Rock Star Soldier

by Xandranda

Henry Faith, receptionist to the G-Boys. Rita Harringstone, Rockstar and undercover preventer agent. Someone knows they're one and the same, with lives on the line can she keep her secret, stop the bad guys and finally get a date with Trowa?

2. Mornings

Thank you for bearing with me, hope you like this next instalment!

Xandrandra xx

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Mornings

She stayed low on the bike, her hair falling out of it's style and whipping around her face, she skidded around a corner and continued on, heading for the border, the stolen black bike purring beneath her, the army pattern on her skin hiding her well enough, though in the back of her mind she was glad she decided on khaki bottoms rather than a skirt, though her arms and torso were frozen, the tank top not ideal for high speed chases, the border appeared in her vision, she could see one of the gates open for her, some of her body guards standing by it, keeping it clear, she blew past them without slowing and headed up into America, driving until the dawn broke and she reached the hotel she had organised in advance. More of her team where there waiting for her,

'Get rid of the bike, preferably far away, organise a crash in Florida, don't kill anyone, make it a tour bus, give them all some cash on behalf of the company, enough that they wont sue them. And get me a flight home at around lunch time; make it a big deal, I want press and everything, oh, and tell Madison to be here early, the paint might take a while with these cuts.' She told them as they escorted her to her room where she tore off her clothes and got in the shower scrubbing the paint off as best she could without the use of a mirror, even her usual shower singing taking a slightly aggressive pitch, her mood didn't improve with the shower and she didn't even bother to dry her hair as she flopped onto the bed.

She was woken by her makeup artist and stylist Madison who just shook her head at her before pulling out the day's travelling outfit, faded and ripped bell bottom jeans and a strappy tie dye top. She began on her face, painting thorns, adding a few more cuts to her face and arms, the thorns making a kind of tattoo effect on her skin; over her eyes she painted two large daisy flowers, even gluing petals to her eyelashes, the thorns clashing with the slightly hippy clothing, she grinned at herself in the mirror and her shoulder length blonde hair was backwards combed and flowers pinned in. her mask was secured, two flowers, like the paint on her eyes, but her eyelashes poked through the eye slots and gave off a stunning 3D effect. She downed a mug of coffee, letting her lipstick be touched up for her before she headed down for the car, the only press they encountered were at the shuttle port, which is what she wanted, if she was going to be shot and killed, she'd prefer for everyone to see and know. She slept through most of the shuttle ride, kicking off her platform flip flops, but keeping the mask in place. When they landed she stood, getting the nod from Madison before waltzing into the terminal, camera flashes beginning even before she was in sight, she signed a few auto graphs, posed for a few fan pictures and for the press before she left for the car, they arrived in the underground car park once more, she grabbed the folder off the car seat and headed for the lift, one cigarette between her lips and another behind her ear by the time she past the receptionist who gasped and grabbed her phone, she stalked up to the lifts, smoking heavily, clouds of smoke weaving behind her as she entered a lift alone, the rest waiting for the next available. When she reached the top floor she ignored the sudden silence at her appearance as she walked towards Une's office, as she past she could hear the gossiping beginning,

'What are you doing here?' Une growled at her as she closed the door on the gossiping, the same group from the last time she appeared filling the seats,

'Well, I would have waited but I thought this was a bit too important.' She returned the glare, sliding the file up the table, 'But maybe I'm wrong and Nukes are part of every training facility.' She shrugged seating herself on the arm of 03's chair, putting one foot on the side of 02's

'Nukes? Yeah right!' 02 scoffed,

'But they were outlawed decades ago,' 04 shook his head,

'Funny thing about criminals, they don't care.' She looked at him with a half smile, 'and I have a bad feeling that they've caught onto me too. I spent last night hightailing it across the American border after being shot at, not the usual farewell for a rock star you know. My team took care of everyone, but there's a chance the word might have already been passed on,'

'it can't be helped, we knew it would come to this eventually, we'll put someone in the base and keep and eye on it for a while, see if we can find out who and why, you, be careful, let us know if you need any extra protection.'

'Thanks but no thanks. Keep me posted, call me if you need an extra pair of hands,' she stood and left again.

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'Morning Sir,' she chirped,

'Call me Quatre,'

'Will do Sir,'

'Henry, what on earth happened to you?' the blonde's eyes went wide,

'yeah, one hell of a week off, the tour bus crashed!' she put her hand up to the steri strips on her forehead, 'I'm alright though, only bumps and bruises, it's just typical of my luck though, anything else I can get you?'

'I'm fine thanks, take care of yourself.'

'I do!' she left the room and sat at her desk, pulling out a compact mirror from her bag and examining the steri strips,

'Whoa, what happened to you?'

'The tour bus crashed, my first holiday in months and I get an idiot driver. I'm fine, looks worse than it is,' she told Duo, prodding the bruise a little,

'Eh, could've been worse you know!'

'Yeah, you could've been driving!' he stuck his tongue out at her, 'give me a yell when you've done your list, I'm planning an early finish today then a soak in the bath to make up for my shitty holiday.'

When she returned from lunch a message from Une's PA sat on her desk, she entered Trowa's office, the only one back from lunch,

'Hey hun, message from the boss lady, meeting at 2 for the five of you with the heads of the training departments, it'll last as long as it lasts.' She lent against the doorframe,

'You'll be there?'

'Yeah, with my Dictaphone as usual, so much for an early finish eh.' She shook her head, a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth her reply,

She relayed the same message to the other four, following them with her pad, pen and dictaphone into Une's office, taking a seat behind the five, facing the windows that ran along one side of the office, she put the dictaphone on the table and started it up, settling herself in her seat with the pad on her lap. She pulled a slightly squashed packet of mints out of her back pocket, nudging Duo with her foot to offer him one, leaning to pass another to Quatre and waving them over Trowa's shoulder until he took one to stop her, Heero and Wufei too far away for her to annoy. She tuned off as she did in most of the meetings, no one could read her short hand, or make sense of it at least, well, she laughed inside her head, they were song lyrics, so they wouldn't find any sense in them, regarding the meeting anyway, she scribbled a few choice words and phrases, she crunched up the last of her mint, earning a glare from across the table, she sighed to herself, mentally rolling her eyes and resigning herself to another boring meeting. They all left the office at gone seven pm she had eventually been forced to drawing pictures in the margins of her note book, lyrics eventually running away from the boredom, her bum had gone to sleep, her legs were tingling and her back ached from the badly designed office chairs, the six of them moved back to the offices, turned off their equipment and grabbed their things, heading to the lifts. Duo hummed happily while Wufei thumbed through a newspaper, she smiled to herself recognising Duo's chosen theme, they left waving to the receptionist and moving onto the steps leading to the main doors, where she stepped on some left over fast food packaging and slid on her bum down the steps until she came to a stop at the bottom, she groaned to herself, resisting the urge to punch the steps,

'Henry, are you alright?' Quatre grabbed her arm and pulled her up, brushing her down,

'Yeah, geez, it's not my month!' she shook her head, trying to look at the back of her coat for any marks,

'Eh, come on, I'll buy you a drink! Karaoke in the George!' Duo arrived at her side,

'I don't sing Duo, you know that!'

'Yeah, I didn't say you had to sing, come on, I'm offering you a drink,' he turned on the puppy dog eyes, 'the whole gang is coming, even Trowa and Heero, come on, please?'

'Leave her alone Duo, if she doesn't want to let her be,' Quatre shook his head at his friend, throwing her a smile,

'Umm,' she thought for a moment, her mind registering that Trowa would be attending, quite an uncommon occurrence for the silencer, 'why the fuck not! I haven't been pissed in a long time, lead the way sweetheart!' she grinned, slinging her bag over her head and buttoning up her coat.

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The next morning found her phoning into work sick, not that she couldn't deal with the slight headache she had but she was sure she would blush beet red at the first sign of the five men she worked for,

'How could I have been so stupid!' she asked the ceiling of her bedroom, still to get out of bed, 'I sang! I bloody well sang!'

She wasn't sure when, but she had very vivid memories of standing on the karaoke stage with a microphone in her hand, Duo at her side, singing her heart out, and not pretending to be bad as she usually did when singing around people. She prayed to any god that was listening that the five had drunk as much as she had, they had been dancing, Duo coercing Quatre to sing with him at one point, she felt her face turn red as she remembered a slightly steamy dance with Trowa, pressed together in the mass of bodies on the dance floor. She jumped out of bed and pulled on her swimsuit, heading to the ground floor with her swimming robe wrapped around her, she dived in and swam lengths for most of the morning, only getting out to eat lunch, then collapsing on her sofa to watch TV, sitting up properly as the news came on and one of the main news stories was about a shooting outside the George pub, shortly after closing time, a blonde girl seen with one of the preventer agents who "frequented the pub after their shifts" was shot and was now in hospital in a stable condition, the gunman was seen fleeing the scene. She almost tripped over the towel that was wrapped around her as she ran to her computer, booting it up and pulling up the news feed,

'Ten minutes after I left.' She concluded, having phoned via the ladies loos for her own car to pick her up from out the back,

She spent the rest of the day phoning around for extra security at her next few gigs and for an armoured car to replace her regular one, that night she couldn't sleep, despite having spent three hours in the gym to try to tire herself out, eventually she gave up and worked on some new lyrics, emailing them to her manager and going through some of the new body paint designs from Madison, okay or rejecting them before finally heading back to bed in the early hours.

'You sure you're okay Henry? You're not looking so good today, why don't you go back home, get some rest? You've been a little off for about a week now.'

'No thanks Quatre, I'm fine, just didn't sleep well last night.' Not that she was going to mention the fact that she had been at a gig the night before and didn't get back until six that morning and had yet to go to sleep.

She moved through the day in a sort of daze, she skipped lunch again to check her emails; she had hired her own team of people to try and find out who was attacking her, whether it was a crazed fan or something even more sinister, the gig the night before had been cut short when a "faulty" pyrotechnic devise went off mere centimetres from her. She worked through the piles of paper work that had piled up after the shooting outside the George the week before, she jumped as a pair of hands put down a plate of Chinese, a bottle of water and a mug of coffee on her desk, she lent back in her chair, hand over her heart

'God, Trowa, you silent bugger, you nearly gave me a heart attack.' She rubbed her hands over her face, suppressing a yawn,

'That's for you, quit skipping lunch,' he told her, disappearing into his office.

She smiled despite herself, finishing the food quickly, using the paper plate as a Frisbee, almost hitting the bin, the smile stayed throughout the day, the coffee helping slightly, and even increased when he bid her goodbye for the evening, she waited until the rest left, Duo giving her a wink, sending her blushing, he'd made a few comments on her dancing skills and the fact of her delivery boy for the day, she then made her way down to the car park where a new armoured car waited, this time a green colour, she got in and let out a hefty sigh, gone were the days of getting the bus, which she had quite enjoyed, it was such a normal thing.

The driver slowed as he reached the gates, though unable to drive pass, three pest control vans blocked off the entrance she could see a number of her security team talking to people dressed as pest control, but which she was sure weren't, a member off the security team waved them on,

'Okay, just drive around a bit,' she pulled out her phone, 'Hey, Quatre, sorry to call you at home but I'm in a bit of a dilemma… no I'm alright, there's a pest problem at my place and they're not letting anyone in, … yeah, a really bad month, I don't even know what type of bug it is! But you said once that I should call you if I ever need a favour, well, could I stay at yours for a bit, just until I sort something else out?... thank you, you are an Angel. Yeah, let me pass you to the taxi driver, yeah, I would've stayed in a hotel otherwise.' She passed the phone to the driver who was brief in words with the blonde, passing the phone back and heading off to the address.

She groaned and threw a little tantrum at the air on the back seat, life just wasn't as fun as it used to be she thought to herself, what on earth was going to happen at her next gig, she thanked the driver when he stopped and stepped out of the car, Quatre's home was a rather modest size estate, it was impressive even by her standards,

'Henry!' Duo charged down the path at her as the security gates opened slightly, 'Are you okay?'

'yeah, fine, they weren't letting any one so I haven't got any germs….'

'You haven't heard? There was a car bomb in the underground car park, about half hour after we all left, completely destroyed the ground floor along with the first and second, we thought you were still there until Quatre phoned and said you were on your way just now!' he took a deep breath and slung his arm around her shoulder, 'haven't you got any stuff with you?

'no, couldn't get to it, a car bomb? What time?'

'about half past six, it's the time you usually leave isn't it?' he asked, pulling her along the drive, the gates closing behind her,

'yeah, I left just before, god, was anyone hurt?' that's why they wouldn't let her in, if some one was targeting her they could know where she lived,

'receptionist had snuck out for a cigarette, the bomb gutted the place, but it's built like a fortress, had to get the fire brigade to get those on the upper floors down though, only about fifty people in the building, luckily none on those floors, hurry up, Trowa's cooking tonight, so the food is edible.' She breathed a sigh of relief; she'd phone Madison to get the full story later,

The evening passed in a blur to her, dinner was pasta of some kind, there was tactical talk at the table from the five men, which had her a little stunned at first, she'd worked for them for almost four years, she landed the job just before her twenty third birthday, and not once did it cross her mind that they lived together, she knew none were in a relationship, well, she'd yet to see any of them with another, but she had just assumed, from their varying arrival times, that they lived apart, but she was wrong, the five called this large estate home. She was shown her room, smaller than the one she had at home, no walk in wardrobe or on suite, just a double bed with two bedside tables, two tall windows above each, a large wardrobe and dresser against another wall, a desk sitting against the third, the door facing the bed, the bathroom was two doors down from her room, a bath, a walk in shower, loo and double sink. She had a whirlwind tour of the house courtesy of Duo, gym, library, computer room, kitchen, dining room, TV room, and what he called the bachelor pad which had a pool table, a poker table, a number of very comfortable looking sofas and numerous games sat out on tables. It was in this room that he left her, she phoned Madison and got a short version of events, that keeping her away from home was a precaution only, and to stay away for at least a week, after putting the phone down she found a pack of cards and attempted to play solitaire but her mind kept wandering, she must have been staring at the cards in her hand and on the table for over a half hour when a voice came from behind her,

'Seven of hearts on the eight of clubs,'

'Huh?' she looked over her shoulder, Trowa just shook his head and moved the cards for her, turning over the next one, 'oh, right, sorry, in my own world for a minute there.' She shrugged,

'What's wrong? You've been quiet.'

'Coming from you that's a little disturbing.' She put the cards on the table, and leaned back on the sofa so she could look up at him, 'a car bomb in the preventer's car park, how the fuck did they manage that? And the shooting at the George, I know I'm not an agent or anything, but that looks suspicious to me.'

'It wouldn't be the first time someone's targeted one of us.' He shrugged,

'And of all the houses I choose to crash at,' she shook her head, of course they would think it was one of them they were after, whoever they were, the guys didn't know about the Gigs.

'you're safe, we wouldn't let anyone get hurt,' he rubbed her shoulder briefly, 'Heero and Quatre like to keep this place as safe as it can be, I'm sure they know how many birds are flying over head at some times.' He told her, leaving the room again,

Physical contact, she felt the blush begin, her, not quite as secret as she'd like, attraction to the silencer had been almost instant, she had been recruited by Lady Une for her espionage advantage, she had been known as Rita for a long time before joining the preventers, she had then had to convince the five that she was the girl for the job, and thus a formal interview. She had been out stared by both Heero and Wufei, who had both just grunted at her, Quatre had been his usual polite and friendly self and Duo had her laughing out loud a few times, Trowa on the other hand had just stared gently at her from under his hair, it had unnerved her at the time. The five had liked her and she had become their receptionist/secretary and a kind of PA to each of them, she had been awful in the first weeks, trying to juggle her other career along side the office hours even though it was only three to four days a week, but a routine had soon appeared and she seemed to please the five and found herself looking forward to any excuse to talk to Trowa, she'd even sent him a valentines card that first year, but she had grown up in the four years she had been a preventer and had stopped being so childish about it all. She was attracted to him, she knew that, she sighed to herself, highly attracted to him, he was the only male who could make her blush with what passed as a smile in his eyes, she could probably have just about any guy she wanted, and her body just had to choose that one. She wanted to work out, but she didn't have the clothes for it, or the inclination to work out in front of the five, she could try to have a shower, but the chances of her singing were pretty high when her mind was wandering as it currently was, she groaned, of all the places she thought of to crash she chose here. She stood and made her way into the kitchen,

'Would you like some tea? You look like you could use some.'

'Thanks Quatre, for everything, I'll be out of your hair in a few days I promise.'

'I don't mind how long you stay, the place is more than big enough,' he told her, pulling out another cup and saucer, joining her at the breakfast bar where he began to pour the tea from the pot, 'you seem distracted at the moment, a change of scenery might do you good.' he smiled,

'Yeah, maybe, I've just got a few things on my mind at the moment,' she told him adding milk and sugar to her cup,

'Anything you want to talk to me about? I'm a very good listener, or so I've been told,'

'No, not really, it's personal,' she shook her head, taking a few sips,

'Is it about Trowa?'

She almost dropped the cup but stopped herself, 'what?' she asked turning to him and putting the cup down,

'Duo told me, I think it's nice,' he smiled again,

'Nice! I'm gonna castrate him with my stilettos, the git, does he not understand the word secret?'

'This is Duo we're talking about Henry, and besides, I'd already guessed, it's obvious if you know what you're looking for,'

'Oh god, my day has just got even worse, when will the world give me a break and swallow me?' she groaned, laying her forehead on the granite worktop.

'I have a lot of sisters, I know how women work, you talk to Duo much more but you aren't receptive, you are when you talk to Trowa, it's not a big deal, I'm just saying, I'm here if you ever need a friendly ear,' he shrugged, 'what are you doing about clothes?'

'huh? Oh god, I have no idea, I'll go back tomorrow and hopefully I can grab a suitcase full of stuff.' She shrugged, continuing the tea,

'I'll lend you something to sleep in and something for tomorrow then. Go and have an early night, you look exhausted.'

'Why not, can't do any harm,' she stood, draining the cup and putting it in the sink, 'and thanks again Quatre, anything I can ever do for you, let me know, and I mean anything.' She smiled, making her way up to bed.

Quatre brought her a pair of his sister's pyjamas to sleep in and one of his sisters's left behind tops to wear in the morning, she surprised herself when she woke, seemingly having drifted off almost instantly, she got up feeling refreshed for the first time in weeks, maybe a change of scenery was what she'd needed. She adjusted the pyjamas and headed downstairs, glancing at the clock as she did, letting out a squeak, her eyes going wide, running to the kitchen, looking in each of the rooms as she passed, backing up past the Library,

'Trowa! Can you give me a lift? Sorry to ask but I'm late, mega late!' she hung onto the doorframe,

'You're not working today.'

'Buy its Tuesday! I always work Tuesdays!'

'There was a bomb, remember? All non essential personnel are on paid leave until further notice. If anything, you'll be working from here.'

'ah, okay, I'll ah…' she looked around,

'There's a pot of coffee in the kitchen.'

'right, I'll ah, get some coffee.'

She sat in the kitchen, letting her heart rate slow to normal before pouring herself a mug of coffee, taking a sip and then pulling out another mug and pouring another, she picked up both mugs and took them back to the library putting them both on the coffee table that sat in the centre of a "circle" of chairs, smiling at the nod from Trowa as he picked his up. She looked at the two walls lined with books, the two tall windows looking out over the back gardens, each with a window seat, on the large side table that sat in against the wall space between was a pile of books, she turned her head to read the titles,

'Good grief! You guy's own a copy of this?' she turned to him, having pulled out a book from the pile,

'It was fairly enjoyable,'

'I never really liked it,' she told him, looking down at her auto biography, it was a dark grey with one of her masks on the cover,

'it was very honest, it was nice to read about her other work and accomplishments, she seems like a nice person.'

'oooh, a closet fan are we?' she chuckled at him, 'what I mean is, she's twenty something, and threes an autobiography, there should be an age limit on these things, it's just a money making scheme in my eyes.' She caught the slightly raised eyebrow at her tone, 'Any who, where are the other four?'

'Quatre's at a press conference, Heero keeping him company, Duo and Wufei are out digging.'

'Digging?' another look, 'oh, for information, got it. Right, me receptionist, you famous guy with confidential missions.' "Who looks really hot in his pyjamas" her mind added, she stood, turning away to look at the book shelves, her face taking on a tinge of red, why had she failed to notice his lack of clothing before now! All he was wearing were some very loose trousers and a vest, the vest defiantly not hiding his body… books, think of books, she told herself, attempting to read the titles,

'You have plans for the day?' he asked after a few minutes silence,

'not now there's no work! Why, you got something in mind?' her mind took a route to the gutter, she closed her eyes and tried to run through one of her routines to change her mind's subject,

'I'm going to the gun range, if you'd like a lift,'

'I've already had my training…' her mind suddenly caught up with her mouth, he only asked if she wanted a lift, not if she wanted to shoot something!'

'you've had gun training?' she heard him shift from lounging to sitting,

'Yeah, basics, wasn't particularly good, Une offered the basic training to me, probably cause I'm working with you guys, so I wasn't defenceless I guess… a lift into town would be fantastic though, I can get some clothes.' She was thankful for her ability to think on the spot for that one, she needed to contact lady Une to make it look like she had, indeed, completed basic training, 'I'll go get ready and I'll be set to go any time you like.' She dashed out of the room as fast as was acceptable and upstairs to her room, locking the door behind her.

'Madison, please can I come home, I'm going to screw up big time, I'm not used to this!' she groaned into the phone keeping her voice down,

'what, used to social interactions outside your work environment? It'll be good for you!' the other woman laughed,

'I have social interactions, we have a girl's night every week, and I go out sometimes! And that's not what I meant, he's here.' She growled over the laughed on the other end,

'Oh, the Silencer, Mr, tall, dark and oh yes please himself!'

'Mad, you're not helping! I've just had a conversation with him in his pyjamas!'

'Oh really? Nice? Not one of those all in ones with teddy bears on it was it?'

'oh no…. very very nice…..' she trailed off as her mind wandered again,

'so what were you wearing?' the grin could be heard on the phone,

'Oh god…' she looked down at the hot pant style shorts and strappy, but thankfully supported top that were Quatre's sister's pyjamas, 'more than I wear on stage but less than they're used to seeing me in…' she caught herself in the mirror, 'oh man and my hair is doing it again!'

'wonderful! He's seeing the real you! And seeing the "bed" look isn't as bad as it can be! Bet his eyes roamed as much as yours did…. Sooo, did his pj's leave much to the imagination? hmmmm?' she giggled

'honestly you're worse than me! Please let me come home!'

'I'll keep my hands off, you don't have to worry and no, you can't come home, we've got one of your doubles here, we're making it clear she is then we'll send her off on a lovely holiday after your gig where she can change back into herself on the way. It should give you a few weeks breathing space; you have a plan for Friday?'

'Friday? Oh shit!' she threw herself backwards on the bed, 'New York! How the hell am I going to explain that?'

'Well, since I am technically homeless too, I absolutely insist that you come with me to visit my parents in New York for the weekend, I'll pick you up Friday morning, we can car change along the way and I'll drop you home again, we'll do some shopping to if you like, just to make a show of it.' She heard knocking,

'Like I need an excuse to shop! I think I'm going to have to cancel the next few after this, just to be on the safe side….. I'll call you later,' she hung up and opened her door, Trowa was the one knocking, not that it surprised her,

'Everything alright?'

'Yeah fine! Madison phoned…' she caught his eyes scan her quickly, a blush arriving before she could speak, 'I'm gonna get changed, 1 minute!' she turned grabbing the bottom of her top, 'but I'll close this first.' She turned back and shut the door in his face, the mirror revealing that she was indeed bright red and had lifted her top quite a way before she realised he was still in the doorway.

She changed into the trousers she'd worn the day before and into the borrowed top, scraping her hair back into a bun although it needed a wash and was starting to frizz quite severely, managed to put on some eye liner and mascara before realising she'd shut the door in his face.

'oh god.' She let her head fall forward onto the desk, taking a few deep breaths before looking up at herself again,

She was no longer a beetroot, her hair did slightly resemble a pineapple and the green top clashed horribly with her light blue trousers but she looked semi human, she picked up her bag checking her card was in it, and opened the door. Trowa was leaning on the wall opposite, one leg bent, she couldn't help here eyes roaming before she pulled herself together,

'Sorry about that, I'm not good with mornings, as Madison would tell you.' She laughed, falling into step beside him as they made their way to the car.

The car ride itself was silent, the radio was on and she was quick happy to keep her mouth shut in case something else odd popped out of it, he pulled in at the main drop off point in the town centre, telling her to phone if she needed a lift home to which she gave her thanks, flushing beet again. She gave herself a stern talking to in a shop window before realising people where staring and quickly moved on, she was a shopper she had to admit, well, she had the money and the space to store everything, every year she had an auction of her flashier outfits and charity shopped her regular ones, she didn't really horde, a lot anyway. Basics first she decided, underwear, major thing, and something she couldn't really borrow from Quatre, an hour later she emerged from the store, shaking her head at herself, she'd grabbed the packed of do the job underwear and a basic bra and then she had to get attracted by that matching turquoise set and then the lacy black set, the socks, thank goodness were simple, she liked odd socks so two packets of the vibrant trainer socks and she was done.

The sun was beginning to set as she lounged in her chair out front of a coffee shop, the stores closing up and a mountain of bags at her feet, she carefully avoided looking at them, stupid sales, she couldn't resist.

'Whoa, Henry, damn girl, you can shop!' Duo's voice, she looked up, shielding her eyes,

'Hey, Wufei? Duo dragged you shopping?'

'Naaa, I'm not that mean, we've just been wandering around, catching up with a few acquaintances, can we sit or are these chairs permanently taken?' he gestured to the bags,

'oh yeah, sure, pass them here,' she took the bags, grabbing one that duo was trying to peek into, 'and that's my underwear, fuck off.' She chuckled putting it next to her the corner she was sitting in surrounded by hedge so no one could take the bags without her noticing,

'Aww, not even a peek?' she glared, 'fine! But good god woman, that is a hell of a lot of bags!'

'so I'm using yesterday's disaster for personal gain, paid leave after all and I've been saving up!' she smirked,

'personal gain indeed, I head from a little bird that you got a lift into town today. Thanks Wu!'

'Thank you Wufei,' she accepted the coffee he'd brought for her, she would not make a fool of herself in front of Wufei, 'of course I got a lift! I wasn't going to walk!'

'Would you like a lift back?'

'Ah, yes, thank you,' she was a little taken aback by Wufei, she really wasn't used to him outside the office, he was cranky in the office usually, polite, but cranky,

'Well there is no way you'd get all those onto a bus!'

'and to think I'd even got you a present!' she shook her head, 'but if you're going to be like that…'

'A present?' his eyes lit up then narrowed, 'what do you want?'

'Nothing! You guys are letting me stay with you!'

'We don't want anything in return…' Wufei began,

'well it's too late now anyway, you're getting presents if you like it or not!' she gave a final nod and picked up her coffee again.

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Okay, a long one to make up for not being about. Having trouble typing at the moment, (had a scafolding bar fall on my hand) so it might be a while before i upload again, but hope you enjoy this! Please review!

Xandrandra xx