As the door to the safe house opened Quatre looked up from his book and reached over to loosely grip the gun sitting on the end table next to him. He was expecting Heero, since the other boy had paged when he was finished putting his gundam in the hanger. However, he nearly dropped the firearm in surprise when Heero walked through the door. The other boy was covered in a fine, white ash. Heero managed to shut the door and take several dusty steps before doubling over with harsh coughs. Quatre stood in alarm, moving closer to him.
"What happened, Heero?"
"Mission completed." Cough, cough. "But the explosives' detonation caused…" Cough. "a major dust cloud." Cough, cough, cough. "I was too close."
Quatre thought that that last statement was a tad understated, but a miserable glare from red, irritated eyes stopped him from making any comments.
"Umm… Why don't you go upstairs and take a shower to get rid of all that dust, and then when you get out, there's some eye drops and cough drops under the sink. Those should help with the pain in your eyes and throat."
A tired nod between two more coughing fits where all the reply that Quatre received as Heero trudged up the stairs. Footprints of white dust followed his path and Quatre sighed and went to get the vacuum.
Heero's shower time was nearly triple his usual. He found that instead of just rinsing off, the dust turned to mud, which then had to be scrubbed off. When the water finally ran clear, the no longer dusty teenager got out, dried off, and got dressed. Absently coughing, he found the eye and cough drops easily and immediately put two drops in each eye. The eye drops were something he had used before; piloting for long hours led to dry, strained eyes and the "tears" helped sometimes.
The cough drops Heero examined a little bit suspiciously. With his augmented immune system, he had had no prior occasion to use them. He had just flipped the package of "Halls sugar-free Mountain Menthol" over to read the drug facts when an unexpected cough had him doubled over. Forgetting about checking the active ingredients, Heero ripped open the package and hastily unwrapped what looked like a white hard candy. He bit into it and promptly spit it back out again. He narrowed his no longer quite as red eyes at the pieces. He doubted the shards would help his throat any, but Quatre did say they would help. Resolutely Heero opened another wrapper.
Duo strolled into the hall whistling. He set his duffle down and then came up behind Quatre. Raising an eyebrow in puzzlement he asked the blond,
"Hey, what cha' vacuuming up?"
"Oh, hey, Duo. I'm just getting this dust up after Heero. His mission had a slight hitch with the explosives and he got caught in the resulting cloud. I sent him up to get cleaned up and to get some meds for his eyes and throat."
"Ah. I'll go up and see how he's doing. Sometimes there can be some pretty nasty toxins in that dust."
Quatre just nodded and turned the machine back on.
Duo hopped around him and followed the trail up the stairs, down the hall, and leaned on the door jam of the open bathroom door. He was taken aback when Heero didn't even seem to register his appearance. Looking closer he could tell the other boy was mission focused on something. Duo watched. His sometimes partner would unwrap a cough drop, crunch on it a few times and then spit it out. He started to grin and then chuckle. Glaring eyes turned his way.
"You know buddy, those things work better if you suck on them."
Heero blinked and then flipped over the package to find the directions. This time when he unwrap a drop and stuck it in his mouth, he didn't chew.
Duo walked away with more giggles threatening. Who would have thought that "Mr. I-can-set-my-own-bones" didn't know what to do with cough drops?
