Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Some Way Back ❯ Metabolism ( Chapter 12 )

Ok this was written on a train ride that should have taken three hours and instead took me 16…gotta love icy weather ne? So please…be nice…hope it's ok…

This was originally supposed to be a lemon but the lemon comes in the next chapter now lol, cause ya just cant write a lemon where everyone is looking over your shoulder because they are bored…trust me. Think of this one as more of an um…necessary information product.

Hope you enjoy!

#*# = scene change

~ words in direct thought to oneself

~~**~~ end of chapter

Some Way Back: Metabolism

Reaching the shuttle, all four catapulted inside, Wufei started up the engine. In no time at all they were safely on the way back home, relaxing in the afterglow of a successfully completed mission. Duo squirmed; he hated sitting still, especially for longer than five minutes at a time…needless to say he wasn't very good at it because of this.

Quatre watched his friend for a little while before moving over to sit next to him and breaking the silence. He tapped the longhaired boy's arm lightly, watching the grimace that still managed to cover the heart-shaped face. "What ya do here Duo?"

Duo just looked at the smaller youth and grined. "You know me…dancing with death…" The grin even seemed genuine and Quatre was a little confused by the change in his friends apparent attitude, but he shrugged it off, figuring that Duo would speak to him if and when he was ready. But he wasn't about to let go of the injury and let Duo shrug it off.

"You know Duo… if you don't tell me what happened I will just have to drag it out of Trowa, and you know he will tell me anyway, so you may as well just cough it up now." Quatre could be devious when he wanted to be, when he wanted to get his own way, he didn't pull any punches. Making Duo feel like it was pointless for him not to tell, was part of Quatre's usual charm…and it worked as such.

Duo shrugged it off, it really wasn't that bad…"I just caught a couple of the stitches pulling myself up into the air vent and they ripped out…" He caught Trowa's raised eyebrow and sighed. "Ok when Trowa helped haul me up into the air vent."

Wufei's ears perked at that. "And since when has Duo be nimble Duo be quick ever needed a help wiggling up into anything, let alone something as big as an air conditioning vent."

Duo's eyes flashed a little and he spoke before he thought…as usual. "Since Duo bloody Maxwell slit his wrist and severely weakened his left arm." He sat there glowering at his friends…and then the mood passed as soon as it had come upon him and he pushed his unwounded hand through his bangs letting it sink down and rest on his injured hand, absently playing with his ring. "Yeah…it's not strong enough for that yet…I was straining it climbing up the elevator shaft. Am going to have to do some strengthening exercises, because otherwise I am going to be useless at all missions."

Quatre raised an eyebrow this time. "You are never going to be useless at missions Duo…even if we have to patch the system through to you and you work it from the shuttle…none of us can quite do what you can."

The smile that graced Duo's face was a little weak…but it was a smile again nevertheless. "Thanks Cat…you should be a counselor…" He ruffled his friend's hair and laughed at the indignant look that crossed the blonde's face…before Quatre started laughing too. The rest of the flight was spent with Duo teasing Quatre about his finer language usage and deciding to teach the shorter youth a wide vocabulary of swear words to broaden his horizons. Wufei and Trowa ignored them…at least they tried to, but couldn't quite conceal the smiles that threatened to burst forth.

#*#

Setting the shuttle to rest in the hanger in the very early morning, the four ex-gundam pilots climbed out and walked towards Une's offices to report back in. Well Quatre, Trowa and Wufei walked…Duo more or less bounded inside…the others amazed at the amount of energy the braided one seemed to have after being awake for more than 24 hours.

Duo was singing to himself as they walked (bounced) through the halls and the others were trying not to laugh at his makeshift song. "Oh adrenaline is a wonderful thing, it makes me bounce and siiiiiiiinnnnng. You say I can't but I don't care, I'll bounce and sing most anywhere…" Amazing Grace had never sounded so jazzed up. Stopping outside Une's offices Duo frowned.

The others almost ran into him when he stopped. Suddenly the braided youth started laughing. The others watched him curiously thinking that his lack of sleep had finally sent Duo over the edge.

Seeing his friends eyeing him strangely, Duo pushed passed his amazing urge to laugh more and explained why he was doing so. "Guys…its 6am…not even someone like Une is that enthusiastic about their work."

Quatre laughed with his friend…"Yeah…guess we didn't think about that did we now?"

"Lets head back to the room and see just what goodies my system managed to pilfer from our little attack ne?" Duo led the way down the unusually quiet halls calling over his shoulder as he went. "Oh and we might want to grab some food, cause I mean honestly…I am starving…"

Still singing his version of amazing grace that had all three of his friends moaning about it good naturedly, they arriving at the door. Duo punched in the code to open the door, still singing at the top of his lungs. Of course he hadn't been expecting anyone to be in the room, so he also hadn't expected the person who was slumped over one of the workstations to sit bolt upright as if someone had let a bomb off in their proximity. Now it should be noted that Duo, although having a very talented voice, had a tendency to sing extremely loud…almost yelling his songs; meaning that the likeness of his entrance into a room singing loudly could also be compared to that of …yes…a bomb going off.

The song broke off abruptly as Duo fully comprehended a person being in the room. "What the hell?"

Zechs raised bleary, sleep-deprived eyes to look at the loud intruder. "Sorry…I guess I must have fallen asleep… I just felt I was so close…but it kept slipping away…I must have fallen asleep."

Duo grinned. "That can't have been a comfortable position to sleep in…you must have one hell of a crick in your neck." It was a statement…Duo had had the same experience himself a couple of times…except it had been computer games keeping him in that predicament. Though Duo had always maintained that he owed it to society to make sure that they weren't making games that were too realistic, Heero had teased him that it was purely self-inflicted.

"Naaa, its not that bad…" But Zechs couldn't hide the grimace that crossed his angelic features as he moved.

A hand pushed him back down, driven by the more typical momentary Duo compassion that had suddenly risen in the violet-eyed boy. "Stay sitting a second idiot…" He flexed his fingers, cracking the knuckles. "These three can testify that I can give one hell of a massage and put any taught muscles at ease." Duo failed to notice the looks that passed between his three friends. Questioning looks at each other, as if to ask when Duo had given whom a massage. The looks were followed by a few blushes…though no one blushed as much as Zechs did when Duo's hands started to work the kinks out of his neck. Duo, for his part, didn't falter once. His speech just kept going…and for once…it was actually a relevant babble.

"So anyway…they have the crappiest technological security once you get inside the complex and although it is hard to hack into from outside, once we were inside it was almost an insult to my intelligence how easy it was to get into the files and begin the download. With the program that got transmitted from our main frame through to theirs, they will be able to trace, absolutely nada, nix, zero. That virus is going to infect any computer at all connected with theirs, feeding information that matches the search sequences I built into it back to my own main frame, while destroying the rest of theirs. We get the information we need and they get complete mayhem and madness involving their equipment…"

A small sound escaped Zechs lips as he enjoyed the massage Duo was giving him…"I waited for it to finish its file transfers before I ran a search protocol…I dozed off some time after that."

"Great Zechy boy… We'll go over them in a minute but I so need breakfast. Cat can you?"

Quatre smiled and made his way to the phone. "Yeah I can do that…but I have a better idea…I will call home and get them to cook us something, because they know exactly what we like."

Duo smiled. "Thanks Cat. This guy is a bundle of knots." He looked down at Zechs and frowned. The man had obviously been stressing a lot. It couldn't all be just because Duo had told them that they were on his hit list. "What did you do Zechs… Rob a bank? Kill Someone? I mean honestly you're as tense as stretched rubber band. Did you really take my killing you threat seriously? I mean you shouldn't… you know me… big mouth…speak before I think about what I am saying. Besides I have plenty to amuse myself with at the moment…I don't need to amuse myself with you three."

Zechs really hoped that Duo wasn't going to try and put everyone at ease like that, because it really wasn't all that comforting. Of course Zechs had a somewhat guilty conscience and it probably made him feel guiltier because what Duo was saying held a grain of truth. And if he didn't get Duo to stop that massage he was going to melt into a pool of blubber right then and there.

"Thanks Duo…" Zechs hoped his voice didn't sound as husky as it felt. Duo's hands left his neck and Zechs had to make himself stop from sighing at the emptiness he felt.

"How long is it gonna take Cat… I am so starving it isn't funny…"

Quatre laughed,"It'll be at least half an hour Duo…settle down…"

Duo groaned. "Then I am going to take a wakey wakey Duo shower and see if I can't refresh myself a little. You guys are welcome to take one too…I am just going to slip back into preventers garb… I have enough of that to last me a lifetime."

Wufei arched one of his sculpted eyebrows. "Take a shower too Maxwell? I assume that you mean after you do."

Duo blushed slightly before grinning at his friend and running a hand down his cheek before moving on towards the bathroom. "That depends on you Wu-man." He sashayed towards the bathroom deliberately swinging his hips seductively.

Wufei was honestly shocked. Quatre laid a hand on his darker lovers and smiled at him. "He was joking `fei…settle…calm down and all that. Unless of course you liked the offer?" Quatre grinned mischievously at the onyx eyed man.

"No…No!" Wufei's response was a little too adament…a little too fast.

Quatre laughed at him and walked over to the bathroom door, knocking on it he spoke: "Duo, I'm going to grab a shower in my office ok…I'll be back in time for breakfast."

"Not if you're taking `fei and Trowa with you, you wont." Duo's cheeky voice rang out from the bathroom.

Quatre blushed. "Yes we will… I promise…we'll behave." Walking away from the door he muttered under his breath. "We'll behave a little at least."

"I heard that Cat!" Duo laughed from behind the closed door.

Zechs was still blinking uncertainly. The sleep hadn't worn off completely yet and he was getting really really tired, but at the same time he didn't want to go to sleep because he didn't want to miss anything…so he approached the bathroom door and tapped on it.

"Man can't a guy get a shower in peace around here." The door was yanked open by a towel clad Duo. "Oh Zechs…you look like shit man…no offence."

"None taken Duo…um…I am going to curl up on the sofa and sleep till your done. It ok for me to use the shower after you?"

"Sure man…you spent last night slaving away… you deserve to feel clean at least." Grin firmly plastered on his face Duo started to close the door again. "Oh yeah…I am gonna get a shower now…" He finished closing it.

Finally he let the smile fall…his cheeks were actually aching from holding the smile in place for so long and not taking a rest from it. Taking up his favourite place in the bathroom Duo watched himself unwrapping the bandage around his arm. He seemed to torment himself sometimes with the mirror. He hated the way he looked and didn't think he was overly attractive at all. He thought he was too skinny, with not enough muscle and that his eyes were too large for his face. His only real vanity was his hair…and he treasured that above all else…irrespective of all else. Looking down at his arm he grimaced. Although the vertical line down his arm was still sealed he had managed to rip two of the stitches out before their time creating two small yet deep horizontal lines to crisscross it. Coming to the conclusion that it only hurt so much because they ran directly over an all too freshly healed wound, he decided to get his shower first before he dressed the wound.

Stripping completely he let the water fall down all around him…soothe him…make him relax and regain the void. He loved that void…it let him hide in there…let him hide away the person who was hurting so much and lock them there so they couldn't interfere with what he was undertaking at that point in time. He couldn't afford to have the constant distraction of feeling so vulnerable. Instead it would be undoubtedly easier to just not feel it… or anything…ever again if possible. Now he knew how Heero had survived the war…how Heero had always survived…if you couldn't feel, if you didn't allow yourself to feel then it made things a hell of a lot easier. He undid his braid running his hands through his hair. Gathering some shampoo in his hands he started working the dirt out of it. Somehow he had gotten grease in there, and though he was fairly sure it was from scaling the elevator shaft…he still had no idea how he had actually managed to get the stuff in his hair. His mind turned to the missions at hand and he frowned. They still weren't able to pin down anyone and connect them to the whole scheme. It was getting pretty frustrating.

Finished with washing his hair he turned of the shower and wrung the excess water from it. Whilst drying himself off he realized he hadn't brought any clothes in with him. Pretty stupid of him really but he was used to behaving like that. Chuckling to himself as he toweled his hair as dry as he could get it like that, he wrapped the same towel around his waist and ventured outside to get some clothes.

When he opened the door his eyes fell on Zechs who had curled up on the couch and was very obviously sleeping. But he had asked to be woken and as peaceful as Duo thought he looked, he didn't think Zechs deserved that peace after what he had been a party to. So as per the request of Zechs…Duo woke Zechs up, by letting drops of water trail off his hair onto the sleeping man.

Sitting bolt upright Zechs looked at his tormenter and glared a little, until his brain registered the site of the man standing in front of him, at which point he had to restrain his jaw from dropping to the floor.

"Wakey wakey Zechsy… bathroom is free…" Duo then turned and walked over to his cupboard to pull out some clothes; oblivious to the effect he was having on the other man. Duo had never really been cluey to things like that, except when he was actually aiming to get noticed in that way.

Zechs stood and walked to the bathroom…"Oh…Towels?"

"On the sink…spare one already set out for you…"

Duo had only managed to slip into the pants of his uniform when the other three came back in…slightly pink in the face. He smirked at them… "Oh yeah…that's what you call behaving…I must try it one day… I like your brand of behaving…"

Quatre blushed…"Be nice Duo…Where is Zechs?"

Duo pointed to the bathroom as he poured himself a now fresh cup of coffee. Walking over to his system he sat down gesturing wildly behind him to where he had poured himself coffee. "You guys know where everything is, help yourselves."

Trowa and Wufei went ahead and did just that, while Quatre walked over to his friend to sit next to him.

"You know Duo…this place wasn't meant to be permanent living quarters…you should really come home soon."

Duo looked at him for a long time before speaking. "Love the sentiment Cat…but it just isn't going to be plausible, especially once we have everything under full swing… I wont have time to come home. And to be honest…I cant do it yet…so just leave it be…okay Cat?"

Quatre nodded…not liking it and definitely not wanting to leave it but respecting his friend too much to not do it.

The phone rang and Duo jumped to it. Putting it back down he whooped. "Woot yay… food downstairs Quat… go get food…"

Trowa stood up. "Fei and I will go and get the food…" He paused before walking out of the door… "You think two people will be enough?"

Cat laughed. "Yeah …they're using our evening picnic baskets…you know the ones that keep the food warm so we can have a gourmet picnic?"

Duo couldn't help staring at Quatre after the other two left the room. "Only you Cat." He said finally… "Only you…"

"Only me what Duo?"

"Only you could come up with turning a normally ant infested event into something fancy…" Quatre blushed a little. "A gourmet picnic…now I have heard everything." Duo grinned to soften the words and let his friend know that he was actually just joking.

The bathroom door opened and Zechs popped his head around the corner. "Um…I kind of forgot to get a change of clothes…"

Duo rose and walked over, rummaging through his clothes, till he pulled out a rather crumpled preventers uniform in triumph. "Here…you're a little taller, but until you go and get your own you'll just have to put up with wearing one of his." Zechs caught the uniform that was flung at him and disappeared back into the bathroom.

Quatre was concerned about his friend; he knew the uniform had belonged to Heero. "Duo…you sure you're ok with giving away his pants?"

Duo turned blank, expressionless eyes to his blond friend. "He's dead…who gives a fuck?"

Somewhat shocked, Quatre was rather relieved when the door opened again, admitting Trowa and Wufei laden with food.

"You told them Duo was here didn't you?" Wufei looked at the short blond accusingly.

"Um yeah why?"

"Because they sent enough to feed three armies and the people they are protecting."

Duo whooped again. "Alright…lets eat…mmmm my favourite…Winner food."

Zechs joined them a couple of minutes later, and they all lounged around on chairs eating a delicious mixture of omelet, bacon, sausages, pastries and sticky nectarines.

"So…I guess we should start to form a plan of action…if we are going to get Habito and destroy these lovely little plans of his, then we should get to work." Duo was in the middle of working the brush through his locks, after having eaten his fill, which was probably more than all the rest of them put together.

"Where do you put it Duo?" Trowa sounded a little vague.

"Huh?"

"The food…you eat more of it than any of us and you never put weight on…even during the war, I swear you ate more than all of us put together and yet you have always been the skinniest." Trowa noticed the look on Duo's face…he couldn't define it…but he felt he owed a sort of apology for bringing it up. "I was just curious…sorry…"

Duo sighed…the feeling of self loathing had washed away as quickly as it had come about. "I have a high metabolism."

"So do I Duo…" Trowa raised a hidden eyebrow.

Duo sighed again… "I have an abnormally high metabolism…due to some of the "Training" I undertook to become a pilot…" He shrugged… "One of the drugs they pumped into my system had the opposite effect to what it was supposed to. It was supposed to make me be able to endure long periods of time without food. Even though I can go without food if I have to, my metabolism has been sped up to such an extent, that if I skip even one of my 50 meals a day, then my metabolism starts to work away at my muscle, because of that I can't get any fat to stay on my body. I have…and I could almost quote I think…an unnaturally low percentage of body fat…such that I am in danger if I do not have a sufficient food intake. There you go… the very basic Scientifics of why I eat like a fricking horse…and because I don't feel like going into anything more than the basics…we are just going to leave it there and get back on topic okay?"

Since no one seemed about to argue with him, Duo continued to brush his hair.

It was Zechs who broke the slightly tense silence.

"Okay guys… I remember the mention of General Habito? Who the…what the…why the? I mean he obviously seemed to be of importance, so with every trace I have been running, I have also been trying to find a correlation to the name Habito. Although I can find references, I cannot find anything that directly links him into any of these. Inferences yes…but no direct linking. So…what's the story with him, so I know who I am chasing after."

Quatre sighed…Duo was busy studying the rings on his fingers all of a sudden…Trowa seemed to take a sudden interest in his unibang …so Wufei decided that he would be the one to talk.

"Well…he is one of the many not fans we managed to gain throughout the war. He was a member of Oz. We kind of screwed a few of his missions over, as well destroying one of the bases that was developing new MS technology…it just happened to be his to watch over and made him appear incompetent. He knew it was us…and he obviously didn't like it. Not to mention that he had Romelfeller connections…but we never went into that much. He took the choice to retire when the war ended…I honestly hadn't thought about him much since then."

Quatre decided it was time for him to speak up. "He has made a show of supporting peace and putting down the Gundam pilots at every possible turn. He is very subtle about it…he knows that Relena and the government are extremely grateful to us…but he does it, and you can't help but know it if you listen to what he is saying. He has been trying to get us psychologically evaluated for public viewing for the longest time, saying that after our experiences in the wars we are unfit for preventative duties."

"Yeah…that is Habito…" Duo finished braiding his hair and turned towards the screen. "Just don't let him ever fool you into believing he is the pacifist he pretends to be. That man doesn't want us out of the way because we are a potential threat to the peace, he wants us out of the way so he can bring violent force back into the world."

"You sound so sure Duo…how can you be so sure?" Zechs was honestly curious…

Duo turned slowly to look at him, face impassive, eyes afire. "Because…I know, therefore I am sure."

For some reason the way Duo spoke brooked no argument.

The printers whirred and the machines beeped at appropriate intervals as the men threw themselves back into their work.

A knock at the door a few hours later surpised each of them. Duo who had just gotten up to grab himself some left over breakfast made his way to the door and opened it. Standing outside was a very stern looking Une, with Sally in tow.

"Didn't think to report in Agent Maxwell?" Her voice was stern, cold.

Duo just grinned, infuriatingly. "Well actually we did Une-baby, but you weren't here yet…lazy lady…" He almost purred at her, voice low and husky. He laughed and turned around, bouncing back over to his desk. "We got back at 0600, and it was kinda early to pop by, so we came here, ordered breakfast and well…you know me… just kind of forgot that we needed to come and report…truly sorry…really we are." He sat himself down in front of his desk, gathering the reports he had just had printed out together and sorting through them, point blankly ignoring the women who followed him into the room; appearing all but sorry.

Une and Sally were a little put out by Duo's behavior, but they were becoming used to that by then.

"What can we do for you ladies?" Quatre was ever the gentleman, even though he wasn't feeling very charitable towards them at that point in time.

Une sighed. "Seriously Quatre…we just want to know how you went with the mission. Apart from seeing that you are all obviously ok and have returned…it would be nice if you would keep us informed."

Quatre raised a delicate eyebrow. "You actually think that we owe you something Une?"

Une blanched a little at the normally sweet blonde's voice. "You think you actually have a right to know anything we do?" Quatre stood up drawing himself up to his fullest, actually making a rather imposing figure. "We spent two wars risking our necks for all of you…to give you this tentative peace that we now have; we have spent the last years since those wars, protecting that ideal of peace and enforcing it to the extent of shoving it down the throats of those people that didn't like it. And you show your thanks to our help, by going behind our backs and conspiring to cause one of our number immense pain." He was angry now…his blue-green eyes blazing. "Get lost you stupid bitch. We will come and tell you when we are good and ready…and you should be happy that we tell you anything at all. If you don't like it, I have plenty of equipment at home and can get this all done there…but it would cause one of us a certain amount of pain to actually work there, so I will avoid that at all costs and use it only if you push me. You stretched the limits of friendship Une…you no longer have mine nor my respect." Quatre pointedly turned his back on the shocked woman and went to aid his braided friend.

Une sought out Zechs, who wouldn't meet her eyes. "I think you should go Une…" And he too turned his back to help the violet-eyed youth.

As Une and Sally exited the room they heard Duo groan loudly.

"Shit…" Duo had just processed a section of the reports he had gathered. "Do any of you realize how amazingly huge this whole mission is going to be? I mean do you honestly? It's huge…this is going to take us months…years…" His voice sounded tired…he felt tired. It was wearying …it was draining…and with any luck it would be something he could focus on to exclusion of all else.

"Hey Duo…we're here…you know that…" Quatre wanted his friend to smile again.

Duo wasn't in the mood to take things lightly…"You shouldn't be…"

"Shouldn't be?"

"Yeah…anyone stupid enough to get near me dies…"

"I'm not dead Duo…"

"Yet…"

Quatre smacked Duo on the back of his head. "Stop it Duo...you're being more of an idiot than usual."

Duo couldn't help but grin. His friend rarely called anyone names and here he had successfully carried it out numerous times in the matter of minutes. "Okay Quatre…lets just get to work…I'll try not to enter anymore bouts of self pity ne?"

"Just make sure you don't Mr Maxwell" Quatre tried to level a stern glare at his friend, but couldn't stop the look of relief that flooded his face. Duo would be fine he was sure of it.

"Lets get back to work guys…we have a shitload to do…" As he divided the work between them, Duo let his easy smile slip back into place…locking down on the void and feeling that peace of nothing thread its way through him.

~~**~~

To be Continued

Well? Did you like it…yes, no, maybe? Was it too boring? And I am pretty sure I spelt romelfeller wrong but I didn't have my manga's with me to check it. It was more of a background. Next chapter is a Lemon…already written, I just have to type it up cause not even my laptop battery can last 16 hours /snicker

~Arith