Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Indifference ❯ 4 ( Chapter 4 )

4:

The problem, really, was that Heero never looked as stupid as he was. Duo stalked the Reincarnation, randomly punching a wall whenever his frustration decided it needed a better outlet than walking and let his mind churn over events.

Several years worth. And that was what really pissed him off. It wasn't like Heero had kept his distance until things had blown over. His Hero of the World bullshit storm had blown over after the first two, but Heero still hadn't come around.

But Duo hadn't either. He'd made sure the distance between them was huge, and had done nothing to encourage the man to bridge that gap. Hell, if he was telling the truth, Heero had even contacted Howard, seeking out...

Him. Anything he could have of him, even if it was just an old man's reassurances down a phone line. Duo kicked the wall again, felt his ankle wrench again and cursed, loudly and for a long time because it had hurt and because he had needed the outlet.

When he finally sat down and took a look at it, his ankle was dark and swollen but it was all surface damage. And he was completely blaming Heero for all of it.

He sat until his alarm told him it was time to go, and then all he wanted to do was sit some more. Forcing himself up, he checked he had enough weapons hidden on him to get through anything that was likely to go on, then slunk out of his ship, sealing it tight and checking the outer hull for any sign of how Heero had gotten onboard without the sensors telling him.

There was no sign. Duo had a sneaking suspicion the code he had originally sent to Heero, to see if he could crack it, that had come back whole and unbroken had actually come back broken but repaired.

“Sneaky fucking bastard.” But there was a huge amount of respect behind the words, and a gnawing beast of doubt. Heero had made sure he could still get inside Duo's defenses, and had let Duo believe it was impossible.

The clocktower was hard to find, and Duo was glad he'd left early. The dark, muggy atmosphere made him suspect there was a broken down air filter that had needed attention for some time, but it hadn't spread beyond this zone yet, so no one had bothered to look for it. It made the air thick, and it tasted foul. He wished he'd brought a scarf.

He did a few laps of the surrounding area first, noting places he would have hidden back up, or placed a sniper, but they were empty and others were full, so he gave up trying to fathom what drug traffickers thought and trusted Heero not to be dumb enough to get them both shot.

He found Heero doing much the same thing, resting casually against a broken wall, hands in his pockets but eyes glazed, as if seeing nothing when Duo knew he was looking at everything. He did a damn good impersonation of a drug addict, truth be told.

For a minute, Duo was lost for something to say. He was grateful the situation didn't really require him to say anything, and Heero for the moment seemed content with silence.

“So what're we buying?”

“Haze.”

Duo's eyes narrowed and then he looked away, because it was a good choice. They were going to need it, after all. It still grated that he was going to add yet again to a trade he despised. At least Heero was apparently paying for this one.

“I didn't think they paid you that much to bodyguard Relena?” Hadn't that been what Heero was griping about? They could never have paid Duo enough to sit though one of their political get togethers, but he didn't think Heero had been in it for the money. Or hadn't thought...now he wasn't so sure. Why the hell had Heero stuck with it so long? Surely he could have trained a replacement long ago? Had trained them if footage Duo had seen over the last year or two was anything to go by.

“They don't,” Heero admitted but he was grinning now. “I have a few patents of my own.”

He looked so damnably charming, even a little wicked. Like he enjoyed having secrets, and Duo knew it was true. Heero liked holding the cards, knowing he had the upper hand. It was why they clashed so often during the war; Duo never gave up his cards without a fight to the death.

“You really haven't changed that much, you know?” He had. He'd gotten a little taller, though he was still shorter than Duo and judging by photos had to be a head or two shorter than Quatre and Trowa who were on hormones or something because they grew out of puberty literally. European genes for the win. And he'd gotten even more good looking, keeping his muscle mass but staying lean and growing into his bones. He had the most amazing jaw...

“You have,” Heero observed, and the way his eyes raked over Duo's body left no doubt as to what he was talking about. Duo just blinked, not having expected it at all. He had changed, in so many ways, but he hadn't expected Heero to notice, because he hadn't thought Heero knew him that well to begin with. He did have to admit the physical changes were noticeable. He wasn't a waif anymore, could give as good as he got. Could take Heero down, if he had to, and right then he really, really wanted to. He just wasn't sure where to.

“You really think Wufei'll be on Haze?” There were so many other options, but it was true that Haze was the Valley's baby.

“I don't see any other way they took him in the first place,” Heero muttered and Duo had to agree. The wrong place at the wrong time wasn't enough to take a gundam pilot out. The wrong place, wrong time and a near death dosing of Haze and Wufei could have been singing baa baa black sheep to an alley cat and been none the wiser.

“Where's Marie?”

“At work...” Heero admitted softly and Duo gaped.

“The fuck?” Because of all the people to suddenly condone topless waitressing, Heero was the last on Duo's expectation list.

“We need the cover.”

“So you do have a plan.”

“What?” Heero was scowling, and Duo just licked his lips, please with himself, and shrugged.

“I was starting to wonder.” He had, after all, brought Mariemaia here with absolutely no clue why. Who did that anyway? The girl had already destroyed one man's career, and considering his current predicament quite likely his life, and now Heero had quite possibly destroyed his. And apparently didn't care! Duo was seriously questioning everyone else's sanity. The part where they had all come to Mettle Valley wasn't helping change his mind.

“I have a plan,” Heero ground out his confirmation, and Duo could tell he was pissed that Duo had doubted him. Which was weird, since it meant Heero cared what Duo thought. Unfortunately, it just made the niggling something in Duo's gut that much more bold and Duo swallowed through a suddenly dry throat and had to look away.

“Plans are good,” he managed to grumble. Plans were really good, especially when you knew what they were. He would have given a lot to know what the plan was for getting out of their drug deal alive, but he didn't want to have to ask and Heero was smirking again, damnit!

“I have all kinds of plans,” he admitted softly and it had not in any way been what Duo had expected him to say. In all honesty, he hadn't expected the man to say anything. Changes, indeed.

Heero shoved off the wall and Duo fell into step just behind him, to the side, like old times. Only he kept watching for that strategically aimed fist this time, because he'd grown rather fond of his lungs and didn't appreciate his ribs being forced to use them as a pin cushion, thank you very much. Heero needed to learn how to pull out of a punch.

The dealer was not what Duo had been expecting. For one, he didn't look like he used. At all. He also had wartime eyes, that looked all over the damn place for something amiss and ran them up and down several times before stepping into a familiar lazy stance. He didn't trust them at all, but wasn't willing to lose a deal quite yet.

“I don't want any trouble,” Heero noted softly, noticing the same things and the man just watched them. Cold. Duo didn't like him at all. He was stronger than he'd expected and while he didn't doubt Heero could take the man on without his help, Duo wondered who was hiding out nearby to back the guy up because no one was stupid enough to come out here alone.

Drug traffickers had gotten a lot smarter than Duo recalled from his youth. Worse, they didn't appear to use their own wares.

“What are you lookin to buy?” It was interesting that they sold more than one thing. Most just specialized in something and had a few bits of homemade crap on the side. But he legitimately carried a lot, judging by the way his jacket bulged strangely over his chest. Duo wondered how much merchandise would end up inside the man's body if he shot him right now, point blank, and just how badly it would sting?

“A half pound of haze.”

Even Duo's eyes went wide at that, because that was an insane amount. But the man just relaxed, settled into a familiar routine and laughed, nodded a little. Because now it made sense.

“Buying in the Sale, huh. Guess you'll be needing the good stuff then.” Not the stuff used for recreation, but the stuff used to keep your merchandise pliable. Duo wanted to rip the man's throat out and deep fry it at the Diner, and kept reminding himself in a silent litany at the back of his mind that he was going to need the drugs. Supposedly.

Frankly, he thought Wufei should go fucking cold turkey and be done with it. Only, that could kill and he didn't really want the guy dead he just really, really hated traffickers.

The man held out his packet and Heero held out his card. A second man came out of the darkness and Duo had to admit he was good. Not even Heero seemed to have known he was there, though they should have from the stench alone. They scanned the card, the man nodded and the dealer dropped the stash and started backing away, hands raised to show he meant no harm.

It was one of the hardest things Duo had ever done to just stand there and let them walk away. He glared at Heero, because this had to be his fault somehow, and waited until they were truly gone before pointing. Heero picked up the package and shoved it inside the pockets of his pants and Duo turned away, unable to look at him while he knew it was there.

There were eyes on them and they took a good two hours to lose them before it was safe to go back to Heero's ship. Duo found himself staring at it and frowning and went over to talk to Manfred for a while, extolling on their drinking bout and assuring the man there would be a rematch. He didn't go to meet Heero again until he had calmed down enough that he was almost certain he wouldn't slog the poor guy. He was, after all, just trying to get the job done.

“I'm sorry.”

“You know, you've been saying that a lot lately,” Duo mumbled, taking the copilots chair and spinning it lazily, trying not to stare too hard at Heero's face each time it came around in his vision. Heero just shrugged. There was no sign of the Haze, for which Duo was grateful.

“So this plan of yours?”

“You have a gunrun tomorrow, right?”

He did, but he was almost sure he hadn't told Heero that and it made him frown but he nodded. Heero had his ways, and Duo had his. The gunrun would establish his cover, but he hadn't actually thought to need it. Had assumed he would be out in time to not have to. Still, using it wouldn't hurt either.

“Think you can wait to leave until after midnight?”

“You want me to smuggle Wufei out of Mettle Valley, disguised as a gun run?”

“No, I want you to do the gun run, and get Wufei clean off Haze during the trip.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind? While you what? Sit pretty and wait tables topless?”

“That's Marie's job,” Heero deadpanned and Duo just gaped at him, almost certain someone had cloned Heero Yuy and sent him the dumb ass clone to work with. He forced himself to calm down, because there had to be a reason for Heero coming up with the dumbest plan in the history of plans.

“You're not leaving?”

“Neither are you.” That was debatable, but Duo let him believe it for the moment. He might yet run off with the guns and Wufei, just to spite the man and piss off Trowa.

“Get Wufei clean, bring him back here and complete your run. The cover's good. It's smart,” Heero admitted softly and there was a hint of pride in it that Duo didn't understand at all. None of it had been Heero's idea, and Heero had no reason whatsoever to be proud of Duo's individual actions. But it had been smart.

“You want to find Trowa,” Duo realised softly.

“The waitress was pretty sure he wasn't here.” A little too sure.

“She was also pretty damn sure he was bad news,” Duo ground out, still extremely unimpressed that Trowa had taken up his current occupation.

“You don't find it odd our dealer offered us a choice of wares?”

“Well, we never told the waitress what we wanted to buy...” But he had to admit she should have just assumed it was what she was on, which was not what they bought, so why'd the dealer have that much Haze on him? Why not just offer some Heroin and be done with it? Haze paid better though, especially the good stuff, and Heero hadn't been a user so maybe she was just a hell of a lot smarter than she looked, since she didn't look intelligent at all, and had assumed they would be wanting Haze for a pet?

“You thought it was odd too,” Heero confirmed, and his grin went straight to Duo's groin. That was downright unfair.

“Dealers don't usually mix merchandise,” Duo admitted. “Especially Haze dealers.” They had no need to; were the kingpins of their trade.

“My guess is Trowa didn't know where to look. Traded in one drug after another looking for clues until he found one, and then couldn't pull the plug on the others.”

“What made him think drug trafficking would find Wufei in the first place?” Because it sure as hell wouldn't have been Duo's first, second or hundredth point of call.

But Heero didn't know either and just shrugged and Duo sat back, considering it. If there'd been even the slightest hint Wufei was mixed up in something, and Trowa found evidence, it was just like the man to go and become the lord of it to trace it back to Wufei. He was good at infiltration...a little too good, in Duo's opinion. It was damn near impossible to know when he was pretending or when he genuinely meant something. Sometimes he was sure Trowa actually fooled himself.

He tried to remember what Trowa had been like, during the crazy threesome time when Quatre had still called him, worried because Trowa hadn't come home but too chicken shit to call Wufei and make sure that was where he was. Trowa had been very unlike himself. Crazed, even. He loved Quatre, that was damn obvious, but it was a calm, friendly kind of soul deep adoration. When Trowa looked at Wufei it was fire and rage and need, even Duo had seen that. Something primal in both of them. And when Wufei disappeared, he'd snuck into Quatre's mansion to see the mess that had made the news after someone `broke into Quatre's Winners house but stole nothing' and knew what had really happened. You had to give it to the guy, Trowa had a temper in there somewhere. But that had been the last he'd seen of it. After that, Trowa followed Quatre around same as always, until apparently he'd had to stand up for an extinct dolphin's completely unnecessary rights.

“That dolphin story makes no sense at all.”

“What?” Heero looked completely confused and Duo supposed it had come out of left field, but they were discussing Trowa so it wasn't as though it was entirely off topic. The man needed to learn to keep up, seriously.

“Trowa up and leaving Quatre because a factory he owned killed off some random species of dolphin. Sure the guy loves animals, but he loves Quatre too and Quatre likely sold off the entire company responsible as soon as he figured out what pissed Trowa off. It's not a good enough reason for Trowa to just up and...vamoose.”

“Is that even a word?”

“I don't know, don't care, I like it.” Duo wiggled his fingers at Heero and said it again. “Vamoose.” Heero didn't look impressed.

“You think it was a cover, to get Trowa out of the picture?”

“So he could find Wufei,” Duo agreed. “Quatre's not stupid, and I saw that house.”

“What do you mean?” He was frowning again, and Duo suspected he was a little addicted to making Heero look like that. He liked having the upper hand. A lot.

“I've got pictures, back home. I'll show you sometime if you like but...” He shrugged, shaking his head, still not really sure how a single man had managed to do that to a King size bed. He had suspected a laser weapon had been involved, but there were no burn marks. Duo had picked splinters out of his clothes for days.

“Trowa trashed Quatre's house? That break in?”

Duo was just nodding, waving his hand because he'd moved on from that subject. Heero needed to keep up!

“Do you think he's dangerous?”

Duo just stared at the man, because really?

“Heero, he's a fuckin Gundam pilot, of course he's dangerous! Do I think he's crazy? Aren't we all! Do I think he's capable of anything? He gives me the creeps, of course he is! Do I think he could become a drug trafficker? Hells yes I do, and he'd be freakishly good at it, the man is a nutjob! Do I think he would ever hurt Quatre? Not in a million fucking years. Do I think he'd do just about anything to have Wufei again? No shit man!” Honestly, were they really having this conversation?

“How far?”

“Huh?” It was Duo's turn to frown and he clung tighter to the arms of the chair just in case Heero was contemplating literally throwing him off his ship. The guy could at least let him put on a suit first; he didn't fancy being tossed out into open space. Or at least toss him from the half of the ship under airlock.

“How far do you think he would go, to have Wufei back?”

“Heero.” Duo sat forward, satisfied for the moment he was safe from the vacuum of space. “The man had Mariemaia convince you to kidnap her and bring her to Mettle Valley.” How many times was he going to have to repeat this?

“....Hn.”

“You really are stupid, you know that right?” Because no way in hell would Duo have fallen for that. But Heero was just looking at him, frustrated by something and Duo found himself sitting back in his chair and staring right back at him. It was damn hard to read Heero sometimes, especially when he actually showed some kind of emotion. No one expected Heero to show emotions, it was just plain weird.

“Maybe we all are, but Trowa's not.”

Duo didn't see how getting yourself involved in the drug trade to find your boyfriend was intelligent. At all. But if Heero wanted to think it was, he wasn't going to bust his bubble. Had to be a damn nice bubble for that shit to fly.

“We can't leave until we find him. He didn't need both of us here, to get Wufei.”

“I don't get why he didn't do it himself!” Duo scoffed and then paused, because that was the whole point, wasn't it? Heero was nodding, pleased Duo had finally caught on and it made him frown, because Heero wasn't supposed to get something before him. But why hadn't Trowa just made sure he was in the Valley when the Sale was on? Why involve Mariemaia at all? Why bring two Gundam Pilots in to help?

Unless you were in so far over your head you needed an army to get you out. Brilliant.

“Well, this just got fun,” Duo muttered. He had no idea what Trowa expected them to do. Leaving a picture of himself on the wall with a drug whore wasn't exactly the greatest clue in the world.

“We need to check out the other clues from that folder,” Heero said softly. “I still remember most of the places.”

“Wait, so your grande plan is to buy Wufei, get him drug free, and bring him right on back to the Valley to look for Trowa?” Duo still didn't see how that was a good plan. In fact, it sounded downright stupid and he was pretty sure Wufei would have agreed with him.

“We need your position as a runner. It gives us an excuse to come and go.”

“Oh great! So I can become a local in Mettle Valley! My dream come true!” The man was out of his damn mind. Did he know the average life expectancy of a person in the Valley was fifteen years shorter than someone on Earth? And that was just because of the air they breathed, it didn't include the years they hacked off that number because of knifings, infections, shootings, drugs or just generally horrific hygiene. There was a reason people avoided the Valley at all costs; you only came here if you knew you were going to die anyway.

“Didn't you just say this was fun?” Heero countered and Duo scowled at him because he was not supposed to use his words against him. But he had to admit he was enjoying himself. Just like he suspected Howard had known he would.

Heero was moving and Duo forced himself to follow, slipping out his now usual exit and meeting Heero near the entrance to the docking feed. He had to admit, Mettle Valley was a fascinating piece of engineering brilliance. That anyone had salvaged even a tiny piece of L5 was miracle enough, let alone that they managed to get air and gravity functioning. But to then craft the airlocks on the hull, and attach the docking feeds...and the sheer scale of said feeds, to allow the volume of customers the Valley could accommodate. Someone had had a very, very big ego, or had completely lost their mind. Lost everything, most likely, and had nothing better to do with their time than build a criminal island in space.

If it hadn't been so vile, Duo thought he might have actually liked the place.

They made their way to a grimy side street, where Heero had somehow managed to find a whorehouse. Duo looked him up and down, raised a brow and made it very clear he was jumping to all sorts of conclusions. Heero tried to look affronted but gave it up as a lost cause and let Duo lead them inside.

Seedy didn't begin to cover it. There was a desk with a small, haggard looking woman at it, eyes shining bright in the darkness, shrouded in red light from the single bulb above her head. A hulking, stupid looking man stood behind her, arms crossed in an attempt to look menacing. Behind them was a long corridor, sheets hanging as doorways every could of metres. Moans and grunts were clearly audible and occasionally a sheet was kicked, revealing a hint of flesh before it disappeared from sight again.

Slaves, Duo reminded himself. Each one of the whores here was bought, sold and kept, and probably didn't even know it. But Heero looked so thoroughly disgusted it was up to Duo to act and he forced himself to step up to the desk, and then just stared harder, waving his hand in the old woman's face.

She was completely blind.

“Hundred,” she spat out, and a tooth fell out with the words, rotted by haze. Duo refused to puke and flashed his card over the scanner, watching the light turn green in disgust. The bodyguard stepped aside and Duo knew immediately he could burn the girl he chose alive and the man would do nothing to stop him. He was just there to make sure the customer paid.

“Each!” She spat at them when Heero made to follow and Heero hurriedly scanned his card as well.

He walked slowly, taking his time to peek in and scan as best he could as they passed each makeshift room. He wanted to storm into each and wring the necks of the bastards using the whores, but it wouldn't solve anything. The whores wouldn't even care, not until the withdrawals kicked in and with them as far gone as they were they likely wouldn't live to see the other side of it.

Heero, at least, seemed suitably shellshocked and Duo just hoped it would finally drive home why he hated them all so much. Why he refused to pay. Why he didn't want to contribute. He'd paid the entry fee only because it meant some poor creature would have a rest, for however long they chose to stay.

It was Heero that spotted it, maybe because he was staring so hard. He slipped into a room and pulled the curtain closed behind Duo.

The girl on the ground didn't look any older than Mariemaia, and had probably been a lot prettier. Or maybe not, since she'd likely been sold into it all pretty young. Her eyes were glazed and she reached for them blindly, skin pocked with disease and burn marks, scars rampant where sadistic men had taken their fill. Half her face had been destroyed by acid. There was a hole in her cheek clear through to her mouth.

Heero surprised him by throwing up in the corner while Duo stared at the harlequin mask on the wall. He stepped up closer, recognising the unmistakable purple star over the eye and shivering, feeling like it was watching him but when he pulled it off the wall there was no camera inside.

Recovering, Heero came to inspect it as well but it was just the mask and there was nothing else on the walls. A gift? Had Trowa really been here or was it just a coincidence?

“You like it?” The voice was ragged, hoarse with disuse. She seemed to be struggling to remember how to talk at all. Duo was impressed she even remembered she could. He eyed her more carefully, moving over to kneel on the mattress beside her, ignoring the wetness that sank in against his knees, too aware of what it was.

“Was it a gift?”

“No...” But she was frowning and the struggle was visible in every part of her body as she shuddered with the need for more drugs, and the desire to overcome the need. To listen to them.

“Not...not a gift,” she managed to get out, but she was sweating with the effort and Duo looked up, surprised when Heero picked up the torn blanket from the corner and carefully wrapped her in it. He looked cold, which meant he was hurting and couldn't afford to let it show.

“A ...promise.”

That had both their attention and they frowned down at her. Duo rubbed the sweat from her brow but only succeeded in replacing it with dirt and blood. She didn't seem to care, looking in his direction gratefully and pulling the blanket tighter about herself.

“What did he promise you?”

“No!” Frustration. Duo ached to see her trying so hard and clenched his fists in the soiled sheets to keep from letting it out.

“I promise.” Vehemence. Defiance. Somewhere underneath it all, she was still whatever girl she had once been. Somewhere she knew who she was, and worse...what she was now.

“I'm here,” Duo whispered, close to her ear, trying to soothe, trying to help even as he pulled out his knife from his boot.

“Sahar.”

Duo looked up at Heero and then back at the whore, but she looked calmer and he knew her message was delivered, whatever the hell it meant. She smiled and her eyes slid shut as her arms once again reached for him, the slip of a moment gone. Duo rammed the knife between her ribs and up into her heart without hesitation, bowed his head and prayed.

This wasn't what life was for. This wasn't life at all. He got up and stared in fascination as Heero took the mask off the wall and used it to cover her face. The scarred side. She looked beautiful in her sleep and Duo fled the brothel like hell was on his heels. He wasn't so sure it wasn't.

The bodyguard didn't so much as look their way.