This took longer than expected. I'm quite a bit ahead on rereading the story in preparation of completing it, when I ran into something that made me realize I had to go back again to edit some details. It took me a bit to motivate myself to do that, but the incredibly positive response to the first chapter certainly helped.
I'm so glad I haven't outstayed my welcome yet as an author in this fandom and I actually have something pretty exciting coming up (I'm excited about it, doesn't mean you will be too, but I do hope so). You'll see that pop-up sometime this week.
GROUNDED
Part II – Duo's POV
Their alarm clocks went off at six am and they each rolled to opposite sides of the bed to end the shrill beeps. Duo groaned and blinked up at the ceiling. One of the few advantages of his two weeks of teaching seminars on Explosive Diffusions was getting up at eight because the theoretical classes didn't start until ten, after the recruits had already completed a two-hour morning exercise. He could get used to those two extra hours every morning, although he'd be lying if he claimed he slept much while he was away. He didn't like his bed to be empty anymore.
He reached out his hand, but couldn't quite touch the small of Heero's back as he sat on the edge of the bed.
Heero had no trouble getting up. He stood up, popped his joints and then headed for the bathroom.
Duo listened to him take a leak, then wash his hands, then get into the shower. He used the couple of minutes to let his brain fully wake up.
When his partner emerged from the bathroom, it was Duo's turn. He had showered the night before and didn't go for a midnight run the way Heero did every night, so he was only tasked with shaving, brushing his teeth and managing his long hair.
By the time he joined Heero downstairs in the kitchen, there was a simple breakfast and coffee waiting for him. Duo stood at the counter – Heero sat on one of the barstools – and took a big bite of toast that he washed down with a gulp of coffee.
Heero shifted uncomfortably on the metal seat.
Duo smirked. "Sore?"
"Hn."
Duo smirked and scrolled through the newsfeed on his phone, catching up on everything that had happened on L1 while he had been off colony. "Is Relena still scheduled to speak at PAC?" The Peace Anniversary Convention was an annual celebration of peace, following the resolution of the "Mariemea incident" – as it had become infamously known. They alternated hosting the convention on earth and on the colonies. This year, it would be on L1 for the first time.
"Yes."
"Fun. It's been a while since we were last her bodyguards."
"We don't know yet if we will be assigned to her protection detail."
"We're always on her protection detail when she comes to L1. Miss Queen-of-the-World specifically requests us."
Heero quipped: "She specifically requests me.-"
Duo stuck his tongue out at him. "We're a package deal and she knows it."
"-Anyway, I don't think her requests will mean much to 'Major Rule-Book'."
He scrunched up his face. He was not looking forward to being bossed around by Chang!
"WuFei is in charge of the L1 office by then and I suspect he will not appoint Team One to a low priority protection detail with risk level green," Heero said offhandedly. He finished his coffee and checked his watch. "We have to go. We have a GA-127 briefing at seven thirty."
When Heero got up to leave Duo grabbed him and engaged him in a demanding kiss. He ran his hand down his back and pressed his fingers into the cleft of his ass, causing Heero to groan against his mouth. "At least think about me at the office today," Duo pleaded.
"It'll be hard not to."
Duo grinned. If a dirty little secret was all it was ever going to be, he was going to enjoy it to the fullest. However, he hadn't given up on hope for more yet.
The Japanese agent left first and Duo waited five minutes before getting into his own car and driving to the office building.
Duo was a more reckless driver than Heero and even though they didn't arrive at the same time – as they shouldn't, to avoid suspicion – Heero was still in the parking garage by the time Duo pulled up into his parking space. He locked his car and hurried to the elevator to get in with Heero and two other agents. "Good morning," he said to all of them.
"Good morning," two of them responded. Heero remained characteristically quiet.
They got off on the tenth floor and went into their office to boot up their computers and take ten minutes to reply to emails before they were called into the conference room for the briefing. Afterwards they returned to their office.
The job involved a surprising amount of paperwork. Duo suspected Heero had been as unprepared for that as he had been when they first signed up. They had been looking to make themselves useful and apply their unique skills where they were needed most. The Preventer agency seemed a logical cause to devote their time to. As Team One, they saw the most action, but strict regulations kept them out of the field more often than not. Duo had grown to like the grind, but he still needed the adrenaline high of clandestine and dangerous missions. He was excited about the team being pulled into the GA-127 case; it was a high profile case that would definitely require field work at some point.
Through undercover work, Preventer agents had uncovered that an old resource satellite, RS42, had been repurposed as a missile launch site following the end of the AC195 war, by a remaining group of mercenaries who had aligned with White Fang but had radicalized and splintered off. Investigative work continued to expose the entire network, tracking shuttle traffic and radio communications in the vicinity of RS42. Once they had gathered enough information to identify the leaders of the radical movement, arrests were in order and the satellite would have to be destroyed; that sounded like a job for Team One.
After the lunch break they headed out onto the training field with their team. It was apparent the six subservient members were relieved that Duo was back. Duo knew Heero gave them a hard time and while it wasn't undue, he understood the team's frustration. Coming out of the Academy, all six of them had stellar scores in their fields of expertise and the team's average score on The Twelve last year was the highest recorded team score; even when Heero's individual perfect scores were discounted. All six of them trained hard to become the best they could be and to earn their spot as part of Team One. Duo was sympathetic to their hunger for action and their results across the board certainly cleared them for field work. It was unfair that members of Team Five and Six, who barely passed on last year's twelve disciplines, had seen action and were more experienced agents because of it.
If Duo was the sole captain of the team, he probably would have let them tag along on missions – starting at lower risk missions and working their way up. He was more of a risk-taker, after all. But his co-captain decided they weren't ready yet. Duo didn't know how to argue with him, mostly because he knew Heero made that decision in the interest of their team's safety. Heero was never one to avoid risks when it came to his own life – quite the contrary, much to Duo's dismay – but he saw fault lines in the individuals and in the teamwork that he knew would leave them vulnerable to failure; and failure out in the field wasn't just a negative score on a test, it meant death.
Heero couldn't get it through to his thick skull that not everyone could be the perfect soldier. At some point, he would have to accept that, while not perfect, the team was good enough.
Duo observed the training and kept time on his stopwatch as the team performed drills and completed the obstacle course, led by Heero who was always two steps ahead physically and mentally. It was enthralling to watch his partner. Every movement of his body was so precise and calculated, but without any delay. He worked quickly and efficiently. The obstacle course – a discipline on which many agents regularly failed – was too easy for him. His body knew what to do. He mounted the ten foot wall, climbed up the net, swung on the rope across the moat, leapt over hurdles and crawled through the mud under barbed wire like it was nothing. After completing every section, he waited for the team members to catch up to him.
Duo knew the team oftentimes accused his co-captain of being selfish and arrogant, but he wasn't. He knew every single one of them could count on Heero and without them realizing it, he was the reason they were the best team on paper. They might not like him scrutinizing them and micro-managing them, but every critique helped them improve.
The entire group completed the course in a decent time and Duo complimented them.
"Beck was too slow," Heero pointed out.
Duo reset his stopwatch and lied: "No, he made it in time. He would have passed."
"No, he wouldn't have."
"Jesus, stop shitting on him," Viver spoke up.
Heero glared at her and Duo felt uncomfortable getting caught in the middle. He understood where she was coming from and he admired her standing up for her teammate, knowing full well Heero wasn't going to take her insubordination rolling over, but technically, his co-captain was right. The five of them were fast enough for a pass, but the twenty second gap between Cho's second to last finish time and Beck's meant he would have failed the obstacle course.
"I'm not shitting on him," Heero argued, "This is on you." He pointed at Viver and Grace, the two to first cross the finish line – after Heero, of course.
"How is this my fault? Or Haywire's?"
Heero scoffed at the nickname for Haytham Grace that he thought was childish, just like he thought everyone calling Luca Swafford "Swagger" was stupid. "Your scores are noted individually, but you take the test as a team," he emphasized.
"Yeah, but helping him out would have slowed us down and then we would have failed!" Haywire pointed out.
Duo stepped in, knowing they'd swallow it better coming from him than from Heero. "What cost Beck the most time was getting over the wall. If either of you had stayed on top to give him a hand to help him over, you would have all made it in time. Your times were fast enough that you would have passed, even with the time it would have taken to help him over."
"We couldn't have known that!"
Heero interjected: "You could have. If you train well enough that your times are consistent, you know exactly how long it takes for you to complete the course and how much time you have to spare to help a teammate. You won't get a perfect score that way, but at least you'd show the kind of team work that saves lives in the field."
"Right. In the field. You're never going to let us in the field!" Viver bit and Haywire rolled his eyes.
"I don't let you because in a real world situation Beck would be dead right now. You want to stand up for him, yet every time it matters you put your own ambition ahead of the team."
"Wanting to set a personal best on the obstacle course does not mean we would have let him die!"
Duo raised his hand to silence everyone. "Alright, calm the fuck down, people. Viver, Haywire, learn your lesson from this and apply it next time. It's not rocket science. Run two laps for cool-down and then hit the showers. We're done for today." He stood next to his partner and watched the other six tiredly jog along the track.
"Would you really have let them go out with us on missions if they had bothered to help Isra?" He asked when the rest was out of earshot.
Heero pinched his eyebrows together. "Of course not."
Duo let out a chuckle at the expected answer. "Why not?"
"Mister 'Haywire' scored a 63 on his Cognitive Competence test last year. Rubo scored 59 on Tactical. There are worse problems than Beck not running twelve miles and not getting over a wall by his damn self."
The American agent laughed again. "Those are still passing scores, besides, their average across The Twelve was 88 and 85 respectively. That's high." The two members had achieved scores in the nineties on other disciplines, excelling way ahead of everyone else. Viver scored in the high eighties on everything, while Cho, Beck and Swafford were a bit of a mixed bag, but still earned solid averages.
"Their averages were 72 and 76," Heero corrected.
Duo frowned at him. "No, they weren't. I typed up their results myself."
"Yes and you went easy on them. Rubo a 94 on FTA?" Firearms Theory and Accuracy. "And Grace a 96 on Negotiation and Protocol? Are you kidding me? Besides, everyone cheats on Negotiation, that test is flawed."
Duo shook his head at him but he couldn't help but smile. He actually helped Heero cheat on Negotiation as well. Heero couldn't read facial expressions and body language for the life of him and couldn't catch anyone in a lie, but the test was the same every year, so if you memorized what to say, anyone could pass with flying colors. It was the only discipline on which Heero could not effortlessly achieve a score of 99 or 100. The other eleven disciplines were focused on things Heero – and Duo as well – had long mastered: combat, survival skills, mechanical know-how, explosives expertise, problem-solving and practically being able to recite the Preventers' Protocol.
The most important discipline was Physical Intensity and Endurance – cutely referred to as PIE: six grueling physical fitness tests. The scores on the PIE's weighed the heaviest for the overall average, because as a Preventer Academy graduate, everyone should be able to pass the other disciplines every year with relative ease; at the Academy, that knowledge was ingrained in you. The PIE's were meant to ensure agents didn't slack off on their physical fitness as the years went by.
"The point is, their real averages were more like 72 and 76. I'm not going into the field with 72 and a 76."
"What about Viver? Her average was 86. Or did you disagree with that as well?"
"More like 81."
"That's still in the eighties, that's good, right?"
Heero retorted dryly: "It's not in the nineties."
"Well, no one's averages are in the nineties. With us two being the sole exceptions, of course." He flashed a smug smirk. "Officially agents are cleared for active duty with a Twelve average of 75 and up."
"That's great. Let Team Four go out with a bunch of seventy-fivers." He spat the word.
Duo laughed heartedly at his co-captain disproving tone.
Their team members concluded their two laps and dragged their feet to the locker rooms.
"I think they would do pretty well in the field," Duo said, regardless of the fact that he knew Heero would disagree. "We'd be around to pick up any slack. And they'd get better over time. If we give them hands-on experience, I think they could become 'nineties', like us. In the lower nineties, but still."
"They will never be as good as you and you're in the lower nineties. "
Duo mock-gasped at the insult wrapped into a compliment. "Am not! Kurasawa scored me with an average of 97, and he fucking hates my guts, I'd be a 105 otherwise," he half-joked.
"That score doesn't even exist," Heero routinely stated, not recognizing that was the joke.
Teams were scored by their captains, and Duo felt like he had been plenty critical of his teammates – certainly more so than some of the other captains, who were more forgiving with their analysis. The captains themselves performed the tests separately from their teams and were tested by the Major. Duo was not looking forward to Chang being the one to grade them next time. He trusted Chang to score everyone fairly, him as well, but he already knew he wouldn't perform as well with the Chinese pilot breathing down his neck.
"Still though: 97," he boasted.
"Eh." Heero shrugged. "What does he know? I read his files, he didn't score higher than a 79 in his last three years of active duty, with a personal best set at 84."
"Oh yeah?" Duo playfully poked him between the ribs. "So what am I, Captain Perfect-Average?"
"92," he answered way too quickly; he had definitely given it prior consideration.
"No fucking way!"
"94, tops."
Duo clutched his sides as his chest rumbled with laughter. Without being aware of it, Heero had such an amusing, dry sense of humor. He teased: "And you should have gotten a 99 on Navigation, instead of a 100!"
Heero's jaw dropped at the idea, taking it as a grave insult, because that one extra 99 instead of a 100 would have lowered his perfect average by one point and he couldn't stand the thought.
"You were off by one coordinate," Duo reminded him.
"Margin of error!"
He laughed even harder.
"It's not funny," Heero practically pouted.
"Okay. Okay. I take it back. You deserved that 100."
"I did. I deserved it on explosives expertise too."
"Hey, that was my only perfect score. Give me that one, at least."
They continued their back and forth as they headed for the locker rooms, where the four men were seated on two of the benches, with wet hair and towels around their waists. They had been talking but as always a quiet settled into the room as Heero walked in. None of them had quite the pair of balls on them that Havana Viver had.
Duo didn't need to shower, having done nothing but observe and keep the time. His locker was next to Heero's, on the other side of the first bank of lockers in the room. Heero headed for the showers with a towel and a change of clothes and Duo took his time changing out of his sweats and Preventer-hoodie into his uniform. When the water started running and the other men knew Heero wouldn't overhear their conversation, they felt it was safe to talk again. They didn't care about Duo listening; he never gave them any shit about gossiping and lingering in the locker rooms too long after practice.
They started right where they had left off when Rubo wondered: "But why was she grounded?"
The captain took a seat on the bench and listened to them while he put on socks and tied his shoes.
"Are you even sure she was grounded?" Haywire doubted. "Isn't that just the rumor of the day?"
"No, it's true," Beck chimed in – always wanting to be one of the boys. "I checked."
Duo smirked. To verify if someone had been grounded, Beck would have had to check the personnel data base and that went against strict privacy regulations. He didn't mind much though, Duo and Heero's true identities – their actual age and their past as Gundam Pilots – were well hidden and Duo wasn't such a stickler for the rules anyway, but he understood why they hadn't wanted Heero to overhear.
"But why?" Rubo stressed.
"Turns out she's been doing the nasty with Byrns," Swagger said, his voice dripping with inappropriate sexual undertones.
"No fucking way!"
Duo straightened up as he buttoned his shirt. A frown appeared on his face at mention of agent Byrns, Team Two's top marksman. An active agent would only get grounded for engaging in a sexual relationship with another agent if the two of them were on the same team and the only 'she' on Team Two was…
He shot up from the bench and rounded the corner. "Are you talking about Jessica Stieber?"
The foursome looked a little uncomfortable at their captain's sudden interest in their exchange. Haywire was the one to reply: "Yeah."
"She got grounded?" Duo couldn't help but feel sorry for the agent. She was Team Two's explosive expert and she had made some impressive saves out in the field, he knew. To be grounded meant having your status as active field agent revoked immediately and it was considered one of the more severe disciplinary actions, considering all agents were basically addicted to the adrenaline high of the missions. She wouldn't be allowed back into the field with Byrns, because of a conflict of interest with the Priority of Life rule.
Two agents could not be counted on to follow protocol and act in the best interest of the entire team and protect involved citizens above anyone else when they were romantically involved – and being sexually involved was compounded with that. Stieber would either never see active duty again, or she'd have to switch teams, but each team was put together with the utmost care, taking expertise and personality types into account, so a switch was hardly ever feasible. Most likely she'd end up getting replaced with a new recruit deemed to be a good fit for Team Two and she'd be stuck behind a desk the rest of her career lest she transfers to a different satellite office. It was the fate that had befallen two other agents in the two years Heero and Duo had been working out of the L1 one office.
It was the exact reason why he and Heero knew they had to be so careful with regards to their relationship.
Swagger chuckled at Duo's forlorn expression, mistaking it to mean something that it didn't. "I felt the same way when I found out Byrns had been boning that grade A piece of ass. I mean Jesus, that girl does her squats like it's a religion! She should've let me fuck her; she'd be plowed better and she'd still have her job."
Duo knew better than to take offense at the typical locker-room-talk.
"Why didn't they ground Byrns instead of her though?" Beck wondered innocently.
"Byrns can shoot a one dollar bill from a mile away with a standard Kate and get George Washington between the eyes every time," Haywire replied. "They're not gonna ground a marksman like that."
"It just doesn't seem fair," Beck muttered. "Jessica is really good at what she does."
"She is," Duo agreed. "It's a shame that she's been grounded."
"It's her own damn fault," Swagger said, "Should've kept her legs closed. As if we aren't all tempted, but we know better and she should have known better too. Not gonna pretend I don't think about Viv and melting that frigid ass, but I know to take my hard-on to a bar and shove it up some random chick, where it belongs."
"That's enough!" Duo bellowed and the four of them looked at him in shock. He hardly ever let them see him angry. Whenever he did, he knew it intimated them, as it should. "I know Heero's the hard-ass and I'm the 'cool mom', but don't mistakenly think it is ever okay to disrespect your teammates in front of me."
"Sorry, Sir." They rarely called him 'Sir'.
The water stopped running and they hurried to finish getting dressed so they could leave the locker room before Heero emerged from the showers.
Duo walked back to his locker and further buttoned-up his shirt.
"Everything okay?" Heero asked, as he walked back fully dressed but barefoot. "I heard you yelling."
"It was nothing."
Heero sat down to put on his shoes.
He wasn't sure if he should tell his partner about Stieber, considering how similar – and how similarly risky – their own situation was, but he knew it was better to tell him in private than have him be caught off guard hearing the information from someone else later in the day. "Stieber got grounded."
"Why?"
"Her and Byrns," he simply said.
"Oh." He finished lacing up his shoes and stuffed his laundry bag into his locker.
"Oh? That's all?"
Heero shrugged. "It's a waste. She's good."
Duo nodded. "Yeah."
"Is something wrong?" Heero inquired, looking at Duo for the first time since walking up and trying his best to pick up on the clues in Duo's expression and his body language.
Duo offered him a half-hearted smile. "Fine."
Heero blinked. He paused in thought before he said: "When I tell you I'm 'fine', you always say that it means 'not fine'. And you're always right."
He smiled sadly.
"Does your 'fine' also mean 'not fine'?"
"I don't know. I was just thinking."
"About what?"
"Us."
Heero visibly stiffened.
"If they find out about us, I'm gonna get grounded just like Stieber."
Heero shook his head. "You don't have to worry about that."
"I know. We're careful. I know. But I bet Stieber and Byrns thought the same thing."
"No, not because of that," the Japanese agent elaborated, "If they ever find out, I'd be the one to get grounded."
Duo snorted. "Yeah, right. Mister Perfect-Average."
"If we were merely agents, my superior scores would mean you'd get grounded instead of me, but we are captains and how well we perform on The Twelve and on missions is secondary to how well we can lead our team. You are clearly the better team captain, you could lead the team without me, not vice versa. Ergo, I'd be grounded," he analyzed coldly.
Duo couldn't argue with the logic, but that didn't make him feel any better. He didn't want to do this job without Heero, especially knowing the other agent would be miserable chained to a desk. "And then what would happen?"
"You'd stay captain of Team One and I'd file for a transfer."
He liked that possibility even less because it meant they would be far apart. He also didn't like how casually Heero said it, like it wouldn't be a big deal. Duo knew Heero didn't think of them as a couple, but he loved him and Heero, in turn, cared about Duo, he was convinced of that, so he would hope not to be so easily dismissed.
"Come on, we're still on the clock."
They went back upstairs and continued their workday. Later that afternoon, news about Stieber and Byrns spread throughout the office like wildfire and for a few days the office reminded Duo of those high schools he and Heero enrolled in during the war as part of their covers.
Eventually, everyone settled down, until there was someone new to gossip about:
Major WuFei Chang.
Major Pain-in-my-Ass, Duo thought to himself.
A mere hour after first landing on L1 he walked into the office for his first face-to-face meeting with Kurasawa. Duo watched him stride in from across the bullpen. He had been seated on the corner of Ming-Na's desk trying to figure out coded schematics a Preventer undercover agent had seized for the GA-127 case. He'd made eye contact with the other former Gundam Pilot and raised his hand in a wave only to be completely ignored by his new superior.
Him and WuFei didn't get along well. Duo had figured that out during the war and he had hoped they had both evolved past it, but those two weeks at the Academy on Earth proved they still had only one thing in common: stubbornness. Their personalities and approach to work clashed explosively.
Duo had disdain for authority figures, he didn't believe in rank and didn't enforce it and the only way for him to not end up breaking a rule was to bend it out of shape. WuFei, on the other hand, had respect for his superiors and never questioned their commands, he valued ranks as they structured the organization and in turn he was strict to every agent acting accordingly – demanding nothing but obedience as the new authoritarian of the L1 office. On top of that, he lived and died by the rule book that he honored above all else.
WuFei was not unlikable as a person, nor was he unfair as a boss, but Duo knew they would rub each other the wrong way.
"Is that Major Chang?" Ming-Na wondered.
"Hmm."
"You worked with him on Earth, didn't you? He was lead instructor at the Academy."
"Yeah, I worked with him. But now we'll all be working under him…"
She looked intimidated.
"You'll be fine," Duo assured her. Ming-Na was precisely the type of agent that would be to WuFei's liking; always following instructions to a T.
In the following days the new Major took over the office from Kurasawa – who had a sober send-off party on his last day at work – and the Chinese man had official, closed-door meetings with all captains and he saved Duo and Heero for last.
Duo fidgeted and he hoped his partner would offer him some words of comfort, but Heero was too oblivious to notice his nervousness, not exactly in tune with the spectrum of human emotions and how they were inadvertently expressed. They went up to the twelfth floor and knocked on the door of the Major's office. He was most worried about his own mouth getting them in trouble.
WuFei opened the door for them and gestured for them to take a seat. They had talked a couple of times before in the past few days when they ran into each other in the hallways, but this meeting was different. Duo felt like he was being called to the principal's office.
The Chinese agent sat down at his desk across from them, their files were already open in front of him. "I see Une gave you two a similarly bullshit backstory and fake age as me."
"It works well," Duo said.
"You should address me as 'Sir'."
Duo choked a laugh. "That's not gonna happen."
"I figured. Consider it my one gift to you, since the three of us go way back."
"That's the one thing we get?"
"Take it or leave it."
"I guess I'll take it," he mumbled.
WuFei glanced down at the files, ignoring Duo's sardonic tone. "You've been doing well. A one-hundred percent success rate; very impressive."
"Thank you, Sir."
Duo rolled his eyes at his partner. It still baffled him how someone could save the world – twice! – and still not be too arrogant or too proud to call someone 'Sir', when the whole world should be groveling at Heero's feet in gratitude, WuFei included. Heero never asked anyone to call him 'sir', but people naturally did, because he commanded respect. Even from people who had no idea what he had done for the world and how much he had sacrificed to be able to do what no else could have.
"I noticed an interesting trend in your mission reports."
"You've been here four days and you've already read all our mission reports?" Duo interjected.
"I did my homework, I scanned them last week in preparation."
"What's the 'interesting trend'?"
"Your team doesn't go out into the field with you. Why? Their scores are sufficient for clearance."
Oh boy, here it comes, Duo feared.
Heero explained: "I don't consider them ready for active field duty, Sir. Until I am confident they will not endanger themselves, their teammates, and the mission, I prefer for Duo and me to work the field as a pair, as long as that approach is befitting for the mission assigned to us."
Duo expected WuFei to reprimand them, but instead the Chinese man said: "I accept your explanation. It's your team; it's your call. It's within your rights as Captains. You know best what they are and are not capable of."
"Thank you, Sir."
"That's it? We're cool?" Duo verified.
"A minimum of two agents on a mission is within the stipulations of the Preventer Protocol."
"… Great."
"However, on case F-177, Heero did perform a grade 3 solo-mission. This is strictly prohibited to ensure the safety of our agents. For anything grade 3 or above, the minimum of two field agents is required." WuFei regarded Duo with unreadable eyes. "You let your Co-Captain go out into the field without back-up?"
Duo narrowed his eyes at him. "Oh, fuck you, WuFei. You know damn well I wasn't even here. I was on Earth with you."
"It was my choice to go alone. Kurasawa signed off on it, sir," Heero informed him.
"Kurasawa did a lot of things that I disagree with. These rules are not without reason, agent Yuy."
"Agent Yuy?" Duo mirrored incredulously. "Aren't we supposed to 'go way back'?"
"I like keeping the professional and the personal strictly separated, agent Maxwell."
"Yeah, Sally told me," he sneered.
One of WuFei's black eyebrows twitched in response to the jab, but he lived by his own rules and remained professional even though it was obvious he could drink Duo's blood for calling him out on his failed relationship.
Sally had been working at the Academy as well, teaching medical courses, while also heading a team at the research facility, revolutionizing the care and physical rehabilitation of wounded soldiers and agents. Apparently WuFei was so strict about separating the personal from the professional that he'd been a condescending asshole to her one too many times and when she erupted at him at work, he'd treated her so coldly that she called quits on the relationship.
WuFei continued, addressing Heero: "Because it happened under Kurasawa's supervision, there will not be any disciplinary consequences. However, it will not happen again."
"It's not like I couldn't handle the mission on my own, Sir."
"I know. But the rules are in place to save lives and I don't believe in special treatment." He regarded them sternly.
"Yes, Sir."
"As for you two being Co-Captains of Team One-"
Oh, don't you even dare suggest breaking us up, Duo thought.
"- while it is unusual, I haven't found any regulations that prohibit it and it seems to working well enough; you complement each other."
"Thank you, Sir. I agree."
Duo smiled at his partner.
"I think we're done here," the Major announced and he flipped both files shut. "I see little point in going over a perfect record. Oh, before I forget, I did make some changes in the mission assignments. Team Three will be taking over cases F-381 and KB-902 and Team One has officially been given the lead on GA-127. We are moving forward with seize-and-destroy. You should start getting ready, I want it wrapped up by the end of the week. All the files have been compiled for your team and are ready in conference room D."
Duo raised his eyebrows at the unexpected news. "I'm sorry, but why the rush on destroying the satellite? And didn't Relena request us for her protection detail this week anyway?"
WuFei nodded. "Yes, senator Peacecraft did personally contact the office to request your appointment and Kurasawa obliged. But since my assignment I've re-assessed the mission and it is clearly a risk level green – a grade 6. There's absolutely no chatter indicating she is in any real danger, so Team Four can handle that."
Heero looked displeased. "Team Four? Sir, I would rather-"
WuFei cut him off. "In the meantime we have intercepted communications this morning suggesting nuclear warheads have been illegally transported to RS-42," he paused to let the severity sink in. "Nuclear warheads on an illegal missile launch site controlled by a radical group of terrorists take priority over a risk level green security detail – regardless of the fact that it involves Relena."
Heero and Duo nodded curtly.
"You are to infiltrate the resource satellite, hack into the system to give us access to their data and then destroy RS42. The documents you'll need are in conference room D," he reminded them.
They nodded again and once they were excused they left his office and headed down to the tenth floor.
"Relena is going to be pissed."
"Hn."
"Nukes though," Duo dumbly said aloud as they descended the two flights of stairs.
"Hn."
"Shit just got real."
"I guess so."
"Excited?"
Heero stopped at the bottom of the steps and looked up at him. After a moment of self-reflection a smirk appeared. "Kind of."
Duo shook his head at him and pushed through the door, into the bullpen where they gathered their team and led the way to the conference room. Duo felt a familiar flutter in his stomach in anticipation of the thrill.
He regretted not being able to look after Relena. She was important to Heero and Duo knew that having Team Four on her detail would put Heero on edge because he had always felt responsible for her, but these important missions were more than a mere adrenaline high for the two of them. It was their purpose. It made it a little less difficult to live with the fact that they lived through the war, when so many innocent people weren't as lucky.
I hope to deliver the next update sooner, but if I can't, my goal is to at least stick to weekly uploads.