A/N: Come one, come all, and welcome ~gestures grandly~ to the finale of Chance or Circumstance! Everyone grab your cards and set your chips, because this is 'last-call', and your last chance to bet high. Sit back, order a drink, and remember, the joker's wild and we're aiming for twenty-one. I do not own Gundam Wing or anything that looks like it might make money—though concepts of such things (like Pax) originated in my own little head.
One
Quatre's breath pounded in his chest as he ran down the cliff-side toward Sandrock. He didn't have much time before he was caught, and had to get inside the machine fast. He launched himself to the towrope as the MS chasing him topped the rise.
It was now or never.
He half climbed the cable as the machine pulled it in, and jumped at the end to land solidly on the newly opened hatch.
That wasn't right.
He didn't have time to think it through though, because he could feel the suit rocking with the force of the shots. In a moment, he was strapped in and powering up the machine. Only time would tell what years of being left without power would do to the AI. It wasn't the most pleasant prospect, really...
The machine almost seemed to sigh as the screens flickered on...and noted the difference in years fed to it by the satellite feeds.
It hesitated.
"Sandrock, we have problems," Quatre insisted. "We have to go."
Information flashed across the screens before he could read it, and Quatre groaned to himself. That couldn't be good. The machine rocked forward at a particularly well aimed shot... And Sandrock turned to face the menace.
Quatre gasped as the machine sliced with the first curved blade...and then the second. The machines he was facing weren't equipped to handle a full gundam, they could barely handle a normal suit.
Blood poured from the rents in the other machine, and Sandrock swung again...as the sound of a thousand screams echoed in Quatre's head.
Quatre jumped hard, slamming into the wall as he looked blankly through the darkness of the room. It was utterly black, except for the occasional flash of hour on the vid screen.
"Hey," Duo muttered without moving. "You okay?"
"'s a nightmare," Quatre explained. "Sandrock...I had to turn it on again, and it destroyed some tanks that couldn't handle it...they bled."
"That sounds pleasant," Duo noted, shifting to pull his lover close. "You gonna be okay?"
"Once my heart settles," he agreed. "Do...you ever have dreams like that?"
"Huh?" Duo focused again. "Sometimes. Deathscythe didn't have that sort of AI. Blood, though. I have dreams with blood. I guess that's the price we pay for living, though...you know?"
Quatre sighed, agreeing internally with that assessment. He didn't fully appreciate that Duo had already fallen back asleep, but the dream had been mild compared to most. He shifted around, out of Duo's arms, and stared out the window at space.
He was amused, really, that they'd been kidnapped by Jaden Timorre, of all people, accidentally or otherwise. The man had been in a panic since, speaking with the pilots and officials by turn. At Matty's insistence, Heero had finally stepped in and vouched for the man, but it had been an amusing few hours.
It had finally been determined that the brigadier generals might be able to use the new situation, so now they were waiting for their suits to be delivered. Meanwhile, Timorre had finished attaching the weapons to his suits, and the fighting had started.
It galled Quatre that he would be useless in space fighting, and he figured that was how his dreams had switched around on him. This wasn't his first nightmare of turning on his machine. He'd had several, most disturbing of which had been the one of Duo moving to him for help and Sandrock striking.
To put it in less obscure terms, he hated not having any control of his life.
Quatre shook his head, rolling back to Duo. Dwelling would do no one any good. Least of all him.
"You look like hell."
Quatre turned to glower at Trowa, then realized the man wasn't speaking to him.
"I feel it," Matty agreed ruefully. "I didn't sleep so well last night."
"No?" Trowa asked. "Why not?"
"Heero had a dream or ten. It kept waking me up. Eventually, he thought it would be a good idea to talk. Unfortunately, he's very fixated on Jaden. It doesn't lead to restful sleep, you know?"
"I had a dream that Sandrock killed a tank," Quatre offered. "It bled, see. It was wonderful."
Both males grimaced.
"It didn't happen, but I could tell it was about to spazz out on me about how long it'd been without power."
"How does a machine spazz?" Matty asked skeptically.
"Violently," Quatre returned dryly.
"You okay?" Trowa muttered, moving properly into the room to sit.
"Coffee," Quatre returned, pouring his friends both cups. "I'm fine...you hungry?"
"A bit," Trowa admitted. "But Blake said he'd make waffles."
"Waffles sound good," Quatre admitted, dropping next to Trowa—they were in a small kitchen-room that Jaden had given over to them. He'd almost rescinded the order when he thought it might make him seem to be isolating them...but Trowa had stepped in and agreed it would be nice to have their own space.
"I'll make you some," Matty muttered, pushing himself up tiredly and moving to make his coffee. He sighed as he finished his own mix, then carried Trowa's cup over to him with the sugar and creamer.
"Thanks," Trowa muttered, staring at the cup.
"Aren't you just the cheery lot," Wufei muttered happily, bouncing into the room. He snatched the sugar and creamer from the table as Trowa tried to protest it, bouncing over to pour himself coffee. He paused in his stirring to dig something out of a cupboard. It was a long stick of something, and he sucked happily on the end as he went back to the coffee.
"I didn't get a chance to use that," Trowa informed him, stirring idly at his cup.
"Poor baby!" Wufei cried, spinning back to the other with the items. He studied Trowa a moment, then Quatre. "Okay," he said. "Who died?"
"Quatre and Heero had nightmares last night," Matty noted quietly.
"You sleeping with Heero and Matty now?" Wufei demanded of Trowa skeptically. "I knew you lot were psycho, but I didn't think Matty and Blake were that good of friends."
Matty started laughing weakly, pouring the waffle mix into the waffle pan.
"I was having the dreams again," Trowa noted dryly. "The amnesia-fun ones."
"Geeze, who died?" Jinli asked, moving to stop and look them all over. "Heero? Or Duo?"
Wufei flashed him a grin.
"You two finally decided to consummate your marriage?" Trowa retorted.
Jin laughed happily, bouncing to take the sugar and creamer so he could pour his own coffee. "Actually, there are some very nice young ladies on this ship—and somehow..."
"Matty, can you make us waffles?" Blake asked, moving into the room.
Trowa turned to look at him a moment, then offered his arms.
Blake moved to sit in his lap wordlessly.
Heero sighed as he moved into the room, looking them all over before smiling wanly at his espoused. He was sitting at the table in a moment, and the dour silence fell over them all.
Wufei and Jinli exchanged a glance, wondering what they'd missed the night before.
"Alright," Duo declared as he moved into the room—Matty turned briefly to look at him as he flipped another waffle onto a tray. "Obviously we are all in high spirits, which means we can go win this war."
Heero turned to look at his friend.
Duo made a gesture with his fist, looking them all over, then met eyes with Quatre. He considered his lover a long moment, then moved around to the coffee pot. "Who hasn't had their coffee yet?"
"Me," Trowa noted, starting to drink from his cup.
"Me," Blake agreed, raising a hand.
"Me," Heero also raised his hand...and so on.
"I got laid last night," Wufei raised his hand to look them all over. "I found a pretty girl who understood the espousal situation...and had hot wild sex for half the night before we both passed out."
Matty snorted.
"I...had hot wild sex for three quarters of the night?" Jin looked them all over curiously.
"Oh, bullshit," Wufei shot back. "You were not up longer than me."
"I was so," Jinli argued.
"You were not, no one in this room can stay up longer than me when it comes to sex—except maybe Matty."
Matty guffawed, turning to look at him.
Wufei grinned, looking the rest of them over. They were all giving him that look, though. The one they gave him when they decided he was full of shit.
"What is that look?" Jinli asked the room at large, blinking at him.
"I can't tell you what she did because she might walk in," Wufei explained, taking a longer drink from his cup before hopping up and moving over to help Matty.
"What?" Jinli asked, looking to Trowa.
"Wufei has this...little thing he likes to do. You've only seen him do it once or twice, but it's rare when we don't get a play-by-play of his nightly trysts."
"Nightly?" Jinli asked blankly.
"Wufei didn't spend too much time at home," Duo offered. "At least, on weekends he tended to be off and about."
Wufei grinned at his friend, then looked around at the others.
Duo sighed, stirring his cup as he moved to sit at the table and consider things. Finally, he met eyes with Quatre. "Did you wake up last night?"
"I had a nightmare," Quatre agreed with a sigh. "You asked me about it."
Duo made a face, sliding his chair closer. "I'm sorry. I should have woke up right."
"It's fine," Quatre reassured him quietly. "You did enough to ask and respond."
Duo nodded.
"We need to figure something out," Heero noted quietly. "Obviously things are complicated. What do we do about the messed up sleep?"
Since the question had been directed at him, Duo sighed and slid down in his chair as he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not sure, actually."
"So let's focus on the other bit," Quatre suggested, leaning forward. "What, exactly, are we going to do here? Until your suits get here we have a handful of refurbished MS against...however many armed MS Gerrange managed to get."
"At this point we're between times," Trowa reminded them. "Jaden's obviously come after Gerrange himself...so will our stepping out there step on his toes entirely?"
"It doesn't matter," Heero reminded him. "With the suits, we can all make it to the nearest colony."
"Jaden's not like that," Matty muttered with a frown to his lover.
"And Qing wouldn't stand for it," Duo agreed.
"I more meant in terms of cooperation," Trowa added, looking them all over. "Obviously we're expected to go out and fight, he wouldn't have been so grateful for us to get our machines otherwise. I mean...if we go after Gerrange, will it be stepping on toes?"
They exchanged looks.
"I think we need to cooperate," Quatre noted. "We're all working for the same ends here, though I'm not fully clear on Jaden's motives." He focused on Matty.
"I don't know," Matty admitted as he thought it over. "He just sort of joined us."
"He's not fucking us over," Quatre agreed, looking back to the others. "I know he's not fucking with us, but I'm not sure what his ends are."
"We'll have to ask him," Trowa decided, thinking about it. "And I think we should open a dialog on Gerrange, too."
"Timorre wouldn't cross me," Heero pointed out.
"No, Heero," Trowa agreed pointedly. "Jaden wouldn't cross us."
Heero looked away.
"I'm no happier about him being around than you are," Wufei noted seriously to the other pilot. "But you have to admit he's shown remorse, guilt, and every effort to correct the oversight."
"He didn't kidnap your lover and handcuff him to a bed," Heero pointed out, meeting Wufei's eyes. "He didn't sedate your husband. When Jin gets grabbed we can have this conversation," he glanced at the other Chinese man briefly. "But until then," he shrugged.
"Why are you here if you're not willing to move on?" Trowa asked seriously. "Why did you board Illicit?"
Heero considered him a long moment, then gestured at Matty.
Matty shook his head, not looking away from his work.
"So you can't show tolerance for his friendship?" Duo asked seriously.
"Quatre?" Heero asked without looking to the half-blond.
"Don't drag me into this," Quatre protested.
"But what do you say when Duo's eye wanders?" Heero asked seriously.
"My eye didn't wander," Matty noted dryly.
"Not in a way I'm worried about you leaving me," Heero agreed, looking away from them all.
Matty sighed, dropping a platter of waffles unceremoniously onto the table and turning back to the machine.
"But the shit I say to Duo isn't...real," Quatre said quietly. "Sometimes I get jealous, but usually I'm just saying what you want to hear."
Heero looked away from them, crossing his arms.
"You would say something about cutting off appendages," Duo said quietly. "Or something like that."
"But it still doesn't matter," Matty noted pointedly, "because I'm not looking at Jaden."
"He's a rival for your attention," Duo explained.
"I'm confused," Matty noted, stopping to stare at the counter. "Aren't you all?"
"No," Duo said quietly. "We're all comrades and brothers. We might play around and tease you, but none of us are a threat to Heero."
Matty turned to stare at him with narrowed eyes.
"This is the most utterly basic level," Duo added seriously. "This has nothing to do with what you might or might not do."
"So should I tell the group of you that he's pissing me off?" Matty snapped. "I've tried talking to him about it and I don't get through. Should I tell you that his arbitrary refusal to hear me out is frustrating me to my breaking point?"
"Yes, actually," Wufei muttered, sobering as he considered the table.
"What do I do?" Heero demanded, looking around to Duo.
Matty stood there a long moment, staring at all of them, then set the spoon he'd been holding back into the mixing bowl and started from the room.
"Wait," Heero protested, hopping up.
"I need to be alone right now," Matty snapped back, and swept from the room.
Heero froze, looking after him before looking uncertainly back to Duo.
Duo looked from Wufei to Trowa...and they all looked to Quatre.
"Give him fifteen minutes," Blake suggested, rising from the table and starting for the mixing stuff on the counter. "Maybe ten."
"I don't want to," Heero countered, looking back to him.
"If you go after him now, he'll argue with you all the way back to the room," Blake snapped, turning to glower at him. "If you chase him down now, he'll argue about it all."
"I don't like Timorre," Heero snapped. "I don't have to like him."
"But Matty considers him a friend," Blake snapped, gesturing. "Regardless of the bullshit that's been going on, Matty considers Jaden a friend. You're dismissing Matty's opinion in favor of your own."
Heero dropped back into his seat, his expression turning openly troubled. He was quiet for a long moment before finally focusing on Blake again. "What do I do?"
Blake stared at him in disbelief a long moment, then looked around to the others—they were all watching him, wordless.
"You don't have to like Jaden," Blake said quietly. "You don't have to be happy about Matty caring—but you do need to respect that Matty cares."
Heero frowned, looking to Duo.
"Sound advice," Duo agreed quietly, considering his cup a moment. "You've been dismissing his protests out of hand. You need to hear him out and cope with it."
"You can go after him now," Trowa noted quietly. "He probably didn't realize that you've never been in a serious relationship."
"I was with Duo," Heero protested, looking startled.
Duo flashed him a brief grin. "Yeah, with my boyfriend right here?" he gestured at Quatre. "Not the best argument to throw out there."
Quatre flashed him a brief grin.
"Even though he knows?" Heero asked, startled.
"It confuses my emotions to think about it," Quatre supplied.
Heero nodded, then sighed and started for the door. He hesitated, though, turning to look back at them. "What if I get mad?"
"Try and avoid that," Trowa suggested. "And if you just can't help it, tell him you'll be back and go into the hall for a few minutes."
Heero took another breath, as if bracing himself...and disappeared.
Blake moved around the table to sit in Trowa's lap again, giving everyone upset looks as Jin looked worriedly to Wufei.
"Yeah," Wufei noted, moving back to the waffle-machine. "Who else wants waffles?"
Trowa sighed as he rolled over, pressing lightly against Blake.
"Just because they are having loud sex," Blake muttered, "doesn't mean we're going to."
Trowa snorted at that. "No, move over...I'm at the edge."
"I don't want to move over," Blake protested. "It's warm here..."
Trowa grumped about that a moment, rolling over the other male to drop into the cold portion of the mattress.
The day had led to naps after their breakfast. They'd all needed a few more hours sleep, and had only woken up when Qingfu happily went to wake up Duo. He'd been declaring something about sex and cameras, but Trowa hadn't been fully awake to hear it. Duo'd told him to fuck off, and not long after that, Quatre had started laughing his ass off. Qing's dignity had somehow been injured, but none of the three of them would say what had happened at all.
Aside from the random play, though, Qing had been waking them up for an actual reason.
It had been decided that it wasn't safe to load the gundams onto Illicit. They were going to be fully guarded out to 25, where the pilots could pick them up with the full proof that they weren't kidnapped, deserting, or under duress.
"Trowa?"
"Hm?"
"Heero's not really...that clueless, is he?"
Trowa smirked very slightly. "I'm not really all that better," he noted. "You realize that don't you?"
"You're just a jackass," Blake protested. "I mean really...he like, totally heard me out."
"It was sound advice when the rest of us were at a loss," Trowa protested. "But...yes, he is that clueless."
"How?"
"I told you, didn't I?" Trowa returned. "He was trained out of emotions."
"But..."
"He set his own leg when it got broken by him trying to kill himself," Trowa noted dryly. "Duo'd gone in to save him, and he'd been fully intending to let himself die...I think to get rid of the evidence...when he broke it. He accepted the order to destroy his machine at face-value and didn't try to escape it. We were damn lucky he didn't die on us after that...we ran around the world so he could try to let people shoot him for the shit that went down at New Edwards...he's not normal. None of us are normal. Duo was an orphan, Quatre's an empath...Wufei was a widower at fifteen. There's so much underlying shit that we had to stay together to stay alive after the wars were done. I pick and choose what I care about, and half the time am reacting in the way that I think people should. You need to tell me if I'm doing something that upsets you."
"Aside from pissing me off?" Blake asked dryly.
"Probably," Trowa noted with a grin. "You don't believe me, but some day you'll remember this conversation and tell me something that you think I should know."
Blake sighed, leaning into him. "I hope I helped...and didn't mess something up."
"You hear that bed pounding?" Trowa asked dryly. "I don't think that's angry sex."
Blake snorted at him.
"We can talk to Matty in the morning," he added quietly. "Hopefully when they're done, everyone can get to sleep."
The younger male was quiet a long moment, so Trowa started to settle...then felt a hand slide between his elbow and his side.
Trowa sniggered. "I thought you said we weren't having loud sex," he protested.
"You're serious?" Blake demanded. "You actually were just trying to make me move in more, weren't you?" he huffed, pushing so Trowa rolled onto his back. "I think I'm disappointed."
"Oh no!" Trowa muttered, situating them a little more comfortably as Blake leaned in. "I'll have to make up for that...most strenuously."
"On your back," Blake agreed dryly. "I can totally see the strain."
Trowa started snickering.
"Hey, Dad..."
"Matty," Taofa greeted his son. "How are you? Where are you?"
"On the good ship Illicit?" Matty offered, biting his lip.
"As in the ship that launched into outer space in pursuit of the...bad...ship Obsidian."
"Yeah! That's the one!" Matty beamed at his father.
Taofa covered his face with his hands. "You'll be the death of me yet," he informed his son. "I...I think I don't want to ask...but...why are you on the good ship Illicit?"
"Um...Heero got me a new laptop? It matches his car."
Taofa lifted his face to study his son's face a long moment in silence, then sighed heavily. "Lifon?"
"Yeah, Daddy?" she called, bouncing down the hall and squeaking. "Matty!"
"Your brother called to talk to you, isn't that nice?" Taofa stood.
Matty giggled. "Dad."
Tao grinned as the girl bounced closer. "Let the darling tell you her news while I go bang my head against a brick wall, huh?"
Matty giggled more as Lifon bounced where she stood and watched him disappear.
"He went out back," she muttered, turning back to the screen. "What's going on? How did you exasperate him?"
"I guess you heard about Illicit?" Matty asked.
"Yeah," she agreed. "You guys were fixing it up or something, right?"
"Oh, that's right, you talk to Trowa," Matty grinned. "Well...I'm on Illicit."
Li's spoon plunked back into the yogurt cup she was holding as she stared at him.
"Heero got me a laptop like yours," he added excitedly. "It matches his car!"
She started giggling hard at that. "That's why Daddy went outside, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Matty agreed with a grin. "Blake has an orange one."
She giggled more, sitting down.
"What was he talking about?" Matty added curiously. "What news do you have?"
"I'm on birth control," she explained.
Matty blinked at her, attempting to digest it with aplomb and beginning to fail.
"I'm not having sex yet," she retorted, starting to eat her yogurt again. "You're such a guy. I was having bad periods...like curling up and crying. It was like, a hormonal frickin' cyclone. One minute I'd be fine, the next it was the end of the world. Daddy took me into doctor when he realized it was my period, and the guy noted that I have stress induced premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Well, he didn't say it was necessarily stress-induced. But I didn't have them this bad until you idiots ran off to get killed in Brazil."
"Wonderful, every male wants to talk with their baby sister about her P.M.S. issues...how does birth control help?"
"It's hormonal?" she tilted her head as she thought. "My mind was sort of glazed when she started telling me about it," she added. "I was trying to figure out the P.M.D.D. stuff and then yeah...Daddy brought it up, I think, because he has to pick it up for me. He gets to go up to the pharmacy and ask them for it and give them my birth year, so everyone around hears how old I am. He was stressed about it. So...I'm on birth control and you're in a war-zone. He's gotta be in a happy place right now—I wonder if he is banging his head against the wall..." she looked out toward the back-doors of the house.
"Hey, before he comes back," Matty muttered, bouncing slightly. "Me and Heero had our first real fight."
She focused back on him.
"Make-up sex is awesome."
Lifon started giggling hard.
"Make-up sex is awesome."
Heero stopped as he heard Li start giggling, removing his hand from the door-knob. He stood there a moment, looking around, then moved further up the hall.
"Hey," Trowa greeted him as he moved into the room. "What's up?"
"That was fight?" Heero asked, looking around to make sure Blake wasn't in the immediate vicinity.
"Huh?"
"Yesterday," Heero explained. "Me and Matty were fighting?"
Trowa focused on him a long moment, then shrugged and nodded. "I suppose so."
"Huh," Heero muttered, moving to sit beside his friend. "I was upset."
"So was Matty," Trowa agreed, setting his phone down. "I think this is a conversation for Duo."
"I guess," Heero muttered, then grinned. "He was telling Li that make-up sex is awesome. I figured I shouldn't go in yet."
Trowa snorted, meeting his eyes. "You're special...you see Blake?"
"No," Heero frowned. "Why?"
"He decided he loved me or something," Trowa noted with a grin. "He went to get lunch."
"I thought saying it like that was a joke," Heero muttered, tilting his head.
"It is, halfway," Trowa agreed in amusement, then shook his head. "What did the supreme say?"
Heero made a face, then shrugged. "He'll set us up a transport shuttle so we can head in a bit before the suits are actually due."
"Good," Trowa muttered, shifting to lean against the wall. "I'm tired of waiting. It's about time we got things started."
"You can say that," Heero agreed dryly. "You have a suit."
Trowa snorted, kicking negligently at him with one foot. "Order one refitted and stop whining."
"You're such a caring friend," Heero retorted, rising to his feet to kick at Trowa's leg. "I'm so glad I decided to talk to you."
"You only came in here because the door wasn't closed," Trowa argued happily. "Don't give me that shit."
Heero flashed him a grin, moving into the hall. He smiled at Blake, who had a couple trays, then turned to find Duo.
He wouldn't mind a bit more input into the fight notion...and he didn't want to interrupt Matty's conversation.
"I cannot believe I let you talk me into doing this," Quatre muttered.
"Your hair is not supposed to be two-toned," Duo retorted. "And for all that we flout it, you're not supposed to have half-colored hair."
Quatre glared briefly up at him.
"What...are you doing?" Heero muttered, stopping to consider his friends. Quatre was sitting on the tub-edge with a towel wrapped around his head—it was pink. It was a very pink towel, and his expression dared Heero to comment on it.
"Uh...we stripped the black out," Duo explained, gesturing. "Right now we're doing the conditioning so his hair doesn't just melt away."
"What color are you going for?" Heero asked curiously, moving to lean against the bathroom-door and make a face at the chemical scent.
"Brown," Quatre shrugged. "I thought about red, but then the specific shade needs this or that, so brown is nice and normal." He tried to look up at the towel. "I didn't get a choice on the towel."
Heero grinned.
"It's just a towel," Duo retorted. "No one should just walk into our room," he looked pointedly to Heero.
Heero grinned, knowing it for a mild rebuke. "Sorry, sorry...my bad."
Duo raised an eyebrow.
"Two things," Heero returned, displaying two fingers. "First, the supreme said he'd lend us a shuttle to get to 25 before the suits. Second, I had a fight?"
"Did you?" Duo asked, raising an eyebrow. "And Jaden didn't kick your ass?"
"No, with Matty," Heero shook his head. "Yesterday...that was a fight?"
Quatre blinked up at him a moment, then met eyes with Duo.
"Let's...go talk in the room," Duo suggested, flicking the fan on as he left the bathroom.
"I hate you right now," Quatre informed him.
"We can have make-up sex later," Duo retorted dismissively.
"Alright," Quatre shifted to lean back against the wall.
"Matty...says it's awesome?" Heero offered back to him. "He was telling Li."
"Of course he was," Duo muttered, rolling his eyes. "Geeze...so where do you want to start?"