Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Midnight Aloha ❯ Five ( Chapter 5 )

The information didn't make much sense. Four people who were listed among the victims of a massive explosion on an island the rest of the way across the pacific were undeniably here in Honolulu and one of them was cute enough to make Duo forget to breath even now, in his office. One of them hit much harder than normal and another was out there farther than Relena the day that Heero had pledged to love and honor both Quatre and Trowa. The other, was just a kid and Duo wanted to find him as much as he wanted to find Crawford. He whispered the word over, tongue moving back and forth over the edge of his upper lip. Crawford.

Of course, he didn't look like a nice man on paper. In his time, he'd been wanted in 23 counts of murder, several kidnappings, been the suspected leader of a terrorist group called Schwarz, who according to the records died in an conflict between an ultra elite and highly questionable group called white and Schwarz's employer Estet. Terrorist. Killer. Looks weren't everything though, Duo thought, or he'd be with Wufei. Or Heero.

Mika had gone to find them some breakfast and he hoped some painkillers. He didn't know why the woman worked the hours she did. College student, math major, total babe, if one went in for girls too, he mused. She was smart though and tolerant and his best friend, really.

"Breaded omelet okay, Duo?" She said, cheerfully, a stack of files and a brown basket from the cafeteria on top in her arms.

"Yeah, sure. I found him, here." Duo shoved a print out of Crawford across the desk.

"Umm," Mika said shoving it to the side so she could set her stack down. "He looks like a business man. Who is he?"

"Best damn vampire I ever kissed. According to the files, he's about 300 years old."

"I want to know what diet he's on," she complained as she picked up the print out. "You kissed him? Did he kiss you back?"

"Yeah," Duo said, feeling like his seat was a little too something, like he should be up and floating? "Yeah, he kissed me back. Kissed me like he'd open me right up and taste my heart."

She set his wrapped breakfast down in front of him, and a coffee, with a, "You need coffee. I found some files on him, paper files no less. Some wacko in OZ took to researching him. It seems they were researching time travel. Time travel, Duo. The premise was that whatever they were doing that caused that explosion, threw the four of them into time and they would stay there until they were triggered out of it."

"What kind of trigger?" Duo asked biting into his bread coated omelet, tugging the top file from the stack. "This is freaky, really. Maybe they're setting up a con? Gonna try to sell people this time travel racket?"

"Want me to swab your mouth and see if he left any genetic samples behind? We have his DNA profile."

"Oh, Mika! That's gross," he said, tongue moving around his mouth as if it could feel foreign genetic material. "Get a swab."

On the far side of the stack, behind the cafeteria basket, she pulled a collection kit. "Somehow, I just knew you'd say that!"

He stuck his tongue out at her. With her he felt comfortable. She knew what was in his paper file and on paper, he was just about as bad as Crawford, though maybe his own was coated in the words that war heroes got coated in. Mika knew all that stuff, and though she'd flinched a little when he'd told her some of the details, mostly she just accepted him as he was, which let him move beyond some of the protective habits. "Yeah, so come on. Kiss me, baby!"

"You wish," she said, repressing a small laugh as she poked the swab into his mouth, swabbing it around really well. "It's been a few hours since the Great Kiss, but if it was really deep and you haven't eaten since, maybe we'll get lucky and as for you getting a kiss from me, that's as close as you get."

"Mgrph."

"Okay, open up." He did and she put the swab in a sterile protective cover. "I'll get this down to the lab. What about giving Quatre a call? See if he can feel anything with his empathy?"

Empathy? Duo nodded, though more to acknowledge her than to agree with her. "Thanks Mika. You think I'm crazy? Cuz this guy got to me so much?"

Dropping the specimen in her sweater pocket, she tilted her head and smiled. "The heart does what it does, you know? If things clicked between you like that, there has to be something."

"Yeah, maybe." He smiled, even though he could feel the demon clawing at his shirt collar, hissing over his braid, into his ear, ::Worthless! Death! Not good enough!:: "So! Go find out if our boy is three hundred years old or not."

"Yes, sir."