "Did you check the output and the tank?"

"A couple of the guys we have did some navy stints," Jaden shrugged. "They were down there checking things."

"You should bring her in to the port," Duo suggested. "We can do some stuff for you since you are helping us—and then whatever supplies we end up agreeing on...you can just get them directly loaded instead of wasting fuel on the transports."

"I'll have to talk about it with Qing and Armend," Jaden shrugged. "My council, actually...but I'm not doing that for a while, because if I wake Rin up any time soon..."

Duo sniggered and nodded at that.

"So...let me actually apologize for that. I really meant to keep the appointment time."

"I totally got into this," Duo returned, indicating the maps. "Blake and Matty are running around, too. We've lost Barton and Yuy to them."

"Matt's there?" Jaden asked quietly, looking around behind Duo. "How is he?"

"Happy," Duo shrugged. "He and Blake are learning all about the rain-forest creatures. I guess they found a poison dart frog earlier," he hesitated, looking up to Jaden again. "That's a brightly colored frog that seeps poison that's strong enough to kill an elephant."

Jaden's eyes went round.

"Little tiny thing, too," Duo agreed with himself happily, indicating the size with his index finger and thumb. "I bet you'd be having just as much fun as he is if you were around. Winner and Chang went back to the base already, and we're heading back sooner than later. How's Qing? Aside from horny."

Jaden snickered at that. "He's actually really good. Thank you for all that you sent out here."

Duo shrugged companionably. "It was no big thing. I want clothes that haven't been worn the next time I get stranded on your ship and bloody—and I know I want internet out there, too."

Jaden snorted at him.

Duo laughed, marking another bit on the map.

"Anyway, he took me around last night to show me everything—it was the damnedest thing," he added, leaning against the vid-mount. "I got in and he was here to greet me and all, but he just...couldn't wait to talk to me. I was trying to talk to one of my admirals, and he kept piping up with little things...he looked up barnacles, did I want to see the laptop...I forget what all," he shook his head in amusement. "So finally my admiral gave up and said he'd find me later...so we went up to the room to chat."

"And you got laid?" Duo asked happily, marking something else.

Jaden snorted. "It would have made a lot more sense if I could tell you yes, but I can't. We talked a bit, then he started showing me around at all the new stuff...and started touching me. I was looking for Armend when he did that...but I think Armend's been in his room all night. Anyway...we ate and stuff, he couldn't stand losing my attention...we went to sleep..."

Duo stopped, looking up at him curiously.

Jade shrugged a bit. "He woke me up...like...I think we slept a few hours...and suddenly he's biting on me..." he touched his throat and grinned a bit. "I didn't really get to think about anything."

Duo laughed at that, nodding his head. "Good for Qing, then."

"Did I miss something?" Jaden demanded. "I'm lost."

"He was eyeing you when I was there," Duo retorted. "He finally got the balls to go through with it. I can't believe it took him that long."

"I thought he was straight," Jaden admitted, looking around behind him. "I really did."

"I never asked," Duo noted, tilting his head a bit. "I have no idea, but he was eyeing you...and his game with Hoxha probably distracted you from it. Since we're having this conversation anyway, I totally seduced Quatre."

Jaden snorted.

"You say he's easy and I'll deck you," Duo looked up to the screen again. "I swear Gerrange needs to just die...anyway, I walked in on him masturbating once and haven't been able to shake him since."

Jaden guffawed.

Duo snickered, looking around. "That was back when you lot had Princey."

"Princey?" Jaden blinked at him.

"Marquise," Duo agreed. "We were up in the L-5 cluster trying to figure out where he was at and trying to get rid of Gerrange's men from our mess." He considered the map, then measured an area with his hand and the pencil. "Hm...that won't work."

"What are you doing?"

"Planning," Duo shrugged, looking up to him again. "Trying to figure out how to do this without you and yours."

Jaden tilted his head at that.

"Not for you," Duo gestured that off. "I have to have a good excuse to keep you tied into our game-plan."

"Hey, Duo, who are you...Jaden!" Matty had entered the tent. "Jaden! Hi!" he moved eagerly beside Duo and glanced back. "How are you?"

"Hey, kid," Jaden greeted him, smiling almost sadly. "I'm good...really good. You?"

"I got all sorts of pictures," Matty explained, showing the guy his phone. "It's awesome...Blake has more," he added with a frown, "but I'm getting my own. How about you? Who'd you fuck?"

"Qing," Jaden returned, grinning at that.

Matty laughed happily at that, bouncing where he stood. He glanced toward the tent entrance quickly, then looked back to the screen. "I'm happy for you."

"Are you...okay?" Jaden asked, frowning at him. He looked down. "Duo was saying...telling me..."

"I'm alright," Matty reassured him, smiling a bit.

"I never meant to upset you," Jaden informed him sincerely. "I know...I should have approached the entire thing differently. I'm sorry, I really am."

"It's okay, though," Matty reassured him. "Wufei and them have been training me in self-defense stuff more...and I'm with them. It's fine."

Jaden messed with something below the screen, nodding his head.

"So tell me about Qingfu," Matty instructed. "I thought he was like...straight."

That made the man look up to him with bright eyes. "I'm just that good?"

Matty guffawed, starting to laugh.

Jaden himself started to laugh as well.

"I get the whole stoic response of not knowing," Duo noted skeptically to the youth, "and you get bravado."

Matty half giggled more. "Is he any good?"

"When it's been a year, it's the best," Jaden retorted.

Matty started laughing harder at that.

"Keep it down," Duo muttered to Matty, looking around without moving his head.

Matty stopped laughing, looking around as well.

"What? What's wrong?"

"If Heero comes in here," Matty looked around, "and sees me talking to you it'll ruin his day."

"He regrets being unconscious the last time he was near you," Duo agreed.

Jaden sighed and nodded, running a hand through his hair. "So...what have you been doing?" he muttered to Matty. "School? Work?"

"I quit before you grabbed me," Matty returned with a slight smile. "I started school...but I've missed a bunch now. It was pretty funny, though. The one professor wanted us to see what rank we could get if we went militant and was thinking I was a pacifist when I didn't want to do mine right-off. Heero hadn't taken the alarm off my name yet, either—I think someone got reemed out good for that. He called to get it removed and they made him wait a half hour or more."

Jaden cringed at that.

"When I scanned my card, the entire room went into lockdown and they connected me to a military computer network thing...it was insane. We'd managed to work it out so Quatre was there in uniform, so we only had to wait a minute or so before he came in and cleared it all, but yeah...and every time I go in there are a few guys who wait for me—Quatre was calling me by name. So they all wait to salute me when I'm coming in and stuff."

"Name?" Jaden asked blankly. "Is yours that well known?"

"I'm espoused of Heero, didn't you know that?" Matty tilted his head. "I'm Mattox Williams-Yuy in the legal forum."

Jaden grinned at that.

"So it's pretty funny to go around—like, my read-out after we did it...it said I could be a general and stuff...it was funny."

Jaden grinned at that.

"Anyway," Matty went on. "Classes were kinda getting interesting, but we had to come down here...Jinli...he's...espoused of Chang," Matty sniggered. "He like, looks after us when we're near him...me and Blake."

Jaden started to acknowledge that, then focused behind them.

Heero had entered the tent and stopped.

"It's funny, because it spread," Matty went on, not noticing that. "Like, in the halls and stuff half the time I have a military escort. I got Quatre to come in one day and read them all because soldiers make me nervous...and they all have this blue mark," he touched his temple. He beamed proudly at Jaden as Heero moved up behind them. "That's for me. Quatre knew I'd be upset and wanted there to be a for-sure way I could tell the good guys from the bad guys, so he started reading them and marking them. Everywhere we go, the soldiers want the mark now."

Jaden smiled a bit sadly at him as Duo watched Heero approach sidelong. "That's cool, huh?"

Matty nodded, then spotted Heero. His eager words trailed off as they all focused on the other man.

"Fuck you," Heero informed Jaden...and closed the laptop.

"Damn it, Heero!" Matty moved away from Duo irritably. "I was talking to him!"

"Why the fuck do you think I closed it?" Heero snapped back.

"Call him back," Matty ordered Duo, then turned to chase Heero from the tent.

Duo sniggered, leaning forward to pop his laptop open again.

Jaden blinked a bit wide-eyed at him.

"It occurred to me at some point that Heero's most likely response to seeing you would be to close the laptop. I turned off the function that makes it sleep."

"Uh...isn't Yuy going to be pissed at that?"

"Yuy will be pissed no matter what, concerning you. We have to figure out a way for him to deal with it."

Jaden smiled a bit at that, looking away.

"Don't admit you deserve it," Duo suggested. "Never admit that to anyone but your lover."

That got an amused quirk.

"Anyway, I need to swat that boy's ass," he added, looking around to where Matty was ranting at Heero. "He gave me an order."

"I think he gave me a few when I had him," Jaden noted with a little grin.

Duo snickered. "That's fine, it's just you."

Jaden snorted at that.

"I want to hang up before he gets back," Duo noted with another grin, "but then he'll give me this sad look," he pouted at Jaden in example. "And he'll be all mopy and quiet...like he thinks I'm upset at him."

"He even has you wrapped around his finger?" Jaden asked blankly.

"He is just that good—he turned Trowa...bi."

"What?" Jaden gave him a disbelieving look.

Duo sniggered and shrugged. "Trowa was straight and is attracted to him. The two things don't work well together, and then Trowa was drunk and seduced his little friend. The two of them are just as much lovers as me and Quatre. Hell, we're all pretty sure that if Trowa's laptop got torn from the network, half the military would die, and he let his little lover load pictures on it so he didn't have to lose them."

Jaden smiled at that.

"Like, the kid was realizing that he either had to stop taking pictures or delete some...it broke his little heart...and Trowa stepped in and loaded all the pictures onto his laptop—went to give everyone a presentation one day and the main desktop had the background of one of those frogs."

Jaden started laughing at that, shaking his head.

"Yeah, we were all impressed," Duo agreed dryly.

"He makes me so mad," Matty blurted, moving back to them and rubbing hard at his eyes. "He's just...so...obstinate."

Duo watched as Matty sat on the stool he had in front of the screen, then looked beyond the younger male to Heero. Heero was standing at the entrance to the tent with a confused and upset expression—one that meant he wasn't sure what he was feeling or what to do about it. "I'll be back," Duo noted, moving around toward his friend. He needed to help Heero sort this out sooner than later...if they could all find a happy medium...well, that would be happy.

- -

"Do you want to eat?" Rab demanded of the men of the council. "Do you want to eat or do you want to starve? We can't very well buy supplies, you have to realize that."

"But we don't like the idea of harming civilians," the main guy protested bitterly.

"Then don't harm them," Rab suggested, turning and pushing into the hanger. "Scare them into thinking you'll harm them."

"Rab, this isn't..."

Rab gestured sharply, cutting the guy off. "Would you like some time alone to think about this?" he asked sweetly.

"Shit," the guy muttered glumly. "I thought J and Rab were the bastards."

"What?" Rab snapped, turning on the man instantly.

The guy looked back at him in alarm, stepping back.

Rab followed, moving faster than the other to get in his face. "Never talk about them to me!" he struck the man hard, and he stumbled back. Rab wiped the blood off his hand onto his jeans, then turned to address the men who'd gathered in the hanger.

The man he'd hit pulled his bloody hands from his face in disbelief before looking up to his comrades.

"Live a fool's life, die a fool's death," one of the others noted, looking up toward Rab and smiling thinly. "Let's go."

The group of them, all but the man struck, followed Rab into the main floor where the various soldiers were messing with suits.

"My men...my...people..." Rab beamed around at them all. "Please, be careful today. I don't expect anything will hinder us..."

- -

"In the end we were able to recapture a good twenty of the men, though even then some few were able to get away," the leader of the search team muttered, flicking through a few more shots that had been taken earlier that day. "We're sure that tomorrow our team, or the next sector over will be able to find the few remnants in this area," he tapped a map. "The expanding line notion seems to be working out," he nodded his head respectfully to Heero. "Our forces are currently readying for the coming confrontation, assuming, of course, that we'll be included," he rubbed briefly at the blue mark on his temple.

"Thank you," Duo muttered, considering the map they'd been given as he thought.

"I'm going to my rest," the man noted, bowing his head a bit. "I'd like to be ready for any more action."

Quatre flashed him a grin.

The wall-screen screamed into life with an alarm as a female soldier appeared. "Generals," she saluted, "Obsidian has attacked a civilian freight ship."

They all jumped to their feet, staring at her.

"The information has been sent to your data points," she added. "It's unclear at this time exactly how this attack is being carried out, but it is in progress as we speak."

"Let's move!" Duo shouted, turning as he did so—they were in an office over the MS garage, and his shout carried easily to the men moving around below.

"Three teams, immediate!" Trowa shouted as he launched himself over the railing.

They were four stories up.

Heero and Quatre flinched like they'd attempt to catch him as he sailed through the air, and slammed onto the back of Heavyarms.

"He means immediate," Wufei noted happily, then darted out himself. He landed on Heavyarms' shoulder as well, then darted out along the arm. Whether or not Trowa had been aware of that plan was utterly unknown, but he had the mecha's arm extended enough that Wufei was able to sail from that hand...onto Demigod.

"We're slow," Heero noted, though they were already going down the stairs. "I'm after the boys and Jin...Duo!"

"I'm not running like a bat out of hell," Duo retorted as both Heavyarms and Demigod started toward the slowly opening hanger.

Quatre sniggered and kissed his lover for luck, then turned to dart for his own unit—they had probably thirty seconds before their phones would pick up the information...he wanted to be a little closer to go when it got there.