Leo: Welcome to the first chapter of the Sequel to "Happy Heero, Monotone Duo". As with the last story, I can promise you three things! Humor, Drama, and Zechs being an asshole. I will try to make this story able to be read on its own. But some of the reoccurring jokes will only be understood if you've read the last story. I've decided on a four POV system this time. Starting with Heero, then Duo, Wufei then Zechs and in order, repeating.
Pairings: HeeroxDuo (set in stone, and not changing), TrowaxQuatre (also not changing) TreizexZechs, WufeixZechs eventually.
Warnings: Language. Sexual innuendos and the occasional ass grabbing. Relena bashing. Random moments of sap, OOCness for the win, some angst, sadly a character death, and Zechs. (Because Zechs is special enough to get his own warning.)
No Sound in Space
Chapter One
Heero
I never thought the day would come. I never thought something could possibly break a man like I saw. Not him. In fact, two impossible things happened that day. But I'm getting ahead of myself. It had been five years. Five years and some eight odd months. I can attest to the fact that those five years had been the best of all our lives. Probably because the war was over. Peace was being preserved. Yes, once in a while we had our missions as Preventers. And that kept everything together. No more crazy Mariemaia happenings, and no more armies of mobile dolls to fight. Life had been peachy. (Poor word choice…I know; and it sounds lame, so sue me.) Then it all just fell to shit really. In Duo's oh so classy words.
It was a Thursday night I think. We had been planning for a group outing. We didn't do it often. Mainly because it would have been so obvious we were a group of gays. Though the only reason they would be able to tell is because of Duo and Zechs, and mostly Quatre. Not to mention sticking so many ex pilots and two previously opposing war ambassadors in the same group was asking for attention. But we'd decided on it.
"Movies are lame these days." Duo complained when the idea was thrown out. We were waiting in the foyer for our two resident blondes, even though Zechs still had some of the brown left in his hair from when Duo mixed hair dye into the wrong bottle months previous.
"Hey, it could be worse…we could go to an art museum." Wufei muttered. He'd made a style of wearing his hair down and committed to the glasses. I think he looked better that way.
"Those are even more lame." Baka agreed.
"We could always watch Zechs and Quatre pick out new purses." I offered and received a handful of chuckles for it.
"Even I will opt to pass on that idea." Treize shook his head. To make a joke like that would only give those two the wicked idea to actually do it. And take hours in doing it and making us watch. I was quickly reminded of the clothes shopping adventure two years before and I decided that was a bad idea after all. Rich blondes are scary creatures.
"There really isn't much to do anymore." Trowa sighed. Sadly he was right.
"I think we should go to the beach!" Came a soft voice from just out of view. It was Quatre. Only Quatre's voice had basically remained unchanged and only he could be so sweet and innocent despite all of the happenings.
"You know, I kinda like that idea, Hee-chan! We don't do that often!" Duo nodded. I was still getting used to the shorter hair on him. It wasn't really short, but over the time of five years he'd decided maybe a foot or two should be cut from it. In comparison to five years before, he was much bigger in size. Not as tall as I, but very close. He and Trowa were about equals in build, though Trowa was now taller than even Treize. Quatre was the smallest. He hadn't changed much, just like his voice. Now Wufei went through a dramatic change. He was taller obviously. We all were. But he was taller than I and I was almost equal with Zechs (bastard still had me by about an inch). Wufei's hair was challenging Zechs for the longest, now that Duo was out of the picture. Some how, unlike Zechs, Wufei managed to still look like a man in doing so.
"There are board walks for that kinda thing," Zechs nodded, following right behind Quatre. The two had this strange connection that had developed in the five years. I seriously think it was the blonde. Of course it might have also been the constant presence of the elder pilot.
Zechs walked toward Treize, like natural, but stepped off to the left before Trowa could move forward.
"Ah, you're getting good at dodging me, Merquise." Trowa smirked with a little hint of amusement under the stoic face.
"I can't be tricked by ass grabbing circus performers forever, Barton."
"We'll see."
"So what are we doing?" Treize asked, casually twirling the keys in his hand.
"You know, the girls got a pretty good idea. Let's go to the beach!" I shrugged. "Worse comes to worse we'll improvise and go somewhere else."
"Yay!" Duo grinned almost stupidly and wrapped his arms about my neck like I'd just blessed his very existence or something.
"You're so easy to please." I shook my head, but pet his hair nonetheless.
"Well come on then! And quit with the mushy love couple stuff. It creeps me out to see the machine acting human." Wufei snorted with a glance directed at me.
"You don't say anything to Treize when he's sucking Zechs' face!" I retorted.
"Because he's a vampire…it's what he does."
Damn. He had me on that one. "Fine, you get the point on that one."
He smirked and led the way out the door. Treize obviously took the wheel because; well he not only had seniority, but was the only one capable of driving that particular vehicle without speeding and getting fifty tickets. That's what happens when you become a pilot. You fail at the rest of life. Except Treize. He actually had common sense. Unlike the majority of us remaining.
The great thing about that car was it was large. So we could fit three people in the front and four in the back. Which was just about perfect. Of course it was also a convertible…So that may have had something to do with it. Trowa, Quatre, Baka and I took the back and Wufei slipped in next to Zechs, who was in the middle. I'm telling you, if I were Wufei I would feel weird, but damn it, he was a good sport about being the only single guy. Actually, I think he liked it.
"Lesson one, when driving, children." Treize started, being a smart ass. A trait he'd begun picking up from Zechs of all people. "When you see a sign that says fifty-five, you drive fifty-five. Not one hundred and ten." He laughed, backing the car slowly from the driveway.
"That was a painful speeding ticket, I'll have you know." Quatre sighed, but there was amusement in his tone.
"Whose fault was that?" Trowa asked. "I don't believe I was there."
"Mine…" Zechs said shrinking in his seat. "I can't help it. I have speed control issues."
Trowa nodded, "At least he admits his faults."
"No one got hurt, so that's the important thing." Treize added, "I do find it amusing that you're entitled to pilot Mobile Suits, yet you can't even keep your driver's license."
"They said they'd give it back after thirty days…"
"More like thirty years knowing you Zechs." Duo chuckled. "I mean, by now I'm sure they know your drivers license number by heart."
"You're probably right and the sick part is: I don't even know my driver's license number! Besides…Treize never lets me go any where alone anyway."
"I'm watching out for you, chéri."
"You're just a possessive old bastard."
Wufei cut in, "Now, now you two. Behave like people older than ten. Treize, you know better than to harass Zechs when she gets moody."
"…I don't even get a damn masculine pronoun anymore?! This is just great! If I grow ovaries, I'm kicking your ass!" He pointed at Treize.
"Then after you do that, you should probably ask Quatre how they got there." I quipped, snickering only a little myself.
"Hey, don't look at me. I don't have a ritual for that." The younger blonde replied with a slight bit of sarcastic humor. We made often jokes of his supposed witchery. I'm telling you, if Treize is a vampire, then Quatre is a witch. (And since we're already concluded on his witchery, all I needed to do was prove that Treize eats human souls for breakfast.)
I leaned back in my seat, taking vague awareness of Baka, who was leaning sort of sideways with his shoulder against mine and his head rested on the crook of my next. Crazy American. He grows on you though. His hair whipped around my face in the wind. The air was nice and crisp and that was nice, if nothing else. It was almost October. Fall was my favorite time of the year. The heat cooled down but it wasn't too cold. It was like a temporary relief before the snow season rolled back around.
I breathed in, but exhaling wasn't as pleasant because the car came to a screeching halt. I heard Quatre's yelp and the four of us in the back seat were thrown against the seats in front of us. Luckily no one was hurt. Well…almost. I finally got my breath and I shook my head clear and leaned forward to see what the deal was. I saw a massive crack in the windshield and I was suddenly not as irritated about why he'd slammed the brakes so hard.
"Oh my god, are you guys okay up there?" Duo asked before I could. He leaned up and looked over the seat. He was sitting directly behind Treize.
Treize sat back slowly. One hand arm had been held out in front of Zechs, which I'm willing to bet was an instant reaction to keep the blonde from taking a dive through the windshield. And judging by the crack in the glass, he would have. I then noticed that Wufei had one of his hands gripping the blonde's arm.
"Zechs?" the Chinese man prodded and Zechs moaned. It seemed he'd hit the windshield pretty hard.
"Chéri?" Treize shifted to lean closer. The two of them pulled Zechs straight. Even from the angle I was at I could see the dazed look. Down the front of his face was a trailing drip of blood.
"It hurts…" He finally said some coherent words, but they wavered.
"Treize, pull over to the side of the road." Quatre asked. We were still in the middle of the road, at that moment no one was driving down that side of the road, but it would help to be out of the way, just in case. Treize naturally agreed with this and slowly backed out of the road. As he shut off the engine, I hopped out and went to inspect the windshield. I had to wonder…
"Zechs, how bad does your head hurt?" I asked, actually climbing up the hood to get eye to eye with the glass. Zechs didn't say anything, he just kinda mumbled, while Quatre was helping Treize wipe the blood from his head.
"Treize, why did you stop so fast?" Duo asked, which would have been my next question.
"There was a black car that pulled out from that cross way right in front of me. It was going entirely too fast. Or at least…I was sure there was a car there." He paused, "I wouldn't have stopped like that if there hadn't been, but there seems to be no sign of it."
"You didn't hallucinate it, if that's what you're thinking. I saw it too." Trowa offered.
I listened to them talk while I was checking the variations in the glass. There was no way Zechs had hit the windshield that hard and left no large swears of blood splattered all over the glass. In fact, there was no sign he'd hit the windshield at all. Both Treize and Wufei had secured the unfortunate middle person in the front seat. The crack on the glass wasn't going outward and the source was small with a hole about an inch at widest in the center. This was easy to deduct, having seen that.
"Treize. Someone just tried to shoot Zechs." I stated, looking through the windshield at the ex. Commander. "There's no trace of blood on the windshield. You held him back, didn't you?"
"Yes…" He looked baffled, "But I should have seen that if it had been the case. And if that had been it, wouldn't a shot fired that close have killed him?" He made a point, though not liking the concept of the point. Being made.
"If they were firing a little shit pistol then the glass would have cushioned the hit. With a silencer it would have been easy to not have heard." Wufei reasoned. It was plausible. I'd seen it before.
Treize pulled Zechs a little bit closer to him and leaned his head against his shoulder for Quatre to gain quicker access to the injury. Zechs looked like he was coming out of his temporarily stunned state. The focus was returning to his eyes, but he didn't make an effort to move. "Baby, can you hear us?" Treize pressed the blonde for an answer, but lightly.
The muffled reply came as: "Mmm…shit…"
"Goodness," Quatre said. He had switched places with Trowa and sat in the middle of the backseat, leaned forward to aid is fellow blonde. "I think he may need stitches…I hate to say it, but it does look like a bullet wound."
"Wufei, look for a stray bullet in the car. I'm going to see if there's any shell casings." Trowa said, hopping out himself. Wufei knew all about being shot at. It happened to him almost six years before, but he didn't retain any injuries from it. The Preventers were on that one quick.
"We should be thanking someone that you have such a hard head Zechs, other wise that could have killed you." Duo added, hopping out to follow Trowa. I saw Duo pointing to something. It had appeared that he'd seen something, which resulted in his decision to tail the man. "At least we have proof of another vehicle." He said.
"Tire tracks. They must have been going fast."
"Fast enough for Treize to not have seen them clearly." I concluded.
"It's been years since we've been living normal lives for years now. It's natural for us to have missed a thing or two. We're not as sharp as we were before." Quatre's voice was like a wave of calm. It managed to make each of us a little less concerned. Though there was a constant ping in the back of my mind telling me that something was terribly off.
"Let's take him to Sally. They're stationed here for a few months. I don't trust a hospital, and it might do us good to alert the Preventers. If someone is out to kill Zechs, they might go after Relena was well and as much as I hate to admit it, if either of them die by assassination, another war is likely to start." It was my best suggestion. That way Zechs could get his injury checked too. We have shit luck, if nothing else in the world was true.
"Right." Quatre nodded. "Zechs? You heard that right? Were going to take you to Sally."
"Okay..." He actually replied, even though it was slow. He sounded like a guy suffering from a massive migraine, who didn't want to talk or move.
Wufei's voice rejoined the conversation pool, "Well, we have confirmation." He held up the evidence of a small and distorted bullet. That tiny thing would never have made it through the windshield with enough force to actually kill him. A thought occurred to me. Who ever shot at him must have had some damn good aim. Because if they had been shooting with a really threatening artillery, Zechs would have been dead. I think that was the first time I'd recognized an actual shudder pass through my body. Zechs could have been killed and we would have never been expecting it.
And the worst thing of it all…The real assault hadn't even come yet.
To be continued….
Leo: Sorry for a shortish first chapter (for me anyway…I like long chapters…damn it.) I'm basically setting the stage in the first four chapters of this one. You'll see what I'm doing as it progresses. This story will focus very heavily on Zechs and Wufei after those four chapters are over. Be patient with me. I'm trying to develop this story a little more than it's prequel. For those of you who followed that story to this one, I love you guys and I hope you enjoy this one just as much! (I promise some wacky shit in this one too, once the serious part is over!)
