Disclaimer: Be shocked! I intend to have a boring disclaimer. I do not own Gundam Wing. But since this is as unadorned as the Sahara at Christmastime, the explanation is: It's monotonous and has too many boring battle scenes. Onwards!
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It was a delicate mission and had to be handled with care. The timing was particularly important, planting the package so that it would be ready when the Gundam pilots got there, but wouldn't go off too soon, and so that Zechs could still get out before they caught him. He really, really didn't want them to catch him.
But it was not the timing that had Zechs hesitating with the package under his arm. He wasn't sure if he trusted the Gundam pilots not to, well, screw this up. He trusted Treize, he just wasn't sure Treize was right about this. And it was his last chance to back out, take the package with him again, eliminate the possibility the pilots would destroy its delicate contents. Was Treize crazy? Trusting this sort of package to the Gundam pilots, betraying that he knew their whereabouts, and so causing them to move so he didn't know their whereabouts… he should back out now. It would cause a lot less problems.
Thing was, if he did that, Treize would so kill him. Zechs sighed. He'd kidded himself with the idea that backing out was actually an option. Especially not at this point. It was time to go, now, and he couldn't get out with the package as well. Zechs set it down in the exact right location and put the card on top. Then he left, still having mixed feelings about the whole thing.
ooo
With their usual good humor (i.e., Duo chattering away while Quatre listened and the rest perfected their emo I'm-not-listening looks), the pilots returned to what passed for home at the moment. Looking decidedly relieved, they scattered, mostly away from Duo. His ebullience was simply intolerable for an extended period of time.
Of course, they contracted even more quickly than they'd spread out in the scant seconds it took them to realize there was an intruder. It was in the form of a box, at the end of Wufei's bed. It was a brown cardboard box, exactly like what you'd send through the mail, except there was no postage, and no evidence that the post office had ever had anything to do with it, and besides, it had found its way inside without any of the occupants' assistance. It was marked URGENT: OPEN BEFORE 2:15 LOCAL TIME, and it was sitting at the end of Wufei's bed.
It was really rather interesting to see what order the guns came out and pointed at it, and at which part they pointed. Several went towards the middle, where there was an address burned lightly into the box with a laser – untraceable. Or rather, where it would have been an address, but in this case just said CHANG WUFEI.
Duo was the first to spot the card on top. "Oooh, look, a receipt." He commented.
"Duo, don't touch anything." Trowa broke his silence. It was too late. Being very careful to stay well away from the box, not touching it or breathing on it or anything, Duo swiped the card from the top.
"Ouch!" He cried, as it automatically combusted from where he'd touched it. He waved it around to stop the burning, but the card was well on its way.
"What does it say?" Wufei inquired.
"Erm – et Meira – " Duo dropped the note as the flames encroached. "The last letter had a stick and maybe a bit of a loop. If it was the last letter."
"Duo…" Heero growled.
"I told you not to touch anything." Trowa informed him.
"Well, excuse me!" Duo was affronted. "All I did was – "
"Save it for later." Trowa suggested. Duo thought that might be a good idea, seeing as Trowa looked really tired, and when Trowa was tired, he got cranky, and when Trowa got cranky, people died. Duo was no stranger to death, but he liked to preserve the idea that death (or, at least, its incarnation in Duo) couldn't be killed. "Heero?"
The Perfect Soldier was already moving forward. Duo got out of his way and returned to the grudging safety of the other pilots. After a quick check of the outside of the box, Heero opened the lid. He grunted, a rather odd grunt that the other pilots, despite their close association with him, couldn't interpret. Duo thought this was most unfair. He'd memorized all of the meanings of Heero's grunts, and now the other boy came out with a new one? Totally not cool.
"Well?" Wufei asked.
Heero's next grunt was more interpretable. It meant 'see for yourself.' Wufei cautiously moved forwards, his gun not wavering from its target, until he could see inside the box.
"Duo." He said once he could see inside. "What did the note say again?"
"Et Meira. With another bit on the end."
"Possibly an N?" Wufei inquired.
"Well, now you mention it, it did look a lot like an N. Or maybe an M, really, because I couldn't really see as it was charring, stupid flammable stuff, but – "
"Duo, I think now would be a good time to shut up." Quatre told him. "What's inside?"
Wufei gave a grunt rather like Heero's. Since it had been inspected by two pilots (Duo didn't count) and not shut or otherwise defused, destroyed, etc., the ones who hadn't seen inside went ahead and looked, with a rustle of guns being put back… wherever they usually disappeared to. Quatre's face went mushy, and even Trowa's softened. Duo looked confused.
"It's a puppy." Quatre cooed, looking at the little animal curled inside of the box. Its sides rose and fell slowly as it slept.
Wufei pushed the others aside and raised his gun.
"Wufei, what are you doing?" Duo inquired.
"It's not from one of us. Someone has infiltrated us. The thing is probably covered in bugs. We should move."
"Well, yeah, but that's no reason to shoot it."
"Meiran." Wufei replied. It took a little while for this to sink in; Wufei didn't talk about his wife much.
"You still can't just shoot it!" Duo protested. Wufei cocked his gun. Someone had gotten too close. "Fei, it's – it's – dishonorable!" Wufei raised one eyebrow, a trick that was constantly getting him covetous glares from assorted pilots. "It's, um, weaker than you…" Duo supplied. "And…" Telling himself to think was not thinking efficiently, the American thought with disgust. "It's a woman!" He decided finally, to a collective blink. "Okay, a doggie-woman. But it is a woman! Remember, Feiffers, you don't kill women. Or bleeding hearts. And I bet it's a bleeding heart, too!"
Wufei grunted. "You kill it, then." He told Heero, picking the dog up by the folds of its neck and shoving it at him. The dog blinked slowly awake, and blearily blinked at Heero. Quatre wondered how Wufei could avoid being won over. It was so cute. And it was obviously exuding sleepy-warmth.
"Getting Heero to off it's just as bad." Duo assured him. "It's the same thing, really, but maybe worse."
"So get rid of it."
"But it's a recognizable dog. They'll trace whoever has it. Or where it's been. Back to us." Quatre reasoned.
"We can't keep a dog." Trowa countered. "It just wouldn't work. What would we do with it on missions? And they shed everywhere. It would leave traces. Besides, it makes us that much more recognizable."
"We can't ditch the dog either." Duo pointed out. "We're stuck with it. We can't kill it, we can't get rid of it, and we have to find something to do with it during missions."
"Duo, do you want the dog?" Wufei inquired. Duo backed off hurriedly.
"Not me! I just think it would be nice to have a dog around. I think we should all keep the dog. Since there's no other option."
"You keep it." Wufei shoved the dog at Trowa, who liked animals. Trowa shook his head, which caused an interesting interaction between his hair and his eye. The dog swung around to hang in front of Quatre. It was starting to wake up now, and kicked in protest at the way it was being treated.
"I can't either. Besides, it was addressed to you, Wufei. It's your dog." Quatre told him. "Also, Rashid's allergic. I couldn't do that to him."
"We all keep the dog. We'd end up doing that anyway." Duo pointed out. "I claim responsibility for feeding it!" He looked at the looks he was being given and grinned. "Dibs. You'll want some too before you get stuck with picking up its poo."
Heero ended up with this duty, as he refused to do anything other than grunt in the sudden rush to claim the nicer responsibilities that followed.
"So now that we're keeping it, what's its name?" Duo asked. Wufei stiffened.
"It has a name, Duo. That's a bit of why Wufei wanted to kill it." Quatre looked at where the dog hung at Wufei's side. "Wufei, you have got to learn to hold an animal. You can't just leave it dangling there."
"Why not?"
Quatre sighed. "It's not stable. The poor thing is scared, and you're hurting it. Look." He began shaping Wufei's hands around the dog. Wufei ended up standing stiffly with the dog cradled against him.
"He needs practice." Trowa murmured under his breath to Quatre.
"So what's its name?" Duo asked impatiently. There was a bit of silence. Duo looked expectantly at Wufei. "Fuffers?"
"Meiran." Wufei informed him. "And my nameis Wu-fei."
ooo
"Sorry, Fei-fei, your turn to stay and take care of Mei." Duo waved cheekily as he climbed into Deathscythe.
"Wufei!" Wufei snarled at the American. Deathscythe saluted him as the Gundams took off.
Wufei looked down to where a much larger Meiran was standing at his side. The dog just would not stop growing, he noted, and somehow he was the one who was taking more and more of the duties of looking after her. It was dishonorable to let these things slide. He'd spoken to the other pilots about it, but he'd caught even Quatre foisting these things on him.
"Well, Mei-mei." He commented. Meiran looked up and wagged her tail happily at him. Wufei grinned, since the other pilots weren't there to see. "How about a game of chase?"
ooo
Wufei was also the one to clean up when his Mei-mei had trouble with the concept of going outside. Wordlessly. Heero ignored the task, apparently because it had been shifted on him since all he would do was grunt and he hadn't actually accepted it, so now it was Wufei's. Just like everything else was becoming.
"I am very disappointed in you, Meiran." He told the dog, who was looking guilty and slinking around under tables with her tail tucked. But he had to give in, the dog looked so pitiful. "Yes, I know you try." He told her, switching into Mandarin so the other pilots didn't realize he was sympathizing with the dog. "It isn't easy, is it? Don't worry, you'll get it. Even Duo got it."
"I heard my name in that." Duo commented, from where he was playing with a wrench and a pile of scraps.
"You may ignore him, Mei-mei. He is a brat." Wufei told her.
ooo
"Yes, Mei-mei. It is a ball." Wufei told the dog, who obviously had genetic memory of the ball. "Do you know what to do with the ball?"
Meiran exuded the order for him to throw the thing, along with several expletives she'd learned from the pilots.
"Don't say those things. I realize they set a bad example for you. You are a strong dog, a Long clan dog, and you must prevail over them. We will set a good example for them, yes, Mei-mei? Good dog. Go get the ball!"
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"Mei-mei, if you must curse, do it in Chinese! We have more words anyway."
ooo
"I have to go now. In the big scary metal thing. No, not the vacuum cleaner. Wufei does not ride in the vacuum cleaner. You are thinking of Duo. But I will be back soon. Yes, and I will tell you all about it. If you don't get any bigger, I might take you along some time. For now, Duo is going to take care of you while I am gone." He leaned forward to whisper in the dog's ear. "Eat his socks. Not in pairs. One of each."
"Mei-mei, you bad dog! Those are Heero's socks!"
ooo
"Come, Meiran." Duo whispered. "Super secret mission. At the back of the house." He crept around outside. "Okay. In you go. Just like on a walk, remember. Like at the fire hydrant." Except, as Wufei kept telling him, Meiran did not like to pee on the fire hydrant. She was an exceptional dog. She did not pee with the commoners. He needed to stop trying to choose her loos for her.
Oh, yes, very exceptional. So exceptional that she never did anything Duo said. Duo suspected it had something to do with the way Wufei whispered sharply at her in Chinese and his name kept coming up. Oh, Wufei did try to make Maxwell sound Chinese, but it just didn't work.
"Meiran!" Duo called after the dog.
"Duo! What are you doing to Mei-mei?" More of that completely irritating whispering in Mandarin. Duo had to learn that language. And the way the dog looked at him sometimes, he could swear she was saying something in Mandarin, something uncomplimentary. But Quatre never took his accusations seriously. Oh, yes, how could a dog be insulting him? Especially in an entirely different language? 'Mei-mei' was never exceptional when Quatre was asking those questions.
ooo
"But it's the group dog!" Duo whined.
"It was addressed to Wufei." Quatre informed him. "Wufei chose to claim her. He has every right."
"But he's teaching her to swear at me in Mandarin!" Duo protested.
"Not just at you." Trowa muttered. The next time that dog looked at Quatre, looked at him with those foul-mouthed eyes, that dog was toast"At least get him to train her to stop eating the socks." Duo pleaded. "You, too, have suffered! We thought it was the Sock Fairy at first, the usual sort of leave-them-in-the-dryer-and-they-don't-come-out. I attached tracers, though! The Sock Fairy breaks the tracers. But recently, they all point to that dog! He must train her out of this habit! Or I cannot be held accountable for Shinigami." The threat was petulantly idle.
"Duo – he trained the dog to eat your socks."
"If you want to retrieve them," Wufei offered, "they can usually be found at the corner of 25th and Waverley."
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A/N: A better label for this is 'Provisionally completed' because there is more, but it sends it into an entirely different spiral of plot, and THAT section is not done yet. So there may or may not be more at a later date, depending on how many reviews you feed me. See, I'm shameless.
Also, if anyone can find a way to make this accept more interesting dividers (I had caret-tilde-o, which was nice and appropriate, but it doesn't LIKE caret-tilde-o), I'd be much obliged.