Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Idle Hands ❯ Nine ( Chapter 9 )

Nine

"Trowa!"

"Hey, Li," Trowa greeted Matty's little sister as he wandered through the base to catch up with the others. "It occurred to me that there was fighting broadcasted on the news and I actually have more friends than are here."

Lifon giggled. "I miss you! It's so quiet around here, it's driving me nuts. Are you okay? Me and my dad were watching the fighting on the news...it looked kinda scary. You're..."

"Not hurt," he cut her off quickly. "None of us are hurt. The worse thing that happened was that I landed bad on the ship and got your brother all wet."

She sniggered at that.

"School started, right?" he added. "How are you there?"

"It's...normal," she returned quietly. "Nothing interesting going on. I keep getting weird looks because I've actually been following what you guys are doing down there. I have this current-events class where the teacher like...wanders all over...but I've been using the news I can find on you guys. He's confused why I think it's so interesting."

Trowa grinned at that. "I can see it—how's your laptop?"

"Beautiful and shiny," she returned easily. "All my friends are jealous of the skin...and then realize it's not a skin...and then they all died. When I let them look at the stats..." she laughed wickedly. "It's better than most of the teachers'."

"I would imagine, it cost enough," he snickered. "And the phone?"

"I'm on it aren't I?" she retorted.

"You're on a phone, love," he countered. "You could have accidentally dropped the one I got you in the toilet, then what?"

She made a noise. "That would suck."

"I can't talk too long today," he added as he moved around another corner. Illicit was starting docking procedures, and he was expected to be there around when Jaden got off the ship—he was heading that way as he talked.

"Is Matty okay?" she asked quietly. "Blake?"

"They're fine," Trowa reassured her, realizing he had to tell her that Blake was his boyfriend. He didn't care about anyone else knowing, but the idea of telling her didn't appeal somehow.

"Is Heero, then?" she added. "The rest of you? Tim got ahold of me to say you were fine earlier. It was kinda weird and I could tell he was sort of nervous for it...but he thought I'd like to know. Man, I know you haven't even been gone a month, but it seems like...a lot longer."

"I appreciate him doing that," he noted. "And this part is taking an age. I'm all suited up, though—I sneeze and twenty men tell me 'yes, sir!'"

She snorted at that.

"I tried telling one of them to sneeze, but it didn't work."

She guffawed.

He laughed a little. "Yeah...I don't know why it didn't work."

"You're so special," she informed him dryly. "You know that, don't you?"

"You wouldn't be my friend if I weren't," he retorted. "Mm...right now there's a spaceship docking. I have to go be all official there. I'm almost to it now, so I'll have to let you go—but I can call you back. I want to try to keep better in touch with you and Tim. On school days...is there a good time to call you?"

It was something of a relief to work out those details with her, and he realized he did miss her. He had fun running her around town and hearing all about her dramatic days. It was almost like a soap-opera to hear how her and her friends related to each other, too. He'd liked having Blake, Matty, and Li running around the apartment.

"I miss you," Li noted quietly. "I do."

"Yeah, me too," he agreed tiredly. "Hopefully we can get this stuff finished, huh? Wish me luck."

She made a slightly amused noise. "Good luck."

Trowa sighed as he closed the phone, looking around as he entered the busier area where people were watching Illicit.

"Hey, what were you doing?" Blake asked, moving to kiss him briefly.

"I had to finish some stuff up on the laptop before I came down," Trowa shrugged, tucking the phone away. "You need to start calling home more."

"Huh?" he asked, blinking at that.

"When was the last time you called your dad?" Trowa shrugged. "I realized I was being bad about it when Tim called—so I called Li."

"Oh? How is she?" they started through the people.

"Fine...normal enough, I guess. I didn't really have that long to talk to her. I figure tonight I'll have her go to the apartment and use the vid."

Blake nodded.

"They were starting to worry about you," Matty muttered as they moved from one hall to another. "What were you doing?"

"I called your sister," Tro returned. "Have you?"

He made a face, thinking about that. "I haven't talked to her or my dad since I got here. That's bad—I've talked to Lu more than them."

"What?" Lu asked, turning to look at them. She smiled, saluting Trowa. "Sir."

"Ma'am," he retorted, saluting her back.

She grinned, looking him over. "You look dashing in full uniform."

"And you look good naked, what's your point?" he gave her a look—she smacked him.

He laughed. "Sorry...where is everyone?"

"We were all slowing to wait for everyone else," Matty grinned at him. "We were all in a group, then Blake decided to slow up and wait for you—and I decided to wait with him. Lu decided to stay with me...and we'll probably meet up with everyone else as we go through this mess." He gestured around them at the soldiers who were watching the ship with interest through the windows.

"Where were you?" Heero asked from where he and Zechs had been standing not far off.

Trowa sniggered—their conversations hadn't seemed to get anywhere so far, he doubted they would for a while.

- -

"...and they asked that you all please wear visitor tags," Qingfu summed up as they all stood in a conference room. "We've discussed it with the authorities, and it's been decided that you'll be free to wander the base until lights-out. After lights-out, if you're outside the base, you'll have to be brought from the gate to the ship by transport, so we request that you come back before nine. You don't have to come back," he added. "We plan to be docked here two days, and hopefully by then everything will be ready, so check in Monday night and we'll let you know what happens then. There are soldiers," he added quickly as he indicated the exit, "on the far side of that door. Den and...Timorre and I are going to meet with everyone there, and Hoxha plans to stay on ship, so he's in charge while we're gone."

There was a thud as the ship touched down into its rest, and everyone swayed, blinking as the engines revved higher...and fans started.

"So...I need to go," Qingfu added quickly. "Please take care and don't get yourselves in trouble because we're not fully sure where we stand legally at this point."

People made noises.

Qingfu winked, then turned and moved from the room. An instant mutter started up behind him, and after a moment people started following him.

Jaden moved down the other hall, rubbing his hands together. He smiled tightly at Qingfu, then a bit more at everyone else.

"Ready, captain?" someone asked from the vid to the comm. room.

"Ready," Jaden agreed.

There was a release of air, and the door started lowering.

"You ready for this?" Qingfu muttered, considering Jaden's face.

"I suppose," Jaden agreed, starting down the ramp.

"Supreme Ruler," Duo greeted with a casual salute as he grinned at them.

Jaden gave him a look. "Lieutenant General Maxwell," he returned the half-assed salute.

"Rin," Duo added.

Qingfu smiled back at him, then noticed Matt standing a ways off with other soldiers and felt a flash of guilt.

"Welcome to Borde del Rio," Yuy noted in a quiet voice.

"I'm glad to see you're well, Yuy," Jaden returned, offering the man his hand. The guy hesitated to take it, but did shake finally. "Barton," he offered his hand.

Matty bounced.

Jaden flashed him a quick grin, then focused back on Chang as Yuy's expression went dark.

"I hear you liked my gifts?" Duo asked easily, moving closer to Qingfu.

"You have no idea how helpful it really was," Qingfu agreed. "Even the weird sweats."

Duo grinned at that. "I wanted to get you a quantity, and that was all that was in my range."

Qingfu shook his hand again, gratefully, then offered it hesitantly to Yuy.

Yuy shook it wordlessly.

...well, at least he wasn't swinging yet.

"Bring the passes!" Duo shouted toward a group of men not far off, causing both Qingfu and Jaden to jump. "Set up the lines!"

"My men," the man with Duo's group noted, "are setting up a conference room. I estimate it will be another ten minutes. If you'll...excuse me, President Timorre, I'll go see to that." He shook Qingfu's hand and nodded his head respectfully.

"Of course," Jaden returned quietly, startled. He watched the man turn and walk away, then looked around to Qingfu.

"So, Mr. President," Duo added happily, "we talked Yuy into waiting until this evening to kick your ass."

"How kind," Jaden muttered dryly, looking around to Yuy. "You're not going to put me in the hospital, are you?"

"I'm not sure yet," Yuy returned easily.

"Heero, stop," Quatre snapped, sighing and gesturing behind them.

Matt darted from where he'd been waiting excitedly...with another young man behind him, and...

Qingfu gasped, saluting Lucretzia Noin.

"You outrank me here," she informed him dryly.

"Hi!" Matty latched onto Heero's arm to look between them. "I'm like...happy to see you, but I'm totally not going to stay around alone."

"I'm sorry," Jaden muttered, frowning at him. "I was just...trying to keep you safe."

"We've had this argument before, and it goes nowhere," Duo pointed out.

"I just..." Jaden sighed.

"And if you come near me with handcuffs..." Matt informed Qingfu happily, letting the threat trail off.

"I swear I was only trying to keep you safe," Qingfu noted.

"That's morose," Barton noted pointedly. "This is my boyfriend, Blake Kiardane. Blake, these are President Jaden Timorre and Vice President Rin Qingfu."

The young man saluted them as they both stared at him in confusion, then offered his hand.

"This is my espoused," Chang added, indicating another Asian male who'd been with the younger men. "Wong-Chang Jinli. Jin...this is Rin Qingfu and Jaden Timorre."

"Should we start for the meeting room?" Marquise asked curiously, looking them all over as men started moving out of Illicit.

Jaden watched the gauntlet nervously as his men took their guest passes and put them on—there was a line of E.S.A. soldiers coming off each side of the exit. They created something of a tunnel to the main building...which was most likely filled with other soldiers.

"There's no enmity," Winner reassured them, considering the men himself. "Your soldiers are understandably nervous, but ours are just doing their job. Shall we?"

Jaden hesitated a moment longer, then nodded his head.

"So should I call you Captain, Supreme Ruler, or President?" Matt asked happily, falling into pace with Jaden, still holding Yuy's forearm.

"You can call me Jaden or Timorre," Jaden retorted.

"Qing calls him Den," Duo noted, falling into pace with Qingfu and giving him a knowing sort of amused look.

Qingfu smirked back at him, tucking his hands into his pockets.

He was glad to be back with Duo again—the man kept things entertaining.

- -

It was vaguely amusing to watch Heero keep himself in check, and Quatre wondered if he was a bad person. There was actual malice in Heero, which the semi-blond couldn't ever remember feeling before, and he wondered if it would go away when Heero finally got to attack the man.

The meeting was interesting enough, but in all reality it had only actually needed Trowa and Duo. The rest of them were there for more...moral support...though Quatre could have thought of twenty better things to set Heero to doing.

"You're awfully quiet," he muttered to the Japanese male quietly.

"I don't have much to say," Heero muttered back, meeting his eyes.

"You shouldn't...attack him," Quatre noted.

"I might not," Heero shrugged. "If he says anything to piss me off, though, all bets are off."

Quatre sighed a bit.

"You intend to take Gerrange out, don't you?" Heero asked skeptically. "What's the difference between what I want to do and what you want to do?"

Quatre almost snapped that Heero wasn't funny, then realized there was a layer of sincerity to the question. He blinked at his friend a moment, then considered the question properly. "Gerrange is dangerous and hurt Duo," he decided finally, noting that Zechs had glanced down at them from his end of the table. "He did it utterly out of spite. Timorre...he hurt Matty in a way, but not...the way...Gerrange did."

"So is there a difference?" Heero asked quietly. "I just want to punch him a few times."

"It's a very slight difference," Quatre agreed with a bit of a rueful grin. "But the main difference is that Matty will be upset, whereas Duo might try and help."

Heero smirked at that.

"Like I said, slight," Quatre agreed, shrugging a bit.

"Anything for us all to discuss, General Winner?"

Quatre looked back to the commander, startled. "Uh, no...excuse us."

The man gave him a wry sort of look, then focused back on Timorre.

- -

Timorre took a long slow breath as he stopped in the center of a larger intersection, closing his eyes and almost seeming to center himself. Wufei found it odd, and stopped with Rin in confusion.

Heero...had his jacket unbuttoned.

...oh.

Wufei realized that Timorre had known the fight was pending all along. As the meeting had started to obviously wind down, the man had become agitated.

Heero pulled his formal jacket off, swinging it wordlessly around to Wufei.

"Should we...uh...get Matty and them?" Fei hazarded to Duo and Trowa.

"I'd rather he not be here," Timorre noted, turning and stepping back at the same time to face Heero. "What's the actual protocol here? I waive my rights, I know that...but..."

"You might take the first swing," Duo suggested.

Before Wufei could actually realize what the man had said, Timorre had swung...and blow landed solidly on Heero's jaw...and they stopped quibbling.

The term 'highly unorthodox' crossed Wufei's mind as he watched the two men tumble to the floor. 'We're gonna get killed for this,' came up at one point, too...because soldiers were coming up and making noise behind them.

He did not, however, try and intercede.

Heero managed to get a hold on Timorre with one hand...and Timorre was already bloody. Trowa stepped forward, extending one hand...and then Rin was darting into the fight.

That Asian male bowled Heero over sideways, which successfully made him the object of the blood lust.

Timorre rolled out of the way of the combatants, leaving a trail of dripping blood on the floor as Duo moved around quickly to him...and offering the guy his under-shirt.

This would look wonderful when the MP finally showed up to break it up.

There was something surprising in the fact that Rin was holding his own. The beating Timorre had received hadn't more than warmed Heero up.

"Stand aside!" an annoyed sounding soldier snarled, moving up and shoving Wufei off. The red-band around the man's arm with the large block letters M.P. stopped the annoyance in its tracks.

"M.P.!" Duo warned at about the same moment.

"Break it up!" the man ordered, tearing Heero off of Rin bodily and throwing him against the wall. He stood there a moment to make sure Rin wasn't going to jump up and follow, then rounded on Heero...and probably realized who he was.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence as the guy realized who they all were.

The rest of the M.P. group had stopped behind Wufei, and were exchanging uncertain looks.

"No fighting...in the halls...sir," the guy muttered to Heero almost uncertainly.

"Hold your authority," Wufei snapped, irked by that. "You alive down there, Rin?"

"Amazingly," Rin agreed, pressing his fingertips to his eyes and almost seeming to writhe a moment. "I'll be good...in a second."

The M.P. looked down at him a moment, then up at Heero. His focus wandered around to Duo uncertainly before looking to Zechs.

"That was...most enlightening," Zechs noted, blinking at the two bleeding men on the ground. Heero had blood on his face, but whatever had been done to him hadn't been enough to start a flow.

"We'll take care of this," Duo advised the M.P. easily. "Yuy...back to your quarters—Timorre, Rin, come with me."

Heero considered the formerly-braided male a moment, pulling away from the wall. He saluted somewhat sullenly, then turned and started to trudge away.

Duo helped Timorre to stand, and they all focused on the M.P. group pointedly.

"Right," the guy muttered, backing away. "Uh...Sir," he saluted...then moved back to his team.

Quatre grinned sidelong at Wufei a moment, then turned to help Rin rise.

They needed to get away before the officers realized they had the command of the halls.

- -

Matty gasped, jumping to his feet as Duo helped Timorre into Wufei's room. "Are you okay?" he muttered, darting into the bathroom and flicking on a faucet before turning and starting to dig into the cupboards.

"I'm...better than I thought I'd be," Timorre returned, pulling Duo's shirt away from his face and seeming to realize what it was. He looked around at all of them before focusing on Duo himself.

"I couldn't give you my jacket," Duo retorted, pulling that off.

Quatre smirked at his lover, giving him a look.

Duo sniggered in response, starting back for the door. He hesitated, though, extending an arm out toward Wufei.

Wufei tossed Heero's jacket to him wordlessly, watching the man disappear.

"Iuh..." Timorre tossed the shirt on the floor with a sigh, looking around to Rin—Timorre was sitting at the room's table and Rin had sat on the bed. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Rin reassured him. "You?"

"Been better—at least I'm not concussed this time."

Rin snorted at that.

"Here," Matty muttered, moving from the bathroom with a rag. "The sink is full if you want that, too."

Timorre blinked up at him, then smiled very slightly before rising to his feet and moving into the bathroom as well.

"What's going on?" Blake asked gesturing back over his shoulder. "Heero showed up with blood on his face and told me to leave him alone." He focused on Rin and blinked.

"Heero was saying he wanted to pound Jaden's face in," Matty noted dryly. "He did it."

Blake blinked a few more times, looking into the bathroom before focusing on Trowa.

"Is there a reason our room is the meeting ground?" Jin muttered curiously to Wufei. "Does that seem weird to you?"

Wufei sniggered back a bit, shrugging. "When we're busy, you hang out in here with Matty and Blake. When we come back, Trowa and Heero join Matty and Blake—that gives us the majority. If it bothers you," he moved over to pick of Duo's shirt from the floor, "hang out in Heero's room."

"I didn't say it bothered me," Jinli retorted, dropping back on the bed. "I just wanted to make sure there was logic."

"And ruin all the fun?" Quatre gave him a skeptical look. "Surely, you jest."

"Why don't you monkeys all go get out of your work clothes?" Jin gave Quatre a look.

Quatre snickered, grabbing the shirt from Wufei as he passed. "Okay fine...I'll be back within five minutes."

Jin snorted.

Wufei grinned, but didn't say anything as the semi-blond disappeared from the room.

- -

"The thing about this," the mechanic muttered as he kicked the engine of a blow-torch, "is that it's not meant to handle the big jobs."

Rab nodded, considering the partially covered wall that had once been a huge hole. The group of men who'd had the idea for fixing the ship had been maintenance workers on their various colonies, so they had a bit more understanding of what was needed to keep a structure secure in space. They, it seemed, had found a group of guys who'd worked maintenance on suits. During the wars, all MS soldiers had been taught the proper procedure for entering, and surviving, the earth's atmosphere. They had an idea that also included sealing off the rooms affected by the giant hole, so if their outer idea didn't work, the ship wouldn't suffer for it.

It was an interesting notion, and Rab had decided he had faith in them. There was a sheet of shield fluttering in the wind off the ship—they were the atmosphere shields for suits that didn't regularly take the atmospheric plunge.

They'd been working on putting metal plates up—salvaged from the ship they took supplies from—for three days. There was a lattice-work of metal webbing across most of the thing, and the hole was at least halfway covered.

Unfortunately, their welder wasn't working so hot.

"I...suggest we let it rest until it cools," the mechanic added, considering the machine. "Shouldn't take more than twenty minutes...and then," he looked up to the men who'd been working on the thing, "keep an eye on the heat-gauge. If you melt the internals we're out of anything that might possibly be considered luck."

The guys nodded.

Rab sighed, considering the hole, then the time it was taking to clear. Damn Barton, the fool of a usurper...but they didn't have the E.S.A. sniffing their asses...at least so far. He doubted that would last much longer if they'd at all realized he was getting more armed MS...

Rab turned, wandering back up toward the control center. He needed to figure some things out...and that was where everyone knew to find him.

- -

"Idle hands are the devil's tools," Jaden informed Duo dryly.

Matty snickered, raising his own hands to consider them. "Heero says I'm the devil."

Duo choked on that as Jaden stared blankly at the young man.

Blake started laughing quietly, rocking back in his seat.

"If your hands are the devil," Lu muttered with interest, "then what's with the rest of you?"

Matty started laughing delightedly at that as the others joined in, even Jaden.

"Oh dear," Zechs muttered, stopping in the door with Heero, Trowa, and Qingfu behind him. "We should just...walk away from that laugh."

"Oh, I dunno," Heero muttered, moving around the male to grin at them all. "As far as I've gathered, Matty feels some urge to tell everyone how good I am in bed—that laugh tends to mean he's added to my rep."

Lu started giggling hard.

Trowa rolled his eyes, moving in and leaning over to kiss Blake. "Why aren't they ever laughing like that from you?" he demanded.

"Because you make me swoon," Blake retorted, "and the respect is a whole different level."

Trowa smirked at him.

"I will never get used to that," Zechs noted, moving in and around to sit next to his fiancé. "Oh, hey, Trowa had this idea earlier I wanted to run by you."

Trowa guffawed, looking to the floor a moment before straightening and turning to look at the man.

Zechs started snickering.

"I suggested threesome, but he threw that out," Heero noted happily, bouncing a bit as he moved to the pitcher of water on one of the dressers. "Then it occurred to me that someone would be left out—he never answered me on doubles."

Zechs started laughing silently, looking away from the man to shake his head at the woman.

Lu smirked at Heero. "You couldn't handle me."

He smirked wickedly at her. "That's what Matty and Zechs would be for, to finish the job."

Jaden guffawed.

Lucretzia started laughing hard, giving her man a look.

Zechs laughed himself, shaking his head.

"I...don't see a problem with that idea," Matty noted happily.

Lu started giggling.

"I wasn't going to repeat that stupid shit," Zechs informed them all pointedly. "I was talking about his wedding idea."

"Wedding idea?" Matty asked, tilting his head and glancing briefly at Blake.

"Yeah, what?" Lu gave Trowa a curious look.

"I just said that if Blake decided to consent," Trowa retorted, "then we'd just run down to the courthouse."

The look Blake gave him was daggers.

Lu mouthed the first part of the statement as she considered it, her mouth lingering on 'consent'...then looked to her fiancé.

He smiled innocently at her.

"We are not eloping," she noted very levelly.

"You already have," Wufei noted happily.

Zechs started laughing.

"We had an...interesting...outing," Qingfu noted, moving around to sit properly by Jaden and kiss him briefly. "I think my abs are gonna ache for days from laughing so hard."

Trowa smirked at them, glancing to Heero.

"I don't suppose you did anything...like...i'unno, checking on the ship?" Duo gave them all interested looks.

"Damn!" Trowa gestured in consternation. "I knew we forgot something!"

"I told you!" Heero protested. "I said there was something Duo wanted us to do..."

Duo gave them both level looks.

Qingfu snickered, looking back to Jaden. "They found a few minor flaws," he informed the guy. "The water intake is replaced already—that was the first two days. Yesterday they scraped off what barnacles and stuff had stuck to her, and now they're double checking what areas are damaged. They think they'll be done tonight, if not early tomorrow."

"You ruin our good time," Heero informed the man, pouting at me. "We could have got Duo all worked up for nothing."

Zechs snickered.