Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Witches Shoe ❯ Chapter 2
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: deathangel125 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Romance / Suspense | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 12.26.2015 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 290 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Romance / Suspense | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 12.26.2015 | Pages: 5 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 290 | Status: Work In Progress
Warnings and disclaimers in first section. Don’t forget
to look or you might get a surprise or three!
Barely sparing Heero and his bleeding nose a glance, Trowa walked forward and sat in the co-pilot’s seat, “That wasn’t in the plan. Allbright was a little too eager to get his hands on a…suspected smuggler. His orders were to ask you to take your ship to Strident so we could talk.”
“He said he was going to put me in a cell.”
Trowa nodded. He, of all people, knew the hell I had gone through. He’d been the one to save me from my death. “He doesn’t have the authority to lock you up for anything, Duo, I promise.”
I had forgotten about my naked state until Heero groused, voice muffled by his hand, “Please put some clothes on and find me a towel or something. I’ll come with you.”
“Like hell. Remember the last time you came to my room, Heero? They’re won’t be a replay. You can find a towel in the galley. Trowa can come with me and explain what the fuck’s going on.”
Heero didn’t give me a reply, turning on his heel and walking in the direction I had indicated with a jerk of a thumb. Trowa followed me, staying silent until I reached my room. As I dug for some clothes, his quiet question was easy to hear, “You and Heero were…?”
“Nah. The night before the end of the war he came to my room and kissed me. When I kissed him back, the bastard decked me.” Finding a pair of thin cotton shorts, I slid them on and wait for the next question he was bound to ask.
“Did you want to be with him?”
Pulling a t-shirt over my head, I shrugged, “Not with him. I guess at the time I just needed someone. I was so damn tired.” Glancing over, I saw a line on his forehead; he was giving the matter entirely too much thought. “Listen, I was so tired of the fighting and killing, I probably would have taken comfort from Zechs if he had appeared in my room.”
“Why didn’t you say anything? I never heard you complain.”
“What good would it do? We were all tired and scared. No point in heaping my problems on everyone else.” I could see this wasn’t the answer he wanted and changed the subject as I sat on the corner of my bunk, giving my magazine one last look. “Why do I need to go to Strident? What’s so important you sicced the PSP on my ass?”
“Quatre’s been kidnapped.”
Of all the things I had been expecting, this wasn’t even in the solar system. “When? By who? Is he okay?”
Coming to sit beside me, Trowa laced his fingers together between his knees, “He was taken ten days ago while en route from his home to work. So far, he’s fine. We’ve received videos to prove he is still alive and being taken care of. As long as the peace negotiations are cancelled, he will be released. We have been given ample time to get through the red tape to cancel the negotiations and we must promise that they never be scheduled again.”
I might not pay a lot of attention to the news, but as someone that had fought half my life for peace, I keep up with any news of the treaties and negotiations that took place. “The negotiations are scheduled to take place in two months, right? So we have that long to find Quatre?”
“That is what we’ve been informed.”
Every alarm in my head was going off. Hating to bring it up but knowing I had to, I put a hand on Trowa’s knee, startling him so bad he jumped, “You do realize they won’t let him live?”
“I know that, Duo. So do Une and Relena.” His voice was dull and his eyes remained focused on where my hand was. Guessing I was making him uncomfortable, I moved it, “Quatre is too important to let die. Not only is he a Winner, he is an integral part of the L4 government. His…removal could start a rebellion.”
We haven’t spoken in years, Quatre and I, but I still felt the bond formed between us, one that couldn’t be broken with time or distance. Yet... “Trowa, this really sucks and you know I’d do anything to help, but I’m just a salvager…a nobody. What could you need me for?”
“Heero managed to trace the last video to its origin. We don’t know for certain that it is where Quatre is, but it will give us a starting point.”
A feeling of dread washed over me. I really didn’t want to hear what he had to say next, knowing I wasn’t going to like it one damn bit. “And?”
“The transmission originated from Witches Shoe.”
The Shoe was worse than Sodom ever thought of. Sodom has rules, of a sort. If you don’t abide by those rules while you were there, your body would be found days later with no way to tell who had done the killing. The Shoe has no rules. If you went in and said the wrong thing to the wrong person, you were dead. In a room of a hundred people, not one would admit to seeing a thing even if the murder had occurred on a stage and lit by a spotlight.
Thinking long and hard about it, I decided I could navigate the minefield we smugglers call the Shoe Pit. I’d done it before when having some cargo that needed to be unloaded in a hurry, but it had never been something to look forward to; the Shoe is not one of my favorite places. Sodom and Gomorrah were third in insanity levels, Koleniko was second, but the Shoe topped the list of sucky places to die. “I’ll do it,” I agreed finally, knowing Quatre would risk his life for me if I had needed him to. Hopefully, I’ll never be that desperate; if Quatre came looking for me, his pretty face would have him sold to slavers in seconds. “I’ll need a way to get the info back to you, though.”
Trowa’s face took on an awkward expression and I had the horrible notion he wasn’t quite done, “You have to take one of us with you.”
“No fuckin’ way, man. Forget it. I go alone or no deal.”
“Une sent you a message. I don’t know what it says, but she asked that you listen to it before you make your decision.”
I was already feeling itchy with the knowledge that my ship was attached to another with Not-so-bright at the helm. Learning that Une had sent me a message made me downright twitchy. Holding out my hand, I leveled a look at Trowa, “Let me have it.”
“Heero has it. This is his assignment.”
That actually made sense. Trowa was too emotionally involved. Heero had no emotions, other than loathing for me, or so I thought at the time. It only took a minute to get back to the flight deck, where I held out my hand and narrowed my eyes at Heero, who had managed to get the bleeding stopped. “The message from Une.”
The small disk is what she usually left for me. I queued it up, doing my best not to look like I had a gun pointed at my back, which is exactly how I felt. It’s rare that I’m caught off guard by anything and I didn’t like the feeling, not at all. Une’s voice filled the room, low and crisp as always, “Duo, I must ask you to help us. You are the only one I know with the contacts in that part of the solar system. I know you don’t need a partner, but I implore you to take Yuy or Barton with you as back-up. If you do, I will triple your usual fee. As soon as I receive confirmation, I’ll wire the funds into your normal account. Please, give it some thought. We need you on this.”
Well, well, well…that was an interesting development. I wasn’t surprised by the message or that Une had called me Duo. Friends and close acquaintances again; oddly enough, the woman that tried to kill us all numerous times was a friend, not a close one, but a friend nonetheless. A friend I had done a number of jobs for in the past, as long as it was kept quiet. The eyes I could feel boring holes into the back of my head had told me my secret was out of the bag.
Turning, I looked at both of them carefully, studying each of them in turn. There had to be a reason Une had asked me to take one of them along, something I would likely learn later, but her request made it possible for me to stare at them until they squirmed…well, they did the equivalent of squirming, considering who they are. There was no way to explain I wasn’t looking at them as people I had known for years, had gone through hell and back again with, but as another smuggler would look at them.
I started with Heero, imagining him in different clothing. He stood rigidly, hands open at his sides. It was obvious he had military training or the equivalent in the past and that could come in handy in a place like the Shoe. I actually considered taking him until I got to his eyes, staring back at me with a silent challenge. Abruptly, I remembered that he looked at everyone that way. In other words, we’d be dead before we got ten feet from the ship because of someone answering that silent challenge.
Moving my eyes to Trowa I began a slow perusal from his feet up, stopping and starting again when I realized I was imagining him with no clothes. What can I say? As a teenager he was hot and the man he has become is hot with that whole ‘I’m gonna combust’ thing going for him. I envisioned his feet in high boots, not with laces but thick straps and buckles. For pants I could see him wearing some of the thick britches dock workers wear, or even the leather some of the smugglers prefer…I’ve got two pairs myself. The shirt would have to be a tank, something to show off the obvious muscle. Cover it all with a grey duster and he could actually pass in the strange world I lived in.
Deciding this, I looked at more than his clothes, studying his posture. He was leaning again, this time on the back of the co-pilot’s chair, arms crossed in front of his chest. The stance seemed almost lazy, but I knew he could get to me in the blink of an eye. Getting to his face I found those green eyes watching me curiously. What sold me was the seemingly amused twitch of his lips. “Hope you’re ready for this, Tro.”
Heero wasn’t thrilled with my choice, “I have more experience in field work.”
Propping a bare foot against the console, I stared him down. Honestly, I’m probably one of the few people that’s dared to do such a thing and live, not real sure why he doesn’t just shoot me and be on his merry way. After a moment, he looked away; I had won again, see? “Don’t take this the wrong way, Heero, but field experience doesn’t mean shit where we’re goin’. You’d be fingered as authority five seconds after stepping off ship and dead a minute after that. I’d be lyin’ right beside you for bringing a cop onto the Shoe.”
“What’s so different about him?”
I had to wonder if I’d scraped off a layer of pride when he jerked a thumb at Trowa, who merely raised an eyebrow. Realizing I was picturing Trowa in a long coat and nothing else, I cleared my throat, noting the way his eyes came back to me. “He’s a cham, Heero, like me.”
“A cham?”
“Chameleon. He can blend in anywhere. It’s not something that can be taught with training. Either he goes, or I go alone.”
It’s a rare thing to have someone like Heero Yuy by the short hairs, but I did just that. Une had given me the decision of who to take, or I could go alone. It took a second to sink into his thick skull, but once it did, I saw the fight go out of him. “Very well. I trust both of you will do all you can to get the information we need.”
“There’s something we might need to address, boys.”
Heero may have been resigned to my choice, but he didn’t like it and that was apparent as he pinned me with a glare. “What exactly is that?”
“You guys may think this part of space is pretty deserted, but I guarantee the word’s gone out that I’ve been boarded by the PSP. People are gonna be wonderin’ how I managed to get out without a scratch or jail time. No one gets boarded by the PSP without being arrested. Space cops are too thorough for that.”
“You mean they search until they find something every time?” Trowa frowned and I knew he was thinking of the odds that every ship was carrying illegals.
“I mean if they don’t find something, they bring their own kind of proof. All of my cargo is legal, but I wasn’t letting them back there so they could miraculously find weapons, drugs, or both. Doesn’t anyone wonder how their conviction rate is so high? Amazingly, most of the prisoners never make it to trial; instead, they go missing mysteriously or are killed during a fight while in their cells.”
“You think Allbright was going to plant evidence?” Heero’s tone wasn’t as disbelieving as I thought it should have been, giving me hope he actually believed me.
“I think he was awfully pissed when I wouldn’t let them search the cargo bay. That’s when he told me I was being arrested for murder.” I swear I thought Heero’s brain was going to smoke at the implications. As much as he hates to admit it, he knows me. I might evade or misdirect a question I don’t want to answer, but I don’t lie. It makes my life a total bitch, but there are some things I refuse to change about myself. “So how we gonna make it look like I got away?”
“I might have an idea,” Trowa was watching me again, making me want to squirm. His eyes are damn…penetrating when they want to be. “What if you were arrested but managed to get away with some help from an old friend?”
“Give me details,” I leaned forward, throwing my leg over the arm of my chair and leaving my other foot on the console. If Trowa knew me better and he wasn’t with Quatre, he might have understood it for the invitation it was. “I’m not just gonna go willingly with None-too-bright over there.”
“Follow their ship to Strident, where a Preventer agent will take you into custody,” he nodded at Heero. “After a day, I’ll come and get you out.”
This was a good plan, but I had to know one thing, “Where will I be when I’m placed under arrest? In a detention cell?”
When Heero sighed, I understood he realized how difficult this was for me to agree with. “It’s the only thing that will look authentic, Duo. Can you handle it?”
Memories of the last time I had been in a cell filled my mind. It took everything I had to block them, replacing those images with ones of Quatre from the times I had spent with him. “I can handle it. I need you to get some things. I’ll make a list,” I told Trowa. “You have to get exactly what I say, no substitutions. Who’s gonna make the ride in with me?”
“Heero will have to,” said Trowa. I guess he realized he might get noticed if he got off my ship in Strident. “He can send your list over my com. It’s encrypted with a program Heero came up with. Very few people could break it.”
To give myself a little credit, I didn’t tell them I could break it. It was understood I could anyways. Taking my foot off the panel, I raised my hands. “Looks like we have a plan.”
Barely sparing Heero and his bleeding nose a glance, Trowa walked forward and sat in the co-pilot’s seat, “That wasn’t in the plan. Allbright was a little too eager to get his hands on a…suspected smuggler. His orders were to ask you to take your ship to Strident so we could talk.”
“He said he was going to put me in a cell.”
Trowa nodded. He, of all people, knew the hell I had gone through. He’d been the one to save me from my death. “He doesn’t have the authority to lock you up for anything, Duo, I promise.”
I had forgotten about my naked state until Heero groused, voice muffled by his hand, “Please put some clothes on and find me a towel or something. I’ll come with you.”
“Like hell. Remember the last time you came to my room, Heero? They’re won’t be a replay. You can find a towel in the galley. Trowa can come with me and explain what the fuck’s going on.”
Heero didn’t give me a reply, turning on his heel and walking in the direction I had indicated with a jerk of a thumb. Trowa followed me, staying silent until I reached my room. As I dug for some clothes, his quiet question was easy to hear, “You and Heero were…?”
“Nah. The night before the end of the war he came to my room and kissed me. When I kissed him back, the bastard decked me.” Finding a pair of thin cotton shorts, I slid them on and wait for the next question he was bound to ask.
“Did you want to be with him?”
Pulling a t-shirt over my head, I shrugged, “Not with him. I guess at the time I just needed someone. I was so damn tired.” Glancing over, I saw a line on his forehead; he was giving the matter entirely too much thought. “Listen, I was so tired of the fighting and killing, I probably would have taken comfort from Zechs if he had appeared in my room.”
“Why didn’t you say anything? I never heard you complain.”
“What good would it do? We were all tired and scared. No point in heaping my problems on everyone else.” I could see this wasn’t the answer he wanted and changed the subject as I sat on the corner of my bunk, giving my magazine one last look. “Why do I need to go to Strident? What’s so important you sicced the PSP on my ass?”
“Quatre’s been kidnapped.”
Of all the things I had been expecting, this wasn’t even in the solar system. “When? By who? Is he okay?”
Coming to sit beside me, Trowa laced his fingers together between his knees, “He was taken ten days ago while en route from his home to work. So far, he’s fine. We’ve received videos to prove he is still alive and being taken care of. As long as the peace negotiations are cancelled, he will be released. We have been given ample time to get through the red tape to cancel the negotiations and we must promise that they never be scheduled again.”
I might not pay a lot of attention to the news, but as someone that had fought half my life for peace, I keep up with any news of the treaties and negotiations that took place. “The negotiations are scheduled to take place in two months, right? So we have that long to find Quatre?”
“That is what we’ve been informed.”
Every alarm in my head was going off. Hating to bring it up but knowing I had to, I put a hand on Trowa’s knee, startling him so bad he jumped, “You do realize they won’t let him live?”
“I know that, Duo. So do Une and Relena.” His voice was dull and his eyes remained focused on where my hand was. Guessing I was making him uncomfortable, I moved it, “Quatre is too important to let die. Not only is he a Winner, he is an integral part of the L4 government. His…removal could start a rebellion.”
We haven’t spoken in years, Quatre and I, but I still felt the bond formed between us, one that couldn’t be broken with time or distance. Yet... “Trowa, this really sucks and you know I’d do anything to help, but I’m just a salvager…a nobody. What could you need me for?”
“Heero managed to trace the last video to its origin. We don’t know for certain that it is where Quatre is, but it will give us a starting point.”
A feeling of dread washed over me. I really didn’t want to hear what he had to say next, knowing I wasn’t going to like it one damn bit. “And?”
“The transmission originated from Witches Shoe.”
The Shoe was worse than Sodom ever thought of. Sodom has rules, of a sort. If you don’t abide by those rules while you were there, your body would be found days later with no way to tell who had done the killing. The Shoe has no rules. If you went in and said the wrong thing to the wrong person, you were dead. In a room of a hundred people, not one would admit to seeing a thing even if the murder had occurred on a stage and lit by a spotlight.
Thinking long and hard about it, I decided I could navigate the minefield we smugglers call the Shoe Pit. I’d done it before when having some cargo that needed to be unloaded in a hurry, but it had never been something to look forward to; the Shoe is not one of my favorite places. Sodom and Gomorrah were third in insanity levels, Koleniko was second, but the Shoe topped the list of sucky places to die. “I’ll do it,” I agreed finally, knowing Quatre would risk his life for me if I had needed him to. Hopefully, I’ll never be that desperate; if Quatre came looking for me, his pretty face would have him sold to slavers in seconds. “I’ll need a way to get the info back to you, though.”
Trowa’s face took on an awkward expression and I had the horrible notion he wasn’t quite done, “You have to take one of us with you.”
“No fuckin’ way, man. Forget it. I go alone or no deal.”
“Une sent you a message. I don’t know what it says, but she asked that you listen to it before you make your decision.”
I was already feeling itchy with the knowledge that my ship was attached to another with Not-so-bright at the helm. Learning that Une had sent me a message made me downright twitchy. Holding out my hand, I leveled a look at Trowa, “Let me have it.”
“Heero has it. This is his assignment.”
That actually made sense. Trowa was too emotionally involved. Heero had no emotions, other than loathing for me, or so I thought at the time. It only took a minute to get back to the flight deck, where I held out my hand and narrowed my eyes at Heero, who had managed to get the bleeding stopped. “The message from Une.”
The small disk is what she usually left for me. I queued it up, doing my best not to look like I had a gun pointed at my back, which is exactly how I felt. It’s rare that I’m caught off guard by anything and I didn’t like the feeling, not at all. Une’s voice filled the room, low and crisp as always, “Duo, I must ask you to help us. You are the only one I know with the contacts in that part of the solar system. I know you don’t need a partner, but I implore you to take Yuy or Barton with you as back-up. If you do, I will triple your usual fee. As soon as I receive confirmation, I’ll wire the funds into your normal account. Please, give it some thought. We need you on this.”
Well, well, well…that was an interesting development. I wasn’t surprised by the message or that Une had called me Duo. Friends and close acquaintances again; oddly enough, the woman that tried to kill us all numerous times was a friend, not a close one, but a friend nonetheless. A friend I had done a number of jobs for in the past, as long as it was kept quiet. The eyes I could feel boring holes into the back of my head had told me my secret was out of the bag.
Turning, I looked at both of them carefully, studying each of them in turn. There had to be a reason Une had asked me to take one of them along, something I would likely learn later, but her request made it possible for me to stare at them until they squirmed…well, they did the equivalent of squirming, considering who they are. There was no way to explain I wasn’t looking at them as people I had known for years, had gone through hell and back again with, but as another smuggler would look at them.
I started with Heero, imagining him in different clothing. He stood rigidly, hands open at his sides. It was obvious he had military training or the equivalent in the past and that could come in handy in a place like the Shoe. I actually considered taking him until I got to his eyes, staring back at me with a silent challenge. Abruptly, I remembered that he looked at everyone that way. In other words, we’d be dead before we got ten feet from the ship because of someone answering that silent challenge.
Moving my eyes to Trowa I began a slow perusal from his feet up, stopping and starting again when I realized I was imagining him with no clothes. What can I say? As a teenager he was hot and the man he has become is hot with that whole ‘I’m gonna combust’ thing going for him. I envisioned his feet in high boots, not with laces but thick straps and buckles. For pants I could see him wearing some of the thick britches dock workers wear, or even the leather some of the smugglers prefer…I’ve got two pairs myself. The shirt would have to be a tank, something to show off the obvious muscle. Cover it all with a grey duster and he could actually pass in the strange world I lived in.
Deciding this, I looked at more than his clothes, studying his posture. He was leaning again, this time on the back of the co-pilot’s chair, arms crossed in front of his chest. The stance seemed almost lazy, but I knew he could get to me in the blink of an eye. Getting to his face I found those green eyes watching me curiously. What sold me was the seemingly amused twitch of his lips. “Hope you’re ready for this, Tro.”
Heero wasn’t thrilled with my choice, “I have more experience in field work.”
Propping a bare foot against the console, I stared him down. Honestly, I’m probably one of the few people that’s dared to do such a thing and live, not real sure why he doesn’t just shoot me and be on his merry way. After a moment, he looked away; I had won again, see? “Don’t take this the wrong way, Heero, but field experience doesn’t mean shit where we’re goin’. You’d be fingered as authority five seconds after stepping off ship and dead a minute after that. I’d be lyin’ right beside you for bringing a cop onto the Shoe.”
“What’s so different about him?”
I had to wonder if I’d scraped off a layer of pride when he jerked a thumb at Trowa, who merely raised an eyebrow. Realizing I was picturing Trowa in a long coat and nothing else, I cleared my throat, noting the way his eyes came back to me. “He’s a cham, Heero, like me.”
“A cham?”
“Chameleon. He can blend in anywhere. It’s not something that can be taught with training. Either he goes, or I go alone.”
It’s a rare thing to have someone like Heero Yuy by the short hairs, but I did just that. Une had given me the decision of who to take, or I could go alone. It took a second to sink into his thick skull, but once it did, I saw the fight go out of him. “Very well. I trust both of you will do all you can to get the information we need.”
“There’s something we might need to address, boys.”
Heero may have been resigned to my choice, but he didn’t like it and that was apparent as he pinned me with a glare. “What exactly is that?”
“You guys may think this part of space is pretty deserted, but I guarantee the word’s gone out that I’ve been boarded by the PSP. People are gonna be wonderin’ how I managed to get out without a scratch or jail time. No one gets boarded by the PSP without being arrested. Space cops are too thorough for that.”
“You mean they search until they find something every time?” Trowa frowned and I knew he was thinking of the odds that every ship was carrying illegals.
“I mean if they don’t find something, they bring their own kind of proof. All of my cargo is legal, but I wasn’t letting them back there so they could miraculously find weapons, drugs, or both. Doesn’t anyone wonder how their conviction rate is so high? Amazingly, most of the prisoners never make it to trial; instead, they go missing mysteriously or are killed during a fight while in their cells.”
“You think Allbright was going to plant evidence?” Heero’s tone wasn’t as disbelieving as I thought it should have been, giving me hope he actually believed me.
“I think he was awfully pissed when I wouldn’t let them search the cargo bay. That’s when he told me I was being arrested for murder.” I swear I thought Heero’s brain was going to smoke at the implications. As much as he hates to admit it, he knows me. I might evade or misdirect a question I don’t want to answer, but I don’t lie. It makes my life a total bitch, but there are some things I refuse to change about myself. “So how we gonna make it look like I got away?”
“I might have an idea,” Trowa was watching me again, making me want to squirm. His eyes are damn…penetrating when they want to be. “What if you were arrested but managed to get away with some help from an old friend?”
“Give me details,” I leaned forward, throwing my leg over the arm of my chair and leaving my other foot on the console. If Trowa knew me better and he wasn’t with Quatre, he might have understood it for the invitation it was. “I’m not just gonna go willingly with None-too-bright over there.”
“Follow their ship to Strident, where a Preventer agent will take you into custody,” he nodded at Heero. “After a day, I’ll come and get you out.”
This was a good plan, but I had to know one thing, “Where will I be when I’m placed under arrest? In a detention cell?”
When Heero sighed, I understood he realized how difficult this was for me to agree with. “It’s the only thing that will look authentic, Duo. Can you handle it?”
Memories of the last time I had been in a cell filled my mind. It took everything I had to block them, replacing those images with ones of Quatre from the times I had spent with him. “I can handle it. I need you to get some things. I’ll make a list,” I told Trowa. “You have to get exactly what I say, no substitutions. Who’s gonna make the ride in with me?”
“Heero will have to,” said Trowa. I guess he realized he might get noticed if he got off my ship in Strident. “He can send your list over my com. It’s encrypted with a program Heero came up with. Very few people could break it.”
To give myself a little credit, I didn’t tell them I could break it. It was understood I could anyways. Taking my foot off the panel, I raised my hands. “Looks like we have a plan.”