Title: A Favor or Boredom Strikes Back
Author: MJRD
Rating: PG
Warnings: *looks over story again* nothing this time really, absolutely pointless though.
Feedback: I love C&C: meghan@zizania.org
Disclaimer: I can't claim Gundam Wing, or much of anything else. This story was written purely for fun (and 'cause I was bored) I don't get anything material for writing this (unless getting my pay checks counts as this was written at work ^_^; )
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"Why on earth did I agree to do this?" Duo wondered out loud for the fifth time since he had dragged himself out of bed that morning. He glared at the horizon where the sun should have been peeking over the horizon but was masked by the low-lying clouds and sheets of rain.

He pulled up in front of a sprawling complex, leaving the truck running while he ran inside. The young man briefly glanced around to get his bearings then headed over to the guard station. Duo gave the officer a jaunty wave as he shook damp bangs out of his eyes, setting his braid swinging.

The guard's eyebrows seemed to be lodged somewhere in his hairline as he took in the young man before him. The uniform was regulation, but some of the details were . . . off. The name tag read 'Shinigami;' the pin above it, instead of denoting special training, was a chibi black mobile suit holding a scythe; and there were a few extra, non-readably identifiable, attachments on his duty belt. The waist length braid was defiantly not regulation and the manic grin was certainly out of the norm.

"Can I help you with anything, son?" the guard asked in a condescending tone.

Duo smirked at the older man. "Sure, pops, I need the keys for the Annex; I'm covering over there this morning."

The guard would have raised an eyebrow at that, but they had not dropped since he had noticed the braided boy bouncing toward him. (1) "Sure, kid, the Sergeant left a note in the log that a Maxwell," the guard stared pointedly at Duo's nameplate, "would be filling in."

Duo's smirk widened as he dropped his ID badge on the counter. "That would be me."

The guard fished out the appropriate key ring, then handed it over asking, "Do you know what to do over there?"

His answer was a snort as Duo pocketed the keys and retrieved his badge. "Hey, I've been with the force longer than you have, give me a little credit." He bounced toward the door with a smirk, braid swinging.

Outside he made a face up at the clouds, receiving a face full of water for his efforts. After getting back in the truck Duo pushed his wet bangs out of his face again, then peeled out, just to annoy the patronizing guard.

Duo shook his head as he pulled up to the annex--there was an employee already waiting in the parking lot. These guys have to know what time the guard shows up to open the building - why the heck is he here so early? he wondered as he headed over to the building's entrance. Once the door was unlocked the alarm started a warning beep; he stared at it blankly for a moment before he could recall the correct code.

He dumped his stuff off at the front desk and started toward the back. By the time he got the lights up, the employee who had been waiting in the parking lot had settled in his cubicle. Once back at the front desk Duo turned on the radio and booted up the computer. While waiting for the computer he dialed Control's extension, then blinked at the phone: it wasn't ringing. He looked over at the computer, which was flashing error messages, another blink. He tried the phone again: there was no dial tone. He blinked again. Okay, someone screwed up big time. He shook his head and grabbed the radio to make another attempt to contact Control.

"Annex to Control." The radio stayed silent. "Annex to Control. Do you copy?" Silence again met his request. Duo glared at the radio, "Someone is gonna get reamed, and that idiot was asking me if I knew what to do!"

Pinned up to the front of the desk was a list of contact numbers. As he went over the list he noticed that there was no other way to contact control listed. Duo rolled his eyes. The regional office was not open for business yet, which left the site supervisor (who was off duty) and the phone numbers for the civilian administration. Grabbing the cell phone off his belt, Duo gave the supervisor a call and got no response. He then smirked as he decided to ruffle some feathers and dial again.

"Hey, 'Fei" . . . " Yes, I'm at work. Some idiot isn't answering the radio at base and all the other comm. lines are apparently down." . . . "the computers too" . . . "No, I'm not joking! Could you please go rant at some people for me?" . . . "No, I can't close the building, I already got someone here." . . . "Please!" . . . "Thanks, 'Fei, I owe you one."

A few minutes later the radio buzzed and a woman's voice asked for a radio check. Duo responded with a grin. "Annex here, good to finally hear from you, Control. Any news on the phone situation?"

"The Comm. Department has been notified and their ETA is 0800. They have confirmed that the network lines are down as well."

"10-4, keep me posted."

"Sure thing, Duo. Hey, what did you do to Frank, by the way? He went off duty muttering about punk kids and braids, figured it must have been you."

Duo grinned, finally recognizing the voice. "Not much, Kate, just an attitude check," the smirk was audible in his voice, "and got someone on his case about standard radio procedure, like how to turn it on. I'll contact you if anything comes up."

"10-4."

~*~*~

Duo was bored, really bored. He had already reread the SOPs (2) was keeping the daily log manually. According to the SOPs the log was supposed to cover anything that happened; he was writing everything down for lack of anything better to do. With the computer down he couldn't even play solitaire.

The employees were milling about trying to figure out what to do, repeatedly asking him if the lines were really down and did he know when they would be up. The technicians had arrived shortly after the given time, had promptly disappeared into the comm. room, and hadn't emerged since.

One young woman, who seemed to have some authority, was running back and forth from the main facility, attempting to find someone who had a clue of what was actually going on. After several trips she stopped at Duo's desk with a sigh. "I think I have it figured out now. I finally got space for everybody over at the main facility, so we're going to head over there now. Could you please send any stragglers over when the appear?"

Duo nodded, "Sure can. But you're going to leave me here all alone?" He made puppy eyes at her then grinned.

She laughed and turned to go, then looked back with an expression of curiosity. "Okay, I have to ask." She gestured at his nameplate. "Why 'God of Death'?"

"Old nick-name," he shrugged. "I put it down on the forms to annoy my boss and no one ever bothered to correct it. I guess that they figured that they wouldn't be able to get me in uniform enough for it to matter." He grinned.

She laughed again, headed to where the rest of the employees were still milling around, and proceeded to get them organized and out of the building.

Once they were all gone that left Duo alone in the building, except for the two techs still cursing at equipment in the comm. room. Absolute boredom set in. Duo fidgeted with his pen, rearranged the stuff on the desk, and then put it back where it had been. At the hour he made another notation in the log that nothing was still all that was happening, then ended up staring out the window into the rain.

A small smile crossed his face as his mind wandered. The image of dark eyes blinking up at him sleepily from under tousled hair was recalled from that morning. He wished that he could have stayed in the warmth of those arms longer, but had only had the time to steal a kiss from the lips whose smile had promised so much more.

Duo growled at himself, "Great, now I'm not just bored, I'm bored and frustrated. " He squirmed in his seat while looking around to find something, anything, to distract him from his thoughts of his dark-haired lover. The sound of Kate's voice over the radio brought a welcome distraction.

"Control to Annex, you still awake over there?"

"Annex here. I think I'm awake or I could be dreaming that something is actually happening," Duo answered with a slight grin.

"I'd guess that you're awake then, 'cause, knowing you, any dream would be a little more . . . err . . . interesting."

Duo snorted, "Anything new on your end?"

"Nothing here, if I hear anything I'll keep you posted."

"10-4," Duo sighed.

He wandered back toward the comm. room, snagging the radio as he went by. He stuck his head around the door and watched the two techs for a minute. One was talking on his cell phone with another site, and the other was standing there shaking his head while looking at a display.

"Hey, how's it going?" Duo finally asked.

The first tech looked over his shoulder and gave a small wave and went back to arguing with his phone. The second stepped out of the room to join Duo in the hall. "Well, the lines are disconnected somewhere; we think the problem is with the service company; but they say it's over here." The man shrugged, "All our systems say they're fine and that the lines are there, so Jeff has been arguing with their reps for the last few hours."

Duo gave a sympathetic wince. "Well, I wish you guys luck." He wandered back to his desk.

When he got back he noticed his bag tucked under the desk. He pulled it out trying to remember if he had stuck anything beyond food in there. A grin spread across his face when he pulled out an old notebook; the grin became absolutely maniacal once he realized which one it was.

Duo flipped though some of his older ideas, marking off which ones he had used: the look on Heero's face when he figured out just why he couldn't click on the icons on his laptop was priceless. He then started scribbling down some new ideas, the grin never leaving his face.

By the end of the week Wufei and the others would probably want to strangle him, but it would be fun in the meantime. But then again, they were the ones who had convinced him to fill in at a security position to get him out of the office for a little while. They knew how little happened at these posts and they knew what happened when he got bored, so . . . Duo smirked, Let the fun begin.

~owari~

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(1)Sorry 'bout the alliteration ^_^; but it does fit Duo, ne?
(2)Standard Operating Procedures: typically in big binders - ours is at least three inches thick.
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Author's Note: I was bored and this is what came out *shrugs* completely pointless, but it did keep me entertained for a while. Yes, this had its seed in reality - my second day at that post and NO communication, no fun *shakes head* At least it gave me time to write ^_~