Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Indifference ❯ 2 ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

2:
“What the hell are you doing here?” The shock wasn’t wearing off any time soon and Duo was happy to sit back and reap the rewards of his labour. That look on Heero’s face, the hitch in his voice...they made taking this job worth it. He would have done it for free, just for that.
“Sweepers,” Heero realised, but he still looked confused. “Why would they contract Sweepers?”
“You mean, besides the factyou, of all people, kidnappedMariemaia Kushrenada, of all people, and brought herehere, of all places?” Because really, none of that sounded good, and almost all of it sounded illegal, so who the hell else would they call? Duo would have called Sweepers as well, and he was one!
But Heero apparently didn’t get it and continued to sit there, wide eyed and stumped. Duo knew he had to be thinking, and fast, but this had certainly never featured in his plans. Not that it should of, Duo had to admit, the last thing he had expected to see in that folder was Heero’s name in the same sentence as Kidnapper. Though in all fairness, she wasn’t a kid anymore.
“I didn’t kidnap her,” Heero frowned and finally slumped back in his chair, raking a hand through his messy hair and eyeing Duo’s gun. “You can put that away...” But they both knew Duo wouldn’t. Yet. Maybe ever.
“Well, the pretty contract I got says you did.” And he was reminded again about some of the stranger details in that report. He’d thought at first Heero had written it, until he realised it wasn’t Heero’s handwriting, because that Duo knew backwards, and Heero wouldn’t go and make a report about himself so someone could catch him. Even he wasn’t that thorough. So where the hell had it come from?
“She begged me...”
“To take her?” That had Duo laughing, but there was something in Heero’s face that made him want to believe it. Or maybe it was something in himself, Duo couldn’t really say. He didn’t trust himself where this man was concerned.
“No!” Heero was glaring now, frustrated and clearly struggling to decide on a course of action. His first instinct had to be kill Duo, but he hadn’t done that, which was interesting.
“So you didn’t take her? Because the girl I spent the last hour watching sure looks like her.”
“It is her, but I didn’t kidnap her!” Heero groaned, starting to sound exasperated. It just made Duo grin, because the game was old and familiar and they both knew how to play it.
“She just asked you take her on a joyride?”
“No! God damnit...will you put the damn gun down?”
“No.”
They glared at each other for a long time before Heero actually blinked and looked aside, sighing and staring out at space. It was a familiar look; one Duo had seen in the mirror one time too many. One of carelessness. He could have killed Duo, but he hadn’t because he plain and simply couldn’t be bothered. He was here because he needed something to do, and somehow Kushrenada had woken his curiosity.
Duo lowered the gun, but didn’t put it away, keeping it firm and tight in his own hand.
“I have a retrieval order for Mariemaia, and a warrant for you.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Mariemaia said softly and Duo barely kept himself in check because he hadn’t heard even the slightest hint of her coming aboard. Not a breath, not a scuff, nothing. His gun was up in her face in a second and he coldly moved them around until she was sitting in the seat beside Heero.
Then he just stared at them, because they were the oddest damn criminal team he had ever seen, and it was very obvious she was in no way Heero’s prisoner. Which made this gig only slightly less fun, because cuffing Heero would have made his day. Maybe he’d do it later anyway, just for fun.
“One of you had better start making sense,” he noted softly and the amusement was fading fast. If she wasn’t being sold at market tomorrow, he didn’t need to be there, which meant he was making friendlies with gunrunners for no reason at all. That didnotsit well.
“I begged Heero to help me escape house arrest.”
“She would go to prison if they thought she escaped, so I made it look like a kidnapping.”
“So now you get to go to prison! That’s fantastic!” Duo stared at them in disbelief but they just stared straight back at him as if any part of their story so far was sane. Escaping the UN house arrest order, knowing that everyone in the Earth Sphere would come hunting you down. And then pretending to kidnap her, knowing they would come hunt you down as well? That wasn’t normal!
“Have you never heard of plastic surgery? Escape, change your face and start a new life. No need to mess up Mr Bodyguard’s Hero of the World reputation.”
“Maybe I wanted it messed up,” Heero countered immediately and when he met Duo’s gaze it was with cold steel, like in the old days. Duo had thought he had softened, that time with Relena and politics had finally helped him mellow. He’d been wrong. It just made him colder.
“So you both thought you could come hide out in Mettle Valley? Are you insane? This place is...is ...it’s the Valley!”
“We know!” They grumbled in unison, looking like scolded children and that made Duo pause because at no point in his life had he ever imagined he would end up playing parent to either of them. Certainly not to Heero Yuy.
He gave up and sat in a chair, putting his gun in his lap and watching them. They’d come prepared, and seemed to know what they were doing. There was a large stock pile in the cargo bay, of food and general everyday goods. They expected to be here a while, or at least in space for a time without resupplying. They were dressed effectively...very, very effectively, he had to admit looking at Heero again. He’d never in his wildest fantasies imagined Heero that filthy, in clothing that casual, and looking quite so comfortable in it.
“We didn’t come here to hide out, we’re not suicidal,” Heero noted and there was a hint of amusement in his voice. He was getting used to Duo’s appearance, starting to formulate a plan around it and that didn’t sit well with Duo.
“Then what are you doing here?”
Heero looked at Mariemaia and she squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. It was all Duo needed before he burst into hysterical laugher and pointed, and laughed some more.
“You don’t even know! You brought her here and you don’t even fucking know why! God, you really are the dumbest shit in the universe!” A pretty girl said go and Heero Yuy could be trusted to obey. Typical.
They were both glaring at him and Duo did not care. They were idiots, the pair of them, and while they were doing well he had no doubt that if he’d been able to find them with relative ease, others had done the same and were watching. Waiting to see what they were doing.
What Mariemaia was doing. And that was interesting, at least.
“What are you doing here, Fox?”
She blinked at the name and slowly her gaze went up to her hairline and she frowned at the orange hair before sighing.
“I was asked to come.”
“By who?”
“A friend.”
“Because enemies often ask you for favours? You’re not helping Heero not get shot here.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“He would,” Heero countered at the same time Duo said “I would.” They stared at each other and rolled their eyes, because it was old and familiar and reminded them both of a thousand other situations just like this one.
But she wouldn’t say. He could see it in the set of her shoulders and the way her head dropped when she glared at him. It was the same look her father got when he stubbornly dug his heels in.
“Okay. A friend of yours, let’s call them Floozy...”
She laughed at that. He could only assume the name didn’t match the friend, but that was fine.
“Floozy asked you to come to Mettle Valley...why?”
What could possibly tempt her to break out of custody and come to the Valley? It wasn’t exactly a holiday destination. It wasn’t even a good place to hide out from the world, since you were more likely to end up dead than if you handed yourself in for the death penalty.
“Because you were both too blind and selfish to come yourselves.”
That got their attention. Even Heero was staring at her like she’d grown a second head, so Duo made sure he stared at her as if she’d grown three.
“Foxy, I promise you...I am many things but blind and selfish aren’t among them. Well...maybe selfish. Sometimes.” But blind? He could see just fine, thank you very much.
“Please,” Mariemaia snorted softly. Very unladylike, not that Duo was one to judge, but still. Relena would not have approved. She looked at Heero then, really looked, and there was hatred in her eyes when she did. It startled all of them.
“When was the last time you returned an email? Or a phone call? Or even sat down to dinner with someone?”
“...I don’t see how that matters.”
“And you!” That glare was fully on Duo now, and she looked like she hated him even more. “You don’t even have a fucking email address! I had to beg Howard to take that job and give it to you! Do you know what I had to promise, to get him to agree to even show you that stupid folder?”
“I’m guessing by the look on your face it was precious...” He had no idea, but he knew Howard would not have wanted to deal with her. He also knew Howard had been adamant he take the job, was going to fire him if he hadn’t. Mariemaia was pretty, and young... “Don’t be daft, the man’s not that hard up and he hates prostitution!”
Heero and Mariemaia were both gaping at him now. So that wasn’t it. He had no idea what else she could possibly offer the old man, but obviously it had been something good.
“You made that folder?” He had no idea what her handwriting looked like.
“No. I just delivered it.” Which didn’t help him figure out where the hell it came from at all.
“You have this folder with you?” Duo looked over at Heero and weighed up his options but in the end nodded because it was becoming very clear Heero was as confused as he was. That neither of them really knew what they were doing there anymore, and maybe it was time they started working together. Again.
It was so tempting to shoot them both, take a photo for evidence, and leave.
“I have it. On my ship.” Howard’s ship. Whatever, at this rate Duo was claiming it as payment because Howard clearly knew something Duo didn’t. He’d been adamant Duo take the mission and Duo was curious enough now to want to know why.
“You’re both blind, selfish, and really fucking stupid. I’m not telling you why you’re here, you’re just...muscle, or something. And a pilot, because I needed one of those.”
Duo smirked and looked at Heero.
“Notice how you’re the pilot?” Oh yeah. Heero just rolled his eyes and looked back at their captive, and Duo didn’t miss the irony. They’d both been lured in by her, and Floozy. Whatever plot they had going, they’d managed to get pilots involved and he wondered if she really had any concept of what that meant.
But she was who she was. Of course she knew.
“I need to see that folder.”
“I need to go to work,” Mariemaia interjected.
“You have work?” Because while it hadn’t been that hard to get in with the gunrunners he couldn’t see them just adopting a young girl. He couldn’t imagine what kind of work she had been able to get in the short time he knew they had been there.
“Yes. As you pointed out, I have breasts! And here they’re worth money!”
“WHAT?” Heero and Duo raged in unison, and Duo was just grateful Heero hadn’t known because he would have hated to have messed up that perfect face of his. Sure, she wasn’t a child anymore but she was still somehow their responsibility and she should not, under any circumstances, be doingthat!
“You said you were working in a bar!” Heero managed to ground out.
“I am. I just left out the topless part.” And she seemed so damn smug about it too. Duo would have wiped that stupid grin off her face if Heero hadn’t looked ready to do it for her, and looked scarier than he would have managed.
“You don’t have a job anymore.”
“That’s not your decision, Heero.” At least she was sticking to her guns, Duo had to give her that. Unfortunately, he disapproved of the use of said guns, in any situation.
“I have a job, it can cover us all for now.”
“Oh, because mass murder is so much more appropriate than showing a little skin. At least mine’s still living!”
“I’m not committing mass murder!” Duo stared at her, a little appalled because he hadn’t told them he was gunrunning, so how had she known, and he wasn’t in the habit of mass murder either. Not anymore, at any rate, and Yuy had totally taken a bigger head count by the end of the war. He thought.
“You’re gunrunning? Are you out of your mind?” Heero was now giving him that look instead of Mariemaia, and it didn’t seem anywhere near as funny when it was focused on him.
“I’m completely sane! And how the hell did you know what I was doing?”
“Oh please, you’re Duo Maxwell. You hate traffickers of drugs and humans, and goods doesn’t pay well enough to keep fattening that ridiculous bank account of yours on the side. That just leaves guns, because you don’t have to take responsibility for what someone else does with the weapon. Which you should, just for the record.”
“Since when is there a damn record?” Duo muttered, but he was more concerned with the things she knew. Like what he had in the bank, and the sorts of gigs he refused to take. She knew too much about him while he knew next to nothing about her. But how she knew those things was likely a much more interesting story.
“I think it’s time we went and looked at that folder,” Heero said softly and Duo had to agree. But they tied Mariemaia to a chair first with strict orders not to attempt escape because if they found her in her topless bar she wasn’t getting out of it in one piece. Neither was the bar.
“You can’t just kill everyone in a bar!” She struggled to get free of the rope, but Duo knew how to tie a knot, and Heero had checked it three times before adding his own just in case. She wasn’t getting out anytime soon.
“Duo could,” Heero finally answered and Duo gaped at him, but Heero just shrugged. “If they were bad enough.” And that was better.
They left her there and made sure Duo left the ship first, ensuring they weren’t seen together. Duo even went and checked on Manfred, but he was still out cold and wouldn’t be up for a while yet.
He caught up with Heero in the back alleys of the central colony and overtook him, leading the way back to the Reincarnation, trusting Heero to make sure it didn’t look like he was tailing him. He waited against the wall inside the cargo doors and shut it as soon as Heero was in, disappointed when Heero wasn’t startled at all.
“Seriously. Mariemaia? You had to know all hell would break loose back home as soon as she went missing.”
Heero was quiet for a while before he just shrugged.
“I was bored.” And didn’t care about the consequences. It wasn’t like Heero, at least not the Heero Duo had known, but maybe he was getting tired of being the Hero of the World. It had to have an expiration date, right?
He led the way down to the bridge, aware of Heero scoping the ship out, stepping onto the bridge and just standing in the doorway, waiting for the invitation Duo eventually gave before taking a seat.
“Howard always knew how to make a nice ship,” Heero observed and Duo had to let go a small piece of the anger he was feeling to agree. Howard made the best ships, and Duo wouldn’t work for anyone else.
“He really threaten to fire you?”
“Yup,” and it still stung. Howard was the closest thing to family he had, and it hurt that he had been so willing to let Duo go. Worse, he had no idea why. What was so special about that folder that he had been willing to toss Duo aside to see the gig complete? What had the Foxy princess told him to sway even the old man to her side?
“Ouch,” Heero muttered and Duo scowled at him, because what did Heero know about family? Nothing at all.
“This is it,” Duo spat, tossing the folder onto Heero’s lap and sitting down in the other seat, spinning it idly and waiting to see what Heero could make of it.
He didn’t expect Heero to laugh. A lot.
“You know…I didn’t really find it that funny.”
“Oh, it’s not,” Heero mumbled, but he was still grinning as he flicked through each piece of information. “It’s just…Floozy.”
“You recognise the writing too?”
“You don’t remember whose it is, do you?” Heero was really grinning now and Duo wanted to punch it clean off his smooth face, but couldn’t because he didn’t know who wrote it, just knew it was familiar. But Heero knew.
And Heero was frowning now, his grin disappearing as he flicked through more pieces of information, his hands starting to hurry. Still precise, still the same blind determination, but hurried. As if he suspected something and was trying to prove himself wrong.
“Heero? Who’s Floozy?”
“Trowa,” Heero answered distractedly. “It’s Trowa’s writing. All of this is…”
“He canwrite?” It was a bad joke, but it was the best he had and really, he couldn’t remember ever seeing the man pick up a pen. Knives, sure, but not pens. And all the correspondence he ever sent came through Quatre. But obviously some of it had been written by the other half.
“Trowa Barton hired Mariemaia to go to Mettle Valley?” Seriously? That was nuts. But Heero was still rummaging through the folder, looking for clues. Frowning.
“This doesn’t make sense.”
“Of course it doesn’t make sense, it’s freaking insane!” And made no sense.
“This folder is a retrieval order for Mariemaia, but half the evidence dates to transactions that took place long before Marie and I ever left Earth.” Heero was already separating the information, having a timeline in his head Duo wasn’t privy to but he watched Heero’s hands, starting to see the pattern and taking in the finer details, like what each earlier transaction was and where it had taken place.
A lot of it from right here in Mettle Valley.
“How does Trowa have evidence of transactions from the Valley?” How didanyonehave that sort of evidence? It wasn’t supposed to exist.
“Because he was here on business,” Heero muttered, adding a few receipts to the pile. A diner, with a very specific amount spent at it.
“A dollar and two cents? Really?” It was a message, obviously, but how he had found anything worth that was beyond Duo.
“There are others like it,” Heero muttered and they compiled a list of the places they were going to have to visit. They went back through the folder numerous times, looking for things that looked awry now they had a timeframe to work with and an awareness that they had been set up and sent to the Valley for a purpose.
“Marie knows why we’re here. Why not just tell us so we can get it over and done with?”
“My guess is Trowa thought we wouldn’t do it without coercion.”
“That’s…” He had been going to say ridiculous, but he remembered turning down the job at first, and wondered if there was something to that after all. A reason Howard had tried to force his hand.
“Marie knew I wouldn’t take on gigs that involved certain kinds of trafficking. She was quite specific about it.”
That got Heero’s attention and Duo could almost hear the gears turning in his head.
“Why do you call them gigs?” That had not, in any way, been the question Duo was expecting and he glared at Heero as a result.
“Because that’s what they are.”
“If you say so.” It was like the man was deliberately trying to avoid starting a fight with him, which only made Duo madder. The guy had seemed almost human during the Incident, and then went and punched him unconscious. Broke six of his ribs and landed him in hospital for months and not once came to visit. But he had plenty of time to parade all over the television with Relena raving about the Hero of the World. Not so much as a damn flower.
“You haven’t spoken to Marie much?”
“You mean since the mess with Wufei? No.”
“There was a mess with Wufei?” Now Heero was interested and Duo just stared at him, because maybe Marie was right and the man was stupid, or thick, or up himself. Hell, Duo already knew he was all those things, the rest of the world just hadn’t figured it out yet.
“Yeah, he was working with Preventers when Marie got put under house arrest. Wufei was in that threesome thing with Trowa and Quatre…”
“WHAT?” Heero was gaping. Heero Yuy was actuallygaping. Duo just stared, stumped because he’d been sure the threesome was common knowledge. Not common to the world, of course, that would have looked bad for Quatre’s reputation, but common among those who knew them? Yes, it was. But Heero hadn’t known. Which put Mariemaia’s comments about them in a different context.
“Technically it was more Trowa sleeping with Quatre and Wufei, but I still call it a threesome, since neither Quatre or Wufei seemed to have a problem with it.”
Heero just sat back in his chair and stared at the wall, wide eyed and looking like a space cadet. Duo reached out and waved a hand in front of his eyes and when Heero looked up at him again, took it as a sign to continue.
“So, to be near Trowa on weekends, Wufei volunteered for house arrest supervision on weekends.”
“That…makes sense?” Heero didn’t sound so sure.
“It does if you’re having an affair with one of the most famous guys on Earth, not that you would know anything about that, since you’re just famous and not sleeping around,” Duo muttered a little more darkly than he had intended.
“That doesn’t explain anything, Duo. It just makes my brain bleed.” Where had Heero Yuy gotten that expression? Relena, probably. One too many bad words and whoops, brain bleed!
“So he’s on duty one day, at the front door, right in front of the surveillance cameras, which Une spends all day staring at, who is his boss of course, when Mariemaia comes out in all her sixteen year old glory and tells Wufei she’s completely in love with him, wants to marry him, begs him to take her away and tells him to take her virginity right there on the front steps.”
“WHAT?” Duo just bet that brain was bleeding now. He even checked Heero’s ears for blood, but no such luck.
“Wufei was suspended from duty pending an investigation, Wufei resigned and not even Trowa has heard from him since. Or he hadn’t the last I heard.”
Heero sat back in his chair and just stared at Duo as if maybe he had made up the story and it was all a bad joke. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Duo had hacked the Preventers video storage and downloaded the surveillance footage to see if for himself. He had to admit it was pretty out there, and she really had thrown herself at him. Started stripping off her clothes right there on the front lawn, and Wufei hadn’t known what to do with himself. Poor guy even got a nose bleed, but Duo suspected it was from stress more than anything else.
“Trowa hasn’t been with Quatre for a while,” Heero muttered. “They had a falling out over some forest in South America and a species of Dolphin doing extinct because of a factory Quatre owned.”
It was Duo’s turn to shout ‘what’? He stared at Heero, but this wasn’t a bad joke either and he sat back down in his chair heavily and stared at the wall himself for a while. It was a fascinating wall. Completely bare. Like Marie’s chest when she’d taken her shirt off…
No wonder she hadn’t had a problem working in a topless bar.
“A dolphin, huh…”
“Quatre hired me for a while, I’ve been skipping between Relena and him for months. Finally had enough when Marie came to me begging for help.”
Duo had to admit, stuck between Relena’s meetings and Quatre’s, boredom wouldn’t have begun to describe the state of mind he would have been in. There would have been a massacre, of mostly terrible people because everyone knew politicians were terrible and business people weren’t much better.
“I thought you said Trowa was here on business?”
“I didn’t say for Quatre,” Heero muttered, frowning again. He rubbed at his temples, as if his mind was aching. It probably was. Duo had to admit there had been quite a few revelations in this conversation, not least of all that Heero was apparently oblivious to all of them. Duo had thought it was just Heero evading him, but if Heero was evading everyone Duo couldn’t take it as personally and that was just plain annoying.
“What else would Trowa be doing in the Valley?”
“Something you wouldn’t approve of,” Heero noted softly. Which narrowed it back down to trafficking.
“Why the hell would Trowa Barton become a trafficker?” The guy was weird, sure, but he’d never been into that sort of thing. They liked to kill guys into that sort of thing, not turn into them.
“If I had to guess,” which Heero didn’t like to do, “I would say he was looking for something important to him.”
“You think he’s in the Valley, looking for Wufei?” Duo paused to think about that but he couldn’t picture it. The Valley was too specific a place, too dark and downright disgusting for anyone to deliberately start trading there. There was no way Wufei would choose to hide out here.
“I don’t think Trowa’s here,” Heero corrected. “And I think we need to speak to someone at that diner.” Because it was a very specifically labeled clue. He may as well have written ‘for Heero and Duo’ on it.
“What makes you think Trowa would go looking for Wufei? A few minutes ago you didn’t even know they’d had a thing going.”
Heero was quiet for a long time before he just shrugged and replied rather innocently.
“It’s what I should have done.”