Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Indifference ❯ 3 ( Chapter 3 )

3:

“Say what?”

Heero just sighed and collected the information they had to put back in the folder, sealing it and putting it back in the side pocket Duo had pulled it from. Duo was not letting him get away with it that easily.

“You think you should have become a trafficker to look for Wufei?” That made zero sense. Even less sense than anything else had made so far. He got up and followed Heero to the door.

“What? No!” Heero, thankfully, apparently agreed. “Forget it, it doesn't matter.”

“The hell it doesn't. So you're not into Wufei?”

“NO! Where the hell do you get…No! Okay? I am not interested in Chang Wufei. Are you insane?”

“Meaning it's insane to be interested in Wufei?” Duo countered, liking this game a lot. He led the way back off the ship, careful to lose Heero in the tubes before finding him again in the old colony.

“What's wrong with Wufei then. Huh?”

“Nothing!” Heero hissed, but he was hunching a little, something he only did when he was on the defensive, which Duo found very interesting. “He's not my type,” Heero finally muttered and Duo found himself left behind, standing in the middle of the street, stunned.

“That means you have a type!” Duo stammered as he caught up to Heero again, walking small circles around him and trying to get a response. “Wufei's pretty small and short, so opposite? Tall? Muscles? You would like muscles…only. Well, I guess the main problem is Wufei's male. Duh.”

“No! That's not…Please, Duo, just…drop it already?”

Which meant what? Heero didn't like women? Heero was gay? The hell he was dropping it! Duo let his mind run rampant with its own wild imaginings, featuring a very naked Heero Yuy, dirt and all, before reigning it in when Heero stopped dead in his tracks and glared at him.

“Stop imagining me.”

“I would never!” He pretended to be wounded.

“STOP!” Real anger this time, frustration bubbling and that only happened when you hit really close to home. Duo stopped and shrugged, because if Heero wanted to have a personal meltdown because Duo was imagining him naked, then Heero could just have a damn meltdown. It wasn't like he was the only one imagining it. They were in the Valley, nothing was off limits.

“Has anyone ever told you you look damn good in grunge?”

“Duo!”

He just grinned, and Heero looked exasperated but still refused to divulge any more information. That was fine with Duo, because he liked this game and was more than happy to play it for days. However long they had, and really there was nothing to stop him following Heero back to Relena and playing it some more until he got answers. Heero must have sensed what he was thinking, because he groaned.

“Where's this diner, anyways?” Because he hadn't had time to scout the entire Valley, and Heero actually seemed to know where he was going, if the heavy sigh was anything to go by.

“I think I spotted it yesterday, down near a temple.”

“A what now?”

“A temple,” Heero ground out, glaring now, but Duo just ignored him.

“You know, it sounds a lot like you keep saying a temple. In the Valley.”

He was just glaring now and Duo smirked. Sometimes it was too easy. Only when they arrived at Heero's destination, Heero hadn't got it that wrong. The diner itself was in an old part of what must have been one of the colonies many temples. It sure as hell didn't look like one now, but the red pillars out the front were unmistakable, and the gold chinese writing over the headboard looked like it might have said `worship buddha here'. Once. Now it was spray painted over with fluorescent green writing that just said `DINER'.

Personally, Duo thought they would have gotten more customers with `BAR'. But he didn't own a diner, so who was he to tell the guy what to write out front in glow in the dark paint.

There was an old man sitting on the front step and when he looked in their direction his eyes glowed with a pale, silvery sheen in the darkness, and he grinned, showing countless rotted, yellow teeth.

“Haze,” Duo mumbled and Heero just stared, clearly not used to seeing it yet. It was a common drug in the Valley, used mostly in human trafficking because it made its users so compliant. It also gave them personality shattering hallucinations and blindness, which became increasingly permanent with extended use, but flesh owners didn't care about that.

“Maze? The Valley is a maze!” The old man started singing and reached out toward them. Duo side stepped but the man managed to snag Heero's shirt and tugged it insistently and Heero the idiot Yuy let him, leaning in closer to listen.

“The Valley is a maze, the maze is in the haze, the hazey days are in the maze, the Valley is the maze!”

Heero tugged his shirt free, frowning at the thick black stain the old fingers left behind and Duo pushed him inside, humming the old man's tune just to piss the other man off.

The Diner was brighter than the dark outside, lit up with red and blue lights that made it look like a policeman's paradise but cast a gentler purple light over those eating inside. Duo scanned the room and spotted an empty booth toward the back and headed for that, surprised that Heero let him take the lead. It was a sign of just how out of place the Hero of the World had to be feeling and Duo let up on him. A little.

The seats were surprisingly comfortable, if you ignored the feeling of something sinking into your pants while you sat on them. Duo did, but it took effort. Heero squirmed, but did his best, glaring at Duo as if it were his fault the Valley were disgusting.

The menu did nothing to redeem the joint. Duo tried to touch it as little as possible, aware of stickiness coming off on his fingers ever so. He looked for the most edible deep fried thing he could see, reasoning that anything could die in hot oil.

He was grateful when the waitress that finally came to take their order had a shirt on, not sure how Heero might have handled the situation otherwise, since the girl didn't look much older than Mariemaia and had a line of track marks clearly showing up her arm. Maybe there just wasn't a whole lot to do for fun in the Valley? He doubted that excuse would sit well with Heero.

“What is a deep fried g-snack? Exactly?” Heero seemed rightfully dubious.

“I think it's cheese? But who knows.” It was definitely not cheese, but the less Heero knew about what it could possibly be, the better. Rule one, nothing was fresh. Rule two, most of it was definitely not edible. Anymore. It had been once, but...not by the time it got to the Valley.

The point was it had sounded dirty, which meant it probably got ordered a lot and since there wasn't a huge pile of bodies at the door, it was likely not going to kill them immediately. He hoped.

“So how do we get to speak to the owner?”

Heero was looking around lazily, as if it were random, but Duo knew better. He couldn't follow Heero's gaze without it looking suspicious but he memorized the directions Heero looked in and every now and then managed to take a peek. The door, which wasn't surprising. The window, which made sense, too. But he kept coming back to a booth by the window, and Duo spotted a picture there of a man with the waitress.

It took a lot more looks to realise the man was Trowa Barton. He'd grown his hair out so it all hang one length around his shoulders, in a scraggly mess, still flopping in his face but...hot. Duo could admit it. Dressed for the Valley and covered in that much filth, with that damn evil glare of his, Trowa looked damn fine.

He also looked dangerous. They were both quiet while they waited for their meals to arrive and then it was on.

Duo put on his most charming smile and asked when her break was and if she would like to share his g-snack, which had fries, which was a start. She didn't hesitate to take a seat either, which told him it was definitely edible.

“You're new here, right? I ain't seen yas round. Ever.” He was surprised she saw anything, but it looked like she was just hooked on heroin, and in their current environment he could almost respect her sticking to the classics.

“Not too new. More like a returning hand.” He had been there before, after all. It had just been a while, and he hadn't been stupid enough to stay the last time, or come back after that.

“Ah. You never really find your way out,” she nodded her head in understanding and munched on a fry.

“Too true.”

“Dragged your friend into your mess this time, too...that sucks.” She was looking at Heero, and Duo was just grateful the guy only shrugged instead of protesting. It wasn't that far from the truth, only it was usually Heero dragging Duo into his mess, and Duo intended to remind him of the fact later. Their current position the perfect point in case.

“So you got a man, then?” Because he didn't think people beat around the bush that much here.

“A man?” She laughed at that, finding it genuinely amusing. “Honey, any girl with just one man ain't worth shit in this hole.” Of course. He forced a smile and made a mental note to change Mariemaia's rope bonds to steel as soon as they got back.

“Any around at the moment?”

“Not that would complain about me having another.” She was leering now, and it was not attractive at all. Her breath stank and she had a hole in her septum where a dribble of whatever they were drinking trickled. It was the best anti-drugs advertisement Duo could imagine. Well, maybe the second best, but young girls should definitely pay attention. He wished he could take her photo and shove it in Mariemaia's face. And Barton's, since it was his fault the poor girl was here at all.

“What about him?” Duo pretended to notice the picture for the first time and it made the girl frown, looking to see what he was staring at.

“He's definitely not here,” she laughed when she realised what Duo was talking about. “And if he were, he sure as hell wouldn't be in my bed.”

“That's good...he looks kinda...” Duo shrugged and tried his best to look timid.

“Yeah. Bloom has that effect on people,” she muttered, and then she followed it up with three words Duo had been certain he would never hear in his life. “He's my dealer.”

At least Heero wasn't as blindsided by the admission, taking over from Duo excitedly, looking and sounding nothing at all like the man Duo had thought he knew.

“Can you get me some?” Who was this guy, and where had Heero gone? He even sounded like a desperate junkie.

She was eyeing Heero dubiously now but there was something in Heero's face that was genuine; that desperately needed a fix. Duo had no idea how he was doing that, but the girl bought it hook line and sinker.

“I could arrange a drop,” she agreed. “Later today? Say sixer? The old clocktower down the eighth docking strip?”

“I'll be there. You're a lifesaver.”

They continued to groom their friendship until the cook called from out back, demanding she get back to work and she rolled her eyes and left Duo with a sloppy kiss on the cheek that he would have given anything to have been in a position to wipe off.

“Well. Aren't you just the new addict.”

“Shut up, it's a step closer to Barton.”

“Oh, you mean Drug Trafficker Bloom?” Because Duo wasn't letting go of that anytime soon. What the hell was Barton up to that he had gotten into that? And by the photo it didn't look like a recent thing. Duo tried to remember the last time he'd seen the man, and realised it was at least two years. Even Heero had known he wasn't with Quatre. So he could assume Trowa had been trafficking at least that long?

“Just for the record, when this is all sorted out, I'm killing him. Okay?”

“He'll have his reasons, Duo,” Heero whispered and it was only the note of sadness behind the words that stilled Duo's comeback. He looked at Heero and wondered what the weight on those shoulders was, and for once didn't feel like pushing. Because if Heero Yuy was weighed down, it was a problem he didn't want to have to deal with.

They checked out a few of the other places receipts had come from and a pattern soon became clear. Drug use was prevalent in each location, and in each they found some small token of Trowa's presence, and someone willing to offer them a deal. They set up a second drop as a back up to the first, but no one seemed willing to do a deal tomorrow and that became the focus of their attention on the walk back to Heero's ship.

“There's a Sale on tomorrow,” Duo muttered. “Even the drug traffickers won't deal on a Sale day.” It was the custom Duo hated most. He'd seen countless homeless children disappear from colony streets over the years and had no doubts where they ended up, but the government tried and failed to police the issue and after a while Duo had turned a blind eye, just like everyone else.

“That's because they're supplying drugs to the market,” Heero pointed out softly and Duo wondered why he hadn't considered that himself. There was no need to make a deal when some rich trafficker was willing to pay double your price to have you for the day, administering to his wares.

“Makes sense,” Duo admitted softly and Heero didn't even try to rub it in. He was quiet as they went back to the ship, letting Duo slip away and meeting him again in the cargo bay, sealing the doors shut and not even bothering to ask how Duo kept getting on board. It was a sign of trust and Duo felt something very small in his chest unwind.

“When you release me, I'm going to chew your balls off.”

They both just stared at her. Heero shook his head and left the room and Duo did a lap to see that she had tried, very hard, to get free, and only succeeded in tightening the bonds. He slowly went about freeing her.

“Where exactly did you get your foul mouth?”

“Trowa.” Simple as that. Duo paused, fingers stroking the rope as a thought occurred to him.

“You've been under house arrest, all this time. Bet you have like a trillion facebook friends.”

“Don't be stupid, no one uses that old school shit anymore.” But she was using something.

“So what do you use, that Trowa was able to find you?”

She silenced at that, and Duo just sighed because she was just a little girl after all. She'd likely had a profile somewhere, nicely hidden so the government red tape didn't find it, but not so hidden that someone important couldn't contact her if need be.

“It was just a chat address,” she confessed softly and Heero swore from the doorway. “Wufei made it, so we could still talk.”

“You were still in contact with Wufei?” Heero came and sat opposite her, pulling up the net on the computer screens and waiting for her to put in the address, but she didn't. Even once Duo had freed her hands, she sat on them and shook her head.

“We were friends. As soon as I realised what I'd done, that he'd lost his job for it...I felt terrible. I apologised but it was too late, the damage was done. I sent him so many emails and eventually he just sent a link.”

“Type in the address,” Heero ordered and she shook her head vehemently.

“He stopped writing. Years ago. I haven't heard from him since I was seventeen!” That didn't help since Duo had no idea how old she was now. Legal, at least, but that didn't give him a proper timeline and he just hoped Heero had a better idea. Knew he did.

“When did Barton start?”

“A few months ago? I guess...maybe, five?” She looked small suddenly and Duo sighed, because they were picking on the wrong person. He still pointed at the keyboard stubbornly and she relented, typing in the address.

It was just a simple chat, but it stored messages until you specifically told it to delete them. The screen was black with one message left in the top corner. A date, a time, an amount and a location. Tomorrow, midnight, a billion in the Valley.

“A deal?”

Heero and Duo looked at each other because there was only one kind of deal going down tomorrow, and if Trowa wasn't going to be there like the waitress had suggested, that only left one option. And it made them both sick.

“Wufei's being sold?” Duo asked, mostly for clarification, as if hearing it out loud would make it seem more real.

Mariemaia nodded, slumping in her chair and pulling her knees up to hug.

“Why didn't you just say that to begin with?” Because that had to have been easier than the crazy shit about Heero kidnapping her! And was strangely more believable. But she was looking at him with scorn in her eyes and he knew he was missing something.

“This isn't the first time,” Heero noted softly. “Is it?”

She was shaking her head and Heero sat heavily in the other chair, staring at the chat screen as if it might magically change. When it didn't, he reached out and deleted the message, so it's sender would know it had been received.

“You didn't tell me to bring a billion dollars, Marie. I don't have that kind of money.”

But she was looking at Duo and he had to laugh, because of all the reasons he might have thought he had been brought in, to pay the bill had definitely not been on the list. Even Heero was looking at him, stumped.

“You have that kind of money?”

“He's one of the richest guys in the universe,” Mariemaia pointed out. “He doesn't spend anything, at least...that's what Trowa said.”

“What is Trowa doing looking at my bank accounts?” Duo fumed, pacing the length of the ship's corridor, down into the cargo bay and back again, still trying to process the fact they were there to buy Wufei. That he was going to have to put money into human trafficking, if he was going to get Wufei back.

He couldn't decide if it was worth it; couldn't convince himself he should care when no one else ever seemed to. Only it was Wufei.

“Trowa was Quatre's accountant for a while. We all gave Quatre access to our accounts after the war,” Heero reminded him and Duo just scowled because he hadn't thought Quatre was still being a sticky beak about it, and if he had known he would have worked harder at beating Quatre's numbers. At least he'd been giving him a good run for his money.

“How did you get all that money, anyways?”

“Scrap collection, computer systems, system upgrades, a few choice ship patents that Howard likes to use repeatedly...” He shrugged, not even sure anymore where a lot of it came from, just aware that after the first few million it had gotten out of control and he couldn't even spend all the interest in a month, let alone touch the savings and after that it hadn't seemed worth the effort. The numbers just kept going up.

“I need to change my line of work,” Heero muttered and Duo laughed, only stopping when Heero sat there staring at him for a minute too long.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Heero shrugged. “I just...haven't heard you laugh in a long time. I mean, for real.” He had a fake laugh now? And this one wasn't it? This was a real laugh? What did that even mean? Duo scowled and Heero just smiled and looked away, moving from his chair so Duo could take a seat.

“Organise the funds.”

“I'm not paying.” Because there had to be another way to get Wufei, that didn't involve contributing his hard earned cash to traffickers.

Hands came down hard on his shoulders and Heero's face was suddenly close enough that Duo could feel his breath beating in angry puffs against his nose. Heero's eyes were just as rich a blue as he remembered, and full of just as much fire, and his grip was as strong as ever, pinning Duo to the seat, using his weight to hold him there.

“Organise the funds. Now.”

He wanted to argue, but there was something in Heero's hands that stopped him, not physically but some other way Duo couldn't define. He was still a long time before he turned the chair and logged in to his bank, arranging a transfer to a disposable card he had, pleased he'd thought to bring one because once everything was done he did not want his name attached to any of this.

Had Howard known this was why he was coming? Had he really forced Duo to come so that he could pay for human trafficking? And what was with that price? Wufei was an expensive shit! And why was Heero adamant they do it this way, when they could just break Wufei out and be done with it?

He finished the transfer and held the card out to Heero, who just shook his head and motioned for Duo to hang onto it.

“I wouldn't know the first thing about...buying.”

“And I would?” But he did. He knew more than he cared to admit and he stashed the card in his pocket and crossed his arms, glaring at Mariemaia. She knew things, and it pissed him off that she wasn't sharing unless Heero did the glaring.

“What happened to you?” It was Mariemaia who asked, and Duo just stared at her, not sure what she meant. Or wanting to pretend he didn't know.

“You used to be their friend.”

Duo wanted to argue but when he looked at Heero, the man was just looking back, curious to know the answer. As if it hadn't all been his fault to begin with. As if Duo had been the one to ignore, to abandon him in the hospital without so much as a `get well soon'. Quatre had sent him an email every now and then, but that had been it.

“We weren't friends,” he pointed out coldly and Heero's eyes widened just a little. Just enough for Duo to know he had hit a nerve. “Friends don't abandon each other.”

“Says the man who wasn't willing to buy his friend out of slavery a minute ago,” Mariemaia muttered darkly.

“I don't need to buy him, if he's not my friend, now do I?” But he was covering for the hurt and denying that he wanted to pay whatever it cost to get Wufei back was only hurting him more. He wanted to argue, wanted to scream in both their faces, but most of all he wanted them to tell him he was wrong. That it was a misunderstanding. That there was some excuse that would make up for everything.

They just stared at him and Duo kicked the wall, hard enough that his ankle wrenched in pain that he ignored.

“I'll meet you at the clocktower,” he promised Heero, and left. Not out the cargo doors because he wasn't that stupid, but left all the same.

He stormed his way through the colony, taking every dark alley he could find, which was a lot, and decking anyone who got in his way.

Stupid fucking Heero Yuy. They'd almost been at an understanding. Almost had an agreement. Heero had even kissed him a few times, letting him know just what it would be like to have more than he had bargained for, and Duo had wanted it. Had made it very clear that he wanted it.

Heero had even agreed to ditch the gundams. Then Marie-fucking-Maia Kushrenada had come along and everything went to hell. They'd had to fight again, and somehow in amongst it all Heero got it in his head that Duo might get hurt, as if Duo cared, and he'd taken him out of the fight.

Duo had come to in hospital, reached out to find nothing but air. No flowers, no note, and Heero on the television at Relena's side, being heralded as the Hero of the World. And he'd never heard from him again, until Howard gave him that folder that just happened to say Heero Yuy had kidnapped Kushrenada. Quite the hello, that one.

And now, Duo was the one who had abandoned him? Or them? A few stray emails from Quatre via Howard didn't constitute a friendship!

And yet the shock he'd felt when he realised why they were there was real. The need to act was still adrenaline pumping through his veins. His abhorrence for Trowa's actions wasn't just the actions themselves, but that it was Trowa. His...friend. Friend? There had to be a better word, but he wasn't just an acquaintance.

His fists were bloody when he returned to the Reincarnation, but he left them that way. People didn't make a habit of showering in the Valley, and a little blood didn't hurt his reputation at all. He went to his room and lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling for a long time. He felt pretty fucking stupid when Heero came and sat on the edge, not looking at him, but very much there.

He hadn't heard him come in, and none of the proximity alarms had gone off. How had he done that?

“I'm sorry.”

“Excuse me?” Was that seriously an apology? From Heero Yuy?

“I'm sorry, Duo. I should have come. I should have visited you, I should have called, or written, or hell even sent some flowers.”

“I'll allergic.”

“I know,” Heero laughed, shaking his head and that weight was back in full as he turned to look properly at Duo where he was propped up on his elbows.

“I wanted Us. So badly. When the Incident happened, I couldn't think straight, I just knew I had to make you safe...”

“Breaking my ribs, puncturing my lung, dumping me in a civi hospital...is safe?” It made them both laugh, because civi hospitals were anything but safe, but that was not the point. And Heero was shaking his head.

“Afterward, Relena needed a face. We needed Quatre, to rebuild, and Trowa was willing to be the guarddog to keep him there. I...didn't trust Wufei.”

And he didn't want to put Duo in the middle of it all. Wanted to keep him safe, and so went himself instead. Duo just stared for a long time, feeling the old ache of it and wondering if it would ever go away. Heero was so stupid, but he'd known that all along. The really stupid thing had been not seeing it all for what it was.

“You didn't call...” He'd had years to say something, anything at all, but there had never been a word.

“I rang Howard,” Heero admitted softly. “He always said you were doing okay.”

“That dirty old scumbag!” Duo ground out, wondering how often Heero had rung and Howard hadn't said a word. But he'd probably thought it none of his business, and Duo recalled at some point giving orders that if anyone did call for him he wasn't there. Most likely he really hadn't been there, had been off on some job or other.

Heero was smiling, but it was a sad thing that didn't reach his eyes. An old thing.

“I don't expect what we had before.” Didn't expect it, but that didn't mean he didn't want it and something shifted again in Duo's gut. “But...we are friends, Duo. We will always be friends. Never say...never think otherwise.”

And just like that he was gone again, leaving Duo to contemplate his ceiling and the mistakes that maybe, just maybe hadn't been Heero's after all. Maybe.